001I'd like to call to order our August 21st 20 23rd 2023 meeting board meeting uh do I have a motion to approve the agenda Mr Hogan I can make a motion that we approve the agenda grab a second I have a second pair of Snipes do any discussion I will call for the vote all in favor motion carry seven to zero do you have a motion to enter executive session Mr Hogan I'd like to make the motion that we enter executive session to consider the following a selected employment items exhibit a for Action B selected employment items exhibit V for information only C receipt of legal advice regarding board policy GB EB Exhibit C D contractual matter regarding social emotional learning STL showing exhibit d and e legal advice regarding request of use of facilities
002in exhibiting do you have a second Mr Scully uh any discussion saying I don't call for the vote all in favor that motion carries seven to zero and we will adjourn for executive session and return for our regular meeting at 7 pm foreign good evening I'd like to call to order our August 21st 2023 regularly scheduled board meeting I'd like to welcome everyone here I hope that everyone's had a great start to the beginning of the school year and um we have heard wonderful things and I know that our children are excited to be back in school at least mine are um I was going to start the meeting off with the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance with trustee Kevin Scully let us pray God we thank you for our new school year and
003the opportunity it presents to continue loving and growing our students we thank you for our teachers and staff and their many unique gifts and talents they can deploy to capture the minds and hearts of all of our students we pray for all the students and families in our community who are struggling hurting or feel alone may they find the love support guidance and comfort and peace that they need for these we pray amen all right that brings us up to number eight on our board agenda the school board Spotlight it looks like we have a good one today I will turn that over to miss Turner or Miss Turner Miss Taylor for us good evening in fact we do have a good one tonight back to school means back to school board spotlights so we
004are once happy to once again fill this room with staff and students who are doing big things that we're happy to recognize I'm going to ask Miss Paul to come up and share with you our first Spotlight tonight some of her staff who have received Awards recently good evening Madam chair members of the board and Dr Ross thank you all so much for giving me the opportunity to recognize the finance department for the significant achievements of two Awards related to Excellence in financial reporting the district's fiscal year 2022 annual comprehensive report received the government Finance Officers Association or gfoa certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting as well as the association of school business officials or asbo certificate of excellence in financial reporting the awards programs encourage governments to go beyond the minimum requirements
005of generally accepted Accounting Principals to promote transparency and full disclosure the district has received these two Awards each year since the fiscal year 2003 annual comprehensive report I would like to thank the Board of Trustees for their leadership and promotion of responsible stewardship of taxpayer funds I would also like to recognize and thank the finance department although we work on the annual report each fall with the help of the Auditors the finance team Works diligently all year to prepare to promote transparency and fiscal responsibility I would like to invite the following Finance team members to the front to be recognized by the board and Dr Ross for these two great achievements Trish Larkin Connie frick Mandy Addy Joe nikestra Sonya Seeley candy Frick Carlene lindler Lisa Frederick Sue Odom and Melissa world hmm I appreciate
006the team members who were able to join tonight's meeting as well as the members of the finance department who couldn't be present each of you plays a crucial role in upholding the district's commitment to Excellence in financial reporting [Music] everybody I got their window all right here we go on three one two three one more one two three perfect thank you good job all right our next group tonight is a team of very talented young men they are the Irma Littles League senior All-Star team and they have had a very good summer first they won the State all-star All-Star tournament then they won the Regional Championship in Florida and finally they represented the Southeast region at the National Tournament which was held here in eastleigh they are all School District five students and they represented
007their schools and our community with great effort and sportsmanship and we are so glad that they're here tonight to be recognized I'm going to ask them to come up as I call their names gentlemen Luke Becker Boykin Bickley Jake Bogan Parker Brown Coleman fryer Braden Johnson Rhys jolly okay they're coming we should have had walk-up music that would have been better let's see I think I left off with Reese Jolly Charlie Mejia Boone Miller Candler Morton Raleigh Salters Jonathan Shepard Brooklyn Smith Colby Smith Alex Townley lucasfanon and their manager Pete fonon okay put the board just everybody all right here we go on three one two three one more one two three thank you very much congratulations to everyone that was recognized in our school board Spotlight that's pretty amazing stuff right there that brings
008us to item nine on our superintendent's report so I will turn it over to Dr Ross thank you madam chair members of the school board and our community our executive staff were so excited to start another school year here in school district five and it is uh really a great honor to recognize our our students who recognize not only just our town our state and our community and Regional National games and also to our finance department we we thank you and and congratulations can appreciate all the hard work I do want to take a special privilege to announce with the Sun come in you may see a glimp a little gleaming coming from the exec table our CFO was recently engaged and so that little diamond thank you you see that Essa Report with a
009lot of hand motions as always uh in our district we are Guided by three questions why are we here how do we accomplish our why and then what are the outcomes of our vision of our why question our vision is governed by the notion that we love and grow our students our mission is focused on academic social emotional growth and development and are are what what are we creating is outlined by our strategic plan our strategic plan has four performance goals areas two of them help us to ensure that all students feel loved in our schools and two of them are devoted to the motion of that we have demonstrated academic growth in our schools we know that every Mission has challenges every Mission has challenges in each of these challenges gives us an opportunity
010and so if we look at uh are I'm sorry if we look at our challenges we see a growth in mental health issues in our community the top three being the anxiety the depression and Trauma we see that some of our students are not coming in at grade level Proficiency in English and math and we also see that there is growth in student enrollment in our Chapman schools but yet growing facility needs in our Irmo and to include Dutch folk schools but every challenge presents an opportunity and these opportunities that we can address Mental Health Services by coming up with a district-wide social emotional learning program that helps us deal with understanding these emotions that students have brought in we've heard from a national expert last year that emotional issues that are gone that don't
011go address that are not addressed can lead to the the safety issues that we see in our schools we know that by connecting our students to a trusted adult can help them maximize their potential and we know that we need to push some of our honor students in our world-class programs and last we are embarking on a five-year Master facilities plan provide equity and access for all students in our district this year we were excited if you were at the kickoff we had a someone said it was a pep rally of emotions of everyone coming back we're really excited and we launched the growing season that's our theme for this year why the growing season well all schools are measured on academic achievement and you see our measures of academic progress right now our scores
012are embargo from last year but once they are released from embargo we'll talk about the the academic achievement of our schools in last year but we we categorized our students at elementary and middle school in this academic progress report on Blue for exceeds green for meeting expectations yellow for approaching expectations and the red for those who do not meet and so you can see the fall winter spring from last year versus this year for elementary and middle school you see that for Math and we also see it for for reading but what I want to focus on is the growth there's a lot to be told in those students who come in and they're behind level they may be two great levels behind but they really work hard and they may not reach to the
013green level or the blue level but they have shown amazing growth we have set in our strategic plan at 53 and 55 to be our our median conditional growth percentiles and to see the work that our students and our teachers have been able to produce last year with median conditional growth percentiles at 60 and 71 and 66 way above our district strategic plan goals it is the growing season in school district five and it's good to recognize that that students are getting amazing growth opportunities and we look forward to continuing that throughout our district especially in our secondary level I want to highlight for the board that people are recognizing the growth in school district five and uh we just had and you've heard from Ms mccaskill and her team a lot of the work
014on DreamBox well DreamBox is actually featured one of our schools in their National articles it was the title was Harbison West Elementary sees significant growth in math proficiency with DreamBox so people are recognizing it's the growing season in School District Five they're recognizing the importance of growth and and to see Harbison West become a national to be nationally recognized for that growth Sarah Fisher assistant principal at Harbison West Elementary said our teachers have seen a direct correlation between the use of DreamBox and achievement in both class and on the any nwea and map growth assessment so we are very proud of the work we're doing we're looking to continue this but we want to celebrate the growth that we're seeing in school district five so with that at this time we're going to move into
015our quarter or Esther quarterly update and I'm going to ask Miss Madison Paul who have embarrassed earlier to come forth and bring us our Esser update good evening thank you for the opportunity to discuss the SR quarterly report through June 30th 2023 okay starting with sr1 as you all know from my uh reports previously this was spent the deadline for final spending was September 30th 2022 again the majority of the 1.6 million was spent on continuing operations mostly with between bus drivers custodial staff and student nutrition to make sure that they were still being paid during those months that we were shut down because of covid moving on to sr2 which the deadline for spending is actually coming up September 30th 2023 so I want to spend some time focusing on sr2 so the district
016was allocated roughly 6.7 million from sr2 funds through June 30th so this that was the end of our 2023 fiscal year the district had spent 6.1 million I do want to make a note that when we present this report since it is at year end we do not show any encumbrances for the new year so even though we do have plans in the current fiscal year that is not shown on this report since it is a year-end report a couple things to mention so um as of right now or I'm sorry as of June 30th there were about 550 000 remaining to be spent by September 30th deadline um the biggest piece of this is in that sanitation services and supplies line you'll notice that we have a budget of 428 000 um and we
017have that we still have that those funds remaining um at this time we do have a an RF or I'm sorry actually just an invitation for bids out that is due back by the end of this week so August 25th um to actually buy floor scrubbers for all of our schools and the estimate on that is that full for 428 000 so we do expect um as part of that solicitation process we put in there um that the the winning bid would have to get the um get these janitorial equipment to the district by September 30th deadline so that is in the scope of work and we do expect to have those um all those bids in by Friday and be able to go ahead and put the purchase order and all that in next
018week to get those in by the September 30th deadline additionally you'll notice that we have about 101 000 left in the provision for mental health services and support um this is mostly again this is a June 30th report so the remaining three months in sr2 we're planning to spend that allocation on 4K screeners some security equipment home homebound pay starting with the new school year but again we do plan to spend all this by September 30th and then the remaining 16 000 and addressing learning loss among students we did allocate over the summer that each teacher received two uh summer planning days and those were actually funded through esser's a significant portion of those were spent by June 30th we did have some um some teachers that were either on new contract or just chose
019to split the time between June and July so we do expect the sixteen thousand dollars to be spent on the July summer planning that we we did allocate for teachers um so again that 400 or 546 000 we do expect to be spent by the September 30th deadline sorry this thing's a little complicated um okay so moving on to Esther three um so after three of course is our biggest trance that we did receive from the covid funds we received 15 million or we allocated 15 million through June 30th we spent roughly 8.1 million of the 15 million again similar to the sr2 report this does not include any encumbrances into the new fiscal year since this is a year-end report for fiscal year 23. um the three biggest areas that you'll notice are certainly
020addressing learning loss which we did have a requirement with sr3 that we had to allocate at least 20 percent of funding so 20 of that 15 million had to go towards addressing learning loss so you you will see that we still have about 2.1 million remaining as of June 30th we also have um of 1.9 million related to Mental Health Services and then another 1 million related to improving indoor air quality So the plan for each of those with the learning loss certainly we had a lot of Summer planning in the months of July this year we also had summer reading camp and academic enrichment all of that took place in July so you will not see that allocation in this in this schedule we also are looking forward to the new new school year
021and planning for some tutoring and then of course planning you know as we look into the next summer we will have funding available for those same programs next summer um moving on to the provision of Mental Health Services this is of course where we fund our our non-clinical counselors so you'll see that certainly we'll take up a significant portion of that remaining amount and we also um you know with approval from y'all we are looking at the SEL program that could potentially be funded through Esser as well and looking um moving on to the improving indoor air quality we do have a few large HVAC projects that are coming down in fy24 but overall we are on track to spend the remaining 6.7 by September 30th of 2024. and I'll be glad to take any
022questions do I have any questions Miss huddle is it too late if you wanted to move money around um and if not what's a deadline for for doing that the blackout period was from June 30th to August 15th so at this time we can move request a spending plan Amendment with sr2 you know again with with it needing to be spent by September 30th of this year um we are a little bit conscientious of now not trying to do a spending plan Amendment with sr2 but sr3 we still have a full another year to do any splending plan amendments that we need to do by June 30th do we have any other questions I had a question real quick just about the timing of when you could spend money under sr2 or sr3 and it
023really relates to if you are trying to um secure funding for a program or something that is not going to be substantially completed by the deadline of that funding source so either s or two if you're say you're going to do a program that is not going to start until after September 30th but you're going to spend the money before September 30th for a specific program is that allowable or does the program have to be and I'm saying I'm using the word program Loosely like the service or or whatever does it have to be substantially performed by the September 30th 23 deadline for sr2 or September 30th 24 deadline for sr3 does that make sense yes I would say in general the answer is yes it does need to be substantially complete and um in
024not necessarily in but it doesn't have to be paid by that date but you know we don't we don't pay anything that when the services aren't rendered we don't pre-pay or anything like that we try not to sometimes with subscriptions you have to but in general I would say yes it needs to be spent by the deadline um some of the kind of caveats to that the example that they gave us were an HVAC unit so with an HVAC unit you have a contract with a company to install a new HVAC unit if it is substantially complete by September 30th and you're just waiting on a part to come in it still has to come in by 12 31 2023 if it's sr2 so it has to the part has to come in has to
025be invoiced and paid by December 31st so there's a few caveats in there but if it's anything like salaries if it's a a service usually a service would have to be by 9 30 of each year depending on sr1 or sr2 or sr3 so really the the only caveats to that are if you do have a contract for something like an HVAC unit it's substantially complete but you need one more part if it comes in by 12 31 it's invoice and paid by 12 31 you can still accrue it back to sr2 um what's the majority of the addressing learning loss um going to be used for yes um so we do have um I would say the majority of it is allocated we have certainly the academic programs over the summer so that July
026month is not included and here that was a significant impact um tutoring uh last year we spent I think it was about 80 000 on tutoring we we are thinking about upping that um can you jog my memory of anything else Tina so we still have next summer some programs in the summer as well but we are looking to include tutoring at the elementary level as well we did not have that in the past so we are looking at including tutoring um for really kindergarten through 12th grade for this year and I have one more question to piggyback off of that answer so with tutoring Services um is that an after-school tutoring service that comes in to tutor students or does that tutoring service happen during the course of the regular school day Tina that
027might not be so the tutoring would be after school it'd be after school hours we're looking at in the elementary schools it will be like from three to four middle and high schools would be four to five that type of thing and does the tutoring service is that um can any student at any school utilize those services or is that geared towards specific schools or specific students to qualify for the tutoring the student the schools will be identifying certain students if a parent wants to talk to the school to see if their child would qualify for that and there are spaces for it then certainly that's something that a parent could ask about but we are going to Target those students who seem to need it most Miss Barnard um same question kind of as
028Miss huddle but for the provision of mental health services and supports could you kind of break that down yes so um you know as again as of June 30th they we had about 1.9 million remaining um about a million of that will be eaten up from the clinical counselors just their salary and benefits um for the entire fiscal year 24 and then also three months into 25 so we really have 15 months that will pay for the mental health supports um we also have you know again we have we do have kind of a ear marker again if if approved that we could potentially do an SEL program that would take a significant chunk of that money as well um I know there's some security um things that our our security team is looking at
029from equipment cameras things like that that would also go into that provision of Mental Health Services any more questions all right Miss Paul congratulations thank you and at this time uh to conclude the superintendent's report of bringing up Mr Amanda Taylor to do our back to school highlights thank you madam I'm chair members of the board Dr Ross again and we are off and running this school year we are having a great one so far we had a wonderful kickoff event with all of our staff right before school started we were so glad that so many of you were able to be there with us as Dr Ross told us during the kickoff our theme for this year is the growing season so we are going to spend this year highlighting all the different ways
030that our students grow and in addition we will still be sharing our D5 story along the way as well so um with that I want to show you just a very brief um I think I get to do it um video about this we're excited about not only the first day but keeping this energy from the first day all the way to the last day uh we're pumped up and energized around a single vision of loving and growing our children and it's exciting that today we welcome back 17 500 students to that vision of loving every child and growing every child it is the growing season and we are ready to grow our students our teachers today are already preparing to know their students they've been very intentional to set up uh activities within their
031classrooms so that they can build expectations together so that they can build classroom values and we're looking forward to building that positive culture and safe environment here at River Springs it's going to be phenomenal and these students are going to grow from day one all the way to day 180 looking forward to seeing the results this year we are looking forward to our students continuing to learn and grow and reach their full potential we've got an amazing staff here equipped and ready to help them grow and we can't wait to see all the amazing things they're going to do this school year I am super excited the babies are coming back in we finally got them back in the building from a long summer of planning the faculty excited the kids are excited I'm excited
032and it's gonna be a great year this is the season to grow well those summer months when they're away it's you know we we get into a different routine with our family and then when we come back we join again with our school family and it's the reunion of seeing friends and teachers that excitement lets us know it's not just a building but it's filled with people of love it's filled with people who have strong relationships and is filled with more than just teaching and learning but the ability to have that school spirit that inspires growth and schools we're very excited about achievement and we want us every student to reach the highest Heights but we're celebrating this year the growth of every child every child can grow and with our seeing the growing season
033we're going to really be pushing that hashtag let's grow celebrating the growth of every child and every teacher that has inspired that growth in our children and Madam chair and I concludes the superintendent's report all right do we have any questions for Dr Ross from his report before we move on all right if that video did not seem as chaotic as my first day of school so for props to those teachers all right that moves us to number 10 approval of the minutes of the August 7th 2023 board meeting do I have a motion Mr Hogan like the big emotion we approved the minutes of the August 7th 2023 board meeting do you have a second Mr Scully do I have any discussion Mr Satterfield yes uh Miss science I'd like to make a motion
034to amend the minutes from the August 7 2023 meeting employee grievance exhibit a to reflect a 3-2 vote and count my vote as an abstention instead of a yes do you have a second Mr Hermes nice um Mr Satterfield would you like to explain your motion yes uh I I had shared with the board earlier that I had planned to abstain and uh I didn't I failed to and I voted him properly so it was my error I apologize I'm going to clarify what you said what you actually did abstain um that motion or broke that motion was reflective of an employee grievance hearing Mr Satterfield did not participate he was not in the room at that time and we typically do employment matters and when I call for a and we switched that around
035this time because of the special hearing and I think I stared him down to vote Yes but I wasn't I'm going to take some blame on that one because I it just wasn't a typical vote and then afterwards we realized wait a minute he wasn't even there so um that was just an honest mistake and probably um I apologize for that Mr Satterfield thank you and I apologize for my error um any discussion all right I'll call for the vote on the amendment all in favor of Mr satterfield's Amendment that motion carries seven to zero and then I'll call for the call the question for the original motion to approve the minutes with that Amendment um all in favor that motion carries seven to zero thank you for that and that moves us to item
03611 public participation uh just uh as a reminder before we start the board welcomes and encourages public participation we respectfully ask that you adhere to the procedures provided in board policy bedh public participation at meetings your comments should be limited to three minutes and must remain either on either the topic noted on your sign-in form or a listed agenda item questions asked during public participation will be will be handled in accordance with board policy bedh and Miss Taylor thank you madam chair Bethany Lindberg is here to speak about trans rights and the courses and discussions in schools hello we got three minutes I'll get on it my name is Bethany Lindberg and I'm a mother of a sixth grade student at Crossroads Intermediate School in Columbia South Carolina I would like to apologize in advance
037for the sensitivity of the topic my son came home from second day of sixth grade on Wednesday August 16 stating that his violent teacher who is transgender forced the children to stand and introduce themselves to the class as hi my name is so and so and my pronouns are he she or other then the teacher required the students to do an assignment on their Google Classroom where they had to fill out their name gender and pronouns he also stated that children felt very uncomfortable around the teacher including as many of them were confused about this idea of another gender pronoun outside of he his or she her they also realized that the teacher appeared to be a woman but required the students to reference her as Mr and some children were embarrassed when they accidentally
038were addressing the teacher as Miss and quickly corrected themselves some children felt that this was against a religious views some didn't know that there were other options before now and were wondering what it was my son was one of the few that was confused about whether what other was specifically I felt that this was indoctrinating my child to believe that there are more than two genders I also felt this wrong parents of the ability to teach her children about sexual education and building blocks that they see fit for the child or if they wish to exclude some said building blocks from their child's sexual education entirely the same day I received a paper from PE teachers seeking permission or if I wish to decline his sex ed courses basically my concern is that children should
039not discuss other genders or pronouns before they can identify their own body and understand what is considered a healthy sexual reproductive or pubescent life how do you have to ask for permission to discuss their very own physical bodies but no one asked for permission to indoctrinate our children with trans ideologies all in all I feel that the school or district has done a pretty good job handling the situation when considering that the teacher has been placed on administrative leave while they have conducted an investigation however after I had a discussion with an official at Crossroads Elementary I felt as though they have resorted to promoting fear if you will to force the parents to keep the children in the course when I requested to remove my son from the class an official of the school
040stated if we withdraw your child from the course he may not be able to get into violin next year I feel that this has academic consequences for our children if they choose to be out of the classroom upon the teacher's return I believe it is in the children's best interest to provide them with immunity against academic consequences by providing them violin lessons from an alternative source and or another teacher which I think I understood might be in the works if that isn't possible option children should be allowed to change classes without academic consequences they should also reserve the right to still enroll in Violin next year though they missed a very important building block in their violent education due to actions of one teacher I also feel that it is important that the schools send
041the children's laptops home daily as they were before the school year as parents are concerned about what content is now being issued to their children while in school I do want to say thank you there was quite a few people at the school that handled it very very professionally so I do appreciate that thank you for hearing me I was nervous thank you very much Jacob Martin is here to speak about the idea of creating a commission or panel to review curriculum I didn't know there was going to be a big timer that's going to mess me up so go um thank you board for having me thank you for letting me speak um uh just watching the first day of school things you guys have a big job ahead of you and thank you
042for serving anyway I'm here to offer a solution for the board to consider regarding appropriate and inappropriate curriculum that as you know has caused a lot of division in the district lately a very nonpartisan commission to include board members parents legislators and educators the objective is to assist current legislators by fact-finding into school systems to see if there is an actual problem with race-bait race based curriculum lewd vulgar Library materials and gender ideology curriculum the commission will serve as a temporary Advisory Board who will dig into state statute County ordinance and local and board policy to turn to determine how clear it is in regards to current material material issues and discern means to a man to create reform or repeal them finally the commission will make recommendations to the board and legislators with their
043findings the commission will make the material examination process a more democratic process it will take the burden off the superintendent and School Board to keep it from becoming a punching bag for parents it's curating age appropriate content not book Banning it's to answer questions and support our legislative delegation and crafting policy involving parents will put more eyes on the subject and remove the sense of alienating the patrons some of them have been experiencing it will only serve the school board as an advisor it will help inform the discretion of the school board who have liability to consider while also balancing the education needs of the students and uh the next speaker is going to speak on it a little bit more you may have gotten a handout if not he's got a couple more copies
044but thank you for letting me speak and I hope you consider this commission it's a good idea it's going to include everybody and it will save us from trying to stack the school board meetings with people yelling at the board hopefully that helps you guys I think it it's a good solution but I'll leave that to you guys thanks for letting me speak thank you looks like we're having a technical difficulty yes I'll go ahead and introduce the next speaker while she does that um Joe White is here to speak about creating a commission or panel for lewd age and CRT inappropriate materials look at Mike can you hear me I can't hear myself is my timer on hello okay first I'd like to thank Dr Ross and some of the school board members for
045having an opportunity to talk to you after I was here a couple of months ago Dr Ross gave me an hour of his time and Rebecca gave my wife and made two hours of her time um if you ever got to know me you know that I'm not a very confrontational person I hate controversy but I also believe that our job as adults is to protect our children I believe that our job as Educators is to protect our children I was in first grade about 75 73 years ago the problems were a lot different then at that point in time my community didn't have any trouble trying to identify what is age inappropriate material and today we do live in a society that has trouble identifying what is age inappropriate material of course I lived
046in a time where there was no discussion in the classroom about anything that was philosophical all we talked about were the three r's and somehow we survived that Society we developed some pretty good scientists and some pretty good engineers and some pretty good Statesmen just worrying about the three r's now we live in a society where our schools are concerned with a lot of things that we weren't concerned about 70 years ago and rightfully so but I do believe that we need to find out how to best represent our parents in school district five lr5 I represent 41 000 people I represent about 15 000 students and I want us to solve these problems I want us to identify if there are problems once we identify that there may be problems I want us to
047solve the problems if that means we have to have policy generated by the Department of Education I want us to develop policy if that means we have to have legislation at the State House I want us to develop legislation but I want us to work together and I want us to solve these issues I don't want 400 parents up here screaming or 200 teachers up here complaining I just want us to solve the problems so I beg you to help us solve the problems I do have a resolution that I didn't write but I think it's a decent resolution that I would like for you all to consider as a school board looking at and deciding whether you think this resolution deserves Merit thank you it's Amy and that concludes public participation thank you very
048much to our speakers and that moves us on I'd like to make a motion we don't okay but that I don't know that that's appropriate at this time because we are we don't respond to public participation we're actually Allowed by policy to make motions based on public participation okay go ahead okay um I move that we support the creation of the commission is recommended by representative kilmartin and white to include multiple stakeholders to review materials for age-appropriateness and assist the legislators in the development of possible legislation and the board with the development of possible policy a second so just an explanation I appreciate our Representatives coming here and speaking to us I I think Mr White made a really good point that we need to come together and look at what is going on we've
049said we need their help I know in the past legislative the legislature has just gone and done things with respect to education I think they meant well but they didn't understand what was going on and they're offering now to understand what's going on and to get input from multiple stakeholders parents Community Etc so I think that we should take them up on their offer and participate in that kind of endeavor all right so I will um does anyone else have anything to say I I what I will say is I understand that there's been some information handed up here that the board has not received that a full board has not received so I feel like it is unfair to vote on a motion where we haven't received information I received a phone call last
050night with that expressed the idea of a commission and there was a little bit of confusion about what that entailed and who participates and how that functions I also mentioned that um you know I absolutely believe that we all need to be working together when it comes to legislation that impacts education and what's going on in our schools I also think that it's a little Sensational to throw out emotion when we haven't been given the information that's been presented by representative kilmartin and representative white I 100 percent respect um and on and appreciate that they they are suggesting uh this resolution uh which I have not seen or a proposal for a commission I just think that it the only way that that's fair is for the entire board to see what was presented and
051to talk about and we have a border treat coming up on September 15th where we're talking about board priorities and policies and trying to work together collectively as a board on you know how we can best address the needs of our students so personally I mean you know these motions that like make it seem like there's not support it's very frustrating to me because that's just not the way that it is um you know we are given certain Authority Under State Statute I think that we need to make sure that we're doing this the right way I think if we're going to create a commission that we need to have our sister school districts and involved and it's not just District Five because it I mean this is an issue across the state um I
052mean this isn't just what you know I mean we've heard situations that happen today that that has happened in several school districts across our state this past week um so those are things that you know we need to have more intentional conversation rather than these you know out of the blue motions you know or or or ideas that we haven't thought through together that is just my opinion um Mr Scully and yeah I saw Mr Satterfield and then I saw Mr Hogan I agree I there's there's no way I would vote for a motion for a commission that this is a Statewide issue it needs to be settled that staple work comes to us um it's it's not it's not fair for us to vote on this uh without having any information on it um
053I would I would encourage you to to not support this motion if the state legislature wants to consider something a resolution of that nature go go for it uh pass it on a Statewide basis and then bring it to us and we'll address it at that point but for our purposes uh it's not fair uh it's I I question the inclusiveness of that and it's there's just not enough information to vote for that I will follow up on what you're saying Mr Scully I don't agree with you that it should come from just the state I do think that there needs to be collaboration um but I think that when you vote on emotion you need to know what you're voting on and there is information that has not been presented to the board tonight
054for anybody to even look at um and so I I just want to clarify that I don't entirely agree with you there are channels for collaboration already established we're not this is not a commission like this is not necessary we've already got advocacy channels and communication channels available for that so this is not necessary that's my point on that and this is why our board retreat is a good idea because I still disagree with you on that but at our board retreat Our intention is to have that conversation about you know what our disagreements are and what our Agreements are so I just want to clarify that Mr Satterfield what I was going to say I appreciate everybody's interest in this and I really appreciate the manner in which you guys am I allowed to
055talk to them and the manner in which this was presented to us in a very non-threatening uh in a manner of such that we really should and be able to use all our resources and work collaboratively together I think a lot of the things that uh you're discussing and you're talking they are on the tip of our social tongues so to speak and I think a lot of people have interest and if we can do it in a fashion where we come together and have talks and we're civil and we we demonstrate respect for one another I think we can do great things but I really appreciate the matter in which you guys came and presented uh your ideas I do agree that we should have more time to digest it and see what the
056proposal is and and involved yeah I'm I'm all in favor we do have you know a lot of community involvement with school Improvement councils and and parent advisory councils but uh I just wanted to say that I agree with Miss Hines perspective on this but I do appreciate the way you guys came and presented uh your ideas Mr Hogan yeah thank you Rebecca um share similar concerns one of which being the the time frame the time commitment and also the um involvement of other neighboring communities where where these situations are not isolated to District Five they're isolated Statewide Nationwide and from a collaborative effort I do think there needs to be time to Aid digest the resolution to thoroughly understand it prior to us voting as above the body but also extend the opportunity to
057the neighboring districts to where individuals in similar situations can have the opportunity to collaborate as well to where it's not just one secluded School District with ideas and expectations going up a ladder I'd like to amend my motion I'll repeat the original motion because the amendment's at the end I move that we support creation of a commission as recommended by Representatives kilmartin white to include multiple stakeholders to review materials for age-appropriateness and assist the legislators in the development of possible legislation in the board with development of possible policy and here's the amended part and welcome representative kilmartin and why to present a plan to the board for approval yeah so this is not saying we are adopting a resolution we don't know the specifics we're just saying that we support the creation of a commission
058and we're welcoming our two representatives to come back to us with the details for a vote I guess before we take a vote my concern with the amendment is still that representative kilmartin and white are on both sides of this issue so when they put together on this proposal I feel like from the beginning it's not inclusive and for me that's that's an issue and maybe it'll be fine I don't know because to Rebecca's point we haven't seen anything which takes us back to probably why I feel like a vote is premature that's just I also think that um we're using the word commission but it's a committee and I need to know like what the responsibility of the district is and is this a district committee or is it an external commission how you
059know who who has like ultimate ownership of this um well and and so I think the whole Board needs to have that conversation I think that there is a plan where board members are serving but I don't believe that the entire board has had that conversation or been shown that information so the notion that the amendment is irrelevant to me in my opinion because I mean it's just trying to circumvent the fact that we haven't actually seen anything so I mean once we see it I feel like it would be more appropriate to vote on emotion in general but until that happens and the board talks about it I just don't understand Miss Barnhart the same it was given to Miss Amy the proposal to pass out to the rest of us for all of
060us to see I'm assuming that did you get something Miss White okay she did so if we could maybe pass that out and let everybody read over it and kind of study up on it and maybe discuss with the representatives and whoever is behind it to kind of get some more information those that aren't aware of it maybe discuss it at the um The Border tree border treat and then I think that is a fair to get everybody because obviously there are some questions I mean I'm fully in support of it I think regardless of kind of I'm kind of confused as to what isn't inclusive about it because it does include the parents and the legislators and school board members and community members to address these certain things because there obviously has been in
061the past um kind of two different different angles of the stuff that we're seeing in like I think Mr Satterfield and Mr Scully said I mean this is happening Nationwide absolutely we see it all over the news we see it every day it's different severities and different things like that but I definitely think it's more of a um a proactive approach because it is happening in a lot of different ways and we could maybe be a example to some of the other school districts while I do agree that I mean we should do this kind of in concert with the other school districts as well I mean um they're I've talked to people from other school districts all over the state all over the country that there hasn't really been something like this and if
062there was maybe we could be that Shining Light to the other school districts around the state around our community around the country to have something in place that they could pick up on that they could kind of follow and and implement the same things in their areas obviously it would take some time and some you know working through and the details specifics and stuff like that and maybe those are some questions that we could ask um who presented and and get those answers before the board retreat discussed it as a board because I think it does make a statement that um it is bringing us all together in that same way I do agree I think that when you when we are given the information we're able to sit on it and digest it and
063ask the individuals that were involved in creating a resolution or any proposal because I know that they spend I mean I'm I'm sure that you probably spent a lot of time creating a resolution because those are not easy to create um and any kind of proposal the same thing I'm sure that that that there may be things that you know the rep the the good Representatives have considered um that we haven't and we may have questions as board members that they haven't considered um and we may want to know what what it looks like how does it how is the intent to um what's the intent on how it operates and who holds responsibility for it um if it was an outside commission that wasn't the board adopting a commission then it wouldn't be as
064important for the our board to really fully wrap our hands around it because we want to make sure that we're doing things the right way and that is not in any means saying that we're not trying to collaborate I'm sure that we have people on this board that do not agree with each other on every single issue and this may be one of those things however if we're going to create a commission we need to be able to have those dialogues and and have that conversation and I think that it's helpful to have the information instead of like you know just voting on something that you don't know what you're voting on I'm going to call for the question Miss huddle um I I haven't even I don't even have the resolution and I want
065to just clarify this motion is not about the resolution it doesn't even have the word in there it doesn't talk about adopting a resolution it says that we support the creation of a commission and that we welcome our representatives to present a plan to the board for approval so all we're saying is we hear you you came here you talked to us you're offering a solution I've been on the board for two and a half years I've watched board meetings for years I can't remember a time that Representatives our Representatives came to us and and told us they would help us they're they're offering to help us all this says is we're going to take you up on that offer and and the offer is you come back with a detailed plan it may be
066what the resolution that's um has been seen is it could be something totally different but I think we're sending a really bad message to our representatives and to our parents and our entire Community if we're not going to if we're not even willing to say yes bring us back a plan that we can vote on Mr I saw Mr Scully and then I'm gonna give it to Mr Hogan and I'm calling for the question yeah thank you I still don't think if they want to commit create a commission go nuts that's they can do that they don't need us this doesn't not need to be board endorsed issue or solution they can do whatever they want to create whatever commissions they want to do and and invite whoever it doesn't need to be a board
067action this and and not making it aboard action doesn't mean that we're not willing to collaborate and consider it the board the district has policy that addresses all of this if we simply follow our policy this is not an issue they can create commissions to look at things and review things and but we sh that's it doesn't need to be endorsed by the district and I think asthma snipe said I I question once you do that it's politicizing this these issues I mean they are partisans we are not so we it needs to stay out of that Arena and so I I don't I don't think even if we I I just don't think it needs to be an endorsed board action respectfully I don't agree entirely with your argument but I probably will agree
068with the vote on this motion Mr Hogan um I don't agree with I agree with the intent I agree with the nature I don't agree with the decision of a vote without properly vetting and I understand Miss huddle where you're coming from with in support of but you know it does have my name in there a good bit and and prior to me making this is not mentioned that at all you can't it doesn't but no my motion doesn't mean we're out of order you're out of order Mr Hogan was speaking you know my concern is is understanding the level of commitment from The District staff it's understanding the commitment of what the district has to adhere to as far as are we responsible for notifying a meeting if more than three of us participate
069on that board are the meetings going to be held on District property are we going to be utilizing District resources and those are just questions not there's a question or a wrong question to ask or to answer but it's there's questions that I feel is an elected body of seven that we need to understand all of the answers prior to making it so while you know I'm not going to support your motion I support the the ideology behind it and the the process behind it but I just support being a steward of and making sure we've checked the boxes prior to making a commitment so I would have I would appreciate if we had an opportunity to thoroughly vet it and discuss it and to open the collaborate on it at a board retreat and
070then of course bring it to a motion when we understand exactly what's going to happen and how this is going to work and the processes and the ultimate end goal I'm going to call for the vote on the amendment all in favor of Miss Huddle's Amendment all opposed that motion fails five to two I'm going to call for the vote on the original motion all in favor of the original motion to all opposed emotion Fields five to two and that brings us to our action agenda action as necessary or appropriate on matters discussed in executive session Mr Hogan I'd like to make a motion we approve select an employment item should an exhibit a for Action do you have a second Miss Snipes any discussion seeing none I will call for the vote all in
071favor I'm gonna get this right this time it is seven to zero any more motions all right that moves us to item 13 approval of the minority business Enterprise utilization plan exhibit G Dr Ross Madam chair members of the board and our community we bring forth our CFO medicine poll to explain provision of our procurement policy on minority business Enterprise utilization plans Miss Paul thank you good evening once more tonight I'm presenting to you the district's minority business Enterprise utilization plan this section is governed by section 5240 of the district's procurement code AS adopted and approved April 2022. um this code does discuss the requirements of the plan I do want to mention a few of those to you all today on item three discusses the policy statement it also includes the goal of the
072district so since we did adopt the state procurement code we do also establish a goal of 10 percent of the district's total dollar amount of funds to be expended on minority businesses additionally as part of this section of the code it talks about the solicitation of certified minority vendors and the procedures to use when working with minority vendors so we have seen in the past that it can be a little bit more difficult and of course with disadvantaged businesses for them to receive large contracts from a district our size so we have put in the plan some measures where we can potentially divide some of our larger projects into smaller projects we have done this in the past one that can come up come to mind for me is a landscaping contract where even though
073we are a very large District we have 26 sites for potential Landscaping opportunities we could potentially always divide that up and give and give the chance for some of our smaller businesses to also receive a piece of that contract as well so we have certainly worked on that in the past and we'll continue to do that in the future we also have as part of our solicitation process we all we always go to the minority vendor website from the office of small and minority businesses students and we make sure that we contact as many minority businesses that do work in the areas that we're looking for to let them know that the solicitation is out there we also have a link on our website to this um this directory of the office of small and
074minority business assistance so we are working on different plans to certainly reach out and hopefully give more small and minority businesses the opportunity to work with District Five so you have before you the full plan um I do that Administration does recommend approval of the attached plan this does need to be adopted each year per our new I say new but our new ish procurement code um so I would appreciate the approval from the board oh welcome any questions do I have a motion before we get into discussion Mr Hogan like an admission that the board approves the administration's recommendation on approval of the attached minority business enterprises utilization plan do I have a second Snipes any discussion any questions Miss huddle so um you talked about like breaking contracts into smaller pieces are those
075set-asides or you know what I'm saying like how if you do that how do you guarantee is it by size or demographics how do you ensure that that actually helps us reach our goal so I mean it's just it's just a method so it doesn't necessarily ensure that we will reach our goal but it does give businesses the opportunity that may be smaller that do not have the Capital Equipment to work on a full Landscaping contract of our size that maybe they could bid on one school they could bid on one site they could bid on something like that and it would break up the contract now we also many times will allow businesses to we'll break it up into separate sections and then you can also bid on the entire contract so we have
076seen that in the past as well another way that we try to reach more minority and smaller businesses is with our fixed price contracts so we may go out we know that we have several painting projects in the district instead of going out for just one vendor that could paint the entire District we may ask for fixed pricing contracts where we would go through a list and we would you know as a job came available we need a hallway painted at one school we would go through the list of the pre-vendors and then contact them that way yes ma'am Mr Satterfield yeah I'm just curious what kind of response do we get so um I mean it depends on the contract it certainly doesn't it depends on the amount of vendors that are registered on
077um with the office of I'm gonna get it right the office of small and minority business assistance we have found that you know since we did adopt the state code that they have to be certified and that is somewhat of a hoop to jump through for some of these businesses they do not necessarily see the benefit of truly getting certified they could be minority or small uh might truly be minority owned but they don't feel the need to go through the process so they don't actually get to count because they're not listed on the directory at that at that office so we've just we just try to do our best with reaching out to them when we think that there is a contract that could be available and we we do our best to try
078to encourage them to apply when when they can so we do encourage them to get involved and participate in the bidding business and we do yes sir so again if we have you know a specific contract that we know there are vendors out there on the minority business website we we certainly send them the salutation directly So when you say the minority business is there a recommended list government approved when it comes to schools so it's actually so the office of small and minority business assistance actually has a directory of all of the certified minority businesses within the state so if you're if you're on that list then you're considered certified so we will go to that list and we would send and they they break it up by categories so it could be a
079plumbing contract Landscaping you know whatever you may need and we will actually push out our solicitation we always put it on Skibo we always put on our our website but we also will push it out to those specific vendors to encourage them to to either invite them to bid or submit a response to an RFP I know that Dr Ross was pushing the by local shop local thing and I think it'd be awesome if we could if we had something in place where we had you know Community meant people in our community that could benefit from you know jobs and things that were available so that's why I was asking thank you yes sir any more questions yes I have a question has the um the plan that we approved last year there's there aren't
080any differences between this plan and last year no so I I do not believe that y'all did actually approved last year so this is the first time this has come to y'all with a new code okay so um this is you know again some some new language that we were we've really just been made aware of um in the new code so I do not think that y'all actually approved a plan but this is it is standard really boilerplate from what the state recommends um and it does have our total dollar total controllable dollars with our 10 in there as well any additional questions I will call for the vote there's a motion on the floor all in favor that motion carries seven to zero thank you very much and that leads us to several
081policies um Dr Ross I'm mad I'm sure it was your permission we would like to discuss item 14 15 16 and 17 all together even though their first approval of individual policies and I bring forth our chief of academics Ms Tina mccaskill to explain those I'm gonna ask for a motion first so that we can move right into discussion do I have a mission do we need individual motions yeah just read them all together yeah individually um they make the motion the board approves first reading approval of proposed revisions to board policy ikacc placement of non-accredited private and home school secondary students exhibit h uh let me go ahead first reading approval of proposed revisions to board policy ihca summer school exhibitive first reading approval of proposed revisions to board policy i j n d
082a a distance online of virtual education exhibit J first reading of approved proposed revisions to board policy at kg secondary education exhibit k okay and I'm going to open it up for discussion Ms mccaskill and just for clarification we're reading all of these motions together because they are all related for our cognia accreditation as we discussed at our last meeting that need to just be refined right correct okay so are there any questions foreign do we have any questions from last meeting all right Mr Satterfield um Miss mccaskill uh when it relates to summer school um are we are we taking students out of District for our summer school we have I know that was a practice in the past right we have in-district students so we only have in-district students attending our summer schools
083that I'm aware of I can check into that for sure but that's all that I'm aware of I know that uh years ago uh the the district would have discussions and they would sort of make a decision which district like if Newberry and and wrestling won or listened to and and District Five in District One were close enough together one they would sort of take turns housing as they called it summer schools I was just curious if it's just gonna if it's just ours our students currently that's all that I'm aware of yes we did not have other districts involved okay thank you any additional discussion all right saying that I will call for the vote on those policies the ones that your motion will vote on your motion all in favor that most all
084opposed okay um so that motion carries six and one abstention and then we have one more uh 18 the first reading and approval of proposed revisions to board policy ikd honor rolls do I have a motion like to make a notion we approve the first reading and approval of proposed revisions to board policy ikd honor rolls Shannon exhibit ill do you have a second a second Miss Barnhart and Dr Ross thank you madam chairman was the board we bring uh the uh phrase uh that we would uh add that students who are in dual enrollment can also be included in the honor roll and so um Tina mccaskill chief of academics is here to answer any questions about this revision to the policy do we have any questions all right seeing none I'll call for
085the vote all in favor that motion carries seven to zero thank you Miss mccaskill thank you and that closes out our action agenda and brings us to the discussion agenda the update on the five-year Master's facilities plan about Ross the thing about him chairman was the board in our community we will discuss uh just kind of an outline of our five-year Master facilities plan today's discussion is about aligning five particular calendars I asked the question how do you hit a moving Target and you mislead it and you have to focus on it and we will we will need your help we call this target 2030 trying to predict what our district will look like in the year 2030 actually just [Music] um it's kind of give you a sense of time our Millennials will begin
086to retire in 2030. I'm just going to kind of show you where we are and what we're planning for in this moving Target so one of the goals that we have is to create a five-year Master facilities plan that provides equity and access for all students in our district we are to create a prioritize list of prac capital projects for school district five and these capital projects will be funded within the five years after the plan is approved and unless as financed and so that would bring us to 20 20 30. the general powers of the school trustees is to provide suitable school houses in the district and make them comfortable paying due regard to any Schoolhouse already built and say procured so with that we have five guiding principles that guide us in this
087work an analysis of our community enrollment and projections or forecasts facilities conditions assessment instructional plan review and our finance review I'd like to thank the board for working in a workshop as we address seven critical questions that will guide our facilities assessment review and in our Five-Year Plan we talked about defining the minimum conditions for all facilities and we're in progress with that we have completed our grade structure policy we're in the process of developing the rezoning or redistricting plan for our schools and in your information packet you will see the enrollment analysis projection for for each School in our district so that has been completed and we have it in your packet for the review for the next board meeting are we should be driven by our academic programs our what are priorities for
088the instructional program so we're in progress with that and then the utilization rate what is the desire utilizer utilization rate for District Five in elementary middle and high schools and the enrollment and utilization rate for each grade structure just to give a a picture of what we are facing in our in our district if you look at the distribution of in-person enrollment this is 10 years ago we use our 135th Day Report because that's the date that we are basting our funding off uh two 10 years ago in 2013 of all of our students were in the Chapin area schools 38 percent were in the Dutch Fork area schools and 36 percent were in the Irmo schools if we Advanced 10 years to this state you will see that now we went from 25 in
089Chapin to 39 in Chapin uh we are we went from I'm sorry uh 38 debt Fork to from well if I can get this clicker right to 29 in debt form and 36 percent Irma to 31 in Irmo so as we see that shift going out uh to to Chapin the question is do you build more schools in the Chapin area or is there another option which is to fix and feel the schools in the debt fork in the Irmo area and so we have a plan that we have presented to the Board of Trustees this was just a draft in theory we would take the grade structures again the five grade structures that we would have Early Childhood which would be 3K and 4K that we would add a new three and four K
090program in the Chapin area that all elementary schools would be K-5 by doing this we would no longer have intermediate schools all of our all of our middle schools all of our schools will be Middle School six through eight so there won't be a Crossroads who would turn into Crossroads Middle Chapin Middle School would turn into Spring Hill Middle and then the current Chapin intermediate will go back to Chapin Middle School we said if we adopted draft three of this rezoning redistricting plan that we would need at least one new building this could be and we're going to change the language from alternative programs built into Community Education building or a new Dutch Fork Elementary and why is this important currently our programs are housed in other buildings for instance the academy for success that's
091in Spring Hill High School the adult education center is in Irmo High School the five program our virtual program is in Piney Woods so we we have programs and uh and now the accountability office is actually in Crossroads so we have a lot of programs that are using a classroom space in our buildings and so we wanted to give an outline on how we can make these decisions so because our community analysis and our enrollment projections are are forecasts are completed we would like to discuss those on the September 11th board meeting we provided it in the packet today for your review it's available for the to the public for their review to have discussions on September the 11th facilities conditions assessment an instructional plan review we asked that for the facilities condition assessment we
092have a discussion on that on October 23rd we are planning at that meeting to bring a prioritization list of the conditions of all of our facilities including the the HVAC situation and projections in terms of cost and the driver of the plan our instructional plan review We would like to discuss on November the 13th uh at uh we are excited you know as we pursue instructional grants and opportunities we believe that at that time we'll have an instructional review plan again for Target 2030. the last part is to ensure that our calendars align with our financing plan the potential or a bond calendar so we would like to have that discussion on the December the 11th board meeting so as we try to align the calendars of School District 5 the ls3p The NPS the
093the board and our bond calendars those are five calendars that we're trying to align uh and so this is just an outline that the administration proposes that will allow us to review this information uh have those discussions and then we would recommend a workshop with this information after it's discussed on the 11th at that beginning of the year that we could start answering the rest of the questions so we're proposing this for your review there's no need for Action tonight but we just want to begin this discussion on how to tackle those five timelines in these five items in our five-year Master facilities plan Madam chair that concludes our presentation and we stand for any questions so you are proposing a workshop in January yes ma'am we would believe that and we can have some
094as we go along but we believe that once all this information has been presented and discussed that we could go back then now with enough information to answer all the remaining questions that we had in the original Workshop do I have any questions for Dr Ross nice Auto Dr Roth on the slide that shows the new Middle School alignment yeah that one um I realized that this plan is all the steps are going to take a long time but is there any reason that we couldn't go ahead and do the crossroads alignment so that by this time next year we could have a Crossroads Middle School so the the question would be how do we I don't know how we would do that with our current facility load and I'll turn to Harris if there's
095any I mean we've looked at ways that we would be able to do it um we have to draw lines and we know that in order to make the middle schools without the additional building I'm at a loss of of how we would do that what I would ask though and Dr Harris you can correct me I'll go back to this timeline here um once we have the around the October or between in October and November date we can start looking at what potential lines would be and I think in that discussion if MPS could provide us some options then then um that's what we hired them to do but from our preliminary look at it we would need at least one new building in order to do that but Dr Harris if you you
096saw something else you can let me know yeah I don't know that I see anything new and different certainly would like to even do as you I know you will do is part of that question even more but I think what we're really after uh would have concern with is really the balance and Equity across schools if we were to do that prematurely I think that becomes my my my my more prominent area of thought or concern if we did that too soon um but those are my initial thoughts on that I'm trying to give a little more thought as to whether or not it's it's even doable but I really think that we would we may create more of a more of a concern than what we currently have already quite honest with him
097I have a question to follow up on that um because I guess I'm a little confused about how you would have to figure out how to do that because it it doesn't seem to me that those elementary schools have the same issues that the Chapin elementary schools have where the Chapin elementary schools are already I mean two of the three are already close to capacity and they would have to put fifth and sixth grade into those buildings with Crossroads it's only sixth grade and you're breaking all of Crossroads up into nine or six nine out of 10 elementary schools for just sixth grade that would feed into those three middle schools um so I from what I can recollect without having the numbers like right in my head it doesn't seem like any of those
098schools are even close to capacity and if you have if you added a sixth grade to those schools like logically I'm struggling to follow that model um and you already know where each elementary school is going to feed into so you don't technically have to redraw those lines right now to feed those into the middle schools if you were talking about Chapin and Valentine in that area that would be different and I understand that some of those Chapin schools you know that that may shift things after a year or so but right now I don't I would think that we would at least want that answer from the facilities folks when we do our workshops because that may not be the most convenient thing but I know that there you know there's been a lot
099of concerns about Crossroads and you know you might there are growing pains when you have changes and when we redistrict and we build all these schools they're going to be growing pains and people are going to yell at us and that's just a part of having to make really tough decisions but I would rather go ahead and start that process so that outcome that we want out of this whole plan if I can offer some perspective currently at uh Crossroads of my thing currently we feel 10 schools go here for sixth grade so that would be incorrectly if I'm wrong we have students from Irmo Nursery Road Harvest and West Lee Park Seven Oaks he Corley that fork correct is Oak Point as well and no point all of them go to Crossroads yeah so
100we don't have if we if we limit it to just these these schools attending Crossroads we don't have enough room in Dutch Fork Middle to put those sixth graders right now Dutch Fork Mill was only seventh and eighth grade correct so we need a place to so we would need a wing to at least meet them at Dutch Fort Meadow unless we can empty that Fort Middle so our one of the reasons that we wanted to wait for MPS is to look at what is actually the best utilization of the buildings that we have because you would you have you have right now 10 elementary schools going to this site you would reduce that to three we need to make sure that we have places for the other seven elementary schools to feed in and
101there may be just a little area of concern with Irma Middle School too because they currently have six seven and eight now we may be pushing more students into that and uh what you would consider that capacity as well so I think Irma Elementary is our largest Elementary correct I think it would be helpful if they present that information when they present our plan just so that we can see those numbers because those are questions that we're getting um across you know redistricting or rezoning or whatever you want to call it it's all the same thing is that is a big question I think um across the district right now so um so we look forward to bring that bring that information did you have okay does anyone else have any this is not necessarily
102the most fun conversation but it is necessary for sure yeah I was gonna say I agree with that with the the numbers if I mean it all lines up and looks really pretty like that but um yeah knowing what the numbers looking at the numbers and of each one and how they're going to add up and I know they change um but it would be interesting it would be helpful if we could have those numbers and so we could see exactly what we're looking at anyone else all right mister can you go back to that side real quick um to piggyback on Mr Satterfield when when they present the numbers could they present the numbers that's currently at Dutch Fork Middle and Irma middle that would be going to Crossroads at seventh and eighth because
103that would alleviate some of that crowding I don't know if the district keeps track of what elementary school they fed up through or if they could do it through their addresses but have the ability to know what but opening Crossroads Middle for sixth seventh and eighth what that would free up at Dutch Fork Middle and Irma middle as well it's with those numbers and I think you just asked about the dates um for the presentations is that I apologize we were just um and you may uh have comments later on I'm not saying we have to make a decision now but if there were any initial comments about this timeline as we go back to make those plans sounds good all right all right thank you well that moves us to um item 20 which
104is a discussion regarding a procurement matter under exhibit m um on September 19 2022 the Board of Trustees at that time held a special called meeting at the district office to receive the phase three report provided by Jag an external auditor following executive session the board convened an open session and voted on a series of motions related to that report some of these motions included one a motion to direct our attorney to share the procurement examination and Consulting phase two report dated September 19 2022 with the South Carolina attorney general and the office of Inspector General per section 2420 in the district's procurement code reporting of anti-competitive practices the second motion was to direct our attorney to send the letter to the vendor as discussed in executive session in order to recoup excess costs and
105over billing we believe the district incurred the third motion was in accordance with the district's procurement code section 4220 causes for debarment or suspension we instructed the CFO as the district's Chief business official to conduct an administrative review of the audit finding and other relevant information within 90 days to determine if department or suspension is warranted for any of the vendors included in the procurement examination and Consulting Phase 2 report dated September 19 2022 and the fourth motion was to direct the administration to review the internal recommendations and other relevant facts included in the procurement examination and Consulting Phase 2 report dated September 19 2022 and to present a plan to the board for review and approval within 60 days these motions passed unanimously each board member had their own reasons for voting in the
106affirmative as to the first motion relating to reporting phase two to the AG and oig the board was informed at a later date that the proper protocol was to notify the governor's office of such report therefore on October 10 2022 a motion directing the board chair Miss Hammond to send a letter with the procurement examination and Consulting Phase 2 report to the governor to request his review for consideration of requesting a review by the office of Inspector General was unanimously approved by the board on January 17 2023 after the 2022 election cycle the governor's office sent a letter requesting the Office of the State Inspector General to initiate and conduct a review or investigation of the district's procurement related issues associated with the Piney Woods Elementary School construction project pursuant to State South Carolina code
107of law section 1-6-35 in addition the request provided for the Sig to initiate and conduct a review or investigation of any different or additional allegations of fraud waste abuse mismanagement misconduct violations of state or federal law or wrongdoing as the Sig deemed appropriate the current board and District administration were made aware of this request by the governor's office in late January early February of 2023 it was made explicitly clear that this investigation was to remain confidential until such time as a final report was published to the public which has been adhered to by both the board and the administration on August 18 2023 the Sig's report was made available to the public the Sig has made it abundantly clear to the board and administration that this report stands on its own it is the product
108of the Sig's investigation and does not rely on outside findings or reports the full report is available through the Sig's website and in the board packet for this meeting listed as exhibit M I will leave it to the public to review the report in its entirely however I will address some of the findings and recommendations contained in the report first and foremost I think it is very important to recognize that the Sig praised District 5 for proactively identifying procurement and contract management issues and moving forward through proactive strategies policies and efforts implemented by the board superintendent and CFO to improve upon process and internal controls the Sig identified four findings and recommendations during the course of the investigation these findings are finding one the Sig determined the district's accounts payable officials and project managers did
109not ensure sufficient documentation was provided by CCI to support the amount requested for payment in the payoffs and that the district failed to provide proper contract management and oversight of the payment process this result in missed opportunities to ensure stewardship of taxpayer funds and question costs of 396 765 dollars for the Piney Woods elementary school project subsequent investigation by the Sig identified sufficient documentation that reduced that total fine of question disbursements to only 38 362.69 the recommendation for finding one was that the Sig recommends that the district ensure sufficient supporting invoices or other documentation are provided by the contractor to support the amount requested for payment provide proper contract management and oversight of the contract payment process and remediate and strengthen internal controls based on policy changes internal controls and training initiated by The District's
110board superintendent and CFO over the past two years this matter has been addressed there is no further action required finding two finding 2A the Sig determined that a selection Committee Member prepared written statements as required by the South Carolina code of law section 8-13-700 subsection B3 that provided notice to the selection Committee of his or her potential conflict of interest and the agency had was apprised of the member's potential conflict and deemed him or her qualified finding 2B the SIC Sig determined District officials and selection committee members were unable to provide the identity of the appointing official documentation regarding the appointments the timing of appointments or the criteria used for determining qualified committee members the recommendation for finding two was that the Sig recommends that agency head ensure any delegation of authority the appointment of
111selection committee members and the criteria used for selection be documented and retained in the procurement file based on policy changes and internal controls implemented by the boards by The District's board superintendent and CFO over the past two years this matter has been addressed there is no further action required finding three the Sig determined that the board's disregard of at least three legal reviews including two investigations in order to pursue ethics actions against the selection Committee Member constituted a waste of District resources amounting to at least twelve thousand six hundred and five dollars and board interference in violation of board policy BBA the recommendation for finding three was that the board should adhere to all board policies finding four finding 4A the Sig determined that the district's execution of a buyer agency agreement with the education
112Group Inc without board approval was a violation of the district's procurement code finding 4B the Sig determined that the district issued an RFP solicitation number 2022-011 seeking a certified public accounting firm to prefer to provide a current audit services for fiscal years 2019 through 2020 with the option to also audit fiscal years 2017 and 2018. as specified in the scope of work of the RFP the procurement audit was required to be performed in accordance with the agreed-upon audit procedures issued by the DPS however the audit agreement was changed by the board and District representatives from a procurement audit to a procurement Consulting Services contract which was a substantial departure for the RFP requirements that resulted in a waste of 105 650 in District resources the recommendation for finding four was that the board and District
113leadership received training regarding the district's procurement code and the role and authority of the procurement officer in awarding contracts regarding finding one I believe it is very important to recognize that the lack of internal controls and complacency within the district raised several questions relating to the costs of pineywood elementary school these issues are on the district and as identified by the Sig we have taken steps to address them and the implication of wrongdoing by outside parties is unfounded to our present knowledge findings three and four both identify recommendations directed at the board in an attempt to address these recommendations the board intends on doing the following number one we have an upcoming border treat in which we plan to discuss board priorities and District priorities and how we can effectively communicate and work together in
114part we will discuss policies that are directed at the board it's important to understand that our current board contains new members the most experienced board member the three most experienced board members were elected in November of 2020 we may in the future have additional workshops facilitated to ensure that the board understands the B policies and the role of board members two the SI Sig recommended that the board receive training regarding the district's procurement code and the role and authority of the procurement officer in awarding contracts no one on this board is an expert on procurement and we welcome this opportunity to improve upon approval of the Sig we have identified some highly qualified State procurement officials and are currently seeking to coordinate the appropriate trainings and workshops to address this recommendation finally I just want
115to reiterate again that the Sig's report stands on its own I'm going to open it up for the board if any but if any board member has anything that they would like to discuss regarding this report I will open it up and then we will be able to move forward Miss huddle I do have some comments and I have a document that I'd like to enter into the minutes I'm not going to go through the whole document but I'm going to read the first page I have many concerns with the report prepared by the oig there were at least two concerning air areas that were omitted entirely from the report one was the use of a related third-party subcontractor and the other was campaign donations that were made during the RFP period which was against
116the rules of the RFP um I have sent I sent emails to the Mr Lampkin the oig and I'm attaching those um in this document other areas of concern there were 38 362.69 of question cost that were not supported by the vendor even after the oig obtained documents from the vendor it appears that the report is explaining this away is only 0.14 of the GMP but shouldn't our district care about 38 over 38 thousand dollars whether it was part of a Construction contract or from any other vendor the lead green Globe certification that was included in the architect's contract but was not delivered that is a very important leads and green Globes helps ensure that your schools are energy efficient which saves you money over the long run long run and that they have healthy
117air we the contract included that we didn't get it mentions of minority board members on page 13 of the report these are items that were never discussed in public so I have no idea how the oig could possibly know about matters that weren't discussed in public without talking to all the board members which I know didn't happen because I I wasn't talked to finding number three on page 18 said the board received at least three legal reviews and this constituted a waste of District resources this comment was made without any documentation whatsoever having been on the board during a portion of that period I know that that is not factually correct the same finding stated that the board that the board had interference in violation of board policy BBA this is totally incorrect in my
118opinion I want to stay under board policy BBA it clearly states the board is responsible for carrying on board business such as developing procedures for meetings electing board officers and ensuring compliance with state laws and directives of State Department of Education if the board has reason to believe that a state law is being violated it is up to the board per policy BBA and the state law 59 1910 which states each School District shall be under the management and control of a Board of Trustees provided in this article it is our duty to question anytime we think the law may have been violated the special audit requested by the board found many issues most of which have since been corrected over six different policy changes we also have an internal auditor that we're hiring and
119it's a shame that the report pointed out the shortcomings of the district but appears to totally ignore what appear to be problem problematic vendor issues lastly the assertion that the special procurement audit quote resulted in the waste of a hundred and five thousand six hundred fifty dollars in District resources because the district used a faulty RFP language is absolutely absurd this board voted in September on September 13 2021 unanimously for a special procurement audit and it detailed what that included did not vote for a regular audit it is not incumbent upon the board to read every RFP the board was very clear on what they wanted and the board got what they wanted so to categorize that the cost of the audit as a waste because the district issued an incorrect RFP is ridiculous foreign
120Mr Satterfield yeah I just had one comment to make and I'm not sitting on the other side of the table from his huddle I understand Miss huddle has certainly her her thoughts and feelings on this uh when I came onto the board I had heard a lot of information about this audit I I shared with the other board members that I was up night after night reading and trying to catch up um you know um everybody has opinions about a lot of things but I heard that there was so much waste going on and there was a lot of Fraud and just all kinds of stuff so I did my best to try to educate myself and and read the information that was out there and and try to bring myself up to Snuff so
121I would at least try to understand what was going on um I would encourage folks I really would to um go back I think that the audit phase two I believe all the phases are available is that right Miss Heinz you can go back and read phase one and phase two and phase three correct yes I would encourage you if you have any questions go back and read those um I was I know Miss Otto talked about the RFP when I saw the RFP and I saw I was reading through phase two I was trying to figure out how they two went together um that's neither here nor there but I just encourage people to go back and read and I'd also like to point out that um I believe Piney Woods came in 369
122000 under budget is that correct and um this report uh the Office of the State Inspector General was something that we as a board asked for we asked for this report we ask for them to do an investigation and it was about a six-month investigation I believe so uh this is not my opinion or Miss Snipes I don't want to use your name to miss science but I just did didn't I it's not our opinion it is the opinion of the uh Inspector General of South Carolina so I would encourage folks to do your research do your homework don't look on social media uh and uh you know edu do like I try to do and educate yourself so that you fully understand what has transpired and what this report is all about and that's
123all I got thank you anyone else Mr Scully yeah I just want to make a few comments um first of all I being just to clarify that point one four percent of undocumented costs are merely that they're just not documented there there's not over that's not evidence of them being un over billed or not valid it's just that they're not documented uh but even were that the case 0.14 is ridiculously exceptional uh to to be have a Delta of just 0.14 in a 30 million dollar construction project that is extremely good uh so any any attempts to to kind of underemphasize that I I is baffling to me but I just want to point out and and say a a extend my heartfelt thank you to all of the people all of the contractors that
124were involved in the building of the construction of Piney Woods Elementary School because I think what this port report really shows the big takeaway is that we have we received an extremely good school it came in under budget which is different from the narrative that you've heard in the past um and the the school there were a lot of people that took heat uh that this support this report doesn't it it doesn't support that that um it was unfair the the criticism and and the heat that that's the contractors contract Construction in particular uh former employees of the district uh Miss Anna Miller in particular um that it this kind of in my opinion vindicates them and so I want to extend my heartfelt thank you to the contractors the employees of the district the
125administration and everyone involved in the building the construction of that project because as you can see by this uh unbiased report that we we did an extremely good job as a district in constructing that that school and we got an exceptional product as a result so thank you very much uh to everybody involved um all right and if anyone who hasn't commented has anything all right um and I would like to just say um thank you to our CFO and her team and Dr Ross um this was actually probably like a seven month eight month I mean we're already I can't believe it and you know halfway through August um investigation and it required a lot of time from a lot of folks within our own District to provide information for the Inspector General in
126the middle of uh budget season and and running our district and and that they went above and beyond and the Sig made it very clear to the board and to Dr Ross that we have a very good team in our CFO and in her group and so we really do appreciate that because I know that it's been a very long 2023 and um and we appreciate that so thank you and that moves us on to the final item on our agenda which is the Border treat um scheduled on September 15 2023 and I believe Dr Ross that you have some information and um really the point of putting this on the agenda was just so that the board could discuss um any particulars about this day this is going to be a full day Retreat
127for the board and um it was requested by several members and and I think that this is a great idea for a board um the opportunity for our board to kind of get together off campus and and build relationships and come together on priority so um Dr Ross I know you prepared an exhibit thank you madam chairman to the board for your review we present exhibit in that we felt that it was better to edit something that exists rather than try to create it so we have created just an outline of what an a retreat could look like we were moving with the theme working with icrc and Saluda Shoals of moving in the same direction uh moving in One Direction by using the river so it outlines a kayaking team activity in the morning
128from 8 30 to 10 you'll be fitted with life jackets and given instructions there is a guide we're all coming back well and to take us down the river and then they'll be sheltered to the River Center from 10 15. uh the 10 30 is an opportunity to prepare for the the actual Retreat to call to order at 10 30. um the only thing we've put on here is just the administration's request to review board policy AE as we're going through uh accreditation this year this hasn't been updated since 2006 and won an opportunity to see if it aligned with the district's goals but you can adopt whatever you like so we are just placing this as a template for your review and we will listen to your guidance thank you okay and just a
129couple of things before I go around and see get some feedback from some board members one I think it's very cute that you think we can change between 10 15 and 10 30. um after kayaking in a river um but um so the timeline might get adjusted a little bit but um a couple of things I know Dr Ross that we've talked about potentially having facilitators were looking into that that are not necessarily associated with school districts just somebody to come in and do like a team building opportunity or lead you know lead something that's not necessarily just on the board but like on a teamwork um you know down that down that like path I know we've had that conversation so that it may be something that we do um and the other thing
130that I want to make sure that we do have on here is that we talk about um the superintendent's evaluation I know that that was an issue um that we had kind of talked about um during yours just to make sure that we have like a game plan and a template among all of us I just want to make sure that we have some time as we're all together on that that would be my my suggestion and then I know that we're going to talk about um goals and ways to work together I mean that may be a little bit redundant of what I just said about our facilitator but I think it'll be a little bit separate than that um if we have one but anyways outside of that um Miss Snipes I saw
131you Adrian I just wanted to know if we um picked a date that was based on when everybody could be there we have a small board so it just seems like if we're gonna take the time and the resources to do this we should all right so I asked Dr Ross to um give options and I know he gave board officers I don't know if it went to everybody the Octo the September 15th and September 22nd the date I don't know if all three of us could do that or not I have no idea I don't know who's on emails because we blind copied but um so the 20 what was it the 27th or no it was we're having it on the 15th we have it on the 15th the other day it was
132the 22nd yeah that didn't work for all of the officers so left the 15th okay and I do agree um I I think that we need the most amount of board members to be there um but I also know that we we schedule this in July and so if we have to do a second Retreat I think we definitely we that is something we I mean I'm open to um currently everybody isn't going to be able to attend that is my daughter's getting her final dress fitting for her wedding dress and Opera and it's set weeks in advance and I told her I would be there so hopefully she's only going to do this once so so the hours are 8 30 8 15 to 4. yep and we can always do a second Retreat
133or try to get it where you can zoom in for some of the non-kayaking which by the way of course not my I want to zoom in for the kind I don't do that the kayaking might be dangerous but um Dr Ross can wear a GoPro we're gonna actually save each other if we tip over here this is what your review is better to edit with exists the morning of the 22nd and could just join for the afternoon because she doesn't want to kayak that didn't go over it but I was really hoping yeah um I do currently have a conflict scheduled in that afternoon I'll try to get it moved but okay well please let us know just so that we um that we're aware and like I said I think if there is
134a way where we can zoom in board members I have no idea that might be something that the we're going to have to work out um even if it's just you know popping in and out this is going to be very informal um so you know if we can do that that is great if we can't you know I understand I don't you know I don't know but um hold on I'm going to go to Mike and then I was just going to offer my services you know I was an old PE teacher so I used to teach project adventure and all the high wire stuff um but um that would be worse than kayaking we could always do pickleball oh my gosh so but I'm Avail I'm uh since I am retired I am
135available any day so a couple points one um Kevin your afternoon conflict does not get you out of kayaking and um to if we're going to miss if Mr Scott isn't able to make it Miss huddles I mean are we firm on the 15th date or is that something I think we need to know what our options are about zooming in um and Mr Scully let us know what yours is I know Miss huddle is a definite no I do think that we have the date set so we should hold it as long as possible and like I said I think that we definitely need to do another sort of something because we've had several board members request this and I understand I mean it is very hard um to it's very hard to take
136a full day um you know so I mean I I understand that I know in October like October is completely out for me December is probably out for most people kayaking oh it's definitely with kayaking um we should be there in the morning to early afternoon I just don't know okay yeah and so and that and so I think that that you know that that is one of those things we're talking about this so early on that we could adjust the timings of some of this to make sure that we have by them you know majority of people that can participate or not participate or listen in or um you know finalize this but and I can I think it's going to be very hard to get everybody at the same time during the week
137because we have five people with five working schedules and I know Miss huddle has a lot going on I think you travel to Greenville and you know Mike's playing pickleball all the time and [Laughter] um so I just think that that's something that we should with it I mean I think one of the biggest things that these these events is is collaborating and figuring out something we can all get behind um so I do think it is very important for for all of us to be at these if possible and outside of that the only other recommendation I have is like mixing a trust fall a trustful okay oh that he's like that he is like yes that's hilarious all right so do I have um anything on uh I would encourage everyone just shoot
138me or you know Dr Ross an email if you have thoughts on what should be discussed or um you know availabilities of potential times that you might be able to jump on virtually if you can't make it or if you know I know that that's not as exciting as a dress fitting um you can have champagne and we won't judge you I won't judge you other people might I won't um but all right so with that do I have a motion on number 22 Miss knives I move that we in the meeting at 904. do I have a second a second oh I heard Miss Barnhart before I saw you um to have any discussion so Mr Hogan would like to discuss this I'm just kidding I'll call for the vote all in favor motion
139carries seven to zero we will adjourn our next meeting is on September 11th right