Board Of Trustees Work Session 3/24/2025 @ 6 PM

001e e e even L good evening and welcome to the March 24th uh school board meeting at this time may we please pause for a moment of meditation uh followed by the Pledge of Allegiance thank you I PL to the flag of the United States of America to The Republic which stands one nation under God indivisible in liberty and justice for all I take a moment and thank each of you for uh being here on this evening um as you join us for our uh March 24th meeting certainly to the public administrative staff who's with us and our board members who are currently present tonight this meeting is held in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act the news media has been notified and a copy of the agenda has been made available to the

002public 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 sup School District board meetings and Suter School District's Facebook page vision Su school district is committing committed to educating empowering and enriching the lives of all students to reach their full potential Mission Su school district is committed to providing a safe nurturing and high quality educational environment that supports diversity and equip students for local and Global success ladies and gentlemen I'm Sean Reagan chairman representing area 5 We Have Tonight Mr Brian Austin area 1 Vice chairman Dr Gloria Lee our clerk representing area 7 Miss Britney English area two Dr Raph W KY senior Area 3 Miss Tara Johnson area four not with us

003at this very moment um Mr Matthew MC McLoud area six who is joining us tonight uh Mr Phil L Venice area 8 Miss Bonnie Disney uh area Esquire area 9 and I don't see Miss McQueen tonight as well who is our sha Air Force Base representative Dr William T Wright Jr our superintendent is with us tonight miss shant Scott our administrative manager is present as well and to all of the uh executive leadership and staff members who are joining us tonight um welcome we have AG an agenda before us tonight ladies and gentlemen of the board and I would like to kindly call this meeting to order at this time item 2.1 approval of the agenda upon consensus with no objections the agenda shall stand approved hearing none the agenda is approved Mr President Mr

004chairman excuse me question please um on the agenda was the uh reconsideration or consideration of 50% rule is that an action matter for this evening it certainly is yes first reading first reading how how does this work I'm I apologize for not being conversing in this uh we'll have a discussion um tonight as you see it on the agenda under the superintendent's item and then from there uh it becomes an action item and you can vote for the first reading and what we're doing is striking the language that says uh that and takes it and will take it back to its original policy okay I'm sorry I was asking um can it be completed the this evening like we did in the last meeting of the realignment it's in line sir it can it can

005yes then I would uh I would like to object to the agenda as presented uh because I I don't think that it's in order to take something up and pass it the same day okay thank you we're now moving to item number three Mr chairman yes is that a ruling thank you uh uh the agenda has been approved thank you all right item 3.1 special recognition tonight tonight we have spec special recognition on the agenda and uh Mr superintendent do you have the language or do we need to call somebody up at this time to recognize our very own Mr Sam Myers we we do have uh gentleman is coming forward and uh I will ask him to introduce himself first before he begins talking about uh this special recognition if you don't mind sir

006thank you good evening everyone um I'd like to do this over there yes sir we do it right here in the middle our backs are going to be you a we we just need to mic it somehow U that's okay for the we need a do I need a mic can everyone hear me all right need a mic for YouTube for YouTube right what about when I do the presentation just talk to the mic about what it is and the right here so you're facing the camera so our viewers can see as oh okay so we do need to do it any okay I'm going to try to explain a lot am I good enough is this close enough or do I need to get closure as long as it on I'm not sure if

007it's on we'll be able to there's a green light on technician says it's all so we're good I'm going to uh try to explain a lot in just a very few minutes because I know you have a lot of work to do um I'm Colonel retired smoke from the South Carolina Army National Guard and I represent uh the South Carolina committee for employer support of the garden reserve and I'm not going to go into a lot of history uh but I will go back to 1972 uh you may well remember that we know no longer um had a u an army other than the army of people of volunteers everything in 72 became volunteer both all all the military forces in the country to include active duty and guard and all of the reserve component

008forces um you happen to have a member of your staff to shirou an abanet who also happens to be a master sergeant and in the uh South Carolina Army National Guard Zer and the committee for employer support of the garden Reserve has a very active Awards program and we encourage employers being the suer school district to Value the importance of their reserve and National Guard members to the National Security uh we ask uh the members of of um particularly in this case that would be toiro to put their employer in or their supervisor in for an award if their supervisor has been particularly supportive so that's what he did when he returned from deployment he pulled up a computer page he filled it out sent it to the national headquarters the national headquarters approved it

009and I'm here to present the award to Mr Samuel Myers which I would like to do at this time okay Mr Meyers would you come up I'd like to read that there's a narrative that the Shiro had to write in order to uh secure this award for Mr Myers some of the things that he said he allowed for a very smooth transition leaving and returning he kept me AR breast on what was going on in my area for his request always supported military responsibilities always reminded to Shiro of his value to the school district would always send text messages of support while deployed those are just some of the things that the Shiro felt were important enough to put his supervisor in for an award and at this time I would like to read the

010citation if I could the office of the Secretary of Defense employer support of the guarding Reserve recognizes Samuel Myers of suer school district as a patriotic employer for contributing to National Security and protecting Liberty and Freedom by supporting employee participation in America's national guard and Reserve Force so this time I would like to present you with this award and offer you my congatulations [Applause] we can if we could just do this I have to do this in order to prove that I was here and did thank you very much thank you let's give Mr Myers another round of applause certainly uh thank you Mr Myers and congratulations all right uh we're now down to item number four 4.1 uh announcements any board members have any announcements at this time Mr chair yes uh yes I

011would just like to make an announcement uh this past week I had the opportunity to attend the cosba national conference cosba is the Consortium of State School Board Association and the conference focused on critical issues in education including student voices and decision-making literacy initiatives strategic planning poverty's impact and Trauma informed practices um it was a wonderful conference that I gained valuable insight into how to shape policy and create more inclusive educational environments Innovative strategies to improve reading proficiency and engagement Frameworks for long-term educational success and the importance of mental health awareness and supporting schools just want to thank um Cosa for empowering me to be a champion for our community um I actually was joined by Miss English and Dr Reagan at the conference um definitely got a lot of insight and great things that

012I hope to discuss further with members of the board and with the administration and one of those pieces is about the student voices in decision making and looking at the potential or the possibility of adding a student representative to the board that would serve in a capacity very similar to that of Miss McQueen our military representative thank you Mr chair this is just a technical thing um Mac has asked that Miss Scott turn on her microphone he said he can't hear okay she said the mic is on so we'll kind of work through it Show's off his m is off okay all right thank you any other announcements go ahead yes good evening um I had The Pledger of last week of visiting Wilder Elementary School and was able to read to the students and

013the book that we s select what they selected for me to read was called the book it was a very big book but we enjoyed it and the kids had a great time I'm discovering the things that was in the book um Miss um Mr Reagan principal Reagan um showed me around the school and I saw all the great improvements that's been around Wilder um I then left there and went to Bates and um got there and um had a great time walking through and was able to go into the black science little tube and experience all the things that U middle school kids um got to do so I had a great time visiting both schools and kudos to Wilders and bat and to the principles for the great job that you're doing thank

014you Dr Lee uh all right Miss English thank you um I would like to get a a kudos to the AP at uh ebena Middle School Miss Linda brandom you'd have did an outstanding job with the lack of support that you had you have did the outstanding job keep fighting thank you for all you did while you were in our district keep going um I understand that we have issues there um and understand that we're going to keep fighting on on our behalf and it's more to come soon thank you for your um help thank you for making a difference in the Su School District while you were here thank you any other announcements um as Mr Al stated I too uh attended the um cosba conference uh this past weekend um much information shared

015the sessions were wonderful um and uh I can speak for myself brought back a lot of information to share with the board and we will do that in time but not only that I brought back information um I brought back a gift for every board member up here so I want to give you all a gift tonight I was thinking about y'all um when we were away in it at the conference so I do have a a a special token for each one of you who are here tonight uh and consider even the ones that are not here as well um so certainly um thank you all right any other uh announcements all right hearing none we will now move to item 4.2 uh committee reports and recommendations Mr chair yes uh yes I just

016want to make a announcement as far as the policy committee we will meet on Wednesday April 2nd here at 6 p.m. at the district office to address some policy uh needs that's before us thank you any other uh committee reports uh recommendations at this time hearing none item 4.3 three uh is the master plan committee discussion uh ladies and gentlemen this item is on the agenda tonight as you all know that this is a special ad hoc committee that we uh did not dissolve however I think at the beginning of uh the beginning of our term back in December um I did present this to the board as something that we will discuss moving forward and how the board would like to move forward again as I remind you this particular committee was never dissolved

017um I do want to hear further from this body uh what are your thoughts and how we should move forward um knowing that the previous committee met twice um prior to the change of the board and now that we have new members a part of the board um this is now just open for discussion and we can see uh where we would go from uh this very moment okay and the floor is now open for anyone who want to give discussion M Mr chair yes thank thank you for putting this item on the agenda and thank you for helping us to understand that the uh master plan is still uh alive uh or the concept is alive and that hopefully we will move forward with it I con continue to be uh anxious or concerned

018as I have um expressed with you um and with other board members that uh I honest and earnestly believe that the master plan is the key to the forward thrust of this district and it is in my opinion critical to the in to the whole concept of of realignment I don't think that we can do an adequate job of real ignment without the master plan and I really think that we should reconsider realignment until we have done some additional work and I hope some some diligent work on the master plan getting the vision of the administration and some timelines for the creation of that Master master plan so that it too can be uh incorporated into the the realignment process it just appears duplic for me or to me at this point if we do

019realignment first get the master plan and then some of the schools no longer exist what happens if several of the schools in our district after a a serious study are recommended to be Consolidated and become one what effect will that have on the zoning I understand I do understand that we have invested quite a bit in the uh in the realignment process but if we're going to be good stewards we should not want to see any of that money wasted and to proceed with the realignment without the master plan seemed to me to be somewhat wasted I I admit I admit we're in a very peculiar Place realignment is seriously pass du no question about that should have been at the very front end of consolidation no question about that but in my earnest Spirit

020while it is passed due on the one hand it is premature on the other hand because we I seriously think we should uh uh proceed with the master plan and incorporate realignment with that plan Mr chair thank thank you Reverend Candy for that yes I'd like to continue with that thought I believe our master plan also converges with facilities committee because as we well know we have some elementary schools that are 75 years old those buildings must be considered in the facilities committee and also in the master plan because as We Know when we toured the inner city schools we know that we have a number of those schools that are quite old and that we must immediately begin thinking about how we will rebuild which schools we might combine into a state-of-the-art elementary school

021it is time we cannot let another 75 years go by before we consider doing what's right to the children of Sumpter the city of Sumpter Sumter County we may be the have the oldest school buildings in the state I do not think that's a compliment I think we need to postpone realignment until we have a master plan that will really addresses what we do with these older schools in the city and how we will combine how we will improve how those lines will have to be shifted thank you thank you yes if I might and if you have a sense of humor you would recognize that Dr Kenny and I the oldest people here probably think that the master plan is the best best idea um first I would like to ask your Indulgence of

022putting me on that committee since I have none right now and second um think that the idea of the master plan should not go the way of uh some other things and just stretch out so I'd like to um see if the whoever does this kind of thing could give us an outline and a date certain for us to try as hard as we can to generate that master plan I didn't pass Wilder when it was brand new but I passed uh alist Drive Elementary School in 1960 when I was a teenager and it was there and U um even older schools can be rejuvenated uh I passed Han Junior High School in Columbia when I was this tall and it's still going strong I don't know the answers but I sure would love to

023be on a group that looked into that and gave us Direction with the help of uh the city and county that would tell us what we'll look like in 2050 for example um things like that so I would uh ask you for that favor if you could because I I think it's a great idea regardless of what else is happening at the time thank you all right thank you thank you all for sharing any any other discussion on uh the master plan committee yes Mr chair yes um I'm glad we're having this conversation because I think there's been a lot of misconceptions that it is one or the other and Dr Kenny you alluded to it that realignment is long overdue but the master plan is also something that need and must be done considering

024the age of our facilities and at the cosbo conference we actually had the opportunity to talk to some vendors that actually do this type of work and one of the questions that I posed to him should it be one or the other to the the vendor that was present and during the course of that conversation realignment and the master plan go hand in hand I don't think that there's anyone that sits around this day that believes that we don't need to address our facility needs we need to address our facility needs the issue with the issue with postponing a part of this whole process is that we're not going to build a school overnight there's going to be a process we're going to have to work with members of the count of County Council we're

025going to have to work with the community to gain that support we're talking about passing a bond referendum over well over a hundred million if not more than that the average and I got some figures just to share with you all when asking Builders at the conference what is the average cost to build an elementary or middle school it was anywhere from $30 to $40 million as of today to construct a new high school on average is $60 million we need to do each piece of this puzzle and they have to go hand in hand but when it comes to our students our students are in our buildings right now even if we were to devise a master plan we're still looking at a few years out before construction would even be complete on a

026school so in the interim we need to move forward with realignment to address those issues of overcrowding and schools yes we can look at consolidation of some schools yes we can look at maybe even doing away with some schools all together but our kids and our staff are in these schools and our community is in these schools every day it's not going to happen overnight if we pass in 26 we pass a bond referendum to build schools we're still looking at three four years out before we even have a a building to place these kids in my suggestion to this board is that we proceed with doing realignment that we proceed with working in tandem with the administration to devise that vision for a master plan for our community uh we can't do either or

027and we I wish that we as a board we as a district we as a community get Beyond this either or mentality our children and our community deserve both and that's what I hope that we all can agree on that we can do this work together and move our district forward to create that high quality education and providing that safe and nurturing environment for our students and staff thank you Mr chairman yes um I think that uh Mr Austin's words are uh very much on the point except that there is no overcrowding we have enough seats in our schools to take twice the number of students we have in our district now they're not in the places that we may want them but um I don't want the realignment which is going to be extremely

028difficult and we've lived thus far without it to create an environment in our community where we can't pass upon I mean I'll be quite candid um when you move students from schools that are making progress a large number of students to schools that aren't making progress right now that's going to create problems when you move students to areas that have few students because they need students so you move them from schools that are making progress to schools that may not this is a problem um I've I say I've said so many times there's so many great things going on in the Suter School District I wish everybody knew about them and I think maybe it's our job to tell more people about them but we need to be very uh aware that the uh people

029that we serve may not watch these meetings but they see where their children are and we need to focus not on average utilization of schools I don't know of a district that ever had that as a as a core value but on the uh outcome that we can give to those students and we've got students that I imagine y'all I know I am of the public school systems that have done very very well I know all my children were blessed to have public schools that we had right here in Su but I I just caution you m Mr chairman all right thank you any further discussion on this top yes yes um I heard you just stated that moving kids from a school that's progressing versus a school that's not our goal in the Sumer

030school district is to have every school successful in the Sumer School District that's our goal so I don't think moving children will affect that goal I don't think it would make a difference when it comes down to that goal being for our schools being effective I think it may even help I think changes in leadership might help in the areas where you need it I don't disagree uh point point Mr chairman yes board members should be speaking to you and not to each other okay thank you yes all right any other further discussion at this time go ahead yes yes sir I I want to make it clear that I'm not not anti realignment I agree we need both we need the master plan and we need realignment and I'm as many of you know

031I I'm I'm a champion for Excellence we need new schools new school buildings desperately one of our neighboring one of our neighboring districts Florence has built new elementary schools across the district and when they ran out of of uh resources for referendum the county the county agreed to underwrite a referendum to build one of those elementary schools that's the kind of support we're going to need from this community because we aren't talking about $100 million we're probably talking a half billion dollars I don't want to frighten anybody but that's really what I I think we're we're looking at on the on on the outside a half billion do and it's going to take community support for that to happen and I think everything that we do sitting at this table must be done in such

032a way that we build loyalty in the community so that we can promote this School District be the school district of of Excellence with state-ofthe-art schools great attendance zones and great opportunities for all students to to to excel so please understand I'm not one or the other even though I I voted in the negative it's not that I'm opposed to alignment but I'm opposed to alignment without the master plan all right Mr chair just one last thing um and you'll be the last person and we'll wrap it up because we have an agenda go ahead I think one of the things we have not talked about it's one of those things that's silent but it's out there this alignment any alignment whenever is going to cost money we have not addressed that at all and

033it could be very pricey and I'm suggesting we be careful how we spend our money the Public Notices when we are not careful with our with the taxpayer money and let's be aware that this is not a Priceless project it will cost the alignment will cost money all right thank you thank you to all of you who shared uh in the discussion um and at this time we are now down to item number five 5.1 the superintendent report and Dr R I'll turn it over to you at this time uh Mr chair I do I do and members of the board I do have some homework ready um U I was asked to prepare a realignment timeline so um if that's an order Mr chair we'll still continue on with that as item 5.1 okay

034all right um so uh as as Stephen cvy states in the second half of his second of his seven habits we must begin with the end in mind the first day of school for the 25 26 school year is July 31st 2025 which is 4 months and 4 days away that gives us approximately 70 working days and that's generous if we were to execute this mission for next school year Mr Matthew Cropper who's the president of Cropper GIS Consulting who did the work with the realignment study the last time stated that a plan quote should be approved no later than February of the year that they want to implement this is needed to Route school buses adjust staff and notify parents and students anything beyond that would put pressure and stress on the staff and

035Community could result in problems when implementation occurs our elt met on March 11th to initially discuss what we knew which is the day after the board meeting and we and what needed to be done I subsequently scheduled a meeting amongst elt and additional key staff members on March 18th to get an assessment of what needed to be done our staff collectively came came up with 46 items of consideration those items were then arranged into categories of Next Step items here are some of the things that have to be done some of which would be in sequential order and therefore we would have to wait for the completion of other said items power school has to determine the accuracy of current information which could take according to our staff up to three months to complete they

036have provided a timeline which illustrates uh this process Human Resources would need three weeks to place and move Personnel based on determined criteria once student numbers are established and verified keep in mind that would not be able to start until the the power school information is complete academics would need to work hand inand with HR to ensure teacher certifications are kept intact with moves they also need to work closely with title one particularly to see which schools would move in or out of Title One status the good thing about this is that these numbers and schools are established for the 2025 2026 school year so therefore changes in enrollment numbers Etc would not affect funding until the 26 27 school year the caution however would be that a school could possibly be Title One eligible

037should it become eligible for and not be eligible once realignment is done if the poverty index decreases we have also already begun the process of open enrollment evaluating employee transfer lists based on openings and assessing budget meetings with a 2526 implementation many of those things would need to be reassessed open enroll men and AFF davits will need to be halted special education would also need to gain access to the Cropper database which will be mentioned later and they would need eight weeks to look at student needs individually to determine when and where Services would be provided with the move Transportation would need to wait until the completion for Route accuracy and then it would take about five to six weeks to work through the root audit while that work was about to begin we halted

038the progress until after this meeting operations would need to check on building utilization and infrastructure and renovation needs considering that most of our buildings are below maximum capacity We Believe impacts would be minimal Finance is going to have to look at the cost of increased days for assistant principles guidance counselors registrars and guidance secretaries most Master scheduling is well underway and would have to be possibly redone additional days of employment would needed would be needed for all of the above and Mr Cropper uh has informed us that he would need one month to complete the task of updating needs at a cost of around $188,000 which would include updating the DAT base that contains current school zone and new school zone for all students updating a handout that contains School utilization starts with current enrollment

039numbers School demographic statistics School option impacts Etc updating an online map with the latest subdivisions addresses and Roads and the hosting of an online map for another year uh from July 1st to June 30th considering the needs of my staff members coupled with the recommendation from Mr Cropper who does this work for numerous school districts it seems that proper implementation of realignment should be targeted for the 2627 school year attempting to rush implementation for the 2526 school year would repl would Place additional strains on employees and other District resources that might impact the smooth transition that we all would want and that concludes so it'll take about seven months of time um and if we are okay with moving forward the 26 27 school year uh the suggestion is that we begin the work July

0401 of 25 and everything will be complet and ready to go uh by February 1st of 2026 for 26 27 implementation okay we can take any questions that the board members may have um relating to the information on realignment that uh Dr Wright just shared Mr chair I I do have a question Dr Wright um yes at the end of that presentation you said that work would begin July 1 is there a reason why the work could not begin now so that you would have ample amount of time considering you may not we can't foresee the future and what problems you may run in down the line we we we can certainly begin it now the power school work though is power school is dealing with prepping for um entering of data for the 2526

041school year so that's that that's why the suggestion was made by July 1 that information would be um entered and we would be able to concentrate on on that um because the because the realignment wouldn't be implemented until August of 26 under uh this recommendation that that was why that we selected that date uh certainly we can begin that work but it would be coinciding with uh with other work and and the power school is is kind of Ground Zero number one thing that needs to be done I've got Miss bar here somewhere if she wants to add if that's all right with the chair and just a followup question to that as well okay um when it comes to updating information right the 20 6 27 school year we're going to have different enrollment

042at that time as well so we have to go back at that time and and update student information or student data in in power school as well that that that will be a that that will be another reason uh why um we're suggesting a timeline that we are because the the Cropper work wouldn't technically wouldn't begin until um over in the 26 27 school year under this plan um I I have a question um when you all were meeting uh about the timeline implementation or whatever you you all had a discussion if we were to look at the 25 26 school year we would have done it in a phase in approach did you have any conversation about about what that will look like instead of you know doing it all at one time did

043didn't have a conversation about a phase in um what we did is looked at how much time there was was um between now and um and July 31 which is the first day of school for the new school year and we kind of went back from that to see what we could do okay who who all was on this uh team again y y'all have to help me um um the elt yeah raise your hand if you yeah that's good thing yeah yeah yeah all of the El so I'm looking at the folk the hand up yeah okay yeah all all so all of the executive leadership team um as well as Power School transportation um is that it y right right so right right that's right yeah okay all right any any questions Mr

044chair yes Dr Wright since we know that the high schools are more um are impacted a great deal more than the lower school um we know that certain high schools have programs such as International Borat they may have more AP classes and let's say a a student in the eth grade at Alice Drive or whatever um would like to be in the international Balor program how do we accommodate that when we have you know a third of the high school being sent somewhere it that that that is going to be very uh difficult for students and parents who've made plans for their children for the next four years most parents begin mapping out their students High their students high school years in middle school because we know some of those classes like English one is

045offered in eighth grade and uh so what's going to happen if because the parent lives in a spot where the child would be moved to another different High School what are we going to do to accommodate all of those students I mean right now we have something where um in March if a parent wants to make sure they get into Sumter high school they can apply and say well it's because there's an international baloran program there and that's what we want and usually that's a a simple answer we okay you can go there but I see this as fruit basket turnover and the parents will no longer have the option to uh off have their children in those kind of situations unless they sell their home and move to that area what are we going

046to be able to we you know one of the most important things in this whole project is that we take care of our students first it's not because we want to fill other schools up our first agenda is to take care of our students and their Futures and make sure the parents feel that we're going to be taking care of them it doesn't sound like we're going to be able to take care of students it sounds like they're just uh well too bad y'all going over there that's not what we do as a district Sumpter School District takes care of its people and we take care of the parents and we take care of the citizens in this County we don't just say oh tough you have to go over there that is not what

047I see our school district being should do what's over with there when over there thank you Dr right that question was directed to you um and we will be respectful thank you so so as as I kind of Illustrated in my um in in my although we began the process of looking at feasibility of when it could be done how much time it takes uh what what rocks would need to uncover so to speak um there still got to be a lot more discussion about what we do with open enrollment once realignment occurs or during the process um and and those decisions certainly would be um an opportunity for this this board to U discuss and work through just as they have been in the past um what what I tried to do tonight is

048um present um what what we learned from the meetings um but I I was I was asked to proceed towards realignment and so U that's what that's what we're try to do tonight Mr chair yes um I'm going to address this to you because when we started this process in 2019 we never said that we were doing away with open enrollment in this district and that is why every time this conversation has come up about realignment I have always said on paper the numbers are higher because it does not take into account the number of kids that will be on open enrollment once you filter out that list and when you say a third of the high schools if you filter that list out with students that are on open enrollment when you filter that

049list out with kids that are have hardships or out of Zone requests the numbers are going to come down we're not phasing out open enrollment we even T even during those Community when you talked about the community input we had several Community meetings where those issues were presented and the board at that time took all of those concerns and comments into consideration open enrollment was taken into consideration even Athletics was taken into consideration where you have a child that may be playing varsity their junior year and could be uprooted the next year that will be taken in consideration so this narrative that's trying to be pushed in the community that we're going to do away with open enrollment and oh we don't care about the academic success of our students is wrong and it needs

050to cease because we're only thing we're doing is feeding a narrative a false narrative in our community to put fear in change and progress in this District thank you all right any further discussion uh on realignment you so I guess I want to leave little clear okay based upon your report your timeline you're saying to us how many meetings do you all have we we've had two we' had two so far two me yes sir okay and and and so if that's the case then you're stating based upon the report that you're presenting to us tonight that realignment in your opinion or your committee's opinion should be implemented 26 627 yes sir yeah there yes sir yeah okay uh any further discussion at this time on uh realignment presentation that Mr I mean excuse me

051Dr Wright presented hearing none uh Dr right you may proceed all right uh thank you Mr chair this time uh we're going to item 5. two which is Croswell dries uh mobile Learning Express RV proposal uh so we'll have uh Dr sha Hagerty um approach and Dr Thomas board chair members of the board superintendent and Miss Scott thank you for having us this a little bit of a lighter discussion so um um out of a spk of an idea uh through Dr Thomas um we came up with a proposal that um we are trying to get fiscal resources for um but we created a proposal for the um executive leadership team to talk to them about one of the problems that we have at Croswell which is after school tutoring um we have a lot

052of barriers when it comes to Transportation um and efficacy of the after school programming serving as many kids as possible um so in the midst of trying to um well identifying the problem coming up with an opportunity and also a solution to that um Dr Thomas sparked uh what we can call a learning lab essentially an RV um and I know at that conference there was one from Philadelphia um or Pennsylvania this 's a little bit smaller than that um in the after school programming so we want to take learning to the kids um we want to you know we've identified in our community because it's a community based school um what areas what communities would benefit the most Based on data um based on strengths and weaknesses of the students academically and so the

053idea is to try and solicit uh funding of course from outside resources um you know big businesses in the community um really anywhere we can get it um and take the learning to the communities um and essentially if we ran it for three hours in the evening we could hit three communities for an hour um we can provide tutoring and meals for students within that Community um and we can also provide um parenting courses because we have um difficulty with parents coming out as well with the same situation the same barriers so we really wanted to um come up with a proposal that we can Envision that would um take the education to the community um and allow it to be um us serving them in a in a in a in a different capacity

054in an alternative capacity um verus bringing them into the school we take the school out to the community um and so as you can see in The Proposal uh it's very robust and um if you have anything else to add you certainly can we did um talked to our parents at our last tital one meeting and we just kind of threw it out there to see what the response would be and they were ecstatic about hearing that we might be looking at bringing um an RV out to them to help them um we have a lot of parents that talk about they can't help their kids with their homework or the kids aren't doing homework at all um so if we were able to go to them and help them to do their homework we

055start seeing more homework come in more practice with our students so um this is something our parents are kind of they're really excited about seeing this come to pass we actually got a standup ovation from the parents actually so they were very excited um and one of the pieces that really resonates with um our family and Community engagement is when we teach parents how to teach their kids um because we know that the concepts are changing the way we teach is changing um and parents um have difficulty with some of that when kids come home and they say well we need to learn it this way it's different from how we learned back in the day um but this is an opportunity to expand education for various communities um for students like you said for

056Student Success so that is our proposal if you have any questions uh certainly certainly this is not only a lighter topic this is a refreshing topic thank you and I almost got chills listening to you because this is what education is about Innovation and certainly my hat goes off to the two of you and whoever else is involved with this and helping our children but most importantly helping that Community thank you and so thank you thank you for thinking of it thank you for whatever else is involved I do have one question and that is just for clarification this is done are going to be done through Title One funding no other funding will Source will be needed except for I think you mentioned we'll braid funds yeah we'll braid funds Title One is mainly

057for the after school hourly rate for teachers and any um materials that we may need um but the majority of buying the bus and gutting it out it's kind of like the stem piece that we have to and if anybody knows any networking um but um we have to really Outreach to the community and find funding sources that we can braid in order to make this happen so um we'll be out soliciting as much as possible okay all right any questions CH yes uh comment and a question um I concur with Dr Reagan on this and I'm excited about this proposal because actually um earlier this month I shared with the leadership of the board and the admin ministration where I saw uh that the Richland County Library actually just rolled out a popup prechool

058that's an RV so this is exciting news for our district um my question and I hope that the board would support this initiative my question would this mobile unit serve just the Croswell Community or would it be utilized across the district primarily at first it would be working The Kinks out within the Croswell Community um and then as days go on and months go on we're able to expand because it's all about the hours we we only have so much so many hours after school and even on the weekends if possible um so it's all dependent on the hours and the time necessary and how far it can Outreach from that Center so yeah we're hoping that it can reach for farther um for students that need it absolutely and it could be a program

059model replication for other schools and each go have their own little and you all mentioned just to to finish off this uh you all mentioned the the learning lab we actually got an opportunity to explore that learning Lab at Cosa as well so when you said that we actually had a a visual of what that looked like and was able to look at the program that was on there so kudos you off with that well thank you and this one I know that was an RV um so we're trying to get it smaller so you don't need a CDL to drive it any anybody can take it wherever throughout um and you would just need a standard driver's license for that so it depends on the weight of the vehicle okay um so yeah thank

060you Dr rean yes um again looking at this this is an excellent idea about how many days are you all looking at doing this for right now Monday through Thursday something like that four days a week okay all right well thank you great idea wonderful looking at the reading everything the researches look really nice thank you thank you and I just want to say we've had support from the elt since it's conception too so thank you thank you we talked earlier I got I was just thinking um many times it's the language barrier that is the problem so maybe they go home and you know they speak German and so will you be able to have an Esau person somebody who can translate to the parents uh I'm I I know I've been to your

061school many times and I know you have many many volunteers do you think you'll be able to offer that to yeah the language help that's going to help with the language barrier thank you in The Proposal it should fit probably four to five teachers on the bus um and probably about 15 students if we can get it to where we want thank you y you know I'm on board I'm I'm excited about it and um and ready to support in any way I can as a member of this board and as a businessman in this community anything that I can do to support it um I'm I'm really happy about this because at least you are recognizing that something else need to be done to provide our students with support uh I'm I'm meeting with

062a group now a group of businessmen pastors and legislators looking at ways we can use Church buildings more in the afternoon with some State funding to do the same sort of thing but this is actually moving in the right direction and and I would hope that um uh others would be as U creative and and as Innovative as you are across the district so because one unit can only serve but a limited population uh the the more you expand uh you the more restricted your services will become so Ser those kids over there at Croswell and do it well and hopefully some other uh campus leadership will catch the vision and follow your leadership thank you all right thank thank you uh Dr haggy Dr Thomas right thank you thank you all so much thank

063you m Mr chair members of the board uh soon as I heard heard about this I wanted to get it before you so you all could see and and know some of the wonderful things we're doing and um I want to fix something it's Dr Thomas Smalls cuz I don't want to I don't want Mr Smalls coming looking for me so so absolutely um we are ready now for item number 5.3 um Dr jda McLoud is out sick today but we will have uh Dr tavita Harriet uh she's actually going to help us with uh items 5.3 and 5.4 good evening it is again a pleasure to sit before you um as you can see I am not Dr McLoud however I will do my best in answering your questions and providing the information that

064has been provided um for me you have the power okay nevertheless um before I begin this is the presentation that was previously shared with you about grading systems as I listened to the conversation um before I sat before you there's a couple of things that struck my mind that I would like to speak about before I begin I heard I've heard members talk about being champions for excellence advocate for students taking care of our students and their Futures parents need to know that we're going to take care of them in our community I heard someone say recognizing something else needs to be done to support the success of our students we talked about our students being transient language barriers teaching parents how to teach and assist their children homework help for students and parents because

065there are new ways of doing things as we all know accountability for students and parents trauma informative supports student voices and decision making because students are our biggest stakeholders I'm not sure if you all have a copy of the PowerPoint that I have but nevertheless this is the same PowerPoint that I I think you all have pretty much seen before and I will go through it the grading manual timeline began in January of 2015 the superintendent at that time direct directed directed the assistant superintendent of instruction to create a committee and develop a common grading manual the purpose of this was for consistency and preparation for the upcoming changes that we knew were coming from scde in the form of a uniform grading policy in Fe February of 2015 the assistant superintendent of instruction created

066a grading committee which included teachers and administrators from all grade spans across the district March 5th through May 25th of 2015 that committee met numerous times the subcommittees Met weekly Gathering more research and developing the draft of a manual for each grade span after the meetings the subcommittee members took the information to their respective schools to receive feedback for their faculties and school Improvement councils there were samples of the meeting agenda notes that were attached July of 2015 training was held for the 2015 2016 grading guidelines with administrators and teachers spring of 2016 the State Board of Education unanimously voted to implement a 10-point grading scale effective for the 2016 2017 school year that new grading that new uniform grading scale is accompanied by a new conversion chart that was also implemented in 2016 2017

067year two revisions committees met Again by grad span from that point they came up with the best practices in grading a guide for teachers was posted on the Sumpter School District website under grading and assessment 2016 through 17 standards-based report card committee was formed chaired by school administrator and included school district and school level administrators teachers representing various grade levels and areas as well as parent Representatives year three revision focused on transition to standards based report cards for kindergarten and first grade 2017 2018 best practices in grading the guide was updated scde compliance audit included a review of the grading manual along with all other academic and procedural requirements the grading manual timeline spring of 2020 the revision committee made changes to reflect the second grade transition to standards based reporting October I'm sorry January

068through October of 23 Elementary committees reviewed and clarified the language for K12 standards based grading section for 23 24 best practices in grading again SCD compliance audit included a review of the grading manual along with all academic and procedural requirements Statewide uniform grading scale you all have heard us speak previously about the ugp the school district will follow the Statewide uniform grading scale as approved by SBE the State Board of Education this uniform grading scale and the system for calculating GPA and class rank will apply to all courses carrying Carnegie units including units that are earned in middle and Junior High the uniform grading scale is as follows 10 points 90 to 100 is an a 80 to 89 is a b 70 to 79 is a c 60 to 69 is a d 59

069and below is an F all report cards and transcripts will use numerical grades the general assembly directed the State Board to recommend a uniform grading scale after the life scholarship was created in addition to sat requirements all students qualifying for Life scholarships must have maintained a b average but there was no consistency across the state to determine what numerical score was equivalent to a greater of a b subsequently the uniform grading scale was adopted a uniform grading scale affects all South Carolina students quality points are assigned to the final grade given at the end of the course be it a term semester or year on the following basis an a is four points B is three points two c two points d one point F zero points key Provisions to the policy include honors classes

070receive a05 weight in a students grade point0 R uh ratio calculation AP placement and international boret courses as well as dual enrollment courses receive a 1.0 waiting for example a student in a college preparatory course who makes a 90 would receive a 4.0 on the grade point ratio calculation whereas a student in an honor section of that same course with a 90 would earn a 4.5 a student in the advanced placement section of a course with a 90 would earn a 5.0 to reflect the additional rigor of the advanced courses students who withdraw from a course after a specified time will receive an F in their grade ratio additional letter grades were added to the South Carolina uniform grading policy scale conversion chart so that appropriate grades could be displayed for students who recover or

071do not recover a credit those additional letter grades are fa which is a failure due to a absence WP withdrawal but passing WF withdrawal but failing and a p for passing SBE regulation 43- 274 a failure due to absences if a grade of a fa is assigned it must appear on the transcript it will carry no earned credits but a 50 will be factored into the student's GPA if a student earned a nine in a class but has excessive absences an fa will appear on the transcript that fa and that 50 based on SBE regulation 43- 274 Will trump that nine Sumter School District grading philosophy to achieve the goal of ensuring an accurate measure of progress and level of achievement grades are used to reflect a student's Mastery across all educational settings within Su

072School District grades reflect a district-wide standard representation of academic achievement in educa in an educational setting and are vital in ensuring effective communication between school and home assignments and assessments that are meaningful standards-based fair and a reflection of the students growth and Mastery of grade level standards are used for grading purposes grades are weighted to reflect the importance of Assessments classroom assignments and student student ability 54 quarterly adjustment the procedure was as grades are finalized each quarter any quarter average with the exception of the final quarter below 50 should be manually adjusted to a 50% this procedure was in place for each quarter except the last quarter of the course which would reflect the grade earned the rationale for this course standards are intended to be Mastered by the end of the course the the

073numerical average of 50 equals 0. used for computing the grade point ratio 2022 2023 data on the 50% floor as previously stated in 2022 2023 students in grades 3 through 5 0% passing a class in which they received 50s in each quarter preceding the last quarter of the class 3.2% passed at least one class with a D or higher in which they received 50s in each quarter preceding the last quarter 5% passed a class CL with a c grades 9 through 12 15.1% passed at least one class with a D or higher in which they receive 50s in each preceding quarter 1.4% passed the class with the c grading best practices students will have multiple opportunities to demonstrate Mastery through a variety of channels such as assessments class activities homework quizzes essays Labs projects as

074well as portfolios Behavior effort and attendant are evaluated and reported separately from the academic grade grades are based on impartial consistent observation of the quality of student work and Mastery of the South Carolina College and Career ready standards and the South Carolina academic standards grades will reflect student achievement towards Mastery of course content standards grades are based on a student's demonstration of proficiency of course content standards at grade level rigor students will receive assessment feedback that is timely specific understandable to the receiver and form to allow for self- adjustment on students Parts communication procedures interim reports will be issued by teachers all students will receive report cards at the end of each marking period promotion standards progress reports will be mailed to parents legal Guardians for students failing to meet the minimum academic and attendance

075requirements teachers should prepare these forms three days prior to the issuance of the second and third quarter report card and give it signed to the principal after making a copy to be kept on file by teacher the principal should sign it and mail it to the parent or legal guardian report card comments should indicate to parent or legal Guardians any problems students are experiencing in their work and should coincide with the comments made on interims and promotion standard report cards any questions uh any questions at this time from any of the board members Mr chair yes all I believe you were talking about the uniform grading policy that was begun that was created by the state in 2015 wasn't it yes all right when did the district create the 50% rule this only goes back

076to January of 2015 um and it said at that time again the superintendent directed the assistant superintendent of instruction to create a committee to develop a common grading manual but where does it say who when when it this 50% it's not mentioned in the uniform grading procedure except for absences it it's not saying that every District needs to have that is it no ma'am um as far as the 50% during this presentation it was a procedure but it is also a procedure that many districts across the state have there are very various districts that have a grading floor with different numbers right and that can be flipflop too many do not have it we have more that do from my understanding right but I my understanding is I've spoken to a couple of principles and

077you know their their analysis is by not having it it's required everybody to be more cognizant of making sure to work with that student mtss as you've told us uh many opportunities to you work with those students and that that's really wor it's really helpful that the kids seem to be doing better and the bottom line is what we want is not a grade what we want is student learning because that's the bottom line of this whole thing and if we just give them 50% I don't think we have student learning happening I think we're giving a grade we want students to learn and be successful with that knowledge that's what the goal is of a grade okay uh any other qu yes please um is this system used in any of the private schools

078I'm asking you for something that I can't know but I thought you might I cannot speak um specifically for private schools but I can say and attending roundtables with other state leaders and asking questions from many other districts we are not the only District that had a grading floor oh I I understand that you you said that very clearly but how about charter schools are any of the charter schools using this yes sir there are charter schools that have floors okay has there been a measurable Improvement in the graduation rate since we introduced this before we decided against it here or anywhere else in the state that is not a question I can honestly answer I do not know where would I go for that answer do you know we can we can find out

079for you thank you all right any any further questions Mr chair yes I just have a question for Dr Harriet so when we're looking at this grading floor say if a child struggles the first half of a course this is an opportunity to give them gives them an opportunity to show Mastery by the end of the course so this I mean if we look just based off the data that you shared with us we're looking at students that for lack of better words bust their behind to make a d a c in a course to show Mastery it's not that we're giving them we're giving them something and they're not demonstrating that they've mastered the content of that course we're not giving them something and they're not doing any work to show that they want

080it so the students that are benefiting from having this grading floor are demonstrating to us that they're holding themselves accountable their families are holding them accountable to ensure that by the end of that course they're actually performing where they're passing the course so it's not just placing the grade there in the student this goes on about about their business and even when you talked about I mean a 50 when you talked about the Carnegie units is it a is it anything below a 59 is 0.0 for Carnegie unit correct so if you put in a 58 in the great book or you put in a nine the Carnegie units is still going to be 0.0 correct but I will be remiss if I didn't say the counselor and me will say a nine does not

081give a student a fighting chance but that 58 again back to the comments champions for excellence and advocating for students we have students that are very transient so we run across situations where if a student may not have been successful for whatever reason in one building and they transition to another building and there is a gap in time and or from another District to our district do we want to penalize or appear to penalize that student for something that might be beyond their control but I do have from the information Dr McLoud shared the comparison of the failures okay from Fall of 23 semester 1 grade 0 through 59 we had 1,917 students fall 24 semester 1 2,459 fall 23 semester 1 students with an fa 1 , 271 fall 24 semester 1 1,348 students

082with a no P with a NP I'm sorry fall 23 92 fall 24 grade of a WF which is a withdrawal due to failure 44 in the fall of 23 14 in the fall of 24 fall of 23 total failures 3,324 fall 24 total 3,845 Mr go ahead with those numbers um and and I said this before when we had this conversation that 50% is giving a second chance without it we're failing now I said this last time in here and I and I I'll do it again everybody in this room have at some point of life had a second chance why are we making a big issue about giving our children a second chance you don't know what some of our children in this District go through it may be in the fall that

083child may be in a cruel home that we don't know anything about everything may be going wrong in the spring of 2024 that child may be in a foster home with a better environment and can make a big difference can assist and get more help my thing about this we got to stop thinking about ourselves and think about the children we got to stop thinking about politics and what they're going to say let's take this back let's think about the children in the Sumer School District let's think about serving them helping them let's think about what can I do to make a difference I saw this quote and I always leave y'all with a good quote we have to be that change we want to see and that's all of us we have to be

084that change that we want to see in this district and if she's bringing this information and she's saying is going to help our children versus harming them why not help why pull away thank you all right IDE ideologically what are we talking about when we say helping students Mr chairman help me Define that are we help are we championing them to get out of the system in 12 years are we championing them to succeed in life are we advocates for excellence for them throughout life or are we advocates for just getting by where is the Integrity in our philosophy when we say that grading uh refer ref accurate level achievement and that grading is done based on the quality of student work I do not make apologies whatever the a lot of children may be

085we must encourage them we must encourage them to Excel and to graduate with good grades so that they can compete in a world that is closing down on folk who are not prepared we need to say to them that great leaders in our past like George Washington carba one of the most brilliant men who ever lived came out of slavery and went all the way to Washington to appear before Congress because he did not allow his past or his predict we have to advocate for excellence for quality in education and I do not apologize for that stand thank you any other yes um a question please for the lady um I Heard the numbers but I really can't understand what they mean what what does it mean the difference between fall of 23 the fall

086of 24 the fall of the spring of 23 the spring of 24 does it show progress and how much and how do we interpret that it showed that with the floor previously we had a failure rate of 17.05% okay which was fall of last year's first semester without a floor currently we're at 24.39% you can't go back to just before we put the floor in can you it may be too far back that was a 17.05% man we put the floor in in 2016 or 15 or I'm sorry I I don't mean to confuse you but January of 2015 is the point of record that I have here and mention of coming up with a uniform plan all right then the the next question and again we might have to get back with you onor

087but the next question is do we have a track from when it was imposed when it was put in place till just before it was till just after it was eliminated I would have to get with Dr McLoud and get back to you on that and and I if you would please let me know all right any further discussion any further questions at this time hearing none uh we can't thank you thank you uh she's about to oh you have the second part of it yeah sorry about that whenever you're done I have a question excuse me you have a question for her concerning 50% because we won't go on to the next thing if you have a question about that what's the next one what's the next one she's about to go uh I

088I'll wait till she's done with this go Ahad that yeah okay um as it has been explain to me the local board list is the same list that we've had in the past the Department of Education now requires that the board approved the LBA list annually um it has been my understanding that each of you have been provided with a copy of the list previously so for the sake of time I will read the names of the courses and then at that point let me know if you have any questions they are not in order that's the precursor we have Avid 6 show choir 7 through 8 Avid 7 Avid 8 careers in education strength and conditioning four Unified sports strength and conditioning one strength and conditioning two strength and conditioning three Unified sports 2

089IB seminar 1 IB seminar 2 Avid 1 Avid 2 and Avid 3 yes there's okay go ahead Avid four studio art prep lab and and music theory lab honors thank you Mr chair yes now are are we using these currently it is my understanding that we have been using them and we are bringing it before the board again because they have to be approved annually okay so are these High School uh courses yes okay so the aid uh one 1 2 3 4 5 six 7even is that different classes or are they different levels they're different courses within Avid yes ma'am okay so they build upon from Avid one through okay have have we always had these we've not always had them but for the last couple of years yes ma'am and it there's just

090a law now that says you have to have them approved every year right do we ever add any to this list to my knowledge we do add and sometimes we take things off okay and I would I would assume that if you're adding or taking it off you would like to point that out yes ma'am thank you all right any any other questions at this time yes I have a I have a question um are you you're currently working alongside with the counselors throughout this District correct yes okay um and I just want to to bring some uh light and maybe you can help me understand this right now at uh Crestwood High School we're down to two counselors correct um and it is 11 Le about 11 roughly 11,000 children in Crestwood High School

091correct 1100 I'm sorry I'm sorry 1100 I'm sorry about okay so my thing is what are we doing to support them those counselors um we've had schools throughout the year that have had counselors in and out one thing that we did put in place was to have um counselors from another school assist and support them even down to currently at scheduling the first two almost three weeks I sat with them so no school has been left without to my knowledge um it's not someone there every day but someone is always available to either come on site answer a call do a video like I said the first two and a half almost weeks I sat with them but um we've had consistent support with them and the other schools that have had no counselor or

092someone out okay so I'm going to stop this conversation as it does not relate to the topic at hand uh we're going to go through these courses at this time and then uh we'll move to the next item that conversation piece at this very moment doesn't fit into this part of the agenda okay thank you all right any other questions at this time any any other questions as it pertains to the course list that we're responsible for approving correct tonight correct thank okay all right hearing none I think that was your second task and uh you're done yeah Dr right uh at this time uh Mr chair members of the board we have uh our program leaders from language arts and math that will be coming forth for textbook adoptions at this time for school

093year 2526 uh so we' like to have those ladies come forth at this time um and they they are Monica pate and Carla King who supervise um language arts and math respectively we both do math we both that's right that's right she's secondary that's right good evening um we are here to present the in the textbook adoption the instructional materials that have been selected by the uh Math teachers for um our new Adoption and so we had the Su School District Math teachers Department chairs and coordinators we reviewed the list of options approved by by the state and the consensus of their review and the analysis resulted in the following recommendations that have been presented to you the Board of Trustees and so we have our elementary mathematics our Middle School um they are McGraw

094Hill and then you also have the listing of high school selections and this is for your approval all right board members uh if you would look at the attachment that's been placed in boards um and if you have any questions or comments at this time Mr chair yes I'm assuming that uh you just explained I'm assuming that means that every Department math department uh Elementary middle and secondary had an opportunity to review mcra Hill or whoever saas whoever and to say check we like this and that you looked at all of the schools and so you're just saying what they have said to you is that correct that's it apparently that's what our teachers want thank you okay the these textbooks are readily available at this point for the board to review they in the

095boardroom they've been there okay all right uh any questions any comments any questions about this thank you thank you Mr chair memb of the board I like to apologize for that oversight it is a math textbook adoption this year and um we we are ready to move on now to um item 5.6 uh which is uh school year 26 title one allocations uh M Pamela rhs uh will be doing that presentation at this point evening I am you evening to present specifically the cost of moving the remaining behavior interventionist and the instruction coaches to the general for next school year um as previe stated um during the February 25th meeting for the remaining six behavior intervention is to be moved to General funds it will be a cost of $266,300 to move the 15 instructional

096coaches currently in total one would be at a cost of 1,242 6395 for a total of 1,569 18 7 cents that's all you have that's yes sir that's what I was asked to present tonight okay any any questions at this time on those figures that Miss Rose just presented any questions any comments yes Mr chair Miss Rose this is maintaining the schools at their Staffing levels currently that is correct that's the current people in place right now so the these figures will be fluid if we have any Personnel changes as well as taking in account of any steps that we always have every year um benefits as well as if we do certain models for the high school high schools who are currently not title one so there are other factors um that are not

097presented here because we don't have the figures so those people are not in place yet so this so based on this list if we were to the $1.5 million to maintain staff at its current levels that means that no positions will be eliminated that are title onef funded or that are currently titled one funded or are there cuts to positions at the schools that would be dependent upon the discretion of the principles of those title one schools when they get their allocations in May these are the only two positions that we talked about moving to the general funds okay and just remember when it comes to title one it's supplemental so when when the principls get their allocations in May then they would make at their Discretions what personnel pieces they want to keep or

098eliminate okay thank you m Mr chair um help me out I know at one time we talked about option one option two option three is is this relevant to that no ma'am um those options that you're referring to are what we gave the principles when they get their allocations so they'll have different scenarios that they can Implement once they get their um allocation so these positions are outside of those scenarios that principles are working with until we get the official allocations in May okay sounds good thank you all right any further questions at this time any further questions all right I think we're good thank you thank you Mr chair members of the board we're ready for 5.7 under the office of finance of Mrs shica Spearman will present procurement process overview good evening board

099members good evening I sit before you to describe the district's current uh procurement process uh back years and years ago um if anyone remembers districts were not required to comply with the South Carolina procurement code they could come up with their own process but now there is a model procurement code that we that they established for school districts um and municipalities and cities or what have you and so now currently the South Carolina Consolidated procurement code uh requires that any school district agency that exceed $5,000 of expenditures annually um must comply and so we would be subject to the South Carolina State procurement code on slide three we had a major revision to our thresholds back on that were effective on July 1st 2022 and it just changed it to what the current thresholds are

100our code um has not changed our process for procurement has not changed since that uh revision as it relates to current purchase approval levels uh as you know we went to an electronic process um to get rid of the paper process for the purchase order approval process and so that is working well within our system uh currently $2500 or less expenditures are approved by the local administrator and it stops there and I don't have to see that level but anything over 2500 I am the final approver on those expenditures and so we have to make sure that they go through our procurement office the procurement officer looks at it first and then I'm the final approval to make sure we're in compliance we have several types of procurements um a small purchase a commercially available

101off the shelf products we have miners construction Soul Source emergency procurement we even have allowable exemptions where we don't have to apply those codes to it and then we have an other purchases section so I will go through these very briefly a lot of the difference is the thresholds for each and what's required a small purchase is um refers to procurements not exceeding 50,000 and so a quote from 0 to $10,000 only one quote is required for that anything over10 ,1 C to 25,000 requires three quotes you don't have to advertise and then any purchases greater than 25,000 And1 C are handled through the procurement office but yet all purchase orders that are greater than 2500 that we pre-stated were still going to be approved at the district level so we will get to see

102all of that your commercially available off the shelf products are those type of supplies excluding printing um that are commercial products sold in substantial quantities and a note that I wanted to speak on with this is that this does not include agricultural products it does not include petroleum products or any other items customarily sold in bulk so the thresholds for our what we call cots cots is the short synonym for that um is 0 to 10,000 there's no competition required from over 10,000 to 100,000 the three quotes and then anything greater than 100,000 goes through our procurement office the next type of procurement is a minor construction procurement of course it refers to construction Pro projects that have to be advertised in sko which is the South Carolina business opportunities um section for written quotes

103Skibo is a live database for goods services information technology and construction needs of a state and local government the South Carolina procurement code requires state agencies to advertise solicitations for goods and services in it and construction with an estimated amount in exess and exess of the specified thresholds in this Skibo live database and so again those thresholds are pretty much the same 0 to 10,000 no competition greater than 10 less than 100,000 you have to have three formal quotes greater than 100,000 we will run it through our procurement office the sole source procurement this is a non-competitive procurement that occurs when only one vendor can supply the required product or service making competitive build bidding impossible the thresholds for sold sources are greater than 50,000 we have to advertise for 5 days greater than 250,000

104advertised for 10 days we may have a protest and actually this District had a protest um for the first time since my procurement officer's experience here a while back um and we went through legal we went through everything and we came out to where we could award the vendor that we selected and so that has happened for the first time since my procurement officer has has worked here all of these Soul Source purchases must be approved through the procurement office prior to the purchase being made and so there is even a special document indicating that this is a sou Source procurement that I have to sign and that we have to have proper justification for the next type of procurement that we have is an emergency procurement and these of course are procurements where there

105is an immediate threat to Public Health welfare critical economy efficiency or safety um those um greater than 50,000 those have to be advertised as soon as practical uh they may be be protested and they must be approved through our procurement office so that as you see there's not a lot of um control that we have with those because if they are indeed emergencies you go ahead and fix the emergency and we procure it on the back end that is the only type of procurement that it is allowed to do that the next type of procurements are allowable exemptions these are not an all-inclusive list there are two uh slides showing examples of these exemptions these are approved exemptions that we do not have to apply the code to um that we can go ahead and

106purchase uh with proper explanation and so as you see there are several of those I didn't want to go through each one of those but there are two slides indicating some of our District's allowable exemptions these are not all inclusive and the entire list is shown out on our website under my the finance department procurement and then you'll see the procurement um code and you'll see those there the next procurement are purchases that are outside of any of these classifications and unless there is a state contract a Cooperative contract with other districts or an in-house District contract we always will simply Place those out for bid to ensure adequate competition if they don't meet the requirements of any of the others as it relates to our procurement audit results since I've been here fiscal year

107ending 63022 there have been no findings fiscal year 23 no findings and fiscal year 24 we are conducting right now as we speak these procurement audits normally occur after the financial audit has completed and we are only required to do procurement audits every three years but this District does it every year right after the financial audit so that means we're always and constantly making sure that we're in compliance with our code and those District procurement audits can also be viewed on our website along the path finance department audits procurement audits path do you have any questions for me have this time ladies and gentlemen of the board do you have any questions uh concerning the presentation you mentioned uh emergency procurements yes sir can you give this body an example of what that would look

108like well I believe that we've had several of those when we're out on break and there's a waterline main break or or some sort that has to be taken care of immediately I've received calls to let me know our maintenance director would let me know that that is about to occur and to just go ahead and get it fixed and then when I come back we'll come back with the proper paperwork because there's a special form for that as well and then we would go ahead and do the purchase order so we would not have violated a procurement code for that but things like that acts of God those are threats to our safety to our children to whatever those are considered emergencies okay all right all right any any further question questions or comments

109at this time Mr chair yes uh Miss Spearman um with that example that that you just gave do we not utilize inhouse staff to fix things like that if if they can fix it absolutely um yes we do um as you know currently maintenance uh is sort of under staffed so sometimes you have to use a third party to do that but we do solicit our our current employees okay thank you yes sir all right any further questions all right Mr Spearman thank you thank you thank you all right Dr R uh Mr chair members of the board that concludes the superintendent's report for March 24th 2025 all right yes a question to the superintendent go ahead Mr superintendent yes sir did you U Get get the answer for us yet on the number of

110unclassified students we have we we we've been in the process of doing that we're trying to really identify and probably need some more clarity on uh what we're talking about with unclassified if you're talking about below grade level is that is that really what we're talking about well we're talking about we're talking about any student that does not have a classification right so whatever grade if he should be a senior if he's not a senior he's in the high school but he's he's not a senior but he's not a junior that's that's what I'm talking about when I talk about unclassified people okay Dr GMA you want to come cuz we've been trying to work on that but we trying to get clarification on good evening uh as far as students in high schools all

111of them have a classification either they're freshman sophomore junior or senior so if they do not have enough credits to be a senior and if they have enough they have earned enough credits say they're in a junior home room then they're considered to be Juniors so there's no one that's unclassified in a high school is that right for I know sir yes that is correct all right what what about what about a student who should be a senior with four credits if they have four credits they are they are considered to be a freshman is that right yes well I I have um a document where you all said that um some students are not uh classified um and so I'm confused now when you give me one answer and last year in the report

112I got another answer so I'll pull that document up and we'll talk about it please do Cuz I'm not familiar with the report you're referring to thank you okay all right item number excuse me item number six calls for executive session at this time ladies and gentlemen of the board do we have a motion uh for executive session Mr chair yes I'd like to make a motion to enter to Executive session for discussion of individual student matters transfers in and out of District in the monthly personal report appointment compensation promotion demotion discipline termination and or release of an employee and contractual matters we have a motion in a second at this time to enter into executive session um for the purpose of discussion of individual student matters transfer in and out of districts and the

113monthly Personnel report appointment compensation promotion demotion discipline termination and or release of an employee uh and contractual matters at this time any discussion hearing none you may vote your pleasure your vote oh I voted I voted it was on machine but yes all right the vote passes at this time to enter into executive session uh thank you all for being here tonight community members and certainly to the executive staff for your presentations uh thank you all e e e 8.1 ladies and gentlemen of the board do we have any uh motions related to item 8.1 Mr chair yes I like to make a motion to allow students a through b to attend school in suler school district for the 2526 school year second there's been a motion in a second to allow students a through

114b to attend schools in Su school district for the 25 26 school year any discussion hearing none you may vote your pleasure for pass vote passes uh any other motions related to 8.1 Mr chair I'd like to make a motion to allow students a through e to attend school outside of Suter school district for the 2025 2026 school year second there been a motion in a second to allow students a through e to attend the school or to attend school outside of su school district for the 25 26 school year any any discussion hearing none you may vote your pleasure at this time pass vote passes at this time any other the Motions associated with item 8.1 Mr chair I'd like to make a motion to allow students 8 through b to attend school a

115motion to allow students a through b to attend school outside of su school district for the remainder of the 2425 school year second spend a motion in a second to allow student a through b to attend schools outside of sup school district for the remainder of the 2425 school year did you any discussion can and L back in you said log off and log back in no in the middle of voting voting for allowing students to attend school outside school district for the of 24 25 scho year vote passes at this time we're now move to item 8.2 monthly personel report chair I'm motion to move the Personnel report to for Monday March 2425 as presented I'll second it it's been a motion to approve the personel report as of Monday March 24 2025 as

116present presented any discussion is is is is that divided it is we haven't gotten to that part yet yes sir all right this is for the monthly Personnel report as of March 24 2025 as presented any discussion hearing none you may vote your pleasure pass vote passes is there another motion at this time we have the contracts Mr Mr chairman Mr chairman I move that we approve the contracts as presented is there a second a second been a motion in a second to approve the contract list for school year 20 25 2026 as presented any discussion hearing none you may vote your pleasure vote passes at this time moving to item 8.3 is there motion for the 50 for the first reading of the 50% grading floor Mr chair i' like to make a motion

117to reinstate the 50% grading floor and remove the language from the associ policy second it's been a motion in a second for the first reading to for the motion to reinstate the 50% grading floor and remove the language from the associated policy any discussion chairman yes uh I just like to be uh entered as as voting no because I don't think that the teacher like that okay you you have the right to to push that on there no nay I know but the Nay should be a I needed to include a statement oh okay now all right you may vote your pleasure at this time motion fails at this time moving to item 8.4 school year 2025 2026 local courses for board approval do we have a motion Mr chair I make a motion that

118we accept the 2025 2026 local courses for for the board and we approve second it's been a motion in the second to approve the local courses for the school for the from the for the board approval for the 2526 school year vote passes vote passes at this time item 8.5 textbook book adoption for school year 2526 do we have a motion Mr chair i' like to make a motion to approve the textbook adoptions for school year 2025 2026 is that second Second Spin A Motion in a second to approve the text book book adoption for school year 2526 any discussion at this time hearing none you may vote your pleasure vote passes at this time we're now down to item number nine consent agenda upon consensus without any objections at this time Mr chairman there's

119not a consensus I never could find it on my charts I I need help I never got a chance to look at it look at what at the consent agenda the which is I think the minutes of the previous says minut well I I understand that Mr Vice chair but that's all it says online it doesn't show I please says view minutes right there at the top yeah hit it I'm sorry no it it says consent agenda but it doesn't I know that but it doesn't State the minutes of the meeting that that's what I wanted to read the minutes you said in the con in the consent agenda the minutes of the meeting we're we're going to provide you some assistance I'm not sure what you're oh I need assistance I really do right

120here click on this and it say few minutes okay and that's it good chairman while I okay um while I look at those if y'all would indulge me because I would like a chance just a moment to look at them I've got the motion that I had circulated I put it in better language so English teachers would not assail me um and would like to take it up at the next meeting but I'd like to enter it this evening um which is the U motion to ask that the motion to implement the U the um Implement that the realignment be considered out of order because FL understanding um understanding that the current status is that it would not be implemented next year then we can discuss those matters and I don't need any action but

121uh until after till after the next school year but I do think those things are valid and and need to be looked at if I could do that and and I I will just abstain from voting for these I don't think there's any harm done just to for me to read them and see if I see there's a problem so we can get going let me just abstain from voting for The consent agenda and then I'll get some tutorials on how to run my computer because I feel lost on this thing all right hopefully you get that before the next meeting I hope so I used to run big computers that went real fast but I just seem to have problem with this one absolutely but I'll I'll get it done yes sir thank you

122all right at this time the consent agenda stands approved we'll now move to item number 10 uh certainly ladies and gentlemen thank you so much for being here um right after 9:00 p.m. and certainly we've had some healthy conversations today centered around the agenda topics that were before us tonight um again be safe and have a restful evening thank you all right meeting adjourn for not