May 19, 2025 School Board Meeting

001Test. One, two, three. Test. One, two, three. It is 5:30. I'm going to go ahead and call the meeting order. Get a motion to approve the agenda. Make a motion to approve the agenda. All in favor? Opposed? And the motion carries to zero. May I please get a motion to enter executive session? Make a motion to enter executive session. Consider the following. Selected employment items. Exhibit A for action. Selected employment items. Exhibit B. Information only. Contractual matter regarding A any services for Armor High School. Phase 2. Exhibit C. Contractual matter regarding the purchase of property. Exhibit D. Legal advice regarding Harrison West Elementary litigation. 22 2020 2022-CP-3201586 Legal advice regarding civil action number 325-3528- CMC-SVH legal advice regarding civil action number 2025- CP-32-01655 all in favor The motion carries 6 to executive session until 7

002p.m. Test. One, two, three. Test. One, two, three, four, five. Test. One, two, three, four, five, six. Test. One. Two, three, four, five, six. Good evening. It is 700 p.m. and I'm going to call the May 19th school board meeting to order. I'd like to welcome you all here this evening. If I could ask you to please bow for a moment of prayer. Gracious and almighty God, we thank you for the opportunity to gather here in service to our community and its children. We ask for your guidance as we begin this meeting. Grant us wisdom in our decisions, patience in our discussions, and unity in our purpose. Help us to remember that every choice we make affects the lives and futures of the students, families, and staff that we serve. May we be ever mindful

003of our responsibility to act with integrity, compassion, and fairness. Bless the educators, support staff, and administrators who work daily to shape young minds. Watch over the students of the district. May they grow in knowledge, character, and hope. We ask for your peace and your presence in this place tonight. Amen. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. United States. All right, Madame Chair, members of the board, Dr. Ross, good evening. We have some special spotlights to share with you tonight. I want to introduce you to London Allen. She's a fifth grader at Leeart Elementary School and she received second place in the um elementary school level of the Magnet Schools of America National Poster Competition. The um competitors all across our country had the opportunity to um create um a poster that expressed from one

004to all five of the magnet pillars that the magnet schools of America has. So, we're going to bring her poster out in just a minute, but London chose diversity as as her pillar that she wanted to draw about. And it is beautiful. You did such a good job. You are so talented and we are so proud of you for this accomplishment. And I want to invite our magnet director, Miss Sarah Wheeler, to come up. She has your plaque from Magnet Schools of America as well as a cash prize for for the award, too. So, congratulations. Thank you. Um, I just want to uh thank Miss Emily Perkins who's here representing Leaphart um to uh encourage London and Katie Bzinski from my office who really spearheads this. We have been winners for the past several years

005with artists from our district and we had this framed also for her. Good job. So you can start with Dr. [Laughter] [Music] Great job, London. All right. And I have two more special ladies to introduce you to tonight. Exactly one week ago, we announced our 202526 teacher of the year and support employee of the year. So ladies, y'all come on up. We our new teacher of the year is Brooke Bridges. She teaches kindergarten at Pineywoods Elementary. And our support employee of the year is Cammy RP. She's an instructional assistant at Oak Point Elementary. So, both of these ladies um are amazing educators. They're very dynamic, very smart, and they are going to represent our district so well next year. So, we're so proud of you. Congratulations. [Applause] Again, congratulations, ladies. At this time, I'm going

006to turn it over to Dr. Ross for the superintendence report. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of our trustee board, our community. It's an honor to represent such amazing educators, those who serve as public servants for our our children. So, uh we had a great opportunity to recognize all of our representatives from our different schools and programs as well as the finalists, the three finalists for support employee of the year and teacher of the year. and so proud to have Miss Brook Bridges and Cammy Root represent our district as teacher of the year and district support employee of the year. Also on the same night we rep we gave a recognition and honor to our retirees. This uh photo captures all of those who were in attendance that night. when we tally up all of the

007years and as they walked across the stage, we held their numbers of years of service and education uh from I think as low as seven years to 46 years of service and education. You talally school district 5 will lose 1,868 years of educational experience this year. So, it's our goal to try to replace uh and continue the legacy, but overwhelming representation of just the skill that's been brought by our teachers and our staff. And so we're very thankful uh for them and that recognition. As always, we're a system guided by three critical questions. Why do we do this work? How do we accomplish that why? And what are our outcomes? And it's uh meetings like this where we get feedback to help us stay aligned to make sure that the outcomes that we're doing match

008the vision that we have. And to that end, madam chair, I'd like to take the liberty to uh clarify a situation with a book uh and this situation is regarding a book. I am Billy Jean King. I have been receiving several notices as you have about book banning and the removal of books. Got a letter that talked about alternative sexual lifestyles. I want to clarify something if I may. Uh that uh we as a district Just as London did in her poster, we accept everybody and celebrate everybody. It's about diversity. We don't take a position of judgment on any sexual lifestyle. All are welcome in our public schools. All are welcome in our district. One of the questions that was asked was that Ross in the past a committee would form and meet to talk

009about books. And I also want to make that clarification that on October the 7th, 2024 of this year, uh, a new policy was adopted. That policy is JL, library instructional materials selection and adoption. And it do not form out of this policy those committees anymore that you would see that used to meet at the district office. Uh, the administration is given three criteria to look at. One, age and appropriate in developmental appropriateness uh the educational suitability and the third is it align to state instructional programs. Now I want to as I go through this I need to consider the furpal rights of all students but uh I think we should consider the genesis of this and I want to start with the question of the children and how this came to me. It didn't start

010with started with a question of a child. So what was the question of the children? The question was what does this mean? That's the question posed to this to the to the school. You ask what is it, Dr. Ross? The specific thing that the children pointed to was romantic feelings. My question is who answers that question for this child question is posed what does this mean? The the question to clarify is what is it? The answer from the child is romantic feelings. So what does romantic feelings means? Who answers this for the child? Now we go back to those three points. Is it the school? Does the answer this question for the child. Is it educationally suitable or is it instructionally aligned? We looked at the standards. We searched our our text in romantic relationships.

011And this is whether it's male female or male male female female. That's not the point. The question is who discusses romantic feelings with the child. So by searching the standards we could not find in alignment we could not find it in our educational standards. So that leads us to age and developmentally appropriate. The book is written at a first grade seven month level. It's recommended for ages five to age nine. To understand age and developmentally appropriate, you have to put yourself child developmentally as we were taught at that 5year-old mind and at that 9year-old mind. You can't use your current age. You must look at it at that level. The book talks about love and romantic relationships. Who answers the question? Does the teacher answer that question for the 5-year-old? Does the principal answer that

012question for the six-year-old. Does the librarian answer for the seveny old or 8y old? Who answers the question? We felt that the best person to answer that question for that 5 year old through 9y old was the parent. So the book was placed with a note in our destiny system. The child wanted the book. parent need to be a part of it because that was the question generated to us. Who answers this question? So we don't talk about romantic relationships like a parent should talk about that. You said, "Well, Dr. Ross, what how does a parent know what books to get?" Well, part of this policy requires us to put all our library books online so that they can be seen. Liaries operate like the libraries that I went to school with the one exception

013that most of our books are placed in. So the only thing you can see is the spine. These are not books a million. You don't you don't just browse. You go in. You used to go to a card catalog. Research something. You pull up the card. Not all the way and write down where it was and then you would go find it. Now that's computerized. It's in the system. At no time was this book removed from our system. We ask that a parent would be able, if this question arise again, be able to answer that question for that child. It's available. It's still available. It's in our destiny system. It's available for for for the reading along with 16 other titles about Billy J. 15. total of 16 titles that we have on the on

014the wonderful work and contributions of Billy just brings me back to that question who answered this question for this particular child or these children. So when it comes to if it's age and developmentally appropriate to discuss romantic feelings and that's what this is about. It's not about sexuality between this sex and that sex or that gender or that gender. Let's just say it's a male and a female. Who talks about those romantic feelings with this 5-year-old, this 8-year-old, this nineyear-old? You felt I felt it was so just wanted to clarify the statement. A lot has been thrown in about uh lifestyles and put yourself in a kindergarten classroom, first grade, second grade and third grade classroom and ask yourself who answers the question, that question arises, that teacher is not going to answer it. That

015principal is not going to answer it. We wanted the parent to be a part of it. And so that was the the decision there. And so what we can't answer is the question about love. We talk about love all the time. That's our vision. We love and grow our students. Our mission is that we're focused on academic, social, emotional growth and development. And we measure love. We actually identify what love is because we we have it in our objective statement. We have it in our strategic plan. It is six strategies on school climate, six strategies on teacher administrative quality. Our growth uh is identified through our strategic plan with six strategies on student achievement and six strategies to stretch our students with gifted and talented strategies and we measure that through our state assessments. Our

016students are working very hard, our teachers are working very hard this assessment season now. We know that our state has a goal that by 2030 75% of students will be at or above grade level. And so we're working very diligently to get there. But I want you to realize that as we look at our projection from fall to spring, there's a lot of growth that's happening in that red. There's a lot of opportunities uh that we don't see materialize in terms of past fail, but there's growth to be celebrated of the students who did not meet. That growth extends all the way to high school as we measure as we come up to graduation next week. We are working diligently to meet our 90% goal where nine out of 10 students who enter high schools

017in school district 5 will finish with a diploma and highly qualified by the 12th grade. Doing all of this is just really a focus on providing for the whole child. As we enter the budget season, we come back to our purpose. The whole purpose of our annual budget is to establish not only a visit for for the board and the budget but to take care of the educational priorities of our our district. I think there is becoming a clear debate on how do we balance the needs of the taxpayers with the needs of the the children and balancing that is becoming very difficult because we see an ever growing increasing need for the whole child within our schools. I believe and will always believe that child won't learn reading and writing and arithmetic if those

018other items in the the continuum of the whole child are not met. So, as we move through the budget, I want to take a little time uh before we get into our budget reading tonight to just discuss some of the concerns I have as superintendent presenting this board to the budget. I mean presenting this budget to the board. We talked about our our revenue uh the expenses we have and then the reserve. Of course, a balanced budget would this would equal zero. But there's been changes that have taken place and I think we need to really focus in on these changes. The first change happened in 2006 with the passage of Act 388. Prior to act 388, you can look at our act or caffer as it was called at that time. 51% of our

019funding to take care of our expenses came from the state. That is now and 49% came from local taxes. You look at last year, 64 came from state, 35 came from local. Our district relies more on state funding than it did in the past. When some of those teachers started that retired, they lived in a whole different financial revenue picture than we live in today. If you look at other districts, not all districts are the same. Charleston, the highest paying district, you can see it's local to state share. Fort Mill, the only district that's outpacing us collectively in achievement. You can see it's local to state outline. Lex one, who's closest to us in property value? You can see it's state to local and then Lex. Well, for a district that relies more on state

020than local, it's important to see what's happening with the state funds. We're getting questions, Dr. Ross, reduce the state percentage, reduce the state pie or this the local pie, reduce the local pie and the local percentage. But we are seeing reductions in the state percentage. Why is that? We need to look at the proviso 1.3 state aid the classrooms and see that there has been an increase in the weight of the students in charter schools versus those in traditional schools. So what does this mean? This means that in the old way of doing business, we look at per pupil. We'll count up the number of students we have and then we would have a per pupil a lotment. That's no longer how it works. Does not work per people. We count up all our students

021and we enter them into what's called WPUs, weighted people units. It's not the number of students that determines your money. It's the weight of the students that determine your money. So when you put the new formula into the new money, you'll find that 7% of the students in the state of South Carolina will get $50.7 million of new money and 93% of the students in the state of South Carolina will get 61.2 million of the new money. That will affect our local allocations. As a result, when you tally it up, you can see over the last three years how the state has put less and less new money into the education. And we used to have a split. This year with the House one bill, it's a split going from 75% of the new funds

022to 54% of the new funds. We must understand that we're going to receive less state funding than we have in the past and less money is going into the state pot. Greenville did a graphic that I stole from them. It basically shows the weight of a of a student. A traditional student is weighted at the 1.0 weight. Same student if they go to a brick and mortar charter school is now weighted at a 2.25. The same student if they go to a charter school virtual is weighted at a 1.65. The student hasn't changed. Where they are changes their weight. The weight determines the funds. Now we shared this with our parent advisory and many in the community and they called their legislators got involved. We heard from our legislature and they took action and created

023house two. House, which is different, which is in the blue lane. You can see that more weights were added back into the public school of the traditional or the traditional school pot from the charter from the virtual charter pot. So now the breakdown instead of 7525, it's 7030. So again, while it's more than the house two, House one budget, still less what we received as a share. There's something else that we need to consider is that when we look at the difference between those, we're getting less and less funding as a as a district per student from the state. These impacts will have an effect on our overall budget. I must share this with you. Not all school districts uh will receive the same allotment even from their waitings because of the proviso 1.3 the

024encouragement is that if your tax base is higher that index will be applied to your WPU or your the amount that you receive districts with higher tax bases will get less of the share of the global So your numbers can increase, your wage can increase, but if your tax rate value increases, you will be backed out what's called the index of tax payability and that money will be withheld from encouraged as was said, you can get that from local taxes. as we're being pressed on both ends, pressed on the state end, pressed on the local end to try to meet the whole child continue. So as because of that, we asked what are the priorities and all of this with limited funds can't take care of what are the pri what are the priorities? Uh

025the board met, the parent advisory, the faculty advisory, the student advisory, the principles and directors. All of them met to determine our priorities. And we determined that teacher pay raise was the number one priority. And so we are presenting a budget that tries to meet those aims while we are being pressed on both sides, both state and local. At the end of the day, the reason that we we fight hard for these programs is what our parent advisory told us. What's important are positive parent choices and experiences that are for my child. A variety of different outcomes that were wanted by the parents, but one united phrase is that it needs to fit my child. Moving to a more individual delivery system for education requires more. We're in a world where both in state and

026local we're being compressed in terms of resources to deliver. So with that to not withhold the uh presentation I'm going to take questions at the end and then move to our financial report uh for February and welcome to the podium our chief financial author officer Miss Heather Tucker to deliver the February monthly financials. Tucker. Good evening, Madam Chair, members. I was going to do it at the end. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board. Um, you have before you our February monthly financials. Um, as far as February and actually we we wrapped up March today, but as far as February goes, our revenue is slightly higher than where we had been in the past at this point in the year. We are at 75% and last year we were at 72%. This is to

027be expected. January and February are typically the highest months that we see for our revenue collection from local taxes. Tax bills go out in December. They come in typically January, February time period. That's when we see our highest collection months. And so our property taxes are typically the highest in those two months. Um we will see that to start to fall off. We saw that happen in in March. And for Richland County, they had their reassessment this year. So Richland County's tax bills that went out in 2024 for tax year 2024 are the tax bills that we are collecting right now for Richland County. So we do expect to see a slightly higher um collection from our revenue, especially for our property taxes in Richland County for the beginning of this year. Now as far

028as expenditures, we are also seeing our expenditures slightly higher. We are seeing um increase on a lot of things that we have typically paid for in the past. Um we are seeing increases due to inflation tariffs. We are starting to see some of that with our expenditures. So we are our expenditures are slightly higher than they have been um at this time in the previous years. We are at 58% of total expenditures through this point in the year whereas last year we were at 54%. So even though it's a small percentage increase, we are seeing that on a daily basis with the cost of goods and services just being higher. So with that, I will stand for any questions. You have any questions for Mr. Miss Huddle? Um if I'm reading this right um you

029were mentioning revenue the property taxes which are the bulk um of the revenue the budget um 82945 that's the total annual budget right correct and the actual is as of February so we still have March April May June four months right and we've already collected 99.3% of the of the project of the budget. Correct. Correct. And through March, we've actually collected um 84 million. So we have collected slightly higher than that. Um and like I said, we would anticipate that having the Richland County reassessment last year without any type of roll back. Um and we'll get into tax collections in a bit, but um but we I would typically expect to see that after seeing the Richland County um reassessment values that they shared with us in February of this year. Um Richland County values

030did go up and so we would expect to see the Richland County property taxes higher for the first part of this year. Based on prior tren trends, do you have any feel for where this may end up? I mean, if you were to guess. Um we were actually looking at that um the last couple of days, Richland County um what for our collections for March, Richland County actually took back $7 million. They miscalculated something um in our property taxes. So we will see this go down. Um, even though I do think we were going to end the year um higher than where our property taxes um where what our budget was for our property taxes this past year, um I would say conservatively I would think we would end um a couple of million higher.

031So the $85 million range um is what I'm looking at as far as property taxes. Um again working with Richland and Lexon County for the reassessment. They keep telling me these are projections and um projected values, but we have seen Richland County values increase and we're um expecting those values to be higher. And one other question and um you may not know the answer which is fine um but I was just curious the revenue in l of taxes the f I read something where there was a school district where I think the county was trying to take back that money. Um are we in danger of that or can you describe what this is maybe to start with? So fee in lie of taxes is something that the county calculates for us. Um we have

032had a similar number for the last few years because this does play into our revenue projections. Um I actually reached out to both Richland and Lexington County to to discuss this. Um Richland County um has not responded. Lexon County was going to look at it and get back to us as far as a um an answer. But because we are very conservative in our projections for those, I don't think we would see the situation that the other school district faced with a a huge loss. Um, as far as our fee and loo um I will say that our tax collections in general um we have seen a large increase in vehicle taxes. People were buying vehicles. Um so we are seeing those vehicles obviously your vehicle taxes depreciate as your vehicles age as there have

033mileage on them. So you typically pay higher taxes on those as it whereas with your property taxes those go up with reassessment. Um the other thing to consider is and it didn't pass this year unless they it makes it through conference is the watercraft bill. Um we as a district receive a little over $2 million a year from our watercraft fees um or the watercraft taxes. And so um about 1.2 million of that goes into operating and the other into debt service. So that is another potential revenue offset that we may see. something that definitely following and looking into for next year um if that bill is to move forward. So that would be another offset of our revenue. But I do not with the fee and I do not think that that's something um

034that we would be in danger of losing um but I will definitely like I said I've reached out to the counties and I will follow back up with that questions. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Harris comes to the podium, our chief of student services and planning. I just wanted to give kind of an introduction to you and Mr. Scott on a very important program that we are uh we have in our school district and it's a case for classroom supports. Uh, I've shown multiple times this graphic of an eighth grade classroom, English class, and the different achievement levels and reading levels that exist in in this class and uh how hard that teacher is working to get those students to to actually be in those blue bars. You have to be at the green level,

035which is the 61st percentile. You can see the number of students that this teacher has below the 21st percentile. That's that that red area. And as a district, we felt that maybe if we continue the interventions that we're doing in school, but look at all of the time that the child is out of school, but they're in the community, we can look at that time and find a way to get great enrichment uh to uh help with not only academic achievement, but social issues that tend to become barriers to those students academically. That's a great opportunity. We identified by an area. We looked at our our reading uh scores. We put a red dot to the students in our lowest cile of reading performance uh throughout our district. And what you can see is this

036area right here. It's a glowing orb of highly concentrated students in their residence. This is not where they attend school. This is where they live. Uh in that blue time on that on that pie chart that we can put interventions in their community after school when weekends uh holidays when schools are closed. What difference could that make? Mr. Scott stepped up to the challenge with community support services and we ran this map a year later after intervention and that's what the map looks like. That's just in a year. I know there's a lot of factors. There's a lot of things going on but it's showing an impact. What we are seeing is these areas of dispersion of a greater need. So I wanted uh this opportunity Dr. Harris wanted to bring just to show what's

037making this magic what what's helping us uh show impact through community support service. How are we getting these these uh these pathways? Uh so at this time I'll turn it over to our chief of student services and plan planning, Dr. Michael Harris. Members of the board, Dr. Ross community, uh thank you for that segue because it really does speak to the the work, the worth, and the magnitude of work that has been done uh over the past year. Actually, two, I think it is now uh by Mr. Scott in community services. Uh again, we've identified an area and I think his presentation tonight will give you a very clear indication of the the magnitude of not just the the impact but really the difference that has been made in just a short period of time.

038And with these efforts, certainly look forward to expand that across the landscape of this district and other areas as well. So with that being said, I'll turn the floor to Mr. Julia Scott and talk about pathways to our poss to possibilities. Madam chair, members of the board, thank you for uh having me today. And I have to say I'm really excited to share our progress. And I want to thank you upfront. I like this saying that we are pursuing what's possible and not what is traditional. Creating the position I have today is all about what's possible. Uh so Dr. Ross gave you some context uh for what we're doing today. And I just want to just share with you what's our purpose. What are we grounded in? And it's really three points. One, uh, we

039really are committed to building community support system from birth to career. Gone are the days, as he said, where we simply support kids the time that they walk through our doors. But by the time they walk through our doors, depending on the community in which you're born, you're already behind the eightball. So we recognize the need to start before that. Our approach is placebased education. two years ago, I would not, Dr. Ross would not have been able to articulate that. But that is the essence of the work that I'm doing, meeting with local businesses, government, nonprofits, uh, service groups to say, how do we all rally together? So, it's not just school district 5, but that is embraced by our entire community. Then, obviously, our our pilot site is Harvest and Gardens. Um, and we're

040using that as an opportunity to say, how do we change this? How do we measure this? And ultimately, how do we scale it? Um, I believe the last time I was with you all, I shared that we were making a shift to not just be very generic and saying that we were providing wraparound services. That's what we do. But ultimately, everything goes back to outcomes. You have to be able to measure what you're doing, how you're doing it, and why. And so the last time we met, I shared with you all that we're focusing on three outcomes for now. Kindergarten readiness, out of school time participation, and career pathway participation. Um we believe that if we're able to do this successfully, uh we can show that every student in every neighborhood in school district 5

041will be able to flourish. So with that being said, our work in Harvest and Gardens has really been pretty astounding and really really impactful. And so from a kindergarten readiness standpoint, there are a lot of folks that I have the fortune of working with. Uh and I won't suggest that I lead efforts because there was a lot of work put in place prior to my arrival. So with 4K and Ready by five, uh, parent educators, um, Richland County First Steps, all these folks have been working together to say, "How do we invest in the Harvest and Gardens community um to ensure that kids who are not in our system as of yet have an opportunity to be exposed to literature and language and social emotional well-being skills. Um and so also with the Richland County

042Public Library, um they come out once a week. I shared that previously, that's been a success. Uh so the number of kids who are not in our school system, I have to reiterate this. Um who are getting access to books and being read to on a daily basis. We have families who are telling us we did not read to our children prior to these services being put in place. We will see the benefit of that as those children continue to uh come throughout our school. Uh that work will continue. Uh we're excited. Uh we just met with the new executive officer, director from the Richland County First Steps. Uh and I anticipate that that partnership will continue to grow as we continue our work in Harpers and Gardens. Uh beyond the bell, this is very

043critical. Um out of school time, uh I've been fortunate over the last couple of years to get really involved and out of school time space on the state level as well as the national level. A major charge from my work was Julius, we've got to get kids in some high quality programming and we've been able to do so not just in Harvest and Gardens, but also have extended those opportunities for students at 7 Oaks Elementary. Have to give a lot of credit to um office of instruction and ultimately thinking about our magnet school office. Uh so we were able to get a grant a couple years ago that included opportunities uh for students to gain access to high quality programming. So this March uh we have a partnership that's been developed with Baron's Academy who

044has a number of programs across the state. Um but they are now in uh Seven Oaks Elementary. So for the first time in several years, we have students who had zero access to high quality programming that's now in programming. Um and those students will also participate in a five-week program. So we're looking at ultimately about 50 students to participate. And you think, well, what's the big deal of that? One, it keeps kids safe. It helps working families because their children have a place to go and people that they trust and that they know. And then we're also collecting data u because what we do know is that high quality programming impacts school attendance, academic achievement um and discipline. And so by the end of this year, I will be able to give you some very

045hard stats on what that looks like at 7 Oaks Elementary. The other thing that we're really working on and again I'm going to say just pride um is strengthening our work as it relates to careerline career aligned collaboration and so uh it's fitting that we're here at the Kate Center uh because we're working with Mr. Priy um and his development with the hive program at Irma Middle School, the afterchool and summer programming. Um so we have an opportunity this summer uh for those students to be taught by uh CTE teachers uh within that five-week program. So one of those courses over the course of this summer um will be at a RC car racing mini camp. So students in this mini camp will be exposed to engineering project design. uh they'll get a chance to

046compete with each other and they also have an opportunity to earn certification. And the reason why this is important is long before they get to high school, they'll have an opportunity to be exposed uh to many many high earning um careers. Uh just recently, a couple of weeks ago, I had an opportunity to visit Capitol Hill as a member of the afterchool alliance ambassador program. Uh so we had a chance to uh see the staffers from Senator Graham and Senator Scott's office to talk about the impact of summer learning. So it was in DC Capitol Hill that I talked about the work at Irma Middle School. Uh they seem very intrigued and impressed by the work so far and have committed to saying they would like to help the state ultimately continue to maintain funding

047uh for afterchool programs because they recognize the investment. Uh, another piece that I want to add because this is a recent development. So I think Dr. Ross may not be aware. I was just approached uh by the folks at Ferman University, Riley Institute um but also trained technologies. Um they are very interested in our work at Irma Middle School and also would like to partner with us um to say how can we be a part of this afterchool space where career pathway and career readiness is a part of that. So we have some meetings coming up in the next few weeks uh to talk with the Riley Institute folks, afterchool alliance folks and trained technology individuals to say how might we develop a pilot program uh that can serve as an example for the rest

048of the state. So super super excited about that. And I believe the almost last piece that I'll share is thinking about career pathway participation. Um, one of the things that we've been able to do, um, is just look at some data to see how many of our students within the Irmo cluster, particularly in harvest and gardens, were participating, um, in career pathway opportunities and IGPS, uh, individual graduation plans, just in case may need to know what that is. In the state of South Carolina, beginning in 8th grade, all eighth graders have to participate in an IGP. That is the process where you sit down with the child and their parents, guidance counselors to outline what are the opportunities that those children will have in high school. Well, in talking with the folks at Irmmo Middle

049School, I learned by my surprise that not many of our families were participants in the IGP process and programming that resonates with me. I have an eighth grader and so we went through this process just recently. And so we said, how might we pursue a possibility and not just that which is traditional? So I have to give the folks at Middle credit. We said, "What if we brought the IGP process to Harvest and Gardens?" And so the director of guidance came out. We met with families and for the first time many families learned about the IGP process, career courses that they could take. Then we took it to another level. We talked with High School and they said, "Hey, we want to be involved in that process." So in January of this year, we had

050both Irmo and I high all converged in Harvest and Gardens. And so we end up meeting with about 15 families. And you might think, well, gosh, that doesn't seem like a large number, but that is 15 families who were not participating in this process at all. And their thought process was, man, this is really great. How do we learn more? And or my child really has an opportunity to do some things that we did not consider. Um, and so now our goal is to make the IGP process in the community a mainstay. The other piece that we did this summer or this past year as well, which I think is cool, looked at the number of kids who were in harvesting gardens who actually attended CTE classes. We didn't we only had a handful um

051but our goal was to say how can we connect those families um with job shadowing experiences and I have to give a shout out and credit to our folks at Spring Hill High um and MEBA. Uh and so they were able to help us get three of our kids from the gardens connected to some job shadow experiences. And I have to read this quote because it really speaks to our work. Uh, one of our parents said, "First of all, I just think it is fabulous because especially in the community that we live in, there are not always a lot of opportunities or just the knowledge of the opportunities. So, it's definitely great that it's not just at the school, but actually bringing it to the neighborhood. We're shifting what's possible for our parents." And so,

052this is a process that we're building and that we're growing upon. And almost the last thing I think I want to say is that our work is not just here in the community. Um if you follow what's happening in the state, we're moving more and more and more towards career pathway development, economic development. And so I'm happy to acknowledge um that we are growing our champions of this work. Uh two of which lead major statewide efforts. Um one of which is a graduate of school district 5. Um so Dr. Dana Yao is the executive director of the EOCC as a Harson West graduate. And so we told her about the work that we're doing and she said, "Julia Scott, tell me what you need. The EOCC would love to support your efforts. How can we

053help?" Uh, and many things that we're doing from a cradleto career standpoint. If you look up what the EOCC is all about, it supports that. And then most recently as well, if you're familiar with SE competes and transform SE again, which is all about economic mobility and how do we ensure that our kids are getting exposed to career pathways. Uh we have another former D5 member, uh Mrs. Bunny Ward. Many of you probably know she's well known here in our community, but across the state. She's the director of SC Transform. Again, she too said, "Julus, I've been at this work for 20 years. You tell me what you need me to do." And I said, "We need you to become a champion of this work. Support us. Join our efforts." And she said, "I will

054gladly do so." So, our work is not just rooted here in Irma. It's really connected to what our state um efforts are looking like uh across South Carolina. Uh so, what's next for us? We'll continue to go through this notion of strategic planning, but really make an in-depth effort uh to ensure that those three outcomes can be measured, can be analyzed, and ensure that you all have a clear-cut idea that the work we're doing is just not talk. It's just not to give you a feel-good story, but we can show through evidence that this this work is outside the box. Um, but it is making a difference in the lives of our students. That being said, are there any questions that I can answer for you? Miss, um, great presentation. Thank you. Um, I'm I'm

055a little I guess I'm trying to I'm a little confused. I want I want to try to understand like whose role is what. Okay. And where it fits. So I believe we issued an RFP or RFP or RFI, whatever for after school program at Harvest West. Yes, ma'am. So um is that in place or or when will it be in place? Yeah, so we have been working with Harson West and the residents. We ultimately had an opportunity to partner with uh the YMCA. Um so they were granted the RFP. Uh but we ran into a lot of legalities. Um and I will say one of the main issues is just transportation. Uh so we were uh in lockin step with uh attorney Mahoney. uh to make sure that everything that we were doing were lining

056up. Uh but the Y just had a lot of questions about their responsibilities um and what might that look like and ultimately um they were in a position where they really didn't want our I won't say didn't want our money um but they just didn't think that for what they were going to have to take on they really didn't want the risk. So we just had to start over. Um, and so, uh, we are in the process of having a conversation with the on-site program there because there is an on-site program at Harbison West, um, and and making sure that our kids and those families can have access to that program. So that way we don't run into any issues with trans because that's a major issue of when you drop kids off, who's going

057to be responsible for picking them up? What happens if someone is not there to pick them up? Where does that responsibility lie? ultimately because we would be using district funds, grant funds, school district 5 would bear the weight of if something happens to a kid after drop off just a lot of legal questions. And so unfortunately we did not get a chance to start with the YMCA. Um and so we're having to back up just a bit and say how do we just make sure what we're going to do with Harvest and Gardens is directly at the school. So that way we don't worry about transportation. kids can simply walk to and from um and it just helps to remove the legal barriers that we face by having them go someplace else. So just to

058make sure I understand so we don't we're still trying but we don't have an afterchool program at Harvest and West the elementary school but we through this other program we are supporting a portion of those kids that attend Harvest and Gardens I mean are from Harvest and Gardens. Harson West Elementary has an on-site program that already exists. Okay. Um and so what we had done is we opened up the RFP for somebody outside of Harbs and Gardens because they were they were already up at to capacity. So at this point to say that they can take any additional students from Harvard and Gardens, they just couldn't do it from a space standpoint. So that's why we opened up the RFP not realizing like the transportation piece is it's just a huge hurdle. So the on-site

059program at Harvest and West is only four children that live in Harvest and Garden. No, ma'am. It is for the entire school. It's for the entire school. Thank you. And then the other question I had is um I'm I'm a huge proponent of the birth to kindergarten. Um and one challenge I want to give you is um I read an article and I think it's Okone County Schools, they participate in the Dolly Parton reading um participation and I started putting our addresses and zip codes in and found out there's some we don't as a rule. I know that the school district can recommend kids and and I believe it's Palmetto project, but we don't have the blanket coverage like um like they do in some other parts of the state. And I don't know, I'm

060not saying that falls on the school district. Maybe it's something we could get the D5 foundation to get involved in, but it sure would be nice if we could get the same kind of coverage for that that some other places in South Carolina have. So, not only would it be nice that it's actually happening, um, so we actually have that grant and so we have about 25 kids who are four years and under who are participants in the Dolly Parton Foundation. So, that is going on as we speak. I I called Palmetto Project though and they told me that we don't have a blanket like we have to refer kids because there's not enough money. One thing I didn't realize is I thought it was free. It's not free. Correct. Um, it's 30 something dollars

061per per student. So in order to get the blanket coverage, we have to come up with enough money to wide open because if you go into the website, if one of our parents goes into the website and puts their address in, it's going to come back and say you're not eligible. Yeah. Ready by five. Uh Amanda Glowaki in part specifically is the person who's made that connection for us. Um and again, we have about 25 kids who live in Harvest and Gardens who have been participating in that program now over the last year. Okay. But is anybody looking at finding the money to make it available throughout our district? Uh, I will do some research. I'm not certain of that, but absolutely. Thank you. Um, and on the early childhood part, um, are who's take

062I realize you're involved in that. Are is the district taking the lead on that or is that first steps? Who's kind of really in charge of until they get to 4K? That's a great question. Uh so obviously 4K but that's where we're working with first steps to say how do we identify because traditionally school systems have never taken that on like we haven't taken on the role to say how do we help kids before they get into our building. We're saying like we want to flip that on its head like we can't wait until they get to us in 4K. We've got to start identifying kids as early as two and three years old. And so that's where our ready by five group comes in really really handy because by being out in the community

063they're able to assess students before they walk into our building. they're able to determine needs and then they can get kids on our radar to determine who needs uh what services. We have a lot of that outlined in our D5 youth and family services program. Mr. Bon, hey there. Thank you so much for promoting literacy with this program. Going forward, you know, looking towards the future, do we have a document or an idea that shows like who all is involved staffwise and looking um like funding streams. You mentioned grants. You know, we're trying to get more support from community sources. Obviously, you know, with our revenue streams decreasing, we need to figure out ways to help promote literacy, you know, outside of our school district. So, is that kind of a focus looking for grants

064and Yes, sir. So, so that's really the power of where we're going with this whole notion of cradle to career. Um, so there's an advisory group that we have that includes community members. So, it's not just school district 5. Um but it is the goal of our advisory group to say let's identify the resources that are needed which may also include financial resources because that's been said already. We see where the landscape is with a lot of funding. Um and so the group of our advisory is to say what are the resources that are available how do we measure and then how do we secure additional funds that would benefit school districtwise. And do we know like a total amount that we need to spend like you know 10 million 20 I don't know that

065we could you know make a public offering, you know, hey, come join us, help promote literacy. We need this amount and kind of do. We don't know that just yet, but that's that's what we're working towards. Yes, sir. To identify what a number is. Thank you, Mr. Hering. I know your specialty is mostly out of school time, but wondering about getting those kids to us earlier. There are some surrounding districts that have 3K programs. Is that something that we've looked into? Is it feasible? Yeah, I think uh everything has to be on the table to be quite honest with you. um we can't leave any stone unturned. Uh but but if you can recall, this is our first year really identifying kindergarten readiness as an outcome. So we're still in the very early stages of

066this. But I can tell you that this will become even more concrete uh just because we now have our foot in the door and just have some really important partners and champions to say what does this look like for us? Mr. Satderfield. Yes. Um, first of all, thank you for being this is very proactive and a lot of time in education we're reactive, right? And I appreciate you getting all the other schools involved coming to these apartment complexes because I can tell you I've worked at various schools across the district and you go to one school on a parent night, you can't get a parking spot. You go to another school, if you got five parents there, you you've had success. Uh, I know that Dr. Ross and I worked together at one time. Uh

067we were looking at um u how to have best identified the needs of kids and you could go all the way back to second grade. Isn't that right, Dr. Ross? You could go all the way back to second grade and you could see where the issues were. So if you're getting these kids, I mean, what do you got? Kindergarten, first and second. That's not much time, especially if you're making up time. So if you can gather these kids together earlier, then it it really is literally a head start. So I I really do like the proactive approach to this. So thank you what you're doing. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Scott. I certainly appreciate the hard work and uh the movement there and Harris to to your department.

068Um you know we were talking about the third grade. I was a three-year-old. We're thinking about how many four-year-old requests we still have coming in. Uh we're still trying to meet all the four-year-old but uh you know Dr. Harris's philosophy for his department is from prenatal all the way through adult ed. Uh and those is just how do we grasp the the right net and scale. So again, thank you Mr. Scott for your work in that that community. Uh madam chair, members of board, this concludes the superintendent's report and I stand for questions. Do I have any questions for Dr. Ross? Mr. Scully. Yeah, Dr. Ross. Um thank you regarding the one of the earlier points you brought up. I'm I'm still weighing the uh the issue of the the book. Um and so I

069I understand your and appreciate your rationale and your and the explanation. I'm just torn on whether that's the proper solution. Um I guess let me just clarify a couple of things. So based on the rationale that and I agree I agree that the it should be a parental discussion. Um and that's that's the solution and the ultimate answer. I just worry about the process of getting to that point. Um and when we and I and I I think in some issues there the proper pathway is for parental consent on on particular issues. For this particular book though I don't think it rises to that level with the issue being presented and I mean romantic feelings. Gosh, I remember being in um preschool uh kindergarten and a girl got up for show and tell and announced

070to the class that she wanted to be my girlfriend. I peaked early. It's it's been downhill ever since. But the point the point is is I mean romantic feelings have been they're they're just part of life at all ages. Uh I had girlfriends all throughout elementary school, middle school. Um And it's just not something that we can can shield ourselves from. I mean that the question of romance is always going to be around us and it is in our in our homes uh and everywhere we go. And and I think this is a rabbit hole potentially of you know when we start making policy and the the default position be on the negative. uh when when I think the the those are going to be the the the margins the the smaller numbers of issue

071you know the majority of the people aren't going to have that particular uh question or issue with with the the book or or any kind of romantic issue there. Um so that's my concern. Um but I appreciate I I I genuinely appreciate the thoughtfulness behind what you did. Um what I want one question that I have for you is if we did not have that restriction on that book and then I'll come back to please come answer and come back to me. uh what position where would we stand from from a pol you know from that if if if you didn't make that decision where would we be very good if we did not make that decision based on board policy JL the next step would be for any um any person in the community

072a parent I'm sorry any parent I'm sorry parent of that that had access to do a complaintant form and again that would be considered by the Okay, thank you. Um, oh, I'm sorry. Actually, the board the board would hear that. So, the board would hear it. So, if a parent made a complaint, then the our local board would have the option of hearing it or they could send it to the state. Okay. Can we request to hear it? I'm sorry, say that again. Could we request to hear it? Not just in this instance, but This is a question that I've gotten too. If if y'all made the decision to pull it, could the board make a request to supersede the decision and hear the complaint? According to JL, that would not be the case. The

073only way that the board would hear the case would be if the parent brought it based on KEC policy and use that form for the board to hear it. JL does not give the board that ability to to do so. Okay. I'm going to respectfully disagree in that the policy from the state specifically says that the board has ultimate authority. So, if the policy from the state or the regulation says the board has ultimate authority, then I would think that um the officers could put something on the agenda if they wanted to. That's that would be up to the officers, but I mean that's what what the state regulation says. Yeah. Um um obviously I've gotten a few phone calls about this and some inquiries. Uh the problem is is really on 1024 we passed

074two policies KEC and JL and they almost read opposite. Um KEC says parents should fill out a form if they've got a complaint and then it uh uh you have a meeting and you get to hear public opinion about the book and then uh the board selects a committee and three of the board members have to be on the committee and then the board makes a decision with 90 days within 90 days but it also mentions JL in that policy. So there's there's a conflict there that it's It's a a conflict. Um, and I would also say that um, this is self- selected reading. This is not instructional materials. Most of JL is based on instructional materials, not on self- selected reading. And I would guarantee you, I could guarantee this. If you go into

075any library, 50% of those books would not meet the requirements of materials, academic or educational rigor. If I got Nancy Drew's Mysteries or Jeannie B Jones, which I read all of Genannie B. Jones to my granddaughter, by the way. Um, I mean, there's there some of this stuff is just nonsense. If would the shelf space be better served by another book? Who determines that? Who determines educational rigor? You know, you go to the media center for self select. You're trying to encourage, we looked at our reading scores up there a while ago. We're trying to encourage kids to go in and select a book. Um, and if if a parent has an issue, then we follow the process and the process is supposed to mirror what the state board of the education has. You can

076appeal to them that board and they can go through that same process. Um, but I don't think that uh we should because of one parent, one individual determine what's best for everybody else. I'm okay with the appeal process. I mean, I am okay with the policy. As a matter of fact, I remember that we had a lot of discussion about KEC. We talked about the what the parent has to do and go through the process. There wasn't a lot of talk about JL and maybe that's the board's fault. Maybe we were at an at error in that part. You know, obviously we approved it so we should have done a better job of reading it or taking care of it. But there's a definitely a conflict with JL and KEC and they were passed at

077the same time by this board. Um my preference would be not to allow one parent to dictate what happens to everybody else and the other thing is is let's follow the process. KEC is a board process. Let parents go through the process and I the book right now where's the book being housed? I think it's in the counselor's office. So, how many children go to the school counselor's office to check out a book, right? I mean, do they have to go the library and ask for that book? Right. It's in our destiny system. So, they would still go to the library to get the book and I understand that, but a lot of times what kids do is they go to the media center and they start walking down the aisles and looking at books.

078I mean, but anyway, that's my thoughts and feels. think there's a conflict with KEC. I believe in the process. I believe parents should be able to challenge. I'm good with that. But we put in a pro a process with KEC and we talked about it at length and that was my understanding of how it would be um would be handled. And um and I read the little passage. I'm not sure if anybody else read the passage. There was nothing in that passage. It said, you know, some people have fallen in love with somebody of the same sex. There's no description of sex. There were no genitalia. There was no descriptions of anything. Um, anyway, I just think we should follow that process. I I I I get bothered when we when boards and at the

079state board sometimes we don't follow their own process, but I think we should if we approve of something, we should follow that process. And shame on us for approving JL and KC the same. That's all I got. Thank you, Mrs. Satell, Mr. Scully. Yeah. Uh, thank you. Um, with that in mind, uh, I I'd like to make a motion that the board uh, direct the superintendent to reverse the decision and lift the restriction um, placed on the book, the subject book. Point of order. Um, under FOYA laws, you can't take an action on an item that's not on the agenda and wasn't published at least 24 hours in advance. So, you guys are the officers. You can put this on the agenda for our next meeting, but I don't believe you can take a vote

080tonight. Can I ask a question? Uh, Miss, I know you've been on the board forever. Um can um can we ask that we revisit these policies and make them conducive so that they're separate one is about instructional materials and the other is about media. Yeah. But you can't take a vote unote we can send an email to Mr. Herring like we always do and say we'd like to put it on the agenda to and I agree I personally agree that we should revisit those policies. Okay. motion and request to place on upcoming. Got it. Do we have any other questions for Dr. Ross pertaining to the superintendent report? All right. Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes from the May 5th board meeting? Make a motion to approve the minutes of

081the May 5th, 2025 board meeting. Do I have a second? All in favor? I have um I move to amend the minutes of the May 5th, 2025 board meeting to indicate that I was present for executive session. Second. Yeah, I just the minutes don't show and I really tried to log in at the very beginning, but I just want to add that because otherwise it looks like I wasn't present. All right, we have Miss Huddle has Was that what's your motion that she was present for executive session? Yeah, just to add a note that I was present for executive session. Yes, we have Miss Huddle's amended um motion on the floor has been properly second. All those in favor? All opposed? Miss Barnhart, I'm assuming you are in favor. Well, then I'll just go over.

082Can you hear me? Oh, I do. Yes. Yep. All right, that's a yes on mine. All right. Thank you. And then um back to the original uh motion to approve the minutes. All those in favor? Miss Barnhard? Yes. Yes. All right. And the motion carries seven to zero. That takes us to public participation. The board welcomes and encourages public participation. We respectfully ask that you adhere to the procedures provided in board policy BEDH, public participation at meetings. 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. Thank you, Madam Chair. David Jenkins is here to speak about supporting public education. Can you hear me? All right.

083And um uh I have a daughter that graduated from Irmo High School in 2023 and my son is a junior at Hermo High School right now. Public education is vital to the health of our country. We should be in investing in it. But there's a concerted effort to undermine public education in our state and our country. So it is disturbing that South Carolina is now known for the fact that we've banned more books than any other state. And it's a race to the bottom. Reading is fundamental to a functioning society and getting re kids to read is difficult. But often all it takes is finding a book that speaks to them. But we are banning books. Has this improved scores in our district? Has it helped attract and keep quality teachers in our district? Has

084it reduced bullying in our district? All book banning books has done is create outrage and division in our community. Please focus on improving our schools. Thank you. Daniel Gray is here to speak about the book ban and board communication. Whenever you're ready, where should I begin? All right. So, there's a question asked. Why do we show up in numbers on this subject? Well, because freedom of to learn. This is where we can publicly communicate, right? Public participation. So, if we're talking about a budget or provisor, things like this, we're not showing up, but I guarantee we're listening. This is how this happened. This is how this board came to be because we were listening. I'm going to read a passage from someone. I'm writing with us in regards to banning the children's book. I am

085Billy King Jean. As a resident in this district and an educator of doctoral and post-doctoral students, I strongly disagree with the seemingly fearful atmosphere being created towards those different sexual orientations. I disagree that the romantic thing was was pointed out there. I routinely find vast areas of knowledge and professionalism gaps in students across the educational spectrum who hail from our district. And the fact that gay people exist is is simply not responsible for this issue. Other clear reasons why this book ban is wrong. The state stated process was not employed was not employed prior to its removal. Language jargon, that sort of stuff. Bottom line is it wasn't indicating obvious bias. All right, so I'll we'll skip past the sexual part because we say it's not about sex. Could be just about romance between two

086women, but I you know, call me crazy. You already have. Um, so he's asking respect respectfully to reconsider that. So, a couple of things. 120. God better speak faster. Ring around the rosie. What that was is a spread of the plague's victim. So, we're talking about bubonic plague. Three blind mice. Way back to the Queen uh Mary one. Uh, people were protesting or apparently burned at the stake. three blind mice uh going around the mulberry bush, specifically female prisoners who were made to exercise around the malberry tree at jail. This old man, anybody seen that? Cuz I did. Uh, by the way, it's about men molesting children. All right, so let's see. 35 seconds. I do have a quote that I wanted to read. Um, Taylor Swift, Shane never made anybody less gay. And I

087guarantee you that people have been singing this last quote. School administrations rely on the mushroom method with school boards, keeping them in the dark and then they feed them compost. Kathy Huddle. Quoted. Annie M. here to speak about I am Billy Jin King. Good evening. My name is Annie Mafy and I'm here on behalf of Midland's Apple, a public education advocacy group in Lexington and Richland counties. I'm here to express our extreme concern and disappointment over the recent removal of the children's book I am Billy Jean King from school and classroom libraries in Lexri 5. Removal of this book because it communicates King's sexual orientation is blatant viewpoint discrimination. I would encourage you to rethink the motives for and the legality of this decision. Last year, the South Carolina State Board of Education established regulation

08843-170, which sets the legal statewide standard for how books should be reviewed for age appropriateness. This book contains no mention of sexual conduct as is very broadly defined by regulation 43170. Nor does it contain any other theme that is deemed age inappropriate by state law. By removing it from school and classroom libraries, you are not only keeping children from learning about a famous female athlete, you are also communicating a prejudice that goes beyond this one book. According to media reporting, the school district used the 1988 Comprehensive Health Education Act to justify the removal of this book. However, that is the not not the standard by which the state determines if a classroom or library book is age appropriate. This book is not used in supplement to a sex education course, nor is it required reading.

089Therefore, it does not fall under the jurisdiction of that act. The removal of this book is in vi direct violation of current statewide book review standards as well as national anti-discriminatory laws. No one has the right to take a book off of a public school shelf just because they don't agree with or are uncomfortable with the viewpoints or lifestyle expressed within it. That is by definition viewpoint discrimination. How many other school library books bring up questions about heteronormative romantic relationships or feelings? What about Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast? Why is it okay for a 5-year-old to ask about romantic feelings between Belle and the Beast and not between Billy Jean King and her partner? That is viewpoint discrimination. May I remind you that if one parent disagrees with the content of a book, there

090are systems in place for that parent to opt their child out of reading that book. We encourage you to consider the repercussions of this this decision and to return I am Billy Jean King to our school bookshelves. Thank you. Catherine Brookens is here to speak about I am Billy Jean King. Hello. Um, good evening and thank you for allowing me to speak. I'm Katherine Brookens. I'm a former District 5 teacher and zoned for District 5 and my preschool age son will likely attend District 5 schools. I recently read an article in the state newspaper about the banning of a book about Billy Jean King. One of the positions I had in District 5 was teaching in a special education preschool program. A unit in the curriculum was learning about families. Part of what I was

091evaluated on was displaying family photos that students brought in. One of my students had two mothers in a same-sex relationship. Following the logic of shielding students from homosexual relationships, I would have had to single out my one student and remove the photo of his family and stop him from sharing information about his family while other students were able to share about theirs. The families and students that make up Lexington Richland 5 are varied and diverse. All should be respected and treated with dignity. It is not the school district's job to determine which families and individuals should be celebrated and which one should not. It is unacceptable to make students feel like they themselves or their families are less than just because they are or have parents who are part of the LGBTQ community. and removing

092a children's book just because there's a gay character. The district is implying that being gay is wrong and shameful. That may be the opinion of some individuals, but ba gay people exist regardless of opinion and their existence should not be censored. You said it's up to parents to answer the question of what a what romantic feelings are in an age appropriate way, and that's fine, but why is it that you're only banning a book with a gay character? What about the romance in Rapunzel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty? I want my son to be able to manage living in a diverse and multicultural world. I want him to be able to work with and develop friendships with people who are different from him. Learning about other perspectives and being respectful of people who are not like

093him is part of what will be necessary for him to be successful in his future. I fear what else District 5 will choose to censor next. We need to celebrate similarities and respect differences. Banning a children's book that mentions being gay is not that. It is not fair to be tolerant and accepting of some people while censoring the acknowledgement of others. I hope District 5 will put I am Billy Jean King by Brad Mesler back on library shelves. Thank you. Rain of Floyd is here to speak about book banning. Hi, I'm much shorter. Um, so I am a district employee. I've been in the district um for a really long time, but today I'm speaking as a parent. [Music] Um, specifically about my experience as a parent at IEES Elementary School when I asked that

094a book be removed from the classroom library. Uh my son who is um good grief, he's graduating next week from the Governor's School of Science and Math because District 5 prepared him. Thank you. Um he was in the fourth grade and he was doing his weekly reading logs. I checked his school stuff to keep up with what he was doing. One week I was reading his log and one of the um day summary said something about the main character having a crush on a boy, but he was a gay twin. They were identical twins and she happened to fall for the gay twin. interesting. Nothing alarming as we had openly discussed sex and sexuality the summer before he started fourth grade. But a day or two later in his reading log, it included a game

095of spin the bottle and making out that I wasn't comfortable with. So I did something um that every parent is able to do in the district. I reached out to his teacher. I was at Irma Middle School at the time and I know that we get books donated to us during or right after Scholastic Fairs. I assumed best intent, which was a huge focus at Irma Middle at the time, and figured she hadn't read the book yet. When I reached out, she was grateful and apologetic. We both agreed that when a kid's Lexile level is high enough that they're going to be pointed to books that are on their reading level but may not be suited to their maturity level. She asked if I wanted it pulled from the school library. I read over the

096form for a challenge of a book. This was several years ago, so I'm sure the forms have changed. And decided it was too big of a reaction to my personal concern. I felt like it was using napal when all I needed was some weed killer. challenging a book is being used in a way that avoids uncomfortable but necessary conversations between parents and teachers and librarians. Just because I didn't feel it was developmentally appropriate for my fourth grader didn't mean I wanted to keep it from fifth graders or maybe more mature fourth graders. As a middle school teacher, I knew just how early kids start asking questions about and experimenting with their bodies, whether it be with sex or alcohol and drugs. Honestly, parents who are unwilling to have tough conversations with their kids should be

097grateful that such books are available for their kids. Thank you. Matt Eisenhower is here to speak against footban. Good evening. My name is Matt Eisenhower and my son attends elementary school. It seems clear from today's discussion that there are books in the library for the 5 to 8 year old age group that discuss romantic feelings between heterosexual couples that do not have this extra note and requirement. What message does that send to the child of a same-sex couple? Why does the worry about one parent's response get to change the availability of a book for every other child in the district? Isn't the point of school to answer factually a child's question? I'm pretty sure the attempted destruction of public school education via school vouchers, attacks on vaccines, anti-masking hysteria, gun violence, and drunk driving are

098more dangerous to our kids than a book about an American sports icon who happens to be gay. Thank you. [Applause] Frank Gucciardo is here to speak about agenda item number 17. the dreaded glasses. Good evening, board members. My name is Frank Guchardo. I live here in Chapen. I'm the father of two boys in the district, a rising eighth grader and 11th grader, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm here because I'm concerned about the recent discussion to create a fifth and sixth grade athletic team, specifically when our district still does not offer a district sponsored seventh and eighth grade team for sports like boys lacrosse. While I support expanding opportunities for younger students, I worry that we're skipping a crucial uh developmental stage. Other nearby other nearby districts offer middle school sport uh

099middle school lacrosse that allow boys to grow, compete, and develop their skills with peers at similar physical and emotional levels. Without a dedicated seventh and eighth grade team, our boys are either left behind or placed on JV teams alongside ninth and tth graders, which brings up safety and social concerns. These age differences mean disparities in size, strength, and maturity. And more importantly, placing 12 and 13 year olds in regular contact with older high school students who are in a very different stage of life raises issues beyond athletics, including safety and social appropriateness. In response, a group of parents, including myself, took it upon ourselves to form a private middle school boys lacrosse team here in Chapen to keep our kids on pace with other districts. But this is a stop gap solution, not a sustainable

100one. And it shouldn't fall on parents to fill the gap in a public sports athletic program. That responsibility should rest with the district. And our students deserve the same developmental opportunities as their peers in neighboring schools. I worry that if our district does not offer these critical middle school opportunities, our student athletes will fall behind competitively and potentially miss out on opportunities, including scholarships that could shape their futures. I respectfully ask the board to consider establishing a formal district supported athletic program for seventh and eighth grade boys lacrosse and other middle school teams as a priority before expanding downward. Thank you. May I have that minute on the comments about the book? There was a minute left. Is that okay? So, I'll just speak from the cuff. Um, I have a 9-year-old um, third grade

101who is not in the district. We talked about what we said five years to nine. Was that the age for this book? I agree with you. It should be a parent decision and discussion. Um, my son is having trouble tying his shoes and discussions about romantic feelings. If we're talking about love, you know, English is a um uniolar language. The Greek talks about love in many ways. Can talk about the stogus love, the love between brothers. Could talk about felos, the love between teammates on a team, brothers. It could talk about an agape love, which is a sacrificial godly love. It could talk about os, which is an erotic love. I don't know that that's appropriate for a 5-year-old even to skirt around the topic of it because we know what we're talking about, right?

102I think Dr. Ross, you spoke about um not placing our my 52-year-old mind on the topic of same-sex relationships. It's it's not my business. What happens at home and in the bedroom is not my business. That's the great part of America. We Stephanie Laur is here to speak about budget. I'm here tonight as a parent of, excuse me, two elementary students to talk about the proposed district budget for the 2526th fiscal year. There was a proposal for some salary eliminations, one of which was the removal of the nine clinical counselors that currently service the district to assist with families and students in need of mental health services and support. As these ESRE funds end in the f ended in the fall of 2024, the board made the decision the wise decision to continue these positions

103and services and added their expense to the general budget. Even though the additional funds for these positions has ended, that does not mean the need is any less. The mental well-being of our students is just as important as their academic progress and part of the whole child. The rate of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts continues to increase among children and the need for these services will greater will be greater as well. The students cannot learn as effectively if they're struggling with mental health issues and the schools need the staff to help support them in this way. I would like to share how one clinical counselor has helped our family My youngest daughter has struggled with different parts of her everyday activities for years. For a while, we chocked it up to being a co kid

104because she was just two when everything shut down. She, as well as most of her peers at that age, missed out on many of their normal activities, going to preschool, church, and playing with friends at a very developmental time in their life. The challenges she faced became much harder when she entered first grade this past fall. She'd complain about going to school or there'd be something not right or any number of things that would make her break down in tears, screaming and crying and ultimately make her late for school or anywhere else we might need to be. No matter the planning and preparation that we would do ahead of time, many days she would not get to school on time. However, once she was there, she would be fine for her teacher. So, the teacher

105never noted any concerns. The wonderful staff at our school did notice the challenges during our drop offs and got us connected with the school guidance counselor who then got us connected with one of the clinical counselors. We started meeting with her in November of 2024. And she's been able to help work with us as parents, our child individually, and the three of us together. With her help, we've been able to identify that all of these go back to a root of anxiety for her. We have worked over the last five months to help her in and out of school to be better able to handle the daily things that most of us take for granted. The growth and progress that my daughter has made, thanks to the clinical counselor, has been such a blessing to

106our family. We continue to work with her on things that cause her anxiety, but we are all much better prepared to handle these situations when they come up. We had looked for several years to find a counselor that would be able to provide these services that the clinical counselors do and support the whole family and working with all parties together. And many families really I swear I practiced that and I talked much faster before many families don't have the time, resources or um to find these resources on their own. Um, I truly believe if more people knew this was a service that was available, then you would need to hire more of them rather than remove their positions from the district. And if they removed at the end of the school, the students and families

107that have built this trust and connection would then have to would not be given the proper time to transition to another counselor, assuming they can even find one. We are thankful to be a part of a district that cares for their students and families and I hope you'll continue to care for their mental wellbeing by continuing the funding. Thank you. [Applause] PJ Thomas is here to speak about the Billy Jean King book. All right, I'm ready. Hello. Um, I was a preschool teacher and now I work in youth services at a library. Do you know how many times I have heard kids or heard parents say, "Is that your boyfriend or is that your girlfriend?" Romantic love is something that 5-year-olds can understand and that their parents talk about with them. with my experience, I

108am no stranger to wild questions. Um, and it's from time in memoriam we have been able to say that's a great question. You should really ask your parents about that. Um, sorry. Why are we hiding books that prompt questions, especially if those questions foster parental interaction? We shouldn't divorce learning at home from learning at school. Our schools must be a place where every student is welcome, accepted, and valued regardless of their race, religion, or identity. My little brother is gay, and books saved my little brother's life. He saw himself in writing at a time when people around him rejected him. If we hide books that discuss that identity at an age appropriate level be behind a special permission system, what are we saying to those children with that identity or whose family have that identity?

109We're telling them that they are other and that their existence requires special permission. That messaging eventually costs lives. Thank you. [Applause] Kim Felt is here to speak about book banning. Good evening. Um, I think that the comments from this section have really covered so many things, so I'm going to amend my comments a little bit. Um, some things that maybe haven't been brought up yet, just the fact that these are things that were meant to talk to our children about. Um, we've all had to talk to our children about things that we cringe when we have to talk to them about. I had three boys that went through the wonderful District 5 school system. I didn't really want to talk to any of them about erectile dysfunction when they started advertising that in prime time,

110but it came up. So, that's what we did. Um, I did listen to Billy Jean King actually read this book on because it was online and um, I don't know what I would have done when my kids were five. I I don't know what I would have said. I don't know if I would have wanted them to choose that book. So, I understand that some things parents don't feel ready to address. I do think there's a little bit of a bias in that we tend to make same-sex things more sexual um rather than less. Um, and heterosexual things are viewed a little differently. Um, but I think that there is room for a family discussion to say, "Sweetheart, um, this is not what we believe or this is what this is. This is why this

111person loves this person. Whatever your family values are, you can put them out to your child as you always do." Um, so I I'm actually satisfied that the board is putting a lot of thoughtful consideration into this and that there is a plan for further discussion. And I'm sure that you're aware the implications are far beyond this book. Um, and that that's where the rub is, isn't it? It starts something bigger. Um, if I could use my last 30 seconds to clarify something that the superintendent said, if I may, topic change. Um, when you were talking about the budget and the weight of the students, I erroneously assumed that the students would be weighted by their needs or their level of need. And that seems completely wrong. Am I correct about that? Okay, super. Dr.

112Ross, I think board policy does allow you to respond. Oh, okay. Miss Snipes, I believe it does. I recognize. Okay, Dr. Ross. Thank you, ma'am. Um, so there is a proviso that proviso 1.3 does outline in house one and house two additional weights uh for needs. So, that's special education, students in poverty, those weights are added on. Uh for clarification, we'll talk about this in the budget. Uh for a district like ours, we start out at 75. So, uh and then with the index of taxability, we we actually kind of come out by 6. So, even when you add on special education, you add on poverty, uh students in Kate, uh those do not weigh as much as a student who's starting out at Uh with the floor asked, Madam Chair, if I could have

113just a moment considering the things that have been said tonight, and I usually don't do this, uh but considering the the discussion, I do want to say this. Uh we've been accused of banning books and I'm not trying to get into semantics. I did I did place parental permission on this because of my review. I didn't give the full context because I think FUP prohib about what really happened in this case. Uh so that that does not present a full picture. But I do like what uh last speaker said is that this provides an opportunity for family discussion. And so uh because of that uh I do want to say that this policy allows two pathways. So that didn't follow the process remember there's two pathways. Pathway one is the parent, pathway two is the

114administration, but both pathways are are provided by the policy. So because of that, the administrative pathway, I'm going remove my parent permission requirement effective immediately and if it comes back through parent, then it can happen in general for so that is the power I have as superintendent. I'll take that and any parent who does not want their child or not ready to have that at five, six, seven, and eight can reach out to the librarian and let us know, but I'll resend the parent permission requirement effectively immediately. [Applause] All right. Thank you, Dr. and thank you for the community that came to talk about the various issues that impact our district. This moves us to our action agenda um for actions as necessary or appropriate on matters discussed in executive session. Do I have any

115motions? Madam Chair, I make a motion to approve selected employment items shown in exhibit A. Do I have a second? Before we proceed with that motion, Matt, a point of order, I would like I have a note put in the minutes that I recuse myself from executive session item 3G. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Did I get a second? Madam chair, I move to divide the question on exhibit A. I would like to amend the motion to remove line three. I think those are two different things. Do you just want to Yeah, you have to do two motions if you want to do that. One to divide the question and a separate one. You want to do that? Okay. Okay. So, I second the the How do you want to divide it to vote on line

116three separately? Everything else? Oh, okay. So, that's one motion. I second. I need a little clarity. So you want to omit line, they want to vote on line three of the employment packet separately. Okay. And I can explain if you need. I'm sorry. He's asking, do you want an explanation? Yeah. Could you could you clarify for me, Mr. B? The board is being asked to approve a supporting relationship that isn't in the best interest of our students and staff. My opinion, Mrs. Scott, I disagree. There's not nothing saying that it's not in the best interest of our schools and staff. Well, first under Robert's rules, first we have to vote. We can discuss, but we have to vote on whether or not to divide the question. If that vote passes, okay, then we can discuss

117the actual motion. Let's start there. All right. We have a motion on the floor um to divide the question. All those in favor? Yes. All opposed. Okay. So, that motion fails. Now, we have an original motion on the floor, which is to improve the employment packet. Miss Huddle, I feel like you tried to different. Yeah, I was just second I was clarifying his motion. Um I would I would like to amend the motion to approve exhibit um A to um exclude line item three. Nope. To divide the question, it's actually different. So I know it's I'm I'm amending the original. I got it. All right. Did I have a second? Elizabeth. Okay. All right. We have And I want to I'm allowed to speak to my motion. I just want to say that I believe

118this um reporting relationship that is uh being recommended is um counter to board policy. It has absolutely nothing to do with the individual involved. Does the administration want to comment? We will restrict our comments on employee matters to executive session. Okay. Like to call question. All right. All those in favor? Can I ask one question? So we are voting to remove line item three. Yes. From to exclude them. Yes. Yes. the there's a an amendment to exclude line item three. All those in favor of the amended motion? Yes. All opposed. All right. And the motion fails. Now we're back to the original motion which is to include I have Can I ask a question? Yes ma'am. Okay. Um, we received a email with an exhibit H that said it was for exe executive session and

119it had a personnel matter in it. So, I just want to clarify that what we are voting on does not include the person the personnel items that were in exhibit H. I call the question. Say that again. Okay. We received an email I think Friday um from Miss that had some additional items in it for tonight and it had what was labeled exhibit H for executive session. In that packet, there were a recommendation to add two new positions. And I just want to make sure that when we take this vote, it excludes that exhibit H as it pertains to selected employment items. And I emailed Dr. Ross about this. I I just want to make sure because I don't not sure what we're talking about. Um there was a in the original executive session packet

120there was exhibit H that listed a some information. That information I wanted to discuss in executive session had to deal with some personnel matters and some discipline matters. Um that was questioned before the meeting. As a result I withdrew that from executive session. So there's no discussion because it was So that So that answers your question that this is not all. Thank you. Okay. So So does that mean we're not voting on age? Okay. No. So back to the original motion which is to Mr. Scott's original motion which is to approve selected employment items under exhibit A. All those in favor? All oppose. Miss Barnhart, are you there? Yes. Opposed. And a motion carries. 43. Mr. Sfield, did you vote in favor? Um, I'm going to use something from Robert's rules of orders. If you

121voted in favor of a um motion, you're allowed to to um make a motion to reconsider just to make sure that we understand where Mr. Satderfield bit fits. So, I'm I'm going to move to reconsider the amendment to to approve exhibit A other than line three. Second. Point of order. Your amendment fail. So, you can't recons. You didn't vote in the affirmative, so you can't call it a reconsiderate. Okay. I'll withdraw. I'm not sure how it works that way, but anyway, I'll withdraw. I'd like to make a motion to reconsider the approval of um exhibit A selected employment items as it reads in the board packet. Um, if Mr. Scully is right on his diagnosis of Robert's rules, you can't do that either. Somebody on the prevailing vote side has to prevailing vote. I will

122resend my motion. Do we have other motions on items discussed in executive session? Madam Chair, I make a motion to approve the LS3PA A1A architecture and engineering contract of the new cafeteria addition and renovation of the current cafeteria at Hermo High School shown in exhibit C. Second. All in favor? Um, I'd like to discuss. Yes, ma'am. Um, I have no problem with the vendor that was selected. Um, however, a couple things. One is I'm not sure that the public really understood that we were getting a new cafeteria out of this. Um, it was discussed in the five-year plan um early last year, but when we got to the presentations um it was discussed as part of the five-year plan, but when we got to the discussions um prior to the as part of the bond

123referendum, it it wasn't really spelled out that a cafeteria was in there. So, I just I'm a little concerned about that. But my bigger concern is that this um contract is being proposed as a construction manager at risk. And a lot of people don't know what that is, but I so I want to explain to the public. So traditionally there's what they call design bid build. What that means is the architect designs the whole thing and then you put it out for bid and the lowest bid that is um meets the criteria wins. We did that with Irmo High School East Wing Replacement. When that was originally um estimated by the architect, um they estimated that that would cost $46.2 million. Okay. But we put it out for bid and the bid actually came in

124at $37.9 million. We saved $8 million because we selected the lowest priced bid that that met the criteria. Um, with construction manager at risk, the architect in collaboration with the selected construction company sets a maximum price. Um, so the bid is not based on price. The bid is is essentially a beauty contest. Who do you like? Who do you proposal? You've worked with them before, whatever. Um, and then it's a cost plus. And um, we already have proof that when we put it out to the free market and that we saved eight over $8 million. So, I'm going to vote no to this. It has nothing to do with the architect that was selected. It has to do with the construction management um bidding process that is being proposed. And I have a document to

125put in the minutes. I'm I'm sorry. I know there be disagreement over the delivery system. Um, and I just think the administration has um put together a program that works for the educational and the construction site for high school and operations. I guess my question is you said that there was no information about this there being a cafeteria in phase two. Is that correct? Not in the bond. I went back and and you sent me the April, but that was the five-year plan. Um, that was in the presentation in April, but I looked through all the presentations that were specific to the bond referendum and didn't see it in there. And I'm not the only board member who doesn't remember that. Um, so and I'm not opposed to a cafeteria. I just wish we'd slow

126down a minute and actually talk about it because we're talking about pulling out an an existing cafeteria with working equipment and then building a new one. And I just I think I guess my sensitivity on this is that we gave multiple presentations on that all around the around the uh the community and we voted on um the cafeteria the language is actually on the question. Um actually I think it I'm not sure if I'm interrupting but I agree with Miss Huddle. I do not remember this discussion in regards to the cafeteria a new building It just says student center. I didn't and I looked back through all the presentations the board approved. We have the you have the actual question. I I guess the all of the questions and presentations that we have done on

127this since April 18th and since the approval on May 20th, we've always talked about how that building with the students in it operationally. If you go there, how are those students able to eat every day and that they would need a cafeteria student center on the end of that? I guess no questions came up about it. Every presentation we gave and we put it in the question. I thought that was clear. But again, I just wanted to make that case and I'll leave my comments there. All right. At this time, we'll um take a vote. I'll make one more comment. I just want to state and put on the record that we did receive legal advice that from our attorney in executive session that confirmed that the process recommending proposed by the the administration is

128typical and common and actually the prevailing process for these types of projects. So we're not they're not proposing to do anything that's not that's that's uncommon. So I just wanted to put that on record. All right. Can we call the um vote? All those in favor? All opposed? The motion carries. 43. Do we have any other matters? Um yes, I have one. Um Miss Snipes. Um I made a an error. Uh it was on my part, my fault, nobody else's. Um I would like to make a motion to revisit uh selected employment items exhibit A for action. Point of order. You can't. Under Robert's rules. If you abstain, you can't. Well, first of all, we were told that if you voted in the affirmative, you could. And then we were told you could not. Can

129somebody please clarify? I'd like to recognize Miss Taylor. Thank you, Madam Chair. What we can do is have a motion to reconsider. And so what what someone who voted on the prevailing side of the original motion would have to make that motion. And there was no prevailing side. Well, the the the failing side would be the prevailing side in that because it didn't pass because it was a tie. I don't I don't agree with that. It didn't I don't I'm just going to say I don't it didn't it didn't pass. There was no prevailing. So, so is it either side since it was a tie? I'm asking my opinion is the prevailing side would be the the fail the failing side and we both failed. Yes. And let me say one other thing and I'll

130say that to Miss Huddle and Mr. Bum and Miss Barnhart. My poor judgment there and not hearing well. Well, that that that doesn't matter if we can't. I understand, but they can because they are the failing side, right? Well, we all failed. I mean, well, that's true. So, can I make the motion? The motion was for the approval of it, and it didn't pass approval, so it failed. So the the voters voting the the members voting to approve were on the failing side. The members voting to fail because I needed some clarity on that. Got it. So one of the three of you can make the motion. No, it has to be somebody who was against it. So they have to either do a motion to reconsider or some form of an amendment I believe.

131Right. While Amanda's u Miss Taylor is while Miss Hill is looking that up, let's move on with other matters on executive session. Madam Chair, I make a motion to approve the purchase of property and the purchase contract shown in exhibit D. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? Um yes. I' I'd like to amend the motion to indicate that the uh purchase price will come from the 3.5 million that was previously set aside from the fund balance. Is that just forformational purposes? Yes, ma'am. She just wants to u make sure she was supposed to motion to read where the money is um coming from. Um all those in favor Hi. Her amendment just adds that the motion. Do you understand for your notes? Sorry, we're being very difficult today. May I ask a question?

132May I ask a question? Sure. Is this common procedure to list where the funding is coming from for a particular motion in executive session? A lot of purchases previously in the minutes do and and it's the only record we really have of vote. So that's why I wanted to make the amendment. So anybody looks at this a year or two years from now, you can see because it's also I'm clarifying because this property is purchased for a bond referendum project. So the assumption would be that the money came out of the bond refer fund and it's not. So that's the other reason I would like to include it in the minutes. But it's not common to put that in a motion. What would be more common and probably more appropriate was to just make it

133on the record during the discussion and leave the motion alone. I would agree with you if our minutes included discussion, but they do not. All right, we are going to um take the vote. All those in favor of Miss Otto's motion, just to note um um where the funds are coming from, if you're in favor? Yes. [Music] Opposed? And the motion carries. All right, we have a original motion on the floor. All those in favor? Yes. All right. All oppose. And the motion carries. 70. Do you have a response for me, Miss Taylor? Yes, ma'am. I think the only alternative to the motion to reconsider would be a motion to resend. However, the problem with that is you can only make that motion on a previously adopted motion and we do not have an adopted

134motion. Okay. So, so I think motion consider is the only course at this point. Okay. All right. Well, we've never had a meeting where we didn't approve any approve any employees, so I don't know what we do here, but we're just going to keep on moving with the agenda for now because I I don't know what's your recommendation, Mr. We have 51 employees that if we don't hire, we could lose. My recommendation if we want to to be to attempt to pass that motion would be someone who previously voted in the prevail in the on the prevailing side of that motion to make a motion to reconsider. So would that be a vote yay or vote nay? That would have been a vote. Nay. Miss Snipes. make a point. Yes, sir. Um Mr. um Bayam's

135motion to divide the question failed. If that motion was to be reconsidered by the prevailing um individuals or one of them, then we could vote on it separately and the um line item if it would not endanger the other 51 staff members. Likewise, if someone on the prevailing side of that motion made a motion to reconsider the entire exhibit, those employees would be hired. Well, let's let's let's do what was usually the right thing, which is everybody's probably a little unhappy with the final verdict. So, it seems like the best path forward is for us to reconsider Mr. Bum's motion, which is to divide the question. Without that, we don't move forward and we do not want to lose employees because we can't get it together. So, I make a motion to reconsider Mr. Bum's

136motion. We need a second. Mr. All right. So, um the motion is on the floor to divide the question. Um, which takes us technically the motion is to um reconsider. Sorry, there's a motion to reconsider. All those in favor? Wait, exactly. Restate your original. Well, first we're taking a motion on just reconsidering. Then he has to, I think, remake the motion. So, part one, all those in favor of reconsidering Mr. Bum's motion. Please raise your hands. Yes. Perfect. Motion carries seven to zero. Mr. Bum, can you please restate your motion for the record? I would like to amend the motion to remove line three under exhibit A. Well, to separate the question separate to divide the question. Divide the question. Sorry. And we got a second. All those in favor? Can Can I ask a

137question, Miss Snipes? Again, please bear with me. Um, so to vote yay or nay does not matter with regards to re voting. Right now we're just voting to split the question. We're going to take two employment motions. All those in favor? Yes. Great. Motion passes. Um, seven to zero. I need another motion to split these up. I make a motion to approve selected employment items shown in exhibit A. Except for line item number three. Can I get a second? All those in favor? Yes. And the motion carries six to zero. Make a motion to approve selected employment items shown in exhibit A. Well, let me I make a motion to approve line item number three of selected employment items shown in exhibit A. Second. All those in favor? All opposed? No. Motion carries 43. Miss

138Snipes, can I make just a quick statement? I apologize to the rest of the board for my lack of hearing number one and my confusion. So, I appreciate everybody working with me to resolve this matter. I do not would not want to lose employees or have anybody have to be anxious or worried about their position not being renewed. So, thank you. Bring your hearing aid to the next meeting, Mrs. Satam. All right. That takes us um to the um second and final reading of board policy KF community use of school facilities. Come to lectern is our chief of operations Dr. Gary. Second and final reading. Madam Chair, I make a I make a motion to approve the second and final reading of proposed revisions to board policy KF, community use of school facilities shown in

139exhibit F. Do I have a second? Second. Do I have any discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? The motion carries seven to zero. Thank you, Dr. Gary. Make a motion to approve the locally approval of the locally board approved course design subject area course application banned in physical education as shown in exhibit G. Second. We have any discussion? All in favor? All opposed? Yes. And the motion carries seven to zero. Thank you, Mr. Cas. Make a motion to approve the second reading of fiscal year 2025 and 2026 general fund budget shown in exhibit H. Um let me make a note as Miss um Tucker comes forward. I have gotten some feedback just about us having enough time um to review the budget and have discussion. So please note at the June 9th meeting, we'd like

140to have continuation of the discussion around the budget and we'll take the third and final vote at the June 23rd meeting. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. Um so for our second discussion and second reading, um last reading we presented you some options. Essentially, we had some lots of things in the air this year. There were lots of changes with local revenue, lots of changes with state revenue. We had gotten some direction from the board on priorities. And so, we presented the board a lot of options um at our first reading. And so, we wanted to actually make a recommendation this time of what we feel as a administration we can do with trying to balance the budget with what revenues look like versus what the cost for the priorities that

141the bud the board has given us. So just to kind of revisit this which there'll be an amendment to the June 9th. So that will be our um third reading um discussion and third reading and then we'll have our final reading on June 23rd I believe is the second board meeting in June. Um and we will have a given direction from today we will have a book for you um after the um the discussion today. So a couple of legislative updates. So, since we talked last, the um House has come back with House 2 and there were a couple of amendments um worthy of noting proviso 1.3 that Dr. Ross talked about at length earlier adjusted the add-on waitings for virtual charter schools um down from 065 to 35 um and then added language for

142revenue and fiscal affairs to uh review the student waitings with the state aid to classroom. come up with a funding formula that would better align funding with enrollment for charter schools and consistent with public schools as well. And so that is something that House Two has looked at. It was different from House and Senate. So that's something conference will have to um come back with as far as looking at um a consistency between the two versions at the legislature and conference committee actually meets tomorrow at 12:30 um right after revenue and fiscal affairs comes out with new revenue estimates. So the other legislative update note provides a 108.6. Um it's the employer premium increase of 4.6 and a subscriber premium increase of zero. So the employer piece of health insurance will go up but the

143subscribers the um the employees will actually not see um that increase and that will take effect during the 2026 plan year. So half of next budget uh next budget year. A couple of other bills that have uh been ratified or signed into law by the governor since our last discussion. um H3196, the Educator Assistance Act. This bill modifies the teacher certification requirements, um has a lifelong teaching certificate, retired educators, and also adjusts um professional development days from 3 to four and requires districts to implement a sick leave bank for all school staff. Um this was signed by the governor on May 7th. And then S78, which was a concern for us when we were looking at the budget, um is credit for work experience. This is the bill that would allow um teachers in alternative

144paths to education that have had previous work experience outside of education to essentially get one year of teacher a credit on their teaching certificate for every two years in the industry. And so we were concerned about this from a budget perspective, not knowing how many of our teachers would qualify and what this would look like as a budget impact. And so they made an amendment to this to um amend it to stipulate that pay adjustments for the new salary step would be implemented the following year. So essentially next year teachers can submit their documentation to the department of education to show that they have worked outside of education or in industry anything that is um related to their subject area. The department of education will verify that um that education or work experience and add

145that to their teacher certification. So when we build the budget for the following year, we will have their correct um step and um and and years of experience. So we will be able to better plan for that as opposed to not knowing how the state department would implement this. So that was ratified on 58. So budget considerations. Um we've talked about our ADM and our weighted pupil units. The ADM is available on the state department of education's website. This is a number that is calculated and reported by the state department of education. Um you can see across all school districts if you are growing um you have to outpace the growth of the state in order to receive additional funding. Weighted pupil units is that additional waiting that each individual um person or each individual

146student gets depending on whether they are in a public school in a charter school. Um there's additional waitings for gifted and talented for students in poverty um for lots of different things. And that is a number that we see but we do not see the statewide allocation. So, it's hard to know that piece of the formula when we there is not a statewide reporting method that shows every district and their weighted pupil units. So, we don't know how we fall um looking at districts outside of district 5. So, as we look at the state budget considerations, just to give you an idea of what's the same versus what's different in the two different versions and what conference committee will have to look at. So, the state minimum minimum salary schedule is to raise the bachelor's

147year zero to $49,000. That is the same in the House and the Senate versions. So, the state teacher minimum last year, this would raise it um $1,500. A state aid to classrooms, the funding formula, that's something for conference committee to debate. Um the employer health insurance was the same in both the House and Senate version as well as this bus driver salary increase of 2%. So, that is something that we know those are going to happen because they were in the same in both versions of the House and the Senate's budget. um budget considerations from the district level to increase the minimum teacher salary schedule from bachelor's year zero from 475 to 50,992. And we came up with that 50,992 because that was the bachelor's year zero for the bachelor's plus 18 lane that is

148going away. The state is getting rid of that lane. And so in order for us to not leave that lane behind as we move towards just a fourlane um teacher salary scale. So we'll now have bachelor's, masters, um masters plus 30 and doctorate. So we essentially got rid of the bachelor's lane and move all of those bachelor teachers over. So they will see the largest increase of all of the lanes because they're moving to that bachelor's plus 18. But even the teachers that are currently in that bachelor's plus 18 lane will still see their step plus the thousand increase, which is our recommendation. So, we looked at doing a re uh a $1,500 per cell increase versus $1,000 increase. And just looking at the cost versus what we're going to get from the state, um

149the administration would recommend the um $1,000 increase per cell, which is $7.79 million increase. That's just uh that was our recommendation for our teacher salary increase. I'll turn this over to Dr. Ross for the next few slides. Thank you, Miss Tucker. So, at this time, we want to look at the district considerations. And we want to start out with a total request for positions. As we often hear when we go through our budget calendar, we ask our principles and we ask our stakeholders about needs in the district. We had a total requested uh position estimated around $2.5 million. That was the minimum. of estimating those positions. Uh what we recommended is how do we pay for this? Uh so we went to look at potential salary reduction and benefits. Uh so with removing all ESER

150positions or moving those uh that we could into empty areas in the general fund uh as well as the looking at the NAR program moving to fund balance we able to make a savings of 1.4 million. Uh we do have additional cost uh to that in terms of we are required to pay for the sled checks. So we estimate that about 63,000. Uh magic school AI that we're going to add in about 100,000 and then instructional technology previously funded by the state. So these are programs for special education programs that we had to keep track of our records. Those are being moved to the So that's about 400,000. Uh so with that savings of 1.4, I looked at what could we do to help our schools and I know there not a lot of those

151for administrators, but the burdens on schools and the increased responsibilities. We want the best of the best and we are trying to get our administration position to take care of these uh legal and operational challenges that we face. As we move to the middle school models, we know that our intermediate schools are not staffed administratively like our middle schools. So that will require uh two we call assistant principles for instruction for our two new middle schools that we'll bring up through resoning increased contract days for our behavioral specialists. This is a position that was in Esser that we're moving to the general fund uh with calls an increase of days of $5,000. With the increase of legal responsibilities placed on the administration, we have directors that'll be doing more negotiating and legal work with us.

152So, it is not additional, but it's a reclass of directors to executive directors at 36,000. Um, we have uh I think every building requesting new custodial help, more custodial custodians to help with the facilities. Uh to put a new or additional custodian in each uh building uh would be close to 23 new positions. Um our our answer to that is to to help the maintenance staff and the custodial staff out by having two afternoon maintenance teams. These would be float teams that would move one in one half of the district, the other in the other half of the district on schedule to help the buildings. We feel like we can get more of our current maintenance staff directed towards the the additional work orders that are coming in and that these maintenance teams and custodial

153teams could move and support the schools. kind of like our our rapid response team. One of the items that I want to discuss a little bit more is what I call on boarding and offboarding coordinators. One for the legal and the board and requirements for certified and then the legal and policy requirements for classified. These are two different things. But our smallest uh division is human resources. We constantly hear about what we need to do in terms of contacting with the potential applicants as well as reaching out to uh the hiring managers. But if you look at the requirements for human resources, there is recruiting, onboarding, supporting, and then offboarding. So much of the limited staff and HR is on the supporting end of our work. really unfair to ask them. They're constantly putting down

154one thing to pick up another and I think take undo criticism because of the mounting work that is placed. I wanted to spend a little bit more time in the executive session to talk about some of the legal issues that are are abounding. But to the spirit of transparency, I will share that we have have so much time in supporting the requirements of benefits requirements of section 430 of the teacher dismissal act 460 440 these are are swamping us and we like to be is more outward facing in terms of how we address potential employees that's kind of why these meetings are so critical because all the work that has to go in putting the ball to juggle the rest of it. Uh so this department in terms of these we've been restructuring it but

155this would also allow us to not just focus on one department but help flows with what goes on with onboarding and finance and payroll. There are a lot of of new benefits and responsibilities retirees that we need to And we can't we can't make error putting that pressure. I think we're at a point of crush depth. We put so much pressure so much. My daddy was a Navy man. He said if you take a sub captain would take his ship to crush depth and just to see how much pressure can sustain and rise up. We're at crush depth and we need some relief. Either the task of the administration have to be relieved or the whole needs to be stronger. That's why and I know there's no advocates for the administration. I'm not asking anybody

156sorry I am asking us to look at the particular issue that we're we're tasked with. Uh the sec the next one is to get par with the substitute pay that we have with our neighbors. I heard a lot about substitute pay. I believe in this estimate we add about $10 to every sale on the substitute pay. So that be a $10 increase and I'll speak more about we had a public participation about the D team supplement uh with elementary and middle school. This gives me an opportunity to kind of respond to that. I think uh in order for us to sustain all of our programs including lacrosse, I want to start early. I need to get these students started in these early and I see us building all of our programs tennis to swimming to

157football to lacrosse to soccer by getting kids started early. So, we'll discuss um how this $40,000 could really get us ahead of the game and getting our students involved. And the last one is 30,000 for bands. We wanted to give each of our high schools an additional 10,000 to assist with the ban and their their supplements for their staff. So that's where we get the 1.4 from and the last thing is what we're going to do in terms of fund balance. We're proposing another $1,000 payment employing in the fall for American education week as we've done I've already said move the Mary program which has been a great recruiter for us to fund balance we are for our I know we have a maintenance plan with our the state fleet when it comes to our

158local school buses we want to make sure that we have all upgrades on our activity buses and the board has previously allowed us for critical needs to have six FTE that course would require board approval that would be for critical needs as we hit in the fall. This allows us human resources as soon as we see someone for critical need that we can put them on the packet. So with that, let our CFO Tucker go through the fund balance assignments. Thank you, Dr. Ross. Um so the the list we have here is our audited fund balance from um June 30th of 2024 where we finished with our unassigned fund balance of 53 u million. You can see what was assigned um in last year's uh unassigned fund balance uh or what was assigned for last

159year's assigned fund balance some set aides. Um what Dr. Ross just kind of outlined is what we would recommend to set aside for this year's assigned fund balance. the $3 million for the employee retention incentive, $3.5 million for capital for school buses, um $400,000 for NER payments, and the 555,000 for the six FTEEs for critical needs. So, you all just passed a change to our board policy, DFAB, that allows us to have our reserve funds um range from 17 to 20%. So, I've given you some ranges there of where um this year's fund balanced to stay within those ranges of board policy would need to land for the end of this year as well as for the proposed budget for next year. So, our proposed budget for next year is 250 million and so those

160ranges would be 17% is 42.5 and 20% would be $50 million. Um so those are our assigned fund balance recommendations for consideration. So, talking about um our revenues and how we balance the local and state share, I know Ross already shared some of this in his presentation, but as we've seen, we've been we've seen the state reducing its its share to the local school districts. And so, we've seen that not just in the amount of money for state aid to classroom. We've seen it decrease from 300 million to 112 million this year. We've also seen it in line items like the um the uh educ or informationational technology software um things like uh math nation and other softwares that uh Dreambox for K through 12. Those costs have previously been picked up by the state

161department and they've recently told us that they're not covering those for next year. So those are things that our teachers and our staff are used to and that if we were to continue those we would have to pick that up. So we are just seeing this shift from the state funding um whether it be for state aid to classroom or on other um on other levels we're seeing the state funding decrease. So last year our state funding was 64% our local was 35. Um if we look at next year's projections um this is our projected general fund revenues for FY2526. So looking at our c our taxes and I'll get into our local taxes in just a moment but getting looking at taxes calculated at 261 mills which is our recommendation for next year. Um

162we project based on the reassessed values we would collect $90 million. Um so our current budget is approved um our budget projection that's 9.6%. Um other local revenues so we're at 30 37.8%. So we're seeing the local share have to increase to offset the state revenues. Um our state revenues have decreased to 62%. State aid to classroom is going down. Um these numbers for state aid to classroom are based on the original house projections. Um house two if that is to pass what goes through conference um would give us an additional $400,000 um in state aid to classroom. But that is the top end of what the state would give us in any given day. Um the problem is is we don't know what the low end of that looks like. So the state aid

163to classroom is based off of our it's updated on a our 135th day and so that's our most recent projections. Um but they will reassess on the fifth day and the 45th day next year. So the top end of that is the 400 or 4 million plus an additional 400,000 if conference approves the Senate version. Um but again that's our top end. if we see student enrollment decline, if we see anything else that changes that formula, we don't know what the lowest end of that would look like. So, this is a conservative estimate using the house um the original house projection. And so, the revenue projection for next year would be $250 U million as far as balancing our budget. So, what do our expenditures look like? Um these are our projected expenditures based on

164the budget that um the administration has proposed. um still keeping in um in line with salaries and fringe being approximately 88% of the overall expenditures and supplies, services and equipment making up 12% of that. Um we have seen an increase in contractual services and other objects. A lot of that um that $850 um,000 increase, 500,000 of that is the additional money that we have put towards technology contractual services for things like magic school AI um to pick up the things that the state department has said that they will not be covering. So we've made provisions to cover those and continue with those services and our contractual services and other objects. So state funds. Yes, ma'am. Hold on just because this is this is a lot. Um partway point or I don't know if we're halfway

165through what's going on here, but do does anybody have any questions? I thought it would just be helpful to maybe sort of try to break some of this. Absolutely. Um, Miss Go ahead. Um, yeah, I'll do too and see what everybody else has. If you could go back, I think to the revenue. Yes, right there. Um, the other state revenues that decrease, is that the things you're talking about like magic? So, They don't refund that. I'm sorry. Dream box. So, that is part of that. Um there are quite a few things that they have paid for in the last two years that they are slowly um they're slowly telling us as they are finishing their budget that they'll no longer be uh covering those. In fact, the two that we found out about last week

166um totaled about three about $300,000 and those were quotes from two years ago when we thought they were going to do this. Um we haven't gotten updated quotes on what that's actually going to cost us. We were just trying to make provisions so we don't lose those services. And my other question for now, if you go back to the last slide, you were talking about contractual services. Um, we and I'm not sure I may be the only person left from that board, but at one point this board approved I think it was about half a million for capturing kids hearts. And I thought we weren't doing anymore, but then we had a presentation from a couple of principles that talked about it. So, are we still doing capturing kids parts? We are. We're doing the

167principles of it. We're just not paying. Cool. Okay. Mr. B, hopefully this isn't a dumb question, but on the slideshow, Dr. RS, Miss Tucker, um, everything's, you know, for the most part rounded numbers and just for instance, on the magic school AI, that contract price was a different amount. Is it just rounded up to the nearest like 10,000 or 100,000? Yes, sir. Um it is because we know that that price will go up every year and so we're just rounding for for simplicity sake to make sure that that money is available in the technology budget. So in the in the budget but we'll get actual hard numbers. Yes. Yes. Um well our budget is our best estimate. Our budget is our best estimate. Our actuals are where we're going to get the exactly where it

168came in because I believe that actual contract is $76,000. I'm looking at Jenny. believe the actual price for Magic School AI is 76,000 for next year, but we know that price will will go up um as as we have that contract. Any Mr. Satfield? Uh yes, I know that in the past we've discussed about uh our special education population and some sort of um uh taking some sort of initiative for them to be active after school. I And I was looking at the budget considerations with a middle level athletic director and things like that. Is that going to is that the programs for the special education kids and the getting them to participate in activities, teams, sports, and all is that under the same so this is all in and the beauty of the work

169that we've done is this is very inclusive and I think there's an agenda item. go over this in detail but yes sir okay thank you this is about a much earlier slide I don't even know where it was in the go back regarding the esser funds so I guess my question is how many eser counselors are do we have allocated currently to elementary and middle schools? Nine. Um, Miss Scott, there are a total of nine clinical counselors districtwide, right? Yeah. Are are how do we use those? Are are there a certain number that specifically work just for the elementary and middle schools or are they just they're spread evenly among the district? So they may have a they may have a um they may have they may have actually representation at different levels. So they're

170not all just elementary or just middle school, but they may have a representation of all the levels just spread out across the district. Okay. So I guess where what I'm trying to determine me is just the the good part about you know when ESER came about it was it was a good thing and proactive um but we just didn't know at the time you know the assumption was then that within three years our problem our CO issues would be resolved and that certainly we could have known are known really different back then, but that's obviously not the case. Um, they're they're they're longterm effects from from CO. So, I guess what I'm trying to get at is it seems to me that the kids who are probably most impacted by those COVID type impacts from

171COVID would be the middle school and the elementary children. I I think maybe I I perceive personally that maybe the high school kids could could be well adjusted or adjust to it better than the younger kids. So, I'm trying to think of how much would it cost us to keep if we were to keep the counselors dedicated to elementary and middle school. What would that look like? go to the expenditure slide that you roll on before just hearing the discussion tonight about that you'll see that we increased contractual services about 4.6%. One of the things that we feel that we can do to be effective working with Dr. Harris and his clinical counselors uh is to look at them in terms of a their private private providers who are insured uh that we could provide

172them the service and probably get more hours than we would do. We build them by or they would bill us by hours for the work that we're doing. So that's something that we're working on now. We know that counselors are needed. What happens is as we look at bringing them on full time, they haven't had a raise in three years. So once you bring them in, you do need to We need to pay frenefits and healthare. So more of that funding starts to get taken up. So we're going to look at that option of contracting with them so that those services continue under contractual services versus I'd just like to echo what Mr. said and even um suppose that maybe some of those problems were there and we just weren't dealing with them before and

173it might not have just been CO that brought those out. And um many of our children have roadblocks to their learning and if your child doesn't have those roadblocks you don't understand the importance of what those clinical counselors do. And I think that um our parent that spoke tonight would agree that those roadblocks are there for children and it seems like a wise expenditure to look at how to keep including those somehow in this budget so that we don't lose those services. Miss Snipes. Yes. Can you hear me? Yes, ma'am. Okay. I just I had a comment. Um, I mean, as far as I remember, we did know at the time these positions were going to be timelmited. Um, I remember remember us speaking about these things. Um, and as much as I'm in the

174same position as everyone else, I've gotten the same emails from parents. We don't want to take these important positions away from our children, I just do think it's necessary to clarify that we did talk about this at the time that these were going to be temporary positions. Understood. Um, we don't have other questions. I have one more question. Um, and it's really a procedural question. Um, so the the projected fund balance is the source of um some changes and I was just wondering it it can the board vote to spend projected fund balance or do we have to wait until the year is over and we know what the fund balance is? And you don't have to answer that right now. I'm just procedurally I just wonder if you can really vote to spend a

175fund balance that you're not 100% sure you have yet. Well, and I think um in the past it's always been to assign part of that fund balance knowing that we're going to have a portion of it. Um so I can definitely look into that, but I think it's been on on the board. I don't believe we've ever voted in advance in advance. Yeah. On the I'm just checking for clarification. was last year's budget. We then didn't we have assignments in last year's budget. The last few have had an assigned um an assignment kind of allocation and each one of those items would come back to the board for a vote. It was just these were things that were planned for essentially to be set aside for the fund balance and then is because last year

176we I guess last year had the 1.5 million for the portables and then that didn't come to fruition. So we were able to use that for for band. So that was part of the assigned fund balance that was part of the board budget vote. Okay. The other question I have is when that was done with those portables, um I think you had just started so you may remember but I really wanted to spend that on like additional reading intervention and I was told you can't spend that on recurring things on additional positions but we have in here six additional positions. So I'm guess I'm confused. Yeah, we've done this for the last three years. So, I'll remind that the the goal of these positions was not to live in the fund balance. it was that

177each year when we get to the recruiting year is starting earlier and earlier and so if we get to I think we start recruiting in January and then right but once that that recruiting happens we don't have a budget for new teachers so that gives us the ability to hire six teachers right off the bat and then uh we use And if we always said if we get to the end of the year and we're 100% higher, then that's drawn from fund balance. But it's a year-to-year deal, those six positions are assumed in January before the budget is approved. Once the budget approved, they're they're dissolved. They're now into the general fund. So, I just want to clarify. They don't live in fund balance. Okay. Thank you, Mr. I want to ask one last question.

178Um, not my last question, not everybody has it. Um, the money for the increase in money for substitutes, where would that take us for substitute pay? Because I know that's a an issue in a lot of schools. And so, what would that what would that bring teacher or substitute pay to? So, the proposed uh substitute increase would bring us more in line with um Richland one, which is essentially a $10 increase for each of the categories. So, for like the full day substitute with a bachelor's degree, it would bump that from it would bump that up $10. So, $105 for a daily rate. Full day substitute um non-certified would be 95. Full day substitute over a certified teacher would be 115. And so it would bump essentially each one of those categories up $10 um

179which is more in line with Richland one. I have a followup question to that. Um would it include any adjustments for um I forget the word per not permanent subs but long-term subs. Would there be any increase for long-term subs? So the long-term subs are um don't fall in this schedule. um they are based on their their certification and Dr. Turner help me if I'm it's based on like where they fell when they when they hired and so that doesn't fall in the schedule from like the the the daily rates from ESS and it never changes right for that individual for that individual. Yeah. By by definition um in alignment with what's in that board policy, a long-term sub it has nothing to do with retirement status. A longterm sub serves 10 consecutive days in

180a classroom and they have to be certified in the role for which they are um serving for that vacancy and they qualify under that but they get the certified rate of pay as long as it's 10 consecutive days and it's for a position for which they are um certified and that's written in the um administrative rule. Right. But what's the certified rate of pay? It's based on how many years, right? They taught in their education. Yeah. Certified rate of pay is uh based on teacher salary uh schedule, right? So I guess I'm asking if if you retired with 20 years of service, I'll just use that as an example and it's five years later and you've been subbing. Is it always 20 years that you get based on or do I now get based on

18125 years? You get it based on what's on your certificate and the access the provider. They're the ones that look at that certificate and they're the ones that validate pay based on the certificate. So, what would what would be on the certificate in my example? Yeah, I'd have to pull a retiree because ESS handles their certificate is what I'm telling you. Well, I guess I'm just sharing that, you know, we have some long-term subs that are are really great teachers and then I've heard they're not getting increases. I don't know because I don't really understand the ins and outs of how it works. But and m I don't know if the bill that I spoke about earlier, the um educator can't remember the exact title of the bill, but that talks about a lifetime teacher

182certificate because it currently you would still have to reertify your certificate every few years. Make sure that you're keeping up with your professional development. So the lifetime certification certificate might make a difference in that and that's something we could look at. Not sure how that plays into that factor. Thanks. Okay. I think I stopped at state funds. You mean we're not done? I know it's late and this is what we all want to be talking about. Part two. Next meeting. Um, okay. I will try to go quickly, but all right. I'll skip through what Dr. Ross talked about. So state like a good plan. State aid to classroom. this formula we discussed before um seen a decrease in state aid to our classroom our waitings Dr. Dr. Ross talked about this which we will know

183more tomorrow based on uh conference committee. All right. So a state budget estimates. Okay. So state budget estimates again conservative estimates based on the house projection is $4 million. If we look at um house two and senate if there those pass there's an additional $400,000 that we may be getting. Um uh it increases state aid to classroom to about 2.2 million. Um and health insurance also goes up with the additional um the additional increases for Senate and House too. Okay. So local revenue what everybody wants to talk about. Um our local revenue is based on our weighted pupil units. We look at our index of taxpaying ability hold harmless funding and then we have to figure out how to cover this additional um the additional revenue gap that we're seeing with the reduced funding from

184the state. So, looking at our 4% and 6% properties, um our 4% properties have seen a reassessment. If you live in Lexon County, you got your reassessments in the last few weeks. Um Richland County saw their reassessment last year. So, we're seeing the revenues from their reassessment um coming in now because those tax bills went out in December and we're getting that revenue currently. So, this is a a actual Lexon County tax bill. Um, and so I just want to highlight this because on the tax bill that comes out with your 4% property, you see this pie chart which makes it look like the school is getting 72 school district is getting 72% of that primary tax bill. And this is based on the millage rates before. If you look at this tiny little line

185up here, um, I can't even read it from here without my glasses. um it basically says this doesn't include any exemptions or credits which is your homeowner's um credit for that 4% property. So on a 4% property the school district is actually getting about 17% of that um based on the debt service and some other millillage the agency or the zoo ICRC some of those other um entities are getting also approximately 17% and the county is getting about 65%. So, if you look at this, your tax bill and live in Lexington County, um just want to highlight that this is um not 100% accurate if this is a 4% property because it does not include those um exemptions and credits. All right, so what do we look like for next year? So, after spending the

186last week and a half digging through our revenue for the last 10 years, um looking at trends, looking at um the growth in Richland and Lexon County, um I stepped back on something that I said during our first reading. I said I didn't want to change one more thing in a year where everything was changing. Um I have reconsidered that given the data. I am a data person. Again, I looked at 10 years of tax revenue and looked at what we collect in the current year because that's really what matters for our budget. Um, if a property goes into foreclosure and it sells two years down the road, we will collect those taxes which makes our collection rate look higher, but we don't collect it in the year where the tax bill went out. So,

187looking at the last 10 years, our revenue collection in the year that we send out tax bills is 97.1%. So, skin of our teeth, 97%. So I've gone back and re-estimated our value of a mill based on a 97% collection rate and come up with a millage rate of value of a mill at 355,629. So if we look at our projected local revenue from this year, our roll back mill again this was we're changing things um from 95% which is what we've done the last few years to 97% which I do feel like is more accurate based on 10 years worth of data. Um so our rollback millage would be 243 mills. Um we are allowed to increase our millage rate by the consumer price index and population growth. And these are not numbers that

188we come up with. These are values given to us by revenue and fiscal affairs and the county of what we are allowed to increase our millillage by. Um CPI is 2.95. Our population growth was 2.04 for an allowable increase of 4.99%. which would given our roll back millage plus allowable millage cap for this year is 12.1. Um, previously not used um look back millage, we can go back three years and capture any of those mills um to give you those ranges. And that's what shared with you at last board meeting, kind of the low end of what we collect could collect from the local versus the high end. and then based on your recommendations or your direction as far as what the board wanted to approve um where we would land. So these are our

189mil caps for the last three years what we could actually go back. We have a cumulative total of 51.8 mills that we could actually increase this year. Um but the administration's recommendation given all of that is right here in the kind of the teal column. So the recommendation would be to reduce our millillage by five mills from last year 266 to 261 um based on the value of a mill at $355,000. That uses the 12.1 mills of uh allowable growth for this year based on the CPI and growth. And then we would use only five look back mills to essentially get us so looking at all of the things that were prioritized from the board from all of our stakeholders as far as um raises for uh teachers and staff and then the additional increases

190of the other things the other items that were recommended by the administration. This is what we would need to balance our budget is $8 million in additional revenue. Um so that again would use five look back mills. Um millage stabilization to stay at 20 266 mills would require 10.7. Um and this does require a change in that estimated estimated collection rate from 95 to 97%. Um I feel comfortable with that looking at the last 10 years of data. Um I will say there was an anomaly in 2024 with revenue. Um there was a large jump in revenue in 2024 for primary residences or for um for local collections. And after digging in with the counties, it looks like we had a lot of transfer of property in 2024 across the district. Property that was previously

191farmland that was sold commercial. And I think that is a lot of the property that was sold for a lot of the developments that are happening. And so while those first sales are commercial property sales, we get the 6% on that. um moving forward those pieces will be become primary homes or will be unless they become renters and so those properties will be parcled out and they will become individual residencies residences. So I think that was one anomaly year but again I I feel comfortable looking at the data that 97% collection rate is something that I can stand up here and say given the data that's my best estimate at the time. So administration's recommendation is um to look at the second reading. Um these were our recommendations. Again, we had first reading um at

192our previous board meeting um but we didn't really have any direction on um had had the priorities but didn't have a lot of direction on where to land with our millage rate. So this is the administration's recommendation and I stand for any questions, comments, discussion. Um, I know it's late, but um, if you can go back to there's a slide that shows all the budget increases. It has like the additional principles and all that. Yes. Sorry, this one. Um, the first round. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Well, I was trying not to ask too many then. This isn't even really a question. I'm assuming we're in discussion now. This is really just I guess a point for the the rest of the board is when you look at that and I I looked at what's what's

193in going into classrooms and it's 186,000 for increase in substitutes and $30,000 for the additional band supplements. I could the rest of that does not go into the classroom and and that accounts for only 15%. And I'm just very concerned that that we are putting more money into administrative and non-classroom um areas and not as much into the classroom itself. I realize we have the teacher raises and all that, but I'm still very concerned about reading. We had a slide of, you know, an eighth grade class and how many students weren't even close to eighth grade reading level. And I I I just as a board member, I would like to see us focus more on um things like reading at early ages. Other comments or questions? Just one. Does the um the watercraft bill

194that you mentioned, how does that figure into this final projection? So that did not pass this year. It will be carried over. That's right. I'm sorry. And so it's definitely something that we're following since this is the first year of a two-year legislative session. Um that will essentially pick back up where it left off this year and I know it has a lot of support. So that is something that we are definitely considering um what its impact will look like moving forward. One other question. Um the the typical 15 million for capital expenditures isn't in here. So is that not part of the vote tonight? Uh no. We usually bring that final recommendation when we set the debt service millage. I think we can have that for our discussion for the June 9th meeting. Okay.

195While we're on this so that we can um we want to make sure that the June 9th meeting is productive of the salaries that were asking for increase. We had a lot of discussion. Is there a sense of direction which we wanted to do? I do know that it's never a good time to add to the administration. I get that these tasks are still coming. That's not what uh I know Miss H mentioned that that's not what alarm for lack of a better word and I you know have been honest about my feedback on the athletic piece and um I'm on the fence with that. Um, if there are other things that we can't meet that are pressing because of budget, then I want to be sure that those things first. I think one of

196the things that we can do for the discussions if we want to have a reading next time is just present what we're doing with reading with the additions we have sufficient making those adjustments and I don't have to get into the weeds of it obviously but with some of the um feedback we've got on certain things or whatever I want to be able to say that we put a budget together that checked all the immediate boxes um Uh yes. Um I'm looking at these budget considerations and um and I understand there's always this um desire to put more money into instruction and and you know things like tutoring and all that kind of stuff. I agree. There's no question. But I mean I'm looking at some of this stuff. this 2 PM maintenance custodial teams.

197I we got 15,000 requests for repairs that we don't have enough people to to solve those. Um the the athletic supplements is are not much at all, but we're going to have to have you have to have those. You can't just ask somebody to stay after school for an extra three hours just because um but I don't really see anything in there that's really like a waste. Um, now I I I I do have the same sort of concerns that Mr. Scolia and Mr. Herring had with regards to um uh with the ESSER positions that are going to go away. And I know you talked about contractual services. Maybe that's an a way to address it. So, um maybe if that is a budget consideration, maybe we can get a little more information sort of

198to compare and see um uh you know the times they are are changing as Bob Dylan says and if we have students that are struggling with some of the things they're struggling with um I don't think it's just because of COVID. I think we have students that are str we always hear things about kids getting bullied and and you know a myriad of things with middle school girls and depression and suicide rates because of cell phones and all this and that. So I I think it it's warrants a discussion a little further discussion on some of those things. And Dr. As a point of clarification, I'm sorry I made the comment about um budget towards the athletics, but I was thinking about the formation of the new uh program and not these people that already.

199Yeah. Okay. When you made that comment, Mr. Satfield commented, I just wanted to make sure that that was understood. All right. Do we have any other questions on this? Hi. Um before the next meeting, could we get um or charts for the areas where the request is for the executive director positions? Yes, ma'am. All right. Yeah. I just wanted to concur with Mr. Centerfield uh on that. I don't see anything wasted here. And and education and instruction doesn't happen in a vacuum. you have to have the supplementary positions and and the help to make the classroom become what it is. So, I would also like to see some consideration for the the council if there's anything we can do there. All right, we have a motion on the floor for the second um read probably

200second. All those in favor? All those I'm abstaining because I believe that per policy DB we're supposed to have a line item budget. So I'm abstaining. Okay. And Miss Barnhart. Okay. So we have um Madam Chair, I make a motion to approve the one-time educator payment. Wait, I don't think I um I mean I know the motion passed, but I um don't think you have the numbers for the minutes. I just wanted to make sure. Thank you. Okay, go ahead. I'm sorry. All right. So, we have a motion on the floor for the onetime educator payment and it's been properly second. All those in favor? Can we get more information? Yes, ma'am. So, we have an opportunity uh to provide a a one-time payment. I guess the question is where do the funds come from?

201Uh this is to as we look at closing out the year end. We look at positions that have not been filled and how we budget for positions. We take a a midpoint master I mean bachelor's 1812 position. is M I'm talking about on this budget on this on this budget was the current budget is bachelor's 18 correct so we take a bachelor's 1812 and if we hire a doctor 10 years we lose money you hire a bachelor for three years making money we never tell our principles hey I need you to perfectly balance your expertise we hire the best candidates But at the end when we get through these funds are still in the fund for salaries and benefits. Now we can do two things. We can pass it through the fund balance or you

202redistribute it to the employees. Our recommendation is to redistribute it to the employees. So it will be the permanent employees that have signed their letter of agreement or their assurance forms. They would receive a onetime payment of $1,500 on June 6. The reason that we have been access to action is because of our payroll June 30th. We don't have this option. So, we would have to make that payroll, we would have to make it on the June 1st date in order to make the special payroll. So, we present this Just want to clarify this is for teachers, staff, support staff, administrators. Who does this not include? This would not include temporary employees. Okay. So, all permanent full-time, part-time, no permanent permanent full-time positions in the district will get this. Returning for next year. Returning for

203next year. Yes. Thank you. Um, so I know we have some positions to fill as we always do this time of year. Um, and if we're paying this on June 6, but we don't hire a new teacher until July, do they still get it? No, ma'am. No, ma'am. So, this would this would uh we would go back in in July if we have a new So, we can't use this for recruiting. This is really for retention. I've already I guess the question I have is would we be better off letting it go into the fund balance like letting it go into the fund balance so that we could do that? And also because I think sometimes I don't know that the numbers are large, but I know in the past we've had some people sign

204contracts and then they don't show up. Um, so it it just seems like it would be more advantageous to to offer something, you know, at the beginning of the school year. Uh, you know, I understand I think the staff watching would probably like it now, but we will have um an opportunity if this budget should pass as we have it recommended that we could say to the July teacher American education week. We already have funding there. The that time to add more money to it based on what we look like there. But um this this this opportunity is is over for us on June 30th. I think too it would be teachers would be a great way to kickstart their a little bit of vacation and that would probably make them feel pretty dog on

205good. So pay the FICA too, but we do have withholdings coming out of um I'm a little concerned that this goes to everyone. You know, I mean, I have no problem at all with it going to teachers and with staff who are or are paid, you know, on the lower end of the pay scale, but the budget, if it goes through, is going to have, you know, for for non-eing staff, it's got the the step increase plus another uh 2%. Um, I'm going to amend the motion to um to limit the increase to um all certified staff and all non-certified staff that make less than $75,000 a year. I have a second. So that motion does right. We have an original motion on the floor um to approve the one-time educator a payment. All those

206in favor? Yes. All right. And the motion carries seven to zero. Yes, madam chubby. Very quick. We have a brief discussion on the bridge developmental athletic team. The slides come up. Well, I'll go ahead and start. We recog that parents drive for school choice uh in in the state of South Carolina. We've talked to our parent advisory about what they look for from school district 5 and a strong academic foundation that prepares for future careers is what our parent advisory has reported to us. But in the discussion, we talked about positive experiences for children. And we realized that uh if you can plot all of our schools, uh you can plot them in our strategic plan on a continuum of the experiences that we have, we call those love. And then the quality of education

207that we have, that's growth. If you look at our metrics on a strategic plan, our schools are going to fall in one of four categories. They're going to be low love, low grow, high love, low grow, low love, high grow. Or we want all of our schools, which is high love and high growth. Uh we have plotted all of our schools based on our strategic plan. We find as district five is schools where it's high love and low grow, students stay there. Interesting. Low love, high grow. Parents move students out of those areas. High love, high grow. You see it take off. The low love, low grow area that we have the biggest concern. I'm not trying to embarrass anymore. When we look at our transition from fifth grade, from elementary to intermediate or elementary

208to middle, that is where we have the lowest rate. district sliding in the middle areas to that low area. So what do we do about that? Well, this format is not working for us and that handoff between elementary and middle school, elementary, intermediate school is where we're getting those low love low growth experiences. We talked about the structure and so we looked at programming and out of that meeting came an idea that would help in the transition between elementary and middle school. There is a lot of focus on elementary you know you have two teachers you're keeping up with the self-contained classes and then you go to middle school and what happens is there's seven classes multiple classes a day who knows the who does the parent communicate going from two to seven teachers is

209really tough on a lot of keeping that. So for that we wanted a bridge we want to bridge our elementary schools to our middle schools we kind of have that with arts but when it comes to athletics it's the wild wild west the idea came between structuring that transition you have this hot wrap service in elementary school and then you have the transition to middle school with a bridge and doing that with after school programs through athletics. So at a strong healthy uh high school you would have a varsity that has 11th and 12th graders. You would have a junior varsity that would be 10th and 11th graders. a strong you would have a B team that's narrated for development purpose and because of that a strong fe that's not regulated by the South High

210School. We're proposing developmental team bridge and sixth grade bridge from our middle elementary schools to our middle schools. Right now is provided by public, private, and nonprofit pay organizations are funding it, but not everybody has access to it. Our goal to build our programs at the high school is to start them, see them early. Toughest thing for us to see is a middle school kids come out for basketball with only 15 all play. But if we can see them in other programs like lacrosse, like tennis, like golf in our elementary schools, we can feed them up. So this model we uh we have been presenting to the public. I wanted to share that splitting an elementary school not this feeder system has two splits. Valentine Elementary is split. Crossroads middle school is split. We will

211propose to make this system work is to have allaries have a a clear road and transition to middle school. We can't stop the split of crossroads to the high schools. We will we are proposing this. So this will require a vote to adopt this structure but it would have all schools with a coordinator sorry coordinator but a athletic lead that helps make those connections from those fourth graders to get them on development. It's more of our kids involved in our programs with our people. It is tough finding the people to take care of us. So our people take care of our children after school is a way we feel like we can make that by doing that. It is a proposal to bring our middle schools to be not many high schools but to have

212athletic places to play to compete. So we will for the first time in a long time have three grades at the current intermediate school moving out to middle school. We want to look at bringing up a multi-purpose field on that side. for the crossroads. Two multi-purposes really freshen up this area to take care of their team and their after school program on their site. As far as Spring Hill Middle, as we know, we're committed to Spring Hill High School being a magnet school and so putting a multi-purpose field athletic program. And last, I think the tightest one of the hard for a one or two multi-purpose fields there. So again, this is just for discussion or action. But when we identified those schools that were statistically in that low area, we wanted to find what

213positive experiences we can connect to make that transition better. presentation for questions. We have any questions? Yes, Mr. B. Yeah, just briefly, maybe we can get into this another time, but with the discussion of the budget and the increases that we're going to need just to fund what's going on, I think it would be appropriate just to sh that for a little while, like get through the budget process and figure out what our needs that we have to do because, you know, families are having to make cuts, business are having to make cuts, governments, we can't just keep spending, spending, spending I guess I'm just very concerned that I feel like this whole meeting we haven't really talked about academics and we've talked about money on you know assistant principles and on counselors and on

214a D team and athletic fields and and all those things are good. I mean it would be nice to be able to do everything. Um, but at the end of the day, our our core mission is to educate children in the ones that come for K4, but K5 through 12th grade. And it's not like there aren't other entities that do these things. I mean, there's the Irma Chapen Recreation League, and I understand there may be challenges with it, but I still go back to when when all of our children are reading on grade level at the end of third grade. Let's talk about this stuff. But until then, we have a lot of work to do and we're not talking that uh yes uh and I understand what you're saying uh but let me just

215share with you I've had the good fortune of working with elementary middle and high schools and um and the at the administrative level and all three levels um nothing um helps the climate of a school than success students experiencing success and one of the biggest obstacles that you go through whether it's elementary, middle or high school is helping students find confidence and the way and an interest in academics and the way they do that is to find some other attachment to the school so the school becomes part of them they don't just see it as I go and I fail at math I hate going to math I I stink at it for some reason if that kid is part of another program I don't care if it's band I don't care if it's athletics

216or whatever it might be they find a little bit of confidence and an attachment and then their behavior improves. A lot of things improve. Um, when I was at Dutch Fork High School, we started an inter mural program and I had a lot of my discipline kids and I started an inter mural program and I probably had 150 kids involved in inter murals and never any more issues with discipline because that was part of the requirements. Um, but I I think this is I think this is a heading in the right direction and I know that we'll feel our way through it for a while. Um, and uh I think that it's worth a worthwhile endeavor. We're not investing a huge amount of money in this right now, but I I definitely think it's good

217and it's uh we talked earlier about ways of helping kids and help whether it's through psychologists or counselors or whatever. Um, I can tell you as a coach, as a high school football coach and basketball coach, I get more compliments from former students or players who say, "Thank you for taking the time, spending the time. You taught me so many different things." And to be able to start that at the elementary school level. I think that's a real positive. Yeah. I I just want to say I I've consistently talked about investment in school in schools and the school district. the importance of investing. I I disagree completely with uh Mr. Bayum about cutting for the sake of cutting just because other areas are being cut. That that's not the solution. To me, it's about return

218on investment. You invest in your schools. You invest in your district. You invest in your communities. And it's you measure it by what your return is. Do these investments help us increase our overall performance academically, athletically, because all of these areas touch our kids' lives and touch our community. And so that should be the focus, not just cutting for the sake of cutting nominal dollars. It's not about that. It's about investing. Do we have any other questions or comments? Yeah. I mean, We're looking for connections to schools then, you know, why not start start streams earlier or band earlier? I mean, no, I'm talking about kindergarten and all the way up. I mean, I don't think band starts that early, does it? We have a We start the arts program. We'd like to build these

219stronger. I'll tell you this, I'll be quiet. We save children through academics, athletics, arts, and extracurriculars. move to this community because that's what it believed in. It invested in all four of those areas. So for some kids it will work. For some kids it won't. I like a menu of things that would work for all of our kids. We have children, believe it or not, they're not going to read if they're not connected to us. They're not going to do the math and they don't feel connected. Some kids want to learn for the sake of learning. Others don't care until they see that you care. And if we can't connect with children, we struggle to get them from the 21st percentile to the 61st percentile. I want as many tools as possible to get kids

220from the 21st to the 61st. That's the goal. And we start off with cutting when we're already being cut in our budget. Dr. Ross, just that's and I'll be I'm just curious because I don't know if things have changed. What year does orchestra start right now? I think you start in fourth grade. Okay. And what year does band start? Fifth grade. Actual band starts in sixth grade. Thank you. What year does start? Well, we have an elementary honors choir that starts in fifth grade. Some fourth graders can be, but mostly fourth fifth grade. Do you have other comment or discussion for this topic? Have a motion. I make a motion that we adjourn. All in favor? And the motion carries seven to zero. Y'all have a good night.