RHS School Board Meeting 02-25-25

001e e e good evening and welcome to the February 25th business meeting of the Rock Hill School Board local news media Outlets were notified writing this agenda on Saturday February 22nd you will please uh join me for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you please be seated first up is the approval of the agenda do I have a motion to approve so move thank you Mr no do I have a second second any discussion all those in favor all oppos I'm four motion carries so to thank you um um so first up is recognitions and we're going to start off with the South Carolina um 5A girls

002wrestling champions from Rock Hill High I believe we have principal all [Applause] and I believe before you get started that we also have some individual state champions that you are about to recogniz as well correct yesam chair Miller Vice chair Hutchinson board members Dr Jones uh it's my privilege and honor to introduce to you the Rock Hill High School wrestling program tonight we have the honor and privilege of introducing the South Carolina duels girls state championship team along with two individual female state champions and one male individual state champion at this time I'm going to turn it over to the group that does all the work and the leader of our program Mr K beard [Applause] if I can give my assistant coaches to come up I'm just going to introduce each one of them

003Kim Manning Eddie cook scooter weathers Anthony Thomas and Cody chers Our Ladies Camila Torres okay Alisia Thomas ran Adams Sy mcclerkin Davis RAR Vasquez Ginger rhods Donna Tracy kayn Vador Maggie Koger Maddie Beck Kennedy Thompson Riley Ferris Ariana Vera those are our members if I could get my two state champs for the girls Serenity won the 105b weight class [Music] she is now a two-time state Chan back also now a two-time state champion and our male state champ at the 190 PB division one of what we think will be uh multiple okay Trey Robinson [Applause] want to thank you guys for having us the girls uh did a phenomenal job this year this was the first year of the Dual team format so it is special to be the first team to do that and

004along the way our girls finished 16 and0 in Du thank you guys for having us [Applause] spe [Music] girl thank you [Music] [Applause] to the wrong slot good even my name is camonest sou I have my right I have Canon long really quick about Alex M he won the 4A 120 lb State Championship uh he finished with a 34- 11 season he was the region Champion for region 34A Upper State runner up and avenge that loss in the state finals as you can see it wasn't easy beat up a little bit but he did a great job and he is a 2024 24 25 4 a 120 PB South Carolina state [Music] champion to my right I have senior Canon long he is the 2024 2025 144 PB state champion he he has got a

005lot of accolades he's a senior uh this one hurts a little bit for me cuz I hate to lose him but uh it's been a fun four years he had a tremendous season 49 and5 on the year three of those out ofate to really tough kids he is also the Region 3 4A 144 pound region Champion he is the most outstanding wrestler in our region upper state champion and state champion he also is representing South Point this weekend in Myrtle Beach at the north south Allstar match so we're really proud of him uh Canon long 2024 2025 4A 144b state champion and again thank you all for recognizing our student athletes yeah [Applause] over so you get the background smile about [Applause] so next um I am going to welcome with Elementary talk about the

006model professional learning community's school recognition together group of mesome Cheers good evening members of the board and our community I am thrilled to recognize the outstanding work of principal Aaron Clark and these dedicated Educators at Mount Gallant Elementary School their commitment to Student Learning collaboration and results driven instruction has earned them a prestigious honor recognition as a professional Learning Community model school at work by solution tree this distinction is awarded only to about 600 schools in districts across the United States and Canada and it reflects several years of their dedication to the PLC process Mr Clark's leadership has been instrumental in fostering this collaborative environment the three big ideas of plc's planning assessment and data analysis are the foundation of Mount gallant's daily practices to the entire team at Mount Gallant Elementary this recognition is

007a testament to their hard work and their willingness to analyze data and support one anothers as professionals this recognition is not not the finish line but just a milestone in the school's continuous Journey to Excellence please join me in celebrating principal Aaron Clark and the incredible staff at Mount Galla Elementary School [Laughter] people in the back people in the front [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] thank you thanks for coming than you so that concludes our recognitions the evening next up is citizen participation I don't believe we have any correct no uh which brings us the the consent action agenda which has uh two items it's the minutes from the February 11th Schoolboard business meeting as well as Personnel recommendations uh do I have a motion to approve the cons action agenda I leave Miss Harris followed by

008Mr Burns any discussion verying none all those in favor all OPP post motion carries 70 that brings us to the action agenda and I'm going to welcome Miss uh Gina Jenkins who is here to answer any questions regarding uh policy and administrative rule gck and- R professional staff assignments and transfers uh we've received some feedback on it and it's up for second read does board have any questions for Miss Jenkins does it appear so if so do I have a motion to approve the administrative uh rule GC k-r and uh the policy itself GC professional staff assignments and transfers so move uh moved by Mr Burns and I believe I have a second from Miss Daniel any discussion very none all those in favor all opposed motion carries seven here thank you so much M

009Jenkins um Communications um members of the community has an opportunity to uh sign up to appear under the communications agenda by noon on Wednesday prior to the board meeting today we have three individuals that have chosen to do so and I'm going to start off with welcoming up Mr Thomas Monro good evening Mr thank you well first of all I want to thank you uh chairperson Miller uh for extending this opportunity to speak to the board um but also I want to thank U several individuals um that have uh graciously welcomed me uh since I started this position as the regional Workforce adviser nine months ago and want to thank James Burns for his leadership and our arcab Advisory Board um former superintendent Dr schy interim superintendent uh Dr Jones um Serena Williams Communications uh

010manager excuse me senior manager of communic ations um and then all of the Steam School principes faculty staff and students from Oakdell Elementary Saluda Trail Middle School and South Point High School and then also um I want to thank U Megan Pat um the executive director for the foundation for Rock Hill schools for a gracious welcome uh to me and also uh for her partnership and collaboration and also Al many others throughout the school district who have welcomed me I am very grateful and look forward to working with each of you as well two key words that you should think of when you think of the regional Workforce advisor especially here in the Kataba region that I represent of Chester lanter York counties is Advocate and connector I want to read a uh and I

011asked her that if I could read this is from elain Wilmore a lot of you may know with the city of Rock Hill um on February the 5th um I along with 10 others um were able to go through the steam schools um and see the great work that's being done and what you'll discover through the PowerPoint and through what I'm trying to uh talk about this evening is that advocacy but also the connection of our community industry Partners to our school districts and so what she writes here is also a call of action so she says thank you so much for organizing The Sting tour last week with The Rock Hill schools it was beyond impressive and very informative we have a lot to be proud of and I look forward to working with

012our committee to connect the schools in Industry we have a great story to tell about the presentation or Preparation that is taking place at our class classrooms and Labs with amazingly creative teachers who are inspiring our students to look toward the future for our new jobs and then she states how do we spread the word well we spread the word by making those connections and that's what I'm hoping to do um um with this uh position one of the ways and you have this in your packet is by Bridging the Gap helping connect K through2 partners with also our postsecondary education Partners at Clinton college winr University York Technical College and the University of South Carolina Lancaster as you'll see there's 12 regions and there's 12 Workforce of advisers throughout right now we have one

013vacant in the PD area and so what I've done since this fall is went to an educator for a day and worked with uh Mr English who is the principal at Edan Port Elementary and I'll say this on a side note I have a first grader there and so um very very very proud um of that school and the work that they're doing but I look forward to going to all of the the schools that I can and Mr Jones and Miss Williams's help um have allowed me U graciously to set up some opportunities um for for that the other is how do we bring real world experiences to the classroom and so I asked her today if I could Nam drop her so I'm working very closely with Celeste tiller with the York County

014Regional Chamber on her business Expedition and so we have a company um locally here in Rock Hill that will be piloting that project with 10 students at Saluda Trail Middle School and Dr Jones you're familiar with that and so I can't wait to talk more about that but I want to make sure that all of the um legal leads and and things like that are are done and we can definitely talk about that with that particular individual company but um I think it's a really great project that you're going to love to hear about and so that's a pilot project that's going to take students from the robotics but also the digital design and pair them up to work with a real solution that this company has and so they will actually then tour that

015facility and see that their product being made so I'm really excited about that and hopefully that's going to be many more to come well how do we help Educators as well so one of the things that I'm tasked to do is to help out with sorry with professional development and so one of the things I worked with Jen new andite at the Rock Hill ATC the wonderful director there I I may add um to help host in October 14th of professional development um at York Technical College and so I'm looking forward to learning more about ways to uh integrate this position into the school districts but also to help out um connecting those individuals with particular industry Partners so they can see exactly what industry needs are and lastly is also helping students parents and

016adult Learners as well and so by assisting with work-based learning opportunities also relevant labor market analysis Mr Burns is no well aware of that um as a Committee Member and then also working with our adult ed Partners as well working on some opportunities for our industry Partners to learn more about the resources and ways that they can um help out but also about the great work that you all are doing and so this is the first opportunity for me to speak to a uh a board here in the Kataba region and um I'm really proud of the work that you all are doing and each and every day on behalf of the students um I I would be remissed if I didn't say thank you again thank you for your leadership thank you for your

017willingness to serve and thank you for your willingness to uh listen to me for a little bit but also I hope this is many more opportunities for me to come and share about the good work that's going on not only with our region but what I'm seeing out in the school we have a lot to be proud of and for what I've saw in the last nine months and as a parent thank you thank you thank you I've got some packets in front of you some little goodies there for you as well but please please please give me a call email me uh let's go to coffee let's go to lunch um but let's also learn about ways that we can work together so thank you very much thank you so much next up is

018Mr John Marina good evening everybody I see the new faces hello welcome and we started with some bright colors which I do love to see um but uh honestly and unfortunately I'm not here for the bright news and recognition so thank you for the kids for leaving early um so they don't have to hear some of the stuff I have to bring up but anyways for those of you that don't know me I'm originally from South Florida and I'll tell you something that I'll never forget about Miami is it's a beautiful place to vacate and enjoy the beach but it's not the place you want your kids at schools I'm sorry Public School in the inner city is completely different so when I came to visit over here in South Carolina back in 2011 I

019just thought to myself I honestly didn't even know what Rock Hill was located I didn't know the population I didn't know a lot about this place but the one thing that attracted me here was the family orientation the beautiful atmosphere the strength of faith and the amazing neighbors that I've had throughout my whole time here um yeah most of them but anyways moving on what I want you guys to understand is the reason why I got out of the city with my wife and family is because I didn't want the challenges that I under went and my wife underwent in an inner city school system so some of the challenges we had growing up was budget cuts teachers leaving retention issues seeing faces come and go and honestly I'm seeing it here now and my

020kids started out at Mount Gallant which I was you know very pleased to see Mount gallon receiving an award and being recognized but my family Dynamics are a little different than most I'm a stepfather and I have three boys and my oldest will be graduating from South Point my middle son who is on the spectrum is a junior at South Point and my youngest is just in second grade so we have a lot to to look forward to his parents when I transitioned my child from Crystalis Autism Center over to Finley Road Elementary I just saw this amazing person that took care of my child with autism she was in energetic she was young she was thrilled to come to work and we lost her we lost her to Fort Mill Schools she's gone she

021has never looked back and in that time I didn't really understand how the Rock Hill School District operated until I joined the Rock Hill School District for myself I worked for an amazing gentleman to my left who has disappeared I was going to give him a shout out but he's my former boss I was a school resource officer I also got to see the amazing work that Dr Leonard did during that time I saw the amazing work that Miss Cox did at saluted TR and I was able to join that faculty and become a wildcat but I'll tell you my students and staff that serve the south end of town are being forgotten in many ways and if I'm seeing the stereotypical child being forgotten well definitely my non-verbal child is definitely going to be

022left behind and that's the sad part see a family my like mine I'm a middle class family I'm the type of parent that you can call and I'll volunteer I can also be reached and I can donate I have friends that can donate more than me I'm the parent that everybody's going to call for some kind of favor but parents like me are leaving by the dozens they might not come Express themselves to you they might not come here and vent about their poor experience in the Rock Hill School District but my biggest frustrating is my biggest frustration as Saluda is that so many amazing teachers down that eth seventh and sixth grade hallway are no longer here they're in York Clover Legion Fort Mill and the charter schools keep recruiting them while we keep

023losing them now you think it's just the teachers nope 50% of those administrators I worked with they're gone too we gave them positions in the district office and they still left why well we have something very very bad going on that a lot of parents are blind to and I'm not so blind but we really need to figure out how to retain these amazing men and women that serve our children it's not an easy job I've snuck in there as a school resource officer and try to listen to math her English you know the the trades that follow us throughout our life not Jim class and lunch and all the other Shenanigans these kids want to get eza on I was there I was one of them but it's so hard to teach nowadays how

024are we supporting our staff so when I was a school resource officer just to give you a little feedback my child was at Rison Road and due to budget cuts we didn't have enough special needs teachers so my 11-year-old on the third day of school on the Spectrum he's in a multi-ad 2 class sneaked out of the gym because there wasn't enough staff members and he went on Highway five he was located on Highway five imagine that headline a SRO who's actively in the school district loses his child to the lack of budget cuts to the lack of preparation on day three of his middle school experience all three years sixth grade seventh grade eighth grade I had a different face that I had to acclimate myself with as a special needs parent my wife

025and I lost sleep we lost patience we we didn't really know what to do she's a nurse I'm a police officer I just didn't really have a lot of answers I didn't really want to stir the pie I've never been that guy that just wants to make a check that's not my style I just want my kids to go to school and live in a safer place than I did from there we go to South Point now my child gets to meet an amazing teacher that we've had for over 20 years called Miss rainy and I believe Dr Connor knows exactly who I'm talking about because he used to a supervisor she's amazing she does above and beyond work that I couldn't even achieve as a parent with a child with autism well since Dr

026Leonard's departure Dr Connor's departure Mrs Cox's departure a lot of those face that I'm familiar with they're no longer here and I don't know how we're recruiting but if you ask me a lot of these faculty members remind me of interner City mindsets inner city mindsets means we're here for the check we're here to clock in we're here to clock out but we're not staying for after school clubs we're not doing any extra work and the only thing that matters is my contract for the following year that culture well guess what more and more families like mine are going to leave I'm not struggling I can move sell my house go to the nicer place of yourk County put my kid in whatever school I want but I'm here feeling like I can still give

027you guys a chance to work together to hire the right person yes that's one Dr Jones has a lot on his plate I'm not going I'm not really going to direct anything to you Dr Jones you've been in the business for a very long time but I'm very disappointed with what smallsy left behind I really am I saw Dr Pew I saw Dr Cook I saw Dr small and I've been very patient but the most recent incident really really Disturbed me see my son he's a junior he's 16 years old he's still non-verbal every from time to time I still have to guide him through the shower through his daily activities he's an amazing quiet kid he weighs about 145 lbs blonde with light blue eyes doesn't look anything like me cuz I'm a stepfather

028but I've seen that kid grow since he was 2 years old I had to learn along the way way how it is to parent a child with special needs so I send my two high schoolers off that morning and my uh junior uh rides the bus home that afternoon teachers send us a note daily saying how he acted at school anybody with special needs knows that special needs is very unique children with special needs are very unique and their phases and their behaviors are completely different so this is why we have I AP meetings right so if you've ever attended an IEP meeting an IEP meeting can last for hours and we're going to update our I AP meetings every so often usually you want it twice a year some parents like it more but

029when you're in that IEP IEP meeting you want the faculty in there engaged do you not so I've been in many as a school resource officer to get more involved with any behaviors that I had um at my school and also a basically an open direct line but I don't see that anymore I don't see the enthusiasm of all these meetings that we create the other thing that I remember is CPI restraints CPI restraints when they take place you should have the proper training and you should notify the family within 24 hours policies and procedures yes I had to learn that as a school resource officer I have policies and procedures with my super visor role in my business now but at the same time we have to take those seriously to prevent things from

030happening so as my child had a great day at school the only thing he forgot at school was a green folder the green folder that tells us how he behaved so he gets onto this bus and there's uh pretty much nothing going on other than him trying to get back home to school so my wife's not home I'm not home we're both working late that specific day and when my wife gets home at 7:30 my son has a scratch on his neck now most of you were like ah a scratch that's not that bad right well guess what when I asked my son where that scratch took place I don't have nobody to validate anything because he wasn't with his brother and he's non-verbal so I go into police mode when my wife is ecstatic

031and I say son take your shirt off now he's got pinch marks on his ribs he's got scratches on his chest and he's got scratches deep enough that lasted four days after the incident on his neck so the first thing I asked Transportation when that took place is what happened on the bus transportation told me the bus cameras don't work the bus cameras don't work what do you mean the state runs the transportation engine the bus itself is run by Colombia but the district is the one that pays for those cameras moving forward we have an emergency meeting at the school and I start hearing excuses about the cameras don't work at school either so what you mean to tell me with all the money and the large budgets that we control here in the

032Rock Hill School District we can't fix a camera we can't fix a camera on the bus we can't fix a camera inside the building see when I was a school resource officer if my it guy saw that one of my cameras out I would contact Kevin Ren I would send him a little form and that thing would be fixed within hours the before the end of the day so if we had the money back then in 2018 where did the money go in 2025 that's a huge question that you need to ask yourself the question I'm still trying to figure out is who runs this money does Transportation Control the money on the budget well according to them they put in the work order months later the director to put it in a work order

033and nobody wanted to fix it so I know there's a lot of smart individuals around me now if we continue this mess some people might not vent to you like me and they're just going to ask for you to write how many zeros behind that check and I know darn well you guys have to understand this if the bus cameras don't work the school cameras don't work well guess what my cameras work just fine I have the audio and I have the video what took place in between that time that my wife and I were blind I have no problem going to the news station I have no problem calling my lawyers I have no problem going into court that's still my bread and butter my thing is we need to fix this now because

034your bigger worry than me is the outr parents that are going to find out little by little when they hear us in the news headline that you guys rather save these pennies for what to keep our kids safe from what you taking away the cameras well I guess there's no active Shooters in this nation you know you're taking away the cops advantage to go save the children because we don't want to spend money on cameras you want to think that we're past that we've never had administrators that have molested children in this District have we not gone through challenges in the past that we have not learned from but you want to what blind us as parents that's the message that I'm receiving that's the message that the in schools do they don't care about

035the kids they just want to push us out send us out to the street and hope that we get a 9 to-5 that's Miami Florida that's Charlotte that's La that's New York so if you want to hire from the city keep doing it but your jobs are only going to get harder you need a hire qualif quality people from within from our community The Rock Hill that I remember I I wish I was a part of it and went to school when you guys were growing up here for my locals but I didn't I got a whole different taste and luckily I got a chance to come up here and it all worked out but now since my son joined the school district when he was six or five when he was in kindergarten and

036now he'll be graduating my oldest son will be leaving the public school that I would no longer recognize the question I have now is am I going to keep my child in Special Needs in this District well well I'm a little less fortunate with that decision because a lot of school districts and Charter Schools don't offer services for my child and this is how I feel that he's left behind but the one thing I can guarantee you is that I'm being as transparent as possible CU my second grader will not touch one of these middle schools or high schools from what I see from outside I am very disappointed that at one point I served this school district and it's like the lack of of of service so the very next day when I went

037into my meeting I thought a child special needs was visibly injured we don't know all the facts we want to see who's interested guess what administration didn't really show up only his teacher his hardworking in her mid 20s Just Married teacher is all about supporting this child like she's trying but she has nobody back backing her up so that wonderful teacher we will lose one day because Administration doesn't want to back her then Transportation says we have no idea of your child's IEP you have no idea of my child's IEP so we're putting bus drivers in a predicament that they don't understand what to do during a seizure they don't know what to do if your child is a runner they they don't know what to do if your child doesn't sit down correctly on

038the bus you're setting up somebody for disastrous results and it's not the bus driver's fault it's not the assistant's fault it's not the teacher's fault it's the ones that they're venting to that are not listening and that starts at the very top so when I demanded my principal to show up to the meeting she came showed her face left five minutes later that's what my kid means to my principal five minutes her 9:30 meeting whatever it was was not that important that my child's injuries and his incidents was irrelevant so I looked at my wife and I said well we have two choices we either get the school board to know what's going on so they can make the phone calls and do what they need to do for you know them to represent their

039areas and see if they actually care about the children with special needs across the whole jurisdiction of this school district because it's not just my kid that rides that bus there's multiple kids that ride that bus and it's not just that bus that doesn't have cameras working there's other cameras that are not working and it's not just that building that doesn't have cameras working there's other other buildings and I challenge each of you go to your local schools not just to the school that your child attends I know you love your children we all love our children but you guys are here to serve all our children not just mine not just yours all of them I don't care what they look like I don't care where they come from I don't care if they

040speak or they don't speak but you signed up with your political signs saying kids first well show don't Be a politician don't set up your careers and do favors for friends be it I got paid $800 every two weeks as a cop you wanted me to run into gunfire sign me up coach I I wasn't scared of that my faculty and sta students didn't have to worry about one thing when I was at saluted even Dr car wanted me to go to South Point I told him no sir the high school kids are a little different but this is the last thing I'm going to leave you with it's been about three weeks since my incident I was promised changes I was promised that my child's uh bus would have cameras I was promised that

041my bus drivers and assistant would be notified of his IEP challenges and procedures I was told that CPI restraints would be notified within 24 hours I was told that changes would take place and that this would be taken very seriously I know how to do my investigating and right now I'm speaking to you from a very disappointed father's stance I don't need to be here I could just send somebody to represent me but I'm choosing not to at this moment I'm I'm giving you the benefit focus on my incident I want you to put yourself in my shoes imagine your sixth grader walking on Highway five and not being notified imagine your Junior coming home with injuries and not being notified imagine you seeing injuries on your child and making an emergency appearance like any

042loving parent would do and the principle doesn't even want to listen well guess what if she's done it to other parents they should have spoke up she did it to me in my wife and right now I'm by myself I have plenty of friends to fill up this room and keep you guys in executive session for a very long time I don't want to do that to you right now I just want you guys to do your job thank you you have a great evening next up I welcome up Mr boy Collins J with the nwacp all right good good evening good evening everyone first of all thank you for allowing me to come here and speak uh M whole idea reminds about the uh superintendent for the school that's going to be coming here

043that you guys are going to be talking about for the next uh session here can can you speak a little closer to the microphone I'm here about this the suggest for the school board meeting here about for the next superintendent on there I think at the last meeting you guys had you talked about doing a national search which I think is a way to go and one reason I think we need to do that is because you need to get the best of the best for our kids going forward but before I started going what I'm going go into I need to make a do this disclaimer so no one will thre me out from what I'm about to say first of all I'm not talking about Dei I'm talking about representation in other words

044a seat at the table that's that's my main focus was coming here I want to say we all know there are three openings in York County for school superintendent so I think we need to do our due diligence in going out not just within the local area here but like you guys say around the whole 50 states if need be to find the best person for the job on that and one we we one thing we need to do too about while we doing this search we need full transparency and what I mean by that is it mean it need to be able to show that we don't have someone already in the sucess session plan that's already has been delegated that we feel like it's going to be able to we can put them

045in that position we just going through the rigor of doing it but we just doing it for a show and not out of sincerity TR full transparency to show exactly what we're doing but what you are doing how you doing and the reason behind what you were doing and I would like the board to also have a Closs representation of what that committee should look like based upon the population of the student body and read that is important because you'll get different people from different background with different ideas that can give you the information you may miss on what is important for their child what's important for the school system itself to be topnotch on there and what I mean by that I believe the search committee should be made up a parents members from

046the community local civil groups as well as Business Leaders in there because the more diversity you have on there the better off you are because then you have different pictures that can be presented different voices that can be presented different ideal that can be POS be positioned and I I like for us also reach out to community and get some input on what they will consider the attribute that the candidate should process now what they need to get in that Ro but what they should already have in process of an example of doing that would be like what we did not long ago with the Rock Hill School 2029 strategic Planet development they went out and had a big form here as a matter of fact Mr wilps was over it but they brought in

047people from all areas around here business Chamber of Commerce citizens politicians all they here to give them ideas on what they want that 2024 to 2029 strategic planning to look like and I think that's what we need to do for our next superintendent that and the thing about that it give buying it give the community Buy in to be able to do the things and to help celebrate in it it also give them some type of commitment to say I'm committed to ensuring that whoever there is going to be successful they give them participation they'll be willing to be able to participate because they feel like I'm a part of the program and when you feel like you're a part of something you do what you can do and I give you a good example

048like I gave my kid a car she drove it but did she take care of it no you know when she started taking care of it my wife and I told her she going to buy her own car when she bought it guess what she kept up the maintenance on it and everything and that's the thing about this if you get the community involved in it get they input they you see how much better this school district can be on that and so once again I applaud you Bel L me to come here and express my concern about what we need to be doing for without next school superintendent thank [Applause] you that does conclude our Communications for this evening um and you do have a presentation I'm going I welcome up uh Dr Christian

049and dick who is going to give us an update on the formative assessment data for the nwea maome good evening Asing board members in person guest as well as those who are joining virtually I am chrisha Dicky and I'm here tonight to provide some additional talk microphone okay to provide some additional insights on our formative assessment I want to apologize in advance that my colleagues names were not on the agenda but Dr Katie Barber who's our executive director of Elementary education as well as Miss Alicia Johnson who's our executive director of secondary education will also be participating in this presentation so I want to start with just providing a general overview of our District's formative assessment and when we think about formative assessments those are assessments that we give throughout the year that provide us

050the opportunity to actually respond so nwea map is the formative assessment that is State approved that we use and we have been using in the Rock Hill School District for a number of years now and it is a computer adaptive formative assessment that is given at each student's grade level beginning in grades one through grades eight and we do have some students at the high school um who are taking the ELA version of the nwaa map we give this particular assessment three times a year um for strategic reasons at the beginning of the school year we give this assessment to gather that Baseline data to see how our students are performing for returning Stu students this helps us to determine um whether there has been learning loss over the summer whether or not they have

051maintained um the skills that they have acquired in the previous grades also when we get new students each year it provides really good data to help us see where we need to start instruction we also give this assessment in the winter this year we were strategic about giving this particular assessment before our students went home for winter break to provide an opportunity to have the entire second semester to be able to truly respond to those data the map formative assessment is key for us because it has the two components that make up 70 to 80% of the indicators on our school report card and the South Carolina School report card the two components that are weighted most heavily are our achievement indicators as well as growth so this par particular formative assessment gives us data

052that we can use to inform our instruction in the areas of reading and math it helps us to identify strengths and weaknesses it helps us to determine how well our students are responding to data another key um value that nwaa map provides for us it is it is that Rel reliable predictive tool our students in grades K um 3rd through 8th grade take the state assessment SC ready so this particular tool gives us predictive data to let us know how our students are trending are they trending on grade level as it relates to achievement that one time and are they making the appropriate growth to help them to demonstrate proficiency based on the end of year assessment as well as our state standards map has done several linkoln studies throughout the year um to make

053sure that they are align with our state standards and that they look at the data that we collect throughout the year and we are able to make pretty solid predictions in terms of how our students are going to perform another value that it provides for us is giving our students um comparable testing environments we know when we do state assessments there are guidelines and regulations that we have to follow and when we administer our map assessments one area that we have worked hard on this year is creating a learning environment that mirrors what they will see at the end of the school year so when they get to the end of the school year it's not a new experience it's one that they have practiced they've received feedback on and we've been able to um

054provide that additional support Matt also provides instructional resources so when we get the data back from each of those administrations again we know what our student strengths are they provide the information in strands that align with our ES and our math standards so we're able to triangulate data based on how our students performed on previous SE ready assessments as well as how they're performing in our internal District formative um cative assessments as well as our benchmark assessments so what I'm going to share now is some of the predictive data that I I just mentioned I do want to share that the information that you receive via hotline is based on our winter Administration um again we were strategic in administering it before winter break to provide as much opportunity as possible to ret to enrich

055and to make any adjustments necessary to help our students have more positive outcomes so what you see here are the spring projections compared to our last year SC ready actual results but again the data that you receive most recently are our winter data so we did the same types of projections pretty much to tell us if our students took SC ready in December how would they fair so last year when you look at our spring um projections with the exception of third grade typically how our students perform in the spring it um they perform a little bit better on SE ready and reading and that could be attributed to a number of things one of the um reasons could be that when we get our SC ready results it does include a writing component which

056may um be a are in while we're seeing slightly higher results on the actual SE ready than what we're seeing on those map projections we also know that in ela our standards changed recently and map also did some realigning with the test Banks to make sure that they're more closely aligned to South Carolina Standards so again we'll continue to collect data to see if our projections um are very similar this year and moving forward but again in ela historically with the exception of third grade I our actual SC ready end of year results are slightly higher than what we see with Ela when it comes to map it it differs again third grade seems to be that outlier year now one of the things you know about Ela those standards are very cyclical with math

057you have standards that may be addressed in second grade that you don't see again until fourth grade so our SC ready projections in grades four and five our students perform per slightly higher um on the actual results but you'll notice with our Middle School data our spring map projections have typically trended a little bit higher than what we see at the end of the year so our our math um projections are really tight they give us great data that we again use to inform to um better differentiate to better respond to data so that our students have those more positive outcomes so the data that you receive is winter our students will be taking our spring Administration in April which gives us again that final opportunity to look at the projections to see how our

058students are trending and to determine what are those final instructional moves we can make to set our students up for success and I am just going to highlight where we are right now and I want to remind those viewers that are watching that achievement is measuring a point in time students performance at a certain point in time and what we're looking for is for students to meet expectations on SC ready typically we are looking for them to score above the 50th percentile so what you're seeing here is just an example of a fifth grade student um and their performance on a fall winter and spring map Administration and what you're going to notice is is that as those RIT scores change as do the percentiles because Norms change so what you're seeing here is the

059percentage of students that are on track for meeting expectations for SC ready meaning these students on their winter p on their winter map Administration scored in the 50th percentile or higher and so you're GNA see third grade saw some growth so 50% of those students scored in the 50th percentile or higher on their winter map Administration we know that in Reading we have new standards this year and we have a new curriculum and then when we look at math you're going to see that third grade we have 56% of our students that are on track they're meeting expectations for SD ready right now at winter map Administration we have those 56% of those third graders scored at the 50th percentile or higher but we do also have to recognize that we took a dip in

060all of our grade levels from fall to winter good evening Dr bur just talk to you about achievement which is how the students are performing when they actually take the test on that day um I'm going to talk to you a little bit about growth which is the students performance from one test Administration to the next so we're looking at growth in two different ways we're looking at normal growth which is based on the 50th percentile and this is the growth that the typical academic progress that a student needs to make with like in a year's time the necessary growth this target is individualized based on the student current performance so it's the necessary growth that a student needs to meet in order to meet great level standards or state standards okay this particular slide

061is showing you our Medi and growth percentile for students in grade levels second through the eighth grade so again remember for growth we're looking for the the 60th percentile and so for this particular slide this is from the winter Administration um so you'll see that we have some work to do here okay this slide is giving you an example of four different students and it's showing you how they may perform in terms of achievement versus growth so here we have Trey Trey is the first student Trey is not yet on grade level and exceeded his nwea map growth goal by Four Points so his conditional growth percentile is the 79 so again remember for growth we need 60 percentile or higher so he he's making growth the next student is Alex Alex is meeting grade

062level expectations but he missed his MTH growth goal by three points so you can meet grade level expectations and still not meet your growth projection so his conditional growth percentile was in the 27 percenti the next student is Richard Richard is approaching grade level expectations and met his map growth goal so his conditional growth percentile was the 54 and then the last student was Celia Celia is exceeding grade level expectations but still did not meet the map growth goal so her conditional growth percentile was the 21st so this these particular examples illustrate that you can be at different levels in terms of achievement um you can make growth or not make growth so on this slide here we are comparing um the academic achievement with the student progress so again Trey did not meet grade

063level expect ations um but exceeded growth so on the actual um school report card with not exceeding with not meeting expectations um that student would have gotten zero points um for the academic achievement but highly impact progress students can earn anywhere from three to 14 points for Alex Alex met expectations and so that student would have earned two points um for meeting expectations but not yet impactful in terms of the growth because Alex did not meet the growth Target Richard approached expectations so that's one point on the report card um but and also met the growth Target and then Celia exceeded expectations which are three points on the report card but not yet um meeting the growth Target so this shows you that the students can be at various levels in terms of academic achievement

064they can be the achievement and not make the growth or vice versa so we're asking our schools to strive for the growth and the achievement will come so this next slide shows what our strategic next steps were for schools so three different categories um small group instruction enhancing teacher impact and communicating expectations and accountability so some of the different things that um the schools were do in terms of secondary um they had a refresher um on the small group construction the content Specialists are working with teachers who still need additional support um they're also observing and providing feedback to teachers in terms of their small group instruction in the classroom the enhancing teacher impact um we're working with principles to help them to utilize their high impact teachers so that they are sharing their strategies

065that they're using with other teachers in the building and then the last one communicating expectations and accountability um this is around the goal setting all um schools should be monitoring student Improvement teacher teachers should have set goals with their particular students and principal should have set goals schoolwide goals with their teachers and for elementary similarly we are intensifying our focus on growth we are providing explicit professional learning on small group instruction we are we have encouraged principles have clear expectations for small group instruction to happen in your schools we are monitoring those through instructional walks um and we are also focusing on learning progressions and planning small group instruction through learning progressions to help children close those instructional gaps and we also deploy our math and Ela content Specialists to model and code teach and

066support in our classrooms supporting plc's with planning and providing those resources that they need any questions I do yes I do have some questions yes um I'm trying to put it in order that makes sense um follow win scores and the drop off um I know especially in math you highlighted third grade grade uh math and reading I believe uh third grade is also our read to succeed here which is super important so I can only guess how many resources and time and attention are being thrown in the third grade um we can't disregard the other grade levels so can somebody help me understand why why this happened um I know the rent score and the Norms RA in the winter but instruction has happened so are we on target with instruction in the way

067we're instructing are we responding to the data that we see um sorry I'll stop you questions I'll stop let you jump in there yes we absolutely recognize that that Foundation which is why we have second grade second grade is not reported on our state report card but certainly we're monitoring to refine those instructional practices in second grade as well and you are so right foundation mathematical concepts are critical and so we have to monitor that but as we look at fourth and fifth grade we also have to recognize that math standards are not cyclical like our Ela standards are and so we H we have really encouraged um spirals using the data that we have from our benchmarks to really spiral those standards so that students are seeing those again and again not just in

068August or sep September thank you Mr rice doesn't want me to speak doesn't want me to [Music] speak I do have a couple of questions um thank you one my first question is directed to you all my second question to you Dr Jones um I someone just actually text me so I'm asking this question for a constituent say if Rocko has all these resources tell me why we can't do better than what we've done thank and that's directly from a constituent via text message I want to speak to the resources um at the level for middle schools because the structure that the students are experiencing in elementary school is very different when they get to Middle School um we don't have the same um level of support in terms of the middle schools middle schools

069don't have the interventionists they don't have the coaches that are in place also just like Dr Barbera suggested um earlier the gaps the foundational gaps that you're seeing especially with the math um once that Gap is there um it's hard for a teacher that is in the classroom at various levels at a middle school level to address all of the various gaps of the students that are in that room just that one teacher without that additional support at the middle school level thank you and Dr Jones this question here is more directed toward you um historically Rock kill schools has prided itself on being site based management let the principles run it well obviously principles aren't here answering obviously in our private packet we got the test scores of all the individual schools and so

070we can just go down the list this is not the appropriate form for it so I hear what the district office is saying what is in place I'm hearing what they're saying doing are you now changing this where I'm now you're now the instructional leader and empowering these individuals to do at the school level what they're indicating they're doing what they say can turn it around or is this still site based and I only ask that question because it just appears to me that site base just is not working thank you so that question is directed to you saying that uh the work that academics uh leadership has implemented and increased with oversight in our schools through the continuous Improvement model um many times in the past we ask principes to come to the table

071here district office and to bring their plans to bring uh their their PowerPoints whatever data to go over that model has changed that model has been pushed in to the school and those principls and those teachers are at a table looking at the ongoing data having those discussions we have two research data Specialists that are on the road with them and they have a a a plan of immersing more into our schools and with our principles and holding accountable I had a principal tell me the other day said these are tough decisions and I said they are excuse me tough discussions but the increase of data you usage that looking at data and looking at reflective practices with teachers has increased um so that's that's the focus that we're working on my my last question

072um and I'm going to steal this from Dr Martin Luther King um um the the sense of urgency of the urgency of now and obviously we have an urgency of now because we have a generation of students and we're nearly at a generation of students and that's not hyperbole that's not metaphoric that is real we nearly have generation of students that are going through Rock Hill schools who according to the state of South Carolina cannot read and cannot do basic math and so what my question is and I'm not asking you to answer this publicly but what I'm challenging you is you have a board now um that's really concerned about this and engag them this are you prepared to make those tough decisions to make those recommendations to the board that maybe it's a

073time for some leadership changes if we can't figure out and this is at all levels um we can't figure this out so I'm not asking for an answer I'm just probably sending out more of an expectation this this is if we were to take the test today based on what they gave us in our private packet um it's more than just Richmond Drive in Rock Hill High School thank you um just quickly with your monitoring plan you say you do the instruction just how often does that happen in the coaching and what does the coaching look like those are my two questions so thank you oh yeah so yes our principes and APS are expected to be in classrooms often they are expected to do at least three instructional walks a week each of them

074our district Specialists and our school-based coaches have expectations to be in classrooms and co- te with with teachers if they need coaching support they are providing that sometimes over the course of several weeks sometimes just a few days they have a goal and they're working towards that goal sometimes it's small group instruction it might be classroom management that our deans of students are helping with but we are trying to really strengthen a skill in that classroom to strengthen instruction and engagement and for secondary the expectation is the same as three walks a week for the principls the assistant principles are also doing walks I do walks myself with the assistant principles as well and provide the trend um data to the principles and meet with them on I I just I just have a quick

075question um you mentioned that um with the state report card that the student progress equal to 3 to 14 points right they get from points what was the point achievement I'm sorry um what was um points the total Point academic achievement on three to 14 so both student progress and academic achievement count for three to 14 points no the um the achievement part so if it's does not you talking about the does not meet expectations those SL yes okay all right so a student that does not meet expectations that is zero under academic achievement zero points U meets expectations that's two points um coach's expectations is one point and then exceeds is three points and then in terms of the student progress that could be anywhere from three to 14 points depending on the V

076thank you one more question oh two-part question um when will the spring 2025 MTH Administration take place that's the first ail April and So based on right now and I'm just looking at reion OB obiously math is not much better but just you know we so the people in the audience know we're keeping up with the the data here and we have thousands of people who watch online and these presentations are really for the community and we are the representatives of the community so I do think that they're important but right now if this map data is pretty predictive of student performance we don't have a grade level based on the winter Administration and I'm reading here for meeting for exceeding expectations in Reading we don't have a grade level in Rock Hill schools based

077on the winter 2024 Administration that's over 50% am I reading that correctly we have one grade level which is third grade which is at 50.5 but no other grade level is at 50% in reading and that's not one level that's reading based on state standards and I appreciate all your comments um Dr I just I want to point out that the data that you presented to us tonight it is it's averages the fastest way to raise these averages is to bring more kids back the kids that we the families that we don't care about the families that we neglect the families that we don't try to keep in our schools the families that go to Legion they go to York prep they go to Providence classical school they go to Westminster Kataba they go to

078different schools because they are not happy with the management in our schools their kids don't feel safe in our schools they don't feel safe on our buses if you fix that and bring these kids back those are going to go through the roof and that and that is what that's what our principles need to be Focus on as well is keeping these kids here keeping having Rock Hill families send their kids to Rock Hill schools and Pete though Mr Noz though I do appreciate that and I don't disagree that we need to be competitive and try to serve the families that are here and serve families in the community but I also want to remind us that so many of our children in our school don't have the resources where they can go other places

079and we also have got to be focused on at the end of the day they're always going to be some children who are in Rock Hill schools we got to teach those kids as well I agree 100% but that we're talking about when we don't have the resources and teachers are stretched so thin because we have very high level Achievers in classrooms and we have very lowlevel Achievers we need more kids we need to serve our entire community and if we do that it's going to lift everybody up I agree with that we want that to be competitive but I don't think that we need to pad numbers with the children I need I think we need to get to the Baseline of what's happening with the children that are currently in our schools and

080if we help those children rise then other children will come back I hear what you're saying and I want us to be competitive to Legion and York prep but I also want to help the kids that are in Rock Hill schools right now and I think that's what we need to focus on first and then if you build it they will come yes let's let's fix it and bring all the kids back I believe did you have something you yes I I just wanted to to Echo some of the sentiments that I just heard one of the things you've heard me say you will hear me continue to say is Excellence always sells if we have an excellent product yes we will attract the best and the brightest students teachers leaders people are attracted to

081Excellence so we are challenged with creating excellent outcomes within our school building um our I'm another thing I'm going to be the first to say right now is our student achievement is not where it needs to be and unfortunately it's been that way for years our our achievement data pre pandemic has remained pretty consistent but in the last two and a half years although it's not where it should be there has been growth yes so I I want to speak to that another thing I want to speak to is our focus on continuous Improvement we have got to to get better we no one is going to acknowledge that and own that more than I and our team will and we are going to get better we have to make sure that we are attracting

082high quality Talent retaining high quality Talent providing high quality professional learning opportunities to help equip our teachers with the school with the skills and the tools to help make connections with our students to engage them to make sure that they understand our standards and they're able to deliver instruction at the rigor of the standards one of our issues is tier one until we drastically improve tier one we're going to continue to see some of the challenges that we're seeing but everything that you're mentioning here are things that we are keenly aware of and that we are extremely focused on improving we know that if you're 50% proficient at a a 50% proficiency level you're not going to go from 50 to 80 in a year it it just does not happen I wish it would

083but that that's just not the case turnaround work takes a minimum of 3 to 5 years we have some things working you all mention accountability that is key I've been a principal I believe in autonomy but I believe in earned autonomy I don't believe in allowing autonomy um to the detriment of students so the support that we're providing is targeted it is research based um and with your support I think we will continue to see those gains um that we're trying to to get so our focus is going to be on growth if we can maximize growth eventually that achievement will come but I agree with everything that has been said yes if our students took SC ready in December we don't have half of them who would have demonstrated um proficiency on grade level

084proficiency that is something we acknowledge that is something that our continuous Improvement plans are geared towards improving that's the work that we have been engaged in and will continue to be engaged in and lastly our accountability model our accountability model is designed to make sure that every single kid is getting what they need so when you think about our school report card rating they are rating us on all of our students but when you think about our federal designations it's on how each one of those subgroups are performing so it is our responsibility to give every kid regardless of what subgroup or subgroups they fall in the the education that they deserve so when I see these numbers they're on breing rock is better than this agree if if we look at the resources that

085we have available to us in our district this is this is not acceptable we know that and I think everybody in this building owns that you know believe I think that it's fantastic that we are making datadriven decisions however some of that Improvement is going to take time the kids are sitting in third grade right now they don't have time because if they fall behind it this year they're not ready for fourth grade and we continue the slide right so my question is you know sort of as a general statement um what are we doing in about our professional development as I understand the idea of coaching and professional development that's coming from from above and down and teaching teachers to be better at teachers but one of the feedback and one of the reasons

086we hear a lot of the teachers thinking about leaving is because they don't feel like professional development at least on the feedback I'm getting is necessarily targeted of what their students need so are we trying to do a one-size fits all have we truly looked at what individual teachers depending on their own experience levels needs and have we thought about taking some of the Fantastic individuals that are providing this PD and actually have them held out all handsome day because right now the ship is sinking y'all we can talk about which direction we're going but when I see numbers where you know we can talk about 25% achievement in math well in reality that means 75% of the kids are not passing just kind of throw it out there I'm not I'm not saying answer

087I'm just saying got to think about it on a bigger scale agree and I actually would like to answer specifically about professional learning because that is an area that we have prided ourselves on providing customized customized professional learning opportunities one of the things I think we have to acknowledge when you're pouring professional learning into teachers year after year but you have teachers leaving that professional learning walks out of the building when they walk out of the building so every year you're having to repeat professional learning differentiate it based on the teachers who are remaining when you think about plc's across our district the majority of them are brand new or newly formed because we are trying to retain teachers and to hold on to the value that we're adding but if you're pouring in professional

088learning and half of your staff is leaving then you have to do that all over again so one of the reasons and one of the things that the board has committed to is providing a competitive salary but in addition to salary support is what makes people want to stay and want to remain and that is something that we're committed to providing that customized support this year with each continuous Improvement plan every school is designing professional learning based on the needs of those schools so I would love to see the feedback that you received um regarding Fe um the professional learning that we're providing because we are constantly meeting with principles every 30 days looking at data talking about what's working revising what's not working offering providing PD offerings repeating PD offerings um whatever is needed

089and I'll be happy to share that obviously this is for for that but but we can we can have a conversation not share some of the things that I'm hearing but again some of those offerings are based on autonomy and whether or not school are participating so again we'll continue to customize and provide um a high level of support what does that mean professional development is based on autonomy we provide offerings but we do people not required to come we our department currently serves as a department of support so we are charged with providing high quality support in hopes that everyone wants yes or are they requ all professional learning offerings are not required so there's schools that are opting not to participate or just te people operating not particip beid for various reasons sometimes

090participation rates may may differ and I I don't want to generalize because no you don't have to I'm just ask I'm just asking based on this question just yes but we we do provide offerings um and schools and individuals have the opportunity to participate or not that is a great site way to a reflection question for Dr Jones does your instructional team um have the ability to hold your sight level administrators accountable do they and and for reflection for you is is it built in there that um this portion of support can hold them accountable um B when they're going out having their data discussions what happens after that um are they discussions or is it follow through that would just be a question that I would have from that standpoint um another one for

091instruction would be I'm danced around this one so I'm just going to say it walkthroughs and observations have a place I know they have a place um as a teacher I also know that doesn't always change exactly what's going to happen for me day to day with them students in my ability to instruct the way I need to or to use the data the way I need to observations I get her feedback everybody needs feedback so when I ask what's happening to impact instruction on a day-to-day level I guess I'm looking for more Beyond walkthroughs and observations um they have their place and I do understand that so I guess what I also be looking for is because we do have the school breakdowns those schools that have maintained their percent percentages fall to winter

092or even made them grow because P right this these are averages these are this doesn't represent you know each individual school I'd like to know what those schools are doing so that we can replicate it in other and other schools are offer those opportunities I know each um population is different and what they may do or how they may implement it maybe different but you do have schools that are making games you do have schools that have scores that did not fall off what are they doing um i' also you know I'm familiar with map scores your final slides that talked about achievement and impact you're not going to be a lot of map quadrant where it shows and so um you know personally I I don't need to see those necessarily but I would

093like to know which schools have the dots in the right quadrants and what they are doing we need to be able to share that with other schools or see how we can replicate that or modify it for other school Success because there is growth happening um despite these averages the averages are disheartening now because of opposite of the district so that's when I ask about what's happening to impact daily instruction I really am looking for more be and maybe you don't have that maybe that's what principles have it maybe those are conversations I have we as a department have it and we've equipped our principal with those data to our data team we've pulled data in every possible way we know exactly how every student impacts our school report card we know exactly the impact

094teachers have and that's a lot of the work that we're doing with our plc's and um we've done work with PLC activators how do we leverage those best practices that experience and not always experienc but um high impact teachers are garnering with their students and so that's some of the work that we are engage in we're restructuring the way we do our um principles meeting to make sure that there are those opportun ities to talk about what's working and what's not working and making sure that those practices are more widespread so the things that you're mentioning are are things that are in the works but I agree with everything that is said when you look at our achievement it is it is glaring it is a state of emergency um we agree wholeheartedly with that

095but we are challenged with achievement just does not change drastically typically overnight and I wish I could say we could go from 50% to 80% next year but that is just not How achievement works that is why we're focusing on how do we maximize the growth with every single student meeting them where they are figuring out where their academic needs are making sure that we're personaliz personalizing their learning experience so that they can have that Maxim maximum growth and the beauty of our of our accountability model is it weights both so it honors the the school that already have the achievement as well as those that do not yet have it and they give you credit for the work but our goal is to continue to have that laser like focus on growth so that

096we can gar our higher levels of achievement sustainable achievement Dr Jones um just one last comment for real this time I I don't want it to be lost that it's concerning as a trustee that these plans come before the board and state statute requires us to approve them and we Pro them um based on your recommendation recommendation of your staff and your leadership team comes to these meetings at least a couple of times since I've been on the board and theyve presented to include last month and this month what they're doing and but I just come from a world my Military Days Mr nose's current Military Days your brother is a general in the military it's called a chain of command and it's just very concerning to me to have a deputy superintendent or assistant

097superintendent standing here of things that we have approved as a board and she's saying or at least I feel like she said heard her say that they are doing these things but if a member who's lower on the chain of command opts out of it they can opt out of it that that is a problem because we're being told this is what we're doing but what I heard is but if someone doesn't want to come they're not coming and so I not asking for a response I'm just saying that that's challenging if the board is approving these plans and we're being told this is what's being done but what I'm hearing here is not being done all the way through the [Music] organization I I just want to say I know you all are working

098hard and I know the deep are working hard I'm actually excited to hear about the opportunities that you all will partner with the teachers maybe there's a opportunity for cross coaching with the different schools the schools that are performing on the upper quadrant and the schools that are performing and I know that like they said the populations are different and there's some challenges there too but I just want to say thank you because I know you all are working and I know the teachers are working hard and I know it's a lot and I think just that's not let's not be lost let's not lose that that there are so many challenges with our children and again is talking about building a good product and how do we build that we need to meet the

099children where they are so I just want to say thank you I know I don't want yall to feel like it's a beat down because this is important because this work very our children are in here too our absolutely our children are in those abely we take this work very seriously we see it we find it equally um alarming but I'm glad you said that because I do want to highlight the hard work that our principles and our teachers are they are they are working hard um and until you have walked in the shoes of a princi principal or a teacher you can't imagine the challenges just trying to meet the academic needs of the students um building those relationships there there are a myriad of challenges that we're faced with but it is our

100job our responsibility to provide that support and to create structures to create that sustainable growth um and that's what we're working on we do not yet and I want to highlight the word yet have the results um that we know we're capable of but that is what we're committed to making sure that our data matches the aptitude um and the talents that we know are present here in Rock Hill schools well as as superintendent you I challenge you to tell us exactly what you need say exactly what you need and then we need to implement that and if it is a chain of command issue then let's fix that let's Implement that and let's hold each other accountable absolutely make sure it happens I believe in extreme accountability thank you well I just want to

101Echo what Miss Hutchinson said thank y'all for really uh putting your shoulder to the wheel because you always rise to the challenge when we ask your qu ask questions but um I just have to say I'm just really taken aack about the whole accountability I think a lot of us ran on accountability and our constituents hold us accountable but it sounds like there's some type of dysfunction going back to chain of command and whatever we can do as a board and and Dr Jones whatever we can do to help Empower you because how can you um work on you know have have a bicycle wheel going completely great when there's folks that are missing and if these people whoever they are I don't know who they are are not showing up or have the option

102to opt out where we say what's not working that's not working so just thank you for um continuing to share information and like Miss Hutchinson said whatever we can do to help support you we want I want Rock kill to win all of us all of us sitting here employed here I think we want Rock kill to win but I just have to say from my heart that um having it as an option for uh people to opt out that's that's not working um I can't stand for that so just I had to express it will continue to be transparent I believe wholeheartedly you can't get better without the truth so any data that you are interested in we probably already have it if we don't we are happy to provide it yes sir I

103just want to say real quick Dr Dicky you and I have that conversation yes a few months ago and I appreciate it and I want everyone on the board to know and the public to know because I asked you that when these positions were being moved around I said do you will you share in the success and the failures of these schools mean what can you go into these schools and tell them to do something and you told me no and I said do you want to be able to you said absolutely 100% I want to be held accountable I want more accountability and I think we can give your team more accountability and I think that we will have that going forward I hope next year but I I appreciate that you told me

104that and you you you want it and I appreciate that in a leader so thank you and we appreciate the tough questions because we should be our biggest advocate for students so we appreciate the support and know that we will continue to give 110% to improve learning outcomes for all of our students at rocka schools thank you thank you next up would be the report of the superintendent thank you very much U board chair and and board members there are a lot of cor days in rock schools lot of good things that happen and make it a great day it's not a great day when you hear that a student has experienced a a situation that is negative or or physical as we shared uh with us earlier this evening safety is Paramount of Rockhill

105schools and I have participated in walkthroughs with lockdowns I uh our director Safety and Security Andrew Jones is on top of the schools as they complete the rubric of safety that's that that is expected throughout the year and there's followup and accountability with that um you know I can share with you certainly that um we have a plan with our cameras our aging cameras and we can present that however it's in process of looking with using some Capital funds that we we can share but but it's more than just cameras we could have a camera and every center of the bus and every corner of the school but it's all also about when we have situations where a student goes into crisis what is that plan what is it that we need to refine um

106you know when we hear a concern about CPI restraints and followup we have an ESC department and a director that will do that and when we hear we are to respond and and to be a part of that so so I say that that active supervision and safety is is Paramount in anytime a student experiences uh difficulty or as an experience that was shared it's important for us to respond our team will be responding and um and again work with that I also want to say that accountability is important within professional development it is important but I also want to make sure the board understands and our public understands that our principles and schools are working not just on academics but we also know the importance of um working import of our climate and our

107culture as well I research shows shows and and cuby has a lot of research on this that shows that students that ex that succeed that it's not just that academic piece but you also have to have the the culture in CL they have the belief and the support and you know I can understand when uh the ongoing work of bullying and trying to keep that perception and reality close we had to be very responsive to make sure that our parents feel that our schools are supportive um and so when you're looking at the professional development I would say we uh you in the in the last or the current calendar uh gave us half days in which to work with don't have as many next year and what we did with them our our our

108days is we basically said there are days in which it will be driven by plc's and be driven by the district and expectations communicated to principles I have Millow and and and um when I was responsible as Deputy for the principal's meeting we express that but this coming Friday we do give autonomy at the school for what they're working with that should lead into not only the climate and culture but the academic support but if it but but again being tighter being Tighter and making the accountability that's something that we can continue on our work and um I think that there's some Reflection from from from what has been shared tonight that uh that we want to work with just a couple of notes also had a chance chance yesterday to attend the York County

109Mental Health task force uh which is um which is basically provided through Nami and Rock Hill schools was a part of that we hosted them here yesterday uh it's a critical partner from our folks around York County who came together to have equal voices in mental health and we heard about suicide prevention efforts uh council's working to address adult anxiety depression uh human Rel relationships all of that was a part of that yesterday and I do want to make note that they have a website excuse me a Facebook page a Facebook page and letting our public and and and parents particularly know uh that is called the York County Mental Health task force and there's a lot of activities and plans to support and that partnership with rockvill schools is important so I'm very appreciative

110of Nami um also want to remind our parents uh that we're in this spring session of when we offer our binus screening assessments we have upped our communication this semester try to make sure parents uh know that our teachers will be conducting in grades K through 7 a brief binus assessment seeing if there are any indicators or anything that we would have concern with with our students as well as supporting uh families uh parents can op out of that three screening the teachers do that information is on the website we've sent it out on blackboard uh connect we have the forms there the schools have sent that so we've up that but I believe March 2 is the date uh that is due I've even gotten form sent to me from parents and I just

111fored it to the principal but if you'll take a look at our website uh it's on a banner as well as information there um and just had a chance to attend the South Carolina School boards association annual conference in Myrtle Beach learned a lot about the board's work in charge with Rock Hill schools you know the mission of that organization is that they are leading advocates for Quality public education that's what our school board does they do that to support so I was very grateful to be a part of that team um and finally want to say parents thank you for your patience last week as I navigated learning Blackboard and sending messages I know you got lots of messages and a couple of times even had my return email and for the hundreds of

112emails that I got to go through and check hey I saw who you were and thank you but thank you for your support as we had to make decisions based upon weather just a couple of notes all schools have early dismissal on February 28th um according to the following schedule Elementary 7:45 to 11:15 middle schools 8:15 to 11:45 high schools 8:45 to 12:15 half day prek programs at ATC Central and Evan Port will not have class and full programs would dismiss at 10:45 we are currently hiring for the 2526 school year please visit touch heart.org for more information and our next school board meeting is scheduled for March 11th 2025 6:00 p.m and we will um live stream thank you thank you so much more than anything thank you for your leadership uh next up

113is uh we do have an executive session uh for the purpose of discuss of post contractual ation at this point I would entertain a motion toj the Open Session and enter the executive session so than you do I have second any discussion now all those in favor allst car e e e good evening and welcome back to the uh February 25th uh Schoolboard uh business meeting we have been uh meeting in the executive session uh for the purpose of discussion of proposed contractual relations at this point I will enter turn entertain a motion to adjourn the executive session and reconvene the Open Session thank you Mr no do I have a second second thank you Miss Hutchinson any discussion yes sir oh no don't discuss all allos motion Carri so zero are there any motions

114coming out of the executive very n uh any other future business no just a quick statement that uh Miss Hutchinson and I are uh working on uh the law planning for our uh strategic session um and as soon as we have a little bit more to share we will forward that to all of you with some dates and things like that but we are we're we're the Beloved so we we'll get there uh if there's nothing else I TR a motion to oh sorry madam chair just I do want to say I think it is important because we've been asked about the superintendent search that we're diligently working on that if you could just where we are with that thank you Dr belon and yes so uh as everyone know we are uh in the

115process of looking for a superintendent uh Rocko schools at the prior uh school board meeting at the first meeting of February the board voted to entertain the idea of a national search firm we are currently in the process of evaluating different proposals uh of national search first uh we have not at this point yet made a decision and we're hoping to uh expedite that process over probably the next one to two weeks and as soon as we have a decision obviously that will be made out in Open Session and we will share more with the community as soon as we have more to share um and our commitment to the Rock Hill school's family and Community is to make sure that we keep giving the updates as this process uh continues thank you oh absolutely

116and thank you for reminding me of that Dr so now do I have a mo so moved thank you m do I have a second any discussion very none all those in favor all oppos measure cares 7 [Music] Z e