February 12, 2024 School Board Meeting

001I'd like to call to order our February 12th 2024 uh board meeting do I have a motion to approve the agenda Mr Hogan do I have a second second all right um I hear a second from Miss Snipes I do want to say that um Dr Ross just brought to my attention that um if you look at number 15 on our agenda the grading presentation um that presentation was prepared um by Miss mcal who had to leave unexpectedly and she is the presenter presenter brains behind well she'll be able to answer all of our questions um so Dr Ross has asked if we would move that to the next agenda do we want to make a motion to amend the agenda for to move grading presentation Miss huddle I move that we amend the agenda

002to move number 15 grading presentation to our next meeting do you have a second second I heard Miss Snipes uh any any discussion about that all right all in favor of Miss Huddle's amended motion and that motion carries 7 to zero do I have um a motion oh we we're going to vote on the original motion as amended so I'm going to call for that vote all in favor of the original motion as amended motion carries 7 to zero do I have a motion to enter executive session Mr Hogan uh make the motion to enter executive session to consider the following a selected employment items exhibit B for Action B selected employment items Exhibit C information only and C contractual matter regarding project management Services exhibit D go second second Miss snip Miss snip second

003any discussion seeing none I'll call for the vote all in favor that motion carries 7 to Zer and we will adjourn for executive session and reconvene at 7 p.m. I'd like to call to order our regularly scheduled meeting it's February 12th and 7 p.m. I'd like to welcome every everyone for joining us tonight I know it's a little rainy and we have some railroad closures and all of those things that make a Monday afternoon so much fun um so thank you for being here we will start off uh with the invocation the Pledge of Allegiance from trusty Elizabeth Barnhart Miss Barnhart let's pray Heavenly Father we thank you for once again Gathering us together this evening we commit this meeting to you please come and Reveal Your Will in every aspect of our actions here

004tonight Direct our thoughts our words and our decisions toward the correct path help us to keep in mind that everything we do here should be in the best interest of our District's precious children we thank you for them for their parents and for our community we thank you for our teachers our principles and our support staff I thank you for my fellow board members and our superintendent tonight I also want to especially lift up our chairwoman we pray for her family for enduring strength and healing in her life please be with us as we go forward tonight and in all that we do ask these things in Jesus mighty name amen please stand stand for the pleas of Allegiance all right thank you for that that brings us to number eight which is our school

005board Spotlight Miss Taylor Dr Ross good evening so glad to be with you again to celebrate some great staff and students in our district would y'all like to join out front all right so the magnet schools of America have named leeart Elementary School steam magnet a national Magnet School of Distinction and Spring Hill High School career Pathways magnet a national Magnet School of Excellence so these are um awards that the schools applied for they had to submit detailed um applications that were scored by a panel of Educators and the criteria were that the schools have the ability to raise student academic achievement promote racial and socioeconomic diversity provide integrated instruction and create strong family and Community Partnerships that enhance the school's magnet themes so we are so excited for these schools and the great work

006that they are doing and they will receive their awards at their National Conference in New York this spring so we we are very excited to have with us tonight um principal Dr Michael Lofton from Springhill High School principal Courtney Sims from leeart um Elementary School and um some of the magnet staff from leeart elementary school is here as well for can I get my authors to come stand up here with me you can stand right here with me for just a minute all right board members you might remember a few weeks ago School District 5 had two published author auth and we brought them here I am happy to tell y'all that we have nine more published authors in School District Five they are all from leeart elementary school and author Stan Tucker came and

007spent about a week with you all is that about is that right Stan was there and they all every every student in grades three through five wrote a book and so Mr Stan read them all and he picked nine of them to publish and we have three of our authors here I'm can you um say your name and what grade you're in um I'm in I'm Mark Jane and I'm in fourth grade I'm gusi Harris and I'm in third grade I'm James groan I'm in third grade so we are so excited for you congratulations and I cannot wait to read your books that is so cool do you'all want to go up and and see Dr Ross and everybody going get a picture really quick there you go y wow that is a great way

008to start our meeting congratulations you know these books might make great Valentine's gifts I'm sure are they for sale on Amazon is that how they will be for sale on Amazon okay so that is wonderful wonderful congratulations we are very proud of you all right that brings us to our superintendent report on the agenda so I will turn it over to Dr Ross thank you Madam chair members of the board and our community we are so excited about the amazing work that we're doing each and every day in school district 5 and to our wonderful student authors we're so proud of them one of the books is titled super waffle so can't wait to re read The Amazing Adventures of the super waffle so uh but as as always we are uh geared by uh

009being a system three critical questions that drive our work why do we do this work how do we accomplish our why and then what is our outcomes our vision is that we love and grow our students our mission is that we are focused on academic social emotional growth and development and we're reaching every day to meet our strategic plan outcomes that we love and grow our students measured by our four performance goals it is the growing season in School District 5 and we measure to report at our board meetings our progress as required by uh the state we do uh three in um formative assessments throughout the year fall winter spring so you see last year's fall assessments on measures of academic progress as compared to this fall uh we're in the winter as we

010currently speak those results have come back that was winter of last year uh we see the growth from Winter uh this year so we're really excited about that growth working each and every day to uh ensure that those red bars can turn into blue bars the amount of students who are off grade level are on grade level these are the essential skills for students to be prepared for their Futures uh as a result we're also working uh daily on our graduation uh rate we are looking at uh being as Innovative as possible while meeting our state uh requirements for Gra graduation I want to thank our High School principles they work on this uh report every week uh making sure that we are identifying those numbers uh that are not on track uh but more

011than this the numbers the names behind those those numbers and the stories behind those names uh when it comes to our measures of indicators of success uh we are increasing in every level uh maintaining a graduation rate but we um our Our poise to to increase in that area this year uh so I wanted to to talk a little bit about uh one of our Focus areas for this year uh for the upcoming year and that's teacher retention and Recruitment and by doing that I just wanted to uh steal a presentation from the South Carolina revenue and physical Affairs office uh from Frank rainwater and so this is his a presentation adapted for this meeting but um it is a not only a a local issue but a state a national and even a global

012issue of of teacher retention uh we are working on four different domains uh within School District 5 but uh material offerings is one of those domains and so I think it's important as we work through our plan that our board and Community understand what's going on at the state level uh one of the things that was reported uh to the superintendent Symposium on February 1st uh was the number of teachers uh that are certified versus those who were employed um in our in our state now when we look at how many teachers have certificates versus those who are employed you'll see gaps these gaps don't factor out who has been who has retired so this is just all certifications throughout the state versus employees but does not factor out those who have retired from uh

013the from the field but just gives you an idea of not only uh where those teachers are uh in in terms of employed but also you will begin to see the five different levels in which uh teachers are compensated Bachelors Bachelor plus 18 Masters Masters 30 and doctorate if you look at the minimum this is the minimum uh state salary schedule you'll see how years of experience uh and these five different levels play out and so as we bring in teachers we will bring them in on uh the particular year of experience that they have from 0 to 23 uh again this is the minimum State this is not the district uh and then you will see how um they're paid uh based on on the years of experience and the um the uh the

014education level that they have obtained when you map this out uh it's showing data in multiple different ways does help if you were to graph these lines you would notice something very uh interesting uh the bottom two lines representing the bachelors and the bachelor plus 18 uh that in the later years you can see there's almost no difference between getting a bachelor's and having a bachelors's plus 18 in our current minimum salary schedule for the state of South Carolina and so a teacher at that level there has there is not any earned benefit um again on the on the state level for having that higher level of of of Education uh moreover you heard a talk uh from from the state leadership about moving the the the minimum teacher salary to 50,000 and what it

015would take to to get there well right now on our um State minimum teacher salary schedule about a quarter or 25% of those sales are currently below that that 50,000 so the question is H how do we adjust this as a state and uh right now uh there are multiple proposals out uh what I want to draw your attention to to in this presentation is the proposal uh that um the governor has put forth and that has gone in front of the ways and means and and so um I want you all to just be aware of it um uh so that uh you can see how this may impact us next year uh so um it's first it's it's probably best to start with uh the recommendations of the governor's task force if you

016can recall there was a a teacher Recruitment and Retention task force uh that was put out and it represented the state and they had some recommendations uh coming out of this body uh was a recommendation of uh multiple U ways in which to to pay the the teachers and so you you see the years of experience where zero starts at 50,000 um move to um growing increasingly but if you notice when you get to the sixth year that there are banss 6 through eight is a ban 9 through 11 so in your ninth year you would on the minimum salary receive 58,000 but you would receive that for your 9th 10th and 11th year uh moreover there could be uh salary uh stiens uh salary additions through stiens for professional teacher Master teacher or distinguished

017teacher uh as well as salary stiens for for Education now um we do not have um an example of what a professional or master or distinguished teacher are um but this was just an example of the recommendation from the task force so from that recommendation uh the governor uh put together um uh his budget the state department has um also put together uh their budget all of it this is going through the legislature as we speak uh appropriating over 250 million um for for the salaries looking at the salary uh changes the the pay bands um the movement of the bachelor degree range um and so uh and the the career ladder critical needs subject areas so all of these are things that are going into uh the uh the the governor's budget for for

018Aid to classrooms so what comes out of that well what's important uh to understand is that for 50 years in the state of South Carolina or about 50 years we've had one system of pay um that may change next year so this will be new for everybody um for all of us and uh what is being proposed now is is this model and what you notice is you go from five different levels of of Education to to two different levels so it's bachelors and and graduate and again the bands at this point do go out to 30 uh but again you're you're seeing the years of experience in ban 0 one to two 3 4 5 so forth and so on and so um as we um we look at this there is a um

019hold harmless of course that is being um where you would not lose any money on the and the course District 5 is above the minimum but we're just having this discussion at the minimum uh but you're seeing kind of what this lifetime earnings impact would be uh over a 30-year career for Bachelors Bachelor 18 and Masters uh again uh what is being stated is that this does not cause you to lose any money uh I may not have done the best job of presenting this information so what I make aware to uh the trustees is that on Wednesday February 28th there's a lunch and learn if you can make make this uh I would encourage you to do that we'll have U Miss White send out to you the in invitations there you may have

020questions I intend to watch this as well um but this lunch and learn webinar will be hosted by the South Carolina revenue and physical Affairs office as well as the South Carolina Association of school business officials scell and so uh that'll be February 28th from noon to 1:15 uh again as not being the author of this uh program I'm not um on all of the details uh but I think it would be best for all of us if you can attend on Wednesday February 28th at from noon to 1:15 uh to to participate in the lunch and learn webinar again 50 years over 50 years we have been paying out of of a of a system when that changes uh there will of course Garner a lot of questions uh that um that we want

021to be able to meet and answer at this level last thing I will to share on this point is um that when we look at the working age population and what we're seeing in our state in terms of teacher retention and growth um is looking at the darker blue as the reality of our state in 1970 where the majority of our population was was between the ages of 0 to 19 um where and in the 65 plus was the was the smallest well that's the opposite now and so our goal is of the of the working uh population not just in teaching recruiting Recruitment and Retention but in all Fields uh every field that we're seeing from our front lines to the administration um workflow Workforce Development uh is our is our goal uh so

022I want to thank uh what we're doing uh in terms of teacher Recruitment and and South Carolina but also in School District 5 um you're going to hear more about Pathways to the classroom and ways in which our um a support staff uh can find Pathways to become teachers in the classroom so uh as we we're looking for a lot of innovative ways in which to meet the the teacher uh shortage issue one of those um ways is through advertisements that have started um this year and uh at this time I'm going to ask our uh director Personnel Dr Reggie wicker uh to highlight um a commercial that uh he's done and I would like you to uh if you can indulge in watching this it did not quite make the Super Bowl ad but

023um I think it it was it was of that quality so Dr wicker if you can share with us kind of the origins and the broadcasting of this commercial thank you Dr Ross Madame chair members of the board it's our pleasure this evening to present to you um our newest commercial uh it is airing on wv10 news uh it started today and this is a collaboration between the office of Human Resources our Communications Department as well as the following schools with administ ation and faculty members Crossroads intermediate Lake Murray Elementary hermo Elementary hermo High School Spring Hill High School and Dutch Fork High School when the commercial came into play our main focus was to make sure that it wasn't just for recruitment but it was one that we could use throughout the entire year

024not just a recruitment event that took place the very first Saturday in January so we're very pleased and excited about it and hope you will too thank you at Lexington Richland School District 5 teachers are supported to develop and Advance their career with proactive support led by retention and instructional coaches teachers succeed through professional development and collaborative planning it's a school district where teachers are encouraged to Advocate advance and Inspire Educators whether they are a firste or veteran teacher join the number one best place to teach in South Carolina according to niche.com Lexington Richland School District 5 love and grow your career we still trying to find out whose voice that is I thought it was Dr Dr Wickers but we are certainly uh appreciative and and proud of uh the work and the collaboration

025uh in that space uh to really show the the vision the mission and and the hard work of of teachers and their outcomes I think was was an amazing job so before we go on to uh choice and magnet we want to entertain any questions regarding the teacher retention or recruitment Mr saterfield uh yes Dr Ross I don't know if you mentioned this or not but are they asking superintendent for any input yes we we have um at the February 1 superintendent Symposium they were asking for uh this was our first time receiving this and and one of the issues I think that we all struggled with is how do we convert to this ban piece and we have for again this is 50 years so I can't ex conceptualize a time without it where

026we didn't we didn't honor the the doctorate or the those Advanced degrees I see this as being a a minimum and districts can go over that so um so that's one of the questions as we get further along with this that we're going to answer the the reason I asked that is I I know that uh when we had the opportunity to go to school board meetings and other places I you know you get engaged in those conversations about how are you what are you all doing we've heard a lot of novel ideas for recruiting and retaining teachers one of the things I think that if you do have any input on um I think would be really a neat idea is that in order to move from a uh bachor degree to a bachelor's

027plus 18 or or or a master's it's very expensive for the teachers and if it's I was just doing the I don't know what the hours are now at Carolina or Clemson or wherever but if it's $600 an hour that's over $10,000 just to get1 18 and if you figure that you get a $2,000 raise it takes you five years after you get it and if you paid for it just to try to recoup your money and so you're still living at that current salary because you're paying out of pocket for that so I uh I remember talking with one board member I can't remember what county or district and they were saying that they were looking at tuition assistant programs and uh that's you know it's like I don't say it's not loan forgiveness

028tuition assistance is not the same as you know just paying for it but the idea was what a great way of attracting teachers if you're willing to help them help themselves so to speak but I again getting back to my original questions if you have the opportunity to provide any input um you know that was just one of the ideas that I heard because it can be very expensive you know teachers are already on pretty tight budgets because of their pay and having to pay for that tuition or have certainly having to take out a loan then you got interest on that U on that payment but um just an idea maybe you might be able to contribute thank you anyone else Miss hudle um Dr R don't we already do some type of maybe

029it's for the bachelor's but um can you maybe talk a little bit about what we already do as far as tuition assistance so right now we have if you're familiar with Terry was one of those we we created the ner program which is a new educator retention incentive and what we do is they have an option of the first three years I'm looking at Dr wicker if I'm off and the first three years uh They will receive the option of uh it compound it doesn't compound it you can get it every year $2,500 a year uh which is uh tax-free and it goes straight to the the debt because as you say we were recognizing that teachers on average in our state were carrying over $50,000 of debt and then that approaches the interest that

030accurs on that um and so we were we were paying that but you can also take it as not if you don't don't want it and teachers have the option if they don't want it where 100% of that money goes to the debt then they can take it a salary and so that was a way it was up to the teacher to do that another thing that we're just started is um looking at a a potential cohort with USC we're going to go through the the the um legal approvals before we bring that to you where we could do some call sharing through cohorts and then uh I'd be remissed if I did not mention that uh we have for some time we offer courses through the district where you could receive and I don't

031is it plus 18 um so you can get your your add-on we can't issue a master's but we can give you the additional add-on hours for free so um those are those are paths that that uh we currently have um one of the uh pieces that I would like as we look at this budget we want to look at ways in which you've you've all recognized that how do we in this inflationary time take cost off of teachers so uh the the listening to our our our teacher groups uh about you know is there some things we can do with health uh with child care um and so there's a lot of different things that we're looking at now our one reservation before we begin to put these out is the revenue side so talking

032the expense side without the revenue side is is going to be irresponsible but once we get our Revenue in uh we will we're going to be bringing to this body some proposals of how can we help our our our our teachers uh and our staff to um better handle the the expense side of life any more questions all right Dr Ross all right thank you with that uh we're going to move on with our our continued model that in District 5 every choice is a great choice and we talk about our choice and magnet programs and there would not be choice and magnet programs without Sarah Wheeler so as she comes to the podium uh we'll move forward with our our magnet and choice update thank you very much Madame chairwoman honorable board members Dr

033Ross it is my pleasure to continue to love and grow our magnet in Choice programs I also want to add my congratulations to Leaphart Elementary and to Spring Hill High because they both happen to be certified demonstration magnet schools and what that means is that they are encouraged by magnet schools of America for teachers and Educators from all over the country to come visit their models so we're very proud proud of all the hard work and as you see I left some little Cersei for you I left a booklet to show you how we have grown our magnets over the last 10 years at your leisure you can read and it tells you and explains everything about our 16 magnet programs offered at 11 different sites well I also left you a pen and a

034little fan that shows you the process those are part of our marketing thank you all of that is paid for by our wonderful Grant so that's also good to know this year we expanded to um we had our normal two magnet fairs but we separated them and had Elementary separate from secondary and they were very very successful we were a little nervous not showing how wondering how that would work out but it was wonderful the one thing we did because we keep doing surveys and asking questions and tweaking is we might move them both back up back a little to January rather than have one in November but we listened to our schools and they were pleased Community was pleased so we look forward to continuing to having the two separate levels and maybe pushing

035them both in January so as an update our magnet season for this year had just finished we had a whopping 1,100 27 total applications for magnet and choice and that's quite a number because each year again we we learn little uh tricks to clean up our data more so this year there were less uh duplicate applications applications that didn't need to be submitted if you're already attending a school if it's your Zone school so we still had a few but we got much better data this year 86 69 of those students were offered placement uh not everyone has offered placement some have first and second choices some of our programs such as escolares or the stem program at Dutch Fork High School have criteria attached so sometimes students May apply but they don't necessarily meet

036that criteria right now the families have just completed accepting their placements and rosters went out on Friday as to those students who accepted placement and um we will keep those applicant pools open through July it's a moving fluid application so that as space becomes available we pull kids from an applicant pool and fill available space up until the beginning of next year's school year so along with all that exciting news we also as I've mentioned before got a new grant for 9 plus million Marty did you hear that thank you and that is to implement our project despire I've mentioned it before but it is underway and so exciting harberson West Elementary gifted and talent development magnet we've already had two professional development sessions planning is going on marketing is in place and the beauty

037of that and encourage everyone to come visit it's building on what is positive about an Escolar type of education which is geared towards the academically gifted student but this model is the school enrichment model that TAPS in on every single child's talent that they may have be it Arts be it Athletics be it a passion for cooking and this is what is focused and as we are developing the program we encourage you to come visit next year when we kick off but we will have um enrichment clusters and those will be led by teachers and they will be attended by students where their passion for what they love is matched and it's a for a lack of a better term it's an academic Club but they're not clubs so I look forward to sharing more

038with that as we move forward our other program is 7 Oaks Elementary Global magnet where we will be implementing the primary Year's international baloria program they just successfully submitted their application for candidacy we have calls set up with our Consultants from both the IB organization and independent professional um Consultants Consultants that will help us develop that program we also have two applicants that are submitting to high school students for the magnet schools of America national scholarship we'll keep our fingers crossed that we have some winners we have um c um submissions for the MSA National poster contest we've been very successful in the past to always place in that contest I looked at the video and the commercial and I loved it Mr wicker Dr wicker and hopefully soon we'll be able to share our

039brand new magnet video created by our own interns right here at the Kate Center and it's I'm hoping in its final push and we will have it on our website so I encourage you to see that we did not have to go out to pay some Professional Organization we utilized our own students and it is topnotch um other than that anything that I might be able to answer for you I would be glad to do we have any questions Miss huddle yes um I don't know if you know the this or have an approximation but um we're you know there's been discussion about the um overcrowding that we're having happen and so I was just kind of curious like at Spring Hill did um how were there students that did not get in this year

040and if so do you know about how many or were all accepted no they're there year after year there was always an applicant pool for Spring Hill because they do have a cap and they're very popular but fortunately as things shift a little families move Minds change we've worked down our entire list and we're hoping that we can do that again this year but there are some in an applicant pool yes okay so not a lot though you think we no not a lot um and I I would just encourage all of the board members if you haven't yet to go visit Spring Hill because one of the discussion points has also been at one point making it a regular high school and I think be before you can even consider that you really need

041to visit it and see how unique and special it really is yes it is any other questions oh Mr Scully yeah um I guess it's more not really a question more of a a suggestion but regarding the Harvest and West Elementary gifted and talent development magnet what can we I guess me personally I'm still a little bit unclear as to exactly what that is and and what the program is doing what um communication are we putting out there for the community because I I would imagine that they also it seems like an obscure type of magnet um or program so there it's not real clearly defined how are we communicating what exactly that is do you mean like compared to escalares I'm sorry do you mean like compared to escalares like what the difference is

042between the two well yeah that but just in general the program escalar is to me is simple because it's strictly academic based right the other one is not and I I'm having a hard time kind of wrapping my head around exactly what that I mean that's an excellent question and one of the negatives about when we nothing negative about the grand other than they don't notify you until October one of a school year and that begins year one so you're almost flying by the seat of your pants because you're you're on ready but you don't know it for a fact so we're now in the planning I know that Dr Turner has had two or three parent information but we had to get the grant first then we get all of our planning in place

043it's called a planning year but that is a great point because it's a learning for all of us and there is fabulous information the program if any of you would like to research is the school enrichment model and it's Dr Joseph Renzulli out of the University of Connecticut and he is more or less the Godfather of gifted education and he's been around for a long long time and over over the years he changed his definition where it did gear initially to that academically talented child that was identified by arbitrary numbers so to speak and he realized that all kids do have gifts and talents and a lot has to do with the strategy of teaching and it's much more Project based learning with products involved it's much more interest based it's also diff differentiated but

044not in the sense that we all think well I'm going to differentiate my lesson and offer three opportunities it is actually finding the child's best mode of expression and what they want to learn for instance if you were doing World War II and you had all the facts you might want to know more about the food of World War II you might want to know about the fashion of World War II or the weaponry and you're allowed to go down that path you're allowed to present it in whatever way is best for you be it a product be it a report be it a video so it starts with the enrichment clusters which gets the faculty in the students use to this kind of environment and it's a three to fiveyear implementation and you infuse

045it into the core classroom as well so what it is is it's holding kids to higher standards but it's also giving all students the type to tap into what their passionate about learning and I can tell you once we get it a little further down the road I'm going to volunteer Dr Turner because he has done an amazing job getting this off the board and it's he he would be more than happy to give you a a plan and show you everything okay so I hope that helps a little yeah it does thank you um because I was in fact our consultant even is g to she's so proud of Lex 5 she said she's never quite been to a school that has been that excited and she's going to bring Dr Renzulli he's in

046his 80s but he's a sharp character and you can see his videos online too so our generation of kids that are interested and passionate about learning about Taylor Swift we're prepared for that absolutely okay absolutely Ely any other questions all right thank you very much you're welcome thank y'all thank you so much M Willer we certainly appreciate that and and and look forward to as all of these magnets uh evolve and grow uh the work that we'll see so congratulations on the on the seed planting but then you get the Harvest and uh we're really excited about that so uh keeping with the the theme of loving and growing we're going to talk about about uh not only our bullying um what we're doing in bullying but also what we're doing to support students with

047mentoring so I'm going to ask our chief of student services and planning Dr Michael Harris to come forward for the buling and mentoring update thank you Dr Ross members of the board and our community we wanted to take full advantage of an opportunity tonight to talk with you uh by way of some highlights maybe in a few facts and figures as it relates to a topic of student discipline I.E bullying and we will cap that off with some intervention discussions and conversations that are related to a revived uh program or intervention by way of mentoring and we have with us on tonight our director student services M Kelly Brown and our student services officer Mr Jason polok who will both come forward here and share those in regard to those topics and then we'll certainly

048stand ready for any questions you might have good evening Madam chair members of the board and Dr Ross uh we appreciate the opportunity to come and speak to you tonight tonight a little bit about student services there we go all right in student services we um want to take uh time to create opportunities and awareness by connecting resources for our students and families in The District 5 Community we want our work in uh the office of student services to be grounded in our in solid practices so we navigate through each situation or opportunity with our four preventative pillars uh of student services we operate under law and our district five policy we want to provide effective And Timely communication we want to promote active and engaging supervision and we want to make sure that we

049are keeping record of the interventions and the support that were given to our students and our families this is the expectation that we have of ourselves when anytime that we are looking at matters pertaining to our students and our families and as we navigate through these situations our opportunities and as we stand on those foundational pillars we look for three things when situations arise how is it reported how are we going to address it and what accountabilities and interventions can we provide to all all parties that are involved in the situation and there are many ways and many items that I can walk through of how we do the reporting addressing and intervening but for tonight I want to highlight three specific areas when you look at reporting like I mentioned before there multitude of

050ways we we want students to report to their students to their school counselors to their parents so they can call the uh the school office to their school resource officer but for tonight I want to look at our stop it uh Anonymous reporting app as you know we are in our fifth year of our Anonymous reporting app stop it and this app can be utilized by downloading uh the app on students personal devices but also our students have access to it on our district issued devices I appreciate seeing that our students are utilizing this app to not only report concerns that they may see but also things that they are dealing with personally as well students report concerns about isolated incidents uh things they have observed on campus situations that they are facing and as

051students not only become comfortable with the app uh they are also growing in comfort of speaking up last year at this time we had just over 400 stopit reports to date we have almost 500 reports I celebrate that because we are looking at students who are utilizing the resources available literally at their fingertips to ask for help for either things that they are observing or they are experiencing one of my favorite things about stop it is that once a student submits a report it instantly alerts Administration on their devices this allows for immediate awareness and gives us the opportunity to move right into addressing the concern and certainly there is a multitude of addressing concerns um we have our code of conduct we have investigation we have parent involvement we have all of our our

052resources our mtss model tonight I want to highlight our school threat assessment team process one Avenue as students are addressing or reporting those concerns it may be important for us to utilize our school threat assessment team process this process is used to identify any kind of allegation or Potential Threat now we implemented School threat assessment teams back in 2018 but we continue to refine our process as We Gather our team to analyze facts Behavior circumstantial evidence and appropriate interventions from all members of our school threat assessment team because of the work we are doing in District 5 with our school threat assessment teams we have been given the opportunity to join our Statewide task force on school threat threat assessments just recently I was at a Statewide training on school threat assessments and was really

053able to celebrate acknowledge and commend the work of our school threat assess assessment teams they do a phenomenal job of not only assessing the allegations but giving all parties an opportunity to be involved to offer support and appropriate interventions because we're always looking for ways to refine our process and grow and looking for ways to build our capacity our district threat assessment team is currently discussing how not to only continue celebrating the work of our school threat assessment teams but also looking for ways to push them forward and one way we are discussing to challenge our teams is to continue to build School environments of not just by standards but a term that we use called upstanders upstanders are those individuals who not only see a concern standing by but also now go and report

054and share uh those concerns to appropriate staff members so that we can jump in and support readily available so I know you will hear that term upstanders coming up in the in the months to follow also our administrative teams when you're looking at school threat assessments you look for underlying the why behind it and you when you start digging you start identifying some areas additional ways of support and and accountability that is needed and our administrative teams are meeting this Thursday at our Think Tank session to reflect on discipline in their school and across the district from the first semester during this meeting I know that the topic of bullying intimidation and harassment is going to be discussed last year we had 63 incidents pertaining to bullying intimidation harassment or cyber bullying though we have

055only had 20 referrals up to this point um pertaining to the bullying intimidation harassment and cyber bullying and zero recommendations for expulsions in this matter what I know we have to do is continue to do two things one we are ensuring that we are adequately investigating all reports of not just bullying intimidating harassment or cyber bullying but all other concerns that are brought to our attention and during our investigation it is our responsibility to identify the concerning behavior and align that specific behavior with the appropriate code of conduct violation aligning it appropriately allows us to provide the most tailored accountability and interventions and resources for all parties involved in the matter our strategic plan uh bullying committee also met recently and suggested an idea of doing in a campaign that really highlights not just the

056definition of bullying and examples of bullying but what our students are positively doing with their words and their actions and choices that promote a safe healthy learning environment for our students they suggested to emphasize the language that our students are using discussions of what uh they are doing to Showcase appropriate behavior what kindness looks like what reporting looks like what asking for help looks like what examples of good class mates so I appreciate their spend on empowering students with the knowledge of what to look for in a healthy friendship in a classmate and when it doesn't look like that to go back to our first bullet of reporting so that we can go to our second bullet of addressing and as we address those items certainly we see the need uh for add additional support

057intervention resources that are available and accessible and certainly applicable we have our clinical counsel school counselor social workers or mtss um support system but for tonight I want to highlight the intervention of our mentoring program an Avenue of relationship building that is used so students feel comfortable safe and valued and heard in our revised rendition of our mentoring program so at this time I'd like to turn it over to Mr poock our student services officer to discuss the mentoring piece all right good evening um being able to speak on mentorship uh is one of my favorite things about my position uh one of my favorite quotes is from uh Winston Churchill he says uh we make a living by what we get but we make a Life by what we give and we know that

058mentorship is about giving uh mentoring has always been a a key intervention of School District 5 and being a District 5 graduate I know the important role a mentor can play in in the life of a student for the past few years uh and really since covid we've continued our mentoring program program but mainly at the school level uh individual schools have operated their mentoring programs amongst themselves this is continued this year and our goal is not to stop what is already in place or what has already been established uh through through the office of student services our goal is to revise our Mentor program and have it fall under one umbrella so that we can better identify train and track all of our mentor initiatives across the district in order to do this uh

059we had to first look at our fundamental beliefs of mentorship and there you can see our goals of mentoring uh first build a relationship we know the relationships matter and we want to partner students up with trusted adults next is establish a connection uh we hope that mentors connect with students through conversations and experiences next is provide advice and guidance uh once the connection has been established then we hope to provide a positive influence for our students the next is lend support help connect students uh to the resources we have available within our district and then meet them where they are we always say we want to meet students where they are well this is where that begins and then listen and serve uh some of our mentees just need a listening ear um and

060and someone who is willing to help however they can so as we started to look we looked how we could break down our revised Mentor program into three phases and phase one is utilizing D5 staff to directly impact a student's life uh I presented uh a couple weeks ago to our district office staff and uh solicited them to be a part of our mentoring program uh we've had several staff members to sign up and uh we're currently working with schools and school counselors to partner those faculty members up with uh students who are in need of a mentor phase two is incorporating our community uh soliciting outside organizations for support and Partnerships allow community members uh all of our community members will go through a sled background check uh we've already established Partnerships uh with

061several faith-based and uh other organizations that are currently working in our schools some schools have already provided their own training and their own mentors go through their volunteer process to become mentors uh once again we're not trying to replace those Partnerships because we want those Partnerships to continue uh for for example uh I know leart was here earlier and I spoke to uh their principal and I know that they have a program a a uh a mentor program at Lake leap part called girls love math and math Mentor group I'm not a part of that um but this program has alone has 20 different uh mentors some of which are already District Personnel so some District Personnel are already inside of schools impacting student lives our goal is to establish and build new relationships with

062uh with Partnerships uh I've been working in conjunction with juliia Scott our community support services coordinator and soliciting support from all the members of the community that we've been able to reach out to uh we're currently working with working on a flyer to advertise in uh our revised program and a date to hold a training session for our new volunteers that we hope to gain our phase three is peer mentoring uh meet with student councils athletic directors and other school organizations to recruit peer mentors uh being a former principal in the district uh I had student organizations coming to my schools to Mentor students and I understand the the impact and the relatability that these students have on our younger students um I had students come from from Dutch work Dutch work high school on

063Wednesday mornings for about an hour they met with our students they they talked with them played games and they set goals with those students who were in need of support and guidance uh then they would follow up with emails and just showing support and uh encouragement to those students and the impact that they had on those students lives and every time they walked into the building that just how they lit up I could see the impact that those students were having uh with those younger students uh We've also uh worked with our coordinator of social work uh Jennifer felco uh to incorporate with our school uh social workers are already doing working with families and the resources they providing them and with our families and with their students um from all of our uh folks

064that are agreeing to be mentors we're asking that they dedicate uh one hour a week to meet with their Min teth um and I know time sometimes can be a crunch but uh pouring an hour of time into a student's life has a benefit far greater than we could ever imagine so I know Dr Ross has talked about uh this is the growing season so we need elements to help them grow um and the first level is that organic level of of our teachers and staff uh they are the front lines on the front lines every day loving and growing our students uh providing them with support resources and guidance can't thank them enough because they show up every day and meeting with students and providing them that support and that's the organic layer our

065next layer of support is our D5 staff or our soil uh and soil stands for Success occurs by investing in lives this layer will be responsible for be responsible for adhering to the goals of our Mentor program that we set forth earlier our next uh level is the community or our sanss and Sans stands for supporting advising nurturing D5 students this partnership is responsible for giving back to their community in which they serve then our next level like I mentioned earlier is our peer mentoring or our subsoil they have the same goal as our soil but of course they will have a different level of connection and uh relatability and then lastly it's our Bedrock of our support the family uh always say that it takes a village to raise a child and the family

066is the foundation of this Village and we will continuously keep them involved in this growing process so as we look back at our results uh or we look at our results to this point this year of reporting how we address how we intervene uh what we have seen uh from last year to this year uh last year we had just over 400 uh stopping reports this year uh 2023 2024 we've had almost almost 500 uh so we celebrate that and that students are making us aware what's happening around our buildings uh We've also seen a decrease in recommendation for exposion numbers uh last year at this time we had 231 recommendations for exposion at this time this year we have 192 of course we always want to see that number decrease but we are seeing

067the trend in the right direction and by us continuing to build relationships with students allows for tailored support for IND individual student needs uh some of the supports that we have been provided to meet individual students needs uh we work with the office of instruction uh with our five program for those students who would benefit from a virtual platform uh We've also worked with our adult education program for our students who uh who are not our older students who who are not fit for our traditional classroom settings and that they would benefit from adult education we've been able to provide that uh We've also worked with our clinical counselors as as Miss Brown has said uh We've also worked uh with our extra after school programs providing students an environment a positive environment after school

068hours that they can be involved in so that all those resources we've been utilizing to help tailor what those students needs to their individual needs um so we ask why the change in numbers that we've seen we know it's a lot of things that attribute to that uh but we we firmly believe that if we continue uh to to address the P when a report is made addressing it appropriately and then providing adequate interventions we will continue to see the trend in which we've seen uh so we will begin or we will end with the begin in mind uh in student services we create opportunities and awareness by connecting applicable resources for students and families in District Five Community thank you stand for any questions all right I saw Miss Huddle's hand first Miss hle

069I have a lot so but I'll take turns um how uh so on M mentoring um how so I want to make sure I understand so we already have some mentoring programs but you're looking to make sure that we have them in all our schools we would like to have them in all our schools but what would like to have it is under one umbrella okay uh because everybody's kind of operating in silos so we want to get all of that make sure all the training is uh consistent throughout our buildings but of course we don't want schools that tailor it and have a cookie cut cookie cutter set we want them to do what's best for their buildings but the training so will there be some centralized reporting where you would know like how

070many hours man hours and that kind of stuff we will hope to get to that point yes ma okay and last question on that um I know in the past we've paid some mentors are we going to continue to do that or are all of these going to be volunteer right now we're hoping I'm hoping for volunteer for volunteer hours yes ma thank you Mr saterfield and then Mr Scully yes Mr poock you look very sharp tonight uh I was just curious I know there was a previous mention about cyber bullying is that is there a huge number is there a greater percentage of cyber bullying than any other types of bullying and do you see it more in certain grade levels than you do in other grade levels I I know that when years

071ago when we had Myspace that's a lot I tell you how old I am um we had issues that would spill over into the school day um but I was just curious if if that's what you did mentioned the cyber bullying I was just curious about that very few so we we we we see that now it's not my we don't deal too much with but I'm with you on that um so we do see sometimes the social media impact and leaking over into the school building in in the school day and so that um allows us the opportunity to kind of navigate through that our cyber bullying incidents I think there were like two or three last year and two this year so they're very minimal um when you're talking into the definition of

072cyberbulling that online piece sometimes that online piece trickles into things that we're seeing on campus which then can take a different lead into our code of conduct but we certainly are keeping an eye on the the internet as aspect of of contact with other students all right I had one last question for Mr PA Mr PA did you did you bring your keys with you tonight this inside jokes Mr Scully yeah I my question just kind of goes back to the beginning I guess at the core exactly and if I missed this how are the mentees identified how does someone become a m uh working with our school counselors uh they'll be able to well with our mtss programs within our school buildings those uh meetings will helped identify those students that we see are

073most at need need are most at risk we have tiers tier one tier two tier three students um and our goal is to address those tier one and two tier one and tier two students um with with our mentoring program but most of those are identified by our school counselors and our school administration okay and now I'm trying to link it I guess this presentation together um in terms of the mentoring and the stopit app how does the stop it app being an anonymous reporting tool translate into mentoring or how does where's that connection is it the target of the report from the app since the reporter is anonymous H how does that work sure so one of the things too that is um beneficial for the Stop It app is it can be anonymous

074but students also have the very last option before they hit submit they can um share their name and then sometimes when that one of the components of the stop it app is there's a messaging component that thank you if you feel comfortable sharing come to our school counseling office so then it identifies who the student is that is also to so that allows us to go will address that but also to how can we continue to support which may be connecting you with one of our mentors um that's only one component of how we identify students who would benefit from the the relationship with the mentor it would be beautiful if every student had that Mentor piece but that's only one option one Avenue of how we identify students and connecting them with a mentor

075okay and I know with bullying one of the biggest challenges is actually getting the students to open up and talk about it otherwise that's kind of the gatekeeper you can't really go beyond that to address it are you finding that students today are beginning to open up more and being will more willing to share and identify themselves and kind of come out is that why are are we having more Su success in that area I think most of the students who are uh interact with those who are outside of the school building who they don't see every day they feel a little bit more comfortable because they know they're not it would be penalized for anything for any conversation that we have and so we see a lot more of those students opening up and

076feel feeling Freer to have those conversations because it's staying between them in that mental okay I actually have a question about the stop it app as well and I'm trying to remember every student in the district has access to the stop it app correct K through 12 right it is issued on their device on their device okay so um this year we've had about 500 reports on the stop it app are we tracking what grades tend to utilize the app the most and what school or general area where the reports are coming from um so that we can identify if there is a um a school culture issue you or is it just like equally all kids or you know does that make sense absolutely so one of the things I'll mention the um the

077stopit app is available on all the district devices but certainly the discussion with a first grader about stopit is is certainly different with Juniors uh in our high school so the elementary focus is building that awareness of the opportunity then we start seeing more utilization of the app in our upper elementary middle and high one of the things that I like about stop it is that does it tracks our it tracks information for us and we're able to look at the data and identify the particular grade highlight the particular schools and then that allows us to to go in and then figure out what additional resources and intervention we can provide to that particular grade level or those individual schools but we are able to look at that data and um and identify the key

078points of of emphasis for our next steps in supporting the schools okay and when you get these reports s do you I would assume just kids being kids that you would get some reports that are unfounded right um like reverse bullying like I'm going to report you for being a bully and you're not or I mean so I mean do you find that to happen or um when we first how do you make sure that they're legitimate sure when we first started the implementation it was the new thing and so you you've got a couple of reports that made you go okay hold on that you know I'm not going to say silly but there were some silly reports that just um did not have anything to do with school almost in some of those

079reports and then the newness wore off and it became an Avenue that uh students really found beneficial and when they uh and they saw results they saw um admin involvement and those additional interventions and resources given to those students and so the um the newness wore off but also too at the begin at the very very end before they hit submit right above where they can enter their name it says there's a phrase that by clicking submit that I'm submitting accurate information and that in the event falsified information is shared because there could be an additional code of conduct violation pertaining to that because once that and a report is submitted it goes to our devices as well it it can connect with our safety team and so there's a lot of Manpower that goes

080into addressing each and every um report support which is what that is intended to do so we can be timely and and act and available to to get the student the support that they need but we want students to take that as serious as we do and they've done a really nice job going into our fourth fifth year of this of really seeing the benefits of utilizing that app Good Year miss hudle I know you have um I Heard the number I think 63 reports of bullying last year is that from the stop it app or where did the 63 come from sure from our power school reports of our school discipline referrals um suspensions or in school suspensions is where those numbers come from okay so it really could be a lot more than

081that that's just ones that resulted in suspension or worse is that right those numbers indicate the referrals that centered around the bullying intimidation harassment so referral within the school or referral to you guys referral within the school okay is there a way um for parents to report I mean I've talked to parents and the the kid doesn't want to use stop it and and the parent wants it addressed is there a way for them to do that well goe they could always reach out to the administration at that school and and speak with the administrator speak with the principal and uh make them aware and they would address it just the same as that they got it through the stop it app okay thank you yes all right any more questions all right thank you

082very much thank you so much uh for for this very important information um you know just towards that that notion of intervening we we heard a lot I heard the call about bullying and harassment in schools I want to thank Dr Harris and his staff of putting this together really it's a multiple fronts that we addressing uh prevention intervention and recovery and so we appreciate this amazing intervention hurt people hurt people and so once you handle the referral the question is what do we do with the student and to uh see the work uh that student services and planning has done for mentoring they're putting people when we say and you're not in education may not be familiar with mtss um but these are our Educators and administrators are very vers in this of determining

083which Children of the highest needs in our schools and uh so we will be looking for community members if you have an hour a week um and you're willing to go through our training to Mentor one of these students uh we're certainly looking for for that help so we thank you uh for uh this amazing work and uh this is the work we do to love and grow our students so Madam chair members of our board that concludes the superintendent's report all right thank you Dr Ross anybody have any last minute questions for the superintendent all right that moves us to to number 10 on our agenda which is the approval of the January 22nd board meeting do I have a motion Mr Hogan i' make the motion to approve the minutes of the January

08422nd 2024 board meeting do have a second Miss huddle any discussion seeing none I'll call for the vote all in favor that motion carries 7 to Zer um number 11 on the agenda is the approval of the minutes of the January 24th special called board meeting do I have a motion Mr Hogan uh make the motion to approve the minutes of the January 24th or 2024 special C board meeting do I have a second Miss Barnhart I saw Miss barard first any discussion seeing none I will call for the vote all in favor that motion carries 7 to zero and that moves us to number 12 on our agenda public participation uh before we no no yeah yes yes anything else Mr hugan all right that moves us to number 12 on our agenda public

085participation the board welcomes and encourages public participation we respectfully ask that you adhere to the procedures provided in board policy bedh public participation at meetings your comment should be limited to 3 minutes and must remain on either the topic noted on your signin form or a listed agenda item item questions asked during public participation will be handled in accordance with board policy bedh Miss Taylor thank you madam chair Erin Parker is here to speak about District culture my name is Aaron Parker and this is my my fourth year serving as the librarian at hero High School two weeks ago I was taken from the library and put in capturing the kids heart training which is described as a culture shifting program that equips teachers coaches administrators District Leaders with the tools to strengthen the trust

086between teachers and students as part of this training we were asked to share something important to us or of sentimental value I simply shared that I was reading a book and stated that it was one that I wanted to read for some time and I'd finally worked up the courage to read it the colleagues from around the district were intrigued Ed by this book and questioned what it was about or if it was one of those books people want to ban I got so overwhelm with the question that I left the room and tears the book Grace will lead us home is how I ended up at hermo High School in 2015 I was a public librarian who had just moved back to Columbia from Charleston on June 17th 2015 my former boss and a

087former student were killed in a mass shooting at a church on June 18th I learned that the gunman used to work frequent the library where I presently worked on June 18th 25th the way I looked at people and how I treated people and the culture that I tried to Foster drastically changed I struggled internally with what we were learning at capture kids Hearts training because the culture of the program to me seemed to directly conflict with the present culture of Lexington Richland 5 there is no trust between the school board and teachers and at times Administration and teachers so I am unclear how we are to build such trust between teachers and students since I begun employment at Lex Rich 5 as a librarian I have felt unsettled in January 2022 I watched ently as

088I was T attacked at a school board meeting and on social media over a book with people saying I'd purchased porn was a pedophile and needed to be arrested I watched silently while a fellow District librarian was bashed by a school board member as part of her platform on an election over book censorship I watch silently why proper policy and procedure regarding challenged materials was not followed regarding a lesson by a teacher at shapen High I even watch silently over the last two weeks while a student at chapen who boldly spoke her Truth at a school board meeting was attacked on social media what kind of culture is this District fostering I love iro and I love my students and I deeply feel that I have Mak a lasting impact on them not just through

089literacy but by simply being a kind person that they can come to I do not love the culture this district is presently cultivating this board is creating an US versus the mentality that is making it difficult for teachers in our community and it will ultimately make it difficult for us in the school be building we cannot capture kids' Hearts when the leadership of this district is failing to capture ours I warmly invite each of you to come visit me at armo high school to visit the library and perhaps better understand and gain an appreciation for the work that my colleagues and I are doing I feel that D5 libraries are quickly becoming a place where Librarians are vilified Tessie coach said I was made for the library not the classroom the classroom was a jail

090of other people's interest the library was open unending unending and free I want you to meet my students and see my work and experience my students interests and yes even the books I purchased if we want to capture Hearts perhaps it's time for the adults in power to do the work first Ayana Maye is here to speak about District culture and environment greetings as the board recently adopted a revised policy regarding its accountability and commitment to accomplishment I am here to ask you to further reflect on your role responsibility and Authority as a school board and to implore you to revisit your goal to serve as advocates for our students I have not been to every board meeting or seen every Facebook post but I have picked up on some differences in opinion between school

091board members staff and parents in this District I have been a parent in this district for eight years and a librarian here for three and the actions of the board have been soberly disappointing I witnessed you encourag conflict between community members and the school that you govern the schools that you govern by publicly thinking aloud about the validity of instructional material and the decisions made by our highly qualified School staff I have been subjected to bashing on social media by a school board candidate who now sits on the board attacking the instructional and programmatic decisions of your staff should not be a tactic for gaining Community Support yet this seems to be acceptable behavior in this District I have a phone and an email address that you can use anytime you have a concern about

092a professional decision I have made if you want to use a public forum please include me so that we can foster communication and develop a relationship between all stakeholders in our community for the benefit of our students due to the toxic adversarial environment that this board has created students are now directly impacted students are taking cues from us on how to resolve differences the division between school and Community has become palpable to students and I believe the board is responsible for demonstrating balance and Equitable leadership and repairing the damage you are not capturing kids' hearts or helping to love and grow anyone when you ban a series of books beloved by students without following your own policy which you passed after altering the recommendations from school librarians in this District why even ask for input

093since you ban these books without a formal challenge I had to collect a book from a very confused student in the midst of midterm exam week days prior to its due date all I could say is you did nothing wrong the district just decided not to carry these books anymore don't leave here painting that child or me as a deviant and congratulate yourself for saving an impressionable mind over the past three years all I have seen you do is push parents students teachers and yourselves further into separate Corners now it is your duty to address what is what it really means to advocate for all students and bring us back to the middle otherwise this will be your failure and your legacy in Lexington Richland 5 Tim Graham is here to speak about book Banning

094well I was um I was hoping nobody would bring this up tonight because I didn't really want to touch on it but um first off I'd like to um commend the board for your courageous and I might add correct decision uh to remove or restrict the uh Court of M and Fury from District Five School libraries um I'm only going to speak about that book because I don't know anything about the rest of the series but I know a little bit about that book ever since you made this decision way back in December I've heard a lot of people address the evils of book Banning and I agree book Banning is bad it's a restriction of Free Speech but this is not book banning all you've done is said the book is inappropriate for high

095schools in The District 5 um and there there are thousands of books that are published every year and not all of them get into every library and um so every once in a while you make a decision that this one doesn't need to be in the library the um the book that we're discussing is available in public libraries and uh it's available on Amazon for $13 so it's not book Banning another thing I don't know whether the teachers are assigning this book or whether it's just available in the library but either way my question is why I know it's a fantasy and it may be you know a good story but there are also passages in it which can only be described as pornographic so what makes this book so important there are a lot

096of good fantasies out there we got J.R tolken uh JK Roland JRR tolken I mean and CS Lewis so why is this book so necessary finally um you know I've heard it said that it's up to parents to decide and and I agree 100% but how many parents really monitor the books their kids are reading and if it comes from the school what are most parents think ah this is a good book probably you know so um again I say it is available if if the parents want their kids to read it the kids want to read it parents are all right with it you can find it it's not book Banning just because it's not in the library and so I commend you once again thank you for making the correct decision Madam Sher

097that concludes public participation all right so that moves us to our action agenda uh number 13 Action as necessary or appropriate on matters discussed in executive session do I have a motion Mr Hogan I'd like to make the motion to approve selected employment items Shar an exhibit B do have a second Miss huddle any discussion seeing none I'll call for the vote all in favor that motion carries 7 to Z Z do I have any motions out of executive session Mr Hogan yeah I'd like to make a motion to issue a solicitation for a construction management group that has the necessary resources to monitor all aspects of the armo High School East Wing project do have a second a second I heard Miss barard uh any discussion seeing none I'll call for the vote all

098in favor that motion carries 7 to zero and that brings us to I'm assuming there's no more motions EX ex session um that brings us to number 14 the first reading approval of proposed revisions to board policy di deie do I have a motion before we discuss Mr hugan make a motion to approve the first reading of proposed revisions to board policy di dee fiscal accounting and audits sh exhibit e do have a second Mr saterfield all right any discussion uh I'll have our interim CFO Miss Marty rolls comes Leon uh to discuss the changes proposed changes to our uh board policy di physical accounting audits Madam chair members of the board and Dr Ross thank you for having me back at District 5 and I am looking forward to working with each one of

099you uh tonight we want to talk about policy diie all we are doing is removing the word all under external auditing tra um normal audit practices will still be uh upheld and they will do a sample of the vouchers and payments that are more than $50,000 so is just removing the word all to go back to traditional auditing standards okay do I have any questions Miss hudle um I just wanted to make sure that the intent is still in there which was if the vendor was paid a total more than 50 then a sample would be taken so not just payments over 50,000 but any vendor that received a total of more than 50,000 does that make sense yes ma'am okay yeah yes ma'am so any uh payments of more than 50,000 in total to

100any vendor so yes ma'am any other questions all right seeing none I'll call for the vote all in favor that motion carries 7even to zero welcome back Miss rolls thank you all right so that brings us to the discussion agenda um when we were approving the agenda just to note when we were approving the agenda earlier uh we did amend our agenda to remove number 15 which is the grading presentation because Miss mcal had an emergency and needed to be able to leave so um we are going to discuss grading the grading presentation at our next meeting I just wanted to remind everyone that that's why we have change that agenda that brings us to item 16 which is the five-year master Master facilities and resoning plan Dr Ross thank you madam chair trustees and

101members of our community um we are bringing uh the the next iteration of our resoning facilities plan our Five-Year Plan uh we have um we have said in the beginning that we're writing this in pencil we're re soliciting feedback uh I want to thank uh our communication staff Amanda teller I want to thank Dr har and offices of student services and planning uh and also um our director of operations Dave wisman we have been traveling uh the circuit so to speak uh going to community forms uh hosted those uh online uh thank our technology team and Jenny Garis for facilitating one that we had over 177 um attendees in that one we're doing these virtually in in person and we're getting great feedback and so we will continue to present this as we receive feedback

102from our from our community uh tonight is no action but to listen to uh kind of what we reported what we've learned from recommendations and then how we're moving forth and we'll take uh questions um that time um as always we begin everything with the with that Vision that we love and grow our our students and that uh our district is districtal growth uh our academic growth is evident I want to salute the teachers and staff for the work that they're doing this does not come without them putting that work on the ground and making impact making positive impact uh for for our our teach our students uh so uh that's our D5 story that's being written every day there are amazing things that go on in and outside of our classrooms and uh it

103is um is it is wonderful to watch wonderful to be a part of such a great School District so the the question is why change with all that's going well in our district why upset the apple cart uh why change the the the systems and the the procedures that we have going uh forth and to best uh answer that question I used one of eso's fables he had over 700 of these fables but one of my favorites is the grasshopper and the Ant very quickly The Story Goes that a grasshopper was at play and an ant comes by and toil grasshopper says to the ant on this uh beautiful autumn day that it's food everywhere why why do you why do you work it's such a great day and the Ant replies well there's food

104on the ground but one day winter will hit and there will not be any food around and so the grasshopper looks and sees there's there's no indication of winter coming um it's such a great day you can relax but the anunt persists that you need to store up today for winter is on the way and so day after day week after week month after month the same conversation goes on until one day the snow begins to fall the snow falls and Falls until the snow covers the ground and there's no food to be found um persistently the grasshopper goes to the anill and asks Mr ant for food because he's hungry the ant asked the gra grasshopper why didn't I why didn't you prepare why didn't you store up food during the Harvest and the

105grasshopper replies that I spent that time playing and the aunt replies well you must spend the winter dancing and so the moral of that story is that we should work today for what we will need tomorrow and I tell that story as a as a primer for what the aunt was thinking in the story and that is understanding that um that we must be looking at sustainable decisions preparing for tomorrow and so the ant has a problem solving process that I would like to take us through uh what does that process look like well I start off with Brian tra Tracy's process where he determines the values of the team and I think that's important for us um for us to understand as a as a board as an Administration are we do we have

106the same values whose problem are we trying to solve because if we differ at at step one uh then the other steps won't fall into place and then what problem are we facing what are the challenges that we see ahead then identifying the cause of these problems or challenges create a plan and assign responsibilities and implement the plan and evaluate progress so uh tonight I'm just going to walk through our problem solving process uh these these steps if you look at the first one determine the team's values whose problem are we trying to solve as we draft this plan and pencil uh we're looking at the needs of the students and particularly all students in our district uh so that is the lens in which we address this then uh the needs of our teachers

107and staff the needs of our students families and then the needs of our community so there'll be certain sticking points in this plan certain points where we comeing why did you make that decision versus this decision we're going to go back to our value statement uh as as the determination of are we making or whose problem are we trying to solve and then defining the problem there are three uh that we we have here that we like to U talk about and I think they're all of equal weight uh one the condition of the school buildings of the dut fork and hero attendance area areas uh what we saw through the MPS study uh is that we have of the five levels of of need level one is the most critical need that's uh we

108need to to to do something uh in in short order in these um these incidences there were over [Music] 11,137 incidences found uh but of the critical needs there was an estimated $34 million facility needs uh now we have annually in our Capital about 15 million that we use to kind of handle maintenance every year uh when you're we don't use the entire 15 on that so you can see if you take um the level one and level two um that starts to expand uh the amount of of need that we have and so when there's not enough capital or enough operating to go after uh our needs that can lead to deferred maintenance uh one of our staff said very wise it seems that we're on a runto fail system uh we learn about

109things when they fail and so uh that's a condition that we want to get ahead of the second one is a student enrollment and capacity issues in the chape and attendance area uh lexon Richmond 5 is estimated to increase 695 students by the 27 28 school year the majority of the new students will live in chap in South Carolina and they uh the third challenge is to need to modernize our instructional programs specifically to meet the workforce uh needs of the future uh our our future in in the state of South Carolina is going to depend on making sure that our students are there to meet those Workforce uh gaps and these gaps require High High Technical and entrepreneurial skills so all three of these are are very important and so when you you look

110at 11 years ago almost 11 years ago now the uh in-person enrollment in our school district uh according to the 135th Day Report you can see that at that time dud Fork had 38% of the population of students and chapen was the smallest with 25% now those numbers are almost flipped uh the smallest attendance zone is Dutch Fork and the largest in terms of inperson enrollment is in the chapen area but where are the buildings uh you can see that the buildings are in in the other attendance areas so do we build additional buildings to accommodate the growth and shaping or do we what we're proposing fix and fill uh the existing plan please note that this um plan plan is not scheduled for resoning to take place until the 2026 27 school year so

111I want to talk about fixing first when we talk about fixing uh we were appreciative of this board uh to approve the MPS um third party evaluators to come and look at our uh they looked at 25 buildings 23 schools 3.7 million square ft found 11,1 137 incidences rated these incidences from 1 to five um and you received that report as it looked at sight conditions building structures in uh Interiors mechanical controls we looked at health and safety and security a lot was evaluated and then a composite of each one of these ratings was given to the actual building uh that composite score from one to five was made there were no ones or fives but you can see that there were twos threes and fours twos meaning that we replace or improve the facility

112within two to three years a three representing average wear and tear of that facility uh but needed to be replaced or improved within three to six years and a four um was that did not need to be replaced or improved for seven to to 10 years and so these were um compiled and you can see where the concentration of the tools are the concentration of growth is in the in the blue attendance area but the twos the areas that need to be improved or replaced within two to three years are in the dut fork and hero areas in addition to fixing it's not just bringing the the buildings up to cold or meeting the uh critical needs but it's also making sure that we hit our instructional plans and our instructional priorities and so we

113have presented uh in November of this year our instructional plans so we think Tina MCO and her team David pry his team here at the center for looking to the Future to see uh when we update these buildings make sure that we update it for the students to prepare for their Futures which is different from our past and what we see is uh the opportunity uh to upgrade the stem program at Dutch Fork High School with digital Solutions and artificial intelligence a course that is currently being developed by the Department of Education uh to round out the uh educational program at at chapen High School uh with theoretical set design and Fine Arts with the Fine Arts Center uh to promote the entrepreneurship at uh erore high school with a small business incubator and one

114of the things that I think we'll see um that really uh will do us well on the ground is uh the construction infrastructure lab here at the center center for advanced technical studies right now employers are looking for surveyors they're looking for operators they're looking for uh those who um uh who are diesel mechanics to maintain these machines they looking for those right now there's gaps in the line uh and so uh as we build buildings we'll be looking for um for these employees so we're better plac and right here in our district uh to include that so part of the fix is also making sure that our programs meet the workforce and and Community needs of the future so that brings us to how do we feel our existing facilities uh to accommodate growth

115and um before I I move into it I I would like to uh take the board and the community on a on a primer uh for this is a really quick lesson if you're getting your Masters in administration uh educational Administration on capacity so um this is a very simplified version uh but uh it's important to understand how we feel our our schools responsibly and so uh there are three vocabulary words that you would need to understand to to so that we're speaking the same language the first one is theoretical uh capacity or core imagine an elementary school with 10 classrooms or 10 rooms for instruction and in this Elementary School we put 25 students in each of the the rooms um that theoretical or core capacity would be 250 students now if you talk

116to someone who's actually run a building a principal assistant principal teacher uh This is highly uh uh unlikely uh that this would ever happen um this is not rounding out an instructional program uh so what we U look at is what we call maximum capacity or program capacity and why is that important because schools offer programs every school offers uh a range of different programs and parents picked schools because of the programs that it offers so a program could be an exploratory or an elective such as uh art lab or science lab so this same elementary school that has 10 instructional spaces uh would use two of them for uh an exploratory and now if you Max uh every room with 25 students uh then that same building that same space now has a capacity

117of 200 students and students would move in and they would also be able to have uh art and and science and so the more classes or more spaces you devote to programs uh the lower that that capacity goes in the same building we also offer uh uh programs uh for instance that by law can't have 25 students in it uh so if we look at the different ranges we have right now uh over 2,500 students uh who are classified as special needs uh students and they have a range of different Services uh from intellectually disabled to learning disabled uh we also offer uh Title One schools and in Title One schools uh these where we get our federal money uh you can't go over 18 in a certain class and so all of this in

118the same building can change um our our capacities so what's important is we report out capacities I want you to pay attention to these thresholds 80% are yellow um that's when we're really using that that building that program capacity we can certainly put more children in a building but we start to give up we start to give up our programming we start to give up our Effectiveness we start to give up those uh those exploratories and electives that really make School District 5 special at 88 our uh consultant NPS says that's when teachers start to fill it that's when we're we may be moving around uh but once you get over that uh then you start going outside the building and you may see where uh Portables come into play uh for example if you're

119on the blue Hall of Lake Murray you can see there's the they have two art classes and two computer labs so what happens that pushes classroom spaces outside if you at chape and Elementary uh they put their art and um exploratories outside so that they can use those inside so how we use the building how you program the building I think what's important is to understand that we don't take every room and Max fill it with 25 students we identify students by their needs and if a child's in a wheelchair and we're serving them through um uh their service you won't ever put 25 of those in a room uh we have children um that need ID Services um we try to get as closer to the the ability to meet their needs as possible

120so when we calculate uh our uh using our 45th day numbers using this uh model of program uh basically of our MAX Field including our programs uh you can see how our knee breaks out uh we have 75% capacity of that Max um and below is green uh yellow uh is between the ranges of 76 to to 89 that's that that marker where um we feel like we're right on the on the on the line here at 90 to 94 um we may be able to um hold inside the building um but we are we're approaching the point where we're going to to need uh to to to to go outside or look at other options uh are considered Portables so this is uh our 45th day uh numbers of this year and you can

121see why uh the The Proposal causes us uh to look at um what's going to happen uh according to our demographer when we get to 2027 28 when these numbers expand when at extra 69 5 students come to our district um and the majority are going to chapen how do we handle this so the question is how does building and Dutch Fork solve the chaping issue well one of the things that we're going to do is if you look at uh the Dutch Fork Elementary uh school um right now that is uh yellow we would like to expand that and as we move the population East we feel that we could stop the slide there at uh at Dutch Fork Elementary however using the existing building um of of Dutch Fork Elementary we can now

122uh bring programs that are in chapen the five program The Academy for Success also to into that current building as we move back uh East so uh we will be grabbing a building uh that's currently in the Dutch Fork attendant Zone Valentine Elementary and serving the chapen population instead of three elementary schools serving serving shapen there would be four elementary schools serving shapen it would still move people back East into the areas where we would have have room Oak Point River Springs H Corley but we were feeling uh hoping that with a or planning with this plan uh that with a new dut Fork Elementary any of the movement East would be absorbed by that new facility and that way we're looking at this from p P Woods to Piney Grove a complete plan as

123you look at this map your eyes may draw attention to LEAP heart in seven Nots as schools that are um in that 95% capacity Plus capacity range and notice there that those schools are are uh high levels of of of poverty also Title One and so more St this will fill up faster because there are no 25 per class U classrooms here all of these are going to be 18 and and Below one of the questions that was asked at the at the last meeting was the impact of poverty on on achievement and so we appreciate um uh the opportunity to talk about that uh as well this is U if I go back this is the the map of our 45th day this is what we're preparing for um uh what we with the

124projection say our enrollment forecast will be for 2027 28 so you can see more of those conditions and concerns in in the chapen area but still having the opportunity in Dutch Fork to meet that that need so counting the the forecast that's why a facility usage in Dutch Fork can help us in shaping basically using the existing facilities uh to serve the entire District's uh growth needs and so I wanted to talk a little bit about um poverty's impact on performance uh we see a range of uh what we call the the poverty index within our district we have uh certain elementary schools with as high as 84% poverty index and some as low as um less than 20% uh poverty index uh what you see here and this is 20 21 data so it's

125it's not the the current data but the the objective is still the same or the story is still the same when you do a a statistical regression analysis of all the elementary schools in the state of South Carolina and you map it by its um meets and exceeds on English and math by poverty index you see a relation uh 71% accuracy if I know the poverty index of a school I can tell you it's academic performance and meet and succeeds in in Reading with 65 and a half% accuracy if I know the poverty index of a school then I can I can tell you it's math um proficient uh reading meets and exceeds in in math according to SC ready uh one of the things I would employ you to do if you have time

126is a look at the South Carolina funding dashboard uh hosted by the South Carolina uh revenue and fysical affairs office uh they have tables in which you can look at um a lot of this uh data as well you can look at it for spending per student spending an achievement uh but to answer one of the questions that was brought to the administration is is how does poverty impact uh performance these are all of the districts in the state of South Carolina and you can see that relationship on that regression between poverty and performance now this data is two years old so you have to put a a caveat with that you may be wondering where's District Five on this on this map and so we're the Green Dot here and that's where we're line

127so there is a relationship uh so as we plan and you were looking at the the movement one of those things is we're considering is um when we when we look at the resoning U making sure there when we reported out the poverty Index this was why uh because of this this this relationship not saying it's called but it's is highly correlated so uh we have a very unique uh system of uh a structure in our district um you can see and we've discussed this at at length uh especially with uh Crossroads faces um as 10 elementary schools flow into one Intermediate School for one year and then up to two middle schools and to two high schools our plan is uh by uh bringing a new dut Fork Elementary online moving the population from

128Valentine into the H corle Oak Point River Springs that may push us more East into the uh Dutch Fork Elementary area which having that new facility would help us with that that movement what do you do with the existing facility there are a lot of alignments between the academy for Success adult education and the fire program uh those three programs have met there's a lot of great things that they can work out and so we would like to put them in the same building which would be the former Dutch Fork Elementary School uh and return the name of the richle center um those three programs working together I think we can optimize all three and so that puts us where um in this model we're looking at solving the elementary school growth Problem by commanding

129the Dutch for uh the Ballentine Elementary School building um we have been meeting with the Balentine Elementary families um I will continue to meet with them again the the plan is being developed in pencil as we get their their feedback but by bringing fifth grade out of U into the elementary schools we can create two middle schools uh that serve chapen uh Chap and middle which would be the current CIS or chapen Intermediate School and and using the current shaping Middle School to make that Spring Hill Middle um both flowing into uh chapen High School it is my plan to preserve the Spring Hill Magnet as a magnet school uh that program uh serves our entire District you heard it's a award-winning status so our goal is to preserve that however with the new space

130in Spring Hill I think we can remove some of the um constraints that it was initially charted under in terms of the arch programs uh there's no band or orchestra right Dr Lofton so I think we would uh but increasing those seats uh for those in in shaping um and that way we can um without zoning it allow it to keep its identity uh we would be able to meet the high school issue one of the things that we do owe this board and the question would be Dr Ross you know where's the other map of what happens if you don't you don't move forward with a plan or there's a failed referendum this is not an easy map to draw um because uh the current map doesn't sustain our future growth uh but anything

131outside of this map which we're we're working on to the parcel level we have to consider moving programs because I want you to go back to that Target or more realistic uh capacity slide it is not just moving numbers it's making sure that when we move those numbers the identity and the needs of those numbers are also met as we move back and that's a challenge for us um you know there there are a lot of programs that we provide our students uh that as we look back moving we want to make sure that they show up in the new schools and so uh we are working with that but when you present this map uh there are a lot of questions that are coming up and and a lot of them are valid and

132so we have uh we're taking in community recommendations and so I would ask uh trustees as you hear recommendations uh that do not come to us send it to us um we we we want right now before there's a finalized per parcel because once we send Dr Harris and his team to go to the 100,000 Parcels that they have to put in and then um Dave wisman to make sure bus routes work we we want to be get as much feedback as possible so we kind of shut down the offices at that point so while we're ring in in in pencil uh we need your help now there's been a lot of recommendations but I'd like to highlight three big ones uh that have come up uh one is um you know how do we

133provide mental health supports for students impacted by res that was one of the the items that came up specifically at the Balentine Elementary and I know student resiliency and dealing with adverse childhood experiences is important for all children uh but we we would continue we we feel like we're a leader in mental health services in this District um you heard ways to reach out whether it's the stop it or school counselors uh we have our our nine additional clinical counselors we've invested a lot in this and um but but also want to make families aware of of K Solis that exists for emotional psychological and social well-being um the resiliency of our of our students uh um need support uh we have those supports another recommendation uh was the grandfather grandfather families that have been

134impacted by resoning now a blanket grandfather I don't uh think would would suffice in this matter however what I think can happen um is to create Preferred Choice options we're a choice District uh you heard Sarah Willer um share the choice and magnet options that we have uh so preferred would be um a a different process for those who are impacted moving out of a school um having the opportunity uh to go back to that school there were reson from and so this is something that we're developing veloping this came again directly from the feedback that we receed from families so as they come to you please send it to us uh I know there was another one we got this morning about um uh proximity to schools and what does that look like so

135we're we're going to work that into our presentation so I would just share that as you receive feedback let's let's Incorporated um and then this will make the plan better and better and the last one um was sometimes the 10-year plan can can can can interfere with the fiveyear plan and the question is well the growth and shaping will keep coming how do you you're going to have to rezone again if you build another building out there um but there was a really good suggestion on adding on to the existing buildings uh will allow us as we go to that full pool in 2027 uh to to sustain this these lines so you're not rezoning again now I can tell you at a cursor View and I'm looking at Mr wisman here not to you

136have plausible deniability if I'm wrong here but um shaping Elementary and Pineywoods would be easier add-ons right now in terms of operations because when you build with students on the grounds it's a whole different process um even the certifications and the and the what the fire marshal will require is different um however there's the ability to to build on to Lake Murray uh it can be done um and then I think the tougher one to build on would be Valentine uh but we will be looking at I'm sorry I think that's reversed sir I'll let you speak to that oh uh Lake Murray is just the one we looked at is a little bit tougher you know kind of looking at where the P ours about where we could possibly build because there's a big

137Mount of dirt back there that's now the playground I think that one's going to be the trickier we drove by Valentine today and just scoped out some visual ideas possibly going up Lake Murray might have to look at going up but just of the four that mentioned Lake m is going to be the the more difficult one because the space that we would probably use is where the Portables they at now so we'd have to figure out where we' move those students so our goal is is to preserve these lines uh with options to to build on then the the question comes on all right how do we pay for all of this and so um remember we are limited to our 8% uh of uh funds only 8% of our total assessed value of

138uh our attendance Zone can be borrowed for for these projects right now um with the hero project I think we're at about 96% % of our capacity I'm looking at M rolls there and so um you know on the 63% of our budget uh comes from the state but uh the 35% is the the local and just a reminder to the community um local is based on our on our millage rate which is a tax on real estate and other property uh we have two uh millage rates uh for for local one is for oper ating the other one is for construction technology and equipment and uh Renovations we call that Debt Service um I think we cannot say enough because this changed in 2006 with act 388 I believe Mar would that um our

1394% properties do not contribute to operations meaning our primary homes and so prior to that when a new subdivision open of all 4% properties uh we could count on those homes bringing us revenues for teachers the lower class sizes for support for administrators for nurses uh that's not the case anymore The Lion Share of our facilities of our revenue is going to be on 6% properties businesses uh rentals um now we do also receive uh others so so cars and boats and campers those are the taxs as well but the line share of our district is on on the of our operating is on businesses what else is on the back of the business is also Debt Service so uh while our our properties our homes do pay in on debt service that's a lower

140tax rate so what we're presenting as a plan considering the community's needs as well the taxpayers needs and so um we will we will have um this is our 20-year financing option uh of a of a referendum if successful that line that you see that uh that angled line at the top um that's our current millage rate and what we see at we're taking a 2% growth over time uh what you'll see in the 2025 2024 25 year U that we're going to be using uh some sinking fund to to pay that down so we're not going to go over uh that but um we will see some Capacity open up in 2030 so the question is well not Ross if we pursue this referendum we have to do another referendum in in in five

141years to um add on to the buildings and the answer is no um there are options and these options will exist in a 20-year financing of of uh our our referendum to add on to buildings um and and and shaping and so what could that yield us staying under that line using the 69.5% meal sorry 69 a half meal tax rate as our cap uh basically borrow from what we currently have uh we through our financial advisor estimate $240 million uh that we could borrow uh in addition to our 8% money uh so uh what we will are are continuing to develop for you is what those uh security upgrades will be the the two- rated buildings instructional upgrades uh the building the new school uh it is our goal by the uh April uh

142meeting to make sure that we have this fully articulated with you with our with our um estimates uh so we are again develop this uh developing this in the open and full view of the public for their feedback um as we um as we we we meet to get a much better plan all going well um in the April 22nd meeting we have for you a a a plan considering the feedback that we received in February and March um we are beginning to prepare the budget uh for for for May's presentation um if the the board would have a deadline by the South Carolina election commission of August 15th at noon uh to move a question to the general election if approved in the general election um and we do our work on the front

143end we would like to start in January moving forth with this plan the 2025 26 year will be year zero of implementation and that's a year that we make sure all program certifications teachers staff and all of those equipments that are needed are moved adequately um that you can visit your new classes visit your new teachers see U where you're going um to to help with that transition uh to be in place on the 2026 27 uh school year so the uh in with why change and our community is changing and we must prepare for the future today uh as that as the aunt would say so this is our current educational structure this is the proposed educational structure and uh as we uh prepare for uh our version of winter um this is why

144we present this plan so uh that's our D5 story uh that is where we have come thus far and I stand for any questions do we have any questions Mr saterfield uh just one or two Dr Ross I don't want to keep us too late um so we're building the plans are one Elementary School One Fine Art Center and everything else is a remodel renovate bring up to date correct so right now we are looking at one one Elementary School Dutch Fork Elementary School addition of the Fine Arts Center at at chapen high school um one of the facilities that we're going to have to make a discussion a decision with is the central office I know everybody cares about the central office but it is in the worst condition of any facility we have

145and um we're going to have to make a decision about that well that gets to my second question I thank you for clarifying that um did I miss anything I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt I just want to make sure I was answering no it's okay uh at what point in time will we get more specifics I know that you're speaking in general terms and I know I like all the color coding and and the estimates right now but as far as specifics let's say that at leart elementary school what what their needs are and what it's going to cost and um because those will be the question some of the questions that will be coming for sure uh we we have uh every principle um has been given their list of the MPS

146report and so um you have that but it's overwhelming it's it's 11,000 incidences so if you go in there you can look at their ones and twos and that's how we're we're looking at our our budget uh what you'll see as we prepare our capital and we're going through our Capital now we're going to try to knock some of those ones off and that's going to remain what goes into that so I would say to answer your question I think uh um as as we look at the end of March we should have those detailed lists for every school that we hit um our goal is and and Mr not is going through a lot of that if we hit this does that take it out of yellow I mean out of orange into yellow

147uh so um our our goal is the first of April to be able to have that uh to you and then uh we are working on schematic not schematics uh the conceptuals I say you want to speak to the buildings conceptuals uh we've asked engage or engaged in an architect just kind of give us an idea what uh the new Dutch Fork Elementary would look like now again we we haven't uh talked about land or anything we're still vetting a number of properties so that's still in a large working phase that will'll have to come back to the board at some time so the drawing will be obviously adjusted based on the land that we have uh we're looking at the Fine Arts building up in chapen and the third one for elementary central office

148central office I'm sorry district office yes I think it would be helpful to have just kind of adding on to what Mr saterfield saying like when we talk about the $250 million pot of dollars and then we talk about our $15 million um annual Capital expenses to kind of have like list that says these six items are going to be where this $240 million are going and we recognize we still have all of these other needs that we're trying to you know um fulfill with the $15 million uh annual budget to have those two things like in front of you to see how we're prioritizing and where that money is going is that yeah you're exactly right uh and I know this there's a process involved with this Dr Ross and you're leading us through

149this process I understand that I was I was just curious with the timeline that you have in front of you um it will be a lot uh easier to speak to it with knowing that well this is what's going to transpire at this particular school and this one and as Miss Hines was saying you know what the priorities are and how we're going to progress so but I understand that this is a process but I know that we're also on a kind of a tight time line to here so I'm just asking that question amen great Point Miss subtle um this is not really a question as much as a um I sent an email to all the board members and I won't rehash that but I I'm concerned about the way that we're approaching

150this and I feel like it's caused confusion in the community and that it's not going to pass if we don't have Clarity um and you know we haven't had a bond reference since 2008 that was 16 years ago and as I said last time we're still not addressing the elephant in the room adding a new Elementary School in chapen at some point is only EXA going to exacerbate the real problem which is right now at the high school um making putting more of Balentine Elementary into the chaping cluster is only going to exacerbate the real problem which is the high school in fact if you look at this map look at how much closer Balentine is to Dutch Fork High School than it is to in high school um I would just and I'm not

151W to go spend money we don't need but I just feel like we have got to look at the real problem in shape and if that means building a new high school that means building a new high school or expanding the middle schools or whatever and I just don't think we're going to get another chance for 15 years I just think we're going to have a hard time getting and and and it's going to be disingenuous to say to the voters oh pass this and we won't be back anytime soon because we are we're going to be back real soon um I I just want to say it kind of it's about the high schools one of the things that you were talking about recommendations and you mentioned the grandfathering um or the what are

152we calling it uh Preferred Choice um what you see in these four cast is you still see chape in high school at capacity with all of with all of the um charts that you've shown and I know we kind of talked about this last time about how we're going to have the school within the school at Spring Hill Middle School and Lake Murray and Valentine would feed into Spring Hill Middle School and the goal would be that that that school would filter more students into Spring Hill High School but why are we not making it with why are we not making that available for all of the elementary schools in chapen because all I mean you're still you're still it still looks overcrowded even if that plan is successful and that's not talking about any

153of the students at Piney Woods or chaping Elementary um and so like can is there a way that we're like pushing if if that's what we want to do if we want to keep Spring Hill a magnet and I have been to Spring Hill and I think that it is very special I understand that but if we're still not why are we not pushing it to all of the chapen cluster to put them on a pathway to Spring Hill if if that's what's important and Miss hudle asked a question earlier and I just um admitted to kind of um omitted to the followup on that with you know obviously right now there's still a waiting list at Spring Hill where are those students coming from that on the waiting list and do we prioritize all

154chapen students to go to Spring Hill instead of the Dutch Fork I'm just I'm brainstorming out out loud thank you and we appreciate it now I think the the we take no offense to questions or finding holes in this I want you to understand that please find the holes now uh I think our FR we get down the line and we do the detailed work and they're like no we're not going to do this so we want we want the feedback now um I want to make two quick points of clarification one is what's happening at Valentine understand that the students that are at Valentine now are not going to be flowing through that that system all would accept just those that live around the current building that's it but everybody else who is currently

155at Valentine they're going to other Schools they're being rezone East to H Corley to Oak Point to R River Springs so we're taking the current populations of chapen Elementary School five through uh K through five and we're serving them with four buildings so the most impacted families are Balentine and so that's why we went to go meet with them right that's why we talked about Preferred Choice for those families so but doing that we don't have to build a new Elementary School why is the why am I leading us to this point of using our existing buildings I want us to go back to the fix map that still exists once we bring you the cost for new elementary schools we're going to go through this 240 pretty quick a new high school a new

156high school is10 $130 million proposition right now we have $181 million a need in facilities so to handle all four of our criteria the community all the way up to the student I wanted to use our existing buildings so now we have to use our existing high school buildings well what do you notice about Dutch Fork Dutch Fork in the high in the in the full pool is still still has room still can take in students so that's an option to preserve the the the the Spring Hill plan as we move back East but before we sent students to dud Fork preserving the Spring Hill Way our goal was as as you said Madam chair is how do we take the current students at at Chap and and fill into that that space that was

157at um the academy for Success because that would essentially solve our problem at the high school level we don't need to build a new space out there rezone and put three high schools in chaping to the expense of the need in in hero dut Fork um and so um we asked and I'm not going to put Dr Lon on the spot here but uh him to work with um the Spring Hill Middle about a pathway but you are exactly right as we look at it it is every child in in the chaping attendance Zone being prioritized for those 300 seats while not taking away the current seats at armo and dut for so those number of seats will stay but they just will not increase so we looked at what is it that that we're

158we're looking at and Dr Harris has worked on on just kind of trends of of choice and um one of the the areas is why are students saying I may not go to Spring Hill and there's some programs that we offer at chapen that we do not offer at Spring Hill um um and so offering those programs for all of the students in chapen I think will give us a an option of that we still have dut Fork as a school if it doesn't work when we show you the model of what we what would happen if there is no referendum I think it will become clearer it's just so hard to make that model work at the elementary school levels so our model uh for the referendum is harder to fix at High School

159level our modotto if there's no referendum is so hard to fix at the elementary school level and we are working this Rubik's Cube um to to make sure that we can get that that for you but I just want to be very clear the elementary problem is solved because the Valentine current students will now be going to oako River Springs and H corle that empties that building so that we can bring down the population at Piney Woods with fifth grade chaping Elementary Lake Murray all of that starts shifting East by doing that we now have just created two middle schools that takes care of the overcrowding that shape in middle school because we now have two middle school buildings to serve all of chap in South Carolina so now it just leaves us to high

160school and by opening up that Wing at Spring Hill High and designating it for all of shapen feeder um we believe that we can we can bring chapen High School um back through that that highest level of forecast so um that way we can preserve the the the rich magnet of of Spring Hill High School and I do think that uh funding permitting of the fix uh that we do look at an athletic package out at Spring Hill High I I do think that would be wise but I would rather attack attack that slowly through Capital than eating up the the 240 240 million seems like a lot of money it it really does but in the facility world uh it it it it goes quick what I don't want to do is leave this

161Five-Year Plan and we haven't fixed the issues in hero and dud Fork yet understood another question um just to follow up on some of the things that or just on something that has been said throughout this conversation you mentioned that um y'all are still fine tuning and tweaking uh we've gotten a lot of emails uh with and mainly in the Valentine area with concerns about what these plans look for their neighborhoods or their streets um and there's been I know that you've responded to some and have you've made a comments well I I don't think that your neighborhood is impacted by this or we're trying to figure that out so when can the community um and the board expect to get a more detailed by Street um or I mean at least like neighborhood uh

162map so that because PE some you know some people are upset and it not even affect their where they are uh and some people may not realize that they're going to be impacted I mean I've had a question from someone that lives off of Three Dog on the other side of Three Dog and they're very you know they're close to Lake Murray Elementary but they're on the other side of the railroad tracks from um like right there and they're asking everybody over there is asking are they going to go to Lake Murray or Valentine or they going to get grandfathered in or what does that look like and I didn't realize that that was part of the map that they were looking at so that's very fair I want to give anyone wrong advice amen

163amen I don't have the answer of the time I do know that we will uh we can get that that to you um we we we we do owe that to the community as we develop this out uh really we're getting a theory right now and then we'll we'll break that down there are some good points though as we draw this that we want to make sure we get it um get it right and that is the you know attendance Zone lines the shifting of schools uh we feel that a bigger dut folk Elementary would stop that shift because as you move Ballentine into Oak Point and River Springs what does that do that pushes them more East uh so uh once we have our our our Maps together for the 20 27 28 year

164which according to the forecast is the highest point uh then then we can get down to the parcel level um the feedback that we heard is is already kind of changing our map right um are students passing the school to get to another school so uh all of this is is going into that uh but we will work to get an answer to that as soon as possible um one last Point um I'm concerned that building another campus adding a net new campus will actually decrease our um the operating funds that we have available for instruction because if we um keep the existing Dutch Fork Elementary School as a campus and we build a whole new Dutch Fork Elementary School we're adding a whole new campus which means you're adding um you know facilities care

165for all of that and those operating expenses come out of what gets allocated back to the state to us and the state doesn't care that we have a new facility we're going to get the same amount of money no matter what so I'd like to throw an alternative out there which is how about a new district office with the um Academy for success and Adult Ed with it so we're not getting a whole new campus we're going to replace a campus and bring those in and it seems to me it would be a really good fit since those are one's an adult program and the other one is a high touch needs program to have it so just throwing that out because that is a concern I have that our population I know it shows

166some growth but it's I look back and we keep getting these things that say we're going to grow we don't really grow and then we've got a a new charter school going on in there and I don't want to see our operating expenses that we could spend on teachers and on students being diluted and having to be spent on buildings I want to ask a clarifying question and when you asked for why don't we put a new high school that would have been no I agree it would it would I totally agree and and I know I'm I'm I just feel like we've got to address it and and it might mean that the bond referendum is more but put it out there get people's impact input on it if people are willing to move

167out in the country and I can say that cuz I live out there I mean it takes it's seven miles to the closest grocery store well maybe they're willing to Pony up for to to pay for it um so I'm not you know I agree but I just think we ought to look at all the Alternatives and I just I'm it bothers me that I don't think 200 seats is going to be enough I mean there's so many developments going on there's ones that I know of and they haven't cut down a single tree yet um so it's just it scares me that we're banking on 200 seats being enough and 200 kids wanting to go to Spring Hill and it also concerns me that well what are we going to do if we're out

168of room and we need to take the pressure off chaping but are we going to say no to kids from Dutch Fork and hero because we need to take the pressure off chaping I'm just I'm really worried about that scenario yeah and and that and I and I I'll I'll concede this on the the high school plan of this and you'll see this when we present the other map the complexities of the elementary on the on the other project is just as hard as the complexities on the high school what our goal was to try to find the the the winwin and the win was protecting the spring Hillway while decreasing the the the push on shaping and that was that was that what we are another option that we're missing is that facility for

169facility and I'm looking at our community as one no lines you have Dutch Fork element I mean Dutch Fork High School that that can that's the parachute plan it can consume and drain shap in high school easily so you don't you don't have to touch the the Spring Hill so we we have that facility there um this is a way to protect uh as much as what we have the beautiful thing is that uh before we get to this point you know we can we can look at um the progress I mean is that actually working what returning these programs uh to or not returning but instituting the art programs at Spring Hill uh bring in the additional 300 students so um we ow drawing that up I I would like to say that I'm

170going to continue to advocate for those three programs to be the rich Lakes building and and here's why I think um investment more in the in the East helps our whole district U if you look at operating specifically our our tax base is in the East that's what's fueling D5 um and so Investments there uh I think will drive growth and you think of where where are families moving to they're moving to where you're investing in the future for their children so um I I think these are great points this is where we need the feedback and then uh we'll continue to to to streamline the plan okay Mr Scully thank you for waiting patiently he just answered uh what I was going to say my comment was about the tax base our tax base

171is armo Dutch Fork in the East and I was going to ask you that for clarification but you just touched on it so thank you m yes my button um I'm I'm glad that you're going to look at I don't want to make eye contact with Dr LOF is over there um look at the athletic option just so it is an option and it may not be something right now but five or six years down the road uh but I had one question just sort of came to mind when you were giving your spill a minute ago are we looking at any other land purchases for just because C of I know Miss huddle and Miss Hines have brought up a lot about the growth out in the chapen area I know that we talked

172about the Somerville area out there I didn't know there was a Somerville out there but there is um but are we looking at any other land purchases is that an option or something we should look at at this time do you think yeah that's that's a great question um after the Valentine meeting we took a a pivot um board policy Fe I think that's the site acquisition policy says that we can look at that and but we have to bring to you uh up to five possibilities right now those possibilities are are the dut Fork um Elementary project there is um a there will be another push for the CATE Center uh to have the workforce and infrastructure lab the construction infrastructure lab um we haven't pursued that one uh our uh Somerville option the

173chaping Somerville one up here uh one of the I don't if you can see the dot here but well was up by the seven in 20 um we we wanted to look at the option of adding on to our existing schools because if in the future we do build a new elementary school out there it's going to change these lines again so we felt like if we could add on and looking at the 20-year financing option uh we could be in 2030 with an opportunity to add on the buildings and preserve the lines all right any last minute questions for Dr Ross thank you very much Dr Ross I appreciate that presentation Mr Hogan I've got a motion to adjourn do have a second Mr Scully any discussion all right all in favor motion that

174motion carries 7 to zero when we will adjourn for the evening thank you