February 5, 2026 Board of Trustees Board Work Session

001We just can't go. uh call this meeting for York School District 1 work session order. Um Mr. Anderson, you give us our invocation, please. Sir, >> let's bow our heads. Most gracious God, Lord, we thank you for this time that we can uh come together, Lord, in fellowship and in service, Lord, to our community. God, we pray that you'll bless the food that's prepared for us and forgive us for the times we sin against you, Lord. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. >> Amen. >> Um, we do have a quorum present. Uh, Miss Faulner and Mr. Wilkerson not here this evening. Confirmation of notice the media. No members in the media are present this evening. Uh, do I have a motion for approval of tonight's agenda? Um probably with that we probably need to

002take um a motion with that to move our executive session uh in the agenda. So do I have a motion to move the um executive session? >> Motion to move that we move executive session in front of agenda item C. >> All right. So we have have a motion to move uh executive session in front of agenda item C forformational purposes. Um >> any second? >> Second. All those in favor say I. >> I oppose. No. Motion carries. Um so with that, do I have a motion for approval of agenda with that change? >> So move. >> Have a motion for approval of the agenda with item uh executive session moved. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Have a second. All those in favor say I. >> I oppose. No. Motion carries. We'll

003now move to reports uh for consideration of current and future school and facility needs. Um and I think Dam is that you or Mr. CE first or >> that's going to be Dr. Brandon. >> Dr. Well, let's let Dr. Brandon do. >> All right. So, thank you. back in um late October at our work session, we started talking about planning for 2027 and beyond, which seems way out into the future, but it really isn't. Um and so tonight we have with us Todd CE and Jim Britain. Um Todd's with McMillan Pasin and Smith Architecture. Um tonight is just information only. Um and we're preparing obviously to open a new middle school. We're excited about what's happening there. Um but obviously facilities planning requires us to think years ahead. Um and so we have to consider

004things like enrollment growth, projections over time, um reszoning implications, capital needs, etc. Um, what we did hear from the board in in October is that we want to make sure that every corner of our school district, our schools are quality learning environments where students have access um to quality experiences in buildings that are safe um and that produce um opportunities for kids to have parity and equity across our school district. Um we also know that with our current system um where we split with intermediate then middle then high that there are multiple transition periods um particularly in the pre-adolescent adolescent years and so we're just thinking about what things are going to take us into the future well beyond 2027 um and at this point it really is just about learning and discussion um and

005so tonight one of the things we mentioned back in October was um potential and let me say that again potential not anything's been decided. It really is information only for us to chew on over the months and time ahead. But what we know is that we need space for YOA and adulted and parenting and affinity. We brought that before before tonight. Uh Mr. CE is going to show you some ideas again just um some preliminary conversations around what York Intermediate could become. Um and so he has a couple slides to share that with us tonight. And again, information only, just for food for thought. Um, so with that being said, um, Todd, if you want to come on up and Amy, are you driving or you want me to drive? >> I hear you just

006>> Okay. All right. Thank you, Dr. Brandom. Good afternoon, everyone. Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Appreciate this opportunity. As Dr. Brandham said over the last several months we've been just brainstorming ideas of how to transform the existing um York intermediate school into a York one middle school that is very comparable and equitable to the new uh school that is uh just started construction on. And um one of the first things we did uh we we toured the school, we ev made some evaluations, but then we also compared the program for the new middle school and then we kind of overlaid it on the uh intermediate school and we looked at opportunities of you know where there were deficiencies and where I mean it's a it's a the school is has good bones. It's something

007that is valuable. it'll serve the district for a long time uh into the future, but there's also some opportunities to bring it up to, you know, something that's very comparable and equitable to the new middle school. So, uh one of the first things uh we looked at was uh traffic circulation. Um and Johnson uh Road and Highway 321 runs up and down the left hand side of the sheet. We know that there's an opportunity to extend the parent drop off drive to have uh sufficient stacking for uh for a new middle school and one that meets DOT requirements. So we have uh sort of reorganized the pathway right in the center for the parents to to come around and have sufficient uh stacking space there. uh the bus drive would continue much like it is

008now except we moved the entrance uh north on the drawing and what that does is now all of the play areas are contiguous to the school so that no kid has to cross the bus drive for play areas. the athletics that that's different. And then one other thing we wanted to do was provide uh visual connectivity from the school over to the stadium and uh utilize be able to utilize the stadium for the the middle school. The red indicates uh possible additions. Dr. Brandon mentioned safety and security. So, one of the things when you approach the intermediate school, you know, there's an opportunity to move the administrative area out front and extend, they have a safe and secure entryway, but extend it and uh create a main entrance into the school. Um, around the gym,

009there's an opportunity to add uh a stage so that it's comparable to uh the new middle school and also uh redo some locker room space there. create a fitness and wellness center that the new um new middle school has and then also create a entrance a safe and secure entrance off of the bus drive as well. So we we have uh some floor plans we'd like to share and some renderings of what these type spaces could look like. Again uh to orient you uh down at the bottom uh in light blue. So all of the light blue spaces are new type construction, new addition. The uh coral color is uh some renovated space. The green are the more intense renovated uh spaces. So uh creating this new uh secure entrance and this main entrance into

010the school given that it's all identity. Administrative area is on the right, guidance area is on the left. There's some meeting spaces. um the old an existing admin area becomes a commons area. So it becomes really the hub of the school off of that sort of center area. The media center's located. Uh the cafeteria's close by. Uh and then the the building is organized into classroom wings. So sixth, seventh, and eighth grade wings much like the new middle school. Um we will extensively renovate the science labs. That that's important. So the green uh spaces on each uh wing as are indicated as well as some of the coral spaces. Um, one other thing at the top left is a space that is it's currently uh a shop type area, but we want to expand it

011into an agriculture lab and uh provide outdoor connectivity and adjacency to a greenhouse and a garden area which uh will be um you know very innovative space and one that is conducive to an agricultural lab. Um, again, each classroom wing has renovated uh science labs on them. One of the things that you'll notice when you go through the intermediate school is the size of the cafeteria is, you know, it could be expanded. And um even though we're kind of landlocked, what we were proposing is creating this outdoor patio on nice days. You just extend out into the patio. And uh there's also an opportunity to have a covered area where that first classroom um yeah will uh could be just a covered area for uh eating outdoor eating. Um, one of the things I I

012failed to mention too is we're creating this sort of main street that connects the front door all the way back to the new secure entrance uh for the bus drop off drive which again will aid in students moving around a middle school type uh plan. Then over on the right hand side uh within that existing uh rear wing we have the opportunity to um create equitable band and course type spaces. So uh large type rehearsal space for the band. They have uh you know outdoor access to practice fields as well. Same with course. And then we will provide a um covered wall connection over to the uh over to the existing gym. The existing gym, we're proposing adding a stage. So again, the existing gym's in good shape, has bleachers, uh but you really don't

013have an auditorium space at this school. This will create that auditorium space. The entire student body can fit into the gym and uh you could have performances there. I mentioned the fitness and wellness center. Um there's a need to uh provide connectivity from the gym back over to the main building and it just kind of uh lended itself to uh opportunity to create that fitness and wellness center. And we're creating an outdoor secure courtyard type area off of the fitness and wellness, but also creating an outdoor patio for the media center and uh again in a secure environment. And then over on the right, uh just extending the locker room type space uh again for um to make it very equitable uh to the new middle school. And then just some uh images of what

014this that new addition could look like, creating a new entrance to uh York uh middle school, the new second uh middle school. Um, and again, we want to pick up on some of the materiality uh that's very similar to uh what's already in place and uh to unify the campus. You'll also see on the left one of the classroom wings. Currently, the intermediate school has very narrow windows. Even Jim agreed that we can add larger windows into the classroom. So, we're proposing to uh cut in new windows, add natural light into the classroom space, uh which we think will be important, but it also gives a presence to the community, you know, from Highway 321, the new entrance into the school. This is that secured courtyard area where the media center is off on the

015left. You could see the uh outdoor reading patio on the left. We're we're transitioning from one finished floor elevation on the left down to the gym. So, we're able to do that within this uh connecting link. And the fitness and wellness center is uh is located at the end of the courtyard. This is actually a shot looking back through the the new admin area, new entrance from the um sort of hub or commons area of the school. Uh again, it's it's a low slope uh low roof area, but if we open it up, expose the structure, it really gives a sort of a a a grand sense of place for students and faculty. And you can see the width of uh that entry hallway accommodate will accommodate a lot of students. And again, this is

016kind of looking from the front door back toward that commons area. Again, a place where we envision a lot of activity taking place with students between classes or meeting with teachers outside of the classroom area. And, you know, the opportunity to brand this school however you know you would want to uh with wall graphics and again the the commons area leading back toward the cafeteria introducing natural light out to the courtyard. Uh you can see the window down a little bit further in the the image and there's the closer up. Uh so that you know students could spill out into that courtyard again in a secure environment by use of uh gates and fences at the end of that courtyard. So it becomes an extension of the learning environment. and just more character type sketches

017addressing, you know, acoustics and making it a a pleasant space to be. This actually looks into the media center, so there'll be visual connectivity. Right now, you walk down a narrow uh corridor and you really don't know what's on either side. So, we're introducing some uh glass into the media center. And then this is just a kind of a bird's eye view looking back toward that new uh entrance. >> Great. >> Good. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> So, one quick question. Get back like three slides, maybe four. And I just because I got that ceiling there, is that all drop ceiling now? Like what's in there now? >> Yeah, right now. And that's actually the administrative area. Right. So it's all the office space and >> but what's in there now is

018just drop ceiling everywhere. Right. Okay. >> Yeah. So that's how we're going to remove that drop ceiling and get that extra height. Just makes that space feel better. >> Now where the the locker rooms are that you're moving that from where the stage is going. Correct. That's not additional. >> No, that's that's right. So uh >> you know some of those original locker rooms are slow and tiny and there there's some issues there. So, we're going to basically demolish that and build a new stage and then recreate the locker rooms. That would be you started that process already. We just be adding two more. >> Any other questions, comments? This is it's an exciting project to transform that intermediate school into a you know a very comparable new middle school to the new one you're

019doing now. >> So thank you. We appreciate appreciate the opportunity to >> thank you for being here with you. >> Yes sir. >> All right. Good. >> So as as we said before we'll bring to you ideas, concepts um etc. Um again there's not a single solution. um we're just looking at opportunities um for the future. And so, you know, as we think beyond 2027, um we need to start thinking and processing now um what that might look like for 28, 29, 30, etc. Um there's no action obviously for this uh anytime soon. Um but we wanted to get in front of you what can be done and what's possible to preserve what we already have. um but also enhance it to make sure every student in this county gets an equitable um experience and

020experience that you know it doesn't matter if you're from the western part of the county, the north to south east, you're getting a great York one education and a learning environment that's both inviting um and supportive um for our students. So, thank you very much to both of you and Jim for being here. And um I know you have to travel, so you're welcome to stay, but um I think you probably want to depart now. >> Unless there are any other questions. >> I do have one. We didn't talk about a capacity for that school. Um have did we consider that? >> I want to say that it's fairly comparable. Um and and the thing there are some weeds and details. We hadn't gotten that far just conceptually, but what >> Yeah. So it could

021uh easily accommodate 1,00 to,200 students which would be very again comparable to the new middle school. >> Great question. >> All right. Was a great conversation. Good evening. >> Yes, sir. >> All right. Um so with that, do I have a You good with that, Dr. Brown? Do I have a motion to enter an executive session to discuss contractual legal and personnel matters? So move. >> Have a motion by Mr. Anderson. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Have a second by Miss Johnson. Um assuming no need for discussion. All those in favor say I. >> I oppose. No. We will now go into executive session. motion to come out of executive session. >> So moved. >> Have a motion by Mr. Anderson, a second by Miss Johnson. All those in favor say I.

022I. Oppose. No. >> Motion carries. Let the record reflect there was no action taken during executive session. All right. We'll now move over to uh assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, Miss Alyssa Cox. >> Yes. And Jennifer Bowlan here with me and we are so excited. It's like going to be the best part of the night. All right. So, we're going to give you kind of our results from our um focus groups and just kind of letting you know where we are right now. We are, even though it's February, doing the board update with you guys of where we landed with hopes that when we meet next Tuesday, that we can take action on a school name and a mascot and some colors. I know it's very exciting. This is our committee um that made

023up several members of our community, also several district office people, but alumni, parents, and even civic and faith-based members. And we had students on our committee also. We had students that would be at this middle school when the it opens the doors. So we felt like they could have a voice in some of these choices of um school name and mascot and colors. So some of those students are from the intermediate school and then some elementary students. And then our process, this is kind of some of the things that we talked about. We started off by going over the board policy on naming buildings. So they kind of knew that even though they're coming up with a recommendation, ultimately that is your decision. Um, and then talked through just their survey data that we had

024sent out to the community and kind of what that survey data said. And then we did some small groupoup consensus activities, whole group consensus activities and we finalized everything with doing a final committee survey out to that committee where they determined their recommendation for you. So each session was laid out the same. So the first session was our school name. It was a whole group consensus for White Hill Middle School. We even tried to do some other activities to get a second and they were just that's it. We don't have another one. Um so we found that to be very um uplifting too. And I think we also last time shared with you that there was a gentleman that came that gave us that White Hill Orchard sign and that was nobody knew what had

025happened the night before and we all looked at each other like oh my goodness this is just like kind of coming together. School mascots they gave us two um wolves and panthers. And then the third session, we looked at color schemes. And we laughed because I was at Lowe's getting all kinds of color palettes for them to kind of feel and touch and move and put together. So it was very hands-on. And so they came up with a lot of versions of underneath wolves. Those were the four. And then panthers, some different variations of color schemes there. So what we did from there, and you can see we made them do chants because they had to think through what does this sound like? What does it feel like? Um, so it was very entertaining, very

026engaging. We had a lot of fun with it. Um, you can see them here kind of playing with all the pallets. And so then we gave them some mockups. This is not the logo. I want to preface that. This is of course whatever we land on, we would outsource to get a true logo and copyright it and all those pieces. But we knew we had to give a visual to um see what this could look like in each one of those color areas. So we kind of used AI who can be our best friend, right? Um to give us some variations there. We used these to also get a final count from the committee of where they were landing on this because they were kind of leaning, but we wanted to be able to really

027look at two hard um recommendations. So about 90% it was 89.6 or so were really just for the wolves. They couldn't get away from that. Um some version of red, black, white, silver. We know that those colors were going to come together anyway. You can't really have those without black in there. Um, Panthers, we had electric blue, black, white, and till silver, white. And what we did was we made them give us a color choice for each one of those mascots. All right. And then we had them vote on what is the actual one that you would like. And this is what they landed on as a committee. The name being White Hill Middle, the Wolves, and Red, Black, White, Silver. and they even had a >> already in their chance. So, they were branding

028as they went. Um, so we kind of did a different mockup with the school name just so we could kind of get a feel of that. >> So, that's cool. >> It was a real I will say being on this end of it. >> It was a It was a really fun and cool process and it was a great group of people. >> Oh, it was >> um that were very open-minded. They were thinking through they were grounded in um policy but also what they wanted for the kids. um because we started our very first session around values and they stayed true to the values the whole time as they were kind of making decisions and having a lot of discussion. So questions for us, comments. >> Did you have any, and it sounds like

029you didn't, but did you have anybody that was just a dissenting vote that was like, "No, I don't like this." I It sounded like you didn't, but sometimes you do, right? >> Yeah. Sometimes you do, but we did not. >> No, this group was >> And I would tell you if we did. Yeah. >> Yeah. I just >> We were braced for a lot of that just because I can say from previous experience other places, >> I was having a a little stress. But that's why I think we took a lot of time to be very intentional around the activities that we had. Um, and we they really and some of y'all were on that because y'all were participants. >> Yeah. So, >> I've been a part not to interrupt, but I've been a part

030of this process in other places. And I've never seen it go this smoothly and for there to truly be a community sense about this is what it should be. Um there wasn't a person going I can't live with this or I don't like this or it was so positive. It was it was it was an exciting time. So >> I will say one thing that was helpful was the initial community survey you know that we did in the beginning that was about 750 800 responses. We always started each session with that and here's what the community said and we help them focus in on here's the top five choices. Can we work from there? And sometimes that eliminated if somebody kind of had their own thought because you had so many others that were overwhelmingly

031in the top five. I think that was help helpful for them to to think through. >> And when we do the recommendation to you next Tuesday night, we'll have some of our committee members there for you to speak to speak on behalf of the process. >> So I think you'll be real excited to hear what they have to say about the process. They really enjoyed it. So, is there anything, and I'm just speaking out loud here, is there anything with the community that's going to feel rushed? Just throw I mean, I don't think it will, but I'm just, you know, who's seen it, who hadn't. Um, we know there's always going to be I mean, always going to be somebody, right? Um, how do we look at that moving forward? Like, if this comes Tuesday

032and we approve it, right, it's done. I It's done. >> It's done. Um, does anybody have any thoughts, concerns, comments? I mean, it's our decision. I I know that that we have a decision from a committee or group >> based on the committee and the the people and who they are in the community. I've got zero qualms with it. >> I I think it's a go. Um, just I enjoyed talking to my gentleman that came and >> Okay. >> I sent him to see Dr. for and and it's he has evidence and it's good evidence. So, I enjoyed that. >> And I mean, we can talk about this obviously an open session, but I just I was curious if anybody had any concerns just that we might need to think about, you know, before Tuesday,

033but >> I think it really helped a lot having Zach Limous's research of the area, too. and he gave us several suggestions around the history of the area >> and that was a good leading point to kind of help us kind of >> and they really did work off of that and they also kind of did their own research at their tables outside of that. >> So which I thought that was intriguing too. >> All right, anybody have any other questions? >> So just our groundbreaking ceremony. I'm looking back here at this crew too. Hopefully hold that date. We're hoping that it will be March 18th at 11. I don't know if Janet, you want to speak to anything. I don't know if the guest list is in progress. >> Guest list is extensive. Of

034course, we'll be including members from our name committee to be a part of the groundbreaking ceremony because that's that's only right since they helped us get to this point. So, we're really excited about it. put it on my counter >> and we'll get Britney to make sure that >> that's on there. >> That's the 18th and 11 we're thinking right now. >> We hope y'all are excited as we are. >> Where are we going to >> 11? March 18th at 11 a.m. >> 11 a.m. Anything else? >> Thank you both. >> Thank you. >> Think we stay. >> I don't know. >> Yeah. So now Dr. Brown for board parties. >> Yeah. So members of our cabinet and others will be um going through our metrics from our key performance indicators um both from second

035units um because we have some that are quarterly and we also have some that are semester based. Um so Kevin Queen reports to what's wrong you keep >> uh to Miss Cox and she's going to present the um safety data that we shared before give you updates on that. Uh, Miss Parker is going to share a parent safety perception survey. That was one of our strategies under um, safety as a priority. Miss Cox is going to give you a brief achievement update midpoint of the year. U, Miss Bolan will share teacher effectiveness data with you. Um, and Miss Hagner and Miss Bolan will finish with our audits both around school safety this fall um, as well as school culture and climate. Quite a bit of information coming forward, so settle in for long winters. I'm

036kidding. good information and feel free to ask as we go because there's a lot of information. If you don't understand something or we didn't make sense, please don't hesitate to stop us. >> Okay, so we're going to roll right into school safety. Just a reminder, this is goal number one and our commitment around fostering maintaining a safe learning environment. This indicator is one that we saw previously at the end of the quarter around some discipline pieces. um data. So this is an update. Um when you saw it previously, it was at the end of quarter 1. This is as of 116 when we were preparing for our January workshop and mother nature had other plans. Um one note is that obviously over time you're going to see some of those majors and minors increase. What

037I find intriguing is that the top three offenses for elementary remain the top three offenses. They just may have switched order of are they one, two, or three. So that's where we kind of still are with some of those um trending behaviors there. And again, y'all stop me if you have questions or >> like down there at the bottom it says YIS. You have 634 incidences caused by 186 students. >> Correct. So repeat incidences. So that could be two one or two or more. Yep. >> Does that seem kind of high? That's about average for that age range because that could be anywhere from um being disruptive in class um you know tapping a kid on the back of the head at recess. That's one thing that they're calibrating with those teachers is what's minor

038and what's major. >> Yeah. >> Um I guess my question is it is it repeat offenders? you know, message the first time. Yes. And we're and we're just >> doing the same thing over and over and over. >> Yeah. We're not maybe getting progressive with it. >> Right. And that's why some I'm sorry. >> Go ahead. >> When when you look at the category of actions taken, some of those 179 inchoolers, >> Yeah. >> if they repeat the same events, >> you're going out of school. >> Yeah. >> You that that >> um action didn't work. So next time you're out. Yeah. So if when we crunch and schoolbased teams do this, they crunch and look at their I used to call them frequent flyers. Those kids who have multiple you know some of these

039kids are are bus write up. Some of these are disrupting class which can be a whole bunch of host of things um um from talking back or laughing out loud or not participating in group activities. Um but yeah, I would not say that that for intermediate or middle level that this would be something that is stark to me. >> And what we can share at the end of the year, what we like to do is we like to look at that pyramid of discipline with how many students, what percentage of your students were in the one, they have one major offense range, what were in the two to five offense range, and then what were in six or more because then you know you're dealing with a small handful of kids that might be getting

040six or more. and what are we doing for those kids? We just giving them OSS every time. Are we doing some types of interventions with them? What are their behaviors? Those types of things. But we can give you that at the end of the year, too, because that's always something good for your schools to look at as well, where those kids fall in that tier. Great question. Okay. You're probably going to think the same thing on this side, too. >> Yeah. So, middle school, you have 931. 268 students make up that. And again, we can pull up that to see how many of those are in repeat offender phases. You see what the top three offenses are at the high school. 2,145 majors. Again, we have to stress that most of those are tardy, dress

041code, and phone. >> Half the kids though. >> That's repeat probably pieces going on all the time. Tardy, excessive saying the 693 is still half the students there, right? >> Mhm. That could have one. You could have a percentage of those students that have six or more six tardy offenses. Yeah. Again, not when I pulled this haven't been in secondary. That it's not alarming to me. That's kind of a normal. >> No, I'm just saying I get what you're saying, but it's still half the students are having a problem. Half your students are probably going to have one or more offenses. What you want to look at though is that their one or more offense is still in a minor range. >> Yeah. >> And there are offenses outside of these three that make up

042that number. These are just the top three. >> Yeah. >> So the technology center, you can't do a ratio of students, I guess, because they're >> because they're in and out so much. Yeah. That's where it gets a little difficult. And then over here we've had an increase in expulsion hearings because of the time of the year we're in. Right. So that progressive that you mentioned earlier, but you'll start to see numbers uptick there. Right. So we've had 18 expulsions, six have been upheld, eight have been placed back at YA. The difference in that number is that some students get returned back to the building on time served and that's what the committee decides. And it could be because the offense was not as major. It could have been um there might be a special

043needs student that we need to go back and provide services a little differently or intervene with them. Okay, it doesn't mean we're being lenient. There's something in that process that they've had that time served or the committee looked at them holistically and have placed them back in the building. Okay, good. Here's an update of your Gaggle as of 120. So remember, Gaggle is the system that alerts for things um being monitored digitally. So what we try to look at, which this is tremendous, Kevin is very proud of this, is that the average age is how long something might sit in the queue in terms of days. We're getting to it hopefully within a day or a day and a half. Sometimes they're getting to it, but not going in and queuing it like logging it

044in and closing it out. what we've learned that because we had to ask some questions. But we are sitting at 100% 100 100 97.8 may be a student I think Kevin actually checked on that that has been absent that we've done a wellness check on so we haven't been able to close some of those out. Um but this is tremendous and a lot of improvement for our buildings. They're working hard. counselors are jumping on it. And again, we have a great relationship with York um PD that if it happens in the off hours and it's something that's in that red zone, then they're going out to check on our kids so that our administrators are not having to carry that weight in those off hours or the weekend hours. >> So, what's the yellow versus

045reduc? >> The essent um personal student >> danger. Those are your areas that you really want to make sure you make contact with the kid. UCON is like a minor area because remember it picks up on like just nuts. Sometimes our high school kids might be researching something. >> You could be talking about going hunting and it has a gun in it >> and it'll come up. >> Yep. It'll ding it. >> Yeah. So you get a lot of those hits and then they have to decipher that. Is it truly a threat and is it something that we need to look at? But yeah, it's like anything will sometimes trigger it. >> Well, I think that age thing is important. like the average age. I know the 11 is off, but that's one >> it's

046only one student, so it it makes it be way off base, but >> yeah, >> those averages, >> that's why I said calling and kind of checking on that a kid that, >> okay, hasn't been back to school and we need to do a wellness check. Yeah. >> Yeah. Behavior threat assessments. This is updated from before. Um we've had an increase at the high school with um some of the self harm ones that we've done. A lot of times time of year plays a part too when we get to the holiday season. A lot of our kids have had some trauma related events. So you'll see an uptick usually at the end of semester one um just around those areas. And you yall know that's kind of research based just in general, right? Society. So

047um that's where we are with those. >> I still have a hard time wrapping my brain around the elementary and self harm. >> I was 48 years old before I even knew what that meant. Yep. >> It's really sad. And then again, our safe schools, we are, this is fantastic. And we know that 1.8% are some of our just test dummies is what we call it, where Tim and Chuck are testing the system. So, they have like just fake in there. >> Yep. >> So, we've done some digging. We're still 100% compliant on all of our required safety drills. Okay. >> You want to speak from there or you want me to try with it? >> Miss Parker >> with parent satisfa parent safety perception survey. >> I'm sitting my warm chair. >> Got you.

048Thank you. >> Jump on camera. >> Okay. So, this is our parent safety perception survey and we based this on the state climate survey that the teachers and staff do. So, we took some of those same questions and surveyed our parents. And I do want to note that this is not based on like middle, elementary, high school. This is just overall all parents who participated in the survey. So, we opened the survey on Monday, January 5th, and it closed on January 26th. So, these responses are between that time frame. So first um we asked about communications our communications regarding safety and this is percentages from mostly agreed to agree. So you can see 94% of our parents agree or mostly agree that our communications regarding safety are clear. 91% mostly agree or agree that they're

049prompt. 88% mostly agree or agree that they are accessible. And you'll notice up here, 339 parents responded in this survey. Next, we're talking about climate. Uh you can see the the choices here. 91% of parents mostly agree or agree that they are comfortable raising concerns. 93% agree or mostly agree that their child is safe before school. 93% agree or mostly agree that a child is safe during school and 98% of parent surveys say that they actually feel safe going to or leaving their child's school. Then we did speaking specifically about staff. So how parents feel about staff? 91% mostly agree or agree that effort is made from staff to address any of their concerns. 94% say that teachers are respectful and 92% say that teachers and students get along. Next, I did this a little

050bit differently um because I wanted you all to see how parents surveyed regarding bullying. And this is bullying by a student. So we'll do staff next, but this is bullying by a student. So 45% of parents disagree that their child has been bullied by a student. 17% mostly disagree. 13 mostly agree, 26 agree. You notice if you were to add the disagree and mostly disagree, you would have what's that? >> 62% who disagree or mostly disagree. Next is looking at children being bullied by an adult. So that would be like a staff member. Um you can see overwhelming 65% of parents disagree, 21% mostly disagree, 5% agree, and 9% agree. And then lastly, just students from different backgrounds and how they get along in regards to safety. 6% disagree, 5% mostly disagree. meaning you have

051overwhelming 38% mostly agree and 51% agree that students from different backgrounds get along with them. >> Any questions? So, we're 6 to 8% of the same >> answers, right? >> I know we don't know, but are you know what are those folks thinking those problems are? Would be curious because >> maybe they're not really problems or maybe they're big problems, >> but it's that same 6 to 8% in every almost every chart you showed. Right. >> Yeah. We were talking about possibly and we do this the next time around adding in those prompts so that parents can go in and select if their child's in elementary because you know that some parents have kids in multiple schools and maybe we do add in an option for comments where parents can be kind of specific about

052where these areas lie. Typically on these surveys, we get people who are always going to answer a survey because they're gung-ho about the school district and their schools. And then you get those that are like, I'm going to tell you exactly what you want to hear. And the truth is, we need to hear both of those. So, um, overall I was very pleased with the numbers, but we have to be careful not to let the 90% discount the eight or 10% that >> like and that's why I wanted to pull out those disagrees and agrees in those later slides just to see that there are some people who do feel a little differently. So, >> we might just want and sometimes talk to them because perception becomes real. >> Correct. Perception is reality. Well, I

053know us as a board, but communicationwise, I do want to thank you for what you've done since you've been here. I think everybody in this room would probably agree with that. Um, but I know you hadn't been here forever, but you have done a great job on communication side. So, I did want to say that in the meeting. So, >> thank you, Scott. >> Yep. >> Any other questions? >> Okay. >> All right. Back to Miss Cox. >> Back to me. Hot seat. >> Keep the seat warm. >> Okay. This is not going to be as long as when we did it in the fall because remember this is just progress monitoring. So we're moving into academic growth and achievement for goal two. And remember that we built in some projected achievement proficiency tools. These

054are formative. So some of them we really put a lot of stock in and some of them that we're just trying to gauge where we are. So the first one is winter map. This one we we look at and we use it to inform instruction. The key thing to know about this is it's not as telling as fall or spring map because not everyone in the nation, it's normed by nation um of the population. Everybody tested across the nation and people don't test as many during the winter. They progress monitor. So your population or your sample size is lower. So sometimes your scores can be a little amplified or kind of over, you know, overhitting the mark. We get excited, but that may not really happen. Okay. So, we use it more for teachers to

055dig in and look at skills and use second semester to really try to do some remediation gap work with kids. Okay. So, and again, we test three through eight. So, you're really looking at three through eight. And we're trying to get a gauge of meets and exceeds kind of where we're landing. And this is math right now. Okay? And this is really giving you more of a gauge around growth versus achievement. How am I how I'm going to do on one test one time? All right. So, this is math ELA. And I have to be careful and look because they look almost exactly the same. Um, again, blue and green, where we are at this time, smaller sample size, where we're projected. So if kids for the SC ready were to take it, what we

056really put more stock in and spend a lot of time around are our benchmarks. So we benchmark um three through eight in November. And this test is from Mastery Connect. It is about 99.5% aligned with um our state assessments and pretty on target. When we've done some things in the past, it's pretty aligned to where if students were to take the SC ready test at this moment in time, this would be the percentage of kids that would likely score meets or exceeds. Now, I have to say in November, it is based upon the standards that we've taught up to that point. Okay? So, it says if we were to give you the SC ready test just on those standards, then this would be where your kids fall. We do in the buildings intensive data protocol

057work around this. They look at the test. They look at where the kids are, what questions they did well on, where they lacked, and they build out what we call remediation plans that look different in different schools. Some of it is they've spiraled work in. Some of it becomes personalized for students. middle school is now trying to use their flex time because m Miss Milton there is getting a handle on this is what that time is used for and the purpose of it. So creating plans that's going to meet all kids to make sure they increase their proficiency. So again, you see what we talked about in the fall and fall a little bit is that we're still with math and those those transition years six, seven, eight, right, is still an issue where we've

058got some gaps there early November. We will do this again in March and it will be cumulative and that's what we really have compared before and we really use the data protocol in March to do high intensive plans for kids between March and when they test in the spring. Okay. So, to show you kind of how aligned it is, here's high school. We have one semester finished for high school. Those kiddos benchmarked in October and they did a cumulative. We didn't do just what standards do you have right now? We did if you take this English two and of course assessments sitting right now October 30th. What would we look like? How many kids would make A through C? How many kids would make A through D? Okay, think A through D gets me credit,

059which helps my grad rate. A through C is how I'm scored on the state report card. Okay, on the left you should see you can see predictive 50.6 in October. For English 2 at the end of the year, they exceeded that because they still had a quarter to go, right? But 63.6. US history, it was projected 32.6 6 34.9 biology we're right there at the 27 mark predicted 22.8 so we still have work to do there and you see our algebra 1. Now I have an asterisk because this is where we have to keep coming back to it. Remember our sequence change in math and we had one class of algebra 1 and those are kids that have already failed it one time before. So those are your struggling math kids. Okay. And some of

060them if they were not successful, they might be sitting in it again this semester. Okay, so that we did better than 4.3%. I was getting a little scared in October. So at least we got more, but that's one class of maybe 24 kids. Okay. >> Of all repeaters. >> I mean, we've been talking about the biology and algebra one for a while. >> A while. Yeah. A while. They are making some um I will tell you just to kind of lay the groundwork. They're going to do some sequence changing with US history at the high school. Um and this is a little late kind of behind some of the IGPS that they're doing with ninth grade, but they have a lot of evidence around they have a very high functioning collaborative team there and a

061lot of data that they want to shift world history from 9th grade to 10th grade year to get it closer to US history to do that vertical alignment. They have a very high functioning collaborative team. Science is exploring some sequence changes, but they don't have the structures in place quite yet. We need some really, we're still looking for some maybe science teachers to fill. Jennifer's, you know, those are few and far between. And trying to get the folks in the right seats to teach the biology, trying to get the right kids because in the right classes to do integrated science stacked with bio1. So once they get that in place, they'll look at maybe is it going to help us to move biology in a different grade level, you know? So just know that that's

062kind of coming. >> Miss Bowling did the number two. I thought she was giving a peace sign. We're looking for two of those unicorns. I'm calling them unicorns. >> I need two unicorns. >> All right. I think this is Yep. This is bowling still underneath. >> So we're quick. Sorry. Like used to be Like with my kid, they took AP history in the ninth grade, right? So where are we? But with that biology, I know we said we're moving, right? >> But I don't see the numbers changing yet. >> So So what's what's our estimate or reasoning or when do we think those numbers will actually increase? Does that make sense? No, for all of them. I'm just thinking like we had different we we moved a lot of things around where kids can't take

063it here or can take it here. I'm just using that as a g because I don't think they can take that till like 10th or 11th. >> They take a they've always had AP US history their junior year. They take AP world history and human geography in either ninth or tth grade year. >> Okay. >> But you're right. When I first got here >> that's not on there that just says US history, >> right? Because that's the only one that has an end of course test from the state. >> That's what I'm saying. So, >> yeah, >> when we're moving them around, are >> when do we think we're going to see some adjustments in what those scores >> and I know you don't you can't know, but >> yeah, your US history will always

064live in 11th grade. >> Okay. >> Your English 2 will always live in 9th or 10th grade. So, there's really no flexibility in those. But and and your algebra 1 used to always live in nth grade, but now we've moved it to 10th, >> right? >> And that was the state. >> Okay. So that was >> so the only one we have flexibility in is our science. >> Okay. >> Yep. Yep. The key the issue that happens with science is that your kids college, you know, um kid college prep kids need to have three lab sciences. Well, it doesn't count as a lab science unless you have biology first. >> So then you're pigeon holing kids. If I give them a science in ninth grade, it's not going to count as a lab if they

065take anything other than biology. And so sometimes folks get hung up on are we now blocking them from having access to other higher level courses because we've kind of made everybody take physical science or you know environmental at the ninth grade level >> which could stifle some kids if they can't >> Yeah. Exactly. So what we're looking at is kind of a hybrid situation. How do we keep and get the right kids in the right seats that Yeah. you're ready for bio1 and will likely be in that 20 30% to take it in nth grade and you need more time and because we have flexibility with biology do we build in a physical science and integrated science to get you really prepped and prepared to be more successful in that bio >> but again that's

066part of what y'all were talking about getting a good biology teacher right >> yeah good questions >> sorry I just in my brain >> timing and things like that >> yeah speaking of great teachers. >> Great. >> We're going to talk about teacher effectiveness. Um, just a broad overview real quick. This is just talking a little bit about our evaluation system that we do use for teachers. We use our South Carolina debt model. This is kind of just a explanation of what that is. I'm not going to read that to you by no means, but it's just our evaluation system that we use for certified teachers. Hello. There we go. Hello. Give me the wrong There we go. These are just our different contract levels that we have within the district. We have an induction

067contract which is our first year teachers that are coming to us. Annual one is usually our secondyear teachers. Then continuing is when they've passed that annual one phase in annual two and moved into a continuing contract. So that's your I'd say more like tenured teachers, the ones that are here for a longer period of time. And then we have another level that could be like if we have a teacher that may be having some um performance issues within the classroom, we may take them back through a formal evaluation which could be a continuing summitive contract. All right. And this year um we have about 66 teachers that are going through a formative evaluation which means it's kind of um a more relaxed evaluation process, not the full-fledged summitive process. Um, and then we have about

06825 that are going through the formal summitive process. We have a total of 91 teachers being evaluated in the district. And I kind of broke it down by contract levels so you could kind of see what those numbers look like. And then overall we have about 370 teachers in classrooms across the district. So to tell you what everybody else is doing that are not part of that 911, they have to do something called a goal based evaluation. So if they're not going through the formative evaluation that year, they still have evaluation tool that they use that's called goal-based. And what that is is they set a goal with their administrator that ties that to their strategic plan or to the school renewal plan. And then they work on that goal throughout the year and measure

069it the impact of their performance on student growth. This is just a a snap of like the 4.0 my own rubric and these are all the indicators that we look at as we evaluate teachers. So you can just see what those areas are. The four main areas are planning, instruction and environment and professionalism. And then under those areas are these subcategories that we use and these are the four performance levels that they could be exemplary, proficient, needs improvement and unsatisfactory. And we say to everyone that we kind of all live and proficient. That's where we want majority of the people to be. And then we'll have a few people that might visit exemplary. And then we'll hopefully have just a few people that are going to be needs improvement or unsatisfactory. And this as of

070mid year, this is kind of where we're falling. Now, this data is a little different because it'll look a little different at the end of the year because these are people that have just finished like their evaluation cycle. So, a lot of these are continuing contract teachers that are going through their five-year renewal. So, right now we have 2.2% teachers that are scoring exemplary overall score, 85.7 that are proficient, 2.2 that needs improvement. We don't have any at this point that were unsatisfactory with that mid-year check. And then incomplete means that we just had a couple people that didn't get things signed that didn't come up and show us an overall score at this point. And we've actually have corrected those since then. And just jumping in to mark something she just said, this is

071their overall rating. So you could be a teacher who got out of all those indicators, you could have gotten three needs improvements, three exemplaries, but majority proficient, and you land in the proficient zone. So that doesn't mean there aren't areas that we don't need to work in. It's just that's the overall score. It's the average of all the indicators. >> Any questions about that? So, are there plans for the ones that are needing improvement? >> Yes, ma'am. So, if they end up scoring an unsatisfactory and they're going through a formal evaluation, we do have to put in an improvement plan to show how we are improving them before the end of the school year. All right. Any other questions? >> I think we're good. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Hang up. >> This chair is

072>> Yeah. back and forth. >> You're coming back, Jennifer. >> I know. >> So, next I'll give you update on our building safety walks that we committed for the fall um semester. So, our goal is around student and staff safety. You can see our commitment and the key performance indicator are the building walks. We'll do them in the fall and the spring. So, this is the team that I had join me this year. Um, I will say that it was it was interesting because what I wanted to do is pull some folks from the schools to join us. And so, if you came from elementary school and join the team, you went and walked a secondary school and the secondary folks came and walked elementary schools. And so, one of our uh teammates works at

073the secondary level and had never been to some of our elementary schools. So you get a different perspective and a different, you know, viewpoint as they touring those schools. And what I like to do moving forward when we have the spring, bring in a totally different APS and principles and bring in different groups so that way we always have different eyes looking on this. But this was our team. Um, so what we did is I had created a just general safety checklist kind of covered all things within the school building. So what some of the top areas were entry and access control. I'm walking around looking at doors, interior, exterior doors, are they locked? Staff badges, are they wearing them? Can you see them? Student badges where we've implemented those. Were those visible? Make sure

074our check-in systems were working properly. And just looking at signage, we have ignore the door, our SRP signage, and just all the signage within the buildings. Under safety systems, you can see all the areas um we were looking into, intercoms, cameras, cafeteria, you know, cleanliness, restrooms, those kind of things. Uh supervision and protocols. Um just as we were walking through the building, you know, were students being supervised? Were, you know, were teachers were the athlete on duty and in the hallways and in the common areas? Then we looked at our exterior and grounds. Look at our fencing. Did we have areas where we're missing fencing? Did we have areas that needed some repair work? Playground equipment, is it saved? You know, the mulch at the same levels it needs to be and those kind of

075things. The ballers, making sure those were in place. Parking lots, landscaping, shrubbery, want to make sure that doesn't obstruct the view um from out from the classrooms and those kind of things. uh parking lot, parking and buses, looking at our lighting, student vehicles, signage, looking at your parking lot lines and all those things within outside. And then the last area was emergency preparedness, looking at our emergency kits, first aid kits, and then AEDs. Do we have enough AEDs in our buildings? So what we did is as the team met um we broke into teams of two and we would go around the building. Uh elementary school probably took us a little over an hour or so to do the elementary schools just because of the size of the secondary schools. Um we divide and conquered.

076We were just two we would I would assign people to different areas. Um so next time some of the same people I'll put them on different areas of at the secondary level. So each member was given their checklist and they kind of made notes to themselves. And then after we did our walkthroughs, we sat down at the school as a team and kind of went around each one of those sections I just reviewed with you all and kind of pointed out areas of, you know, growth, areas of strength, um, things that we need to improve upon. And then at the end of this, um, I kind of consolidated all the team members ideas. is I consolidated everything and I shared all this information with the principles and I would say the majority of them we

077went and sat down with them oneonone um to kind of talk through them. Some little some took a little bit more than others and um so we did that and then what we what we ended up finding is uh Charlie and Chuck were on our walks as well and what we ended up finding most of it was maintenance and technology related. So, when I followed up with the email with our principles, I put who was responsible for addressing some of the issue. That way, there's no no, you know, you're not wondering who's going to take care of what. We've got all that kind of laid out. So, when I combine all sites and you look at the most common areas that that came up of areas of strength, these are the areas. Um, is this

078true in every site? No. In the example, are classroom doors locked? Did every site we visit have all classroom doors locked? They did not. But did the majority? Yes, they did. Um, so these were areas that we saw uh with strength. >> And might I add, where those doors weren't locked, it was addressed right then and there. >> Yes. Yes. >> So it was corrected at that time. Correct. >> Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. >> All right. So, were they not locked or just they were turned where they weren't locked when they were shut or I'm just curious. >> Um, we found some classroom doors that were um not locked at all. We found some that have that were open, which is okay, but they were still unlocked. Uh, we had some custodial closets that were

079unlocked. Um, but the majority of classrooms and closets were locked. And then the other one, um, active supervision in hallways. Um, was that in the case in all the buildings? No. But the majority of the buildings, lots of supervision. Anytime you saw students moving, uh, you did see an adult with them. And then areas of growth, uh, signage, as you know, we came in and put the, um, with the safety grant, we put some film in a lot of our common areas. And when that crew came in, the signage was gone and we put the when the film was put up there, we didn't go back in and put the signage. So, that was one thing we discovered there. Uh, it was put on. We have the door numbering system. Some of the door numberings

080are missing. So, we're having to work to replace those camera coverage gaps. As you all we can never have enough cameras, and so when you do these, you're always finding areas that we can increase upon there. fencing. As we looked at that, we saw areas that um in particular on our playgrounds that were not complete and just for safety of our students and those kind of things. Like I said, a lot of this ended up being a maintenance technology uh issue more than it was, you know, a principal or school issue. And that one of the other biggest ones is just our electrical closets. Um those should not have a whole lot in them and they've become storage for a lot of things. And so we're really working on trying to get those cleared out.

081So, our next steps, um, I will sit down. I gota allow them some time to address, uh, some of the things. Some of it takes a little bit longer than others. So, we'll sit down, I'll sit down with Charlie and Chuck over the next couple months, kind of see where they are. We've already touched base with principles to make sure they're good with the some of the things that were on their list and then we'll create our next team and then we'll go out here in the next few months and do our audits for the spring semester. So, I'm happy to answer any questions if you're if you have any. >> Is there a list like in each classroom of first responders so they know who they are? Like if say if I'm in a

082classroom, I got first responders posted somewhere. So, if something happens, I know who they are and I know where to find them. >> There's usually something on the door either right inside the classroom or on the door of each classroom. >> And are they strategically placed? I mean the first >> usually pretty consist somebody on each hall that's >> it's usually pretty consistent where it is. >> You mean one of them are certified? >> Right. Right. Like on each hall there's somebody a first responder that is CPR certified certified to use the defibrillators and stuff like that or do you have to go looking for them? >> Well usually not always but this is a very good point or question. Usually what happens is is if there's an emergency or a health issue etc. there's

083an immediate contact from the classroom to the office to the nurse to the principal who then or is basically every school has a a safety emergency team that's deployed immediately. >> And so that's typically how that works because with a substitute and and people moving from and about um what most people are trained to do is to get um administration and the nurse involved immediately. >> But that's a very good question. But the reason I'm asking is like just for example where I work in in our offices there's a list and people's pictures and these are your first responders. So if you have an issue >> you know where they're at you know you know who to call >> um and you know and they and they have the ones that are certified to use

084the defibrillator thing and you know and CPR and stuff like that. I what I'm I guess my question is if something happened would they have to go look for somebody >> or would they say hey I know who this is let's get let's get >> they would immediately call the office and nurse >> I I will say during our walks we we had a hard time finding some of the AEDs and so we're trying to work on signage that would you would be that would be visible from the hallway so that if you know heaven forbid the nurse is not there that day that people know where you know somebody's in the building and we also um have a couple of areas where we think we need add some AEDs that we don't think we

085have a sufficient amount of them in in particular at the middle school and high school. >> Thank you Amy. >> You're gonna see some overlap because with um school climate part of that is safety making sure you feel safe. So you're probably going to see some overlap in some of the areas. Again, we are in the goal number three, positive and caring climate and culture. And this key performance indicator, we're just doing these semianual school culture walks. So we do them in the fall and in the spring. This is our team made up mostly of district office people due to, you know, we were the time constraints of when we were going and then we were trying to go in different times of the day. So we kind of saw buildings and transitions of lunch,

086sometimes it might be morning, sometimes it might be afternoon. So we kind of hit them at different times of the day, but just a broad range of people that are on this committee from different aspects and have different insights and perspectives. So not all instructional people, not all HR people, you know, from other areas and departments. And then our checklist, we kind of did some things all similar to what Amy did. We did exterior grounds, but we were looking more of what does that school climate say about the building when you walk up? Does it look inviting? Does it look like do you know where to go? Where do is there enough signage to tell a visitor where the main entrance is, how to check in, how to do those kind of things. Um, also

087where the lobby and reception area is. And then looking into the safety and order. Is the school maintained and safe and well, you know, maintained and is it supervised? Also, is it clean? And when you walk in, does it look inviting? Um, but also looking at just the what's visible in the building, like student work. Is it visible within the building? Can we see some of the student work outside of the classrooms that students are doing? Do we know what that work is? Because sometimes, you know, it might be displayed, but we may not know why they did this work. So, making sure there was some kind of um knowledge of the standard, what they were covering, kind of the purpose behind that work. But just looking at all those areas and just making sure

088our areas are inviting for not just our students but also for our community and then interactions and relationships between students and staff and staff and other staff members. Just making sure that's a positive culture that we don't see any kind of negativity in that aspect. And then also looking at instructional climate. We went into classrooms observed and just to kind of see like how that the teacher is supporting the students in the classroom. Is the teacher circulating the room? Is she helping students? What does that kind of look like as far as an instructional climate? Also looking at communication and customer service. So when um someone comes into the office, are they greeted quickly by the office staffed? Is there information up in the office about the school and about the building or other things

089that are happening within our community? And just making sure that we have good customer service because our parents are our customers and our students are our customers. And then that culture of belonging, just making sure that we are making everybody feel welcome, not just, you know, our B all our multil- language people also that we have signage that has not just English, but also other languages that's available so they can know where to go when they need to come into a building. And then family visitor access and support. Just making sure again that they know how to check in and how to visit their child and what that um check-in system does and and the instructions of that. And then also that there's information and other things available for them in the front office about

090the school and other community events. And then the maintenance and safety and accessibility, just making sure it's well cleaned, safe, um everything's working, there's no all emergency lighting is working and that the restrooms are clean for our visitors and everyone else, too. So, the process, we did similar process to Amy. We broke up into teams of two and walked the building and then each team member completed their checklist. Our checklist was um kind of comprised of some things with the red pocket schools. I don't know if you remember um the south state South Carolina did wreck Harbit schools several years ago and it talks a lot about customer service. So that was part of what we put into our checklist with some of those same qualities that they were looking for. And then we came

091back together and did a debriefing as a whole group and then we came up with key strengths and areas of growth and next steps and actions that we wanted to share with each principal. And after each one of these I did the same thing as Amy. compiled it and then sent that out to principles in a kind of consensus of everything that we saw for them in their specific school. And then overall for the district, these are some areas of strength. I'm not going to read all these to you, but um we are very um welcoming. to say overall and we were have a very positive student staff interaction and students and staff were very respectful when we were in the buildings with their interactions with each other and even students as student which kind

092of shocked some of us because we were expecting differently sometimes maybe when we went to like the high school or other areas like that. But what we did witness is they were still very respectful of each other and the expectations are clear and there's strong supervision within our buildings. We, you know, were very proud of when we saw transitions, how smooth they were and how much supervision that we did see like especially at the middle school when that building's not the most conducive for transitions, but how much staff has been placed into certain areas to make sure that they are able to move in that building and have some freedom of movement but be supervised at the same time. And they're very our facilities are very clean and safe and well-maintained. Uh many schools display

093clear mission and vision statements and goals and so when someone is to walk in they knew the purpose of that building and kind of what were they working on in that building and student and staff accomplish accomplishments were frequently celebrated and reinforced and then some areas of growth just some consistency around the the signage for our um SRP just making sure again that some of that signage is up and that we haven't removed it to do some repairs and not put it back. um making sure our exterior doors are the numbers are labeled and correct. Um and then also o offering our SRP. We offer it in um Spanish and not just English and making sure we have those both displayed for all our visitors, especially in the main areas of like the cafeteria, the

094gym, the main hallway, those kind of areas that they would be frequently visiting. And then instructional displays, just making sure that they were kind of the quality was consistent, it was up to-date and standard aligned. Um we did we kept saying we don't want to see turkeys in January. That should not be happening. Um visitor experience. Um making sure that it's very it's was kind of consistent from building to building. But just making sure that we're clear as to where those entry points are because some buildings it's hard to know like the middle school. It's kind of hard to know where the main office is located. So just making sure we're being consistent around that. And then facility maintenance items. Just some things like simple things like restroom supplies, some lighting like maybe some bulbs

095were, you know, out that had not been maybe reported and things like that and just minor repairs and maybe some paint in different places that maybe like a board had been removed and had not been repaired after. And then student centered instructional practices, just making sure we're being consistent across the board. We know that, you know, several buildings have really taken ownership of that, but some buildings are still kind of dipping their toes in the water. So kind of getting that to be more um seen across all schools in our district. And then so the dis district action steps next just ensure that our principles have access to all the SRP signage in both English and Spanish and just make and evacuation maps and that they have reviewed all their secure entrance protocols and making

096sure that they have those at all those secure entrances and establish district expectations around instructional displays, letting them know kind of this is what our expectations are around those displays and updating hallway displays and making sure they're staying current. and then standardizing our vi visitor entry just to make sure that they know directional signage like for example Jefferson is one that's kind of confusing because their line their the way their car line is and how it kind of has to you know their pattern but so when a visitor comes in knowing exactly how to go through that pattern to get to a visitor park >> I want to say to that I know Amy you did this but when we noticed that those gates and c the gates have And I'm glad we did that.

097>> Oh yeah. >> Because the gates actually forced people to go certain directions. >> Exactly. Exactly. And there's some signage sometimes in direction alleys like Hunter Street there is some signage but it's kind of small. So sometimes it's hard to see. that we talked about. Maybe if looking at increasing the size of that signage to maybe be a little bit more visible and just making sure that we're, you know, continuing to strengthen that school culture by supporting our principles using this walkthrough feedback and um hopefully we'll see good results in the second semester and following up behind some of these climates. But it was overall very great experiences and I will say the people that were on the committee are not people that are normally in the buildings and they were very um very surprised

098in what they saw and how great things were in our buildings as far as climate is concerned. >> All right question. >> So how long how long did y'all spend in each building? >> About the same as Amy. About an hour for elementary. Middle and high of course took us a little bit longer. about an hour and a half to two hours. Um, high school, we ended up dividing out by sections. Like when we went into the elementary school, we went into teams, but we all kind of covered the whole building. But when we went to the high school, we kind of separated into like halls. So like we had like maybe two people go upstairs a hall and two people go maybe a B hall and kind of spread out a little bit better

099like that. So that way you weren't covering the whole entire building. So, and then this second semester, we'll kind of switch up who was assigned to which hallway, so that way they're seeing something different, but about the same time frame. >> Any other questions, comments? >> Thank you. >> No problem. So, we're going budget update, correct? >> Want to make sure I didn't miss something in there. All right. T the season, it's budget time. Um, so tonight I want to share with you our capital request. Our principles and our our directors um submitted their request prior to leaving for Christmas break. And so we did our process a little different this year. Um, in the past years we had a tendency to see devices and panels and painting and all those things. And so prior

100to sending all the information out to the principles, uh Charlie and Chuck and I sat down and said, "Okay, what are the things that we know we're going to take care of?" So we came up with our own three-year plan, and these are the things that were in that, the panel replacement, devices, cameras, intercom, painting, HVAC, all those things. And so we told the principles, when you submit your request this year, there's no need to ask for that because that it's going to happen. So let's just don't ask for that. So we gave that to them ahead of time. And then of course we always ask for them to prioritize their all their capital requests, put them in your order. So what you're going to see tonight is the request directly from the principles and

101the order and their priority order that they submitted. And what I'll do, um, we'll just kind of go school by school and I won't read them to you, but you've had a chance to look at them before, but if you have any questions, um, about any of the requests or whatever, I'll be happy to answer those. So here we have Cotton Belt and Harold C. Johnson. >> So the electronic marquee stuff is that talking about the signs out front? >> Yes. >> So one of the things over time, even before I was on the board, I can remember there was a lot of discussion and Miss Johnson, you probably remember this of making them the same, right? And I know it's been the thing the high school sign I think I asked you about like

102it's it doesn't work half the time. We know there's issues there. So I know it's on a lot of these list, right? >> So do we look at h how we start integrating or take one school at a time and say this is the sign we want. This is what we wanted to be and we wanted to be every school. >> Yeah. >> And I we've had these conversations and so >> you know like I said years ago these conversations happened too. >> That's right. That's right. And we want to our our goal our future goal is to have an electronic sign at every school. Um as you know when we issue our 8% debt all these items that are right here that we do that unfortunately eats up the majority of it. >> Um

103but it is on our list. It's something that we've talked about something that we want to move forward with. The schools the principles know that. It's just a matter of of timing and I totally agree with you on the consistency of the signs. >> I just think whatever we do, I want us to be cognizant of this is the look we want. What whatever that might be, right? >> Well, it helps with Chuck when having to get parts for things, too. That's exactly right. >> Well, I know the high school one is, I guess, an oddball now. >> That one and the middle school. >> Middle school. They're oddball signs, right? >> Explain what the catwalk is at the front car rider area. In my brain, I'm picturing one thing for a catwalk, but I

104>> So, at the front of Harold C. Johnson, they have drop off for the younger kids up front, and there's not a covered walkway. >> Okay. Got it. >> So, she would like a covered walkway going down that sidewalk. >> Public school has been through it. >> Yeah. Her prek through first grade. >> That's been a wish list item. >> That's right. For a long time. >> And that's a costly much needed. Um that is that is a costly item. You'll see a couple of those requests in here. >> Yeah. >> And they're all needed, all valid. >> Any more questions on those two? >> Just to clarify my statement, our machines, we put catwalks around them when they're big, tall, metal gray. >> Okay, moving on. >> I put in the requests as they

105were handed to me. >> I'm thinking of theater with the >> I like the catalog. Uh, so next three, Hickory Grove, um, Hunter Street, and Jefferson. >> So, was this the only things given to you? >> Hickory Gro sher and I I was >> It didn't have much. >> There's not much on there, right? And I And I want to make sure we're not missing something if that makes sense. No, I submitted their in their words and and their >> Well, no, but I'm just saying like is there something else that should have that one stood out to me of are there other things that we really should be thinking about even if it's not on this list? And I know that's odd to say, right? But um >> you know, some people are going

106to be more I've got to have this versus wish list, right? >> Yeah. I just want to make sure we cover Hickory Grove Sharing with >> And of course, they're on the list for all the technology, you know, the replacements of all that. Yeah. >> Is the pavement and parking lots good there at Hickor. >> Actually, we did it on the U main parking side and the bus stop all completely redone. >> Five lanes out there. >> That's true. >> They had to add a lane. They had to add It's nice. I mean, we had to go in and redo all that. That's that's a science. >> I just I would like for us to I don't know to me we should double check when there's one item on a list. Not that it didn't

107come across with needs. Just just I don't want to take away from something that might be needed because it's not on list either. >> Okay. >> Not questioning anybody's authority or opinion, but it just seems odd to have one item on. >> It may need more than that one. >> Yeah. It's got to be right. >> Yes. Any other questions on these? >> So, the the main office windows on that one. Um, I know we've been talking about some of the safety stuff with main office windows or is that something totally different there >> under Jefferson? >> Jefferson. >> Um, she's having some condensation and stuff built. >> So, nothing to do with what we've been talking about. That's a different Okay. >> Yeah. intermediate, the middle school, and the high school. >> Got catwalks

108again. >> So, I thought the I thought the I thought the band stuff was a like it says symbols, stands. I thought that was a separate line item that we said ban had line item >> upgrading their equipment and just allocating money to that each year. But this is something she's wanting additional stuff. >> Okay. So >> because we went for so long where we didn't address some of the band equipment and then it just got handed down from the high school to the middle school to the intermediate school. So we really have putting a lot of effort over the past few years replacing equipment at every single school. So these are things that >> that is an addition to Okay. >> What is a harmony director? >> It's some kind of technology tool. It's

109a um some kind of software that they're wanting to use at all levels. Everybody good? >> Then we move into our departments. Most of all that is um under ESC and obviously instructions. a lot of the software that we currently use and supporting professional development. >> What was the the only one that stood out to me on this one was the passenger van thing. I I didn't understand that. >> But Jessica's um parent educators transporting supplies and a lot of times the families can't drive to them and just to not have >> actually for the family. Okay. >> Yeah. For her three parent educators for them not have to use their personal vehicles. Okay. Am I good on those? >> Would that be like would that be a capital expense? Like what would that be?

110>> It'd be no different than u buying the vehicles for maintenance and >> it'd be treated the same as >> Yeah, that's right. Part of our fleet. Okay. >> Like the driver's ed car, those kind of things. Any questions on testing and transportation? >> Is the mini bus a replacement or a just they need another one? Because I didn't follow that one. >> It's uh a both. >> It is. We have >> be both. this guy. >> Well, we have we have two 22 passengers and we have one 14 passenger and it of course that one's 24 years old. >> Well, and it's small. >> And it's small and adding on this middle school. And the reason we've got the three big ones is because it's taken us a year and a half to two

111years to get one activity bus. And so when I asked Daffany to kind of take a look at this, I was like, I be thinking ahead because we're already some of our buses are showing we need to replace two. Two are rest one's restricted. So just within York kind of, you know, in York County and one's one's restricted even just city of York. Um >> age limit or >> Yeah, it's just Yeah, they're just aging out. So we need to replace those, but we also are trying to order one. We need to order one for the new middle school. Do those go through the state fleet at all? How does that work? >> For the activity buses, no, they're on state contract. >> But they're still on state contract. >> They're on state contract. It's

112just as long if we're not order them in bulk, we everybody gets put to the side. So I get it. >> I mean, we're still waiting on two large buses now that we ordered almost two years ago. >> And I'll say over the years, we've done a really good job for there for so long. we just unfortunately didn't have the capacity, the money available to keep up with our bus fleet on a true replacement cycle. And so over the past few years, we have been purchasing. And so now that's kind of what we've done with a lot of with our maintenance fleet, our bus fleet is kind of replacing that and coming up with a true replacement cycle so we're not having to replace everything at one time. >> And then the portable restroom, I

113was not following that. Maybe I just totally missed it. Daffany, she laughed when she made this request because I mean she is in a mobile unit. Um, and she's got 60 people all in there at one time and there are two restrooms in there. So, we're trying to think not pink portable, not not that kind of thing, but she's trying to she's trying to her explanation was some kind of nice outside restroom. Um >> like a trailer >> like the trailer I'm picturing is yes the trailer like you have >> yes almost something like that I can't have Porter John sitting on the property but if this is something we do but she said it sometimes it is a problem when you've got 60 people coming in tight space and there at the same time

114because I mean and they're limited on their time and it's two restrooms. >> I just didn't know that that's what it was for. >> Yeah, that's what it's for. She's still in a mobile unit, >> but she's outgrown. >> So, how do we address that? >> I was just thinking the same thing. That almost seems like something needs to be budgeted as how do we have a permanent structure? >> At some point in time, we have to think about a permanent structure. Um, unfortunat, you know, Daphany does a ton. She brings the drivers in and she does a phenomenal job training them. And so she uses cotton belt and thank you know Miss Hoy Megan's great and she allows them to use the media center cafeteria but you know that's right that's right. So um

115we at some point in time we're going to have to address the building issue out there >> and with that comes all the parking for the buses that's required too. >> Yeah. I mean you're talking millions of dollars for a bus facility. Many many millions of dollars if you did that. Are you getting rid of that? >> Oh, yeah. There. Yeah. I just that portable. I don't like it. I mean, not I don't like the request. I don't want you to take it down. Right. Right. >> How do we better serve that? That's what I'm trying to get to. >> That's right. >> We need to let's continue that conversation of how we I I don't know that that's the answer. I think we need a better answer, but I don't know what that is.

116>> I'm with you. >> I think it's a good request. Yeah, it's a need. >> I just don't think that's the answer. >> Yeah, we got to figure out what comes >> and we do spend some more money other than that in in my opinion. >> Okay, >> I guess it's a good thing our athletic conference got realized so I don't have to go to Columbia anymore. >> Okay, you can't leave the county. We good. >> That's one less I have to replace, right? >> Oh goodness. And as I sat down with maintenance tech technology, we came up with the three-year plan. So these items were some of the ones that are on the plans for this next season. And then of course under safety the our badge system that you all we've discussed. >>

117So how anything that has YMS on it, I'll be honest with you, I'm like I think we I'm making this request from us. We need to talk about anything we do at York M school because I do not want to spending taxpayer dollars on stuff that we can either I know we can't push off some things. I get it. But I also don't want to keep putting money to a lost cause at some point on some of that. I just don't think we should do it. That's a very very one. >> So I think not that we as a board have to approve, but I think anything with York Middle School, we need to we need to at least converse about it at a meeting or have discussions on what we do or don't do.

118>> And you've been really good at that over time, but I just think that's one we need to note, >> put a little aster beside. And if it gets to where that comes to fruition, then we'll >> right >> here. You guys >> some of the things and I for instance under technology are things that we feel like we need to to take care of, but it's things we could possibly take with us to. >> Oh yeah, that's different. >> So we're thinking about we're trying to think trying to That's right. That's right. If it's in a wall that's has that maybe I'm using a totally different example just because aesthetics well you're never going to get that money back. >> That's right. That's right. So we're kind of think about that too is if

119we do this could we take >> pieces of it or all of it with us if we if something comes up. So we're trying to keep all that in mind as well. >> And then the badge system that's just what we've been talking about over time. So that's no change there. >> That's no change there. And quite honestly, we're going to wait till we get our new person on board and then >> which we said. Right. >> That's right. >> So, that was it as far as um the requests go and kind of where we are with that. I like to follow up with the principles on, you know, let them know one way or another whether we'll be able to do those things or not. So, every year when we issue our 8% debt,

120we issue in the fall of every year. It's one year debt. we pay it off in the spring. What I do first is take care of the maintenance technology items that we need to take care of and kind of see what's left and then trying to see what we can do. As you know, unfortunately, some of these are some big ticket items. So, unfortunately, we can't get to everything and not that one's more important over the other. They're all important. Um, but once we once I get to that point to decide um what I can and can't do this year is not to say I might not be able to do it next year. Um we I'll follow up with the principles, have conversations with them, and so that way they know what we'll be

121able to take care of. Just big picture, uh where we are at the state level, the governor, um presented his budget, and you can see that he is requesting increasing the starting teacher salary from 48,500 to 50,500. And what that means is on the teacher salary schedule, every sale on that scale will be increased by $2,000. Now, his and that, you know, that was his goal as governor by the time he left that it was going to be 50,000. We pay slightly above that. Ours is at 50,5155 or something like that. Yeah, 51555. And um so what I'm doing right now, that was the proposal under our state superintendent was proposal under the governor and that's kind of what it's leaning towards as it goes through the general assembly. So that's how we'll start as

122I start working on the budget. That's how I'm going to start the teacher salary schedule is going in and increasing each one of those sales by $2,000. So that's where we are with that. And then of course he has allocated money to purchase for new school buses, our school safety grants. We've been fortunate enough that the past couple we have applied for, we have received some of the requests and some of the things in here that you saw tonight would fall under those school safety grants. I've also shared all these requests with Jane Wallace to help to look for potential grant opportunities to help fund some of these as well. So, please know we're doing that. SRO's we now he reported out there's now a SRO in every school in South Carolina and so they'll

123continue to allocate money to sustain them and then they'll allocate money for our summer reading camp and then we just have next steps. Um as you know it's uh going to be fast and furious at state level. the Ways and Means will start debating the budget in the next couple of weeks and then it'll go to the full house uh the week of March 10th and that's when we'll receive our first projections as it comes through House Ways and Means and kind of see what things are going to look like for next year. So, we have multiple budget work sessions coming up along with our stakeholder input and then as normal we have our first reading at at May and then public hearing and second final reading in June. So, we still got a long

124way to go, very early in the process and a lot of information will be coming from the state to us. >> And I wanted to add to that, not just for budget, but from the state looking there is a lot of school bills this year. There are a lot of them. So, if you haven't paid attention, this is a year that it's election season and they're I'm just going to be blunt. They're using it, right? So, um, just there's a lot of bills for education that's in there that are may or may not affect us, but just to throw that out there. >> I will say >> and maybe Heath next work session, y'all go through the ones that because by next work session, we'll kind of know where they stand or at least if

125they're voting on them, right? >> I will Sorry, that's okay. I will say that the State Department finance office, I get emails from them constantly as these bills come through, they call them fiscal impacts. And so they'll reference the bill and they'll ask they'll have a just a standard form you need to fill out and ask what the fiscal impact is. Some of the turnaround is just impossible. And I get it because they're getting thing they're they're getting things from general assembly and like some days it's like we need a you need a fiscal impact by the end of the day or we need it tomorrow. Occasionally they'll give us a few days to turn it around and provide a fiscal impact statement. So we try to I I do not get them all. Um

126but we do try to respond as to as much of those as we can. >> Even like the bathroom thing, there's no way you can say if we had to add a bathroom to every school, right? How much? There's no way you turn that around in a day, right? I mean, that's the reason I'm saying there are things that depending on how they go, they may they may or may not affect us, right? >> That's right. That's right. >> Well, that's a actual annual conference. Some of those will probably come up. >> A lot of those will probably come up for you guys. >> Okay. Any questions about capital projects, budgets? At least we don't have a roof. >> Our next round is round. >> Yeah, we're looking into uh the salaries especially on the

127the entry level starting salary of like teachers assistants. Bumping that up because if you get a if a teacher has a good assistant, they're priceless in that classroom. And the amount of money that we're paying them is it's not liveable. You know, >> I know we had asked about too the the teacher assistance for the unencumbered time. So I do want to follow back on that. >> And we sent I don't know do we have >> I mean how much like is a cost to it too, right? >> Yes, we do have the data back. So we Jennifer I asked her to do this um to send out to every school to see what every single IA's support staff person's hours are. >> Okay, >> for alignment and we're not in alignment. So we'll be

128coming to you to talk about that. But start time, end time versus what they're being paid, how many hours versus if they're taking lunch or not. So we we have some things that we've got to analyze and then clean up. >> And like I said, the reason I said some of that might relate to budget, but we don't know >> for sure. Okay, that's a good point, David. >> Yep. >> Okay, >> I think we're good with >> ready to move on to policies. >> Yes, ma'am. >> All right, >> so the policies I have before you tonight are the ones that we discussed. Gosh, it's been a while. I feel like it's been months ago now, but it were the some of the ones that were part of the school board association legislative update.

129And some of these pertain to contractual things, personnel things, and we had asked y'all asked for legal to review those. So, I'm bringing those back before you tonight. Um, I'll just kind of hit the highlights on the first one, GBC. The changes that I shared with you at our original work session, those were reviewed by legal and they had no problems with this one. Okay. The next one is GCB. Again, that one was re reviewed by legal and then they had they had no issues that. So, there's no changes from what you all saw from the first time we talked about them. This one they had, and Jennifer, you might want to chime in here in a minute. under um contract releases, they did say that we may want to adjust this date and they

130put in the notes kind of showing you what some of the other districts um has have in their policies and I don't know if Jennifer if you have a recommended date or what you're thinking, but they do think we might need to modify that date. >> Part of the question when we talked about it originally, right, was did all did everything line up? >> That's right. That's right. That's right. They were saying that we need to kind of back it up a little bit just because of the fact that down that we do contracts so early, we need to make sure we have and with we don't want to get stuck in July looking for someone and we released them for their contract. So I suggest we go to the April 25th date. Um that's

131kind of what York 2 is doing and you know that kind of gives us plenty of time. You know that's a long time away. But then the May date, May 11th, that's when all contracts are due. >> That probably is a good time because that just is in their brain anyway that that's the time. >> So what I'm sorry, sorry. So the April date would be for what? >> That would be for us not to release from a contract. >> Not to release. Okay. >> So I suggested May 11th because that's the date that contracts are due back to us. And if they have not turned it in by that point, then we are already saying that they're not going to have a contract for next year. So, this would say like if someone, let's

132say on May 12th, decides that they're getting a job in Clover and they want to be released from their contract, it gives us that leeway of saying that we don't release unless we have a suitable replacement. Does that make sense? We've kind of had that July is the date before, which >> is very late and it puts us in a in a pickle of five, >> especially that school I didn't mean to interrupt you, but especially since our school calendar has changed. That's right. We haven't changed that. >> That's right. Exactly. >> That's the same discussion we've had over time of it just didn't make sense. Right. >> Was that the only change that >> So, the other change was they recommended um for the written request for the contract to release to establish a

133deadline. They felt like that would be helpful helpful. So, they put in here no later than 30 days prior to the deadline set forth in the policy >> and not putting a date on it. That makes sense. >> Yeah. And so we we think that's a great change. >> So I guess the question is are you all so the only change we really will add that and then are we okay with the May 11th date to put in this policy? >> I think that's what you bring forward for us for our vote. >> And then those were the only two recommendations they had on that one. >> And then the next one u legal review that one they were okay with all the changes in that one as well. And then the last one here,

134um, you can see that they said on here that, um, they suggested we might want to consider keeping three the three items that are listed in their their bulleted box. They suggested we probably keep that and put that back in there. And so our recommendation is to accept that and put it add those back in. Other than that, they didn't have any any changes with any of those. Go back to the previous one because I'm trying to remember when I looked at this. >> There's somewhere it talks about the supervisor. I know we changed it superintendent, but which one is that one? >> Which that's >> Yeah. See where it said we had superintendent. I'm trying to remember why. I read that and I couldn't remember why we changed it in the third paragraph. >>

135Supervisor superintendent. >> Superintendent scratched out. Yeah, we and I couldn't remember why we changed that and I don't know if anybody remembers but we scratched out superintendent >> I think it and I could be wrong on this but I think typically it's because the recommendation comes from >> the principal >> to the superintendent >> and that's fine. I just couldn't remember why we said that. >> If that's the reason that's fine. >> Okay. I just I couldn't get that in my head. >> And then that was it. >> Everybody good? >> So, what I'll do is I'll go in and the ones we didn't make changes and the ones we did accept those changes and then these will come before you next on Tuesday for first reading. >> See you soon. >> Thank everybody for

136what you presented. We appreciate everybody's time on those. I know that was a lot of information especially visiting schools. I know how long that takes. So, we do appreciate everybody's time on that and reporting all that. So, thank you. Um Dr. Brando, did you have anything else for the agenda? >> I do not. I just want to remind everyone that the visit to Cotton Belt is on I just left my head on Monday which was we had to change it because of the weather. So we we and and we'll we reminded you of that but I know you get a lot of information. Um if you can make it that'll be great. Um Cotton Bell's excited to to host us. Um then of course our our regularly call meeting for February is Tuesday evening. >>

137So does anybody have um any need for any additional executive session? >> All right. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So move. >> Have a motion by Mr. Anderson, second by Miss Johnson. All those in favor say I. I oppose. No. We are now adjourned.