001e e e it's 5:30 and I'm going to go ahead and call the board meeting to order do I have a motion to approve the agenda don't all speak at once I move to approve the agenda have a second all those in favor Miss knes I actually I have a question um about um item 3C the review of student matter board policy I was looking at the policy and I was just curious there's two Provisions in that policy for hearing a complaint one is kind of a a general and the other is a Section 504 so I was just wondering can is is this which section is this is it a general or is it a 504 okay all right I I appreciate appreciate that um I also um have a motion to amend the
002agenda I move to amend the agenda to add an item for discussion only in executive session regarding security and student matters related to the weapons found last week on Dutch Fork High School school property a second all right kind of self-explanatory discussion only uh a check for your law and I can find the law if somebody wants it but under for your laws we can amend the agenda as long as it's not action item all right we have um an amendment to the original motion all of those in favor of Mrs Huddle's motion to add an item um on an update and discussion um can I are we to discuss it or we have to wait till we get in there if we had a question about there so many people it's security so I
003was going to assume that we needed to discuss it in executive session but Dr Ross can correct me if I'm wrong uh if there's a discussion on the motion that can be held out here but any particular details of the security would should be referred to Executive session okay um and I I don't have a problem with what you're asking tole but I was just curious at what length or what direction is this discussion I I would imagine it would be pretty short I just I have questions and I really don't want to email them and so I just thought if we could have five minutes so we can get maybe more information than than we have already received or an ability to ask questions and it's already been clarified I did follow up Miss
004huddle um she did um graciously give me a heads up um and I did follow up to make sure that we didn't weren't going into a full-on security conversation because we weren't prepared to be able to to do all of that tonight all right so all those in favor of Miss Huddle's Amendment to the motion to include um a brief discussion around um Security in the Dutch Fork High School matter from last week please vote saying I all opposed and the motion passes I'm off cuz we're missing somebody oh and then there's a Kevin so the motion passes five to one all right do I have a motion to enter executive session I move that we enter executive session to consider the following a selected employment items exhibit a action B selected employment items exhibit
005B information only C review of student matter board policy ji student concerns complaints and grievances exhibit J D contractual matter regarding the purchase of property Exhibit C E contractual matter regarding construction management firm exhibit D and F discussion on security issue last week at Dutch Fork High School can I have a second second all in favor all opposed and the motion carries 60 we will convene to Executive session and restart at 7: p.m. e e e good evening it is 700 p.m. so I will officially call our regular schedule meeting to order thank you all for being here with us this evening we're going to go ahead and open up the meeting with the invocation and pledge by trustee Jason bham let's pray dear heavenly father we thank you for bringing us all safely here
006this evening we pray for healing for our colleagues and a speedy recovery for those that are under the weather we thank you for this opportunity to work on the needs of our community we pray for wisdom and discernment we pray for compassion and camaraderie continue to guide us as we discuss the business of our school district District help us to make the best decisions for our students staff and community in your holy name we pray amen let's stand for the pledge we'll have Miss Taylor come down for the school board Spotlight justes if y'all want to go ahead and join me up front sure yes all right thank you madam chair members of the board Dr Ross good evening I'm so glad to be with you tonight to share with you two very special school
007board spotlights the first one we have tonight are the members of the IR High School future Business Leaders of America if y'all would stand for for right now thank you um these this great group of young people had a very successful trip to the state convention in Greenville earlier this month um three outstanding students represented the club deavin bware is their president Rahe O Sullivan is the vice president of Information Technology and Jay Johnson is the vice president of graphic design they won in state competitions and qualified for Nationals in the following events they won first place in networking infrastructure third place in their community service project and fourth place in visual design sign so they had they did indeed have a very successful weekend um so we are so glad to have them here
008tonight to recognize them along with their sponsor Misty Carter and principal Dr Karen Hampton so come on down folks for our second Spotlight tonight is a familiar face to us all Miss Dita price School District 5's coordinator of Youth and Family Services has been awarded the 2025 State service award by the South Carolina Early Childhood Association this award is given every year to an individual who goes above and beyond to Aid the South Carolina Early Childhood Association and someone who has dedicated countless hours of time and talent to guide direct and Mentor others this person must also be a huge advocate for not only our children but also the people who work with those children we know Miss Dita is all of those things and we are so glad to be able to honor her
009tonight and celebrate this award with her so come on Miss Dita e at this time I'm going to turn it over to Dr Ross for our school board Spotlight thank you madam chair members of the board in our community is such an honor to uh I congratulate our future Business Leaders uh to see who's going to hire us in the future our job creators we're very proud of him looking very good and thank you to their parents to support them we see how important our extracurriculars are and for them I wish them the best in in their future but very proud of your accomplishments today and as Dr Harris always remind us uh education really starts in the womb from prenatal care uh we start and provide services to our children in our community and
010I want to thank Miss price for her leadership her advocacy uh and just being a a huge social worker for uh the least of these of ours and making sure we meet the needs of all of our students so again thank you and congratulations um as always uh we are a system Guided by three critical questions why do we do this work how do 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 then our strategic plan outcomes we have 24 strategies that we're working on each and every day uh that chased four performance goals uh for that Vision where every day one day every student will feel loved in our
011schools and every student will have demonstrated academic growth in our schools uh we are uh tracking the state strategic plan goal uh by 2030 that 75% of students will be at or above grade level uh in English and math towards that goal where every student is college career or military ready and so uh just seeing our students tonight just lets us know how we're on that track uh as we look at our our SC ready projections uh we know we had the fall and the winter uh we're going getting up for the spring administration of that and so our goal is to work uh diligently with those students in the red and extend the students in the blue uh to maximize the potential of all Learners uh we do this also by tracking our gradu
012graduation rate a key part of our strategic plan uh working uh diligently not just with the graduation teams but uh with record keeping and attendance as we deal with issues of transientness towards our goal where nine out of 10 students will be able to graduate within four years of entering High School within School District 5 as we track our state assessment outcomes uh we do see growth and celebrate growth but we also take the opportunity to look at areas where we can improve and so uh our teams are working diligently as we Face new challenges in the district especially students who do not speak English as their primary language in the home uh but also being required uh to meet the expects on the English language arts uh SC read also uh we will always
013uh continue to inform our community about act 114 uh which uh is a a huge part of the read to succeed uh law uh about uh regarding our third grade students uh and so with the portfolio being removed uh as a uh as a way to uh Stave off third grade repeating uh we're working diligently not only in English language arts but in math to ensure that our Stu our students are making uh progress as a result uh our goal is to support the classrooms to keep uh our teachers our quality teachers here support them uh recruit in uh new teachers and do all of that in a safe and productive learning environment the learning environment needs for the future are changing and uh we're very proud of our efforts uh with the referendum to
014have an opportunity to meet the new changes the uh uh the the new needs in education uh in a safe and productive learning environment uh we also looked uh to our parent advisories and our student advisories to see what their expectations were for School District 5 this is in commitment to our feedback loop and so with the United voice uh our uh student advisory and parent advisory uh spoke about what their expectations were for the school and the school district and it was very clear when they uh shared what their vision and their mission is is to be actively involved in ensuring that every child has a solid academic Foundation for their future career you'll see a pivot from the notion where we were preparing students for college parents are worried about the future the
015future is changing uh the the needs are changing requirements we hear more about how this is the generation that is not expected to do better than their parents financially so parents are asking and students are asking the question am I ready for this unknown future well our commitment in School District 5 will be yes and by working to meet each student's um uh needs and uh as we move from this Mass education system to individualize um uh groups uh we were asked uh about uh uh forming a task force that would uh look at uh successful schools or schools that had high poverty and those schools that um what were they doing to to uh get academic growth and this is a stry that um that we have Incorporated within our work uh for for
016quite some time we do it annually we look at schools like us and we also look at districts like us now one District I would point the board's attention to uh is is Anderson one um Anderson one uh is probably a district Like Us in terms of poverty uh but um has doing really well in terms of academic achievement and uh one of the strategies that they put in place uh instead of the word task force they use uh professional Learning Community uh in fact I think they are the were first in the state to have a model professional Learning Community uh framework in their district and what does a professional Learning Community do well the reality is you don't need one task force you need multiple um professional learning communities and we have we
017have a lot of them um but it's not the perfect strategy it's the perfect strategies it's not the perfect lesson it's the perfect lessons and these have to be tailored to the individual needs and as locally as you can do that as close to the classroom as you can make that committee the more effective it is when teachers meet together in a professional Learning Community they're asking four questions this is where the spirit of improvement Works uh this is where our task force and professional learning communities operate they're asking first of all what do we want our students to know and be able to do to think about our skills of our U Future Business Leaders of America a very uh distinct skills that they were able to not only do but to do at
018a very high level uh in education we call these standards or objectives indicators these briefly can be written as I can statements I can execute this following task and then assessments how we know when they learned it uh how will we respond when they do not learn it it's probably the most critical piece of it is that uh we get that information back and then how do we extend the learning for students who are already proficient it is districts that are able to engage in this feedback loop with their teachers uh and the support for those uh that see the fastest academic growth and so we are uh excited about continuing this work uh we have some plans about streamlining it to help teachers um as they answer the four questions but it is our
019goal to support teachers in these professional learning communities uh and so uh in doing that uh one of the things I wanted to do is to make sure that uh we understand what our teachers are going through there is a it's a lot of Demand on a teacher uh the day of just teaching one lesson that covers all students uh that day is over and so preparation for a teacher has increased uh the demands on the teacher have increased dramatically if you look at uh the number of students that require extra accommodations to the classroom that is increasing uh uh so I think you know you can look at number of students but you also have to look at workload per student and I think that gives us a good indicator of what our teachers
020are going through as a result on July 1st 2026 our school district will look totally different from how it looks now we want to ease the anx iety of our teachers and staff as we go through that transition and so uh wanted to outline there's we're still getting questions on this about how that process looks so as a result this is our our current instructional uh structure for the school district and on July 1st uh 2026 we'll move to this format and this format uh will take a lot of operational uh controls in place we're moving to uh 13 elementary schools that'll all be K5 uh for the first time in the history of School District 5 we'll have five middle schools 6th 7th and eth and then we need to support our high school
021programs with the new Kate offerings which you will be learning about uh today uh in addition uh as we move programs out of schools uh to create space for the richlex education center uh will house the academy for Success Adult Ed and the fire program so what does that look like to ease the burden on the teachers well it looks like providing their preference uh for thousands of teachers and staff uh in our in our school district for I'm sorry over a thousand over a thousand U uh staff and and teachers in our district and so for that all k prek through eight staff will complete a survey in May this survey will ask about their preferences where do they want to be and at what grade level would they like to teach um what
022about their certifications um proximity to work where their children attend schools all of this will go in a survey as we program the rezoning for electives Athletics Arts Special Education uh interventionalist movements those Singletons that need to be addressed that are only in one classroom throughout the whole District or in the cluster all of that has to be organized so that the Inus user experience is excellent uh when we we make that rezoning so if you look at our multi-year uh timeline uh in may all of the prek through 8th grade teachers and staff will complete that survey what are we doing to then well if you look at our our timeline uh at the end of February the office of student services and planning will be uh producing their enrollment projection for the 26
02327 school year as a very hard task they have worked very hard crunching numbers projecting where students will be 26 27 looking at current trends next month or the directors will meet and they will start to program the rezoning in May uh the official survey will come out June July and August through September we'll finalize that that data crunch those numbers and by uh December the principes will have finalized their Staffing uh rosters in January of next year all of those uh assignments will be issued if you look at our timeline the the date that the teachers receive their assignments will line up with our regular uh transfer portal so if someone changes their preference my preference was this in may come January my preference changes it aligns up perfectly with our transfer opportunities we
024will have orientations this is a new edition we'll have orientations uh for all new staff at their new sites in March uh no later than uh March of 20206 I'm sorry 2027 and I'm sorry yeah 2026 I apologize and no later than May for All Families and students not lated in May for all families and students uh of 2026 uh by then uh we will dismiss and in August uh arrive in our new uh rezoned schedule so again we're excited about uh this um about this work uh about taking care of of putting all of this effort into planning so that we can provide for the preferences of our our faculty and staff so at this time I'm going to ask our CFO Miss Heather Tucker to come forward with our financial report for December
025on good evening okay um good evening Madam chair members of the board I have for you today the December monthly financial report um first up is our Revenue you can see in December Revenue started to outpace our expenditures we begin to see our um property taxes start to come in the property tax bills start to come in and we do see our Revenue um through property taxes a little bit higher than it has been the last couple of years um at this time we're starting to see the um Richland County their um reassessments so we'll see a little bit higher property taxes from Richland County this year and Lexington County the following year um but our expenses are still um pretty close to on track what they were where they were for the following or
026for the previous year um 41.7 to 42% so we're still kind of right on track with where our expenses are and our revenues are just slightly higher happy to take any questions thank you Miss Tucker do we have any questions all right thank you all right all right we have an academic report and I'm going to ask our chief of academics Miss Tina mcco to come forward good evening Madam chair Ross board um I'm happy to have with me um Mr David priy our director for CTE between he and Dr Ross's Visions I'm telling you I'm excited about what's happening with CTE I'm excited to just hear um Weston kishik was just here Friday and he was doing his instructional rounds here at the center and just the exciting things that he had to say
027about the engagement of students and what the teachers here are doing just really it just kind of reinvigorates you all over again so I'm really happy to to have David with me today and um going to let him turn it over to him to do a report see if I can do this good evening uh Madam chair board members Dr Ross thank you M mccal for this opportunity to talk I want to talk about the bond referendum projects that are coming to Career and Technical Education First thing I want to mention we're doing a digital solution and artificial intelligence Lab at Dutch Fork High we're already on track for the Seamans engineering lab to start in August of this year we have two teach teachers that have been trained and this is replacing the Project
028Lead way pre-engineering this is a new program to the state that's been well this will be its third year in the state and then hopefully 2627 we'll put in the artificial intelligence program the state department has come out with the first level and we'll get news more news about that next week at our uh State update the second thing I want to talk about for the bond is the construction lab which will be constructed on this campus it'll be how heavy equipment operator and we're going to move our building construction electricity and welding programs into the new facility which means we will free up space in the current building to where we want to add additional commercial driver's license CDL diesel technician and drone technology under drone technology we've already started a drone Club here
029and they just competed this past weekend and we have a winner there with the judges award so they'll be go going on to the next step and I really excited about the small business student incubator at iro High student small business incubator we're going to run is similar to the Shark Tank to where students will present their ideas about their businesses and how they want to become uh entrepreneurs and run their own companies and shops we're hopefully we're going to be able to run this incubator year round that way we can really get the community involved and also we're going to work it out to where they get a CTE work-based credit which goes toward their CCR uh requirement for graduation in this slide is kind of a overview of what the incubator is going
030to look like this is not set in stone yet but this is a rendering of what we're thinking to where we can have different opportunities for students in the community to come in and work with our students and Hope hope y hire our students or our students leave high school and start to own businesses and be productive uh taxpaying citizens in District 5 area okay now I do want to mention one thing that's not on the slides in August of this year here at the center we will open up and implement the only heating ventilation and air conditioning program in the Midlands uh we've had had requests from industry folks parents and students I'm not sure how many students we have registered or looking forward to it yet but we're trying to compile that data
031right now so is there questions um how do you guys because you mentioned adding the HVAC so I'm guessing there's a need that's not met so um if you don't mind just kind of describe like the CDL like how did you guys decide which programs to uh back fill into that empty space the uh that's a great question the South Carolina Department of Employment Workforce has come out with priority occupations and those the CDL and the diesel tech for transportation distribution Logistics cluster is at the very top that's how we decide because that shows the need not only in the Midlands but Statewide on the um artificial intelligence are we going to be using a us-based platform for that we're not using foreign we don't use anything unless it is USA gotcha okay thank you
032Miss barard uh you to follow up on that could you give us just a little bit more information on what exactly that program will be doing um will they be building their own model or basing it like using it to do other things how what's that program going to kind of look like right now the first level is an introductory of what the technology is behind Ai and the equipment and how to design and the uses of it uh and it also goes into the chat GPT that's one of the first things they'll learn okay and then another question um on the hbac I I love this idea my husband and I own an hbac company we're actually asked to be on that advisory panel but he's currently away at uh military training but I'm
033very excited about that what all are they going to be learning um when it comes to that trade are they going to be able to be certified in any way shape or form when they finish it or can you give us a little bit more information about it the HVAC program they're going to come out well that's something we're going to do on the steering committee come Wednesday um dividing up tasks for it and certifications is one but the education oversight committee has seven HVAC certifications that we can do at high school and one of them is the Nate which current technicians out there on the job have to go through difficult I've taken it and we'll be using the nccr curriculum which is National Center for construction Education and Research will use that curriculum
034and that'll give them three more certifications through them that's going to be an incredible opportunity for them and I know the workforce in the area is really going to appreciate having these young kids uh get into it so thank you for that we're really excited and looking forward to it thank you Mr saterfield yeah I'm excited about this too um how will students from other high schools get involved with this with the like HVAC or something like that I know this is the hero High School small business uh will they like going to the Kate Center will it be similar it it'll be similar what we do right now with cosmetology and Automotive at herma high school the it's far as I remember it's a school of choice so they can be involved in that
035way but we can set up the incubator similar to what we do here at the center like HVAC will be at the center just on the other side of this wall well on the other side of culinary I always forget where I'm at uh but we want to invite all students in the district to do this because we don't want to leave anybody out sure sure thank you any other questions Mr B one more in in reference to the construction lab and then the CDL program are we going to be um partnering partnering with someone that has heavy equipment are we going to have to purchase certain equipment how is that going to operate we'll be partnering with companies that have the equipment and one of our main partners for CDL will be the South
036Carolina Trucking Association and will receive donated equipment uh and I will say this I put that program into another district and we receive donations of the trucks trailers and also we'll have a partnership with Midlands Technical College and their CDL program awesome thank you Miss hle later on in the meeting we're going to be um talking about the capital projects and I know this is funded from the bond but I don't remember in the four plus years I've been on the board really seeing a lot of things from for the Kate Center and I'm just wondering kind of Technology changes and ages and this we're about 10 years in right now here coming up in 12 12 okay so what do you see like in the future are we going to have some gradual Replacements
037or do you see any like big things coming down the road because that made me think of it with the the CDL because you know trucks now we have electric trucks and so what what do you kind of see coming as far as the need to rep start replacing things well what we have currently is in tune with the Department of educ uh employment work workplace Workforce I'm sorry um but we continually look at different things that are coming from the State Department of Education because right now they have a program for the electric vehicle engineering part and the maintenance part but they haven't finished all the standards and curriculum for it yet it's still in a pilot phase but we're staying in tune with what's coming David is very good with using the state
038and federal funds that come and he does he's like got a he's got a rotation that goes on about that so just to follow up on that so there's funds that come from the Federal State specific to Kate that don't flow through our regular operating and capital expenditures yes ma'am we we'll use those funds before we even request anything now we can't build buildings with it but we can keep our equipment up to date for an example uh year and a half ago we purchased a new computer numeric controlled uh machine the CNC machine for Machining that is the same one that they use at Midland Tech so we try and stay up with them any more questions right thank you all right thank you thank you thank you just have to make sure David
039stays around yeah um the next slide is about early release and late start days this is the draft um of what we are proposing for our early release late start days for next year and I'll just leave that up there and talk to you just a little bit about the why behind this because at our um parent advisory Council we had some questions and I just want to make sure that I clear those up a lot of questions about so why does a middle school get six why does the high school get more why does so there's a lot of questions around that it really the the intent of this originated way back with schools to work with high schools having a late start um day and um that was for our high schools that
040had they have large departments that don't necessarily have common planning times but that that was times that they could work together plan together and do things that um were needed as a department um and and that that hour on Wednesday mornings now you'll see that it's not every Wednesday morning because it depends on if there's some testing going on or something with the schedule that won't allow it but it's more Wednesdays than not and so we list the ones that you will not have late start then it went to Elementary because elementary schools those of you who are really familiar with elementary schools there's very little planning there um our our teachers start with students and they stay with students pretty much all day that's just that's just the nature of our job um and
041they get 45 minutes um of planning recently you know the unencumbered time um says that they get 30 minutes by themselves like no mandates on them 30 minutes that they can just take a breath um and so our schools have been very creative in ways around being able to give them that 30 minutes some of them do it during their planning time and then they have an additional 15 to 20 minutes to meet with teams some Do It um during lunch recess time when they have other staff that can cover that so it just depends on what works best for that school and the Staffing that they have you have to remember that our Title One schools do have a few extra staff because of Title One funding and they are able to do some
042things that maybe our regular schools cannot do and then that time um is a half day for six days um out of the year it was originally designated for um planning only uninterrupted planning this year um prior to this year so I guess last January February is Mr Juliano was meeting with a a committee to talk about letters because this is our first full year of true letters implementation we had one school that was in letters that we had um as a district made some accommodations for them for teachers to have um time to be able to do this during their regular day but then this year we're looking at an entire District doing this so we have 13 elementary schools and letters and so the teachers chose I would much rather use some of
043the early release time to do my letters training than to have to do it outside of my regular work time and so some of those early release days are being used for letters training not all of them but some of them and next year we're able to cut one away so we're really happy about that but the purpose behind that is because this year we have a big math textbook adoption and we're giving that March day for lead D5 for teachers to be able to do their math textbooks adoption which is which is pretty big for them and timec consuming next year we don't anticipate having that I say that but things can change but we don't anticipate having that so therefore um we would be able to use all three days for letters training
044so that'll give them some of their time back so then of course you have Intermediate Middle well intermediate was T Intermediate Middle School teachers ining good questioning so high schools get it elementary schools get it why don't I get it um and so we started looking at that and Middle School teachers Intermediate Middle School teachers do get 90 minutes of planning just like our high school teachers get 90 minutes of planning um but we we also acknowledge that there are times again when the schedule May not allow for the whole team to be together to do the planning that they need to meet the needs of students and so that's where we came up with six late starts for middle school so that's similar to high school getting parents getting students somewhat ready for that
045late start mentality and um propose the six late starts for intermediate and high schools and those are those can be used for planning or professional development because of the difference and planning time so I'll stand for any questions that you might have do we have any questions for Miss MCO Miss huddle so the the qu my kids are grown so this is not personal but the question I always get from parents is that why can't we do late um early dismissal on Fridays instead of Thursdays originally when we started this we did do some Fridays I was not actually in this role I was at a school role as an assistant principal um we didn't have students so when the Friday came around and it was supposed to be early release we didn't have students
046and so we had already made all accommodations for we didn't do didn't do related arts we didn't do recess we didn't do anything but instruction during that time so that we made sure that we got our instructional hours in and um we didn't have students to do instruction with because it's an easy way to take an early release and and take off for the weekend so that's that's the truth the honest answer so I'm assuming you may have a little of that now but it's not near as bad as got it's not except for on the day that it's usually we do try to plan one of our um early releases around the fair so we try to make sure of that there's usually a good many early releases on that day but other than
047that we don't have a whole lot of it anybody else right thank you Miss MCAS thank you thank you Miss MC and thank you Mr pry Mr pry has done a amazing job of not only making sure that we grow our programs but we make sure our programs are compliant and uh securing our Partnerships uh so that we can get access to the best uh for our students and as you heard them say many times that we're in linning this with the needs of our state uh these are uh positions that you come out and make a make a lot of money um and help the state in its Economic Development so thank you so much for that and uh last that I have is uh our annual report uh is published uh please uh
048we have one at your seat this is The Unofficial copy uh for you to review great information uh that's within about uh our our district and our Athletics our Arts uh Awards and recognitions that we received financial report uh there just so much uh in that our amazing district is doing uh last year's theme was the growing season and so uh we encourage you to see this this will be uh published in our local hero Lake meray and chapen news uh this Thursday so uh excited for that it'll also be available uh soon thereafter uh in our schools uh and and any partners that would carry this so again uh we're so excited I want to thank the Communications Department uh for collaborating putting all this together I really love the pictures uh and then
049also all of the teams the executive staff all of our divisions for contributing uh to our annual report and so that uh Madame chair that's our D5 story and I stand for any questions do we have any questions for Dr Ross all right thank you that takes us to the approval of the minutes from the February 10th meeting do I have a motion I'd like to make a motion we approve the minutes of the February 10th 2025 board meeting is there a second second all in favor all opposed Kevin are you voting the motion passes six six so the takes us to public participation as we enter public participation I want to remind you that the board welcomes and encourages public participation we respectfully ask that you adhere to the procedures provided in board policy
050BH public participation at meetings your comments should be limited to 3 minutes and must remain on either the topic noted on your sign in form or a listed agenda item questions asked from public participation will be handled in accordance with board policy [Music] BH thank you madam chair we have one speaker tonight um Kim Murphy is here to speak about spending education dollars on construction um good evening uh two items U the hiring of a construction manager for Bond referendum projects and buying land for new elementary school um I T take issue and I believe others if they knew would also with using millions and millions of taxpayer dollars that were collected from us according to your operations budget under the guise of operations for paying our teachers and educating our children instead on construction
051and purchase land there is a revenue stream already being collected from taxpayers that is specific Ally dedicated to pay for those items and other Capital Improvements and any excess tax dollars collected from us uh with the operations millage rate to operate our schools should be spent on that and not shifted to construction number one according to the CFO at the last meeting there will be a shortage of Revenue this current year to operate our schools and it was advised that the district should tax taxpayers even more for operations to make up for that shortfall and so that the district could increase the excess tax dollars left over at the end of the year which is already too much I think it might be $62 million now I have to look at the new um report
052that's just been published if there is a shortfall why not leave the millions that you want to take out of operations to spend on construction in operations so you will have that money instead of taxing us more two a $240 million Bond referendum which will result in a tax increase passed in November to pay for construction in these items why not use that Source instead uh as intended um instead of taking it out for operations where it's needed so you won't have to tax us more three there is a second Revenue stream also specifically dedicated for construction and Capital Improvements and is also being discussed tonight it's called 8% money why would you not use that that Revenue stream instead of taking it out of the pot of money to educate our children why would
053you want to tax us more in operations under the guise of using it for operations to intentionally increase the excess in operations to an even greater amount at the same time pulling that excess money out to use on something else and which I guarantee will be also pulled out to use on construction in the future charging taxpayers for something specific but spending it on something totally different is deceptive based on this one example uh of moving money and lots of others um that have occurred in this school district like the bond referendum and resoning District 5 taxpayers and the education of our children and District 5 could benefit within an organization like Doge District 5 Doge let's got a nice ring I'll volunteer thank you this moves us to our action agenda do we have
054any motions on matters discussed in executive session yes I'd like to make a movement a motion that we approve selected employment items exhibit a second do we have any other motions than yes I'd like to make a motion that we approve contractual matter regarding the purchase of property Exhibit C do I have a second second all oose all in favor all oppos and the motion carries 7 to Z and I'd like to make a motion that we approve contractual matter item e regarding construction management firm exhibit D have a second second all in favor all opposed and the motion carries 7 to zero if we don't have any other motions that carries us to number 13 on the agenda Miss Tucker as she comes do we have a motion I'd like to make a motion
055we approve the first reading of the proposal revision to board policy dka payroll procedures and schedules exhibit F St up M suer do we have any questions from Miss Tucker questions well if we don't have any questions from Miss tuer I'll enter all those in favor all opposed no motions carry 7even to zero oh Miss Tucker is still with us me do we have a motion for exhibit uh make a motion to approve the first reading of proposed revisions to board policy dkc expense authorization reimbursement exhibit G second I have any questions all right all those in favor all opposed motion carries 7 to zero thank you thank you all right that moves us along to our discussion agenda Mr Dr Ross thank you I'm going to ask our our CFO to just be in
056proximity of the podium there as U our director facilities U Alan not comes forward uh we had questions um uh to the administration about the MPS report its history and so before Mr knot comes forward I'd just like to um kind of walk historically about where we are to this point and uh we have uh Jay Glover uh from MPS uh who is also on the line to uh assist us as we talk about uh our bond issuance uh so first I just um before we did the referendum uh we W looked at some guiding principles that would help us in determining uh what were our priorities of the uh referendum and uh we uh presented to the public uh at the October 23rd 2023 board me meeting our facilities condition report this facilities condition
057report was conducted uh by MPS McMillan Pas Smith they published the report on August of 2023 in August of 2023 uh you could see the total of the uh 11,137 items that were identified uh to be over $182 million uh you can see the report here may be hard to look at but they put them in um category rankings from 1 to five just a reminder uh they organized their uh reports of the almost 3.8 million total square feet uh from Health Safety and Security building envelope mechanical electrical and plumbing sight conditions and interior a score of one was extremely worn that was the worst rated all the way to five which was like brand new uh today we emailed you just another copy uh of of that report that identified those 11,000 items uh
058what Mr KNX will tell you is at minimum we were averaging 29 work orders a day in addition to that so this is not a static number uh on the day of its report we added 29 additional things to that and so we're constantly adding to that and so the question is how did we get ahead how do we get our buildings to where they need to be if you look at uh the composite of those items per School the overall campus received a rating a score two uh gave it that orange color the bond referendum was uh designed to take care of those ones and two rated items at those schools that had a composite of a score two is that correct and uh but that left those schools in yellow and blue they
059also had one rated items and two graded items and so um our plan uh in our 5-year Master facilities plan uh was to talk about how to finance these uh we have three sources of revenue the bond referendum which uh pass in November uh gives us a total of $240 million bonds we have our 8% capacity uh and our 8% capacity uh you know um some of is locked up with hero project right now uh but we do uh in our scheduling and amortization of our debt we keep 15 million uh every year for capital projects uh and so Miss Jenny Garis is here to um she's going to talk about the technology side but that's about 4 million of it and then the 11 million uh we use for the facilities uh so we
060also had an opportunity with some callable bonds uh to have another 15 million fall issuance um and look at at Miss Tucker to just make sure I'm saying that right that fall issuance gave us another 15 million and all 15 million of that could go to facilities um and so where did that go we use that to take care of the one and two rated items at those facilities that score three and four you see these on the slide so uh it was estimated that that cost was about $40 million in August of 2023 we're putting 15 million to that that doesn't take care of everything but it gives us a uh gives us our first swing at the problem uh so as a result um we're here tonight uh as we uh talk about
0618% objectives is to address those one and two rated items at the three and four rated fa uh facilities uh so this is uh really an opportunity um to to really go after that number again uh and as the bond referendum is taking care of those facilities that are rated uh to uh so with that as a primer I'll turn it over to our director of facilities operations Mr Allan knot to talk about what we are putting in this year's uh uh Capital uh to address those issues Mr n good evening Madam chair members of the board and Dr Ross tonight we're going to go over the um proposed 20 2026 capital projects first off we'll um start in our technology department I'm G ask Miss Jenny Gars to come up thank you good evening
062I've tried to make this slide very self-explanatory so it lays out um major items and some approximate cost of what we anticipate um Network infrastructure is kind of a vague word sometimes people don't know what that means um right now we're in the process of a switch refresh so we are switching that's in data closets and that's very expensive we've actually been doing that over the course of the last three years and we hope to finish it up this next year um that cost you see there is actually a percentage because we also leverage e- rate funds uh to help with that as well so um other things are pretty self-explanatory a lot of this goes in the classrooms I do like to always point that out our devices um desktops laptops Chromebooks um a
063lot of that goes into to classrooms the interactive panels which if you've been in schools teachers really like those and when we first started replacing those it was as they died they would get a panel and so of course everybody's cheering for their Smartboard to die and we actually finally got to the point about a year and a half ago where we were actually being proactive so now we're replacing proactively obviously something breaks we replace it but we're proactively replacing those in classrooms so um with this uh next round of capital money will continue to do that as well um I do think it's kind of self-explanatory so I'll be glad to stand for any questions on this part um I know that you said that um most of these items here are things that
064are in the classrooms what about these um security cameras they are not in the classroom where are they um designated for specific places already or is just sort of as needed in certain areas so we've worked with our safety office over the past couple years um we've had security cameras in our schools for many many years um the last several years we've very markedly worked with our safety team we've covered exterior entrances we've covered uh large meeting spaces uh where we could have uh large Gatherings of kids um we worked with principles so SRO SA office and principes all have input on where those are and so frankly they're all over the schools inside and out Miss hle um this is not really a question but I guess a a request for the board to
065to talk about it at another meeting and that's Chromebooks for our youngest children um I get so many concerns from parents about kid the youngest children mainly K through three um and I was talking to somebody at um I think it was one of the Spartanburg I think there's they eliminating those for the youngest children but the concerns that I hear from parents are um too much screen time children can't write as le legibly as they used to be able to write and um and from older kids that because they started using a Chromebook before they were taught how to type they learned to type in correctly and it's very hard to fix so I would just ask that before and I know it won't make a huge dent in the budget and I know
066that there's testing issues I know all that but I I would just like to ask the board that before we've got a couple months here that that we seriously talk about um the Chromebooks particularly for age K through K K4 all the way through third grade I don't think four year olds do use them do they so it would be K5 through third grade um if I can say that amount there for Kos we actually have a Uhl a cycle we actually purchase those for third grade and eighth grade so we don't purchase specifically for grades one and two we actually roll down the used Chromebooks when the eighth graders and the seniors turn them in so we purchase for third grade and eth grade with the expectation that the student would keep that device
067for five years and you're right there's testing involved um from third grade on up e-learning from third grade on up so that's why we developed the cycle we did with third grade and eighth grade um and like I said for first and second and a lot of teachers in uh K1 and two are opting not to send them home daily they're in the classroom and so I won't speak on the instructional side Mrs mccal can surely do that but um it really is something that instructionally I think teachers are really working hard to make that a balance so Mr saterfield then Mr bam then Mr yeah I know that years ago we had a sort of a cycle we would replace computers is the shelf life better or shorter now I don't know what they
068used before I would our cycle is about five years so for Teacher laptops staff laptops we do about a fiveyear cycle desktops because they don't move around so much we go six to seven years and we're purchasing less and less desktops all the time because most people want a laptop to be mobile well my second question is it that um I know when we were going through the cycling of replacing computers we were just tossing the old ones in the back of a truck we don't do that anymore no sir we don't and we presented on that I think a year so I'll be glad to bring that back the next presentation if you want to we talk about the recycling um and we do kind of a buyback program so when we turn those
069devices back in so to speak we get a buyback and we get a credit towards purchasing the next round well my question was and these were different computers obviously but uh we had an advanced class at one school and they would clean the computers and then students could purchase them for a very minimal amount so for those students who didn't have computers at home they would have access I didn't know if that is a reasonable thing to look at or we've looked at that before um from a procurement standpoint we've kind of stayed away from that and we do give every kid a Chromebook now so not having a device really isn't the issue um I will say one thing we also do with some of our older devices as we pass those on to
070the classes here at the Kate Center and some of the middle schools and high schools that have computer classes and that way they can take them apart see the inside put them back together um the same with our switches as we're doing the switch refresh um we've given a lot of our old switches which really they're still functional they're just getting aged and um don't have the security level that we need to keep up for our large infrastructure and we've given those to the cyber security class and Mr Johnson here at the Kate Center um and he they've loved it so they can do all kinds of things they can learn to patch and program and they really enjoy those so we try to put those back in hands when we can good for you
071thank you man this may be for um both of y'all so with the increased um data load Wi-Fi loads from all the cameras and the the Chromebooks with the older schools that maybe not we're built around this do we have maybe sort of adaptive cooling methods that we're using to take the load off of the hvc systems because that'll burn HVAC up quick uh yeah our data closets can burn up a lot of heat and get really hot and so we work really well with our facilities and our HVAC team when we start to see the switches get hot we get alerts and they're really good at responding quickly to that so that we keep them cool it is a challenge in our older schools absolutely because most of those are retrofitted with data data
072closets and so we have some that are not in optimal places for cooling or even for Safety and Security security more than safety I guess it's not really where kids can get them but um when they're retrofitted like that it's difficult so if you go to Piney Woods for example that data closet is just for data closet it has a badge reader on it only certain Personnel can get in and that's that's optimal well do you see at some of the older schools that aren't you know designed for that do you see some of the the servers and and whatnot burning out sooner than they should we haven't had any burnout because we do get alarms and alerts we have everything set up on there but we have had some closed calls where we've had
073to get there quickly get fans in there you know fans blow in to pull the hot air out and so on yeah um on with the Chromebooks I noticed that it has the 1 point1 to8 million for Chromebooks and then the laptops is that because does it say laptops because it's not the Google Chrome system or why is it separated the laptops are are really more for staff those are Windows laptops yeah HP Windows laptops and then the Chromebooks are for students gotcha thank you do we have any other questions thank you before uh Miss Garis takes a seat I do want to congratulate her to her staff um just going back to what Mr sell said about students working um a student that she is kind of groomed uh worked uh in the technology
074office in the summer fixing uh computers fixing the Chromebooks is now the um the district um support employee of the year so so just to show you that our students can start right here and then end up working for us and then be celebrated districtwide so um she he was in that rotation of making that work happen in the summer but thank you sorry Mr knot so here are the the five categories um from the MPS report and as we started to build our capital for the year actually for the last two years we started um you we wanted to have every category and then we wanted groups in in a category to um to allow funding to address some of the needs that we've we' found throughout the NPS reports so um you know
075as we've seen before is health safety security building envelope mechanical electrical Plumbing some of youall May refer to it as MEP sight conditions and then the Interiors here's where we have broken down each category into the various groups um and we we've added um where some of the schools are um going to get some you know funds for let's say the the bidirectional amplifier that was not on the MPS report but that was um something that came through the fire marshall so some of these items that we're seeing as NPS report related other items are things that we have received um some requests to get some some deficiencies corrected through our local ahjs and then um we've also seen some items that that have popped up uh over the last year through our work order
076system that we definitely need to address so again you know we're going over like like with the MP um one of the our biggest group at that hbac we know that we have bunch of units that we have to replace um with the amount of units that we have within the entire District uh there's a certain amount for us to stay or try to reach that 15-year lifespan or to keep everything as close to that as possible uh we have to make that investment back into the [Music] buildings in addition to that is the um the overall automation controls I know I was walking through one of the schools and um we're looking for the thermostat one day and they were like it's right there on the wall I'm like where I see an intercom
077and they're like no that's the you know the thermostat and thermostat's about this big I'm like wow that's pretty interesting I've never seen that myself so we know that we have some Antiquated systems within the building automation by having those upgraded will allow us to um be able to dial in temperatures a little bit more and um also improve our setbacks which which is going to help us with our overall reduction in energy consumption uh site Paving I do want to cover one thing that you know there's a big ticket item in there it's 1.1 million uh we do know that we have found out and I think over the last year or so that we have some some things that we need to address over at um over at Crossroads so uh we have
078some Retention Ponds and and we have some um some drainage issues that we're we're getting some estimates for uh right now they're rather expensive and then we go over the the Interiors um we know that schools as as we start moving to this we have schools that definitely need to be paint or need U may need a refresh with paint uh in addition to that we may need some internal signages um that just throughout the years or you you may have a somebody may have a paper sign or something like that we need to get to a district standard signage as as we move forward um we've also um put some additional money in there for flooring this year and Furniture uh as we uh start the transition to the middle schools uh and this
079year we've also added a new line item that we haven't had in the past is for the band instruments we need to stay on a rotation the cycle for for the band uh so that's another thing that we added this year as of like last year we had I think $250,000 for our um activity bus the maintenance the vehicle cameras and the GPS systems that we're trying trying to put on all the district Vehicles so that brings us up to the $1 million for the overall Capital Improvements do we have any questions from Mr not Mr banham on the I don't know you'll know the specifics on this but on the furniture districtwide um there's a lot of teacher work rooms in especially in our high schools and then the um teacher desks in the
080classroom that need replacement not repair or replacement um that 750,000 is that kind of just like a budgeted number that you're anticipating needs or do you have specific requests it it it is a budgeted number but we also know just like with heating and air units these these um the the furniture and the desk they don't last forever you know you get a little bit of water on it and and then you're going to have some issues um so we're trying to allocate money every year so we can go through and get to a district standard of U table and chairs that way the facilities Department can maintain that a little easier and then if we have U some stock of of a chair or table whatever it may be and one school needs it
081we can you know pretty easily Shuffle stuff around to meet the need okay and then the last thing was um I was trying to see which tab it may be under but there's um I believe two high schools and one middle school and it may be addressed in the bot ref referendum as well um their signage out front their main signs they're damaged or or inoperable or just need replac is that something that's through this or Bond referendum so we we've actually had um we actually have several of the Marques that are in the process of being um being replaced there's a um you know going through the whole design element making sure that we have um the you know the the design that meets the needs of the district but then in addition to
082that we need you know we might need more power so that's something we've run into um you know an opportunity is to to get the the correct power to that to that site so there are several of them that we are working through yes sir of course I'm going to ask about the band instruments right I'm just curious is that for band and Orchestra or just allocated specifically for band yep thank you Mr Herring um so with the million dollars that the board approved for us to to um buy band and orchestra instruments this year we were able to buy everything that was on orchestra's wish list and buy about a 35% of what band needed and so we put this back in here to put band back in the rotation so we can get
083to starting replacing those instruments on a every fiveyear cycle or get that back in the cycle and so we hope that this will continue to add to the the money that was already allocated from the board since Orchestra won't be for next year since we were able to get everything but band we want to start making sure that they get caught up and then have it in that rotation moving forward um I've gotten questions I don't know if this is a he question but maybe it's something that we come back to but seeing the um playground fall surface replacement jog my memory that I had gotten a couple of parent complaints questions about um playground equipment and some of it's because maybe they moved from one parent specifically I can remember um they bought a
084new house so they moved from the Dutch Fort cluster to the herl cluster so at the elementary school that they're at now there's like not really any playground equipment they just kind of stand around um you know simple things like they don't even have you know balls or whatever I don't know but um I know in the grand scheme of things um to some it might seem like a minor thing but so many parents bring it up and so at some point and you talked about putting things in just made me think about it that um I'd love at some point too if we could do kind of an assessment of the schools just so that everybody kind of has you know usable equipment so so that that was a part of The NPS and
085then also in addition to that um every year we select a couple schools to go through an assessment with our insurance group and they actually look and they assess the condition of the playground equipment and the and the fall surface um you know so I think every year we're going to have something that's going to need to be addressed at every every playground that made me think of of something and it's it's more request and that is and it's not just Capital it's also operating but and I know every school's a little bit different but it would it it's we had a last year we had an elementary school is PTO raised $50,000 and I'm like what in the world do you need $50,000 for and we had another one that only raised $ 10,000
086and that's really sad to me and as a board member I get asked well why isn't the district I mean we had $7 million left over last year I think roughly why aren't we paying for that and and I can't answer the question partly because I don't know what the standard is you know and so is is the stand I guess that's my question really is as a district is there a standard to which we should be funding the playgrounds the art supplies whatever for all of our schools is that so is you know is is there a standard and and and then is there a a rule or a law policy on what pto's can buy can get in addition to that and that may be Dr Ross question we put them on the
087spot uh I think the to I want to separate the question is the operational and then the the the capital so I think it's probably easier to handle the capital side first on Capital there there is um no standard because we are built out at different different times so for instance playgrounds I can tell you like a a playground at dut Fork Elementary School uh and the playground at Pineywoods um would not be a standard I I I do share the same concern learn um when you know you look at um and I'm not trying to call any any group out but parent PTO involvement at certain sites are extremely powerful and they raise a lot of money uh and then at other sites it's really hard to get parents to be involved let those
088uh raise those funds I think the struggle we have is denying that one site to say no you cannot put that program or that that that covering or that new playground addition into your school because it's not it's not um here uh all of our operational funds are zero based budget so uh it would require uh whether it's it's fund balance assignment or uh a funding Amendment uh we don't have a a slush fund of money to rebalance those things on the on the capital side in operations um I think the the standard again um uh with the the school supplies um we we generally uh it is class by class it's a very class subject specific piece uh so it's um I couldn't say that every teacher receives this now we do know that
089the state gives uh school supply money to everyone but uh our operational funds uh it is not standardized because we allow the principles to meet the program needs of each school so uh I think to to as we look forward if we were building all at one time we would say hey this is going to be the standard I I will say in my case uh we had a uh parent group um donated a $750,000 scoreboard uh but it was only going to be at one site and there was there was not enough funds for the other two schools to get a $750,000 um School Board uh it was very hard to be honestly speaking to deny that Community what they wanted to donate uh because the other two don't don't have it so that
090is something that we grapple with what I do think and we brought this up is that we would like to align our five-year Capital program with our our fiveyear strategic plan and we would kind of do it like Title 9 does it Title 9 says if there's disparities you have X amount of time to get your disparities within within line our new strategic plan. Harris starts 2027 28 so what we would like to do is uh start looking at all the unspent capital all any contingencies roll that up and then take that to the board within inst strategic plan to say what can we do with this so we are on a fiveyear rotation it's in line with our board policy of five years uh but to get a systematic um uh schedule so that
091as we look to move towards a more standardized position uh we would have the funds to do so so uh there is no kind of slush fund of let's make this up in the middle of the year but if we look at aligning our five-year Capital plan with our fiveyear strategic plan and we would now have the venue to start to to make gains there so U I hope that answer your question um Dr Ross and Allan one of you can answer this do schools still principal still submit their Capital request every year they have um I I'll be the bad guy here Allan we've asked them to submit their Capital we did tell them that the MPS report would be our goal of of fixing that I think um and Heather can correct me
092if I'm wrong I think for historically we've looked at our our Capital uh as a special projects pot where we could do a playground here or um you know a new uh activity room there but we really need to start looking at it as our maintenance po yeah uh maintaining our uh and you see I mean yeah some of our facilities needs a good old scrub down wash up refresh um and so if we don't come up with a philosophy uh to miss Huddle's point you know what is our what is our our our policy or procedure on that on maintenance we're going to keep getting behind the eightball so um we are looking at some industry standards of maintenance cost per square foot um but if we look at our operating budget um I
093think all of maintenance is maybe 3% of that budget if that um so it is that's not enough to to get us um out of that situation so we have to reframe now that 8% money that 15 million we know Jenny's going to take 4 million off the top so with that 11 I mess with that 11 we really got to use that to maintain our things uh so we asked them Let's Get The NPS report taken care of before we look at other things but uh I'll yield the floor because I know you were all front line with the principles there if you wanted to add anything I I will say I met with all the principles to talk about their operating and their Capital requests and the majority of their Capital requests are
094things that were in The NPS study it was HVAC it was roof leaks it was new paint it was new flooring it was you know remove the lockers cuz we're moving to a middle school I mean it was things that we kind of already knew about um so there weren't many that were outside of that realm there was a few odds and ends here there for special projects but it was majority MPS study identified items yeah the reason I asked I know in the old days every principal at every school Jason was asking about furniture at one particular school um every principal had to assess their facility of their Furnishings maybe a robotics lab or something that they wanted to add to their school and then but there was a li Li mited amount of
095money available I mean if there was $115,000 then or $15 million um I mean you could go and outfit every put new playgrounds and uh fall services or furniture and pretty soon you're just out of money and so um I'm glad that to see how things are going now because it used to be all the principles would look at each other in the eye and we'd have to vote on who got what and uh and all of them were important but like Dr Ross said is um over the years uh we sort of got behind and so somebody wasn't getting what they they might need and somebody else maybe had a greater need where they felt like they had a greater need um but uh it's hard to get ahead of the game but you
096don't want to get so far behind that you're constantly trying to play catchup do we have any other questions all right thank you that brings us um to the last item on the agenda which is the discussion of the board um workshop and the um survey that was in the packet so y'all know we are meeting on Friday um just to discuss um our priorities for the year um the evaluation that is included um is intended for discussion we're open I'm open um to feedback and even if you have thoughts um about something that maybe we need to ask that is left off I know there were some questions around um why we were doing um a self evaluation um it's a couple of um purposes the questions that are in the evaluation are reflective
097of things that are already listed in our board policy under um member conduct is not intended to um be a slight to to any of us by any means um it really is intended to help us um um self-reflect on kind of where we stand as a board individually which things we understand well which things we may feel we need you know Improvement on um I'm not trying to start a fight so I'm not asking us to evaluate each other just you know do a self assessment um from that um once you receive this I'm not getting your responses so I'm not going to know what Elizabeth says or what Scott says this is really intended for you to self-reflect but the importance of it is for us for me to have sort of a
098rating system of where do we stand on certain things and so you know if we voted low on oh pick on Dr Ross cuz he I hope he wouldn't take it personal but like it's let's say for number 13 where it talks about you know what we get full do we give full authority to superintendent if half the board is on the you know is it on negative with that then that's something we need to discuss as a board why is that do we think he needs to be doing something different what is your feedback and so um we can only get better if we understand who we are what our roles are what our responsibilities are so that's the reason that I am graciously asking everyone to participate in the survey um other things
099um in the board Workshop um also um in addition to this we're asking each of you to list your top three priorities for the upcoming year when we leave the workshop we will not have 21 top priorities because that's not realistic we you know we want to have an attainable goal um so we want to see do you know a lot of us have things that overlap that we think um are important maybe have someone has something that they think is important and nobody else has thought about but it gives us an opportunity to have just good conversation about those things which I think is important as we look at um preparing for a new year and look at going into setting our budget for the year and again if we can come together as
100a team and figure out our priorities I'm hoping that it'll help us just sort of reach some of the goals um as we move forward and I am open the floor for discussion questions feedback Miss I'm not shy um well I first of all I was I was very kind of confused when I got this because I thought we were having a budget Workshop but I guess we're it's a broader than that now um I guess one I mean the the self- evaluation thing was really weird to me and it when I saw that and usually we get like a document on the front like I mean I mean where' that come from like what whose idea was it to do that well I thought so it's a twofold um a big piece of it
101is you are correct you are correct we are doing it's hard I like to look at people I'm talking them but we are doing um a part of the budg of the workshop is to do our budget but you know in full disclosure as a chair I think that also as we work on our goals and and we need to know I I want to be a more cohesive board um I want us to mesh and by mesh I don't mean get along on everything but I do mean um you know kind of understanding what our roles are um I picked on Dr Ross I'll pick on Mr bam like we've had some conversation and he's asked me you know some questions and I thought you know maybe we should have made sure like people
102know this when they come on the board because that's a question that I also had um or something that I also didn't understand or know about um when I started and so that also was a part of our thought process um with the evaluation which is why I kind of use the example of you know for some of this we may not even think about what we know um or don't know until some of this is put in front of us well I did look through it all and I I I'd like to if it's hard share the some suggestions I have yep that's the point of this I mean quite frankly I would probably just take off for a um we have a policy it says I think it's pretty clear we ought to
103read our policy if and there's a process in there and clearly if if someone thinks they're they're not going to say well I'm not doing this I mean that's just hear what question uh for a the the self- evaluation I just I think it's kind of silly I just don't I don't think anybody's going to admit that they have poor conduct um and we have a process for that if we think the process is flawed then it it could come in under um suggesting new policy so just my feedback um I I would drop that and put it now the the second one is um is real interesting I I brought this up last year and I'm just going to bring it up again um goals are measurable and if you look at those goals
104they are not measurable um those are are what I would call um objectives so I mean if if we really want to um focus on goals I I think we should we should change those entirely and talk about measurable goals just my own two cents um and it and and really look at them for example I couldn't find the words academic Excellence anywhere in there which I would think you know would be one of our goals um and have a measure on that um you know a big part of the board is was um accountability um and there wasn't much in there on that okay um so you know again I would just like to see us adopt goals objective goals um I think the policy section is very worthwhile I think the budget section
105is is honestly putting a cart before the horse and getting in the weeds I think that until you have your goals set you can't really talk about where your budget goals are and I think most of that should be led by the superintendent if the superintendent knows what the board's goals are then they can come back with a budget and say Here's how I think this budget aligns with your goals well and that's what I was antici anticipating that our goals would help lead that conversation so I could have stated that differently and I may know have your feedback do we have any other feedback Mr bam two items just a little note on um under the board evaluation the board policy accountability commitment to accomplishment um number four we promote effective communication we're not
106allowed to communicate officially as board members it would have to come from the administration and then number six um we provide for the development and implementation of Bo short all that um for board meetings we're presented with what the administrator wants Administration wants and we just have to vote y or n we're not allowed to develop anything so just from our Viewpoint that's all anybody else if nobody else I I'm just kind of piggybacking on that okay um a lot of other public bodies um some school boards some County Council City councils they have a kind of standing place in the budget where um each member is given a chance to talk about their um an item that they would like to see on the agenda and if we really want to come together as
107a as a more cohesive group I think that that would help and and that could be part of policy uh there's a policy on the agenda um but just throw that out there giving members at least one item on the agenda okay anybody else okay I'm sorry but I was confused by Mr Bam's last comment about number four would you say that again you reference in the Comm communication yes it just as far as like just for instance any communication officially we're not allowed to communicate as the board it would come from the administration they're the representation of the district I I actually don't think that's true if you read the policy it says regarding board meetings so if a member of the press were to ask us about what happened at this meeting I
108think Miss Snipes is the only one um under policy but then you also this is why I think these need to be talked about you know is honestly I'd wonder if if that's First Amendment right there I mean can you really have a policy that muzzles someone I just don't read it as being communication from the board I read it as our District employees students parents and Guardians and community members are communicating not the board so I'm not really sure that that would violate any kind of policy just keep it up the notes anybody else anything else for the good of the workshop all right well looks like that brings us to the end of the meeting did I have a motion Madam chair I have a motion that we adjourn this meeting at 8:35
109p.m. I have a second second all in favor all opposed and the motion carries 6 to zero thank you y'all have a good night