001One, two, three, four. Check, check, test. Father, we just thank you for your goodness, your mercy. We thank you that you are our God, that your word says you hear us when we pray and that you answer our prayers. Heavenly Father, we start school in one week and we're asking for your blessing on the 2021 school year. Your word tells us that you are a God of comfort, a God of peace, that you're not a God of confusion, but of a sound mind. That if we ask, you'll give us wisdom. So Father, we're asking for every bit of this tonight. For your wisdom. We're asking for comfort, for peace. We're asking for a sound mind. And we're believing that you're going to hear our prayers. Be with our students, our employees, parents, grandparents. And let
002each one of them have the peace and comfort that they need during this school year. It's in your name we pray, amen. Thomas Burns, Dean of Students & Asst. Dean of Students & This time we're at recognition introduction. Thomas Burns, Dean of Students & Yeah. So one thing that little remiss about is upkeep of the board on your progress towards your three year strategic goals. Thomas Burns, Dean of Students & And so I thought tonight would be a good night that we could celebrate the achievements as a board you've overseen a school district. So we are going to put two years worth of check marks on the board. So if you'll bear with me. We set these goals in 2018, that first summer board retreat that we had together. So I'm just going to go
003through each category that we set and the goals that we have achieved. The first one is in curriculum. So it's the development and alignment of district expectations for curriculum, instruction, and assessment to raise student achievement. Our curriculum department has done a lot of work on putting pacing guides together and common assessments. And so I believe we've achieved that goal. The next was to establish a virtual learning academy to increase student course offerings. We had no choice but to do that. With the onset of the pandemic and quarantine, we were already working in our digital convergent environment, but we've definitely leaped forward with the inclusion of our Ecampus that we have this upcoming school year. So you can mark that as complete. And that will be something that's ongoing. The creation of a new district instructional
004model that reflects current initiatives. And again, the curriculum department did a wonderful job putting a visual with the new instructional model. As a matter of fact, I would really encourage you tonight, if you have just a few extra seconds, if you walk through the curriculum instruction department, they've got a big pit bull hanging up in their area. So you can mark that complete. In finance, increase our district operating cash reserves to 14%. We did that in the first year. So you can put a check mark there. Increase the district operating cash reserves to 16%. We did that in the second year. right there. We hope we don't get down below that with the current pandemic, but we seem to be doing pretty well right now. So we haven't completed the 17% goal and we haven't
005completed a financial summary or analysis for each school location. So that's something we need to get completed by the end of the school year. Facilities, constructed and opened three elementary schools. That happened very successfully. Constructed and opened the new Wooler Technology Center. We did that at the beginning of this past school year. And then we need, we still have not completed a full facilities assessment. We did complete that one for the new elementary project. So that's something we'll brief you on tonight so you can check that one. But the development of a long range district facility maintenance and construction plan we're still working on right now. Personnel restructure the district office to increase and broaden student support, i.e. a school district liaison to Central Carolina preschool director. We did do that. and then establish a
006position to support district diversity and inclusion initiatives and you're going to receive a brief on that tonight and we have done that nope next one down safety and security update and implement a district-wide safety response protocol if you remember we're using the i love you guys dot org protocol so we've done that and initiate standardized control entry access to all buildings we have done that with the id card system And then improve staff safety awareness through training, safe schools is just an example, or alert notification access, and we've done that. So there you go. And you can see what is remaining for the end of this school year for us to complete the hit check marks in every area. And obviously there's been a lot of other things that have been accomplished in the last
007two years to get us to the point that we're at. So I just want to say thank you to the board for supporting us on these initiatives. Yes, sir. to achieve assessment to raise student achievement. Have we got some kind of numbers to show what percentage we have raised achievement there? Yeah, and one of the ways to do that is we use a variety of things. And honestly, one of the things we like best is our formative assessments, our map data that we use. So that's one of the things that we focus on. The other thing is, is if you ever go into any of the buildings, I would encourage you to ask the principals to go into their data rooms. One of the ways we worked on achieving that was to use data walls
008so that we could look at each individual child and their assessments. And a lot of times that's three times a year we look at those formative assessments. The SC Ready is not something we're really focused on right now. Obviously, we didn't take it last year. Our initial waiver was denied for SC Ready this year, but it looks like. There's maybe some reprieve and we may not take it again this year. So that really eliminates us using that as a comparative tool and we can focus on really what we think is best anyway. That's NWA. Okay. No one signed up for public forum. Takes us to old business, new business, polished review, frustrating as a bird. Tonight I bring to you the next section of our policy review manual that you've been doing. As you remember,
009we've been working with the South Carolina School Boards Association to review your policy from front to back. The good news is we are closer to the end than we are to the beginning. You've made it more than halfway through all of these policies, and this is important work to do and to keep current. So now tonight before you, you have section I, and that's the instruction. policy section. This is a section that's been reviewed very carefully by Dr. Taylor and by her department. And they've looked through and updated the language in here. As a reminder, if you see a highlight, that's an additional text that's being added. Strike through so you can see what was on the books being deleted. So these recommendations are coming to you via South Carolina. For information for tonight, we'll
010bring them back in two weeks and ask for your vote for approval. hearing none thank you miss burke chairman's report um i did attend the south gulf school board association via zoom there's two reports so i'm going to postpone that until our next board meetings at this time dr Okay, thank you, Dr. Smith. So I have a few items I'll go through and encourage you to ask any questions as I hit these updates for the board tonight. You know, several of these things you're getting in your soup update from me, but I wanted to share with you publicly. The first ones are reopening update. Things are moving along, I wouldn't say smoothly. We didn't expect that they would be smoothly. We got some kinks. The fever system has had a little bit of challenges. A
011lot of those challenges have been user error on how to recharge the device itself, but we're getting there. And then to couple that, we have a new entry system that is called our Raptor system that is... it's going to take the place of identikit it's a little more robust and will allow us to do some more things as we screen people coming into our buildings here in the first several weeks there should be fewer people coming into our buildings because as you know part of our reopening response is there are no visitors in the buildings just so this this board knows that's that's been custom across the state really across the country to minimize outside folks into the buildings because we are going to do a really good job of cleaning and maintaining a sterile
012environment and we have to minimize traffic. That's not to say there won't be visitors in the buildings unless it's an emergency they have to be at pre-arranged appointments to come in so it should cut down on the traffic a little bit. We won't be allowing parents to walk their children to classes at the elementary schools. And again, I have talked to my colleagues that are already back in school, and that's really the same thing they did as well to cut down on that traffic. And quite honestly, they said it went really well because that separation anxiety happens a little quicker and things went really smoothly. So just know that that's the case. Dr. Robinson, I have a question on that. What is that protocol? Parent drop. Let's use your name first. Sure. There's somebody who's
013walking. Is there somebody there to walk each one of those kids down to the classroom? Because they're not going to know where they're going. Yeah, absolutely. We'll have our teams out there. They will be in mass, which, you know, again, can be a little threatening. But at this point, a lot of children are pretty used to that. I've seen them in action. One of the nice things we had leap week last week, which was our pre-assessment phase before we went back to school. And a lot of our children came in and took those assessments. So they've already kind of done this a little bit. And that included the KRA, which is the kindergarten readiness assessment. So, but the teams will be there to take the children back to class. They'll also be there to take
014them through the cafeteria and do a grab and go breakfast if they're going to eat breakfast before school. Of course, our principals or administrators are going to be out there greeting people. And we have a really good group of folks that are going to do their very best. They're excited to have kids back in school. And so I'm excited about. how that's going to play out. I think it'll be a good thing, but that's a good question. Yeah, we're not going to expect children to be dropped off and you go find your way. We're going to take them where they need to go. I did see where my wife showed me on social media where one of our principals has posted a video out there about seven minutes long showing the Colorado area of what
015to expect, a tour through the school so they'll know which area they're going to for grade levels. Very good little short video. Yeah, I've seen that. It was a good video. Yes, sir. Any other questions? I had a good question. You got pushed about in coach. That's okay. I had one question. We're consistent with all of this. Like last week when we had this late program, the students were entered by a employee or a teacher and parents were not allowed to come in at all. And we're consistent with all of our schools. Do you know if everything was consistent with that? Because I've had some calls, to be honest with you, about inconsistency. Yeah, because I'll answer that question. It was consistent with our elementary schools. The calls you have had are more than likely
016parents that had children or heard of children that were at our middle schools and high schools where it was set up differently. And they came into our cafeterias to pay fees and pick up their devices. I didn't hit all 18 locations, but I was at 12 of them, and it was consistent across the board everywhere I went. I hit elementary, middle, and high schools. So, for example, when I was at Camden Middle School, the parents and child, one parent and a child walked into the cafeteria, paid their fees, picked up their device, and walked out. At the elementary schools, you dropped your child off, and they took them back to a classroom with a group of other students to take their assessments. yes i had a question hit questions on it so i thought yes
017sir and i just want to say i still adamantly oppose sending the students to any other school other than their own school and because i've been getting beat up about it and i just you know stressed that that was not a board decision but an executive decision i just want to make that clear that i'm not yeah that was my decision so that's our operational pattern for the fall i'd like to make one more comment please like him for kim I've been on the board eight years. This will be my eighth year of coaching and calling the school system. Kim's been on the board probably the longest. And I just want to say to Kim and the board, she's never wavered from her belief on what she feels about the small schools. I just want
018to say that for the record. Kim, I think she's the only one that's ever voted every time to keep those schools where they are. And we'll consolidate and announce all of it. A lot of times I think people forget who's fighting for them sometimes. And I know we've consolidated now, but on Kim's behalf, it seems like maybe she takes the heat because the Thune is not open now because that is for schools. I'm just going to say it, okay? And it was a decision that was made by administration, and we didn't vote. I support the fact that she stood her ground for almost 20 years on keeping those schools open. And I will say that for the record. And even though I did vote to close the schools, and I think she might be the
019only one that's always voted no. So for those of you that's listening or there, but you might be watching from that area, I'm going to take up for Kim. She's always voted to keep schools open. So I just want to make that comment. Thank you. Okay, so other pieces to the reopening response update. Most everything else is in place. We have all of our solutions out into the buildings. I do have Tim here who's been overseeing the safety logistics. The one thing that I need to note and I want to share with everyone, the cleaning of the classrooms is designed for the custodians to do. So we've had a lot of requests for spray sanitizer and everything else. The custodians are cleaning those classrooms. We have hand sanitizers in the buildings. If there is a
020spill or an issue during the day, the custodian will clean it. We do not want teachers feeling compelled to do that. We also don't want the extra solution in the classrooms for them to go spraying the classroom. So it's being taken care of by protocols. To the seating, similar to what we have here. It varies. It varies. It varies on the school. It varies on the space. I was in Mount Pisgah today. It's set up similar to this. Some of the other schools have tables, and so they don't have necessarily just standalone desks. And if it seats two, they have one seat that's occupied, one that's not. Lugoff Elementary, and Tim, you might be able to speak to this, they actually have tables together that they decided to use partitions, and they put umbrellas to
021just kind of make it fun and unique. So it's a variety of of ways that they're accomplishing this. Maybe for you and Tim, what is the, what's our accountability for making sure that each of those rooms are in DB? Is there a way that you can tell if it has been sprayed or? Yeah, so one of the things I talked to Mr. Smith about was a simple log sheet. that will hang in each classroom. And so each night after the room's sprayed, they'll just initial it. If you've been into any restroom in a restaurant or even a truck stop or somewhere, you'll see that they have a clipboard hanging up. And when it's cleaned, it's signed, dated, and initialed. That's the way we'll do it. But it's also part of the contract with this custodial
022crew that they do that as well. One way you could do it is put something on the table. in different areas, not consistently. And the principal goes, our teacher knows that it was left there and they verify the next day that it was clean because that piece of article had been moved. It's important to also though to understand that the solution that kills COVID-19 that we're using is a fog or a spray. We do want them still wiping down stuff that they'll go in and they'll coat a bus. and they'll coat a classroom and equipment and that kills the virus. So that's just general cleaning practice. They should be doing that though. Yeah, I don't want to imply that we're micromanaging those folks, but since it is a fog, will you be able to tell
023if you walk in the next day, will you be able to tell if it's been sanitized or not? And I just, I would like some type of accountability. Right. We will inspect what we expect. Okay, if there's no other questions for our reopening response update, I'm sure on the 18th I'll let you know how the first week with real kids back in the building has gone. I'll move on to the North Central Elementary School construction update. Of course, you see the pictorials in the back, the renderings. If you've had a chance, I encourage you, if you've not, to drive out to the Keys Lane and to the North Central High School. It's nothing but a mountain of workers out there. A lot of good things taking place. They've got the land cleared next to the
024elementary school and so we're making good progress. It's all about getting some of those formal permitting some things. Our only concern about hold up in our last project meeting that we had would be the access to materials in a timely manner. As long as the materials show up, that building will go up relatively fast. So we are moving along. We actually have sent out, you know, contracts have been signed and we're moving ahead pretty rapidly now. So you'll start to see a lot more things change now that the land's been cleared. So we've got Donnie and Billy here happy to answer any questions on North Central Elementary School. Are those contracts locked in as far as costing? Everybody's been hearing about the inflation of building materials right now. Are we locked in with them on
025a price? Yeah, we use what's called a GMP, a guaranteed matching price. They can go lower. They just can't go higher. Okay, the next update I have for y'all is the North Central High School tornado response. I made a decision after meeting with the architect and the contractors last week to not try to save the annex. The cost to save the annex was really probably going to outweigh what it would be to go ahead and knock it down and add the square footage on as part of new construction. So again, if you drive by, you'll see that annex is already half full. HAB-Jacques Juilland, He or He will those down you know here here's the thing I just want to remind you if questions are asked when when the timeline is question, and that is
026remember we got a terror building down and then erect a building, and so we are. We're demolishing as quickly as we can. They really went right to work on the annex to get it torn down. This is just a generic picture in your slides I shared with you of what the front of the high school will look like. If you pull this out, this is the square footage space. And Billy spent a lot of time working with Davey and looking at the course offerings we had to go through and to get our first rendering of what the John Pimentel, footprint would look like and it's it's it's going to be a really nice structure, the nice thing we like about it is it's going to blend in the architectural. John Pimentel, structure of the current
027site with the middle school and the elementary site, so the brick patterns obviously be different, but the structural design will be similar and we'll try to put in a little bit of white to make it all match by taking the annex down it does eliminate what would have been. an older portion of the building that we wouldn't have been able to match with the other newer additions. So now it'll all look like one new facility and one new structure. Right. Yes. Yeah, it's double the size and it's right next to the auditorium. We were able to do that and actually add him some other space. by not necessarily creating a big choir room because they can use the auditorium for choir which is where they perform anyway so yeah it's it's a really nice space
028we're just getting going you know we're making progress and we'll keep you updated one of the things that i would like to do is go ahead and update our website with pictures of every step of the way as we continue to demolish and then erect. So just to keep people in the know the progress we're making. But that's all I have. I'll turn it over to you. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm a little back to the opening. We've had some opportunities like the bus stops. We've had all the bus. But virtual, what is, what's the protocol water teacher has been trying to do? With virtual teaching, what has teachers been trained to do if somebody in a house or wherever that student is, somebody interrupts the teaching, wants to make their own comment, what they think
029should be taught. How are they to respond if something inappropriate comes across? Do we shut everything down for that? Just what are some of our protocols for handling that? Well, first of all, some of the things you probably read about are the Zoom bombing situations that have happened with Zoom. You can't do that with our system and with Google Meets that we use. Now, it could be a parent or somebody that tries to. get on the student's device, but they can't interrupt a teacher. The teacher has to recognize the student. So the student can raise their hand and the teacher can then unmute them, but the teacher has control of all those settings. The teacher will mute every single student that's in the virtual world and then they can send messages through the chat feature
030and then if they want to speak then the teacher will unmute them. If this is a virtual classroom out here and Dr. Taylor wants to speak or have dialogue with me or I'm trying to get the virtual students to interact, then I have to unmute her so that she can do that. So we do have protocols in place for that. The one nice thing about it is unless you're in our network, you can't access it. So our Google is managed by our domain. But we know there's going to be some. I'm not saying it's perfect. And I'm sure there's gonna be things that happen. We're gonna go, my gosh, can't believe we, and we're just gonna have to make sure we respond appropriately. But some of the little things that you think might be able
031to happen, we've been able to control. So Kerry, am I missing anything on that? Is that pretty much? Okay. I was going back to my central high school. What kind of safety features tie in with the doors? It will be the same safety features. Yeah, the same access control. I'll speak more along the line of lockdown. If you wanted to secure all the installs, is that a main area? Yeah. Yeah. So these, if you look at this map, there are several locations that you can corridor off and lock down. But also as you get in the building, if you're looking at your map, there's a vestibule there. That's like a holding area. You can't get into the rest of the building. It funnels you to the right through the administration office. and then there's another
032door that then you can get into the building if you're permitted to do so. So yeah, it has two different areas. And then if you look at the blue, there are different corridors that actually have doors that you can lock down. And one of the main areas is over where the auxiliary gym, the multipurpose room, and the wellness center is. We can lock that down so that that's the only thing you access. So the rest of the school is locked off and you can still access those facilities. yeah yeah anything else okay mr roy you're up And as she gets started, I'll tell you, obviously, this is a position you allowed me to bring to the district, and it was nice. She spent a year trying to get comfortable in the district and learn people
033and spend time in our buildings. But to see her have her first real true roundtable meeting with our administrators of color last week was amazing. And I think she did a wonderful job, and I asked her to present to you tonight. Good afternoon. I would like to share with you a training video that I used in our admin, our August admin meeting to open up our new 2021 school year. Diversity is not just about the big things, but it's also about the small things. And at every school, there will be a request for students and teachers to participate in events, meetings, press conferences, etc. And during times like this, we either highlight to the public our diversity or our lack of diversity. These quick peeks into the district and into our schools, they leave lasting
034impressions and really they're our biggest recruiting tools. And so what I would like to say is inclusion is just not part of diversity, equity, and inclusion office, but it's a part of all of us and who we are. And as the video says, inclusion starts with I. And so I just kind of wanted to leave you with that video as we begin the school year, because we are going to have a lot of uncertainty going on. And, you know, some of the script we're going to be writing as we go on. Thank you. Thank you. For the first time in a long time we are bringing to you a request for facility use fee waiver request. This comes from the Camden Youth Bulldogs. They have asked to use the Camden High Stadium for five days.
035They're also going to use our practice fields. We've got your cover letter. This has not come before us before. The custodial fee, if added all those hours up, would be $1,500. The rental fee would be $7,500. For a total rental fee of $9,000, if approved, it would be zero. Administrative recommendation, we have denied. We would like to deny this request. But in remarks, I ask that in being consistent with what we've done with other groups. like our club volleyball team, that our own coaches, dudes, and put on tournaments. We charge a half price for the rental, and we charge full custodian fees. If we did that, the rental fee, half the rental fee, would go from $75,000 down to $3,700. $150 and of course the custodian's fee would stay at $1,500 for a total of
036$5,250. I also would like to point out that we probably would be able to work with them on reducing that even more because they've asked all five of those dates to have the stadium for 12 hours. Maybe on the January they might need more than they would for regular January. I don't see them needing 12 hours. a day. So we might work with them to stay with these types of things. I'm glad to take any questions or any other conversations you'd like to have about this. Are they charged in those days, Bill? Yes, sir. If you look, they do. They did. A mission will be charged. And I said it would be put for gang day reps and supporting the youth program. This is the first time we've had We've had lots of requests, but
037when it came down to when we explained to them, you know, what our rental fees were and then what we've consistently done, usually it never goes in the process. These folks are really meant to do this. When you say Camden High Stadium, that is not Zim Stadium. That's the one we're in, probably. I asked that question and never got an answer so I hate to use this word but I'm assuming that they're talking about the uh yes what I call the spring sports that have a complex for JD in the middle school place there but they could be or going to do the jamboree in the in the zone that could I can only see them doing that Look, before we approve this, it would be better to know exactly what sort of point to
038use and find out if that... Well, to find out if that price is reduced. Are they really going to have 12 hours a day? I was wondering, on Jamboree, they use for you, but they don't really make this type of to get back to the district. I have no idea. I do know that the only thing, whatever capacity, you know, it was 250 was the max capacity. That's the way we're all allowed to have. Approve some of the just the rental fee and custom, just the custom. Not these types of. Maybe some hand in hand with what we've done with our volleyball clubs that, you know, our coaches are coaching our kids. You're talking about, when you speak of volleyball, you're talking about the school and not community organization. It's a community, it's a community,
039it's not a school sport. Right. Anything related to school, we don't charge. Right, well, I'm asking you to speak of volleyball. So we have another group of someone in the area that utilizes the volleyball field. Yes, we've done that in the North Central area, club team, the Camden area, and the Louisville area. No, ma'am. And I'll tell you what, I just got this yesterday. I found the sign. Yeah, exactly. Which has happened before on a lot of the jobs. This is more, this is more of me. I don't know what type of resources they have or anything along that line. I think it would be worth more conversation than trying to reduce that fee even further than it's possible. I'm doing the thing that we. haven't done in the past. I think I can help
040them with that in the hours. So it's before us for approval by the board. So, Ben, what's the age group? Does he lead? Do you know? Does it have anything to do with the record firm? No, that's right. I tried to get him in the past. I tried to get him and we're on the third recreation director. and you just never really work anything out because the reg department already had a new football player. So this could interfere with the reg department? Yes sir. Okay. Or maybe our middle school program. Or our middle school program. Depending on the agency. So do we have any idea, did they give the United Army any idea who they would play? Yes, there was a schedule and some teams were in the state. They have nine games, four of
041them away, and just can't bring it forward. My final last question is, this could possibly take away from our middle school program. Yes, sir. But the coaches can also look at it the other way. It could also offer opportunities for kids that didn't make the middle school team to play football. But they've also got the recognition department to do that, too. Well, in general, this is just an opinion. I'm sharing it. And I'm sure you're aware of this, Ben, because your middle school program is your feeder program. Absolutely. And it would be a feeder program for a high school junior varsity. Yes, sir. That's very important. Very important, yes. That's what I'm concerned. And again, I don't know the age group. I can look that letter and they're not going to admit the age. Coach,
042I'm not intimately involved with this, but I know that it seems to be a Camden-based activity and Coach Rimp is supportive of it, if that helps any. I coach it as well, and having your head coach support what they're trying to accomplish is important. So with that in mind, it wouldn't necessarily attract any players from the other areas in our county, from other schools or areas in our county. With that in mind, it's just isolated. That's a good point. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know, but I will say it's very supportive of this. And I think the focus is on Canada news. I don't know if it's not simple to move out and get one or some way to turn it away or not. And I don't want to make, I'm not
043asking these questions because I'm against them. I'm asking these questions because I don't want clarification. When we go into something like this, it could escalate, it could get bigger. You take my starting quarterback that's in the middle school, I'm probably going to be close to it. Okay. Motion. I'll make a motion that we accept this rental fee as well as the janitorial fee at full rate and the janitorial fee, the rental fee at half rate, to be negotiated according to the hours used at this effect. Second. I'll make a motion by Mr. and second by Mr. McDonald. Any discussion? All those in favor let me know by the ratio right here. One abstain. One abstain too. I don't have enough information. Okay. Thank you. Billy, if you wouldn't mind on the 18th, come back and
044let the board know what we settled on. Thank you, sir. The person that might have needed mine has been brought to my attention. So there are motions to adjourn. The motion by Mr. Irons and second by Mr. McDonald. It was so close, we'd have to flip a coin, but we don't do that. Any further discussion? And we just ask that you bless our students. Bless us with thanks.