001Good evening and welcome to the Monday, August 25th, 2025 board of trustees work session. At this time, may we pause for a moment of meditation followed by the pledge of allegiance. >> Thank you. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank each of you for joining us tonight. Uh this meeting is held in accordance to the Freedom of Information Act. The news media has been notified and a copy of the agenda has been made available to the public. This meeting is open to the public and the public is welcome to attend in person. All persons wishing to attend the meeting by virtual means may do so via YouTube, Sumpter School
002Districts board meetings and Sumpter School District's Facebook page. Vision Sumpter School District is committed to educating, empowering, and enriching the lives of all students to reach their full potential. Mission SA School District is committed to providing a safe, nurturing, and high quality educational environment that supports diversity and equips students for local and global success. Ladies and gentlemen, your board members tonight that are present is yours truly, Shawn Reagan, area 5 chairman. Mr. Brian Austin, area 1 vice chairman. Dr. Gloria Lee, who's joining us tonight by way of virtual, and she's area 7, and she serves as the clerk. We also have Dr. Raph W. Kanty, area three. Miss Tyer Johnson, area four, Mr. Matthew Mc Mloud, area six, Mr. Phil Levenis, area 8, Miss Bonnie Disney, area 9, and I believe she's joining us as
003well on the virtual platform. And we have Miss Deborah McQueen, who's with us tonight, our Shaw representative. We have Dr. Shirley Gamble, our acting superintendent, and Miss Shante Scott, our board administrative manager. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will uh begin to follow our agenda and call this meeting to order. Meeting is now called to order. Now move to item number two, approval of the agenda. upon consensus without any objections. >> Mr. Chairman, >> yes. >> Uh I would like to amend the agenda. Uh there's been a request to remove first reading of policy GCC AAA the sick leave bank for further discussion by the policy committee meeting. >> It's been a motion to amend the agenda for the purpose of removing policy GCC AAA. Is that correct? >> Do we have a second?
004>> Just as a point of clarification, which policy is that? >> The sick leave bank. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Do we have a second? >> I second the motion. >> All right. All in favor of removing uh the first reading for policy GCC AAA uh sickly bank. All in favor with a we do a show of hands. All in favor at this time with a show of hands. All oppose with a show of hands and all who wishes to abstain at this time. All right. Motion passes to amend the agenda. All right. At this time, ladies and gentlemen, we will move to item number three. Board communication at this time calls for item 3.1. Any announcements. All right. Hearing none, we'll move to item 3.2, committee reports and recommendations. >> Mr. Chair, >> yes.
005>> I'd like to give a committee report from the policy committee. Uh the policy committee met on August the 12th. Um and there was discussion on the sick leave bank uh academic strategies as well as the attendance plan and student fundraising activities as well as community use of school facilities. This evening uh I will be bringing forth first reading of policies JJ student fundraising activities and policy KF. An amendment to those policy uh for KF will be community use of school facilities. And as we just amended the agenda, we will have further discussion on the sick leave bank as well as have discussion on the K12 uh 2025 K12 legislation that was presented at the school law conference this weekend um to bring those recommendations forward at our September meeting. But we have scheduled a
006policy committee meeting for September 4th, 2025 here at the district office at 6 PM. That concludes my report. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Mr. Austin. Uh any other committee reports at this time, >> Mr. Chair? not a report, but um I should have reminded the board and the community of the finance committee meeting September 3rd, Wednesday, September 3rd at 6 o'clock p.m. here at the district office. >> Thank you, Miss Johnson. Any further committee reports or recommendations at this time? Hearing none, we'll now move to item number four. um these items at this time we will allow uh Dr. Gamble to lead us I believe from items 4.1 all the way to 4.5 and so at this time Dr. G will turn it over to >> Thank you. Good evening Mr. Chair and all
007members of the board of trustees. At this time we have several items that we would like to share with you but we'll begin with 4.1. realignment update. We'll ask that if you'll come and share where we are with our realignment process. Good evening everyone. I think the easiest way for me to do it is just to go through the timeline of the realignment process. On July 9th, 2025, the initial realignment process meeting was held with Dr. Wright and Dr. Gamble and Miss Donna Bar. It was determined that all students will receive an address update emergency contact form on the first day of school to be updated and returned. And then there's an example that was embedded in the um notes. The power school system administrators and attendance clerks will provide class rosters to teachers and
008request that they turn in all forms once every student in their class has returned the form. The power school administrators and attendance clerks will update the addresses and contact information from the return forms as needed. We requested that all updates must be completed by October the 2nd, 2025, which is the district 45th day. The district p Power P Power School team will hold bi-weekly status meetings with the P school system administrators and attendance clerks to ensure data accuracy and provide assistance where needed. on July 24, 2025. This is our first realignment update. The Powers School team along with myself uh had our beginning of the year meetings on July 17 and July 24 uh 23rd with the P school system administrators and the attendance clerks. During this these sessions, the 2026 2027 realignment process was
009reviewed and detailed instructions were pro were provided to support accurate data entry and alignment efforts. They were also instructed during this meeting that the contact information process was due on the 45th day of our school year, which is October the 2nd. To ensure that we stay on track with the 2627 realignment process. To support this effort, we are holding by monthly meetings to monitor progress and provide assistance as needed. Our first meeting after that was on October the 14th. We will have our second meeting this Wednesday, the 27th. And then we have scheduled meetings for September 10th, September 24, and October 1st. Progress updates will be provided after each bimonthly meeting. Then on July 30th, uh this was the second realignment update. The power school team met with Dr. Wright and Dr. Gamble and Miss
010Galloway to give an update on the process. It was decided at this meeting to change the emergency card and to ask for updated address verifications for all students. The power school team contacted online registration to see if we could open up the process for returning students and it would take at least eight weeks for that online um process to be up and running. So, it was decided that we would try to have that up and running for the next school year. On August 14, 2025, this is the the third update, the P school team in collaboration with myself held our first bi-weekly meeting, which was August the 14th with the P school system administrators and the attendance clerks. During this session, of course, the 26 27 realignment process was reviewed and details were provided to
011support accurate data entry and realignment efforts. We then had the updated emergency cards which need to be sent home again to with every student. The deadline for this to be returned is August 29, 2025. And there was a flyer created with this information that was printed by this the district print office and a robocall was sent to all from the district office. There is a concern that that if the schools did not have a team to ensure that the level of this process completed, there would be um a struggle. August 15, 2025, this is the last realignment update. Um the power school team in collaboration with myself, uh the uh flyer was created and sent home to all parents. The deadline for the parents to have this form completed once again is August 29, 2025.
012We also created an update for principles and school teachers. Mrs. Bar created a Google form for all principles to fill out to let us know their plan um that they had in place to execute this progress and where they are in the progress. Once again, the deadline for all forms to be turned in and completed and updated in Power School is October 2nd, 2025. >> Mr. Chairman, >> yes. >> Does that complete your report? >> It does. Yes. >> I have a motion, Mr. Chairman, regarding realignment. Uh, Mr. Chairman, I would move that the realignment program must be postponed until the district has a permanent superintendent. Mr. Chair, I second that motion. >> It is uh definitely out of order at this time to make that motion. >> Why is it out of order, Mr.
013Chairman? We're on the subject and it's a motion dealing with this. Please, please explain. >> Yeah, right. It's not placed on the agenda, but at this particular time, we're getting a presentation and so I haven't open up the floor for discussion yet. >> Well, when you open it up for discussion, would it be in order then? >> No, I'm going to rule it out of order at this time. >> Okay. Well, let me give you the others so you can rule them all out together. We can discuss this in executive session. My second motion was to be that the realignment cannot be based on the lines proposed from 2021 and the 2022 report. It can only be based on the current information that the committee is collecting for school year 2025. And the third would
014be no school with a per student cost of over $21,000 a year according to information generated by the district in the past can continue to operate uh past the current school year. And I take it you rule the same thing, but I think those need to be on the table. >> Okay. >> We've we've got a realignment study on every agenda, but the u the master plan study was just just reinitiated. So, thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Uh that concluded your presentation. Correct. >> That's correct, sir. >> At this time, uh any board members have any questions at this time? All right. Thank you. >> Go ahead, Miss M. Perkins. >> I I have no problem if you can't answer this question. Okay. All right. There has been quite a decline in enrollment
015over the last several years. What impact will that have on the realignment process this for next year? >> That would I would not be able to answer that question. Yes, sir. It would be predicated upon how the lines are drawn. >> Okay. >> Thank you for your update, Miss Perkins. All right. At this time, at this time, we'll ask Mr. Myers and Mr. Come forward to discuss Bates Miation updates and good afternoon. A couple of weeks ago, we came before the board and we shared information uh relative to working on the mole remediation process at Bates. Um Mr. Ko now has information that he's going to provide as an update um for where we are now. Mr. Ko, good evening. Hope everyone is doing okay. Um, on the weekend of the August the 16th, we
016had 3C Southeast Abatement. They cleaned and abated rooms 46, 47, 48, 50, 53, and 55. Um, Pium Restoration, which is another abatement company. They're on state contract, so they tend to do larger larger areas, so we don't have to end up getting multiple quotes. They um they came this weekend. They did they cleaned the chlorus room and also the gym lobby and they did rooms 45 52 54 and 58. Um what is what is planned now? Terracon will be doing our testing. They're going to start testing this week. They will test the eighth grade rooms initially and then they will remove they will go on to to do the rest of the school. Was requested by the board to do every room in the school. Um after that after the rooms on the eighth grade
017hall have been tested and everything is clear. Goodman Construction will then begin insulating ceilings followed by True Blue painting the rooms with antimicrobial paint and we have ionizers that have been ordered for the air units. And just as a a kind of a side note, the um the monthly cost to do the air quality testing for all the rooms, entire school, that's $24,723 a month. And that comes if we do it if we do that every month for a year, that's $296,676. All right. Any questions from the board at this time? >> Yes, sir. >> Mr. Chairman, >> gentlemen. >> Yes, sir. >> Would you give give me again the name of the company that's doing the remediation? Well, there were two companies. The fir the first one that did those initial rooms was 3C's
018Southeast Abatement and the ones that came this past week or Pium Restoration. Okay. >> Mr. Kato, can what what can you tell us about their certification in the area? They have mold remedi ro mold remediation um um technicians on their staff. They do they do like if you have flooding and there's and there's mold that needs to be removed and things like that. They do that. They do they do restoration of any any biohazard any kind of things like that. They're qualified to do those things. I guess my third question, Mr. Chair, >> do they certify their own work or will another company come behind them to certify what they have done? >> Terra, Terracon is the company that's doing the testing, doing the air quality testing. They will test the rooms. Like I said,
019they did they all those rooms have been finished up now and Teraccon is coming this week. They're going to do the the testing of the eighth grade hall and they will test all of those and then from there they'll proceed to do the rest of the school. But I want to get the eighth grade hall, you know, tested initially and retested. >> Thank you. >> Yes, sir. >> Madam superintendent, question. the affected area. Are all are all all of those halls closed at the time? >> Yes, the entire eighth grade hallway is closed. I was there this morning off the campus. There is a on her eighth grade hallway. There's a portion that's referred to the red top that is outside of the eighth grade hallway. There's still gymnasium there and there's your choir or
020your chorus room, but there are double doors between those two sections, between what we call the red top and the eighth grade hallway. And their double doors are closed. >> And uh the students that were on those hallways, they have been relocated within the building. >> They have been relocated to several classrooms within the building and The other portion of her building is also being renovated, but there was a painting done this past weekend and those um classrooms should be ready. I think probably about the end of the week. >> I missed the last part of what you said if you don't mind. I stated yes that those um teachers and students have been relocated to other areas in in the building and there is an additional portion on our campus another building that has
021not been utilized for the last couple of years and we have done some renovation there as far as painting and ensuring that everything is safe for them to go there and they will start using those classrooms this week. >> Okay. Right now, she's placed some of her students and teachers in like the multi-purpose room and the media center, which we know is not really conducive for long-term instruction. >> Thank you, J. >> Yes, sir. >> All right. Any further questions at this time? >> Yes. Thank you. Um, Mr. CO, you mentioned a cost for monthly remediation or monthly service. Can you tell us what that service is again and what is that amount? >> Yes, ma'am. That is that is for the air quality testing which is what I had originally done on on those
022rooms. Um like I say other than 53 and 55. We had done the ones on the seventh grade hall and all that. Everything had came back good. But these are these are air quality tests for for every room. You know, as last time we were instructed to get the the entire school checked with everything. Um, so they come and they do a air quality test on each room and that gives you that that lets you know if there are mold spores present in the air or which you know as we discussed before there will be some but it but there are acceptable levels and it'll let you know and the cost for that per month it's $24,723 and if you go for a whole year that's that's $296,676. And a followup question is that pricing
023the cost of that service competitive? Um did we get other quotes? >> That is that is under a state contract company which there the state contract that is that's supposed to be the best price that we could we could get on it. >> Okay. Thank you. Yes. >> All right. >> I'll come back to you Dr. Canyon. >> Mr. K. Yes, sir. Um, what kind of mold are they finding? >> I would have to go back and look at look at at the test. I don't off hand. I don't know. >> I mean, as know you brought it up earlier and in the past. I mean, we're breathing mold right now. There's mold everywhere in the air. >> So, I mean, is So, it's the level of mold, but we're not sure what kind of
024mold, >> right? the one that the one that is that is um what people refer to as black mold because you can have mold and it be black looking but it's not technically the black mold that that's penicellin penicellin nigress I believe um there has been some penicellin aspiggillis >> that I think has been detected but the penicellin nigress I haven't had anything to said there's been any of that >> okay >> all right thank you >> yes sir >> uh you Okay, >> just just wanted to to note uh that this abatement process carries with it a $300,000 a year tag price tag times five times 10 says a whole lot about the cost of operating bait school at this time. May May I make a followup to that? >> Yeah, go ahead. >>
025Um and and that initially, Dr. Kenny, that's only the testing. That's not counting the the abatement. Um I'd have to go back for three for 3C's number, but with with um but with Pium's number for what they have done this weekend, it was $81,000. So if we depends on you know what what we have to do how how far you have to carry it it can it can expand astronomically. >> All right. Can you give us an overview of what's expected next in this process? >> Yes sir. Um this this week they will be um uh Terracon. There's another state contract company. They're the ones that's going to be actually doing the testing. Um they're going to come in. They'll test those rooms on the eighth grade hall. Once I have those those tests back
026and everything is clear, then um I've got a um a company coming in. They're going to insulate those ceilings because some of them, like I told you, you know, some of them had insulation in them, some of them don't. But I want to make sure all insulated to just help keep the um you know, keep the moisture to as low level as we possibly can. And then once those are insulated um we have a company, True Blue Painting, and they've been doing the work that um that Dr. Gamblewood spoke above on those other rooms. They'll be coming in and they're painting the entire eighth grade hall with the antimicrobial paint. >> Okay. All right. Any any further questions at this time? Any any further questions? All right. Thank you. >> Yes, sir. Next on our
027agenda, 4.3 reading tole learn initiatives update. That would be Miss Black, Miss KS, and Dr. Oats. We're here to give you an update on the reading tolearn initiative. Just a quick reminder, um, this was is established just to provide additional instructional support in classrooms, particularly in our elementary schools that were identified as below average or unsatisfactory based on the 2003 2004 academic year performance rating. We want to give you an update on some areas pertaining to our staffing at this time. We were allotted 19 members. Currently, we have nine positions filled. We have five positions opened and we have six positions pending. >> That's what I was going to tell you. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Doc. >> You're good. You're good. Go ahead. You got it. I'm sorry. For real. >> With this
028um process, we're looking at numbers, but we also want to share that our goal is and Miss KS will go in detail about the curriculum piece, but our goal is with the 19 um staff members. Each staff member will serve a total of 20 students. And as we're um adding that up, we will be able to serve a total of 600 students with our um learning support specialist. Our identified needs per school the our process for identifying the students we are using two aspects. Our first aspect is of course the results for my first fall map testing data. And then secondly, based upon our fall map testing data, we're also going to have individual conversations with principles to give their input on students that also need that support. I know I want to talk to
029the spot. You're good. Good evening. Um, I'm here to give you an update on the curriculum. The last time I was before you, I shared with you our intent to use the once program, which is a onetoone highintensity tutoring program that focuses on early intervention and targeting foundational reading skills. As we move forward with implementing the program, we um the the implementation managers from wants will train our instructors. They will um assist with scheduling the students for their 15 minutes a day. Um they will also do instructor onboarding and uh the keys that we uh really uh liked about this program were that our instructors are learning support specialists. We'll receive weekly coaching on their sessions with the students. We um school principles as well as lead us leaders at the districts, we will have
030monthly check-in meetings with wants where we discuss student progress and curriculum implementation. The curriculum for once um consists of 200 cycles. Each cycle has five very distinct tasks in it. Each task focuses on a specific skill and those tasks become more complex as the students skills develop. Um so moving forward looking towards implementation we have a webinar this Thursday afternoon with principles and reading coaches to get a welcome to wants and then set up meetings individual one-on-one meetings with wants. Those meetings will occur between August 29th and September 12th. By September 15th, we expect to have rosters complete. Learning support specialists will begin part one of onboarding on September 17th. They will have part two of onboarding on se on either September 18th or September 19th. And we will be ready to serve students on
031September 22nd. Okay. Um I I heard your timeline and that related to the actual curriculum itself, right? The training piece from once Um, but we still have some more staff to hire. Have you given a particular timeline for HR to have those positions filled by a certain time so that they don't miss the I guess onboarding and training that's going to take place with the curriculum. >> We are working we are working directly with principles and getting um the candidates that are in the pipeline hired. I know Dr. Gamble and Miss Black have gone directly and worked with some of the principles that have not filled all of their positions. So yes, >> define pending for me please. >> Pending simply means that they are in they have submitted their um recommitted their recommendations to
032human resources. So we may be waiting on TB tests, social security cards, those types of things that get need to get processed before they can be recommended for employment. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Any any questions at this time? Yes, Miss Johnson and then Mr. Austin. >> Thank you. Um Dr. Oats, can you give us those numbers again? Feel open and pending. >> So we have three open. Um that's your two. >> Yes, that's my two. So, we have six pending, five open, and nine filled. >> Nine filled. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. And then also, um, could someone please remind us what grade levels we're serving with this program? >> Yes, we're concentrating on kindergarten and first grade. >> Okay. And I know that this program is geared at um kindergarten and first grade,
033but it's a little bit off topic, but it is on topic at the same time. And this may not be the appropriate time, Mr. Chair, but I'll just put it out there for um a response at the appropriate time. And that is uh for our second graders. No, for our third graders. There were any number of third graders I think that were retained last year and a part of it was reading skills. Do we have something in place where we are honed in on those students? And as we look at our current third graders, how are we honing in on that now and working with parents and whoever else may be involved so that we could get those numbers down? Um, we don't use a specific program like once for third graders, but our third
034graders who were retained due to Read to Succeed currently have an individualized reading plan that is a targeted intervention plan that they are addressing in their schools. Um, that goes for fourth graders who were promoted with a good cause exemption as well. Um and as part of my role and working with the reading coaches, we monitor those students monthly to ensure that they're making progress and um determine whether they need to go back and look maybe revise the intervention plan. Um, as far as our third graders for this year, once our fall interim assessment has been completed, we will create what we call, for lack of a better term, a watch list of students in third grade who are um identified as being in danger of scoring does not meet and then we will begin
035interventions and monitoring them throughout the year as well. >> Thank you. >> And um, >> Mr. Chair, >> this is B. >> Yes, ma'am. We have one question before you and then I'll call on you. >> Okay, that's great. >> Well, I have more than one question, but I'll try to make them succinct. Um, Miss Black or Miss KS, could you um speak to how the selection of kindergarten and first grade was chosen uh for this initiative? That's my first question. I'll let you guys answer that first. Um we presented two options. Um and based on the feedback we received from a pre previous presentation um that was the the best option selected from lack of a better explanation. >> So the kindergarten and first graders so that you are able to track uh once
036they get to to third grade where they are to see the impact of this program. >> Absolutely. >> And this question may be for Dr. Oats. When it comes to the staffing, um, are we allowing the principles the autonomy to select which classrooms or are you allowing that to be a decision solely based on principal's discretion? But are we backfilling with the well I guess in the building are we addressing the most underperforming classrooms or the most underperforming schools and ensuring that those are filled before maybe a classroom that >> doesn't need as much support as another one? >> I'll answer that if it's okay. >> Um we're actually focusing on individual students as per class. So that's why we're kind of waiting we're waiting on the map data because then it's going to give
037us our students who are have fallen within um a particular grade range or score range that will give us the starting point to um provide that support. So with this program, each um specialist will work with a maximum of 20 students and we we want to be extremely strategic about um who our students are that fall into that category. So our best movement is with the map data. So it's not a class per se focal point. It's individualized students. >> One last question. What is the total amount of time I I heard something about 15 minutes or something. What is the total amount of time in a day or in a week that they will spend those students will spend with the learning specialist? >> Okay, because you got the rotation. >> Students see the
038learning sports specialist 15 minutes a day for a minimum of four days a week. >> Four days a week. Okay. Thank you. So, it's more of a pullout style more than the teacher, the auxiliary teacher that we hiring going into an actual teacher's classroom and working within that class the entire time. So, these auxiliary teachers are having pullout sessions, right, >> with these individual identified students. >> Yes. >> Grades kindergarten and first grade. >> Correct. >> Okay. All right, Miss Disney. >> Yes. You touched on part of my question. as a pull out program, what are they missing? And then I have a followup question to that. You can't pull them out without them missing something that's going on in your classroom. So, what will they be um missing? >> The way um once schedules
039the students, they are not missing the same 15 minutes every day. It's on a rotation and the instructor will actually pull a small group and the students will work on other work and then they'll rotate around to her to get that 15 minutes one-on-one. But once the um the company helps us with the schedule so the students are not missing the same part of class every single day, >> right? And reading to learn has been around for quite a while as we all know because curriculum. Um how you read in science may be different from how you read in a math problem etc etc. So have we considered making this a broader con a broader um way to teach reading for our students because I know that you know you've picked certain students to to
040really focus on but reading to learn is that is absolutely essential for every reader in school. Is there are there any plans to make it finally embed this uh entirely into the school curriculum? So currently what we would like to be able to do is see the results of our implementation of this. we have had an opportunity to watch the success of this program in um Oakland primary and so this is one of the reasons why we decided to move with this particular program. I understand your question. However, I would like to stress that focusing on stu individual students will have a stronger impact because we're able to really monitor their progression and be able to follow them and provide them with necessary resources as they're progressing particularly as they reach to the third grade.
041So that's why we wanted to start with the focal point of um minimum minimum amount of students so that we'll be able to follow and see the true impact this program will have on our students. >> Thank you. And I would suggest if there is a a significant impact that we may want to consider that as something we would embed within our um across all all subjects. >> Thank you. We'll definitely take that notice. >> All right. Any further questions at this time? All right. Thank you all for your presentation. Next we will move to 4.4 academic strategies and attendance plan update for school year 2526. It's Dr. Tita Harriet. Good evening. >> So, we will look at again our academic strategies in reference to our midyear honor graduates. Next slide, please, Miss Scott. We
042now have a quote unquote final draft proposal um that has been reviewed by the ELT that will hopefully now be able to be considered to be used in all three high schools moving forward. A draft of that application is there. um if you would click on that link for us. Miss Scott, the reason we would like to make this application um consistent for all three schools is because we know our students are transient and in order to make sure that we're not allowing any students to fall through the through the gaps. Um, we want to make sure that we're holding everyone to the same level of accountability and to ensure that best practices are being considered um after realizing that we've overlooked a few students that may or may not have been given an opportunity
043um to be honored as mid-year honor graduates. So, in the application, you will see that the application has to be submitted by the end of that student's junior year. There are some things that the student and parent will have to agree to in understanding ahead of time what the requirements are. Um if you scroll down to the top of the next page, Miss Scott, yes, you will see also highlighted in yellow. Um we want to make sure that the student understands our policy still states that our Val and S are calculated on the 175th day. So even though they'll have the opportunity to be acknowledged as a mid-year honor graduate, they still cannot be considered as the VA or SAL. Um that's where we are currently because again our current policy states that the 175th
044day is when we calculate those ranking positions. Um however, if students have met the qualifications to be considered a honor grad and still graduating early, we want to afford them that opportunity to be acknowledged appropriately. Any questions on that before we move forward? >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes, ma'am. >> You can go ahead. >> Okay, Mr. Chair. Um, good evening to everyone. >> Good evening. >> Dr. Harriet. Um, a lot of our students are graduating and looking forward to going to college, but a lot of them do not have enough scholarships to that will happen. What are we doing as a district to provide our students with scholarship opportunities and how can we be sure the students and the parents are aware of these opportunities? I mean, what are we doing? What do we not
045know to keep any of our students from furthering their education? If we can help them, what are we doing in that area? Um, one thing that we've done as we have newly formed our department of student readiness, um, per Dr. Gamble's naming of our department, we have added onto our district website. So, we are aware that even with our previous graduating classes that there were students that were not afforded or were not aware of scholarship opportunities in creating our new department. We now have another section on our district website where we will be adding all scholarship opportunities that we have available that we're made aware of. There will be a link there. um we will continue to load them in schooly for each one of our high schools to share but we will also make
046sure that it's on our district website and we would ask our communications group guru to assist us u Miss Galloway with ensuring that our high schools are placing those opportunities on their websites to again encourage open communication constant communication but let students know what opportunities are available. Um today I had the opportunity to sit in on the PLC time with coordinators. One thing I asked them to do, our English teachers, um, please make sure that our students have the opportunity to get assistance with writing those essays. We know that's been a barrier for many of our students in not wanting to apply for scholarships because they were not strong essay writers. So, we challenge each other to ensure one that I will continue to put this um scholarship opportunities out, but our secondary ELA teachers
047will assist them in those essay writing um requirements to ensure that we have assistance in various areas to again make sure students know what opportunities are available, but also have assistance in ensuring that they can apply for those opportunities that they qualify for. >> Thank you. All right, Mr. Austin, >> Dr. Harry, um, I have a couple questions. Um, Miss Scott, if you can pull back up the application for a second and if you go to the top of the application, I know that this is I'm assuming the the draft application. um >> with this application uh where it says this application has to be submitted by the end of the student's junior year no later than April 30th. What are we or what is our plans for students that may be midyear honor graduates
048this school year? >> I'm glad you asked that question. Um there already are application processes in place currently. We will not break that at that time just to avoid confusion. However, what we would like to do is once we get the final approval of this draft from our ELT, we will share with all of the schools. Our goal is to share this information with principles Wednesday at principal meeting. But moving forward, um this will be the application once approved that we will use consistently across all three high schools. Dr. Gamble has been in communication with all three principles to ensure that they are aware of there is a new district uniform form coming out and we will review those list of students that are midyear graduates currently for this year because there are some that
049we've been made aware of already but we're going to ask each school to give us the names so we can review and miss Scott if you scroll to page three and four of that application you'll see we added some other information just to ensure that there is feedback not just from the students. Um, you'll see that the counselor information is included giving you information as far as what the breakdown for graduation requirements are. Scroll down a little bit more, Miss Scott. Parent input, student input, but at the bottom, I want you to notate the chart where not only will it have school level approval, it will have district level approval. And that is because if by chance a student does not meet the requirement at that time, that will give us enough time to come
050up with a plan of action to get them ready if that is truly them and their parents desire. >> And one follow-up question about the application, Miss Scott, can you go back to the bottom of page one? Um the policy IKF, is that a state uh department of education mandate about the calculation on the 175th day or is that district specific? >> I can't answer that question either. I would have to do some research, but it is definitely in our policy. Yeah. >> Okay. Yeah, I was looking at the policy, but I wasn't sure if that was district specific or if that was something from the state department of education. If you all can do some research on that um and bring that back to us as well, I think that would be helpful. >>
051But thank you for taking the initiative on this. Um we do know that there were some bumps in the road, but I like the approach that you all have taken to get that feedback and to work on this. So, thank you again. >> Thank you. >> All right. Any further questions at this time? Thank you. Yes. >> Attendance plan. >> Sorry. >> Oh, I mean I >> go ahead >> just very quickly. Um September will be our C attendance campaign kickoff. Um we've collaborated with our ELT to finalize the guidelines. We're going to look at that again tomorrow to ensure that the challenge guidelines are consistent across the board so every school is aware of what it will take to earn the incentives that will be given. Thank you again to Miss Galloway for spearheading
052that and ensuring that we have partnerships um to assist us with providing those incentives. Um let's see. Miss Perkins has been doing ongoing training and professional development with her side of the stakeholders for attendance clerk system admins. I've done counselors. Um Dr. Gamble and her team will provide support with administrators on the attendance expectations, roles, and responsibilities. We are still providing parent emails, texts, and reminders. Um, we've placed the P school bulletins on our system of P school. So, if you log in to parent portal, district users, SIS students, and parents, they will see an attendance message. We are currently still working on attendance procedural manual to make sure all schools have um readily access to any documents that they need to ensure AIPs are being held. Currently, Miss Perkins is in the midst of
053doing truency audits at every individual school and she's providing the feedback with us so we know once we get all of the feedback from each school how to come together and support her in the next level of that truency process. So again, we are a work in progress but we are working. Any questions? >> Yes, Miss Johnson. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um Dr. Harriet, do we have any early numbers on how we are trending from an attendance perspective specifically as compared to August of last year? >> Would you like >> I'm going to ask Miss Perkins to come up and answer because she has been working in attendance and she's been doing the work. I have not. So, I would like for her to provide that information if possible. Thank you, Dr. Harriet. So,
054we monitored the first 10 days of our school year where we were doing warm actual warm body counts for our students. And this year, we rounded like 12,000 five. So, we're we're about a thousand about 1,500 less than we were last year, but I can give you the specific numbers um with the spreadsheet, but we are lower than we were last year. And just to clarify, is that uh the numbers that you're referencing, is that the difference in enrollment or is that the difference in the actual number of students we have enrolled who have actually attended? >> The numbers that we have were students who actually attended. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> May I add something to that? As you mentioned, that was a 10day count, but as of today, we have 13,443 students enrolled
055in our district. >> Yes. Because the first 10 days did not include our kindergarten students. So, it went up after the kindergarteners attended >> figures. How many? >> Yes. I'm sorry. 981 kindergarten students >> Mr. Chairman um >> Dr. Campbell, is that an increase on the kindergarten count this year? >> I can get that information for you tonight. I didn't look at >> Not urgent, but I would like to know. >> Okay, certainly. >> All right. >> One last question. Um, I know it's only been a little over a week um since we or maybe a week, not sure. Can't keep up with the dates right now, but since we approved the truency officer positions, are we making any progress with the hiring of that? That may be a question for Dr. Oats. Are we
056receiving applicants that are applying for the Torreny officer positions or where we at in that process of filling those positions? After looking at the vacancies today, currently we have 24 applicants make 28 applicants for the truency officer positions. Thank you. >> All right. Any further questions? That concludes. Okay. All right. Thank you, Dr. Harriet. >> Uh, last item on the agenda 4.5 food services proposal and update that would be presented by Mr. Myers Francis go during the last um board meeting we Miss Francis presented her information in reference to um the salary of her team members in food service and she has gone and she along with Miss Davis Clark she's our fiscal specialist for food service they're going to present uh give a presentation of the uh the salary schedule that they've come up
057with because I believe that uh one of the uh burning points was the low salary or or the low hourly rate of $1166 and she has um has gone along and she's made that presentation and she's going to share that at this time. Good afternoon. We I do believe that you all have data that is presented on the screen. Uh but food service operates as a self-sufficient department and is responsible for funding 100% of its expenses. Mr. Myers fiscal specialist Loretta Davis Clark and I met to carefully review and analyze the expenses charged to our department. In addition, I consulted with Miss Spearman to gain financial guidance. While a while a salary increase is welld deserved, the determination of the amount must be guided by what our department can realistically sustain in the long term
058rather than what may be temporarily affordable. Our primary source of revenue comes from meal reimbursement based on student participation. In recent years, district enrollment has steadily declined, resulting in a corresponding drop in our participation. It is important that this trend be carefully considered during our discussion as it directly impacts a department's revenue and budgeting decisions. We consulted with two neighboring districts to inquire about their starting pay rates. One district offers a starting rate at $14.74 an hour, while the other office offers $15.33 per hour. Tonight, we present a proposal for a 30% increase for all food service staff, which would raise their starting pay to $15 per hour. This adjustment will also increase all current employee pay rates as established by the salary study by 30%. An additional option of 55% increase raising the starting
059pay to $18 an hour is being presented forformational purposes only. A gradual increase beginning with a 30% adjustment to $15 an hour is most fiscally responsible approach to ensure both fair compensation and long-term financial sustainability. Please note that the department is also responsible for covering fringe benefits and annual step increases for all food service employees which are calculated based on salaries further impacting overall expenses. Noted on the spreadsheet are the hourly rates for substitute employees which are currently compensated at a flat hourly rate of $10 an hour for the first 60 days of employment. Following the 60-day performance evaluation, substitutes who meet departmental standards and demonstrate the ability to fulfill operational needs will be placed on the approved salary scale. This process ensures that candidates meet the expectations and requirements before a full-time commitment is
060established. Tonight, we also propose increasing this hourly rate by 30%, increasing the hourly rate to $13 for the first 30 days. the presentation that we have presented to you on the screen. The first tab displays the individual frontline team member salaries and that is uh technicians, cashiers, managers and assistant managers. That is their salaries. At the top you see that the $10 for the 60 days and we have included the amount of technicians that are are counted in there as well. We have a bar graph that lists uh the rates and as you can see our highest rate is $12.7 to $12.50. We currently only have one technician that is at $1166. Tab two shows the individual frontline salaries, total district office salaries, and the associated fringe benefits which we are responsible for paying. Please
061note that the total amount listed on this tab does not include substitute salaries as substitutes work varying hours and days. Tab three illustrates salaries with the 30% increase applied assuming a starting rate of $15 an hour. Team members work varying various hours, 4 hours, 6 hours, 6 and 1/2 hours, 7 hours, and eight hours depending upon their assigned positions. Tab four illustrates the salaries with the 55% increase supplied assuming a starting rate of $18 per hour. Team members work varied out various hours as I've said 4 hours, 6 hours, 6 and a half hours, 7 hours, and eight hours depending upon their assigned positions. And that is our presentation. Do you have any questions? >> All right. Thank you. Uh, do we have any questions at this time? >> Mr. Chair, I don't have a
062question, but I have a comment. Go ahead. >> Um, thank you, Miss Francis. Um, it was just the last meeting that this was brought to our attention. So, I appreciate you and your team for jumping into action to address this concern. Um, as I stated then, the work that the food service department does is greatly appreciated. Um, feeding our children every day, feeding our staff, too, um, is greatly appreciated. and your team is welld deserving of this raise. Um, so thank you for all that you do. I am so excited that you all jumped into action to make this a reality to start this school year off great. Hopefully you can fill some of those positions that you may have vacant with a new salary or starting hourly rate for them. I just want to
063thank you again. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mr. I'm sorry. Let me let me ask this. Just for clarification, are you proposing the $15 an hour starting rate? That's that's what you're bringing. >> Yes, I am. >> Okay. Yes. All right. Miss Johnson. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just from a clarifying perspective because I'll go back and look at this. But as we look at column A where it has the um the hourly rate, it says $10 for 60 days. That's for substitutes. But as you go down um what what should I call that column? What is that column called? >> That is currently the salaries of all our employees in our department. >> Okay. >> It we just did not include names. >> Okay. And then under column B is that the total
064number of employees who >> are at that rate. Yes. Correct. And then if we go over to um column F, it looks like if I'm looking at this correctly, and this may include substitutes, we have just under or somewhere around 80 individuals who would be impacted, positively impacted by that 30% increase because everyone after line nine, it shows that they're making $15 or more per hour. So, is that correct? >> That is correct. But we're proposing for an increase for all of our employees by 30%. >> So, the 30% across the board for all employees. Thank you for clarifying. >> Across the board. Yes. >> Thank you for clarifying that for us. And I know you spoke earlier about um sustaining being able to sustain that and I know Miss uh Spearman is on it
065because she is on it. But uh it's good to know that we'll be able to sustain these salaries for these individuals without um having to make any types of adjustments. My last clarifying question if it's okay um Mr. Chair is for these substitutes. Are we talking about I know we talked about 60 days of employment. Is that 60 days from the first day that they are hired because they are substitutes. They may not be working every day or is that 60 actual days of employment? >> 60 actual days that they're working. Some of our substitutes will work uh maybe one day a week um two days a week as you know as a substitute. Uh some decide not to come in for various reasons. So, it's 60 days from their first day of employment. >>
066Thank you. >> All right. Any further questions? Any further questions? >> I I don't have a question, Mr. Chairman, but I hear ringing in my ear sustainability, but I'd like to know at some point from Miss Spellelman, uh the fiscal impact of of all of this. actually on the agenda this time, but good evening to everybody. Um, yes, uh, we will produce the >> if you would speak in the mic for me. I'm sorry. >> Yes, when we will produce a fiscal impact. Um and of course the way we will do that is to increase it to the um proposed amounts everybody's increase and see what that difference is from our system that we have. Now one of the suggestions that came from my staff when we were talking about this today was um to
067utilize our existing unified scales that come around that amount. That way it'll be for ease of processing and you don't have so many separate off the unified scales. We do have scales um that begin with 1462 15 and some change. So there could possibly if you approve to utilize those scales that we paid for during the salary study to do this and we can do the impact from that as well and to make sure that it gets uh them where they want to be. So that was another suggestion just for ease of processing. That's the only benefit and it would eliminate a separate scale. Uh and again we will assess that impact um as soon as possible with with both the 15 and the 18. >> Yes. You're good. You finished? I suspect my question
068is >> will will be I I am fully in favor of the uh the increases increments. But I guess my question is will implementation come after we know the impact or before. It is purely up to you and how you do the motion. You can select an effective date and it could be done at that point as well. So it depends on how you all make the motion and make that decision. >> Go ahead, Miss >> Okay. Now I guess I need clarification. So, if you all presented this, you said this is sustainable with the $15 an hour proposal. It's sustainable. What was that based off of? Was that based off the current financial status of the food service department? >> Initially, it is well, it was based off of just a 30% increase in
069salary overall instead of doing the individual, but I like to do fiscal impact by the individual um impacts. And that's what's showing here in the proposal where you see with each salary the 33% next to those individuals on >> Yes. >> third tab. >> The first tab. >> Okay. And with the uniform scale, >> unified scale, excuse me. >> Uh with with that you were referencing that on there is 14 something and then there's 15 something. So, if we were to go with the unified scale, would we be going with the 14 or the 15 to look at the impact? >> I would do I would do an impact on both >> uh see what that looks like. Uh but again, that was just for processing and to eliminate having different scales if that is
070the pleasure. But I can do that um impact. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. >> All right. Any further questions? >> Thank you. Thank you for your presentation. >> Uh, Miss um Francis Francis, we do have one more possible question. >> Sorry, >> it's a couple questions and Mr. Myers may need to be present for this as well. Um, at the at your last presentation, you stated that there was an individual being hired for a refrigeration technician. Has that person been onboarded as of today? >> We are we are waiting for him to give us a start date. So the answer to that is yes. >> Okay. And are there any schools that have inoperable equipment or issues that would need to be addressed um immediately to better serve our students or to better equip
071our staff to support their efforts? >> The answer to that is yes. And that is always an ongoing thing. Uh in food service, uh we may have a unit may be up at 7:00 a.m. but by 12 it may not be. So the answer to that is yes, we do have equipment that is uh in need of a repair. >> Working to address those in a timely manner. >> Yes, we are. um we have been utilizing the services of of outside companies to come in and they've done an exceptional job um of getting right on those kinds of things. So um we'll continue to do that until we can get that person on and we will continue to use them. So because we'll have to catch up um in that regard. But that's how we've
072been keeping okay >> keeping in line with that. And I did have uh one other issue um with the new system that you spoke of uh at the last meeting, the new ID card scanning system. Um if a child doesn't have an ID or forgets their ID, how does that process look to ensure that they are still being served? the students ID number barcode is we have a override system and that child is still accounted for. >> Okay. And so even if they don't have their ID, they're still being afforded the opportunity to be served breakfast and lunch. >> That is correct. >> Okay. Thank you so much for that. >> Thank you. >> And just for clarification, no student is to be turned around if they do not have their ID number. >> No
073student is turned around. Every student is accounted for and a meal is served. >> Absolutely. >> Yes. >> All right. Reverend Kanty, >> um, >> can you all be more spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe specific about where food service breakdown presently exist in schools and you're having to have private companies bring food in? Can you share that with us? You are you asking for the the company's names? Um >> I'm asking you about the schools that are involved. >> We can get that information for you. >> But you don't know it off hand. >> You're wanting to know all of the schools that have certain items that are inoperable? >> No. One, do do we have do we have any
074schools in our district where the cafeteria is inoperative? That's my question. And if so, what schools? >> All of our cafeterias are operating as they are supposed to. We don't have any that are inoperable. >> Okay. And food is not being brought into any schools from outside sources? >> No, sir. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you for your presentation. >> At this time, that concludes the acting superintendent's report. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Gamble. We'll now move to item number five. At this time, uh, executive session. Do we have a motion, >> Mr. Chair? >> Yes. I'd like to make a motion that we enter into executive session for discussion of individual student matters, transfers in and out of district, the monthly personnel report, appointment, compensation, promotion, demotion, discipline, termination,
075and or release of an employee, receipt of legal advice, and contractual matters. >> You have a second. >> Mr. Chair, I'll second the motion. There's been a motion and a second to enter into executive session for discussion of individual student matters, transfers in and out of the district, the monthly personnel report, appointment, compensation, promotion, demotion, discipline, termination and or release of an employee, receipt of legal advice and contractual matters. Any discussion hearing? None. You may vote your pleasure at this time. vote passes at this time and we'll now enter into executive session. Thank you. turn to open session at this time. Item number seven, action required. Do we have any items related to executive session at this time? Any motions, >> Mr. Chair? >> Yes. >> I'd like to make a motion to authorize Dr.
076Reagan, the board chair, to enter into a letter of agreement with Dr. Shirley Gamble as acting Sumpter School District Superintendent. >> It's been a motion and a second to authorize Dr. Reagan, board chair, to enter into a letter of agreement with Dr. Shirley Gamble as acting Sumpter School District Superintendent. You may vote your any discussion hearing. None, you may vote your pleasure at this time. All right, the vote is unanimous. All right, any other motions? All right, 7.2, Monthly Personnel Report. >> Mr. Chair, >> yes. I'd like to make a motion to approve the personnel report for Monday, August 25th, 2025 as presented. >> Is there a second? >> Chair, I second that motion. >> All right. It's been a motion and a second to approve the monthly personnel report for August 25th, 2025 as
077presented. Any discussion? It may vote your pleasure. >> Vote is unanimous. It passes. All right. 7.3. >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes. I'd like to make a motion to approve first reading of policies JJ and KF. >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes. >> A motion. >> All right. It's been a motion in the second to approve the first reading of policy JJ and KF. Any discussion? Hearing none, you may vote your pleasure. >> Vote is unanimous and it passes. All right. Item number eight, consent agenda. Um Without any objections, u the consent agenda will stand approved. Hearing none, it's approved. Item number nine, closing of the meeting. Uh thank you all for being here tonight and uh certainly have a good night. Thank you. Meeting a journ.