Richland School District Two Board of Trustees Work Session | January 8, 2026

001Good morning everyone. I'd like to call to order the Thursday, January uh 8th, 2026 work session. Uh may I have an approval of the agenda? Actually, before we get started, I just want to let everybody know that we are live streaming and so um there's audio mic on the table. So, if you have a personal call or anything like that and you need to step out, step out just so you don't have it like all the microphone. Um, all right. And so, yes. Now, may I have an approval of the agenda >> or a motion for it? Sorry. >> Madam Chair, yes, Miss Porter. >> I move to approve the January 8th board workshop agenda. >> All right. Is there a second? >> Second. The motion has been made by Miss Porter and second by

002Miss Washington. Is there any discussion? All right. If there's no discussion, if board members will just raise their hand to give them a vote. Five present. >> Six of us. Oh, sorry. Six. All right. Uh there uh six yes, zero no. I'm sorry. Six yes, one not present. Uh the motion passes. All right. Um okay. All right. So, first up, I just want to say thank you to everybody uh for coming today. Uh you know, again, we're live streaming. That's kind of uh it's daunting a little bit, but it's also great because people get to see the actual work that we and hear the actual work that we do. And um you guys are in your uh 80s and fitness gear and that is for several reasons. one because uh fitness I like you know

003one of the things themes is power of wei and if you ever think about I talked about it a little bit before is you think about the Olympics everybody plays on a different team until they get together for the Olympics and they play on the same team and that team is team USA and so we are playing for team USA which is our students and so I just want to say thank you all for making the sacrifice uh to be here with us um we're going to have some fun we're going to do some uh great work Well, I believe that we're going to have some fun and we're going to do some great work and uh there's some great food. So, if you haven't had an opportunity to grab food while we begin, um

004we'll go from there. All right. So, we're going to do first up is our glow and grow. You got Miss Washington. Oh, sorry. >> Oh, yeah. Here we go. Sorry. >> Oh, yes. Yes. Sorry. Policy revision. Sorry. Yeah, that's what it was. >> Wrong one. Yes. >> Good morning, everyone. >> Good morning. >> Okay. I feel like the teacher is sitting at the group students and can't see the other. So, I'll stay if that's okay. >> Yes. >> All right. So, um in collaboration with our board um policy contact, district administration presents um revisions to six policies um that you receive prior to um us going home for winter break. And so, I want to go through those. um six policies so that there's a clear understanding of what the ask is. Okay. Starting um

005first with policy BCB, board member conflict of interest. Um we're really not proposing to change any content in that policy per se. What we would like to do is to remove the employee conflict of interest um content from the policy because this policy is supposed to be specifically for board members. is what we're wanting to do is just delete the um nepotism information in the policy that um pertains to employees because employees have a separate policy. What questions do you have on that one? >> Any questions? No questions. >> All right, good to know. >> All righty. Policy GBA, conflicts of interest staff ethics. All right, so this is the one where I'm recommending a content change. So, our um nepotism um policy prohibits any member of um the superintendent's cabinet from having a family

006member be hired in the district or if the family member is already in the hired in the district, it prohibits them from being promoted. So, for example, if I have a um family member who is a teacher in Richland one, that family member cannot be hired in Richland 2. Um regardless of how skilled they are, they cannot be hired in Richland too because our nephism policy prohibits it. Also, if I have a family member who is a um teaching assistant in Richland 2 and they were in that role prior to me becoming a part of Superintendent Academy, of course, if they're a teaching assistant in Richland 2, they cannot be promoted to um like an office professional position. Um they can however if they are a teaching assistant be promoted to teacher. That is the

007only allowance in the policy the way it's currently written. Um, so any member of cabinet cannot have a family member be hired in the district or if they're already in the district, they can't be promoted. All right, everybody understand that? >> Awesome. So another example, if there is a a bus driver who is a relative by definition of this policy of a cabinet member, they cannot be promoted to a manager or hired as a hub supervisor. Um, a bookkeeper, if a member of cabinet has a bookkeeper who is a family member, they can't be hired in our finance department if it's considered a promotion. And what we would like to ask is [laughter] now that there's an understanding of of how prohibitive it is um is that we remove that um prohibition. >> Our um

008policy is u more prohibitive than any other district in the Midlands um and any of the five um largest school districts in the um in the state. And I'm certain that when this was created, there was a reason at that time and it served its purpose. And what we're feeling at this um time is that it's causing us to have to relinquish talent. >> Um I'm a great math teacher. And so the um the ask then is that we lift that restriction to allow members of superintendent's cabinet family members to be hired and promoted so long as >> Okay. >> they are not um directly supervised by a family member. Okay. >> Right. >> Yes ma'am. >> Oh sorry. And they won't and and the I guess the hire or they will not be a

009part of the process >> hiring process >> interviewing and sitting on correct [clears throat] interviewing um the selection process if there is a disciplinary matter they're not involved in that [snorts] >> and recommendations like the recommendations >> correct >> all that they wouldn't be involved in um in any way and actually the instances that we've come across um have been family members who are in a totally different department and their paths really wouldn't cross. Anyway, what other questions do you have about that one? It would be a big change for us in terms of our, you know, policy and um and practice. Yes, sir. >> I'm assuming uh state law doesn't really deal with this a whole lot just like with with the board it does, but >> Correct. You're absolutely correct. In law, in

010the ethics um law, it does have some stipulations by family members of board members, but none about um All righty. Um, the next two policies, IC, school year and ID, school day. I'll start with IC. Um, this policy change really comes as a result of the legislation that was passed that requires um a different number of work days and professional development days for teachers. We just wanted to update the policy to reflect that. >> I think it's the Educator Assistance Act is what it's talking about. >> Yeah. And then our recommendation in policy ID for um change is really to insert the number of instructional hours the students are required to receive. This is just to make it clear um that if you are doing um something innovative like a competency based course it does

011not require 180 days but it will still require the hours. And so by inserting um the hours in the policy it just helps make that clear that that is an expectation. That does not have to be the 180 days so long as the students receive the 180 hours. We calculated our instructional hours and it exceeds the 1080 hours. What questions do you have about that one? All right. in the last two policies um J instructional resources and materials and I JK [clears throat] supplementary material selection and um adoption. Jen, do you want to speak to those? >> Um so for uh for policy J instructional resources and materials, it just really updates the language, not necessarily major uh processes or what we use. Um one addition in um J uh is um there's increased emphasis

012on transparency around instructional materials um at the state level really nationally as well. And so there's a clear piece in J that's been added about posting approved instructional resources on our website. It's been required for several years now and uh but it'll help us um as staff in the district to make sure that we do that and we've uh delineated that as approved materials uh because is um there are lots of materials. So so so that'll be something that's very very clear. We already have to post everything related for example to um health instructional resources and those kinds of pieces but this will help us in the academics department really pull it together and make sure work with communications to make sure that that's there policy JK has existed in the district for a good

013long time and there is a significant that we've added to supplementary materials. Um it in the older version it was uh that uh any supplementary materials could be used if approved by the principal of the school. We need to tighten that down a little bit for a couple of different reasons. One is about approval of instructional materials and really making sure that our instruction materials are high quality and meet the standards of what we're trying to teach. So we that the change in the supplementary materials um policy is really to um institute district approval of supplementary materials and we'll do that in such a way that it's not we we're going to try to keep it light keep it moving and those kinds of things but it will allow us to bring schools together. So,

014for example, a school, we have schools that will, you know, like all five high schools may purchase a red ink, which is a program that allows teachers to look for plagiarism in student writing, right? Well, if they're all doing that, we probably are end up ending up as a district paying more for that. And uh and so this will allow us to get more efficient about some of those purchases, know what's happening with those selections, and then also make sure that uh selected supplementary materials um are aligned to what is needed related to standards and uh the expectations of our district. >> Thank you. >> Any questions? Anybody? >> So this is considered first reading of the policy. Um these policies are on the agenda for Tuesday's um meeting or second reading. Is there anybody

015who feels that they do not have the information they need to be able to vote on this Tuesday night so we can answer any questions you may have? >> Can I just add something? Um also a part of the process of reviewing the policies, I just want to remind y'all Dr. Franklin will send them um to Tanisha to put in the board uh briefs. Please make sure that you read them and if you have questions, you can email those questions or revisions to me so [clears throat] that when we get the when we get in front of the the public on one of our board meeting nights, we don't have five people trying to amend um a policy or make changes to a policy and that's the first time that we're hearing about it. Makes

016it easier. we can send it over to her ahead of time so that she can already have those things laid out and ready and prepared and it saves us a lot of time in terms of discussion and what we want to present um in terms of changes or revisions. So, I just want to remind y'all to please when they're in the board brief just please read them and then send any questions or revisions that uh suggestions that you may have to me and then I'll forward them over to her. Another timesaving measure that um Trusty Washington suggested is because we have this process in place now. A lot of the um discussion and feedback is done prior to the actual meeting which allows us to be able to at this point because we have the

017process in place um list the policies on the agenda in a block >> as opposed to listing them and voting on them individually. And so um on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting, you'll see all of the policies listed um as a block as one. And so the trust is giving the motion will um move and then read all of the >> um the the policies. If we ever have a situation where a board member um is wanting to pull a policy from the block, we'll do it just like we do the consent agenda. >> And so, for example, as we're looking at this, if there's a um board member who isn't ready to make that or still is um a little muddy on policy ID, they will just say, "Madam chair, I'd like to remove

018policy ID from the block." and then the boardroom the [clears throat] rest of them together and then ID separately. Yes, ma'am. >> Could [clears throat] if someone has a question about something like that and they send that question in, is there a way that our board chair um or someone in leadership could send something out to the board as a whole to say this trustee has brought this concern to us. If um you would like more information about their concern, please reach out to them or something along those lines. Is that okay? >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> And so we working with the chair and the vice chair, we've come up with a standardized question uh response sheet for lack of a better term. So what we will do moving forward is if we receive

019an email, phone call, a text message, we take what the question is, put it on the form, send it to the person responsible for that. So if it's a safety question, it will come to you as the safety chair. >> Okay? >> And you answer the question with Colonel Hutton, Mark Hutton. Sorry, I keep [laughter] the right. Um, and then all of that in that completed form will go out to all the board members. We'll track it with a number and it will be stored once we get diligent fully operational. It will all be stored in diligent so that when new board members come on, they can go back and see what was the response to that question and therefore they're not asking the same question in future unless they want something different. So, that's

020something that we've been working on, the three of us together >> and and I don't know if it gives you a notification that something has been added, but I don't want to miss anything. So, if [clears throat] it's all done in in diligent, will we get a notification letting us know that something >> Well, you're going to get the form with your response. >> Okay. >> But then if you want to go back, it's archived. >> It's archived there. >> Right. >> So, we will send that out when it's completed. So you and Mark get together, you come up with the answer, it's completed, then we send it out to all board members. So all board members see the answer. >> Okay? And say if I'm not on the committee, uh it could be a

021committee that I'm not involved in, but Trusty Washington has a concern about it. I didn't think about that when I read it. I want to know what the concern was because it may Oh, I remember that. We talked about that at a conference. Let me give her that information. So, I just want to make sure that it's not a surprise. I don't want it to come across as something that is being brought up as a surprise at a meeting when in actuality it was that we didn't think about that prior to >> and and and that's the whole point of the standardized sheet that we've developed >> because what's happening is sometimes one board member will ask a question about a topic >> this question another board member will ask a different question but on

022the same topic >> and then I'm responding to that board member member, I'm responding to that board member. And really, it needs to go out to all of the board members so that all board members have the same information. And so, I've been doing that lately with emails is I've been sending the emails to all board members, but we really are not tracking that in a way that is going to be archived uh for future reference. And that's one of the things the chair and I have been working on is standardizing our way of work so that we're not recreating things over and over and over. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. And then I think it's going to cut out a lot of work um for our superintendent as far as like efficiency goes

023and for us. It just was going to require us to you know like when we send that out just kind of like board briefs that everybody takes a look at it and just be prepared you know for the meeting. Thank you for that because that is, you know, really a part of all what we're doing here is just building, like she said, something standardized where we all are informed, we have the transparency that we need, and everybody feels more comfortable being able to go to a meeting having that knowledge >> and we want to support the committee chair. >> Yeah. >> Right. I don't want we don't want to do anything that's going to undermine the work that the committee chair is doing. And so if it's something that falls under the committee, then it

024needs to go to the committee chair >> for the committee chair to work through with the district partner for the correct answer. >> Got it. Thank you. [clears throat] >> Thank you. >> Yeah, we've got one more thing. >> We got we have one more thing that we want to um have a quick discussion on the the golden path. Can you give an update to the board on where we're going? So, there was um a request in our one of our last agendas for a for us to vote on the the golden pass and then we voted to remove it. Um we're going to have a real we're going to ask Dr. more to give us a quick update um because it's not a policy that we need to to put in place or vote

025on but we she wants to provide us with an update so that we all have a clear understanding of what that is and how they will move forward with making a decision. So as the board is aware we've in our district have a like most of the districts surrounding us have what we call the golden pass for senior citizens 65 years and older. Our pass allows our senior citizens to be able to attend athletic events, performing arts events, >> tuition, adult, >> adult ed. It gives them a discount on their classes, which [clears throat] is unusual and no other district with a golden pass does that part. >> That's good. >> But that's what we currently offer. >> Um, we have researched and Matt has done a phenomenal job looking all of our surrounding districts

026to see what do they offer. There is only one district that does not have a golden pass and that is Orangeburg. And what Orangeburg does is the board puts money in the budget to offset the financial impact of not having a golden pass um for the schools. So they put money in an athletic budget >> for that because that's what most most of that money is used for [clears throat] is to go towards some of the athletic programs. For example, um they may use it to buy mats [snorts] for wrestling or cheerleading or if they need to supplement something for JB football. So that's where some of that money goes to. It's used by the athletic department. So based on the requests that we have received, I had conversations with Richland one superintendent about because

027that's our largest shared district really not looking at Lexington, Fairfield, Orangeburg, Sler really looking just at Richland County. So, I'm still waiting on the superintendent to get back to me with my proposal that I gave, and that was that between Richland One and Richland 2, we would accept their golden pass for athletics and they would accept our golden path for athletics, regular season. Regular season, yes. Not tournaments or or any of that nature. >> [snorts] >> The challenge becomes performing arts um events because schools pay for the license to host those events >> and that means money that would be used to offset the cost of that is not coming in. So I don't have any more information at this point. Dr. Walker and I spoke briefly yesterday and he's working through with his team

028to see if they're receptive to my proposal to >> so currently right now as we're looking at what the proposal is is for just uh season athletics nothing offseason and not performing arts right >> correct perfect >> I do have a question how would we track that >> yes >> so it would mean that at the event we would have to start tracking that at the event itself so normally when you come in at the ticket gate you pay your money or show your card the ticket gate is going to have to then have that person uh complete something on a form for us that shows us that Kimmore [snorts] attended this event Friday night football game between Westwood and Blackwood for Battle of the Axe. So yes, it's going to increase workload at the

029ticket gate, but that is the only way that we would be able to track it. >> We currently don't track your car >> and and from what we've g And Matt, help me if I'm wrong on this. We don't have a lot of golden cards out there. [clears throat] >> Okay. So, um, if you guys decide to go, you know, forward with that, then I just want people to know like the reason for tracking is is because we need to know, uh, you know, what if there is a deficit, we need to be able to track the the funds, um, and [clears throat] where those funds are going. Is it helping us? Is it hurting us? You know, or maybe it has no effect at all. But those are all things that we need to

030know for the budget and being more transparent. And as you know, we start seeing more and more people looking at budgets like audits, things of that nature, we just need to be above board and making sure that we're as transparent as we possibly can. >> Is the golden pass a percentage off or is it >> complimentary? It's complimentary admission. So, you come into the game for free. >> And the original original request from the board member had to do with parents or grandparents coming in from outside of Rich 2's zone, >> which that's why I went to Rich One because that would primarily be parents coming from Rich One. >> They want to come see their grandchild or >> you know perform. >> Yeah. Um for tracking just because you mentioned the form I would

031suggest a QR thing so that it's digital and >> we'll have to develop and I'll be more than happy to work with you [laughter] >> on doing that because we currently don't track it. >> Yeah. >> Um where we are having people sign in you know we just ask them to show their past and they come on in. Yeah, my concern with uh comparing it to our counterpart is just that our funds are are different. I I want us to just keep that in mind. There are some things that >> uh Richland One may be able to do that we cannot because of how much is being received from the way that our >> city and county, >> right, the city and county funding and formula and whatnot. So I I would say yes tracking

032but just be open to the fact that it may not be sustainable if it were to get to a certain point. Right now we don't have that many but the minute it becomes not sustainable it may be something that could change. So that's something to to think about when we make this decision. Um just keep that in mind. Okay. Got a couple question. >> Oh no you go ahead. >> Oh sorry. Go ahead Mr. D. So, if we're looking at doing this, uh, you know, do we know how many golden passes Richland One has, how's that going to affect our sports budget? Because if we're really cutting back on money in the district, giving free money out to the grandparents and that live over one, that's fine and dandy. But also, what about the hundreds

033that live over in Kershaw, that live up in Fairfield? That money that we collect in the sports world, that's what runs the sports world. If we're willing to cut that out, then we're going to have to find the money to back pay it. And that's going to affect a lot of these teams >> a lot and it's going to affect our budget a lot. >> It is. And that's why, Mr. We I only looked at talking to Richmond one um because I did talk with my fellow colleagues at our Midland superintendent round table about this and they're all [clears throat] concerned about the financial impact and like I said the only county that does not have an orange a gold pass is Orangeburg but that's because their board includes a line item in their budget

034for athletics because it is a financial impact and right now it's not significant for us because we don't have that many out there. >> We don't but >> we don't we don't we don't know what Dr. Walker was supposed to be gathering that information. >> So that goes back to my >> Oh, and then and then Mr. Trap and then Yeah, >> I was just about to say um I don't think it's as public knowledge as people know about it. Um, but once we put it out there, it's going to be >> That's correct. >> Right. >> But then the other piece is um to Miss uh Porter is that I agree with the QR code, but then we got to think about also if they are older people sometimes they're not as savvy with

035technology. So the QR code might not be so we can have it but also a backup just in case they don't have um you know that because I just think about like my mom she just that QR code on her [snorts] own like unless I'm with her and like let's just do this together but you know so just kind of having a backup for tracking >> well a couple questions I want to make sure I understand exactly what's we're talking about a physical card that someone applies for and they receive >> they come up to to this building. >> They go to our two ladies. >> They show their information, which is the driver's license with the address showing that they're in our district, fill out the form, and we give them a physical card.

036>> Okay. So, so other than us spending the time and money to give them a card, at that point, is there any liability to them walking up to a gate, handing, showing a card, and walking in? In other words, I'm I'm not sure in my mind, I don't see why we're going to track it if if tracking is going to uh involve us increasing amount of labor or resources involved >> only because we won't know how much how what the impact is. If we don't track it, we don't know the impact. >> Okay. That that I mean that's the only reason other than that there's no >> there's no expense in them going to a ball game. It's just lack of revenue is what? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Building that capacity as well. >>

037Well, yeah. I'm sure ticket capacity they monitor. >> So then um I guess then it sounds like there's a lot of debate about it. Do you want to wait until you get information back from uh >> one? Yes, one. And then after that um we can put it on for a vote >> if you know having the knowledge that we have now and then that additional knowledge. Does that sound good everybody? >> Okay. All right. >> And if he doesn't agree to it, then >> it doesn't it doesn't happen. Right. >> Right. Correct. >> If he doesn't agree, then we'll stick with >> my recommendation would be we stick with what we currently have doing. >> Yeah. >> Unless the board wants to expand like Mr. Dennis said, but understanding >> that is that will

038be a significant right >> and I think for me uh you know we always I go back to what is going to be best for our students first >> and if that's going to affect our students you know the funds that they get for athletics and the things that they do for me that's not really something that you know I'm I'm supportive of >> Mr. Dennis. >> Yeah. I mean, you're talking to a guy that goes to a lot of sporting events, that goes to a lot of non-sporting events as well. Like I think it's next weekend I'll be at Quiz Wiz or something like that. >> That might be this weekend. That's this weekend. But I go to a lot of those events and let and the way I look at it, it's not

039much to pay for things because when I go in official board capacity, you know, I'm there doing that, but when I go for my kids stuff, I'm going to make sure that money gets to that department. So, I look at it the financial buying the ticket. That's a way to support your community and support your athletics versus I want to go for free. I mean, it's it's harder. It's really hard in today's world. Uh for these student athletes to go out there and have to do all this fundraising, all that because budgets down, you know, that's that's tough. And hey, you can't go to a championship because you don't have enough to, you know, hotel wise. That's what these booster clubs are doing. That's a It's a slippery slope, so we really need to look

040at it. >> Okay. All right. Is there anything else on that topic? If not, we're going to take a quick break. Um 15 minutes, but we got 10 minutes because we talked. So, if everybody could go run to the restroom, I mean, we're not going to shut you out if you come back. [laughter] Diamond is a little late, but u if everybody wants to run to the restroom, grab some water. If you got calls to make, all that good stuff, then um go ahead and do those things again. We do have um a recording and uh mic. So yeah, like I said, if you have a a private call or anything you need to make, I would go outside. >> All right. >> Oh, yeah. The break. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Just let us

041know when you muted for the break. >> We got the sign. Okay, we got the Okay, we are now unmuted. All right, and we are back from break. So, um we're going to do like a quick little question and answer session with myself and Dr. Moore. Um just kind of like I felt like this is a better way to talk about um where we've been, where we are. >> Oh, you want to do that one first? Yes. >> Okay, we can go ahead and do that. Yeah. >> Yeah. Oh, that that's that's perfect. Go ahead. Yes. So, sorry. We're going to go to strategic resource alignment and preliminary staffing guidelines. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. [snorts] So board if you remember in November we had a workshop in which we talked about the work that

042we're doing around strategic resource alignment. As you are aware this year we've experienced a decline in enrollment of about 350 students and we anticipate next year that we'll have a decline again just based upon national trends that have been declining birth rates. While we are fast growing state, we are not growing with the number of students across the state as [snorts] well as we do have charter schools coming into our district. And so we talked about at that point where we're at and making adjustments to our staffing guidelines and we told you in November we would give you an update at the January retreat. And so Dr. Foster is going I'm going to turn it over to him and we're going to give you an update of where we are now, the next steps in

043this process um that we are [snorts] going through. So with that, Dr. Fox and he looks fit and ready for the challenge. [laughter] >> Good morning everyone. Totally outside of my comfort zone today. [laughter] >> But good morning everyone. It's my pleasure to be here to talk about our um work that we've engaged in for the strategic resource alignment. Can you put the presentation up? >> Wrong. >> So as we talked about our current staffing guidelines are about 10 10 years 10 to 15 years. um and we have not currently been using utilizing them in a lot of our staffing decisions and as well at the school. So, which has caused our schools to be a little bit um out of alignment with some of the staffing guidelines. You may have some schools that have

044more staff and some schools that have less staff. So our goal is to align our staffing model so that we have consistency across all of our schools and taking in consideration some of the things that the board talked about wanting to make sure that we are um equitable across our schools factoring in poverty levels which we have taken all that in consideration. So just a quick update on where we are. So, with our strategic staffing um update, as you know, everything is um driven by our strategic plan to make sure that we're purpose driven and future ready and that we're working for our students. Along those same line, you know, Dr. Moore established um district goals for this work. Our our goals for this work is one to en enhance our student experiences and outcomes,

045continue to ensure equity and resources, allocation and opportunities for our students, and of course to improve operational efficiency as we are facing some uncertain times in our district that we may not know exactly how they're going to impact us as of today. And this picture right here just really encapsulizes what we want for our students. We want them to have that sense of wonder and that sense of joy as they um engage in the activities that our schools and for them on a daily basis. We shared this with the principles when we met with them um really talking about getting ready versus being ready. And I think this is important for our work when we um went to a conference and one of the presenters talked about this and I just thought it was really

046important. She aligned it more with personal growth but I adapted it to be more in line with our work with our um strategic resource alignment. And so when we talk about getting ready, we don't want to be getting ready. we need to be in the being ready category, meaning that we need to make sure we're acting with our available resources that we have that we're embracing this strategic change now because this is going to be some different um it's it's very strategic in what we're doing, but it's going to be different in the way that we operate from today and the way that we will look next year at this time as well. Leading with vision and not fear. As I shared with the principles, I said, you know, you are the leaders of our

047schools just as we're the leaders of the district. And so we have to be leading with that vision on how this is going to impact your schools as well as how it's going to impact our district. And we have to make sure that we are leading that charge and building readiness into our culture. Um we know that over the course of the next 12 months we are going to have some differences that are going to be envisioned in our schools and how are we going to make sure that we are ready in our culture the um to adapt to those changes. And so our goal is we want to be adaptable and we want to take advantage of these opportunities and we are choosing to be ready by designing staffing guidelines that will serve our

048students today and tomorrow. So not just looking at um where we are now, we're looking at tomorrow as well. The risk factors and scenarios that are driving some of our um decisions as far as having to make new staffing standards. One is the enrollment volatility that we're experiencing. We know that we had a reduction this year. We still are trying to know exactly what that reduction is going to be based on the 90-day enrollment numbers that we haven't officially received yet. So once we have that, we'll hopefully have a better idea of how that um this year's enrollment volatility is is going to impact the district. But we're seeing those demographic shifts. We're seeing the charter school growth that's going to come in our district. And then we're just seeing the needs of our students

049continue to intensify. Um the needs of our students are just growing on academics as well as mental health. The trauma that some of our students are experiencing and then the poverty concentration that we're experiencing as well. The budget constraints that we have um we all know that we are we limited resources. We've experienced that this year [clears throat] u with our budget planning process that we had to go through. And so we need to have sustainable models that can adapt to these changes that we're experiencing. instructional evolution. We are continuing to have um the need for growing coaching in in our schools because our stu our teacher population is is changing as well. And so we know that coaching is becoming a not just a a >> need to it's a need for our schools,

050not just something that we want to have, but it's something that we know that we've got to provide our our staffs with. And then of course datadriven practices as we're seeing a lot of use in uh academics. The equity imperative we want to make sure that all of our schools all no matter what stu schools our students attend that they all have the same resources and um available resources. And then of course the workforce challenges that we are seeing. Um we are seeing workforce challenges where we are having to hire um international teachers to fill some of our vacancies. we're having to hire alternative certified teachers um to fill our vacancies and then we're also, you know, the state has approved the non-certified teaching um certificate as well. And so we'll be talking more about

051that in the next few weeks as well. So multiple things that are happening that's causing us to think about how we're staffing our schools. These will look familiar because we share this in our November presentation with you. Um this is the anticipated impact of the charters that we know um that are coming to our district and this is information that we received from the state department. And not to say that 3,700 students will leave our district to go to the charter schools, but we know that those schools have that capacity for this first year um at all of those three locations that will be opening schools in our our district. as we know of right now. We have no other information that says that there'll be anything different for the upcoming school year. Uh Miss

052Williams shared with you at our last meeting as well the potential impact of charters in our district. she shared with you before charters. Um our operating budget, our state funding will be at this amount. And then with charters, we would see a reduction could see a reduction of approximately $25 million if 2,700 of our students um were to leave our school district and move to seek some of the other opportunities that are out there for the 26 27th school year. Nancy, is there anything you want to add to that? >> Okay. But we do have that information. So progress to date, we have conducted state um current state audit meetings, meaning that we um my staff has met with pretty much every school, all schools and divisions to talk about their current staffing and make

053sure that we have a good count on what each school currently has. We've researched current trends look regarding staff allocations. We've looked at districts from Greenville to Ary to Buford to Charleston. um districts that are are like ours as well as um districts in our Midland areas as well to look at their current staffing. We've conducted future state meetings and still in that process now. Um those meetings have been very productive in providing us information. We've met with the elementary, middle, and high school principles. We've met with the centers. We've met with academics. We are having meetings with um operations upcoming. and we've met with um the other departments as well that are not as large as the academics and operations and we'll continue in those. And then we've draft um recommended student um student

054teacher ratios by grade level and poverty that we're going to share with you now because that is the bulk of our work that we've been engaging in that will have the most significant impact on our work. Um as you can see these are our current um guidelines from that we shared with you for elementary. They range in um class sizes currently now based on poverty levels at every 10 percentile um from [clears throat] 22 from well from 22 at 0 to to 9% all the way up to 18 at 80 and above. and the centers have 22 um with the exception of CFA which is currently at 18. That's the elementary [clears throat] middle um has 20 um theirs is the same way. Theirs is a little bit larger band but their current um ratio

055is from 20 at less than 19 to up to 17.5 at 60 and above. and the high school has the same um current staffing ratios as well. Remember our ratios are basically used to staff our schools um not determining what the number of teacher students that they will have in their classrooms. It's used to help us determine the number of FTEEs that we will allocate to that school for them to um educate our students. So our current um proposed recommended guidelines you see it takes it down and condenses it into one chart. So, not having over three charts that we're looking at, it does take in consideration our um poverty levels, you'll see that we said lower poverty schools would be 0 to 54. So, we're not saying that no schools have poverty because we

056know that all of our schools have some level of poverty. Um we're just trying to divide it into three categories. We're saying significant poverty schools would be 55 to 74, which is that's where most of our schools currently fall. and then higher poverty schools would be um 75 to 100 um percent. The changes in the um what we're proposing you I'm going to do kindergarten first and third first. So if we're looking at from elementary to um [clears throat] from our previous charts, we are still maintaining the 18 to 22 at kindergarten through well kindergarten wasn't at 18, but that's what the principles had recommended. 18 to 22 would be for kindergarten first, second, and third. And that would be on a range from high poverty to low poverty. So if you're at a low

057poverty school, you would have 22 approximately 22 students in your class. If you're at a higher poverty school, you would have 18 um students in your kindergarten through first third grade classrooms. Fourth and fifth would have the most significant increases there because those numbers basically ranged from the same as our um upper grades from 18 to 22. It would see an increase from 20 to 24 in that grade levels. And those are our that's the most significant in movements in our um grade size in our classroom sizes that would be moving them from approximately 18 to 20 and from 20 to 22 and from 22 to 24 in and depending on their poverty the current poverty level. The centers would remain the um same um CFA would be 18 well CFA is currently at 16.

058they would move to 18 students to allow more students to attend at those schools from all of their grade levels. And then the centers um CFI and CFK CFK North, they would increase to 22 um they because they're currently their way will remain at 22 because they're currently at the poverty level um between 0 and 54 for those schools. The middle school would see just a slight increase in their um allocation from 17.5 to 18 at the 75 to 100% for their poverty schools and they would remain um at 19 for significant and remain at 20 to1 for lower poverty. The high schools would see a shift in theirs from 17.5 um to 18 at the higher poverty levels and then they would see an increase from at the lower poverty level from 20 to

059one to 21 to one. Those are our proposed shifts in recommend recommendations and our shifts. And as I've said, just to be transparent with you, I think the most significant increases are in the fourth and fifth grade. Um, where that's, you know, what we have come up with as far as today. I'm going to move forward with just giving you a quick simulation because I know that that's important so you can see exactly how this would impact a current school. Uh we're going to revisit Brilliant Elementary. And Brilliant Elementary has a um people in poverty index of 57% currently. And so just to show you um what it would look like. So if we're looking at their 45th day enrollment, they have 635 students. Um based on our current staffing guidelines for Brilliant Elementary, they

060would be staffed at 19.5 across the board. And that means that they would have um 30 they have they currently would have 35 teachers at their school. They would have five for kindergarten and six in all of the other grade level. So they have 35 teachers. If we apply the staffing ratio that we're talking about that we're recommending, they would have a reduction in their teaching staff from 35 to 32. And that breakdown would be that they would lose an um a sta uh a FTE in first grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade with the new staffing ratios because they would be staffed at the significant poverty level at 57%. So they would be staffed at 20 to1 for 1 through 3 and 22 for fourth and fifth grade. And to help with some of

061our um rounding, we are applying um rounding up at a anything that's um 3/10 or higher. Not going to the um normal rounding rule of 510 or higher. It's 3/10 or higher. So you will see for first grade that's where um they would lose instead of having moving to six if we were rounding up at any at any um tenth they will go back down to five. And that's the same thing for fourth and fifth. And so that be based on a current staff that they would um ratio staffing ratios if they still had 635 students. We're going to apply um and remember this has no rhythm or science to it. It's just a simulation. So let's say that next year Brilliant Elementary for whatever reason realizes only 531 students. They have students that move

062out of the school. They have students that accept to go to a um one of the charter school options. They only have in August 531 students show up or based on our projections 531 students show up. Okay. So that means that if we applied our current staffing guidelines and keep them and make no changes to them, they would realize a reduction in their staff still because of just the decrease in in the student population. They would um realize a decrease from 35 to 29 FTEEs because they've lost students proportionally, which we know that doesn't happen in in schools, but they were they've lost student proportionately across each grade level. And then if we go and we apply um the current staff the recommended staffing guidelines they would have a reduction in from 35 to 27

063teachers in their current school. They would have um and you will see that we still apply the rounding rule at anything above um 310 would be an additional FTE. So if we look at their first grade in the in the current in the recommended they would go from 4.3 teachers to five that would give them they would round up to five teachers and then the fourth and fifth grade from 4.2 they would just remain at four teachers. So their ratio would be a little bit higher than the 22 at that school, but they would have a reduction of with that um recommended guidelines from 35 to 27 teachers for next year. So just to summarize this um if we're looking at the summary chart, the enrollment for 2526 at Brilliant Elementary was 635 students. Enrollment

064next year based on charter um impact or would be 531. Their current teaching staff is currently at 35. They would based on the current guidelines their current teaching um staff would be 35. It would we apply the um ratios that we are proposing it would go to 32 for this year with a net change of three teachers. If we move forward to next year, they would move from 29 teachers allocated at 29 teachers for um the current staffing guidelines. We made no changes to them and they would move to 27 with the recommended guidelines which would be a net change in teachers of two. But if we look at it holistically and what we would be looking at because remember we're applying two things in this model. We typically wouldn't be applying two factors in

065in one year, but this year we're applying two because we don't have consistent staffing guidelines. So, we're having to apply that first and then we're realizing a reduction in students. So, if we were only applying it because we have already established them and we just saw the reduction in students, then that would be a natural loss of FTEES. But because we're having to apply new staffing guidelines and with the anticipated reduction in students, we're seeing a larger number of positions that they would not have at their school for um the 26 27th school year. But we also know that we have to take an account for that because we're looking at the reduction in stu if students are not here. We're looking at a reduction in state revenue. Okay, next steps in our process. We

066want to finalize the staffing models because we're not just looking at teachers. Uh we're looking at everything and making sure that everything is equitable across our schools. U we're conducting follow-up discussions as needed. We will want to share whatever we finalize with principles as well as our um definitely with principles to make sure that they have a clarity in what we're doing. meeting with our core team, which we talked about. We have a core team that's helping guide some of this work and we still need to meet with a few stakeholder groups to finalize some of this and share what we're doing there. Simulate and refine the staffing models as we're working and then share with superintendent and and the school board and then whatever is finalized finally decided is to implement and monitor um

067for ongoing alignment. And the reason why we say that is because just in this school year 20 as we are staffing for we're looking at three phases of staffing. We're going to have our initial phase which is going to be based on the projections that um will be provided by planning and whatever the staffing ratios that we finalize for um staffing for 2627. So we'll have that initial that we'll base our current staff initial staffing on. Then we'll have an adjustment probably around um June, May or June based on if we see any significant reductions or in in students leaving um because of the charter school impact or just because of natural migration. um then we'll make an adjustment there and then we'll make a final adjustment in August when we actually have all of

068the students to show up because we know that um we're not going to really know who's not going to be with us next year until that 10th school day of of August. Okay. And so board with that at the next board meeting operations [snorts] will give the board an update on projections as we are continuing to look at what we expect to see next year. But as Dr. Foster emphasized, we're doing two things at the same time, which is not best practice, but is the reality of where we are. We would normally be doing our staffing update, staffing guideline update based on what we projected, if you remember back to the demography report we gave last year that showed that we would have declining enrollment >> due to just natural things that are happening. We

069would be adjusting our staffing guidelines based upon that. But then we are layering on top of that the impact of the pre-charter schools >> on that declining enrollment. So it it is requiring us to be more aggressive at this particular point in time. And we would love to be able to say we can give you an exact answer on the number of students that we project we will not that will not be with us next year. Unfortunately, just like this year, we won't know that until August um definitively when school starts. >> And I think one important thing to add to this is that this does not take in consideration um any of the special education populations at the school. This is general staff, general education staffing. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Because that number

070is going up as we've seen over the last three years, our special ed population is significantly increased. >> Well, and on that topic then um will you guys be using the same model or special our special needs population? >> No. So the special education model is based on state guidelines. So we have to stay within those guidelines. So um Miss Mclofflin is working on the that information there. >> So well it'll a different report, right? So you guys she'll give us a report on >> we'll give you an update of their staffing is totally >> their but their staffing is completely Exactly because it's part of federal guidelines and state guidelines that have to meet. >> Oh, got a question over there. Mr. Dennis. >> Yes, sir. So, the failure at the state level and

071the failure at the federal level for teachers and staffing at a regular set for our money to come in to pay for all that versus what we're seeing in the special education go up. How does the funding impact us needing to hire more for special education but losing regular education? >> Yes. >> And then we're looking So what I'm hearing from here's how I see this. There's not a teacher shortage. This is what we're saying right now. There is not a teacher shortage in this state because the federal and the state level brilliant front minds up there don't know what they're doing when it comes to funding. So it affects us down here. So what I'm looking at how are we going to adjust from when we send out the forgot the name of it

072the pre-contract or the intent to come back in >> return. contract >> and then contracts. >> Yeah. And then when they sign those, if it's really that short, >> what are we going to do then? >> That's a very good question, M Dennis. Um, >> no loopholes. >> No, there's no loopholes. That's why I said you're at the state federal level. >> There are no loopholes. Um we will then have to do sort of what we did this year which was you know we did budget cuts across the district not schools but the primarily the district offices. Um we would have to look at our fund balance. Um but remember fund balance is only for temporary one-year um items. Um, if there's vacancies, we would not fill any vacancies. If we had to hire somebody

073for some reason, they would have to be a temporary position. It really does leave us in a quandry um in in moving forward. So you're right that without clarity around what the funding will receive from the federal government, the funding that we'll receive from this from the legislators, the funding that we would receive or could receive from county council because remember they're part of this process for us. We don't have the as much clarity as I would want for sure, but I know the board needs when you're going to have to make a budget decision and and approve a budget in January. I mean in July June dates are messed up. June. So I can't I don't have a good answer for you um other than we are doing the best that we can do

074to come up with our projections so that we can give you the most information possible to make the decisions that you will have to make >> because because what I'm saying is [snorts] I'm looking when you look at these numbers and you know at the charter schools they're most of the special education they don't they take they kick back to us. So >> we're seeing a gain an increase in that >> that's not true. >> I mean not it's not not saying it's every one of them but primarily a lot of them do >> because they don't have the resources that we do that that's why we have I think we have to be very careful saying that. >> Well they don't have the resources but at the same time we do but our resources

075get taken away for that. I mean All I got to say is Gary Dennis is saying this. Nobody else. But the legislators at the federal and state level really need to look into this a lot harder. I this is not a sustainable thing for any of us. It's really not. And that's why it's important for us to make sure that one, we try to get the most um accurate process in place for the projections because we're going to be when we do this initial staffing. We're pretty much that's what we're obligating oursel to for the school year. Um the adjustments that we're talking about won't be >> won't be saying we're going to release teachers. is saying we'll be shifting, you know, we'll be making some shifts throughout the district to put put staff where

076they need to be. It won't be saying that we're not obligated to that staff, >> right? But I mean, the way it's looking is when when you're when you're going off this, we don't know. >> We don't. >> So, if we're projecting that this many kids are going to go over here and this many kids, we're going to lose that. At one point, if you're looking at a $25 million deficit of people not being here, that's a large chunk. That ain't something. And then the [snorts] following year, we get a lot of kids that come back. Now, we're behind the power curve. I mean, it that's going to affect the overall education of every child, whether they're in charter or here. There's going to be a gap. So like I said, the failure across the

077board and the state minds of education is kind of astounding. >> Madam Chair, um so Mr. Foster, have we also looked at the part of the opposite, not just students but losing teachers to the charter schools and moving um and how that will impact us in this process? >> We have so we know that we're so we have already sent out the letters of intent. We did have a number of staff members that you see on your board um report for this month that have made an indication that they're not going to be returning for the current year. And that's just the first wave of those teachers um staff members letting us know that they're not going to be returning. So we're gonna we're continuing to see that people are are making decisions to um

078go to other places based on various [snorts] factors. So this is going to help us um streamline some of our staffing needs. So we're know if we can put consistent staffing guidelines across schools and we staff to that then that's going to help us absorb any um large number of vacancies as well. Remember, Miss Williams, we started off this year with 68 >> vacancies, which was about half of what we normally have and that was through the wonderful efforts of our HR department and communication in us doing a very robust attraed campaign of why you should stay in Richmond too and come back to work for us. So, we'll have some natural attrition that just goes along with the work, but we can't tell you how much at this particular point in time. >> Are

079we are we able to track um so when they do their exit surveys to kind of see is it that they're going to a charter school? Um >> yes, we >> we definitely track where people are going in state. it gets a little bit more challenging when they go out of state other than knowing they're going to a certain but in state because most people [snorts] have to um even if a teacher doesn't tell us we usually get the requests for benefits and stuff so we do track where they're going within the state and we can get that from the state as well. >> Okay. Um, and then the other my last one is right now when we looked at the numbers of when you said the poverty rate, things like that, do you know

080where our high schools stand right now in the current like where they would fall under those three categories? Like what schools are? >> Yes, ma'am. We have one at the lower end, three in the significant, and one in the um higher. >> Okay. And then um The other one would be so with some of our schools um and I know we've done an amazing job which I'm very excited about of you know with the designations of ATSI things like that TSI things um are we taking in that into consideration to ensure that we might need more staff for like interventions um or more staff for whatever it might be not just because it might not be a poverty issue but the performance iss issue. So then we might need another staff member to add for

081those areas. Are we >> So our first goal is to staff appropriately across and then to be able to see where we need to deploy additional resources for that. But the goal is to get everybody consistent first and then we according to whatever this model is that we select then it would be to add additional resources as necessary because of any designations that come up um based on that year's performance. But that would be the that would be our our goal because currently right now you walk into any elementary schools and there is variations across the schools with with staffing. >> Thank you. All right. >> Hi. Um, so with the education assistance ads, you referenced the shifting of staff members. >> Um, I believe there's something in there that says that we can't do

082that past a certain time or something like >> how how are we navigating that? Like >> so yeah, that would be the interesting part when we talk about the three levels of staffing. That first one we're going to say initially, you know, hey, you you know, a teacher may be at school A, but let's say that school A realizes that they have less student. I mean, they have a more of a reduction than we thought. We need to move a teacher to school B. We'll try to make those shifts as early as we can during the summer. But if it happens within 14 days of school starting, because that's the day that we have to notify all certified staff that you're going of their teaching location. And then after that, we can still um work

083with staff to move them. We just have to make sure that we apply um the guidelines that are outlined in that which says we have to give them a fiveday notice. We have to make them aware of it. Give them five day notice. If it's a normal case, but if it's an emergency case, then we have to we can go ahead and make that move. But we would definitely handle any situations like that very delicate with our staff and provide the support that we need. But that would be hopefully that we'll have enough planning time in front of that that we won't have to do those types of moves. We didn't have to do any of that this year. Um what we did this year where we had if a teacher wanted to be released

084from their contract for whatever reason, if we were able to absorb um that at the school without impacting a move. So like at one school we [snorts] had a first grade teacher that said, you know, I'm leaving because I've just had a baby and I'm not going to return. Then we were able to absorb that vacancy by consolidating the classes because they already had class sizes that were outside of our ratios. But we didn't have to make any moves. But if we the upcoming year, we have to make sure that we're handling that in accordance with educator assistance act and as as delicately as we can >> then notification. >> Yes, ma'am. with more. >> And then I also think communication to our staff because this is new for everyone including the educators upfront as

085early as possible that these are the these things can possibly happen. >> We don't want it to be uh where they weren't prepared for the possibility and now we're dealing with the backlash and media and so forth. Yes. Um, so I think we really need to prepare our principles to have these discussions with their staff early on so it's not a surprise to anyone should we have to make these moves and to make sure that they feel confident that we're following the guidelines that have been set before us with the education assistant because if they feel they trust that we're following those guidelines that there'll be less chance of people reacting emotionally towards the the change. We definitely following the guidelines. >> Right. Right. >> But they need to know that we are making a

086conscious like we're well aware. >> We are we are working with communications on communication. >> We're really really like short for time. We're like probably we're supposed to be on break sorry uh at break at 9:45 and it's 9:54. We still got a lot to cover. Are you guys okay with sending that >> to the appropriate parties and then we get those questions answered for y'all? [snorts] >> Yes. >> Everybody okay with that? Okay, perfect. And then we'll we'll go from there. We'll get that to you through our Thank you so much. >> Thank you so much for that. All right. And I like that you said get get um I said getting ready to being ready. That was good. That was a good aha moment. I like it. All right. So now we're going

087to do like a little question and answer myself and Dr. Moore is talking about where we've been, where we are, and where we're headed. >> All right. So Dr. Good morning. >> Good morning. >> I don't have a real microphone, but uh good morning. And so, um you know, we we've had an opportunity to be able to work together uh now for a couple of months and um be able to uh see, you know, how things are going. And of course, uh as everybody and every board has their challenges, I want to talk a little bit about where we've been and what were some of the challenges that we faced. >> Thank you, Chair Nash. I appreciate that. And just So everybody is aware, Miss Nash and I have been having conversations since she came

088on board as chair around how are we moving forward and really long-term strategic planning to move our district. But in order for us to do that, we have to look back at where we were. And that led to a conversation with her letting her know and I call it the big rocks. Rocks the big rocks that I have been working on to help shape the work that we do. [snorts] And so you know one of my expressions and Darcy will tell you I say this a lot. I want us to be a parent's first choice because I truly do believe we are their best choice. So when I was hired by the board, I made a commitment to the board and you can see this commitment that's the one thing and the only thing that

089is to provide a best the best educational experience for the students that we have a privilege and I use the word privilege intentionally because parents have choice today Miss Nash and we want to make sure that we're giving them information the they need to make the best choice for their child and that they trust us with their child. And that means this is a privilege for us. So, I'm going to talk just about really the three years I've been here and then kind of where we're going. So, my first year was really focused on uh building trust. Um, it was very clear to me in the interview process with the board that that was an area that I needed to work on >> was building trust with our community, building trust with our team members,

090our district team members and building a strong partnership with our board and being a science and math person, I like to put things in the form of equations. And so what did I do my first year was listening, learning and connecting. So building trust. So these are just some of the things that I did, those big rocks that I did. I spent a lot of time thanks to Dr. Franklin um meeting and greeting people. [clears throat] I met and greeted lots of me. [laughter] Um, but that in itself was my listening tour because in those meet and greets and going out to different events and talking to different folks, I got a sense of where we were as a district and really what trust looks like to those individual groups. You know, as a part

091of that, I did audits around our district [snorts] and sitebased leadership based on not just feedback from the community, but feedback from board members around areas that they had concerns and then just by visiting schools, talking with our leaders, talking with our district staff, where are we at, what are we doing, and how are we getting better. >> You remember we were on fiscal watch. >> We exited fiscal watch, but that was due to hard work that our team under Miss Williams put in place as well as we did a lot of work to ensure that we were keeping the board informed around where we stand because you approved the budget, you set the budget and you need to have that information. We did community outreaches and we I completed Leadership Colombia and why was

092that so important? It was important because one, I'm not from South Carolina. two, I didn't have relationships in South Carolina. So, being a part of Leadership Columbia helped me to learn my community, >> to begin to connect in the community and build relationships. One of the other things I focused on and I asked each of our senior leadership uh team to have a professional learning goal. I believe we as individuals should continue to grow. We cannot give what we don't have. And so I did sell um that's through SCASA and I successfully um was accepted into the program and as you will see >> before where I'm at. >> So before you go to that one I wanted to ask a question about um here on establishing trust. So that was kind of the way

093it was for all of us just establishing establishing trust with one another establishing trust with our superintendent and our community. And so what did you find um that was what some of the major concerns for our community at that time? >> Well, the community wasn't sure um how the superintendent and the board were going to work together. >> That was one of their big concerns. Um in fact, several people said to me, you know, we watched the board meeting um for entertainment. >> We get our popcorn. One person said, "I get my popcorn and my wine and I watch it to be entertained." Well, a board meeting is not entertainment. A board meeting is a business meeting. It's about running the district, what we need to do for our students. And so, you know, Mr.

094Trap was my first board chair. >> He and I worked very closely together to make the meetings more of a business meeting and less entertainment. So one of the things I did for example is we backed up the time to release the board information the information to the board to prepare for the board agenda for the board uh meeting. That way board members had time to review. Every Friday I would call Mr. Trap first because he's the board chair. Ask him what his input was. Is there any questions clarity he needed on the agenda? Then I call all the other board members. Some I read some some I left messages for. And then I call Mr. Trap back as the chair and say, "Hey, I talked to x amount of board members. Here are some

095issues." I never tell him what board member said this or that, but here is some concerns and how do you want to handle it? And then he and I work out a strategy in which we would either have he would send an email out, I would send an email out, or he may I may reach out to that person again saying, you know, I spoke with the chair about this and please reach out to the chair, whatever we needed to do. But it was really just working on how we function as a board and superintendent for our business meeting. >> And do you feel like you know that we've come a a little bit further? We come a little bit further. >> Our meetings are boring now. [laughter] >> Quite honestly, that's what people tell

096me. Your meetings are boring. And I tell them that's a good thing because the meeting is not for entertainment. >> The meeting and the meeting is about the district. And what I've said to folks is what are we here for? Our board is here to do what you elected them to do, which is to ensure that we create the best environment possible to educate our students. That is our responsibility and that is what the board's purpose is and so we should be bored because it is a business meeting. >> All right. All right. So next year, second year, um my focus really started really started drilling down on student success and what did we do during that year? We actually completed phase one of the compensation study which I know was very important to the

097board and we did that um which resulted in I help I think really helping us uh retain the people that we retained why we had such a low vacancy rate this year was part of that was the compensation study. We piloted our tracking system for transportation. We address district staffing shortages and that's why this year, like I said, we only had 68 vacancies, which is huge when you think about the number of teachers that we have in our district. >> We serve almost 29,000 students. We have 40 schools and if we add alternative 41 and so helping us make sure that we are retaining the people was critical as far as realigning our professional learning for leaders. So we had an academic um conference this year for our leaders and we had a leadership conference

098for our leaders which we will have another one coming up in this month. Uh we will be getting the information out. I know one board member is excited. should already asked me about it once before. [laughter] Um for that um we streamlined our focus on student outcomes. Everything we do, [snorts] everything is around student outcomes. And what does the data tell us? We are datari district, but we were not using our data effectively to move the needle where we knew it. And a lot of that came from really just the reorganization of the senior leadership team and increasing the effectiveness of the team. So hiring the right people. We have a brilliant chief academic officer in place that helps to crystallize my brain into action. And so that really helped to um help us begin

099to do this work to ensure everything that we do, everything is about student success. And if you talk to anybody in the district, they're going to tell you the question I always ask is how's this impacting students? >> How's this going to impact students? Because that's what we're here for. And a part of that impacting students and building that relationship with the community that I heard about in the first year was establishing our family and community engagement department so that we are truly focused on how do we work with our community? How do we invite them into the learning process for students? How do we show them that we are truly a valued partner with them and that they can trust us with the resources that they give us because that's coming from their taxpayer

100dollars, >> but also when they're trusting us with their most precious gift, which is our which is their children. >> And so that's our family community engagement department that we stood up. >> So any questions? um what what did you feel was the most challenging thing um that you experienced when it came to student success leading up to today? >> I would say probably it was narrowing our focus and being intentional around some specific levers that will affect change. We were doing a lot of things >> and some of them we're doing very very well and some of them we're not doing very well. But what's the real lever of change? And if you impact that, then you can have significant change. I'll give you an a science example because I taught this to my

101students of how to build a focal. So if you just have a a piece of wood that's long, you [snorts] put a heavy weight over there. If I balance it correctly, I don't have to put a lot of weight on this end to lift it. I can actually lift it with my finger depending on how I build that structure. What is the appropriate level level lever of change that we need to put in place? And so in what you'll see in the next slide will be we came up with four areas. PLC was one of them. Our MTS structures was another part of it. We narrowed it down to those four levers that schools could put into place to affect the change that they felt that they needed based on their data. >> Perfect. All

102right, let's talk about that. >> All right. And in year oh, we continued with student success. >> So just some other things that we did because really when we look at our school, we're talking about the whole culture of the school. Food. Food is very important and before this, most kids were bringing their lunch. Very few kids were buying their lunch. Now, kids are buying their lunch. Um, I've even had some staff members and board members say, "My child doesn't want me to make their lunch [clears throat] because they like the lunch that they're getting." So, we have a new food contract uh contractor in place. Uh, we did some other things. We did a book study on one leadership, health development. Um, we refocused our data meetings around student outcomes and what are the

103levers that we're putting in place and what are we doing looking at the data down to individual students and how many students are moving are they staying in their cohort that is the level of work that we are doing. We looked at how are we supporting our students that do need intervention. We were operating from an upside down pyramid meaning tier three was larger than tier one. That is not the way it's supposed to be. Tier one should be 80% of our students and we made that a very clear priority to all of our schools. Then we provide support at tiers two and three for those students that actually need that. We established our foundation for early literacy partnership and that's where we give the loveies to our pediatricians. So, we partnered with the South

104Carolina um re read program. And so, what the what a brand new baby and mother gets when they go to their first pediatric visit is they get this little lovey. It has a QR code on it. When they scan the QR code, it takes it to our district website and it tells that mom, "Here are some things you should look for for your student. Here's where you can get support." Because the earlier we can identify students that may need additional support, the better off that student will be because we will help that student and that parent be prepared to come into school. We want to get that student into a 3K program, 4K program, and when they hit the ground for kindergarten, they're ready to go. And so, um, the education foundation helped us with

105that, and it's going wonderful. I'm now at the silver level. I successfully completed my first year of professional development because as you and I talked about, Miss Nash, my motto is I lead by example. I don't ask people to do things that I'm not willing to do myself. And so if I'm asking my senior leadership to have a professional learning goal, I have to have a professional learning goal. And that's what I did. So I I sell. And the other thing I did because I heard very loud and clear from the board after the first year where you told me not to be working on my vacation not to try to do three events in one night, Miss Washington. Um to to take better care of myself. So I require that each of our senior

106leaders has a self-care goal and I have a self-care goal. And I'm proud to say that while I was on vacation over the winter break, um I looked at my email one time. >> Good job. one time that was it and so I'm modeling what I am asking for and so when we look at the third year we're looking at time talent and treasure because transformation we are really clicking now we're doing work with uh EAB which is an education resource uh organization on work that they did they've been doing across the nation around high performing districts and So, I attended a webinar that they did last year and talked with one of our fellow uh school districts in our state around that work and I knew it was something that would help take us

107to the next level. So we are partnering with EAB around that work and really that's about streamlining how we operate as senior leaders and of the district and so that we are empowering people to do the work that they're supposed to do and not doing the work that we're not supposed to be doing. We are working toward achieving sped compliance and um Miss McLaclin has done a just a great job already in the short period of time. But if you remember sped is one of those areas is 100% or or out of compliance. There's no in between. It's 100% and out of compliance. And as we'll talk about next Tuesday in my update, we're down to one position that has not been filled from the positions that the board uh allocated in the budget. That's

108important. And as we discussed briefly with the with the budget, spend is an area where we have to comply with federal and state requirements. We don't have options. And that's why it's either you're in compliant or you're not in compliant. And so we've been working very hard to ensure that that's where we're going. And my goal for this year. Um, one of the things I also did is I integrated a teaching component into our performing arts center. Um, we have a wonderful performing art program at Richland Northeast High School, but not every one of our students in that program wants to be in in front on the stage. >> There is a whole world behind the stage that students can be involved in. But until we opened our PAC, that was very limited. They could

109build limited sets and things of that nature. Now they get to work in a state-of-the-art facility that would allow them to go work on Broadway in the technical arena of performing arts. I also as a part of the contract that we just did with our food provider SFB that they have to have and that was in the previous contract, but they have to teaching component in there. And so they work with our student innovation center >> around teaching them what's it like to be working in the food industry. Remember, they earned their safe certification to do that program. And so now they get to actually work with chefs, work in a kitchen that's at producing food for people to consume. Our goal has been, and this is something you've heard me say multiple times, um,

11080% of our tiers of our students should be in tier one. And so we have been working on that and pushing that with our principles and our teachers, but the goal is to ensure that we are giving our students everything that they need. And so by ensuring that 80% of them are receiving what they need in the classroom, that gives us then the resources that are really needed to provide those students in tier two and tier three. So that is critical to student success. And then we've been um we are evaluating the effectiveness of two of our programs. That's something the board has been wanting us to do and we and the board allocated money to do that in the budget. So the two programs that we are looking at is AVID and our career

111and college readiness programming. Now, I'm going to talk some more about college and career readiness programming because I have a big audacious goal uh for future state that I feel that we as a district should be at. >> It's going to take a little while for us to get there, but it's what we need to be striving for. >> Any questions on transformation? >> No, because it's going to be one at the end. >> Okay. [laughter] So, these are just some of the other things we've done. We established a partnership with Founders Credit Union. We did our mindset book study and you see my shirt today. Mindset is everything. We implemented our faith-based partners, everybody to know what it is that we're doing. And I think Miss Nasher and I did a great job during

112the state of the district in letting people know what we do. I'm now sealed gold certified for my platinum development. And then as a part of our leadership work, our principles um and staff did a independent book study on the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership. Now just a refresher >> because I want everybody once again I know we're live streaming so I want everybody to know why the student success is so important because look at the results that we got. Three of our school we went from three to six. Excellent. Seven to 11 being good and 17 um we went down from 17 to 15 that are average. Our below average we reduced it from seven to three. We had one unsatisfactory school. We have zero now. And underperforming schools we went from seven to

113three. That is because we look at everything through the lens of student success. It is a privilege for us to educate children. But we have to be able to tell parents that we are educating your child. We are meeting the standards that the state has set to show that students are being successful. So that's the transformation. What are we doing and where are we going? We're going to build momentum. >> Well, I do have one question for that. So out of the the transformation what would you say is it has been or is currently still the most challenging thing that we face? >> Oh most challenging there's [laughter] >> there's several well um let me see what I would say that is probably the biggest challenge is still getting to the 80%. >> Yeah >>

114it's the 80% >> right? Um it's a shift in the way that we work and so it's getting that shift uh for people to really begin to see it can be done. >> Yeah. >> And that's why that data right there is so important because it is being done >> right >> in spite of a 64% poverty rate. In spite of some of the other challenges that our students bring into their classroom every single day, we can do it because we have great teachers and great leaders and great district staff who are creating those conditions for success. So that's what I would say. >> Okay, let's talk about building moment >> momentum. Where are we going and what are we working toward? Every one of our schools should be average or above. That's our goal.

115We are doing our strategic realignment of our resources. Okay? Whether we had charters coming into our district or not, we still needed to update our staffing guidelines because the world has changed in 10 years. And just like with the compensation study phase one, we still doing phase two. These are things that should be looked at every five years, [snorts] not 10, 15, 20 years ago. That things change. We live in a very different world. >> We want to achieve sped compliance. My personal one is I want to see us have more sped playgrounds. >> Those playgrounds are very, very expensive. they are at least a half a million to a million dollars because of the adaptive um equipment that is needed for that. But what I would like to see is that every elementary school

116we have a sped playground for those students. We are completing phase one of our new ERP system and we are getting ready to celebrate our one 100th year >> that's crazy >> of educating students in our district and that to me is very exciting. That's the momentum as we build and as you know momentum is a is a leader's best friend. >> When you have momentum things become easier for us to get done. So if we get to that 80% then we'll be able to achieve these other things that I am going to tell you that I want us to do. >> Yes. >> And that is our future state of 2028. I want us to have not just a 90% college 90% graduation rate because we have that >> but 90% college career readiness

117to go along with the 90% graduation rate. Because what that tells you as an employer is that that student that's graduating didn't just complete standards that the state says, but it means they're ready for you to be hired for them to be hired by you to do the work that you want them to do. And so that is college and career readiness. I want all of our schools to be average or higher. And then I want trust to be solidified within our community because when trust is solidified, parents will believe that we are the best choice for their children because they will know that we are there to take care of their children. We're going to educate that child. We're going to meet that student's needs and we're going to do it by being fiscally

118responsible in a safe and caring learning environment. So, >> any other questions? >> Well, only for the sake of time, I I'll let you skate by on this one. I'm just kidding. I don't have a hard hard ball question for this one, but yeah. >> Just a few things >> that the board does need to be aware of. Um, we will be doing our district reacreditation. Dr. Franklin, they 27 28. They pushed it back a year if not us. Um, and I know we're going to work based on our conversation on updating our strategic budget in place. And so, >> Thank you for that. And the reason why this conversation is important so that we all are aware the work that we're going to start talking about and doing here with Mr. Simmons um is

119directly a part of that um and getting us prepared to be able to work on those things and get to that place uh around like our strategic plan and you know where we've been, where we are, and where we're headed. All right. So, we're going to go ahead right now and take a break. If we could do like a 10-minute break and we will return at 10:30. 10:31 is officially 10 minutes. [laughter] So, if you're somewhere around there, you're good. >> Okay. All right. Sorry. All right. So, we're back everybody and just want to remind everybody that at your tables there are recording devices. So, um the public we are back and we are ready. We've taken our break and we are now for the portion of our uh day where we have Mr. Simmons

120from Simmons Advantage who's been doing a lot of work with the board over since for a little bit now. Um [laughter] he came u Dr. Scott recommended him and uh I definitely think that we have improved uh with him working with us and so [clears throat] we're going to continue that trajectory and so Mr. Simmons take it away. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you welcome Dr. So I guess I'm affirming my [laughter] Right. All right. All right. So welcome back. Uh I guess I'll start here. One, I'm always always honored to u to connect and support with educators. I think so many times because particularly United States, you go on to school, everyone thinks they understand school. Everybody's the expert. They show. So, I I take pride of whatever I'm honored to uh

121stand in front of you to communicate because I stand before you as a microphone of only 1% of African-Americans, males who are in education. And so, when we show up, we've got to show up. Also, I am also the proud alum of the greatest H.B.CU in the land, >> Hampton University. [laughter] So I must always always with Benedict being up the street always always always know [laughter] big dog is in the house. >> All right with that being said with that with that being said Dr. Moore said something that I think truly resonates um in more ways than one uh around the self-care. I think a lot of times we think of the selfcare as just like a physical thing but it's also a mental. is how you reconcile who you are at work as

122well as who you are at home, right? How do those things come together? And today I was positioned with one. So I'm sitting here ready for you guys listening and I get a text message. Um my son was supposed to go to his annual physical uh to get his physical and he text and says, "Daddy, you didn't tell me I had to get a shot." [laughter] So you know why y'all laughing what this means behind that. So I'm thinking to myself lie so I'm not going to I'mma mute myself. [laughter] So I was like oh goodness I didn't. So uh I was selling our chair. I was like yeah I might have a little issue. So earlier I apologize I needed to step out because he was in the office and it was meltdown central.

123>> Okay. And so, uh, being able to reconcile and I remember earlier in my career, I'm not sure I would have done that, right? But you only get so many of those opportunities as a parent, >> right? To really be there and to know, especially once you get older children, >> they don't want you to be there. They going to call you afterwards that you like, "Wait a minute. I would have told you this." And all of that kind of stuff, but for him in the moment to say, "Hey, look, I need my daddy." >> Right? >> So, duty call. So, I needed to step away and do that. So we counted to 10 backwards and by three it was all over. He had the tape the little band-aid and everything. [laughter] So one So

124I think that the story was appropriate because when when I listened to Dr. Mor talk about all decisions that that you all are making has to do with students. But when you bring it personal to you like I just did with my son, that's when and why certain discussions should have conflict. Okay? When we are talking about real children, real people's lives, that should require real discourse, okay, between adults. But what you don't want is to disagree and also be disagreeable. >> And that's what we want to be able to do today. So, I've been charged with a great task of working with the board over the last eight months to talk about lots of things. Um, one, how to corral their passion and energy, which you guys are fully aware of, right? uh and

125to think and reflect on how they have performed historically, how they're performing currently, and what kinds of uh structures would they like to put in place to drive not only their tenure on the board, but those who are to follow for them. And so, I'm going to pause there because I want to talk about the the structure of our day later, but I got I have a small activity for us. If you could please stand. Okay. When you stand, if you could put your laptop down and then your if you have any technology, you just set it on the on the table. Right. So, I'm going to give you a little nerve stuff, right? I love I love like learning about school. What's the number one class that kids enjoy the most in school? >>

126P. Every single day, twice on Sunday, >> right? >> What's the second class that they like? [laughter] >> Recess. >> Oh, yes. recess, >> right? So, we can combine. >> So, just I I know my team what's going on over here, right? And so, but you think about so much so much uh um so many resources and effort is placed where >> English math, right? And but traditionally, that's where it is without necessarily considering student input around what engages them. And so, it's not like we said you going to do recess all day, right? But it does mean we should interrogate what is it about PE and recess that you enjoy the most there and how do we align that across the board so that you can enjoy school for the duration of the day,

127right? And so any of you guys who are middle school people, you know how school is in the morning and how it is after lunch. [laughter] So this is mission critical to be able to use this kind of this kind of research. So now you guys have a task. This is the most elite group of adults in Richland, too. So you guys have a daunting task. So here are your guard rails. You cannot talk. >> You can walk. You can use your hands. Okay. You cannot talk. You can walk. And you can use your hands. You also have 60 seconds. Okay. Your task is to align yourself in chronological order by birth date. Everyone in the room. Was that some kind of martial arts thing you did back there for chair >> or distress? >>

128Okay. So, as you're looking around, I'd like for you to begin your task. Do we have a clarifying question? >> Yes. by birth date or birth date and year. >> Birth just birth date. >> Oh, got it. >> Birthday date and month. Thank you. That's a very good question. >> All right. >> On one end on the other. >> You on the move. >> I had I had to get my phone so I can make sure I'm keeping time. I'm the I'm the time keeper. All right. >> Ladies and gentlemen, >> we also I'm going to show you something else in just a second. >> All right. Ready, set, go. That guy's state ID time. All right. Birthday cake. >> January. [laughter] >> The gas. >> That's [laughter] right. >> All right. All right. So,

129we we made it Right. [laughter] >> Oh, excellent job. All right, let's come back. Come back to and stand at your at your at your uh chairs. Come back to your chair. >> Yes, you did. [laughter] >> [laughter] >> This is REAL WORLD CREDIT. [laughter] >> Is this audio or is it awesome video? Cuz that right there was classic. [laughter] >> The gas. >> Okay, guys. Okay. >> So, >> Marshall, thank you for >> All right. So, let's just let's just like uh how was that experience for you? >> Considering I can't add hand, fingers, and toes. Uh yeah, I messed that one up. >> Okay. [laughter] >> I was SUPER EXCITED. >> I WAS LIKE, we got this. >> You excited about the challenge? >> Having some prior knowledge was helpful cuz I know

130I'm December and she's Darcy. before the end to give us some place to start. >> Ah, you knew that. >> Very good. >> You didn't fact. Um, >> prior to >> I know we had a January and a December figure out [laughter] >> all the rest of y'all getting >> I was like, "Oh, she's two days ahead of me." [laughter] [laughter] >> So now we know YOU GOT TO GO WHEN YOU GOT OVER THERE, [laughter] I said, "I don't know where you just flashed all this uh uh chat was the was classic." He was like, "I'm not even going to go through all this cuz I NEED [laughter] >> That's great." He used his hand very creative. >> That is good. You said >> and he used >> Well, you didn't prohibit it that I

131was aware of anything. I watched you. I I thought very good. >> Very very good. Okay. >> Anyone else thoughts about what you uh just experienced? >> So it looks like some of us used what we had other others of us used other resources. >> Ah right. So we just you know just tried to use what you had individually to try and get the the goal accomplished. >> And knowing Mr. Trap he used what is his skill? He used he's used to fixing things. So his mind is like strategically where do I go down in time or what do I need to be able to fix a problem? And then he went to his wallet [laughter] >> and took out his part of that part of that was he was getting conflicting guidance. >> Oh

132>> because Jen and who was with you Jen? >> I don't know to you. [laughter] So they told him to come over there >> and I did this cuz it's eighth month that eth month and I went >> and told him to stand next to me >> and then when he looked at his driver they put him back over there and then he looked at his driver's license and they said no but >> so we had conflicting guidance coming from >> us and what and what you also hear from Jen is she couldn't remember because sometimes it becomes overload that that the that the lift is too heavy for me to be able to fully engage. I'm just trying to do like whatever it is I need to do. She couldn't there wasn't enough bandwidth

133for what everyone what else is [laughter] just trying to like get where I think I can be. >> But I also couldn't see his his license so I didn't [laughter] >> listen. You see I have my Yes, ma'am. >> Yes, ma'am. Okay. Stand up. Please stand up. So, Mr. Dennis, [clears throat] it does look like you are, sir, the uh first birth. And so, you are January >> 9th. >> January 9th, but please raise your hand. >> All right. So, January 9th, guys, you're going to have a second task. Your second task is now you can use all available resources that you have. You can use your mouth, you can use your hands, you can text, you can use whichever devices makes you feel most comfortable. I do want you to know at the very

134beginning of the line will be Mr. Dennis. Who was January? N. Can you raise your hand? Can everyone see Mr. Dennis? >> Yes. Very good. And the very last birth date of the year is >> I'm December 20th, 197. Was I supposed to say that? 12:20. >> December 24th. >> Okay. So, I think our very last birthday will be December will be December 21st. Can you raise your hand, sir? >> Yes. Very good. And so, at the very end of the line, you can select where you'd like to be. Would you like to move there now? >> Sure. >> To move to the end of the line. Very good, >> Mr. Dennis. and you can be the front. You can make that selection now. Very good. Does anyone have any other questions? >> I have

135a lot of questions. >> Your task is to align yourself by birth date from the very beginning of the year being in January to the very end being in December. The beginning of that line begins here with Mr. Dennis. >> Can we speak or No, >> you sure can. You can use whatever resources you have. Guys, you have 60 seconds. That has not begun. It has not begun. [laughter] >> It has begun now. August 11. >> Is everyone in place? >> Very good. time. I'll let you guys know you used all 60 seconds the very first time. Right. Right now, do you all feel confident with where you are? >> Yes. >> All right. Your new results 24 seconds. >> 24 seconds. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. With the additional check, right? You know, you know

136you got an educator on here, right? >> And you have you got two because he had her she had her uh she had her negative tips out. >> All right. Give yourselves a hand. Very good. Good job. Take your time. >> I have no reason. >> You will not be slipping. [laughter] >> Okay. Now, what's your thought about the second part of your activity? >> Practice. Practice is important. >> Yes. >> Yeah. And you're not always, especially with a complex activity when there are restrictions or things that we've got to deal with that we don't know what's going to come up or who's going to do what or if I can even read somebody's license or like whatever. [laughter] You know, you don't know what's going to happen. So, you really have to know that

137it's going to take time. It's probably take more [clears throat] than one time. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Very exciting. >> I like the quality control piece. A lot of times we're in the middle of work and we do need people to check behind us and various things. So I I appreciate that quality. >> Yeah, that was really >> it was in a way that it was like it was an assist to the team, not a like, hey, I'm looking to see that you did something wrong. >> Assuming best intention. >> Yeah. >> You gave us the freedom to pick which whatever way we felt we needed to resolve the test instead of what we tend to do in the classroom is this is the way to do it because this is the taught you

138to do it. >> And when you have sufficient resources, you can be successful. >> Oh, >> okay. >> What do we do? [laughter] >> I like that. I like that. Okay. One more. One more. >> We learn from our mistakes. >> No, I was I was going to say that the ability to communicate without restrictions made all the difference. So from that I mean that communication is what makes everything work. >> And so in this situation the communication became an additional what for you? >> And so one of the things that you what limited you in the first time was was a restriction of tools which then said now you have to kind of figure things out individually. And so what happens inside organizations when each person is trying to figure things out individually that

139causes total chaos. Okay? And so you might have departments by name, but if those departments aren't communicating um in a in a way that's aligned to the to the organizational goal, you have you have organizations within a larger organizational umbrella, >> right? Um, the other thing is the use of communication in this instance was a huge resource for you. The fact that you could use your mouth, the fact that you all are all adults who all speak the same language, being able to use your mouth >> are all advantages that helped you be successful. And so what I wanted to what I am here to do is support the board. And so all of the district staff, the task today will be how you Think about how to best support your board of directors from

140your positions on the operational side. What kinds of information do you want them to have access to and be grappling with so when they are not with you in your official board meetings that they are they are um doing the kind of work that drives and accelerates the work that you're doing well and they're working hard to help you grapple with solving problems that you're currently dealing with. because that's the kind of partnership in successful districts that continue to have success year after year. There is a misnomer where people say, "Oh, these successful districts, they just don't have challenges." That's not true. They just learn how to solve challenges differently than those who are not successful. Right? and and almost even more intense. The more successful you are, the more pressure there is for you

141because people [clears throat] expect to see that over and over again, right? And so when you think about um performers like Beyonce, Beyonce can't have a dud album, >> right? It's just like it's just not going to work for her. Everyone will say, "Oh, you know what's happening where artists do it all the Like I didn't know like he sweat had 20 hours right [laughter] know like two the last time I knew he right I saw something I was like you know I was looking at streaming >> I was looking at streaming it was like 2025 I said what >> I was today years [laughter] old says who okay so >> loud >> so expectations are different right for different for different Okay. So, our task today is to think deeply. What I have been

142doing with the board is looking at how they interact with each other and thinking about best practices with that as well as how they think about the work that they do when they're interacting with the district. Okay. And what we've done is looked at several things and created a tool that we are all going to dive into deeply today. The methodology around that is based off research that you that you'll see uh from behind every good decision as well as the council of great city schools. These are documents that talk about one organizational change, large organizational uh strategic planning, council of great city schools, long regard as one of the best organizations that work with large school districts on how to perform best. Okay? And they gather all the time and they spend a lot

143of time doing research and producing documents to do that. And so what does that mean? It means we ask the right questions. Use the right data, communicate insights effectively. [snorts] It's what you guys just did just now on the second part. Looked at each other, communicated well, everyone felt very well supported, and in half the time or more, you were able to act with discipline and fidelity. Just like that. It's just a matter of seconds, right? And the look on your faces from the very first activity to the second told everything. The to to put people in position to feel successful is an insatiable thirst. Once you feel success, you always want it. And that's what you all are here to do. And I am honored to be able to support you and being able

144to achieve that. And so like I'm I'm a trained educator, so there's nothing like bad PD, >> right? Where you could have Googled it >> and I'm back here making origami and I'm needing to be managed cuz I'm back here kicking your desk and playing around with you. Like, I just can't handle it. So, it has potentially designed for a person like me. [laughter] So, you all spend lots of time talking, lots of time interrogating things and having conversation. Hopefully, it's ample time. But, uh, speaking with Dr. Moore and spending time with our board chair and the board, uh, this isn't the last conversation. This is the beginning of one to help elevate the kind of alignment that I think everyone has been yearning for, right? And so, we want to ground it with some

145norms. One, curiosity before conclusions. Want to be curious before we draw conclusions. Today is not about making judgment on any single person who did this. Going back in time to elevate a person that you got to axe to grind with. That's not today. Okay. It is also about evidence before opinion. You want to make sure that we are grounding the things that we're discussing in evidence. Where is the evidence? And I'm I'm going to push hard to ensure that we enforce those norms because sometimes we can, you know, we get passionate and we want to make sure that our our points get across, but I want to push to make sure because we have limited time that we are talking about evidence. The third systems before individuals at this executive level, this is why we're

146not talking about individuals. We're talking about systems. What system has been designed to address this particular piece of evidence or thing that we are discussing? individuals by structure is operational that is on the board's one highlight that is Dr. Moore. So that's not a board thing. And so as you're talking today I I'm going to encourage you not to incite the board to think individually, right? But to think systemically. That's is this is uh an opportunity to manage up. You want to talk about the system that you have in place when we're going through our documents today. And then last, discipline over operational detail. Right? It is discipline. Mike Tyson said, >> I know it's like a international philosopher for me to bring up Mike Tyson me, right? This is true. But he said though

147when he was champion as he was training, he said discipline is doing the things that you hate like you love it. It's doing the things that you hate like you love it. And so think about it. I know I'm not the best person with paperwork. I trust me, I will take away from my profits to hire somebody who loves that, right? Because I know it will hurt me in the end if it's not done properly, right? And so discipline over operational detail. So today is about layers of reflection for you individually but also thinking about your role in the organization as a board member as a district uh employee and how we help to elevate the board to be the absolute best. How can this be the best governing board in the state of South

148Carolina? Those kinds of words are important to say because people who aren't champions never say it. >> That's true. >> If you are not the best, you don't say it's like, "Oh, you're being arrogant." Those that stuff is for people who've never won. That's who talks like that. >> But people who win, they talk like we expect to win a championship. >> Right? If you don't expect to, you never say, "Oh yeah, we're just fine with, you know, going out to participate." Those are participation trophies, right? I hate going to those events. I'm sorry. [laughter] He says it's no secret. Like I can just go and shoot in the wrong basket and still be rewarded. You know, [laughter] I can say two plus two is three and still get, you know, the smiley face and

149scratching stiff sniff stickers and all of that stuff. I love that. Right. Then why is he getting I said four and he said three. What's the point on here? Okay. And so we want to make sure we are sending the right signals. We are sending the right signals. Okay. So now um we're going to operate out of a couple of documents. So before I go there, Matt, if we could pull up the very first one that's going to be the the Richland document, the green face. Okay. All right. So, one of the one of the documents that we spent a lot of time with with the board is the 2023 uh submitted document that says strategic plan, but Dr. Moore has got me together. [laughter] She said, "Listen, brother, that's not it. This is a

150compliance document. I talked to the state about change." I said, "Okay, doc. I don't work with the state. Okay, I got you." And so for the purposes of this language, this document is a strategic document. But what is important though is it is the document that the board had, right? It's a document the board had and the board needed to go through something. And so this is the document the board has spent significant time addressing. Um you'll see that one in a second, right, Matt? It's coming up. Also, we'll quickly transition once that gets up there if there will be a document that encompasses a board self- assessment. A board self a board self assessment of itself and its operation. A board self assessment of its understanding of that quote unquote strategic document or compliance

151document. We'll use that term. and then the assessment of the current status of that document. So you have three large pieces to dig into throughout the day. You all have been strategically placed in teams because through those teams I mean through your committees you will think about the information that has been presented here. How does that inform your decision making as a committee? Okay, as a committee. And so you are mixed with district uh employees as well as board members to help elevate the uh things that are happening real time in the district so that the board can best organize itself when they are not with you with the best information and access to that information. Okay. And so you'll see this document. So I want to share this one. Can we see the the

152other one? Okay. So uh and it's okay. back. Tanisha, can you send it to them now or do they already have it? >> Okay. All right. So, in your emails, you will have both of these documents uh that you could that you will have access to, right? >> All right. Is there? So, I just want I just want to do a quick process check just to make sure. Uh just a quick thumbs up once you access your email and you can see those documents. Okay, we need 100%. [snorts] We are 10% there. >> Oh, here it is. Okay, got it. >> Got it. >> Yeah. Do you have it? >> I got it. >> Got it. Did you send it to everybody? >> Which one would you like for us to look at first? >>

153Neither just yet. I just wanted to make sure everyone had access. >> Just going to take a quick second. Make Everyone is has access. So here's your initial task. So again today we're looking for patterns not isolated finally. looking for patterns, not isolating. Uh, find them. And so in patterns, patterns do what? Appear more than once. Show up across multiple data sources and have strategic implications. Okay. So our goal our goal is to build a shared understanding of how the system is currently operating before identifying actions or solutions. This is what I call low on the ladder of inference. So if we see something, we are not jumping to say oh I know this is because that that is the that's the first activity we did. I know this is because that's using different kind

154of information and resources that everyone doesn't have. We're going to operate off the same information which the two documents that you have in front of you today. Okay? Same information. If you have that and you want to bring it up, let's jot it down on the side, but let's not throw that into the center where everyone doesn't have access to that because it's even if you share it at your table, the other three tables don't have it to assess as they're thinking about it. Okay? So, particularly if you're a district person, even if you are a board governing person who has been here and had a longer tenure, you want to just pause, put that down. There will be time to elevate. I want to stay focused on the two documents that we have in

155front of us. Okay? All right. Now, step one, that's what we're going to do. We're going to take a second. I want you to highlight what repeats. Highlight what you see repeats. Again, low on the ladder of inference. Look for patterns. So, you're going to go through the sections. You're going to look at data sources at strategic goals, but please do not single out one data point. Remember, we're looking for patterns. Also, focus on surprises or or do not focus on surprises or antidotes. >> Okay. Again, we'll have time. >> We just have one clarifying question. We're working from the original to the one the compliance document. >> Yes. So, I want No, no, no. I want you to be a I want you to have both just so that you know. >> Oh, I

156see. Across >> what influenced the second. >> Okay. So if you have in front of you, did you bring your uh printed for you all? No. So we don't have have Matt going back and forth. >> All right. We got two documents that you should see. This is one. This is the original Richland 2. This is what the board has spent time digging into. This is one of the key pieces that you see Inside this document, you will see the board self assessment of itself and how it's currently performing. You will also see its self assessment of its understanding of this document. And you will also see its current analysis of this document. And so as you're going through, it's this document that you want to interrogate. I just had this up here for reference

157for you so that you knew where that large analysis was coming from. You say, "Where are the results coming from?" It came from this document. >> Okay. It came from this document. >> We're looking for patterns in the second. >> Yes, ma'am. Excellent question. So, you are looking for patterns in this document. >> Okay. All right. >> And just any >> All right. So now you, this is an individual activity because I want each person to be able to have time to just kind of go through the documents, familiarize themselves with it, and make the highlights. And so remember, you're looking for sections, data sources, strategic goals to highlight where you see patterns. Where you see patterns. I will give you 15 minutes for that. There you go. She's going to go So many questions.

158[clears throat] >> [snorts] [snorts] [clears throat and cough] [snorts] [clears throat] [snorts] [clears throat] >> Bless you. Are they all good? Okay, let's come back together. Lots of notes. Okay, so we're going to move on to step two. So step two with the partner. So uh I know our academic table has an even number so you guys can split into pairs. Our strategic planning group you guys can be you know uh a pair and a group of the third. I'll give you your adjustment for you guys who are odd numbers. So the task is with the partner identify one pattern using the sentence frame. A pattern we see is because it appears in and what am I doing now? >> Forcing us to stay in the protocol. >> Yeah. >> Right. Forcing us to stay

159in the protocol. And so what I'm what uh what I'm doing uh for district folk in support of you with the board, focus on the evidence. Okay. Stay trying to get them to stay focused on the evidence. And so, uh, I'm leaning on you all to support me in that, uh, as the board is growing here because a reminder, we must reference at least two sources from the analysis. You must reference two sources. Okay, a pattern we see is because it appears in and, right? So, in your pairs, those who are we have even pairs, you have one example to produce. If you are in uh thirds or tries, however you want to do that, you all do two. Okay, go. Reminds me of your own spot. needs to be. >> Okay. >> Yeah, I

160didn't do a great job of that either. evaluation. But I do >> what's graduation rates versus what conversations we have as a board for based on the self evaluation on two different theaters achievement overall. This is what I live. This is how I operate overall. But the document the document reflects a district and board that are committed to student success but are navigating challenges related to government strategic literacy systems. The [clears throat] overall achievement theme is one of the progress and potential with a clear roadapall. So we have to central focus with the emphasis >> and that conflicts with >> achievement gaps and spend any of these focus. Yeah. Well, I had I had very similar responsibility and clarity that came out >> I didn't walk away. I don't know. So, you know, I'm [laughter]

161one of whatever I say, I can care less what anybody thinks about the definition. >> Where was the other two additional Well, I think >> responsibility [laughter] So I went with >> pattern basically like commitment to student achieve that challenges >> and we need that In terms of another way that it got through systems related to accountability, but also systems, >> but this is why we're going to have time have more time to practice the first error back. >> I think I have to help. >> Okay. Oh, don't worry. All right. That's what y'all need. So I said basically that pattern we see is equity is named as a priority >> but we don't see it fully self assessment >> self assessment governance recommendations >> how can we go Basically what I was saying is

162what you're saying about analysis. It [laughter] was an >> four. the hard pass it all. People can't do that. [laughter] Let them do that. to address [laughter] situations. Okay, this is two years. All right, let's come back together really quick. >> So, um, we are going to do a quick partition. Okay. Now for the next the next uh part uh share with the opposite group what your what your pattern recognition is uh and then go. >> So >> okay. Oh, there was one rock and roll. But I wanted to hear how you got >> I was locked in here. [laughter] >> Okay. All right. >> How we came to it or what? What have we done? >> Okay. [laughter] So, they are still doing their >> got role responsibility and overlap. because it appears in

163section the self assessment >> and also section seven the cross analysis >> related [laughter] It's >> very specific system overload for us. >> Okay, good. >> We're very familiar with strategic planning selfter. What I see is high commitment to continuous improvement with emerging structures to support because it appears in the accommodation section and in the recommendations for structured government learning such as the strategic plan um governance academy, >> the data retreats So we see a high committee continuous >> basically because it's appears in section and the recommendations dashboard. >> Yeah. was that we needed a quarterly strategic dash of all kinds. Often times when we come together to discuss our goals and plans, we're looking at from the retroect that has already changed. [clears throat] It's not our current and even when we look at

164our goals, that's the case. And so when we look at this, it conflicts our goals and what our urgent needs are. Our goals for example would be we put a lot of emphasis on safety. I think in the past is we've already made the decision [laughter] we've seen the impact of it or things have gotten better but right now >> so you're saying what I was I was I said the government's maturity pretty much and then you got literally working together and monitoring do it differently. >> Okay, let's let's come back. Let's come back together. >> All right, let's come back together. So, table table one. I'll just >> give y'all a number. table one up here. >> Y So, can you guys give us an example between the two groups? It doesn't matter. U

165give us your uh pattern. >> I think your overarching the one you said because it was it covered everything. >> Um so, we noticed or I'm sorry, a pattern that we saw and discussed was uh governance and alignment and how governance should be driving everything that we do in terms of um Let me let me back up and just say what's on the board. So a pattern that we [laughter] talk about is government. >> I appreciate you so much. >> You know I'm going to the Rubicon >> because it appears in the strategic plan as well as in our self-evaluation. >> Um so a pattern that we notice is governance. um because it appears in our strategic plan and in our self-evaluation. >> Um a pattern we see is role responsibility and overlap because it

166appears in our self assessment and in section seven cross analysis. >> Yes. So, district folk, I'm going to be working with the board this way. You see how specific this sentence is? That's my encouragement for how you communicate with the board. Very short, to the point, because everything else outside of that opens you up to more questions. And so, if you heard from Dr. Moore earlier, when the questions start to elevate, they don't come to you, they come to her. And so you don't want to incite that. So I'm saying a best practice, focus on getting in there, getting out of there. Cite the source, site the evidence. Make sure that they're clear on the sources that you're that you're leveraging. So then that way you you give them what they're asking for, what they

167need, and you're giving them the resource, I mean the source to to check to fact check. Yes, ma'am. I just wanted to add because we talked about this came up is when presentations or reports are brought to us. It would be helpful if we're always reminded of what policies are affected based on the data that's being presented to us because that keeps it in the forefront that that's what we should be thinking about in government. >> Good point. Thank you for sharing. Yes. I will add to that the clarity around what the board is asking for. >> Yes. >> Will help us then provide what you what you need because there's not always clarity. Yes. >> Around and that's why I said earlier, you know, I'll get we talking with the chair. I'll get an

168email from one board member on same topic asking for this. A different board member asks for that. Another board member wants this. How do we all of that together to make sure and that's where I think the committee structure >> as I shared with you is a definite benefit and the example that I gave that I thought was really well is the report that Miss um Porter and Mark put together on safety and security. It's very detailed. It answers all of the questions that Miss Porter said the board members have with the information that the district has to give them what they feel that they need. and then she sends it out to them and it's very clear. I think it answers the mail >> and we're good to go. >> Absolutely. Yes, ma'am. >>

169I'm sorry. But also to that, I think it's important for everyone to know in in our committee meeting. I shared everything that the board came to me about, but we didn't include everything in that report because it had to be something that was uh a concern amongst the major like for us to take it because if we if if Mr. Hutton had had a report on every little detail that every board member came, it would be take too long, right? >> And so if it wasn't a significant concern, I stated this is a concern, but it didn't come up multiple times. So therefore that was something that wasn't included in the report. >> And so what you are talking about you are now referencing. And so district and board uh team members what you see

170is the board now elevating how it's starting to create guard rails for itself to say hey there are things that we're still grappling with and what you heard from Dr. Moore is that we're we're still grappling with things but we are learning now as we're still grappling with them to hold them close. things that we are clear about, those are the things that we elevate and bring back because we are clear what we want to see back, right? And so what we don't want is to create a a a an endless sense of ideiation, >> right? Because what happens what what you may not realize on the operational side, on the district side, that clogs the system, >> right? You start calling and calling and calling and now people weren't expecting that call because I

171left with the list that you had already given me. Now, here's comes a new list. How do I prioritize which list, right, between each of the people? That's what you hear uh coming from from Dr. Moore. And what she's trying to do is also then protect her team, right? So, I she'll just take the body shots, right? But you know what she's up against. That's why she also has a goal to what? Self-care, right? That doesn't come from from from nowhere. And so, you don't want to unintentionally inflict the wound, right? Don't inflict the wound. Very good. Yes sir. >> So what I hear you saying is that we should adopt a model of like that template of being very clear and concise is to one here's a pattern I'm seeing like if we're asking

172for information from administration here's a pattern I'm seeing because it appears here and here this is my question >> 1,000% yes. >> Yes. And so so where where you are beginning to go and what you hear from um what you hear from Dr. more boardman reporter is that the some of the research that comes from the Council of Great City Schools has to do with guard rails for boards. That one of the best practices for boards is to adopt a policy that the only person they talk to is the superintendent, right? And so you also then define the time and the engagement for that so it's meaningful for both parties. And then everyone then goes back to their uh respective locations to execute their work. And so it's incumbent upon each group to be very

173very prepared for those meetings so that the exchange happens. Now on the on the operational side, on the district side, if you're getting a lot of questions, that means you didn't give a lot of answers. >> Okay? And so that's what you want to be able to do is to manage up and really really listen because Dr. Morley has her two ears. She has all of you guys at the at an executive level to be listening and watching and helping her manage all of the members of the board, the different committees. And so you guys have to also be operating in concert with each other so that when it's time for her to have to uh stand up and be in that meeting without you, she has the most precise information that she can share

174to to answer those questions. Right. Very very good. Um you guys want to share yours really quick? Jenn >> you can. I'll do it. Um so tonight I pattern we see about um because it appears in the board survey in two places in two ways. one about needing to clarify roles um and the other about clarifying how progress is that >> that's what you guys just stated >> right and so because the clarity an excellent job thank you l for elevating that what you see happening now is the clearer the board becomes with what it's asking of the district, the more precise they can execute, right? The clear accountability can be uh measured, but it's it's it's very difficult, right? It's like in in the yard trying to chase and catch the chicken. It's like

175it's all over the place, right? That's why I had a dog sit, [laughter] right? It's just it's a much different kind of situation. Okay? All right. Very good. Now, step three. Let's progress a little further. So, how will we capture patterns or we will capture patterns in these three categories, right? So, as you're developing this, you want to think about one consistency. What appears stable or working variations? What practices or outcomes differ? Where do you see some things where there is difference? visibility, what is not monitored consistently. Now, uh, district, this isn't on you. This is what you see from the board. >> You're looking at this document and what do you see the board not doing consistently? Okay, not an individual board member. What does the document say? You're looking at the document. Where

176do you see those gaps? Because remember, our focus is description, not interpretation. What does it say? All right. Go. So, uh, just really quick, transparent facilitation board chair superintendent just I might need 10 minutes. Okay. All right. So, we should I'm going to try and get us I'm going to try and get us get you to lunch so we not pushing it too far. I know y even though we started late your stomach. >> Right. So, I want to make sure you you got some food. So, let's do uh let's do a quick exercise with this one. I'll give you four minutes. Four minutes for this one. [clears throat] That's why I think we have a lot of time. There was an unfairness. We're not doing persistent love. >> [laughter] >> What appears to be

177stable or >> privacy outcomes differ I'm Are you a part of progress [laughter] there? This is the final one for you. Consistent. Next one. [snorts] >> What was the question for I think one of the visibility gaps that we're seeing it's basically >> and this is something that the board cited in there is that the board norms and best practices are applied consistently. So like you said 47 of the respondents said the norms are followed about half of the time [laughter] church. Oh, I'm sorry. You like >> yours? Yours fits in. >> Oh, we're not there yet. [laughter] >> So, we're supposed to figure things governance. So this is just from here some things. >> Yes, we have [laughter] question. >> So can we go back to that? >> So a pattern we see is

178board norms and best practices. >> Oh okay. Gotcha. because [laughter] there so the pattern that we see is board norms and best practices applied in consistency for one >> and that's because it appears in the success model it was there and it appears in the key findings like that. So now you take that and say where does these three >> now? [laughter] Okay. All right. It looks like we are good. So, everyone has their their category. I'm going to give you time after lunch to kind of clean this up, but I want to make sure uh we get to our next step, okay? Because I want to be able to hear from you. So, for reflecting on patterns, considering the patterns that you have named, which pattern most clearly reflects system design, >> which pattern

179feels most within governance influence? So look at the patterns that you that the pattern sentence that you created. Which pattern most clearly reflects system design. Which pattern feels most within governance and force? >> Okay. It says a pattern is the board practices. I think you're right. Consistent. >> I was going to say I think we really fall under governance influence on what our pattern is, but I think the solution might be in system design. >> Exactly. >> Procedure >> and it kind of goes back to board assessment results. We're talking about key findings data for governance and cohesion >> but we're not consistent with it to allow them to make decisions. So we >> I'm thinking system design on delivery also we see a sign commitment to continuous improvement as it is in accommodations and

180the recommendations >> on the board knows this information is coming here >> and I will say this during our respond to an email question [laughter] every year but things are being presented. My challenge is doing that. >> Yeah. >> I just think this is what I think. [laughter] >> Keep the main thing the main thing, right? look great. [laughter] >> That's important. We look great. >> Okay. >> Our committee is >> what do we have? What do we have? Let's start here. Uh one for your um what's your sentence and where do you think it uh most system design system was? Oh, sorry. system design. >> No, the first one. Was it a consistent? You said it was consistent. >> Oh, our monitoring process. [laughter] >> Okay, we're here. >> And then, oh, sorry. >>

181Okay, hold on one second. One second, guys. I wanted I want you guys to be able to hear so we can hear. >> Okay, so for our consistency, our monitoring progress was not consistent or how we did it. Um the variation was uh in the data the self evaluation issue shown there and then what we all had around that >> and then our visibility gaps came in the communication of itself. >> Ah >> which goes back to how we monitor it as well. >> Okay. And you say you you this is which one? System or governance? >> Governments. Ah >> very good. Very good. So as you see with this example I want to hear uh one more. What you see with this example, this is starting to help create a framework for both parties

182on how to operate, >> right? On how to operate. It's really clear. It's concise, right? You know, a meeting can be scheduled for an hour, guys. It's okay for the meeting to be 30 minutes. [laughter] Don't right. It really is okay to get a superintendent 30 minutes of her life back, right? It really is okay. We do not have to take up all the oxygen, right? And so the more we refine and get into that and god forbid we already doing it Dr. Moore and there there doesn't need to be the meaning [clears throat] like we can just progress right boom that's where we are um one more who who would like to go for uh with their sentence you're going to say your sentence you're going to say where you feel there there is

183the uh uh pattern and which question you're responding to. So we can we what's yours? >> Okay. >> A pattern we see is board norms and best practices applied inconsistently. >> Okay. >> It appears in the board self assessment and it appears in the um governance and co um the governance and cohesion sess section. >> We said it was a visibility gap and it is a s go back to the next sorry >> system. So then it would be a um a system design. >> Say it again. >> What the pattern most clearly reflects a system? >> Well, governance influence. >> Yes. >> Governance influence. >> Yes. Because by design who you target, >> it's going to be a governance. >> Governance influence. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Very very good. Any questions

184so far? All right guys. Well, you have you have now gone through just the foundation of how you're going to operate. See the after lunch will be the time in which you really really dig deeper into the document. So sometimes less is more. You don't need 50 documents. You got one document. You going to be so familiar with this document at the end. [laughter] You're going to be going home talking to your family. They like look I don't want to see no board governance document. I don't care if it's sisters or or influence what kind of stuff you got going on, right? And so that's how we will handle uh the afternoon. So it will be uh a continuous flow of how you just design these sentences. So when you are communicating, we want to

185make sure that as we begin to elevate into interpretation, you still ground your interpretations with sentences like this, right? You're referencing data. You're referencing sources. You're figuring out where those things fit in context of these three categories. And which place does it does it land? Right. And which of these places does it land? Is it system or governance? Right. All right. Yes, ma'am. >> Are we capturing all of this? [laughter] >> Yes. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. [laughter] Yes, ma'am. All right, I believe it is time for lunch. >> It's time for lunch. >> Okay. All right, guys. We're going to come back and do a uh a quick review of our morning. Welcome, Dr. Scott. >> Thank you. >> Um because now is a time for you to really do a much longer, deeper dive

186uh into it. So we wanted to do was establish [clears throat] excuse me wanted to establish uh the purpose. So again everything is focused on pattern because we know the pattern will help us to think about systemic areas of opportunities that are going well and [clears throat] opportunities that could be improved. These [snorts] are things that appear more than once, show up across multiple data points and have strategic implications. And so from the Excellent examples that were provided earlier. We are we are on target. Okay. For the afternoon, I just want to go back uh to this. I'm sorry. So, our goal to build a shared understanding of how the system is currently operating before identifying actions or solutions, right? You guys went over your data sources. uh you have a framework and so as

187the afternoon progresses please stay locked in to responding to uh your task through this framework. So as the questions that you are introduced to and you're thinking about stay locked in to make sure that what you identify has at least two sources. You aren't limited to two but at least two. Okay. These sources are coming from the document. So now you have more time this afternoon to become even more familiar and so I'll be pushing you to see how deeply you are uh understanding and really get uh develop a nuance with the uh strategic analysis. thinking about these three areas, consistency, variation, visibility, gaps, [clears throat] and then finally, excuse me, are these things systemically being elevated or are they under uh a governing [clears throat] influence? Okay. All right. This is your foundation. Now,

188it's time for us to dig into the work. Okay. So, now at your table, you are um you have been assigned. You're going to examine how these patterns show up in a in your specific committee. Now you are digging deeply into just your committee. Identify the implications for governance practice surface opportunities to strengthen strategic alignment. Right? Surface opportunities for strategic alignment. So, you're thinking about as a as a uh as a district [clears throat] uh employee, what what do you do or what should you be doing in this committee that you think based off of this document can continue to accelerate best practice that's happening with the board or based off the document where there are areas of opportunity, how you could begin to produce uh documentation from a system inside the district that can

189satisfy a gap that the board currently demonstrates. Okay. All right. So in our in our next two parts of the work, we are going to work in our groups in phase one which is sense making. The phase one which is sense making this is going to make sense to you. Haha, pun intended in just a second. Okay. uh and then you'll do phase two your strategic implications because I know at an executive level we want to dig into these things and really you know show what we know but let's just be disciplined and and really uh use the fidelity of the sense making phase I have some things in place to kind of help you with that uh and so now safety and operations where you are safety and operations >> yes glad you guys

190know where you are very good welcome back from lunch and So, what you [clears throat] guys will see and I'll provide this for you in just a second. You'll have some questions to address for your phase one, right? I'll provide that for you guys in just a second. You don't have to copy that. And so, then your phase two will be here and you'll have some deliverables. I made some adjustments to your deliverables. So, it you'll be okay. Uh I just I was I was as I listened to the conversation this morning, there were some alignment issues that I wanted to make some adjustments with. So, don't worry about that. But it it'll be reflected in what I pass out to you. >> Um, all right. Sorry. Two, academics. >> All right. Academics is is

191back and so you guys will see that you have some questions for your phase one and phase two and which you are now beginning to see that there is similarity in terms of group deliverables. Now phase excuse me [clears throat] uh group three policy strategic plan where you are. All right. All right. All right. Welcome back from lunch. And you guys can see here that you have some questions >> for your phase one for your alignment and you have phase two and deliverables, right? And our final group finance. >> Yeah. Like let's go. [laughter] >> Okay. And so you guys uh similar to everyone else and I'll be providing this. You don't have to you don't have to take unless you just like the pretty colors. Go ahead. No. >> Okay. Um and then here's

192your phase two. All right. So, the intentionality to phase one and two is to um to be able to see, you know, where where what the end is in mind, but to really focus because you're going to need to execute phase one effectively in order to get to two and to really be able you need that information for phase one and two to uh to create your deliverables. Okay. Now, [clears throat] the reason that the deliverables are there is because we wanted to make sure that today really became a launch for a strong foundation for every committee. And so, as you go through these questions, think about that. If you're a district person, you want to make sure that you're able to leave the uh board member at that committee with very strong information and

193access to resources to help them uh when you aren't present, right? All right. So, we are going [clears throat] to begin. Excuse me. Now, so your first >> your first day will be I'll give you about uh >> 20 minutes. I don't think you will need that much time. >> I thought you had >> 20 minutes for phase one. >> Phase one. Yes. >> Academics. Academics. This one a lot easier. You guys are safe. >> And finance. >> So it's one for each person. All >> right. So please uh as you reviewing your sheets, pay close attention because if you were taking pictures, remember the deliverables have changed for what I had up here that I shared with Matt, that's adjusted based off of conversations that I heard this morning. So that there was greater

194alignment. So, uh, focus on the group deliverable that's on the sheet that you have. >> The group deliverable that's on the sheet. >> Everybody, >> but you're not there yet. I just wanted you to know those who want to know what they have to do. Uh, so you are on phase one. Now that everyone has their sheet and you are answering those questions. Remember the answer to the questions stay within the frame, >> right? How you answer the question stay within the frame. Right? Everyone is together. All right. Um, >> we >> Yes, ma'am. >> We all have the same like academics. This is all the same. >> Yes, ma'am. Everyone at the table has the same sheet. >> Yes. >> That means we don't have to do anything. >> [laughter] >> It was for

195the seating. Sorry, that was cuz they were on the seating because they still work together for that. >> Okay. I'm sorry. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. Then I'll make sure I uh get I apologize for that. >> I got a wrong roster for the class. Everybody like that's not me. I'm not in that class. >> [laughter] >> I'm trying to figure out >> answering the question. >> Look at the first one. What evidence from analysis operational indicators? >> We have to look at the patterns that we see within um this >> and that document [laughter] >> yeah the short title of the strategic goal that we see >> so the questions that we're thinking about we see what patterns consistency variability expectations outcome differences more closely tied to system than individual practice. And what does

196sped performance help us understand? [laughter] >> So it's like throughout >> because it appears. >> So can I take three to five minutes? >> Okay. And I want to We just want to make sure to think about >> what we notice around patterns related to the questions under system >> yes all you're doing is >> yes I think so >> any other evidence that suggests variation in how the future plan So here it is priorities that we have questional question and climate >> but there's not a breakdown that I can find and I think that's where now it does culture and climate >> culture climate change capital number Safety and security. I found it. >> Summary. >> Yep. >> Providing safe and supportive environments conducive to learning and grow. >> Right. >> And then if

197you go forward >> my approach earlier being loud so that everybody hears it [clears throat] one approach. So when y'all something [clears throat] that you need help with >> the more information helps us talk to it county council and things like that it helps get that out there. The next time it shows up, page 27 page 27. Okay. >> If you touch the screen one time, it will show you what page you're on. You said 26 >> should look like that. And then if you look in that >> number basically I think this says high awareness of safety and student satisfaction initiatives and then analysis discuss culture related issues. However linkages to staff culture. Maybe I'm tight and don't like spend money. >> Okay. So, understand what evidence shows resource allocation. >> These are the

198the pillars, right? >> Okay. Excuse me. Thank you. [snorts] >> There's a number of safety and security. >> Okay. Right. [laughter] [clears throat] >> Yeah. >> I think there's still a linkage there. We talk about environment >> districtwide satisfaction increase. Say what you just said. >> I should have wrote it out. I'm start writing things down next time. How about that? There you go. >> It speaks to my world >> kind of the pillars of trans We have the data tightly. What I fear for the future >> will have the work to maintain classroom to a standard teacher talking [laughter] >> PDF might individual isolation monitor all of the utilities. It's not synchronized with mostly >> so phase one maybe come back to the core question. If you look under the focus for system coherence,

199first question is what patterns in the analysis suggest consistency or variability in tier one instructional according to his Um there was inconsistency that there was the roles and collective accountability >> well and they have to do >> and that show that's right >> the flooring right here that's got some great data analysis for talking about Uh I noticed in relation to that particular question you know the patterns in the analysis summary there is a section on where each section has to hold on to that [clears throat] issues around policy section >> the whole section proving based on um that that incon some of those inconsistencies and then also in that executive summary there's noticing right I think we may have some discussions to come on facility and they decide that could become >> protected. Edgefield

200and then Edgefield yesterday. >> Yeah. in this section. >> I would say again this weekend New York down and what we're find to be progress or something. Yeah, we talked >> a twice. If I give you a snapshot of facility that facility study do now >> all I can tell you right now is the ones I'm fixing >> going out right now I'm thinking that's a very elevation. >> I think it's because of the There was what I can tell initiated. We just hired a company to do that. Start that month and they should kind of mapping our way ahead. I think that's something >> we have a lot of expertise talking like >> um so the second question I don't have I didn't really >> I have I have lots of things that I

201found related to your last question which is what does that help us understand about overall tier one effectiveness. I'm going to try to save text because I got all kinds of thoughts about >> talked about that earlier. >> Um you know so you know one thing that in the executive summary section first section uh it talked about a high level variability in tier one. Um, oh no, this is money. Um but like one of the things I like I I this is how I'm moving as a senior chief is >> uh it's hard when a district is when you look at data >> by teacher you can look at beta school to school to school and then you you look at regional clusters and uh but >> you can look at schools data teacher to

202teacher to teacher >> and when there's high variability across the teacher. That's where we know that the system is really teacher dependent rather than the last system. So really I'm trying to find and then I think the third one would be that facility study >> and also the effectiveness of teachers who are coming into part of that facility >> [laughter] >> We are doing >> we are not doing the thing like the sentence We noticed we had variability in one executive and then also in [laughter] the board the board understand >> in my world So that means that there had to be a commitment to >> I always to me they're your most kind >> [laughter] >> It would be interesting if we get to the place where we're saying these are >> I think

203the one that we have in place right now would be the safety system But I do think >> I I think that facility plan >> I will say agree >> totally. It says that like in this document in the executive summary I read that I don't think it's actually written in the original compiance documents turned into the state >> and it's focusing safety report >> um and then something about tier one >> like you said you guys get a lot of questions all the time I really think last year maybe not >> a yearly facility school system and consistency between schools. [snorts] >> But not >> right Yeah, that might >> says to me. >> Okay, let's come back together. No one, >> Great conversation. So you around the room you have your respective group

204number. >> So note >> if you can or someone at your at your table >> put your responses down for phase one on the uh on your respective uh poster paper. I don't know. >> We're too academic. >> I like your >> [laughter] >> overachiever. >> Carry on. [laughter] >> Oh yeah, it's true. >> Does it sound okay? We notice a pattern of variability related to tier one instruction. >> Does that make sense? Say that again. Pattern of variability. >> Yeah. >> You can you want to write it as a sentence? >> Pattern of variability. each other and then we have to add this month. >> I didn't really resourc so I asked Will did we get a facilities request? >> Okay. evidence. We wave their feet. >> So are we taking a we can

205we use a because we have we are saying that if it's on track for full implementation >> then that means that it has become between budget conversations and stuff that it is some alignment for the between the resources and >> the specific goal. We're saying that there is we want to continue to see You want to get full >> uh ratings. >> So now here's the first bullet. >> First bullet ratings [laughter] >> for ATSI [snorts] [laughter] >> CCR. I'm back. >> So, Avit is definitely one of ours. So we're saying that a >> being on track notes that it is a [laughter] >> resources and no no there number two >> and then alignment between budget and >> between budget resources and particular >> yeah and then Darcy has a matching headband I didn't

206wear the headband so um and the third one is Lack and that's go >> understanding of core measures performance. Go 14. Yes. We don't do or do we still do >> schools still do that because I know that was very helpful but they tend to do that place where parents want to learn, you know, semester in advance. >> I think I was looking bullet as a a separate response. I don't know. Is that correct? >> Okay. I think we're supposed to work on phase two. >> All right. So, phase two, >> that was one question. So, >> all right. So, phase two, we have we're supposed to probably refer to Dr. So, >> one thing that might >> speak to this is the board self assessment findings in section four. >> So, let's look at

207this chart. Yep. Section four. >> Sometimes, always. [clears throat] >> Okay. So >> so the first question is what does the board self assessment show like show that how how clearly does the board understand how academic progress is monitored. >> What do I notice? It's not >> that. [laughter] >> We just had to point to the data. But right here we put on here on your in your report you said disconnect and resource flow. Some funding and policy decisions appear only indirectly tied to performance goals, limiting the budgets, the board's ability to track return on investment or measure impact against stated benchmarks. >> So we're on page on page 20 28. That's one thing that the board stated in there >> that they indicate a disconnect in flow >> page 28. >> So I think

208that's what we say that some funds are >> where do funding patterns appear influenced by president strategy. under the board. So some funding decisions are only indirectly tied to >> just that goes back to >> that's why >> yeah so I think it shows that >> we don't talk about that monthly basis >> it says key trends and patterns >> um it says several responsib that while data and reports are reviewed, there's not a process of progress. [laughter] >> So page 28 basically specifies what we're talking about here. We have when you talk about gaps in systematic monitoring and then the disconnect and flow. So we're not basically going to move on to >> monitoring what we're seeing. We're ready. [laughter] >> Taking a stine. >> Oh, we already started it. [laughter] We were trying

209to say. [laughter] >> Okay. So, we're going to move on to uh phase two. Once you have completed uh go up there once [snorts] you're phase two as you can see >> there is space for you at your respective table your respective chart to put your responses to phase two up here. So once you have completed phase two and then they are done your responses on your chart >> monitor >> and that's referenced in both of those bullets on 28 >> shows figure out how >> selfception. >> Okay. So tell me just tell me read it one more time. >> Complexities of leadership transition >> differing levels of strategic leaders >> that we're getting there. >> It's not like we start with Yeah. >> different levels of strategic literacy that need more frequently. >> Yes.

210Yes. I think truly a little bit of predictive. >> We don't have that either because you know the board recommended to develop >> but that's kind of where we lack >> governance dashboard to track the fidelity right now. I will say with >> you already. >> And I got a fourth. Okay. >> So I think the answer here is but I think the question we have to get to is really bullet which is what academic indicators would help the board verify >> um help the board verify access and equity rather agendas. So things that we could like consistently share over time from time to time to time to time we put it in the board or like whatever we need to do. Um, >> so if we were going to if we were going to

211put metrics on a dashboard related to this um variability in tier one, making it so it's more consistent because we're talking >> that's not you guys. I think that's more on us. >> Um, but I think um point system but but my point earlier It'll accept but I think >> you could do something with possibly >> I think it's that first policy in each section because that's where you're outlining um >> like what you have tier one leave and then that guides the work looking for. >> So, I would stick with >> Oh, there's one right here. Yes. >> I don't know. I don't know if you want C D A >> Uhhuh. when you're doing something. >> G A Uh-huh. Ka LED that they were able to see. trying to see how we're putting

212money here. What is that? How much we're spending track Um possibly like I I always worry about benchmarks like what are you making public >> because the other thing too is that it's ready something put same slides back in there to kind of keep bringing them back to Right. Facebook alignment collaboration facility. >> And then two, you could have I think we're there with the safety side. >> We have to develop second and third grade elementary is um It >> wasn't the board that did this like senior leadership did this and then we all work toward it. We set like you know like um sometimes when you're doing a fundraiser, you know, you have to raise this amount of money. Um we know that we want to have this number of data meetings of high

213quality data meetings. We want to make sure that this number of um you know this number of compliance actions are taken. We kind of, you know, like we could set like set a threshold that we're going for and then each >> So, kind of just setting like a standard standard, but like >> I got you on that. >> Are you moving on to phase two? >> Yes. Yes. And they're putting up answers for phase two. >> I just don't know you. >> I mean, we can something with something with sped student performance that could potentially say >> okay >> what's the question >> well let's just put some ideas in okay so Dr. Scott's thinking principal highlight. >> Okay. So, so what you're writing on the poster is um uh >> what indicators would help

214verify. >> Okay. Um yeah. So possible academic indicators related to tier one. >> Or how about possible academic >> [laughter] >> episodes related to ATIS and >> what we are seeing in the recording >> but we still but we still might include >> because we still have that indicating >> one um >> principal highlight >> regular principal highlight >> um I don't know where it is in here but I really think >> maybe like something where like or or like um >> I don't know what to call what I'm talking about. It's almost like a threshold metric that we can measure. Every goal is funded. >> And we can say that specifically for ATIS. Yes. That's how we got it, but I mean >> like a concern that we talked about was >> whatever the

215board >> I think it just goes back to the equity. >> We want to be transity. [snorts] Those are >> because I can give you all kinds of things, but they're just not all kinds of things everywhere. >> Not but I mean I there but we're not being like non-transatory. just it doesn't make sense to share it. >> They're built into our equity >> or they'll make an interpretation of it like their narrative. >> Exactly. [laughter] >> Equity is built into >> the funding decisions and then particularly we can say through our work with sped APIs. I don't know if that's just >> sped and So, you have those in the bottom of your jewelry box. [laughter] Okay. >> So big. >> Okay. >> All right. I've been I've been around uh to to all

216of your groups. >> Now is now is the time. >> Now is the time. Uh sorry. take another quick look. Take a second. >> Um, so if we could, you know what, guys? Just before you do that, uh, I want I want you guys to do something before you go into your, uh, deliveries is to, if you guys could post really quick, is to just do a quick gallery walk. I'll give you a couple of minutes just to walk around uh, to the other charts. Please take a postit with you [snorts] and just a something positive that you observe or a wondering >> posted near that bullet. >> Something positive that you see >> or a wondering, >> right? So, you're posing a question around something that you see. This is going to be helpful

217information as they go into the development of their deliveries. >> Wonder I look like there is the exemplar. >> Oh, okay. [laughter] future needs in the budget. I'm getting ready to do it myself. >> Can I get the question? >> I mean, yeah, I would say >> Mr. W. What's the right word? He told us to put it up. We try to finish this last >> sentence. Yeah. >> That's right. [laughter] >> No, he's trying to say, [laughter] >> but they are particularly they are sensitive to funding and enrollment changes. >> Funding and enrollment. You're right. >> Oh, so we're all at the same. We need to put our on the wall. We're supposed to go take and give some feedback to >> you want some more? to the to the other groups and get

218feedback. They have different questions. >> Oh, this is a reminder. Maybe it was last. >> [laughter] >> Gary said, "Let me tell you a thing and another thing. You're right. question, please. >> All right, guys. You got you got uh three more minutes. You can kind of move relatively quickly through each group. What would you normally do? >> A little sugar and some water. Maybe a little syrup. I like I'm going to burn. You know they say go outside and play. >> That's it. >> [laughter] >> I like Did you take care of yourself? Come on. I'm sure I think Thank you. We literally all held up our nose. to the chicken. >> We need a new church. walk. >> Let me see. totally finish color. Okay. >> Okay guys, let's let's wrap it up.

219>> So now >> let's go go back to your respective group. Everyone's been around your special >> you can like you so you can see your your >> thought took him through there. [laughter] >> Okay. All right. Moment of truth, guys. Now's the time for your delivery. Okay. You want to all the information that you have compiled and you want to make sure that you develop a very very welldeveloped um response to your delivery. >> So the first thing >> identify one identify one pattern instruction there's not enough like what's on the >> question of >> and then one implication of current academic for students >> almost so proposed how academic trained presented to support effective board level. So basically everybody's happy with what we're doing. >> You know what? >> Seriously, >> I don't

220think they quite understood because >> I think we didn't really elaborate too much here. system because they still need operation. Yeah, you can number the difference >> and need to be done very well to get you. You're never As long as you have high quality, well thought out, well researched, it meets the data, it answers the questions and put that and you're going to get to maybe noted by doing the landscape relationship. Are people leadership they come in or even district? >> So all that makes difference as well. or just showing that variability is becoming much more consistent. >> So I know what we're doing now to move on. >> Well, individual parents get progress of their individual children. level. >> Like there are lots of things that can be >> counted. No. >> [laughter]

221>> teachers where the um >> like the agenda comes well >> I want to transfer >> you know things like number of classrooms with >> co- teaching count investigation. We had like a percentage of academic agendas. >> I think we have more academic. >> No, we have another gap like in our a good step on our federal federal. We still have a lot of spit. >> Exactly. >> We also have 50% of our time group at one school and also for African-American males. So we start to kind of see other subgroups has always been the first we got to arrest it. >> So like there's a variability in tier one. Um it's got to be dealt with immediately and that's what we're working on with the compliance but so number [laughter] Right. >> There's Well,

222yeah. There there's a variety of different teaching. >> I think, >> you know, we could do like number of that. You had cover >> numbers. gold. It's >> something that >> you guys um agendas around content teacher certification retention Correct. >> I'm just gonna It's a dumb idea, but Right. >> Well, that's because they have the technology experience. >> So, they don't mind doing interactive activities, research, games where teachers are afraid of technology. They don't want to it's >> Yeah. See, that's the thing. That's that's what we're trying to do. some account maybe maybe we don't care you maybe I kind of I care you know but strategic climate support panic is not good >> I'm just wondering can I come up can we come up with ways of measuring the number of classrooms with

223co-eing we are already measuring the number of FTEES we could do like a ratio sped students to sped teachers that could potentially be and I'm thinking something on >> and attendance too. How many students are successful? >> The only way that >> are grades really incentives too. celebrate third grade. They all did well. >> Did you guys see the we were a district that was part of the South Carolina um strategic compensation pilot for last year and we had two schools that were part of it, Windsor and And um based on SE ready performance, teachers received bonuses. We had a number of teachers who received bonuses of $15,000. That's something that someone >> [clears throat] >> think about that. All right. So in terms of um metrics, we just need to really All right. Yeah,

224you want people to be able to understand what >> because I'm not going to panic about things that another person >> I think >> but I'm also going to panic about things about things that maybe somebody else looks at like And I think too you panic when there is no communication. >> So no communication feels very >> right >> n [snorts] question right here. Oh, absolutely. If you come down from scroll down, all the all of our stuff that we got, what we got off your website, what we got from South Carolina, correct? Correct. We have we're probably about that. How often is that? >> I don't know. probably >> he's And then when you're thinking about assessment sometimes too, >> it's the verbal of those things that do the kids understand language. And when

225I think about something like that, I think when we had first grade, they had pictures and they had a tree, [laughter] a car, an animal. And then it was like a house or something. And the question said, rain. So the kids wanted to see what she looked like. That's really cute. speak to that baby. And then the other [laughter] part of a language for example she could buy why I'm required at that school for their position. because we don't see the same. >> How do you not at a school level? >> They know it, but they don't know it. No, you take them. >> Those are all things that go into that kind of thing. >> We don't have absolute control. company changes to >> and um yeah so at the same time overall fashion

226uh we would try when we did do a presentation to the board around um progress monitoring like a progress monitoring presentation so we could give a little context to things as we were proceeding but we shared map data from the beginning of the year and then we also shared We shared some observations >> around the benchmark assessments around the first benchmark. So we shared observation rather than put in very specific numbers >> and the only reason that we did that is because we know that performance on a benchmark is not always completely correlated to how they're going to perform ready but it's really just a formative assessment for the teacher to use and for us to use to improve instruction. >> But I'll add something else just thinking about when I was a teacher I

227think I don't care how you are. [laughter] >> I only do it out loud at church. >> You have to be careful in what you purchase inadeics through different programs that's offered, you know. Sometimes we can't always go to a great student. So I think sometimes you have to understand Okay. So now we'll we'll go in a numerical order. So because you all have different deliverables, if you could read your deliverable so that the other groups can hear and then provide your response. So other groups it will be helpful as you're listening to see where you see alignment from what they are saying and things that you are thinking about. It's important that you are listening for that in your responses. So group one >> yes >> right you're up >> strategic operational patterns identify

228one reoccurring operational pattern with implications for strategic plan execution. We actually already have that in place which is the quarterly safety report. And then um number two, the operational risk or opportunity insight. Describe one operational risk or opportunity that if addressed would meaningfully strengthen system performance over the next two to three years. Um and Mr. had explained that there is a facility studies um uh plan that's coming out and we think that will benefit us over the next two to three years if we have that in place um where we could create some sort of maintenance schedule um and if the board has that ahead of time um there are no surprises and it would help us with alignment and goal setting and then governance monitoring lever uh recommend one governance level monitoring metric or

229routine that would strengthen oversight without operational micromanagement. One, sustain the quarterly safety report and then institute and we say now because we don't have the facilities plan in front of us, but institute a yearly uh construction and facilities report um that would be presented to the board yearly to see where we are in our plan and if it still exists based on what took place from year to year. I have two more. >> Okay. Two. Do you want us two? >> So for our deliverables um so the for like our first deliverable is identify one pattern related to tier one instructional coherence with implications for equity and student outcomes. And we that we have a pattern of variability across performance in tier one. Um describe one implication of current academic patterns for students with disabilities

230and other priority populations. We know that we have a sped gap that we are currently working on in the district and then propose how academic data should be framed or presented to support effective board level oversight. We were brainstorming u the types of data that might be interested in. Um, you know, we talked about but we always want to be careful. We talked a lot about being careful about what those data are because uh we have public listening and not everybody it does require a certain amount of um you know context to really understand what it actually means. Well, we brainstormed some ones in addition to what we already provide because we already do provide performance related to map and then observations of some of our benchmark data. But we talked about um one specific

231to maybe about numbers of classrooms where there's code teaching happening. We're looking at numbers of special education FTEES. Uh we talked about number of data meetings maybe with data Um, you know, we also have coaching cycles that can be counted, first teachers. Um, talk about ratios of different teacher certifications in there and principal highlights maybe on a regular basis, but we talked about a variety of ideas for for the data what would be helpful to the board in the progress monitoring of what's happening. >> So, I think that's really good. some of the conversations that have come up with the board I think will be helpful on the academic side is is understanding the breadth of services that are provided by the district so that special education isn't seen as monolithic as one category because

232particular categories require different resources right so your your full inclusion uh autism classes require certain static formulas and so for the board to understand that these are So your special education report might just require its own kind of time so that there's there's also time for them to to become more gradually aware of of those nuances so that they can see that yeah these numbers because a group had to take the test they may not have been ready but they have shown growth and we are like doing this and we are working to make sure that they they do get there because without it it's just assume that it just may not be happening. >> Yeah. You notice anything, but you always have to look at >> and we gave some of those examples that

233you actually shared >> and um Miss Williams gave a lot of those same examples that you shared as well. We just didn't share it. >> [laughter] >> But we talked about it. >> It was shared. >> Yes, it was. It was shared. >> I was going to ask and you may have had that discussion, but I've overheard in other discussions that there is some sort of completion. Um I don't know if it's a certificate or something, not like a a diploma, but there is something >> The state credential. And that's something I don't think we've received uh >> it's a metric that we could be used. >> And so I think why why it's important that you have your board members here this you can see now some of the questions that are generating where

234you want to kind of dive into because that it may be evolving but you know that there are some fundamental data pieces that you want to see there on a regular basis and then and particularly around is where you see gaps. And so where the where there are gaps where what resources are there kind of overlapping to our next group there to see are you getting the return on the investment of the resources that you're allocating. Um and so that's that'll be really uh important to know. Very good. Uh four or three >> three. Okay. >> Um so the for the next section actually is our pattern. It says strategic alignment and that's one of the um patterns that we identified that we needed to be more uh tightly aligned in um everything from the

235strategic plan all the way down to our board agendas. Um for this uh next section on governance consistency or clarity insight, one area where greater clarity or consistency was strengthened, it's um we talked about the agenda because that's where we're planning what the the board work that we're doing um in the public um and getting that information. Um, and then our recommended one governance routine is we want to start with a we recommend starting with a board survey in terms of what does the board want to see um as it relates to um the report and on the agenda and then planning that out at the beginning of the year during our board retreat. So being very intentional about um what reports we're going to get, what policies we're going to review, um what does

236the agenda what is the agenda going to look like for particular board meetings throughout the year? Implementing that and then doing a quarterly survey to or quarterly evaluation of the board's work to see where we are and where we're heading. >> Uh really good because that allows everyone to anticipate what's coming. Um one of the pieces around instruction that is uh stated in research particularly in visible learning by John Had talks about um self-reported grade. So an effect size is how you evaluate instructional practice. So an effect size of four is one grade level. So an effect size for self-reported grading is 2.43. So, it's like greater than three grade levels, but the amount of effort and time that goes into that has primarily to do with a teacher's ability to plan out a block

237of instructional time, >> provide that to a student, and allow them to predict what's coming, self >> project what's coming. That's what you're doing for the board. I for the district. You're saying, "Hey, we want to see these things in this amount of time." That gives them all time, all this time. So that way when when um when the roller coaster of things that happen throughout the a regular school day when students are uh in in school, it still get they're they're still able to anticipate what's what's coming along while that is there. But when it's when it's rocky here and there, it's just like, you know, now you need the that nausea, whatever that medicine you take you to get on the boat. So you want to make sure that it's a it's a

238smooth ride. So quality quality practice. >> And can I add something? >> Yes, ma'am. >> By doing that landscape survey, what it does is it provides clarity for all of the board members to understand these are the things we're focused on because they operate as a collective, not as an individual. >> And so then if we know this is what's going on the agenda, the other things then that are important go in the board. So everyone is clear about how we're going to distributing information and how we're going to receive information and I think it just makes our meetings run much smoother around what we need to be doing and what we're working towards. >> I mean to that to to piggyback what you're saying Dr. it. That's that's absolutely correct because what you'll hear

239from the finance committee is that people will hear a number of the allocation that comes to Richmond too and they just hear that number, right, and just think, oh, well, you know, I it's okay to get $1,000 or $2,000 and all of that, but they don't understand that those dollars are quickly allocated and you are stretching them thin to operate for every single kid. Um, the other And I I'll hold that last thought to uh to our last group. So, thank you for that. Group four. >> Group four. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, I'm going to follow these together. Here we go. So, our group deliverable strategic lens, strategic investment, long-term stewardship. Um it it wants us to identify recurring patterns and resource allocation implications of strategic plan implementation. Talks about sustainability and uh describe

240one of the issues current financial issues on that and it talks about the governance decision of one standing governance level question and decision rule to guide future financial legislative approvals and then basically talks about the next 12 to 24 months uh the ability to align this legislative. So what we came up with was the recurrent issues and how resources such as inconsistent equity funding for items such as sp limited oversight and reactive decision making it difficult for the district to fully carry out it plan by and keep in mind this isn't just us. stuff that's above us that affects us by using structured governance tools, equity focused budgeting and proactive planning um towards it 2028 goals. Uh continued underinvestment in teacher retention threatens [clears throat] equity, sustainability and the long-term stability. Addressing the issue is

241essential to achieve the district's strategic objectives and ensuring High quality education for all students. Financial and legislative decisions should be evaluated by clear standard or standard uh do they advance the district's strategic goal particularly equity, sustainability and long-term resilience. And then over the next 12 to 24 months, legislative advocacy should focus on increasing the state support for all of the above such as the teacher certifications, professional developments and retentions of teachers and it should strengthen the outcomes of student and system stabilities. Oh yeah. >> Basically, it's saying that >> that's where I was going. Give me that. >> Basically, [laughter] everything that's above us um that comes down financially. There's some decisions such as the last budget where we put a lot of sped stuff up top over other things that we wanted to. We

242had to do that because that's what the law is. So, we got to take care of the main thing, what the law is before we can start to grow other programs. And eventually what we were getting at this is if we're always above and in front of state funding and that they're not retroactively giving us funding, eventually we're going to run out of money and we're not going to be able to go above and beyond other districts and that's going to create a stale flatmate in education because the great way of building things is always have competition. And if you're only at some point, you got to grow. And if you're only spending what money is given to you and you're not getting any in return for new programs because we came up with it,

243but we don't get any of that in return, eventually we're going to run out of money to make new things and grow and be the best district in the world, not just here in South Carolina. >> So, A couple things there. [clears throat] Um there is there is some alignment. So when you talk about um fixed um budget requirements, even though they are fixed, you still want to know what's the return on the investment. And so in in high cost units like autism classes and high cost um scenarios of special education. Even though there's a ton of compliance that is required to for those to operate, the reason that that's there is because the expectation is to get a return on that. And so, uh, where on the on a on a district side, I

244think you can help the board is when you talk about FATE, a free appropriate public education, every one of your teachers is by law required to implement tier one instruction. >> They are required. >> No doubt. >> You want to first know, is that happening? >> As a board, that's what you want to know. as a district, that's what you want to communicate to the board because that's the first line of defense. That's your largest line item. >> Right? You want that to be communicated. Is that happening? Okay. Is that happening at a high level? And where where is that happening? Because as you start to move up tiers where interventions come, that's where the additional funding that you're talking about is coming into play. So you want to not just identify a tier three,

245>> right, >> which is your special education. You want to know all tiers. >> Absolutely. >> And you want to know what's the return at all tiers >> so that it's so that it is >> it is uh broken down in a way for you to equitably see where actually is the return on our investment coming back for us where it makes sense. And so once you get that full picture, it will then help you make make a decision around what you were talking about in terms of feel like they're limitations because right now you you're only limited in the information around tier three. You want to know all of them. That's the first. The other thing is one of the one of the um limitations that came from a good thing that came from

246co was when people had to go back uh people had to leave March 12th I believe 2020 and go home people quickly said oh no kids need to learn so there's this huge influx of technology provided across the country the world for the most And then people quickly said, "Oh, kids weren't learning." What do we say? Learning loss and then there was an opportunity for additional funds to come. So when you say, Mr. Dennis, that there wasn't money. The research shows that the amount of money that was provided in ES has shown less than 20% of the return on the investment. >> Absolutely. So, so we can't we can't just say that's this is the reason why we're going through this protocol. We can't just say it's more money, right? Because you have to you

247got to qualify what you're doing with the money that you already have, >> right? And so that's the real uh that's the real interrogation that has to happen which requires the alignment because together once you really clear about that you actually know where you need funding. But when you look at it holistically, a kid can graduate high school and you have success successfully done the job of education. However, making sure that child is ready for the workforce and come out is two separate different things. As a as a as a business owner, I want to see what skills they have, not do they have high education, what certifications, what do they have? And that's all extra stuff that's on top of education that this board looks at here and is a great thing because I

248know Dr. earlier um about that going above and beyond just what the standard norm is. And when you go above the standard norm and you keep going above and then everybody else is catching up eventually you're not receiving funding for all the stuff you've done above the standard and getting that return investment then you're not going to have anything else to go up. Yes. I'm I'm I am not refuting what what you're sharing. I'm just trying to provide additional information. So, as you build a narrative around a system that you think has an error or limitation, I want I want you to go into it looking for all of the information and not only identify one of the data points. Again, that's the other part. So, >> I think it's hard for us as sitting

249here as the financial portion think how do we think of that return on investment on that? There's the thinking of that child. And then when they present us now we got to find >> and it's a little >> different thought process because I guarantee if I was over there my mind would be hey we can do all this and then when you bring it over here this table we [laughter] have been talking [laughter] >> and that's exactly why you have a balance of powers. Yes, these committees are going to be very, very important. Okay. All right, guys. You have done tremendous work. >> Here's a couple of things. Okay. Now, it's time for us to kind of think through. We've had some good conversation. Now, question for you. One [snorts] insight that sharpened your understanding

250of the system. What's one thing that you have learned today that has sharpened your understanding of ritual? I would say available even though we want more there is a lot that you can use yourself >> I would say staying in the framework of this how you position the question keeps us focused All right, one more. Yes, ma'am. >> I would say that the committee committees that we have in place are all connected and many of them the the actions that they take will determine the actions of another committee. >> Yes. Yes. Very good. All right. One governance behavior that may need to evolve. One governance behavior may need to evolve more. One governance behavior that may need to evolve. >> Are there a communication system which we're working on? >> What else? >> I would

251say strategic planning. >> And so one thing that I would say my job for you is not to plan to paralysis. Right? That is something that is so evident >> align strategically. >> Yes. Yes. So I I got you. I know what I know exactly what you mean. But it is it is very important. And so that's why when you think about the design of today, you got to produce >> you got to develop things. You got to write. We got to we got to move because we could sit here and you know and theorize all day, right? And then leave out and people like was I supposed to do something? Right? is a very very important uh elevation. Three, one strategic implication that cuts across multiple groups. >> What's one strategic implication that cuts

252across multiple groups? >> Because literally you can't do something in one group without asking another group for a little bit. So the strategic planning How do you say teamwork? >> Yes. >> The fact that you guys have developed your the fact you developed your committees. You've broken this up. Guys, what if this was all one you just sitting at one table? One round table. We did it. >> See, >> so the structure matters, >> right? Taking the time to develop the right kinds of structures to give you the opportunity to get what you intend back, right? that return. So that structure matters. Another Yes, sir. >> That was hard for us because we were trying to do the other committees think like other committees and then figure out how we need to do it here.

253So we were trying to do it all at once until you said you just need to focus on what this is. Oh, now we get it. >> So what the finance was at the great they were at the they were at the greatest deficit because this is what Dr. Moore and I were discussing. The document that the state is calling a strategic plan is really more of an operational academic plan. >> And so there there isn't specific finance language in those goals, right? But that doesn't mean it's not important for you to analyze because as the financial team, you want to know where are investments being made and what's the return on those investments. Have you heard of some of these things? What's happening with those things? And so you want to be able to

254see, you want to be able to triangulate like, hey, I got these line items, these purchase orders that are happening, but I see this goal. I've talked to this vendor or I've talked to this company. What's happening with this? And so it's good for you to be able to do this as well. Okay, one more. What's something else that cuts across multiple groups? Yes, >> progress monitoring. >> Tell me one. >> What did you say? >> Progress monitoring. So that is that getting that information and checking in and see where are we now, where do we start, where are we now, and where we're going. >> Yes. >> So that calendar, these agendas, it seems like you guys are really lining things up in a way to keep you systemically able to hold yourself accountable.

255And you got to think it's not you individually, it's you as an organization, as a governing body. Doesn't matter who's in the role, the structure is positioned whoever is there to follow along something that supports the district. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Board goals. In fact, we've talked so much between board goals and strategic plan. I I can't remember which one comes first because it's just it's just this big cycle and they have to be in alignment. >> Yes. >> Very good. >> Okay. All right. So, next steps. So the board uh district folk are are going to need to work on the net on the following things. Clarity, a shared understanding of priorities and success indicators. So they'll need to continue working with you uh to get here. Alignment as you heard from Mr. Dennis

256here, policy, budget, monitoring and advocacy points in the same direction. Right? You see that there are limitations that are happening through policy. Now, the thing that I say when we're inside schools, so what? Now what? >> Right? It doesn't matter about that, right? The kid is showing up and they deserve to be educated. So, we're going to do the very best that we can with what we have, right? And so that's so as leaders, you want to be signal senders. Yes, we have limitations, but guess what? We still going to be happy when we see Garrett show up. Let's go. Right? So, that's what we want to be able to do. monitoring, regular predictive review of meaningful indicators, right? We just heard um heard Washington state, right? That that progress monitor governance discipline or stays

257at the right altitude. You guys can see from the information that's being shared today, there's a lot for you all to do as a small group, right? So to be able to do that at a high level to allow the district to be able to run itself while you are getting the things done that are your responsibilities. And last adaptation evidence informs adjustments not reaction. Evidence informs adjustments not reaction. I'll give you an example. I helped a group of people after the um school shooting in Michigan a couple years ago. young man came in after Thanksgiving. Okay. There were we sit in groups like this around um uh focus groups what's supposed to happen because you had a couple things happen. Parents were concerned about safety of school. They were concerned about um obviously you

258know their the families of the children who had been killed. So you had a few things to work with. So they were trying to prioritize getting this getting the kids back and what will be the key indicator to get them back in school and feel safe. So people were there and they were talking and they were like you know this thing that thing that thing and the decision to bring them back that they agreed upon was clear backpacks. So, I'm sitting there looking around because I think Aston Kutcher is coming out that we're getting pumped because it could be no way all of these degrees and graduate degrees, all of these professionals think that. And what you realize is when you don't have practitioners in the building, uh, where's operations people? So, on average number,

259how many buildings, how many doors in high school? See, you see, you see where I went, Matt? You see where I went? See, we're talking 50, 60 doors, sometimes 70 doors. So, if and and teenagers with raging hormones, they got all kind of antics in their head. Every day is some kind of social media thing that they're trying to do, right? And so, we're always outnumbered inside the schools. So, you do the very best that you can to talk to them about, you know, regulations, you know, what, you know, things they're supposed to be doing. But every day, something's happen. Something's happening right now. Right. I gu I if you looked at your phone, you got something going on. He's like, "I'm good." [laughter] Like, "No, I'm good. I'm trying to stay focused." Right? I

260understand. And so that's the thing that that people need to say. And so my recommendation to them with that that level of investment if you're if everyone is so concerned, why don't we reduce the ratio of social workers to students because we're not focusing on the real issue. You're trying to focus on the symptom. Yeah. >> What happened after the kid went into crisis? You're not asking a question why he went into crisis, >> right? That that young man had been in in uh isolation, felt alone, got to school invisible. Cuz guess what? When you look on social media, none of the kids said that was my best friend. None of the teachers said this was my best student. And so he got to school was hundreds and hundreds of kids and was invisible still.

261And with no one checking in with him, he just he just crashed. It had a fragile home environment. We know kids, we know those populations there. And so this is a thing that happened. And so the evidence needs to inform the adjustments. And so thinking about that, how do we look at our fragile populations? What are they what kind of evidence are they producing so that you aren't just reacting to some of their crisis moments, but you're reacting to what their needs are, right? What are their real needs? Okay, board. This is going to be your work. So, I I am going to take the information. Gary, we're going to need to get on a call with you so we can translate your um [laughter] your paper. uh Tij we will need you for there

262for that as well. Um and so this will be our next set of uh tasks. Okay. So to look at of the things that are happening that have been elevated what's board ownership team own shared monitoring. Okay. Of this initial uh state. Okay. Um now at your table let's take a quick couple of minutes and answer these questions because I like to hear what your thoughts are. What should the what should look different in the next 90 days if alignment is strengthened? What indicators should appear on board agendas and dashboards? And finally, what governance routines should begin now. Right? Just talk about those things at the table. >> Last question. I think less question >> it's almost like when you're answering the question you're answering started answer >> right >> in the absence already. >>

263I think too what may look different. It's if the requirement is given to you all in a significantly time to arrive and not wait like two or three days. So we should reevaluate our >> first plan. We did our strategic plan. >> I got you. >> I think that's so next days we're looking forward to make sure we be dependent. They should be dependent on >> right >> but for everyone to apply to something >> because I think you're right. So I mean we are facing a different comp because of state mandate but these reactal in certain areas because the plan needs our goals. We should have goals that reflect reflect what goals we have because strategic plan is a good thing. It's always a bad thing. So we needed a goal development and then

264we talked about her current business. >> This is what it looks like at the high school. >> All right, let's come back together. >> All right, what should look different in 90 days? >> Be more specific. sharing information >> like the systems that different departments use to track hey what's the return on investment you know we might be spending this much money over here what's the outcome and sharing that information back and forth a lot more freely so everybody can see >> so I want I want to push on that could you back into our protocol so um because that's an example of what could be received as ambiguous to a team. So when you're saying >> um something you like to see different like give me example from what you have been doing throughout

265the day that you think is hey if this thing happens because I've seen it in this place and in this place this would be better >> what we talked about all day today >> an example >> I mean go back to the the sped and stuff I mean looking return on investment of those programs. But I guess we're already doing that because they've already worked on the added thing seeing you know evaluating that program versus as well. >> So I mean a lot of the stuff that's in that document. I mean >> I get what you're saying because I've been spending some time with you but I'm doing this on purpose, >> right? because you don't want uh you don't want the school the the district to leave without a clear focus, right? So, when

266we're here, that's what we're doing. It's a clear focus every single time because, you know, they got a lot to do. You charging them a leave 40,000. How many we got? >> 20 >> 29,000. Like, wait a minute. [laughter] >> Wait a minute. Yes. So, we want more. We're looking at almost 30,000, you [snorts] know, kids. So that's the thing. So I know I know the intent, but I want to just continue to push and nudge on that that that push. I'm going to come back. >> Yes, ma'am. Yes. >> But well, I mean, even like you found throughout the document and then even in the presentation today, the next 90 days will look a little differently related to sharing the information as this spoke to as it relates to the strategic resource alignment. you

267saw that all throughout when you get to the financial integrity um and the transparency is there but the the intentionality on resource alignment is not currently there. So that's kind of what's going to look differently within the next 90 days with all the work that we have. >> So let's pull that together. I I see where where you guys go. I think I see where you're going. >> Would you like to >> Yes. So we were just talking about at our table that over the course of the next 90 days, we're going to be making huge decisions for the district. um for the 26 27th school year and so providing the board with information like we did today. So that was a continual um sharing of information we started then earlier than November. We started

268a formal presentation in November. We had a presentation today. They're going to be getting tidbits at the next meeting. So they're going to be getting tidbits along the way of process along the way so that they can be more informed so that hopefully that will answer all their questions and then as they get concerns from constituents or from you know teachers or from students or parents or whoever, they'll have information to be able to respond to those questions and try to keep us informed if there's things out there that we may not be um privy to as well. So, I think that's narrow. >> I want you to tell me what you want to say. >> We did. >> We thought we did. [laughter] >> So, what I Let me just take a second. >>

269Hold on one second. One second because this is this is an example of what I have witnessed. Okay? So, I want you guys to just practice it here. Tell me what you want to talk about. You want to talk about speed or you want to just talk about what? Give me an example of what you want to share because we're here, >> right? I want to go back. I want to go back to this because this is important >> because you've been practicing this all day. >> Yes. >> What do you see? So, over the next 90 days, >> you saw something at your tables. >> So, a pattern we see is the need to ensure that we um have have clear staffing guidelines because it appears in the future. >> No, >> what what

270evidence that's >> because it appears in >> the strategic plan that strategic >> guideline that they have developed >> help people [laughter] >> this is the work that you see happening right now and I and I'm glad that you guys are doing this. This is like a just a model example, but this is the work that you do before you come to either body, right? Before you come to the superintendent, before the district comes to the board, do this work first so that you have done the thinking and the thought so that you are clear and concise. You get in there and get out of there. >> All right, I'm going come back to you guys. someone else. What did you see that should change in the next 90 days? Yes, >> we talked about

271um as a lack of understanding of core metrics um because it appears in um >> executive summary >> is an executive summary um and within the board >> survey within the board survey. So within the 90 days we should see less questions I mean asked by the board >> we should see less questions asked by >> yes I I would also say on the board side you want the district to feel greater clarity >> so that's like a 360 yes you want them because that's that's the whole notion you don't want them ever feeling disoriented >> right and so that's and I know it's not your intent but you're getting the feed feedback, right? And you can kind of see that at until you guys are all the way right, there'll still be a little

272bit of imbalance. So elevating that is is the absolute right thing. Someone else, one more. >> Okay. So um a pattern we see is the communication model we had um was not conducive to uh our board members feeling um strong and confident in the information that we received. Uh because it appears in the survey as well as the self evaluation and the survey on the strategic plan I compliance document. So the next 90 days as we're continuing as we have been here developing a process. >> Yes, >> we should see a difference in how we communicate with one another and submit information as well as Dr. has stated she should receive less emails [laughter] >> and the one she receive will be more focused. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Ready. >> Yes. So as

273um so the pattern we see is the need to ensure that we have a staffing model because it appears in the financial stewardship and resource optimization section on staffing goals and it also appears in >> the section on operational excellence in the district's >> guidelines. So you you see the difference. >> Yeah. >> 90 days. >> Yes. What's happening in the next? >> No, we said we got to be sure. [laughter] >> Hey, you locked in now because you see that. But but look at that. Look at that. That's a great example. As you were talking before, we were walking through it, walking through it. But when you said that, look at what you triggered now. She's like, "Oh, I'm here. >> I'm right there with you." You have now activated the time that you

274have with the decision maker. And so because decision makers time is limited, you have to maximize. You got to do all of that leg work. So when you show up, it's like boom boom boom. Right. That's the work. Excellent job. >> Excellent job. >> Yes, ma'am. >> I wonder. So now I'm reflecting and in our meetings there sometimes we've asked questions and something is presented to us and then I somewhat feel like it it's repeated like in a meeting soon after where we're asking some of the same questions >> and I'm wondering if that's due to the way the information is presented being >> like what you just said. >> Yes, it's possible. Uh I'm not there in that context but yes and especially if happening on both sides. >> Right. You kind of like,

275you know, back and forth, back and forth. We're not we're not really clear. So, one of the things that was discussed earlier is for the board to be clear >> about what it wants to communicate to the district and until it's clear, it's not going to, right? So, adopting that guard rail so you don't create greater confusion because if you're not clear and you drop it, that mean it's up to them to try and interpret and then like come back like that's not what I wanted. That's not like what >> that's been said before. [laughter] Exactly. >> Exactly. Very good. Okay. >> Yes. >> Okay. I'm going to give it to you. >> Okay. >> All right. Um we are what indicator should appear on board agenda dashboard >> our indicators agendas. Well, we're going

276to have that communication the communication document that we're creating that will appear on our dashboard. Um and then our board agendas are going to be more focused and aligned with our strategic plan and the board goals and in turn those things will be aligned together as well and have clarity around those things. >> I can let me take you guys you've been referencing dashboards and things like that throughout the day. Any thoughts about that indicators? >> No, I think I think we need to make sure that what needs to go in those are what you're looking for. and not just what you're looking for, but how do you want it communicated? >> Well, I think it goes back to what really saying I think if we again model that this is the pattern I've seen

277>> and it's evident here and here. Tell me more about that or why is this happening? I think that's probably if we all look at that, we laminate on our minds that this is what the [snorts] pattern should be, I think it's going to cut out a lot. And so to support you guys as you're making that development. So the first thing is where where the board is going to come in is with your state assessment. Yes. >> If the state assessment is meeting uh standards and exceeding across all schools. That's the only data point you need. >> The question becomes when it's not. And so when it's not, why is it not? And so that's where uh the recommendation will begin across the board and so that all schools um and clusters are are

278being discussed around how and why they are and are not meeting expectations and those that are you guys have done a great job in terms of uh celebrating them and the principles have have done that. So I think those things are great and already in place. I think the question comes what's happening with those who aren't meeting that mark and how you're communicating that consistently by cluster. Right. All right. What governance routine should begin immediately? Y'all already start just rock and roll. One is this. What governance routine should change immediately? >> I said one um to move from the compliance document to a strategic an official strategic plan. Um I think when the when the when the board and district when you guys come together in places like this more of usage of the word

279partnership is elevated uh so that there is you know an understanding that you know um there are different roles but there's a majority of the time spent collaborating on how to move the forward. >> Um, so it's never a a feeling of uh cat and mouse, >> you know, kind of an environment. You want it to be a a collaborative space. The reason why I said that and I shared this with uh with Dr. Moore, that's the fertile ground for the greatest talent to be able to uh demonstrate their skills and always to attract the best talent. If if the environment is stated, if the environment is created that way, that's what attracts the best power. You just got to think about that. You know, you had an opportunity to do your best work. >>

280And they said, "Look, here is, you know, there's no issue. We're not going to debate you about money. Here's [clears throat] your money. Go do the job." And they meant it, right? the structures show that hey we only meet with you once or twice a month or something like that like that's one of the big complaints about you across the nation with principles they're like look you got me doing all of this work can I go do the work and stop meeting with me can I actually be in the school to do the work from the last meeting so uh great thing anyone else what governance routine should begin immediately >> yes ma'am >> because of the way our cycle works with our leadership change over so on and so forth. I think we should

281start having conversations around what the meeting structure should look like long term. >> Um you know is that continuing with two meetings a month business meetings should it move to a model of business meeting retreat or not retreat workshop >> to get more in-depth conversations like we've done today? What does that structure look like? As well as what information is being covered and how that information is being shared. >> Should we be doing this in in a business meeting? Should it be covered in a workshop? Should it be covered in a board brief? Should it be covered in a committee report? These are the questions that I think we need to resolve because communication was evident in the board self survey and in the data as the biggest driving force. around what the board and

282the district and how we're working together. And I'll tie it back to what I talked about this morning with trust because trust is built on each side feeling like they're getting what they need to do the work that they need to do. >> And when we don't get that on either side, then trust is is damaged >> and can be broken. >> So that work takes time and We're already in a very tight clock. Uh January is here and June was is coming >> and we will have a leadership turnover. And so if we don't put these things in place now, then it just prolongs >> those challenges in my opinion. >> Yes. >> All pass. I mean and I think you know there's no greater time than the present to do the tough work,

283right? and you know they're and it all won't get resolved. And the other thing it will never all be resolved. But what the best organizations do is just get better at resolving problems, right? And that's the thing you should become more efficient uh at Okay guys, your day is complete. >> Good job everybody. That is it. >> We got we got to take a photo. >> Yes. So the the other thing so my my job and my team's job will be to collect the uh evidence today. You guys will go to summary. You get all of these resources so that you can uh practice through the uh your sentence structure responses. Uh you have all of those resources available to you. You also have your individual committee uh structure um questions and deliverables available to

284you as well. So that way you know after you leave out you're thinking a couple days later about something you have that excellent excellent job. >> Yes ma'am. >> Yes. Yes. I'll make sure that I'm going to say everything to because I still think what we've come up with, what we came up with originally the direction we need to go versus looking at holding people accountable or getting what needs to be done. That's basically >> okay. So January is board appreciation month. [applause] I know we've got activities planned this month um with the dinner and everything, but this is our first time coming together this month and we just want to have a little celebration and just say thank you for your support as we >> do every day. But [laughter] >> so good. Can

285you even recognize I don't like none of that stuff. I love to recognize everybody like Christmas gifts. I would rather give gifts that >> really loud enough. >> So these photos, all the new photos are in the drive >> to include your head shot >> and then you you looking place where you can keep your photos. You can upload those to the central location. >> Yes. Oh, sorry. Is there no other >> do you