001testing. Testing It is 5:00 pm. I'm going to go ahead and call the August 25th meeting to order. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda? >> Make a motion to approve the agenda. >> And a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? And the motion carries. um six to zero. Can I get a motion to enter into executive session, please? >> Make a motion to enter executive session to consider the following selected employment items exhibit A for action. Selected employment items exhibit B information only. Legal advice regarding the sale of district real estate. Legal advice relating to a data security incident. Legal advice regarding state budget proviso 1.120- student physical privacy. Legal advice regarding civil action number 325-CV-03528-J-SVH. Legal legal advice regarding civil action number 325-CV-00487-s. >> May I get a second? Second.
002>> All those in favor? And the motion carries six to zero. And we will recess to executive session. Good evening. It is 6:00 and I am going to call the regular scheduled August 25th board meeting to order. Um, as always, thank you to our students, family, staff, and community members who join us and support the work that we do together. We are here with one shared purpose to ensure the success of every student in our district. And with that, we'll move forward with our agenda. Um, we will have the invocation and pledge by Trustee Mike Satderfield. >> Okay. Uh, please bow your heads for a moment of silence for all the families involved in last Friday's tragic accident. Dear Father, as we gather here this evening, we give thanks for the opportunity to serve our
003children, educators, and community. We ask for guidance, direction, and humility as we make decisions that impact the education of all our students. Help us to come together with respect and understanding that creates an environment where every person is heard and valued. May our hearts and minds be open to the needs of everyone in our community. Please be with our educators, students, families, and community as we begin this new school year. Give us a strength and resolve to promote an environment that is both nurturing and inclusive for all. We pray all these things in your name. Amen. If you'll stand and join me for the pledge, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
004for all. If all the board members will please join me up front for the school board spotlight. Okay, Madame Chair, members of the board, Dr. Ross, good evening. Um, I have some folks tonight to welcome to new roles within the district, but they are not new faces. So, um, we just do want to take this opportunity to congratulate them and welcome to them to their new positions this year. First, we have, uh, Mr. Kendrick Davis, who has been named director of technology. Uh, prior to coming to that role, Mr. Davis served as the district's technology infrastructure specialist. He has also worked as information systems resource specialist and information resource technician. So, he is very experienced in technology. He has more than 20 years of experience in technology design, planning, and implementation. So, we do welcome
005him to this new role. Second, tonight we have Mr. Reed Gunter, who has been named principal of Dutch Fork High School. Come on, Kendrick. We'll do it. And then we'll do a picture together at the end. Okay. At Dutch Fork High School again, we have uh Mr. Reed Gunter who has been named principal. Prior to this new position, Mr. Gunter served as assistant principal at Dutch High School, assistant principal at Dutch Middle School, and 10 years as a middle school ELA teacher. Mr. Gunra has also coached C team football and varsity lacrosse. So, welcome and congratulations. And then tonight also we have Miss Amy Scorano, principal of Chapen Elementary School. Prior to taking this position, she served as an assistant principal at Chapen Elementary and as an administrative assistant principal at Ballentine Elementary. She also
006spent 20 years teaching in the classroom before moving into administration. So congratulations Miss Gerano and welcome At this time, I'll turn it over to Dr. Ross for the superintendent's report. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board, and our community. It's an honor uh to be here as we start our school year, get it kicked off right. We are very proud of good news rolling in. Uh as US News and World reports, high school rankings have been released, ranking school district 5 among the top uh schools in the Columbia area. Uh so congratulations to High School. If you remember the last time of their ranking uh at 21 to see the advancement that they are making within the rankings. So very proud of that. Dutk High School at number three in the Columbia area.
007And uh in addition to that, Chapen High School number two in the cli area fall uh only with Spring Hill as number one. So we're very proud of the uh rankings of our high schools. Uh when you look at the uh these uh reports and you see the college readiness rate of school district 5, uh there's only one district in the in the state that outranks us. Uh but number one in the Midlands uh for preparing our students for college readiness. So we're very proud of our schools and our school districts. And this is not just a celebration for the high schools. This celebration goes all the way to our elementary schools and our what we do with family services uh and how we work with students in prek. So, it's a celebration for our
008entire system because that's what we are a system uh guided by three critical questions. Why do we do this work? How do we accomplish that why? And then what are our outcomes? Our why is that we love and grow our students? Our how is that we're focused on academic, social, emotional growth and development. And then our what is our strategic plan. Our strategic plan is our four performance goals with 24 strategies to ensure that every child feels loved in our schools and has demonstrated academic growth in our schools. We are uh one year away from completing our five-year uh strategic plan. And because of that, we're going to be moving on to establishing our next five-year plan. Uh that process um will begin in January of of this school year as we prepare for the
0092028 to 2032 uh five-year strategic plan. Uh currently we're working on over 160 different action steps within our current strategic plan uh to ensure that every student feels loved in our schools and has demonstrated academic growth. As a district this year, we're focusing on supporting the whole child, the whole teacher and staff and the whole district as we make these changes. We talked about the goal of every school is to ensure that that strategic plan is measured not only in the academic achievements, but in the quality of experiences that we give to our students and staff and families. And as a result, putting every school uh within our district in the high love and high growth area. And so uh to do that, one of the things that we need to do is focus on
010how do we tier our interventions to ensure that we can move into this area and uh we rely heavily on what's called MTSS or multi-tiered support services. I want to uh draw everyone's attention to tier one instruction. Uh that's our number one intervention that we use is our tier one instruction. There's a lot of discussion about what what are students learning in classrooms? What are teachers teaching in classrooms? Well, the office of academics has put together on the academics page a proficiency and success criteria link. I encourage all parents, all community members, uh those who are uh interested in what goes on in our classrooms to visit this page. The academics team has worked very hard to ensure that all of our classes and all of the expectations by quarter are listed here. So if
011you click those links, you can see what does a third grader need to learn in the first quarter? If my child is in algebra or pre-alggebra in middle school, what what do they need to learn right now in the first quarter of school? uh if they're taking a high school class in in world history, all of those topics, all of those success criterias are listed for them. We use the words I can statements. Those I can statements are what parents can get involved with right now to help our students ensure that they can meet those academic requirements uh and be aware of what's expected of them when they get to school. Our belief is that transformation starts in the heart. We want to move students from I can't do this. I'm not good at math,
012not good in science, not good in reading or social studies or arts or sports to I can. And we believe that transformation starts in the heart. So with that, we are very proud of the work uh that we're we're doing uh in our schools each and every day uh towards that goal of our strategic plan. I want to make our community aware of a virtual town hall that will be taking place tomorrow. Uh this is in response to our data security incident and we want to uh invite uh if you are able to attend on Tuesday, August the 26 from 6:00 to 7, we will host a virtual town hall. Uh we have FBI's joint terrorist task force member and FBI SWAT team member Jack Jen who was joining us giving us his expertise on
013what families can do uh to understand what happened in the data security incident but also give a call to action give us all tools how we can navigate in this everchanging world of cyber security and so we're proud to be able to call on our experts we've been very fortunate to have the work led and and our partners, local law enforcement, uh state law enforcement, and now federal uh law enforcement to help us uh against these cyber threats. So again, if you can join it, if you're not able to join, uh this will be taped and posted on our website. Members of the community are able to submit questions online up through nine o'clock tomorrow. We will take these questions to tailor our work uh towards the questions of the community and our families. Uh
014also wanted to uh make the board aware that we'll be asking for at minimum discussion of a budget amendment on October the 22nd. Um, if you uh look at our updated board uh planning calendar, this is our uh budget and staffing planning calendar for the year. I know it's hard to see from uh your seats here, but this is how we get through a budget season. Uh every group has a part to play in establishing our annual budget. Uh but if you look at the superintendence line under October uh that is the budget amendment has been moved from January to October of this year. Why are we moving this? Uh in your packet you see the uh 10day report uh that has been posted. Uh we are down over 600 I believe 627 students from
01510 days last year. That will have impact on our our state revenue. As a result, we want to uh re-evaluate where we're going to be at the funding uh cut point of the 45th day. Uh so this is an early indication of reduction of state aid to classroom. And so we are going to be looking to see where we land on October the 9th. That's the 45th day of school. And we're going to look at reassigning funds to cover any shortfalls due to state aid to classroom reductions. So, um, we're asking right now that any increases that we should make, uh, be linked to local, state, and federal compliance requirements as we go through, uh, this, uh, this budget amendment process. Uh, I think we we are in a good place to with our current
016budget uh, and the what I call parachutes built into the budget to take us through this year. But I want to make sure that we are aware given the 10th day count that we're able to uh make a plan for budget amendment u conversation as early as October the 27th. Uh before we move to the academics report, are there any questions um regarding anything that was covered? >> Any questions? Uh at this time we're going to have our academics report and making our way to the lect turn is our chief academics officer, Miss Tina McCascal. >> Good evening, Madame Chair, Dr. Ross board. Nice to be back with you tonight. I'm going to start off with a video that we started our teaching and learning conference with uh August the 4th. Just as an example
017of what we really are about in academics, to achieve great things. But doing great things >> on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences >> is not only measured by our successes. >> And I now ask you to step forward to receive your Nobel Prize, >> but by striving for excellence, by raising our standards, by expecting the impossible. But this is basic research and we're pioneering out here and a lot of great science. >> We may call this a fool's hope that one person can have an impact on humanity. But we have been proven wrong before. We have proven that we can always dig deeper. that what led us here will lead us further. That it's in the details where greatness is achieved. That small steps lead to giant leaps. So, we started our
018conference on August the 4th for teaching and learning with that video and I tied that within a a short presentation for the teachers to just help them understand the importance of believing and and just like I talked with you about the last time the high effect size of belief and what we can do and what students can do. And this was came out of last March, a conversation I was having with coordinators and just talking about our lead D5 professional development and what is it that we could do a little different to try to meet the needs of our staff. And of that came the kind of the dream of making it a conference um and then developed into what really was the conference. And it totally had everyone in the district involved. We had
019bus drivers helping us with shuttles back and forth from Chapen Middle to Spring Hill High School for this particular part of the conference. Um we had student council at Spring Hill. They were our directors to help people find their way. Uh we had a total of 112 unique presentations for the day and 143 sessions that were offered that morning for teachers to choose where they wanted to go and where they needed to grow. And so they were able to make that decision. They were all wrapped around PLC's and the four questions. So all of the presentations were linked to one of the four questions. Um so it was very um strategic and very specific about the learning that took place that day. So we were excited about that. I'm very excited for the teamwork um
020the work that academics put in and just all of the district that came together for that day. It truly was teamwork. So I appreciate that. something to celebrate. And then the next one uh we also developed the champions of support and with um again technology office of technology partnered with us to plan this and we had at Dutch High School we had 30 sessions. 22 of those were unique sessions but our bus drivers were actually working that day because they were running shuttles. our custodians had to work because they were helping us keep the facilities going and then our um cafeteria staff had their own sessions um at the same time that were taking place. So that is in addition to those things that were going on. Um, I do want to say that we
021had two businesses, two partnerships with Lake Murray Drug and Vivid Aesthetics who actually donated money so that we could get gift cards and the presenters were all placed in a a drawing and they were able to get gift cards for um being willing to present because our presenters were our teachers and our staff. And so we did have some of our vendors that came in and did some of the professional development for curriculum and things like that, but for the most part it was our staff that provided the professional development. So we learn from each other. So really excited about that. Um and hope that we'll continue to grow that in the future as well. So now I'm going to ask Mr. Priy, our um director of CTE, to come up and talk to you
022a little bit about some changes that have taken place with that credentials. Thank you, Miss McCascal. Uh, Madame Chair, members of the board, Dr. Ross, thank you for this opportunity to present this evening. As of August 20th, this is the new certifications for students to be completers in CTE has actually been finalized and taken effect. It hot off the press. Okay. Okay, the tiered credential system is approved by the South Carolina Education Oversight Committee and they have approve approved the new tiered credential system to better align high school credentials with workforce needs. Beginning with 10th graders in the 2526 school year, credentials will be classified as introductory, which is a tier one, intermediate, which Tier two and career ready tier three enabling students to progress from entry level to industry recognized credentials. To earn a
023credential, students must complete a CTE program and achieve at least three points through approved combinations. When they say tiered, that's the points. Okay. Uh oh, there we go. Thought I broke it. All right. Under the tiered system, a tiered one is one point which is the introductory certification. It's basic skills validation regional industry recognition entry level attainment. For an example, the OSHA 10 certification is a tier one. Another one that is is the basic CPR, first aid, and AED. Tier two, which is two points, that's the intermediate, industry recognized, hiring consideration, pathway based, and workforce readiness. For those that drive cars, you go to the repair shop and you see a sign that says ASSE ASE accredited repair shop. All those certifications under ASSE for an example one that we're required to do by a
024state department is breaks. Those are tier tier two. Okay. Tier three which is three points that is career ready industry alignment job market demand economic outcomes stackability and career pathways and it's administered by a third party. An example of that is the national health science exam which is a tier three because that is their final step before they go leave health science and go into postsecary or some type of OJT program at a hospital or clinic. Uh another tiered three is the um I just read this. The EMT, emergency medical technician, which goes through the EMS program that we have at Irma High School, that is a tiered three because with that certification, they can go right on the job and be running ambulances after a probationary period, of course. All right. the tiered system
025requirements. This at first was a little confusing, but one tier three credential, they're good to go. That's their three points. Now, they can have a combination of tier two plus a tier one to get their three points, but it has to be in their career pathway. For an example, if you have an automotive pathway and they do a tier one in a business course, it won't count toward their three points. It has to be in their designated pathway. Universal credential as OSHA 10 paired with a tier 2 or higher credential within the students career pathway. We also have um soft skills, personal skills, that's a tier one and partner that with a tier 2 as a ASSE and they're good to go. As I said, students cannot mix and match credentials from different career pathways.
026Okay. The state department has designated under the new cluster system the certifications that count for that cluster. For an example, again in automotive, they don't normally do the OSHA 10 safety. They'll do what's called SP2, which is safety and pollution control because that's requirement for the field. And that particular one is a tier one plus an ASC exam. They'll have their three points. Okay, questions. I know it was pretty quick. Like I said, the the final decision from the state department came out last week. >> Mr. Satderfield. >> Uh yeah, I don't have a question about the tier system. I was just curious uh has our enrollment how is it we how are we doing with the Kate Center with our enrollment? Are we picking it up a little bit or the >> here at
027the center? >> Yes sir. >> We have picked up this year because we've added one new program. We added 43 students to the HVAC program and we have uh for an example automotive again we have a waiting list. welding. We have a waiting list and students want to be here. And overall throughout the district, I don't I don't have the numbers yet this year, but last year 6 through 12 in CTE, we had 3,86 students and we're projecting to be a little bit higher than that this year across the district. >> Um Dr. Ross, do you anticipate when we get this big earth mover situation and those numbers picking? I mean, I should ask the director. >> Oh, yeah. I was going to turn it over to the director for the details, but to to
028be honest, and he's been a little modest, if you talk about the capacity uh field rate where you when you came in to where we are now and why the expansion will help us. >> And we do expect, you know, we have to uh crawl before we can walk. But in the heavy equipment operator, we're expecting the same addition like we did with HVAC this year between 40 and 50 students and then we'll grow from there. >> And we'll also the plan also there is to expand the welding program facility so we can have more students and not have this huge waiting list that we do now. and the uh building construction. We're going to have a bigger space there so we can add students there, which is another program that has waiting list. >>
029Well, I want to just brag on you just for a second. I recently had an issue with my air conditioning with all this heat and uh they sent two guys out. One of them was a Dutch fork high school student who had enrolled in this program and this the supervisor was bragging on this guy said he was very well trained, very well educated and wished he could get more folks like that. So I know you got a a line of a waiting list so to speak for HVAC but um I just want to tell you thank you for that. >> Well and I appreciate that comment. We have right now four local area businesses that are partnered with us. Uh matter of fact, last Thursday we had a delivery of some scratch and dent type
030air conditioners and furnaces that were donated for the HVAC program. And we'll go along the same lines with the new equipment operator because I've already started uh developing a steering committee for that. >> Anybody else? >> All right. Thank you all. >> I didn't know where you were. >> I didn't want to scare you. >> Okay. So, let's get into some instructional technology. Um, on July the 21st, we talked a little bit about e-learning, and I just wanted to bring that back. Um, just as a reminder that we do have a D5 e-learning plan and I've linked there the e-learning handbook as well. Some changes from the state. I wanted to make sure that I point those out with e-learning. But the instruction has to be provided in form of online meetings and or provided
031videos and audio. The lessons provided should require a minimum of 200 minutes of instruction. That can be video, reading, listening. Additional time for student engagement, studying and work completion. You have to have 130 minutes for K through 8 and 160 minutes for 9 through 12. So the total minutes is 5 and a half hours for K through 8 and 6 hours for 9 through 12. So whenever we have an e-learning day, the new requirements would have to um be in be consistent with what the new state guidelines have for us. And then I also provided you with a copy of the South Carolina computer science and digital literacy standards. That's K through 12. Um really want to call attention to that. If you look, it's if you look at page seven, that's the first one.
032It actually repeats every time that there is a grade level for that. But on page seven, you'll see that it talks about the process standards for digital literacy. And when you look at those, those are not things that you can go through and you can like click click click like you just check them off. Those are standards that have to be authentically intertwined into instruction, into everything you do. And you incorporate that with the computer and with the devices and with teaching kids how to do that. Just like I see each of you sitting there at your station, you have a computer in front of you. It's part of what you're doing. You're not just on your computer. You're listening. You're you're taking notes. you're processing, but you're also utilizing that device. And that's what
033we're preparing students to do each and every day so that they know how to interact with the devices, not just play on them, but they're using them productively. And that's what page seven really calls our attention to doing. Page eight is the profile of the South Carolina graduate. And that's again what we're preparing students for in the future. So from the very beginning, starting in kindergarten, starting in preschool really, but in kindergarten specifically, we are beginning to to develop that citizen for the future. I don't know what 10 years from now might look like. I know what it looks like now. And I know what 10 years ago looked like. And it's so different that I know that if we get behind that we're going to have students who can't compete with those that that
034are graduating from other places around us. So I did want to call that to your attention. And starting in third grade, that's where you actually have words per minute in the standards. You start with five words per minute and each year that goes up by five words. So with typing of course all of our testing is is taking place on on Chromebooks. So we start in kindergarten with um fastbridge which is a a phenemic based um testing and then in first grade we start with map testing and they they're all on the computer and we have to decide if we're not utilizing computers authentically within our instruction. We have to decide are we going to test students on the computer to find out well they don't know how to use the computer or are we
035going to test them knowing that they know how to use the computer and then we get true data to help us with instruction on whether they know reading and writing and math and I think that's the key piece here is to understand that if we don't teach the computer and how to use it then we end up when we assess students we don't get pre we don't get real data we don't know whether they know how to read, write, or do math because they don't know how to use the computer. So, they're sitting there trying to figure that out. And their process, it's like a it's like a Coca-Cola bottle. A Coca-Cola Coca-Cola bottle. You can only fill it so far or and it'll start it'll start just spewing, right? Well, a person's brain, if
036they are overloaded with just the how to, just a how to act and how to function, you never know what's really there in terms of their learning because it's they're so frustrated and so anxious about what they're doing with the computer that they don't they can't tell you what they truly know. And so that's that's important for us to understand about that. The next slide gives us the resources that we as a district and then what the state provides for resources. There's a list there um for those resources. Some schools have purchased some separate things specifically for their school, but for the most part we stick um to this list. Then I thought it was pretty interesting to look at our usage um per day on an average usage. And I started to only give
037you the average for the district, but I thought it was important as I really looked at this how consistent this data truly is from one place to another. You have a little variation, but it's very consistent from school one to school 13. And I purposely didn't put them in any order. put didn't put put didn't put names or anything else, but it's each school in our district, but the average time in an elementary classroom is 21 minutes. And so that's not a large portion of their day. That and that I can't even narrow it down to 7:30 to 2:30. That's the whole day. That's when they're at home as well. So I can't drill any further than that. I tried, but I couldn't drill any further than that. Whenever you go to your secondary Chromebook
038usage, the average is 48. What I liked about this graph is if you go back to elementary, go to intermediate school, go to middle school, then go to high school, you'll see it gradually increase, which is what should happen because that's what's happening in real life. Whenever they go to a job, whenever they go to college, that's what we're preparing them for. And that's what truly should be happening. And so that's what I appreciated about this whenever I had that. Then I started thinking, what about parents? What if parents wanted to know what their children were doing on the Chromebooks? Like what what if they want to know? And so this is what when a child logs into their Chromebook. We used somebody's child that that we know, but anyway, we logged into their Chromebook.
039And that that icon in the bottom right hand corner is called um their analytics tab. And if you click on that analytics tab, this is what you get. and it will show you all of the resources that the child has been using, how many minutes they've been on it and how many times they've logged in. So, the parent doesn't have to question what the student is doing. It's all right there for them. So, I just thought it was important that you understood that Chromebooks are not play toys. Chromebooks are an essential piece of instruction to prepare students for the future that we know we want them to have. So, I'll stand for any questions. >> Miss Huddle, >> um, prior to CO, what year, what grade did we issue Chromebooks? >> We did not have
040Chromebooks um until like sixth grade because we didn't have them in the elementary grades. We had um computer labs with desktops in them. that students did not know what they were doing on them. >> I can appreciate that. I I mean, I appreciate you doing this and I mean, full disclosure, I'm probably the reason that you did this because I'm I've been very persistent about it and because what bothers me is I don't feel that our decision, and it's not just us, it's pretty much every school district in South Carolina. I don't feel like we took a purposeful approach to deciding to give individual devices to the younger kids. It it was something we had to do for COVID. We didn't have a choice because we had virtual and hybrid and all that. And and
041COVID's over. And I'm not concerned about high school or middle school. I'm not even concerned about children once they can read. But there's just there's studies. I couldn't find one that said it helped with reading comprehension. I found a ton that said it didn't. um it increases myopia, nearsightedness, and that starts in the first few minutes, you know, that the researchers found um handwriting ability. And I visit these schools and I have noticed and and it might not just be the Chromebooks, but I've seen a a personal with my own two eyes a deterioration in handwriting among like second and third graders from four years ago. Um and those are our COVID kids, right? Um and then distraction. What was really interesting is that they've done studies of what distracts students and they find that
042these devices distract them even more than cell phones. And we've said, "Well, you can't have cell phones." Um, so I guess that's all I would really like us to look at. I've I I know there's some other school districts that um use iPads, for example, for the kindergarteners and the first graders, but those are the ones I'm concerned about is all of the negative things associated with them with our youngest children before they've learned how to read. >> We do have touchscreen Chromebooks for our kindergarten students. So, um we it's not iPads, but they're touchcreens like an iPad for the Chromebooks. Um that's what we use for our kindergarten students. Um, again, I appreciate your opinion. Um, but a call back your attention to it's 21 minutes a day on average that we're preparing them
043for how to use the Chromebook so that when they give us the knowledge, they give us what they truly know. That that's what I that's what I would >> and I understand that. I guess again, we didn't study this. COVID happened. We did it. And so I guess all I'm suggesting is that we look at it and not this, not now. I mean, we have them, but talk to parents, look at, you know, are there other alternatives that might be better in the future for our youngest children than a than a Chromebook, even a touchscreen. I I just think we should look at it because again, we never really looked at it. We just said, "Boom, we have to do this." Miss um Macasco, you mentioned that um prior to CO we had computer labs
044and you said that kids didn't know um what to do with them, but I believe some of the schools still do have computer lab. So I I I'm not saying we shouldn't. I'm just confused since >> what happens is they take their Chromebooks with them to their labs a lot of times. A lot of times we don't have the desktops any longer and Mr. Davis can probably He stepped away. Never mind. He um but we don't have as many of those set up any longer, the actual labs. So, the kids will take their Chromebooks with them and they'll use those as part of their related arts area. So, that one day a week they'll go in and they'll get some additional instruction specifically on typing um various uses of the computer. So once a week
045in the elementary schools, they do have that's one of their five related areas. Um we don't have a certified teacher there. It's a support staff member that's that actually runs that computer lab. Um it's a way of giving this and a lot of our schools have gone away from doing that and using it as a maker space now. So they're incorporating more steam type activities versus the computer lab. So, so if we're not necessarily using it as a computer lab, um when are they learning how to type? >> So, that's part of what they do authentically throughout the day. So, the computer lab itself does have a typetastic program to help them with learning how to type. Just like you and I sat on typewriters and did that, but they do this through a through
046a program. but also they're they're they're authentically typing their papers as they're as they're going throughout their day. And so they're learning that typing through that authentic learning. >> I think if I had any concern, it would be that the the the lack of structured learning um how to type. I mean, I have two kids that have already had Chromebooks and I'm not sure that I think that that's what they're doing. That's just my personal, you know, experience. So, >> just something um to think about. And then also, um you show the time for how much time people you they're using on the Chromebook. Is that um mandated that they're only using 21 minutes? So, how do we I hate to use the word um control it because that's not what I'm saying, but um
047control it. Um that it's not being overly used for lack of a better way to put it. >> I agree. It's not a babysitter and that's not what we we want to make sure that that's not the case. But our elementary principles all agree with that same sentiment and when they have conversations with their teachers, they're they're looking for that. When we do our classroom observations, I share with y'all some of the classroom mosaic data. Um, and there's a place in there that you actually mark if there are certain programs that are being utilized that we can track to see what types of programs are being done. So through that observation cycle, that's how we would see that. Um, but I agree with you. We do not want them to be used just to be
048sitting on computers to be on computers. And you know, elementary, we actually took like the YouTube, we took that away. So, Elementary does not have access to that to just go on and search YouTube any longer. Um, because of that was a distraction and so we're trying to limit those distractions the best that we can. >> Do we have Miss Savannah? >> Two questions. First one is you mentioned touchscreen Chromebooks. I know it can't be an issue for just my daughter, but with the special needs students, she gets frustrated trying to log in, especially with these new changes. She's got to learn a whole new password in the multiffactor. Are there options where they can be like bio login type situation? >> I don't think we have a bio login, but we actually um we've
049we've got some iPads for special needs students. So depending on the needs of the child, the IEP team can decide on a different type of device for children. >> Okay, that's good. And then other than our AI program, are there any like of the like chat GPT things that they can access from those Chromebooks or is it strictly just our AI program? >> We do not block um chat GPT. We do not block that currently >> because there was an interesting study I saw over the past few weeks where when school let out usage of some of these AI programs fell off a cliff. So I don't know if there's any way to monitor that or look into it. There is something we can we can monitor that for sure, but we have not as
050a district chosen to block those yet. >> Do we have other questions, Scott? >> Thank you, Miss McCascal. Um, I I just wanted to follow up say I was in one of the elementary schools last week and it was pretty much unannounced where where I would go or visits and I went to about 12 classrooms uh first to fourth grade and I saw one classroom using Chromebooks um and they were buddied up doing a math thing and I talked to several teachers about it and they are seem to be very passionate about using it you know for very specific purposes. Um you gave us a copy of the digital literacy standards. So who is responsible for teaching those and how are teachers, schools, and school districts held accountable to those standards? >> So really the
051responsibility there's not a it's not like read or math. It's there's not that accountability for for those. It's the citizen that we're producing in the end that is responsible for those. Honestly, I mean that's that's part of what we authentically need to teach because we're teaching for the future for for kids. Unfortunately, in the early stages and the early grades, we're really teaching them how to use the computer to test so that we're testing their knowledge about about their skills versus the knowledge of the skill of the computer. Um, but there is no true test for that. Um, we do have, like I said, in the elementary grades, we do have, um, a support staff person that once a week kids go to in terms of helping with some computer skills, but our classroom teachers
052are the ones teaching the computer skills to the to the students. >> And I it's I just want to point out, I mean, there is a real thing called expert induced amnesia and where people who get to a certain comfort level with think they forget what it took to get to that point. And if you've ever tried to work with elderly with computers or when you brand new students, you know, there's that hurdle to get over and it just takes a lot longer to get there. So yeah, I think we all, you know, want less device time if we can possibly get it, but certainly some of it's going to be necessary. >> Yeah, Miss McCascal, if you'll just um confirm just to recap. Did I am I correct in understanding what you were talking
053about with the computer lab? Is it's based on your observation and and you made the statement that those students when we use computer labs weren't as prepared. Would you is it correct in your opinion that that's more of a obsolete model of instruction at this point in time? We've kind of bypassed that. >> Yes. And in have has there been any observation from either teachers and I know there's and I don't mean like a specific oh it happened once or I mean in general that would rise to a level of concern of from either teachers, administrators or anyone in the schools that we've seen our elementary school kids um kind of abusing the the Chromebooks or the screen time or kind of misusing it. Have we have we observed that to a notice noticeable degree?
054>> We have not to my knowledge. No. >> Okay. >> Miss Huddle. >> I do want to go back to the um the keyboarding. Um I just really I guess want to echo Miss Snipes. Um I think I heard a little concern in there. Um, and my kids are old. They're not even kids anymore, but they learned keyboarding at Chapen Elementary School and they could out type with their eyes closed. You know, they were, you know, literally 75, 80 words a minute, and they learned to do it the right way. And, and I, you know, went to, we went to a high school today and you see kids doing this because they never learned how to type correctly. So I I also just want to express I share her concern that I think when you
055and it kind of piggybacks on um on what Mr. Herring said too. Sometimes if you you got to learn it the right way from the beginning. So I know we have a lot going on and all that, but I just I feel like we're just kind of giving them the devices and not really teaching them. We might be teaching them how to turn it on and log in and all that good stuff, but it's really they're going to be a lot better served if they can type faster when they get older. And we do try that. I I will say we do try we do that with with a program in our in our with the support person when they go once a week. Um I'm sure many of you all of you probably know
056what an elementary classroom is like. Um the classroom elementary classroom teacher just really doesn't have time in her day to sit there and teach that keyboarding skill necessarily. So I do understand what you're saying. I just hope that you understand the bigger picture of that classroom as well. >> I don't think the expectation I can't speak for Miss, but I know when I brought it up, I I get that. I don't I don't have that expectation. Um maybe from the from the baseline teacher, but I do think that that's what something that we're missing. Even if the um computer lab model that I had when I came through school, which is where I learned how to type and I was one of those people who could probably type with my eyes closed. My kids ask
057me all the time, how can you type so fast? But back then you had to learn, you know, ASDF, you know, you know, you just know and then it becomes innate in you. And so I think that um I get it. Technology is changing. the world is different and um electronic usage is going to be a thing. Um but I do wish the the typing component was there as well because I hear what you're saying about kind of learning it organically but I don't know obviously I'm not in the classroom but just based on my own kids and nieces and nephews I don't know if I think that that is necessarily what's happening. um at all. So, you know, it's just something to think about. Um so, and Mr. Bannon wanted to say something. I'm
058sorry. It was something that we've all probably got emails about and you you may have some sort of um system in place. So when teachers are out, is there like a standard that we may implement if we don't already where they can have like virtual lessons prepared for the substitutes to, you know, play or implement or some sort of arrangements because it's doesn't seem to be consistent from like parents will say, you know, they're just given busy work or they're just told to do this or do that. Is that something that we have set up or >> we don't have virtual lessons for um substitutes, but there are lesson plans left for sub for substitutes. Typically for a substitute, you will get review work. You're not going to get new learning because we're not certain
059of the knowledge of the substitute that may come into the room, but you typically would have um you know some review work that students are working are working on. >> Thank you. Anybody else? All right. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss McCasco. I just wanted to follow up with the last slide here and just uh as we talk about this, I want to point our attention again to Miss McCasco and her team set up those expectations for all the classes. Uh and if you look at the kindergartener uh expectations for our earliest learners, I think when we took typing, we took it in middle school or junior high school. We did not take it at kindergarten or first grade. I want you to look at what we ask our kindergarten teachers to work on. It
060is handwriting. It's capital and lowercase. It's syllables and breaking down. It's the things that we need to install in kindergarten. There's not a lot of time for the Chromebooks or any kind of devices because a lot of it is breaking down sound syllables, handwriting, it's dexterity things. Uh so I I think we um we we are impacted by that third grade, right? That um they have to do the writing and the selecting on the on the Chromebooks by those third grade scores. But I encourage parents uh to really go on to the academics website, look at the success criterias, see all of the things that teachers are asking your children to do, and I think we'll be comforted by knowing, okay, this is what they're expected to do. This is how I can support them
061at home. So, that's our D5 story. Uh that concludes the superintendent's report, and I stand for any questions. >> Do we have any additional questions? Miss Huddle, >> I was just curious, and this might be a Miss McCascal question about how the letters is going um and if there's any changes this year, >> right? We are this this year we will actually finish a large number of our kindergarten through third grade um teachers will finish. So many of our teachers, most of our teachers are in their second year. So, our fourth and fifth grade teachers are starting this year for the first um year. And then our special ed teachers in the middle school are starting this year as well. So, at the end of this school year, we will have probably around 90% of
062our K through three teachers should be finished with letters and completed that. >> Anybody else? >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Ross. Thank you, Mr. McCasco. That moves us to the approval of the minutes from the August 11th meeting. Do I have a motion? >> Make a motion to approve the minutes of the August 11, 2025 board meeting. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? And the motion carries 6 to zero. Um it's my understanding we do not have anybody for public participation this evening. So that moves us to our action agenda. Um, with action is necessary or appropriate on matters discussed in executive session. >> I make a motion to approve selected employment items in exhibit A. Do >> you have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor?
063And the motion carries 6 to zero. I make a motion that the current sale of district property at Derek Pon Derek's Pond Road TMS numbers R0160-08-011 and 08-26 and 08-02 under consideration is disapproved and as a result the the administration shall discontinue current negotiations for the sale of the property and commence further due diligence regarding the property, including but not limited to further evaluating its value and or listing it with a real estate professional for sale. >> Second. >> All in favor? And the motion carries six to zero. That moves us to the approval of second and final re reading of proposed revisions to board policy JLCDA. Make a motion to approve the second and final reading of proposed revisions to board policy JLCDA individual healthcare plans as shown in exhibit C. >> Second. >>
064All in favor? And the motion carries six to zero. Um moves us to the approval of second and final reading of proposed revisions to board policy JICG tobacco use by students. Make a motion to approve the second and final reading of proposed revisions to pro board policy JICG, tobacco use by students shown in exhibit D. >> Second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? Opposed. And the motion carries six to zero. Make a motion to approve the second and final reading of proposed revisions to board policy JLCDB use of epinephrine auto injectors shown in exhibit E. >> Second. All in favor and the motion carries six to zero. Uh, make a motion to approve the first reading of proposed revision to board policy GCB, professional staff contracts and compensation shown in exhibit F. >>
065Second. Any discussion? All in favor? The motion carries six to zero. Make a motion to approve the first reading of proposed revisions to board policy GCI, professional staff development, shown in exhibit G. >> Second. All those in favor. Motion carry six to zero. >> Make a motion to approve the first reading of proposed revisions to board policy GCK, professional staff assignments and transfers shown in exhibit H. >> Second. All in favor? The motion carries six to zero. >> Make a motion to approve the community eligibility program C resolution shown in exhibit I. >> Second. >> All in favor? And the motion carries 6 to zero. That moves us to the discussion agenda. First up, we have the discussion of board policy IC school year two-year calendar approval. Miss Taylor. >> Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair.
066Um, this year we are going to try something new and present to the board two academic years of calendars at the same time for approval. So um in this instance it would be years 2627 and 2728. Um we a lot of districts are moving to this right now just because of the flexibility it provides to families for planning travel those sorts of things. So, um I am just presenting this opportunity for you all to look at our calendar, our academic calendar, school year board policy, um and hear any feedback you may have regarding any changes that may need to be made. Quick, can just clarify this is um we're we're going to be doing two years of the calendar instead of the one year. >> Yes, sir. >> Trying to get me two years of
067trouble all at once. >> As we as we read the policy, we're able to do it. We just wanted to bring it to this body to see if you felt like it needed an amendment. Uh if not, we would move forward with presenting to this body two calendars. You still have again under the policy the right to approve one or both. But we just wanted to for today only I mean for discussion only look at the policy and see did it needed amendments uh before we went in that direction. >> Um Dr. Ross I'm wondering if while we're at it the legislature passed that or I don't know if it was the legislature or the department of ed where the board can designate additional weather days. I mean, would that be something if we're if
068we make this change, it would be worth adding? >> Yes, >> because it does mention the makeup days and all of that. >> It does. Yes, ma'am. It does. I think that would be an appropriate place to add that for sure. >> And we could put calendar parenthesy calendar >> calendar parentheses S. We can do that. The other question I did have um regarding this is that it says the superintendent um will bring the calendar in the spring of each year. Typically we um you know for earlier planning purposes have begun doing that in the fall. Um is is certainly your discretion how we handle that. Do we take out a season and just say the superintendent will present the calendar each year or some something to that effect and however you all feel about
069that. >> The other one I'm wondering if we need to change is it says the district will not begin classes for students prior to the third Monday in August. >> I think we need to change that. that that is um if I understand it correctly a section of state law that we have to um adhere to unless >> we be modified academic. >> That's >> so that's the >> So could we maybe even say we're modified because aren't we >> or we're >> we could quote that statutory language that we begin after the third Monday unless we are observing a modified activity. While we're at it, I'd probably suggest that because I'm afraid somebody would look at this and say, "Oh, you can't start then." >> That's right. >> That stood out to me, too.
070I was waiting to ask about that as well. >> And I also am fine, Miss Taylor, with not listing a season. I think you were looking for feedback on that. >> Okay. >> And what we have now is considered a modified. >> Yes, ma'am. Miss, I remember the weather thing vaguely that you're talking about. Is that where we can decide if we want to give more days to make up for weather? Yes. The I think was it the legislature added that? >> That's correct. So the uh state department guidance I believe u allows us to uh bring to the board after we have exhausted our makeup days. Uh then it gives the board the opportunity to uh remove additional days I believe up to three days >> I believe it's correct. >> Uh and then
071after that it must go to the state board of uh education. So these are regs uh in the attendance policy. Yes. >> So, M go ahead. >> Yeah. Just Dr. Ross, real quick. Does this have any concerns or do you have any concerns about this from a an alignment with the budget because the budget's approved annually, but now we're approving a calendar for two years. >> Uh, no sir, we we still will keep the budget to one year. I think for us it does we are getting uh early and earlier planners about the start of the school day and I think so many things are kind of set out years apart. We're always behind the a bowl and in the start of the school day. So I just think it gives one part of the
072operations the the ability to go and that be tied in to the um to the start of the calendar. The other piece that I just wanted to share is through this policy uh uh let's say I think Dr. Har's point up. If if you approve calendar A and B and while you're in year A, you have a problem that we need to address calendar B, you still have the ability to change that before calendar year starts. So, um, we we have that flexibility. >> We would just do an amended calendar if if an emergency situation came up. But I again to to your point, I don't think this uh holds up the budget timeline. We would set that every year um just like we normally do. >> Okay. >> All right. So, Miss Taylor, you'll
073just come back at the next meeting with the revisions that we already started discussing. >> Yes, ma'am. We'll have first reading next meeting. >> Yes, ma'am. All right. Miss Taylor will remain as she talks about the discussion of board policy be school board meetings. >> Yes, ma'am. This has to do with the uh new requirement from state law for the live streaming of board meetings which we actually already do. Um but it it needs to be reflected in our policy. So, um, what the school board association has presented, if we can kind of talk about BE and BEA a little bit together, that board policy be just referenced the requirement of live streaming and then BEA really fleshes out the details of how we will do it, what's required, um, and and using the model
074policies that have been provided by the state department and the school board association. >> So in be it's just a matter of you putting in that appropriate language. There's nothing else we need to do on the initial one. No, ma'am. And you know, it's up to the board if we provide clarity on which meetings need to be livereamed. And the the the model policy does does list those. Um I'll just leave that to your discretion. >> Snipes. >> Yes. >> Um if we're going to update be, we might want to to to meet twice monthly, not second or fourth, and just leave out various school locations because we always meet here unless we decide we Otherwise, it's I'm just saying while we're at it, um might want to make those changes. >> Would that be
075easy to do if we only meet once a month in November? Was it November, December, April, and May? So, we've got some inconsistency. >> It does say normally. Um, I think it's fine because it says normally. I was just questioning the second and fourth because that almost never works out. >> I get it. I get it. >> Between holidays and everything else. >> I'm fine with that. >> Put a period after twice monthly. And >> I had a question about the the live streaming. Um so does does this mean that the officers meeting would be live streamed? It is my interpretation that means that would be live streamed all workshops, all committee meetings, >> committee meetings, um that would have to be live streamed. >> And just wondering if it has to be as I
076hate to use the word professional, but I can't think of a better word as as formal as as what we do here. In other words, could you just use Google me and use the record feature or something like I just hate hate to have to go through I love you guys but >> no it's valid >> it's a valid question because the board officers meetings are like 15 minutes so I mean it's a valid it's a valid question because that requires um staff time >> we could experiment with some different ways of doing it I think Google meet that would be an interesting And >> do they I mean I don't think they have to be recorded, do they? Or do they? Is it just live streamed? >> Does it say they have to be
077recorded? >> They do. They have to be posted within two days. >> But you can still report. >> Yeah. Okay. I mean, I would just suggest I mean I'm not there, but just I don't I hate wasting resources and I would just suggest try it um before it's required and see if there's a way to do it lower tech. I would say even though we're doing that, we still have people complaining. I can't be heard now. So, I just I don't know. I mean, one of the things I do worry about and I'm just going to put this out here is uh we don't pay for this time. So, we're using comparatory time to for board meetings, meaning that the staff who we love, they are giving up school time tomorrow. Now, they're going to
078be here first thing in the morning because They have tickets to to address. So when do they how do we compensate them for this time? And I I don't want this to be the straw that breaks >> Friday's off. >> No, we need them Friday. So I I I think for us, we need to examine kind of the budgetary impact of this. Uh because as as soon as we go low tech, we're going to be accused we can't hear or there's streaming problems. Uh, so I think we have to just look at a way of this. We can't come, you know, I'm not throwing my name. I'm just going to look at them, right? And but they're they're they're either a going to be here for unspecified amount of time that we don't know. We
079need our workshops. And so when we do that, we can't prepare for them to handle tickets the next day. The next day, the tech team needs to be handling tickets in the in the in the building. The communications need to be working on briefs. The security team needs to be securing buildings. The maintenance team needs to be maintaining the floors. If we have them at home because they're doing more time doing this, we have them away from doing the task that they they're hired to do. So, if we could look at overtime because they're I think the non-exempt uh employees, um um I just think in a budget that would be a a nod to to their work to be able to pay them for these times. Oh, when I said off on Fridays, I
080meant like the these people. I'm sorry. I was trying to get y'all a three-day weekend. I don't have no no idea how that works budget wise, but if Miss if you work with Miss Tucker and bring that forth and can tell us if we have the resources to do that, I'm sure we can discuss. >> Oh, anybody else? >> Yeah. And I mean the uh the other policy the BEA I mean it even says Facebook live >> like as a possibility. I mean so that's that's pretty low tech with some Yeah. microphones and >> Wasn't there I think there was at least one board meeting during CO that was completely remote but we may not be allowed to do that. Right. You still do you still have to allow people to be in person? Yes,
081ma'am. We would still allow in person, but offer a virtual option as well >> because the microphones actually work work very well when you you're remote. It's when you're in person. Um, so >> everybody can be remote except Dr. Ross. >> Are you thinking about officers meetings? >> Yeah. I mean, I was just saying you if you've ever done Google Meet, if everybody's remote, you don't have the microphone issue. It's when everybody's in one room and you're trying to hear everybody over one connection. But it sounds like we have to have an in-person option for people. >> It would have to it has to be a public meeting, I would say, unless like co there's an extenduating circumstance where >> Well, I wonder if we could ask the I mean, if we could ask the
082state if if people can watch live, does that constitute I don't know. I just think it would be really easy for everybody if you didn't have to have an inerson meeting. Anybody else? All right. >> Okay. >> So, we will um bring some options for you next time. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Taylor. >> Thank you, Miss Taylor. >> That moves us to the discussion of board policy GCLE unencumbered time. >> Uh thank you, Madam Chair. As Miss I'm sorry, as Dr. Turner approaches the lect turn. I wanted to share that it is our wish to bring this action or this motion back to uh discussion for the next meeting. Uh we are not at a place where we have a recommendation for uh action. We're still working on that. Uh the purpose of
083discussion today of unencumbered is to look at three different policies that we're trying to merge into one recommendation. So, uh, again, as Dr. Turner approaches the lectctor and I wanted her to go over the three that we're trying to converge, um, and allow the administration to come back for discussion, uh, at the next board meeting with a recommendation for change of policy. So, with that, Dr. Turner. >> Thank you, Dr. Ross. Good evening, Madam Chair, board members. Dr. Ross, the South Carolina General Assembly enacted a one-year budget proviso. Um, and this proviso requires district where practical to provide unencumbered time for school nurses. And so before you, what you have is our district's current policy. And you'll notice in that policy, it does not specifically reference nurses. And so that's the purpose of having the
084discussion to determine how to update our current policy. Um, also before you in your packets, you received copies of two model policies. They're written differently. One is the model policy from the South Carolina Department of Education and the memorandum that they provided with uh the release of their model policy. And the second is the draft policy from the South Carolina School Boards Association. Um and so the purpose of tonight's discussion is just so that you can preview the differences and how the policies have been prevented, presented, and also be able to look at ours. Um and at this time if you are um in a position to share any discussion of the model policies that you'd like to have administration consider before we bring a recommendation forward. We are um in a position to receive
085that discussion. >> Mr. Satderfield. So this is directed at the nurses school nurses correct? >> Yes. Have we u um having dealt with school nurses in the past, they are just completely they're crucial to every school and they're a different animal and uh they're always being pulled here and there a wheelchair out at on the playground or you know somebody faints in the cafeteria. So um have we had any discussion with the school nurses to get a little feedback from them? Um, I know they would love to be able to think they could actually have 30 minutes of I can lock my door and eat my lunch in peace, but uh because of the unique job description that they have, but um I think it's obviously this is the discuss on the discussion agenda, but
086um it it would be interesting to know what their thoughts would be because again it's it's unlike everything else that we have in schools. I'm fortunate to work with um Dr. Harris and nurse Stanic in terms of supporting this in school already and Dr. Harris can chime in but we've already put in place the unencumbered time to the fullest extent practical within our district. So in terms of practice this is something that we're already doing based on feedback from nurses. It's just something that in writing we want to rightsize. But I'd welcome Dr. Harris if you'd like to um comment some things there. Absolutely. Thank you, Dr. Turner, and thank you for the question, Mr. Safel. And Dr. Turn is exactly right. This year was the first year that we began to to consider nurses,
087give consideration to nurses for um some duration of unencumbered time. Uh in most cases, we trying to make it very sim similar to what teachers currently have. So again, this is just an opportunity in which to make certain that they are also included and counted in the policy that the district has. Mr. Baylor, >> is it possible for like principles, assistance principles to take some sort of basic first aid CPR if it's not already required to act as a gap in coverage if that's our last option? That's one of the considerations that um I would pref I would feel more comfortable with the experts weighing in on what it takes to cover uh the responsibilities of the nurses and formally we've discussed what it would take. Um and we know that their skill is something
088that um can't easily be substituted. So we are cautious of that. Um but if you want to speak to it from a professional standpoint, Dr. Harris, I'd appreciate that. there are some things that that administrators and or in some instances teachers might be able to assist with with the nurses. Um so there there are opportunities throughout the course of the year where there may be some level of training that's provided individually maybe in small group form just kind of contingent upon what's really happening and where the greatest needs are where we would in in fact e excuse me exercise that right to train persons uh who are administrators and or teachers. So some of that does take place along the course of the year. Anybody else? All right. Thank you, Dr. Turner. >> I move
089that we adjourn. Have a second. All that favor and motion uh carries. Everybody have a good night. We are journed.