April 7, 2025 School Board Meeting

001Okay, we're good. It is 5:00 pm. So I would like to go ahead and convene the board budget workshop. Dr. Ross, I'm going to turn it over to you. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board and our community. Uh we are liking the opportunity to discuss with the board some of the considerations that we have for the 2025 2026 sorry um general operating budget. Uh as a reminder our goal is to in compliance with policy DB annual budget is to establish the board's vision for the annual budget as we look at our operating priorities. Um we have always used as just kind of our outline of this discussion uh the equation of revenues minus expenses equals the reserve or fund balance. And so these are the uh kind of discussion points that we'll talk

002through uh today. Uh we have our CFO, Miss Heather Tucker, who's going to be taking us through the considerations. Do you have a clicker at your desk? Uh but before we begin uh I do like to to talk about kind of an outlier as she comes to the lect turn of our general operating budget. Uh we're at uh 64% of our funds come from the state. So we're going to talk about state revenue. Uh we're going to talk about uh the 35% that comes from local and that'll be our local revenue. And then we're going to go over expenses. uh basically what are the priorities uh some of the items that we see from those expenses and uh I want to give the the board just kind of an update prior to act 388 where

003was our delineation uh in terms of state and uh local and so before act 388 about 51% of our funds uh came from state and about 49% came from local so as we look at the changes and the impact. Uh I know that uh act 388 is not going anywhere but you can just see the difference in where we were prior to act 388 in terms of the local share and then where we are today. So as a result uh we would like the board to uh get their thoughts on these four items uh the state revenue estimates uh minus the operational budget priorities that were we have collected look at what the local revenue estimates can do in terms of addressing the shortfalls from the state revenue and then our reserve position. So, with

004that, I'm going to turn it over to our CFO, Miss Heather Tucker, to take us through these four points. Miss Tucker, sorry. Is that better? Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board. Um, as we start talking about our state funds for fiscal year 2526, our state revenue formula, which was first implemented in uh, fiscal year 23, so we're on a couple years of this new um, state revenue formula, it takes into consideration our weighted pupil units, which is essentially used to account for the relative difference in cost of um, our general ed population versus our other population, special ed, pupils in poverty. So, they get a different weight to be calculated as part of the weighted pupil unit. And that goes along with our index of taxpaying ability. So the index of taxpaying ability

005is essentially districts with above average wealth have received less funding from the state. So we fall at 16 out of 77 districts across the state of South Carolina. So our index of taxpaying ability is 01678. So that just means that we have more money. So we get a less proportionate share of the state's funding when we start looking at how the state pays us as far as the state portion versus the local portion. Um growth in student enrollment from the state's perspective does not always mean a growth in state funding. So in order to get a growth in state funding, you have to grow at a rate higher than the state student growth. So if the state grew at 2% and we only grew at 1%, we would essentially could could still get less funding

006from the state because we're not growing at a rate that's consistent across higher than what the state is growing at. So right now based on the House Ways and Means uh projections from our state department, we've got a state budget estimate of essentially additional revenue projections of a little over $4 million for next year. Um this is the state's aid to classroom which is taking into account the number of teachers needed to teach at 11 to 11.2 um ratio. Now that's not a class size. That's just the ratio that the state looks at across the state. They take the number of teachers calculated for the state average based on the number of students statewide come up with the number of teachers and then that dispersed out across the the different districts is how we get

007that state aid. Um the House Ways and Means has uh an increase of 731,000 for retirey insurance based on our payroll from this year. We see additional 1.9 million in our state aid to classroom and that's based on our 45day count. We also see an additional $720,000 in our state aid to classroom for EIA based on our 45day count. Um and then we have an increase of health insurance. Um, also on the state side, we'll see an increase of about uh $385,000 for our 2% bus driver increase, which those are our only state workers. Um, as we move into our operational budget priorities, this is the list of priorities that have been identified from all of the different stakeholder groups that we've talked about just to give you kind of an overview of all the

008different priorities that we had asked about, we had looked at um across our different stakeholder groups. So, what is the number one priority? was talking to the board of trustees and the the ina input we got from you all um on 31025 your number one priority was teacher rate teacher pay raises second to lower class sizes um additional instructional support personnel and additional behavior personnel we'll see a theme here um as we moved into our parent advisory our parent advisory also said teacher pay raises and lower class sizes those were consistently two of the top priorities as we talked to all of our stakeholder groups they also mentioned staff pay raises substitute pay increases, um, building maintenance and additional behavioral personnel. From our faculty advisory, I'm actually talking to our teachers and our faculty, teacher

009payraises and staff payraises were number one and two from their priority. Lower class size was number three and additional behavioral personnel was CL uh priority four. Our student advisory, even our students said you want to pay the teachers more um and staff pay raises were number one and two. uh building maintenance and they um put healthcare retirey increased benefits and technology and equipment in their top four and principles and directors same same consistency here teacher payraises lower class sizes staff payraises and additional behavioral personnel. So in summary if you look across all of the stakeholder groups teacher payraises was priority one for every stakeholder group that we talked to. Priority two uh toggle between lower class size and staff pay raises. And then as you get into priority three and four, they they kind of

010um bounce around a little bit, but additional behavioral personnel was always on the list. So, as we start to talk about teacher payraises, where are we now and where are we in comparison to other districts around us? So, the state right now, the state's average is at 47,000. The governor came out last year and said within three years he wanted us to be at 50. And with the governor's budget this year, the governor said, "No, I want to get to 50 this year. I want to I want to accelerate that timeline and I would like for us to move to 50. Um that wasn't necessarily funded in the House Ways and Means. Um the House took everybody up $1,500. So every cell in that teacher pay scale would get a $1,500 bump. Um for us

011that would take us to 495. Um because we also have the Ner in there. Um but looking at the districts around us, we are kind of right in line with where the districts are around us. Um Charleston's at 56 and Dr. Ross has told me that they are looking at at going up significantly um for there, but they're also uh Dr. Ross has just told me they're moving to a band. So they're looking at um year one to five instead of doing a step each year. But this is where we are right now with our teacher pay rate or teacher base salary at 47,000. So when we start talking about what is what are the things that we have to do for next year. So we have to do the 2% increase for our bus

012drivers. they are are state employees and so we're going to have to do that. That's 385,000. Um we know we're going to have an increase to our insurance. We don't have that exact number at this point, but we will see an increase to our insurance. Um we are uh going to be required to pay our sled checks. This is something that um there's a little bit of a confusion on how we paid for these in the past versus what we um had access to. And so this is going to be an additional approximately $62,500 based on what we've seen this year um for teacher minimum say teacher minimum salary scale to get us to 49,000 which would be a $1,500 increase per cell. Um that is $4.7 million overall. Now that's not just the increase

013that is also the fringe benefits that go along with it. So when you think about an increase for teacher salary, you also have to think about the additional 30% on top of that that we're paying infringes on top of the increase. Um the line there for Senate 78, the CT impact, we know that's going to be a financial impact, but we do not know what that's going to be at this point. Um Dr. Turner and I looked at the list of CTE teachers across the district and we realized after looking through that list that there is going to be many more teachers impacted by this Senate 78 bill which looks like it will pass. Um that will give um any educator one year for every two years experience in industry. And so um speaking from

014experience I came in as a year zero teacher a few years ago but I had 16 years in finance industry and so I would have come in as a year eight teacher. And so that is going to have a major impact not only across our CTE teachers but across many of our teachers um many of our teachers that have gone through the PACE program. We're going to see that financial impact to us whereas they were coming in at year zero. We're going to have to go back and while this doesn't um affect them retroactively, it will start with next school year and we'll have to go based on what the South Carolina Department of Education puts on their teacher certificate and that may take them a few months to get that updated. So, we'll have

015to go back and retro that back to the beginning of of the the next contract year. Um, the line up there that says hold harmless for the bachelor's plus 18. So, we looked at something um as just an option. We looked at something to since the state has said they're going to get rid of that lane for bachelor's plus 18. We looked at what would it cost for us to instead of holding them harmless, what would it cost for us to get rid of our bachelor's lane and move everybody to the bachelor's plus 18 to make that really our starting. Since the state's going to give us $1,500 per cell and only $1,000 per cell for that bachelor's plus 18, what would it look like to give everybody to move everybody there? Because those folks

016will on their certificate next year will only say bachelors. And so that would keep us from having to keep track of two different classes that the state's not going to recognize. And so that would be an additional 388,000 for us to essentially move everybody to that bachelor's plus 18, which would bump up their their starting salary even higher. Um the next two lines there, the move teacher pay to $50,000 or to $51,000. Those two lines, um so if you take away the 4.7 and say we're going to move to 50 instead of 49, it's not an additional seven. It's a $7 million total. Um, so if we were to say we're going to move to $50,000, it would cost us $7.3 million and that's in salary infringe. Um, the $50,000 would be essentially a $2,500

017per cell um on our teacher pay scale right now. And the $5,100 would be $3,500 per um per cell on our teacher pay scale. And I know a lot of people have asked about the percent increase and what that looks like. The $1,500 would be 2% an average of a 2% increase for all of our for all of our cells in our teacher pay scale right now. The $50,000 or an increase of $2,500 would be a 4% increase and the 51 would be an average of 5% increase. And I say an average because last year when the state only funded those lower level um teacher salary um the teacher salary uh cells we we weren't able to do an across the board percent for our teacher pay scale. So I say an average because that's

018an average of all of the cells but everybody would be increasing by 1500 2500 or 3500 looking at 49 to 50 to 51. some of the other options that had come out of to reduce class size. Right now, currently our class sizes are 22 and 25 respectively to look at going to a class size of 20 and 23. Um, calculating that with the department of uh our accountability office and what that would look like based on our current enrollment numbers. Looks like that would be about an average of 16 additional teachers. Um, and looking at taking an average, um, just looking at kind of what other districts do and what other districts budget is their vacancy factor. Um, I looked at a master's plus 12. So, kind of a midpoint of that's essentially kind of

019what we're seeing come in. Um, and so to come up with a $1.2 million as an additional um, an additional expense if we were to reduce our class sizes. And then to give our classified workers a 2% increase would be an additional 4.5 million. So, all of that to be all of that to say, these are options for you to consider. Um, given that we're only going to get an additional $4 million in state funds, that additional decisions based on what priorities you prioritize um will most likely have to come about out of our local revenues. So, our local revenues um come from our 4%. Oh, yes, ma'am. I'm sorry. Can I take a question? Yes. Um if you go back to the last slide on the classified markers um that would be on top

020of their step increase. Correct. Okay. So what is the average step increase? That's all right. I didn't mean to put you on the but I just wanted to clarify that even if we didn't do that the classified workers would get an increase based on their step. That's correct. They would get an increase based on their step. But I will don't know that off the top of my head but I can Okay. Any other questions before we continue? All right. Yes, y'all please stop me. All right. So, local revenues. So, our local revenue is based on our millage, a tax on our um operations and our tax for our operations and our debt service. So, our operations millage after um act 388, we don't have a tax on our essentially our 4% property. Um we only

021have a tax on our 6% property, which is our businesses. Um our debt service, we get uh tax on the 4% property and our 6% um that provides our construction and our debt service millage. Um so looking at the millillage for this year. So last year Richland County went through a reassessment. This year Lexington County is going through a reassessment. Um and right now we're working very closely with Lexington County to get some reassessed values. um they have had a change in their um their system and so we've seen some different reports than last year and so we're working very closely with them to make sure we have accurate information but based on the consumer price index that we've gotten from department of revenue and fiscal affairs our CPI for this year is 2.95% and

022our population growth is 2.04%. So that gives us an allowable percent increase before roll back of 4.99%. So right now our current operating mill is at 266 mills. Um the operating mill cap would be 12.67 mills and so not taking into consideration roll back which we said we're still working to calculate those numbers. Um we could increase uh our operating millage 12.67 mills. Again not not taking into consideration roll back. Um so when we have those roll back numbers I will I will obviously share that with you um to make sure that we are looking at that. But um looking at our mill cap the last few years, our millage based on a 95% collection rate has been about 304,000. Um seeing some preliminary numbers. Um I think our the value of a mill is

023going to go up. Um I would say uh looking at 330 to 340 based on some of the numbers I've seen right now. Um but like I said, those are preliminary numbers. We're still working through that with Lex and Richland County. Um but so the increase um to our general fund would be based on whatever millage rate the board approves for next year. So moving on to our fund balance discussion. Um so our audited fund balance as of the end of last fiscal year was uh unassigned fund balance of $53 million and a total fund balance of 63. So the non-spendable fund balance is our prepaids. It's inventory. It's things that can't be easily converted into cash. Um, so we don't uh put that in our non-spendable category. Our assigned fund balance, those are things

024that have been earmarked by the board. Last year we had $ 1.5 million that was set aside for portables that you all graciously allowed us to reassign that to buy um band instruments and um some security for our um security officers, some of their new vehicles. Um and then our unassigned f fund balance. So that is the uh $53 million. Um, our board policy says that we should have a fund balance between 15 and 18% based on our general fund budget expenditures. And so you can see the last couple of years there. Our uh 2023 unassigned fund balance was just under that 18%. Um, our 2024 fund balance was right at 22%. Um, I will say that last year our fund balance um, increased even more because of again esser funds. We've had esser funds

025that have really offset things over the last few years. we've had that additional on average of $7 million that have been infused into our into our operations budget that we won't have moving forward. Um, and so our 2024 uh our 2025 budget expenditures are $240 million. So to end this year to stay within our current board policy of between 15 and 18%, you can see the numbers there, 36 million to 43 million for our unassigned fund balance and where we would land at the end of this year to be within board policy. So that unassigned fund balance is truly just what is our um our our options for the uncertainty. We have uncertainty right now with federal grants. We have uncertainty right now with a lot of things that the state legislature is doing, especially

026the CTE. That one gives me a lot of um concern of how much we're going to see an impact to our operations budget from that from the salary perspective. If you think back to that jar at the very beginning of the presentation, the majority of our operational expenses are salaries. And so a lot of these are um unfunded mandates. Essentially the state's going to pass a law and they're not going to give us money to to fund that. So we've got to fund that from our local sources because we're not going to get that from the state side. So just the uncertainty there of having a strong fund balance to be able to make decisions based on the changes that we see whether that be from grants or whether it be from legislation um or

027whether it be from fluctuations in our enrollment. Um we will see an adjustment. So, we just had our 135th day and our budget for next year from the state will be based on that 135th day, but we will see an adjustment based on our fifth day as we move into next year. So, five days into our school year, um depending on what our enrollment looks like at day five, our budget will be adjusted and we will see that moving forward. So, five days into the school year, we could see swings that we wouldn't anticipate um as we move into the summer. So, um, just to talk about those revenue thresholds. Um, our our legally we're required to have one month. I'm sorry, I have a question. Um, you said there'll be an adjustment um at

028the fifth day, but as far as the initial budget, which day is that set? On the 135th day. Yes, ma'am. The 135th day is our initial budget. So, did we see an increase or decrease from the 45day to the 135 day? I think that's in our um the agenda for tonight, the 135th day. I want to say we saw an increase of 10. Is that 10? Okay. Okay. So, it was it was relatively consistent. Um thank you. Um don't quote me on that, but yes, 10. Um but yes, we will see an adjustment based on day five. So, whatever next year, five days into the school year looks like, the state department readjusts based on the five days. It's essentially based on charter schools. So any charter schools that have started over the summer, they

029look at the enrollment of them and then where those kids were were pulled from and so they readjust your budget based on day five. So you have built a budget based on one set of enrollment numbers and then five days into the school year you could have a a major change. So yes ma'am. Okay. Speaking of which, um the gray collegiate um are we estimating a p a number of students that that we think we may lose to them in our budget projections. So, in our 135th day, because we will be based on this year, so we we have our 135th day numbers and so that's what the state will base its budget off of. Um, I think it would be unwise to not take into consideration some projections, but our budget will be based

030on the 135th day number from the state. And so what we do, what we decide to do as a district or what the board directs us to do, um I think that we should take something like that into consideration. So we need to budget. I guess you're saying there's kind of I guess a a requirement that the state says we're we're basing your projected revenue on the 135th, but yet we know they're going to adjust it on the fifth day. Are we allowed to put like a line item in our budget under the revenue and and a negative line item for a estimated loss due to a new charter school? Is that allowable? I don't know. Okay. Um the fifth day was the first time my understanding and again last year was my first year.

031Um my understanding was the the fifth day reallocation the first time that happened was last year. So when I asked Dr. Ross was like we've seen a decrease in what our state production are and and so had lots of conversations with the state and they're like oh that's based on the fifth day and that was something new. So the funding formula continues to change um despite the direction from the state not taking it into account right the state is not taking it into account but we but so reality we know if there going to be a new charter school in our attendance lines there's a good chance we're going to lose kids. So, I don't know. I'm just thinking that we ought to even though the state doesn't know about it, we know about it.

032So, maybe we should adjust for that, make that consideration. Um, Mrs. Satderfield, I know I'm down around the corner over here. Um, the to Miss Huddle's question, uh, have they started putting together this gray academy? Yeah, they've already they're taking applications. So, there any idea of what they're asking as far as facility? I mean, I'm assuming they have to still follow with OSF with regards to building size, square foot, and how many kids. And and I also know one of the other concerns is um even if they attend, they still can participate in all our activities. Correct. That's how charter schools are. or if they want to participate in sporting programs and band and all that. I believe they are expecting to take 600 children was I think what I heard. And I guess what

033I'm concerned about is if let's just suppose we lose half of that. If we lose 300 children regardless of whether they have they we have to let them play football or whatever the we still lose the funding. We still lose the funding. Yeah. Well, that's that is a big concern that's for sure. Um but uh so any idea when we we would get any kind of indication of or or do they just start putting mailers out and start recruiting or they've already started accepting students. They have started recruiting. I know that this it's been announced so to speak but uh yeah they've already started accepting students. Okay. Dr. For us, one of the cautions I would would urge us is that's not the only charter, homeschool, online school in our attendance zone. If we start

034trying to make projections of what that's going to be, I think we have to include all of them, homeschool and all of that, I think the safest thing for us to do uh with all of the changing formulas is stick to the variables that we know. And the variables that we know are the 135th uh day is going to be a new variable and we can adjust and I think you know we would we would move that way but as the public school in this footprint we have to prepare for every child in the footprint. I would hate that we put some arbitrary piece in there get a student and we don't have the resources to take care of them because we are the mandatory educational site for all the students in the in the

035attendance zone. So it's just when we put a number and we author that we got to have We can't just make it up. And if we make up this number without a rationale, then we're we're we're on uncharted territory. So I think the state gives us direction. It's the state's number. When we get to the local share and we don't want to, you know, provide as much. I think that's fine. But in terms of state revenue, I'd rather stay with how that formula is dictated through the 135th and then the the fifth day. And I will say the adjustment from the fifth day, while we know when the fifth day, they don't pull those funds back from us for a few months. So we have about three months to make adjustments. So it's not that

036they count on the fifth day and we see that immediate pullback in our August um or our September funding from the state. So they give us a couple of months to make accommodations. Um, and so that's I I kept talking about the the three month kind of threshold with the the fund balance. I think three months is just a comfortable place where you have time to make decisions that are the right decisions for the school district as a whole and not be very reactionary. Um, just thinking about having that that little bit of cushion for the uncertainty, whether it's from a charter school or from federal grants or from really anything. Um, tariffs. I mean, we're going to see increases on all kinds of things on our on our operational side as well as our

037capital side. So, I think just that uncertainty of having some time to make the decisions um is what having a strong um a strong fund balance gives us the flexibility there to to make those decisions um without making them in a rash decision. Um so, just to to finish up on fund balance because I really want to spend um allow you all to have the time to discuss some of these. um the fund balance and revenue threshold. Um our current policy is at the the 15 to 18% we talked about moving closer to the three months. Um but I think just in practice just having that strong fund balance for the given the amount of uncertainty that we're going into next year um is just is just a good um strong fiscal practice as we

038move into um again just lots of uncertainty. But just to to recap, so state revenue estimates, so we basing them on the weighted pupil units and the index of taxpaying ability. So we we essentially know approximately what our state revenue estimates are going to be. Um obviously we'll update it as the as the House and Senate um or as the the budget moves through the Senate um in the next few weeks. Our operational budget priorities, I think we've heard very clearly that the the top priority is teacher payraises. Um, and then just looking at some of those unknowns with the legislative requirements that we're going to see, whether it be Senate 78 or some of these other legislative requirements. And then really it's up to the board to make decisions on um what that local

039share is going to look like. You know, what is our mill rate going to look like for our operational side next year? Um, we will have to consider our our roll back based on reassessment um because this is the year that both Lexon and Richland have had reassessment and we are looking very closely at what that's going to look like um based on our new assessed value from both counties and then just what our what our recommendation is or what your recommendation is as far as our fund balance. you know, what puts us in a good position to be um to have a strong fund balance, but also to have that flexibility given the uncertainty to make decisions as a district from a from a financial, but also thinking of thinking of our students first.

040Um we want to make sure that if if we are to see a decrease in our funding that we're, you know, putting our student needs first and being able to still serve the population that we need to serve given whatever funding constraints we may see. So these are just the considerations for you all to consider. Um I did not have uh I forgot to add a slide about dates to remember. The full Senate is actually debating um the the budget uh this week. They'll start tomorrow. Um the House will be on furlow next week and then the Senate goes to floor budget debate the week of April 22nd. So we will be updating our projections based on the Senate finance and the Senate the full Senate um budget and then they go to conference May

0416th through the 8th. So, we will really see some some final numbers out of the state. But I wanted to turn it back over to Miss Knights for um for any discussion. Initial thoughts, questions, um one thing I think that in addition to areas where we want to spend more money, whether it be um increased teacher pay or smaller I think we ought to look at where are there opportunities to save money. Um so you know and and one of the things I sent a a um a request for information um about a program at one of our schools that I think is pretty small and I don't know you know if you're talking if you have some classes that are really really small you're still taking up an entire teacher. Um, also we have

042um I had I sent some questions about dual enro enrollment because that's really great for our kids because they they graduate with college credit without having to take an AP exam. Um I think we need to look at our five program that I don't know what the enrollment in that is but if we have 20 25 kids in a reg regular classroom but we have a lot less than that in five I think we really have to look um at that program because is that cost effective you know it's you're basically spending more educating um those children when there is an alternative um when you take a look at the program you mean like should it exist Yeah. Should it exist? I mean, it didn't exist until CO and it was kind of necessary um

043with COVID, but there are many alternatives um for children that want virtual education. So, um I think we need to look at our, you know, I'm probably going to get some shards of glass thrown at me, but we need to look at our administrative positions in our district office. Um, you know, we just if we want to put more focus on teachers, we need to look at every place that we're spending money outside of teachers and question that expense and and does it improve education. Can children read better, do math better, um, be happier, whatever those those goals are. I just think, you know, we don't need to just look at adding. we need to look at where can we cut some expenses that aren't necessarily adding value. Do so follow up before I move

044to the next person just on some of the things you mentioned um dual enrollment. Um can you explain where you're going with that in relation to what we're discussing? Well, just I don't I get questions from parents about the availability of dual enrollment. And so, for example, you can take um an AP class and I'll just throw out world history. You can take an AP class in world history. And um I know we're paying for that obviously for the in the and the student has to take an exam and they have to score a certain score on it to get college credit. an alternative is to actually partner with Midlands Tech or another college and they take a course and they pass the course, they get college credit. Um, and there's a lot of instances

045where those are not apples to apples. There are courses that are AP that are not dual credit. But just looking at our offerings for whether it's AP or IB and what are there is situations where dual credit might serve our students better and be less expensive for the district. Okay. And then um two other things and I promise that other people talk to but because this is a discussion I just made some notes. And then you talked about the um administrative positions at the district office, but who do you suppose is supposed to decide which positions aren't important? Um well, first of all, since I've been on the board, we have added um several net positions. Um so we have added also, you know, and again, I'm probably going to get hate mail, but we

046have a lot of people with the title of secretary. Okay. Um, that's from an age when people didn't write their own emails. I mean, because you wrote letters and all that. We really need to look at administrative cost. And I'm not proposing to put someone out of a job, but maybe we need to look at u moving people around. And I don't think that's our decision to make. I think that's the superintendent's decision to make, not ours. But I'd like to see it looked at. Maybe one way to tackle that is to look at what should your district office expenses be as a percentage of your budget and we codify that. It should be that amount or less and then the superintendent spends that however they think is best. But we have a slightly it's

047not huge but over time we have a slightly increasing percentage of nonadmin non-eing cost to our overall budget. So again if we're trying to her teachers more. There's only two ways to do that. Spend less somewhere else or increase taxes. And before we increase taxes, we I believe we should look at see if there's ways that we can save some money without eliminating a person's job. But, you know, people do hiring freezes, they shuffle. There are ways um to do things without eliminating a person's job. Dr. Ross, I feel like a lot of those are you things. Do you want to respond? If if we can go back to the priorities slide for me, the priorities the synopsis this one. Yeah, this one this was the direction that we we've taken. If we want to

048change the number one priority from teacher pay raise to, you know, eliminating uh positions, then I take that as direction. Um I like to hear, you know, through through motion and action what the board believes. I think one of the issues that we have in putting the budget together is that everybody weighs in. Um, you think about how many hours you receive or you take in terms of getting everybody's feedback and we put this all together and then we get to this moment and then we're shifted in a different direction. So, I like to see what what that is. We've put together a operational staff that supports the vision and mission. You know, I I disagree. I think as the public school entity, I want to create a program that takes care of all of

049our students needs. I don't want to say to a family, we cut this program, go find it somewhere else in the community. I'd like to say for our online staff, you know, those parents that seek online, that we have your option for you. Those parents who seek choice magnet, we have these options for you. I can only control what's outlined in the um in your board policy and that's to look at this district's needs and priorities. If the board has recommendations and they say we would like to total expenditures for admin should not pass this um then it has to look at all of those costs. It's interesting how many emails we receive that have nothing to do with teaching and learning. You know have nothing to do with math and science and social studies

050and reading. are teachers going to do this work? You know, so we use the supports and the admin to so that teachers can teach but I can sit for weeks and I get emails about teaching and learning. So um I I do think you know dual credit uh we are going to talk about that in in May. Uh we're increasing dual credit but you can do dual credit with your teachers. The the issue that we have uh um with just farming our our our teachers out uh is that we don't control that environment anymore and once students are looking for scheduling options and s you scheduled dual credit before you know that kids want to take dual credit but they also want to take honors orchestra they wanted to take PE4 uh so when you

051you farm all that out we lose control over the environment that we create so I think it's what perspective uh that we're looking for. The last thing I would say is if we're saving money that 88% we're cutting jobs. Uh this this profession is so heavily regulated and certifications. You can't take a secretary and turn him into a teacher. It is we're cutting jobs if we're going to we're going to cut that 88%. So, uh I just want to put these things out there. There's things that we can look for, but it is easier superintendent to hear the voice of the board and move that way. And that's what I like to hear. What is the voice of the board of trustees? And with that, I'll move to whatever uh system you all set up

052for for the budget. But right now, we're setting up a budget based on these priorities that have been established. Um Mr. Skully has a comment. Yeah, Dr. Is um internal auditor a non-eing administrative position? Yes, sir. I might start there because there's other options for that, too. Actually, because the board the board approved I can hear you. Oh, I was going to say since the board approved us to to put that out, it'll be a professional service. It won't be an administrative cost. So, it'll be a service. As we Can I say one thing before you go? Um um as we're looking priorities are. Um, just for um, comment because we're supposed to be talking about what we think um, we should try to keep or work on or work in. I know that um,

053substitute pay looks like it only falls under um, priority number three, but I know that that's one in the three years I've been on the board. I get a lot of emails about got a couple of emails about it even leading up to the budget workshop um, people who substitute in our district, enjoy substituting here, but feel that compared to other districts they've sub served in before, we don't match up well with pay. I don't know what that looks like, you know, if it's true, you know, I don't know those details. Um, but I'd love to see us look at that. And I don't know, maybe it doesn't make the I hate to say doesn't make the cut. I hate how that sounds, but it's something I know that seems to be important. Um, and

054I like to kind of have us look at it. It actually was one of the very first things I looked at when I got here. There was a I don't I think a question from human resources. Um, we looked at our current rates. And so ESS, our current subcontractor, um, breaks down different categories, a full day substitute teacher with a bachelor's degree, full full day substitute teacher um, with a high school diploma or equivalent, um, certified some of our support staff. And so we kind of looked at each one of those pay rates um and to not divulge their information as far as their their rates. Um in order for us to be competitive with um Richland one, Lexon 2, Richland 2, um we would need about $300,000 additional based on the current um the

055current bill rate and the current utilization of subs to essentially step us up over the districts that are right around us that are competing in that same pool. Um, so we could we could match them at about $200,000, but really to be competitive, we'd need about $300,000. $36,000 a year. So you can't just snap your fingers and make that one happen. Can't make that one happen, but I've got the math to show you what we would need about that too. Okay. Oh, about substitute pay. Okay. Do you mind if I get that since it's connected and then Mrs. Satderfield and then Miss Markart? Um, related to that. Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that our long-term subs, which are typically retired teachers, um, once they reach a certain number of days, they

056get paid based on a rate that was equivalent to kind of what they were making when they retired, right? I believe, and Dr. Ross, correct me if I'm wrong. I think that they have to they have to teach they have to sub for 10 days straight and it has to be in their area of certification and then they receive a rate outside of this the the substitute pay rate or contractual pay rate. Correct. But isn't that based on like what they made when they retired? It's it's based on their daily rate of pay. Um, and usually most of the time that applies to secondary teachers in areas of specialty, like if you had a child that's, you know, trying to maybe take an AP exam or get ready to take uh uh something a real

057important, you know, SAT or something you want to get and it's very difficult to get those certified teachers. It's it's like really difficult. I would beg and beg and beg to get the math and the science and the physics and those teachers to come and fill in because uh it's just really tough. So, but yes, after their 10th day, then they start receiving their daily rate of pay. So, if we're looking at that, I would just suggest that we look at that as well because I have heard from both sides. I've heard from a teacher that's a long does a lot of long-term sub that that rate has um her particular rate has not gone up. I don't know exactly why, but that it hasn't gone up in years. And then I've heard from a

058parent of a child, they were actually in elementary school, but they had a long-term sub that had no teaching experience at all. They were basically a a you know, just a fill in. And I don't know why, and but I'm assuming it's because we couldn't get one. I I can tell you Well, I can I can't tell you why that situation, but I can tell you it's like I just said, uh once teachers retire, they retire. Now, there are some teachers that will come back and sub. Um, it's being a sub, uh, again, if you got to teach 10 days before you start getting your daily rate of pay, and you know that you really should get that on your first day if you're a teacher. Um, but getting a long-term sub, sometimes you do

059get somebody who is has demonstrated in the past that they're very good with classroom control and they've subbed for you in the past and you keep their name close by so that when you do have a long-term position that you can't fill with a certified teacher, but typically what you do as a principal do, they'll juggle other teachers that are certified to come in. So those children are not without a certified teacher the whole time. they'll juggle schedules and things like that and they did do that is is what I was told. I didn't forget. Um I think uh I think Dr. Ross has a comment relates to substitute pay and then I still have to get Mrs. Satderfield's question and then I'll come at Miss Bar. I I'll I'll quickly insert this for the

060record. This policy is ARGCG-R and basically it's part-time and substitute professional and support staff employment. This was issued August of 21. So, in addition to the 10 days, there's another caveat. A long-term certified substitute receiving the certified pay must hold a valid South Carolina teaching certificate in that appropriate content certified area. So, got to keep your certificate updated. So, if you're if it's not updated, it it does not receive that even though uh you're retired. So, I just want to make sure both of those conditions are understood for the record. Thank you, Mr. I feel thank you. And one of the other one things I want to point out, Miss Huddle brought up and it's it's it was a good point, but just give you a little more clarity. Um, a lot of times we

061look at things like um, you know, all desks in a row and you got that many kids, you got science, math, and this and that. In the secondary, in high school, your your schedules are student driven. In other words, um your teachers that you hire, you get so many FTEEs based on your enrollment and then your your students sign up for they ask for certain courses. And so the principal's job is to try to fill those positions for a student driven schedule. Um uh so it's not it's not like it's always the same every time. And so that you can say, well, I can put this many kids in this class and this and that. Uh and the other thing is is with so many more children being identified with special needs and 504s and

062things like that, uh the numbers of those smaller classes have really grown. The services are required and we have um schools have to provide a lot more speech and hearing and all kinds of therapies. Is that correct, Dr. Ross? than they have in the past. So those numbers have gone up. And I can tell you I've had the privilege of working at the elementary, middle, and high school. And I have never in all my years. Now, something may have changed since I retired. I never had too many secretaries or bookkeepers. I always had the minimum. And I used to try to, you know, compliment them as many times as I could and buy them in many Chick-fil-A sandwiches and things like that because they really worked overtime and did a great job. So, Miss Barnhart,

063yeah, I just wanted to kind of follow up on what Miss Huddle was saying, and I I don't necessarily believe that what her comments were saying was trying to shift anything around. I mean, this is a budget workshop, and we're here to discuss potential ways um of our budget in the district. And I kind of look at it, I mean, we're all parents. We all have families. We all own houses. when we do our own home budgets, uh let's say somebody's losing hours at work or somebody has a different job. I mean, you're going to sit down with your family and you're going to discuss, hey, what are the ways that we can get to this one common goal? We all see that the common goal obviously is teacher pay raises and what our priorities

064are. But, and I'm not saying I disagree or agree with, you know, some of the comments she said about the five program or administrative positions, but I do believe that it's beholden to us to at least consider different ways of doing things because I think families at home can understand, you know, with some of the slides and and percentages and millages and stuff like that. But the average everyday parent, they are looking at us to see, you know, how we can have our budget for the next year. And with the uncertainties that we've talked about with where there are many, I mean, I think it's just common sense kind of that we do discuss different ways of doing it. And I'm not saying which one is best and which is worse, but I I think

065that, you know, like Miss Huddle said, the option of either kind of scaling back or raising taxes. I believe that it's, you know, we're beholden to our constituents to at least discuss it. So, I wouldn't necessarily just dismiss um the idea of looking at cost-effective ways to lower, you know, some cost in the district. Thank you. Um um go ahead. I'll let Jason see this. Just a interesting observation on the um budget priorities. The only lines that mention building maintenance were the parent and student group. And I those that visit the schools that are in the schools do see the the need for maintenance at a large portion of our facilities. So hopefully that's baked into, you know, some of these things to really tackle, you know, a lot of the the maintenance issues, the

066leaks and the um especially HVAC issues that they're they're dealing with. And also if we have to approach the the area of ing millillage. Hopefully we'll be um cognizant of our local businesses to protect them because that is something that they're going to have to bear um as well. So just some observations. Thank you, Mr. Bum. I will say the building maintenance that all falls under our capital budget. So we we definitely know that that's an issue we need to address. So thank you. Um I talked about substitute pay already. Um staff pay was um I think something that's um important just as we look at prioritizing and where things fall um mainly um thinking about a lot of these support positions um the teacher assistant and that sort of thing. I know in other

067schools that title can vary but I recognize that it's also to help balance the scale so the teachers can try to teach and maybe some of that rolls over or is andor is connected to behavior personnel. I'm not sure what that looks like or if it's consistent everywhere. Um, but I know I think that's something that's important. Um, and I know those are those are hard positions and if we want to keep people in them, it's just something we should look at in terms of how they're compensated. Do Mr. Satfield? Yeah, I want to say I appreciate you bringing that up because um um I can tell you those folks, the support people really support our schools. Um, I want to point out one other thing, and I appreciate that we're having this really open

068discussion and trying to hit on every aspect of it. Um, since my uh retirement account's really taken a hit lately, um, I've been watching more of the business news and they were saying that the average American family could expect to spend anywhere from three to $7,000 more in the coming year because of all the uncertainty and the inflation is just really going up. Now, those are just projections. I understand that. But then um I got an email and some of you may have gotten one too where some folks are going through reassessment on the in living in Richland County and so they're worried about their taxes. So it's it's a really a mixed bag and I know we discussed the last time or I think it was the last meeting about the uh the raise

069that teachers were going to get but then they had after taxes and after paying part of their uh health benefits that they weren't going to see probably 60 70 bucks a month. So, it's really not going to cover too much, but this really is a mixed bag. We're in very difficult times. Um, I am concerned that even with some of our projects, if price of aluminum and steel and some of these other things go up, then all of a sudden our contract can, you know, cost could really go through the roof. Um, so it's kind of like you want to protect your teachers and your support staff and those and all the folks that work for the district, but at the same time people there people throughout the community are going there's a lot of

070folks going through these difficult times, but I I just want to say I appreciate having the open discussion that we're having regarding this. Thank you, Mr. Scully. Yeah, I I would say I I think ultimately and I I want our budget to reflect our goals. what we're trying to achieve, what our primary goal here is as a school district. Um, and if that means investing more into our school system, then then that's what we need to do. And if that means a millage increase, then it then it means a millage increase. If it means that we can do that and still accomplish our goals without an increase, then that's that's great. Um but I don't think that we need to restrict our focus um and at the expense of our what our our mission is

071and what if if we're needing to compete with other districts around the state for teacher pay, then that's what we've got to do. And if that means that we need to increase our revenue to do that, then that's just a product of of kind of the environment that we're in. But it it it it's not necessarily just a cost on the businesses because they're getting a return on their investment in the form of maintaining an excellent public school system for our district. and and that increases and that that in and of itself will inspire other people to move to the district and and to uh you know increase our enrollment and to increase our uh revenue and uh production within our district. So I I think we just need to make sure that that doesn't

072get lost as well. We need to focus on our goals. as long as Barnard first and then other just to clarify. I mean if you said if it's a millage increase and that's what it is so we just unlimitedly tax our citizens until we can get what we want or I mean what what do you mean by that comment? He can't hear you. I'm sorry. He said I'll try to paraphrase and then you can just tell me if it's wrong. She wanted you to clarify what you meant by if we have to have a millage increase, then it is what it is. She says, "So, do we just t keep taxing our citizens until we get what we want?" No, we don't keep taxing our citizens until we get what we want. We our budget

073reflects what our goals are. There's a You have to invest in education. If you don't invest in education, you're not going to get the results that you desire. you're not going to maintain competitiveness with other districts and you're going to fall behind. You think we're in a bad shape today, wait till we fall behind academically and don't have that on our on our ledger to to compete against other districts with. We have to be able to compete and if ma if increasing the millillage and increasing our revenue is required in order to do so, then that's what we need to do and that's just the way it is. Miss Huddle. Um I I actually partially agree with um what Mr. Scoly said as far the part I agree with is that we should be doing

074everything we can to make sure that um our children receive the highest quality education possible. Um and if that means a millage increase, then it that's what it means and and I would support that. Um but where I'm coming from is before we do that, just as Mrs. um Barnhart um alluded to, we need to treat this just like we would our family or if we owned a business because when we increase, we are foisting a tax increase on people and asking them to absorb it. Um and them to figure out where do I save for my higher car taxes? Um where do I find my business? Where do I save? Because a lot of this is going to fall on renters. Okay? If you look our highest taxpayers and I believe Lexon County and

075Miss Tucker's agreeing with me, I believe our number one taxpayer in Lexen County is an apartment complex. And that is where the the majority. So don't think that, you know, just because you own a house, you're free and clear because most of this is actually going to fall on people that don't own houses. And it is going to fall on businesses. And um there's a business park almost across the the road from Chapen High School that is completely vacant. And if you ask the people who have been involved, number of businesses have looked at going in there. And some of them have decided to go elsewhere in Lexington County because they can be right next to an interstate and have lower property taxes. So we have to be very careful that we are not pushing

076off the very businesses that we receive money from. I'm just asking I I'll name two programs since I've been on the board that we added that were supposed to be temporary and they became permanent. Okay. One was five. Five was never meant to be permanent. It was a reaction to COVID. And the other was all the positions that we added um with the ESRE money that again were not meant to be permanent. Um, and you can't function as any organization if you say all we can do is add, add, add add. We can't ever look at where we should perhaps subtract or undo what we added. Um, so I'm just asking that before we go to our taxpayers and our businesses with a millage increase that we can go to them and say we left

077no stone unturned. And I'm not talking about anything that would negatively impact our students. We need to look at return on investment. Not investment in terms of dollars, that kind of return, but return in terms of does this dollar that we're spending help a child truly help them? And is it measurable? Can they learn? Did they learn how to read better? Do they improve in math, social studies, whatever that measurement is? We really need to start looking at things that way instead of just always adding. Can I can I ask one more question? Hold on, Dr. Ross. I wanted to say something. Okay. I just I know we're we're coming on an hour. There are a few things that I just needed some direction for and it's not a vote, but it's just discussion. Uh

078as we look at building the budget, we owe you a budget the first meeting in May. Uh, and so I'd like to hear um if we start the scale at 49, do we start it at 50 or do we start at 51? That gives us some direction because we heard teacher pay raise is the number one thing. Okay. Second, in terms of Miss Huddle's point about what are the givebacks? Can we take one by one? Oh, I'm sorry. Yep. Is that okay with you? Perfect. Did everybody hear Dr. Ross's initial question? We're not taking a vote, but it looks like he's trying to get feedback from the board on rather we start the pay at 49 uh 50 or 51. That gives us an idea of um gives us a starting point. Gives us a

079starting point. We can look at cuts on the back end of that, but we we really need to look at a starting point on the front end of this to to proceed. Does anyone have a strong opinion or on this one some way? Can you take the slide back to the one that had the other school districts on it? Thanks. I will say before just before your discussion um to Mr. Sadderfield's point um so the $1,500 it would be offset by 400. That was the increase to health insurance that is not um that is on the employee side. So just as you're thinking about that, just have that in the back of your head. Okay. Yeah. Can I make my little quick point? Yeah, please. Uh, two qu one question, Dr. Ross. The question though

080regarding the request by the administration on changing the fund balance that will not result in a millage increase. So, what we're what we're looking at is uh basically putting our policy where our practice is. So, we're not increasing. So, we're not there's not a tax increase. There's not a millage increase with that request. No mill rate increase with that. Okay. Uh, and my strong opinion is is, and I've expressed this before, we keep comparing ourselves to quickly people on our block. I I think we ought to start at the 51 and go from there. And along I did the math for the reducing the class size because I'm thinking about third grade again and the requirements there and the classified workers as well. They're 2% and that came to 15,855. Did I do my math

081right? You can check it later. take it. Thank you, Mrs. Scully. Yeah, Dr. Ross, to answer your question, I would first ask you what you need, what you think in order for you to be able to accomplish what you need to accomplish to do the job of the district. Do you need it to be the 51,000? Do you need can you do it at the 50,000 or the 49,000? What what are your goals? And which one? Obviously, the more you pay, the easier it'll be for you, but what are you what what do you need um as far as that? And then, you know, can you do it at 50,000 and and make other adjustments to to still be able to compete and accomplish the goals that you set forth or in order to get

082there and to be competitive with other districts, do we absolutely need to be at the 51,000? I mean, just I'm just looking for your feedback on that. very quickly. I think at uh 50,000 we still outpace everybody at midpoint. So the longer you stay with us, the more you're going to make more in lecture at five. It's just what these other districts will do at the beginning. Okay. Anybody else on the other end on this point specific? Question. I just have a question. Is the um we would keep the ner correct? Uh we were we're looking at removing the ner uh if we have to go that's additional 7 million. So just as things that we're looking at sustaining the ner will be difficult especially at the 51. This is giving everyone at the 50

083we'd be giving everyone 2500 2500 dollars per sale. Per sale. Yeah. Okay. So you're asking what we would like the starting salary to be without the nary. Okay. So may I ask a follow-up question? Um okay. What is is that because you don't feel like the ner is worth the recruiting? It's not really doing is we very good question. We can definitely look at that. I think the more we ended up on that first priority putting all of our money in and I'm just going to slide to this one real quickly. Uh we're already negative five million without even touching teacher pay yet. So I have to five million before I even start with the 50,000. Um, if I'm not going to give staff raises, if I'm cutting admin, I'm not going to cut $5

084million admin. So, that's got to come from somewhere. So, and we have no idea what that uh Senate Bill 78 is going to do. So, to me, it's 50. We beat everybody on the midpoint. I know they're watching. I'm sorry, but we we do that and then we may be in position for bonuses if if we pan out in the in the um in the fall. That's my thought. But we can make everything happen. It's just a negative five million before I get out of that that salmon color right there. Jason, I think he answered it. Basically, I was just wondering, is there a way to cut $5 million to give them the raises without increasing the millage? It sounds like no, we could do it, sir. It's just it's going to definitely impact what

085the delivery we give. It's probably going to cause another issue is what it sounds like. Okay. What's the second thing on the list? You had some points, Dr. Ross. Oh, I apologize. I said negative five. That's 5 million total in the in the pink. That's negative 1.1 without knowing what Senate Bill 78. The other thing is I just want to share that in ESSER, uh, we brought back TTL positions. So, understand, uh, to Miss Barnhart's point, we have the list of things that we're looking to cut. That has to come before you. you can strike them out and and that gives us money back. So, we have already identified those items. They're called TTL. They're in last year's budget and we let you know that these are the items that if we have to look

086at it, these are the first off. So, we do want to offer that those positions are there in sensitivity to those people in the role. We didn't bring it up today, but those are there uh as well. And then the uh last part um in terms of where in Lexington is there lower property taxes uh that we can look at. We like to be in comparison with our neighbors. And so if you can identify where those property taxes areas are, we just like to look at those conditions as well. Um I believe it was either two or three. It wasn't one. It was either two, three, or four. It was one of the ones that are more off of I20. Thank you. Does anyone have any additional comments? Miss Tucker, Dr. Ross, I'm not sure

087how helpful we were to you to helping build the budget. So, we'll just see what you come back with in May and we'll go from there. All right. Thank you. But I do appreciate your time um and the time you took to give us this presentation and I appreciate your feedback. So thank you. I know I was moving people along quickly at the end, but I don't want to overlook anybody if there's any outstanding question or comment from anybody. All right. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? Make a motion to adjurnn. Have a second. All in favor? All oppose? And the motion carries six to zero. All right. And I call us back to order slightly after 6 to start our the next portion of our meeting. Do I have a motion to approve

088the agenda? I make a motion to approve the agenda. Have a second. All in favor? All opposed? Motion carries 6. Do I have a motion to enter executive session? Make a motion to enter executive session to consider the following selected employment items exhibit A for action. Selected employment items exhibit B for information only. Contractual matter regarding the purp purchase of property exhibit C and contractual matter regarding technolog technology services exhibit D. Do I have a second? All in favor? The motion carries six to zero and we will adjourn for executive session. I'm going to go ahead and call the April 7th regularly scheduled board meeting to order. I apologize that we are running a few minutes behind schedule. It has already been a busy day. Um I just want to officially welcome you all. We

089have a packed house tonight as we are um spotlighting a lot of the students in our district. So, I'm going to go ahead and let us get started. Miss Huttle, if you'll go ahead and open us up with prayer. Let us pray. Dear Lord, please be with us, our students, staff, parents, and community as we make decisions tonight. Please be with everyone as they travel or otherwise celebrate Easter and spring break. tonight and always help us to remember that our primary priority is what is in the best interest of our students. Amen. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Board members, if you could join me out front for the school board spotlight. All right, Madame Chair, members of the board, Dr. Ross, good evening. So happy to be with you tonight. We we you

090guys are in for a treat with our spotlights tonight. First, we are um so pleased to welcome Coach Barry Lee. Coach, if you want to start making your way up. Um Coach Lee has been named the middle school coach of the year by the South Carolina Athletic Coaches Association. Coach Lee has been [Applause] Thank Coach Lee has been teaching and coaching for a total of 34 years. 27 of those years at Irma Middle School coaching basketball and varsity track. Coach, we're so happy for you. Congratulations. And um Principal Mansa Joseph is here from Irma Middle as well. We're going to stay with Irma Middle School for just a minute longer and congratulate their administrators on being named a 2025 model school by the center for model schools. A model school is described as a forwardthinking

091school that drives transformation, inspires change, and implements groundbreaking strategies to improve student outcomes. The school proudly earned this distinction through a dedicated application process and an in-depth interview phase. So, as part of this recognition, Irma Middle School will present at the Model School's Conference 2025, engaging with more than 5,000 educators to share insights on their success, which include their Hive afterchool program and their schoolwide clubs and activities. So, congratulations, Irma Middle School. [Applause] And then finally tonight, I want to welcome up Amy Taylor, School District 5's coordinator of mathematics, and Dr. Sarah Swagger, our instructional specialists for secondary ELA. They're going to introduce to us this year's PSAT, SAT, and ACT award winners. Ladies, good evening, Dr. Ross, Madam Chair, board of trustees, administration, and guest. In 2024, 48.9% of South Carolina graduating seniors took

092the SAT. In school district 5, we were much above that at 68.4% of our senior class um taking the SAT. And for several years, District 5 has recognized students from our schools for their academic excellence on the PSAT, SAT, and ACT examinations. and we continue to support students in striving to increase their performance on these examinations. For PSAT recognition purposes, we use PSAT scores attained in the fall of the academic year for 9th and 10th and 11th grade students. These students earned the top three total scores for their school on the PSAT NMSQT given to students in October of 2024. These scores are the total of both evidence-based reading and writing and math sections. We also recognize students who earned a perfect score on at least one section of the test. for SAT recognition. Students

093recognized for SAT are those who earned the top three total scores for their school on the SAT. These scores are the total of both evidence-based reading and writing and math sections from their freshman year through December 31st of their senior year. We also recognize any senior for achieving a perfect score on at least one of two sections of the SAT. And finally, ACT recognition. Students who earned the top composite score for their school on the ACT are recognized. These students represent the highest composite score for all sections, English, reading, math, and science from their freshman year through December 31st of their senior year. We also recognize any senior for achieving a perfect ELA or perfect STEM score on the ACT. These distinctions require students to score a perfect 36 in both English and reading for

094the ELA distinction or a perfect score of 36 in both math and science for the STEM distinction. Tonight, we will introduce the academic assessment coaches for each high school, who will then announce the students receiving each distinction. After all students at a school are recognized, a photo will be taken with the coaches and board members before moving to the next school. We would like to acknowledge our academic assessment coaches from Chapen High School who will be presenting medallions to their recipients as well as their principles, Mr. Ed Davis. So, we have Randy Johnson and Tess Pratt. Coaches, we appreciate your hard work and congratulations on a job well done. [Applause] First, we recognize three junior Chapen High students for achieving top scores on the PSAT and two who also made perfect scores on a section.

095Athena Kale, she also had a perfect score on the reading and writing portion of the PSAT. Vivian Garcia, she had a perfect score on the math portion of the PSAT and not present Dylan Reynolds. Next, we recognize two Chapen High students for achieving a perfect score on the math portion of the PSAT. Jacob Braden and Chan Lee. We also recognize four senior students for achieving the top scores for SAT. Ella Carson, Bin Freshner, and not present are Brody Other and Trey Lewis. And finally, we recognize four senior students for achieving the top score for ACT. Not present, Maria Baddy, Reagan Sherard, Cameron Smith, and Teresa Zal. Students, if y'all will join back and have a group picture. Y'all will come back. [Applause] Yeah. Can y'all come in front of the board members, please? Get a

096There we go. I'll just And if y'all will stand over to the side and wait for the other students. All right, we're also going to move on to Dutch High School. We would like to acknowledge our academic assessment coaches from Dutch High School and the princ interim principal, Reed Gunter, um who will be presenting the medallions for their recipients. Coaches are Carla Bell and Aaron Rivers. Coaches, thank you for your hard work with these students. Good evening. First, we recognize three junior Dutch Fork High students for achieving top scores on the PSAT and perfect scores on specific sections of the PSAT. Luke Elgen, PSAT top score and a perfect score for both math and reading and writing. This means he made a perfect score on this year's PSAT. Jaden Juan PSAT top score and a

097perfect score on the reading and writing portion of the PSAT. Mustafa Azar PSAT top score and a perfect score on the reading and writing portion of the PSAT. Next, we recognize Dutch Fork High Juniors for achieving a perfect score on the math or reading and writing portions of the PSAT. Hunter Taylor earned a perfect score on the reading and writing section of the PSAT. Hunter was unable to attend tonight. Leo Ha, perfect score PSAT math. Arouche Cardik, PSAT, perfect score math. Max Nye, PSAT, perfect score math. Annie Shu, PSAT, perfect score math. William Mun Wong, PSAT, perfect score math. William was unable to attend tonight. Muel Nathan, PSAT, perfect score math. Wyatt Cochran, PSAT, perfect score math. We also recognize four senior students for achieving the top scores for the SAT and a perfect score

098on the math portion. Andrew Schu and Tahhun no both were top scorers for the SAT and earned perfect math scores. They were unable to attend tonight. Logan Rollins SAT top score and perfect math score. William Yida Wong SAT top score and perfect math score. Now we recognize a student who achieved a perfect score on the math portion of the SAT and the top ACT score for Dutch Fork High School. Leo's son. Leo is unable to attend tonight. Additionally, we recognize Dutch Fork High students for achieving a perfect score on the math section of the SAT. Cooper Dupant and Jennifer Lou. Cooper and Jennifer were unable to attend tonight. Finally, we recognize a student for achieving a perfect ELA score on the ACT Sky Veil. Thank you. Come back over for a picture, please. Carla and

099Aaron, you'll join us. Carl and Eric, join for the picture, please. Thank you all. If you'll just kind of wait over here to the side before we go to the next school. All right. On to um Irmo High School. We'd like to acknowledge our academic assessment coaches from Irmo High School who will be presenting medallions to the recipients, Stephanie Dukes and Willie Frierson Jr. Also, we have with us principal Dr. Karen Hampton. Coaches, thank you for your dedication to the success of these students. First, we recognize five high students for achieving top scores on the PSAT. Hayden Applegate Lily Cole. Oh, Ryan Klein. Adelaide Knight not able to attend. And finally, Jacob Quinores. Next, we recognize three Armo High students for achieving a top score on the SAT. Margaret Hamburg is not able to attend.

100Gaines Roberts not able to attend. And Daniel Wolf Finally, we recognize a senior student who achieved the top score for the ACT. Kaden Barnett, not able to attend. High School students, if you will join uh the board members for a picture. Thank y'all. If you'll just wait over to the side. All right. We'd also like to acknowledge our academic assessment coaches from Spring Hill High School who will be presenting medallions to the recipients. Also joining them, uh, Dr. Loftton, the principal, Sandy Cole, and Kelly Mone. coaches. Thank you for your commitment to loving and growing these students. First, we recognize three students from Spring Hill High School for achieving the top scores for the SAT and one who also scored perfect on the reading and writing section. Ma Anadu AJ Kiglia, Lucy Harling, and a

101perfect score on the reading and writing portion of the PSAT. Next, we recognize two students who excelled on both the SAT and ACT. Bella Chin, top score for SAT with a perfect score on the math portion, as well as top score on the ACT with a perfect score on the ELA section. Gavin Rickers, top score for SAT and ACT. We also recognize three Spring Hill High students for achieving a top score on the SAT. Mary Ellen Morrison, who could not be here tonight. Allison Smith, and Danny Juan, who also could not be here tonight. together. [Applause] Don't go. Don't Don't move. Don't move. Okay. So, now students, all the students are going to gather back together for one big group picture. No, we're good. We're good. Mr. Bart, you're back there. There she is. There.

102There we go. All right. Here we go. One, two, three. One more. One, two, three. Perfect. Thank you. [Applause] Thank Thank you all for being here. And congratulations students and parents. You're welcome to follow us for pictures in the hallway at the entrance of the building. We truly have some amazing students in our district. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Ross for the superintendence report. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board, and our community. Is certainly an honor to uh recognize I know we recognize a lot of uh students, especially what they do uh outside of the the classroom on the fields and uh in various clubs and organizations. uh to recognize what students are doing for their academic uh work is is just truly amazing and I want

103to thank you all for taking this time to give them that recognition. I thank Miss Taylor and her team for that to coordinate this moment for 65 of our students to come forward with us with those top honors and and so very very proud. Uh I want to start off by um just continuing to showcase the innovation and the great work within our school district. Uh to Dr. Harris and the student services and planning department came up with an idea called the March attendance madness to address chronic absenteeism. A very innovative technique that's got everybody excited in the month of March. I want to share all Lexon Richland School District 5 schools decreased their chronic absenteeism rate for the final week of March Madness. And so to keep everybody uh in the game, this was

104a an amazing uh opportunity to really focus on the impacts of having students at school um uh to and also to drive down those chronic absenteeism rates uh that we seeing so prevalent in the state of South Carolina. uh to our uh the division uh one, we had two divisions, division one and division two. To our runners up in division two was Irma Middle School. Uh our and our division one runner up was River Springs Middle Elementary School. And then our actual winners in division two was Chapa Middle and division one Lake Murray Elementary. And I think they're a repeat. They're repeat. Uh so a with a chronic absentee rate below 3% below 3%. Uh so it is uh very exciting to uh recognize the work that our families and our schools are doing to

105make sure that we're in school each and every day. And that's so that we can drive our mission of these three critical questions of why we do this work, how we accomplish our why, and then what are our outcomes. Our vision is that we love and grow our students. Our mission is that we're focused on academic, social, emotional growth and development. And our outcomes are our strategic plans which we will uh have before us tonight 24 strategies over 165 action steps that all move towards two objectives. Making sure every student feels loved in our schools and every student has demonstrated academic growth in our schools. We do this uh as we measure our state assessment outcomes as feedback moving towards the goal where by 2030 75% of our students will be at or above grade

106level and uh English and and language arts uh and math to ensure that every child is college, career and military ready uh as we work on our uh march to our journey towards these spring assessments that are coming up after spring break. We're looking at fall, winter, and we'll have in May the spring projections. Uh this is important as we look for ways to ensure that those students who are off grade level uh that our teachers, our staff have the tools uh to inform parents to ensure that they are on grade level, removing those barriers. Uh we are also uh looking at one of the highest measures of success of a high school which is grad rate. In our district we look at not only the grad rate but we uh index it with the

107college and career readiness rate. Uh and so we don't want to just graduate students. We want to graduate them prepared. And so we appreciate our upward trend trend towards our goal of uh nine out of 10 students graduating within four years. Uh as we do this uh we're looking at how do we provide for this operation uh in terms of our uh general fund. Uh we look at three main areas our revenue our expenses and our reserve and all of those things that go into the operating budget. uh these areas as we increase or look to decrease, we uh put them in these categories. And we have been asking our community and our stakeholders or our stakeholder groups uh what have been their priorities. And we've seen over and over uh as we put together

108uh our proposal for first reading that the priority number one uh is uh teacher pay raise. We looked at some of our neighbors and who's leading in the state of South Carolina and right now um Charleston County is is is leading and um we kind of alluded to this in the workshop. They're even increasing from this uh moving to about 64,000 uh for their first year or their zero teacher, but they'll have that on a band from zero to uh five years. again they're in a different um you know financial tax base than we are uh but you can see where we are in terms of of local. So having feedback from uh today's workshop really helps us in as as we plan our our budget. Uh some of the constraints that we uh have

109to contend with is that uh we receive from state income a projection of additional $4 million. uh of that you can see how much has to be spent on state workers. Uh we're still estimating the impact of insurance, sled checks, uh bringing forth the minimum pay scale uh with $1,500 being added to the state minimum. Uh what that would cost us. So you can see we're already in a deficit. Uh but uh I want the board to understand that we do not know and will not know the impact of Senate Bill 78 as well as some other legislation of items that we're tracking that may have some fiscal impact on us. Uh but uh for those who are not aware, it will affect more than the career technical education teachers. Uh this is allowing where

110we budget for a teacher to roll up to the next year. And that's how we uh budget. we just roll up to our next year. Uh but with this a teacher can roll up five years within a year or three years within a year. Um and so all of this will be uh based on uh what they submit to the state department. Uh but they will get uh one year of education service for every uh two years of outside professional experience. And then u as the state gets rid of the bachelor's plus 18 lane that we refer to um we want to hold those those teachers harmless. So as we look at those impacts we can see uh those uh other considerations. Uh looking at the reduction of class sizes would bring on about 16

111extra teachers uh to the district. And so based on where we put the pay, that will adjust for uh for the class size reduction. And it's our hope for those who are supporting the teachers in their work uh to see a a um an increase that would mirror what the state workers receive. I think one of the clarifications, um, Miss Tucker, if you can explain, I think a question was asked. Do all classified staff receive a raise? And if you just want to share how that um how that works uh so that uh we're very clear on that end. Thank you, Dr. Ross. I know the question came during the budget uh workshop about if we didn't do the 2% increase, would all classified workers still receive a raise? And I said yes. And I

112forgot that our classified pay our steps in our classified pay only go up in the past only went up to year 18 and I think a few years ago it was identified that we had classified workers that were working longer than that and I think we've been adding one year on if I'm correct we're up to year 22. So if you have a support staff who has been here 30 years they wouldn't receive anything. So, it's we've been we've been adding on a year um for the past few years, but anybody over kind of towards the the further end of the scale wouldn't receive anything without a percent increase. It was only those in that first and the 22 steps. So, I misspoke earlier. I wanted to clarify that. Thank you. Not a no apologies

113necessary. It's a lot to keep track of, but we wanted to make sure uh that we had that on the record. The the reason for our budget is we're looking back to what our parents uh talked to us about. They want an education for their child. This is changing uh in terms of our delivery method. Uh traditional school settings are usually mass education systems, delivering standardized education, but we're moving to towards individualized learning. To that end, uh we're going to be looking at ways that we can support the classrooms. Uh teacher supports are the the one of the biggest priorities. uh our teachers are asking for help. Um we see that the best uh when we look at the uh the highest performing school districts uh within the state and and even uh this is

114national data that shows that professional learning communities, the schools that can answer these four questions about their child, each child uh is the one that has the highest academic growth. They can they know what students um what what they want the students to know and be able to do. They know when the students learn it. They know how to respond when students don't learn it. And they know how to extend the learning for the already proficient students. You can see that we serve the entire range from students get perfect scores or multiple sections to students who uh are are two and three grade levels behind in reading uh to students who do not read. that we just serve uh life skills, we serve that entire range and making sure that we give an academic excellence

115to each one of those students is our goal. Uh but it's in my opinion it's not just saying we need more teachers. It's more about providing those teachers what what they asked for and supporting those teachers. And they asked that do we know their actual experiences and the contributions? uh are we giving them the supports that are necessary for teaching and learning and are we giving them that time to reflect on that practice? One of the things that we felt like we could do to meet all three of these uh teacher supports that were identified from the teacher advisory uh was to look at generative AI within the classroom. Uh I want to show you uh the vision that we had that the faculty needs a faculty uh what's required of a teacher today is

116much different from what was required even five years ago uh especially 20 years ago uh as we move to this individualized learning and so all of the planning tools that magic schools AI can provide a teacher I wish I had this when I was in the classroom I just want to share why you would need something like this um we want to help our children uh meet their expectations what you see here is a standard This is a standard. Use a combination of drawings, dictating, and writing to compose informative expo explor explanatory pieces about a topic with supporting details. What grade level do you think this standard is? It's actually kindergarten. This is a a kindergarten standard uh for communication. It's a standard 2.1. And the reality is you can use a device like this

117or a tool like this to put that standard in that tool and give me feedback on how to teach it. And this is just uh an a representation of what comes back from that. It can give you teaching methods, assessment ideas. Uh it can actually help you with lesson planning with uh different activities. Uh but for any teacher whether you're in your first year of teaching or you're in your 30th year of teaching um you know think about this this is a kindergartener standard and then I can take this and say well how do I do it for students who are not ready uh for kindergarten or for students who are on second grade level. It gives our teachers a lot of options. Um, our district teacher of the year, Alyssa Power, says, "I do

118the thinking. Magic School does the work." And, uh, this is a tool that, uh, I believe can help with those teacher priorities of giving them, uh, the not only the space and place to work, but recognize what they're going through and what they're up against, and also provide them a tool that will assist them in their work, uh, as well as provide them a time to reflect on their practice. Uh so things that we're going to consider are some takeaways um is bringing back a position statement guidelines for for teachers and students um and then how differentiation professional development looks. But again this does not take away from the teacher uh it's a tool. I asked Miss Garris to Jenny Garris to come forward. Uh I know there was some questions about uh this device

119and or this uh platform and what's called a DPA or data privacy agreement and uh if Gary if you can explain what you know for any parent or a member of the community that's worried about AI or uh their children's data or information being a part of this system. uh if you can share what safeguards the districts has in place when it comes to uh the data privacy agreement. Yes, thank you. Um excuse me. They have uh we have a DPA, a data privacy agreement with Magic School AI. And so I've got a few things. Several board meetings ago, I kind of highlighted them when we first started talking about it. So I'll hit a few of those highlights again. Um they do not collect personally identifiable information. Um, one of the things they have

120in place is some safeguards where they actually will monitor that as well, which is pretty unusual for some companies. Um, because you can't always control what somebody inputs. And so if a teacher or a staff member would put something about a student, like let's say they upload an IEP so that they can work on accommodations or goals, when Magic School provides that feedback that they're asking for, they actually strip the name out, which is pretty unusual for a tool like this. But because it's designed for K12, that's one of the pieces they have in place. Um, so names, addresses, student IDs, things like that. If they were to and they have some flags on the back end, if they get flagged that something was input, they will actually proactively go and delete it. We could

121request anything to be deleted, but they actually will do that as well. So, we can um I think there's a double uh safety net there, so to speak. I think part of that Dr. Ross talked about guidelines for teachers and students and I think that's part of that just like with any AI tool we have to teach our kids teach our staff how to use those tools responsibly what you input what happens to that data that you input so magic school provides a safe ground to do that and we know that our teachers and students are using other AI tools I mean realistically we have to know that so having the guidelines and the teaching and the professional development around a tool with these safeguards in place is a really good way for us to

122structure that learning. Um they also have a lot of data security measures. Part of the vetting that we did last spring when we got requests from teachers to vet this program to just use the free version. Um part of that we look at what's their security breach protocols. Um where does the data is it stored? How is it transferred? Um all of those things checked all of our boxes. All the data stays in the United States. Their data protocols for transfer are very good with the uh security levels. Um they have a lot of uh um what's the word I'm looking for? Um security uh recognition for things like they have sock 2 is something that's a very high level like that can be governmental level of of security. So that you have to jump

123a lot of hoops companies do to get those certifications. Um their compliance with federal law. They're fura compliant. Uh Kappa compliant. Kappa is the children's online privacy protection act. And so they're compliant with all that which there's no advertising. A lot of the pieces that go along with with Kappa for right now Kappa is children under the age of 13. There is things in the works that it will actually increase the age which I think is a good thing frankly. So um I think with those things in mind from a security standpoint and a data privacy agreement, it's one of the best uh addendums that I've seen for data privacy in a lot of these tools and we look at quite a few. Thank you, Miss Jenny. I Miss Garris, I certainly appreciate you uh

124doing that. And there may be some more questions uh as we go through this work, but I really appreciate your vetting of this program. Uh but as we say, it's a tool for taking things off the plate of the teacher. Right now, that's the the main user driver of this, but has not replaced the teacher in the in any way. uh this is a tool that uh we believe will meet those aims of of helping our teachers meet our objectives. And so uh the last thing would like to um present as part of the superintendence report is we had our um first referendum bond sale uh which included our spring uh capital as well in that bond sale. So, I have our CFO, Miss Heather Tucker, come forth with a a report on the referendum

125in spring bond sales. Thank you, Dr. Ross. Uh, good evening again, Madam Chair, members of the board. Um, our spring or spring bond sale as well as our GEO bonds went out for public bid um last week. They sold on April 1st via competitive bond sale. In the past, we have always gone through SKGO with our spring and fall issuance. And so, this was a little bit different for us. Um, we actually got to see the live bond sale. It was kind of interesting. Um, and we had a lot of response, which means we had a really competitive bonded and we took the lowest um true interest cost for the bonds. And so, we sold our um 60 million first issuance of our referendum bond. Um, we had 13 bids on that with the lowest

126true interest cost of 3.87. And then we received five bids for our 2025B, which is our spring bond issuance. And we got a low the lowest true interest cost of that for 2.9. So overall a really competitive um bond market. And we will close on April 15th and receive our funds for our first referendum funds. So stand for any questions. Miss Huddle. Um, I noticed the um, and I'm not looking at the number right here, but I think the the 60 million was sold for 63 million. Is that right? So, why the extra 3 million? It's the way So, each Oops. Um, if you look at the um the attachments that were in your board packet, there were um there were 13 um bids on that one. And so how they structured their coupons and

127their discount rates, each one of them had a slightly different um a slightly different I guess proposal for us. And so that one was the one with the lowest true interest cost and it just the way they had structured their coupons essentially gives us an additional $3 million. Um so follow-up question um the bond referendum authorized um was it 240? 240. Um so does that3 million count toward the 240 or not? It's a good question. And we can have say we can have um we can have Miss Hower uh answer that. Um because we we will receive interest on those, but we also have to be cognizant of arbitrage. So making sure and we have a spending plan which is why we didn't take out the full 80 to start with. Um so any proceeds

128over that um I'll have to I'll have to consult with that. That's a good question. And if you could speak to the premium market, would that 3 million be within that? That what you mean by coupons? That would part of coupons and the discounts. Correct. Any other questions? Thank you, Miss Tucker. Madam Chair, that concludes the superintendent's report and I stand for any questions. Do we have any questions for Dr. Ross? Thank you. All right. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda from the March I mean I'm sorry to approve the minutes from the March 24th meeting? Make a motion to approve the minutes of the March 24, 2025 board meeting. Second. All in favor? All opposed? And the motion carries 6 to zero. Yes. We move to public participation. The board welcomes

129and encourages public participation. We respectfully ask that you adhere to the procedures provided in board policy beedh 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 beh. Thank you madam chair. Matt Conklin is here to speak about gem rental and accessibility. Good evening. Appreciate the time this evening, Dr. Ross, board members. Um I think the last time member of my family was here uh addressing the board is the better looking and smarter version of our family and my wife Monica. Uh but uh I'm a father of a second grader at Piney Woods Elementary School and a sixth grader at uh Japan Intermediate.

130Uh I'm also the head basketball coach for our uh eighth grade girls uh basketball team. So youth uh youth side obviously not part of the school system. Um Dr. Ross, we we've had a conversation and the board has taken up the the topic of the gym rental um affordability. So the costs associated with that. Uh my real three reasons for being here this evening are one to obviously stay very engaged in the conversation and make sure that you know we from the community standpoint uh kind of share what we're hearing from other uh other programs. I talked to a lot of different coaches about the things that they're struggling with as well. This is not a singular problem for uh for us here in Chaffen. Um and you know a lot of good ideas out

131there from uh kind of the coaching community. uh definitely uh also to again thank all of you for taking up the uh the topic and and obviously I see it on the agenda. So excited to hear kind of some of that conversation as well. Uh and then thirdly maybe most importantly is to make sure that I kind of address an adjacent issue to the the cost element is uh really the accessibility. Um, I had a fantastic experience with uh some of the the administration in getting access to the district 5 um scheduling tool. Seamless. I couldn't have asked for anything more. Uh was able to get two practices approved right at the beginning of the year and subsequently have gotten denied for every single other request that we've made. Um that was at Chapen Intermediate,

132Chapen Middle, Chapen Elementary. Uh so among others, I was quite literally going to every single school I could possibly check. Um so really that was that's the other kind of again adjacent item. So the cost is one thing, the accessibility and just kind of understanding from a denial perspective. I haven't gotten any additional information back on why that was. So, you know, completely understand that there might be an extremely valid reason for that, but uh just kind of understanding, you know, what those denials were were made for and then obviously if there's anything that we can do to, you know, further position ourselves to to allow for those approvals to be made. So, that was everything I wanted for this evening. I very much appreciate the time. Kim Murphy is here to speak about another

133tax increase. Uh good evening. Um the hourlong budget workshop that was um just held was interesting. I'm hopeful there will be a more lengthy workshop before the budget is presented. But it looks like taxpayers should anticipate another tax increase, a large one, even though student population is decreasing and will decrease more when the great charter school comes online. There were a few board members who urged the administration to look at cuts or where there was wasteful spending, but all that was presented at the workshop were increased expenditures and a large tax increase. I fully expect four of the seven board members to support it. Even though one of those four made a comment that due to the current economic forecast that he has been hearing, taxpayers can expect to pay $7,000 more a year before

134District 5 raises its taxes. I thought it was par for the course when one of those four board members offered an idea to not hire the external auditor who would help find fraud, waste, and abuse. For some reason, that board member continues to be very vocal against this position. Why? Also, keep in mind that even though the district represents the taxpayers don't pay taxes on their primary house as if they won't be impacted by the tax increase, that's false. Taxpayers won't just pay increased taxes on their cars, boats, second homes, etc., but they also will pay um pay them through other sources. Businesses pay the bulk of the district's operating tax. The only way to recoup those taxes is through increasing the cost of their goods and services. That means we pay more. But if

135we don't buy their goods and services because we can't afford them, they go out of business or move out of the district. So, who then pays to operate our schools? I urge you to look within the tax revenue that you already receive, which is actually supposed to be more than last year because the counties have just had a property reassessment. And I strongly urge you to quickly hire the external auditor who will likely and quickly pay for themselves by identifying fraud, waste, and abuse and making sure our policies are in line to prevent it. I'm all for paying teachers more and to increase their stat stature in our society. The children are the future of our country and their job is incredibly important, but please find a way to do that without increasing taxes. Thank

136you. Thank you. That moves us excuse me to our action agenda. Do we have any actions on matters discussed in executive session? I make a motion to approve the selected employment items in exhibit A for action. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? All opposed? And the motion carries six to zero. Have any other motions? Right. We that um moves us to the second reading approval of a proposed revisions to board policy DB annual budget. Make a motion to approve the second reading of proposed revisions to board policy DB annual budget as shown in exhibit F. Have a second. Do I have any discussion or questions for Miss Miss Huddle? Um, I have an amendment. Um, I move to amend the motion to change the wording of the fifth bullet to maintenance of

137an operating fund balance per board policy DFAB reserve funds. I second. Um it's it's purely just a um operational change to make it so that if there's ever a change to DFAB, you don't also have to change DB. So it it's really just to make the wording easier instead of repeating what the fund balance should be. Just refer to the DFAB policy. Yes. Um, so that fifth bullet would say maintenance of an operating fund balance per board policy DFAB reserve funds. And just I guess to elaborate, I've been on the board long enough that I've seen that when you have policies that touch each other and they repeat each other and a policy gets changed one place sometimes it doesn't always get changed the second place. So, it just seemed to me there was no

138reason to repeat the way the fund balance works, just simply to refer to the fund balance um policy rather than having to to have it two different places. U Tucker, does that mean anything to you? No, that makes perfect sense to refer to one policy versus the other. Did we get a second? Do we have other discussion or Miss Miss Barnhart? Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Satderfield, you look like you're ready to press your button. All right. Um, we miss, can you repeat your motion? I'm sorry. I move to amend the motion in order to change the wording of the fifth bullet to maintenance of an operating fund balance per board policy DF AD reserve funds. We have a motion an amendment to the motion on the floor from Miss Huddle and it's been properly um

139second. All in favor of Miss Huddle's motion. All oppose and abstain. Give me a second. What does the thumbs up mean? Are you abstaining or are you still reading? I just don't want to skip you in favor. All right. And the motion carries 5 to one. Then back to the original motion on the floor. Um that has also been properly second. All those in favor of the approval of the second reading of the policy opposed. And the motion carries six to zero. Hang tight mir. All right. That takes us um to number 16 on the action agenda. Second reading, approval of proposed revisions to board policy DFAB reserve funds. Make a motion to approve the second reading of proposed revisions to board policy DFAB reserve funds shown in exhibit G. Do I have a second?

140Second. Have any discussion, Miss Huddle? Um, I move that we defer um second reading of board changes to board policy DFAB until we can um address wording to make the policy consistent with the way that Moody's um addresses reserve funds. second um to explain that the the board policy is drafted um states that it's in that one of the reasons is to get bond ratings um of a a double A nature or better. And I sent everybody this information that I got from Mr. Glover. The the Moody's rating is not 15 to 18% and and it's not taking into account unencumbered and all that other stuff. The Moody's rating is actually 17 and a half to 25% and it's based on the actual reserve balance in our financial statements. Under the Moody's rating, we're actually

141at 27% right now. We're actually higher. Um and so the way that we're doing the way that's being proposed actually could increase our taxes um because it could increase the required reserves because you could encumber a lot of things. Um and it's kind of a double counting when you encumber within a reserve. It's kind of double counting. Um and again, so the the purpose of it as stated is to get the bond rating. So we really ought to measure it the way the bond rating services do. So that's the reason I think we should defer it until we can give Miss Tucker a chance to look at that and maybe come back to us with alternative language. I've um I just interested in the order of these motions. We've we've changed the language to defer

142to DFAB, but then changed DFAB's structure. So, the two to three months is no longer the board's position, and I'm confused about where 27% comes from. Um, I sent that to to everyone. That came from Mr. Glover. He said, Miss Tucker's shaking her head, I think. Did you get that? I know I didn't send it to you, but did you get it? So that includes our our total fund balance would including the um assigned, the unassigned, and the um so the way Moody's rates it is for a double A credit rating. There's a lot of factors. In fact, um I was cut off. I didn't I'm sorry. I didn't know we can cut people off. I'm sorry. I was trying to explain that the the 27% came from Mr. Glover who is our financial consultant

143that based on the way Moody's um looks at a double A credit rating they are looking for a fund balance of 17 a half to 25%. And ours the way Moody's calculates it is 27%. I haven't seen a document with 27% from from Moody's. Um I think the 26.4% is all of what they look at as a rating agency. Um in terms of if there's ever a situation where our bonds fail or or we have to default, all of our assets non-spendable assigned and unassigned are included in that 26%. What the GFOA recommends is for the unassigned that we have to be within where within um the GFO is two to six months. Two to six months. We've just removed that requirement from language. So we are now outside of what that recommendation is because

144the language is not in that uh it's to refer to DAFFAB which is the motion to defer. Again, I'm just as as superintendent, it's my responsibility to inform the board before any vote. And I just wanted to inform the board that we remove the language and then we're now removing or deferring what this refers to. So we will we will go back uh where we don't have that language of that what the GFOA has set forth of of the the minimum even two months. Correct. So if we were to defer tonight our current policy DFAB would stand which is 15 to 18%. Correct. And I and I understand that. What I'm what I'm saying is GFOA does not give any percentage. Right. They they use two to four months, correct? They they use two to

145six months. And is that two to four months of unassigned or all total uh or all three components of of of reserve? They typically look at unassigned because that's where your flexibility is. And that's kind of what I just wanted to make clarification is that I think we're we're we're I don't want to say cherrypicking back, but we're taking the how the calculations are made from the credit rating agency and how the calculations are made from GFOA. We threw one away, but we don't use the credit rating agency annuities or standard and poor. We don't operate under that under that position. For example, when we look at the how we have to spend fund balance, um are we looking at how when you look at the recommended policy in our current these blue bars, do

146they represent what Moody's would have calculated or what the GFA would have calculated? They represent our unassigned fund balance. Unassigned fund balance. Right. So because that unassignment of that two to three months is now out is that's the the question I have is that we're we're talking about Moody's but this is unassigned. We are currently starting the the school year um teachers are to report back July the 31st um believe so that means training for teachers will start a little earlier. We're going to be moving up about three payroll classes um to be for payroll to to start a little earlier. Um that means October that blue line has the the it can go a little deeper down. Correct. We will acrew essentially three additional payrolls in July because of when teachers are starting to

147not have our brand new teachers go 30 days without a paycheck. So we are shifting our payroll schedule for that reason this year. And and again just it's my role as superintendent to just provide it as a superintendent. And I just think for one motion to remove language, the other motion to defer. Um I just want to clarify how Moody's looks at our fund balance, how GFOA and finance looks at our fund balance. uh it's it's two different things. We can't spend unspendable money and once it's already assigned that money has a has a string attached to it. So our operations which I'm responsible for um I think is in jeopardy without that that two to three month protection. I understand the percentage but if there's no language to and and Heather please correct me

148in the room. There's no language to indicate that that that's 17 to 20 or that 15 to 18 is going to the unassigned, then I think we could be out of out of out of practice and policy. So, just wanted to mention that. I'm not going to delay delay the meeting, but uh I I don't know about uh the deferring of of that, Miss Huddle. And then I would call for the vote. Um, so first of all, the policy that we have in place still stands and we're not doing anything right now to to affect the fund balance. So, we have plenty of time to talk about this. Um, the I sent an email, Mr. Glover sent an email on March 31st to me and copied um, Dr. Ross, Miss Snipes, Miss Tucker um, and

149himself. And so, where did the 27% come from? Um he said the append also the appendix to the report provides the definition for how Moody's calculates their ratios which can vary between the different agencies. Moody's includes committed assigned and unassigned fund balances and what we consider to be the district's operating funds which results in a 27% ratio based on current financials. I am just proposing that at our next meeting we get the GFAO, the Moody's and whatever because if we set this too high, especially if we're considering an incre a major increase in the budget, if we set this too high, it is going to cause our operating um tax, property tax to go up. So, especially if we're considering an an increase already for the operating budget, we need to be very careful that

150we are not these are our taxpayers funds and we are in absolutely no danger of of not having the money on hand right now. So, we I just feel like we need to take the time and get this right because if we do increase the millage rate, we need to be able to say to our taxpayers, this is why we did it and we didn't have any choice. Miss Tucker, you look Did you want to say something? Okay. I didn't mean to um cut people off. Did you want to say something carefully? Yeah. Um I we I do not recommend we vote for this amendment. We need to vote it down. Um and Mr. Glover's statement was talking about current financials. Current financials are a cross-section of a certain point in time. current financials as

151of March 31st are going to be different than your current financials in October or September. So whatever data or whatever number that deres on March 20 31st is not the full story and we're talking about and I just fundamentally disagree. It's not going to setting this policy to increase the percentage to really just be and comply with where where we're already at. We're not adding anything. We're not increasing millillage. That is misinformation and it's a misinterpretation of what we're doing. So millage will not increase specifically because of this policy change and we need to vote this deferment down. Um Miss Tucker and Dr. Ross, um this is second reading, so regardless it has to come back to us at the next meeting and it sounds like it'll be helpful for Mr. Glover to be here

152as there are um many outstanding questions. No, actually if we pass it, it's done. Second read. We don't we don't do a third [Music] reading. Okay. All right. We have an amendment. Go ahead. I was going to say I'm happy to get that information. So, thank you. Let's plan on it. Um, we have an amendment on the floor, amendment to a motion to defer and it has been properly second. All those in favor? All opposed? It's a tie. So, the motion fails. Can we plan to have Mr. Glover at the next meeting? But also, yes, it'll be good to have an answer to those questions, but in case we have additional questions, I think that would be helpful. Absolutely. You still have to get sorry. And then back to the original motion that was um

153properly second. All those in favor? All opposed. And we're back. I'll ask Mr. Glover to attend virtually next. Thank you. Thank you. Should we have that? Let's have the auditor as well if we can get both so we can hear from situation. I mean Yeah, the and the financial financial. Yes, sir. Thank you, Miss Sucker. All right, that takes us um to item seven. Point of order. That last vote was three to three. So, that motion fails. Correct. On that takes us to number 17 on agenda, approval of the strategic plan amendment exhibit H. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh approaching the the lect turn is our chief of student services and planning, Dr. Mike Harris, and director of accountability, Audrey Black for approval of our strategic plan amendments. Dr. Harris. Thank you, uh Dr. Russ,

154madam chair, members of the board, our community, uh I along with SJ Black, our director of planning and accountability, stand before you with a recommendation for approval of the strategic plan amendments for associated with years calendar years 2022 through 2027. Uh, Madam Chair, I'll make a motion to approve the strategic plan amendments for 2022 and 2020 through 2027 as shown in exhibit H. Do I have a second? Do I have any questions? Um, Jason, um, there was a I don't know if you all have it in this in slides or not, but I mean this thing is huge, right? Um, and can you point to um, Dr. Ross in his presentation had the the 2030 goal that's set by the department of ed. I believe 75% of children reading on grade level um by then

155as well as the on um standard for math. Can you point to which sections of this um strategic plan are going to get us close? If this is a five-year plan, that puts us at what? Right there, right? What was your question? Um the which sections of this strategic plan are going to get us to the department of ed's 75% goal for for ELA and math? Okay. Okay. So these are our student uh achievement goals. And so these are our student achievement goals. Um the first one is for math and the second one is for reading. These are conditional um growth percentiles, the median conditional growth percentiles. So we are looking at how students are growing as they compare to their peers. And just as a reminder um at 50 they are growing at the

156same rate as their peers nationally. Anything below a 50 means we are growing at a slower rate and anything above 50 means we are growing at a faster rate. So as you can see we are trying to keep our um growth at something that's uh above what is happening nationally. So 55 is for math and we are at 55 and we are just a little bit below at 53 um this past year for reading where we wanted to beif at 56 but we are still above nationally where um the peers are growing for those grade levels. Okay. I guess what I'm asking is this is measured differently than the department of ed's goals. Correct? It is. Do we have um a performance goal in here that aligns with the department of ed's goal? Not in

157the same language. These goals should hopefully get us to be aligned. Um and I didn't I was not here when they were decided on, but um I believe that the district felt at the time that these would um help us reach that State Department goal. Are we permitted, Dr. for us to change the goals to ma match line align I should say with the department of ed's goals you can and I think one of the things that just wanted you to understand why we use median growth percentiles instead of that one and that's a good point why not just put 70 by this time or 65 by you know every two years we get 2% and uh we've saw that with uh leave no child left behind I think we're supposed to get 100% by

158uh 200 something uh 2020 or something we supposed to have 100%. It was happening every year we were missing our mark. We were missing our mark. We it looked good on the line to get there but we weren't getting there. Uh and I so I think with Dr. holding. We started looking at what is a better way to see that we're actually making that progress. And that was if every student was outpacing their um their their cohort, then we would actually be moving to the achievement mark. So, I think one of the things we could do is I don't want to get rid of all of that work in terms of growth, but if we say, you know, if we're if we hit these points every year, this should equal this passage rate. I would

159like to add versus get rid of because all of our teachers and our staff, our PD is really geared on not counting any student out and looking at the growth of every child. So whether you are um you know ID identified or the kids that we had who are above, they should outpace their individual groups and that would help us get there. So I I I see what you're saying and and I agree that should be where's that target? But we've learned from No Child Left Behind. Just throwing a number out there without having a pathway to get there uh wasn't effective. And I think a lot of districts were missing. So, uh, one of the things we saw was that that median growth percentile is the best way to track our our our growth

160arc towards that that uh that 70. But Mr. Juliano, if there's something that I'm missing you'd like to add in terms of what we're doing in terms of measurements, I want to give you that opportunity. Thank you, Dr. Ross. One one component I'd like to add to is by using MAP and the median conditional growth percentile that's taken place three times throughout the school year. So it's given us data throughout the school year versus SC ready which takes place at one point in time at the end of the school year. So by using the median conditional growth percentile, we can look at what our students come back in the fall, what they are, to see if they're making that progress from fall to winter. And then we can make instructional decisions and changes within our

161classroom based upon that data. And then from the winter to the spring, we can make additional instructional changes to our instruction that's taken place in the classroom based upon that data. where if we're waiting for SE ready in the May now we're waiting throughout the entire school year to do anything with the data and the data is not something that was usable at that moment. So for state purposes and report card purposes, they use some of that data for SC ready. But for our purposes within the district, it's more valuable to us to use data that's actionable throughout the school year and gives specific strands and standards that students need to meet and they may not be meeting at that particular time in the fall, in the winter, and in the spring. So we can

162make adjustments before SC ready. So Dr. Dr. Ross is um this is going to be sent to the Department of Ed, right? And what's their deadline? Uh April 30th. Okay. And I would also like to add that this is for year four of our plan. So we have had these goals for the past three years for this plan. Okay. I mean, um, I'm I guess I'm concerned that, um, and maybe not for this year, but maybe an internal goal, but to me, these things are measured differently. You can hit your 55% median growth, but you could still not hit 75% of children being on grade level because you're measuring two different things. Um, so I'll just put this out there. I I would like to see us whether it's just for us and not the

163department but if I would like to see us truly look at that number as well because there may be things that we have to do to hit that number that are different than what we have to do to hit this. I I see I see um one of the things we can do in an academic report, Mr. Juliano is maybe talk about um how we're using median conditional growth percentiles because what I see in if if we were hitting 57 um every year since then we you could show an arc to passing the state's projection. I think the where where we lose is if a child is and I go back to that um classroom where the children are in red, the children red get no credit and and we were seeing in the old

164model where they would have to get from red to green. We weren't seeing them grow. We just weren't seeing any movement. And so if you were in red, you stayed red. If you were in yellow, you stayed yellow. And they never grew. I think what's encouraging about this is now a teacher can see a child in red and say you're on a threeyear path to being green or two-year path to being green and that so the the data is in there. I would just ask that maybe we go back and show how if we meet that every year we can show a child yeah by 2030 you will be you on pace to grow out of where your condition is. So I think um we just want as Mr. Juliano said data that's useful for

165our teachers throughout the year. It's those that red bar and blue bar right that gives us more information than the end of year summitive when we've lost them. I think one of the things we can do is just kind of articulate if a child's in red and they meet they say they meet our district goal of 55 in growth percentile how long before they would be in green. If we can kind of show that Audrey I think that would would help not for the purposes of tonight but just just for educating the public. Does that make sense? Yes sir. Yeah. Um I understand that requirement to meet state regulations and and all that, but I also don't want to overlook this is a local school board, a local school district. And I like that we

166have our own plan and our own goals um that are not necessarily we're not abdicating it and and passing it off to the state. we're developing our own uh set of plans and and goals for our residents and our students and and therefore we're retaining local control of that and I think generally that's a good idea. So I'm a I think uh Dr. Giuliano's uh explanation was was on point that it allows us the data that we're using allow us to pivot throughout the year. And so I I think it's a very good thing. So I'm I'm in favor of what you're proposing. Okay. As far as um I've been, you know, we all get a lot of emails reference to bullying, discipline issues. What have we been doing? Do you feel that it's working

167for bullying and discipline um you know, hear a lot of feedback from students, from parents that, you know, they're dealing with it the proper channels and it's going um unressed. Do we have a game plan to improve? doing are we gonna do something different or are we just kind of working with what we got so far the past four years? Thank you, Mr. May. Appreciate the question. I think what we're doing is actually working far more in our favor than not. Uh the thing that has worked and we talked with this board, at least a board some time ago about making certain that um the requests and and concerns are go through the proper channels and um we certainly appreciate parents doing that. Um I think what we're doing currently in terms of continuing to

168educate our administrators um going through our think tank sessions things that we have been doing is actually working for us and I really quite frankly as I look at and consider the data uh itself the bullying is not increasing. Uh I think we've actually done some some measurable uh taken some measurable steps to decrease that far more than increase it at this particular point. Okay. The other one was we've been getting questions from parents and community members about as far as and I don't know if this is operations the um metal detectors understanding that that would take additional staff but without getting into spec specifics we have had incidents at elementary schools with weapons in the past two months. So it's it's difficult to to man those having to wand students as they come through.

169Do we have any, you know, idea how to do we need to hire additional staff to make our community and our parents feel that their kiddos are safe? We continue to look at safety and and security measures on on a daily basis as well. And I can tell you that uh there's not a week that goes by that we're not looking at meeting with talking with um uh groups and organizations to see what we can do to improve and build upon what we currently have here in the district. So the short answer to that is yes, we continue to move forward with that and there are we do continue to make plans and preparations to increase what we have in terms of uh weapon detections um at all of our schools. Good. Thank you. Um

170I guess two things. I want I want to go back to the reading thing. Um because it's not just these are not numbers. These are children. Um, and if you have a child that can't read by third grade, they're just I mean, statistically, they're they're in a lot of trouble. Um, so, and I know Miss McCascal has laid out for us a lot of things that we're doing for that. So, you know, I wish we had this earlier so we had a chance to to maybe um address some of that, but I'm I'm just extremely concerned that um we're not putting that into into what we're sharing. The other thing I'd like to ask about and it relates to to to the discipline and the bullying and all that. Um, on the state report card,

171one of the questions that they ask each teachers at each school is it's a question, and I'm going to paraphrase, but it says something basically like, I agree that my school enforces the discipline policy. And so, the higher the number, the better. So, ideally, we get 100%. Um, that score varies a lot from school to school, and some of the scores aren't great. So, is there anything in here or anything that we're doing otherwise to to go to the teachers at the schools where the scores are lower and and ask them why? Ask those um administrative staff why um so that we could get 100% on those on those scores. I would agree with you um Miss Huddle that that was certainly a work in progress. we as we drill it down to that level

172and uh we certainly take that under advisory and see what we can do to continue to educate all of our staff, administrators, our teachers and parents included uh about processes, procedures, about appropriate channels and about what's available in terms of services that we can support them in their requests um and the reports that they make. So that we'll take that certainly adisement and I share that with the team as well. Um and I had one okay I had one other question but It's okay. I was going to go to I was just going to offer a suggestion. Um I know that Mr. Bam I know he's brought up the bullying thing I think in the past too. That's obviously a concern of his. If you look u between pages 50 and 60 it really there's

173a lot of strategic plans in there. I know you probably reviewed it, but I I I was just looking over them. There's a lot of things from the mental health aspect um and making sure every child is valued and all that to addressing the discipline issues too. Um I will tell you that um whenever and all schools have to come up with these strategic plans. We've been through that process and this is a working document. In other words, it's not something that's just in concrete and you don't deviate. You you refer to it frequently. You go to it. It's a working document and you can make adjustments. But you it it does give you a it's it's it's it's a strategic plan just like it sounds. So it's uh it's it's not in concrete but

174it gives us a a a schoolwide or district-wide plan of action to address some of the issues or the concerns that we have or how do we how we should improve. So that's that's the purpose of this whole thing. So also you said that this um was the it was year four. So, we're coming to the end of of this um plan. When when is the next one due? When do we do the when do we start this process over? Uh we will start next year. Okay. And it'll be an 18-month process. Okay. And so, and as y'all know, there will be a lot of um chances for feedback from the community, from the schools, from um the students, the staff. Uh that 18 months will encompass lots of getting feedback and and really working

175together as a unit to to create these goals, to create the strategies that we need to be able to meet these goals and to look at those action steps and make sure that those action steps are truly going to drive those strategies so that we can meet these performance goals. Okay. Dr. Ross and then Miss Huddle. Yes. I just wanted to um share some things [Music] that that we're doing and um Miss Black has actually measured um that sentiment that you talked about with school safety. So it it has we're not going to share it publicly, but it is a document that identifies those schools that where that satisfaction may be low for parents, for teachers, for students. We've done it for parents uh first and it just kind of gives us an idea of

176where uh schools fall uh that we can provide additional supports and that's kind of what they asked for uh those areas that that need additional supports. But I also want to give student services and planning some credit uh with the stop it app that has been utilized as our number one tool for for bullying. And if you anyone in the community or a board member hears anything about bullying, you can report it to the school through the stop it or to myself. I think one of the things we can't stop it if we we don't know it. And so we just share that you can report it anonymously, but never let these things go unreported. Any sign of bullying. Um, but there was another piece that uh Harris, I don't hate to put you on

177on the on the on the spot, but um is about students in the hall uh that a lot of our secondary uh schools are using. Um there's a particular piece of technology that our teachers use. You can kind of explain how that's cut down a lot of the bullying fighting situations that we're seeing in schools. Right. Thank you. Uh I think you're referring to the uh smart that we're that's in in our secondary schools. And it's it's a it's a tool that our secondary schools have used over the past year or so that uh quite frankly is a is a an opportunity for teachers actually to kind of measure and monitor when students are in and out of class. So for example, if there is um conversation u between um Let's say Mike Harris and

178and and and Ross that uh is not very positive and productive and we want to meet in the restroom for example and we decide that um and the school has some knowledge about it that smart pass if I want to get out of class to go meet and to do whatever then that smart path they can actually flag that and they can kind of prevent and prevent our connecting in the restroom or connecting in the hallways or what have you. uh it monitors it. It even gives parents if they choose are interested in this information and a lot of them do take you up on that. It does give an opportunity to kind of look at uh a tracking of what Mike Harris's in and out of class might be, how often he's said he

179needed to go to the restroom, how often he's in the nurses station, how often he's in administrator's office, things of that nature. Uh it's a it's a good tool. It's a very very good tool to monitor the traffic in the hallways during instructional time and I think a lot of our schools have have seen a measurable success. That's why I referred to as an answer to Mr. questionary that actually seen more of a decrease than increase because there's some measurable ways in which we've been able to see that and this smart pass happens to be one of those and it is a talk among our secondary schools uh since we've had that and piloted early on in the year. All right, I had one more question. Um I don't remember the page number but um

180there was a section in here where it talked about the performancebased grading and I may have the the name exact not exactly standardsbased grading that was something that um this board discussed probably a year or so ago is um so is that I saw it in there but we're not doing that yet. Is that right? Miss Juliano, you able to speak to the standard based grading professionals? So, we have proficiency based grading, standardsbased grading in um kindergarten, first and second grade, but other than that, we do not have it in any of our other grade levels. We're certainly looking at looking at success criteria, the I can statements for our students, especially in grades three through 12 and trying to look to see how we can incorporate that with families to give parents the information

181to give students the information. But as far as proficiency based grading and standards based grading, that's K through two. Thank you. All right, we have a motion on the floor and it has been properly second. All those in favor? All opposed? And the motion carries six to zero. Thank you. That moves us u to the last item on the action agenda, which is the approval of textbook adoptions. Make a motion to approve the textbook adoptions as shown in exhibit I. We have our director of elementary education, Mr. Michael Giuliano. I'm sorry. Did somebody second? Second. Okay. I just want to make sure I Okay, go for it. I apologize, Mr. Michael Giuliano to stand for questions. Thank you, Dr. Ross, Madam Chair, members of the board. I did want to make sure that I recognized

182a few people in our audience today. We have our not only our textbook coordinator but also our coordinator of mathematics, Mrs. Amy Taylor. She organizes the entire process of textbooks for our district to make sure that our teachers are going through the process utilizing parent representatives, making sure that they understand the ins and outs and a lot of work that she has done. So, we certainly appreciate the work that Miss Taylor has done. I also like to honor and recognize the few other coordinators that participate in our process and make sure that they led and facilitated as well too. We have our coordinator of social studies, Miss Melanie Sanford. We also have our elementary math specialist, Mrs. Erica Cartage, and all of our CTE courses, many of our textbooks for our CTE classes, Dr. Charity

183Simmons. And of course, I have to recognize our director of secondary education, Mrs. Walters. So, thank you to all of them for all the process that they did to make sure that we have and bringing forth to you today textbooks that we want to in incorporate throughout our district. Thank you. Do we have any questions? All right. All those in Oh, okay. Um, so we purchase, correct me if I'm wrong, but we try to based on enrollment to purchase a physical textbook for every child. Correct. some or the state pays for it. Is that the way it works? Correct. But some textbooks sometimes do not have a physical offering. So depending on what choices come forward to us, they may have an option for a physical textbook or a digital copy. Some options have a

184a both. We get a physical copy and we get the digital access. Others are only digital access. So it just depends on what is provided to us. and a lot of the just only digital access. Some of those are our CTE classes and some others. But as far as our younger grades, those are physical textbooks and an online option as well too. Are there any that are only physical? We do have a few that are only physical. Okay. But the vast majority would have a digital. Yes. So I got this question from some parents that are trying to help their children with math. Um, so they probably the parent can probably access the digital. Is that correct? The child doesn't bring the physical home. Absolutely. And honestly, it saves the the students backs a little

185bit if they don't have to lug home several textbooks, but they can always reach out to the teacher or to a school administrator and they'll be happy to share exactly what they need. If they need a physical copy or if they need something else, they'll make sure that they have what they need. Thank you, Miss Barnhart. Just to kind of follow up on that, are we seeing a lot more um of the digital textbooks in our classrooms that our teachers and students are preferring the digital over the physical or is it kind of still half and half or how is that looking? It's it's very specific sometimes to the teacher and to the student. Quite honestly, it's I kind of compare it to people that read on a Kindle or read a physical book. I

186guess it just depends on personal preference sometimes. There are some teachers that still like that textbook to hand to a child when others like that digital component. Um, personally I like when there's a mix so they can have that option if it's available to them to have the physical versus the digital. But it's come down to a lot of times personal preference when it comes. And Miss Taylor certainly can tell you that a lot of times when she's reading and listening to the feedback from the teachers, it really is comes down to what they like to use in their classrooms. Thank you, Miss Kelly, for your work. Mr. Skully. Yeah. I just wanted to say truly thank you for all of your hard work on this. That's a big job. And um bless you for

187sitting here all night. All right. We have a motion on the floor and it's been properly second. Did you? Okay. All those in favor? All opposed? The motion carries six to zero. Thank you. Thank y'all. Right. That moves us to our discussion agenda starting with the office of federal and state accountability waiver form is shown. Uh thank you madam chair. Uh coming to the lect is our chief of student services and planning uh Dr. Mike Harris to bring forth the waiver request. Thank you again. U we wanted to bring forward to you um a waiver form. This is an effort to ensure that uh our full implementation of our what we just spoke of one our strategic plan district strategic plan as well as uh our uh district school renewal plan. And in an effort

188to ensure that, in an effort to provide us the greatest flexibility for implementation, we're here tonight to request um approval for the Office of Federal and State Accountability Waiver Form. And to give you just a little bit of a detail on what that is and what it encompasses, I've asked Miss Audrey Black to kind of give us that information. So, good evening, Madame Chair, members of the board, Dr. Ross, and members of our community. Thank you for this opportunity to present a waiver request tonight for four regulations that impede the implementation of our district strategic plan and the high school's school renewal plans. These regulations impact our academic achievement graduation goal in the 2223 to 2220 excuse me 2627 strategic plan. They also hinder academic achievement strategy one which states we will provide challenging curricula

189and implement researchbased instructional practices to ensure the academic development and college or career readiness of all students. Per regulation 43261, the state board of education has the authority to wave any regulation that may impede the implementation of an approved district strategic plan or school renewal plan. The regulations we seek to wave are outlined in regulation 43-205, section 4, part B, number three, items A, B, C, and D. These regulations set limits on the maximum daily teaching load and class sizes for teachers of academic classes, limit the number of minutes a teacher may teach in a week, limit the number of preparations for teachers in a day, and establish maximum class sizes and daily student loads for PE, health, and music teachers. Recruitment and retention challenges continue to impact our district and the state. Adhering strictly

190to these regulations would prevent us from offering challenging curricula and implementing research-based instructional practices, especially when unanticipated employment actions occur during the year, such as resignations, retirements, or extended leaves of absences. These regulations also limit the variety of courses we can offer, which means students may not be able to take the classes they're interested in or need to meet graduation requirements. Our current waiver provides flexibility to only some of our high schools. This new request would extend that flexibility to all high schools in the academy for success when these situations occur. In conversations with the Department of Education, we've learned it is common practice to apply a waiver to all of the high schools. This approach prevents the need to seek board approval each time a similar situation arises at a different school. In your

191board packets, you'll find the administration's memorandum seeking your approval of this waiver request. If approved, we will submit the request to the South Carolina Department of Education for review by the State Board of Education. So, I stand for any Questions? Miss. Um, so if um I'm not sure all of them, if you go back to those um is there at least one of those I think back one more slide. If the that that we do supplement teacher pay if they have to teach more than the 1500 minutes. Yes, ma'am. We do. Okay. Is that the only one of these that we do the supplement for? I do not know. Is there I thought it was but yes we supplement for additional time required to teach more than 1500 minutes. Okay. And just so it's really

192kind of like the top like especially on the the four peray I'm I'm guessing that that's a situation where maybe it might be a AP class or something like that and so a teacher might only teach AP English, but there's so many AP Englishes and they might teach a CP class or that kind of thing. Uh, yes, ma'am. Sorry. Anybody else? All right. Thank you. Thank you. We are going to take number 20 and 21 together. Thank you madam chair. Coming to the lectern is our chief operating officer operations officer Dr. Gerald Gary to discuss discussion items agenda item 20 and 21. Dr. Gary. Thank Dr. Ross. Uh, Madam Chair, members of the board, um, I bring to you for a discussion board policy KF, community use of school facilities. Um, since our last meeting,

193I was able to follow up with Skiis. Um, someone asked that question last week. So, I talked to Li Graham and asked about our premium. If we increase the usage of our facilities, will our premium go up? The answer was no. As long as we require certificate of liability, which we do require as a part of our policy, it will not increase um, our premium. The second thing, last week, um, in a meeting with all principles and directors, all principles were given a survey to complete asking a few things to help kind of guide this discussion and guide our decisions. Of those were um, what areas did parents or community members most request to use? They were, as you can imagine, our small and large gym, our stadium, and our practice field. So, we'll talk

194about that in a second. And next was when they denied a request, what were the reasons? 80% of the reason when the school denied a request was that one it was not enough staff to do it was enough custodian was not available to work 60% of all requests were denied it was not a custodian available to be there and 20% was it was already booked by another agency another group somebody else was so 80% of the requests were denied because a custodian was not available or the area they wanted to use was already available um proposed changes require nonprofit organizations to provide verification of the 501c3 status and we prohibit animals other than official purpose on district property due to potential unnecessary damage on school property. That was our proposed changes to that. Um proposed

195changes administrative rule KFR committee use of school facilities change from office of finance and operations to office of operations throughout the document as this policy is managed under the office of operations and for-profit organization request to use facilities must provide a detailed proposal explaining how the activity is educational in nature and why they believe the activity is not otherwise available to district students. Proposed revisions. The school administrator will designate what personnel will be required for the event and the school designate review conditions and expectations for use of the facility with the organization prior to payment. The district will notify organization of the cancellation of previous approved use no later than 24 hours ahead of the date of the event. Um revision to the fee schedule. We talked last week about putting groups into different categories.

196We thought this would be a little more user friendly and explain things to parents and community groups. So add user group categories to determine the priority of the groups scheduled and the fees that pertain to each group. Group one school bas based activities. You know those are your PTOs, your booster clubs. They have priority one. So they get the fields first without a charge. Group two school partnerships that have aou in place. They get it. Um they get pri they get second priority. As long as the school has not requested that that gym or whatever, they get second priority and they pay whatever the contract um the contract determines. uh youth programs. This would be our travel teams, baseball, soccer, AU, they are priority three. So, as long as one and they want the gym,

197as long as one or two has not requested, they get first party. It is available as long as there's a the principal approves it and there's a custodian available along with whatever fee we charge. And we got group four, five, and six. Again, group six gets to go first as long as one through five has not requested that area prior to them. Um proposed revisit the fee schedule. Add a seasonal fee. Um required for any club organization activity wants to use parking lots, common areas or other areas not identified in the fee schedule. Oftent times we'll have like run hard or particular groups that will use a parking lot. They might use it once a week for a season. We propose adding a seasonal fee for like $50 in a parking lot for one hour

198a day. Um does not require a custodian. Does not um create any issues. Um, seasonal fees are considered by annual and must be paid at the beginning of each season, fall or spring and may cover one or two weeks during the se same seasonal period. Whenever group 3,45 utilize common areas on the outside of the building for multiple days in the seasonal time, these will be required to pay a one-time seasonal fee. Common areas are limited to certain grassy areas, playgrounds, parking lots, or other areas approved by the office of operations. Note, certain areas within the district are considered not for use. Those we sometime grids, it creates conflict if they use our band grids. U proposed revision of fee schedule. The proposed fee schedule for use of district 5 facilities is still undetermined. The

199administration is seeking guidance from the board of trustes on amount we should charge community groups for usage of our facilities. In your packet, I think you've had um fees scheduled for neighboring districts at le one, lexon 2, rich two, and richland one. I think lexon one seems to be over here. The rest of the districts seem to be over here. There seems to be in talking to parents and community members, there is a a a push or a uh a likeliness to get closer to Lex one. Um what we learned from um talking to our our principles is oftent times we can't find custodians to work these event. So we think touching the fees with custodians, personnel, we think that's a no-go. We already can't find somebody to get it. They work, they get paid

200for 37 and a half hours. Uh most of these people or groups rent the event for two hours. So they do that, they still don't qualify for overtime. Many of them have second jobs. It's just not worth them coming in when they don't qualify for time. Um we have looked at um the areas that were identified our gym, our gymnasium, our elementary gym, we currently rent it for $75 an hour. We would like some conversation about reducing that to $50 an hour. Make make it a little more affordable. Or my middle middle school gym intermediate are currently $100 an hour. We'd like to have some conversation about reducing that to $75 an hour. Small gym is $100 an hour. Like to have conversation about reducing that to $75 an hour. And our large gym is

201currently $200 an hour. Used to be $500 for the first hour, 200 each additional hour. We're talking about reducing that to $150 total per I'm sorry, per hour as opposed to not initial $500 fee. Um practice fields are $100 an hour. We are suggesting reduce that to $75 an hour. And I stand for questions and in the discussion. I like the price points. I feel like they're kind of comparable to what I paid to rent the gym at like one of the neighboring parks for a birthday party or something like that. So, um I don't feel like it's unreasonable. Um, you just shared the reasons why a lot of times it's unavailable and we had a parent talk about that earlier. Um, I'm not to create an extra step, but I do think that once

202we get this all figured out, it would be helpful to provide feedback to people on why, you know, if it's if it's booked, it's booked. And if we don't have a custodian, we don't have a custodian. But it seems to me like even if we get the price points better, we're still going to have an accessibility issue because we're not going to suddenly have custodians that want to do this if that, you know, do you understand what I'm saying? And I don't know, I don't have an answer. Um, but I think that that after having this conversation, I feel like that's going to be the the bigger the bigger problem. And so I mean that's probably a problem for another day, but it's just something I think we need to be thinking about. Miss, I

203was just wondering, would it be possible to pay the c I mean I don't know what the HR rules are, but would it be possible to pay the custodian a stipen instead of factoring into hourly or I almost asked that, but I just wasn't sure if it was okay, so I didn't. I can familiarize you with the wage and labor laws. Custodians are non-exempt employees. they qualify for overtime. So, it would not be appropriate to give them a stipen for hourly work. Wage and labor laws require that they're paid hourly and anything over 40 hours, they qualify for overtime. So, if they work right now um between 37 and a half and 40, they get their hourly rate. They just don't get overtime. That's correct. And and Dr. Gary, that's for the reasons you said

204usually. Um, would it be would it be possible there is there another employee that would be exempt in in most schools that would be could be paid a stipen to do it? The technical answer is yes. The realistic answer is we wouldn't know until we we um put out there for someone exempt to be willing to come in to serve in those positions. And the reality of it is no. I mean, I guess it's just it sounds like that's the real sticking point. I mean, we can lower the we can lower the fee, but if the if the gym's not available because there's no one there, it doesn't really help. Um Jason had a hand first if that's okay. Dr. Ross, go ahead. I talked to Dr. else about it and thinking and I think

205you may be along the lines of trying to formulate something like this a a group or a pool of people or even a third party like you know substitutes that are willing you know everybody goes into the hat you know we got you know 50 people that are available for events and we can go ahead and schedule out the year based on those people so I don't know if that's something that you got working Mr. Ber I was trying to beat you to that punch no I'm you set me up perfect so I had Dr. Turner to kind of um we talked about what that pool would look like um and that would be through ESS. So if you wanted to kind of speak to what would what would be required for that that would

206require ESS to recruit people just for the purpose of uh serving in those roles. Um, I don't know with the reality of it not being consistent work, also it not being enough hours to accumulate a large enough pay, um, if we would be successful in recruiting people on an as needed basis for a few hours in those roles. Um, so we have had challenges when it's not consistent work at those wages for those positions. and we talked about that and so I wanted to just kind of tee that up as let's see what the options one of the things I think is we can we can move our fees for the facilities closer to lex one to be affordable which we we outlined um but maybe a minimum um hourly so if I think that

207may be a way to to get out of this it doesn't but if those custodians know they will make overtime uh for these it may increase that bucket there. So if if they knew that they worked their full 37 and a half. Now the issue is u if the principal uses them for 37 and a half hours that week and we do a minimum of three hours, you put that on the youth groups to pay, but that would only yield what was that a half hour of overtime. So we still go back into that that that notion. Now, if you did a fivehour minimum, then we're getting cost absorbent to the youth groups or to our partners and I'm I'm sorry to youth groups and um but it would get get those uh those um

208in there. So, I think the longer term usages may help out with predictability. Um but but that's something that we just wanted to share what we faced as we come up with this. But I think um I really think it was brilliant to have the the structure there and we're going to bring back some fees for first reading uh that are more in line with Lexington and then kind of look at options of of at least minimums to try to get those those custodians in that in that um a lot of them are saying they work extra jobs and if they're going to leave or lose time at another job. Uh they want to be compensated for it. Um yeah, thank you. I I I have the same concerns. I think this will actually create

209a greater accessibility issue than what we currently have today. Um so along those lines and regarding custodians, how Dr. Ross, would they be they would not be required to sign up for this? Correct. No, sir. and how or how if they did or did not, how would that impact or affect their uh performance evaluations? Uh so I'll let Dr. Turner handle that question. Their performance evaluations is an overall review of their performance of the job over time. So if they chose to participate in something optional or not, that would not impact um their performance um and we would not take retaliatory action against them if they were unavailable to support this since it is um optional and outside of their standard work duties. Thank you. And um Dr. Gary, how how early can the facilities

210be reserved? Um because I would imagine when you get into a larger group or large greater demand as greater demand increases or as demand increases with more accessibility groups are going to start fighting early and earlier to try to get on the calendar for these facilities. How how does that happen? How what's the earliest that that process can be confirmed? Um and then you know how far out can they be booked? because I would imagine some groups who are more determined would just want to get on the calendar for um reserve a whole block of time for as far as they can whether or not that's an actual reservation at that point in time or not. How do we get around that? Well, we require a minimum of 10 days to to reserve a facility,

211but there is currently and don't quote me, but I I think they can do it up to a couple months in advance, but let me follow back up to give you an exact exact timeline. I think we may need to look at if we may need to look at putting some time limits because somebody if somebody ties up the small gym for 6 months, we still only have one group using that small gym and it creates issues for other people people wanting to use those facilities. But I'll get back to you on that. Uh and Mr. Gary, do we still have the school park agreement? Yes, we do. Are are they using some of our facilities or is it mainly the baseball fields and stuff at the elementary schools? It's mainly the baseball fields. So,

212not really because they used to use the gyms and um some of the elementary schools with the safari and after school programs may use those but a lot of them use our fields. The majority of the use are fields. And I'm just curious when you when you check with Lexon one, is it do they restrict it basically to their students or do they allow the AAU and the outside groups to come in? I am not 100% sure. So I don't want to speak to that right now. I I can just from my experience I have a little concern with the outside groups because people that are from the school the student body tends to te it treat it like it's their school and they tend to take care of it more and uh things like

213that. So that might be a consideration when we're looking at this whole thing. But I appreciate you looking into this and I u you know my initial concern was for making sure that all students can be active and get started and some of our special needs students too. I guess that was one of my biggest concerns but uh I appreciate you looking into this. Thank um Dr. Ross, could we look at maybe expanding the first jobs program and and offering positions at all the high schools for student janitors that could do this? We we uh I think Mr. Bam and I we talked about this as a as an option. The only issue we had is when it came to liability um our insurance trust would only uh allow the uh adult employees um to

214count as coverage for this especially after hours. um our our student um student workers uh have to be supervised even as student workers and so with them after hours we we still would have that liability with them as students as well as employees. But we looked at that um as well. I think for us, you know, if we look at lowering the cost and then some minimums, we may get a better um a better usage of that. Uh and I think for those areas like Fund Run, those areas that we can go ahead and knock off the books, uh that would help that part of the community as well. So, uh I do applaud Gary and his team for coming up with that tiered approach. Um and then for all that Mr. KN has to

215deal with. We want to make sure that on Monday when our staff shows up that all of that is wrapped up uh so that we're back on the work of u of the district. So yeah, we're we're going we're going to try to keep looking innovative. We just want to prep the board of when we come back with minimums why that's uh in there. And uh the only way our insurance trust happy was to have the adult employees uh there at the school. Anybody else? So we'll have a first reading of this further discussion at the next meeting. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you, Dr. M. Snipes. I move that we adjourn. Have a second. Second. All in favor? All oppose? And the motion carries six to zero. Y'all have a good night.