August 5, 2024 School Board Meeting

001e leave e e e I'd like to call to order our August 5th 2024 board meeting do I have a motion to approve the agenda Mr Hogan make a motion to approve the agenda do I have a second Miss snipe seconded uh any discussion Mr Dr Ross you have discussion no okay all right I will call for the vote all in favor that motion carries six to zero uh do I have a motion to enter executive session Mr Hogan I make the motion to enter executive session to consider the following a selected employment items exhibit a for Action B selected employment items exhibit B information only C discussion of proposed sale of property SE Department of Transportation acquisition request due to US Route 76 Brad River Road widening Exhibit C and D contractual matter regarding

002professional development services exhibit D do have a second Miss snipe seconded any discussion seeing none I will call for a vote all in favor that motion carries 6 to zero we will adjourn for executive session and return at 7 p.m. e e e I'd like to call to order our August 5th 2024 board meeting um and welcome everyone here we're looking forward to a brand new school year starting hopefully this week um we will kick off the meeting with our invocation and our Pledge of Allegiance from trusty Mike saterfield Mr saterfield thank you ma'am if we'll bow our heads please dear God as we step into the unknown of this new school year we turn to you with Open Hearts bless us with your wisdom Grace and enduring love protect our children as we strive

003to educate them socially emotionally and academically be with each educator parent Community member and with this school board as we work together for the good of all students may your light shine upon our paths Illuminating our way forward grant us the strength to face the challenges the humility to learn and the compassion to love and we have mercy Mercy peace and love be yours in abundance amen if we'll stand and say the Pledge please all right that brings us to number eight on our agenda which is the school board Spotlight Dr Ross and Miss Taylor Miss Taylor all right thank you madam chair members of the board Dr Ross good evening we are celebrating tonight obviously the start of a new school year um this year so far we welcomed our faculty and staff back

004to school on Thursday they have enjoyed a lot of team building activities in the schools and today began their professional development training and so we are looking forward to a great year with all of them and then on Friday we had our kickoff celebration we heard speeches from our district support employee of the year District teacher of the year we recognized Miss Wanda Pearson of Crossroads Intermediate School for 44 continuous years of service to School District 5 as well as Mr Steve Kaine of our District Operations staff for 42 years of continuous service to School District 5 we heard Dr Ross's vision for this year and definitely uh we've gotten this year off on the right foot so we thank all of you who were able to be with us on Friday for our celebration

005we thank you madam chair for your inspirational message that you gave and um just looking forward to a great year we are really looking forward to getting our students back on Thursday and hoping this weather holds off so they can come and um with that I will thank you thank you very much thank you Miss Taylor and that brings us to um our superintendent report Dr Ross thank you madam chair trustees as um wanted to say that we are monitoring the uh conditions from the tropical uh system of storm of Debbie uh we have a meeting with Emergency Management um and superintendent tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. uh and so after that meeting we'll meet with our principles and make sure that we message if there are any uh changes to the schedule out to our

006public uh with as much time as possible so I just wanted to make that uh make that update as always we are a system Guided by three critical questions why do we do this work our vision how do we accomplish that Vision our mission and then what are our outcomes and meetings like this serve as feedback to ensure that we're aligned to our vision which is we love and grow our students our mission which is focused on the academic social emotional growth and development of our students and then our outcomes our outcomes are measured by our strategic plan goals we have 24 of uh the strategies aligned to the four goals our Focus this year is on improving the system uh at our kickoff uh rally on Friday we talked about ways of identifying uh

007ways that we can make our system more effective and the only way that we can do that is together so growing together becomes our theme um as indicated we have three major priorities as an Administration this year uh the first one is supporting the classroom that's both the teachers and the students and their needs in the classroom uh we will talk about a lot of different changes that are going on to education as teachers are coming back uh they are receiving a lot of information of all of the new updates and as well as the their new student roster so supporting the classroom needs U I want to thank you for U basically your feedback to understanding just within the academic um needs of a class how varied those are and how much those teachers

008need those supports as always uh we are focusing on teacher retention and recruitment uh as Dr wicker brought our plans and our Partnerships uh to you in terms of our what we're doing for Teacher attention but also working on appreciation and uh recognition of our teachers and last uh we are living in a time of constant change change is the reality it's happening faster and faster and uh part of our five-year facilities plan is really ensuring that uh we thrive in that change so making sure that our students are in a safe healthy and productive uh I think if we look look at uh the future of work in College and Career Readiness it's really about making sure we are in a safe healthy but also a productive learning environment are we preparing our students

009for their Futures which is becoming more and more different from our past so at this time I'd like to update on a new environment that we have in our community now uh at chapen high school so I'm going to ask Mr wisman Dave wisman our executive director of operations to come forward and talk about the chap and High School stadium project Mr Wiman good evening Madam chairman members of the board not d ross members of the community thank you for me allowing me a few minutes to talk about the chapen high school project uh as you know it's been almost a year and a half since we started this project just to kind of take you back to what it was uh this is what we started with in about March of 20 2022 with

010uh the renderings and the and the plan on site but this is just the old stadium and what you'll see is a a really different look as we begun the process the goal was to make sure that we had enough seating for the five uh triaa 4A uh Stadium 5A uh stadium seating which is at least 5,000 right now I think the count is that we're at 5,777 if my math is right uh but we started with the visitor side put in additional uh seating on there and then we moved over to uh the Press Box they tore it down they started remodeling it from the ground up and this is just a a distant view of it you can see how the colors uh kind of pop on you as we get closer this

011is from A View From the Inside looking over to the visitor seating the blue uh seating in front of you are the booster club seatings that provided there are 36 of those seats so uh then that's as we get closer to the Press Box uh you can see the blue and the the stairs on the outside and this uh floor right here is the multi-purpose room we'll be outfitting that with some chairs and uh tables and stuff to provide services for the school and other folks and this is the view of the Press Box itself and I actually went up to the fifth floor and took that other picture and if you uh if you're fainted heart you may not want to go up there uh even an old guy like me was a little

012bit hesitant about getting up there but it's really safe and it's uh it's a beautiful view you can see most the chaping from that view but as you can see you've got two rows of windows one for the Press Box on the top which is depending on who you talk to is the third floor or the fourth floor uh I think the engineers are calling that the third floor and then the uh the class right above the seating is the multi-purpose firm so you'll be able to see a lot of good views from both of those areas and we were working with the the uh booster club last week Friday working on getting the sound system and everything in place we went up there looked at it today they've got a lot of it moved

013over we're meeting tomorrow to go talk about Connections uh and then we have a OSF briefing uh meeting on the 7th for the inspection which requires us to make sure that we have uh the fire alarms that when you pull them it shuts off the the PA system so that they can make announcements so we're we're working through those details and right now on August 16th we're planing our planning our ribbon cutting at 4:30 pending any questions any questions Miss huddle um so correct me if I'm wrong but are there any are the restrooms or the con anything else change besides the Press Box and the seating uh well we've done some work on the Fieldhouse they separated some of the or improved some of the the restroom facilities inside the Fieldhouse yes ma'am and

014the concession stand is now on the first floor um it's completely uh usable now I think we're going to use it try to use it on the 16th I know the jambur that day so I think it's operational now might need to do a little touchups but as of Friday when I was in that area cleaning up putting in some tables and stuff for them to operate on it's it's pretty functional so they got a new concession area place to store their food and it's also where the uh sports store is going to go the chap store any other questions for Mr wisman all right thank you Mr thank very much excuse me as our teachers return we are now preparing uh for uh some of the provisos and legislation updates um and I want

015to um as we go through these just and keep in mind with as we work with our teachers they're coming back to a lot of updates from everything from bloodborne pathogens and uh class rosters and um uh student uh records to things of uh reading training or we call it it's called letters and new standards so there's a lot of training a lot of update we have some Grace uh with our teachers as they learn these but we want to uh bring these forward to you to show what we are messaging out to our teachers and staff so uh I want to start with some of the legal updates and we'll have our our chief of student servic and planning Dr Harris to come forth good uh good evening to uh Madam chair members of

016the board Dr Ross Community persons who are viewing from online I wanted to take this approach tonight as we look at these legal updates is to talk a little bit about State provider 1.20 which is about student privacy give a little background in terms of it as it relates to the Comprehensive Health Education Act and then also give some highlights if you would regarding the federal law and secondly would address the state provisor 1.13 anti-bullying and school safety and then follow up with um our next steps uh in next steps here in School District 5 so when you think about the Comprehensive Health Education Act that essentially if we can sum it up in one word is really about gender and so I wanted to highlight that and start there and start there with by

017way of some uh background you can't read probably some of that from uh from the person behind me so I try to go through some of that and I won't read that word for word but I'll give a pretty good highlight I believe of what that says this particular act has its own code section uh 59 3236 and it simply says this there two parts of this uh act item a says that a nurse counselor teacher principal or other official or staff at a public school which is essentially any of us who are uh members or staff of a particular School District shall not knowingly do one of two things either one of the two things and that is one shall not knly encourage or in coers a minor or a student to withhold uh

018information regarding their perception of their gender uh which is inconsistent with their his or her sex we we cannot coers or encourage a student to withhold that from their parents but part two of that is is that we ourselves those same persons that are listed above nurse counselor teacher principal or other staff member cannot withhold that information from the parents ourselves so in other words if Michael wants to be called Michelle or if Michelle in vice versa Michelle wants to be called Michael then we cannot encourage students not to share that with their parents nor can we not share that with parents ourselves uh knowingly but part two of that which is kind of highlighted in red is an addition uh and it simply talks about the fact that a principal when we know that

019a principal vice principal or counselor at a public school must uh in fact notify in writing immediately the parents when the student simply asserts that they have a perception that their gender is inconsistent with their biological sex and or if a student requests uh that they have address um uh themselves by a particular pronoun or title so again if Michael wants to be called Michelle or Michelle Michael or be preferred as a he he prefers to be called her or her be preferred to call him that information has to be notified now immediately and right to parents that's kind of a new portion of that these things we're currently doing here in School District 5 I'll I'll simply say this page here I'll sum it up by saying that it's all about training uh as

020it relates to that particular um comprehensive Education Act it's about training and professional development that we have done and contined to provide ongoing as recent as today uh as we met with our school counselors uh to make certain that we are all on the same page and operating on the same sheet of music uh another portion thing that I highlight on this particular page that Russell didn't we didn't get a chance to talk about this though uh confirm it rather is that we have a vector system that's available at the start of the Year where all of our staff will go online to look at different um um um bits of information whether it's oosha training or what have you this is one of the additions that we now have thanks to uh technology for

021assisting with that uh that all of our staff in School District 5 will now go through this information understand this particular Education Act as well as the provisor that's attached to it that I'll get to in a second and sign off that they have received read and understood that so that is something that all of us would be made aware of as it relates to this particular information so with that having been said there is that Proviso which talks about uh student privacy again I'm going to highlight this because there's a lot of verbiage on that so I'm going to highlight that and simply and raise Point Raise maybe perhaps two points you see green and red there what those green and red simply say that they are essentially definition they are defining uh what

022chain uh changing facilities are what restrooms are uh what sleeping quarters in both sections of that green or red it highlights what that means and what they mean by that when those terms are being used overnight field trips are another example but I want to bring to your attention that in this this particular State Proviso that it item A3 which talks about sex it says sex it means a person's biological sex I want to emphasize that at the state provisor of biological sex and it also indicates that uh school districts are uh who violate the Proviso are subject to financial penalties and so that is another point that I wanted to highlight this is fairly new to us we again providing training professional development our sta to ensure that all of us are duly aware

023of that and that's what the the state advises of us and that's what uh that it's based on biological sex on the one hand that's what we're having to address a student by his bi but then there's the federal law which talks about the identify how the student identifies so we have the biological exx by state and then we have the federal law which talks about identification uh how the student and that's found there in that that case called grim in GL GL glester County School Board uh which was uh within the fourth Circuit Court of Appeals whereby it basically indicates that a school board says hey okay Mike Harris we recognize that you were born a male and that you're going to use the bathrooms ACC coding to your biological sex however in doing

024so that particular School Board violated that student's Title Nine rights uh though there were court orders though there were mended birth certificates and and all information that was provided uh that particular school district and this Grim case uh did in fact discriminate on the basis of sex as it relates to Title Nine so what is the takeaway here in School in South Carolina in particular uh but namely here as we talk about School District 5 what is the takeaway with that particular federal law is that this the bottom line as is highlighted in blue that we must allow transgender students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identities uh that's federal law vers versus biological sex which is state law as well as amended records that go along with that I bring that up

025for this particular purpose and I wanted to highlight State versus Federal because I think it's important that you as a board know and are very keenly aware and I think it's important that the community knows that again we got a state level Proviso we also have a federal level provisor both have penalties on on both sides somewhere in the middle is where school districts called betwix and in between and that's where we have to live there and so we're having to find ways in which to uh support our students and support families when we're having to look at both state and federal different laws and so what do we do that page simply talks about the fact that we rest and we believe very strongly about the relationships that we have with our students and

026our families the communication that we have established and that ongoing communication that's established with the those students and those families and this district and administrators are hard at work ensuring that the communication continues to flow and that the relationships and the bridges that are are being built uh buying between schools school systems and families are continue to uh stand and stand very strong stand very firm so we're acknowledging the law uh we're relying very very heavily on the support plans that again supports and uh emphasizes and highlights and Depends very heavily on the relationships and the communications and certainly by based on the requests that are made by the students and families themselves as we do that as we anticipate uh greatly anticipate the the the um um connections hopefully uh the bridge that being

027built between state and federal law we certainly look forward to that it's important to know that it's uh uh that this is done because this actually while it is a bit of a conundrum for a school system for School District 5 and while there are several questions that we rais among ourselves and with legal counsel this process actually works for us it's working for us in the interim and we wanted to highlight that for you the next provisor is that the per U personal personal electronic device that's the next provisor that we have here and that simply says this to us and this it's term provisor 1.13 anti-bullying uh School saf safy this too has uh funding um um uh rece anyone who receiving funding funds allocated to the state aid to uh classrooms uh

028talks about the pro prohibition of access to personal electronic communication devices by students during the school day we are greatly anticipating and waiting on guidance greater guidance other than the four or five lines that we have here from our state um recognizing that on January 1 this becomes law so what do we do August um 8th between August 8th and January 1 we've had we we're in a position School District are in a position of trying to determine how do we Implement how do we apply what do we do in the meantime essentially for the first semester of the school year and what we've landed on is this had an opportunity to meet with all of our administrators at the elementary Intermediate Middle School and High School levels and and one thing that resonated throughout

029all of those conversations and those meetings is the fact that well we could simply do nothing we could just simply rest sit still and do nothing or we can simply uh wait until January to see what we do and just kind of go cold turkey in the middle of the Year decide that we're going to change very abruptly a policy or Implement a policy or law January 1 that's going to be a major challenge to do that in the middle of the school year what we've learned landed on is that we have a policy currently that at least gives us some guidance in the interim it's a policy that at least gives some support for administrators in the interim it's a policy that at least gives some uh uh uh suggested consequences uh or discipline

030if you will in the interim as we wait for the policy from our school boards Association and or the law January 1 whichever comes first again I note that we are anti greatly anticipating early August as we've been told that this perhaps a sco of model policy will come forward so as we look at the in terms of our current policy uh the activation implementation of the current policy uh again building those strong Partnerships with our parents to assist us as we continue over this first semester to educate U provide awareness uh teaching opportunities taking advantage of teaching moments those are the kind of things that we have decided in terms of an Administration throughout the school system at all levels that that is what we do as opposed to doing nothing or as opposed

031to waiting till January to start to do something in the middle of the school year uh I think that gets us at least 50 perhaps even 75% of the way of what we anticipate is forthcoming uh if we continue to activate the current policy that we have what I think okay that was my last page so with that we'll conclude I I'm certainly I will be glad to respond in the question that you might have but but I have attempted to give you uh a very quick highlight uh regarding provisor 1.1 120's uh student privacy as well as state provisor 1.13 uh anti-bullying and uh school safety yes thank you Dr Harris I'm gonna actually start I have a couple of questions um regarding uh some of your slides on the Proviso 1.12 Z on

032the student physical privacy um I know that you're mentioning that there and there is a battle between the the federal Proviso and the state Proviso but haven't we been directed by our state superintendent of education and by our attorney general that South Carolina is not following that Proviso and that I I feel like some of your slide might be in contradiction of what the advice from our state official are telling school districts I mean directly to us boys are going into boys' bathrooms girls are going into girls bathrooms we're not having that conversation and I feel like our District's policy already has that in place I just want to make sure we're not creating confusion because right now it kind of sounds like we're being told that we need to follow the federal Proviso which

033is highly controversial which I mean the whole subject is highly controversial but from where I'm I'm sitting we're a South Carolina School District not getting wrapped up in federal drama and politics and we've been directed by the people that you know control us that we don't follow that so I just well let me let me off let me I just want to make sure I'm not M hearing you yeah well okay and I appreciate the question uh this is not a presentation that suggest that we're following the federal that's not what I'm Su I'm simply suggesting that school district are caught in the middle between state and federal that's the message I think if there's a takeaway I think that's the message there and we having to determine how do we best address that and

034yes we're in South Carolina the state of South Carolina and we know and that's what we've been we've been teaching and providing guidance along that along that we're following the law and in each case we are we're Consulting legal to make certain that we are following the law as we know it and as we understand it so it's not a presentation to say yes we're going to follow federal law because federal law is at a higher level than the state law that's not the message that I'm suggesting I'm simply suggesting that we are in between and between two different kinds of laws and we're making do with what we have and we're following it in accordance to how how what we understand and how we understand these laws to be written I think that's basic

035okay I kind of feel like that's a little confusing because I think that there should I mean I I get that that you know we're trying to follow the federal and the state um but I believe I mean and I could be mistaken I've had a lot going on but I I thought that there was an injunction on that Federal Proviso and so really I mean and and the state Proviso takes precedent for us because of that and I want to make sure we don't open ourselves up to lawsuits of something that may or may not be happening I mean from what I understand in my conversations with Dr Ross we already have policies in place in our district on on on how we handle those situations that conform with what the state guidance is

036is for you know for us um so I just want to make sure that that's not changing um and that's why I brought that question up the other question that I had on a slide was you were talking about a form um one of your slides had a form on what the teachers were giving about uh preferred names and that they can't ask for for per preferred names um I know that in the past we've had situations where we've been emailed because they were asking for preferred pronouns and since we're talking about gender is that included on that form or or not it is on it is on that form it is on so pronouns and preferred like by there is a section in power school that that ask for preferred names and that's what

037we're referring to so we can't have that now we're not having that now we're not we're not we're not asking about preferred pronouns we're not not asking for it we're not asking for that from the student no we're not asking them that they may suggest or to ask us of that but we're not asking going out asking what do you want to be called no we're not doing that and we're not okay and whether or not you are prefer a he she they that is correct we're not asking those questions our teachers any student okay with any student okay I just wanted to ask that um as we were reading those because those are questions that I get asked um Miss huddle um you're really hitting on something that I feel like this form is

038not in policy it's not an our policy and we don't really have a policy when I saw these slides I went and looked through our policy and our policy doesn't I couldn't find where our policy addresses gender or sex in bathrooms changing facilities or overnight stays so as comfort uncomfortable as it may be for all of us I really hope that we will put it on the agenda to look at at policy because only then is it clear that we are following the law and is it and only then is it clear for our parents as well what the the policy and procedure is and I think that's a great idea one of the things that we had talked about at our board officer meeting was and I don't know if it will happen now

039but we do have the school law conference coming up and this weekend and there are several people that are were involved in creating the um Proviso um and I had several conversations with folks that were involved in writing the Proviso as well and how that translates into school district policies I mean I know every school district can create their own policy but as we're kind of going into like this realm of things that will likely be challenged we want to make sure we're tying it back to legislation um and and making sure that we have everything firmed up on all of the um items that you were touching on so I think that that was kind of the thought process of we were going to address it at this meeting that hey we're paying attention

040to this we're going to implement whatever is correct in District 5 but I mean we're probably also going to have to change the cell phone policy um and we're trying to see what that looks like as well and making sure that we're doing it tying into all of this new legislation I think that's a great idea we are very hopeful for more guidance on both of those subjects right um any question Mr Scully yeah um and I will respectfully disagree a little bit with you miss Hines on the federal law uh I will not ever recommend that we not follow federal law um we follow the law and I don't think we should put that out there regardless just follow law federal and state um I understand your point about the Contra contradiction but please

041don't send have get the message that we're recommending not to follow federal law um my question Dr Harris though is in the uh in the the requirement that does say the principal vice principal or counselor shall immediately notify in writing what is our what does that consist of what how are we responding to that what does notification and writing mean to us is that text email letter is it a how how will we do that um just for clarification purposes we conversations as I talked about the relationships and communication is conversations un sharing with them what we know what we've been told if the student comes to a counsil for example and says this is where I am sharing what we know and then finding ways of how we best support that student that family

042now how do we notify the parents under that provision there is a sh in one of the links that you have there is a um I tell you which one it is I think it's under that follow the the gender non-conform request I think it's under that one if I'm remembering correctly that there's a a document there that actually is what we share with the families okay thank you any other any other questions Miss uh Snipes I have a sort of a question slash comment um I wondered if um all of the schools I'm thinking it's probably a no but I wondered if all the schools um had one single St um a bathroom and I asked um more so from the um mental health piece um as um Rebecca sorry in the media but

043um as Rebecca mentioned you know just kind of hearing from parents and stuff and one thing um one question that I got or concern it had nothing to do with um them wanting their daughter to use um male restrooms but it was the fact that um they have a daughter who who does identify as being a lesbian and her look sort she just kind of you know sometimes their kids are young they don't know they know that this girl doesn't necessarily look like what they think all girls look like and how her child will sometimes just not go to the bathroom or try to go without going not because she wants to go in the other bathroom but because when she goes in the girls bathroom sometimes they tease her and so um this conversation

044just kind of made me think about that but it also made me think about um the mental health piece and the counseling piece and some of the things that tie to this you know that we are talking about right now because um as a parent of four children I want to know everything that's going on with my kids too so hey I get that um wholeheartedly but I also recognize that um all kids aren't um being raised in homes where they can they can have open conversation so I'm not saying that to s the school obviously shouldn't do what they need to do but just wondering as we think about the mental health pieces and making sure what kind of support are we provideing for our students as they're figuring some of this stuff out

045too Dr Russ do you want to talk a little bit about the individual bathroom stalls and thank you I I just um want to put that cave up we all following the law and uh uh one of the things that Dr Harris and his team uh are doing um and this is for years now when we put in the non-conforming support plan I want to kind of walk you through what happens um we already have this in place so we have always take the stance that this is a family conversation it is about relationships it is about family so there's not a situation where it's brought to our attention that a child wants to change a gender or name and we're doing this in isolation we are going to bring in the family and we

046go through a non-conforming uh request and non-conforming support plan what's uh the the new changes and what we typically see is I'm uncomfortable using the restroom with a certain gender do not necessarily give me access to another gender it gives me access to a single stall and we have handled all of our situations out um sometime what we want to make sure though in the plan is that if I'm on a very large campus that that access is equal to the access that I would get with anyone else that I would not have somebody walk way across the campus to a single stall uh or shower uh where no one else had to do that and so our plan is if you're at this part of the campus during the day here's your facility you're

047in that part if you're on this side you can think of um think of like a place like chapen high school it's an aircraft carrier it's a very long so that plan works that out so that you don't have that um and it's not always a situation of of gender there are situations where students just don't feel comfortable oh yeah showering with other kids it's not an issue of their gender identity or anything Middle School right so we we have this happen a lot the notion for us is you the parents are already involved absolutely what Dr Harris's team is doing now is that child may have been in middle school last year where they knew the plan we were having those conversations before they get to high school in day one with the families

048so they a understand this is a new campus I don't know this area I knew the Middle School layout and so where we know these situations these plans are in place with the counselor what has changed now is that when the staff hears it it was not uh this was not um mandated uh for us to have it we want to make sure all of our teachers know all of our coaches know all of our uh anyone who's a staff that all of you know that if this is something that comes across we do have a non-conforming support plan um it does not necessarily have to be a longone gender it is a lot of students who just very uncomfortable uh in these spaces now uh so I I just wanted to kind of tell

049that whole story as a quick question with a long answer but just kind of give that that it gives access to multiple points of single restrooms across the campus absolutely Ely okay I'm going to switch um gears from the gender policy to the personal electronic device and I have a question regarding uh the first part of this year and kind of a question or a thought to kind of put into the my fellow board members ears on like how we draft a policy and how we're implementing um policies in the schools right now regarding we think of it as like we're calling it the cell phone policy but wouldn't it also apply to like your um your Apple watch or um Dr Ross had mentioned that there are now like these super fancy glasses that

050I do not have on um that like put things across the lenses like I mean I feel like we're on the Jetson something or the Jetson thought it would be I don't know but I mean so I guess my my question is is it and the way that Dr Ross had explained it to me um earlier last week about trying to implement a policy before we Implement a policy in the school so that we're not just throw in everything on January 1 is that applying to like watches or glasses or should it or I mean I mean how are those distracting it I mean I guess the glasses thing that I said where you could cheat or something um I didn't even know that those glasses existed don't tell but apparently they exist they exist

051um and Dr Ross has seen them um so I guess that's my question because a lot of kids have sure um the watches uh so how does that work what do we think as we as we understand it and as we also anticipate what's forthcoming that these four or five lines that you have on that does include include your your your Apple watches and all of those different kind it does include I anticipate that's what's going to be included there I cannot say for certain but based on how this is written it does suggest that those things will be included what we do know is that the cell phone is is our perhaps our number one issue and that's where we wanted to start so we're just kind of trying to enforce the cell phones

052right now not necessarily like the watches or things I mean that's that's going to be very interesting to see in practice how that works I mean I don't know I just think I feel like the cell phone conversation really has started because everybody's on the apps and on social media and they're talking like that but a watch you're not necessarily doing that you're you know I don't know I could be wrong but um do I have do you have a question I did have a well it's kind of a suggestion um have we thought about maybe um doing something inter immediate like maybe after fall break um like maybe just you can bring them but they must be in the turned off something like that to just it's just yeah cold turkey especially right after

053Christmas and you got your brand new whatever um it's just a thought is is maybe something an interim step and that way also I know a lot of parents are concerned about well if there's an emergency or whatever well you can still turn it back on you can just and it I think it might be easier for the teachers too having to police it just it's supposed to be aw off just a suggestion I'll be interested to hear what the pack meetings say or the you know your your advisory committee say at the beginning of the year about what they think about this policy or how to best implement it it'll be interesting Mr Scully yeah um regarding the cell phone my what about hearing aids my hearing aids are connected to my cell phone

054I can I hear like if I need to hear you I can I have to go in the app and adjust the volume and I can hear you how is that going to be impacted by cell phone brand I can anticipate Mr Scully that that it perhaps may be all inclusive that's what I anticipate um students who have have read um the glucose readings for example uh they're just in medical for medical um issues who use their cell phone I we have discussed a just a lit of different options and areas of concern quite frankly uh regardless to how we perhaps imp imp and start this on August 8 as we anticipate a model policy and or the law coming into effect January 1 we we ran the gamut of that um so we would

055have an exemption for Med for a medical thing I think by we would have talking about federal law I think we would have to have an exemption if there is a medical need for a device I mean maybe you know even I think that they have apps on phones now for diabetics or things like that so those are like common sense extion I would think so we we've had this discussion what one of the things we said before we step out too fast and not have the full weight of discussion through policy like you were saying uh we are just going to enforce our current policy and so our current policy on cell phones is that up now if they're a medical we have uh a lot of students will have this in what's called

056a 504 plan and the teacher would be aware so we have some who check uh their blood sugar through their cell phones we have some that um a lot of uh your like you said whether it's hearing or other uh copar devices that operate through an app on a cell phone so that's our family as well but that would be in IEP or I AP plan and the teacher will be aware of that uh our goal and I think for parents to understand is that um as what we intend anticipate that's why we were hoping that we get more guidance on F uh Friday to's uh legal conference is uh this says no personal communication devices during the school day so uh that is a enforcing that is going to be a major change for

057our students um you know you go out to the grocery store or go sit at a restaurant kids are own devices more than just School uh so uh making sure that they're uh that they're up there's certain districts that are buying the uh pouches for some teachers have uh the shoe cases that they put them in so there's a lot of different things I do want to say in our current uh policy U there is that notion of teacher discretion uh we are moving away from from that notion of using this for educational reasons uh because we know where the the policy is going January 1 so um this is not cold turkey never have a phone enter our building but this is when you enter the building these are put away if you need

058it for medical reasons that's already communicated through your IEP or IAP but it's put away during the class time the only other thing I like to say and alls is that at the secondary level at the high school level only our current policy does allow for free zones which is change of class and lunch that's in our current policy we will message throughout the year as we get more information as we discuss as a body uh the board policy we will message that any particular changes that would come out of that to to our our families but we felt like our our administrators and our and our teachers and our schools could Implement our existing policy better as we transition to uh the new state model okay Mr safield yeah thank you U and I

059was going to just add a couple of things uh number one is uh years ago we had a cell phone policy when cell phones first became the thing um we had a issues with um Myspace I don't know how many of you are that old and remember Myspace um but we had that was the first sort of bullying the social media bullying that we dealt with um but we had a we had a pretty good policy with regards they had to be off when the bell rang and they could turn them back on if parents if kids need to reach their parents they go to the front office like anybody else like you used to do in the old days I don't call it the old days um but I I think the probably the

060the the issue that I always uh felt that it was important for was so it doesn't interfere with instruction so that kids are learning and they're not on their phones we have a real issue with kids we adults too but kids that are addicted to their cell phones and they're constantly looking down at those cell phones and if you want to do something about your test scores and and improving the kids attention spans and ability to learn and listen in a 90minut block to what the teacher's saying um uh you know cell phones are here to stay and if you think students will be upset when you take a cell phone wait till you talk to their parents because the parents are the ones that want to get in touch with the kids every 15

061minutes they tell them sometimes go to the bathroom and shoot me a text you know or something like that but uh think if as long as the policy when whenever it's contrived if it's just really consistent and pretty basic to the point where it it if it affects bullying in schools and I understand that's what it was originally here for but so that it doesn't interfere with instruction because we want to do everything we can to help students learn more I mean that's why we go to school but um I I'm really confident that with a little common sense and a little thought um you're never going to be able to hit every angle uh when I was at Dutch Fork High School we had kids that were using scientific calculators like communication devices so

062the kids are pretty smart um but I'm confident that we'll be able to come up with a good clear concise policy so that it doesn't interfere with kids learning in school and that it affects you know we can cut down on the bullying so thank you anyone else all right thank you very much thank you Dr Harris and uh now to speak on uh we have a change that took effect as of August 1st uh we want to make sure that we open school in compliance with that um that new rig the new regulation so uh our chief of academics M Tina mcco will come forth uh to share um how we are addressing this until uh the board takes up B policy thank you madam chair board Community um so regulation 4 3170 we

063talked a little bit about it um back in June but on June the 25th um this actually was sort of signed into law to become law as of August the 1st and so this statement that I have here you will find on our website under the challenge materials and it's also what you see where kcr has been adapted um just to have this statement as of August 1st 202 4 regulation 43170 uniform procedure procedure for selection or reconsideration of instructional materials replaces all ke KR and kece until a final policy can be approved there's the Complaint Form that parents would use that's the state approved Complaint Form and it is to be emailed to Amy white who is the secretary of the school board and her email address is there um because we don't have

064time for three readings of a policy before August the 1st um this takes the place of kcr the admin rule but of course um when we look at what's here it's um very similar to some things that we've already talked about so that's a good thing but the key points are that instructional material should be age and developmentally appropriate and aligned with and supportive of South Carolina's instructional program if a parent or guardian of a student who attends school within District 5 has a complaint about an instructional material they should first Contact the teacher enter the school administration so that's really important for parents to understand that it's if they have a problem they don't fill the form out immediately and send it in go to the teacher go to the principal try to work

065through this a lot of the concerns can be worked through if not then you fill the form out and and email it um to Miss White and then the local school board has 90 days to hold a public meeting where the board either gives their decision or provides the decision in writing within 15 days of the meeting and the local board will have to decide whether you want to hear it as the full board or whether you want to name three members that will hear it and then bring it back um but then the complaintant make may also appeal it to the State Board of Education and they will have 30 days to hear it um whether the book is appropriate or not the one thing thing that I do want to point out the

066one thing I want to point out is within the law and you have a copy of this but within the law that's we're speaking of cell phones right within the law there's a list um of exactly what we're looking at in this particular regulation and we're really looking at sexually explicit content to make sure that we don't have sexually explicit content in our schools so we're not just saying I disagree agree with anything in this book we're really looking at sexually explicit content um so I do want to call attention to that and the the form that the state created I feel like the second page of that form is really well done it gives a really nice summary and tells the parent exactly what they're looking at so I I really thought that was

067well done but our next steps um are to maintain a complete and current list of catalog of all books in the school libraries we already do that that's posted on our website that's through our destiny so we do that um review and if necessary revise existing instructional material um change policies to comply with the timeline outlined in the regulation I will tell you that with that this summer our principles have come together and created a process for uh proving supplemental materials so our elementary has one process and then our secondary has a second process process that has been um talked to and given professional development to teachers um this week on so we have a very consistent process for that approval um and then being prepared to generate a list of any materials available within

068the classroom setting we have purchased a um addition to the filet software so that we can put classroom libraries in digitally that Can it can be scanned the scanners were actually shipped out today so our schools should be getting those scanners very soon and then um schools will be working towards getting those taken care of so that links can be provided for those classroom libraries um again this is something that's new our goal right now is to just get students in schools get teachers settled get them you know ready to go and teaching students and then our um administrators are going to provide support to make sure that those classroom libraries are getting scanned in so that's not going to happen today or tomorrow but it will happen over the first nine weeks of school

069if a parent comes in and requests that then we'll have to make that a priority because as of August 1st we would have to give that um to a parent if they request it so I will answer any questions if you have any thank you Miss mccal I noticed on um on the slide and I and I believe that I I knew this um going into this when they were talking about this um in the spring but one of the unique parts of of this law is that if a school district or if a book is removed by the State Board of Education from um let's say District five every it will be removed from every school district in the state so you won't have multiple school districts challenging the same book is that that's

070correct that's correct the but the state school board has to make that decision if the state school board makes that decision um or so if if we decline to remove a book and it is challenged to the State Board of Education and the State Board of Education removes the book it's going to be removed from every school district in the state have they discussed how that is there just like an email that's sent out to the districts there is um in the memo that I put in the packet there is a link there to a website and there's a spreadsheet on that website where they plan to update anytime that happens it doesn't say it here but I would assume that we would get an alert that something has changed that's what I would assume

071but they are going to keep that where it's public and there's a spreadsheet where that um would be found so it kind of sounds like it's going to be up to the district to make sure that we're paying attention to that spreadsheet and informing each individual because every school has different books in in the classrooms and in the library so that's going to be a responsibility of the district to do that yes okay uh Mr saterfield yeah I had a couple questions so we don't have a committee anymore of Educators and parents and so this directive I was reading through this long long long directive um so the we have to put together a committee that includes three board members now Dr Oswell or the entire board that's the conv or the entire board now

072if so if somebody contest Moby Dick we all have to Read Moby Dick before we make a decision on whether or not Moby Dick stays on the shelves it actually doesn't say that you have to read it it says the complainant has to read and give you specific pages and um examples of why they are complaining and why they think the material should be taken out but it does not specify that the board must read the entire book so while so while the the book is being challenged uh does a book does a teacher have to stop using the book it says they can challenge all books textbooks instructional materials so if they challenge a textbook The Textbook cannot be used until it goes through the process uh another question I had was um the

073um supplemental materials you know teachers over the years collect a lot of supplemental I mean if you've been teaching for 25 years you got file drawers full they have to get all that approved according to the law yeah yes they do so they can't use it in the class until they get it approved and so if I'm a ninth grade history teacher social studies current events so to speak who approves that my department head or the API or the principal all right so if you're in a secondary school um the process is that you start with your PLC group have your PLC group review it with you as well then it goes to your department head and then the department head takes it to the principal so every teacher in that department list again I

074use social studies because that's that's a big one that's a big one yeah humanities so all those teachers if they have supplemental materials they cannot use them throughout the year or at the beginning of the year until they get everybody gets everything approved that is correct that's what the law says 19 that's what the law says understand I'm just I'm just trying to figure out why we don't trust teachers I'll tell Mr SFI I'm going to tell you what I've said to teachers because they some of them are very upset this they really are Imagine they would be and um what I've said to them is here I'm giving you some time back because you've got curriculum Frameworks that the district has provided teachers have worked on them our coordinators have worked on them they

075are beautifully written to where you've got resources you've got everything you need to teach the standards are right there let's use that and not go off and use your time to go pulling and and grabbing other things right and and you know like I know though Dr Ross did his presentation and I used this earlier with this eighth grade class and you got levels from second grade in eighth grade from second grade on up so that doesn't work for every kid no but you know what's so great about it I have access to kindergarten through 12th grade as a teacher I have access to every curriculum framework for every grade level but the way this law and you help me if I'm wrong the way this law says if it's not age and developmentally and

076meets the rigor of that grade can I use it without approval you can if it is on our if it is if it's been approved already if it's on our district curriculum Frameworks so anything kindergarten through 12th grade has been approved okay now when you talk about rigor of the grade level you've got to be able to scaffold that so depending on the child's needs you're getting them to to the rigor by scaffolding that material I'm I'm just thinking after watching so many great teachers over the years and knowing all the hard work they put into all collecting all this great information and you don't just become Teacher of the Year by following the state standards um but um I just hate to think that those teachers cannot or will not have readily available to

077them all those things to help those kids I mean if you're a if you're a special education teacher my goodness all the resources and if you get on the what a lot of teachers do one the one good thing about technology is Teachers can get on the computer now and they can find all these great learning sites and they pull from them but if they can't use them if they haven't been vetted now the there there we've got a large list of of computer technology sites that have already been vetted that they have access to so we we have a l large amount of that that's already there um and so that's there for them um and I understand The Angst I do understand The Angst what I hope that we can I'm taking the

078positive side of this right is that what I hope is that we can give ourselves some time back and realize that maybe some of the material that we had in the past may or may not meet the rigor of the new standards because we've really trans transitioning into a phase where we've got all new standards now yeah science was recently um actually this is the first full year of implementation of the science social studies was just two or three years ago ela's new this year math will be new next year so we're really in this age of really new state standards so this may be an opportunity for us to realign ourselves and look at our materials and and really depend on each other for that appreciate that St how many new textbooks are we

079adopting this year so we have all new Ela textbooks this year so they have to pull from that do you see what I'm saying it's it's really a difficult task to put on these teachers I I I see these things sometimes and I think this person never taught a class in their life I would agree with you on that yeah and they're they're making all these mandates and they don't realize what it takes to for for a teacher to be successful in the classroom and you put all the and it's like it's so all-encompassing it's like they hit everything there's even a remark in there let me just finish this one last point and I'll be finished Miss H there's a remark in there that says if there's space on a library shelf for a

080book that's better than the one that's on there then the school board should replace it with that book I do say that you're right H that's all thank you so Mr saterfield just a couple comments on uh your comments about the textbooks so it does say the textbooks but you have to I mean I would think I mean this the State Board of Education approves the textbooks that's what comes to us so they've already gone through a vetting process with the with the with the um State Department of Education and M Miss mcal correctly stated this the intent behind this legislation was sexually explicit material so while there's other controversial conversations about certain subject matters that we see in the news or that we've discussed I mean we haven't really discussed as a board you

081know in public on anything other than sexually explicit materials because the only thing that's ever been brought to the board is sexually explicit material so I think that that was the intent of this legislation and because there was like such it was so disjointed among the state and people were talking about oh did you see Fort Mill had this book or you know this school district had this book and they would come and look at our libraries to see if we had it this is a way to try to take that conversation and distraction away from the instruction time in the classroom because we're preempting that on sexually explicit material um I think that there's obviously other conversations related to that and no piece of legis ation is perfect and we'll probably tweak this and

082I think that it is expected that this piece of legislation will be tweaked a little bit I think that it's very unrealistic to think that we're going to get a deluge of textbooks or even most supplemental materials that teachers have been using for years that are probably already approved being challenged to the board and I don't disagree with what you're saying except why they why didn't they just do it for sexually explicit why not just say that why is all inclusive for all instructional materials and the crazy thing is this thing went through because it expired well this thing went through because people didn't want to actually Vote or shoot it down because I went to all of those hearings and the reason why it went through is because people didn't want to get attacked

083in the media in my opinion but that kind of goes off topic um so I'm going to I'm going to I'll stop talking I'm going to let miss miss Snipes has very patiently had her hand up and I'm going to let her go following the theme of Miss mco's um reclaiming our time theme I want I just want to know um Can people cuz I mean on the board I feel like in the public you know everybody has like their one thing that they really care about and most of the time that's something that we don't spend our time on um but as far as the books stuff goes um the only concern I have or question that I have is so if I my kids are all still Elementary age level if I hear

084about a book at the high school but my kids aren't even there can I complain about a book that isn't even impacting my kids or can you know can Amanda complain about a book and she doesn't even have kids in the school like who can challenge these books because we could get really lost in the weeds of just you know know oh I heard about this so let me just follow you know you know what I mean so that's where we hope to get some legal advice with the um with the model policy because the word says reasonable um a reasonable request so it says you have to be a parent in The District in order to make a complaint it does not specify that you have to be a parent in the district within

085that grade level it doesn't say that but it does say a re reasonable request so I I think that we've got to get clarification on what that really means be that's been a conversation that we've had as well earlier on something else I'm all for parent rights I just um but I think too and I I feel like nobody up here would disagree um there are a lot of things that pass through here that are pressing or whatever and I just would hate to see every other meeting we're trying to we're spending all this time reviewing five books you know and just because you know what I mean and I think kind of speaking to that the the way that this is written saying that if it is appealed to the State Board of Education

086and they remove a book that and and then they remove it from all school districts I think that the one of the reasons behind that other than like if you have something that should not be in one school it should not be in all schools and that's common sense the reason why that's in there is is so that you're not having those conversations you're not having um I mean I know that there's a lot of groups that talk about books and so they'll start looking to see oh this one got removed here should we remove it there and that kind of helps alleviate you know the need to be double-checking those books or the need for that the local school districts to be having those conversations and taking away from other priorities like you're saying

087I think that that's kind of why that was written in my opinion but re claiming my time Miss mcal that's right Miss huddle um I had several questions um first of all don't and I don't think it's ke don't we already have a policy that requires supplemental materials to get approved yes okay so that already exists um so the other question I had is for the the board having to look at it is it if you had a subcommittee of three would it still come to the full board it would yes okay um and I'm assuming that that would be these would be public meetings whether okay um and then my last question the second bullet the review if necessary Revis instructional material correct me if I'm wrong but I think the policy also said

088that about Library materials too right right obviously we don't want to get in the weeds there but I guess my question is sometimes Publishers put the wrong age ranges on books Librarians can't possibly read all the books are we as a district right now already looking at do we have some you know situations of maybe some books with sexual content that's inappropriate so that I'd like to not have those come to us if we can avoid it so I'm asking if we're already looking at that so we have asked our Librarians we all throughout every all last year we've asked them to to look for anything like that within their libraries that they feel is inap appropriate um for the students that they have in their Library so they are in the process of constantly

089looking through that and and parents can also view if they hear about a book I know you don't know we have thousands of selections but if they hear about a book they can go to our website of that school to see what's in there correct that's correct anybody Mr Scully yeah just real quick um this is clarification on for for all these and I'm ask Dr Harris as well but we're still on the same topic for all three of these items either the two provisos and and this you we called it a law is in relation to the um the effective dates are they in indefinite for all of these or is there like I thought provis those were shortterm this is a law so this this this is indefinite okay and then the two

090prior were they so they expire at the end of the budget year okay thank you anybody else thank you Miss mcal thank you all right and that concludes the superintendent's report all right any questions for Dr Ross at the end of the superintendent's report I appreciate that very engaging dialogue respectful dialogue from my fellow board members thank you for that um all right well that moves us to number 10 on our agenda uh approval of the minut minut of the July 22nd 2024 board meeting do you have a motion Mr Hogan I'd like to make a motion to approve the minutes of the July 22nd 2024 board me do I have a second Miss snipe seconded any discussion seeing none I'll call for the vote all in [Music] favor you can still uh a motion

091carries six to zero and that moves us to public participation I don't believe we have anyone signed up for public participation so we'll just move right along to the action agenda um number 12 action is necessary or appropriate on matters discussed in executive session Mr Hogan yeah I've got I believe three of them out of this first one I'd like to make a motion the board approve selected employment item sh exhibit a I have a second Miss uh huddle seconded any discussion I'll call for the vote all in favor motion carries 6 to Zer do I have any other motions from Ex two more I'd like to make a motion board approved the sale of land Parcels shown in Exhibit C do I have a second Miss snipe seconded um any discussion um I just

092want to clarify because I don't want people thinking we just went and sold some huge plot of land so do you want to describe so these are little tiny piece of land in front of well fairly tiny around um uh Dutch Fork Elementary that's required because they're widening Broad River Road right and the second piece is by the dist office by the district office and it's even smaller so they're just little pieces of land for Road widening um all right uh so we have that motion on the floor I'm going to call for a vote all in favor a motion carries six to zero and then got one more I'd like to make a motion to the board approve additional services for Dutch work Elementary with Melissa bigger staff Educational Services in the amount of

0933,500 shown in exhibit d uh a second Mr uh saterfield seconded um any discussion all right all in favor that motion carries 6 to zero and then that moves us to item 13 on the agenda approval of Mid Carolina Electric RightWay request as seen in exhibit e approaching elector is um Mr Dave wisman director of operations to talk about the easement request from Mid Carolina Electric Mr wisman Madam chairman members of the board Dr Ross members of the community thank you for having me back up here uh recently The Mid Carolina electrical cooperation has appro us about digging some underground power lines onto the property which we call the Ballfield basically the land between this building and and the Walmart area U it it will allow them that when a power failure goes out to

094still be able to provide Power power to this area of the Town specifically for us it's dutch for middle and Dutch Fork High School uh as well as the district office so it's it's a blessing for us it will be no impact to the land if we decide to do some future building in that area it's going to be far enough away that it will not impact Us in fact uh they mentioned that they will have a a place already set aside if we need to hook into they're going to go ahead and put that in there for us at no cost so this is just underground power line as you can see the red line is going running along uh Dutch Fork Road and it'll take a right right before you get to the

095traffic light just kind of skirt the edge of our property and then connect with another source at that end sorry any questions Mrs huddle I assume but you know what they say about assuming so I want to ask if if they hit a sewer line or waterline or anything like that that is they're they're going to fix it yes ma' just want to make sure anybody else all right do I have a motion Mr Hogan I'll make the motion that the board approves the easement request for Mid Carolina Electric do I have a second Miss snipe seconded we just had discussion but do we have anything else all right I'm going to call for the vote all in favor that motion carries six to zero thank you very much Mr wisman all right and that

096moves us to the change order approval for ear High School flooring as seen in exhibit F uh thank you madam chair we have um director facilities Alan KN executive director of operations Mr Dave wisman and freshly from volleyball practice at MMO uh we have Bart CE Bart CE is with edcon construction um one of the things we bring is a change order request from the administration uh in the hero building we've uh have three floowing types we've had the terazzo that's in their um their their lobby with the has the Stinger design in there uh and then we had polished concrete which was a product that we were using to kind of Glide in with that or or mesh up with that terazzo uh our request is to go with the the Granite um I

097wanted um Mr CE to be here to explain as a a contractor the difference between the two there's an assumption uh that we're going with an inferior flooring product and um but um uh with the Texas Grant we currently use that in uh chapen High School uh it's in Spring Hill High School it's in um Piney Woods uh this is a a product that we're we're very familiar with we we have experience with so um I was just going to ask um Mr wisman if Mr CE can just kind of explain the to uh from a a contractor standpoint and then I'll turn it over to Mr wisman for the request so um as Dr R said I am just contractor I don't represent any particular side or one of the other um both products

098we have Incorporated and used in projects over the years uh the Kate Center has the polished concrete uh obviously Spring Hill and some of the other schools in the district have Texas granite they're both quality project products um the the biggest difference uh talk referencing uh inferior product or a lesser quality product uh polished concrete is just very very labor intensive uh it's it's designed originally you see it in Lowe's Home Depot big huge box stores where it's much easier to take a big grinding machine and and grind the areas to get that that polish that shine that you see in a school such as hermo there's a lot of masonry walls and so what that means is that grinder can't reach those walls and so every foot of wall that you have to do

099you're going to have someone on their hands and knees with a small grinder grinding against that floor and so you can imagine how much labor that is and as you well know labor is where the where the cost is and when you're talking hours and hours and hours and months of just grinding on your hands and knees with a small grinder is really what drives the cost up on the polished concrete so it's not that Texas granite is an inferior product it's just it's a different product um concrete polished concrete is exactly what it says it's concrete that's been polished uh Texas granite has concrete underneath it and you put a product on top of it it's a product that's designed for what we're using it for what you guys are proposing to use for

100we've used it in many of your your schools we put it down um Spring Hill is a perfect example that school's 10 plus years old and that tile looks better than it did the day we put it down which is the beauty of the Texas granite our luxury Vino tile is what it's called in the industry now you can polish it you can buff it and it has the shine and it lasts so that's kind of kind of it in a nutshell um so anything else El if you have any questions for the person who actually works with both of it do we have any questions Miss huddle um I have a picture of pony woods and I I went to I went on a a site visit we visit the schools back in November

101and this is there's a a hallway outside the cafeteria where there's like a bubble all the way across and that school's just now three years old um what causes something like that it's hard to say there's obviously Piney wood I'm assuming has luxury bino tile and it okay so more than likely there's some sort of imperfection under the floor possibly some settlement or or something I I can't really tell from from looking at that but just kind of that looks like maybe some some trash material was left under the floor it goes all the way across more that's a joint that that has settled or moved or wasn't properly patched um when you have obviously you can't pour the entire slab at one time so you have Cal joints that you have to put in

102there and there are designed ways that you make sure those don't settle and move that they stay together and that's if it's all the way across that's probably what that is and you would have that whether you had a polished concrete floor or luxury vinyl tile you're still going to have that same cold joint so you have to treat that cold joint accordingly and if you don't then you get something like that um we also um had a in the MC MC McMillan I can't remember what was it pden Smith report anyway um re that we had delamination is this delamination or is it is that something else that looks if you're describing a crack that's just a that's just a separation in your subst substr but delamination is the tile actually coming up that

103would be a tile can do that that happens from moisture uh if if water gets spilled on it you get a leak in your building any tile will do that whether it's I mean carpet will do that VCT will do that a wood floor will do that anytime you introduce moisture or something to it it's it doesn't like that so that would be probably why it's delaminating more than the fact that because the glue that that are used today they're designed for just that very to hold it down I was going to ask about that too okay so um I don't think it was a change order I think it was just a use of contingency but at the same school they they came back and and increased the expend the budget $52,000 for a

104different glue than the glue that was originally um prescribed I guess or or planned so what what would we do at hermo high school how would we make sure that we don't come back with another change order because now we need new glue seeing that I wasn't there I'm not sure exactly what the reasoning behind it I would guess possibly there were some maybe some moisture issues that they were trying to mitigate there there are multiple ways to do that um but depending on that's dependent on your moisture situation your your humidity your temperature controls there's a lot of variables that come into play with that and I'm not sure what the architect may have specified originally on that product but um most of the time um luxury vinyl tile is not very moisture sensitive

105at all at least recently in my experience I guess my question is does this change order include the highest cost glue that might be necessary if there was high moisture content or would you have to come back to us and say turns out we need to use a different glue um I am not 100% sure on that I haven't looked back at that recently this was we did this back in November um I've done a couple things since then and so I I apologize for that um I would need to look through that but I'm fairly confident that this architect team design designed something that we would would be able to move in accordingly without much problems Mr Hogan so with the polished concrete I know that's what we originally anticipated versus the Texas granted

106is there any difference in the the installation or the the time that would take you guys starting to finish would one or the other cause potential delay or one be substantially longer to install the other the polished concrete probably has a longer installation period just because of the the grinding that I described previously um also there's a lot more um floor protection that you have to do polish concrete is nice but it's very difficult to maintain as you build a masonry structure on it you can I'm sure everyone's seing what it takes to build a masonry structure so there's a lot of lot of activity there's a lot of equipment there's a lot of a heavy block uh there's concrete that you have to pour in the block you have to protect the floor to

107to do that so um that's that's a more difficult process and that does come into play in in some of the processes there so I would say just you know the Texas granite um is a probably an easier installation got it but on the labor side it's more intensive on the front end but on the flip side of that to keep the concrete the polished concrete up to the standards is a simpler process for maintenance 5 10 20 years down the road there's maintenance to both products there's there's daily care there's monthly care and there's there's yearly care to each product um Allan could probably speak a little better to that but there is neither product is a maintenance-free product and both products will require effort and continuation I mean there will have to be

108someone sweeping those floors whether they're polished concrete or whether they're an LBT they have to you have to keep the sand and the debris off of it and then you still have to continue to maintain those over the years can I ask another go ahead Ross I'm sorry and I just just want to interrupt but um if Allan you can speak to kind of Maintenance this is Texas granted at 7 Oaks Elementary and so we're showing kind of what our maintenance schedule is uh we buy you know the equipment that we buy the materials that we buy in the process so um I don't know if I want to put you on the spot if you're kind of walking through how we maintain this no problem so you know um you know typically you're going

109to sit there and you're going to make sure that you um you know sweep the floors daily that that's a daily requirement and then depending on the you know the the type of Polish you want on the floor if you want more of a High um high polish you're going to burnish the floors more often than you would if you want more of a matte finish and that's typically weekly um this product here the Texas granted is not like the old school VCT where you have to strip the floors down and and remove all the wax and then come back and add you know several layers of wax so it's it's not that type of flooring it is a wax free type of flooring with the polished concrete it's more of a you go through

110um you're going to you know sweep it once a day and then I think it depending on what brand what product sealer you go with it might be quarterly or or annual there there's some maintenance involved with that but I know there's um you know different product that's require different different things to maintain warranties ask another one yeah so and this came to us as as you know something for us to discuss when we were having to make a decision on a change order for additional cost for this project um with that being in mind if these were the exact same cost is there a preference let me let me rephrase that if there if they were the same cross would is there a preference if you were to own the building versus versus if

111you were to build the building and is that answer the same I think I think there's a lot of different variables that that tie into things now that we have Broken Ground just just in general I think there's there's a lot of other new variables that we've seen um so I mean I to me it's it's kind of hard to say I mean it's just there's a lot of stuff that's happen you talked to the principal it's the Texas granite you talked to our staff this is the product that we have experience with um and and Bart there's one thing that if you can speak to I know we were talking about sound in the classroom setting if you want to speak to these two products in terms of how How Sound Works in that

112sure so um obviously when you when you design a school you want to there's a there's a certain you have to you want there's a learning coefficient here that you want to deal with and the the downside to a concrete floor is you're just adding another hard surface to the room you already have masonry walls around your four sides which are which are hard surfaces you've got a ceiling which does absorb but if you have polished concrete it's going to be a louder um atmosphere just because that's another place for sound to bounce off of um typically um I've see these in Kate centers we've done this uh we've done polished Concrete in a a Kate Center in Somerville and then obviously the Kate Center within the district has polished concrete it's more set up

113for more of industrial use um so I think that's from our standpoint when we saw this as polished concrete on while we were looking at the documents forbid our comment was this is really going to be loud I don't I don't we don't know if this is going to be something the district wants that's just from Ed conon standpoint we'll obviously do whatever you guys direct us to do not a problem but that was our first comment and thought inh house in our office was that this is going to be loud because there's nothing to absorb you got carpet here it absorbs sound if this was concrete it's not going to absorb to sound and it's going to balance Mr saterfield yeah just one quick question with the existing floors at hermo and for continuity

114will the granite blend better than the polished concrete D go ahead I I believe there's a way to make all that blend pretty smoothly with some of the Texas granite products that we have looked at recently I think there's a way to get the look of the like the CFA and then add some additional pops of color that we had intended on on on doing early on so it would appear there's some continuity so it wouldn't be like two completely separate structures yes okay than and I believe you have some schools already that have terazzo lobbies that transition into lvt and it's just just if you marry them together and they're flush no one's just you're not going to recognize it because that LBT can have that same shine as that terazzo and you walk

115into and and most people don't walk go down looking at the floors they're going to be looking around and and looking to see what's there so I think um that's you can you can take care of that I have a question this might have already been asked and answered in a previous meeting um but the hallways and the classrooms do they all have the same surface are the classrooms or or or is that just like the first floor all has is everything the Texas granite does that make sense so all floors in the in the classroom area the three stories all hallways and all classrooms are polished are okay Luxy viny tole so it's it's uniform throughout the whole structure from the classroom section back the admin and the media center are a combination of

116different things but that's your that's your front area that's your showpiece that's that's where you want to wild people then you get back into the teaching section and then it's just a it's a classroom RNG okay really is M um the East Wing at irau high school is um terazo correct in the hallways and the classrooms I'm pretty sure it isass went there I it is okay um the I also have a question um the other change orders we received for the um debris in the soils there's a place in the change order where it says um effect on time and all those added time okay and I just heard that this would be faster but I didn't see in the change order where it would subtract time so um why would this if why

117wouldn't it subtract time because we keep doing change orders to add and we don't do change orders with subtract we're going to be a year late so is there I know the architect's not here and the architect's the one that sent the change order in but I'm I'm pretty sure it didn't have a a reduction for the time okay but you did say it would take less time well the question was asked just why why is the cost difference and does that make it a more inferior product and no my my point was that it was it's it does take longer to get it to that point but there's other things that come involved with that um just the polishing portion takes a while versus the installation of the Texas granted the cost in the

118Texas granite is more in the product than the actual installation whereas the cost in the polished concrete is in the actual work because once you do that work you're done no I understand that I guess I'm saying that my understanding of change orders is that part of the change order isn't just the cost it's what it does to the timeline and so we've had change orders that extend the timeline and what I thought I heard you say is that this took less time so why wouldn't the change order include a decrease in the time if we were to approve it well I'd have to get my subcontractor because I I don't do either of those tasks um and I would have to ask bonnets for instance what it's going to take to do that versus

119this and so I didn't really go down that road from that standpoint I mean we are still talking about all the time associated with all of this lovely stuff that we found and discovered and and dealt with and so we haven't finalized all of that and I would be glad to to look at that as we go through this the purpose of this vote tonight and the importance of this is you guys at a point are ready to start pouring concrete yes and and this decision is going to direct you as to you pour concrete a or concrete B correct because uh in order to do a Polish concrete the concrete mix changes the the re there's a different reinforcing that's placed in slab um those two things come into play and yes we need

120that direction in order to move on we have p a slab already um that didn't have didn't affect this but we will be moving into that section as long as Debbie leaves us alone we'll move in section any other questions do I have any motions Mr Scully I make a motion to approve the change order for hermo high school in accordance as exhibited and exhibit F which is are you for the Texas uh Texas granite okay do I have a second Mr saterfield do I have any discussion about the motion Miss um huddle um I think this is a we should not do this um the architect put the the polished Concrete in there so clearly at the beginning that was their preference I feel like we're just doing this to save money and we've

121and upfront money not long-term money but upfront money um and we have we can find the money I mean this this project came in lower than we originally thought um I'll pass these down I've got a copy that I want to put in the minutes but this is the picture at Pony Woods that school's three years old um and now it's past the initial warant waranty so to fix this we're going to have to pay all the labor and the labor is the most expensive part um if you go into the McMillan paston um they recommended $13,500 to fix delaminating floors at Pony woods so we've got a school that's only three years old and now we've got a maintenance issue um back to the glue we don't know if this change order includes the

122right glue at pon Woods we ended up paying 51,000 plus some odd change for different glue um and then we also have um I believe it's the same product at chapen middle school and they're also on the MCM MCM McMillan pden Smith delaminating $118,500 so I think it's a shortterm money saver but not longterm I mean it's within three years at our newest school we already have a problem with it um the last thing I'd like to add which is what I put it on pass down too is that it is a low VOC product but it's not a no VOC product and the product doesn't include the glue or the the material which you can get low as well but it's still no no VOC it's not no VOC from so from a building

123air quality standpoint I also think we would be better better off I mean there's clearly he talked about probably moisture under here well it's not getting out it's trapped under here um I really think we should stick with the polished concrete for long-term sa cost savings and also just um to better qual air quality Miss uh Mr saterfield you almost forgot my name um yeah and I understand your concern M but I don't think that you should blame because of an error in installation that the product is bad we have a lot of schools that have this Texas granite and it's done quite well um and I'm not really concerned about the change with the money um he has told us that and these I can tell you from being in the schools for many

124years this is not like once in a blue moon that you redo these floors these floors are done daily and to strip them or redo the floors uh they do those sometimes twice a year and the extra cost the cost just the cost savings alone would be tremendous uh and plus I like the continuity I again I I understand that the architect may have that might have been his recommendation but I do like the the the continuity I like the cost savings and I like that it's quieter as well I mean we don't want noisy halls and noisy classrooms again if you're a teacher and you had to be in the that environment all the time you would understand that um but um yeah I'm I'm I'm in favor of the the superintendent or the

125administration's recommendation for the Texas granite Mr scly yeah likewise uh and the comments on on the sound resonated with me uh in particular so not if you're a hearing impaired student it's a tremendous uh benefit to have the Texas gr and so we're saing $720,000 right I mean that's 6.8 Jag studies so I I think this is a good change and I'm fully supported we that I would say that um I I think that it was I'm going be honest I I'm very irritated by this whole situation I think I expressed this when we had our special called meeting because we have this product that is so much more expensive than this other product that was put into our original plan and then as we started having issues coming up and we wanted to kind

126of save money in other places we decided to cut this floor that's not necessarily I don't believe EDC con's fault or um you know I I I so I don't I'm not putting that on you I I think um that that's frustrating because we could have thought about the cost savings as we were designing the school and putting things in because right now what I'm hearing is there's you know there's differing opinions about the um polished concrete versus the Texas granite and you know you know how opinions are everybody has different opinions and that doesn't mean that one is you know Superior or inferior to the other it just depends on who you ask or which school in the district do you walk into I'm frustrated by the fact that we put it in at

127the very beginning and now as you know now now we're kind of coming back on it what um because I'm hearing that there's not not really a superior product and and you're saying like hey the Texas granite is great in some of the schools and hearing that it you know it's not going to be as loud as the polished Concrete in a high school that I mean if you've been in her high school during class changes even where it is now I mean or any High School I mean um I mean definitely I think that that's something that you don't want to make it a louder environment um and the fact that you're saying that the school administration that's been very closely um working with everyone to pull the West Wing together that they prefer

128the Texas granite I think that that is that you know I'm I'm I'm hearing that because you know Dr Hampton is in the school like she knows what will work best for her particular school do Ross I mean you're and and y'all are I mean facilities y'all are all in there y'all are recommending that the price difference is like I'm saying I it just I mean obviously I want to save money you know I mean but I if I feel like there was a reason why that polished concrete was put in there to begin with and I'm that that is what is bothering me it's not I will support the Texas granite but that's what's bothering me thank you mam I just want an opportunity to kind of share how we got to this point

129um the ideal and is is the terazzo that's just kind of the history of what we have um at $98 a square foot somewhere in there the terazo is is very expensive to try to put across the entire piece of that of that structure uh what we wanted to do is give hero uh its historical terazzo look uh that it has it's um and so we decided that in the um Atrium a Lobby it would have this beautiful terazo um Stinger the transition from that is uh Texas granite so an option of polished concrete was a way of just trying to transition it away from that um however we've been kind of racking this as a as a savings and I I don't know if that's probably the best way to look at it to

130me um is we still have to furnish this building um and so those cost will go into the furniture for the for the students uh when we get to what Des they'll sit in what what chairs they'll have what will small groupings look like uh we're designing a a building for the future and a classroom for the future and so we need to be in position for that uh I would ask uh if you all have the opportunity when we have the ribbon cutting at shapen to uh go into the building and you'll see how we transition from uh terazo to Texas granite we haven't heard any issu or any problems with that transition whatsoever most people as uh Mr C says haven't even noticed it um our our thing is I look at it

131from the enduser standpoint the enduser will be the students will be the custodians have to maintain it will be the administration who have to operate it and so this allows us to put a product that we're familiar with that we currently use in our buildings but also these savings are going go to Furnishings for for the for those buildings so it is not that we are putting this back in the pocket this is going to go into Furnishings that when we talk about that budget um I want to just show where these savings would show up so I just wanted to kind of go to the history of why we went there and to where we seek to go in the future anyone else have any Miss Snipes or I think everybody's spoken on it

132okay so um can yeah um how are we going to make sure that what happened at Pony Woods doesn't happen I mean I it just this floor was like this last November that's when I took that picture so how do we make sure that this and and we're now going to have to foot the bill for this and we had to pay for the glue so how do we make sure that doesn't happen at this school so a part of that will be a part of the um with um our um Brownstone our project management group that we have um to ensure that they do the moisture test to work with edcon I mean we were told that was done at Pon woods and I'm sure that this didn't show up before school started so

133I don't know when it showed up but it showed up sometime between school starting in November of 23 I mean that's just bothers me and it bothers me that we say we don't have enough money for maintenance on our schools but yet we're putting in a product that is not maintenance free concrete that concrete floor if we do concrete I'll be dead and buried for 50 years and it'll still be there but that tile is not going to be it it's got a 20-year life and after the first two years something goes wrong it's on us for the labor and it's labor intensive so I just I just want to know how we're g we because I hear it's going to pass so how are we going to make sure that it's done right and

134we watch it and if it starts dealing eliminating that we're not having to pay for it we talked just briefly uh behind Al's head and that's part of his job uh you know we worked with that con for a long time and they've always been right with us U I trust him I trust what he says I know that we've talked about this for a while um any product is going to have failures regardless of where you put it at our job is to find the failures before they happen and make sure that it doesn't happen but when it happens we have to fix it if I had to choose between what I've seen in the two years I've been in this position uh walking through these schools I have less issues with with the

135uh Texas granite I do anywhere else we have issues but I have less of them but again we only have one school that has the the uh concrete but that's more for the P of the building I think I think that's just practical for that particular type of building these are schools these are not cm uh I think this is from a standpoint of a school walking into a school if you walk into chape in high school like I did Friday night I couldn't tell the difference and I looked so it happens our job is to fix it if we can blame it on him we will if he can blame someone else he will I mean that's just the way it goes but to be 100% it we're going to have these issues on

136a lot of things in any school I have not seen a lot of this across the district out of the 23 schools that we've been in okay thanks s Risman all right with that I'm going to call for the vote um there's a motion on the floor all in favor of the motion all opposed all right that motion carries 5 to one and that thank you very much thank you for coming in I'm sorry for making you stand so long um all right that uh moves us to our discussion agenda um item 15 discussion of the district's attorney listing for 2425 as seen an exhibit G coming to our election for first presentation before the board our CFO Miss Heather Tucker welcome Miss Tucker good good evening chair Blackburn hin and members of the board

137Dr Ross um in front of you is our attached list of all of our legal firms that the district currently has approval to work with for the current fiscal year the administration recommends retaining these same firms for the fiscal year for FY 2425 um the administration requests approval of these firms under Section 710 exemption of the district's procurement code for policy and legal services any questions Mr Hogan no questions just want to say great job I also realize my place in the agenda so I saw you like wait wait I would like to ask a question about I'm just kidding welcome Heather welcome welcome Miss Tucker thank you Mr Scully did you have something to say are you sure we're good welc all right so it doesn't seem like we have very much discussion for

138you tonight but thank you very much thank you do I have any motions Mr Hogan yeah I'd like to make the motion that we adjourned do I have a second Mr Miss Snipes all right all in favor all right that motion carries 6 to zero thank you very much we'll see you next time