October 6, 2025 School Board Meeting

001It is 5:00. So I'll now call the October 6 board meeting to order. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda? >> Madam Chair, >> yes. Sorry. I would like to amend the agenda to add Chromebook safety to the discussion agenda. >> Second. >> And that's just to kind of highlight we receive some concerns from parents about some stuff that's going on on the computers and I just thought it might be prudent to have um operations, maybe discuss briefly what they're doing and what we can partner with parents. And maybe Dr. Ross, you can mention I think you mentioned something in the superintendent report possibly as well. >> Dr. Um, thank you. I I just wanted to to state there is a board policy that if concerns or complaints come to trustees that it

002would not appear on the board agenda for discussion until the administration had opportunity to uh discuss that matter. I believe I can find the policy there. But um I believe that is the the policies. I don't think we're cons tonight to deliver one, but I can under superintendent's report talk about some progress that we're making in that area, but I do believe if there are concerns or complaints um and I need to reference that policy, I believe it's board policy BCA um board member code of ethics says referring all complaints to the superintendent and discussing them only at a regular meeting if a failure to arrive at an administrative solution occurs and I would just like to get a administrative solution. Um, but it's the will of the board on how you move forward. I

003can talk about some of the things that we're looking at in admin in the superintendent report, but we did not get a chance to get an administrative solution. >> Okay, I'll withdraw the motion and we'll we'll work on that then. Um, Miss Snipes, I do have a motion to um amend the agenda item 16 to change the wording from third and final reading of board policy JICG tobacco use by students. Uh, change that wording to discussion and first reading of changes to board policy JICG tobacco use by students >> to first reading >> to discussion and first reading. Yes, ma'am. Um, the reason is that policy, you can't have a third reading on a policy that's already been approved. Um, and I've got the minutes, but in August 25th of uh earlier this year, the

004that policy was approved. Um, the motion was second and final reading. Um, and so it was approved. It went into the policy handbook as approved. So, if we want to make further changes to it, we need to start over. Um and board policy normally we do discussion then first reading and second reading but board policy will allow you to combine discussion and first reading into uh one meeting. >> Okay. We have um an amendment to the agenda that has approved has been properly second. Um all those in favor >> Dr. Al can you speak to that? >> Uh no objection. Uh yes, we we I think that's the best way to do it is to start um a new reading on this. So, no objection to it. >> All right. >> Right. All those in

005favor and the motion carries 7 to zero. >> U Miss Chair u Madam Chairman, I move to approve the agenda um with the the change as um as made. >> Can I get a second? >> Second. >> All right. All those in favor and the motion carries seven to zero. Can I get a motion to enter into executive session? >> Make a motion to enter executive session to consider the following. Selected employment items exhibit A for action. Selected employment items exhibit B information only. Legal advice relating to data security incident exhibit C. legal advice regarding uh CA number 325 CV 03528-JDA- SVH contractual matter regarding Hermo High School phase 2 exhibit D legal advice regarding board policy GB staff conduct exhibit E >> second all in favor and the motion carries seven to zero and

006we'll enter into exe session. Good evening. It is 6:13, so I'm going to call our regularly scheduled October 6 board meeting to order. Can I get a motion to enter out of executive session? I move that we enter regular session from executive session. >> Second. All in favor. And the motion carries five to zero. I want to thank you all for being with us um this evening. We're already running a few minutes behind. So I'm going to turn it over to Trusty Barnhard for the invocation and the pledge of allegiance. >> Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for gathering us here this evening. We know that at the end of the day, we all are people who care a great deal about the education and the well-being of our students, their teachers, and their

007families that we have all been elected to represent. You know our hearts, Lord, and you see how much we care about getting this right. Help us to love these children by ensuring that we are an example of honesty and truth. Allow us to lead with those principles that build true character for their future. Please give us clear minds and open ears so that we don't miss what is important. Help us to stay focused on the needs of our school district and the ways that we can continue to ensure that it is a place where our students, teachers, and staff always feel safe and valued. Guide our words and our choices so that they reflect your will and do right by everyone who calls this district home. We're leaning on you as always to teach us

008how we'll work together for something far greater than bigger than ourselves. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Please stand for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of America stands nationy. >> Board members, please join me up front for the spotlight. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share with you tonight some very exceptional students that are with us. Um, 11 students from school district 5 have been announced as semi-finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program. These are academically talented high school seniors who scored exceptionally well on last year's PSAT exam. NATE now have the opportunity to continue on in the scholarship competition for almost 7,000 national merit scholarships that are worth nearly $26 million. So, um uh these awards will be announced in the spring. We expect really great things from this

009group and so we will have good news in the spring to share with you as well. So tonight, uh, we're going to call them up to be recognized. Uh we have Anthony Kiklio, Luke Elgen, Vivian Garcia, Leo Ha, Athena Kale, [Applause] Arish Cartik, Dylan Reynolds, Hunter Taylor, Connor Thatch, Jaden Juan, and Elizabeth Young. and their principles are actually here with us tonight, too. We have Mr. Reed Gunter, Mr. Ed Davis, and Dr. Michael Loftton here to support [Applause] And as you all get seated and settled back in, I want to share one more exciting bit of news with you that we've just found out. The niche.com reports um were issued. their 2026 best schools in America rankings and school district 5 was ranked the number one school district in the Midlands as well as the

010number one best place to teach in Colombia. Along with the Midlands rankings, school district 5 is ranked as the third best school district in South Carolina. And we are so proud of all of all of these things. Um, niche.com ranks over 10,000 public school districts based on reviews, school reported statistics and federal data sets to put together rankings that reflect academics, teachers, resources, facilities, extracurriculars, and more. School District 5's overall A rating is based on categories consisting of academics, teachers, clubs and activities, diversity, college prep, and administration. We are so proud of all the administrators, staff, students, and families that helped our district achieve these rankings. And I also want to point out that many of our individual schools got very good rankings and ratings as well. So I encourage all of you and the

011folks at home to visit nich.com to um see all the great news for school district 5. So thank you very much. >> Thank you, Miss Taylor. And can we also just give these great students another round of applause? Dr. Ross, I'll turn it over to you for the superintendent report. And I'll say to the students and families, this is the point. If you want to leave, you may certainly be dismissed. You guys are so studious. You will sit here and watch this board meeting all night, but you are certainly dismissed. We appreciate uh your hard work, and we look forward uh to to your success. Uh we thank you for representing our school district so well. Uh to think when you don't have to take the PSAT your senior year, but these students turn around

012on their senior year or their junior year, I'm sorry, and take the PSAT again uh to be qualified amongst the nation's best and we're certainly proud to have them uh here in our school district. What an honor. And to all of those who will take the PSAT, I believe this Wednesday, we wish them the best. Uh for those of the 10th graders and those future um National Merit semi- finalists and finalists, October is National Principles Month and we want to thank our principles and our administrators. Uh it is such a hard job, sometimes a thankless job. Uh the best thing that you can have for a student is a highly qualified teacher in the classroom. That's the number one thing you can do for a student is to have a highly qualified highly trained teacher

013in that classroom. The second is to support that teacher with an effective principal. Uh highly qualified effective teachers do not work in in areas where there is not an effective principle. And so we thank our principles, those unsung heroes that spend their countless times being uh responsible for in some cases up to 1600 students, those teachers, those families, those parents, uh the holding the line. Um you haven't been in charge of of a group of students. It is a tough thing uh to mitigate all of those factors from academic to mental health uh to athletics after school, before school, supervision, discipline. Uh they have a very thankless job. So during this month, we pause to thank our our principles. Our support is grounded in our community and our community uh supports us through the D5

014Foundation. Uh this on Saturday, October 18th, they'll have an evening for education. Uh the foundation is a huge support of school district 5. Uh the D5 foundation supports us in programs like snack pack. Uh is a huge supporter of our teacher and student grants. A lot of our student grants are given out at uh at our board meetings where we honor those who are doing additional research. Uh and so uh and what you may not know is that our foundation does support our our social workers uh when we have catastrophes or issues of fire and flood at some of our students homes. So if we can all of our money comes right back to our our community. Uh this is a QR code for our fall fundraiser. Again, October 18th at Saluda Shows Park, the

015River Center from 700 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Uh we want all in our community uh to be able to attend uh to support our students, our staff, and our community. We do this because we are a system guided by three critical questions. Why do we do this work, which is our mission, our vision? How do we accomplish this work which is our mission by being focused on academic social and emotional growth and development and then our strategic plan guides our outcomes as we work through our strategic plan. Uh next year will be the last year of this five-year plan as we move to develop our next five-year plan. We were leaning in very uh close as we walk through this. Audrey Black and her team will lead us through the new five-year strategic plan. The

016state has already set forth a goal that 75% or more students will be at or above grade level by 2030. It is uh good to celebrate that in some areas we're already there. And so uh setting that task at 75% or greater by uh 2030 is something we accept as our new strategic plan will take us out to year 2032. And if we look at our our areas of rating in all of our high schools in every category of end of course we are first in the Midlands and algebra 1, biology, English 2, and US history. When you look at who prepares students for career readiness, are you prepared in school district 5 and a lot of our ratings especially on the high school, we are already there. We already met uh the 75% or

017more. And so to look at our proficiencies for career readiness and data, math, reading, and soft skills, soft skills, which we hear a lot from our employers, are we preparing our students with the soft skills? We are first in the Midlands out of 13 districts. Uh and so while there's a lot to be successful for uh and thankful for uh our strategic plan, it wants us to get at the students that we need to advance to be first in the state. And so as we look at our uh our summitive reports or we have to do a formative assessments three times a year per state law. Uh and we use the measures of academic progress. If we look at last year's measures of academic progress, we can make projections if the SC ready was given

018today. You can see fall 24 uh how many students would be on level and how many students would not be on level. Red are the number of students who are not at grade level. Blue are the number of students who are. Uh this was last year. This is the data from this year. And so you can see this is where we need to focus. This is what the focus of the administration is. All resources, all efforts need to be on meeting the needs of the students in the red and maximizing the students in the blue. This is where we're demanding our time and attention and our resources. So, limited as they are uh to meet those needs. You're going to hear about a lot of different strategies that we do uh and we want to

019we need this body's help in order to get there. Every year our graduation rate expectations through the strategic plan have grown and we have yet to meet those. Uh this year's uh graduation rate is 90.72. Uh and so we track this. We appreciate the work that this body has done to give us additional tools. Um and uh Grad Alliance has already been on the ground helping us find students that we wouldn't have find and uh we're already ahead of where we were last year um because of those different programs. So, uh having that uh we're already what 84% of our seniors are now on track to graduate. This is uh we track this every week uh every year that you can track this and this is the highest we started out. So again, uh, our

020goal of our strategic plan is to keep this body informed of of the data ahead of us, but the hard work ahead to ensure that all of our students so loved in our schools and have demonstrated academic growth in our schools. How do we meet that? How do we get all of the students uh into the blue? Well, is through a system called MTSS, multi-tier support services. One size does not fit all. One strategy does not work for all students. There are so many different diverse needs of students. And we need to meet students academically. We need to meet their behavioral needs, the ac attendance requirements, and mental health issues. And if we can meet all of those through these very tiered systems, we believe that we can meet uh the needs and and advance

021and accelerate the academic performance. Students who are not safe, do not feel safe, will not learn. And so we want to focus on uh the universal supports which are tier one, but students who are not successful with universal supports need to be targeted with uh with tier two. And for some of our students, tier two doesn't even work and they need more intensive services through tier three. Uh we will be working with this body on how we can clarify the uh tier one, two, and three academic, behavioral, attendance, and mental health needs. But our student advisory said that's not enough. Uh we need more. We met with student advisory uh last year, continued with meeting with them on Friday, and they all shared the same purpose and concerns. Our student advisory represents school leaders from

022all of our high schools, our Kate Center, uh and the five program. And with meeting with them, uh they wanted more help with their future career plans. That was the consensus of the working group. They said if you help us with our our different goals that we have different goals and help us with identifying our strengths and uh mitigating our weaknesses we'll get involved. We'll take advantage of the opportunities and we would be driven to learn. And so with that uh we're going to be increasing uh our targeted uh supports. But if you look at the bottom of what we're providing tier one, two, and three solutions around is academics, behavior, attendance, mental health, and college and career planning. And so again, this is from our not only our student advisory, but backed up by

023last year's parent advisory. So, look forward to hearing more about these targeted interventions uh as we address those outlined in our strategic plan. We believe this is the way uh for all of those students in the red right now to turn them from I can't do that to I can. By investing in these tier 2 and tier three solutions and interventions, we believe that we can change that transformation in the heart. And so, uh, with that, I do wanted to, uh, share that, um, we're doing a large restructuring not only of our MTSS, uh, but of our entire school district. Um, this will, we did a lunch and learn, uh, that was hosted on September the 30th. Uh, over 240, uh, people attended that lunch and learn in our community. It's posted online under the

0242024 bond referendum page. where you can go and watch all of the community focused lunch and learns. Uh but this was specifically on September the 30th. Uh at that meeting uh we announced that this is the last year of this formation of schools and we will move to effective July 1st 2026. Uh as we did that we uh updated the starting and dismissal times. uh starting dismissal times. This is for students for 2026 27. You see elementary, middle, high, uh the Cape Center, and uh Spring Hill High School start times. Uh when we posted those, we began to get some feedback about uh 7:30 was too early. Uh and so uh I'm just going to take a a kind of a pause in my presentation. Uh we do have our our chief of operations, Dr.

025Gerald Gary, and our director of transportation, Mr. Will Williams, uh who are here if there are any questions about uh how we uh operate and what those start times are. But I want you to look at the current start times and kind of see all of the work that uh will had to put in into to getting this right. Uh we travel 1,900 miles every day with about 6 and three something bus routes. Um, we have to get all of our elementary I'm looking at Will. If I get it wrong, just interrupt me. Get all of our elementary buses out and back so that we can service the intermediate and the high middle and high schools. Currently, uh, at elementary, we have one school that starts at 7:35 a.m. We have six schools that start

026at 7:40 a.m. We have one school that starts at 7:45 a.m. And we have five schools that start at 7:50. Um, and it is very difficult to operate this. And we have to be at each one of those uh bus routes uh within three minutes of the promised time or else we we start getting uh calls. At intermediate, we have two intermediate schools with two different start times. Middle uh we have three schools with two different start times. You can see the start times for the high school and the academy for success. By moving these all to uh one start time for every level, it provides us uh an opportunity to one uh have operational efficiency. Uh if there's ever a change for snow, for inclement weather, we can instantly change and communicate those new

027changes there. Uh and so this provides us a great opportunity to uh to to uh to to change and align the start times. Uh Spring Hill because it works on the shuttle system cannot be in line with the other high schools but still meets the minimum minutes. The requirements that will has to work through with all 603 routes is to ensure that we can make the minimum hours per day by law for elementary schools uh which is suggested to be six no lower than 5.5 hours and the minimum hours per day for a high school instructional prime time. So that means in front of the teacher it is not bail to bell. So passing lunch does not qualify for those prime instructional hours. I guess I'm trying to say it's very hard to get to

028this point. So, um we heard from uh members of the community reached out about the 7:30 being very early. As you can see, the elementary um no one's currently starts at 7:30. So from going from 7:50 to 7:30 I knew caused some concerns, but we were trying to give Will as much time to get those elementary school routes out, get everybody back in so that those same buses can hit the middle schools and high schools. Um Will has worked very hard with his team. He sharpened his pencil, found some I don't know detours I guess, and we can make 740 work. So that I hope it splits the difference, but we want to have um some patience with his drivers so that they can safely get every all elementary school routes done. Uh deliver them

029to uh school um no later by 7:10. Give the time for breakfast and then instructional time starts at 7:40. So uh I do have Will here. I wanted to pause here to just see we will communicate that uh first thing tomorrow uh about that 740 change but I know since that came in I wanted to talk about it with this body and the superintendent's report uh before we move forward. >> Do we have any questions Mrs. Scully? >> Yeah Dr. Ross so elementary will now all elementary schools will start at 7:40. Yes sir. Um what time is there any time change from the current schedule to the other levels of school intermediate, middle and high school? Are they staying on their current times or will they be changing as as well? >> They will be

030shifting as well. Um right now u if you look at intermediate and and um those two intermediate schools, they will be now middle schools and our middle schools don't have the same start time. So now we're moving all schools will move to 8 uh I'm sorry to 8 o'clock and then everybody else at 8. >> So 7:40 is the elementary schools, middle schools will be 8:00, high schools will be 8:20. The Kate Center is 8:30 and Spring Hill is 8:35. We're kind of pressed because we can't get those buses back and get the middle schools in the early. And Will, if you want to kind of speak, you did all the math here, so I don't want to uh just kind of share what our constraints were here. >> Yes, sir. Uh, uh, Chairman Snipes

031and the board members, Dr. Ross, chiefs, everybody here, guest and stuff. So, we're doing these uh calculations just trying to make sure that we get the students to and from school safe and use the resources that we have. Also, make sure that we're doing the things we need to do to get them to our cake centers and stuff during the mid days. Usually, it takes around about 45 to 55 minutes to run a bus run. So, once we get to the elementary school and those students get off at 7:10, we can get our buses back out because we have some with middle and high. We some have some with middle and then we have some combined just straight high. And so in order to do that, to get them there so that they can get

032to school, have that uh time to go in there and eat breakfast, we need to have those time periods where at 7:10 we letting the elementary kids off so they can go in in the building, get the buses going back out to get middle and high. um getting those students to from the Kate Center, Dutch Fork and Chapen be pretty seamless because they don't have as far to go. But when you're coming from Irmo to make that time, you're looking at crossing two railroad tracks in a sense and a lot of traffic coming up Broad River Road. The same thing when you look at Spring Hill start time, >> Miss Huddle. So, um, just out of curiosity, with a 7:40 start time, what is the earliest, um, a in the whole district that a student

033has to be at their bus stop? >> We'll start picking up students about 610. >> 610. Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. And you might not know that the answer to this, but because it falls into student nutrition, but I've heard you say for breakfast. So, that way all those kids can can eat breakfast. The can kids who are not I'm assuming there are kids who are not on free breakfast. Some of our schools they're allowed to bring a breakfast with them. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. >> You can transport food on the bus. We tell the students they can't eat because of different allergies and stuff, but you can't bring it with them. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Satderfield. >> Yeah. You said that you'll start picking up at 610. >> Yes,

034sir. >> For elementary? >> Yes, sir. Uh, what is the earliest y'all pick up right now? Do you know? >> It's about the same time. >> About the same time. >> Those times with getting to the school in the morning. It'll be about the same. >> I didn't realize it was that early. Um, have you all talked to the high the schools, the principles about opening their doors, having a little more flexibility with that? I know because some places they have to stand outside until the doors are open. And I know how the traffic is out in >> one end of our district. It's horrific. >> Yes. We hadn't had any uh any problems as far with the uh schools being there with the students getting getting to the schools and the doors are not

035open. The elementary students, we'll keep them and we do some um bus reinforcement rules. So, it's a good time for the drivers also to start talking to students about bus safety and rules because you don't get a lot of time during the day. So elementary is usually there waiting a few minutes early and so that works out for our advantage too to go over those bus safety and get ready for bus evacuation those type of things in the in the middle and high school they're there to uh to receive the students when we're once we arrive. >> Mr. Bum and then Miss Huddle. >> Dr. Ross, is it typically 30 minutes for middle school, high school, and elementary where you can start dropping off because like I have three kids and if we're spread out

036between three different schools trying to make it from here to there. >> Thank you so much. We uh we have the the principles kind of work out their um because we've been on this system, the principles have worked out their supervision time. uh once we have communicated this I think we can go to a more standard supervision time right now uh so that we can communicate that out to parents I think that's a great point Mr. Bannam this is the instructional start of the day this does not represent the supervision time and to Mr. Shatterfield's point, when the buses get there, we're ready to go. I think to what we're asking is as a parent, how early can I drop my child off and somebody's watching them? Those times are not reflected in this. So,

037this represents uh instructional prime time, not supervision time. >> Um, actually, that was my question. >> Anybody else? All right. Thank you. so much. >> All right. Well, thank you all. >> Uh while we're at this point, um there was discussion about we talked about school bus safety, about um in the operational capacity, what we're doing for uh Chromebook safety. Uh we know that uh Chromebooks are used uh within our our school district. Uh but there are concerns about the chat feature. uh we have disabled chat for elementary and middle school but it does exist in the high school. So I wanted u Dr. Gary and his team are working on some um some some updates in that area. Dr. Gary if you can speak to that. >> Thank you Dr. Ros. Yes. Um we

038have um communicated with a a data management monitoring system and we have a a zoom set up next Tuesday as combination collaboration between instruction and student services to look at a platform that will monitor um Google chat live as well as Google docs. Some students may share something in Google docs and we don't have real time. We have a class link where parents can log in and s in the evening. But this will give us real time access of what's going on and from what we're understanding we want to verify that if something we put in buzzwords the safety words and if something pops up for example bully it will send us alert and we will communicate to principles individuals at these particular schools you've had this by this individual user. So, we got a

039demo set up for next week um at Tuesday at um 1:00 and we hope to from that do a small pilot before we bring to you a recommendation to move forward. We think it will help us in many different areas. >> So, I just want to let you know that we're we're working on that. We'll bring that presentation back to the body uh once we have those details uh and and any related costs. Uh supplement study update. I just want to keep the board uh informed that we need to approve the new supplement schedule uh by April uh of this year to uh be in position to put it in the in the budget for first reading um and not approve but be uh have that pretty much wrapped up by April so that we

040can make first reading with that. uh as a result November uh we're working to begin that study which is a very tight timeline from November to April. Uh so I wanted to get a jump on that by letting you know this is where we currently are um in terms of our salary and supplement schedules. Uh as you can see on tonight's uh packet uh that uh we have supplements that are not written out clearly within our existing system. So with that uh we want to move to a new supplement schedule uh to um have universal supplements. These universal supplements are district provided and that's the academic and department head supplements. They're universally uh distributed arts and athletics. Um when I mean universal these are what we will have across the district. But then there are

041supplements that are sight specific. One of those is those special duties and the grant funded. If we look at special duties, it has been increasingly hard to take one special duty uh supplement and it is equally used at at all sites uh through all 24 sites throughout the district. Uh that does not happen. What we found um much kind of a much better system is to talk about the the types of duties within a class to unify and systematize those duties and to have issue class A, class B, C and D supplements that the principal then assigns based on the duties performed. We find that's the best way to provide fairness uh in terms of the distribution of those. However, even with the special duties assigned uh parent groups um uh institutional grants uh and

042community stakeholders, they give money for for supplements as well. Uh these are not positions but these are supplements. We have grant funded positions and we have grant funded supplements. Uh these will come at every meeting as they they're rolling. Uh so that that they don't not approved when the budget is approved. Uh but as these rolling grants are uh supplied to the district, they are then brought forth to this body for approval. And so um at this time um as she comes to the uh lectern I'll take any questions on on grant supplements before we move to our academic report. >> Do we have any questions? Mr. Surve them. >> As far as when you were talking about the different classes on the supplements, is there um a breakdown that that y'all would have that

043lists out the um like the hours if you're differentiating between band and sports and cheerleading where you would know who does the line share of the work is the supplement pay match that. >> Very good. So on a lot of the arts, so to say, um, band director would be unified in the arts schedule. Um, cheer coach and athletic. when you get to these special duties. Um, and I hate to call one out because I'll get an email in the morning, but there was a group called the Lumberjack Club. And this group had uh 70 kids in it and they just wore flannel shirts and that was their thing. It was approved and our board policy says October of every year if I get a sponsor and I said, "Would you sponsor LoveJ Club?" me

044and 75 kids, we want to meet every Tuesday and talk about the force. I'm not making this up. This is a real thing. Uh, it's approved. Well, only one school has lumberjack club. So, where do we give them a supplement? So, now what we're looking at for those special duties is to say, um, how many times will you meet? How many students will you have in there? Uh, what are the the requirements in terms of is this part of a national association or local? And then based on that, it will fall as part of a class A or class D. >> Anybody else? >> All right. >> Good evening, Madam Chair, Dr. Ross Ford. It's my pleasure to introduce Miss Sarah Wheeler. She's a director of magnet programs so that she can give you an

045update on our magnet programs this year. >> Thank you. Let me get to my report. Okay, Madame Chair, honorable board members, Dr. Ross, executive staff, I am so excited to be here. It's the beginning of my favorite time of the year when our magnet and choice window opens. So, I want to start just showing you some highlights of our magnet and choice programs. We have 17 magnet programs school or schools located at 12 sites. When I first came here, we had four programs and we have grown it to 17. Last year, we had 1,125 applicants for this school year that we're presently in. Magnet Schools of America, MSA, is the National Association for Magnet and Themebased Schools. So, we have several magnet schools of distinction. We have magnet schools of excellence. We have certified magnet

046schools and we even have a certified magnet demonstration school located in our school district. We have had poster winners for magnet schools of America for seven consecutive years. So we have some wonderful artists in our school district. We also have had scholarship recipients from Magnet Schools of America. I included the magnet choice website for you at your convenience to click on so that you can explore everything we have. We have a wonderful video. We have all uh FAQs. We have our timeline and we have descriptions of all of our programs. As you notice, I gave each one of you a little bag of swag that we give out when we have our magnet fairs or we participate in local communities uh events such as the Chapen Labor Day parade. We were just at the Oakra

047Strut. So, we just give some things out so that parents can see that we have a wonderful choice and magnet program. Our booklets are in the process of being printed for this year. So therefore, we don't have those quite ready for you yet. When I mentioned that we have 17 programs, this just shows you that we also market these with two magnet fairs. Our first one is November 20th and that is our secondary level where we have our middle and high schools featured and that will be at Main Street at Irmo High School. But I want you to notice all of the different themes that we offer in our magnet schools. We've got our newest one coming on board next year, Academy for Innovative Learning, which will be at Crossroads Middle School, but we have

048international magnets, our gifted magnet, STEM magnet, we have arts magnet, the IB balorate uh diploma program as well as the career related program. And then we have our pathway for our Escalaris that goes into I am Escalaris which is at Irmo Middle and this is Escalaris which is at Hermo High. Then January 15th we feature all of our elementary magnet choices at that magnet fair which is right here at the center. And look here we have our Escalar's gifted academy, Monasuri magnet, leadership magnet, steam arts magnet, global magnet, the academy of environmental sciences, and our gifted and talent development magnet. And I'm going to just highlight our two newest this year. First being our Harperson West Elementary gifted and talent development magnet. And you see our little hedgehog, the hero. And the highlights of this

049program is that they offer the schoolwide enrichment model, SIM. And it does focus on the gifted pedigogy or teaching strategies for gifted students that they utilize for all students because all students have gifts and talents. They focus on the three E which is enjoyment, engagement, and enthusiasm. They have enrichment clusters that are fantastic and they operate with four to six weeks at a time. And last year it began with fourth and fifth grade. This year they've expanded to second, third, fourth, and fifth. Um, and I'll show you a picture in just a minute, but there's a wide variety of these enrichment clusters driven by student interest and teacher interest. So teachers offer to um lead these clusters which is what their passion might be and then it gives a variety so students can find a

050passion that they can explore. This year is new that we've introduced the SIM R which is a wonderful reading program and it too focuses on interestbased reading to encourage students to read more when they can read what they're really interested in reading. We've gotten national recognition. You can find us on the Simfusion or Renzulli's University of Connecticut. We have presented this last summer at their national yearly conference confer and um we're featured there and they also did a wonderful professional documentary on Harbison West and our own Dr. Ross is featured in that documentary so we can make that available for you. These are just a few pictures showing one of the clusters is cheerleading. I think we've had a board member participate in our pickle ball. That is one of them as well. We had

051pickle ball. We have the camera club. Up in the right hand corner, you see their reading vending machine, which is amazing. So, kids can earn points and use those points to get books to read. Then we have our Seven Oaks Elementary Global Magnet. And you see their new owl and their new logo. Their um key theme is international balora primary years program called the PYP which is basically inquirybased learning and it's around six themes. Who are we in the world? Where are we in the world? What do what role do we play? So it again just um emphasizes critical thinking, problem solving and um how we can be good citizens of the world. They've introduced this year a new house system sort of like Harry Potter which is really great to encourage belonging and it's

052four houses in one school and they use it in their behavior program their positive behavior program where students can do healthy competitions earn points and then they can use their points to earn certain prizes or as you'll see in a picture they also have a book vending machine. They've started last year a fabulous international day which is going to become an annual event and they too have been nationally recognized with participate learning which is another organization we work with. We presented with them in a national conference and if you go to the their website and click you'll also see seven oaks honored there. There are pictures there showing you international day their vending machine. You see where all the hands with the bracelets? That was when their house was revealed. And to the right, you

053see that they have four houses with each one with their names, their color, and their logo. And the kids all have t-shirts. And so they have certain days where they w wear wear their house colors, but it's four houses, one home. And here is our timeline for this coming year. You'll see where you we start with our Escalaris pathway meeting which will be held on Thursday, October 16th. That gives parents an opportunity to see that you can begin with Escalaris in the second grade at Harbison West. And you can follow that pathway through 10th grade at Irmo and then if you choose to you can go into AP, you can go into dual enrollment or you can go into the IB program. Then it shows you our fair when the ma when our applications open

054the second fair for elementary. Then the choice application will close we will have our lottery and then families will be notified. And again to your right you can see where these dates are highlighted again there. And that is all that I have to offer tonight. I'm excited. Any questions? Do we have any questions? Mrs. Satderfield. >> I have a comment and a question. Thank you for what you do. I we talk a lot of Dr. Ross does his principal re uh principal his superintendent. He was principal one day. >> Yeah. >> Superintendent report and we talk about we spent a lot of time on academics and I know that what your efforts and the folks that work you work with they help those efforts in a great way. I had the good fortune of attending

055the conference in Connecticut. It's quite a good conference, but uh and I thank you and congratulations on being recognized at that conference our district. I think that's awesome. Um I did have one question and that is that I know early on when we were going through the magnet process uh we were getting a lot of grants. Maybe Dr. Ross should answer this question. Are we still dependent on these grants for the operation of a lot of these programs? Well, what we are right now, first of all, since uh 2013, we have developed the grants we have uh excuse me, the magnets we have now through grants. The first grant we got in 2013 was three years. So, the funding ended, but as you can see, our programs are very sustainable and they're still ongoing and

056successful. Then in 2017, the grant funding went from a three-year to a five-year grant. So that was when we put in the discover five. It was five programs we put in there. Again, we are that funding ended last year. Those are all going strong, very sustainable. Um and they're doing beautifully. Then we got in 2023 a five-year grant where we put in our two newest, Harvest West and Seven Oaks. And I'm thrilled to say that our third year of funding came through. So yes, so we are in good shape. The feds see that we are in important in this landscape of choice and we have a lot of magnets that are successful. So that we're excited because this was year three of five years of funding. But as we all know, there was no guarantee,

057right? >> But that word came through believe last Thursday. I know I texted Dr. Ross. I take Miss Captain McCascal. So yes, but a big part of that funding is working from the very beginning on sustainability and building capacity which we have done. >> Yeah. Well, again, congratulations. Thank you for your hard work. >> Anybody else? >> Mine's just real quick. Um, who who plays the sorting hat? How do they choose their >> who does what >> how do they who plays the sorting hat? How do they choose their houses? >> Oh, it was it was really good. And actually, we have a wonderful young man that helps us in um the planning um and student services with in accountability data and he does a lot with our magnets. So, he was able to take

058all the names and sort of randomly do it. But we were very careful to keep siblings together if there was a second grader and a fifth grader so they'd be in the same house. But um it was done that way randomly sorted. >> Miss um I had a question about the with the resoning there's an opportunity for parents to apply if their student is being moved for um if there's space available to stay in their current school. Is that going to be done during this same time frame or will there be a different application process for that? Yes, it's going to be doing done during the same time period. We think that would be much easier and simpler for our families to to to uh understand and to um participate in. >> And I do

059want to say we have worked so closely since 2013 with we work hand in hand. He'll call me, I'll call him. And so that works beautifully. Anybody else? All right. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So, I want to talk a little bit about some miscommunication and some misconceptions. Um, in 2022 school year, we started some conversation around what do we do to best meet the needs of all students within the district. And I have to say that was my first year in this position and I'm not an expert in secondary. Um so I had to do a lot of learning. I had to do a lot of asking questions um of students, asking questions of teachers, asking questions of administrators, talking to Dr. Ross, asking him, just really digging in. Nanda Walters, our secondary director,

060has been my right-hand person to be able to help go through and ask questions and just just really immerse myself in that world. And what we found was on a normal scheduled day, probably 65 to 70% of our students do very very well with that schedule. and we're being a very productive school system. I'm not okay that 30 or 35% of our students are not doing well. I'm not okay with that. So, I started asking questions on what else do I need to do? What else do we need to do as a system? And so we looked at some different scheduling options and I met with APIs, I met with principles and we started looking at what would a 4x4 option look like within the schools. And we had one school that kind of jumped

061right in and said, "Oh, this is what our students need." And they started pretty immediately. We had another school that realized we kind of need it as well. So they started last year 2425 with some this year more so 2526. In the conversation originally all of our schools were going to begin having some form of 4x4 within their schools for this school year 2526 school year. API looked at me and said I need another year. I need another year. are not not quite there for for all of our four of our high schools to be ready. I said, "Okay, let's take another year. Let's make sure that we're ready for it." But we've got students that need this. And I'm going to share with you some data that I hope will show show you why

062we need that. In ELA, this is first semester last school year, the end of first semester 2425. We had 412 students who were failing ELA, English. We had 737 students who were failing math. We had 455 students who were failing science and 336 students who were failing social studies. If we're going to improve our graduation rate, we have to do something different for these students. We have to give them an opportunity to have a choice to be able to look for hope. I shared a story with Dr. Ross this morning. There's a student that's currently enrolled in graduation alliance who was one of my students started with me in kindergarten. When I saw that child's name come across as going into graduation alliance, I decided I was going to go talk to them. They lived

063in the same place that they lived in an elementary school. And I sat down and I said, "Talk to me a little bit about why is it that you're here? Why are you a candidate for graduation alliance?" Lots of things were said, but I'll tell you my takeaway. Well, they had lost hope because they didn't see how they could dig out of the hole they had dug themselves in. That's why I have to do what I do. So the miscommunication and the chaos, if I can say that, that's really come from people feeling that they're being made to do something. 4x4 scheduling is a choice within our four schools. We're not going to a pure 4x4. Nothing's been said about a pure 4x4. It's a modified schedule. It's been going on for a while. But

064every school, I gave you total numbers, but every school has at least a group of students that need this hope and we need to make sure that we're developing what we need for all students and that we identify that. So, as I go through the slides, I hope that this will share with you why we're doing what we're doing and that you'll be able to speak with confidence that our academic department's not going to suggest and not going to guide without doing things with purpose. That's not who I am. Okay? So whenever you look at the the modified 4x4 schedule, you'll see that they can they can take courses for a semester. They can take courses for the whole year. There's skinnies in there which are 45 minute classes. There's 90 minute classes. There's a

065lot of different things that take place. Some of our students are going to see a change in their schedule. Some of our students are not going to see they're not even going to know it's a difference. They're not even going to they're not even going to notice it. AP courses, and I'm not going to read the whole slide because nobody wants this wants me to do that, but AP courses are going I'm going go ahead and skip through because I've already talked through some of this. But AP courses are going to look very much like they look right now. There are some things with science that we've looked at to where maybe um a certain biology class could make could be paired with the AP science or with AP biology so that you have one

066in the fall and then you have your AP course in the spring because your spring your AP course can only test in the spring, right? So, we would never give the AP course in the fall and expect the child to test in the spring. That we wouldn't do that. We're not going to have that gap. Might be that some of the AP courses stay on the AB schedule. It might be that some of the AP courses are just offered in the spring if it's paired maybe with something in the fall. So, it's not going to be it's not going to be a change that's going to be negative for any student. Each school will be unique. Each school will be different based on the needs of their students. Okay. So, I'm going to go through

067and look at you've got a chart here that talks about AB. It's going to it talks about the 4x4 and the differences of of the two. Here's a sample master schedule. This is from one of our neighboring districts. So, don't look at the actual bell times because they're not correct on here. This is just a sample. But you would see where like teacher A is teaching semester 1, semester 2, and that's a that's if it's a full block schedule. And then you'll see you've got IB classes that are listed there that are Aday, Bday types of schedule. So those are mixed in there. Um, and then you've got your dual enrollment classes and they only meet certain days, certain times. So there's all kinds of pieces and parts to this schedule. It's not a pure

0684x4 in any way. Here's your fine arts sample schedule. Again, you've got different courses within the day within different semesters um that can look and this is a anybody has looked at a secondary schedule before, this is like a little piece about this big of it because a master schedule from a high school is ginormous. It's tremendous. Here's a sample student schedule what one would look like with just regular block scheduling. And you'll see semester 1, semester two, what that would look like there. You've got some year-long courses mixed in with the schedule. So, you've got some some things that are maybe blocked, some that are um year-long types of classes. So, it all can intermingle and and coexist. It's not either or. So, I'm gonna stop there for a minute because this goes into

069middle school and I know most of the questions were around high school. So, I'm gonna stop there for a minute and answer questions. So, before I ask if are there any questions? I don't have a question, but Mr. Casco, I do want to say that I appreciate just your heart and transparency in the opening um of your presentation cuz I could feel that and um I speak candidly about my p about my children all the time. If they um were paying any attention, they would hate it. But um I say that to say um I have four children. My oldest child will do fine no m overachiever like his mama. My second child needs, you know, more of a push. She likes to be social like her mama, but then that's just about it. And

070I can um speak openly that she's somebody who could have benefited from a little bit more hope and a little bit more passion. And so, um, I appreciate, although I'm not at this level yet in this type of scheduling, I can appreciate the commitment to trying to find something that work for all students. And so, thank you for that. Um, but does anybody have any questions so far? Matter of >> You knew I was going to ask a question. >> Um, first of all, thank you. I echo uh what Miss Snipes just said. Um, I can tell you and Dr. Ross can tell you that scheduling at the high school is a nightmare. Even if you have one type of schedule, there are so many conflicts and it takes a team of people weeks to

071get through that. Um, I think I have heard from a couple of teachers, as you can probably well understand, about the AP schedule and um, and I know you said there's going to be some flexibility in there. And one of the things that Dr. Ross and I used to talk about when we worked together was how to help those kids that are the struggling kids. Um, uh, you know, the the AP kids come in with baited breath. you know, they come into math with their calculators in their hand, you know, so they're ready to go. But the other kids, um, we had talked about various skinnies and different ways of, you know, if if you recognize in November or December, then it's time to start all over again with them. Um, uh, I do like

072the idea of the flexibility. The only thing that I guess I would be concerned with and this is something that you'll have to solve since you're in that position um is if kids who transfer from one school to another like if they go from Irmo to Chapen and Cho Chapman's got a little different setup than or to Dutch Fork or things like that. Um but um my hat's going to be off to all those APIs who have to um it's again it's hard enough with just one type of schedule, but they'll be um they might need to get a supplement or something. >> We've had several conversations. We've, like I said, we've got two schools that are already doing this and um one one school has really one of the APIs has really spoken up

073to be able to be assist with some help. Um but I also want you to know the work that we've done in terms of some proficiency based um work with Edmondum allows for that transferability that you're talking about from one school to the other. or if for some reason a child gets to a place that um get moves to a school that maybe their schedule doesn't meet align exactly, we have admentum courses that can help us with that. Um I have an AP student at one of our high schools this year that needed or wanted I don't say needed but wanted a course that just didn't fit. Um and so we were able to use Edenum to give them an asynchronous class. So, there are lots of things that we've worked on to be able

074to to help with that that I think we're set up for success with with that. >> One other question. Have y'all discussed I mean May is test month >> and um it's pretty occupied when it comes to that for a lot of teachers and kids. And I know in a 4x4 block that's t takes away from a lot of instructional time as well. Have y'all had discussion about that? I have talked to other districts about that and they have not found that to be a problem >> really. >> So that's that because that is that was one of the questions that I had as well. But I can't find a district that says it's a problem. I think you have you have other interruptions in the first semester that maybe not be quite as many

075days, but your EOCC courses if if they're on a 4x4, your EOCC courses are going to be given in the fall as well. So, if you have a fall EOCC course, the fall EOCC test is given in the fall. The AP exams are the only ones that are not given in the fall. >> Miss Huddle. Um, so I'm I'm trying to understand to make sure. So if you don't mind going back a slide where it showed like the student schedule. So So what you're saying is that in the exact same high school there will be kids on a 4x4 schedule and there'll be kids on a AB schedule. So are the lengths of the classes changed in order to not have bells going off all the time? They're still 90-minute classes. >> Okay. >> So

0764x4 you're going to meet every single day for 90 minutes for an entire semester. >> Okay. >> And AB schedule you're going to meet a class on Monday for 90 minutes. And then on Tuesday you're going to go to a different class for 90 minutes. And then on Wednesday you're going back to your Monday class. So it's every other day you're meeting your classes but it's still 90-minute classes. All right. But right now classes are >> 90 minutes >> on every day. >> AB days. They're a every we're on AB schedule. >> Okay. So >> for the most part. >> All right. So the I think and I didn't look up where they were from, but based on the wording, I think most of the teachers that contacted me were from um the Kate. Um,

077so how is this going to change their schedule here? >> Well, there's two right now two proposals that those teachers have that Mr. Frick have and those teachers are being able to give input on what are the pros and cons of both to see what might work best so that we can make sure that we are making sure that like those courses that I know you sent that and I've seen it but those courses that um need extra time like in the uh lab portion of their class there they will have that. So we're not going to take that away from them. One of the more popular of the two, I'll just say, is that we have a double block. We have we have a double block and then a single block and then a

078double block and then a single block. So like your level one courses have less lab time than your level twos, threes, and fours have. So your level ones could be a single block class. And so that's what we're looking at. And the other um concern I've heard is from um parents of like students in the arts. So with this schedule, I think currently, and you correct correct me if I'm wrong, but if you're a band student, you have to be in band all year long. You can't say, "Well, football season's over. I don't want to be in band anymore." Would in this new schedule, could students say, "I want to be in marching band, but not concert band or vice versa?" Well, a lot of times it does overlap and sometimes it doesn't overlap. So,

079it just depends on the student and what they want to do and how they're going to do that and how the band program is set up. So, >> so if the >> I have to say I have to say it really depends on the school and how that band director wants to work with that schedule. Again, I really believe this needs to be very individualized to the school and what the school needs that to be. >> Last question. Um, late day Wednesday. Is that still in effect? Still in effect. >> I think I might be able to clarify part of Miss Hull's question. So, let's say you're using the skinnies and they are not conveniently separated by lunch as this AB isn't here. So, if your first block, if you had two skinnies, would you

080have a bell going off 45 minutes in for them to transition to the other class? Some schools do and some schools don't. So I visited I visited it both ways. Okay. >> So um it would really again depend on what the school I would hope that they would involve their staff to say are those bells going to drive you crazy because they would me. >> Um and if they do then they they just use they just use a timer on their watch or on their phone or something like that instead of so it really would depend on the school what their choice would be. I can pretty confidently tell you that the band directors do not want the kids to only be enrolled one semester because that would be highly detrimental to the to the

081music programs. And that's not just, you know, not just for band, it's for really all the performing arts for sure. >> And APIs have been talking through that. I again, it's going to be a school base and I'm not going to speak for what they will and won't do, but I can say that that's been a conversation. >> Great. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Miss Cascal. Um, I'm gonna somewhat blow my cover here because I could just sit here and look like I know what I'm talking about or what y'all are talking about, but I don't. So, can you explain to me what skinnies are? And um, also kind of the general differences between 4x4 and AB block. Sure. >> For a layman. And then another question is what impact will such a change that

082we're moving to have on the teachers outside the classroom as far as like planning periods and planning time and things like that. Can you explain that? >> So teachers get a 90-minute planning I'm gonna start with the easy one. Teachers get a 90-minute planning block now. They'll continue to get a 90-minute planning block. So that's not going to change anything in terms of that. Um, so the difference between AB and 4x4, if we were to go to a pure 4x4 or a pure AB, which we're not, but let's just go to that world for a few minutes, okay? Because I think that's the best way to help you understand it. So, a 4x4 schedule is you would take four classes for a semester and you would meet every single day, 90 minutes for each of

083those four classes. And then second semester, you'll take four additional classes every day, 90 minutes. So you still get eight classes in the day. A teacher would teach six classes throughout the year. They would teach three the first semester, three the second semester, okay? Because they have a planning period. So that's their other class. AB, you have an you have uh four classes on A day, four classes on Bday. There's still 90-minute classes. Um, the teacher has a planning period. So, the teacher teaches three classes on Monday, three classes on Tuesday, and then she goes back and teaches the same class on Monday for Monday's class. So, she's she's teaching six classes all year long versus a teacher would be teaching three classes first semester and then three classes second semester. Okay. Does that help

084with with that piece of it? Skinnies. Skinnies are 45 minute classes. So, um, let's just say this probably is more of an elective thing sometimes that happens with skinnies. Um, so you might partner hesitate to say this because I'm not, again, secondary is not totally my world. I've learned a lot, but let's just say it's an art. Let's say it's an art class for 45 minutes and then the students might transition to like uh maybe even might be band. I don't I don't I wouldn't say band but maybe an orchestra type class for 45 minutes um within that 90minute block. So you might get two electives yearong within that 90 minute block. Does that help? And if I said it wrong, Dr. Ross, let me know. But I think that was right. >> One more

085question. Um, Dr. Ross went over the end of course exams. Um, when are those given? Are they given in both semesters or only in May? >> EOCC exams are given at the end of the um course. So, if you take the course in the fall, you take the test in the fall. If you take the course in the spring, you take the test in the spring. >> Great. Thank you. >> Yes. Um, let me ask you this. I'm trying to re I was when I was at Dutch for we discussed block scheduling. I'm trying to remember the different questions that came up and the reason we didn't go that direction. So you're saying all AP classes will be year long. >> I won't say that. >> Well, they they have to take their test in

086May, >> right? But like I said, there's some partnering things with science right now specifically that like you might take your honors level biology in the in the um fall, but then your AP science you'll take in the spring. >> Well, I know with English it's a year-long course and they have so many >> a lot of the Englishes are are really probably going to be more of an AB. I've heard that from APIs. The second thing was um what about kids are taking um foreign language? If I'm taking I'm a ninth grader. I'm taking Spanish one and I take it in the fall. I don't want to get Spanish 2 until the next fall. >> It depends on your schedule. I mean, you could schedule Spanish 2 if you had placed in your schedule.

087I doubt it, but you could. Um but that would depend on you successfully completing it on first. >> That is a huge gap. which leads to my third concern and that is we've talked a lot of times we would have principal meetings and talk with our APIs and and directors. Um we talked about this learning gap, the summer learning gap. We are always worried about that summer learning gap. If kids are taking especially struggling learners, if they get by on that first and they don't take math again until the next year, that's that's I >> you understand what I'm saying? >> I do understand because I had the same question. >> Oh, good. >> So, I went back to my experts around the district, around the Midlands. I've talked to about five or six different

088districts and I asked that same question. They just don't see the problem. They don't see the impact. >> And and I just wanted to tell Miss McCast, thank you so much for for for taking the charge on this. I think when And I'll speak a little bit more freely. I know you're working in detail with the APIs. To your point, Michelle, you know how this is hard to schedule. This is going to be very hard to schedule. Uh but the the toggle that we have um is the students with a 35 at Christmas. We're going to have that this year. It's 700 last year. It's going to be that this year. 700 students who were failing this November or failing right now. >> Well, that was the end of last last year at the end

089of first semester. >> The trend will hold up. The majority of students won't feel this. And I just think we got to understand to get a Carnegie unit in the United States, you have to do 120 hours of instructional time. That's to get one credit. to get um a half a credit, you know, do half of that, 60 hours. So, how do we schedule that? It used to be traditional scheduling. Remember that you took seven classes every day for 50 minutes and that's how you made your but you only got seven courses. Someone came up with a great idea and said, "You know what? I know a way we can get eight classes in a year. You can take eight because you need 24 to graduate. This way if you fill a few, you got

090some choices. And they came up with the AB schedule. You take four on A day, you take four on B day. Each one is 90 minutes. You alternate your 90 days throughout the year. So it feels like you're in the class for 180 days. You're still in the class for 90 days, right? 4x4 just moves the 90 days to the first, but you only get four classes. So I use I'm saying Chris by by the winter break you only have four classes and then you pick up the other four and so that's how you get your eight. I think for the kids that we're worried about is that by winter break they only have one or two classes because they failed to. And so do we keep those kids in those classes till May? But

091typically they drop out. The older they get they say look this is not for me. that's what he was speaking to. We met with uh and I'm not ashamed to say it, Clover. Um they have four bites of the apple, four roads for for children who don't fail at the this Friday, they will pull all failing students and give them credit recovery. So that's if I'm failing by the 45th day, I get another opportunity to take a different type of course for the rest. If I'm failing at the winter break, I get another course. If I'm failing in the uh the three quarters of the way, I get another opportunity uh before the fourth quarter. Our kids now have one chance. If they fail, they have to wait the whole the to the summer to

092try to take that class again. So, we're just trying to give them another opportunity. But for the lion share of kids, they won't feel this change. Ban AP, the lion share of kids won't feel it. While Miss um Miss McCascal is giving the contingency there is that you do have for some kind of some of our science classes, they do like to put something in line with that AP because while we have AP kids, not all the kids are ready to pass that AP test. And so you're trying to get more kids in AP, but they need they need a lab or an accompanying class with that to support them. So majority of kids won't feel this change. Um like I said I did it. I mean you remember the math tech ones and math

093tech two. It was for those kids that were really struggling um in that. But I am worried that with 700 and something students feeling math by the winter break having a pathway for them. So u in a skinny is taking a semester class 60 hours and cutting that into 45. Uh, and so I'm sorry, uh, 60 hours and cutting it into 30. So those are the ways you can schedule classes. 30, 60, 120. >> Yeah, sorry, a followup. Um, at the beginning you said that you checked with other other districts and they're um not seeing issues. How do theirs I guess specifically because a lot of our questions have come in surrounding the AP classes, how did those other districts that you've talked to compare with us from a results perspective and achievement on AP?

094>> So, one of the districts um that I spoke with and I I'll use Greenville County because that was one of the ones that I've really looked at a lot and talked with a lot. I've talked with all of the ones in the Midlands. Um, of course, as you see, our our AP scores are very high. We we are consistently high with that. Greenville County is also consistently high as well. Um, they saw an increase in the number of students able to take AP courses. So, um, not only did their test scores end up increasing because the number of students increased, but the numbers of students that were able to take the AP courses, they saw an increase in that. Um, and I think because technically your high achieving students aren't going to be the

095students that need to retake a course. So therefore, they can pretty much have their 24 credits by mid year of their junior year to graduate. It gives them a year and a half to really explore a lot of the AP courses, dual enrollment courses, things like that that they want to do. Um, so that's where some of the flexibility and the ability to take additional courses comes in for some of our higher achieving students. I meant to ask this earlier. You said that some of the schools have already been doing this. So are there demonstrable improvements for these students that are in those 4x4 programs already? you're talking about maybe one year of full implementation. >> Okay. >> Um we did see some increases and we saw some students that were able to walk across

096the stage because they had that option. Um in my opinion if two or three then it was worth it. Um I can't give you the exact number but we do know that I do know of stories that it has helped. >> Thank you. >> Go ahead. Um, I'm just kind of curious aside from the scheduling, if you pick the the math, 737, and I know there's probably 737 reasons that they didn't pass, but what are some of the most I mean, is it attendance? Is it that they really weren't prepared for the course in their prior? I guess I just want to make sure that we're and I know you guys are, so I'm not like saying you guys need to figure it out. I'm curious what you have figured out just for >> this

097is a lot of it. FAS are going to be a lot of it. I didn't I when I did this data I did not pull out FAS but FAS are going to be a lot of it. >> So a FA is >> it's failure because of attendance. >> Okay. So they actually could be doing passing. Theoretically they could be passing but they're not passing because they're of attendance. >> No these were grades. So these were still grades. So you still had some FAS in there, but these were actual grades that I pulled. So I did I did pull failing grades, but because of their attendance, they didn't turn assignments in. And you don't turn an assignment in, you get a zero. Those kinds of things. >> Is there anything that you saw with the when

098talking to the other schools or with the kids that that the attendance improves um when they have the block the 4x4 schedule? >> Too soon? Not really. Honestly, the the thing they they would say to me is so if they took it again is they took it again in the same year. So it's like I've heard the material. I've heard the material. I've heard the material and now I go take it again. I've heard the material. I've heard material. So it kind of gets me over the hump. Um because I've heard it twice now. Um so that's pretty much what I'm not heard other reasons other than that. And I want to ask one more question because it's kind of is related to the cake because I heard a lot a lot of those courses

099require prerequisites, right? >> Is there a possibility that if this is structured well that some kids could get into Kate earlier because they're getting some of those prerequisites, they're able to finish a course in the first semester and they therefore could could take start taking courses at Kate. >> That's what we hope. Mr. Frick has been really intentional about wanting to try to increase the number of students that can come to the Kate Center and that that is one of our hopes. >> All right, any other questions about high school? Maybe this next one won't be quite so long. All right, so let's go into middle school just to give you an idea for modified scheduling for middle schools as well. As you know, ELA and math, we need to work in that area. um

100in terms of our middle schools. And so what what we found is students go up through fifth grade and they're getting 90 minutes at least of ELA. Um they're getting at least 60 minutes of math every day. They go to the high school, as you just heard, they're getting 90 minutes of math. They're getting 90 minutes of of English instruction. But in the middle schools, they're getting about 45 to 55 minutes of those two. And so we want to try to increase the amount of ELA in math um to about 90 minutes. It'll be somewhere between 85 and 90 minutes um each day. And so part of that will also cause a little scheduling um change in our middle schools. This is one of our current schools um middle schools for next year. Something that

101they are looking at um in terms of what their schedule would look like. Um, and this would allow science and social studies to sort of be on that AB schedule, but your science I mean but your math and ELA would be on an everyday schedule. So, and your electives um would also be on an AB kind of schedule as well. So, that's that's what middle schools are looking at as a sample. And then I just want to reiterate um for parents really attend the IGP meetings because that's where you're going to know what is impacting your child specifically. So that's where you'll find, you know, is there a 4x4 that my child could take? Is there something with um Edmondum or is there a a SC virtual course that my child should be taking versus

102versus this? Is there another way that I need to what what do I need to do for my child? The IGP is the place to find that out. That's that individual time with counselors where they're going to sit down and talk about what your child needs. And that's going to be really important for parents to know. The next thing is to contact the child, your your child's API at the school. They're going to be able to tell you what the schedule within their school is going to look like because like I said, I I'm not saying all schools are going to follow this schedule like it's not it's I don't I don't make I'm not making the schedule for the school. It will be based on what the school needs and then attend any school

103sessions orformational sessions that the school may have because I do think that that's going to be important for parents to to to hear as well. So that's all that I have tonight. Any other questions? I'm happy to answer them. >> Thank you so much, Miss McCass. This your last >> I'm only ask one middle school question. Um the um the you in with the middle school. So they're not going to all go to block there. They'll have some flexibility in their schedule as well. >> Again, each school is going to create their own schedule. Okay. The only thing that I've said is we need to have we need to have longer ELA and math blocks. We're looking at trying to get around 80 to 85 minutes. I'd love to get 90, but we're probably going

104to get 80 to 85 minutes for ELA and math. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Anybody else? >> All right. Thank you, Miss McASK. >> Thank you, Miss McCascal. Uh, as Dr. Turner, chief of human resources, comes to the lectern to give the human resources report. Uh, want to share that this is on our benefits. October is open enrollment and kind of a did you know that for every dollar we pay in salary we have 33 cents in benefits. So we want to hear a little bit about those benefits that we provide. Dr. Turner. >> Well, good evening madam chair, members of the board. Dr. Ross, thank you for the opportunity tonight to present an overview of our district benefits. Um Dr. Ross, you're right. When we're looking at recruitment and retention, salary is a critical

105component. But what we also know is one key factor that also attracts people to the district and causes them to stay in the district is having a competitive benefits package. So when you're thinking at a total compensation for us, we're not just looking at salary, we're also always looking at that benefits component. Um if you recall a few years ago we did a salary study and as a part of that um our benefits package was analyzed against market peers and what we found on average was the total percentage of that benefits package was about 30% for our market peers and for our district it was about 32%. So what we know is that we when we look at our benefits package, we know that we are competitive in comparison with the market value. We also

106know from employees that their satisfaction with district benefits for the most part. I have the opportunity tonight to have with me two of our three benefit specialists. So, when you think of benefits administration for the almost 3,000 employees that our um district has, there are three benefits specialists that take the lead in taking care of us in some of our most critical moments. And it's an honor for me to share the mic with them tonight. We have benefits specialist Debbie Renhat. She serves employees uh with last name N through Z. And we also have Miss Shondaanda Weekly tonight. and Miss Weekly serves employees um with last names A through F. So, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Renhack first. >> Thank you, Dr. Turner. Good evening, everyone. Again, my name is Debbie Renhack

107and I am one of the benefit specialists here. We just as Dr. Turner said benefits are a very important and competitive part of the package and we are lucky as state employees to have PEA which stands for public employee benefits authority and their package that they offer to all of us that makes us so competitive in the in the market itself. Some of the things that are a part of that package are health insurance, dental, vision, your long-term disability and also um your um life insurance. They also have retirement, a couple of different options for that. And then we also have a leave package, which is really important to employees to be able to have that time when they need it. These are the things that keep us competitive. As a benefit specialist, your day

108is never the same. You may start your morning out and you may be working with an employee about being a new employee and what the benefits are and the next moment you're talking to a surviving spouse about death benefits. So, you never know where your day is going to go. And it's never boring. Trust me. Benefits administration is a vast area. We touch and talk with employees about so many different types of benefits. As I had said, health insurance, retirement, leave management. And some of those types are sick, personal, vacation, FMLA, paid personal leave, and also workers comp. We have to retain compliance with a number of different areas. Um, some of those are FNLA, Affordable Care Act, HIPPA, COBRA, OSHA, and ADA. We handle onboarding, onboarding and orientation for new hires, but it is

109equally as important that you handle people who are leaving in the same manner that they get the same kind of respect as well. We are a liaison for insurance and our retirement vendors. We are the person that keeps it going between the actual employee and the vendor to help with those deductions, to help with that information so that they understand what they're getting. We also partner with our payroll department and finance to ensure that we have accurate deductions and that we're meeting all of those requirements. And lastly, wellness and assistance programs, which is something that's dear to my heart. So with PEA, they offer something called PEA perks. And some of these items include weight management, heart health, diabetes management, tobacco sessation and also my my the one I think is the most important which

110is behavioral health management. It's becoming such a large aspect of our life every day now and we need that for our employees. Um, PEIBA has a program called Maru Health and if you are an employee that is in enrolled into the health program, you qualify for this and this is a 12week free program that you get and it gives you a therapist and it also can give you psychiatric support too as well. And this will cover things like anxiety, stress, depression and burnout. So these are are really good things and I'm glad to see things going in that direction. Now, that's all the state benefits, but we also have supplemental policies, and we partner with a company called Ward Services to offer these. There are five currently that we're working with. We have a cancer

111poly policy, a short-term disability policy, universal life, and then just last year, we added two extra. That would be um critical care, which is like a combo that doesn't just only include your cancer, but it also includes other types of critical illnesses. And we also have an accident policy. Um, we added these two because there are there were so much demand from our employees asking for these and it also gives us a competitive edge with our neighboring districts as well. Um, we also are going through our open enrollment right now from J from October the 1st to October the 31st. We're tired. Sorry. I'm sure you are too. Um and uh we are working with our employees to get that taken care of and help them. A couple of things that are a little bit

112special this year that it's a dental year for our um open enrollment that is every other year. So people are really looking at that this year. And another thing that we have is that they are able to add 50,000 in their term life insurance without any me medical evidence. So this is important to them for that this year as well. I am going to turn it over to Shondaanda now. I've talked enough to you guys and she's >> Hello, I'm Shondaanda Wiggley and like Dr. Turner said earlier, I do service those employees whose last names are A throughF. And I just want to quickly let you know that we as benefit specialists take very good amount a great amount of pride in the fact that we offer our employees one-on-one consultations. They are able to

113um call us and ask us any questions that they have. We'll do those consultations in person or virtual, whichever is easiest for them to do anything from new hire um questions to orient with their orientation um person or paid parental leave when they're having a baby or when it's time for retirement or they're thinking about that retirement, we're happy to meet with them in our office. Thank you. So again, thank you for the opportunity just to share an overview um and an opportunity to put faces with the names. Um these are some of the most confidential employees in the district. Things happen in the district that I have no clue about as I shouldn't because um our benefit specialists, they just take such pride in their work. Probably one of the most complimented areas within

114the office of human resources is just the care and concern that our benefits uh specialists provide from celebrating the birth of a child to providing support to a spouse that may be going through a loss. Um so again, we're we stand ready to support employees during open enrollment. Um and just thank you again for the opportunity to pres present that overview to you tonight. >> Thank you ladies. Do we have any questions? All right. Thank you so much. You're welcome, >> Madam Chair. That concludes the superintendent's report and I stand for any questions. >> Are there any additional questions? At this time, I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes from the September 22nd meeting. >> I'll move that we approve the minutes of the September 22nd, 2025 board meeting. >> Can I get a

115second? All in favor? And the motion carries seven to zero. I don't believe we have anybody for public participation tonight. So that moves us to our action agenda with action as necessary or appropriate on matters discussed in executive session. >> Make a motion to approve selected employment items shown in exhibit A. >> Second. All in favor? And the motion carries seven to zero. Um, I move that we approve the contract regarding Irmo High School phase 2 per exhibit D. >> Second. >> All those in favor and the motion carries 7 to zero. That moves us to item 13, approval of grant funded um supplement requests. >> Uh yes, Madame Chair. Uh we seek approval of two. These are grant-f funded uh supplements. These are approved on a rolling basis. Uh Dr. Turner, if you can

116uh present uh exhibit F for us. You can do it from the seat. >> Make a motion to approve the grant funded supplement request shown in exhibit F. >> Do I have a second? Can I I'd like to >> Well, before second. >> All right. >> I'd like to make an amendment to that motion. Um part of that um this motion includes something that we discussed recently and we did not as a board did not approve on a a position and that is number one on uh um exhibit F. So, I'd like to make a motion to amend this motion to remove that first listed request, but to approve the second one. >> Second. >> Sorry, we have an amendment um to the motion on the floor. Um is there any further discussion or questions?

117Miss Huddle, >> I I want to say a point of clarification. I don't know that you can in your amendment you can say to exclude this and approve that. I think it probably needs to just be to exclude if that's >> I apolog just just exclude that. Yeah. >> Oh, you want me to speak to that? >> Well, like I said, uh we we voted on this just recently and we had a lot of discussion about this. Um that first request is something that is a job description for a position that we just recently approved. And um the the in their request they listed all the items that that person is normally is the the athletic director I'll go and throw that out. That athletic director is responsible for. And um um I just think

118that if the athletic director who took the job is unable to perform that those tasks that is in their job description that I don't know that we should be approving somebody else to help do their job. And that's I know with uh throughout the district we have different setups because we have uh one school where you have a head football coach who's also the athletic director. But at this particular school, we have a football coach who's the assistant athletic director and then we have an athletic director. And we had again we had this discussion before and we voted on this and uh part of the responsibilities of that person who took that job are those the the description for their request is in their job description. So that's my reason. >> Go ahead. Yeah, Mr.

119I So you're you're referring to number one on page two of the >> So part of that says to help like the description is to support the ad and then to help supervise athletic events which they they need help supervising athletic events. So why would they why would we not want to compensate? >> Well, having had a lot of experience with this. Um, you have an assistant AD already and the busiest time for the extra support is in the spring when when you don't have football. They don't have do not have football responsibilities. You also have an admin team. As you know, we went to the Dutch fork chapen game and we met many of the administrative assistants and those others who are there supervising those events. I I know the history with dealing with

120a lot of this was once you have approval of such a position regardless of how it's paid for then it becomes the expectations that that person that is a role that needs to be fulfilled so to speak. If you're hiring me to do a job and here's my job description and I'm interviewing and you say, "Can you do these things?" I said, "Yes, I'll take" and you say, "Here, would you like the job?" And I say, "Yes." It wouldn't be I don't think it's proper for me to come back and say, "Well, I need some help doing the very things that are on my job description." So, that's my position. >> Do we have any other questions or comments before we take a vote? All right. So, we have a motion on the floor to

121exclude the supplement for position number one and it has been properly second. All those in favor? All opposed. And the motion carries 6 to one. And then um back to the original motion. Do we need a new motion? >> No. >> Okay. So now back to the original motion for the um grant funded supplement request. All those >> Oh. Can I can we ask some questions? >> Oh yes ma'am. >> Um so this is for uh Dazzlers. Um, is that a unique role at that school? Is there a comparable role at other schools? >> Either Dr. Gary or M. Turner can speak to to to Dazzlers. >> I'm sorry. I by default I think Dazzlers. I think Dutch Fork is still thinking. >> I can speak in reference to the Dazzlers. I do not know

122if it's that other other high schools. It's it's unique to Dutch Fork High, Dutch Fork Middle um request. >> Okay. So, is it it's like a dance team? >> It is support of the D of a dance team. >> So, Hermo and Chapen don't have a dance team. >> They do. >> Chapen Chapen has but not the not the Dazzlers. I don't think this was this is unique. The Dazzlers are unique to Dutch for >> they perform at um after school events, extracurricular football games. They do competitions um locally. um and at the um national level. >> So, is this supplement because they're not getting the regular supplement or is this on top of the regular supplement? >> So, this would be on top of the arts uh supplements that the district offers. >> Okay.

123Um, I'll just express a concern that I have about fairness and that I I just really worry that when you have in this case, Spring Hill, it doesn't really apply, but when you have three high schools that may have different means and and abilities to um for their booster clubs to generate revenue that once we open this Pandora's box, you know. Okay. So now another school has enough money to hire five extra assistant football coaches or I I I just want to put it out there. I'm sure that that this is a very worthy cause, but I'm just worried if we open this box. >> Dr. for us. >> I I appreciate I think we're caught between I don't want to click all the way back to the superintendent's report, but I think if we

124look back and remember the current setup of our um our supplements, it's very we only have three supplement schedules. By us trying to go to uh the additional six and review what we currently have, uh it's it's an attempt to try to get us out of this situation. You're still going to have grants that are going to be written and those supplements that are going to come through, but parent groups are also very uh interested especially u and and her can speak to or maybe help me speak to this. Uh band was one of those where we had a lot of booster fund raise and would the hero bands was different from a chaping band either for instance band may say I need extra flag front person where chaping band said, "I need someone to

125assist with the percussion." Uh, that fork says, "Well, we need someone to help with souafones." Well, these were all different and we were trying to meet the needs that were not outlined in our in our established piece. I think we mitigated that, Miss Tucker, if by giving, I think, additional 30,000 to all of those programs to try to meet those individual needs. We did not do that for the any of the other schedules. So, we did not do that for orchestra, for for dance, for those. And so, you see these coming up. Uh it's it's our goal to in this study from November to April to to fix as much of this as possible so that we're not in that. But I still tell you there'll still be a parent group that say, you know,

126I want that person's great with flags, but this person is excellent with saber and we would like to supplement them to help. So, Dr. Turner, >> yes. I did want to make sure um that I was presenting on behalf of the school some additional information um for you. And for both of these requests, um, I did want to point out, um, that for for Chapen High School, um, for their additional requests, they did ask that I, um, inform you that the request is for the additional support, particularly as it relates to providing consistent supervision of students. Within one night, there may be baseball, softball, soccer or lacrosse, varsity, and middle school track occurring within the same setting with track serving up to 150 students. And so the priority to supplement someone to get the additional

127um coverage to assist is their effort to provide safety and emergency response readiness, facility oversight, and also help with parent and spectator relations as well as on the weekend covering some of the additional um tournaments for support. And on behalf of the Dutch Fork Middle School, they did want me to also convey um the identified need for um additional um support. So, I didn't want this um item to pass without me conveying to you all um what they asked to present to you on their behalf of the supplement request. Thank you for that opportunity. Are we able to know like how many hours of work are we talking about for this? Those are on a um case-byase basis. What we have asked is that when we issue supplements, we now ask for a supplement agreement

128to be signed. And with that supplement agreement, it's more of a commitment um almost like a mini job description that we're having um the schools and the people accepting these supplements to tell us how many um evenings are you providing uh supervision. So we are collecting that information. I don't have it in front of me um because it'll be on a case-byase basis um but we can collect exactly what this uh supplement would support. So, are we playing paying these folks on an hourly basis and they'll have to fill out time sheets for each because that's how our supplements are working for the band staff, additional staff, and those band directors are saddled with filling out time sheets for these staff every week in order to get them paid. >> No, these are a different

129type of supplements because they are one time. So actually if you were to probably look at hourly input for maybe from 800 to 3,400 it's it's really almost a voluntary basis if you look at the number of hours. Um so this is a one-time supplement that they're paid and Miss Tucker you can um chime in on how that's distributed to them. Um but it it it is not de dispersed based on an hourly basis. And a lot of times these are um maybe coaches, out of district coaches or indistrict coaches who are agreeing to take on additional supervisory uh responsibilities in that capacity. >> Okay. Miss Huddle, Mr. Satderfield, and then I think Miss Barnard. >> Okay. So, I was looking at the what was all was in the exhibit and um on the last

130page it says dance dance director um high school level grades 9 through 12 is 5500 and grades 6 through 8 is 2500 and they said it was B team C team correct so did that mean that that this person would already receive the 2500 supplement because I'm assuming there's already a 9th through 12th dance director Right. Those are different. So that last page that you're looking at, those are for our certified staff. Are you looking at the page that has grades 9 through 12 and six through eight? >> Yes. So the dance directors 1, two, three, four, five down, it says dance director. And then if you go over to the grades six through eight column, it's 2500. >> Yeah. So this entire page are um supplements for our current staff. So these would be

131um mostly for teachers or people who are employed with us that are doing something additional. So when you're looking at the dance director, orchestra director, jazz band director, these are actually teachers in our building that are receiving these supplements because they're doing duties on top of their regular teaching duties. when you're looking at the um additional supplement request form, this could be um an out of district coach or someone else outside of that. >> So, do we already have someone receiving the $2,500 supplement for dance at at Dutch Fork? that I could look up for you because it's it's both the middle school and the high school, but this request would be to hire someone above and beyond that. So, I could bring that back to you if that's information that you like. >> And

132then the other question I had is the range. Why does it have a range? Wouldn't the the amount be whatever the booster club has said that they're going to fund? >> No. What we work with people on is is similar to grants. Even if you had a um even if you raise $500, we still have to pay people equitable to what we would pay normally. So pay is based on experience. So just because you raise $500, if based on experience the person is to be paid $2,000, you have to pay them based on their experience. So that's that range. >> And I couldn't find the the dance under the experience. So that's was the next thing I was trying to do. So, where's the schedule for dance based on experience? >> That's one that we

133work through the office of um academics with and Tina, you can chime in as well. >> That's okay. I just I was just trying to figure So, just to to kind of put a finer point on this. So, what you're saying is regardless of how much money the booster club provides, we have to pay based on experience. So, it could be more or less than what the booster club provides >> within the step schedule and that's why we present the range. So yes, um it could be from $800 to like $3,400. And so as a part of the process, and it's a process that involves HR, finance, and academics, one of the things that we do is we work with the booster club. And if they assume it'll be $800 supplements, they still have to

134go through finance to ensure that it does cover the maximum amount and it does cover fringe and benefits. Um, and then after that's done, then it goes to maybe academics in this case because when we notice that the request for was for something that was not on the schedule, that's where we had a conversation about what does this person do. And that's where we looked to see this is most similar to um, and we found one that compared in terms of what they wanted someone to do but hadn't been included on the schedule yet. And that's how that range was determined. Does that make sense? >> Uh, can I ask a question, Mr. Turner? Um, do you um have any idea is there any design structure or mandated structure for booster clubs at each high

135school or is it just up to them? The reason >> actually I'm looking at Miss Tucker because she's worked so closely with booster clubs to determine um that. So, I I'm going to defer to you. There is no there's no there is none. >> Well, the reason I asked that I I sort of knew the answer, but I I didn't know if that things had changed. When Miss Huddle brought up the question about the booster clubs, they're structured differently. So, some have uh have a bigger pot of money, so to speak, and so the people at one school have a greater an access to a more amount of money. So, in all fairness, um it's it's not if if they're not if they're set up differently. I I'll give you an example. Chapen High School

136has the Chapen Booster Club and they do an awesome job. They do. But all requests from all sports, all athletics goes to the booster club and their club they vote on and they determine who gets what. Um, Dutch Fork High School has the the football booster, the baseball booster, the golf, the da da, and so those minor sports don't have access typically are not going to have access to the same amount of money that a larger sport would have. Um, I always wondered why uh it was structured like that, but when we look at the stipens, Dr. Ross. Um it might be a good idea because um of again in the in trying to be transparent and fair with all these schools that we look at some sort of structure um with regards to booster

137clubs. It would be I like the idea of having a an Irmo booster club and so all sports can make their requests or their recommendations or you know get the support from the from the booster club like they do at Chapen and I think Dutch Fork would be the same thing. I would like to see one booster club. Now I don't know if that's something I obviously it's something that's never been addressed. >> I don't think we can mandate that as a um but I'm looking to you Miss Tucker. We do recommend, but we have to serve exeicio in terms of that. But Mr. Tuck, you can speak to the formation of them. >> So this year with the um the new change in state law requiring booster clubs to register with the school district

138as well as getting the sled background checks that they have to pay for, we've made some recommendations about best practices because if you have 10 booster clubs at one school, now each one of those booster clubs are paying $25 for their background check for their um treasurer and their president. So each booster club is now out $50 potentially um if they don't have people that cross over between booster clubs. Um if you only have one booster club then they're just covering the one registration uh one background check payment. Um, so ideally it would be best practice for it to consolidate and so we've made some of those recommendations, but as long as they're doing their background checks and registering and providing their financials, they're meeting the the requirements of our of our policy for student

139parentled organizations. >> Right. Well, my cons I guess my concern is it's like the request tonight. you know, if if people with their booster clubs have a pretty good pot of money, they can make a lot of requests, whereas the other districts may have the same need, but because their booster clubs cannot provide the same resources, then um I don't know, it's just I like I like things all things being equal as much as we can. So, >> Miss Hu, no, no, wait, wait. Miss Barnhart, Mr. hearing than Miss Huttle. >> I do agree with that um on the booster club situation, but like you said, that's not really something that we can do from here, but I do think that's a good idea. I have a question on the supplement schedule that's on page

140three. Um I'm assuming this step is years of experience where it goes zero to 14, correct? >> How do we come up with these numbers specifically? >> Is this Go ahead. I'm sorry. I I didn't mean to cut you off. Um yeah, I was just wondering like how these numbers came about, how we determine who gets what. When it comes to these, it's based on a review of the individual person's relevant experience to the role. And so that is handled right now at the school level based on um the resume or application provided by the applicant. But it's similar to what we do in human resources when we calculate um job experience. It's just what they provide as being relevant to the role. Um, many of them return to their roles out of school over

141time, too. Um, and so we know that the step progresses with that as well. >> And these are just one-time payments. >> Yes, one-time payments. And each year they they sign a supplement agreement. And as a part of that supplement agreement, they understand this is one time. Um, it does not permanently affect their uh salary. And so there is an agreement where the district explains this um to them and they have to sign to receive it. one time then next year each year they have to reapply for it. >> And I just asked that question just because one of the numbers popped out at me. I mean um going all the way kind of through from the assistant athletic director to the athletic trainer assistant. Why does basketball varsity head coach start off so much

142higher than all the other uh positions? >> It might be th this is a reflection of what's been in the approved budget for quite some time. It might be um based on uh some of the things that we're going to tease out more clearly with the new um supplement schedule. We're being a little more specific about teasing out things like um number of games uh supervised schedule, number of students supervised. And so some of it at one point may have been attached to um area of responsibility, but that's something else that we want to get back to clarifying a little more whenever we do um the revision to that supplement schedule. Okay. I I would just like to see that because I mean I I'm not familiar with a lot of the sports, but you

143know, I guess it would depend on how many practices they do, how many hours they're spending doing those kinds of things. Um, but you know, say a cross country coach with 10 years of experience is kind of at the same level as a zero to one year varsity basketball coach. So, just to kind of see some of the more uh uh payment kind of on the right level, I would be curious to see more. I know our principles have been working um with us too on helping us tease out what should be the defining factors in terms of compensation. So that should be forthcoming whenever we because some of it may need to be updated which is what we're attempting to do. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Mr. Heron, >> this has the

144potential to be very unpopular but I'm going to say it anyway. So, if these positions are truly supervising our students and they have to do with safety of our students and we value them, I don't feel like we should put it on the booster clubs to be funding it. I believe we should fund this. These are our students. We if you've got 150 kids at a track meet, you can't have one administrator there. It's just and so in order to respect this fairness from booster club and what one booster club is able to do, I don't understand why this can't come through the principal through a request to the superintendent to be added, you know, into our into our funding. I know we're talking about this is midyear and things pop up, but I think

145we probably have room for contingencies of these amounts. So, >> yeah. No, I I I agree and that's one of the reasons I wanted to do the study um to get this right because what will happen is if one comes up there are 20 more behind that uh of things that say well you can fund this as well or I've been doing this for free and I come out here and I clean up all this and no one's paid me. So what we were trying to do is kind of like the question M Barnhard asked. Why is this pay here and not pay there? We've been doing kind of whack-a-ole with supplements and duties. I'm trying to get a more comprehensive uh study behind that. You know is cross country. We got to take another

146look at it. You know 20 years ago maybe that was enough. Today what are the demands of that? We added games to to we've added a lot more games. We've added lacrosse since then. Uh so I think if if I could use between November and April to get that study, it will be in the budget as a request, but it' be holistically about and I think that's for fairness. Uh there are some that are raising their hand and saying, "Give me relief now." And there's some that are just doing it. Um, and I think for all of those, uh, a study would capture as many voices in the supplement pool as possible. But I agree. I agree. >> M. Huddle, did you still have a question or comment? >> No. Um, Mr. Herring asked my

147question. >> All right. Then last question, we're going to take the vote. >> Yeah. I guess maybe I'm going to push back a little bit on I don't agree with what you said, Mr. Satderfield, about the the fairness of the booster clubs. I think and I can speak specifically towards the Dazzlers. I I would not agree with a a single Dutch Fork booster for all sports the way that you described Shapen. The Dazzlers, those girls earn every and th the the booster club earn every dollar that they raise. They go out and they work their tails off earning money and they are exceptionally enthusiastic about that club and that team and they're getting they're pulling from the same areas from the same business owners in Irmo that Irma would have access to that Chapen would

148have access to. They're just particularly good at their job. They're good at raising money. They're excited and the the coaches uh receiving these supplements earn every single dollar that they get paid. So, uh why should we limit if if that was under a single overall organizational booster club for the entire athletic department? they would get shortsighted and and would not receive the same aotment that they are able to go out and earn and raise for themselves as an individual booster club unit for specifically for the Dazzler dance team. Um, so I I I think that for them I I think that's the right model and they should be able to reap the what they sowed uh as far as their fundraising efforts. So I I and I can I mean full disclosure my daughter's a

149dazzler so I'm very uh close to that uh scenario so I know exactly what they go through and and the effort that that entire organization puts into making it it run. Uh the coaches are phenomenal. Uh they take care of our girls. The community support that they have is unlike you've ever seen. So I I I think this supplement is well earned, welldeserved, and and they should get it. Now whether uh you know how how it looks on on future schedules for supplements that the district makes that's that's to be determined, but uh for the Dazzlers, I know for that particular supplement, it is well earned and well worth it. No more questions or comments. We have a motion on the floor um that has been properly second. All of those in favor >> who

150made the motion to begin with >> We're on the original motion >> with Yes. >> No, we already the amendment. Yes, it's just to approve the one line item. >> It's just approve the one line item. for the Dazzlers supplement. >> No, those were already in the budget. >> Those were already in the budget. >> So, just the tasslers. All those in favor? Yes, that's the one that's left. All oppose. and the motion fails five to two. But as an aside, I do agree with Mr. Herren's standpoint about something that's more universal across the board. Um because as you said, Dr. Ross, if we um they're going to keep coming down the pipeline and I don't know how we determine equity and fairness um across the board. That moves us to number 14 under the

151action agenda. Approval of the memorandum of understanding with chap and right. Do I have a motion? >> We have a presentation. >> Oh, I'm sorry. There's a presentation. >> Yes. >> Oh, and he's waited so patiently. Come on down. >> Uh it is my pleasure to introduce uh Mr. Jason White. He's the operations superintendent for the Hero Recreation U Commission. Jason has been an integral part of the ICRC team, overseeing operations and maintenance. We've been collaborating with Jason and his team since early spring 2025, discussing the possibilities and opportunities of a potential partnership with the Bridge Development League. So, I'm going to turn it over to him and let him speak with you tonight. >> Thank you, Tina. Good evening, every everyone. Um, Madame Chair, members of the board, Dr. Ross, thank you so much

152for the opportunity to uh speak with you tonight about the Bridge Development League. Uh some of this is going to sound familiar. I know you've seen some of this before, but um did want to touch on this again just to uh let you know that we're all on the same page. And uh it has been um a pleasure to work with Steven Pucket and his team, his ads, his coaches. They've been very engaged, very passionate, um very bought in, which is very critical for something like this to succeed. So I can't say enough about him and his team. They've been fantastic to work with. Um, and also on behalf of ICRC, I also just want to extend a thank you to you all uh for the long-standing partnership that we've had with the school district.

153Uh, it's been a blessing to our community. It's been a blessing to um to our agency. Uh, you know, it's part of our it's part of our mission to enhance the quality of life for all citizens of our district. And that is due we're able to do that in large part for the relationship that we have with you all. So, it's been great. Um, and uh and working together we're able to make uh better lives, better families. and thereby making better communities. So, thank you all very much. Uh before I jump into the um into the Bridge League, um I will say that over the last several years, we've looked at different versions of something like this, but just haven't really been able to land on a plan on a format that we were really

154comfortable with, uh much less that we felt was really necessary. Um we'll look at some data and some trends here in a moment. Um but we were kind of tracking along with our youth uh sports uh of going along with a kind of a if it's not broke, don't fix it fix it phase. and uh we've recognized that some trends have changed. Um some things are different now. There's more offerings. So, it's time to take a a re-evaluation of our product and uh see what we can do differently. So, before I get into the Bridge League specifically, um, and I will tie this all in back to the Bridge League, but I want to kind of kind of paint a little bit of a picture if I can, um, and tell a bit of a

155story kind of on youth sports in general, some national trends, some local trends, and then everything that I'm going to present the first couple slides. Of course, it ties back into why we're here right now with the Bridge League. So to start off looking at just some benefits of youports and um I'm sure most of you if not all of you have had some um experience with you sports either through your own children yourselves uh possibly coached or a little bit of all the above but um just to go over some of the benefits of you sports in general. Um it reduces anxiety and depression. Uh we see improved mood and well-being. Physical activity increases brain activity which leads to the children feeling better about themselves. Enhanced social and life skills. Uh team sports fosters

156a sense of belonging, strengthens interpersonal skills, and it builds relationships. Um kids and parents for that matter um can benefit from these things as far as being out on the ball field. They're likely to make new friends and building community, bringing communities together is a hallmark of what we do at ICRC. Increased self-esteem, uh children working together towards a shared goal as a team. Uh makes a child feel like they're part of something. Uh a little mini family, if you will. uh they can feel good about themselves and their contribution towards that shared goal. Cognitive enhancements uh you sports improves uh concentration, memory and attention. Improved academic performance. Uh studies have shown that it leads to higher GPA, better test scores, higher educational aspirations and of course higher graduation rates. Um also better school habits.

157Uh studies have have found that they have higher attendant rates as well as less behavioral issues. And lastly, and of course I just had to put this in there. It's just fun. There's so many other uh benefits to youth sports, but uh these are the ones that kind of stand out to us at ICRC, but um it's all about having a good time. It's all about having fun, bringing communities together, a bit of an escape from the uh from the rigors of life. So this is some data that we um collected from NRPA, the National Recreation Parks Association on a youth sports report. This was a joint venture that they collaborated with Nike um across the nation. Uh they uh they researched um approximately 400 different parks and wreck agencies nationwide um to come up

158with this data. So again, there's a lot more to this report and that report is available on the NRPA website if you'd like to take a look at it. But again, these are some of the ones that we pulled out that kind of that kind of stood out. Um that referee shortage, that's not 7%, that's 67% by the way. So that's a that's a that's a typo. But um going down the line here, not enough volunteer coaches. 82% of those folks that were pulled recognized that they had an issue with finding volunteer coaches. And we absolutely check that box as well. It's not uncommon for us, uh let's just say we have a a 10 team soccer league in one of our age groups and we've got five coaches that are covering those teams. We've

159got the schedules ready, we've got the rosters ready, we're ready to roll the balls out, and we're still reaching out to parents um trying to get folks to to raise their hand to coach. So, a coaching shortage is a real thing. Lack of facilities, again, that was an interesting number. So, that's why we included it for 67%. And thankfully, again, going back to our relationship with you all, with the school district, we don't necessarily have that issue. Um, I will say that if it was if we were dependent solely on the facilities that we do have with ICRC, that we would fall in that category. But um anytime that we are over capacity or re or reach the max of our capacity um we can always reach out to the schools to the principles and

160uh supplement our needs with uh the facilities that we have at the schools as well. I can say on the chapen end last year with basketball um Crooked Creek Park as you probably know only has two gymnasium or two basketball courts and we have 60 some odd teams. Uh so we had to utilize space at Chapen Middle School. That's a regular thing. Uh we also utilize both gymnasiums at the at Spring Hill. So again, because of the the relationship that we have with you all, uh the lack of facilities thankfully isn't an issue that we fall into. The referee shortage, again, that's actually 67%. Um and that is a real thing as well. We check that box. Also, uh the problem that we find as well is trying to get referees and we can't quite

161find them. So, we have to supplement with our full-time dedicated athletic staff. And we want our athletic staff to be on the ball field, but in a different capacity. We want our staff to be out there mingling with the parents, watching the kids, while I'm talking with the coaches, seeing their product in action. But instead, many times we find that our our guys, which are very talented, um, or end up suiting up, putting on a stripe shirt and a whistle, and they're the ones that are out there calling the games. Inappropriate parent behavior, 57%, I think we could all say there's a direct correlation to that and the referee shortage. Uh that's one of the bigger reasons we have a referee shortage um is the the kind of the verbal abuse sometimes that those folks

162take. So that speaks for itself. Uh competition with travel sports 51% um it's not it's not just us and this is not to cast any kind of dispersions against travel sports but as far as its effect on rec sports it has it has made a measurable difference. And then lack of youth interest. Um I included this one even though it's less than 50%. This one just kind of stood out to me as just kind of a kind of a sad statistic. Uh that 40% of the agencies that these folks pled nationwide found that kids just aren't interested in youth sports. And granted, you know, we do an awful lot more than just youth sports at ICRC. So youth sports isn't for everybody. We certainly understand that. And hopefully they're engaged in something else, whether it

163be the arts or or anything else, but um for that number to be 40% of that many folks pled uh that just aren't interested in sports um is kind of sad. So we hope to change that. This chart here is uh actual data from ICRC districtwide between Seven Oaks Park and Crooked Creek Park and our participation over the years. It's not the greatest um chart. It doesn't go the right direction, but uh again, if you look at it, this goes back to 2015 and that rough that that four-year stretch of between 2015 to about 2019, that was the it's not broke, so don't fix it phase. Uh numbers were tracking nicely. They're heling steady, you know, ups and downs. And then of course 20 2020 and 2021 hits with COVID and you can see the

164obvious dip that we had in participation because of the the massive changes that we experienced around the world. Um and then we kind of started to rebound a little bit but never could quite get back above uh that precoid um tracking and not only could we not get above it as you can see we've still been kind of trending downwards and these these are numbers up until up until our most recent annual report that's available as well. And I will also say on behalf of our staff, uh again, if if any of you have uh had the opportunity to work um with any of our athletic staff, whether it's full-time or part-time, I do always have to throw this out as a caveat because I really appreciate my staff. This is not an indictment of

165their work. This is not an indictment of the work that they've put forward. Again, just trends. There's new opportunities. People are just looking for different things. So, the the model and the recipe that we've worked with in the past, um it worked for a time. Um, and now we're looking to try to change something up a little bit. So, it's not necessarily anything that our folks have done wrong. So, as a result, some of the some of the contributing factors to those kind of downward trends. Um, and again, this is not to cast any dispersions against travel sports, but travel sports is um it's been on the come up for a while. I think we started recognizing probably in the early 2010s, middle 2010s that travel sports was really kind of catch on um as

166more uh more more popular. Um and Rex Sports was right there beside it. But uh Travel Sports did offer a different product than what Rex Sports did. Um namely competitive versus a non-competitive nature. when we recognized that um travel sports was was on the comeup, we kind of had our own little internal conversations about whether or not we wanted to remain kind of on the non-competitive side because we're Rex Sports. Rex Sports is for everybody. You know, you don't really focus too much on the score. It's about bringing everyone together, teaching them how to play the sport. So the competitive nature wasn't a significant emphasis and we recognized that it was in travel sports. But again to maintain that that offering for everyone, we kind of started to trend a little bit more towards the

167non-competitive piece and therefore the the children that were either more athletically inclined, a little bit more athletically and gifted, they were the ones that kind of started to leave the wreck programs and filter into the uh into the travel programs, which is fine, but we recognize that it was a difference in the quality of our programs, higher level of player development and coaching. Again, going back to the coaching statistic that I presented a moment ago, um, and God bless our the volunteer coaches that we do have, they're great. They're fantastic. Um, a lot of them bring a lot to the table as far as experience, um, attendance to the children, flexibility. But then there's also some folks uh that whenever we put a call out that we need coaches, we get some parents, and again,

168we appreciate them too, as much as we can, that say, "Well, I don't really have much experience in soccer, but I know you need some help, so I'll help." Um, so that kind of help that kind of hurts a little bit as far as the quality. And we only have so many tools and resources that we can that we can put out and our staff will go out there occasionally and um, help them run a practice or two, give them some resources that they can help facilitate a uh, a practice, but in the end um, it's up to the volunteer coaches. So, we can't really do it without them. So, that's been a that's been an issue that we've been facing as well. And of course, the status and significance. The kids and the parents

169are kind of asking who if if they're playing rec sports, who or what are we playing for? Is there something else out there? So again, all that brings us to where we are today with the Bridge Development League. And this is language that you are probably already familiar with. This is language that comes straight from the uh from theou. But this initiative um is again, it's what it says that we are going to seek to foster a true athletic feeder program. And the reason I say it that way is because over the years uh we've we've kind of we as an ICRC have kind of always said we're a feeder system into the school district. we're a feeder system to the athletic program at District 5. Honestly, that was more or less just kind of

170something that we said. There was nothing really intentional or purposeful about that. We said that because we're in the same backyard. Uh we share the same kids, they go to school at school district 5, they come play sports with us at a young age and you know, geography just says that wherever they, you know, go to, you know, where where they play sports with us in MOAP communities, they're eventually most likely going to go to school district 5, play sports there. So, we said that's a feeder system. Well, no, it really wasn't. We occasionally had some input from some of the coaches. Uh I can remember some of the varsity football coaches, uh coach Mloud's baseball coaches, um some basketball coaches. They would come and give occasional talk to our coaches, maybe a clinic or

171two, but nothing was really structured and intentional behind ICRC being a true feeder system into the athletic programs at school district 5. So that's what we're going to have. That's what we're going to have here. The next bullet, and again I highlighted this uh the the the second part of that on purpose because this is where folks are going to see a tangible difference um in the leagues. Uh the children are going to be assigned to teams based on their zoned Lexington Richland School District 5 middle school team at the time of registration. So right now dep no matter where they, you know, no matter where they go to school at, depending on what age group they fall into, we just kind of put them all in a team together. And the younger age groups,

172we put the teams together ourselves. We assemble them. um usually about the ages around nine or 10 years old, they start to go through evaluations and coaches drafts and the coaches put them together, but school district does or school location doesn't really play a factor into it. Well, now it's going to so we're going to be intentional about putting these children together based on their zones middle school and league games and practices are still going to take place um at ICRC and Lexington and Richland five facilities. Uh we are going to be again more intentional about playing games again depending on the sport, depending on the age group, depending on the location. we're currently in the schools, but uh or at least a school or two, but as we get into this initiative, uh we're

173going to branch that out a little bit more so they can be truly playing um either in the schools that they're currently attending or the schools that they're going to attend. So, as far as ICRC's responsibilities with this bridge league, again, it's still it's still the ICRC league. every if again if you're familiar with our leagues, there's not going to be much difference in in what you're going to experience outside of the the way that the teams are assembled. Um all the leagues are still going to be run by us. Uh we we take all the registrations, we uh go over the league rules, we recruit the volunteer coaches, uh we schedule the game officials, we put together the rosters, we put together the game schedules, player evaluations, all the things that we've always done,

174we're going to continue to do. um the marketing, we provide the equipment, we provide the dedicated athletic staff. All those things are going to be very are very very familiar to folks that have been in our programs in the past. As far as the school district responsibilities, um the athletic leads and the middle level level directors are going to be very very critical to what we do. This is this is one of the the the missing pieces that we didn't have. Uh we had long been speaking about the need for ambassadors for our for our the youth sports leagues. uh to have somebody kind of boots on the ground, someone that speaks the language, someone that can promote the product, promote the program, encourage kids and parents to come sign up for this uh for

175this thing and it's it's just something that we've been missing for quite a while. So, having these middle level directors and uh the athletic leads at the elementary schools is going to be very critical to the success of this marketing. Um, of course, we have a marketing department with ICRC and uh our marketing director is fantastic at what she does, but she's limited. she only has so many tools and our reach isn't quite as well isn't near as far as the school district's reach. So, by being able to partner with the school district on the marketing efforts, um doing a little bit more than just the flyers, the flyers and club cards and things like that and the and the social media post will still be a thing, but again, um working with with the

176school district uh on some additional technologies that we don't have access to, uh we see as a as a very good thing, a very good um outlet for the folks to promote this program. And again, a much broader reach than what we can than what we can attain um at ICRC. And then coaching. Uh this is not to say by any means that the coaches at the middle school, JV, and varsity levels levels are going to be the ones to do the coaching. They we they've got enough on their plates to do that. It's still going to be we're still going to be reliant upon volunteer coaches. So, what we mean here by coaches is we're going to get direct input from those middle school JV and varsity coaches in helping um acclimate our uh

177volunteer coaches into their systems. Um kind of help teaching the kids uh to speak their language so that by the time that they do get into the the middle school leagues and the JV leagues and the varsity leagues uh going up through our programs, they're already familiar with their coaches systems. So, um, I'll also say that the, uh, the NRPA report that I referenced a moment ago, um, and also our NRPA conference, which I attended in Orlando a few weeks ago, um, I attended several sessions on youth sports, and there's a quite a synonymous trend of the need again nationwide, for more training for the volunteer coaches. So, this is one of the the goals that we attempt or we we're expecting to accomplish with that. um giving the school coaches or having the school

178coaches uh providing the how-tos of their coaching methods is going to be a huge asset. So, the pilot season is upon us. It is going to be um with our winter basketball league. Again, we've been in conversations with uh with Mr. Pucket, his team uh since back in April, and we felt that the winter basketball season uh was going to provide us with sufficient time to put um to put something together that we could that we could um work that we could work with. Um so again staying within those grades of the fifth to eighth grade and we but again we sign children up not necessarily based on grade but about age. We're going to start with 112 boys 13 14 boys not 11 girls and 1214 girls. And if the if the registration numbers

179if they just stay steady with what we had last year this time again we're expecting an increase. We're hoping for that. But if the if we just stay consistent with what we had last year, that's going to equate to about 425 children between the Irma and Chapen areas. So, kind of bringing it back, we looked at you sports benefits. So, now we'll land it with uh the bridge league benefits that we see. Uh the rec sports for all equals higher quality leagues. Uh coaching and having participants of all skill levels uh will lead to better leagues, better competition, better player development, and a better overall experience for the kids. coaches and parents. So, that's what we're hoping for. We want to bring back those kids um that again are of the higher more elite athletic

180ability and bring them back with with the other children so that we can have um a good quality league for everyone involved. Again, I mentioned the marketing reach. Um it's going to be a massive benefit to this league to have the uh the tools and the resources that the school district provides. So, we're great we're truly grateful for that. as well as the league ambassadors school pride. Um we're hoping that more kids are going to want to sign up because they'll feel a direct connection to their school. And um I will also say that um this initiative is going to create developmental teams for kids uh that are rising middle schoolers in the fifth and sixth grade. Uh but it's also a developmental league for the middle schoolers that are already there um specifically. And

181this is going to give kids the opportunity to still play for their school even if they go to a tryyout and get cut. Um, speaking from personal experience, our son tried out for the middle school team. He's in college now, but tried out for the shape of middle school team years ago and there was probably 80 to 100 kids there that were that were trying out and of course there's only about a dozen spots left. So, a lot of kids got cut. Um but now if that's the case, uh we will have a presence on site for those uh those middle school cuts to encourage those folks, those kids and their parents to come sign up with us and they're still going to be able to play for their school. So we're hoping that that's

182going to encourage some additional signups as well some additional participation. Again, a true feeder program into the middle school JV and varsity sports. Um this true collaboration with the school athletic program, not only the leads and the middle level directors, but buy in and support from the school coaches and athletic directors is is critical. We did a version of of a D-League several years ago with with football and um it it kind of fizzled. So having the buyin and having everyone on the same page with that same passion, which I believe that we do right now between both entities, ICRC and District 5 is very critical and I feel like it is there. And then lastly, programming for teens and twins. That's that tough age group for us to program for. If you look at

183our activity guide, uh we offer a lot of activities for elementary school age children and then it kind of jumps to adults. Uh there's we have a few offerings for the the middle school children and high school kids, but that's just always been a very tough market for us to hit um and find a niche for that um that they really want to participate in. So, we're hoping to get more of those kids out, get those kids active, and hopefully reduce that 40% lack of interest that the uh that the NRPA poll um found. So, with that, Beverly, happy to take any questions. >> Do we have any questions, Mr. Scully? >> Yeah. Um can we make changes to theou for example on number four of the first page where it says children will be

184assigned to teams based on their zone at the time of why could we can we change that to their zoned or attended school at the time of registration? Because if they're attend if their choice and they're going to another school outside of their zone, why would we not allow them to play with the kids that they go to school with? >> Yeah, we can definitely uh we can do that um via practice as well. I see what you're saying. I think when we said it, it is if you're selected at that middle school, then that's your zone school to the highest level. So, um, >> so would that under that scenario, would zone be okay? >> That would be okay. That's correct. >> And to Mr. Skully, to echo what Dr. Ross said, that was

185that language, I hear what you're saying. We we we kind of added that back and forth as well. Um, that was more so intended for the fifth and sixth graders who aren't in middle school yet. It's it's what their zone middle school is going to be for. But whenever parent I will say this, whenever parents right now registration actually starts on Thursday for this league. So whenever parents sign up, whether it's online or in person at the parks, they're going to get a list of questions as they normally do. Contact information, allergies, things like that. And they're going to get the question of what's which school is your child will your child be attending? It won't say zoned. It'll it'll say attending. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And this and also I meant to mention this

186as well, so thank you for bringing that up. I meant to mention as well, yes, this is an initiative between ICRC and school district 5. However, all children are still welcome to play in the program. We have children that play from Rich that sign up with us from Richland 2. We have children that sign up from Newberry. We have homeschooled children that aren't in school district 5 schools there. That everyone's it's not exclusive to school district 5 children. So, everyone's still going to get a chance to play. >> Miss I'm sorry, >> Miss Barnhart. I'm sorry. I thought you were done. >> No, you're fine. >> Did you have your hand up? I was just going to say that depending on how uh we we structure those teams is going to depend on how many

187children we have that sign up. If we only have a handful of um non-district 5 students, they'll they'll get kind of sprinkled amongst the the teams. If we have enough, like if we have if we have enough, we could possibly have a homeschool team or, you know, a Richland two or Newberry team. So, it'll that'll be dependent upon the numbers that we have sign up. I'm sorry. Yes, ma'am. >> Um so, we're starting with basketball or you said we've already kind of done that with shaping. Um, where will this program be? Still in the Chapen area, the the one for this semester, this >> and Chapen. >> Yes, ma'am. >> So, that's working and I think that's awesome. I love this idea. I've had kids play on both uh LR5 teams and we were at

188ICRC for a long time, too. Um, and my question is like once we get into other sports, so soccer, baseball, um, how is it going to be determined where because in in the agreement, you know, it says that the uh fields and gyms will be available from ICRC and then the ones from LR5 as well. How is that going to be determined when and where and how they're used? You know, because I I'm a baseball mom, so I mean they're at practice at one point in time kind of all every afternoon and then if not there's something going on at ICRC when they've got baseball, too. And I'm just curious how it's going to look down the line with different sports and how we're going to make sure that these kids can play in whatever

189area that they're going to be at, but also not taking away from the CG, JB, varsity, all of those that are already playing on those fields at at the district. Does that make sense? >> I will say and hopefully this is good. This is going to answer your question. If it doesn't, please let me know. This is not going to be a parallel league to our leagues as they've always been. This is the league that we've always done. So, in other words, um we expect the numbers to be hopefully no less and hopefully to increase and we have room at our own facilities uh for those for those leaks to be to continue to be facilitated. Um again, we want to be intentional about bringing those children to their schools if they're going to be

190if they're going to be the Jackets or if they're going to be at the Eagles to play at those facilities if we if we can. And that's where the um the conversations that we've been having with Mr. pucket with the athletic directors with the coaches as well on what the school availabilities are. Uh we want to try to get those children in around what the other activities are that already scheduled. So, and the reason I say that about the parallel league is because um if if if the numbers stay the same, they'll have a place to play. It may still be at the ICRC facilities depending on the sport and depending on the school facilities that are available to us. They'll still have a place to play and we're just going to try we're going

191to be more intentional about getting them to their schools where available where the schedules are available. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Oh, >> um, have you guys thought about offering any new sports? >> New sports? >> Yeah. >> Oh, all the time. >> Okay. Like, have you considered volleyball? >> We actually have a version of that. Uh, we've we facilitated volleyball a couple years back um at Crooked Creek. Again, my my most recent history is at Crooked Creek, so I can speak most intelligently on that end. Um, and we currently have volleyball there. Well, let me back up. The volleyball that we did offer, it was registered through us. It was a league. Well, let me take that back. It wasn't a league. It was more instructional, more developmental. They would meet two times a

192week. Uh we had coaches and the on day, let's just say Tuesday, I think it was a Tuesday, Thursday league. On Tuesdays, they would have um instruction. On Thursdays, they would have kind of scrimmages. They would they would put together their teams and have scrimmages. It wasn't a specific league. We didn't quite have enough interest and enough participation for a specific league. That's kind of morphed into us having a contracted vendor, uh contracted instructor. So, while the registrations don't go through us, it's they they um they utilize our gymnasium and so it's provided through a through a third party. >> So, a kind of follow-up question is since we'll have these um individuals at the middle school and the elementary schools, I'm assuming part of their job will be to look at, you know, what

193sports tryyous do we have for middle school where we're having substantially more kids try out than we have spaces? And is it safe to say if if we have that situation with volleyball or some other sport that you guys could look at opening that sport up because we do have a lot of kids that don't don't get in. >> Yes, absolutely. >> Great. >> Mrs. Satderfield. >> Um Mr. White, how are you? Mr. White is one of my former students. >> Coach Satderfield. >> Yeah. How you doing? Um, have you how has this been well received by the coaches at the high school or have you had a chance to talk with them yet? >> The coaches that we've spoken with from the high school right now have just been the basketball coaches because of

194the pilot season that we have coming up, right? >> Um, and they're very much on board. Uh, we had a meeting about a week or two ago with Mr. Pucket um and coaches from uh boys and girls sport, boys and girls basketball. Um, and they were all very much on board. Um, in addition hearing from uh some of the ads that we've spoken with on behalf of some of their other coaches with outside of just basketball, um, a lot of excitement, a lot of a lot of enthusiasm. >> I would think that would be a huge ass I think I would think they'd be really excited. It'd be a huge asset to every program because, um, when I was coaching, what we taught the middle school kids was so very important because that helped them

195really develop. The other thing is I like the idea of a lot of kids getting involved because I one of the things I used to hate to do is cut. Um, but I'm excited too for the academic uh end of things that we're going to see. When kids have a tie to their school and they have and it's like they have they're feel like they're part of something. They seem to behave a little better in the classroom. They seem to do a little better academically. So, I'm I'm really excited about this program. So, I I wish you the best here. Thank you. >> All right. If we don't have any other um questions, um do I have a motion? >> I move that we approve the memorandum of understanding with Irma Chapen Recreation Commission Bridge

196Development League per exhibit G. >> Second. >> All in favor? And the motion carries seven to zero. Thank you so much. >> All right, that moves us to number 15 on the action agenda. Approval of second and final reading of proposed revisions to board policy GCLE unencumbered time. Do I have a motion? I move that we approve second and final reading of proposed revisions to board policy GCLE unencumbered time per exhibit H. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. All in favor? And the motion carries seven to zero. That takes us to first reading of board policy JICG tobacco use by students. Do I have a motion? >> I move that we approve discussion and first reading of board policy I'm sorry. discussion and first reading of changes to board policy JICG, Tobacco use

197by students per exhibit I. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Uh, could we just I was just curious. Could we get like an explanation for why we needed to change it? >> Good. Good evening. Um the explanation for the change, this is a strong recommendation by the school boards association that the specific language highlighted in blue is included. And so we simply follow the lead of our school boards association to include that. >> So for the folks that may be watching, it's really the the change is really just that we're going to better communicate the policy. It'll be posted and um we changed it from may be posted to will be posted. Okay. In highly visible areas. Thanks. All those in favor? And the motion carries seven to zero. >> All right, I'm on

198a roll. Um, I move that the board approve Miss Kimberly Snipes, Mr. Kevin Skully, and Mr. Mike Siderfield as delegates for the 2025 delegate assembly and to allocate the delegate votes for Miss Elizabeth Barnhart, Mr. Jason Bainham, Dr. Scott Herring, and Miss Kathy Huddle. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? And a motion carries seven to zero. Takes us to the final item on the action agenda. Board requests pursuant to board policy beg records. Um that's me again. Um that what's in the agenda is not really um accurate. If you go to exhibit K, I was not asking for um information for per board record policy. What I was actually asking for was to have an item on the agenda under discussion just um to talk about discipline. Um and not

199any particular area of discipline, but just um as a board, what are we hearing from parents? What are we hearing from teachers? Um what does the administration think the trends are? going forward, are there are there things that we can change or need to change um to improve discipline in our in our schools so that our our parents are happier, our teachers are happier? Um and so based I gave the explanation before the motion, but I'll make my motion. I move that we um put an item on the agenda for our next a discussion item on our agenda for our next meeting to discuss um discipline in our schools. Second. Um yes, I I wanted to um just ask for points of cause clarification. Uh the email and I have no problem if we have

200a discussion on the code of conduct. Uh I think that's a good conversation to have. Uh the email said that there was widespread belief by parents uh that were not enforcing the code of conduct. If the administration is going to uh speak on possible solutions, board policy is very clear that all of those complaints, this is board policy BCA, board member code of ethics, that all complaints, referring all complaints to the superintendent and discussing them at a regular meeting if a failure uh to arrive at administrative solution occurs. and I don't have a record of these wide uh spread complaints being submitted to the administration so that we can get to an administrative solution. So if the if we're preparing for a discussion on not enforcing the code of conduct, I think board policy says

201that we should receive these so that we can come up with a possible solution. If if not, I would ask that we have a conversation on the code of conduct. I think our administrators and principles work very hard doing discipline if they're going to be accused of not doing discipline or failing to do the discipline. We should hold to the board member code of ethics and present that information to me to investigate so that we can um uh try to bring that to satisfactory resolution. uh because this information was not provided uh the board policy on uh board requests says that I could bring this to the body uh for for this decision. So uh again I'm prepared to have a conversation on a code of conduct. Uh but that's not what this email said.

202The request said that we were not enforcing the code of conduct. And if that has been that's not been reported to the administration, how can we respond on not enforcing the code of conduct? >> Um, if I can clarify and I appreciate your your question, Dr. Ross. Um, I don't and maybe using the term widespread is is a misnomer because I I don't know that it's widespread. I just know that from the calls and the stuff I get, I hear a lot. And the reason that those h haven't gone to you individually is because we've had had a lot of discussions about routing parents back through their teachers and principles. So that's what I've always done is or tried to do. Um but I continue to get I have I got a call this week

203yes yesterday no I'm sorry today uh about from parents about a child a parents who feel their child is being bullied. I got a call last week from a parent who feels their child is being bullied. And I I told them to go, you know, through the routes and as far as I know, that's what they're doing. I um I went on school visit. Um I had, you know, I witnessed an issue in a restroom. I went on another school visit. I witnessed um ch girls skirts that were clearly way too short. And and I'm not going to blame the principal because I I'm hearing it from so it's not even one school. It's not two schools. I'm hearing it from lots of schools. And so I just and I'm not blaming the administration. I

204just think that times have changed and our our code of conduct, our discipline policies are about the same as they probably were 10 years ago. And I just I know this issue will never go away, but I think that the board needs to have a recognition and a discussion of it and talk about what we can do to help if it's a policy change, if it's funding, whatever it may be. >> And I'll just be brief. I I I agree. I think the I would love to have a conversation with a code of conduct. I think that's very helpful. I just if if we're going to say something is not being done, uh remember all of our uh employees, especially our administrators are under the teacher dismissal act. If there's an accusation against them, they

205do have the right to have that reported. Our board policy says that if you hear it, you refer to the superintendent. So, no matter how big or small, refer to me and we'll we'll we'll investigate it. But if we make that accusation that it's not being done, um they can come to me for regress. And I just don't want to be public and say at this school we're not doing it. And they come to me and say, "Dr. Ross, I want redress. I want reress for this. I want um I I am doing my job." We said, "Well, we've never reported this. We didn't follow board policy." I would ask, could we have a conversation about the code of conduct as it stands? let us investigate um uh any individual issues. Uh but we have

206data set uh on on discipline, how many referrals we we issue, what time of day these referrals are. Um what are the referrals in um and so uh I I do think we can have one. Uh I think my issue is that there was accusation of widespread not enforcement which is a serious um that's a serious offense against our administrators if they're not enforcing the code of conduct. So I I just think if we can investigate that, bring that back, but um I think it's best to look at what is the code of conduct, what are our expectations? And I will just say this too, you have to be a certified administrator to issue discipline because um there are other issues at hand. Um uh there are furer rights that are federal protections for students.

207uh we cannot know parents say well what happened to IKEA kid who hit my son I wish we could tell you but but we would be in violation of the furer rights there also um protections under IDA and I think parents need to hear this all in totality that why didn't my child get what that child got well that child may have a a BIP may have a IEP uh may have protection federal protections which we cannot divulge. Uh and so sometimes we we may be accused of things and not having the whole context. So I mean uh I I if the discussion is about not meeting the code of conduct, the administration won't be prepared to respond. If the conversations about the code of conduct and how we apply the code of conduct, the

208administration will be very prepared to respond. Uh Dr. Ross, can you share with uh with with the board the various groups that you meet with with regards to the parent advisory council and such things like that? >> Yes. So um we have uh parent advisory, student advisory, community advisory, faculty advisory, staff advisory and senior citizens advisory, safety uh uh advisory. Dr. Harris chairs that um to to and all of these kind of come to give us our our feedback in our on our programs. >> Right. And um Dr. Harris, you all go through every year and examine the discipline handbook and make changes and and you know do what you need to do to make sure it's updated, right? That that's correct. We review based on trends. Uh we review that. We make updates and

209we also pay close attention to and in partnership with um the state department of education as well as well as different things that come down from that area uh to make certain that they're included in the code of conduct handbook. >> Right. And Dr. Ross, you shared that there is there is data that's available that uh for every school in the state of South Carolina where you can see the discipline, the issues and the uh what the inst number of instances and things like that, right? >> There's external data you'll kind of see on the report card it comes out and then we have internal data uh that our our our principles can mine uh to look at some uh some trends as well. All right, I'm going to um call for the vote. So,

210we Miss Huttle, can you repeat your motion for me, please? I'm sorry. Um and I'll change it to um uh accommodate Dr. Ross's suggestion. I I move that we put an item on the agenda for our next meeting under discussion to discuss the code of conduct. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? And the motion carries? Five to one, five to zero. Sorry. And that moves us to the discussion agenda. Um, Miss Taylor has 73 slides. >> All right. So, it is that time of year where we do academic calendars. Um, as alluded to in the last few meetings, we are going to do an experiment this year and do two um years worth of calendars at the same time. This will um certainly hopefully allow families better planning and some long range thinking. Um

211we had several goals in planning the calendars this year. Several things we wanted to accomplish. The first is um doing two calendars to allow that flexibility and planning for families. Um Dr. Ros's ask of us was to give the longest summer possible while we're in the term of the bond referendum so that all of the construction projects that are needing to happen during the summer can have as many weeks as possible to do that. Uh so we hopefully have accommodated that. Um we heard from the staff and community that starting in July was not preferred. So we wanted to avoid a July start date if possible as and still complete the year before Memorial Day. Um and then um one thing we have found that is helpful during each year is to have one student

212I put holiday is not really a holiday but a day off for students just a kind of rest and reset day per month for the um for the students to to have. And so we took these calendar drafts to several different groups for feedback this year and the executive team reviewed it as well as principles, the office of accountability to check the math to make sure we've gotten all the days that we need to have and that the nine weeks fall in the correct place as well as the parents advisory cabinet and the faculty advisory committee. So all of these groups have looked at it, provided feedback. Um, a lot of that feedback has been incorporated into the drafts that that we have today. So for the 2627 year, this is the draft um calendar

213that we're presenting. And I'll just hit it very briefly. The start date for teachers is pushed back to August 4th and the start date for students is August 11th. Um in even calendar years we are required to close for election day. So that is reflected in the 26 November date there. And then this calendar looks very similar other than the start dates being pushed back a little bit to the calendars we have seen in previous years. There's a fall break, winter break is two weeks, there's a 4-day weekend in February around um President's Day, spring break, and then um again finishing the year on May 28th and then I'll I'll proceed it to the next year if that's okay. Or I can stop for questions here either way. Okay. And then 2728 is going to

214look very very very similar. Um similar start dates. Uh we do not have to close for election day in an odd year. So we will not and we'll use that day um somewhere else. But the breaks are all very similar. And then again we conclude on May 26 before Memorial Day. >> Do we have any questions? >> Questions? >> Oh, Miss Huddle. >> Um the spring breaks um always Oh, before or after Easter? >> After Easter. >> Always after Easter. >> Well, not always after Easter, but these two are after Easter just based on when the date falls. And we are able to accommodate um Good Friday in both calendars as well. In 2728, it is a full closure. And then in um 2627, we are able to do March 26th as an unencumbered teacher

215workday for Good Friday. Anybody else? >> It is Well, Good Friday is March 26th and then spring break is March 29th through April 2nd. Anybody else? >> All right. Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> All right. That brings us to the last item on the discussion agenda, discussion of board policy, K public concerns and complaints. >> Thank you, madam chair, members of the board. Uh last one is the South the uh South Carolina school boards association model policy for K public concerns and complaints. Uh as you know we have been talking about the definitions between concerns, complaints, grievances, retaliations and what does it mean to be resolved satisfactory. The only uh difference from what have been presenting and what the policy states is it adds a different level um at this level uh that includes

216the teacher or staff member. If a complaint cannot be resolved directly a process will be made available for review at progressionally higher levels as follows. And so this puts the levels uh very clearly by adding a fifth level uh in line with the uh model policy. Um we would then um as we move to other readings of this uh develop our our we would develop a process uh for submitting these complaints uh through uh through rule. uh you see in your packet that this is also aligned to existing policies that we have uh mainly for uh the principles CFA and for school boards as well schoolboard members. >> Mr. Sat, you had your hand up. >> I I had one question, Dr. Ross. Um in this policy, um I haven't read it. I'm that's the

217reason I'm asking this question. um is will it will schools follow will schools make sure parents follow this so they can't I don't want to talk to that teacher you know um they need to talk to the teacher first in all fairness and then they then they follow the steps the principal to the supervisor um >> that's correct we try to get it resolved at the point closest to the incident as possible and uh that allows that principle to have better data in terms of resolving it um and further up the chain. Yes, sir. >> I the reason I asked that is because a lot of times teachers get frustrated because they find out what something that's happened, a decision by the principal. I've been in that position mistakenly. Um they make a decision and

218then the teacher says, "Well, why didn't you talk to me about it?" And purely understandable. So, I would hope that uh that would be the the the order, chain of command, or however you want to say it, so that teachers feel like they are being valued and respected when they're dealing with a certain situation with a parent or a child. >> Thank you. >> Does anybody else have any comments? >> Miss Huddle. >> So, Dr. Ross, are you um advocating that we adopt the the model policy? >> Yes, ma'am. >> And any changes to that policy? We didn't recommend any. We just wanted to hear from you all. And I know it's late. We can bring it back for another discussion uh before a reading, but we just wanted to have more discussion with you

219all. Um the last time, if you remember this presentation, it did not have teacher staff. So, we did add that to be in line with the model policy. >> Okay. So like based on our last discussion, I mean I just want to make sure I I understand kind of how this this policy would work and and specifically your expectations. So if a a member of a parent a parent comes to us and says one of us and says um my child got suspended for because of X Y and Z and I don't agree with it. Um we should send them back for the policy to um in this case it's probably the principal. Uh it could be the teacher but I'm I'm assuming it would be the principal. Correct. >> So >> if they were

220suspended, >> that's a great clarification. What we would have is, and I think attached in your policy is uh two um three different uh references if they came to if I was a parent and I looked online and I said, "Where do I take this complaint concern? I want to see I need to call that teacher first." Uh the majority of our complaints go straight to the principal. That's where the majority. So in policy CFA, they're going to refer to status point back to the teacher. Have you talked to the teacher? I haven't talked to the teacher. Well, our policy asks if let's see if you can resolve it with the teacher, their first person or their staff member. They call you back a day later said that didn't work out. Now it's on to

221the principal. So that's what everyone else. There are two other policies that results your question. If a trustee receives it, I would ask you refer those to the superintendent. Continue to refer those to the superintendent. And why is that? You uh set as exeic I mean you set as quasi judicial um trustees impartial. It could be that this complaint may end up for your review. And so it's best that you're seen um as one of your policies says impartial to all of it. So if a parent comes to you and says, "My child is being bullied multiple times in that school. Nothing's happening." Refer that to the superintendent and then I take that and I walk through the the policy with that. >> Okay. I mean, and I guess I'm just confused because I thought

222that previously we've been asked to send them back to normal proc processes. >> I've asked you to send it to the superintendent. >> Okay. So, even if they haven't even gone through an initial process, like I get it if they say I've been all the way to the principal and D, but what if they haven't talked to anybody? >> Well, yeah, that's a good point. if if they have and that's a question um they say I have a complaint I'm I'm coming to you about it I think it's two ways to handle it one if that hasn't started no facts have been determined and so a lot of our policies cross each other right um staff conduct and review and all of that has to be measured in that no facts have been determined I

223haven't talked to anyone you can make them aware of the public concerns and complaint process and they say, "Okay, I know exactly what to do." But let's say they haven't done that. Let's say they they have talked and so I've talked with this teacher and and you know she is she or he is not doing what they're supposed to do. You refer them to the um principal. You could get a call from that parent that says, "I talked to the trustee such and such and they told me to talk to you." It may come off that trustee such and such is involved in this investigation or this complaint. It's better that at that point is referred to the superintendent because now facts have been determined or or a Dr. Turner I think for lack of

224better term a record has been a record of action has been determined here. So if no action has happened whatsoever and haven't talked to anybody, you can tell them we have a public cons the board has a public concerns and complaints. This is how we handle it. What I do worry though is that if a record is being recorded and and and the complaint is against the principal. I said you don't that principal is not doing anything. You said well you need to now go to this chief. Um that may be misaligned. And so I hope that makes sense. >> I guess I'm just concerned that we're going to become magnets. Mr. Sadderfield's down there smiling. And you know, I mean, once it gets in the in the weeds, I I get that. But I

225guess I just feel like can we not tell people, you know, here's the policy. Go look it up. Follow the policy. I mean, I just really don't want to get in the middle of a parent that's upset with their teacher. >> Yeah. Yeah. I I would I would. And I And I don't want y'all to be magnets. I think you can always if someone is has has a concern, you can always reference them to the public concerns and complaints policy. That's your policy. What I do worry about is at what point you get the complaint. And um not all your complaints start at at ground at level one. Some of them are at higher levels. And so, um, and we'll do our best to message how you handle these, but if you get those, you're

226never wrong referring them to the superintendent. You're never wrong referring them to the the public concerns and complaints. If you get it in writing, I would ask that you send that to the superintendent, though. I mean, maybe as we go through this, we could get the clarification in here or somewhere else, but I don't think anyone on here >> wants to become a magnet. We don't want to overwhelm you. And and I do think there's a difference between how early it is in the process. What? And also, is it a general complaint like, you know, they never mow the grass fast enough or whatever versus I'm not happy because my child got a C and should have gotten an A. >> Right. Right. I'll tell you one of the things that the breakdowns oftentimes is

227just communication. Um if somebody came to me and they have come to me when I made a decision and they said I'm not happy with that decision. I'd say well you have the right to send an email to the superintendent. But if they come to me and say Miss Jones she I say have you talked to the teacher? I'll be glad to talk to you but you got to talk to the teacher first. And 90% of the time it's resolved. So, um, but I agree with you. It's sometimes the water can get muddy and you want to get it as clear as you can. Um, and sometimes there are special circumstances with a child because of their maybe they're a child that's has a disability or in a different class and things like that. But,

228um, it's those are good questions though. Anybody else? I move that we adjourn. So we have a second. All in favor and motion carry seven to zero. Good night.