June 9, 2025 School Board Meeting

001It is 5:30. So, I'm going to go ahead and call the meeting to order. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda? I'll move that we approve the agenda. Do I have a second? All in favor? All oppose? Motion carries five to zero. Do I have a motion to enter executive session? I move that we enter executive session to consider the following selected employment items exhibit Action selected employment items exhibit B information only contractual matter regarding professional development services exhibit C legal advice regarding Richland County sewer easement and city of Columbia water easement exhibit D contractual matter regarding the development of security personnel or devices exhibit E legal advice regarding power school litigation exhibit F and legal advice related to a data security incident. Do I have a second? All in favor? Opposed? And

002the motion carries 5 to zero. We'll enter executive session until 7. Good evening. It is 7:20. I apologize that we are running behind schedule. Executive session ran a little over today. Um, but we're going to go ahead and get started. If I could have Miss Barnhart give us the invocation and the pledge of allegiance. Please bow your heads. Heavenly Father, we gather today to serve our community and guide our schools with wisdom and care. Grant us clarity to make decisions that honor our students, teachers, and families. Fill our heart with patience, understanding, and unity as we work together for the common good of our school district. May our efforts reflect your love and truth. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. At this time, I'll call forth Miss Taylor

003for the schoolboard spotlight. Madam Chair, members of the board, Dr. Ross, good evening. I just want to take a brief moment to celebrate our graduates this year. We had a wonderful two days of graduation at Colonial Life Arena. So thankful for all of you that were able to be there to celebrate with us. We had 1,344 graduates this year. Um we're very proud of the fact that we have 37 military commitments from our graduates this year. Um they're also a very smart bunch. Uh we 140 Palmetto fellows, 1,5 Hope or Life scholarship recipients and this number is always um staggering to us every year, but over $220 million of offered scholarships. So, uh we are so proud, so very proud of these students this year. We were so happy for the opportunity to celebrate them

004and of course wish them all well in their futures. So, thank you. Thank you, Miss Taylor. I'll turn it over at this time to Dr. Ross for the superintendent's report. Uh thank you, Madam Chair, trustees, and members of our community. I'd like to start off with a statement that I read into the record, and uh we'll provide this for media outlets as well uh at the conclusion of the meeting. Uh but on June 3rd, 2025, we detected unusual network activity that is impacting certain aspects of our operations. In response, we immediately took steps to secure our network. Our technology team has been working diligently with law enforcement and thirdparty specialists to investigate the full nature and scope of the incident and securely restore files and systems as expeditiously as possible. Unfortunately, the initial findings indicated

005that the district was a victim of actions by malicious actors outside of the district's environment. We have deployed advanced detection and threat software to detect and prevent any further issues. While we're working diligently to restore files and systems as quickly as possible, the restoration process takes time and it's possible that not all files will be restored. As advised by our experts, school districts across the nation have been victimized by overseas extortion criminal groups. An April 14, 2025 publication by D12 dive reported that the level of education sector incidences has surged about 70% in the first quarter of 2025. Faced with this crisis, it's our district's commitment to obtain a full forensics investigation to detect and prevent any future incidences. If any sensitive data was impacted in this data security incident, the district will follow with

006expert forensic and legal recommendations to address this issue. At this time, we do not have significant evidence of a data breach. As the investigation progresses, we will keep the board and the community informed of any concerns. At this time, we have no reason to believe that any sensitive data is being misused. District 5 is committed to the protection of staff, student, and community data. Our technology staff and expert an expertise and deploy reasonable security measures to prevent any data security incidents. We're continuing to evaluate this incident. our financial, technology, human resources, academics team were able to operate in a secure network to ensure that our June 15th payroll uh was completed and will be paid on time. I want to thank all the faculty and staff for their support and hard work to help district

0075 be operational during this difficult time. We're following the recommended course of action for system detections uh during the entirety of this incident and we'll provide updates as the investigation progresses. Uh again, I want to thank for the opportunity to read that into the record. I think uh that may not answer all the questions that are there. Uh but I do want the community to understand that um this incident persists. uh we're still dealing with it and uh we want to thank all of those that have come uh to our aid to to help us with this matter. Um I will share without oversharing that the threat actors are watching. Uh they are looking for the answers to the same questions that a lot of us have. And so we're putting our responses into two

008categories. a category of need to know in order to protect School District 5 and its assets and a category of like to know to to be informed of what's going on because the threat actors are watching. We are not going to share how thick our walls are because that just tells them what size drill to bring. But I do want to express that while a fire is still burning, it is hard to recover while it's still burning. But our team is working to extinguish it and rebuild at the same time. Uh so I want to thank our staff for being able to not only take care of payroll but summer school SAT testing and the operations that they have done. We have teams that have not left this campus wholly since uh this incident happened

009on June 3rd. And uh we'll continue to work on that. Uh, I do also I'm very proud of school district 5 because for all of the things that we put in place to get hit like this. I really saw us come together as a team um to pivot and to ensure that those threat actors who are trying to pressure us didn't see us sweat. They say stood tall and to move forward. It reminds me of what the prophet Isaiah said that weapons may form but they just won't prosper. And I thank District 5 for standing tall in the face of this and moving forward. With that, I move on with the superintendent's report. We're a system guided by three critical questions. Why do we do this work? How do we accomplish that that why? And

010then what are our outcomes? Our vision is that we love and grow our students. Our mission is that we're focused on academic, social, emotional growth and development. and then our outcomes. That's our strategic plan. Those are the 24 strategies that we have in those four performance goals to that day where every student feels loved in our schools and every student has demonstrated academic growth in our schools. We move to that day where 75% or more of our students are performing at or above grade level. Uh so I want to talk a little bit about uh some supports that we can do uh to help uh our our students um as we wait for graduation date data and testing data to get unembargoed. Going to talk a little bit about things that we can do in

011our school district to support our students. Um first I wanted to really couch this around educational transitions and the works that we do. Um it is assumed and for a large number of our students u they are here from prek all the way through the moment that they graduate. It's a unique opportunity you see around the country especially in school district 5 where our graduates go back to their elementary schools and they walk the halls with those that uh helped them at such younger age. And for those students district 5 does an amazing job. Uh but for the students who are transient who not had an opportunity to um go from our elementary experience all the way through our high school experience, we need supports to help those students with their uh their outcomes. I

012talk a lot about this slide of what a typical classroom looks like in the eighth grade of the amount of students who are in the lowest quartile performance in reading. Well, if you look at this in terms of our transitions uh throughout uh the the district, um you can see that uh for those eighth graders for all of the district, you see the amount of students that are below that 40th percentile. And what we are finding is that when you don't have these students from K to 8, uh you have them for a few months in eighth grade or or they come in the middle of seventh grade or they're not with you for the entire elementary school experience. uh moving those students becomes a challenge. So we wanted just to look at focusing on

013ways that we can support those transition points especially third grade uh the eighth grade uh and and the ninth grade. Uh you can see third grade, sixth grade and the n and the eighth grade. Um you can see in in math uh percentiles um excuse me by sixth grade the percentage of students that are below that 40th percentile. These become the hardest students to move to the green area. And so I wanted to show you the data just to show you the scale of what we need to do as a district to ensure that these transitions are uh are addressed. those who are having difficulties with these academic transitions. The earlier we can catch them, the easier it is to grow them. The later we have these deficits, the harder there is harder it is

014to make it up. And so we really wanted to focus in on uh helping students especially at um at these transitionary points. Um, you can see here with ELA, uh, the amount of students, um, that are in that lower 40 percentile is even a higher percentage of students than they are in the third and the eighth grade. And so, um, we want to talk about ways of supporting these these struggling students. Uh we're challenging our our administrators and teachers this year to look at uh those students in those 40th percentiles and see what are the things that we see that we can do to help them to support them as we continue to do that throughout our district but providing them those supports and that's why addressing the whole child is important. Um you may

015think that for a student struggling in reading we give them just a reading coach or a student that's struggling in mathematics you just give them a math coach. But we have to look at what the brain science says. Uh this is one of the clearest examples of what we learn in our mast's program in education when they talk about how how do you help how does a student learn? Well, uh you learn child development. You have to take those classes and but but this becomes very clear on how the brain develops is from the back to the front. Um but some of our students are not in that in that green area when they arrive to school. They're not in that executive state. And so for students who are not able to answer that first

016question, yes, I am safe. They live in survival mode. Those students are not ready for academic interventions. And so they need those supports to get them out of survival mode so that we can get them into the executive state. Then you have those students that are in the emotional state. they don't feel connected. They don't feel like they they're loved or supported. And that's why it's a big part of our district to ensure that every child feels loved in our schools and connected with something that allows them uh to feel that they belong. And if we can satisfy those two areas, then we move to our executive state where we find that students learn best and that's where they grow. Our teachers who are working with students in survival mode will share with you that

017they need supports for those students. uh our our coaches uh need supports for those students. And so that's why I think it's important that we continue to provide as many opportunities and resources uh to help our students who are in that survival state. Uh I want to share with you um a story that just crossed the stage uh last week or of a student who was and they so we can share this but a student was struggling u in the third grade wasn't meeting levels um and uh seemed like they're in that bottom 40th percentile. Uh but it was one of their teachers who understood that uh those three questions that that student need to feel safe, that student need to feel loved, and that student need to feel connected. Uh that allow that student

018to be where they are today. And we have a district full of of staff like this that are are making these these gains with our students. We just want to continue to support them. And so our administration wants to bring to the board's attention a partner uh that can help us reach more of these students. It's called graduation alliance. Uh we'll be bringing more information to the board and community about it. But these are Cogna certified uh partners. that would not be on the payroll of employee staff, but they would be the contractual services that help us find those students who are dropped out, help us find those students who are in that survival state, who do not feel connected uh in that emotional state and help them bring us back to school district 5.

019Um they have a variety of strategies uh that work with some some local districts um that uh have seen some success with them. Uh, and we wanted to to just talk about this this summer. We'll have more information for a discussion item, but I just wanted to um let the the board know that we need more in that area of supporting our students, especially when we deal with issues of transientness. Uh students who are with us for just a week or a few days uh before uh they do not return to school again. more we can have supports for the students that are in that survival state, the more we can get students into that connected state, the better we are to get students into the learning stage. And that's the goal is to make

020sure that our students are ready to learn when they enter our schools in school district 5. Uh next area I want to talk about in terms of the school connection is our phase one um athletic uh program proposal. you see phase one because phase two will will be about arts, the arts program. Uh but our goal is to ensure a a robust middle school program. Uh and again, this goes back to what we're seeing in that sixth grade data. Uh we want students to be connected and in the middle school years are are some tough years for our students. And so, um, if you look at a traditional, high school program, you have varsity, junior varsity, B team, and C team. All of this is regulated by the high school league. But for those kids

021in that key transition between elementary and middle school, um, there is not that most organized system for all of ours. it becomes really on the parent now to get them involved in nonprofits or or recreation centers or private uh recreation. So, um, we looked at all of the, uh, current, uh, fifth and sixth graders in school district 5 and compared it to the participation rates of our our largest wreck in the in the footprint, which is Herm Chapen Recreation Commission. And you can see the purple represents u basically all the students in school district 5 in the fifth and sixth grade. And then you see all of the um corresponding age groups for basketball uh for for football. Um and so the goal is what about the kids in the purple? What are they doing?

022Now a lot of them are doing a lot of other things. They doing dance or they're maybe participating in in music. They doing a lot of other things. But what percentage of that group in purple is involved? Well, they're all in our schools. And so for us to have that connection with those students to get those students out of the survival state in to the executive functioning state into the learning state, sometimes it's going to be a coach that makes that connection that makes you feel that you're loved, that you're connected with. Imagine a world, we talk about this all the time, where every student in our school, they have a place. All those students in the purple, they have a place, they have a person that knows them. Elementary in in in our district

023is amazing because I I call it the hug of district 5. You're welcome in the elementary schools. You have a self-contained teacher who knows you and they know you're they know the things about you. And you get to middle school, you have seven classes that you're moving to. And those connections can be strengthened after school. Our goal is for the students in the purple to be involved in something. We think that can help make our academics uh better. So, one of the reasons we're proposing phase one of the developmental is to get those students in the purple involved. Phase two with the arts is to get those students in the purple involved. Um for financial reasons, travel reasons. Some of our parents just need help getting those students in the purple involved. And that's what

024the bridge developmental program is all about. Uh to do that, we have playgrounds at our elementary schools. We have playgrounds at our high schools. I want you to evaluate the playgrounds at our middle schools. Um and so this is uh Chapen Chapen Intermediate. It will be the future Chapen Middle School. Um, and so the fields out the back are are really what uh we partner with ICRC with. Uh, it's the field in the front that is essentially the play area for the middle schoolers. Again, if you ever to a middle school, they need a play area. And so what we're proposing, this is a conceptual of uh some things that we can do out uh in that in that area for for Chapen Intermediate when it becomes Chapen Middle School. Uh here is Dutch Fork.

025Um and again, it shares campus with Dutch Fork High School. And we were just looking at uh some conceptual renderings of a play area for those middle schools. kind of a dual dual field purpose there. Again, we're in conceptual phase. We we we don't have anything to schematics or anything of that nature, but we were trying to see what the likelihood of fully developing these middle school concepts out. Uh Spring Hill Middle School um and the Crossroads Imo campus, we're still working on on that. I'll get that out uh at a later time to the board. I think those renderings are coming in, but they didn't make it for our presentation tonight. But uh these are all areas to ensure that we have a place to play uh for our our middle schoolers. So our

026goal is to uh renovate the middle school and intermediate uh as school athletic facilities to accommodate physical health needs of the sixth, seventh, and eth graders. uh for the first time in a long time where we're going to be putting sixth, seventh, and eighth graders at five middle schools. And we want to make sure that they have a a a total place uh for not only them to play during the day, but them to be developed and connected in the in the evenings. And so, uh, I'm going to, uh, stop there because, uh, we have a special guest that will bring our human resources report and and take any questions before we move forward. Madam Chair, do we have any questions, Miss Huddle? Um, Dr. Ross, the the D team says it's for fifth and

027sixth, but I see all the proposed new fields are in the middle schools. So, what will the fifth graders be doing? So the fifth graders, this is after school program. So we'll be hosting that at the middle schools. So we would have to provide transportation to all the from all the elementary schools to all the middle schools. We would Yeah, we would either either the parents would get them there or we would provide transportation. Yes, ma'am. Miss Barnhart, will there be a D team for every uh sport? In a perfect world, yes. Uh we want to start off with basketball first and um re-evaluate. I I see a vision where every varsity sport has a D team connector. Mr. Satderfield. Uh yeah. Uh and one other thing I like to point out is I know

028when you see those fields, it looks like they're just football fields, but those fields, if you ever go to even to a high school, there's a myriad of sports. I mean, soccer and lacrosse and all kinds of things. And um I enjoy still going to a lot of the events. The high school events are always fun, but the girls teams and the boys teams, there's a lot of enthusiasm and excitement. And uh I really like the idea of them finding an attachment to the school, a positive attachment because I can tell you over many years of experience that is the probably one of the most important things we can do is to have the child's perception of the school that it's their school. and if they're part of a team or an organization or they

029get they meet more people. Um but it really builds positive relationships. So I'm excited about this. Can you clarify how this is going to be um funded? So actually in our budget proposal we do have stipens for to Miss Huddle's point this connects to the elementary schools and to the middle schools. So uh there are um supplements for an elementary school lead for DT and then uh for the middle school and so the goal is to to be connected K12 so that's in there in terms of the fields uh this will be a proposal that would come through capital Mr. Scully yeah Dr. Well, and and I I want to uh appreciate that uh that question because um really at elementary um it's about it's about getting kids. They don't they don't know what they're

030good at right now. It's about getting them involved. And so I think our our heartbreaks at the middle school basketball cuts um and and I'll I'll pick on one school because I know that specifically at the Irma Middle School you have 112 students try out for basketball. It's only 15 jerseys and so having a place for those children to go um I think is important. So, we have talked about um just multi-leagues within this that you can have uh D team one, D teameam 2. We've seen youth sports are growing um and and school districts are really embracing that. It gives us a chance to get our coaches with these children. Um, if you've done travel ball, done a there great coaches out there. Uh, but every now and then you want to make sure

031that the that coach has the the vision and mission of the district when they're working with their children. And so we're seeing where districts are growing their youth sport offerings just as they do after school programming. So in short, uh, it's about creating more kids involved in that cutting. Miss Little. Um, that's a great point and it it makes me wonder if this actually might exacerbate that if you've got more kids, if we do basketball and we've got more kids um coming through in fifth and sixth grade, now you have even more that don't make the cut. Have we thought about maybe doing something kind of unique and doing a club level basketball in middle school so that we can get more kids involved? um and get other school districts to do or at least

032within our own school district they could play each other. So um every kid who wanted to play basketball would be able to just as an example. And that's that's a good point. Once you go back to the C team, right, that becomes that that regulated piece, but we have full control over D teams. And so, uh, in our, um, earlier discussions of this, we talked about you'll be D1 gold and you'll be D1 green or you'll be D1 black and you'll be one gold. It's it's really about getting with five middle schools, we can have our own league. Now, um, I I think what happens is and and to our point, I go back to that pie and it's students are in purple. If I was to show you the students in purple and the

033students in the lower 40th percentile, you'll start seeing a correlation that kids that are not involved, they're not learning math and and and English. And so by giving them something to be connected with, that's the goal is as many of them that we need to get involved uh to get involved. And I think for some of our kids, it's sports that save them. It's for others it's going to be a drum set. But phase one is about uh creating that athletic piece. We think basketball we can get more kids involved uh and then move to other sports. I would like us to focus on you know the tennis and the and the sports that golf and things like that that we can we can build up. So um uh we feel that this directly impacts

034our academic achievement. Miss Barnhart, you might have alluded to this, but um to Miss Huttle's point, who will they play? Will they just play each other? Um are there other school districts that have D teams already that they can play or how would that work? So, I've had some ads reach out and show me some local and some statewide youth sport districts. But right now, u our our group is to it's really intramural with us um with our with our five middle schools. But as that grows out um with our partnership with ICRC um those without even touching their teams, we can still play those teams. So the ICRC teams, the ICRC teams so they can keep all of their current players. We would just go into the group in the purple and build those

035teams. So we can do our own, we can work, we can play ICRC. So we would have competition was subtle. If we're going to have to provide the transportation anyway, why would wouldn't we be better off using ICRC's facilities and their back and and just uh if transportation's the issue, then we just provide the transportation and we don't have to build our own program and our own fields and everything. I disagree. I I think what what you'll have is every day you're going to have to have practice. Every day you're going to have to have lunch. Every day you're going to have opportunity to to to get those kids out there to play. And I think having it right outside your school is is is probably the best way to do that. Competitionwise, you might

036be right. You know, we may use Seven Oats or um or or Crooked Creek or Melvin Park. Uh but I think on your daily use of where your kids are going to play um we have those fields. I think the question is are they ready for our kids today? Miss Barnhart and then Mr. Satderfield. To that point, I mean I have kids that have played within ICRC. There are uh signup fees and fees that are associated playing with ICRC versus being on a school team. Now there are still fees included, but what would be the difference in that for families? You know, the reality is there still may be fees impacted for for us. I can't promise that they won't be. But what I can promise is those students who are free and reduced lunch

037now fall under that that provision for us. Now, I will say ICRC, full disclosure, does have scholarships for kids uh that need to play, but ours is really about access. Uh to play at ICRC, you need heavy parental involvement to get you there. Um, in this budget, we're asking for uh district 5 staff to help parents with that for those kids in the in that purple area. Uh, and I was going to just bring that up. Um, the other thing here too is this is um relatively a new endeavor for a lot of people. So, I I know that some of the questions that some of you have had, we're gonna we'll probably cross several of those bridges and have to monitor and adjust. That's how you do when you implement a new program. You

038might say, well, we don't uh it's the travel is too much to go to another district or the kids, they don't have the facilities or they don't want to participate or whatever it might be. So, I think we're going to feel our way through it. I think that the the impetus though behind this is getting kids involved and finding a positive attachment. And I can tell you, I really like the idea of having school personnel that are attached to these kids when they're coaching because if you through any and not that the other parents, my hats off to all these parents who volunteer their time, but um there's certain expectations when they're if I'm a history teacher and I'm coaching this little group of kids afterwards, I'm I'm used to being around kids and I

039know the their maturity levels and I know their developmental levels and things like that. So I think we're going to find that we'll monitor and adjust for a little bit until we find our groove with this. So Mr. Bum, one thing I was wondering, are we going to have academic standards that they'll have to meet maintain eligibility? I I I appreciate that question. Some of these kids have probably not already met it yet. I think what we have to to do is um some districts do that a minimum qualification for me. It is you may not be able to play but I don't want to turn you loose. Uh I would rather um and we haven't got to that point. So that's a consideration I'm talking about now. But I'd rather it you can't practice

040and play but you got to stay with coach and do study hall. Uh, one of the fears that I have and and uh, Sheriff Lot and I talk about it. This is, you know, Ross, until you do something about those 10, 11, 12 year olds, if you lose them, then you've lost. It's hard to get them back. Um, the the the streets and the gangs don't have minimum qualifications. They just they just take kids. So, I I think for us, it's it's really how do we keep them with us? And if playing motivates them to get their grades up, then we'll we'll say, "Hey, you still practice with us, but you can't play until your grades up." But our goal is to keep them connected. And I think um so so we can search, you

041know, how much do you actually perform or play based on your grades, but I always want them to be a part of the team. Um, I had a question um that I got from a some from a parent. Didn't know how to answer it. So, it seemed like a good time to bring it up now. And they wondered why we were trying to do this right now. There were concerns about the fact that we um passed the referendum and had a lot of other projects going on right now. And so, was this really, for lack of a better way to put it, the best time to start other renovations? Yeah. And and I think too for us, I wish we'd have done it years ago. I'll be honest with you. I we're going to hear

042when school starts out, you know, Dr. Ross, what are you doing about the bullying? What are you doing about the fights at school? We're we're going to hear those complaints. And I'm going to say our our teams looked at some preventions to get those most at risk of bullying and intimidating and fighting and failing involved positively. Um I I I think there's value in prevention and uh there's no better time. I think the best time to start was 10 years ago. You know, the next best time is now. Uh I can only look at the issues that we have. Um we've tried the stick approach. We've tried expulsions. We've tried suspensions. We've tried detentions and Saturday dehaul. We've we've tried taking away their their their lunch play and we've tried a lot of those punishments

043and there's no questions behind those. Um but but I like to try connection. I like to go back to that brain research. Get those kids out of the survival state secure in the connection emotional state and I think we can we'll be able to transform that that down. So I think the answer is no better time than now to to make a connection with a child. Do we have other basketball infrastructure the the um the facilities to do that? Right. That's correct. It it's an easier thing to start with. We're going to learn our lessons. Uh there going to be some failures with that. Uh And I think our goal is to start to learn to pivot uh but ultimately to connect and and we're going to be presenting to you phase two band orchestra.

044We want our elementary school teams to play with a with a band, you know. So not every child is going to be athletics. It's going to be something else. Uh but our our original goal is I want you to look at that data for the sixth graders. All right. We're getting more and more almost a third of our sixth graders are below the 40th percentile. That's huge. 30 over 30% below the the 40th percentile in reading that's going to show up at some point. And so if we feel that this is a strategy uh that will get them engaged, get them ready to learn in that executive state. Um, and so we feel like it's an investment more than a spin. Miss Huddle and then Mr. Scott. Yeah. I was just wondering, Dr. Ross, do

045you know um what grade does ICRC after school programs run through? I think you go by age. Um, and basketball, you have high school league. No, I meant like just not athletics, but I'm I'm just thinking of like when children would do this and that kind of thing. And I'm just wondering I know they have after school programs at like Crooked Creek and um Seven Oaks Park in some of our schools. Does that run through fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade? I don't know what age group. It was six, but don't quote me on that. Typically once um seventh grade picks up, that's when students like to play for their school. But there's still those options back at the at ICRC. I'm probably not making myself clear. I'm not thinking about sports. I'm tying this

046in because I'm I'm trying to think about where the children go. After school programs, after school programs, period like the the they used to call it afternoon safari when Okay. Some things never change. So what age does or or grade does afternoon safari for example run through? Sixth grade. Sixth grade. Sixth grade. Okay. I will just go back to I feel like sometimes we try to do too much and we don't have the money and the bandwidth and everything else. And we have in our community ICRC and and I think before we go and spend operating money because we're going to have to maintain these fields. That's going to come out of the operating budget. and so are the stipens and then capital money that maybe we should sit down and even have a workshop

047with ICRC and talk about how can we partner better to use what the programs that they already have even if we have to put some money in the game that may be less costly than us doing our own program and I'm also thinking about the parents if I'm picking my child up at afternoon safari at 5:30 or 6 o'clock and my child has a chance to play basketball or soccer or whatever ever while they're there. Maybe that's better for me too as a parent. So, I I think this is a great idea. I love the idea of getting more kids involved. I just would love to see us talk to ICRC before we go and do our own thing. Mr. Scully, and then we'll try to move to the next topic. Yeah, Dr. Ross, I

048I do think we do have the the money. Um I disagree with Miss Huddle respectfully on that point. Unless you're a hacker, then we don't. Um but I I think if if we have the opportunity to provide those resources and and we can um and I also agree with you that the time is now. There's never a perfect time or a good time to start any kind of uh project, but uh we are able to, you know, walk and chew gum at the same time and and I think we can we can do that and and still uh meet all of our other needs and and requirements. And as far as the the point about, you know, any kind of academic requirements to be able to participate in the sports or arts, for what it's

049worth, I mean, I wouldn't I agree with your own position on that. I wouldn't I would worry more about the importance is getting the involvement and the participation. We can teach a we can lay the foundation for geometry just by teaching a kid a play and a designing a play for a kid. they they don't realize they're learning it, but they are. Or when they learn music um or building foundations for mathematics. So, I think there's a lot of good that can happen from from them participating in sports and and other programs. So, does anybody else have a question or comment? You can. I know I said we were going to move on. I was just just joking. I don't want to cut anybody off. All right. Well, we'll move on to the human resources

050report. All right. As Dr. Turner comes to the lect turn to introduce our special guest, Mr. Matt Gams. No, I'm joking. I do want to give a a preamble. Uh we have a very special guest with us. I want to give a preamble to Dr. Turner's uh report. uh this this summer we or spring we we say goodbye to over 2 thou almost 2,000 years of education experience. Uh these are all our retirees and their years of service and education [Music] 1,868 years at that point. Um and the question is as Dr. Turner, how do we replace this? Um and uh now the Turner's team has put together um this this is the reality of school district 5 in terms of our our teaching staff. And uh you can see you know there was a

051time in this country where the baby boomers were the biggest workforce uh of all time. They supported the group before them. After them was the generation X and Millennials. But you can see we are now recruiting generation Z to be our teachers. Um what's interesting is by 20 27 just in two years generation X will be eligible for social security who who is going to be our teaching class um after after generation X retires. And so, um, as you see, it is now incumbent upon us to to recruit out of generation Z, uh, to replace the the teachers that we're losing from generation X and baby boomers. But this is District 5. This is our reality. But if you look uh across the the country, you can see that the labor force has changed. Uh,

052no longer is that younger group, the the larger group. Uh if you look at this is from the department of labor uh published by the wall street journal. It looks at the US workforce this year. This is projection data but uh of this current year we're recruiting those that 20 to 24 age group. That's the group we're recruiting to be teachers. They're smaller than the group ahead of them. It's that that wasn't the case 20 years ago, 30 years ago in the workforce. And so the pool is smaller. And so when we are getting our fill rates of that smaller pool, that's just more work that comes out of uh human resources. And so it becomes incumbent upon us to keep as many retention is the new recruitment. And uh we are we're trying our

053best. Um but as as you can see um that that of the workforce is small. And so I applaud our human resources department because of what they're doing to not only recruit out of that that that smaller pool, but retain. And so uh to I'll turn it over to Dr. Turner uh to uh talk about what we're doing in school district 5 as it relates to the state. So Dr. Turner. Well, good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Ross. This is such an important conversation and so um we're just so appreciative of you providing an opportunity for us to share some information with you tonight. Um as you may know, one of the functions of the office of human resources is to support employee relations. We're also the branch of the district

054that's also responsible for gathering information about perceptions about working conditions in the district. When it comes to our certified staff, specifically our teachers, we use a number of different data points. Uh we have the school climate survey. Uh we have exit surveys. We give those at the district level and we also encourage participation at the state level. We also have exit interviews that we host here at the district level. But tonight, we're going to focus on a different data point. And the significance of this data point is it doesn't just capture exiting educators. It's a powerful opportunity to reflect on what our currently employed educators, how they feel, what their perceptions are. We can use that data to inform decision making. So when it comes to retention and recruiting is so much more than just

055posting a vacancy and filling a position. It's so much more to retention. um that some of the the variables that get the most attention uh we talk about the teacher salary scale, we talk about uh class size, those are all important, but I think this data gives you insight into some of the other variables that could influence a teacher's decision to walk away or to stay. Um so with that in mind, I'll introduce the 2025 South Carolina teacher working condition survey. Um, I'll let you know that this is administered uh not through the district but through SC teacher. It's given an invitation for all South Carolina PK through 12 teachers. Um, they're invited to participate in this. What's unique is that not only does this give us data for district 5, but it also allows

056us to do a comparison of how district 5 compares statewide. So, that's the value of this. With that in mind, uh it's my pleasure to welcome forward Miss Sarah Gams. Uh Miss Gams serves as the associate director and engagement strategist with SC Teacher. Um she will present results from the 2025 South Carolina teacher working condition survey, including data at both the district and the state level. Thank you so much, Dr. Ross, members of the board. It's an honor to be here on behalf of SC teacher at the invitation of Dr. Turner. We appreciate your time. We were going to go through a couple of points. This is let's see on helps. So the teacher working condition survey is a bienial survey which means the next administration will not be until 2027. The model is that

057you take the survey, the districts get their results, the state gets the results and you have a year to work. Um do the implementation of the plans and the policies that you want to put into place based on the results and then we do the survey again in 2027. It is opt in. We are funded by the general assembly. So all of our resources and services are free to school districts and you see in front of you a map of the participation rates for 2025. 75% of the 72 traditional districts participated in the 2025 survey at optin and 83 of those participating districts 83% achieved a response rate of at least 50%. This is important because our very esteemed research team tells us that the data becomes viable at 50% participation. So that means it's

058a viable data to act on. So district 5 has reached of course and exceeded this participation rate and we'll see that in just a moment. It's important to understand that our survey is based on what's called the job demands resources model. It's formerly known as the JDR model. This model is used in business. It's used in education and it's not a deficit model. And I think that's very important to notice. It's about all jobs have demands. Um, every career has demands and every career has resources available to its employees to meet those demands. So what this survey does is it um itemizes demands specifically for classroom teachers. We have a very narrow definition of classroom teachers. Um essentially you have to have a substitute to take the survey. Like if you were to be absent

059you are with kids every day in your classroom. So for example that does not include your guidance counselors or speech pathologists even though these are certified positions and included in the climate surveys and evaluation tools for our surveys. These are limited to classroom teachers position codes three through nine. The job demands again is what the stressors psychological, physical, emotional on our jobs that can lead to burnout and burnout of course leads to attrition and movement. But as with all things there are resources in each career to balance those demands and when the resources and are balancing the demands that can lead to engagement. It can decrease burnout and ultimately leads to effectiveness in the position. So this is a model we're using for the survey for classroom teachers. The other focus of the JDR model

060is balance equilibrium. So when you look at the resources and demands for each job, you're really thinking about or particularly for the classroom teachers, you're really thinking about here are the demands our teachers are saying are most prevalent in their classrooms each day and what resources can we offer to balance these demands. You see here they're equal. Sometimes you add resources, sometimes you take away demands. It's not about taking away demands. No, no teacher thinks you can take away the demands of the profession. It's again it's about balance. And I think it's important to notice that even though we have them evenly balanced here on the screen, that doesn't necessarily mean more resources. It means the depth of the resources, the the fidelity of the resources, the access to the resources. So all of those

061things in play, it is very easy to have three demands met by two resources. So I think it's it's context matters will be the name of of the game here. So the areas included on our 2025 South Carolina teacher working conditions are resources. We have six autonomy, administrative support, professional development support, co-worker support, parent support, and shared governance. The number beside those are the number of items teachers get asked for each question. The survey takes 15 minutes to complete for classroom teachers. We tried to keep it short. Demands there are four. workload, student engagement, student behavior and organizational demands. And then that is correlated to outcomes which ultimately is job satisfaction for teachers in their classrooms and their intent to stay in the profession specifically to stay in the profession. We of course ask you

062know do you intend to stay and then we ask would you do it again you know would you choose to do it again and these are all parts of the questions for the outcomes. We have a separate category for mentor support. These are for teachers years one through three. And the district data dashboards do um show comparative data between what your experienced teachers of four years and more of experience are saying versus what your um new novice teachers years one through three are saying and then the quality of the mature um feedback that they they provide. So the state level uh these are fresh off the press just la just released last week. um the most um with the I'll explain how this works. So with the resources it's a agreement scale zero strongly disagree

063to um seven strongly agree. So that means the highest possible average would be six. Okay. And so across South Carolina, co-worker support is at a 5.16 average and is the most available resources based on classroom uh teacher perspectives across South Carolina, followed very closely by administrative support at a 4.81. So those are your top two resources that teachers say are readily available and impacting their intent to stay in the classroom across South Carolina. By demand, um the demands are rated on a frequency scale. This is really important because it's a teacher perspective. It's the I statements. It's what a classroom teacher experiences in their classroom in their context. The demands are not an agreement scale because if I asked somebody, you know, how are you experience discipline in your classroom? Do you have a do

064you have classroom discipline issues? I think we could say I agree. Like as a former teacher, I would say yes, I agree with that. So this is frequency and it's about how often it disrupts your instructional practices and zero being never and seven being of course every day. So the you want the lower averages here. Those are strengths. The higher averages are are areas of demand. So student engagement continues to be across South Carolina the most significant area of demand for teachers in South Carolina followed closely by student behavior and that is what the teachers in aggregate at the state level are saying. So correlations what does it all mean between the our teachers perceptions of their resources and their job satisfaction? We have discovered in significant correlations between parent support and administrative support being

065most strongly correlated with a teachers. They say they have these resources and they also find job satisfaction. They also report that they have job satisfaction. And then even though co-worker support is noted as the most readily available resource, it's not it's actually the weakest correlation between the resource and job satisfaction. Also important to note is the association between working conditions and the intent to stay in the profession. When we ask would you do you plan to stay for the foreseeable future? The resource most correlated with that answer being yes is administrative support and the demand most correlated with that answer is the workload. So we will move into the Lexington Richland School District 5 results. 68% of the teacher participation rate in the 2025 administration survey was what what district 5 achieved. So well over

066that 50% threshold to receive viable data. 96% of schools in district 5 also reach that 50% threshold which is important. The district receives a data dashboard which is electronic. It's provided to the superintendent and the chief human resources officer. It has all the data for the district within it. If a school reaches 50% participation rate, the school gets a PDF of their school level results. So the district can see all the results and the schools can see their own. The principal will receive that in an email from SC teacher. Um I think in July it's coming out. And this is this is important because the more schools you have reaching that that 50% threshold, the more principles receive their results at the school level. It's also important to note that the state level data when

067we talk about data ownership that is transparent. You can see that in our reports that we produce those are on our website. The teacher working conditions for 2025 will come out this month. And then the district data however is is owned by the district. So I am here at the request of district 5. We we do not see or process your data and the district decides what to do with your data. So your resources in Lexington Richland five these are of course you want the higher averages here because and that the the highest average you can get is a six that is co-worker support um number one followed by administrative support and then parent support. So this is the ranking of the constructs. Again we're not at the item level. All that information is available

068on the data dashboard that um Dr. Ross and Dr. Turner can see on the demands. The ranking of the demands and this again is an area of strength. So you want those really low numbers. Organizational demands is actually the the strong suit in Lexon and Richland 5 followed by workload. So if we're ranking the resources and demands, those are your top three resources and constructs. Of course, it's different at the item level, but you can see that through your dashboard. And demands are those lower numbers. The opportunities for growth. Uh these are where on the resources you start um you're you again resources you want the higher numbers. So first with the opportunities for growth is your shared governance and then your professional development support and then autonomy in the classroom in the demands again

069you want to see low numbers with the demands student engagement was your top demand in lexon richland 5 and student behavior right followed that so really closely following the trends at the state level. So in Lexon Richland 5 the data on intent to remain in the profession 78% of participating teachers chose slightly agree agree or strongly agree and slightly agree is somewhat agree now so forgive that typo but 78% of participating teachers chose somewhat agree agree or strongly agree in terms of their intent to remain in the profession here in Lexington Richland 5. The teacher exit survey will close on June 20th. It likes to know 5 also elected to participate in that state level survey. It is aligned with the South Carolina teacher working condition survey which means it follows the JDR model as

070well and they talk to each other. So when it goes time comes time to analyze your data. You will have two surveys that are following the same model that are in conversation with each other to help delve in and ask the questions. When we have better data, we can ask better questions and we come we can come to better solutions. Um districts meeting threshold should receive results by the end of July. So those the the survey will close on June 20th and results will come out at the end of July. We are we'd love we're very transparent. We'd love for you to connect with us. This is our newsletter. Uh we send out one newsletter a month. It has all the state level data, our new reports um and our tools. All again all of

071our resources are free. We have a research team available to support districts in interpreting data should they wish it. And we also host insight workshops at the state level and we come to on-site visits as needed to work with district leadership teams. Again, all of these resources are free and funded by the general assembly. And that concludes the presentation on the state level and district level results for teacher working conditions on the 2025 South Carolina teacher working condition survey. Thank you for your time and I'll take any questions and turn it over to Dr. Turner. Thank you. Do we have any questions? little um what does shared governance mean or can you offer some of the questions that were asked for that? Sure. Shared governance is about the teachers perception of how their voice is

072heard and acted upon or or really just heard not even acted upon. Most teachers will talk about wanting to be heard and and seen. And so shared governance includes things like school improvement planning, am I included? School policies, am I included? assessment practices, student discipline practices. So there's um and if you go back, you'll see how many qu they're really question stems. They're not questions again because it's an agreement scale, but you'll see how many how many those statements are in shared governance. And that is five. There's five of them there. And if I could I just have one more related to that. And autonomy in the classroom, especially as a as a former teacher, what kind of autonomy do do teachers want in the classroom? Well, I can't speak to what teachers want. Um,

073but I can't speak to the questions and the items on the survey. And again, this these are all data points and data is neutral. So, autonomy is is is shared as a resource. But how that's interpreted at the context level will depend on again each individual context. But our definition of a classroom autonomy is about the question stems are like I can adapt learning materials for my students in order for them to master content or I can control the pace and progression of my coursework. so that students can master content. So, it's about a teacher's perception of the extent of control they have over students ability to master content and what factors they consider within their realm of control, primarily pacing, um learning goals and objectives, statements of that nature. We also encourage the these

074data pieces to be triangulated with other data resources that Dr. Turner spoke about to get the full data story of Lexington Richland 5. Miss Barnhart um on that slide under the information for just Lexington and Richland 5 only on the intent to remain in the profession. I noticed in the screenshot there it just says I intend to remain in the profession. Now is that for the profession of teaching in general or the profession of teaching in district 5? The results on that you're seeing the question as it's written. I intend to remain in the profession for the suitable future. In our state level reports, we delineate, we can track, we track positions and cert and and t we track people, not vacancies. So you'll be able to see the state level retention rate has hovered

075in and pretty pretty pretty stable. We only lose about 10 to 20% every year and that some of that is expected with retirees and things like that. At the district level, there's it's a it's similar to the state level, but there's a bit of a dip. And at the school level, that's where we see most of the variation between teacher mobility. And that's why we're really talking about the conversation of teacher mobility and what retention means at the different levels because even if I move from from Shaven Middle to Spring Hill, the district has retained me, but Shaven Middle has not. So, we're we're talking about retention of a person and and their mobility in their roles. And our state level reports um really delve deeply into that kind of distinction. Mr. here. I appreciate

076being able to look at the district versus the state. What I'm curious about is do you see trends or trajectories like how do these compare to the 2023 survey? Are is student engagement less of a concern now than it was? Is it more of a concern now? Those kinds of things. I will let um not let I will I will turn it back over to Dr. Turner to answer specific district questions. But I will stay at the state at the state level um our research team publishes any trends that we see at the state level. Those are all published and on our website and I will go back to the newsletter where you can see all our reports and Dr. Turner will speak to the district level. Thank you. So at the district level um

077Dr. Herring what we noticed in our 22 23 uh data that was shared was some of the things that stood out as areas um where we could improve. You consistently saw this theme of time, time, time, time where teachers were asking for a lot of support with time. The power of this data is it doesn't only impact it's not just for the district to figure out. What you saw was as a theme across the state that time kept coming up and so you saw the implementation of things like unencumbered time and so it wasn't just strictly on the district to figure things out. Um so time was definitely something across the state. Um in addition to that umber unencumbered time policy, I know we've done things in district um to also support teachers having time

078returned to them. Um and then you'll see a recurring theme in terms of uh student discipline support that was across the state and that was also um at the district level as well for 22 23. Great. And I wasn't actually specifically asking about the district. I meant either on the state level. Are there things that you see like um teachers see more student engagement? Now I was even thinking about the cell phone policy. Has that increased student engagement? Have we have teachers noticed that or are we seeing that it's not having that effect? That that was really the root of my question. Okay. So again, this was just great data for us. Um Dr. Ross, you and I have access to uh the dashboard principles also as Miss Scams mentioned that uh reached the 50%.

079I want to thank Miss Gams um just a great engagement partner. There were times when she would cheer on and say you're so close. You have 42% and we would send an email to principles. Principles were so patient um because they boosted us up well above the 50% threshold. So, thank you to the board for hearing this information, the scams for supporting the effort, principles for helping us collect the data. But most importantly, I hope what will come from this presentation is that our teachers understand the importance and the weight that they have when they participate in this. We we hear it, we see it, and we bring it forward on their behalf. So, thank you for the opportunity to present this information. Thank you, Dr. Turner and Miss Gams. Dr. for us. That concludes

080the superintendent's report and I stand for any questions. All right. Thank you. That u moves us to the approval of the minutes from the May 19th meeting. Do I have a motion? Make a motion to approve the minutes of the May 19th, 2025 board meeting. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? Um yes, ma'am. I I have an amendment. Okay. Um, I move to amend the minutes of the May 19th, 2025 board meeting to replace the comments in the in the minutes about the May 5th meeting with um my request. I haven't noted that I recuse myself from executive session for item 3G. Second. So, that was just a a mixup. I think that it was left over. So, no worries. Um, we have an amendment on the floor and it's been properly

081second. All those in favor? All opposed? And the motion carries six to one extension. Back to the original amendment on the motion the original motion on the floor for the approval of the minutes. All those in favor? All opposed? And the motion carries seven to zero. At this time, that'll take us to public participation. The board welcomes and encourages public participation. We respectfully ask that you adhere to the procedures provided in board policy behings. Your comments should be limited to three minutes and must remain on either the topic noted on your signin form or a listed agenda item. Questions asked during public participation will be handled in accordance with board policy BEDH. Miss Taylor. Thank you, Madam Chair. We have one speaker tonight. Uh Frank Guchiano is here to speak about DT the DT proposal.

082Thank you. Good evening. So, I'm here to follow up on uh concerns I raised last month regarding the proposed fifth and sixth grade athletic team, particularly when our district still does not offer a district sponsored seventh and eighth grade program for all sports categories such as boys lacrosse. To reiterate, I fully support expanding athletic opportunities for younger students. That said, the absence of a proper middle school sports structure has created a significant developmental and competitive gap. Most neighboring districts provide seventh and eighth grade teams for good reason. Students in these grades benefit from playing alongside peers of similar age, physical development, and emotional maturity. Without that options, our students are left with two less than ideal choices. Sit on the sidelines or compete for positions on JV teams with ninth and tth graders. This is

083not fair or developmentally appropriate solution. Beyond the obvious physical safety concerns where 12 and 13 year olds are often outsized and outpaced, there are serious emotional and social implications and asking them to compete and interact regularly with older teenagers, some of whom are already driving and preparing for college. This introduces a dynamic that can be intimidating, alienating, and in some cases unsafe. these high school athletic settings too early can negatively impact their confidence, sense of belonging, and love for the sport. In followup to these concerns, I would pose the following question. Why is a district prioritizing the creation of a fifth and sixth grade team when this fundamental middle school structure is still missing? It's hard to listen to the proposal to build fields when there's a gap at the seventh and eighth grade level.

084If our collective goal is truly about student centered development, it makes little sense to skip the critical middle school age developmentally, athletically, socially, and that's the foundation students need before moving to the next level. I don't I had players in our own private attempt to provide lacrosse players here in the district with a private option that parents carried the ball. We drove our students and our sons to Clover on a Tuesday night, two hours, One Direction. It It doesn't make sense. I have students who are relieved that they don't have to play against sophomores. And so, if Mr. Scully is accurate in that we have the resources to provide fields and other items. Then why not give seventh and eighth grade boys in our district, both at Dutch Fork and here at Chapen, why not

085give them a team and find a field and an appropriate location? I think there's a something's missing and I think attention should be given to it. Thank you. Thank you. That moves us to our action agenda. Do we have any motions um on items discussed in executive session? Madam Chair, I move to approve selected employment items shown in exhibit A. Do I have a second? Second. All those in favor? All opposed? And the motion carries seven to zero. Make a motion to approve services of Stan Tucker outlined in exhibit C. Second. All in favor? And the motion carries seven to zero. Make a motion to approve the Richland County sewer easement and city of Columbia water easement shown in exhibit D. Second. All in favor? And the motion carries. Seven to zero. I make a

086motion to approve moving forward with legal action discussed in exhibit F. All in favor? All opposed. And the motion carries 5 to two. We didn't need anything else, did we? That moves us into our discussion agenda starting with discussion around the adoption of updated educational structure and redistric redistricting redistricting. I can't get that out tonight. Dr. Ross. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. Uh today I wanted to um begin a conversation that we have been dealing with in the administration since the redistricting plan. Uh as you're aware that parents are are the drivers of educational choice and and we are uh learning that as we build these models may work for 98% of our uh our students but for the parents that it doesn't work for. They remind us that uh it's about

087my child and their experiences. And so our goal is in drawing these lines. Uh over 750,000 different plots go into drawing the lines uh we do not get to 100%. And how do we meet that notion of every child's every parent's expectation that this works for my child? Uh and so uh in our work we have talked about uh how do we create an environment where every child feels loved in our schools and have academic growth in our schools. And we're able through our strategic plan to measure uh these outcomes. We can actually plot our schools uh uh based on um uh these experiences through our strategic plan. And schools are going to fall in one of four categories. the low love and low grow area, the high love and low grow area, the the

088low love and high growth. Um, and where we want all of our schools to be in the the high love and the high grow area. And one of the things that we're we're realizing is that where we start losing enrollment um is really where you you have areas of low love and low grow as measured by our strategic plan. Interesting enough, high love and low growth maintains its students. Uh but the the quadrant of low love and and high growth uh seems to lose students as well. Uh but we want all of our our schools in our district to be in that that area where through the strategic plan they have high growth academically and the educational experience is measured by the parents. you saw what the teachers did, but as measured by the parents

089puts them in that that top right quadrant. And so, one of the reasons that we we speak so much about the programs that we're placing in our schools is that the structure was just not enough. Uh it's really about the programs that we have. Um we we see that middle school experience as an area that we really wanted to to target. And um to that end, our structure um as we move from this model uh we're seeing that our intermediate schools were were collectively struggling to get into that high love high grow area. And it's not through a function of the work they do. It's just the structure that they're placed into. So with this year being the last year of this model, we'll move more uh we'll move to what we promised in the

090referendum. In a referendum, we would have all of our elementary schools. I don't want to call Rick out, but Mr. How and I have always talked about this this league of elementary schools that would would would build up and complete our our our district um and get that involvement in. But one of the things that we saw in this as we started to overlay our programs on top of this structure is that we were missing that connection again. Um and we have two split feeders in this model. Uh the split at um the middle school level is at Crossroads Middle. Um former Crossroads Intermediate when it goes to Crossroads Middle, it will split into Death Fork and to Hermo. Uh and we try to get rid of that split, but it would put too many

091students at either one of those schools. So, um, we maintained the split, but there was another split uh at Valentine and Valentine going into two different um middle schools created um just that that that that tension there at the elementary school of creating a better K12 flow. Who's taking care of these students? Who's looking after uh who's making those connections? it is easier programmatically uh to reduce these splits especially at our elementary. And so what we are proposing uh this is not for action. This is for continual discussion but this is level one of the discussion is to remove one of the splits and we chose the one that would fit in terms of the number of students. So it works operationally and it works programmatically and that is to go to this model. where

092Balentine Elementary does not split. It feeds directly into Spring Hill Middle. Um we looked at could we put H Cly back into um to into Dut fork to uh prevent that split and that just made Dut fork middle school too big of a middle school to to operate sixth, seventh and eighth. But with this model, this split uh we feel like it works in terms of flow. But uh it's still the question may work for 98%. What about that 2%. Uh so what we want to propose uh and we will bring in a more robust uh way for our next discussion on this um is uh what we have offered through the referendum uhformational was what's called preferred choice. preferred choice is a option for families that are have been moved out of their previously

093zoned school into this new structure. If they want to go back to their school pinning that room there and with the referendum making larger buildings, we we have more propensity for more room at the schools to allow them to uh choice back to that school. But there is one uh uh area uh that we have not been able to make this work with. And I just wanted to full disclosure. That's the Salem uh Salem Church road. I think we handled the Mount Vernon. I I said that yesterday. Salem Church. I apolog We handled in the in the last iteration. Uh it was uh the Salem Church Road area. Those families have been reszoned twice. Uh they were initially Bal I'm looking at Dr. Harris to make sure I'm right. They were initially Valentine and Dutch

094Fork Middle and they have been now reszoned to H Corley and Crossroads. And for those families, I ask uh special permission of this board to provide what's called preferred pathways. We want to discuss it tonight, draw it up. um uh at our at our next meeting. But preferred pathways would allow those PA families impacted by the resoning. So if you move in after the reszone takes effect, it doesn't apply to you. If it's before, uh you're eligible for the pathway. And the pathway allows you back into the two schools you were resoneed from, Valentine and to Dut in the room. So, I just wanted um we're going to go go through this slowly, but we feel like this gets us to addressing 100% of our families. Um that area of uh Salem Church Road was

095the kind of the last part that if we start moving lines again, we go from impacting 75 or 78 students to another 278. So, um I wanted to just share u these two slides with you. Um it it doesn't redraw any lines, but it allows us to um provide for those families that were reszoned, but make a a a special uh opportunity for those families who were reszoned twice. Now, parents that say, "I'm at Valentine. I want my child to go to Dutch Fork Middle." preferred choices available for you. But for those who reszone twice, uh we wanted to create a preferred pathway where once in they know that their child is set for elementary and middle school. That's all we have for for tonight. Again, this will be we don't want to throw too

096much at you versus uh this. It's not redrawing the lines. Um the structure is still the same but we think the programs and how we are are addressing the students how we make the connection fifth and and and sixth grade will be stronger with this model. Do we have any questions miss huddle? Um more of a comment I guess is um I'm a little concerned about what this could do to the ultimately the enrollment of Chapen High School because this model I believe was already going to put more the the model that the board voted on I think is already going to put more students ultimately at Chapen High School than there is today. And this would move even more. So before we vote on it, can we get the actual numbers that show because

097I think the last time I looked Chapen High School was just barely under the projected the maximum capacity. So I just I agree with you. I don't it's not it's never even fun to move attendance lines and I just would hate to do something and then realize three years down the road oops. Uh especially since I believe we have multiple neighborhoods, even one directly across from the high school going in and shaping I think that is uh very fair. I think we want to provide all of that before it comes to a vote. We'll have multiple discussions on it. We just wanted to present this and also full disclosure. Those families want to hear that we're talking about it as well. Uh and so um we missed last week's we told them that we're going

098to bring this to you. Uh we'll have those numbers. And also I wanted to know that too as we look in this model we have and that's the part that I have to prove right the burden of proof is on us but that spring heel still stands available with the removal of the academy for success to relieve chap and high and again I know that's not directed but in an era of choice it is very hard to see that but you're right we do owe those numbers there. Do we have any other questions? Um, one question and this actually goes way back. The um I was just wondering if at some point we could talk about the naming of Spring Hill Middle just because I think it may cause us problems down the road if

099if it has the same name as the Magnet High School. And before we get too long too far into, you know, ordering signs or what have you, I just think we should talk about it. Uh just as a timeline, I think for the board, uh this will come before you pretty soon. So you will have an opportunity because they're going to bring uh both name change schools, which are Spring Hill Middle and Crossroads, will bring to you mascots, color schemes, naming, all of that for Anybody else? All right. Thank you. Um, that takes us to Miss Tucker for the next two items of discussion. Starting with the district attorney list for 2526. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board. I have before you tonight the list of attorneys for proposed for FY2526. This is

100the same list of attorneys that we have for the current fiscal year. There are no changes proposed to this. Um this is just a requirement of board policy to bring this before the board for consideration every year. So I'll stand for any questions. Do we get it was just some of the I think two of the firms didn't have any lawyers listed. Is that standard just to keep them on there or they are have been on our list and I guess available if we need them but um we have not used them this year and so but they are still on our our approved list. Do we require that these firms update us like so when this list comes before us um is somebody checking to make sure all these attorneys still work there? um

101did a check last year, but obviously looked at them this year for the attorneys that we've used, but they're still it's the same list. Okay. And I It's weird. I only asked because by virtue of where I work, I know under the first listing that one of those attorneys doesn't work there anymore, but we can talk about that offline. All right. No, absolutely. Absolutely. Sorry. actually kind of to both of those. I think the board policy says that we we appoint attorneys, not firms. So, one thing to think about is to take the firms off it just and just list the attorneys maybe in alphabetical order or something. Um, and that way if an attorney that we do work with moves, we don't have to have a board meeting to reapprove this list if we've

102just listed the attorneys and not the firms. So, just a thought. I'm just thinking through since we would be under contract with the firm though and not the attorney specifically, we might have to look at the details of that, but I see where we're going with that. We're in discussion, so we have a time to come back and and look at that. Very good. And I'm sorry I didn't catch that before. It's just a fluke. I know like three people on air and he was one of them. So, all right. Thank you. We have any other questions on this, Miss Barnhard? Just a quick one. I'm I'm pretty sure the answer is no, but there is no kind of funding that's going towards these two that have no attorney on record in 15 years. Okay.

103Just making sure. Any other questions? All right. Do you want to move to your next item, Mr. And our next item is the procurement review panel. Again, this is an item that comes before the board for approval every year. Um the procurement review panel is um in section 4 uh 4410 um by South Carolina code. Something that we must um have. It is by appointment um a board appointed the chair who will chair the panel and then four persons shall be appointed. One by the chair of the board, the vice chair of the board, the superintendent, the chief business official. Um I will say that this procurement review panel has not met in my time here this year. Um but we have reached out to all of these members. they are all willing to serve.

104Um, and then the board would need to elect a chair for this year. So, and by policy, we could only have one board member on this committee, right? Somebody asked. By policy, the the board would appoint a chair for this committee and then it is four members of the community appointed by those for their outline and policy. Excuse me. Thank you. And I know there was a question last year. None of these members do any business with the district. Um we do not have any contracts with them or any of the firms that they work for. Um one is an engineer. Um one is the procurement director at another uh school district around the Midlands. Um and then two are community members. So do we have any questions? All right. And then that'll take you

105to your third item on this. Thank you. And last up for discussion is our FY2526 um general fund budget discussion. Um I'm will not go through all of these slides as we have in the past. Um but I want to just hit a couple of highlights. Um since we met last, the governor has signed into um into law the budget. Um there were some changes between um the house and the senate versions and the what conference approved. Um there were some additional funding in the conference approved budget. [Music] Um today we're in the box. In the box. Right. Duck can cover. That can cover. Um, okay. Um, so just to just to let you know, our budget was built on the House version, which is about $400,000 less than what was the final version approved.

106Um, that is uh kind of the the max that we could potentially get. So, we are not guaranteed the $4 million from the state, which would be 4.4 if we were to go with the what was approved by conference. Um, so just know that that is one change that um has changed since the last time we talked about this. All right. Okay. All right. Speak D Rose. Yeah, I got you. We speak up and down. Board members, all the board members here. of the community. More members. That's why Sorry. people watching like what sound people we might as well seriously to what I can tell right [Music] uh members of the community, we are under a tornado watch. We ask that you step away from any glass or windows. You want to be protected by

107interior wall structures. You can come close. This was this old family style and the facility will be available to you for the duration of the tornado. So we're going to continue with the meeting in this structure and so madam chair is your mission slides. I will take any questions about an email. because I tried to add up the numbers of the additions and then compare it to the slide that showed the amount additional available and I don't know if you had a chance to look at that yet one added up to 14 million and the other correct and so the $14 million was the total increases and um there was a slide that showed some savings we also looked and we looked at kind of our actual our actual HR expenditures our actual personal expenditures

108since that really is 88% of our budget so we so we take actual expenditures um and not and and kind of pair that down to take some savings for this year. So um our total increase was the 14 though we u but with some savings we only had to ask for additional $500. Oh I was going to say so it could be something like a position that's been vacant for a long time so you guys just took it out. Correct. Um, and most of this we had identified some of it was just trueing up the budget of there's been multiple people in this position for the last few years. And so some of it was just some clean up that need to happen. So um, but your I think your other question was about the

109um, student nutrition positions. So those are all funded with um with not general funds. They're all USDA funds. Um, and we actually have a surplus in our USDA funds. wanted to try to make um some accommodations to try to spend down the the US that were able. And then I think it was a page or two after that questions on the um like the totals that they have from I think the maintenance teams that 400 something thousand. How did you get to that total? It had I think six positions. Is that including like their benefits? That is including their benefits. um the the total dollar amounts that are in the um the projected salaries for the the maintenance team that had the supervisors and the maintenance staff. So that includes not only their salaries but

110their retirement, their FICO, their benefits, um the average average retirement average benefits for all of the total compensation which is about 30% of the salaries. Was that four total positions or was it or was it six? two. It was two teams. Dr. Was two teams with four positions in each. Correct. There were there's six total. Uh three on team one, three on team two. Each team is led by a a maintenance and then the maintenance person has two custodians. Is that the normal structure or is this something special? This is That's a good question. So, this is not normal. Typically, um, our maintenance teams are working on all of our, uh, dashboard, work order pieces. Custodians are under the leads of the school. Uh, what we're finding is that, uh, as our maintenance teams are

111are running through uh, the work order systems, anytime there's an issue, they get pulled off of the work orders to start handling uh, issues. The quick response team is we need a is basically clean up on our side. they got a leak over here that needs to be taken care of. Uh when they're not on call, they can be doing painting or aesthetic things. So, we can deploy this group. It's kind of like surf. We can deploy them to the areas that we need them the most and keep the maintenance staff on those in those work orders. Uh we're just finding every day we're struggling to get through the work order uh piece because of the daily things that are popping up. We initially started out with one uh response team per cluster, but that

112got two pulse. Uh so we skimmed it down to two. We're going to cut the district in half. Team one will have half of the uh facilities in the the western area. Team two will have half of the facilities in the east. And they're on those daily calls so that our maintenance team can stay focused on those workloads. And those 40 or what's the number? How many months out of days of the year will work? All 24. So like in the summer I know that probably not as much. Will they do the exact same thing in the summer or So we would hope we would get to beautifification in the summer or we can get to to the painting items to the those touchup things the the grounds. I think for the foreseeable future they'll

113still be doing work orderly. So now we can release them to go back into work orders and can try to knock those things down so that we can get back to zero. And there was some discussion about the counselors. I know there were six positions. Is that just like part-time as needed or? So we're bringing back the clinical counselors. We had nine positions. Uh we cut three. So now to the six. These are the six that are currently employed. We keep them at their same rate. So, but only has 36. So, so that you know what I'm saying? 36,000 or 60. So, I was going to say I think that I think that might be a mistype. That was the where we had the the executive directors and that position that came out. That was

114the cut. And so, the clinical counselors, we were able to add that back in by cutting that and then trimming up some vacancies for those. So, Okay. And those types of positions that come back, they'll just be competent positions. If if approved, they go into recurring funds. So they're they they're recurring every year. And how many are like districtwide? What's the distribution or will be the distribution of the counselors? Are they one for school? Are there so many for cluster? Dr. Harris. down. This is like a soul train. When the question was about the distribution of the clinical counseling, how are they allocated out to schools? Um, b currently or based on the proposal? Proposal. Jason, well, we're going to have to take a look at that. Um, but I can tell you based on

115the number of schools, they will just try to divide them out evenly and divide them out evenly in terms of levels as well. So, there's a balance. Um, we try to keep them as close to working with terms of working with those kind of considerations that obviously the case is going to be much. Are there is there at least one per school or is it less than one per school on the council? One, not enough. Less than one or more than one. There's only six. No, I meant in total. Are there Don't we already have some that the six are on top of or the six going to be the only? No, it's going to be the only six. How do we I got some emails from people and it seemed like that they were

116primary care for certain individual students, which is wonderful, but if you only have six, I don't see how we can do that. So, how do we make sure that where's the line, I guess, between what they do and when they refer so that there is enough of them to be able to support every student that might need their services. We're obviously going to have to restructure a lot of what they do and how they do it. And uh I don't have that plan obviously at this point, but I do know that that's going to have to take place in order to uh meet as many of the needs for as many of the students and families as we possibly can. Can I ask a question? Are you going to are they going to just develop

117case load? So they may have to go from one school to Oh, they will. They will. I mean, they're currently going. That's what they're doing now. And I know that because my son I signed him up probably isn't the right word, but I've asked the school counselor to talk to him before cuz I felt like maybe he wouldn't talk to me about some stuff. And she goes to see him like maybe once a week, sometimes every two weeks. And so it definitely doesn't solve our problems, but Well, sometimes the perception is is what you're doing is it can't Yeah. Well, I understand it, but just making sure that people understand that they could be going from one school to the next to meet the needs of of they would have I think the word operator

118is they would have access to not necessarily a onetoone assignment, one counselor per school, but access to it. And it's um it's not specific. It may be it may be once a week uh on designated days and each each council will have just on top at least three schools or so probably maybe in some cases four and that's that's going to be that's how school psychologists in the past have done it right. So yeah, I was just wondering if they were more like a almost of a triage because they're so many students compared to the number so that they uh handle like e situation, you know, like a suicide attempt or or suicidal ideation thing and then find the right person to help them long term. Yeah. So, I can tell you from personal experience

119green because I want a a school counselor and I don't even know why. I just I mean I'm being you know just being transparent. Noah had I felt like we were getting some calls about some things that were just not on brand for him. He's my older two kids so some you know and I thought well maybe something's going on and you know I'm talking he's the oldest of four. I've been the oldest kid so you know and I just thought maybe it would be helpful to have somebody else and so even at that level they'll talk you know they'll talk to them and our issue isn't emerging and so like how many of them are small scale things like that and then how many are like to your point maybe more highle um issues

120but you know I'm somebody who would also use insurance and get more help needed and I don't know maybe from some of those emails can if I do that. I don't know because I got some of those too who were very worried about being able to provide those resources which is also kind of scary because if they can only see them one week a week and it is emergent. Um at what level do they report back to somebody on that? Um if they think there's a greater need like what what are what if anything is the process of that? This this will require some restructure in terms of what we do and how we do it. That's that's for sure. Just so that we can clarify now for the families that have and students that

121have existing relationships with the six remaining they will definitively have the ability to remain with that particular counselor going forward as long as I mean and I'm talking about the existing every every uh reasonable attempt to do just that to do just that while keeping in mind we want to try to encircle any possible I think that triage word is what they're doing such a great job that our school counselors prior to the EEA did not have the requirements of the the IGPS has led them to a lot of time to do these things. Now it's a referral system. So having this extra layer, initially we had nine with co uh we're going to ask the board to fund the six that are still here. uh the three that left, we took those positions uh

122for for other things. But with that six, that's where you're getting those those calls from. And so, Dr. Harris, like you said, is trying to triage some of the cases. Suicide ideation is real. So, it'll go straight to that if that's the the piece that we get. Um then they got to triage of other things of of based on harm. So, uh, as we deal with increased levels of anxiety and those things, this is a great level to have. Yes, you have your counselors, but because of their workloads and things like that, this is another layer. So, we do appreciate that consideration. So, switching gears on speaking to the fund balance, well, there was um when we increase the percentage that we're holding, um, are we maintaining levels with that? What was it? million something

123like that they're going to need for the November um payments some so the um if we if we have the funds available we have proposed having the um 400,000 set aside for the ner payments um 3.5 for capital expenditures potential future capital expenditures and $3 million for the employee retention incentive and it would be in November with American education week so that would still keep us in line with what the new board policy is for the 17th I have to ask this because I think she's watching me, but I got a call from um from a substitute um she said she's been a longterm subst for a number of years, nor teacher, that sort of thing. And just really wanted to know when we're going to take a look at piece of paid for long

124term. So, and I don't know anything about how that pay bill works right now for that conversation, but let's talk about that. No, we we we have the sub plan. Sub plan is in here. It's in this budget. But um the long-term subs I might need Dr. Turner to weigh in here. Long-term subs are their their pay is calculated differently because it's based on their years experience and their curtain is wrong. based on their where they fell in the future pay scale when they left. So if this related to retirees I think a point of confusion is that retirees have two options to be certified. The current retirey certificate it doesn't have a certification area and so they don't qualify to be paid at the certified rate of pay if they long-term sub. One pending

125change is the new retiree certificate under the new retiree certificate. Uh that will add an opportunity for them to add their certifications back on to their certificate if they've met the qualifications to do so. Okay. So I didn't want to confuse the long-term self-payment for retirees raising those questions. It's likely because they don't have the appropriate certification as a retiree to be certified. You have to be certified in order to get the certified daily rate of pay as a substitute. As a substitute, even if they had already been Even if they had already been a certified teacher, if they no longer have their teacher certification, they have a retiree certificate, that retiree certificate does not have a certification area on it. And so that's that's the question that you all keep running into. It's not

126about long-term pay. it's they don't have the certification to get the certified rate of pay. But with again with the release of the new retired educator certificate that just came out under the release laws, they may be able to add those certifications back to their certificate if they have maintained the uh credentials to do so. But they can only get it if they're long-term subbing in that area. Is that Yes, that's exactly right. In order to qualify, you have to be certified on the certificate and you have to long-term sub in the area that matches the certification on your certificate. And that's a state issue, not a D5. Yes, that's a state issue, not a D5 issue. We referred several retirees with that question directly to the Department of Education, and that's a consistent message

127across the board. But again, there's hope with the retired educator certificate that's coming out if they qualify to get their certification added back to their certificate, they would qualify for certified uh rate of pay in those long-term positions. Do we see teachers that are having to serve as long-term subs in other areas that they were not certified in? So, for example, if they go in in long-term sub in their certified area for a while and then they're needed somewhere else, are they get they're going to get two different rates of pay? Yes, that's right. Um, and again, our board's administrative rule um we adopted the administrative rule when we transitioned to an ESS um staffing for for substitutes. So, with that administrative rule, it specifically says that you have to be certified in the area.

128So, that's a consideration for the board if that's ever something that you all want to revisit in terms of flexibility for that pay um if they do have to move to a narrative for which they're not certified in a long-term position. I also make I want to make sure too that we're clear that we're not um attempting to hire certified retirees for vacancies. That's another point of confusion. We don't want to do anything to give the perception that we're trying to circumvent the retirement system. So something else that comes up is we never pursue uh retirees to hire through a substitute agency for the purpose of circumventing um pea and retire. Our priority is always to hire retirees as eligible information. Thank you. Yes. Um, one other thing I would like us to look at

129is the stipens. I saw in there there's a an amount to increase the stipens for band, but I looked and our stipens for um for especially academic areas, but lots of areas haven't changed since 2017. And so if if we're going to look at band, I think we look at the AP coach, the you know the SAT coach, chorus, all of that. I really think we should we need to look at all especially on the athletics too. Some of them are so low, especially the lower end. I don't know how you get anybody to do it, you know? It's just so I really would like to see us look at it because it's been a long time. I would like to look at siphons as a whole and I really think we would need like

130a whole committee to look at this and I think it with it. I mean, I think if we started now, we could have something really great for the budget for next year. And I think it's going to take some time to look at what we have as far as the budget going into next year, but also to do the to do the time and research on what's what's around us because I've looked at some other schools and like you said, there's some schools districts have a 12page book that outline lots of different things. So, I think that would be something that we could have been more than you putting together a committee to start looking at this for next budget season so we can be competitive with our district around this. But I think funding

131is going to have to go with that. Think that might be a budget increase if that's the priority you could work for. Well, I just wonder if we might should wait to do any of them until we do that. I just it it concerns me that we pulled one one out as a band and you know the classic is going to be what about orchestra? Well, what about chords? But it's, you know, and I almost feel like we all just wait for all of them. We can't do any other questions at all. under the proposed bill. I think it's 261, you know, with I think it's 8 million something in revenue with factoring in grade, you know, they're probably going to be fully enrolled what it's 400, 600 students. Are we feeling good about that

132covering our needs if we lose any sort of, you know, state funding? So, we will know going into 10 days into next year what our projections look like. And I mentioned at the very beginning of the tornado drill um we based our budget based on the first house version. So the Senate version was a little bit higher um with some of those changes to the zoning formula. So we we have a very conservative estimate going into the budget. Um but I do think that's something that we'll have to look at based on what our numbers look like at the 10day and if we have to come back with a budget amendment, we're going to know that the beginning of school. So we'll start looking at those, you know, what those numbers look like as we

133as we start our school year next year. But we we do have a conservative estimate going into this budget. I have a motion. We adjourn this hallway meeting at 9:20 p.m. All in favor? I carry seven. Y'all have a good night. Madam Chad, the we are out of the tornado now. I do let you know there's another sale coming. We will.