RHS School Board Meeting 05-13-25

001Never. [Music] Good evening and welcome to the business. Can't hear you. Can't hear you. Good evening. see her. Good evening. There we go. And welcome to the May 13th business meeting of the Rockill School Board. Local news media outlets were notified in writing of this agenda uh on Saturday, May 10th, 2025. At this point, uh if you will please join me for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence. To the flag of the United States of America. Thank you. Please be seated. First up is the approval of the meeting agenda. I will entertain a motion to approve as posted. So move. Thank you, Mr. Burns. Do I have a second? Second. Second. Uh, thank you, Miss Harris. I believe was first. Any discussion? None. All those in favor? All opposed. Motion carries

00270. First up today is recognitions. Um and I am going to welcome up Miss Kim Grant who is going to present the achievements in fine arts. Welcome up Miss Grant. Thank you so much. Um, it is my pleasure and honor to recognize a number of performing arts groups this evening. Springtime is a very busy time for our performing arts students. Many groups throughout the district have been attending their spring performance assessments where students are evaluated on their individual and group achievements in their respective domains or disciplines. Tonight we will be recognizing theater students, band students, and coral students um in their respective schools and in their respective programs. The first group that we'll be recognizing is theater. And the first school that I would like to call up is Castle Heights Middle School. I would

003like to recognize Castle Heights Middle School Theater under the direction of Noah Markham. Um, Principal Cynthia Robinson. This group of students attended the South Carolina Junior Thespian Festival and competed with other groups in their same area and this group achieved the highest level um that it that you can can get the highest rating which is a rating of superior. This group actually achieved three different superiors in three different categories. So please join me in once again acknowledging the hard work of this group of students and their talented director [Applause] Congratulations. Good job. Congratulations. Next up, we have um we would like to recognize Dutchman Creek Middle [Applause] School. And I just want to say this is not the entire ensemble. These students have busy busy lives and schedules as do all of us. So not

004all of them could be here tonight and I also need to give my apologies on behalf of their teacher Miss Emily Croll Windover. She was not feeling well tonight and was not able to be here. But we do have her principal doc uh Mr. Clayton Motton here to [Applause] represent. So this talented group of students also attended the South Carolina Junior Thesian Festival and have a stunning 14 superiors amongst this group of students. So please let's recognize them one more time. [Applause] Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Good job. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you, Mr. Next up, we have Rollison Road Theater. [Applause] You can kind of guess what performance they may have put on this year. They're they're representing that proudly. So this is Rston Road Theater that they are under the direction of Miss Beth Clipper

005and this group achieved 34 superior ratings. Some students some students achieve two different superiors in two different categories individually. So very talented group and we're extremely proud of you guys. Good job. Good job. Good job. Good job. Good job. Congratulations. Good job. I know your mom. I did. Good job. It was great. I enjoyed the show. It was wonderful. I enjoyed the show. Thank you. You better enjoy the show. Congratulations. Enjoyed the show. It was a great show. I enjoyed it. Congratulations. Good job. Congratulations. Congratulations. Great job. Congratulations. [Music] [Applause] So, I have one more theater recognition and then these young people are staying on stage because their director, they double dipped and did the theater theater and chorus. So, they're waiting on their chorus teacher in just a moment. Um, Miss Alman could not

006be here tonight, but I did want to read off the recognition for Northwestern Theater. Um Tamara Alman is their director and they also attended the state uh thespian festival receiving 37 superiors and two allstate students Laura Ray Robinson and Robert Beia Lqua I'm sorry I'm sorry Villa Lacqua I may have that incorrect but I apologize for the pronunciation but if we could give them a round of applause. I know they're not here tonight. Our next recommendation uh sorry recom recognition is in chorus. So if I could have Mr. Penson join his students on stage. Mr. Penson is the coral director at Rollison Row Middle School. and he took a group of students, this is not all of them, to South Carolina Music Educators Association competition and he had his advanced choir received an overall superior

007[Applause] [Music] [Applause] rating. Congratulations Congratulations, Mr. D. Good to see you. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Great job. Congratulations again. Congratulations. Good job again. Good job again. Good job again. Double dipping. The next group of recognitions are in the area of band and we're going to start with Sluda Trail Middle School. I would like to uh recognize Heather Turner who is the director of bands at Saluda Trail Middle School. She took multiple bands to their concert performance assessments and her seventh grade band achieved a superior excuse me superior with distinction meaning they received the highest score possible in each of the categories. The sec her eighth grade band received an all over score of superior and they had two sorry one all-state student Mason Harrison for trombone. One final recognition um that I'm excited to announce is

008that this this band also received the outstanding performance award for the first time ever in that band's history. So congratulations about that. Congratulations. Congratulations. That's awesome. Congratulations. Great work. Next, I would like to rock uh recognize Rock Hill High School band. [Applause] Rock Hill High also attended concert performance assessments this spring. This is this band is under the direction of Scott Fleshman and assistant director Paul Guzwick. Their concert and symphonic bands played class 5 music and were adjudicated both receiving superior ratings in 2025. They also were given the outstanding performance award. For out of 25 years, this band has received that award 24 out of 25 years. They had two Allstate students, Noah Renan for trombone and Kale Meyers for percussion. They also attended solo and ensemble where they received 52 superior rate ratings amongst

009their students. And then their drum line recently attended the Wintergard International World Championship for the first time in school history and then made the semi-finals finishing 23rd in the nation. Congratulations. Awesome job. Congratulations. Go. Congratulations. Go. Congratulations. Wonderful job. Go. I have one final recognition, although I don't believe we have the director here to to accept this, but we had um Northwestern High School band also under the direction of Scott Maguire and assistant director Melissa Burroughs. This band also uh attended concert performance assessment playing class 6 music which is considered masterworks. The superior they were given a superior with distinction. They had all state students Taylor Armstrong, Abby Thomas, Khloe Maguire, Connor King, Mary Gert. Um, they also had All-State jazz students Edison Cubbage and Abby Thomas. And they had one all-state orchestra student, Khloe

010Maguire. This group also went to solo and ensemble having 47 superior ratings. Seven students had two superiors and four students had three superiors. Great work. Thank you. Congratulations, [Applause] Northwestern. And I believe that is it for me. So, thank you so much everyone. Thank you so much. Let's give him a round of applause. Next up, I am going to introduce uh Mr. Eric Robinson, who is here to introduce our National History Day State Honors and Awards. Welcome up. [Applause] [Music] Good evening everyone. Uh my name is Eric Robinson. I teach 8th grade social studies at Dutchman Creek Middle School. And joining me on stage is Paul Johnson who also teaches eighth grade social studies at Dutchman Creek and our principal Clayton Motton. We're here to celebrate our [Applause] We're here to celebrate our students who

011excelled at National History Day State competition. First, we want to thank all the students who participated. Your passion for history brings us here today. We also want to recognize our ELA colleagues, Amy Rawlings and Lee Wisnooki for their invaluable support. and Queenie Hall, our regional National History Day coordinator, for her [Applause] contributions. We also want to give a heartfelt thank you to Principal Motton for his remarkable leadership, professionalism, and commitment to academic excellence. Under his guidance, Dutchman Creek consistently excels at both state and national levels in National History Day. The National History Day competition inspires students to engage in historical research and express their findings using innovation and creativity. Thousands of South Carolina students participate each year, but only a select few earn the opportunity to compete nationally. Today we are proud to honor four

012outstanding National History Day State winners who will represent Dutchman Creek, our district in South Carolina and Washington DC this summer. Julia Mcichael. Julia Mcichael, first place junior division individual website for her project on the influence of social contract theory and winner of the colonial dames award for outstanding entry on colonial history. Elizabeth Batson, first place junior division historical paper for her paper on polio, a story of responsibility, scientific triumph and public health rights. Andrew Rawlings second place junior division historical paper for his paper on Harry S. Truman, balancing human rights and presidential responsibilities and warfare. And Katherine McGee, third place, junior division individual performance for her performance on the midnight rebellion, the planning behind the Boston Tea Party. In closing, at Dutchman Creek, our goal is for students to go beyond average and aim for

013better. Principal Motton's motto, good, better, best, encourages our Gators to embrace excellence in all all aspects of life while at Dutchman Creek and beyond. Dr. Jones and members of the school board, these four students exemplify the Gator nation's commitment to excellence. Congratulations, Gators, and best of luck at nationals. Congratulations. [Applause] Congratulations. Congratulations. Next up, I want to welcome up Claude Dele Morales Torres and she is going to introduce our seals of biiteracy recipients. Welcome up. [Applause] [Music] Good evening um everyone members of the board Dr. Jones. Uh we have quite a few recipients. So if family members are planning to take pictures, please take them as they come up. And we're going to have hopefully one at the very end as well. The second row can come up. All right, I'm going to go ahead

014and start the presentation while students are still lining up. We have a few of them. Uh the South Carolina seal of biiteracy is an award that recognizes the ability of students to demonstrate bilingualism or multilingualism and biiteracy or multi-iteracy in English and another language. To earn the seal of biiteracy, students had to demonstrate a functional proficiency in English and another language at an intermediate mid level for bronze, intermediate mid for silver, and advanced low for gold. The seal of biiteracy is now recognized in all 50 states. The award is an example of how Rockill Schools is committed to developing global citizens in every area of society. The recipients of this award receive an official letter and certificate from the South Carolina Department of Education. They will also receive a medal and a pin from Rockill

015Schools. Rockill Schools continues to be one of the leading districts for world language learning in the region and our state. We are very proud of and congratulate our seal of biiteracy recipients. This year we have 137 recipients of the award. Three of those recipients earned the seal in two different languages, bringing the total number of seals of biiteracy to 140 this year. 14 gold, 74 silver, and 52 bronze seals. The languages represented are Arabic, French, German, Italian, Jamaican PUA, also known as Jamaican Creole, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge also the very essential role world language teachers, multilingual teachers, and test coordinators play in making this accomplishment possible for our students. Here are some highlights pertaining to the current seal of biiteracy recipients. Uh, Miss Newandike, Jen

016Newandike, the director of the applied technology center, counted 20 career and technical education completers who have also earned the seal of biiteracy this year. That means there are 20 readytowork graduates who are also able to benefit their employers in our community by being able to serve and communicate fluently in two languages. 100% of the students in the first dual language immersion graduating cohort who applied for the seal in their junior year earned the seal. Some have earned more than one. 34 of the students to be presented after us um as dual credit IB and AP scholars earned the award last year. Our district can boast of a total of 201 biiteracy for current juniors and seniors in our three high schools earned between the school years 2324 and 24-25. So we're trying to go ahead

017and give everybody the opportunity to take photos. We have a lot of names. I hope you are very patient as I go ahead and read them. They deserve this honor. From Northwestern High, we have Natalie Avalo Garcia, Abigail Delicia Brown, Daffhne Gazelle, Castro, Bautista, Paola Abigail, Lobo, Amaya, Adriel, Isakat, Munos, Alvarado, Ryan Lans, Rich, Isaac, Benhamin Rodriguez, Rodriguez, Elizabeth Sanchez in Spanish. She also earned it in French. Jonah's last tour store. Brian Aguilar Linarees. Briana Aguilar Linarees. Jessica Aguilar Linarees. Esther Emilina Anariva Ramos Ricardo Javier Sension Xavier Carmona Perez Lucia Kogi Sophia Kogi Angeline Nicole Cruz Lopez Adonis Danielle Estrada Mariano Ashley Maris Flores Perdomo Gabriella Emily Galan in Spanish she also earned it in French Kimberly how Escandon John Carter Medlin Alexe Terry Mills Donna Marcela Morante, Jack City, Pina Rodriguez, Kimberly Ketales, Candon,

018Paola Ramirez, Annabelle Charlotte Rosamp, Elizabeth Sanchez in French, Andres, Felipe, Sanchez, Usete, Abigail, Landino Nera, Flor, Julana Kamacho, Garcia, Asa Jordan Elkins, Gabriella Emily Galan in French, Yala Garcia Rodriguez, Farah Cheyenne Johnson, Cayla Ricardo Ramirez, Reronica Rasumoskaya, Elizabeth Rees, Julian Fernando Santos, Davidid Alexander Sans from South Point, and I'll come back to Rockill High South Point. Nicholas Leonardo Fona Franco, Danielle Sakco Scobar Gonzalez, Litzy Na Gonzalez, Julio Antonio Gonzalez, Flores, Evelyn Gonzalez, Martinez, Hennessy's Karolina Gutierrez, Samura, John Jack Richards, McCrae, Braxton, Brian Townson, Samira Valdez, Stalona, Lorenzo Michelle Cardarelli, Jollet Castro, Peruo, Taisha Lein Rasetto, James Walton Townsend, and now on to Rock Hill High. Just just a few more minutes. Um, Javier Luciana Aal Alvarez, Diego Fernandez on Nasarez Juliet Los Christian Jesus Valero Pimera Emily Deanira Alcaras Luis Davidid Amador Casas Helana Tuba

019Anos Sydney Naelli Belton John Calvin Buucy Jessica Kamacho Rivera Weston Scott Kanty Bryce Chavez, Anthony Joseph Chavez, Ramos, Campbell, Anne Compton, Dylan Sebastian de La Cruz, Lucio, Brendy, Joseline Diaz, Medano, Cameron Nicole Fiser, Evelyn Gamboa, Belasquez, Alan, Ya, Guadama, my boy, Alandrael, Ernnandez, Ramos, Allison Fernanda, Ernnandez, IAS, Donna, Erra, Velasquez, Alexandra Marie, Houston Cologne, Juliet Nicole Huarez Rees, Paul Max Kemler, Adelene Pira King, Jordan Camelan Lightner, Emily Lona Salivar, Jordan Mavid Lopez, Jadira Jacalene Lopez, Javier Alexander Lugo Ibara halfway through. Um, Laur Gabriel Lupa Miharees Maya Abigail Manin Sonia Martinez in French and Spanish. Jose Mart Javier Martinez Rees Kai Alexander Martins Escalona Rammon Moreno Vida Joseph Daniel Piltchure Leila Elise Riggel Amy Nicole Rodriguez Aguilar Diego Andres Roelio Reyes Danielle Alejandro Roas Maita Diana Teil Montano Summer an Thomasson Crystal Julisa Torres Kintani IA

020Mariam Vasquez Garcia, Lillian Orphy, Ren Lennon Tyler, Ye Brian Alberti, Jade Michelle Alm, Travers, Evelyn Ivonne, Ayala Velasquez, Almost done, promise. Trinity Autumn Brantley, Elizabeth Hartwell Briggs, Brandon Steven Coaria, Joseph Eduardo de Par Gonzalez, Destiny Autumn Duncan, Zachary Tyler Estes, Jackson Alexander Feldman, LSE Naris, Fer Lon, Adulo Anel, Flores, Cabrera, Armando, Francisco Ramirez, Jesse Noeli, Fes Ramos, Himea Gonzalez, Jackson Kent Grant James Joseph Hos Rosmemelly Ernnandez Alvarado Isabella Leon Gonzalez Emily Lopez Mariel Mata Ernnandez Sarah Sadi Matar Alsham Juan Emmanuel Mena Joan Seas Steven Mendoza Bourhe Emmanuel Olivastro Addison Jean Pender Peton Ha Tran Noam Alexander Ander Ranel Artiaga, Mait Rivera Gardinho, London Jalis Robinson, Sophia Jade Roco, Eric Sanchez, Aninsley Stall, Christian Uriel, Tees, Tees, Yousef Mohamed Tolba, Catelyn Estrea, Visoso, Castro, Lucas, Anthony Willis. Please join me in congratulating [Applause] We have a

021total as they walk off a total of 14 gold, 74 silver, and 52 bronze seals. Y'all, so we're not in their picture. Congratulations. [Applause] Good job. 137 different kids. Good job. Good job, guys. Good job. Good job. Nice. Nice job. That is amazing. Congratulations. You rock. Great job. [Applause] Next up, I'm going to welcome up Jimmy. Oh, never mind. Alicia Johnson. I almost I'm almost went too fast. I'm sorry, Miss Johnson. Who is going to recognize our AP Scholar, IB Diploma, and dual credit recipients. Okay, Miss Good evening, Chair Miller, and and ma'am, I think we're going to wait just a few minutes and let people exit first so we can make sure that we give them okay our full attention. Yeah. Okay. Next up is Miss Alicia Johnson and she is going to recognize

022our AP Scholar, IB Diploma, and dual credit recipients. Miss Johnson. Good evening, Chair Miller, Vice Chair Hutchinson, board members, Dr. John Jones, and members of our community. And if I may interject, if we can please minimize the conversation in the room so that these students can be recognized. Sorry, Miss Johnson. That's okay. I'm Alicia Johnson, executive director for secondary education, and it is my pleasure to provide the context for our recognition categories this evening. In Rock Hill Schools, we offer programs for students to pursue advanced academic studies. Tonight, we will honor and recognize seniors from each high school who have achieved in one of our advanced studies programs. Before the recognition, I want to share the four categories for which scholars may be recognized. The first one is advanced placement. Advanced placement courses overseen by

023the college board offer college level curricula and examinations to high school students. AP scholar awards recognize high school students who have demonstrated exemplary college level achievement on AP exams. These will be students who have earned a three or higher on AP exams. The next category is AP Capstone. This is specific to Northwestern High School. The advanced placement AP capstone diploma is granted to students who earn scores of three or higher in the AP seminar and AP research course and on four additional AP exams of their choice. Northwestern High School will recognize district seniors who have been designated as AP capstone scholars or candidates. The next category that we will recognize this evening is international back laurate. This will be specific to Rocky High School. Another option for advanced studies is the international balorate program. It

024focuses on international education and encourages both personal and academic achievement. To earn an IB diploma, students must complete coursework across six subject groups and the diploma program core, which includes the extended essay, theory of knowledge, and activities focused on creativity, action, and service. Rockill High School will recognize district seniors who have been designated as IB scholars or candidates. The last category is dual credit. So dual credit is where students are able to concurrently earn both high school and college credit for courses that they complete. At this time the district partners with USC Lancaster, York Technical College and Win University for dual credit as well as Coker College through the Governor School Accelerate program and the Rochester Institute of Technology through Project Lead the Way courses. Depending on the course material, students earn up to three

025college credits for a dual credit course. So, on behalf of our district and instruction department, I want to congratulate all of our scholars this evening before we begin recognizing scholars at each high school. So, we're going to begin with Northwestern High School. We are joined by Mr. Michael Abraham, principal, and Miss Katie Beth Tinker, advanced studies coordinator, who will recognize the Northwestern High School scholars. Our AP Capstone diploma students are Madison Alman, Esther Anaribbo Ramos, Gwyavir Filyagi, Kaylee Graham, Carter Medlin, Maria Smith, Noah Sorrow, and Natalie Valdez. Our AP scholars are Madison Alman, Esther Anarba Ramos, Sha Collier, Juliana Dea Cruz, Gwyne Filiagi, Kaylee Graham, Kaylee Hawkins, El Jackson, Zachary Jianz, Carter Medlin, Holland Nesbbit, Benjamin Notangelo, Jeffrey Ray, Laura Ray Robinson, Sergio Silva, Maria Smith, Noah Sorrow, Jefferson Aravello Garcia, Taylor Armstrong, Charles Burton,

026Braden Bby, Dayton Cunningham, Kimberly How Escendon, Cameron Jawers, Braden Little, Emma Morris, Jordan Pike, Sophia Portales, Kavasos, Dmitri Putman, Kyra Rios, Natalie Valdez, Dennis Wang, Zion White, and Claire Willis Our dual credit completers are Madison Alman, Manuel Alvarez, Noah Bell, Robert Bevelqua, Adriana Braramlet, Aaron Brown, Katherine Burbank, Charlie Burton, Isabella Duncan, London Deran, Gwyavir Filyagi, Alexa Foy, Logan Gayy, Presley Knight, Braden Little, Kira Massie, Alexe Mills, Joanna Morland, Vivie Wyn, Landon Penley, Kyle Robinson, Noah Scarboro, and Jaylen [Applause] Ward. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Great work. Congratulations. Great job. Congratulations. Congratulations. Good job. Good job. Congratulations. Yes, sir. Congratulations again. Congratulations. [Applause] Congratulations. Next, we will recognize our scholars from Rockill High School. Dr. Jessica Ren, assistant principal, will recognize the scholars from Rockill High School. [Applause] Second round. Good evening. We're going to begin with

027recognizing our AP scholars. Garrison Addinson, Haley Bennett, Andrew Barry, Caitlyn Brener, Brendy Diaz Medano, Guy Eckles, Daniel Edge, Ka Fickling, Ashton Griffin, Coulson Gumprey, Nathan Hamill, Richard Heckard, Carter Hilton, Caroline Jackson, Reed Johnson, Adeline Keane, Gavino Martinez, Sonia Martinez, Andrew McCall, Roman Messia, Kevin Wyn, Madden Ritzer, Leah Rome, Noah Renan, Sierra Roo, Ian Shirtart, Grace Scott, Clayton Stewart, Summer Thomasson, Sunsai Tyson, Erica Williams. Next, we will recognize our IB diploma candidates. Abigail mcclooney, Nathaniel Fam, Andrew Stefilina, Cooper Thirsten, Lucas Willis. And next, we're going to recognize our dual credit students. Garrison Adamson, Emily Alcaras, Kobe Allen, Luis Amador, Casas, Cameron Balor, Derek Betham, Haley Bennett, Andrew Barry, Hayden Bike, Wyatt Bjonowski, Kaylee Bolan, Khloe Brown, Jasmine Butler, Jessica Kamacha Rivera, Samuel Cameron, Callahan Kase, Audrey Challenger, Gregory Chisum, Lydia Chisum, Ivan Cortez, Aiden Coxton, Isabelle

028Dagel, Zoe De Jesus, Guy Eckles, Daniel Edge, Emma Eep, Sarah Katherine Estis, Ka Fickling, Genevie Finn, Eric Garzas, Lopez, Samuel Gladen, Emily Graham, Ellen Gran, Alexis Griffin, Coulson Gumprey, Nathan Hamill, Samuel Hawkins, Richard Heckard, Trayvon Hernando, Carter Hilton, Landon Hall, Jade Infinger, Caroline Jackson, Kennedy Johnson, Reed Johnson, Pippen, Jelter, Jolma, sorry, Ivy Lee, Jaylen Linton, Mica Logan, Label Martin, Gavino Martinez, Sonia Martinez, Ryan Massie, Mariel Mata Hernandez, Andrew McCall, Avery McCauen, Juan Mina, Roman Missaga, Walker Morgan, Jeremy Meyers, Judah Nash, Kevin Wyn, Jerson Pagio, Divia Patel, Henny Patel, Vier Patel, Cherish Paul, Valerie Perez, Jacob Phillips, Joseph Pitler, Ginger Peta, Boston Ray, Tatiana Red Pearson, Madden Ritzer, Dion Robertson, Antoine Robinson, Chase Rawlings, JT Rawlings, Leah Rome, Emma Runge, Sierra Roo, Anna Kate Sbuko, Grace Scott, Annabelle Schupert, Will Snipes, Skyler Soell, Grace Tracy Starns,

029Immani Sterling, Addison Stalker, Duncan Stakunas, Ethan Sha Thomas, Gabriella Thomas, Summer Thomasson, Olivia Tiller, Joseph Torres Cantero, Suie Torres Maldonado, Sunnia Thompson, Hannah Walden, Gabrielle Watts, Hannah Wilkerson, Benjamin Williams, and Mariana Williamson. [Applause] Good work. Congratulations. Nice job. Nice job. Nice job. Congratulations. Congratulations. Go Tigers. Nice job. Good work. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Good job again. Good job again. [Music] Congratulations. Congrats. Congratulations. Congrats. Next, we'll recognize the scholars from South Point High School. Joining us on the stage is Principal Dr. Valerie Williams. And Miss Kenishha Rivers Williams, assistant principal for instruction, will recognize the scholars from South Point. [Applause] We will begin with our AP scholars. We have Haley Acriman, Jackson Alexander, Braden Archie, Logan Beasley, Ren Blanchard, Zaniah Cunningham, Ansley How, Ava Passmore, Kyla Tinsley, Braxton Townsen, and Reed Olrich. All receiving AP Scholar. Next,

030we will recognize our dual credit completers, Zaniah Cunningham and Reed Olrich, Kaylee Bolton, Tyl Bowwware, Eva Gonzalez, Escobar, Gabrielle Evelyn, Macy Fail, Jaylen Foster, Brendan Gin, Cohen Hood, Kylie Hughes, Maggie King, Marquon Mitchell, Kiana Moreno, an W Aaron Nielsen, Jack O'Sullivan, Kennedy Rouse, Katie Stevenson, Emily Summerland, Diamond Thomas, Ellery V, and Cameron [Applause] [Music] Williams. Congratulations. Good job. Congratulations. Good job. Congratulations. That concludes our AP IB and dual credit completers. Congratulations to all of our students. [Music] [Applause] Congratulations. Next up, I'm going to welcome up Jimmy Duncan, who is going to recognize our JB weightlifting state champion. [Applause] Good evening. Good evening. It's okay. It's okay. Um uh I stand up here today to to recognize Mr. McCoyel. Um McCoy recently competed uh in the state strength meet put on by the South Carolina High

031School Strength Coach Association. Uh it happens every year. The females in the fall, the males in the spring. Uh McCoy showed up in the the 190 weight class is how it's divided up. Um competed in the the squat, the bench, and the broad jump. Uh testing his maxes there, competing against guys from across the state of South Carolina. Um and McCoy came out on top. Uh McCoy squatted uh 405 lbs, benched. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. And and I will say this, McCoy is only a sophomore. Only a sophomore. So excited about that. Um he benched 280 and Brock jumped 115 in. [Applause] Overall, overall the things that that that stand out from McCoy is a testament of what his hard work has done. Uh it's not an easy thing to be a student athlete.

032Uh there's a lot on your plate. Uh so to add this on top of it, we're proud of him and excited what the future holds. Thank you. [Applause] Fantastic. Great job. And now I know I'm going to welcome up Jimmy Duncan who is going to present the 5A region 3 athletic director of the year and the 5A state athletic director of the year. Good evening board members and Dr. Jones. Uh we're proud to recognize Eric Rawlings for being named both the 5A region 3 athletic director of year and the 5A state athletic director of the year. These awards highlight Eric's exceptional leadership. Under Eric's guidance, the Rock 101 academic accountability program has helped student athletes achieve an impressive GPA of 4.028. Additionally, uh his student athletes have comm uh completed over 3,000 hours this year.

033This u commitment to both academic success and community involvement shows Eric's dedication to the holistic development of our student athletes and he's truly deserving of this recognition. We congratulate him on these outstanding achievements and look forward to his continued [Applause] success. No, it's [Applause] great. Lastly, but certainly not least, um across the state, uh school boards are recognizing our 2025 graduates of our respective high schools. Uh and this is a moment where this board congratulates uh all of the young minds who will cross the stage and receive a high school diploma here in a few weeks. So if the board will please join me um up here to take a picture so that we can participate in the South Carolina School Boards Association's recognitions of our graduates. [Laughter] I'm sorry. Oh, do that. Congratulations. [Applause]

034[Music] Congratulations. There we go. Next up is citizen participation. Um, and just for clarification, uh, there are two ways where the community can, uh, participate in a meeting. uh they can either sign up at 6:00 for a 3inut allocated spot uh for what we refer to as citizen participation. You also have an opportunity for a longer segment to appear under communications. But if that's the case, you have to communicate that by noon the Wednesday before the meeting. So, I do have a series of individuals that have signed up uh to speak for their threeinut spot tonight. They are going to be called upon in the order that they were received in the box. If you know that you signed up for citizen participation, if you could please sort of make your way to that side

035of the stage so that we can streamline the process a little bit. Uh but first up is Dia Gray who is going to speak regarding uh I believe um personnel recommendations. So I'm going to uh welcome him up to the podium and uh again I'm asking that all are respectful to the time allotment and we do have a timekeeper. I trust that Dr. Jyn's up here. Welcome up. Good afternoon. Yeah. Also, make sure that you speak into the microphone to make sure that the sound is transmitted. Thank you. Yes. Yes, ma'am. Good evening, everybody. My name is Dear Gray. A lot of people knows me know me as Coach Gray. Um, representing Dutchman Creek. I am a support staff finalist this year. Um, thanks to our good leader, Mr. Motton. [Applause] So this afternoon, well

036this evening, excuse me, I come to represent Dutch McCree as I I dear Gray started the petition to have Mr. Motton reinstated as our principal. Now the reason I did that, this man is a great leader. He goes beyond beyond his way to make sure that our school is taken care of in athletics, academics, even personal things with our our students, our employees. Um and honestly he he needs to be there with the impact that he has had on past students, current students and the impact he will have on the future students coming to Dutchman Creek. He is one person we do need as our principal for the rest of the rest of his career. as I have here paperwork of 1,00 excuse me 1,226 signed signatures to support him into making this change happen.

037Now, we can only do this part, but representative just McCree, I do ask the school board, please, please make a change. If you can make a change to what's right, this man has put his life into this school, his family into this school. We need him. That's our leader, and he will always be our leader, no matter what what position he's in. Now, as we did see tonight, Dutch McCree had three three categories which showed his leadership in students that he has pushed to their successful their success in the district, in the state, and is a prime prime symbol right there for him. Now, as Desmond Creek, can I have you stand up, please? I have 25. Okay. The people are standing up. He has impacted them in many ways. Of course, not many of

038us be able are able to be here, but he has impacted our whole community. And as we see from this petition, we need him restored. Please, thank you for your time. [Applause] So, one thing that I one thing that I admitted to state before the public participation is per policy beedh, the board listens, but we do not respond to public participation. Just wanted to state that. Um, ne next up is Andrew Casti, I believe, and thank you. Uh, and he is representing Dutchman Creek Middle School, and he wants to speak regarding school renewable plants. Thank you very much for your time. Uh, one thing I want to point out is that we are all here tonight. I want to congratulate those students who came up and were honored and celebrated. Uh, because they were the

039shining stars. They were the leaders, the ones who went above and beyond in this district. And that's what our job is to do is to raise those kids up and celebrate them. And on that same note, that's what we should be doing with those staff members, those teachers, those principles, those assistant principles, and all those who do their job in order to instill those qualities in those students to allow them to succeed like they have on the stage up here tonight. I have known um Mr. Motton for about 15 years. He hired me into this district and I started out with him at uh Saludo Trail and from the start I could see that he has those qualities in leadership that we look for. It's all about the intangibles. It doesn't matter how smart she

040might be. Those intangibles that create the culture that people want to follow him. Those are exactly what he has. He has all those intangibles. whether you agree with him, disagree with him, whatever it may be, people will listen to him and they will follow him. And when he started uh when I started uh Saluda Trail, I could see that he also makes sure that those who work for him and with him strive to make things better. That's what he's done everywhere he has been. We went from one of the most difficult schools to the steam school that was the rising school in this district. And I was happy to be a part of that. And he gave me everything that I needed in uh programs like Project Lead uh Lead the Way and so forth

041to make sure we were successful. And he brought that culture of family. And when you look at everyone around him, we're not colleagues. We're not his uh employees. We are his family. And he is one of my best friends and my family. When he was not given the opportunity to continue that success at Saluda Trail, he maintained his composure and his professionalism and support of who replaced and went into there as well. And when he came over to Dutchman Creek, I followed him because we followed the ones who are the brightest stars and what he's done in this school to rise it up just like he did at Saluda Trail and make it a family. Even though he was coming into a situation that was difficult, he has made his uh impact so heartfelt here.

042And he's the heart and soul of this district. So, you need to make sure that you rescend your vote. [Applause] Next up is Heather J who wants to address the board regarding school report cards and renewal plans. Come up. [Applause] Good evening. Um, I'm here as a taxpayer, as a community member, as a parent, and as a 29-year employee of Rock Hill Schools at Rock Hill High School. That's 29 years all at one school. That's not an accident. I've been there because it's a good place to be. And part of the reason it's a good place to be is because of Mr. All who was also part of the change. I understand that y'all cannot and will not talk about specific personnel changes um and specific personnel matters, but as that citizen, taxpayer, parent, stakeholder,

043I'd like to know why you made the recommendations on the administrative contracts that you did and especially given that as I understand it, those were in contrast or in contradiction to the recommendations of the district. So, why did the board override um the recommendations? Um and and I'd just like to know what are your priorities? What are your goals for making our schools better, for continuing the success, all the students that were up here that we were celebrating tonight? How do does your decision fit in to the priorities of making that happen? I'd like to know. Thank you, man. [Applause] Next up is Jason Huninger. Jason Huninger who is addressing us regarding personnel recommendations and renewal plans of month. Hi, my name is Jason Huninger. I was a teacher at Sludro from 2009 to 2015.

044Admittedly, during this time, I was considered somewhat of a rebel because I threw out curriculum maps and rules. Instead, I utilized data to drive instructions. I set down my personal opinions on what students could and could not do and insisted and instead utilized data to target their weaknesses and build upon their strengths. This resulted in massive gains in math maps. Long story short, data drove decisions, led to results. In my current position at the London Stock Exchange, I still utilize data to drive every single decision. Simply stated, I'm here because the Rockill School District has continued to operate and make decisions without utilizing data to measure performance metrics for far too long. This has inherently This has inherently caused us to do things just because. The students of Rockill deserve better. On April 29th, the

045board voted no to four administrative contracts. At least one of these contradicted the yes that the superintendent recommended. A victim of this discrepancy happened to be principal at my daughter's school, the GMP Clayton Motton. After looking at every available data metric I could get my hands on, I was perplexed with this news and sent an email to all of you board members asking basic questions about the data that was used to overturn the recommendation. Four of you board members reached out to me individually via email or phone and your responses genuinely left me concerned. There were things we agreed upon such as the fact that our district does need some reform but the other things concerned me. All of you highlighted that the metrics and processes around this topic sit with the superintendent and the

046HR. All of you also recognized that the superintendent said yes. Upon questioning this, I was met with comments suggesting that the closest thing to data that was obtained was a conglomeration of subjective complaints and calls from parents or staff members. A data point to consider, what percentage of staff members or parents reached out? The school serves approximately 850 students and has 110 staff members. Guessing if we looked at that objectively, that's less than 1 to 2%. The word reform keeps getting tossed out around here. And that's a buzz word that sounds nice, but if you want to make a real difference, every single decision that gets made needs to be backed with raw, tangible, measurable, unbiased data. Leave your personal feelings and connections at home. [Applause] Make make it a requirement that measurable goals are

047put in black and white and stop making decisions just because. Specifically addressing you Ford board members that voted no. I challenge you to just be completely honest with yourself. Can you point to undisputable datadriven evidence that suggests that Mr. Motton is unfit to lead Dutchman Creek Middle School? Can you point to specific evidence to suggest that he was unwilling to create an action plan? Can you point to specific evidence Can you point to specific evidence that he ignored the suggestions made by the superintendent? Oh, wait. That was you. Here's the question. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Here's a question I want you to really consider. Why are we interviewing for our seventh district superintendent in 2018? What kind of message does this send to potential candidates? Any respectable candidate would look at the board

048that handles the superintendent recommendations and run the other direction. If you want to be the reform that you talk about, one of you have to resend this vote and reverse the decision solely based on the fact that it was not based on data. It was based [Music] [Applause] Welcome up who is uh representing themselves regarding personnel recommendations. Welcome [Applause] Good evening. If you're a parent, raise your hand. Okay, cool. Thank you. I'm a man of acronyms. I think that everything in life is made up of something, right? Everything in life is made up of something. So, I have an acronym tonight. We're going to start with the letter M for motivational. Somebody who can encourage another person to do things that they didn't think they could do. Somebody that can take a person that's down

049low and encourage them, build them up, and have them do things they never thought of. Have them do things that they never thought they could reach. The O is for optimistic. Somebody who always has a smile on their face. Somebody who's always encouraging. Somebody who always sees the good in things. Somebody who's not negative, a positive person, a leader, somebody who looks at the greater good in all things and all people. The T is for transformative. Somebody who can take something and make it better. Somebody who takes the things that they had and make them better. They don't complain about what they have. They don't ask for more. They take what they have and they say, "Hey, we're going to go to battle with what we got and guess what? We're going to win." transformative.

050All right. O for outstanding. I think that speaks for itself. Excellent in the arts. Excellent in academics. High school ratings across the board when compared to other schools in the city and the district. The N is for noble. Somebody who's facing adversity, but could walk across this stage and shake everybody's Heat. Heat. [Applause] Thank you. Next up is Julia Khaled. Uh, and she is representing herself regarding renewal contract and personnel. Welcome up. I've come tonight like many of the people here to urge you to please renew Principal Moden's contract. My name is Julia Ked. I have a kid at Dutchman and have had a kid at Dutchman for four years and I've got an upright or upcoming sixth grader. So, I'll have one at least for another three years. Um, I serve on the school

051improvement council. I'm a volunteer. I'm at the school a lot. We're sponsors. Uh we we support uh Principal Motton and the the staff and students as board members. You represent the community. Guys, you got it wrong on this one. Okay, you got it wrong. So, uh Mr. Gray, who started the uh change.org petition like less than 48, no more than 72 hours ago, it's actually above 1250. He had a smaller number, but 1,250 people have spoken now. Some of which are teachers that have left, some of which that are teachers, some are assistant principles, many students, many parents, and that says a lot. His administrators, everybody stands behind him. And our district, yes, our district needs change and improvement. Principal Moten stands ready to accept that challenge. Sadly though, what I would like to talk

052about as a dedicated administrator in the district for 26 years, seven and a half at Dutchman, not once was he given the opportunity to sit down, talk about a plan of action. He wasn't reprimanded. He never received negative written feedback, never had a meeting with a board member or a superintendent or otherwise been approached with recommendations to improve and get better. I can guarantee you that man wants to get better. He is standing up to a challenge to get better at his school and on his level. What happened to him could never happen. He hasund 10 staff members. They have a preliminary meeting, a mid uh a midyear meeting, and a final meeting. He had no knowledge of this. He actually had to call the board to see the votes. So this he deserves better.

053It's unjust. What he was not afforded was an equal opportunity to understand what he was done wrong. what he has done wrong and a plan of improvement and resources to shore up around in which you guys say that you'll do. If he had behavior that warranted a non-renewal, he deserved to know about it and he needed to know ahead of time. We don't know what if we're what we're doing wrong can be fixed if we're not told. Motton has scores that are had been low and high. Yes, he stepped in big shoes, but this as I understand it, the score was 37 that year. He got scores up above 51. But you know what? Mistakes can be changed. And here's the opportunity for you guys to make it right. The truth must prevail. Clearly, you've

054seen that. We didn't even speak about the athletics. I've been to countless athletic and I get it, you know, but still the volleyball four champions, seventh and eighth grade. It's a good school. It's great. In conclusion, I challenge you to remember who you work for. The people here tonight, the petition signers and the children, please reverse your vote and say yes to vote in our children. [Applause] Next up is George Kamaro and I believe that you're representing yourself also speaking on the personnel recommendations. Mr. Kamar, say the name again. Um, last name is spelled C A M A R O. Okay. Not present any longer. Um, then I'm going to ask uh Mr. Devin Booker, I believe, uh, who is here to talk about uh, personnel recommendations as well, and he's representing himself. I'll come

055up. Good evening. My name is Devin Booker and I am a sixth grade teacher at Dutchman Creek Middle School. I teach social studies and like many people that work for the district, I'm a Winthrip grad. I uh had the absolute pleasure of having the placement of my final internship being at Dutchman Creek. And I come from a long line of educators, specifically middle school history teachers, uh, who told me as I was growing up, these horror stories about these tyrants, these principles in charge that were barriers to education. And I was nervous going in to teaching because of these stories. Now, my final internship at Winthre was a really tough one. I faced homelessness, poor mental health, abusive relationships, and I lost my passion and spark for teaching. I knew I wanted to do this

056for my entire life. But that year, something changed. Now, luckily, I'm still here. And part of that reason is Mr. Motton. One of my Edco classes, I had to have an interview with Mr. Motton to discuss the district plan and the school plan. And not once during that meeting did Mr. Motton say the word I. He always always always put community first. Every single time. Mr. Men, what are your plans for this? It's always the community. The students, the parents, and the staff always came first at Dutchman Creek under his leadership. And it's because of this meeting that I found my spark that when Rock Hill School District called me after I graduated, they offered me an open contract and I declined it. I said no. I didn't want to run the lottery of being

057placed in a random school. I wanted to work for Mr. Motton. He is the only reason that I am teaching at Rock Hill Schools. And now my my career will continue. But the very fact that I got hired, that I almost turned down employment, comes down to Mr. Moan because I saw a leader. I'm a student of history. I know what a leader looks like. And I see it in Mr. Moan. And in the three years that I've been at Dutchman Creek, I have seen those plans that he talked about in this meeting come to fruition. We are an environment in which education and students excel in because of what he's created and what he leads his staff to do. Now, for the four board members that voted no, each and every one of you

058ran a campaign that said that you wanted to put the community in charge of education. And I can't think of a single better man at Dutchman Creek to help you fulfill that task, to help you keep your promise to voters. So keep your promise to voters. Thank you, sir. Next up is Mr. Latage Linen also speaking on personnel recommendations. Welcome up. I'm here today as well to talk about uh the decision to uh not renew Principal Molton's contract for the upcoming school year. Uh Principal Molton has been a dedicated and effective leader. He's consistently demonstrated commitment to the community and to the su success and well-being of all the students, parents, and staff at Dutchman Creek. Under his leadership, the school continues to make meaningful strides in academic performance, student engagement, and building positive school

059culture. We can't hear you. You can't Okay. Is that better? That's better, sir. All right. Yeah. I have two children and both of them are going there and they've both benefited from Mr. Molton's uh leadership. He is present, approachable, deeply invested in cultivating the environment and every student in the opportunity giving every student the opportunity to thrive. Uh he's always available when we come in the mornings. Mr. Molton's there. When we leave, Molton's there at every event. Molton's there. He's always available. He's always supportive and uh I think this was a mistake. He's always doing stuff to help the community. You see the support that he has here. You see, he got me out. I'm not a speaker and I don't usually dress up. So, if he got me out here putting on pants, it

060must be a big deal. You know, we got a stat sheet. I put together a quick stat sheet of all the things that Dutchman Creeks accomplished. We the uh National School of Watch. We in the band we got superior. We're superior with distinction. Core is superior with distinction. Orchestra superior with distinction. Doesn't sound like a place where we're having a lot of issues. And this guy is our captain. He's our leader in everything we do. Every sports event, every anything we want to do, if there's ever an issue, if I ever have to call him, he's always available. If he's not available, I hear right back from him. our teams, our sports teams, or whatever else. We're always leading. We're at the top, if not the top. Near the top, if not the top. This

061man has led us, and he can continue to lead us. If he leaves, it needs to be by his choice. And I hope he never does. But we want Principal Molton. He's our point guard. He's our quarterback. He's our setter. He's the guy that we want to move forward with. So hopefully you guys will reconsider your decision. Thank you. Thank you. Next, next up is Mr. Ryan Stevens who is uh speaking uh or representing himself uh regarding personnel. Welcome up. Good evening. Good evening everyone. Tonight I'm here because of a troubling decision uh led by the Rock Hill School Board with the votes of Helena Miller, Pete Nosel, Melissa Harris, and James Burns. A principal's contract without clear documented evidence of underperformance has not been renewed. This is just not a personnel decision. It's a

062dangerous act of overreach. In a public institution, transparency and accountability are non-negotiable. If there were legitimate concerns about this principal's performance, they should have been shared with the community clearly and transparently. But what we have seen instead is a decision clouded in secrecy. We must ask, if there was truly an issue, why is there no proof? Why is the decision being justified with any clear facts? This public deserves to know our educators deserve better. They deserve to be treated with respect. When we allow decisions like this to go unchecked, we send a message that educators are disposable. Education can be erased by the whim of a few. That that's not who we are. Our Rock Hill School should be a safe havens for learning and leadership, not battlegrounds for personal vendettas. So tonight, I stand

063with those who demand transparency, fairness, and accountability. This is just not about one principle. It's about the integrity of our schools. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Vice Chair Hutchinson has asked to read a statement at this point. So, I'm going to turn it over for her. She signed up at 6:00 just like everyone else. Yes. Is my Is this okay? Um, yes. This is a statement to the community. Um, at the April 29th meeting, there was a mention of a board member that did not complete their ethics filing. And there was an insinuation that because that filing was incomplete and there may have been educators and staff members that donate to that campaign, there was an ethical issue. Because I personally ran on transparency, I would like to advise that I am the board member

064that was the target of that insinuation. Let me be clear. My lack of filing was not a matter of anything unethical. Perhaps untimely or late, but never unethical. Additionally, let me also note that it is not unethical for any employee of the Rockill School District to support the candidate of their choice. Other sitting board members of this board have had employees of Rockill Schools donate to their campaigns, and other board members have personally supported each other in their quest for election or re-election. We operate in a democracy and people have the free will to research and support the candidate of their choosing. Again, there's nothing unethical in this act. I would also like the community to know that I have completed my filings and I have spoken with legal counsel to ensure that I am

065operating in the proper parameters and will pay any fines out of my own money if and when they come. As we move forward as a board, I would like to remind the board and the community that we have a governing policy that insists that our board operates in kindness. Policy KM kindness and civility in education states kindness and civility should be the guiding light for all interactions in the school system. The board's vision is a strong and effective school system where civil engagement and respect for others and their viewpoints lead to the betterment of the school district and the community. And in this we should treat one another with respect and dignity. Avoid interactions or behaviors that could cause undue and productive fear, anger, frustration or alienation. and in our interactions as a collective community,

066both in person and on social media, we should strive to model the behavior we expect of our students. That said, it would be easy to engage in dirty politics and stoop to the level of others. But instead, I ask us as a board to collectively practice what we preach, not only to each other, but to every employee, student, parent, and community member in Rock Hill. And as we move forward, let's work together to walk the walk and talk the talk so we can keep the main thing the main thing, the children of Rock Hill Schools. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Thank you, Miss Hutchinson. Next up, we do have a consent action agenda. Um, it contains the minutes from the April 29th schoolboard business meeting as well as some personnel recommendations. Um, with that said,

067I will entertain a motion to approve the consent action agenda. So move. Thank you, Mr. Burns. Do I have a second? Second. Uh, thank you, Miss Daniel. Any discussion on this? Very none. All those in favor? All opposed? Motion carry 70. That brings us to our action agenda. And we do have school renewal plan goals and strategic plan goals and they are going to be presented by our uh interim superintendent Dr. John Jens. Welcome up Dr. Jones. Good evening school board. Good evening uh chair vice chair. School board. Dr. Jones, I believe that the microphone probably needs to be turned up just a smidge or maybe speak closer to it so everyone can hear. Thank you. Okay. Again, good evening, board chair Miller, Vice Chair Hutchinson, board members, those of you here in the audience,

068and those of course who joining us watching live. At our last board meeting, Dr. Wils presented the proposed revisions to the district and school renewal plans for the upcoming year. Dr. Wils was unable to be here this evening. So, he has uh worked with me and our team in compiling uh information tonight that we can present as far as updates and revisions of the ongoing process. While the proposed updates did not receive approval in that meeting, uh it was asked that any feedback from board members be uh sent and communicated with me for greater clarity and detail. I did receive some feedback uh and one of the uh areas of that was to be able to explain the strategies we are implementing at the district level essentially what we are doing to move our work

069forward and then what are the specific actions in other words how do we plan to get there. So for the meeting, we actually lifted the goals out of the uh school improvement district renewal plan in particular uh and organized it by listing the strategies and the action steps of how we're going to get there. This of course documents the strategies we have in ELA 3 through 5, mathematics 6 through 8, uh, and of course classes such as algebra 1, English 2, our graduation rate, uh, teacher retention, recruitment, and climate goals. And there are specific indicators of what the district office members are doing and strategies for the next steps. So just a couple of examples. Uh as a matter of fact, you see there in the the the first page with our three through five

070g uh ELA uh some of the strategies focus around small groupoup instruction, particularly small group instruction that supports tier one instruction. that's been explained before uh that that is that least restrictive all students working with their uh instruction and and our teachers working with powerful strategies to strengthen the tier one instruction. It allows teachers to differentiate learning and provide targeted support within the core classroom environment. So you'll see in that list that it says our district's working with our schools materials research professional develop on how we use small groupoup instruction effectively with our curriculum within our classrooms. Some of the strategies you'll see discusses walkthroughs that have taken place uh as well as uh our our instruction uh and academics department pushing out to the schools working with teachers on deliverables like formative assessments, materials,

071coaching all coordinated through the discipline office uh work. If you look later on, you can see uh that there's evidence of work and data. And I want to go back and emphasize that I was working as the uh chief of academics and then of course became the uh deputy superintendent. I can tell you that the work with data that is taking place pushed out to the school exceeds the work that I and our team has done. Uh and so when those strategies, for example, teachers that are trained and supported by district specialists to analyze classroom data, date data, uh and data, there's deeper dives that are taking place and strategies they modify this year. I'm going to give you one strategy that I I just think is wonderful. There are teachers and leaders that are

072volunteering their own time after school that are coming together and meeting at the district office. And these folks are called district impact players. And they are working with our data specialist and our instructional leadership to be able to go and take their data from their schools and learn and develop not only just what that data and setting the goals but their understanding of how they can share that within their PLC's. As a matter of fact, their last meeting is tomorrow at district office. If you would like to drop by, you can see that work in place. But other things that take place with small instructional group or or our our um teams uh developing learning progressions working with that of how we are looking at moving students through the content from basic to advanced skills

073that basic knowledge to advanced skills and what we're doing a lot of work taking place and that's pushed out at the school. So just just some examples that you see that take place there. Um I I certainly concur that work with behavior and strategies is necessary. That is uh certainly a a goal that is important and a strate and strategies that are needed in Rockill schools. Uh and so in that we look this year at some of the revisions that are in place regarding behaviors and rules and consequences. uh that there's a focus and you see things like data interpretation, rules of how we integrate consistency, those that our folks can can work with and we have some revisions in there of what we want to target this year. And this can still be revisited

074by our new superintendent in his or her focus. But some of the training that we have provided or aim to look at uh implementing further further you know deescalation training that we have with crisis management behavior management assistance mentoring matters programs our leader and me programs that we have. Leader and me isn't the answer completely but it does contribute to the environment. Uh it's John Hattie that says before you get to the curriculum and before you get to the test scores you've got to look at the environment and how important that is. But an example of something added in is we have some strategies looking at bullying particularly we need to increase our emphasis on act 54 Gavin's law and there are some strategies in there that we can place in the upcoming year. So

075working with quarterly reviews with administrators, behavior data checks, all of those strategies in there and this document should be living. It should be a living document that is revised and so that specificity. So those are just examples that that we have pulled to try to show what our strategies and what our actions. We certainly can drill down and provide more information uh that that we have, but those are the goals. Remember the goals were approved last year. These are revisions and there's evidence in there of revisions that are taking place in that area. But there is more we can do. There is more we can that we can include in that. So I'll stop and you have this document. What questions you have that I can answer or suggestions or input to add. So I

076believe Miss Miss Daniel. Yes. So Dr. Jones, thank you. I sent you some feedback and thank you for addressing that tonight. Uh I just want to reinforce like you said that this is a living document and that this should be the guiding work for everybody at the district office and our departments. We don't work in silos. This should be the guiding force for the decision-m from the top down. But thank you for addressing within the action steps and strategies that you are working on in order to achieve these goals. I appreciate it. Thank you. I can only second Miss Daniel's comments. Um, I'm very uh thankful to you and your team, Dr. Jones, for addressing some of the feedback that the board uh expressed in the last meeting. Um, do we have any other feedback

077or questions for Dr. Jones? If not, I'll entertain a motion to approve the school renewal plan goals and strategic plan goals. So moved. Thank you. Uh, do I have a second on that? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? None. All those in favor? All opposed. Motion carries 70. Thank you, board. With a reminder, we can bring this plan forward at any time for revision and further work. Thank you. Thank you. So, next up is communications. And as I referenced earlier, um one can sign up to speak uh as long as it's done Wednesday noon prior to the board meeting. We had two individuals uh that are listed to speak tonight. One of them have kindly asked to have their segment moved to the following board me meeting due to a student recognition event for their child

078tonight. So Gretchen Hansen will be moved to the next board meeting. And with that I am going to uh welcome up Miss Sally Young who is going to talk a little bit about school report cards. Welcome up. And also know that there is a uh recommendation of about five to 10 minutes for these segments, but there is no time aotment specifically and the board can ask some follow-up questions per policy. So, welcome. Thank you. Good evening. And ma'am, also you uh the microphones are a little sensitive, so that's better. Thank you. Can you hear me? Yeah. Is that better? All right. Good evening, Madame Chairwoman Miller, Vice Chair Hutchinson, board members, Dr. Jones, public. Um, I am Sally Young. It's nice to see you again. Thank you for adding me to speak on your agenda

079tonight. You may remember I do have my two youngest sons attending Rock Hill High School. Um, I sent you an email before the last board meeting. And while in that I reminded you of the grievous errors made by the district office staff and handling a personnel decision at Rock Hill High as you prepared to vote to approve the hiring of the replacement. I also said there's nothing to do now but move forward. And then at that very board meeting you went into your executive meeting and you came out with a hatchet that you have no business wielding voting on personnel matters to fire principles. So here I am again. The role of the school board is to hire and fire superintendent, set policies, and make a budget. It is not the role of the school

080board to go against the recommendations of the district staff and fire administrators. One of the issues, one of the one of the issues that keeps arising here is transparency. There is no transparency when you adjourn into executive sessions to discuss matters that no one even knows are open for discussion. You leave the staff, schools, and public out of very important discussions and decisions which they hold important and relevant information about. Let's be clear, you are not required to go into executive sessions. Publicly elected boards meet in public as you are tonight. and the statute that allows for the public body to speak privately says a public body may hold an executive session for the stated reasons. While there may be a few limited situations where executive session is actually appropriate, I am here to argue

081that any discussions regarding the hiring or firing of administrators in this school district should be done in public. The idea that privacy The idea that privacy is warranted when discussing the people who will lead our district, whether superintendent, principals, athletic directors, maybe even the assistant principles or other administrative roles, is nonsense. Let's remember this is a public school system paid for entirely by tax dollars and responsible to the public for the education of the children of this community. adults. Adults who choose to work in this public position paid by taxpayer dollars are on notice that the public does get to know about many aspects of their job and how they are performing in that position. When decisions are made about whether these administrators are being retained or terminated, the public affected by the job that

082is he or she is doing should have an appropriate opportunity to be heard with regards to their actual knowledge of the quality of the job performance. With that said, a majority of you voted at the last board meeting to terminate the two principles. Without notice, without discussion, without any opportunity for them or anyone for or against them to be heard, you discussed behind closed doors against the recommendations of the district staff to renew these contracts. You came out and voted in a somewhat disorganized, disgruntled, and contentious manner to fire Mr. Oziel, the principal of Rock Hill High, and Mr. Clayton Motton, the principal of Dutchman Creek. As a parent who has vested interest in these positions, I'm here to ask that you reconsider. My children have attended both of these schools. My children have been

083taught at these schools. They have been successful at these schools. They have been safe at these schools. They have been nurtured at these schools. They have been athletes at these schools. And is not in spite of these principles. It is because of them. Both of these men are good leaders. They are not perfect. None of us are. Not one employee, not one board member, not one parent, not one student. However, there is nothing documented that either one of the men these men has done that rises anywhere near an offense of worthy to be fired for. As my children are now Rockill High, I'm going to most specifically address the firing. Mr. All, this is a big mistake. I am having trouble even figuring out what it may be that any one of you could base

084this decision on other than a personal v agenda or vendetta. What is it that he has been accused of doing wrong? My understanding he's been principal at Rockill High for 14 years, as long as we've been in the district. He was brought to Rockill High at a time when it needed new leadership to turn some things around. He came shortly after South Point's first graduating class in 2008, a time of significant change in the student population, which affected academic achievement. And while the district was adjusting to the three high schools in AC in athletic competition, what the Bearcats had always been, they no longer were. Then Azial is always looking forward. We don't want to go backwards. We want to go forwards. He is looking at the students and staff right in front of him.

085On more than one occasion, I have heard him express, "We take the kids who show up on our campus each day, and we do what we can to make progress with them." Mr. All is the epitome of a leader. He hires qualified and talented people. He delegates tasks he believes they are capable of doing and he leaves them alone to accomplish the task, willing to intervene if necessary, but not to micromanage. He trusts the people he hires to do their job. The Rockill High staff is an amazing, diverse, caring, supportive, happy, respected community of professionals who work well together to achieve the goal of moving students forward from where they are. They are doing a great job and it is not in spite of Mr. All, it is with the help of Mr. All the

086idea that there was something wrong with Rock Hill High School needs to go away. There is nothing wrong with our school. Rockill High is not a problem to be solved. And I am very tired of the people inside and outside of our school district talking about us this way. Even the in even the insinuations with the issues with Coach Burch and other recent matters, things being said by this board like the issues over there at Rock Hill High, that particular issue was not at Rock Hill High. It was only an issue when it landed at the district office. So, please stop. Rock Hill High has no more no different issues than any other high school in this town, state, or nation. Anything. Another thing, Mr. draws tells parents at orientation is that Rockill High is

087a small community in and of itself. Every day 2,000 students show up plus 200 staff and spend seven hours on that campus. This small community joins together every day to learn and teach. And while there they engage with each other, eat together, share joy, share sadness, participate in sports, arts, and clubs. The students arrive as scared, immature children when they are freshmen. And four years later, they leave as confident, mature young adults ready to conquer the world. Again, I'll remind you as others have paraded across this stage where the successful students of this district that are due to the teachers and principles, including these two that you have chosen to fire. Our students are as capable and talented and strong, kind, and loving as students at any high school. Our teachers and staff are as

088well. The reality is I don't need to defend Rock Hill High to you or anyone else. I have often said over the last few years, what is happening here inside these walls is good. It doesn't matter what people out there say or think. And when recently, for the first time, I actually momentarily considered moving out of this district. One of my boys said to me, "But mom, what if if you say what is happening here is good, why would you consider leaving?" He made a good point. So, here I am again. I have come to fight for Rock Hill High. I will not abandon this school or this district. Not even when things get really hard and difficult to understand when people disagree. I will fight for what is right for our students, teachers, and

089staff. And I believe, having listened to all of you, that you also want what is good for this school district. I believe you want to address the issues and problems and make improvements in our district. I am here to tell you tonight firing Aziel and Clayton Motton is not the way to make anything better. Mr. Hall has been and is an excellent leader at Rock Hill High. His reviews, rewards, and accolades over the years support this. The people here tonight support this. The overall atmosphere Rockill High students and staff support this. Even if there was any real issue with with performance, which as of yet nothing has been made clear, now would not be the time to fire a principal. You don't even have a superintendent to hire principles. How how are you going to

090replace these principles when you don't have a permanent superintendent? No offense, Dr. Jones, very fond of you, but he's leaving the district June 30th. He doesn't have time to hire principles and put them in place. A new superintendent coming in will not know a thing about our schools, our staff, the students, or the needs to make a decent decision in hiring a principal. If there was any basis to consider such firing, which I don't believe there is, where is the process? If there was a problem, go to the principal, address the concerns, establish a performance plan, give goals, and monitor progress over the next year. These men have served this district for years, many years, and they deserve that respect and opportunity. Given the overall state of this district, there is certainly no issue at

091either Rock Hill High or Judgement Creek that has been raised to the point that waiting a year when you have a new superintendent, you can't address it then. Nothing is going to get out of control that already isn't happening in this next year. On that point, what Rockill High needs right now as it continues to address some real issues and make progress in academic performance is consistency and continuity. We need a leader who has been at Rockhill High, who knows Rockill High, who cares about Rockill High, and who is personally connected to Rockill High. We need to keep the leader we have, Mr. Azie. So, what could your possible complaints be? Don't know if yall will address this with me, but two that I've come up with, the school report card. Well, first of all,

092let's be real about these school report cards. Y'all know as well as I do, these numbers don't mean a whole lot, but if we're looking at them, all of Rock Hill is performing badly. But like test scores, some schools are just set up to score better. The criteria and data do not account for all the factors relevant to evaluating a school. It is skewed in favor of schools who have a population of students who will do well on test and respond to questionnaires. So let's take those with a grain of salt. Yes, we do need to get scores up. Yes, it is a reflection that others see when looking at our community, but it should not be how we see our schools and it should not be a matter of competition within the schools in

093our district. Remember the little motto you had at one point, one team, one mission, one rock hill. It's appropriate that motto is gone because this district is not one team, but we need to be. We should be. We should all be one team working together for all the students in all the schools. And that can only start here with this board, with the district office. You must see all our schools and all our students as valuable, able, equal, capable, and deserving. Deserving of respect, deserving of resources, and deserving of opportunities. I'm happy to have my kids at Rock Hill High, and it is frustrating that feels like this district has gone from unsupportive to harassing to now downright sabotage of our school. [Applause] So, so as you all have already talked and as you asked

094the district office to come back to you, let's make real plans with real goals that we can all work together to achieve. Possibly your other reason for Azie might have been leadership, the recent controversy, which I've already addressed once, but I'm going address just for a minute here. I came to the district office to address the issue of Coach Burch. The public story about this is not true, and you all know it's not true. It had nothing to do with leadership at Rock Hill. What happened at Rock Hill was dealt with competently and fairly by the leadership, by principal all, by the athletic director that you noticed was honored up here tonight. They heard the complaints, found no facts to support the allegations, and decided no further action was appropriate. They encouraged the parties to

095talk to settle a matter and to move forward with the students best interest in mind. It was when the district office got involved, took the false allegations and personal agendas and pushed for wrongful termination of that coach. The district office created the turmoil within our football program, our athletic department, and our school. The district office made a terrible decision that caused other coaches and employees to leave Rockill High because they are frustrated with the injustice and don't want to work in a district that operates this way. And if you continue with this current course of action again at the district level and not the school and refuse to reconsider and reinstate Mr. All's principal, then next year we may see the same thing with our teachers and staff. A mass exodus of employees who while

096they do they do want to touch hearts and teach. They want to teach in an environment where they are appreciated, respected, trusted, and where they can trust that if they do the right thing, they will be treated well and not fired on a whim by a school board gone rogue. Again, unless you can offer us some explanation, some valid reason, I and the others here are simply unaware of anything that warrants firing these good principles. Please, one of you who voted against renewing the contracts, make the motion to reconsider. Take another vote. Vote to renew these contracts now to keep these principles in place before it's too late. Before steps are taken that are hard to take back, we do have some real issues in Rock Hill schools. We have some hard things to look

097at and plan for. We do not need to add two new principles to the mix right now. This is not a good cause or time for such a dramatic move. I do believe all of you want to make Rock Hills Schools be the best we can be. Let's focus together on doing that. I believe in order to make this district the best it can be, we need to be honest with ourselves about who we are and how we are going to evaluate ourselves. We need to stop worrying about and comparing ourselves with the neighbors and just be us. We're not Fort Mill. We're not Clover. We're not York. We're not Charlotte. We are Rock Hill. And that is wonderful. We are wonderfully diverse, capable, and teachable. Let's go back to the basics, focus on reading,

098writing, and arithmetic, pull resources, and work together to help our students get get to school, and start with being present. Attendance does matter. You are right. But it needs more than a banner on the wall. Let's focus on what schools do, teach, and then partner with the community resources to help meet the needs. And let's do that with our principles that we have. Please just reconsider. Keep these principles in place. Put them on. If you need to put them on a performance plan, put them on a performance plan. You need to talk to them, set goals. But this is not the time. And that wasn't what I was going to come talk to you all about. But since it's the issue at hand, that's what I'm here for. And I'll see you at the next

099board meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] If anybody has a question, they can ask it to um I I don't I don't have a I don't have a question. I this is more just a comment. I just want to personally say that I appreciate uh those that have come and spoke before us tonight. this is what um we are supposed to do as a community and we are supposed to hold each other accountable um and we are in the process I mean we are in the business of doing what's right again for our children. So thank you Miss Young for taking the opportunity to come and speak to us tonight. Thank you. Thank you. So next up is presentations. Um and um I do have on here superintendent search update and the board

100is excited to tell you that we are on timeline for the superintendent search. As was shared at the last uh board meeting, we were going to start having more conversations this week and we are going to announce three finalists sometime midm morning tomorrow. You should have all over the past uh board meetings heard uh us reference the meet and greet and all stakeholders should have gotten an email uh probably sometime last yesterday afternoon inviting you to the district office on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. This is for all stakeholders in the community, whether you are a parent, a grandparent, a staff member, or just a taxpayer to come visit with our three potential superintendants for Rockill Schools. Again, we anticipate this announcement to go out in completion, uh, including names and bios sometime midm morning tomorrow.

101So, that is what we have to report regarding the superintendent search. And I'm going to turn it over to our interim superintendent, Dr. John Jones, who is going to uh actually I'm not I'm going to turn it over I don't know why I said that. I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Marty Connor and Mr. Jimmy Duncan who is going to introduce a presentation regarding policy JCA, assignments of students to school for first grade. Welcome up, gentlemen. And as they come forward, I I would like to say in introductory remarks that there's a lot happening at the state level with discussions on open enrollment. I'm sure many of you are aware that uh not only is that happening with the South Carolina High School League, which has passed open enrollment provisions that we've received

102in the spring, but well overall uh from the state level the emergence of ability for students to look at open enrollment between districts. Uh the high school league has uh passed and made their recommendations for districts and as I've shared in past meetings, this does not overrule what our processes and what we have in policy for student placement uh and and student enrollment in our schools. So, as this came later in the the the winter and the and the spring, uh we we know that this is important particularly looking at athletics uh for our students and eligibility. Uh so, I want to thank Dr. Connor and Mr. Duncan who really have embraced a who have really embraced and and will present tonight a process that we can look at particularly for our 9 through 12

103students uh in the um in a pilot. And the reason that we would look at overall a window for all students later on simply would be that we already in process for uh preparing for next year uh master schedules and all that. So they're doing that in process. I just want to thank them for your work and and for your ex expedient uh work on this issue. All right. Good evening, members of the board, Chairman Miller. Uh here with uh Mr. Jimmy Duncan, district athletic director to present tonight uh revision to our proposed policy uh JCA. Uh before I get started, I want to share we had a number of members on the committee to work on this policy. Myself, uh Dr. Jones, uh Dr. Keith Wilks, as well as Dr. Diana Smith, of course,

104Jimmy Duncan and others, as well as uh Lisa Sagon, our technology director, worked on this policy revision, and a lot of work was done to try to present to you tonight uh a revision to our open enrollment policy. I want to share with you uh first of all, the purpose for this policy revision you have in your packet. I won't share all the the details and information, but give you the overview of what the purpose was. Uh for the most part, uh House Bill 3199 was a is uh was proposed uh at the state house uh which would allow for uh all parents to have open enrollment uh for programs of their choice depending on uh no matter their residency. Uh this was proposed to begin 2627 school year. So we're trying to some get

105ahead of that potential proposal that may be passed sometime soon. Uh right now uh that bill is somewhat is being determined right now. We want to give some information to give you an opportunity to make a decision whether we want to move forward this direction or not. Um the next reason why is back in March uh the high school league um that kind of governs athletics uh they passed uh change of bylaw uh article 3 section 10 uh for the most part that would allow a one-time transfer a one-time transfer in uh students going from one school to another without penalties. which means that you would allow for a student to leave one school to another without still participate in athletics. Um that was proposed back in March as a bylaw. Again, article 3 section

10610 uh was our second reason. The very last reason is as we know we have opportunities to allow more flexible options for students in our district. We wanted to propose uh to you all to allow for students to move from one school to another for a variety of reasons. One is we currently have for academic programming. Uh right now we have students can move for school of choice reasons, but we want to kind of broaden that horizon to allow for kids to move uh for different reasons such as uh the environment preferences. Um if you believe the school fits your interest based on school culture, climate as well as social any extracurricular activities that you want to participate in. So it's really three broad reasons. Again, uh the the the main reason is a house

107bill 3199. uh number two uh the South Carolina High School League rule uh article 3 section 10 and also just give us a chance to have a more robust option for flexible school options. Um I do want to share uh in the next slide here uh kind of the backdrop of how we went into looking at this policy. As I said earlier um the high school league proposed and made a very quick shift their bylaw back in March at their annual meeting. And Dr. Connor, if you could tell us the number of that slide because I think we're having some issues with the with the board. So, slide number three. Perfect. Because that way we can pull it up this way instead. Thank you. Slide three. And uh if you look at slide three, the

108top of that is policy assessment review and planning should be your your board packet. Then I'll pause. You guys may get that to uh follow me along again. It's in your board packet. Slide number three. The topic is policy assessment review and planning. Okay. Um, as I said earlier, uh, we took a lot of time to really look at, uh, the policy itself. We had a open enrollment policy that was revised a few years back in 2019. We made some shifts to our elementary school. So, we took that basic policy and made some revisions here. And, uh, if you look at the first part, we kind of assess what the policy says in in theory and in action. Uh, we also compared a couple of policies from other district. We vetted about three other districts.

109Uh myself along with Jimmy uh Dr. Smith consulted with other three other districts. Uh the district athlet director uh talked with the chief academic officer. Uh Dr. Smith talked with student services person. They were able to give us some information about what kind of worked and what didn't work in the policy transitions. Um one big thing that came out of this was that when they did begin the open enrollment policy, it wasn't done in just one year. it was a iteration of a couple years and so we want to make sure that we took a slow walk to this and not open it up to have a misstep. So we want to make sure that we ease into this whole process. So we took the time to look at that. Uh we also did some

110uh research best practice of our own uh looking at some of the trends across uh the southeast and also across um the country and why people um have a open enrollment policy. So we did a lot of research on what was uh some of the research best practices. Um the last thing is is that we took time to really develop the policy. Myself and Jimmy and others met about 16 times for a couple hours. We really had about three iterations of this policy. Um we went back and forth on just philosophy uh what was best in the best interest of our district and we really came up with what we believe was an initial policy to have uh to line to the house bill 3199 and also the high school league uh bylaw change which

111will allow for only a high school uh open enrollment pilot right now. So this will only be for high school students in grades 9 through 12, which means students in eighth grade rise up to 9th grade, 9th to 11 12th grades. We want to propose again for only a high school pilot for this first year to count our introduction. Slide number four, that's on your screen. Okay. All right. Um, so you have the policy in front of you here. I'll talk about uh six main points to this policy that really want to share with you all. Um not going into too much depth, but the first thing is this policy, the open enrollment policy would allow for students to transfer from their current uh assigned school to another school that would be deemed as an

112open enrollment school. That's the first real change to be made here. Uh number two is students must provide their transportation from that uh from their from their place of residence to their new uh open enrollment school. Number three uh we would make sure that we have some enrollment capacity numbers that are in place for that in our review every year. And the reason being in our research we found that most schools and maintaining capacities and not to go below that. We want to make sure we're vetting every year enrollment capacity. What that means is you want a school to go below between 75 and about 50% in theory. You want to maintain about 75% capacity numbers. Uh so we want to make sure that we are not putting school at a disadvantage as far as

113the enrollment. Uh the fourth reason uh the fourth reason we want to talk about the cost revision is it's a brand new uh kind of policy application process which means you would have a first submission first acceptance. uh there will be a very small review whoever submits it, but for the most part, if you have a hundred slots at a particular school that we have deemed appropriate for that enrollment, uh that first student that would enroll would be the one that would be accepted if they meet all our guidelines. And I'll talk about the guidelines in momentarily. Um and so it pretty much is a chance for you to have an open enrollment and be accepted based on a very small criteria, but it's first come, pretty much first acceptance in that process. I'll pause

114here. Um what that would look like is you would submit an application at a certain date. Um and you would uh go in and have all your demographic information that would be submitted and we would vet you know your reason why. There's about seven different criteria reasons why we want to look at that whether it's athletics or uh school climate of your choice um location whether it be athletics um academic programming. So you will select that particular category and we will also have some other denotions on there to make sure that we are able to serve uh the programs of that choice. So for example with special ed there's some programs are deemed at particular schools. So certain schools we cannot accept because we don't have those programs there. So we will make sure that

115we can serve uh for those areas as well. The fifth criteria that we made a modification to was uh it will be a a onetime open enrollment per level. And what that means is, you know, as we open this up larger for years to come, we wrote this policy just not for this year, but for years to come. If we were to make uh this a change for next year as open enrollment policy, we would have an option to have a one-time open enrollment uh request per academic level. What that means is for K5, you can make one request. If you're going to Evanport, you can make that request in third grade. you will remain at that next school that you request for your duration of that level. You can then make a request for

116your next school at Castle Heights. Remain there through the sixth, seventh, 8th grade and make next request for a high school of your choice. But again, it's only one time request um per level. The last thing of course that we made a revision to is once you are uh submit your application for the first submission first acceptance we review the application and make sure we can serve you in the academic programming but also want to make sure that you could agree to the guidelines that we set some of those guidelines just committing to the transportation piece knowing there's certain programs that we offer from one school to another that if you're at a school of steam school of choice you request to go to another school we can't offer that same program at the other

117schools and making sure parents were able to uh agree to those guidelines that uh we would require. And one thing I want also to say is that this would be uh another option would be if a parent does not get in for some reason throughout the course of time uh that they're there and want to make a hardship request, we have an option for that. uh but more so if you are at a particular school if you're considered to be an open enrollment student um and you're at that school start this September and you feel for some reason that you would like to go back to your home school uh that request would be made uh with the hardship for some denoted reason but not just for any concern that you say I don't like

118this particular school. The next slide here is somewhat of the timeline. And I'll share this in a pretty direct way. Your board packet, you made some changes. In your board packet, you had a board packet, went back and made some changes to what you have here. So, this slide can adjust the uh dates that we made the changes for. So, the first uh of course here for the first read tonight. Uh we'll do second read on May 28th and very quickly. This timeline is moving very very fast and the reason being is for a number of reasons. One, we have teacher a lotments has already occurred and so we can't shift and change those things in a couple weeks. uh athletics begins in July. So those things are required by the state department, I'm sorry,

119the top high school league in order to meet those deadlines and certainly as we consider master scheduling all those things, we want to make sure we have time for that. So this is moving pretty quickly. Uh after the first read, we have the second read on May 28th. And then very quickly, we met with uh Miss Monday, our uh executive director of communication to have a very uh efficient and quick communication plan on what this policy says, which would include on June the 2nd have a parent information session via Zoom. Uh what that would mean is for those who have not heard tonight or those who may want more information about this, myself, uh Mr. Duncan as well as Dr. Smith will be on a zoom call on the second to give more information about

120the policy change about the process to apply and those guidelines that that you must uh meet in order to transfer. Uh from there uh we will begin the uh the open enrollment application. I mentioned earlier u Mr. Sigona, we've met and already created the applications and what we call the application portal, which means you will submit the application and know that it's been accepted. You'll go in the portal to be received as an open road student. That will begin on June the 4th. So, we're talking about almost two and a half weeks from now. We got to move pretty quickly on on the whole process. Uh June the 9th and June 12th, we'll have a district admin team to very briefly review the application. One larger notion we mentioned do we can we serve uh

121that student based on their current academic programming and needs uh primarily a major notion that is within special a students have certain programs only at one school we don't have that that program option another school then that will be a modification we may cannot serve the student their open enrollment request on June the 15th we will then um have a parent acceptance uh deadline which means we will provide what would be parent acceptance which means you will receive a notification back from us saying that you have been chosen and been affirmed for the open enrollment seat please confirm to accept that based on these guidelines and once you commit those guidelines uh you accepted as a student to have open enrollment to your school of choice uh what I haven't mentioned here but just in

122brief um we will have a certain number of slots uh for students that will attend uh I will share that right now and so we wanted earlier kind of ease into this process. We talked about uh the research that we did from other districts across the state and also across the country and for the most part is a is an ease into give us a runway to make sure that we're effective at all processing. So we will start out with a very small number of open enrollment seats. Uh that capacity is about 5% of the current enrollment of each school. So again, that's uh a very modest number, but also it kind of lines to what we have right now in our uh school choice numbers and what that larger number is. So again, it's

123about 5% of our current enrollment. With that being said, uh we will also allow for students who are um Rockill School District residents that currently live in our uh school district but attend other schools. So, beginning June the 17th, after we fill the seats of our internal students, we would allow for students who have residents in Rock Hill um to then apply for the open enrollment seats as well. So, for example, any private schools that may uh students may attend any private schools uh either here or far but live in Rock Hill, you can then apply for the open enrollment seats that are remaining by June 17th. That's an opportunity to have some of our students to come back who may have left for various reasons uh because of their schools of choice. they didn't

124have those tuition left for whatever reason that they may have concerns about. We have a chance to have those kids to come back uh with another open enrollment for those students who are not students right now live in Rock Hill on June the 17th. Um once that's complete, uh we'll begin very quickly to provide the the local our high schools. Uh we've been in contact and talked to uh the three high school principles. They're very well aware of the process. Uh we talked about various things that they had concerns about made some adjustments. So they were very much involved in what this process would be like. And so beginning on June the 18th to 26, we will then provide them uh each school the open enrollment list for their school. Uh that seem to be

125light work. That's pretty hefty pretty hefty lift. If you have 75 or 80 seats, you're talking about meeting those kids schedules, identifying their unique needs for the year. Uh getting them enrolled in various extracurricular programs, band, athletics, you know, all those things. So that has to take place between June the 18th, June 26 in preparation for the new school year. So that's a pretty hefty lift. As we know, some of our counselor department, they're on uh they're on 210 220 contracts. They leave in June. So all it has to happen pretty quickly. Uh with that being said, starting July 1 is when the open enrollment uh process will be complete. uh those students who have been approved for open enrollment and are now at those uh schools of choice will then receive full enrollment and

126all the uh opportunities thereof. The very last slide is uh as we complete the open enrollment process, we want to have a followup to make sure that we are efficient at our review process and follow up with the board and the superintendent. Uh I'm on slide number six right now. uh that we'll have three things to occur beginning in July. We'll review the policy that we we currently have again and take a uh review at our implementation process and make any changes or any adjustments according to what we believe is important to uh be more effective. Uh we'll make those updates in July internally and beginning in August we provide the superintendent and the board an update on where our numbers are. you know there are 75 80 to 100 kids that applied and how

127many actually transferred over and any updates that we made at that time. As I said earlier, this is a pilot for the high school students in grades 9 through 12. This would allow also an opportunity in the fall uh November for example uh where we can open up larger if we so desire. Uh but again our research says you know have a runway for ourselves but we want desire to open it up for middle school and high school if the board you know has appetite for that we'll do so with a certain qualified number but that will start in November for the 26 27 school year but we'll make recommendation about that beginning in September so we can have time to to plan prepare for that uh in November. That would be the board's desire.

128Uh with that being said, um that completes the information about the um the proposed policy. Be glad to entertain any questions that you may have at this time. Ward, uh I believe Lacy followed by Jennifer. Yes, I do. Thank you for that and all that information. You touched on it some of these things, but I just would like a little clarity. Um, what is the plan for communication and transparency on the exact number of seats? Yeah. To the public. Y'all should that now 64 South Point High School is 90 for Northwestern, 95 for Rocky High. It's about 5% of our current enrollments. So, could you repeat those real quick? 64 South Point, 60 seats for South Point High School, 94 Northwestern, and 95 for Rocky High. Again, that's 5% of our current enrollment. Thank you.

129And then the other one, um, because it's such a quick turnaround time, what is your plan for advertising? I saw you had that you're going to communicate, but what's the plan to get it out there so that we ensure all stakeholders in high school are aware that this is an option next year? We would love to get it out tonight if we can, but we know certainly the board may not have the appetite to put it out without full approval, but certainly uh at the time that we have full approval on the 28th. We have decided to have communication going out that night by three-fold. One is through robocalls through email communication. We'll also, as I said earlier, have a uh Zoom call to all families. So, you'll have a link for that as well.

130Uh the principal would also send out information with their newsletter. So, we have a multiple streams for that. But certainly if you guys give us permission tonight, we're glad to put things out tonight if you so desire. So Dr. Connor, per per process, um this is first read, which means that we're also going to request the community's feedback before we go in for second and final read. Um I think in my opinion it is very challenging to put out the information as if it is happening without allowing the po the community to give feedback and the board to take the final vote. So I feel that it may be very confusing because again it is not final read tonight. We still have an opportunity to vote. So I I I I think it's a dangerous

131pattern to send it out as if it's happening because it sends the signal that the community's feedback doesn't matter and that it's already a done deal and that is far from true. I that's just my my thought and also I think for us just knowing what the feedback that we need to provide to the community so we can get that information data back you know I think done a pretty thorough job at sharing to you guys but certainly whatever platform we need to get that information back when we need from the uh community but to follow up and I'm sorry real quick on the communication piece when we do ask for feedback from the community that is going to go out to all of our stakeholders that could be an opportunity to include some of

132that uh slideshow so that parents get ice on it as they get an opportunity to give feedback. Sorry, Miss Hutcherson. Thank Miller. Um just some just some quick questions. Um, even I I think that it is good in theory for us to have options for our families that may not be satisfied with the current situation that their child is in. I think it's important for parents to be in control of their children's education um and have those options. The one thing that does give me pause about maybe not high school, but as we roll this out, if we roll this out and we roll it out to our our middle school and elementary schools, what is the plan for causing um an unbalance of resources um with a shifting population for one shifting some schools

133that are not necessarily title one to title one schools inadvertently and also causing perhaps maybe de facto segregation. um within our schools because the truth of the matter is those that can will. And even though we have caps, that still gives me some pause as an individual just making sure that we're not shifting burdens unnecessarily on our staff, our teachers. Um and then also having uh equity across the board in our schools. Yeah, thank you. I will respond to that in two ways. First of all, just give you some numbers around, you know, I think the the notion how it would shift our demographics. So, if you think about South Point High School right now, I'll give you the numbers on all each school's uh capacity, if you will. South Point High School capacity is

1341872. Northwestern capacity is 1976 and Rocky High is 2158. And so those numbers about 86 for Rocky High, 87 capacity, 57 for South Point. If we were to have a runway of 5% uh again 60 students going to South Point High School, if you were to have all 60 students to be at a certain demographic, that would change that demographic by 5%. You know, and so uh by virtue of what we know is the the portal process, for example, parents will be waiting in the portal to submit their information at a certain time. And so you have to have, you know, 60 kids who are free induced lunch, 60 kids who are of a certain demographic to enter into for that to be the max population. So it could happen, but it's unlikely that that

135would happen. So it would minimize that. So that's, you know, one caveat to it. I think for us, if you look at the policy, we mentioned that we would maintain a certain criteria. Uh, as you all know, a few years back, we had some schools that had shifted in this demographic and those schools, you know, are no longer here. So with that being said, we want to maintain as I mentioned earlier a certain percent not to go below that number in our research. So we'll maintain those criteria every year as we review our policies and our guidelines for what criteria for each school. So every school will not be an open enrollment scope. You know it will be predicated on those guidelines that we'll set not to go below those thresholds if you will. The

136resources uh as you know resources change you know based on title one when title one schools are changing. So those resources go with those schools. So we will make sure that you know we've talked to uh uh Dr. Barber and also Dr. Johnson, Dr. Dicki about how this shifts the academic landscape as well. So we've kind of poised what that looks like as well as far as resources. Thank you Dr. Connor. Thank you. I believe Mr. Nosen. Yes. Um thank you Dr. Connor. Thank you Coach Duncan for the work that you've done on this. I absolutely support this effort. I I think right now every one of our specifically middle school and high schools have excellent programs at each v individual school, but but the excellence is not across the board. And I think this

137is a great way to encourage competition that is going to lift everyone up in our district, in our middle school, and our high schools. And and I'm not just talking about athletics. I'm talking about I you know we've heard in meetings before we have some middle schools that don't have orchestra programs and if you are zoned for a particular middle school and you play the cello you you don't have the opportunity to participate and then that that will slow your growth going into high school. And I also want to point out right now we kind of do have school of choice for our three high schools. You can choose to enroll in the Spanish immersion program and you will end up in Rockill High. You can choose to enter the steam program and you will

138end up at South Point, but Northwestern has no school of choice. You must be zoned to go there. So, this will also, I think, solve that solve that built-in issue as well. So, thank you for the work that you've done on this. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Anyone else? I appreciate your work on this. This is something we've been talking about a long time and it's also some bringing bringing a presentation to us actually going to for the betterment of our schools. I can't thank you enough. It's more along the lines for you Jimmy. Um how can we link up by using this? How can we also link up with club sports and club coaches to get those kids like club cheerleading, club soccer, club every, you know, club volleyball to get those kids

139start using our facilities and our schools because right now we're missing out on a lot of those kids. are going to charter schools. Are you talking about facilities are working with coaches and getting them in the building? Yeah. Kind of like tell us what you're doing with uh Mr. Sheldon Brown down at South Point because that's he's a prime example of what can happen when you link up with with open enrollment and a great coach. Yeah. So, um he's he's speaking to our baseball coach at South Point High School, uh who operates a local baseball club. We were able to bring him in to be a part of our staff. He's done an incredible job. uh due to South Point having the Steam program and other uh avenues to come in there, uh believe they

140had 14 um players moving uh 12 into the district uh to to transfer from other schools. So, yeah, ideally, you know, we we look at all of our programs, obviously me on the athletic side, we're looking at uh you know, getting the best teachers and coaches possible to encourage retention and recruitment and having more kids into our district. I mean, I mean, I don't know that that kind of general answer. Now, we do have to be careful. Um, there are some uh rules that dictate when we bring a coach in, if they're coming in from a club side, like when and how they can those kids can transfer in. So, there's some underlying rules that we kind of have to follow there, but the goal would be is always to get the best coaches and,

141you know, best student athletes here as possible. Dr. Bel. Thank um thank you Dr. Connor and Mr. Mr. Duncan for the work that you all have done on this. Um, I do want to raise some concerns because unlike Mr. Nosel and and Mr. Burns in this current iteration, I do not support this. And I'm going to ask our board to take a real look at this. This is a quantum shift. And what we have heard, whether we agreed or disagreed with community members that were come, some were directed at all of us in some form or another up here. The one thing this community has indicated is that it wants to have a voice in what we're doing. I know we have a community feedback section for this, but I don't know about any other

142board member up here, but the first time I saw this when it came out in the packet. I didn't know we were discussing this. I didn't know this was part of any discussion. And I'm a board member, so my assumption is there are other people in our community who feel the exact same way. This is a quantum shift and we're about to make a major decision on how and where kids go to school based on a rule that changed by the SC South Carolina High School League. We're making academic decisions based on athletics. And secondly, I'll say um I would prefer us to take a hard look at feeder patterns to address some of those concerns. Um, I did talk to two, three legislators, two um, Republican, one Democrat that told me Bill 3199 is

143in a subcommittee. I looked it up today and that's exactly where it is. Doesn't have a chance of seeing the life of day or becoming a law in this legislative cycle. So certainly bill 3 um 3199 which is still in a subcommittee hadn't gotten to the committee hadn't gotten to the fourth floor hadn't gotten to the other body hadn't been debated in committee and then sent to the governor's desk so it's a long ways from becoming a law in South Carolina and I just looked it up while I was sitting here is still in the subcommittee so I don't think we need to make a rash decision like this that's a quantum shift in Rockill schools without maybe setting setting up a committee with schoolboard members, with members of our with members of our community

144to really have a discussion what this looks like. Secondly, and I got a lot of things, but I I'll end it at this. Um there's one piece in here about no transportation for all of us up here. If this impacted our child, and it did impact my child at one point when she was at one of the choice schools, um we were able to work out transportation. and the mere fact that that you can't work out transportation is a problem and the community needs to understand that if we agree with this. So I'm asking the board, I'm not saying that this should be dead on arrival. Right now with me is dead on arrival and I hope at least four people up here this will be dead on arrival. That if we really want to

145do this, let's step back. Let's involve a a smaller committee of the board. Let's involve the community. Let's slow walk this over the next couple of months and we can be ready to go by the beginning of next school year. There are more important things that we need to be focused on right now than to shove this down at the next board meeting. In its current iteration, I'm a hard no until we can figure out transportation and some of these other issues. I do want to respond to too, thank you Dr. Bill for sharing some of those concerns. Uh I do want to just affirm as I shared earlier the purpose uh there are three-fold purpose. the one that I want to reiterate that you want to put up on the screen if you would,

146Mr. Rice. But the last one is purpose number three. Uh so certainly the high school league had a a bylaw to pass uh article 3 section 10 and certainly it's not, you know, at a point where it's got full blast in house bill 3199. But the last reason is to expand school choice uh option for Rock Hill school students and families based on the individual academic extracurricular social environmental preferences and including school culture and climate. So again we shared this more than just a high school league uh the notion it's for a three-fold purpose. So those you know they have different levels to it of course but again it's not just for the high school league. Number two, I think you're right. Certain transportation was a concern that uh we debated earlier. U as we

147just got out of what we call a budget deficit, you know, recently and had, you know, a new budget to be, you know, reviewed, looked at, and all those things. It comes with a with a great cost, you know, and so you're talking about moving simply. I'd mentioned about 245 kids from different locations. Can we provide transportation? Yes, we can. But certainly cost efficiency is where we recommend it for no transportation. So again, you know, at the desire of the board, we can provide transportation that's approved, but again, we're looking at we just came out of what was considered to be a budget deficit that we recommended for no transportation. And and I do I do respect that and I I I don't think this is the forum for back and forth and that's why

148I'm asking that we don't there's nothing that says we have to do second reading at the next meeting. Now, I know there are some some concerns about teacher aotment and those things, which is why I'm saying this may not happen this school year. I'm not opposed to it. The premise of why we want to do it is actually a good premise. But I think the community needs to understand this will quantumly change the way we assign kids to schools. And children who have means and family who have means will benefit from this more so than families that do not. when you don't provide transportation, you are already cutting out a certain segment of your population. And so that's an issue. Um, children now who are outside of Rockill schools, if they want to come to

149Rockill schools, they can come to Rockill schools now and they can come legally with the high school league rule. They can also play. We charge tuition. Are we planning to charge tuition for children who are outside of the district to come into the district under this new plan? Right. Right now we have not allowed for external people to come from external district. So as I said earlier for those residency students who live in Rockill that's allowed because they live in our district. So again we have not affirmed at all or discuss having an external process in this first iteration. So that's not an option this first iteration. And one more question I have um students who also go to our current charter schools if they want to come play in Rockill schools now they play

150in Rockill schools now. So, I'm just trying to understand why this need if a kid goes to York Prep right now, they can come to their home high school and they can play athletics. So, what I'm trying to just get an understanding of why do we need to do this in the next two weeks? Why can't we slowwalk this and get it right over the next year where we involve the entire community and board in this process? we can and we're just presenting the proposal for you guys to decide upon and so certainly I think you guys have desire to make the decision based on what you believe is appropriate but we're just presenting for those three races that I shared earlier. Thank you. And and I'll just say to the board and this is

151my last point. This is huge. This is huge with huge implications. Um I know we keep talking about I don't want to be surprised. I don't want to be surprised and maybe nobody else up here has heard about this. I'm certainly not implying that anyone else knew about it or heard about it. And maybe this is driven completely out of the superintendent's office, but this is clearly the reason why I keep saying we need to create committees. And I'm gonna ask this board either we're going to do it um collectively where we are all informed where we have committees together where we're informed because I'm trying to digest this over the weekend and nobody wants to put our student our school administrators on the spot where they appear to be being drilled by a board

152member publicly, but this is the first opportunity I've had to ask any administrator who works for Rock Hill Schools about this. I got this in my email over the weekend which is a huge change in how we will assign students in Rockill schools and that's unfair to me as an elective leader who tries to be an intellectual and go through this stuff, understand it and present it to the community. I would appreciate that not happening on something this big. Okay. Anything else? Okay. Then we say thank you to to you and and we'll have some feedback. I just want to ask to make sure we're clear on any next steps we need to take on our side. Certainly Dr. Dutton has spoken about you know committee and we want to be able to be transparent.

153So there any steps on our side we need to take because I'm asking the chair to put a committee together with the superintendent some community members and just not come back up on for second reading in the next board. Right. So I think we all need to give some feedback to the superintendent and then we'll have work together vice chair myself for for next steps. Right. So thank you. Um next up report of the superintendent. Thank you madam chair. Uh this is the season for celebrations and recognition of great work that's done in Rock Hill schools this year. Uh we have great reports from proms from all three high schools. I appreciate our prom promise that was made by our students and I'm hearing of good fellowship and no accidents or injuries following the prom.

154Uh, and we thank our high schools uh for hosting their proms at their schools and being able to celebrate at at um at their schools. Also had the chance to attend the district's special need prom on Saturday evening at Dutchman Creek Middle School. Over 30 students were in attendance with students, assistants, teachers, ESC department putting on a full-fledged dinner and dancing. We had a lot of fun. So proud of this event as it's unique in the area. A lot of hard work went into this fun event. I hope to come back and be able to chaperone next year. A great shout out to our education foundation and elevation church in recognizing our district heroes. uh from each school last Thursday night. I mean, we really had true heroes in the house. And to see these

155students and their families surrounded by their teachers, administrators, board members taking the red carpet, coming on stage and being celebrated. It's an amazing event. So, thanks to our education foundation, to Elevation Church, our speaker Derek Lindseay, MC Matt Hires. It was just phenomenal. And I can't just let the accolades pass without mentioning one very special event. Last Thursday night, I attended in cooperation with Winthrop University in Rock Hill High School the dual language graduate celebration event. Folks, this was the culmination of 12 years of the DLI programming that began at Evanport, at Rosewood, at Richmond Drive. Uh those students moved on to Cherry Park when it opened, Sullivan Middle, and then of course at Rock Hill High School, but also Winthrop University. And um it was a fantastic event to see our students celebrated in

156their acquired language. They sang, they joined honor associations. This is an accomplishment not only for our students, but also the parents and staff of Rock Hill. Uh an esteemed friend of mine said that evening, "This is something we got right. This is something we got right and to see that celebration and to even have the further work that's going to happen with dual language and partnerships uh at at the collegiate level. This this is the shining star uh and these efforts are for for Rock Hill schools. Um also just a note I've attended several activities at schools. I went to a career fair at Oakdale Elementary. I went to a play about bugs at North Side called Squirm and have just had uh many many events. I want to thank the school that invited me

157to to sit on a Duncan booth. I did decline that, but other than that, we've been able to attend. On May 21st, we're going to celebrate our retirees at the counter. We hope those joining us in the retirement will also join at the banquet. Please reach out to Miss Brenda Young if you have any questions. Next time we meet, we will have passed 2025 commencement. We've reminded several times that'll be at Winthrop Coliseum, 10:00 a.m. for Rock Hill High, 1:00 p.m. for Northwestern, and 4:00 p.m. for South Point. And our next board meeting is scheduled for the day after spring commencement on Wednesday, May 28th at 6:00 p.m. Thanks to Sullivan Middle for hosting us tonight and accommodating this meeting. And those are my comments, Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you. And I can only

158second on behalf of the board uh our deep gratitude to Sullivan Middle. We recognize that um the preparation that it takes to host a board meeting, all the behind thescenes works um at towards the end of school year is a lot. Um but we're very appreciative and again the reason for moving this meeting was the amount of recognitions that you saw tonight and making sure that we had capacity to celebrate all those students. So, uh, next up is an executive session for the purpose. Madam Chair, before we Yes. before you entertain a motion, um, and I did not want to catch Dr. Jones off off guard. So, I did call him today and I called him um or sent him a text message actually because at that moment when I I had two people standing

159in my office while we were conducting board business and they were asking him about intercession. So that question has come to my office, you know, has come to me because where James and I represent and of course the atlarge people represent everyone, but where James and I represent, intercession is a huge issue. It's a huge topic. So can you please educate this community on what's happening with intercession? Is it going to be all schools, some schools, no schools, free lunch, what time? the community, the parents where we represent, they need to know what's going to happen when the schools are closed. And so, can you please address that? And then, of course, I have another issue that I text you about as well. Okay. So, just for future reference, it's fine now, but we do

160have an agenda item or section for other and future business. Well, I'm asking him to put it as part of his announcements. I asked him that earlier today. Okay. So the calendar for 2526 was approved October 8th uh 2024 by it was presented by Dr. Smally. Uh intercession was discussed from Dr. Smallsy and shared and comments questions came during the presentation regarding catching students up athletics uh child nutrition or food services and Dr. Smally made comments on that. Uh it was discussed what we could do to intercession for catching up students. Um in doing that this does become a budget issue because providing these services these are non-contract days for teachers. Bus transportation is not paid on those days. Certain support staff like nurses are not employed. uh no outside sources that that that we

161we we have for for for that. We have to look at how we attach our budget to that. We have met with Miss Smith and I say we this is our team and I want to thank our team because they they've been insistent on trying to come to a decision on how we're going to provide but but we have met with Miss Smith, our our CFO regarding meals and snacks. It is not a part of a period that has summer feeding program and it is outside of the 180 days. So there is a challenge on uh ho how we uh provide meals and snacks for participants. Um we will need to be planned based on what we're really able to offer as far as the budget and we're trying to come to an answer on

162that because we know we need to inform parents. Uh we need to get that information out certainly prior to the end of the year. Uh, also a concern that came in that meeting was child care and looking at our partners like B Great or others that could possibly provide, but we're having to determine to see how far in the budget we can go. There is no money specifically allocated for interession. So, we're looking at our our general fund, seeing what options are available. the staff is eager to get this underway uh with with cuts in their budgets to 15% in reductions. Uh the answer is just budget moving forward. Now once we determine what we have available for budget, we have projections we can provide for what it's going to cost to staff per teacher.

163Uh transportation certainly uh and and what that looks like at the elementary and the middle and high school. Uh but again moving forward we we we we simply are trying to determine what is this budget and what funds are available. Can can I ask you a question Dr. Jones? Can we I I think what I'm hearing from people they would just rather have a decision even if it's not decision because what I'm understanding is they're going out to the local places trying to work out child care you know the local gymnastics place and other places. Those places are cost prohibitive for some sir and they're filling up for others. They just need a decision. And so can I ask kindly, can we put this as an a an action item on the next agenda? And

164the answer may be we will not provide inter session. The schools will be closed and at least parents can can make some decisions. Right now just holding people in limbo. If we don't have the money, we don't have the money. Let's just tell them we don't have the money. So now they have between now and October to figure something out, but people are just or whenever the first intercession is. I think that's where the concern is is that people just don't know. Secondly, um you know, I don't know all frankly because my child is older and drives. I was not part of any of the calendar discussion, but I know there are some comments that have come regarding the calendar and the development of I guess whatever the next calendar iteration is. Where are we

165in that process? Will it involve the community? Will it involve teachers? That was the next question. Again, none of this is a surprise to Dr. Jones because I reached out to him and asked him to make that part of his comments. And so, can you address that? So the process for uh the 2627 calendar, next year's calendar is set and and that's what we certainly are trying to answer questions on regarding you know intercession and decisions but then also the 2627 calendar information process we have right now is that we have two drafts that we're going to first give to the board to get input on that. Then we make a presentation to the board and then it goes to the community for input. I have the actual drafts tonight to share with the board

166that after we get that feedback, then we'll discuss it in a first read, but then we also will be gaining input all of our stakeholders will be able to provide and it'll come back for a second read if it is ready. It may be that more time is needed, but that's the process of my understanding of what we're to follow. And the last comment I'll make is I kind of enjoyed coming here to Sullivan, giving us an opportunity to be out in the community. And one last district that um we worked in, board meetings were actually at least one of the board meetings per month were held out at schools that gave us an opportunity to be out in the community and gave schools an opportunity to show showcase some of the positive things they

167were doing. I hope this board would consider going on the road with our board meetings and um the community not having to come to us but we go to the community. Um I hope we would consider that in the future. I just want to add that Dr. built and that is something that I would love to see as well. I think it's important for us as a board to engage with every stakeholder in this community and again those that have will but we have to also reach out to those that cannot. Thank you. So at this point I will entertain a motion to adjourn the open session and enter executive session for the matter of personnel uh hirates. So move. Thank you Mr. Burns. Uh do I have a second from Dr. Belton? Any discussion?

168Hearing none. All those in favor? All the oppos 7 Good evening and welcome back to the uh May uh 13th board meeting of the Rock Hill Schools. Uh we've been meeting in executive session. At this point, I will entertain a motion to adjourn the executive session and reconvene the open session. I move. Thank you, Mr. Burns. Do I have a second? Second. Uh, thank you, Miss Harris. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor. All opposed. Motion carries 70. Are there any motions coming out of executive session? Yes, ma'am. Madam Chair, um I move that we um authorize our chairperson to announce tomorrow midm morning tomorrow um candidates one, two, and three as the final three candidates for the next superintendent job in Rock Hill Schools. Thank you, Dr. Belton. Do I have a second?

169Second. Thank you, Miss Harris. Any discussion? Var. All those in favor say I. All opposed. Motion carries. Seven here. Does that conclude our motions? Madam Chair, I move that we uh I move that we end the meeting. You uh are you are making the motion to adjourn the meeting, Mr. Burns. Is that correct? Yes. Yes. Uh do I have a second on that? Second. Thank you. Uh Mr. Nosal, uh any discussion, Madam Chair, only to say that I know that this has been a long meeting tonight, but I want our public to know that we've been hard at work since 10:00 this morning. This has been a 12-hour day of the school board. And um I do appreciate the work of all my colleagues up here, even in moments of disagreement. It's been civil. It's

170been kind. And I think we've done well by the citizens of Rock Hill and the students of this district today. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. D. Thank you. Thank you. So with that said, all those in favor of adjourning the meeting. All opposed. Motion carries 70.