RHS School Board Meeting 05-12-26

001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Good evening everyone. Welcome to the May 12th meeting of the Rock Hill School Board. We'd like to call this meeting to order. We'd first like to begin with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence. Please stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Lovely to see all the faces in the crowd tonight. This is really exciting. Our first action on the agenda is the approval of the agenda. Do we have a motion to approve? Ma- Madam Chair, prior to that, I'm going to make a motion to amend the agenda to delay or postpone the presentations of the continuous improvement plans. That's for Richmond

002Drive, Ebenezer, and York Road, um, to a later meeting. Um, I would prefer, I know I sent out an email and I apologize. It was Sunday or before I actually read it and sent it out to get the map data so we can see the the current achievement level of the predictive current achievement level and the predictive growth level prior to making um the presentation. And let me explain my reason why. Um I do believe that the state gives a responsibility to school board members with these continuous improvement plans. I do believe that's the reason why um we they the principals are required to present those plans um to the school board um so our community has an idea of where we are academically, which is our most important function, and I do not believe

003these presentations are perfunctory presentations. We need to take them seriously. So, I would prefer we not hear it until we have the data that we can read, understand it, so we can actively engage with the um continuous improvement plans when they're presented, particularly at this time of year when all of the data has come in in terms of the formative and summative assessments of the children. Okay, there is a motion on the floor to amend the agenda to remove the presentations um under presentations A for Richmond Drive Ebenezer Avenue Elementary, I'm sorry, and York Road. Um is there a second? Okay. Um well, without a second, the motion does fail. Uh thank you, Dr. Belton. Um so, that said, we're going to go back to the original agenda. So, um is there a motion to

004approve the agenda as is presented uh today? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? All opposed. And I believe that we have two on the line. So, I should have waited for that. Yeah, I apologize. Can y'all hear? Yeah, I can hear. Helena dropped off. Okay. Do you Miss Harris. >> Yeah, I I Yay or nay? On the agenda. >> Yay. Yay. Yay. Yay. Okay. The motion to approve the agenda carries 5-1. All right. We are going to start with our recognitions for the night. We've got several great recognitions. Like I said, all these wonderful faces in the crowd tonight. And we are going to start with our Palmetto gold and silver awards. Dr. Elder. Thank you so much, Madam Vice Chair, members of the

005board. I am so pleased to recognize five of our elementary schools. Palmetto The Palmetto gold award is received by Cherry Park Elementary and Independence Elementary. Go ahead and come on up when I call your school name represented by their principals. Um The Palmetto gold and silver awards are extremely prestigious. Only 378 schools earned this distinction, placing Rock Hill schools among the top state's performing districts and schools. That is uh 75% No, no, it's not. It's 1/3 of our elementary schools have received this top award in the entire state. Um next we have our silver awards. Ebenezer Elementary, India Hook Elementary, and Oakdale Elementary are also represented. This award is highly coveted in the state state of South Carolina. Each school received a celebration banner to be displayed on their campus as a visible symbol of

006excellence displayed right there at the door. The awards are tied to annual report card ratings. The recipients for the 2025-2026 school year will be announced next year. And so with that, let's hear a huge round OF APPLAUSE FOR >> [applause] [applause] >> ALL RIGHT, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. NEXT UP, WE have our School to Watch redesignation. A redesignation, that's pretty awesome for Castle Heights Middle School. Dr. Elder. Castle Heights Middle School is redesignated as a School to Watch reaffirming their long-standing commitment to academic excellence. This distinction is awarded through the National Forum to accelerate middle grades education and they recognize six 600 middle schools across the entire country that demonstrate exemplary performance and best practices in educating young adolescents. This is an earned and maintained designation. They have to reapply every 3 years. Yes, come

007on up Castle Heights. We are so proud of you. This is their fifth time in a row, I believe, which is really an incredible accomplishment. We are incredibly proud of Castle Heights. We have our their administration with us this evening and are incredibly proud of the work that the teachers and absolutely everyone in the school puts in each and every day. So, congratulations Castle Heights. >> [applause] >> That's awesome. Not only are we winning on the field, we're winning in the classroom. So, congratulations Castle Heights. And next up, we have our introduction of new administrators. Dr. Elder. I get to have all the fun tonight. I just love this. I really am thrilled to announce our latest four new elementary school principals as part of our incoming leadership cohort, bringing the total to nine outstanding

008new principals teed up and ready to go for the 2026-2027 school year. As with our previous principal selections, the each candidate participated in a very thorough and collaborative process that included staff and parent engagement. Interview panels representing all levels of the district as well as community and families and valuable input from community and parents. As you'll hear, each of these leaders brings incredible experience, strong credentials, and most importantly, a very deep commitment to our students right here in Rock Hill. I'm very excited for the impact that they will have leading four of our elementary schools. So, we're going to go in alphabetical order by principal last name. So, Ms. Tara Blackwell, COME ON UP. >> [cheering] [applause] >> MAKE NO MISTAKE, SUNSET Park is a little excited to have Ms. Blackwell step up to the

009principal role. She has been the assistant principal at Sunset Park. She has worked there for the last 22 years. She came up in the in the school from a teacher, math and GT instructional coach, assistant principal. She actually started teach started out teaching kindergarten. She holds a bachelor's and master's in education and educational leadership from Winthrop, as well as a master of technology in education from Lesley University. So, we are thrilled to have her lead the school into a beautiful new building that we will be cutting the ribbon on in July, along with current current principal Ms. BARNES, DR. BARNES. >> [cheering] >> ALL RIGHT, MOUNT GALLANT, GET READY because here comes Ms. Jamie Cochran. Ms. Cochran comes to Mount Gallant from India Hook Elementary, where she has served as an assistant principal. She has

010worked in Rock Hill schools for 26 years. She was an assistant principal in four of our elementary schools. She She our district well, top to bottom, corner to corner. She is a former assistant principal of the year for Rock Hill schools. She holds a Master of Education from both USC on the east side and Columbia College and attended Winthrop for her BA in early childhood education. This opportunity is especially meaningful for Ms. Cochran um because this brings her learning full circle. She started for the very first time at Mount Gallant as an elementary school student. And so we are thrilled to have you join the Mount Gallant family. I KNOW. LESLIE, ARE YOU IN THE HOUSE? YEAH, I'M IN THE HOUSE. OKAY. [laughter] DR. Tanner Tanner Slegal has been named the new PRINCIPAL FOR MOUNT

011DR. SLEGAL STARTED UM HIS CAREER teaching student teaching um here in the Rock Hill schools. Most recently he has served as Leslie's assistant principal. He also spent time teaching third and fifth grades and served as a math instructional coach at Ebenezer Elementary and Sterling Elementary in the Charlotte Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District. He holds his bachelor's in early childhood education from Winthrop University as well as a master's in education administration and a doctorate in curriculum studies both from the University of South Carolina. Dr. Slegal is excited to lead and I know that we are excited for all that he's going to do to build on the Leslie legacy. Oakdale Elementary, Ms. Jasmine Spain, please come up and join us. >> [applause] >> MS. SPAIN JOINS OAKDALE FROM Richland One, bringing 16 years of experience in education and

012a strong foundation in both teaching and leadership. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Winthrop and is eager to get back to Rock Hill and a Master's of Education from Columbia College. She also holds a Master of Science in Leadership in Educational Administration from Capella University. Her depth of experience combined with her commitment to student success and instructional excellence makes her the absolute right choice to lead Oakdale Elementary. So, welcome to Rock Hill Schools, Ms. Spain. Warm welcome FOR YOU. ALL RIGHT, WE'VE GOT SOME GREAT NEW LEADERS. SO, continue to lead us INTO THE FUTURE. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL. ALL RIGHT, next up is citizen participation, Ms. Gammons. We have none tonight. All right, thank you very much. Uh next on the agenda is the consent action agenda and there are two things.

013Well, yes, two things. The minutes from the April 28th school board business meeting and the April 28th school board work session. As well as some personal recommendations. Uh recommendations, excuse me. >> [clears throat] >> Do I have a motion to approve the consent action agenda as listed on the agenda? So moved. Thank you, Mr. Burns. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Ms. Daniel. Is there any discussion? I'm hearing none. All those in favor? I. I. All opposed? That was all seven, so motion carried 7-0. Thank you. All right. Uh we don't have an action agenda today and we don't have any communications on the agenda today. So we have an opportunity to move into our presentations starting with our continuous improvement plan updates, which is goal one of the four goals and we would

014like to welcome up Mr. Robert Ham, principal of Richmond DRIVE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. >> [applause] [applause] >> GOOD EVENING, VICE CHAIR HUTCHINSON, MEMBERS OF THE BOARD, and Dr. Elder. I am Robert Ham, the proud extremely proud principal of Richmond Drive Elementary, and I want to take a moment to recognize and thank the incredible staff for BEING HERE TONIGHT. THANK YOU FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY TO share and highlight the progress of our students and staff as we continue to grow and improve our academic success. As you know, we are a Title 1 school that celebrates a very diverse and proud population. These pictures highlight that we are dedicated to to developing the whole child while creating meaningful experiences. It also highlights the incredible staff that makes Richmond Drive a truly magnificent school. Regarding our continuous improvement plans, you

015will hear from three school principals this evening and each of us have used the structure of the continuous improvement plan to drive our work forward. As a reminder for the state report cards, academic achievement is for third, fourth, and fifth grades in math and ELA achievement. Preparing for success is fourth grade science only. Multilingual learners progress is measured by WIDA. Student progress is fourth and fifth graders only in growth. School climate is a perception survey taken by all certified teachers and third, fourth, and fifth grade students. As you know, preparing for success and school climate are the key factors in why I am presenting this evening. And these are the areas have been a targeted focus throughout the school year. Richmond Drive implemented several impactful initiatives to support student achievement and family engagement. Highlights include

016parent English classes and our very first ever multilingual learners town hall meeting before WIDA testing. Academic supports include included after school tutoring, SC Ready initiatives and test prep programs, and targeted instructional events. The state With the state vision, the state strategy includes early literacy focus through the implementation of letters training for all kindergarten through third grade teachers, as well as an investment in high-quality instructional materials. >> [snorts] >> Our school goals are outlined within our state school renewal plan and are increased by increments each year for Richmond Drive to hit that 75% expectation as outlined by the state department. These goals, along with our school data, are the driving force behind daily instruction, coaching cycles, and support systems to help move students towards grade level mastery. At Richmond Drive, we are now looking through the

017lens of evidence of student learning. We conducted a schoolwide data review where we intentionally reviewed vertical alignment with curriculum and instruction. Intensive coaching support for SC Ready is being conducted to support teachers and students based on assessment data. As our universal screener FastBridge data indicates, Richmond Drive students require an emphasis on foundational early literacy skills. Richmond Drive has prioritized oral reading fluency as well as phonics encoding and decoding. All of our kindergarten and first grade teachers have successfully completed their two-year two-year letters training which emphasizes understanding of the science of reading. We know that letters training has strengthened teachers' ability to deliver explicit systematic foundational reading instruction. At Richmond Drive, our kindergarten team has restructured intervention WIN time to meet the specific foundational needs of all students through small group instruction. It is important for

018us to consider both academic data, which is students' performance at a single point in time on an assessment, and growth data, which reflects the change in a student's knowledge over time. MAP is administered three times a year allowing us to monitor progress and adjust instruction throughout the year. In the upcoming slides, we will examine both the achievement and growth of Richmond Drive students using MAP, our formative assessment used to help predict SC-Ready performance and guide instruction. In third grade, targeted interventions from our interventionist and a push-in model for our multilingual support help students grow while maintaining access to core instruction. In fourth grade, professional learning communities and teacher clarity work focused on vocabulary and comprehension, which was supported by the literacy coach through coaching cycles to strengthen tier one instruction. In fifth grade, teams use

019MAP strand data to identify areas of weakness and refine tier one instruction with literacy coach support through data-driven coaching cycles. Math professional learning communities focused on unpacking new standards and implementing the new curriculum. With support from math coach, teachers worked on instructional planning, small group instruction, formative data use, and strengthening the math block. A daily data-driven spiral review in fourth grade improved strategy and vocabulary retention, which will expand school-wide next year. Quarterly teacher clarity PD strengthened tier one instruction through learning progressions, and a full-time math tutor provided targeted support based on MAP data. The table highlights the percentage of students who are demonstrating above-average growth. For example, approximately 43% of fourth graders have the potential to meet growth expectations on SC Ready ELA. I want to share that although we look at all grade levels

020with growth, only fourth and fifth grades are calculated for the state report card. Growth is a focus at Richmond Drive because we know that if we continue to grow, we will see the increase in achievement, and that was a priority area on our state report card. With our new learning this year as part of our administrative professional development with Dr. Elder, we are looking on the instructional core. We are working on the instructional core, which is a shifting of focus to the cognitive demand of the student task that we ask of our students to do and produce. We are focusing on student outcomes. As always, we welcome you to visit our school anytime to see the amazing things going on at Richmond Drive. I want to end by sharing how extremely proud I am of

021the faculty and staff for their dedication to ensuring that we not only improve our state report card, but change the lives of every student. THANK YOU SO MUCH. >> [applause] [applause] >> THANK YOU, MR. HAM. QUESTIONS FROM STRAIGHT. Miss Daniel. How did you know? Um, you actually kind of answered this. So, um, but for the other two schools, you know this one's coming. Um, it's a moment of reflection, right? You're under the magnifying glass in the state and we talked to them earlier in the year that can actually be a positive thing. Um, so my question would be, what have you identified that you can rinse and repeat next year that gave you the largest amount of growth or achievement this year because obviously identifying what's working is the next thing that we want to

022be able to replicate not only at Richmond Drive, but possibly at other schools. So, you mentioned some things, but is there anything you want to highlight that you found has given you, um, or your teachers the key to where they're getting the most amount of growth? Right. Well, thank you. Well, we know at Richmond Drive early literacy skills are a foundation for our kids. And, um, and Miss Norsworthy, thank you so much for visiting our school. Um, you got to see it first hand. You saw what the teachers were working on. You saw what the kids were practicing and working on. So, having that foundation, and I want to shout out our kindergarten team who actually were the risk-takers. They redefined our win time. So, now that what they are doing is every teacher, every

023assistant on that grade level is teaching a small group and they're focusing on foundational skills. So, the kids that are most need have that small group one to four to five with that core with that home room teacher, well, it could be any teacher on that grade level to focus on those skills. So, we know that that development along with our parents' support, which we are working so hard on. And tonight, we actually I don't know if Ms. Bomar got in or Ms. Velasquez. Yes. Um we actually have parent English classes. So, we are teaching our parents English. We're working on with them to not only enroll their student for next year, but how to navigate the website, how to get resources from Parent Smart. So, that collaboration with our families is key. And And

024again, you know that building that trust with our with our families at Richmond Drive is imperative. Like they have to be a part of our community. And we're still working extremely hard to um create that bridge where they feel comfortable coming into our school and supporting all of our students. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Belton. Hey. Good afternoon, Ms. Belton. Thank you for coming and thank you for your amazing teachers for showing up here as well. That says a lot that you all are willing to give up your personal time in the evenings to come to a boring school board meeting. So, so thank you all FOR DOING THAT. UM DO YOU MIND GOING BACK? I DON'T KNOW IF YOU'RE driving or Mr. Wright is driving. If you're driving, will you go back to slide

025number seven, please? And And I will say I'm seeing all of this for the first time. So, um I do not think that these types of meetings, I know sometimes you can feel like you're on the hot seat, but please don't feel like you're on the hot seat. Please understand this is a conversation one so I can understand and if I can understand then everybody at home can understand. Um because all of us want our want you to do well. We want these teachers to do well because if you all do well, ultimately that means our children are doing well. So, we have to have these family conversations and make sure that we we understand where we are. Um here you Here you're talking about what your goal, which I think is pretty exceptional. Obviously,

026I think we all would want 100%, but we recognize where you're starting. And I think last year on your report card reminded me where with ELA for fourth grade and ELA for fifth grade. I'm at your second bullet you have here. What we in like the 20th percentile? Yes, sir. We had a large gap and these are set by our state school renewal plan. Right. So, these are increments to help us get to that 75%. Right. Okay. So, they're So, our lofty lofty goals. Lofty goals. So, I guess what my question is and the reason I made the motion at the beginning of the meeting cuz this presentation here has taught me a lot about growth and certainly we appreciate growth. Yes. Um but what I'm really for and I know growth is important cuz

027that shows the trend, but what is your prediction based on your growth data of where your current fourth fourth graders will be 52.7 is the goal. Where are you predicting them to land? So, we're not surprised with school report cards. Where do you think that number will be with fourth and fifth graders for ELA and I'm going to ask the same question about math. Okay. So, with if I can find it real quick, I apologize. So, the I'm going the wrong way. So, with our growth data that's on this slide. This is actually and I don't want to misspeak. Miss Bryson um helped us with this. This is our projections of meeting the growth. So, we know and I don't have the specific numbers to answer your question, but I know that we're projecting in

028the in the right in the right way because based on our growth data like 44% are meeting in fourth grade and 43% in reading for to meet that growth data. So, in that one column and we I don't have the projections for like the achievement data. I just like it for the growth. And I I apologize, I can get that for you, but I don't have that at the ready. >> No no the Oh, there again, thank you so much. Can we get the predicted achievement? I'm asking about the achievement, not the growth. Certainly, you've done a great job of explaining, but I think the achievement also gives us a better picture of what we're looking for. The second thing that I want to ask are two more questions. One was about the climate. I

029know that there was a lot of conversation when you came before us before regarding climate. We saw a dip this year. Obviously, we see your balcony here supporting you. So, my assumption is that you have you gotten any indication of where you are in terms of the climate and Well, we we totally redefined how we implemented the assessment the survey to the students. I can I don't want to speak for the staff, but I think they're very happy. I think that we HAVE CHANGED THE >> [applause] >> I THINK THAT WE HAVE CHANGED THAT NARRATIVE IN THE BUILDING. SO, it was our kids. Did they fully understand the questions? Cuz it says, "Are your bathrooms clean?" Instinctively, you want to say no. So, but when you walk in in the morning, has it been cleaned

030by custodians before students even touch it? So, we we really focused on putting multiple adults in the room to explain the questions before they answered. So, they had chances to ask questions, clarity questions, and we we went through that the bathroom one cuz that that was a major one. With town halls for third, fourth, and fifth grade, we do town halls. We actually went over some of the climate survey questions so that they could understand and start to to know how it was going to ask the questions and what kind of questions were going to were going to come. Cuz like the bullying question, we do so so town halls on what bullying actually is. Is it someone picking on you one time and it really hurt your feelings and now you felt like you

031were being bullied or was it the true definition of bullying where it's repeated after, you know, over a time. So, we had those type of conversations and I'd like to shout out Mr. Boville, our assistant principal. He leads those and he's doing a great job of really defining what those questions are to the kids so that they were prepared when it came. But, my hope is that we're going to see significant gains in in our climate survey. All right. And again, thank you so much, Mr. Ham. Just the last question and if by the way if we can get the predicted achievement level, that would be extremely helpful. Extremely [snorts] helpful in having this conversation. I wish you well. I wish your staff well. I thank you to do the work that we're doing to

032educate our children. Thank you. Thank you so much and again, thank you so much. I think we're just down to two to visit our school. I can't wait to see them. Thank you. Thank you, MR. HAM. >> [applause] [cheering] >> AND THANK YOU AND AND THANK YOU TO THE STAFF OF RICHMOND Drive for coming and supporting your principal and thank you for the work that you do. All right. Up next, we have Ms. Shuliet Leonard from Ebenezer Avenue Excuse me, y'all. Ebenezer Avenue Elementary School. Can you say that three times real fast? Absolutely. Good evening, Vice Chair Hutchinson, our Board of Trustees, Dr. Elder, and my Ebenezer Eagle staff. Game on. I am Shuliet Leonard, proud principal of Ebenezer Avenue Elementary School. The pictures you see on the board are a quick snapshot of various

033things that have occurred in our building from crazy hair day to teachers going to professional development, to us also engaging in professional development ourselves, teachers coming back and teaching the PD that they have learned to our staff members, live animals, and Winthrop also is a partner with us as well. So, lots of things occurring at the nest. As my colleague has shared, the continuous improvement plan and looks at our state assessment data for our students in particularly grades 3rd through 5th and used to determine identification of schools. This is our school report card that I shared throughout the year with our school improvement council, all of our parents, and also with the board in January. This is where we are at Ebenezer and how did we get here? Below average for science. 2 years ago,

034we were not rated as a state in the area of science and that is fourth-grade students only and also student progress, which was unsatisfactory. And last year, that also only looked at fourth and fifth-grade students and it was heavily weighted in the area of math. As you can see, our student achievement continues to increase year after year. Here are a few highlights of our school. I will not go into them all, but one of the ones I would love to highlight is academic field day. Our teachers, several from each of our third, fourth, and fifth-grade students took 3 days and they developed professional development where they learned about how do we keep our students engaged and how do we make sure we have high impact. Those teachers came back and they led professional development with

035our staff on collaboration. Looking at academic field day provided an opportunity for our students to engage in creative resources and also experiences using high-yield instructional strategies to reinforce learning before state testing. We also had before and after school tutoring. We had four dedicated staff members that provided additional tutoring for students through before and after school helping reinforce skills and promote student growth and success. As my colleague has already shared, this is our superintendent's goal by the year of 2030. And as I always like to say, this also aligns to Dr. Eldridge's vision for us getting from crayons to commencement. These are our goals goals for Ebenezer that are in our school renewal plan. I will not read them all to you, but this highlights where we are as a school for us to remain on

036track with our state vision. And also it outlines our academic and climate goals in our school renewal plan. These are the action steps that I shared previously when we met in January. And since then, our staff the teachers have intentionally embedded spiral review across instruction to reinforce prior learning. They have strengthened retention, and they have supported the mastery of key standards over time. For our data-driven small groups with our what I need time, we use formative assessment data. Teachers flexibly formed and adjusted small groups, and they looked at providing targeted instruction aligned to student needs. Our spring map data. I always share that our school is one that will analyze data, but not just let it sit there. Let's determine what to do next. Our teams analyzed it. They identified student strengths and areas of

037growth, informing intentional instructional planning and supporting targeted interventions. But we cannot lie there. As a school team, as a leadership team, I decided that our leadership team needed to have some professional development on how do we give our teachers meaningful feedback to determine next steps for our students. Because when our teachers grow, our students grow. And so we focused on as an instructional team looking at our focus, making sure that the work was centered on providing effective feedback to strengthen student engagement and instructional impact through the student lens. The universal screener data. This screener is state required for kindergarten and first grade, and we also have a selected second grade students. It measures early literacy skills and provides data on phonemic awareness, sight words, and decoding. Kindergarten, there was a 31% that are identified low

038risk. The strength for kindergarten was decodable words and word segmenting. First grade, 39% were considered low risk and the strengths were in sight words. What we did with this data is our early literacy interventionist also began to identify the kindergarten students and began to work with them as well, and also supported with our first grade students. Our teachers have also completed year two of the state required letters trained, which supports with early literacy skills. It's important to note that this screener also looks at automaticity, which aligns with oral reading fluency. And I also have to highlight my third, fourth, and fifth grade students because teachers because they took on year one of letters as well. So, let's dive in. Dive Belton to growth and achievement. We know that achievement looks at performance at one point

039in time and growth is measured as performance over time. So, where are we, Ebenezer? Here's our ELA data. As a building, our map data is showing that we are in a high growth, high achievement level. Our ELA growth, fall to spring for third grade, was a 15% increase in third graders projected to meet expectations on SC Ready, reflecting strong foundational skills and strong growth throughout the year. For achievement for ELA for fourth grade, over 60% of our students are projected to meet and or exceed on SC Ready, indicating solid progress toward proficiency and continued opportunity for refinement and acceleration. And over 42% of our fifth graders are projected to meet expectations on SC Ready. So, what we decided to do as a staff for our instructional next steps, we looked at those students that were

040very close to that meeting expectations, and our teachers, the dedicated staff members, started working with those students before school. I have to highlight our bus drivers who allowed us to get our students off the bus at 6:52, get them to the cafeteria to get lunch so that we could provide support for our students that we wanted to push them over the hump into that meet expectations. Here is our math data. Overall, our school data is showing that we are in the high growth, high achievement area. Third grade math achievement is currently showing that approximately 72% of third graders are projected to meet expectations on SC Ready math, reflecting strong foundational skills, development, and overall readiness. Fourth grade, over 43% of our fourth graders are projected to meet. And for fifth grade, from fall to spring,

041there was approximately a 7% increase in fifth graders. What we decided to do was dive a little deeper. The data analysis for fifth grade showed that data and probability was a lower area. However, it was important for us to note that this assessment occurred prior to full instruction of those standards and teachers now have more current data to guide those next steps. Additionally, we decided to look at number reasoning as a school. That emerged as a strength across the school and we celebrated that because it directly aligned with the intentional work around our wildly important goals focused on math fluency. Moving forward, instruction will continue to target identified skill gaps while building on those strengths to accelerate student achievement. With that data, we also identified students that could be doing tutoring after school. And so

042we identified students in the area of math and we provided tutoring after school. And those students varied from different subgroups. This table highlights our data for growth. Through this data, it shows all grade levels. However, it's important to know that only fourth and fifth grade data are part of student progress on the report card. This table highlights students who are demonstrating above average growth. Over 45% of our fourth and fifth grade students are already demonstrating above average growth and are on track for meeting their growth targets. We also share that we already are at high achievement. So for us, our progress looks very differently. This progress directly supports our state vision of ensuring students are on the path toward college and career readiness. While our overall achievement remains strong as reflected in our school report

043card, we intentionally prioritize both achievement and growth to ensure continued success for every student. As we continue to do the work at Ebenezer, here are some of our next steps. Through one-on-one eagle chats with our staff, they are providing meaningful feedback about their own professional practice, highlighting that they value collaborative planning, and they want to ensure that we target support for them individually. We will provide strong ongoing coaching to support teacher growth and elevate instructional practices through a student-centered lens, ensuring that professional development remains intentional and impactful. This summer, we will host ongoing O gap professional learning focused on the multiplicative property to deepen teacher content knowledge and strengthen the instructional practices in mathematics. Our staff feedback consistently connected to our school-wide priorities of academic growth, engagement, and student ownership of learning. We will continue

044to deepen our consistencies in instructional practices, strengthening our win time, and continuing to build the systems that support collaboration and collective efficacy. Our eagle students gave us a theme this year, and that theme for state testing was Game on. So, for state testing, their acronym for us was best. As we continue to believe in our students and staff, we we we know we will be, believe in one another, exceed expectations, succeed through consistency, commitment, and building a culture of collective efficacy for our mission, and T, we will trust the process and remember that the work we do every single day takes time, but it matters. Game on, eagles. We're finishing THIS YEAR STRONG. >> [cheering] >> THANK YOU. THANK YOU, MS. LEONARD. THANK YOU TO YOUR STAFF FOR COMING. Any questions? Just a comment. >>

045I saw you shaking your head, Ms. Daniel. Made my day. Shaking in a good way. Nodding. Yes. Uh congratulations for being in the high high quadrant on your math scores, especially in both ELA and math. Fantastic. Thank you for um being responsive to your data and thinking outside the box to find ways to get tutoring and not having students have to choose whether they got tutoring in ELA or math. Like Believe I understood that it was ELA in the morning and math in the afternoon. Excellent job being creative with your use of time um and reaching every student that needed their that support. So, thank you. Um you make my data heart happy with those explanations. Rock on. Dr. Benton. >> [laughter] >> I tried to solve it. I didn't even look. I didn't even

046look over. I just I Actually, Ms. Leonard, you answered a lot of my questions and I have to echo what uh Ms. Daniel said. Being that creative with that time in the morning where children do not have to choose ELA or math, I think that's phenomenal for you and your staff. Thank you all for doing that. I do have one question back on chart 12. Yep, that one. So, >> sorry. Just Yes. Chart chart 12, yes. So, um you're expecting 72% in math, 43% um fourth for the third graders, 43% for fourth graders. What are you expecting for fifth graders? Yes, so our Yeah, absolutely. I can share that with you. So, for fifth grade, currently, we are looking at about 47%. 40 And where were the fourth graders last year? They were at like

04739, 41%. So, we're seeing that increase, yeah. So, we're seeing a So, that cohort of kids, we're seeing growth. And I assume and I didn't ask this original drive, so sorry for the for the kind of curveball here. I assume we're talking about um growth, we are talking about a cohort of kids, right? We're not talking about grade over grade. You know what I mean? Apples to apples. Yes, absolutely. >> you. And I assume that's the same for Richmond Drive. We're looking at a cohort of kids. Okay. All right, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Leonard, and game on. Congratulations. Thank you. Anyone else? Anyone else? Thank you. Oh, no. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Leonard. Thank you. Thank you all for being here. And thank you for thinking outside the box to affect the children

048in your school. Thank you very much. All right, up next we have Ms. Carrie Breithaupt from York Road. I can SAY THAT ONE. THANK YOU FOR COMING UP. PEOPLE ARE VERY extroverted and I'm very introverted, so this is always fun. Good evening, Board Chair Miller and Vice Chair Hutchinson, Dr. Elder. I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to share an updated update from York Road Elementary. Before I get started, they've already done it, but I'd like to take a minute and ask our staff to stand. The difference makers. WE APPRECIATE YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT as I highlight the progress of our students, the dedication of our staff, and the ongoing work happening in our school community. As reflected in our recently updated mission, York Road Elementary is committed to intentional collaboration and purpose as we

049empower one another to lean, sorry, learn, lead, and grow. Both students and staff. It's my hope that this presentation captures the heart of our school community. Let me go back so you can see our school community. Here we go. And provides a glimpse into the daily work happening across our classrooms. As stated previously, this presentation and our turnaround plan represent the process York Road is engaged in as we work to impact our school's climate and students' academic achievement and growth. >> [snorts] >> This image shows our state report card and highlights our ongoing focus areas, three key areas, preparing for success, fourth grade science, student progress, growth, and our overall school climate. These priorities continue to guide our work at York Road and our hopes to strengthen outcomes for students. This year at York Road,

050we intentionally focused on strengthening instruction, improving school climate, and increasing our family engagement along with accelerating student growth. Through our work in lead, learn, and grow, we strengthen classroom practices, built a more supportive school environment, and expanded opportunities for family partnership. All to ensure that York Road students continue learning and growing at high levels. As stated previously, this is the state's plan or the state's goal for all students to be 70 or 75% of students to be college and career ready by 2030. Also as stated previously and in alignment with the state vision and our school renewal plan, this slide outlines our academic and climate goals for spring of 2026. These goals set a clear and ambitious direction for our work. Um Dr. Belton, just for a little reference, these academic goals represent anywhere between

051a 14% increase and a 43% increase. So, um the job is big depending on the subject area. So, what did we do? At York Road, these action steps reflect our intentional work for supporting students. First, we implemented after-school tutoring in both ELA and math based on students' highest need. Um for approximately 70% or 70 students in grades 2-3-5, we provided additional time and targeted instruction, allowing us to close learning gaps and reinforce key skills aligned to grade level expectations. Secondly, we provided consistent feedback to instructional staff by focus on clearly defined look fors in classroom systems, instructional alignment to state standards, and student needs, and the collection of learning evidence. This ensured classrooms were learning ready, instruction was responsive to students' needs, and teaching practices were consistently aligned to support student growth. Finally, we celebrated

052student creativity through the arts and family engagement nights. These events included brief informational sessions for parents focused on grade level expectations and assessments before highlighting students' talents, helping strengthen parent understanding, and deepening our connections between home and school. Together, these efforts reflect a focused and aligned approach to strengthening instruction, supporting our staff, and ensuring our students' success. This data represents kindergarten and first grade students on the state FastBridge assessment, which is a required assessment by the state. This data highlights that foundational reading skills remain an important focus area for your growth. While students are showing progress in overall reading development, this measure emphasizes the critical need for strong fluency and automaticity in early literacy skills. Just like mastering basic math facts support higher level math success, fluency in letter naming, phonics, and decoding is essential

053for future reading comprehension and overall academic achievement. This intentional focus ensures that skill gaps are addressed early, students build a strong foundation for and students build a strong foundation for long-term reading success, and this is a priority that will continue into next school year. Also, as previously stated, it's important for us as we move to the next slides that we think about achievement, um performance on one assessment at one given point in time, and performance for growth, which is over time. This slide represents York Road reading achievement data on MAP from spring of 2026. In third grade, there was an approximately a 19% increase from fall to spring in students projected to meet SC Ready expectations, showing strong growth in the reading achievement. And while it's not up there, third grade has an overall expectation

054of 42% achieving on SC Ready. In fourth grade, over 41% of students are projected to meet expectations, reflecting solid progress towards proficiency. In fifth grade, we saw a 9% increase from fall to spring in students projected to meet SC Ready expectations, demonstrating continuing gains as students prepared for middle school. In fifth grade, our overall projection went from 24% to 33.3%. As a whole school, we went from 29% to 38.6%. So, a little over a 10% increase all together. Math achievement. This slide indicates the percentage of York Road students performing at or above the 50th percentile on MAP, indicating meeting expectations on SC Ready. Math improvement at York Road is an area of celebration for both achievement and growth. These gains reflect our focus on strengthening instructional systems, providing differentiated support, and increasing the use of

055visuals and manipulatives during math instruction. Currently, 50% of third graders are projected to meet expectations on SC Ready math. Approximately 23% of fourth graders are projected to meet Excuse me, to meet expectations. And fifth grade showed more than a 17% increase from fall to spring in students projected to meet expectations. So, if you look at our data as a whole, um in fall of this year, 32% of students were projected in third grade to meet, and that increased to 50%. Fourth grade, 21.8%. That was a slight decrease overall to 23.4% 5th grade went from 17.1% projected to meet to 34.8% projected to meet and our whole school went from 26.2% projected to meet to 38.4% projected to meet. So, let's look at growth. Growth has been our focus as it was one of our focus

056areas on our report card. This slide highlights your grade student growth on math assessment across grades 2 through 5 giving a comprehensive picture of academic progress across the school. High growth also provides important insight into our instructional effectiveness at York Road. While 4th and 5th grades impact student progress component of the state report card, it's also important for us to monitor in grades 2 and 3. These foundational years set the stage for our long-term success. This table shows the percentage of students demonstrating above average growth. In ELA, approximately 61% of 4th graders and 52.1% of 5th graders are showing above average growth towards SC Ready expectations. In math, 33.7% of 4th graders and 56.5% of 5th graders are demonstrating above average growth. Across all grade levels, this growth reflects meaningful progress and increased instructional impact

057at York Road. >> [clears throat] >> So, what's next? Moving forward, we will shift our focus towards increasing student engagement and strengthening the rigor of learning tasks for all students to ensure every learner is appropriately challenged and supported to access grade level content and expectations. We'll continue monthly collaborations between school and district leadership to monitor progress, ensure alignment, and support sustained instructional improvement. We will also implement Leader in Me for students while developing staff action teams to strengthen ownership and leadership across our building. In closing, thank you for the opportunity to share the work of York Road Elementary. We are proud of the progress we made this year and remain focused on that momentum. We look forward to an even brighter future for our York Road Bulldogs. The real difference makers is our staff. Thank

058you for your all your time and support. We look forward to your visit at York Road and at this time I'm happy to answer ANY FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS. >> [applause] [cheering] >> MS. DANIELS. I LIKE THOSE. UM, thank you. Jeff. What did you do to light your fifth graders fire? Go back to the fifth grade math. Well. Please. I'm going to shout out my fifth grade team, fifth grade math, and my uh math instructional coach. Um, it was a lot of deliberate um PLC work. Um, joining their PLC was a lot of let's have discussions on what this looks like when we teach it so we can um before we teach it, we can talk about misconceptions. So we go into the instruction already kind of knowing what students will need um and then having worked

059through that. Also um our biggest game changer in math has been visuals and manipulatives in the hands of students. So the students are actually seeing math and it's more than just a process. So removing that, possibly that computer usage and a hands-on math. Awesome. That I like that on the only table. One So then can we go Great job fifth grade. That's one thing you can rinse and repeat. Expand with all your great love. >> Absolutely. You realize the intentionality of that. Was there something Can you go back to the letters um portion and this one isn't going to um It isn't necessarily for you specifically, but I do want to um when you talk about low risk. Yes. So then the opposite of that would mean on your universal screener high risk. Correct. Correct.

060And this is for all this is actually was for all three schools. So this is not but I I would like the public to hear this. We presented it in a nice summary saying 22% are low risk. >> Correct. That means we're at 78%. Also correct. >> Come into school. High risk at your grade This is um indicative of the letters. I think letters professional development is one way that we are triaging this. Um it's the importance of those foundational literacy skills. It's much different than how I was taught to read. Um it's a new approach, but a lot of times we miss the fluency and the automaticity automaticity of those foundational skills. Um so it is a shift in the thinking. Um so it is a deliberate focus for your growth for next year

061that we are already stepping into for both math and ELA. >> Well, and I appreciate that, but I want to put this one back on families. No. It's time for children to start opening books AGAIN AT HOME. >> [applause] >> ENGAGE YOUR CHILDREN IN CONVERSATION. YES. Uh conversation with a human back and forth. This is what it impacts when 78 almost 80% of your kindergarten students come in high risk. This is what your teachers are dealing with and it compounds all the way up. So um you know, we do what we do and we can control what we can control in the school building, but there are 5 years of life that happened before they enter our school building. Thank you. So I'm going to put that one BACK ON PARENTS. >> [applause] >> ALL

062RIGHT. SO THOUGHTS? UM AT THE VERY LEAST turn close captioning on on your screen. So that is not for these three elementary schools because this is something that all schools are Um but they put it in a nice way by only pointing out their low risk, but what that really means is the majority are coming in already behind the game and our teachers are working very hard to try and catch them up from the day they walk in the door. Thank you. Anything further? Dr. Bolton. I don't HAVE A QUESTION. >> [cheering] >> I DO NOT. I DO HAVE A STATEMENT THOUGH. I don't think that um and so relax. Um I don't think that you and I have ever met. I don't even know if we've ever had a conversation and I don't think

063I know one single person who teaches at your school, but I do have a secret weapon out there whom I respect tremendously. My next door neighbor growing up my whole life and our parents still live in the same neighborhood beside each other um is Janice Paul. She is one of your >> [cheering] >> And then she has told me unbelievable things about you, unbelievable things about her colleagues. I'm still very good friends with her. Our families are just connected. We've lived beside each other for I'm 53 years old, all 53 years of my life. Our parents have been We We grew up together. And she is just high high high on you and high high high on her colleagues. So, I want to publicly say though I have not witnessed it personally, I've got it

064from someone whom I've known my entire life and I trust what she says um and and so thank you for the work that you're doing. Thank you for the work that your staff is doing. Um please continue to lead and I hear even some of the challenges coming in with climate that you've worked extremely hard to turn those things around. So, thank you for what you do and thank you for what you all do. Well, thank you. >> [applause] >> Ms. Brown. That was off the hook. Done done. No, just kidding. Um No, I just wanted to say to the three principals, thank you. And last week was teacher appreciation week, so thank you to all the teachers, but I know the audience the viewing audience can't see, but this room is full of teachers

065and educators that have dedicated their lives to the children of Rock Hill schools. So, I want to just take a personal moment to say thank you for being here and supporting your leadership and supporting your teachers. And I do appreciate what Ms. Daniels said. Um you know, it it it it starts at home. It it does start at home. And so, um but thank you for all that you do to pour into our children to ensure that they have what they need every day. And and thank you to the three of you for and all of you for thinking outside the box. It means a lot. I just want to say that. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Elder. I'd like to echo Vice Chair's um great gratitude for everyone here this evening. Um and I

066also really want to thank you. One, it is a huge show of support that the school culture is that we have this kind of turnout. And I also want to point out that it is a huge show of support in our district culture that you all stayed. That you all stayed for all three schools, even when you didn't have to if your school went through first. We are all here for each other. We are all here to lift each other up so that together we lift up our kids. So, thank every single one of you. I know you had a million things to do tonight. Thank you for choosing to be here with us. All right. Uh next on the agenda we have Mr. Kevin Madden. >> [laughter] >> And it is the uh we'll

067we'll start with Dr. Elder, but this is the uh fiscal year 2026-2027 general fund budget presentation. Don't run off. Just kidding. >> [laughter] >> You're welcome to stay. We'd love it if you would, but understand if you can't. So, I'll just give us a brief quick kickoff to our budget presentation um first by reminding us of our February 20th meeting, um uh, our February 10th meeting, I apologize, where we talked about our budget presentation roles and, um, the preparation for that. And so, the trustees we, um, approved the salary schedules on April 28th. Um, we are looking forward to asking for approval of the budget on May 26th. Um, and the Board of Trustees has authority over approving revenue generation, um, but in this budget that is a balanced budget that we are presenting this

068evening, um, we do not have requests for that. Um, on the administrator side, we recommend salary schedules, which you passed. Um, we prepare, present, and recommend the budget, which we are doing this evening and again in 2 weeks, and establish budget priorities according to Board of Trustees goals. And I want to give you a little rundown of the budget that we're presenting aligned to the goals. Um, goal one, of course, is academic excellence. That's what we're all here for and that's why we have so many of us here this evening. Um, a couple of things that we're doing with the budget specifically to improve academic excellence is to optimize staffing levels in the classroom. The Board approved on March 10th our, um, class size ratios and our staffing standards. Our staffing standards are significantly below

069what is required in the state. So, our pupil teacher ratios in Rock Hill schools are significantly lower than statewide. So, we are very proud of that. Additionally, this budget reflects six additional exceptional student education teacher positions. We know that our ESC students, especially our UP2 and UP3, are our most vulnerable students and need that lower class size ratio. And so, we are expanding staffing a little bit in that area so that we can keep kids safe, keep kids learning, and keep them moving forward. Under operationalizing all of our resources, um, we did do a look back of salaries at our April 14th meeting. In response, you will see that we are increasing the cola for all employees who are not teachers by 3.5% and we're identifying capital maintenance needs that were not addressed in the

070presentation that we saw the last two months with our maintenance um assessment from LMG. Principals are bringing forward some additional things like some torn curtains in a in an auditorium. Things like that that that assessment wouldn't pick up. So, we're able to address some of those capital maintenance maintenance needs as well. Under uh community engagement, that'll be in our timeline in a slide or two. And then finally making Rock Hill schools the proud first choice for our families, our staff, and employees. We are continuing to adequately fund our district's communication department which does an incredible job. They've launched the learn where you live as well as the program options so that our families know that there is a place for them in Rock Hill schools with for whatever that they're looking for. We've also um

071made sure that we have funds available to maintain facilities at the appropriate level and looking to continue to increase that. So, moving to my budget priorities, I'm sorry, I missed a slide. My budget priorities as you recall from February are to accelerate student learning in alignment with both board goal one, support and develop employees in alignment with board goals two and four, and invest in and maintain facilities also under goal four, and all wrapped around that is transparency and two-way communication throughout the budget process. Um with that, I want you to recall our timeline that was presented and approved back in February. We have accomplished all of the above. We are now at May 12th where we are presenting um for information this this budget. Um, as a reminder, we did not yet have the

072meal prices um for board action on April 28th, but as a reminder that that also in um Rock Hill our suit we have CEP so our students eat for free. This would be adult meal prices. And so with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Madden to take us away on our May 12th timeline. Thank you. I'll tell you listening to the principals speak. Um, I hate following behind such great presentations like that, but it really makes me feel good to be part of this district, seriously. And everything we do is focused on improving the results in the classroom. That's the goal of everything we do around here, and it's just it was heartwarming to to listen to that. Um, glad those that stayed stayed to hear this presentation. You know, budgeting budgeting

073is basically taking scarce resources and allocating them appropriately to get the the best results that you're going after. And so, the goal of this budget is to make sure we're putting our dollars that leads to success in the classrooms. In order to do that, flattening the silos, that's the communication. That's the communication that started with meeting with the principals, the principals meeting with the teachers, meeting back with the principals, meeting with the department heads, going back to the principals. We had conversations today with various principals about this. We're still going through that process. To this point, we'll keep doing that probably another week or so till all the numbers finally settle down, but building that culture of communication and understanding of what's in the budget. You know, it's a point that I'm trying to make

074that we circle back with every principal that they understand, this is what you submitted, this is what you're going [cough] to get. So, they know. They're not surprised when they see their budget the first time. But, that's been probably the highlight of this budget is developing that culture over here. We discussed the impact of the state funding and mandates, how that impacts us. Revenue projection, both state and local, other than adjusting the millage, there's really not a lot y'all can do during the budget process to change the money we have coming in. You're limited on that. Expenditures, that's where we spend most of our focus on the budget. It starts with optimizing our staffing. 90% of our budget payroll, so we look at that. We want to make sure we have the appropriate staffing levels

075throughout the district and all the classrooms. And then developing a culture of thoughtful spending. Revenues, we talked about this before. We've got an increase from the state in funding. That did not offset the um teacher increase, but that's okay. We can handle that. Um the current um funding structure does require more and more of our local tax base every year, and that's not going to change anytime soon. Y'all seen this slide before. This was the House One budget that came out. I want to point out the state state aid to classrooms general fund, that 2027 projection. What you're going to see in the budget is slightly lower than that. If you remember we looked at our variances, that's something we've underperformed in because of the declining student enrollment, slight declining student enrollment. So, we've dialed

076that back a little bit in the upcoming budget, but still a very good revenue coming from the state overall when you factor in everything. We're happy with that. This slide right here, I want to touch on the the decrease in the state and local financing sources. The state periodically will move money from one money from one fund to another. They've done that in this budget. We're moving the salaries with those funds to a fund outside the general fund, so no net impact on the general fund. That just It looks a little deceiving like that. Expenditures are staffing. This is the biggest driver of our budget and this slide shows that the district has done a good job of ensuring our staffing levels are appropriate. You know, you would would not want to look at this

077slide and see our staffing levels going up but our enrollment's not going up. So, I think the district has done a good job through attrition to make sure our staffing levels are where they need to be while meeting while meeting the staffing standards the district has set. Um this is the slide I think a lot of people are interested here tonight. The teachers $2,000 plus the step increase and then a flat 3 and 1/2% cola across the board for all district employees. Every district employee is very integral in the success of those classrooms and a priority in every budget I put forth before y'all is to make sure we take care of all employees. We need to do that, get in the habit of doing that. The employees drive the success of this district in

078the classroom and outside of classroom and it's very important. I'm very happy that we're able to get this accomplished without a millage increase. The financial impact is about 4.3 and 2.1 for that. This is an area for opportunity in our for improvement in our budget. And you look at the history of how we've done on the non-payroll expenditures, you'll see the variances on the right, deficits of 3.1, 3.8, 4.3. That's been offset by vacancies and revenues over performing, but we're going to do a better job in budgeting that this year. There's a slide that I believe I'll get to in a little bit. We'll talk about some areas for opportunities for potential savings as well. I guess that slide it might be later on than up here. Okay. Summarizing this, I want to touch on

079the general fund. One thing we're going to provide you all and the public this year that we've not done before is a detailed line item budget for the general fund as soon as we get all that data inputted. Lot of lines to input and finance is working on that right now for finalizing stuff with the schools and department, but we're going to provide you all in August with the detailed general fund budget by line item, as well as making it available to the public. But, to the public. Very important for transparency to show everybody all the detail out there. And again, I want to thank everybody we've worked with throughout this budget process. The collaboration has made this budget what I I think of where we're able to take care of our employees, as well

080as no tax increases. A very successful budget. I'm very appreciative. Couldn't have done that without the work from everybody from the teachers to the principals to the department heads. It's really meant a lot. It's made doing this process very enjoyable. And last but not least, this budget does support the Board of Goal Board of Trustees goals and the Superintendent's priorities. All right. Thank you, Mr. Madden. Actually, do you mind bringing back up the Just want to make sure are there any questions? Yeah, I have one. Mr. Burns. Can you go back to the the local and state revenues slides? It's one of your first slides. I think I was going back back That was it, right there. Yes, sir. Um a lot of people don't understand if you study this and you see where our

081local revenues are going up and our state is going down. So, due to Act 388, we're fortunate I mean Mr. Madden, if you can explain Rock Hill's commercial entities and how we are very fortunate in Rock Hill to have the commercial entities that we have. So, we don't take quite as much of a lumps like a hit than say Fort Mill, Clover, and the rest of them. Can you explain to them cuz I don't think they understand that. Yes, sir. The operating budget for every school district in the state of South Carolina, the owner-occupied homes, there's no tax on those owner-occupied homes. So, the people that pay and the the businesses that pay for our operating budget, those are going to be rental properties and your early commercial businesses and we are very fortunate. We've

082got a good community that um allows us to do everything we do here very successfully. So, Rock Hill is in good financial shape with a strong tax base. So, basically what Mr. Madden is saying is Rock Hill is is poised for greatness with its commercial entities and with the growth that we can we have coming towards us. So, great things coming to Rock Hill especially with Dr. Elrod and her new cabinet. She's put half to put together a great team. So, thank you. I definitely agree with that. Those of you in small groups have heard me talk about that. I think this district is is going very very good direction. Very excited to be part of it. Ms. Daniel. I have a question. >> Um just because I learned from the past. Uh when go

083back a slide where they were moving some money you said from the general fund. This [clears throat] one. I just want to make sure. I think I already know the answer but this is not going to move to one-time use. We're not talking SR. We're not putting people or anything Right. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Recurring funds that they moved. >> Yes, ma'am. >> [clears throat] >> Dr. Belton. All right. Can you go to your excuse me, can you go to your expenditure slide, please? The principals had numbers on there. So, >> [laughter] >> It's elementary teachers, man. Yes, sir. Yes, [laughter] sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. All right. Um this expenditure is non-payroll and and certainly I I understand this is first reading here for the public but we will have to act on this. I

084think the date says May 28th or sometime at the end of May. And I recognize that you won't have every for for instance, purchase services up there. Um between where where are we? 25, 26. I think you got $11,359.72. of Is that right? $11 million for purchase services 2526. That was the budget. Yes, sir. You're looking at the the the left column, that was the budget. Right. For 2526. Yes, sir. So, I guess what my question is is for 2627, how much are you budgeting for that? That Okay, I'm going Or for supplies and materials, capital outlay, totality. And there's there's a slide that unfortunately didn't make it in this presentation that you're going to see here soon. The bottom number, the 25.1 that we're projecting in the year, we're budgeting 23.9 approximately is what

085we have for the non-payroll expenditures. We have area areas of opportunities for savings. Um a good example, LED lighting. Right. Okay, we replaced we're we've been repairing and throwing band-aids on HVAC units. We we are very fortunate to be in a position right now we can take care of a lot of capital maintenance where we fix things rather than throwing money at things. So, we've had some wonderful discussions across the across the district in areas where we can save money. >> [clears throat] >> Space heaters, for instance. You know, I expect to pick up $100,000 off of space heaters. So, there's a lot of areas of opportunities to reduce that and I always want to make sure when I give y'all a budget, it's going to be on what I truly believe I'm going to

086spend. We're at 25.1. I'm not I expect to do better than that next year. So, I'm giving you what we expect. >> Yes, sir. So, let me ask you a question. Purchase services was just an example. There are supplies and materials, capital outlay, other objects, transfers. All those things are there. When you come back on the 28th, I guess what my question is when I'm looking when I'm when when my mind goes to a budget, I'm thinking about how much I have coming in and you've shown me the revenue and how much I'm going to spend in each area. So, I'm If I got $100 coming in, I'm going to spend 20 in purchase services, I'm going to spend you know, or I'm going to spend $90 in payroll. We got $100 coming in. If

08790% is payroll, so 90 I'm sorry. If I got $1,000 Yeah, $100 coming in. No, I'm sorry. Whatever it is, all right? Help me out, math teachers. I think you get my point. If I got $1,000 coming in, if 900 of it is going to payroll, so I got $100 left that I got to split between purchase services, supplies and materials, capital outlay, other objects, and I think you got transfers up there. So, what I'm asking is certainly you may not have So, to me, is that um $100 now that I have to spend, how is it going to be allocated per each one of these categories? So, So, I'm getting to my question. When you come back on the 28th, I know tonight is first reading, but will we and the public [snorts] get

088I understand you may not have every single thing cuz there's no way I can predict every single thing that I'm going to spend money on in my business or my personal, but I have some idea. Yes, sir. Will we have a at least that detail? Yes, sir. And there is a It was uploaded. It's not on this presentation, I'm not sure. We can pull it up when we but there was another slide that broke that down in greater detail and totality for the 2027 budget. It broke down basically the what I said, the 23 million 900,000 was broken down in the various categories. Um a couple of those went up. Purchase services being one. It's attached to the memo that was uploaded. Right, but that memo is not being presented to the public. >> I

089think it's easier to Yes, sir. You you will you will get that detail and I'm going to provide for you variance explanations for why things are changing from last year's budget as of now. And variances always very important as soon as we get to but Okay. We'll get that detail up in a little bit. Mr. Russell get that. Thank you. Yes, sir. So Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Russell, do [clears throat] you have a question? Okay. Um I do have a question if you don't mind going back to the state funding. So apparently the we are getting a little less money from the state, but can you explain um Well, William's running that. Oh. Well, I'm waiting. Well, maybe you can explain without like this is about the health insurance and the lack of funding for

090it. >> uh health insurance because there is a a $2.5 million gap in what the state will be providing to us and the cost of health insurance going up everywhere, how does the district intend to help support and implement those changes? >> me see the best way I can explain that. Every year the state you know, we have an overall increase from the state coming in I think 3.8 2.8 million dollars increase in the state funding. The way in which they give that to you, and this goes back last 20 years, it changes year to year. They're going to give it to you in different areas. Here's this money for here, here's over here. The next year that might change. Uh we were back in my days when we audited school districts, it was always

091difficult to put the variance analysis because the expenditures will follow the funding often times, okay? So if you're paying for something in the general fund and the state takes the money you use in that moves it to another fund, you move the expenses over there with that. While they reduced that, they more than took off that and increased in other areas. That makes sense. So the I want to be clear, the state did help the general fund this year with an increase. Not enough to cover the teacher raises, but the state formula the way that's set up, it's we're competing against other districts for a pot of money that's calculated based off of a variety I mean it is a huge spreadsheet. I looked at it and I've got some questions about certain things we're

092going to go over time, but we did work [clears throat] that hole on that in [snorts] another area. So, again, the we did get increased funding from the state. They did help us with the general fund budget. While it might have went from one category category to another, the district like other districts in the state, we simply reallocate the funds and we will explain to you Thank you, William. Outstanding. Appreciate that. So, just to finish to finish that, so you do have an op- we do have an opportunity to reallocate the money in the street to the general fund. >> to help supplement the change from health insurance that we receive from >> Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, sir. Okay, that answers my question. So, if we got to operation and and operations and

093maintenance, um I think that says $8,114,462, correct? Yes, sir. So, to come up with that number, it had to come from somewhere. That I assume that's not an arbitrary random number, correct? >> Yes, sir. Let me All right. So, let me ask you my question there. Nay, you can ask. So, when you do the presentation or can you come back? Can you at least break that down some to see where $3 is going here, $5 is going here, $100,000? Cuz if we came up with like purchase services, we got $11,572,990 5 $572,997. I mean, that's a pretty exact number. So, that came from somewhere. What I would like to see is where's that number coming from? How are you calculating that? Okay. To get you the the five and three dollar answer, that's going to

094have to be we give you an August detailed line out of explanations on that. What I'll talk with maintenance. They turned in a budget request, okay? And their budget request went up and they That funding needed to go up. We were not budgeting for stuff like being a $200,000 I'm giving an example, don't take this little $200,000 pest control contract. Budget 100,000. We can't [clears throat] do that. So, that line item in the budget, that is going up. And there's a a list of those type of things that we have to increase the funding for that to go up. There there's we have to pay our bills and you know, your utility bills and those type of things. So, that fund that went up about $300,000. The purchase services, that's another one. I think we

095had about a $4 million negative variance on that particular line item. I remember about staffing. We hope to do better in staffing next year. And it's not this is not like an exact science where I can tell you exactly what we're going to spend on something. I'm going to say it's an educated guess at this point because we know what we spent in the past on I'll say staffing, okay? We've got a lot of different buckets of that. We've got some ideas of ways that we can reduce that cost. I can't honestly tell you this is what it's going to be precisely. But what we do, we look at that with the department who's got the most knowledge in that. We try to get as much information as we can on the subject to come

096up with an educated answers to what I actually think we're going to spend on that. And so, when I come up with the number for the staffing, it's going to be based on a variety of things, but I'm going to give you my best guess estimation. We don't have a contract for every dollar amount, so you will see variances on that. We're trying to learn from that year over year. And I res- and I respect that and I think all anyone who does a budget understand that you just don't know exactly what you're being budgets are based off your past 3 years and I get that. And I'll just say this and and I'm I'm I'm done. But we've gotten you to purchase services. We have some idea of what we're going to spend on

097something if we just had a little more detail as opposed to just purchase services. I promise you Yes, sir. Thank you. Yes. So, this would be my suggestion. I think what to that what we can possibly do is we can maybe even um further explain what purchased services are. Uh, so that as Dr. Bell said, we have a better idea, the public understands like what purchased services are. You can maybe explain that, but also let me just say, I'd like to I've already seen this graphic in the next presentation, some of the priorities that we've focusing on this during the conversations that we've had about some of the needs of the district, some of the things that principals have outlined. Uh, possibly can we have those priorities listed in the budget? >> Yes, and I'll

098give you sort of a preview. I worked with Bobby on this today. Um, we're going to have like the six ESE teachers. We're going to have the increases to the budget, the things that we've done. We're going to have those listed out. We're going to try to to tie that into your strategic goals as well. We're also going to go down in each of those categories and Bobby got this set with the template. So, for Dr. Bell, maintenance, operation and maintenance, >> [clears throat] >> so, uh, Dr. Bell, operation and maintenance maintenance, for instance, in the next presentation, each of those will have their own slide. And we're going to go through and try to provide you as much detail as we can on what's making that up, what's driving those numbers, and and why

099we ultimately put the numbers we did in the budget. So, I just asked and thank you for that. I just asked Dr. Bell, "Can we get this and can the public get it before they have to come and speak at 5:00 on the 29th and then they're expected to come make a presentation for the board and we're expected to vote?" So, I would just like to get this way ahead of time cuz I cuz this is one of our responsibility, board members. I recognize that it's 7:30, but we have two of these meetings a month and I don't know what's more important that we do other than academic than than being trustees over the taxpayers' dollars. So, I'm I'm I'm I'm just going to be a hawk on this and I'm just telling you, I

100just think the public deserves more than one slide with two or three pages on it. >> [cough] >> Yes, sir. I just think the public deserves it. And I agree with Dr. Elder. It would feel like a very uninformed decision to make at the next one if we don't see at least a listing. Um I would find it hard to approve a budget that I have to wait for um line items until August until after we approve the budget. I don't I mean I know things are going to vary slightly, but to know what it is and that way we know what initiatives are included in there or not being included to order to be able to answer to the public and not be surprised. I Listen, I completely agree with both of those comments.

101I really do and you know, I think I've been here now 2 and 1/2 months and we've worked very furiously to get where we're at right now with this and it's middle of May and we're not we're not to that level quite right now, but working with Mr. Barnes, my goal is by the end of day Friday to have that level of detail and data. I don't think the whole entire presentation's going to be complete, but I can certainly work with Dr. Elder to provide I'm going to say a preview of some of the information that we might want to put out there with that level of detail, but when I say we're we're we're still talking to principals today on some of the budgets. How many principals did I speak to today about some

102stuff? So this this information's coming in and we've got a lot of stuff to review, so we got the request in the deadline was April 30th and we've been going through those. So we're still working through a lot of the details as quickly as we can, I promise you, but Listen, I completely agree. I wouldn't vote on a budget that showed this level of detail. My goal ultimately is that we're going to have at least one slide on each of those categories where I can explain you what's going up, what's going down, why things are moving and what's driving you know, what's going on behind the scenes in that because they So Dr. Elder's example, the $100, that's what we really have control over. The salaries The salaries are what the salaries are and we're

103not going to go in and and try to change that, but what we can impact is the non-payroll. And that's what my My on next year during the year is to get a better understanding that particularly areas where we have opportunities for savings. And I tell you one of the best discussions I had was at a meeting where we spent about two hours thinking about things, you know, now that we're not just we're going to we have some money to actually replace things and improve things. There's a lot of areas for savings in that. And again, talking with the principals even when they went through their budgets, you know, $100 cut here and there. Everybody getting that same mindset of understanding we have limited resources. We have to allocate those resources as best possible for

104the success of the district in the classrooms. Now, some comfort in this, you know, we're not going to get it perfect in how we allocate those dollars. There's $100 out there that won't be perfect. But if we go through the year and we have variances and I report back to you in a quarter why we have a variance, we'll be better informed as this next year when when we're making that educated guess for the upcoming year. The more data points we have, the better we can do in making that educated guess as to what the budget number needs to be for the next year. You know, one of the criticisms we get as board members for instance is you're top heavy at the district office. All the money goes to the administrators at the district

105office. Well, if we know we're paying $90 in salaries, if we say of that $90, only $3 goes to administrators at the district office, 87 of those dollars are out at the schools directly touching kids. Then as board members, we can say, I understand your concern, but that's not accurate. >> Yeah. This is the opportunity that we can educate the public where all of us win because the public has actual information coming from the CFO and and what puts where there is a vacuum, people will fill it in with their own information. And I would rather us take the time and accurately educate the public so there's no misunderstanding and we know what we're voting on whether we agree or disagree with it. And I >> [clears throat] >> I don't know if you remember

106this, it might have been subliminal here, but I pulled that percentage out of dollar amount. At the second public meeting we had, there was a request made to break out the district office, I mean this building, out of our total payroll. It wasn't $3 out of 90, it's 3.75% was the cost of this building. So, I think anybody that has a conception that the district is top-heavy, that's that's not the case. It's just not. So, but you know, we put that information out there before. I don't want to try to labor that point or beat that point, but one thing I'll give you a preview of what you're going to see when you want to look at how our staff compare to everybody else. The state has information on total budget um and how they

107categorize stuff between instruction and support. Greenville County puts that information out with their budget. We're going to do the same thing. That's something else we've worked on. Mr. Barnes has everything done with payroll, you know, finish everything else out. We're going to show you that for our budgets in totality, and we're going to show you that for just the general fund as well. And it breaks down between instruction and support. And there's a chart that we didn't put this one in, you'll see in the next time, in the instruction portion of that, you know, it's it's turning in the right direction, curving in the right direction. But when you look at the data holistically, like there's one year it dipped, and I'm like, why did this go down? I start drilling down. There was a

108year a few years back y'all spent two, three million dollars on equipment in cafeterias. Not instruction, that was support. So, you you know, that's a big number and it caused a little dip. But we're going to overload y'all with as much data as possible, if not the presentations, then what's in your package, so y'all can better understand what we're working with and how we compare with everybody else in the state, or at least these state in total, cuz we want to try to give you good data. Finding that information from the state, I said, this is great. It's it lags, the state's not current, but at least you can see where the rest of the state's at totality, where their money's being spent, and you can ask us some ask some intelligent questions. Why are

109we spending more in transportation than the state average? Well, there's probably an answer to that. But when you get that data, you can start looking at those variances and understand you know, why are we choosing to put our money here in this district versus somewhere else or what the state might be doing. But, I can promise you all the information you'll get before you all vote on this, you will have plenty of data, and I welcome all and any questions that you might have before the reading. And, you know, I work with Dr. Elder see what we can get out to the public and to you all earlier. Just the raw data. Maybe even more than will be in the presentation for people to start digesting and understand before the meeting. What is the absolute

110last date required by the state for us to vote on the budget? Is that June 30th? It is, ma'am. So, there is an opportunity to wait. I You're not going to need to wait. Yeah, there would be theoretically, yes, but we're going to have you enough information, I promise you. Okay, and we'll hold you to that, Mr. >> Yes, ma'am. We want that that information as soon as possible so that we might have a vote so that we our constituents have an opportunity to ask questions. And if we happen to have need to make any modifications. And I'll tell you speaking of the data, the topic of this stuff, I we're just now starting to process. Next year, I'll give you an example of some stuff. We're going to be asking the schools to put

111their own information in in the system. And this will be in the January-February time period. We're going to be in a much better place with data in the system next year as opposed to this year. Now, we're still going to get you everything you need for this year, I promise you you're going to have enough information to make an informed decision when you make your vote vote on the budget. All right, we're going to hold you to that, Mr. We're going to All right. Thank you all very much. I really appreciate the questions, the opportunity to talk to you all again. Um the district is very blessed with amazing principals. I can't say that enough. I've been thoroughly impressed with them. And what you all saw saw tonight, I've seen across the district and a

112very, very blessed and fortunate district heading the right direction. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> ALL RIGHT, UP NEXT WE HAVE REPORT OF the superintendent, Dr. Elder. Thank you so much, Madam Vice Chairman, members of the board. Um I'd like to thank Mr. Madden for all of his hard work. I'm not doing that. >> [laughter] >> I'm not done doing it. Um and and I will say that um to your point, we know that we need to have much more data publicly available, but I also want to say that it would it's very easy to do a budget in a vacuum and just tell schools what they're getting and just tell departments what they're getting. It is much more complex when you have that two-way communication and that input process. And we're

113very committed to making sure that everybody has a chance to talk about what they need, what they don't need to help inform the whole process. So, does it take a little bit longer? Yes, but it also it does a better job of making sure that everyone has what they need. So, my announcements, um I say this every other week, student registration is open for new and returning students. There's a place for everyone in the Rock Hill schools. A couple of highlights from the last 2 weeks, I got to help announce the district's bus driver of the year finalists. They were so excited. It was so much fun. Um I got to meet with the student advisory council. They have fantastic ideas, especially around technology usage in classrooms. Our high school kids are really smart and

114they have great ideas. Um I got to present along with the other three uh superintendents for York County at the York County Chamber State of Education event. And celebrated future educators at the Educators Rising Signing Night and attended attended the Teacher Cadet Reception. I might have done a little recruiting at both of those events. I joined cabinet members for a cabinet back the pack day with the foundation. We had an incredible experience. Um I had not done that before and I'm I don't think all of our cabinet members had. It was wonderful to get to do that as a team. Thank you to the foundation. And participated in the superintendent round table with our state organization SCASA. Upcoming, May 26th is our next school board meeting. That is also the date of the public hearing

115for the district general fund budget for FY26-27. The public hearing will be held here at the district office at 5:30 followed by our regular business meeting at approximately 6:00 p.m. As always, board meetings will be streamed on our website and on Facebook. And that concludes my announcements. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. [snorts] Elder. Up next, is there any other and future business? I'm not sure if Chair Miller and Ms. Harris are still on the line. I'm still on. I'm I'm just fighting to say I didn't get a chance to say anything while Mr. Madden was there. So, I don't know if he's still in the room or not, but just want to share my appreciation to him for specifically having conversations with the principals to get their input on what their schools need

116and not let that decision making come from um the district office or a higher level because I firmly believe in allowing the principals be the source of their their domains. And I'm I'm hoping that while those principals are having conversations with Mr. Madden, that they're also having conversations with their team, their staff so they know what their teachers and their their their team needs to operate their their facilities in their school. So, I just want to say this year I'm grateful for the effective communication that is that is happening around around the budget and looking forward to what he produces in our next next meeting. Thank you. Madam [snorts] Vice Chair? Oh, yes, Madam Chair. Yes, ma'am. I would just like to echo Madam Chair's comments. I I too am very appreciative of the changes

117process as the budget is in the development stages and for the what seems to be the input from the organization as a whole that they have provided. Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Vice Chair? Yes, Dr. Bolton. One thing that to our superintendent and our staff, I am getting an amazing opportunity. Certainly, I'm going as a board member but first and first and foremost, I'm a father. And I'm getting an amazing opportunity in the last couple of weeks and here in the next couple of weeks to attend some amazing events that my daughter is a part of as a senior. Just academic awards celebrations, baccalaureate celebrations, etc. Things that I had never done quite frankly in Rocky Hill schools and I'm getting those opportunities now as a father and obviously wearing two hats when I'm in

118these places. And I just want to say to our community that we have some amazing children doing some amazing things and I do see Ms. Pat there. She and I were at an event last week where children were being awarded with academic awards and I assume one of her children was being recognized as and what And and what I want to say is I just and and I appreciate our communications team who's now doing a really good job of highlighting some of those things. And I know one of the things that happens in some districts it is during board meetings they get an opportunity to do kind of a school spotlight. Three to five minutes, have the principals and some of the staff members come in and I would I would hope that as a

119board we would look at some of those things. We hear from the three schools who are not necessarily who are on sometimes people call it the bad list but all these schools out here who got some amazing kids going and doing some amazing things. So maybe in the 26-27 academic year we'll consider rotating the schools through here and give them an opportunity to be cheerleaders for their respective schools and respective communities. And just to the principals particularly at the high school level, I don't have any experience with South Point and Northwestern. All my experience is as a parent is at Rock Hill High, but they are doing an amazing job and I'll just end with this. This past week they had college signing day for the students. On the same day the athletes signed, the

120children who were doing academic who were signing to go to college. They had a whole signing ceremony for these kids at Rock Hill High School and I assume the other two high schools do the same thing and it was phenomenal. And these children, you know, on this day I sit in my talent and you know, whatever athletes say these kids were saying it. And and so anyway, I just hope we'll highlight more of those things and really shine on their kids. Harvard, Yale, Howard, Spelman, USC, Clemson, etc. It's hard for me to say Clemson, but nevertheless um I'll leave it there. I think you I think you get my point. Um that I I just wish we would highlight more of those things more in our board meetings. And I'll I'll end there. I'm Vice

121Chair. Mine. We love that idea Um, we'll certainly be looking at executing that next year. We might have already spoken about it just a little bit. The principals are nodding. So, yes. Oh, awesome. Uh, well, point of order, Madam Chair. Yes, Madam Chair. Yeah, to to Dr. Elder's point, uh, then actually Dr. Belton used to be the traditional Rock Hill schools prior to COVID when they, you know, the format of the board meeting was changed slightly. And, uh, we have actually had some conversations as Dr. Elder alluded to, uh, and, uh, to to resume, uh, a similar pattern. And I think that this is something that we certainly will have the group take into consideration because, just like you said, uh, there is an opportunity here for each school to be able to, uh, highlight,

122uh, some of the unique and wonderful things that are happening in each location. So, thank you for bringing that up, Dr. Belton. I was at the uh, signing ceremony for Rock Hill. That was cool. They had the cheerleaders and the band, and it was a it was a whole thing. So, that was just very nice to see those students being celebrated. Um, and actually there's a student celebration coming up this week, too. Um, but that was just a good thing. So, I'm glad you mentioned that, Dr. Belton. Thank you, Chair Miller, for mentioning that. And thank you, Dr. Elder, for already getting that in process. All right, with that said, it sounds like we are uh, finished for the night. So, is there a motion on the table to adjourn the May 12th meeting of

123the Rock Hill School Board? So moved. >> [laughter] >> Thank you, Mr. Burns. Is there a second? Second. Oh, Dr. Belton came out there and did it before you, Mr. Nosal. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say I. I. I. And all those? Motion carries 7-0. Thank you all.