September 22, 2025 School Board Meeting

001Good evening. It is 5:00 PM and I'm going to call the September 22nd school board meeting to order. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda? >> Make a motion to approve the agenda. >> Have a second. >> All those in favor and the motion carries 70 to zero. Do I have 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 for information only. Legal advice regarding the sale and purchase of property in exhibit C. Legal advice regarding Lex Lexington County easement for the corridor improvement on Columbia Avenue. Exhibit D, discussion regarding the development of security personnel or devices. Exhibits E and F. Legal advice regarding memorandum of understanding with Hermochap and Recreation

002Commission Bridge Development League exhibit G. Legal advice regarding Office of Attorney General opinion letter concerning budget transfers exhibit H. >> Do I have a second? All those in favor? And the motion carries seven to zero and we will adjourn to executive session. Good evening. It is 6:25. I'm going to call our regular schedule board meeting to order. I apologize for the delay. Can I get a motion to um leave out of executive session? >> Like to make a motion to reenter general session. >> I got a second. All in favor? And the motion carries 70. Thank you all for being here. Considering that we already run a little bit behind, we'll just jump right in um with the invocation and pledge from Trusty Skelly. Okay, let us pray. Almighty Father, we praise you and give

003you thanks. As our district reflects on our theme this year of transformation, it is against this backdrop that we remember that you were the original transformer, the original and only You transformed from God to man which set in motion events that through your humanly death and resurrection give us the opportunity to transform ourselves from that of sinners to saved. Your blessed transformation inspires us in our work to transform and change lives of our students from illiterate to readers from students to graduates from unskilled to skilled from leaders from followers to leaders. Lord, we thank you for all of our teachers who endeavor to create these transformations. We also thank you for all our students, including students Cadence McFersonson, Savannah Magar, and Alexa Alip, who provide tangible and visible examples of transformations by their God-given c

004talent to turn blank canvas into stunning and beautiful works of art. Heavenly Father, we ask for your continued blessing and protection over all our families. Please hear this prayer and those unspoken prayers in our hearts. In your name we pray. Amen. Stand for the pledge algiance to the flag of the stand. The folks that are going to be highlighted during the school board spotlight are not present yet. So, we are going to move forward with the superintendence report and then do the school board spotlight following. Dr. Ross. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. I bring to you our superintendent spotlight for our September 22nd meeting. As always, we're guided by three critical questions. Why do we do this work? Our vision, how do we accomplish that vision, our mission, and what are

005our outcomes? That's our guided by our strategic plan. Our vision is that we love and for our students. Our mission is that we're focused on academic, social, emotional growth and development. And then our strategic plan outcomes. These are 24 strategies facing four performance goals until every child feels loved in our schools and every child has demonstrated academic growth in our schools. We're guided by the strategic plan until 2026 27 school year. And as we work to that aim, we're looking on our new strategic plan that will take us out to 2032. The state of South Carolina has set forth a strategic plan uh with a goal that 75% or more of students will be at or above grade level by 2030. And as we march in that direction, we're excited to look at areas where

006we have already accomplished that. U for instance in our English 2 EOCC's in terms of the number of students A through C scoring on that on that examination when we look at our examination for EOC there's something to celebrate uh as we look at growth over the years uh I want us to look at each cohort differently and when you look at the cohort performance you'll see that in algebra one Lex and Rich five cohort is first in the Biology one lex 5 is first in the Midlands. English 2 cohort le is first in the midlands. US history cohort le 5 is first in the midlands. This is a huge celebration for not only our district but our teachers and our our students and families in terms of their end of course examinations. When we

007look at what we're doing in terms of career readiness, we hear a lot from our employers about are our students career ready. Are we getting them ready for uh the jobs of the future and jobs of today? And uh when it comes to that 75% or more, I'm pleased to share that we are in a lot of areas we have uh met or surpass that expectation of the of the state's strategic plan. And so when you look at all of the subtests for career readiness and data and understanding the data on the career readiness five is first in a midl career readiness math lex five is first in the midl career readiness reading lex five scores first in the midl and that ever important skill the soft skills we hear our employers talk about the

008soft skills and how important it is to show up on time the manners to do our work. Our students are first in the Midlands and so we're very proud of again that work that representation of a strong district and election five and those results. What's the secret to our excess success? Well, we want to continue to strengthen what's called MTSS, the multi-ter support services and systems. This is to ensure that we have multiple opportunities to be successful with our students. All students receive tier one interventions. But as uh if there's any deficits on tier one, then we will move to tier two. Madam chair, members of the board, I commit that we want to look at strengthening some of these tier 2 uh interventions, strengthening them in academics and in social emotional and counseling. And

009so we want to present back to this body plans that we can do to strengthen our tier 2 so that we can increase the amount of success for all of the students in lesson five. We see that the opportunity is really a matter of time. If you remember years ago, I presented to you that third grade timetable of a of a third grade teacher and all of the potentially tested over 200 potentially tested uh standards and indicators that a third grade teacher had to address. Third grade is very important to me. I spent two years in it, so I know a lot about it. Also, a lot of our students due to the new act 114 are in jeopardy of repeating the third grade if they do not meet the target goals. So, now that

010English and math standards have been re uh we have new standards. We have 49 ELA standards and indicators in English language arts, 38 and math. So, that's 87 down from over 200 potentially tested standards and indicators. 180 days of school minus a 20-day testing window. It really gives our teachers 160 days to teach. That's like two standards a day. That's no absences. That's no sick days, no res I mean no field days. And so that's that's still very aggressive. Um that'sund uh 87 potentially tested standards and indicators. Our chief of academics, Miss Tina Masow, wanted me to remind people that when you look at an indicator, there's also sub indicators to this. So there's still more than what we have presented plus all other responsibilities that teachers have. And so uh our success in terms

011of tier 2 interventions uh will have to look outside of the school day for some of our our struggling learners, for some of the students who need additional what happens after school. If you look at the waking hours of a student over the year, 80% of their time is out of school. It is important that we do not confuse learning time with school time. And for a lot of us, if learning is confined to just the school hours, we're not going to have success for all of our students. And so as we look at tier 2 opportunities, even as we talk tonight about after school programming, it is our ability to get into that 81% time with safe academic arts and and athletic enrichment that's going to ensure that all of our students have an

012opportunity to be successful. So with that, uh we want to look at ways that we can uh improve, uh that tier 2 setting after school and that's will come with supplementing our staff to stay those after school hours to work with students after school and weekends. And so the board has approved for a supplement uh revision of our current supplement schedule uh for the board tonight. I just wanted to give an update on where we are on that supplement revision. Uh currently you at what's approved in our budget. Uh we have the salaries that we do and the again we have the four classifications of salaries. So there's four salary schedules uh within our budget and three supplement schedules within our budget. The teacher salary schedule is 190 days. The administrative salary schedule which is

013up to 240 days. We have an hourly support staff schedule and a separate hourly bus driver schedule. Those are the salary schedules. On the supplement side, these are duties that you would perform outside of your salary and we call those supplements. They are performed outside of the salary schedule. We have our extracurricular schedule, our special duty schedule, and our special duties prek through five schedule. The issue that we're finding on the supplement side is that there are certain supplements that are uniform for the entire district and then there are certain supplements that are very specific to a specific school that causes some confusion. So as we uh discuss our proposed salary schedule and supplement schedule, we'll keep our salaries the same but you will five different supplement schedules. Arts, athletics and department head academics or

014or academics will have it uh their own separate supplement schedule. These duties would be uh distributed out by the function type and they are uniform across the district. What does that mean? Well, in academics uh if this this supplement is provided at one of middle schools is provided at all of our middle schools. There's a department head for English will be at all of our all of our schools. Uh so this will be uniform uh for band all of or for arts. I can take band or chorus or drama or dance those are uniform throughout the school. But if we look at the last two supplement schedules, special duties and grant funded, these are very specific to one site. It is hard to make these uniform. So the last two special duties and grant funded

015are very specific uh to a particular site. Um at one school the uh DECA or Maybe Beta Club or Civotan Club may have 100 members. At another school may have 10 members. Well, if we name it by the name of the club, you may underpay one staff member and overpay another. And so for special duties, we have worked for about a year and a half with our principles uh to come up with function types or special duty types where you would give a different class, a class A supplement. Uh each site will get an aotment of class A which would be for your larger clubs that meet very often that have a lot of responsibility. Student government for instance requires a lot of responsibility. Then you would have a class B where the clubs may

016be smaller but they still meet very often. Class C is a small class clubs that do not require a lot of weekend and after school supervision. And then club D, these are kind of those very small special purpose clubs, but the principal can assign those specific to the needs of their site. And so the board would approve the overall funding as well as the function use type. And the principal will be responsible for those as needed. All of those, the arts, athletics, academics, and special duties could be approved with our annual budget. What we we need to spend some time on what's called the grant funded positions. Those grant funded are coming from booster clubs, they're coming from PTSOs, they're coming from parent organizations. Uh and these will throughout the year. And so as a

017group looks at all of the schedules and supplement schedules and say, "Yes, but I see that you have uh this special duty. I see that you have this athletic, but I want more for this school." And they raised the funds and they raised the uh salary and the um and the benefits uh that grant schedule have to be revisited throughout the year. So again, our goal, increase tier 2, increase those services for our students, but let's put these supplements in a very systemized way to deliver those after school and weekend support for our students and then have a realistic way of addressing those very individualized uh supplements that appear for towards this board and administration. I believe as was stated in our invocation that that's the way we can transform uh the the students providing

018them with those opportunities that may be outside of that 20% of time they spend in the school uh to transform I can't into I can uh before we go on to student services and planning report I will stand for any questions about what has been presented thus Do we have any questions? Let's hle on the grant funded that would also include like um I think we just approved grants for tutoring. Would that fall under the grant funding? >> Correct. If it did not make I'm looking at Heather. If it did not make our annual budget those and those came in. So, if we got new money for uh tutoring, we have new money for um >> if they came in, they'd be under the academic supports. >> No, ma'am. Those would be unless they're reoccurring

019because one of the issues we were find with with grant funded is uh they're they're like one year or twoear deal. Most time they're one year. Uh so if we put them on the arts, academics or athletics, these would be considered reoccurring. >> So pretty. So really all the grant funding regardless of where the grant comes from or when we get the grant, it would fall under the grant funding. >> Yes, ma'am. Miss Tuck, if you want to speak to that. >> Yes sir. Um I would say all of the grant money would be there because it would just be time. So it would be for the term of the grant. So we want to remove those year after year. We would want to put those in our annual budget. So a related question and

020we're at the center I think there's some kind of supplements for I don't know if it's all the case teachers or there's some kind of supplements here are those grant supplements or those academic supportments or they both >> missco I'm I'm looking across the way but I believe those are district supported supplements for academics correct >> that is correct they would fall under the academic supports. Correct. Thank you. Do we have any other questions? Second, >> Dr. Ross the um um getting back to the academic um end of things with the possibility of coming up with stipen and uh that have have we had any discussion with any of the principles um to get some feedback from them about what they would like to see? Um I you know again you know I've said more

021times than you want to hear that it needs to be a substantial if the academics are our priority. Um but uh I was wondering if we had shared or gotten any uh feedback or input from any of the principles. We have and this this process has set with the principles the longest um in terms of breaking out the supplement schedule and they were very supportive of that. Um I think the biggest piece is that we included elementary because uh there were less elementary supplements and so that has been added. Uh we've also had principles like Vera Savin for the middle school and Michael Dr. for the high schools represent working with Dr. Wicker on how to break out those special duty ones. But in terms of the uh academic uh tier two, uh I won't

022let MC if I can put you on the spot to talk about your conversations with the teachers uh because we we wanted to include their voice as well with the the faculty advisor. So, I did I spoke with faculty advisory last week very briefly, but um they are they were in favor of especially the academic supports that you're talking about and we talked a little bit about how we could put that as a supplement versus right now it's sort of an hourly pay and how that might look a little different in terms of committing to say tutoring from for a semester versus one day a week for this hour and that hour and it being kind of hodge podge. but a little more of a commitment to that. They're actually working on a survey right

023now um with their schools to talk about what what types of tier 2 services after school kinds of things that they would like to see what that supplement might look like for them and then how many staff in their building are willing to participate in something like that. So, um trying to get as much input there as we can um from the staff as well. >> Well, I appreciate that because And I know I said before hourly is just not going to cut it. I teachers aren't going to stay back for another hour just for an hourly rate of pay. But if it's a again these people are winning state championships for us every year, they're raising our third grade reading scores or they're, you know, helping kids graduate from high school, whatever it might

024be. That's like getting a ring. I mean, that's really an important thing. So I think we need to make it so that it is attractive to the to the teachers. So much so that they say, you know, they've got competition in their schools and the principal is the one that makes the decision. But uh I I just think that it's an a much needed approach. I shared with Dr. Ross that I was at a conference a while back and there this guy was bragging about how much he had raised his test scores and he wasn't in I won't say the county but u um it was not like a rich county or anything. Well, he had gotten the school board to lower the class sizes from 15 to one. Well, he had success because he

025had a smaller number of kids. So if you had an after school tutoring group or teacher that was committed to that and they had the you I don't care if they have just 15 or whatever they're going to make great strides. So anyway, thank you. >> Anybody else? All right, Dr. Ros. >> At this time, I will turn a present notation over to our chief of student services and planning, Dr. Michael Harris for his update. >> Thanks so much, uh, Dr. Ross, members of the board, and to our community. On tonight, we've been spending quite a bit of time researching and investigating and, uh, communicating in reference to uh, safety features and things that can build upon the safety that we have here in school district 5. What we wanted to do tonight was rather

026than talk a little less about hardware, but talk perhaps about kind of what we refer to as software of our safety here. And uh we thought it would be wise to do that. And in that spirit, we are asked officer Wise, who's our lead safety officer, to come forward and to share with us a little bit about what's happening in the world of uh uh our uh safety office here in Scooter Chicago. Good evening, Madam Chair, Dr. Ross, distinguished board members. Thank you for the opportunity to come up here and give you kind of an update of this year so far within the safety office. As you can tell, the safety office is a little different than most the other departments within the school district. Uh you will find that the theme of uniqueness is

027through this presentation as the safety office does have a unique job here. Um, some of the things we're going to go over today is we're going to hit on the big parts of us being a liaison with our public safety partners. Uh, we'll talk about some drills, the way we're doing some drill updates and procedures. We'll always hit on crisis go. I think that's a great tool that I'd like to talk about again. We'll talk about some cameras, some zero eyes integration, and then some new training updates that we're doing. biggest thing I think with the safety office that you see day in day out is the way we have our our partnerships with our first responders. We're very blessed to have such a big group here in this jurisdiction and in this community. We

028are unique in the fact though of how many jurisdictions that we do encompass here in the district. any given day. There's one example I can think of where we have at least four law enforcement jurisdictions and two fire service jurisdictions and three EMS jurisdictions on one campus. So, it is a very unique situation here in the district that we have to have those partnerships to make sure that we get things done in an effective safe manner. Uh, one of the things I do want to point out is these two pictures right here. I think they sum up some cool things we're doing in the district. To the left, that is our emergency advisory committee meeting. We have everyone from federal representation, state representation, and even local representation in those meetings. Now, we hold an awesome

029breakfast. That's how we entice them to come to as well. So, I appreciate the the nutrition staff helping us out with that. But that is a great meeting. We definely have some good conversation there. And it's priceless to be able to put face to name and have that phone number on who to call when emergency happens. So, we're very, very thankful about that. To the right you can see a picture and that's Dr. Ross and Dr. Harris with USCPD. They have a very cool uh program that that we looked into and that we kind of help with. They need some training needs. That is their gun detection kinetic dog program where the dogs can smell firearms on people. So that was very cool to collaborate with them, see what programs they're using to make their

030campus safe. But that allows us to kind of stay on the leading edge of technology and see what other campuses are doing, not only at the K12 level, but also at college campuses. So, talking about our drills, as you see the state statute for our drills, uh I'm not going to read it per batum, but we do exceed that level plus more. You know, we do uh right in the middle of September, we have our active shooter drills. I will tell the community, you may see increased law enforcement presence on one of the campuses, but that's because Law enforcement helps us when we conduct those drills. We really value that partnership and it also allows law enforcement to come in to see the layout of the building. Helps them in turn if we ever have

031to respond. We're also using Crisis Go. Get a lot of good feedback from teachers. We've had that for about a year now. So, they're really getting into it, using it, becoming comfortable with it. So, we go above and beyond. I will tell you, with the fire drills, too. So, it's these days children and students have come into this district, it's almost like autopilot. One of those alerts go off, boom, they're gone. It's very impressive to see a school empty in four minutes. It's very impressive. And we follow the standard response pro standard response protocols. I just like to have that poster up there so the community see it as well. We keep things very simple and crisis go follows those exact same symbols. So if you're ever in one of our school buildings, you see

032that poster around, those are our standard response protocols. talk about crisis go already hit a little bit of it. We're seeing very good interaction with it with these active shooter drills and with fire drills. We're also using it for our drill management. So, it's become very handy now where it's automated messages and the school gets notified if they have 10 days left in the month to hit XYZ drill. They automatically receive an automated email to say, "Hey, we have not seen that you've done your fire drill for this month. Make sure you do it in XYZ amount of time." And we're getting a lot of good feedback on that. So, we do appreciate Crisis Go app and helping the safety office out and getting that message out to the schools in a timely manner. Wanted

033to talk about camera requests. I do appreciate y'all helping us out with cameras. All cameras is always kind of a hot subject with schools. Uh they always want to have as many cameras as possible. So, we always try to find out the best ways, best angles. There's a lot of background that goes into where a camera will be placed, what type of camera it is, what angle you're getting, and everything like that. So, this year, as we did last year, we opened up a month for schools to request five new cameras, five priority cameras. So, we are working in the midst of that right now. It's going to close at the end of this month, and that's a big collaboration that we do with our technology department. So, I did want to bring that up,

034and we appreciate your support on that. Some other things I just want to touch lightly on. I'm not going to go into the security sensitive nature of each one, but the the safety office is involved with a lot of technology throughout the district. And I just listed a couple right here. We do have our visitor management through strategic. We have our stop it that we collaborate with student services. We have our camera system, our zero eyes that we've had discussions about prior, our crisis go, our weather notifications, our weather radios, our schoolbased radio system, which is its own entity in its own self. and then a badge pass system that we collaborate with technology and then obviously power school. So it sounds like a lot of the list there but how do we integrate that

035with the safety office? We do it through emergency operations plans. We do a lot with event planning big games such as Dutch for Hermo High School takes a lot of planning in the background to get that game to operate smoothly when it's time to play and emergency response. A lot of people when they think of emergency response, they think of emergency responders obviously coming to the building to handle whatever mercy issue there is. But what is on the tail end of that? Reunification, community response, community healing. We all have to think about that when we're talking about response. Another thing I'd like to bring up, this has been a very cool uh training that the safety office got to go to, and I think it's some new uh training that we're going to bring back

036to the district that we haven't had in the past. We were very fortunate to get a grant through a uh federal agency that sent two members of the safety office out to New Mexico to do some bomb training. Was not any lex 5 money. We received that grant. So that was awesome. Uh we got to experience some new things that have we have seen overseas and some threats we have seen domestically. Um but we're also looking at UAVs, everything like that today's society. We're going to bring all that new back to our training here with our active shooter, active assalent threat program. So, we're excited about that. I think teachers are going to be very interested with what we have to teach. It's going to be eye open. So, we're excited to make sure that

037information that is happening current is getting back to those teachers. Thus, we keep the teachers and the students safe. And I'd like to close with who kind of makes up the safety office. This is a great picture. And I'd like to boast on my team for right now for a second. Day in and day out, these individuals make sure that everybody that shows up goes home the same way they came to school. And that means community members, staff members, students. We take it to heart that we want everybody to be safe in the school and have a learning environment that they can thrive in. I would trust any one of those individuals in my life and I know for a fact they're going to do whatever that needs to be done to make sure this

038district is safe and we are very blessed to have those people. So I did want to boast on them. They do a lot of things behind the background which is okay. That's how the safety office likes to operate. We won't be in the limelight but they do a lot for this district and I really wanted to make sure that they know they're very well appreciated through here. So I did want to take an opportunity to say that. However, there's also another side of the safety office a lot of people don't see. We have some great opportunities to get into the community. Uh to the left, we have some high five Fridays. Rich County does a great job. And I will even give it a shout out to SRO Hodgeges or Hodgej over there at Balance

039Elementary School. She does a great job with those high five Fridays. So, those are those two pictures. And as you can tell, there's a bunch of different agencies there. It's not just Richland County. They have highway patrol, sled, everything like that. You should see the kids faces on Friday when we're able to do that. It's a great time. They usually have music blasting in the background. It is definitely a sight to be seen. And then Gibson's probably going to kill me, but to the right I got him with the 4K celebration. So that's a blackmail photo we had waiting in the background. And then the other one I like to call Shatter the Myth. This is a great program the safety office really enjoys participating in. I'd invite all of y'all to come if you

040have the opportunity. Um it is very eye opening to see how kids learn through the process and it includes kind of some criminal justice stuff that we enlighten them about. But we really enjoy getting to those community events. So, I just wanted to show you that other side of the safety office. We're not always responding to emergencies or doing trainings, but we are uh making sure we're fully rounded in the community. And that's just a very brief generic kind of uh generalized 2526 so far how the safety office is going. Thank you so much. Do we have any questions, Miss Huddle? >> Um, in a lot of um unfortunate incidents that there's a a student that has some emotional, mental health issues. And I'm wondering like um is there a is there training that goes

041on for our administrators, our school counselors? So in a process so that they know when a concern rises to a certain level what they should do about that. >> Yes ma'am. I would say the best way we do is we do a collaboration among multiple different departments with that. We would involve our mental health counselors. We'd also involve our we do a lot with student services. So if we do recognize an individual is needing resources, we have the ability to collaborate and a lot of that time that collaboration comes through the weekend actually. So, we have the ability to call our mental health counselor's point of contact or our social service point of contact. Um, you know, there's been a lot of times where I'll say good example is Miss Feck will help us out.

042We have a maybe a fire or something over the weekend or we have an issue with a family that needs certain services. That would be a good we collaborate on that. They get trained on that, but we try to use the expertise of each department to also assist us when we have any instances like that. >> Anybody else? First of all, thank you for everything. Just out of curiosity, we receive a lot of requests from the different schools for >> So, every school does usually put in a request. We've I think last year we only had one school that did not put in a request for canvas. Also, if anybody doesn't know, um, to brag off, he actually has a book on. >> We do have a published author. Yes. And he is actually uh

043I think he is going to award ceremony later this week for that book. So, kudos to him. >> Absolutely. >> Anybody else? >> All right. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. Madam Chair, that concludes the superintendent's report. >> Thank you. At this time, we're going to circle back to the school board spotlight. So, if all the board members could join me up front, Madame Chair, members of the board, Dr. Ross, good evening. Tonight we are so happy to have with us um the superintendent's choice art award winners for this year. Um every year each school submits a piece of art to the district office and Dr. Ross has the terribly difficult job to pick um a winner from each level of um instruction, elementary, middle, and high school levels. So, um

044tonight we have with us um two very very talented young ladies um and then we'll recognize a third as well. Um at from the elementary level this year from Leeart Elementary School, Cadence McFersonson u Cadence was not able to be with us tonight. from the middle level from Chapen Middle School, Savannah Pesa Mugar. And from the high school level from Irmo High School, Alexa Alup. So ladies, come on up. working through our technology. Thank you. Um we also wanted to share just a couple other district celebrations with you tonight because there is so much good news in our district. Um the first thing I want to share, we are so excited this year. We have 11 students from school district 5 who have been announced as semi- finalists in the national merit scholarship competition. These

045are um academically talented high school seniors who scored exceptionally well on last year's PST exam. So now they have the opportunity to go forward in that scholarship competition and um the winners will be announced in the spring. and the National Merit Scholarship Program gives out a lot of money in the spring. So, we are um very excited for these students to have the opportunity. We expect big things from this group and so um I invite you to stay tuned for u more news about them in the spring. The other thing I'll share with you tonight is that school district 5 is very proud to have been named a purple star district by the department of education. The Purple Star School program makes a significant commitment to welcome and support military families in the district. So,

046um, our district personnel, school personnel, and even our students are going to be trained on welcoming military affiliated children into our schools. Um, military affiliated students have different challenges than other students. And so we want to be able to welcome them, support them, befriend them, and then also support them maybe when it's time to leave our district to go to the next post. So we are super excited about the opportunities that this is going to give our district. And um it's also gives us an opportunity to just be very intentional about celebrating all of our military affiliated families. We have um employees who serve in the National Guard even. And so we just want to be able to recognize and support them in any way we can with the district. So very excited about this

047opportunity for the district and looking forward to um having many opportunities to share more about that. So thank you very much. Thank you, Miss Taylor. That moves us to the approval of the minutes from the September 8th board meeting. Do I have a motion? Make a motion to approve the minutes of the September 8th, 2025 board meeting. >> Second. >> All those in favor. And the motion carries seven to zero. It's my understanding that we do not have anyone for public participation. So that moves us to our action agenda. First up is action is necessary or appropriate on matters discussed in executive session. >> Make a motion to approve selected employment items. Exhibit A. All in favor and the motion carries. Seven is zero. That takes us um to number 13 on the agenda. the

048approval of the Lexon County easement for the corridor improvement on Columbia Avenue. I have a motion. >> Make a motion to approve the Lexon County easement for the corridor improvement on Columbia Avenue. >> Second on favor and the motion carries. >> We do have a presentation for the privilege of the community. >> Oh, sorry. So I will turn it over to Dr. Gary um just so we can have discussion on record and questions regarding >> Mr. KN is going to introduce our guest today. >> Well, at least that takes off the pressure. >> Good evening, Madam Chair, Dr. Ross and members of the board. Um, I would like to present uh Barry Steel and with Meen Hunt and Joey McIntyre with South Carolina Department of Transportation. >> Thank you guys for having us. Um, yeah,

049that takes a lot of pressure off. We thought we were just going to get hammered with questions, but uh, that's good news. So, um, just if you want to get a brief background, I'm going to let Barry speak um, briefly on the history and then if you guys have questions, we'll take those and try to don't have a pointer. I don't know if that works, but we'll kind of go through this real quickly. Um, the project has been around since 2015. Uh, basically, u, it's had 34 different alternatives have been looked through. Uh, every stone has been unturned. Um, and basically that's working with the local leaders down here, obviously the schools and whatnot. U, but, um, what the the project was is improvements along 48. ran all the way to uh 76 to uh

05026 putting an interchange there. Uh one of the issues we found is you really can't do much where it ties into 76 with the railroad there and all that stuff. So that's when it came in what we call new road one and two which is basically what you see parallel running to the western property line of uh of the school which is up here. if I can get the pointer to work right. We'll forget about that. But basically along there and also the road it extends out to um roughly behind Publix now. It ties into AMX Ferry U and that was done just to kind of get around uh the 76 portion project took a hiatus for about three years because of the design build of I26 uh basically where they took the interchange that

051we had designed that was part of that project and moved it to part of that. So that's why you kind of see the time frame here. I'd be remiss if I didn't say I really appreciate the uh working with the school district, Mr. Knots, Mr. Wise, one who's here beforehip Davis and really tying into uh the impacts that we have around your school which you see along the western corridor and obviously behind and in front. and we'll go to the we'll go to the u to here just kind of like the this is actually a plan sheet that you see. Um and also I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you it really wonderful working with y'all's uh engineer uh Mr. Jackson uh he's been great to work with and really making sure that we

052listen to what y'all's needs are, you know, through the school year to minimize those impacts. And I'll kind of go through that a little bit. Uh, one of the things you see here is really what's happening on the back entrance of Chapen High School. Um, Stonewall, uh, Stonewall Road. And if I can get this, let's see the point. I don't know if in this area here, that's what Mr. Jackson is doing. You'll have a retention pond that basically we're working with them going to put that into the contract. He will move that outside this area and then we'll rebuild this road for your entrance. So, you'll have a new entrance coming back here, uh, which will tie into, uh, to a roundabout that we've got in this area. One of the things that came up

053with, uh, to Mr. Wise and also Mr. or not, is just to put this in perspective, and hopefully y'all can see this. I don't know if you can or not, but uh, here's your here's your football stadium. Just to put that in perspective, we'll go back to where showing where this is. That's basically here. We're putting I'm just talking about this area right here. One of the things that brought to their attention is obviously, you know, want to make sure we're not doing anything to prohibit the uh, you know, football season coming in. I'll be honest with you, I used to play for the Chapen Eagles, so you know, I don't want to stop that either, uh, a long time ago, but um, so what we're doing there is working with y'all to basically and

054your engineer, I'll move forward real quickly to uh, put it under a contract to move this retention pond back. We'll go in and build this section. That's one of the first things that we're going to do as part of the project. Hopefully, we'll be letting it, which means getting it to construction first of next year. Uh so, uh what we'll be looking is working with the with the high school to shut down this entrance roughly about April 15th of of next year. Uh with the uh with the u uh end in mind of having this um open to traffic uh before the start of the school year, so July 30th. So, we make sure that you know school buses and and this new entrance will be uh it has been designed to allow for school

055buses to come in. Uh so to make sure that we've got that ready for y'all uh when the school season starts up, the football season starts up. Uh the other one, this is the frontage. Uh you'll basically see this is the building you've got here. Roughly what you'll see is we're coming about 15 feet closer to you uh with that one lane that's through there. Um I know it's tough for y'all, but up this is the uh what I'll call the upper bus parking lot. And this is your lower level here. Um, and basically what's happening is that uh one of the big things is we're there's going to be some undergrounding of utilities through here uh in this area up in up in the bus parking lot. So, one of the things we're going

056to do there is we're not allowing the contractor to start work on those undergrounding of the utilities until after the uh the first day after school season's over next year. and they have until July 30th of that same, you know, that same school year to be done before the end so that you'll have the ability to get your school buses in and out of there. Uh, and that work will all be done. But that's the biggest impact here is the undergrounding of utility, sewer, and water coming through here. But those are the combinations we're working with y'all staff to make sure that that happen. And that's what the what's in the easement to make sure that we get that done. Um, really basically it's just a widening through here. you should have a lot better

057entry uh as far as your you as far as your people coming in and out with designated left turns and whatnot. Um one of the things that will be a little different. We're not showing it here, but the far your upper bus parking lot. Um you have two driveways right now. One on the really on the western property line up here and then you got one here. This one will be closed to just right in right out. You won't be able to take buses to left out of here because of a left turn that comes here. Just make sure it's safe to you don't want to take buses across five lanes of traffic. Now, uh but we have done a study here and ran turning templates and buses can come and use that existing one

058on the uh on the far end. So, should should be able to still be usable, whatnot, and we'll just make sure we get it ready before for y'all for the new school year. But that's really kind of a quick rundown of what we're doing and what y'all saw. So, really appreciate again your staff and everything we've been working for to coordinate these things. I look forward to getting it done for youall in that time frame. >> Thank you. >> We have a question. >> Quick question for you. Uh, regarding the timeline, what uh how do you feel about that within I mean, have you built in contingency days? I mean, do you you're talking April 15th to July 30th. Um, obviously there's going to be rain, there's going to be weather. Do you feel good

059about you've allowed sufficient contingency for those types of >> we feeling good is about anything we can control. Uh so that's that's an easy way to kind of cover ourselves a little bit but we do think it basically is doable. Uh one of the things just I would just uh remiss not to say you know it may not be perfect as far as uh you know great pavement and all that stuff for get you the in and out especially on that backside uh access u but it will make sure that it's passable. you know, it could be to where it's a gravel service to get you back and forth, but we will make sure that you get your uh the buses in and out to the uh because we to the football games because we

060know that's a big ticket item for y'all. So, we will have something for you and it will be safe. It will be passable. Hopefully, it's paved and is where it needs to be. But, you know, we do have contingencies in there to make sure that we're working on that. One of the big things is is working with Mr. Jackson's been fantastic about getting that that that pond out of the way quickly and putting that under one contract. So, we have one contractor that's doing that. We don't have competing entities. So, we think that's going to be big help, but we're going to do everything we can to make it. As far as the upper parking lot, we do think there's plenty of time to get that done and get it all the way across, but

061the big thing we are is getting it across for bus track is our main thing we're going to do there. So, we feel good. >> Thank youbody. Anybody else? All right. Thank y'all so much. We already approved that before the presentation. So that moves us to um 14 on the action agenda, approval of a second and final reason on proposed revisions to board policy IC school year. Make a motion to approve the second and final reading of proposed revisions to the board policy IC school year as shown in exhibit I. >> Second. All in favor? >> The motion carries seven to zero. >> Make a motion to approve the second and final reading of proposed revisions to board policy be schoolboard meetings shown in exhibit J. >> Second. All in favor? And the motion carries

06270. >> Make a motion to approve the second and final reading of new board policy BA live streaming of board meetings shown in exhibit K. >> I do have a question. >> Okay. >> Um, we got a an email, one of their standard emails from SCSBA today and it said November 5th was the deadline. Is that when we'll start this? >> Uh, it's my understanding we have to pass it before November 5th and we start this in January. But I'll let >> November 5th is the deadline to get it to the state department for approval. And so the policy would go into upon approve, you know, assuming approval by the state department, um, it would go into effect January 1. Okay. >> Thank you. All those in favor? >> Okay. And the motion carries seven

063to zero. >> Make a motion to approve the first reading of proposed revisions to board policy GCLE E unin unencumbered time shown in exhibit L. >> All in favor? And the motion carries seven to zero. Make a motion to approve the minority business enterprise utilization plan shown in exhibit M. Second. >> Motion carries. 70 to zero. >> Make a motion to approve the solicitation of A&E services for middle school co-curricular and extracurricular facility re renovations shown in exhibit N. Second. Madam Chair, I move that we defer the action until after we've done a survey of middle school and rising fifth grade students on what they would like. >> And just to expand on that, basically, you know, we've reached out to the community. I think we talked about it last meeting just to kind of

064get a better um idea of what the students would like, what they would enjoy, so we can take full access of our property and utilize funds you know properly for that missle. >> Um I agree and I also I don't know how we can get A&E services for something that hasn't been described. So normally when we're approving a contract or solicitation we know what we're asking for. This could be anything from gaga pits to entire football fields. So, I mean, I think we're kind of put in the car before. >> Thank you. Opportunity to explain the the motion from administrative standpoint. Um, if you look at exhibit N, it includes a survey that would be helped um that the A&E services would would help the administration with. When we look at the um there was

065a request to do the survey and I guess the question is who does the survey and we would say, well, the administration, but that is somebody somebody has to do that survey. Someone has to collect that data and there is no direction on who collects it and and what information we put on there. What we're asking the board to do is to commit to studying the feasibility of improving these fields. your commitment through a passage of these services will bring an expert on the ground who could help us examine what's feasible and then what do we put in the survey uh I think one of the things is when we start going with students they don't understand our board timelines we start asking them questions they want to see answers a lot of times we

066do studies and they go nowhere so we're not committing to do the work but we are committing we're asking the board to commit to make this a uh our staff and administrative time is a is a very finite resource. We're going to take the time to deliver a survey. We would like the commitment to have the experts on the ground to even see what's feasible. So that's the explanation motion of the original motion. Are you awake? You thinking in the middle of thought? >> Um I I do like getting I you know me I always like getting input for those who are going to be affected by it. Um maybe the uh SIC's at the school could give some feedback. >> That's where my brain was. That's what I was trying to I was trying

067to get to >> what's the base of people that could give us feedback and thinking about how we've done that in the other things. >> Well, and I know that if you talk to middle schoolers, you know, uh you'll get a hodgepodge if just you're getting it just from middle schools. But if the parents talk to the kids and they talk to the community members, um there are certain things that as an old old PE teacher, there are certain things that are basic that can be used for a multitude of reasons in a multitude of ways. It's like a field. You can use it all kinds of sports, all kind of activities. ultimate frisbee, you know, soccer, whatever it might be. Um, but I do like the idea of getting the some feedback from the

068SIC and it gives them some parent parental involvement with these decisions, too. But thank you. >> Yeah. Um, I I guess my my advice would be to proceed as well on the motion. Um, I mean, I I appreciate the idea of asking and surveying stu students, but there is no way I would defer uh action based on what fifth graders would say. Um, professional organizations and and contractors. They know what schools need. They're the professionals on the ground. I fifth graders, I mean, I appreciate their opinions and getting their advice, but that's build a u infrastructure based on on what their desires would be. We'd have pizza and ice cream lines. We'd have I mean it just and it's going to change. I mean, you're asking fifth graders versus what about the existing middle school

069students here. I I agree with Mr. Satderfield. Generally speaking, the concepts are going to be the same. Um professional organizations work with school districts all over all throughout the country. They know what schools need what the appetite of the communities are for those needs. Um, and I think they will give us a better uh viewpoint. We can always amend and adjust as we go depending on if you know what what the the student surveys say, but I I think from a professional point of view, we need to move forward. >> So, Dr. Ross, would the the Annie study effectively give us a menu to present to the SIC's, the the students, the parents, whoever it is, rather than it being just a free-for-all, everybody suggests whatever they want. Is that the idea? >> I think

070what we find with what with a a study is we want to ask what's in realm of what we can deliver and so having an expert on the ground. Uh, one thing I think is important to clarify the A&E is of existing facilities. So, you know exactly what we're looking at. The question is what can we put in that to be useful. I will say though, and I want to make sure to trust Bum's point, we are already engaging in surveys. I think we're required under Title Net every so often to do a survey of students. So I don't want to confuse the survey that we're doing for title N which is fifth grade uh seventh grade and nth grade and we're required to do that to ensure that we've considered extracurricular options for our

071students. So we'll have that data as well. But when we look at co-curricular you're really looking at those programs from recess to clubs and organizations. So I I think it's important that we um we know that there's already a survey that's that's going to be taking place 5th, 7th, and 9th. >> Would there be any cost associated with this the services? >> There would be cost associated with >> we don't know what that cost >> that would have to be brought back to this body for approval. But this would allow us to what we're doing is not committing to you're not even committing to the study. You're committing to us soliciting to bring that back for you. So, uh, this body would have to approve us to move forward once we have the cost. >>

072So, if this motion was to pass, right now we're committing to zero dollars, >> just for clarification. And then you y'all have to bring that back and then we decide if we want to move forward, right? >> Because that's a concern that I have um as well. And I'll say I'll take ownership of and maybe some other board members have the same concern which why we're asking about the survey is that initially I think and I've heard that from a few people in the community after they saw the public agenda that they thought there was going to be more discussion about this before in community input before we started um um before we started moving forward and when I thought about the survey I didn't think about it um to comment on what M's comment

073about you know basing around basing it off of fifth gra's opinion, but more so I felt like we had conversations about sort of what's popular in the realm of recess and that sort of thing at that age group. And I thought it was more about finding out kind of what those interests were. And I get that the services will tell us sort of what we can do, but I also thought it would be good for us to go in with some thoughts on some things that we would like to see and maybe and that would come from student feedback. And so maybe we don't see all of it at this at all the schools because maybe all the schools can't accommodate it. But anyway, um just wanted to share that. And then I saw her

074up. >> I mean I I guess I have a question about the scope. Um the the one page that we were given says renovate middle and intermediate school athletic facilities to meet the physical health needs of fifth, sixth, and seventh graders. And so when I see renovate, I don't think of really new. You know, when you renovate your kitchen, you you fix the kitchen within its existing space. You don't build a new kitchen. So is is the RFP simply going to say that and then it's up to the people that respond to come back with I'm confused. I think the to clarify I think it's what comes first. Um do you you bring an expert on the ground to help us? None of us are like the engineers are here. Do you bring an expert

075on the ground to see this is what's feasible help us develop a a survey an option that we can take care of our existing facilities or um do we take a shot at it and we survey community members and s once we get that data what do we do with it we still need to turn it over to some expert to say this is actually plausible the administration really doesn't have time for that option just gather a bunch of data that and we still have to turn it over to what I'd like to do is gather it in conjunction so tonight's uh vote on the initial motion does not obligate you to All it does is that we can put out the solicitation and see who is interested in helping us engage in this work.

076We would have to bring back those who are interested. We may not get anything. Um but uh for for us with the we're still doing a lot of mitigation on referendum and some HVAC issues is our number one leaks and HVAC. That's what the administration is working on. Uh before we take operations and move into a survey, we would like help. And so bringing back on the original motion is to bring us a group who can help us with this, who can help us put this together to come up with something feasible. Uh remember, we're trying to hit everything from lunch to sports to extracurriculars. Uh it may be our existing fields. I kind of disagree. When you make a renovation, it is new. It is renovated kitchen. It will be different. It may be

077the same footprint, uh, but it will be new. And what that new looks like, I remind you of what we're looking at at Chapen Intermediate School. We have, if you walk their area, their pipes, their different lines that are out there. We don't know if we should be playing out there anyway. So, I'd like to have an engineer to tell us or an architectural firm to tell us, we see what you're working with. We are willing to help you put this package together, but we would have to bring that back to this body. >> Um, so can I just I guess what I'm asking is is what's in this document going to be the in the RFP or is the RFP going to have more than what's in here? >> Uh, it would it would

078we can flush it out a little bit more. Um, right now we refrain from using RFP RQ. It really I want to give Heather and her team some Dr. Gary some opportunities under solicitation, but the solicitation would include the notion of that that survey looking at the co-curricular extracurricular space of our existing uh existing property. So that could include to your point could include a new field uh but it definitely includes the the current play spaces that the students have right now which are bus loops and most of our kids are playing in parking lots and bus loops. So I would just like uh assistance on that. The solicitation will go out and we will bring back the responses. This board will then have to approve moving forward on those A& services before any of

079those dollars are spent. >> Mr. Bum, >> so just to be clear, I definitely don't want to be difficult. I just was sharing some ideas. You know, we had a good discussion last meeting. I did a little um Facebook post um geared towards parents asking their students give them you know a handful of ideas um tell their ball gaga ball all the different little kind of lesser expensive options that we may be able to do on a you know express lane type pathway to get these kids something before they graduate high school and and so you know we we love AI in this district let's spit out a document let the teachers kind of hand it out it's got five or six options I mean it doesn't have to be incredibly difficult or scientific and

080you'll just take that under adisement and we can kind of have a general direction before we spend a whole lot of money. That's all. >> Yes. >> Um yeah, I I I I do again I do like getting feedback from other folks. One thing to to discuss and you sort of touched on it Dr. Ross is that or not to discuss but to consider is that every school is going to be different. If you go to like intermediate. I've gone I've ridden my bike going to Crooked Creek past them during recess and they're packed in there like sardines. I mean, they really have a very limited amount of space. So, that may dictate, Mr. Bannon, the type of activities they can actually put in there. They might have four gaga pits where another school may

081not have that many just because of the access to the space. You don't want kids just for security and safety. You don't want them in parking lots. You don't want them on the bus loop and those sort of things. I mean, we utilize that space because of limitations. Um, I know that when we were talking about with Lake Murray Elementary School and building the additional space and they don't hardly have any space as it is, schools like that, a lot of their activities are going to be dictated by um the size of their campus or the accessibility to those spaces. But anyway, >> all right. Thank y'all. Um so we have an amendment to the original motion which is to defer um this pending um additional feedback from students. Um all those in favor of

082the amended motion. Um all those And the motion, the amended motion carries four to three. And then we have to go back to the original motion. >> Nope. >> Move to defer. >> Okay. I wasn't sure. >> I said it hesitantly as I was not sure. So, thank you. >> I'm the oldtimer here. >> I appreciate that. Thank you so much. All right, that moves us to the last item on the action agenda, which is um board request. Um I feel like for context, let me just say that this is um um has historically not been on the agenda, but likely will be moving forward if we have um just so the public understands if we get a request of request if we get an email requesting information from the district office that is not

083readily available but may take a considerable amount of time it'll come before the board for us to determine if as a board we would like to request this information. So, because this is our first one, we're walking through it. I'm going to um assume that we need a motion, but then also maybe these people each had the opportunity to explain what it is that they're asking. I make a motion to consider amendments to board policy beg records shown in exhibit >> O. We're not amending. >> We're not amending. >> We're just looking um to hear Dr. We would be considering the request brought forth from >> to make a motion. Sorry, amend the motion to withdraw the first New motion to consider the request of Dr. Herring and Miss Huddle to board records board policy

084beg to divide the question >> into the request for Mr. Dr. Herring and the request from Miss All right. All those in favor motion carries seven to zero. Um, Miss Herring, >> do you want to explain your >> Sure. Sure. For anyone who doesn't have the copies of the board packet, I received um some communication from community member about uh the possibility of parent paid child care in any of our facilities that may have the space for that. And um it seemed like a worthwhile at least ask to find with the administration if something like this is even possible. Um what would be the costs of it? What would be the benefits? Um the community member was citing um teacher recruitment and retention as one possible benefit of that. If a teacher can bring their

085uh underage or pre pre five-year-old child to the same school that they are in, we may very well recruit teachers um if they've got that available child care. It would not be something that would be supported funding by I mean financially by the district would be parent paid. Um but that was the topic of discuss And then Dr. Ross, if you could explain to us the um staff, for lack of a better I don't want to use the word inconvenience, but um toll maybe that this would take and why this needs to be approved at this level. I think that would also be helpful. >> Uh yes, this would require a study of board records indicates that we provide what we have on on record. We do not have this information on record. So just

086like the will require the administration to create new information. Um, and we can certainly do that study. I think the um goal will be looking at what available space we have that would actually meet the DHECK regulations. And looking over to the team, I know that when it goes from zero to five, there are increased regulatory responsibilities than when you have plus five. So we some rooms that are available, but they do not meet the DHECK and OSF responsibility for a 0 to five site. So, we would just need to bring in some additional typically and I think the only place I've seen it was at High School where they had a whole wing, but that wing had to be kind of fully upgraded to uh I know the number one regulatory agency is DSS,

087but I also know that DHCK also has to sign off on it. So, um that's why we were we were bringing it to this body. That's the request of the board. We would go about studying it, but I'm not aware of any standalone spaces that would meet that requirement right now. We will stand to the will of the board. However, uh it We don't have the ability funding or the staffing uh to meet that requirement. Our number one is trying to get the MPS reports of the five to from from kindergarten to to 12th grade in adult ed. The regulatory responsibilities for and I understand it's a great recruiting tool for teachers, but that is a that's a lot of uh regulatory responsibilities and I think and I'm I'm looking at my team if I'm

088wrong we would have to create some spaces because we don't have any standalone spaces that are ready now >> I was just kind of general in your email I'm not sure if you said it or not just employees >> I I didn't specify but I don't think that it would necessarily have to be I think it coulds open up to the public but with um preferential uh preferences given to teachers first or teachers and staff I should say. >> Um I think I personally think it's worth studying. I think of um teachers a lot like nurses in terms of how hard it is to to find and keep um good people. It's a very um you know high demand occupation. And I know my daughter lives in Spartanber and Spartanber regional hospital has on-site daycare

089and um every nurse wants to work there, every doctor wants to work there, every staff wants to work there. Um I mean, I think it's worth looking at and maybe just, you know, maybe starting with our staff. Would they even be interested in finding out what an interest level would be? Again, that's another survey, but I mean, if people aren't interested in it, then it doesn't matter. But if you had a really high interest level, then you could take the next step and Okay. What would it take in terms of DHECK and DSS and all that? >> Well, and if we're going to do that, then does this does the staff interest level need to come before anything else? But I also don't want to miss the part of when I asked, do we want

090to have a daycare? Um, I said it that way, but I really was trying to figure out, do we have the feasibility? And I think that there's um it was a loaded response there in terms of um the resources and all the other things that have to go into it and where's the funding um going to come from. >> I mean I think about this in the previous action I asked to take care of our existing facilities and that we're not moving forward on our existing facilities. So I think uh looking high regulatory facilities would be tough to meet financially. One of the things the staff talked about though uh to Dr. Herren's point is could we partner with existing daycarees that are already set up and if there was a way that um we

091would approve funding for our teachers to have a partnership at existing places. I think we could meet that need of being recruiting but we We're still working over 11,137 incident facility needs that we need to address currently. So um I I think you know you do the survey but the real you know you look at how many surveys we put out the question is what are you going to do with it? And if we have no feasibility to even to move forward with it I think maybe our time We set up some partnerships with some local daycarees. So, but that's my thoughts. >> Um, a motion on the floor. >> Yeah. And Dr. Al, I I was kind of going along those that same thought process with perhaps I mean we're we're already contemplating with

092other organizations that we could perhaps pursue with existing facilities. I think if we start utilizing our school facilities or district facilities, then we're going to be in conflict with our district use policy that where we're charging fee schedules for organizations to use our existing facilities as it is. And then when you think about the security presentation earlier tonight, you know, how does that factor into now you've got additional security needs, additional active shooter considerations and so forth. I It's a It's a very interesting topic, but I think it's uh definitely needs more research and and contemplation. >> We have a motion on the floor. >> It's nice. I know you never look my way. Dread calling on me. That's okay. >> I I've been through that process. I'll just share with you. I was the

093facilities guy at Dutch for chronic school when we put in the daycare. Um I will share with Dr. Ross that just the mere mention we had a lot of folks already signing up lining up. Um you know daycare is terribly expensive and terribly inconvenient for a lot of teachers. Um, I do I'm guessing it's probably it would probably be best housed at a high school because of the nature of the buildings. Um, and you're right, Dr. Ross, there are you got to go through DHCK and they've got a these various like OSF, you got these various facilities folks that you have to get approval for. Um, it was an excellent recruiting tool for us. Um, but we teachers that were at next door at the middle school and even some at the elementary school that

094that were there. There there are certain other conditions such as the size of the space and the number of children that you can have and then you have to have an outdoor space if you have those that can move around. Um, so, um, I think it's worth I think it's worth looking into because I think it's kind of like when we talked about the housing some sort of recruitment tool. Um, I think it it's at least worth the discussion and looking into to see if it's something that's feasible for our teachers and our staff. Um, I don't think I know that Scott brought up about the idea private. I'm telling you it would probably fill up just with our own staff. >> Anybody else? All right, we have a um motion on the floor. All

095those in favor of Dr. Harren's request to have the administration pull information for the possibility of providing childare. The motion carries six to one. All right, that takes us to Mrs. Huddles. >> Okay. Um, so in our last board meeting, we had a request to approve a new position that was being paid for by an athletic booster club. And I didn't even realize that was a thing. So, it was it was really interesting to me. And as a board member, I'm very curious to how prevalent these are, how much they are, um are they more at one school than another? So, I sent an email. I'll just read the email so it makes it more clear. Dr. Ross, please provide the board with a list of all employee salary supplements, employee positions for employee pay

096enhancements that are paid for by school booster clubs, athletic band, PTO, etc. for the 2425 and 25 26 school years. And um and there was a followup I was not asking for their salary, just the amount of the supplement or the um enhancement, whatever it might be called. >> So, I have a question um tougher, but um is there are there caps on or what kind of rules and regulations are in place for that are paid by the >> So the PTO still have to become complant with the district. So they have to do their their financial reporting and become registered with the district and they fall in line with the um the athletic supplements right now. So they the coaches there are some regulations they fall in line with the board approved supplements. We

097have not approved any this year. There aren't any currently in this school year that have been approved. Um, but there were some last year. So, we could go back and look at those. Um, but they are kind of like when Dr. Ross was talking about the grant supplements, they come in throughout the year. So, they're not all at the very beginning of the year. We get them as booster clubs request them and so they they kind of funnel in throughout the year. But >> so, we approved them last year. I don't know. >> It would have been on the the board packet as a grant funded in exhibit A. I think this year um at the last meeting it was pulled out of exhibit A to be handled individually. >> So it has been being

098approved but because it was grant funded we just didn't realize it was from the from a PTO or booster club. So, so there are none right now. Going forward, um they would be a separate line item on our schedule A and >> I didn't interrupt you, but >> No, that's fine. >> Uh going forward, what we're going to do is separate they would not be on exhibit A. They will be up for action at each line item like we did the last meeting. >> Okay. Well, um I I'll withdraw the motion >> because then we would know going forward. >> There's none now. >> Okay. >> Well, that solved it. So, all right. Thank you. The motion has been withdrawn. That takes us to our discussion agenda. Um the discussion of memorandum of understanding with

099chap commission and the bridge development. Right. I'll write to the lectern our chief of academics. begin the discussion. >> Good evening, board chair, Dr. Ross. Thank you for being here tonight and letting us talk with you a little bit. I'm going to introduce Steven Pucket to you. He's the coordinator of arts, athletics, and PE. Can't remember all three of those things, Stephen, but you do them so well. So, Stephen, if you'll come forward for us. >> Hey, guys. Guys, I'm going try to be as um brief, as concise as possible, and I hope that if you have any questions, please feel free to to ask those to kind of bring clarity to this. If you look at this um first slide, it kind of captures the essence of what our partnership is trying to accomplish.

100Um I'd like to look at this way. We're trying to accomplish a lot without extending with extending very little um in terms of our resources and what we're bringing to the table. I'll say this, ICRC um has been amazing, great. Been working with them grassroots sidebar conversations and meetings with their personnel um since early spring of this past year. And so it's been a a lot of conversation, very slow work, trying to come to the place where we feel like that we can move forward, get approval to kind of do this this pilot, bridging the middle years with purpose and play, the bridge development league and all of these different um stakeholder groups play a part in this. Lexidge 5 of course students um our partner, our community, everyone kind of has um a say

101in this and can have a role. So we we already have aou with ICRC in terms of facilities you know what why is this different what are we trying to accomplish here so let me say this from the data that was given to us from ICRC they've seen a decline in their sports leagues and participation since 2020 and of course you know that kind of corresponds with what was happening in our world at the time they've still continued to see that decline in their programming so so they're looking for for ways they're looking for um opportunities to engage the community, something outside the box. I will say this, the information I've gotten from them is from their staff is they have tried for many years. They kind of wanted somebody in the school, boots on

102the ground, a point of contact that they were directly connected to to to kind of build some sustained momentum to recruit, to organize, um to promote. So, they've been looking for this opportunity um with us. Um the They've given us a national recreation and park association report in 2025. This seems to be the way that world is moving on. People trying to maximize their resources. 65% of parks and recreation agencies across the country partner with school systems for their youth sports leagues. And that happens in lots of different ways. Some school districts um of course they're they're um they're in for and they're putting a lot more financial resources with it. Um the the model that we are um promoting and and and we're trying to propose is more of hey let us come alongside

103you to help you do the work that you are doing. So rebranded joint effort trying to target students in grades five through eight. Of course we all know um the benefit of keeping kids involved socially, emotionally um um just their academics also will improve. research has has shown this a partnership would also strengthen the competitiveness competitiveness of athletic programming at all levels in our community and school systems. Create a stronger pipeline of athletes, keeping kids involved longer, promoting that lifelong wellness, um better player development, early exposure to structured training that's affiliated with our school-based teams, promoting lifelong well-being and fitness. And like I said, we've been talking about this with their staff for for for months now. Um, initially there's the MOU I believe that you have access to that and kind of see what

104we're talking about and that's the crux of the rest of this presentation is kind of pulling out those general details. So I'm not going to read every item line by line. I'm going let you peruse that and just kind of ask questions um as you see fit. Um, as as we go through this and as we end. But initially the conversation that we've had with ICRC is is to pilot this bridge league, this development league um with basketball in winter of 2025. As you can and as you if you know anything about sports, I mean that is here. You know, it's we're they're starting to we got a meeting with them this week um just to kind of make sure that we're staying on task and on par with with if we can do this

105what that would mean. Um we don't want to be held up. You know, if something were to happen, we want to be sitting on go ready ready to do this and move. So, we would um pilot this this opportunity in winter of 2025. U students fifth through 8th grade and that's boys and girls teams. Essentially what you're doing is we're trying to take all of their winter basketball programming and we're trying to market it, promote it, brand it, and build it so that they can increase their enrollment so they can increase their footprint. Um how are we going to do that? um by you utilizing our our leverage and our resources and our reach because we have access to our students um in the community to kind of point them and direct them and urge

106them and prod them to get involved and to get signed up. One of the big things that you see when you get to middle school level is that kids want to be affiliated with their school sports teams. They want to be they it's that pride to know that I can play for the Eagles or I can play for the Yellow Jackets or I can play, you know, for the Silver Foxes. you know, and we we want to use that that momentum to say you have an opportunity. There's only going to be 10 kids on that seventh grade that seventh eighth grade team, but you have an opportunity in fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade to play for the Eagles, to play for the for the Yellow Jackets. You'll have that opportunity because we'll be partnering

107with ICRC. They'll be using our facilities. You can practice. You'll be able to play games in the school gymnasiums. So, we're hoping this will be a huge draw for our kids and they'll go home and say, "Hey, we want to do that, Mom, Dad. I want to get signed up for this." So, we're planning to orchestrate um the the the marketing of this to coincide, right, um the next few weeks as it gets ready moving up and as we go into tryyouts for our school-based teams. We plan on on going ahead and making sure that we're getting access to those kids to start that if everything goes the way as planned. Um so students would sign up and play for the middle the middle school team that they would be zoned for and we're hoping

108that that would create um continuity camaraderie among among students um the schools the different elementary schools they would be grouped all the schools at um elementary schools that are grouped for Chapen Middle School they would play together. Um all the schools that were um are zoned for elementary schools that are zoned for Irma Middle, they would play together. So you would start to build that camaraderie and everything. um from from the gate starting in fifth grade moving on up. All right. So, just general details like I said um that no facility custodial or staffing charges will be leveled on ICRC. This is kind of the back and forth that we've had where they say, "Yeah, this would be beneficial for us. We agree to that. We agree to this." All leagues will be governed by

109ICRC, their rules, their volunteer coach selection, their game officials, player evaluations, drafts, playing requirements. Another thing that we've talked about is it possibly creating um employment opportunities for our our upper level athletes in high school where they could actually get get some um get get some cash and get a job, you know, working with them, working the games as um officials or running the clock and those types of things. Um league games and practices will take place in ICRC and Lex 5 facilities as defined. um ICRC roles. Basically, we want them to do what they're good at and they are the experts in our community in youth athletic programming and we want them to continue to be that. We want to come along beside them and offer them our resources and olive branch and say,

110"Look, what can we do to help you do that? How can we promote that? How can we push that further and get it deeper into the culture of our community and who we are?" Um they would do everything. They're organizing the game schedules. They're doing everything that they always do, they will continue to do. All right. The next thing, our roles, um, like I said, they are super excited about the prospect of adding a point of contact in our schools for a very small, um, return on investment. we can give them a person that they can contact throughout the year anytime we want to market, promote, get information out, try to get people on involved. Um, serve as a marketing or publicity person when we get teams made to pull those kids and and take

111pictures of those kids and those teams who normally wouldn't be on a school team. We can take pictures of those kids and we can market that and show them that they're involved and they're affiliated with their schools. U develop distribute promotional materials, provide input and instruction from our coaches. We've already because we want this to be successful. um if if we can move on this. We've already ran interference of all of our basketball staff and they said they are more than willing to give up their time um to come over once our once our once ICRC has selected their coaches and their staff to to look at them systemics and and teach them and show them how they run practice, the terminology they use, the systems that that they that they implement because then it

112will allow us to start creating that pipeline and that same dialogue and common language that kids would see no matter what grade they're at and where they're We want to make sure that we, as we mentioned, as I mentioned earlier to you, showing up at our tryyouts and making sure that kids are aware of this opportunity. We think that's huge and that kids will be pumped about the opportunity for that. And what this is just a leveled um document that kind of show you the different roles that that people would play, high schools, parents, students, community um elementary schools, you know, and the goal would be that the community would get involved too that you can stop by on Saturdays and watch games at our schools of our of the youth and our kids, their

113own teams at our different theater patterns. So the next steps, you know, hopefully of gaining approval. We'd like to coll if we would like to go to collaborating with um human resources to finalize um those descriptions, postings um to hire people internally on our staff. Um that would be the idea because principles are already with them. They're working. So there will be a short turnaround time um picking the people giving them the ability to select those people through that interview process who are going to be um most apt and best qualified to do exactly what we're asking them to do. Um district athletic coordinator that would be me among many other job descriptions and hats that I may wear. Um communications um Amanda's team Courtney Murrito has been great. She's always she's got so many

114good ideas and just how to market this and promote it. Working with them and engaged in ongoing monitoring and evaluation of this pilot partnership. Like I said, the essence of this initiative is opening up the door to opportunity. There is a limitless amount of opportunity that exists in getting the right people with their feet around the table to see what we can do to make athletics and keeping youth involved and promoting that play and that purpose at this age. There is a huge huge potential. Um, and this is just the very tip. That's what we see it as at the end of the basketball the basketball um pilot we would come come around. We've already got some ideas of what sports we would like to kind of go into next. Something like flag football that

115would maybe be big than spring. But once again, it's just us thinking smarter, not harder, not a lot of overhead. Whereas partnering very deeply with someone in our community, we always already have a surface level partnership. We have to try to be farreaching in our impact with our kids. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to try to answer those. >> Mr. them. >> Do you know of any um opportunities for our special needs students, any programs that they might have that would be something appropriate for them? >> I can inquire with um with Jason White. Um, I'm sure you know get some more information for you in terms of how they're currently handling those requests and what that looks like because I can definitely get that and get it to you. >> Um,

116for the fifth to especially like a big size difference a lot of times. Do you envision that there might be especially if there's enough kids that want it that there might be more than one team affiliated with a middle school for example. >> That's exactly right. And that's and that's what ICRC does. They group them by they don't we use it's easier for us. I kind of think think in terms of um grades like fifth, sixth, seventh, eth, but they actually do it by age. So they break it down into into divisions by age. And there would be to however many kids come out for the chapen feeder pattern for example there may be 70 kids. Then that means they would have six to seven. They could have six to seven chapen teams and they

117would just differentiate them. Eagles one, Eagles two, Eagles three, that kind of thing. >> Yeah, on the surface it sounds wonderful. Um, I guess my concern would be what would be the negative impact of this type of program on existing organizations such as the YMCA and church leagues, for example. Obviously, if kids come over from those programs into this one, I mean, YMCA, it's they're nonprofits, but they're they're relying on those revenues and those fees from those Are we are we going to be negatively impacting those types of organizations with this program? >> I think no matter if we decide to to do something or not to do something, I mean, I think you're exactly right. There's potential for a negative impact on on any group because reality is you've got x number of kids

118in in our in our community and you're going to take and divide those kids up in different ways. Um so the more opportunities that you have and promote um the chances are that that other other programs are going to be effective from an enrollment standpoint. Um our hope would be to to grab the kids that that normally would not participate in any capacity. um especially when you get up into eighth grade because the funnel is really big when you're at fifth grade, but as you keep going upwards, the number of kids that participate just drastically decreases. So, our our goal would be a would be to to to target those kids as well to make sure that that we are are are trying to not only hit the the groups that that normally participate, but

119the ones where we where they definitely see a huge drop off to get those keep those kids involved as long as possible. But, no, you're exactly right. there's there's a potential that other other other organizations could be negatively impacted and I think that's why it's important once we do this to to sit down and have a conversation of what and find out look at the data of what we had and and honestly I I don't think that we're and talking I'm speaking out of turn or not Dr. I don't think that we're opposed to having conversations with other groups as well, but I think, you know, we we we need to start the conversation and begin somewhere and this seemed like the path of least resistance because we already have that established partnership with ICRC.

120>> Certainly, and I and I appreciate that. I I would just ask would you please look into that and the the effect of it potentially. My as a public body, a governmental organization, I I just personally don't feel that we almost kind of upset the competitive balance. Um, and it's I don't know that I struggle with the concept of government organizations taking business from private organizations. And so just if you'll just get information on that, I appreciate it. Thank you, Miss Knox. Um, I know that there's I mean, if you got a pool of kids, there's going to be a pool different right now. A lot of parents um are being torn because of so many kids playing travel ball. So, they're not getting to play direct league with a lot of their classmates and

121things like that. They're playing travel ball, which is a hugely expensive endeavor for parents, especially those that travel aar. Um but um I'm like you. I really in all my years of experience with athletics, I really think especially you get the the district coaches involved and talk to the kids. Uh some of the smaller towns have been doing this for years just to build their programs. But uh um I think that um helping middle school is such an awkward age and they want to find themselves. They need to some sort of attachment. Um, and that's what it's about, discovery, I guess. But, uh, I I'm I hope you have 500 kids out there, you know, to choose from. I hope you have enough volunteers because that sometimes that can be an issue. Um, Jason White

122has called me once or twice to help when I didn't have any players, which I do. I enjoy it. But, uh, um, I'm excited about the prospect of getting more kids. Um, and and you do have kids that'll do both. They'll play with this league and then the church league plays on Sunday night or something like that. They'll still be involved with that, too. But, uh, I'm excited with this prospect. Thank you, >> Miss Barnhart. Couple questions on how this baseball and that's and that's something that we pitched to ads, you know, in getting their support is that the conversation would started with we would like to do this um but we don't want to interfere with what's already happening and taking place. So that that is being taken into consideration um from on this

123on this side to make sure that that it won't conflict with practices um and um we also won't conflict with games for the already scheduled teams. um on this slide descriptions and postings are these entirely new positions or these >> correct memory else? All right. Thank you. >> Thank you guys so much. That moves us to discussion of board policy DBJ budget transfers. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. Um, tonight we bring forward the uh board policy DBJ, budget transfers. Um, this policy was asked to be brought forth. Um there was a attorney general opinion prior to me starting in this role. I believe it was from the spring of 2024, May 6, 2024. And at this point would just like clarification on our current board policy which discusses to approve general

124fund line item transfers in the aggregate totaling no more than $10,000 and general fund budget transfers over $10,000 will be presented to the board for approval. All line item transfers regardless of the amount will appear in the monthly financial report. So just wanted to bring this for discussion based on the attorney general's opinion as well as our current policy. Um and just have discussion about what is line item transfers mean, what is the um authority given to me through the board and what um discussion about just our current policy. >> Do we have any feedback questions comments to start Miss Hod? Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that the one of the concerns or issues is that the attorney general's opinion, and I don't have that handy, but it it says it

125calls a line item transfers, but there's no definition of what a line item is. You are correct. Um, the attorney general's opinion um does talk about, let's see, um, believe it's in the conclusion. It talks about the line item transfers and the uh the authority delegated to the board through the state law um as opposed to the authority that the board can delegate to the superintendent or his her designate. And so the the def the differentiation in that um the attorney general's opinion talks about um believe allowing budget transfers without board approval could be viewed as an unauthorized delegation of the board's discretionary authority. Um so so clarifying that but also realizing that um the board approves the budget um with the fund function and object code and so each line on the budget that

126the board approves. Um this is from our budget book from this year is a function a function fund function and object code not down to the actual specific location level. So this is the board the budget that the board approves realizing that in finance we get down to much more granular level of detail. So to move something between um object codes within a function is not functionally changing what's going on with with the exception of changing things out of salaries and um benefits. So within each function, so within the function of instruction, there are salaries, employee benefits, purchase services, supplies, and other um the majority of the budget transfers that come through my office are transfers between um object codes within a function. So within the function of instruction, moving money from a purchase service

127or buying a specific uh to a buying a specific supply. Um a lot of times principles, one year they wanted to buy books, next year they want to bring in a consultant to something or next year they want to um send somebody for travel. So, a lot of the budget transfers that come across my desk are down to that level of detail. They're not necessarily changing the the function or the intent of the budget that was approved, but it would change the budget that the board approved. And so, that's where the concern falls into place because it would change the object line within each function um from the board's approved budget. And so, um looking other school districts do. Um I think I believe I shared with you three policies from other school districts um

128across the state because there are varying degrees of board policy DBJ. Um and one specific school district states the superintendent and chief financial officer have the authority to transfer budget amounts within the same function and subfunction under the guidelines found in the financial accounting handbook for South Carolina public school districts. The superintendent will report any material transfers to the board on a periodic basis, but this policy doesn't define what material transfers are. Um, other school districts specify a specific dollar amount. So, anything under that threshold. Um, I come from the background of state government um where the state has specific um regulations on what you can and can't transfer there. specific about not transferring anything out of supply or out of um uh salaries and benefits but within a um within a a budget group

129um or a function essentially you can make those transfers between different lines. So that's what we wanted to bring for discussion more for point of clarification for myself as well as my finance staff as um you there was a at our last meeting of transfers. Was that all transfers? >> That was all transfers for the entire school year last year. >> Is that a a pretty easy report to produce? >> It is. >> So, just one suggestion might be that we handle this kind of like we do um offers where employment offers are made upon um board approval. So, they're contingent I should say. So, would a possibility be um once a month you go ahead and make the transfers and then once a month Those are presented um at the bud at board and

130you don't even have to get up and talk or anything. It's just kind of like what we do with the salaries and we just Yes. And that way we're doing what the attorney general wants us to do. And if there was one on there that people had questions about, they could ask. Is that a possibility? >> I think that's a great possibility. In fact, that's something that um Mr. Bradley and I discussed. Um bringing those forward every month is just a part of the fun monthly financial report. the second budget, second meeting of every month where we would have our financial report just bring those as part of the packet and then anything over that $10,000 threshold would still come to the board for approval. >> The only exception I would make to that is

131the $10,000 is really an arbitrary number and it doesn't really comport with the AG's opinion. So why not just bring them all in the board? Yes. And if there's questions about people but um my question to that would be if there is something that is moving function moving between those the the function. So if I if we are materially changing and again using that word materially without a definition but moving something from um instruction to operations something like that I feel like maybe would would merit board approval and I >> Mr. Bradley could ask the AG like if within the same function and subunction would that suffice that or whatever your terminology would prefer the the function and subunction was the the direction really that that leans back toward the state department of education. Um,

132I've actually reached out to them and their CFO for guidance to see if their attorneys would review what's in their financial accounting handbook because it talks about the fund the function and the sub function and keeping things within those lines as far as board budget approvals, but it doesn't specifically address transfers. So, I've asked for direction from them as well to try to give us some more guidance on what other school districts are doing just because looking at the policies across the board in the state, they're vastly different. >> I would be fine with you kind of continuing how we've been under the 10,000 if it's in the same function. But then to MTO's request about getting the report, I mean, I'm just speaking for self, but I would be fine with that. I saw

133Dr. Ross was trying to make a comment. >> I think to to make sure that we are in compliance with all we need really the vocabulary fix in the policy. I don't think we can just kind of operate. My recommendation is that we back a recommendation for discussion that clearly articulates the difference between function and selfunction. Those are things we need to do to operate. >> We take those about five a week. >> Good idea. >> I think the word transfer we cannot get away from. So then to that point do we handle that as as Miss Huddle said we need to separate the operational functions and and subunctions of your daily operations and then the reporting mechanisms of transfers if we can bring back some language to this body for discussion I think that

134would be helpful and I think it would help with the discussion piece >> is that a piece >> absolutely and I hope by the next board meeting I'll also have some direction from the state department of education because I think that would be helpful Thank you so much. Oh, sorry. >> Just one question. Did you say that in your role working for state government that it allowed transfers at those lower levels without approval? >> It did. So, the state actually has very specific guidelines. Um, there's a certain percentage of the agency's budget that can be transferred in and out of salaries. Um, and then within each operational program, so the state when the state is appropriating the budget, within certain programs, there's certain thresholds of percentages that you can move between them unless it's a

135very specific um they call them X programs. Those lines can't be moved because those are special appropriations for a certain project. >> So, it sounds like the practices at the state level are in complete uh, you know, in congruence with the attorney general. >> They are very different. And I actually spoke to Mr. Bradley about this. Um so the state again their their elected body approves a budget but is appropriated to the state agencies um which is in direct I am not a lawyer so um but seems direct conflict with what the attorney general's opinion talks about with the elected bodies of school districts um but the state there is a state law that allows for budget transfers from the legislature and that doesn't necessarily apply to school districts so I think that's the differentiating

136factor but again just trying to get clarification because there's multiple um multiple bodies that have opinions and want to make sure that we are following the law and all of the policies. So, so we will um bring back some guidance and hopefully some clear clearer language. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. And then that takes us to the final item on the discussion agenda which is discussion of board policy K public concerns and complaints. Dr. Ross. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. For the sake of time, this matter will come before us again in discussion. So we will not have to uh move to action at the next meeting. Uh however I wanted to talk about our current policy board policy K public concerns and complaints uh which basically uh talks

137about how matters will be referred for investigation action referred to the superintendent for investigation and appropriate action recommendations. It also says the board at its next regular schedule meeting will consider the grievance and complaint and dispose of the matter in accordance to best judgment. Uh, and this is in order to have these matters satisfactory resolved. There's a lot of vocabulary in this policy as well that I want to uh address and the first three are the notions of concerns, complaint, and grievances. Is important not to use these terms interchangeably because they have different meanings. A concern by definition is a worry. It's an it's a feeling but they may not be backed by any evidence. We receive a lot of concerns but those concerns are not complaints. Complaints are any that is also provided with

138evidence. So there is something that we can actually investigate. There is something there that we can directly deal with. It's very easy for the administration to investigate complaints because we know the first point in which to look an act. It's a picture. It's something that holds as a fact. Uh a lot of concerns that we spend time looking into we we cannot find the the it's difficulty finding the the the facts. And then there are grievances. Grievances when you have there's evidence against a rule or policy that violation covers as a grievance. All of these are dealt with in a very different way by the administration. Our burden of proof and investigation is very high on grievances, very specific on complaints but all over the place with concerns. As a result, there are two other

139definitions that we need to address and that is that of retaliation and what's called resolve satisfactory. U we hear a lot that items were not brought to the administration out of fear of retaliation. Retaliation is that an adverse action taken against an employee for something that they have done visav i.e telling or sharing a complaint or a concern or grievance. And so because of the interchangeable nature of how this is used looked at and I've had kind of at some other districts what they're doing to align our public concerns and complaints with what our staff concerns and complaints policies look like and in that format you have different levels. Um a lot of those refer to the lowest or the incident the area closest to the incident we call that level one that resolved at

140the principal director level with the school moves to level with the appropriate chief that handles that matter would address it. Level three is to the superintendent and then level four to the board. In a lot of policies, you will see that uh the concerns and complaints and grievances must go from level one to level four so that in a lot of cases we can get those things resolved in some cases right in the teacher's classroom. But this is a our current system. There are many concerns, many many concerns and ocean concerns. Uh but if they all have the phone to the superintendent, I fear that we won't adequately address all the concern that exist there. So we see them reported various ways through emails, phone calls, social media but having a systematic way to address

141it uh so that we can move to this notion of satisfactory resolve. All of these we are looking to define and to create a policy that allows this level system. And so some of our neighbors, a lot of our local districts have policies of public concerns and complaints and grievances that we would like to move forward. We wanted to share this with you for just discussion bring back to this body for discussion recommendations for more defined policy to ensure that when our public has concerns, complaints or grievances that there's a systematized way to address them. And for internal um complaints and grievances, if it's with their principal or director, do they go straight to Dr. Turner? >> Dr. Turner, if you would like to uh talk about how we handle the internal or employee complaints

142concerning >> that's policy GBK. Um and under GBK, it has levels as well. Um it's also refers to the level closest to the point of the concern. The exception to that is if the concern is with the principal or with the direct supervisor. Um they don't have to start there. If that is the person that the grievance concern or complaint is being raised against, then GBK clearly outlines the policy that it can come to the chief human resources officer um as a for investigation. >> Thank you. Um yeah, I would like to say this, the success of um a parent getting the resolution that they're looking for or a teacher or an assistant or somebody within the school system really um depends on just how we we how successful we are in following this pattern.

143In other words, um when I was principal, I hated when I got a call from the district office of somebody complaining about a teacher. I said, "Well, they never called me." Um, you know, it made me feel like, "But why do you tell them to call me?" And the teachers would, you know, once or twice I got it from the teachers that said, "Mr. Sford, you should have told them just to call me. Why are you talking to me?" Um, so I think it's sort of it's a little bit demeaning to teachers if you go over their head if something that they can feel like they're professionals they can handle and it's a little demeaning to the principles and everybody else if you're if we allow this to to move forward in such a matter

144if they can just call a board member and the board member you know makes issue of it I'll get it solved as well. than everybody below that in line who could have easily most of the time 99% of the time have handled that without any big issue. So I think that the the trust we earn a lot of trust when we follow this when we you know we trust our teachers to do so many things well we should trust them to to talk to parents and deal with you know whatever situation it might be at the same time we should do the principles in the same fashion and everybody along that I don't call it you know chain of command but it's really in this this sense of hierarchy so if we circumvent that um

145The last thing I wanted to say is I I I u in my visiting schools I always tell teachers I said let us know contact if you talk to your principles talk to your principles if you got you want to bend an ear talk to the superintendent. Um people are genuinely interested in what you have to say. We're here to support you. Um teachers are really afraid to stand up in front of a school board and that's always been the way it is. It's not this board. It's just been that way. as long as I was ever in education, it's been intimidating for them. So, uh creating that atmosphere of working together and trust uh and following this uh this thing that you've already this board policy uh that we already have is is really

146important to everybody that's in that's involved in the process. That's all I got. Um it's not about the my comments not about the policy per se but just um I think I think times are changing in that um there are a lot of alternatives now to public school charter school and I I think and a lot of people are also conflict avoiders they're tired and they will their child without ever complaining to anyone. You know, they won't complain to the teacher, they won't complain to the principal, they won't complain to anyone. Um, I've had two calls from parents who called me upset about, and it usually wasn't one particular thing. I'll say that, but it was after they' already talk about how do we feedback from how do we encourage parents to do that to

147talk because I ask you raise this and usually they raise maybe one or two of their issues but not all of them they're afraid of retaliation or they're afraid it won't really help or anything just while we're talking about this I'd also like us to talk about how can we how can we make our parents feel heard and that they won't because that's the only way any organization gets better is by listening and having people that aren't afraid. And the same thing with teachers, right? You know, you don't want to get a grievance. How can we do a lot already And I was going to say after Mrs. Satville's comment about um principles feeling away or teachers feeling away if maybe the district office or the board is um contacted about an issue. I think

148um to Miss's point about people feeling like they'll be retaliated against. I can see how um some parents may be a little bit more hesitant to start there or maybe they have addressed the issue once or twice and have not felt like they've been seen or heard. So, um you know, as we get uh complaints, should we get complaints um from parents, um I also think it's important to maybe clarify that they've um tried the other steps instead of saying this is your, you know, this is the process or whatever because we don't want to turn um parents away from advocating for their kids no matter what the process might look like um for each individual. ual um family and what their level of comfort is to support. Do you have any other questions or

149concerns on this? I know we're going to discuss it again at the next meeting. I move that we adjourn. All in favor? Thank you. Um and that adjourns our meeting at 8:35.