001in Earth right withg to the FL of the United States of America and to the Republic stand next is the approval of the agenda Dr Bo are there any changes to our agenda no ma all right do I have a motion to accept our agenda presented do I have a second I second any discussion with no further discussion all those in favor please signify by saying I anyone oppose like sign motion cares unanimously um next we have the board comments thank you all for being here tonight we love when there's a lot of people here and we were so excited to dig into these cards so any students who helps do these uh we appreciate your words very very much um and next I'm going to turn it over to superintendent MO thank you man
002we are very excited to have everyone here we have lots of groups that we're going to be able to recognize this evening and so we're going to get through some of our business so that we can get straight to the student recognition because it's always our favorite part of the evening one of the things that we'd like to update about has to do with our strategic plan and over the past 12 months our students our staff families and community members have provided Ed invaluable input to help us to celebrate our strengths as well as to identify areas for grow and this evening you'll notice that there are some audience members that are proudly wearing a one Circle t-shirt this is a symbol of our shared commitment to this important work if you have on your
003one Circle t-shirt would you please stand up for me the Strategic plan we have um really captures the collective efforts as outlined in the brochure that we have available for you guys and we've got it available online as well we'd like to take a moment to really thank all of the folks not just the folks that are here in their one Circle shirts but all of the parents who took time to participate whether that was completing a survey or coming to our town hall or participating on our action teams or our foundation teams and we sincerely appreciate the fact that you were able to give up time from your busy days to be able to give us that attention and we promise that we've listened and we're really proud of the fact that this strategic
004report at this strategic plan sorry is going to help us to do a better job of reporting to you about the things that are important to you to make sure that we have the school system that you value appreciate and need in order for our kids' lives to be tremendously successful I'd also like to thank our students who are in our technology Student Association because they are the ones that designed and created the shirts for us we are so proud their hard work the two different teams that spent two full days working on different parts of the of the our important project were the plan foundations team and the action team and the plan foundations team really started by looking carefully into the feedback that we received from students family staff and community and through
005this collaborative effort we refined our mission our vision our beliefs and our moded and we have some of that work projected up on the screen so the vision that this team worked to create is that we will inspire confident curious Learners who graduate ready to thrive in our community in the world and our mission is to create learning experiences that Empower each student to succeed in life and to make a positive impact on the world we also work on belief statements and those include we believe in the Limitless potential of children and adults we believe that if people feel heard car forward and challenge success will follow we believe that we're capable of greatness we believe that each learn you need we believe that we're better together than we are aart we believe that we
006grow from our mistakes we believe that students are more than a test score we believe that how we Define measure and share our progress that that's are line with what matters most to our community and we also believe that our appr graduate that we've been working with for a few years should really be reflected in all of the learning experiences that we provide our students and we also come came up with a fun motto and that motto is one student one teacher one classroom one Legacy one Circle we are appreciative for the time that our board has taken throughout this process of developing the Strategic plan for 25 um through 30 and at our last uh board work session which we held last week the board carefully review the plan and we look forward to
007taking formal action on it later this even I want to thank you all for your commitment to one Circle even more before we started bringing it that way and for your ongoing support of our students please know that we understand every day all of us that work here how fortunate we are that you've allowed us to be part of your circle that you have trusted us with the care and the education of your children and we take that really seriously and while we're pretty good at it we want to make sure that we're great at it so we're looking forward to the unities that we have to make things even better I want to also thank you thank Dr J Welch Dr Welch would you out standing Dr wel uh is here and she is
008with an organization uh called gissy and gissy has been a partner with our district for many years now actually helped us to build the Strategic plan prior to this one the ones for 2020 to 2025 Jimmy is a great accountability partner for me and for my team to make sure that we really are are taking very seriously what our community is saying to us to make sure that we've listened to you and that we're making the changes that you want for us to make so Dr Welch I appreciate your wisdom and your patience with us and the fact that you never give up on our kids or on our ability to fix the problems that we have thank you appreciate it over the last two weeks in reference to accountability um I've had an opportunity
009to meet with all of our teachers at the elementary at the primary school at the high school we needed to reschedule the meeting with the sixth grade team because there was scheduling conflict but other than the sixth grade team met with all of the teachers this uh over the last two weeks and this is a really important part of our accountability work it gives me the opportunities to talk with all of our teachers to look at the data with them that they're considering regarding your children's progress and to get feedback from them about what they need from the office what they need from their administrators in order to be able to get even farther along with the plans that they have so it's a valuable accountability tool we do this twice dur during the school
010year and it really helps us to ensure that we're getting continuous improvement with our in academics these impact checks also provide our teachers a platform to ask questions and receive immediate feedback for me our teachers know that I am coming and that I want them to tell me the truth and need to know what's going on and how I can help them and so I it helps us all to have more clear and consistent and free communication uh it's something that I always look forward to I'd like to congratulate our high school they have once again been named an AP honor school by the Georgia Department of Education the high school team is working at every grade level to make sure that they're providing challenging opportunities for all of our students so that they can
011have an opportunity to participate in advanced content which really helps not only our students to be able to be more competitive at the college level but it also helps our families to save some money towards College which our families really appreciate we also want to remind everybody that this Friday is early release and Mr Arman and high school team have plan some really fun activities the high school students let us know every year that they like to have more information about being an adult about things like changing tiges checking the oil in their car checking all the fluence those sorts of things so they have got some fun adulting day activities for the kids uh at the high school uh during the start of that day but it is an early release day and I
012wanted to make sure everybody understood why we have the early release days they're an opportunity for teachers to have a space and time to do conferencing with parents conferencing with students and making sure that we're getting ahead with our plans so our goal is to make sure that every child is on track to be successful certainly by the end of the school year because we know we've got a lot to learn in the next grade and next we wanted to provide a brief update for you about the new elementary school it's coming along really well we are so excited about the opportunity to get you all out there to have an opportunity to see this new school that we know you're going to so proud of one of the photographs shows what will soon be
013the front entrance where parents will drive up to drop off their students you can see the columns there and those columns are going to be in overhang so when students are getting out of their cars in the morning uh protected from rain and another one of those images shows the skylights that are available throughout the building uh one of the wonderful things about our old building is that all of old buildings is that all of the classrooms it schools aren't built that way anymore one it's a safety concern two it actually um it has negative impacts on your electrical use and heating and air and all those sorts of things so the new school will have fewer Windows however it does have quite a few skylights throughout the building so that we can make sure
014that we're still getting that benefit of natural light and um We Tour a school that had these skylights there are about five or six of the schools that have this version of skylights in Hall County and they do not leak I was very nervous about that um so the companies promis me they're not and that they're going to come back and fix it if there's ever an issue but they really are beautiful they change the way that the Halls feel for sure and then also down on the bottom is a photograph of the work that they're doing in the gym area so not only is that going to be an area for our physical education classes but there's also a a great stage that's going to be there so there going to be lots of
015special memories that are made in that space a lot of photographs are going to be taken in this community of their children receiving Awards and recognition in that in that beautiful gym and uh we are still on time for certainly being able to get into the buildings in June we're begging for that to move into may but we're very confident about a fall um August opening for the new school we're excited we also spend time at evenings observing different monthly celebrations March is gifted Education Month and I'd really like to thank all of our gifted certified teachers and note that we continue to add to these numbers as far as the students as well as the staff that are identified as gifted students each year we are really proud of the work that Dr Clark
016and his team have done on hiring teachers that already have gifted certification or encouraging staff members to participate in the training so that we have the most gifted certified teachers actually in our middle school and we're proud of that work we're going here some more opportunities that are created for our gifted identified students later in the evening when Miss Robinson presents March is also music and schools month and we're very fortunate to have great music teachers at our schools and we look forward to honoring the elementary school all state Forest students and their dedicated teacher Miss Reigns during the recognition portion this meeting our youth our month also occurs in March we have great teachers who work to inspire creativity and critical thinking for our students and these are really important skills when we work
017with our industry leaders and when we talk with the uh College professors and leaders about how important these skills are for all students to be able to have and C we do see PR picture right there and your art yes you're a fabulous artist and those creativity skills are really going to serve you well in whatever career it is that you choose to select we sure you're going to be an art teacher here that can teach for us but one of the things that you can also see you can see that art we do provide art training for our students kindergarten uh through 12th grade and we're really proud that every year our holiday card always represents our student artwork here they do a great job next we have National School breakfast week which is
018which was celebrated March 3rd through 7th and you all know that all of our meals are free for our students at least the first meal our meals are so good that quite a few of our kids are now getting a free meal and then paying for uh the second meal which is awesome love that they love the food so much and we also have free breakfast and with our breakfast we have a cold option is something that's prepackaged but we also have Norm options too for the kids that go into the cafeteria with pancakes and eggs and biscuits and all those things and those are great so please encourage your children and neighbors to take a VI to those March 3r through 7th was also National School social worker week and our board understands the
019unique mental health needs of many of the students and families that are in our district our social workers help our families to access midal health servic through therapeutic companies that we've partnered with and their support for the mental health needs of our students allows our teachers to focus on providing excellent instructional experiences for our students and they know that our social workers and our school counselors and our Student Success coordinator are providing those additional support students services that students need them March 7th was maintenance worker appreciation J and I appreciate the support that this board provided to allow us to take better care of our facilities in order to improve learning and working environments in our schools our school staff members are also very appreciative of the timely responses of these gentlemen so we have
020photographed uh Mr Greg Morgan who is our facilities and maintenance and transportation director Mr Shan Brown and Mr Kevin dingler they've been with us for few years and do great work not pictured is Mr Shane Willi he is a new member of our staff and he's also doing a great job and then this week March 10th through 14 is when we celebrate School Board appreciation our board members dedicate many hours to improving the lives of our students and ensuring that all of our students have access to an excellent education our students and staff have provided gifts cards and posters to help Express their gratitude the entire Community benefits from the wise Council and Leadership of our school board members they care so much about your children and they care so much about our staff and
021they are all bought in to Social Circle and making sure that they just continue to get better so thank you for members for everything that you do to support the students and students that really will read every wonderful cards that they received thank you so much for taking the time to do that so next we go into the special recognition portion of our meeting and I would like to dis will a bit of a surprise but I'd like Miss Crystal Sanford to stand up nobody wants to stop clapping from Miss Stanford and I hope you all notice that the kids continue the clapping and that's because she provides such awesome Services directly to our students and then also organizing great events and experiences where they have an opportunity to go to her technical schools and
022colleges she also does a great job of working with our counselors and our social workers to make student make sure students have what they need and she's a real key player um in our processes where work as a community to make sure that everyone has a happy holiday season and we sincerely appreciate that work and so we all knew that she's wonderful and we congratulate her and appreciate her every day and she gets very embarrassed by the accolades but we are very proud that she's been named the 2025 counseling and career development and that was for the Georgia Council for Career and Technical administrators and so from here she's going to compete to be an overall winner across the state in this category and we are so very proud and if they pick anyone else
023they're crazy because no one does the you do uniquely um in this school and I want to make sure to thank the board again for her position because it is a very special and unique position but it really allows our teachers to be able to focus in the classroom on instruction because they know that we got great resources out there to help our kids that are in need so next I would like to call Mr Alman Mr Al and the kids keep popping for Mr Alin because he has done a great job of being the dad and the director for the band he's done a great job of BU building a sense of family and a sense of Excellence within our band I had the opportunity to observe a practice session that they had before
024they went to their large group performance that Mr alman's going to give you some more information about and I was so impressed by their technical skills they they just did an awesome job it's absolutely beautiful made sure share recording with the board about it so I wasn't surprised that they did really well when they went to this competition could you tell us more about it of course good evening my name is Mr Robin I'm the band director here at Social Circle High School um thank you for inviting me and allowing me some time to talk about all the wonderful things our uh students are doing here uh with music and Social Circle um a little bit about me I'm from mcdonal Georgia about an hour or so away from here uh I graduated in 2022
025from the University of Georgia Googs there we go uh so got them going on uh with a bachelor's degree in music education um and the first thing I want to do today is actually recognize some of our students who went above and beyond outside the classroom and they uh we do this thing called district arment and the students for the first several months of the school year will prepare uh A2 and scales and they'll go in December and they'll audition uh at West Hall High School over 2,000 students from around our uh G district will audition and only about 150 make it so it's a very small percentage of students that earn that right and they um do that by performing their atude their scales and then they perform a sight reading exercise in the
026audition room for the judges who are there they receive a score um and so only about 150 kids out 200 and we have five students who made it which is amazing I'd love to recognize you please I'd love to individually recognize these uh these students uh if I could uh give them a little certificate as proof that they did such wonderful things uh I will say one of them is not present with us cuz he's actually on the tennis team and they are out there kicking butt right now so they will only four of them yall come on in uh first one would be Landon Carter who's a ninth grader T our second one's Mr Jacob cobs BAS trumo our four third one's paig Hendry on the kinet and then our fourth guy is Elijah
027Madison our basic CL you guys are all good I appreciate y we're going to can we get a quick picture you want a picture yeah we'd love to be able to brag about them on all our social media site and right about you too Mr alt because they're in the marching band they're really good at shuffling all in my mind like Dr bur mentioned uh just a few weeks ago end of February we went to our state adjudicated large group performance evaluation uh where we spend a few months preparing three pieces of music and we go and perform it for three judges who are very experienced fand directors usually been teaching 25 30 years even some at the college level or retired now who just judge um so they have a lot of knowledge to
028to share with us um there's a grade level system that our music educator Association uses uh grade one is the most simple music uh grade six is considered to be sort of college level music um and we actually took a grade 45 which is an intermediate to high school or intermediate to ADV high school program um which there's a repository that goes back several decades that list what music we've played at lgp and this is the hardest program that we've ever played in school history uh which is a wonderful testimony to our students hard work uh and their dedication to their craft I'm incredibly proud of them uh so they received straight Superior ratings which the highest you can get for our three prepare program uh pieces and then we go into a separate room
029and we have about 6 minutes to silently prepare a piece that we've never seen before and play it for a judge which as you can imagine is as stressfree as it sounds and uh they did a wonderful job earning straight superiors several a pluses and their judge actually applauded them at the end of their performance so they did a phenomenal job so uh let's congratulate our students again so more success since we' had the school uh year outside the classroom been with a March M uh we went to several competitions earning Superior ratings for our performances uh we actually uh scored the highest we ever have in our Social Circle school history twice this year at two separate competitions um and they did a great job and we regularly regularly outscored onea bands 2A bands
0303A bands and even some 4A bands uh and they so they did a wonderful job on that as well so can we congratulate them once again I just want to thank the board uh and Dr B for just your continued support of our Band program uh you helped put wonderful equipment in our students hands which helps them be more successful uh every day as they uh pursue their love and passion for music uh looking at head for some dates for us uh on May 1st we'll do our Spring Concert uh on March 29th we're super excited we're actually going to go play the national anthem at the Athens rock lobsters game which is a semi-professional hockey team up in Athens bunch of fun if you haven't gotone i' recommend it uh but it's a little
031fundraiser for us we get some of the portion of the tickets that we sell uh and we just get to have fun all together one day so we'll do that um and then uh April 24th we do a small uh Ensemble and solo Ensemble music night uh here in the activity center where students will prepare uh music on their own and in small groups with me and separate from me uh which we're really excited about uh and of course we've got our spring B Camp coming up uh I think two weeks from now uh and we're super excited to get working on next your show and set up our Organization for a really successful 2025 and 2026 so thank you very much I appreciate you uh for letting me have some time to talk to
032you guys uh thank you and thank you so much kids and also thank you parents and grandparents that are here who are band supporters everyone knows that you cannot run a band without lots of parents support and we appreciate that very much but we also know how much you all appreciate that we brought Miss Mr Alman to the school he does a great job and we appreciate Mr Alman how closely you work with middle school band and music as well as with Elementary School band and music we've got a really powerful team across all of the schools and they're very passionate about this work so thank you sir we just continue to make it better and better we appreciate it next we are excited to recognize another team that just continues to get better and
033better and that is our literary team and for for the first time in school history our literary team are recognized as the region Champs and we know they put on a strong competition at state to and we really appreciate that Miss Davis is the coach and sponsor for our literary team and Miss Davis I don't remember how many years you've been doing this but it's been a while for us morning6 you must have started when you were a student do of course all right so uh Miss Davis spends her daytime hours as one of our high school English teachers and then she also serves as one of our academic advisers for all of our athletes so could you please share with this how proud you are of this yeah happy to so um first of
034all members of the Board of Education Dr thank you so much for allowing me to come and brag on our um fabulous fabulous young adults that we have here um I've been literary coordinator ATS for over two decades and I can't tell you the amount of pride that I get from being able to come in and talk about all the wonderful things that our kids do um I really appreciate that I get to watch them excel in areas that is not just Sports and so I wanted to tell you a little bit about what literary is because it's it's certainly different um it is a GHSA sanctioned event um and there are several categories singing There's boys and girls solo Trio and quartet in acting there are humorous dramatic and Duo interpretation in public speaking
035there's International and domestic extemporaneous five times fast um and then there's also writing which is argumentative personal narrative and then literary analysis essays and so of the 12 events that we offer 10 of we had students in 10 of the events this time um one of our students was unable to do that because she was interviewing for Governor's honors so I was you know I was like okay you um so anyway so students prepare for months for this um they do research they practice singing they practice songs they memorize songs they memorize um materials and they memorize their monologues that have to be between five and 10 minutes in length and there's so much that goes in behind the scenes of this one day event um and so again for the first time in history
036we won we we have two students that will participate um on March 22nd at the state level um I would also she's not here tonight but I'd be remiss if I didn't say a huge thank you to miss Cindy Elliott who helps me with the music and works as our accompanist um and she been hours and hours with our kids as well and working with them so at this time I want to introduce our reging champ literary team so participating in girls Trio I've got a couple of kids that could be here tonight but um are Renee Gibson Audrey Hicks and Taran Stanley and then Rene y'all come on there um and then Renee also represented Us in literary analysis essay and then Taran who unfortunately isn't here because she's on the TSA competition um
037she represented us also in humorous interpretation and she will be representing us at State on the 22nd girl solo is Miss Camry Singleton Camry also represented Us in domestic extemporary speaking which she won and will be representing us at State um and then her third event was Duo interpretation with her brother culture singon who was also our boy soloist um rounding out this year's team is Miss Allison fountain who participated in personal narrative essay and Miss Rebecca Kim who represented Us in argumentive essay all but two of the students will be back with us next year so I can't wait to see what um next year brings and so um thank you again for allowing me to recognize these fabulous thank you Miss Davis the parents also are required to do a lot of work
038when your child's own literary parents for that we appreciate it very much students we're so very proud of you we know that the skills that you demonstrate when you're just very on the layer team are really tightly aligned with the portrait of graduate and those skills and competencies that our employers and our colleges are telling us that all kids need in order to be successful in anything so thank you so much for continuing to make us proud and challenging your friends to do the same we will look forward to hearing about the state competition and next next we have the opportunity to do our individual student recognitions Dr harrove is the principal at our primary school and our elementary school and she might be the person who is the most excited about being able to
039have all of our elementary and Primary School students on one campus all be here before we know it right yes yes so she'd like to have an opportunity tonight to brag on our primary and Elementary School students who are being recognized for their awesome day and before I start bragging I just want to take an opportunity to tell each of you thank you so much for believing in us for supporting us and just encouraging us along the way so thank you so much for all you do for us um going to start with the primary school and we have a second grader from Miss Ingram's class that I would like to honor tonight and her name is arani beckles and I'm going to share some things that her second grade teacher said about her and
040this these words are from Miss Ingram okay Armani she says Armani beckles is a shining example of what it means to be a global citizen Armani is not only an outstanding member of her classroom Community but she is a true leader she motivates and uplifts her peers and is always ready to lend a helping hand whether that means picking up trash from the classroom floor or the playground without even being asked well what truly sets Armani apart is the way she engages in instructional conversations she listens intently values the perspectives of others and responds with respect and thoughtfulness when sharing her point of view Armani's actions reflect kindness responsibility and Leadership qualities that will no doubt guide her to become an exceptional Citizen and future leader right here in the Social Circle community so we
041are proud of you Armani at this time will y'all help give her a round of applause more and now from the elementary school we have a fifth grader from Miss Jackson and Miss Lee's class and she was able to sneak in she was hoping she'd be able to make it through softball pictures and a scrimmage tonight so I'm going to be um recognizing Cheyenne Brett Cheyenne these words are from Miss Jackson and Miss Lee okay they said Cheyenne is an exceptional student who exemplifies what it means to be a global citizen she not only takes responsibility for her own learning but she shows compassion and empathy for those around her she cares about the well-being of her classmates actively working to maintain a positive and welcoming classroom environment for everyone and try and truly trying
042to stand up for what is right she is a true leader both in and out of the classroom setting a strong example as a student athlete with her positive attitude and determination Cheyenne Embraces challenges with resilience and Grace her kindness her sense of fairness and her willingness to support others make her a valued and respected member of our fifth grade classroom Cheyenne is always a champ loved by her teachers and her peers we are proud of the leader and the role model she continues to be on a daily basis and this time will you give Cheyenne a round of applause thank you Dr har and thank you students from making such great choices I know whenever I'm in your classrooms you're doing exactly those things that your teachers described we are proud of you in
043the way that you are a leader for yourself but also for all of your friends you helped to make our community a better place we appreciate it and so next we have Dr Ryan Bart who is our Middle School principal good evening everyone uh before I introduce our star student of the month I to would like to thank our Schoolboard members for all of your support um it goes a long the way in our daily work um so thank thank you for all you do for us um so without further Ado it's my pleasure to recognize an exceptional young lady in sixth grade uh who really exemplifies the values of our court of a graduate on a daily basis um so tonight I'm honored to celebrate Miss McKenna Jones as our student of the month
044um so McKenna these are some words that your teachers have put together for you on why you were selected McKenna consistently goes above and beyond the classroom demonstrating a remarkable work ethic a love for Learning and a genuine willingness to help other she takes pride in her work always striving for excellence while uplifting and encouraging her classmates along the way Beyond her academic achievements McKenna is kind respectful and a compassionate student who treats everyone with fairness and empathy her positive energy is contagious and she leads by example showing responsibility determination and a true commitment to making our school a better place whether she's actively participating in class discussions collaborating on group projects or simply offering a helping to a friend McKenna embodies the qualities of a role model student we are incredibly proud of all
045that McKenna has accomplished and we know that her hard work and kindness will continue to make a lasting impact at Social Circle middle school for many years to come at this time please join me in congratulating Miss McKennon as our SCS thank you next we have Mr Tim Armstrong our high school principal who be coming up to share and U Mr Armstrong I had loads of fun watching McKenna who's one of your former graduates her well McKenna your future graduate but her sister who's sitting at the end of the island is one of your former graduates and her F facial Expressions watching if we brag about her sweet sister good evening thank you guys for allowing us to come tonight I'd like to say just I want to thank you for you guys for your
046support for believing in our staff and our students and listen to so many of you that I get to see day in and day out inside the school in at the athletic complex uh you've heard a lot about our student of the mon already she was a member of the symphonic band and of the region winning literary team uh it's my honor to brag on one of the one of her teachers said what a gift of a student she's bright honest courteous and kind and she takes her education very seriously she's always enjoy to have in class she's curious and learns to learn more she's successful in passing her AP exams with flying colors including the one she took for me in Psychology I couldn't be more proud of her she's a diamond and one
047I won't soon forget she will do she will do wonderful and whatever she chooses next in life we're thrilled part of her journey another one said she always has a positive attitude and when I'm not sure if something's going across understandable I usually look at her for a nod or a gesture of comprehension this always makes me feel like I'm getting through to at least some of them and the other one said she is a student who's easy to brag on she's involved in so many things in the school and in the community she's a member of the national armor Society made a club part of the youth leadership Walton an AP scholar and the top hit of her graduating class she exudes excellence in everything she does she's been a member of the literary
048team for four years last year she won girl solo for the region she took on a new opportunity this year's competition competing in not one not two but three different events and one domestic extemporaneous speaking I'll let her explain that to you in a few minutes a competition that she's never participated in and she'll represent SCS in state me this year she chose to take a literature even though she has dual enrollment cred English 1101 and 1102 she's a volunteer for the Newton Arts Council and will be in the production of Greece at the end of the month her plans include majoring in I'll also let you tell you a little about that she's got a really cool story with what she wants to do I have no doubt she will succeed in all her
049Endeavors and I could not be more proud of her the last one said she is a wonderful performer and a person to have in my class she exudes positivity and everything she does in the room as a positive role model for all her peers she always puts forth her best effort and represents herself well during her marching manand season she did an excellent job organizing our Logistics and serving as the equipment captain please help me join Miss cry Singleton as our student of the mon hi my name is C Singleton and I'm a senior here at Social Circle High School I've been here since 8th grade which makes it my fifth GR here next year I plan to go to a four-year college and major in political science and then I will go to law
050school and practice law probably political civil law um with a focus on Mental Health legislation I chose this because during my time with youth leadership Walton we T the Walton County Jail there I learned that o that the jails are extremely overcrowded and over half of the people there have mental health issues which have caused them to be there and be repeatedly incarcerated this is inspire ired me to try to be in the change for the system I love Social Circle for many many reasons I love the small class sizes which allows for collaboration and one-on-one communication with their teachers I allow I appreciate the allowance of out of District kids as it allows students like me to come to Social Circle High School and allows for more opportunities within the classroom as we have
051more Sports and um classes I also have appreciate that everyone here knows each other and teachers that I don't I've never have know my name and smile at me in the hallways I've had many many teachers that I love here at Social Circle but I'd like to recognize a few and I realized that all of them happen to be my AP teachers cuz AP has been a huge impact on my education as it allows for one-on-one communication between teachers small class sizes and more indepth learning and through these teachers I've been able to become an AP scholar with distinction which means that I've scored an average of four or higher in all of my AP um credits that I've taken um coach shkin and M ker both taught me history and they have allowed me
052to connect historical events to my own modern history and personal life which has expanded my view on the world Miss Wilson touch me psychology which has helped secure my my want to help the mental health system and my passion for mental health and lastly Miss Davis has taught me AP Lit which is probably my favorite class I've ever taken and has increased my passion for learning as well as reading and writing her class has and you will catch me often in her classroom talking to her or working on literary stuff I've had the pleasure of participating in two award-winning programs this year I've participated in symphonic band with lgp and literary in symphonic band this year as you heard we competed in lgp which stands for a large group performance evaluation where we perform three
053pieces in front of judges there we did our high our hardest program without in SE history and we scored all superiors within literary I can be in three competitions girl solo which is where I sung two pieces giv me of a focal and someone else's story and was judged by two judges on my performance I performed with my brother and do interpretation where we memorized a 10-minute speech about an AI voice having a conversation with someone about a brly transfer and then lastly I did domestic ex temporaneous speaking which is a mouthful but I'll break down what it is basically beforehand we go through and me and M stavas do a ton of upfront research and then she gives me practice prompts to work on to mimic the day of actual State literary during literary
054during the competition I get 30 minutes to prepare a 5 to seven minute speech based off of three topics that I pull from a hat and I choose one of the questions I pull there I write my speech based off just the information that I have gathered beforehand and then go on to form a up to 7 minute speech in front of my judges and I be go to state for this category lastly I'd like to thank my family the Board of Education my teachers my peers as everyone here has pushed me into my education leading me to where I am today thank you great job Camry we are confident that you will be a fabulous lawyer and politician you did a great job presenting that information and letting us have more information about you
055we appreciate it so we knew you going be successful whatever path you choose and we really appreciate that we we have students at Social Circle that care so much about other people that's a beautiful thing and really special thank you man' and so next we have a program update this is Miss Sally Robinson and Sally is our instructional technology director and she is also the coordinator for our gifted program across the district and she's going to provide an update for us about the programs that we offer through a gifted the services we offer through a gifted program and then she's going to follow that up to with updating everyone on some exciting work that she and a team of our other staff members have been doing regarding AI Innovations we know that our students will
056be better prepared to be successful in the world they'll be going out into if they have a great idea about how we can use AI for good so Miss Robinson is helping us to figure that out thank you thank you for having me um I am so excited to share some of the amazing things we have going on in Social Circle with you so thank you for the opportunity to speak um first up on the list is our gifted program March is gifted month in the state of Georgia so it's the perfect time to reflect on the incredible students that we serve the educators will support them and our ongoing efforts to strengthen gifted instruction in our district so right now we have 324 gifted identified students across G grades K through 12 these students
057make up approximately 16% of our total student population which is above the state average we use universal screen leing practices to ensure that we identify students from all backgrounds providing Equitable access to gift services our identification process involves multiple Pathways ensuring we capture a wide range of talents and abilities Beyond just traditional measures for our staff our district is fortunate to have a lot of dedicated Educators who are endorsed in GED instruction we currently have 63 staff members with their gifted endorsement making up 42% of our instructional scenario having a gifted endorsement means that uh you've had specialized training in differentiating instruction challenging Advanced Learners and providing the depth and complexity that students need to thrive additionally we continue to provide opportunities for more Educators to earn GI to endorsement we currently have seven candidates
058actively enrolled in the endorsement program with plans for additional participants in the coming year and it's already mentioned once tonight but I did want to have a special shout out we have almost 100% of our current Middle School ore uh Home Room teachers that either have or are working on their GI endorsement which is something super awesome to be proud of so how do we serve our gifted Learners um we use a variety of instructional models to meet the academic emotional and social needs of our gifted Learners all of these models are implemented by teachers who have a gifted endorsement and the skills and competencies of the portrait of a graduate are an important part of all these models so to begin with we've already heard a little bit about some AP advanced placement that's
059specifically at the high school um related to that is our Advanced content models um these are secondary specific courses and they usually involve accelerated pacing deeper dives into content or more intense critical and creative thinking tasks um excuse me examples of this type of course are Mod's courses enhanced math courses and then Discovery classes in the lower LS the cluster grouping model is a different way of providing services in this model A group of gifted Learners is served in otherwise heterogeneously classroom the teacher works with the students to establish a learning contract outlining the specific work the students will do to that meet their needs this year we also started using a state approved Innovative model as well this model allows us to offer services in an unconventional way which might include additional segments of
060cluster grouping curriculum aided instruction or leadership development opportunities for students so using all these models ensures that we are able to truly meet the needs of our gift learners so looking ahead alongside the long-term strategic planning we are already deep in planning how digited education will continue to evolve in secf and we have three main priorities first continuing to enhance our instructional quality we want to make sure that we're truly providing the instruction that our getting students need um supporting staff development we know that in order for a G program to be successful it has to be led by a strong staff so we continue to provide opportunities for staff members to earn their GI endorsement if they don't have it as as well as ongoing professional learning for any teacher um who teaches students
061and then finally strengthening our identification Talent Development practices um we want to ensure that every student with potential has access to Services aligned to their needs um so this includes continuing to refine our screening and identification processes to be as Equitable and comprehensive as possible while also fostering Talent Development opportunities that nurture students even Beyond just the traditional gifted l so by doing that can build these students continue to grow drive and contribute in meaningful ways both now and in the future so thank you so much for your support and gied education in our district we appreciate your leadership forum and so we'd love for you to also update us on the work that you and our representative team of folks have been doing with AI so that we can make sure that our kids
062are prepared for the future that they're going to walk out into Switching gears um to how we are bringing AI to our schools um this has been some really exciting work so far so I'm going to sh share some of our journey briefly including the AI task force we've been engaged in so we know that AI is no longer a futuristic concept it's here it's influencing education business and our daily lives at a recent training one of our teachers shared a story about a friend of theirs in business sector who um is part of the interview process of their company they ask the candidates to complete a task using Ai and they're graded based on how well they can use AI to accomplish a task so we know that being able to use AI from
063a student perspective is an important part of their future and we want to make sure we're preparing kids for that because we do want kids to be what our students to be confident curious Learners who graduate ready to thrive in the community and the world that's our vision so we've taken a Forward Thinking approach to Ai and schools and have been among some of the first school systems to actively leverage AI as a learning and tivity tool for both staff and students AI isn't just about preparing students for the workforce though it can also be a powerful tool by estimat teers asss same respons privacy dep side our Specialist Team work to develop citizenship thatl respons guelin responsible are explor work in theom couple of examples teachers haveed topics toate to dra on um it
064help students practice languages analy sources or create images or videos Asal while helping teachers work so as I mentioned before we are Comm to doing this respons so by setting these guidelines lookes also thank you really excited to ensuring that in the classrooms Where Your Children Are there to learn that we're doing everything that can to make them more interesting and engaging for students and have ai to be able to do that we know is really going to help us to get there a lot more quickly so at this point in time we will uh take a break I'm noticing uh back behind Miss wer that it looks like there are emergency vehicles that are pulling up through the driveway Mr Armstrong I wonder if that might have something to do with Foothills could you
065please get that figured out for us so so right now as we're taking our break and you guys are exiting because no one in this room um called the emergency person you're certainly welcome to stay with us we understand that you have lots of busy evening things to do so we understand if you're not able to say this is for me and we'll get started back up in just a few thank in this evening's meeting next we will have a financial update from our CFO Mr Cross good evening I will start with our construction update and this is through the end of February so currently we have made payments of 26.5 million so nearing the end of our project we have received 12.5 million of the 18.6 million allocation from the state they have seemed
066to slow down with my reimbursements so I reached out today to see reasoning but they do things at their own rate I guess um we've earned still over about a million dollars on our go Bond proceeds and right now it is at 1.9 million because we're waiting on the state um to reimburse us our other portions so we have 26.5 million in payments and a $9.4 million balance any questions about construction next we will update on our Freshway change for school schools in January we received $1,768 and4 and this was alloc allocated to each school for Fine Arts this brings the total collections to date to a little over 173,000 and now our January 2025 financial report with the general fund we are 58% into the fiscal year we have received 59% of general fund
067budgeted revenues and we've spent 62% of general fund budgeted expenditures we tend to spend a larger part of our instructional funding at the beginning of the year to get ready for school but we are on the right track finally we have received most of our um adorm tax we are currently at 88% of collections on our adalum tax and we're about 56% of our title adorm funds and that's right on that comes in monthly so that's pretty much on track right there the final large Revenue allocations are our intergovernmental agreements with w and Newton and these were build invoiced and the payments received in February we received right around 3 million from um together combined and this is about 132% of what we have budgeted for those um so those came in above um so
068both districts increased um those Collections and also our QBE midterm adjustment has come in and we have been allocated an additional 446000 in Revenue um due to an increase in our enrollment for midterm QBE I'll have the midterm adjustment budget for you guys next month incumbrances for the general fund are right at $862,000 next our special Revenue funds our federal Awards currently still reside at 1.7 million we've spent 58% of those funds incumbrances for special revenue is right at 221,000 and next we have our school Food Service fund through January rep 57% of budgeted revenues and 69% of budgeted expenditures we've served 31,3 meals in January unfortunately we had four snow days um so we lost a little bit of revenue from those four days but I will say we're still averaging about 34% more
069meals than we were in fiscal year um 24 so still on the right track as far as Revenue goes fortunately we're still having to watch our expenses view costs are still about 62% and of course the State Health Benefit Plan premium increases um have heard us on that once again I will provide a midterm adjustment for you guys and we'll talk about school food service and how we want to make that right um next month lastly we have our SP fund splot collections received in January for December collections total 245,000 from Walton County this is a 10% increase from the prior Year good news on our spots Collections and Newton County we received 3,300 which is about 3% increase for muton County incumbrances for the spa fund are right at 12.5 million and most of
070this is for construction of the new elementary school are there any questions about the financial report have one yes um so the three million received that's from Walton and Newton combined yes think goes 1.6 million from Walton 1.4 million from Newton have a motion to approve the January financial report as presented do I have a second I second any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying I I anyone oppose like sign motion carries unanimously thank you Miss cross next we have a a new excuse me we have a few new business and action items for the board to consider we have an action item to approve the 20125 through 2030 strategic plan do I have a motion to approve the Strategic plan as presented do I have a second I second any discussion
071all those in favor please signify by saying I I anyone oppose like sign motion carries unanimously next we have an action item to approve Personnel recommendations from our superintendent as follows for our certified staff we have Cody Dickerson teacher at SC starting August 25 kri Kiplinger teacher at sces starting August 25 Jamie staff prek teacher SC CES starting August of 25 Joselyn Wright special education teacher SC starting on August 2025 do I have a motion to approve these recommendations from our superintendent do I have a second I second any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying I anyone oppose like sign motion carries unanimously we have a CL classified list that I missed for personnel so I'm sorry we go through that now so for classified we have the recommendation of e Catherine
072Smith substitute School food service for SS and we have resignation of Rosie prowley school for school Food Services Kayla Duncan special education peer professional at scms Nicole Dennis peer professional at scms and am Manda Momi soci special education peer professional at SC do I have a motion to approve these recommendations from our superintendent do I have a second I second any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying I I anyone oppose like sign motion carries unanimously sorry for the redundancy guys um for substitute teacher and overnight chaperons we have the following um recommendations for consideration we have Lauren Moody Audrey Prince and Samantha Snider do I have a motion to accept these recommendations from our superintendent do I have a second I second any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying
073I anyone oose like time motion carries unanimously at this time we will exit regular session to enter into executive session okay all in favor anyos let's go thank you all right at this time we will um I need a motion to uh exit executive session and reenter a recu session do have a second I second any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I anyone oppose like sign all right we are back at our regular meeting do I have a motion to adjourn our meeting so move do I have a second I second all those in favor please signify by saying I anyone oppose like sign motion carries unanimously and meeting is aern