001All right. I would like to call this meeting to order. Tonight is Monday, August 11th, and this is the regular schedule board meeting for the school district of OKone County. So, I'd like to welcome everybody here, and thank you for coming. And at this time, we will have our invocation. And you are welcome to join me in prayer. Dear heavenly father, I come to you tonight with a grateful heart for the opportunity to serve our schools and our community. Your word reminds us to work as if we are working for you. As Colossians 3:23 reminds us that we are to set our hearts on things above, to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, and that whatever we do, we should work at it with all of our heart as if we are
002working for you. I ask for your guidance over every school board member, school leader, parent, and community member here. Grant us clarity, compassion, and wisdom in our discussions and decisions. Bless our teachers, staff, and administrators with strength, joy, and a deep sense of purpose in their calling. We lift up every student in our district. May they be safe, supported, and inspired to grow into all that you've created them to be. And Lord, we pray for our community that we would be united in care and compass compassion to the next generation. May everything we do here tonight bring you honor knowing that in serving others, we are ultimately serving you. And in Jesus name I pray. Amen. >> Amen. At this time we will have the pledge of allegiance. >> Attention salute pledge algiance to the
003flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. At this time, I would like to ask for approval of our agenda. >> I make a motion that we approve the agenda for August 11th, 2025 board meeting. >> A motion, a second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> All right. Thank you. And at this time, I would like to welcome Westminster Elementary for our school highlighters. Good. Good evening. I'm Miss Smith, principal at Westminster Elementary School. I have with me our assistant principal, Miss Jessica Thomas, our guidance counselor, Miss Joanie M. um Miss Tiffany Lee, she teaches fifth grade um math. And then we have Miss Allison Whiten who is our special education teacher um for fourth and fifth grade.
004So tonight we're going to kind of highlight our inclusion model. So at WES, when we say all means all, we really mean all means all. All our students deserve a high quality education no matter their abilities. So last year we started um implementing an inclusion model in kindergarten through fifth grade. Um our special education teachers work closely with general education teachers to work with models to make it work perfectly for our students and their needs. A huge sign that we saw that it was working is in our fourth and fifth grade population, specifically our bottom 20%. So SC ready gives us our data and we have a bottom 20% in fourth and fifth grade. And so we look at that bottom 20% and we try to see how we can help them grow. And what
005we saw based on my own calculations because SC ready data is still embargoed but we looked at their projected growth from last year or from the previous year to spring of last year and we saw the majority of our bottom 20% in fourth and fifth grade met their goals. So there's two things that they look at. MAT that is the average growth of a student from one year to the next and ABT which is that added value meaning they grew more than the average student in a year. So in that again majority of our students met that who were in our bottom 20%. So those scores MAT and AVT are used to used to um rate us on our school report card specifically in the progress indicator. So we are seeing that our students are
006making the growth they need to be those students that struggle the most because the idea is by the end of 8th grade they're on grade level. So would you add that value for getting them closer to it? And that's what the inclusion model is helping do with those students who are there. So Miss Lee, Miss Whiten, they're going to kind of talk through their view of the inclusion model. So in my gened math class, um one thing I've noticed is growth um in the classroom with keeping track with data from day one and you know and so on. So basically um this includes all students including inclusion kids which is self-contained resource kiddos. Um those students are going from 10 to 20% proficiency to 70 80 100% of proficiency on my formative assessments. Um so
007basically we sat down and looked at the past year's um preliminary results are showing a huge huge growth from fourth grade to fifth grade. And that's exactly what I'm seeing in my classroom as I'm tracking that data and watching them go from that preassessment to that formal assessment. So I have a little bit different perspective because these students um especially the self-contained students I've had for multiple years at a time. So I know these students very well. Um so we've seen them grow in so many different ways. One big way is their IP goals. We've seen them grow both on their um goals that are focused on what their ability level is as well as goals that are addressing grade level skills as well. Um, in addition to that, we've seen them grow a ton
008socially. Um, when you look at these pictures, you're not able to see what student has a disability and what student doesn't. They're all the same in the eyes of the students, the teachers, everyone. Um, so that's something that really speaks to me a lot. Um, they also they also have grown a lot in their social skills. Some of these students coming into fourth grade had social skills that were on a kindergarten level. Now they are comparable to their grade level peers. Um, we've also seen them grow in their life goals. Um, previously when I spoke to these students, they didn't have many goals for themselves. They couldn't tell me if they wanted to graduate high school. Now they have goals like graduating high school, going to college, getting a job, being able to drive a
009car. Um, so those are some great things that we love to see for our students. Miss >> So we are super excited. They've shared a little bit about how we're engaging our students at Westminster Elementary. And one goal that we've had the past two years is engaging our students and empowering our families. So, we are very excited to go into our second year of partnership with the Carolina Family Engagement Center. So, that just as these ladies have engaged our students well in the classroom, now we're stepping into a realm where we want to continue to empower those families. And some of the ways we are planning to do that is um one thing we've come up with this year is we're going to have some incentives for family engagement. Um we've made loyalty cards. So
010when they come to those engagement activities, they'll get punches and work towards some incentives. And our first opportunity for that is going right along with the inclusion model. here. On August the 19th, we are hosting a special education family night where our parents of students with IEPs can come into the school. Our specialed team has developed a building bridges PowerPoint presentation where each family will rotate among different stations and learn about the different parts of an IEP and exactly what that IEP means for their child so that we can empower them to become better advocates for their children and um help them more at home to build those bridges between home and school and empower our families even more. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I think that was awesome. >> All right. Now,
011Mr. Lee Kroy, Hamilton Career Center update. >> Awesome. Good evening, everyone. Uh, thank you. My name is Carson Lroy, director of the Hamilton Career and Technology Center. I'm excited to to share a few things with you this evening. It's easy to highlight uh the things going on at HCTC. It's not so easy to narrow it down to about five minutes. Um but I think I've got some great things to showcase to you this evening. First, I'd like to invite Mr. Dawson Alexander to join me. Mr. Alexander is HCTC's building construction teacher. And each year, Mr. Alexander, as well as some several other programs and their instructors, bring students to compete at the Skills USA state competition. uh every year. So in March, Mr. Alexander took a handful of students to Columbia where our students match
012up against students from all across South Carolina, showcasing their skills at a very high level. Uh so at this time, I would like to recognize the state champion gold medalist winner of the South Carolina Skills USA carpentry competition, Mr. Cole Dobs. Cole is obviously a building construction student at HCTC, a senior at West Oak High School where he also plays football, baseball, and is on the HCTC fishing team. Um, the best thing about it is Cole is just a jun or because he won as a junior, he gets to come back as a senior and he's hoping to find the podium again uh representing Mr. Alexander's class. And uh Cole was able to go to Atlanta to represent South Carolina at the national competition for Skills USA. And we are very proud of Cole and
013how he's represented our school and our school district. So congratulations, Cole. >> Thank you. >> Todd's going to take a picture. >> Does the board want to come? He is a state champion like we do with our team. All together. Is that enough? You can move that car. >> And while I've I've got him here, just to make him a little bit more uncomfortable, I'd also like to recognize Mr. Alexander personally. This is his 28th year teaching at the Hamilton Career and Technology Center and he's led we I think he lost count at six state champions over the years for carpentry and that's pretty pretty impressive and I believe over the years has only not placed in the top three uh twice. So just wanted to publicly recognize Mr. Dawson Alexander as well for your
014success. >> All right. Secondly, I'm very excited to show the board HCTC's new promotional video. I don't think I'm standing under this thing anymore. Let's see. Is that better? Sorry, I rest on the spot. Okay. Very excited to show the board HCTC's new promotional video. Last school year, we sought to have a video created to aid in our recruitment process to show students, parents, business partners, our stakeholders something that really captures the essence of what we do at HCTC. We did not do this without significant help. I would like to publicly thank the Cliff's residents outreach group. The CRO's mission is to provide resources to South Carolina children and young adults that promote opportunities for lifelong success. Right. And that's I know that's what we believe in at HTTC. We're providing opportunities for our students
015to have lifelong success. With their financial help, we partnered with a company Motion Filmworks from Charleston, South Carolina to make this dream become a reality. I can't thank the c the CRO, Motion Filmworks, our teachers and students, district leadership, and the schoolboard support of HTTC in making this video project come to life. Uh, so now I'll I'll be quiet and let the video speak for itself. >> Something built. At HCTC, we encourage innovation and turn passions into professions. From the latest advances in computer science to cosmetology and culinary arts, we make learning fun. >> With over 20 dynamic programs, we have something for everyone. Not sure where to begin? Here, you're free to explore, get inspired, and sample a taste of your potential. Spark your imagination while mastering the power of precision and craftsmanship. or
016answer the call to protect, serve, and respond while developing life-saving skills that make a real difference in your community. >> Transform big ideas into reality and have the freedom to express your creativity through bold artistic designs. And if your passion is to empower young minds, let's teach the next generation together. >> When we say hands-on learning, we mean it. We're engineering the world of tomorrow. Turning blueprints into buildings and powering possibilities from the ground up. >> Whether you're designing a dream home or coding innovative apps, here the wheels of knowledge are always spinning, placing you in the driver's seat of a high-tech career. >> And your education doesn't stop in the classroom. We open the doors to opportunity with our work-based learning partnerships where you'll gain realworld experience with industryleading companies. The future is yours
017to create. Let us show you what's possible at Hamilton Career and Technology Center. Explore, empower, discover. >> We're very proud of that and we're excited to put that in our recruitment toolbox for uh the next recruitment cycle coming up. So, thank you guys so much. >> Thank you. Thank you. certainly two great schools that we love to always hear um updates and highlights from. So, congratulations and thank you all again for all that you do for us. Okay, at this time um I welcome public comment and um just as a reminder that public comment will be limited to five minutes and I believe we have two speakers. So, if there's anything that we need to address um after public comment, Dr. Mercer will certainly take note of all of that and he'll get back to
018you after after tonight's meeting. So, >> Miss Blount. >> Hi, I'm Sue Blunt and I'm from Senica and just have two quick questions. um what programs have been cut by the county this year with funds being less than they should be and if those programs represented anything that was DEI and my other question is um what further books have been banned this school year and is there someplace where we can go and look and see where there's a list of the different books that have been banned because if I if my understanding is correct that they're they come down from Colombia that they make the decisions in Colombia and then everybody else falls into line. So I was wondering if there's somewhere where there's a list so we could see what books were banned and
019why. Thank you. >> Stephen Dao. >> My name is Stephen Da. I'm from Zamasi. Uh, I've lived in uh the dis in Aonone County since 2011 and um I wanted to talk to you about um an issue that's I've thought about for a long time and I've kind of been meaning to bring up uh to the board and and uh it's the uh what I consider the overuse of Chromebooks in the in the schools. Uh um let me go back a couple years. I I was here in 2017 when there was a story in the journal about the school district acquiring Chromebooks for everyone. And uh uh at that time I sent an email to the board members that were board members at that time and to Dr. Thorsland and u my my email mostly
020concentrated on privacy concerns. Um you know I pointed out that Google is infamous for knowing everything about us and uh he sent back a very nice letter by email um addressing that particular concern. Um he also mentioned in there that there was this technology use agreement that parents signed when they registered their students. Um and so he said that he claimed that you could actually opt out of this program. But I think that's unrealistic. uh you know all the teachers integrate the Chromebooks from day one you know and for a student to completely opt out I don't know whether there's any history of anybody actually being uh brought through the school system without Chromebooks since this has become so integrated so I don't think it's really an option so the the the school district is
021district is is making the choice to introduce these kids to um the technology and um I I feel like uh believe it or not at my age I have school age children and um back around that time my daughter was just getting going in at Tamasi Salem Elementary and uh I kind of assumed that these were only for the older students and so I was kind of shocked. I didn't even I didn't even uh know that they were being given Chromebooks during a school day and assigned a particular you know and given an account and everything you know at that very young age um and uh I actually I went I I went to Mr. Norand and let me just interject here that everybody in the school district that I've dealt with um through the
022years that I've talked to, everybody seems, you know, very uh you know, straight up honest, you know, sincere people that want the best for the kids and everything. I I I don't want to seem like I'm condemning anybody, you know, but I you know, I tal and Mr. Norand was very very friendly, took time with me and everything. And he referred me to Josh Shepard who was the technology director at that time. And I went down spent some time talking to him down at the U at the uh right down here, you know, in one of the offices nearby here. And um he told me about this uh quite uh convoluted method that they were using to filter everything that the kids would see and to flag things when they tried to search for something
023inappropriate and send notices to parents and all. And I just thought, you know, uh especially at the elementary age, it just didn't seem sensible to be going in that direction. I mean, we've gone so long in the past. you know, I'm a little bit older and you know, I think if you went back to all the way back to the say 1930s or then go 30 years forward to the 1960s, 30 years forward to the 1990s, the school room classroom would have looked fairly similar over all those years. And but now the the school classroom is quite different. I mean, this has been a major overhaul of the way we're schooling. Um, and uh, so I don't know. I've I've run out of time, haven't I? I told I told your assistant that I that
024I would probably be able to talk an hour about it, but you get the gist. I I think maybe I'll come another time and fill in some more. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, thank you. Thank you both for for speaking and and sharing your concerns. So, Dr. Mercer will certainly be back in touch with you. All right. At this time, we I will ask for approval of the July 14th, 2025 board meeting minutes. Everybody have a chance to read over those? >> I move we approve the board minutes for July 14th, 20th July. >> Second. >> All right. Motion and second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? All right. Thank you. >> All right. Now to our discussion items. Our superintendence report. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, it's been a good
025school opening. We're in our second week. I spoke to one principal last week. Is one week down, 35 to go. We have a lot to do. And uh I'm sorry that uh Cole left. U I may have mentioned to the board that I had a grandson that was on the Bowling Springs bass fishing team. And when he heard I was coming over here, he just shook his head. He said, "Those kids from HTTC are hard to beat." And I'm also a woodworker part-time before I retire. Uh, not anymore since I'm out of retirement. But, uh, I looked at what that young man had built with the uh, uh, gable roof and he's got skills I can only wish for. I may have to hire him next time I need a shed built. Uh, we've got
026uh, the flags fly, grass has been cut. Uh, students are in classrooms with teachers and there is strong instruction going on. Uh, principles are moving about. I have a signup sheet for the principles ready for uh Wednesday uh Wednesday's principal meeting asking them if I can come enjoy lunch with them and some of their students in their cafeterias hoping to hear from some student uh input. I've already met with the principles one-on-one and uh I have found them to be a very uh strong group overall. Lots of interest in instruction. So, I'll hear from students, plus get a chance to sample our uh the nutrition group's food. My fear is I'll gain seven pounds over 20 lunches. Anyway, we'll we'll get started with that. Secondly, um we have some concerns. Um right now, and it's
027still early. It's not until day 10. Today's day five, what your student population looks, but unless something changes, it looks like we're down a couple hundred students. We're at 90 right at 9,800 students. And so got looking at some uh interesting data that I would share with the board. Um if you look on your screens, we've compared um the AOP districts with Spartanberg 2 where I was, these are all districts with whom we are compared often and uh are similar in demographics and numbers. And um if you look on the right side of the screen at the top uh and the percent of ELA and math meets and exceeds and I think you'll find some of this information matches very closely what we saw in the Gibson report. with which I'm becoming familiar. And so
028it kind of gives us some marching orders. And and if you look at that one, uh we had 40 and realize that this date is two years old. It doesn't have last year's uh data on it, but we were at 47.17% of our students meeting uh standards in math and ELA compared with you can see the other districts Anderson Bickens, Anderson 3, Spartber 2, and Anderson 2, Anderson 4. And uh we just feel like we can do better than what we're doing. If you look at uh chart B, this is students per teacher. This is the class size. And I promise you when I looked at those numbers, they were class sizes to die for. Uh we are we've got some of the lowest class sizes around. As you'll see, we can scroll down 162,
029161, 17, 21, 19, 16, 17. Lowest class sizes amongst districts like us. And then when we look at the expenditures per student, we're at the 16,07. And just scroll down, we're uh only Anderson 4 really outspends us on expenditures per student. And a lot of that is because of the the low class sizes. And then the revenues per student. This is the money we have available. Coney County, we're at 18,000. Correct. We still on ascending? >> I'm It's my computer's a little slow. >> Doing something squirly. >> It takes a while to think. >> This is This is live data. We're pulling it right off the website. Uh you can see where uh the other districts rank and OKone is at 18,000 only one districts higher than us per student. So what I'm seeing is
030just uh was reviewing this data with the leadership team and looking at class sizes. And in a lot of districts, what we would be doing is combining classes and rifting teachers. Uh if you had uh 10 or 12 students in a class, we'd be combining classes, moving teachers out. Um, as an interim superintendent, I'm loathed to do something like that. Yet, I don't want it to continue. Right now, we're at about 90% of our general fund budget is spent on personnel. Most districts around the country are at 80%. So, we we're spending a lot on personnel. So, what I'm hoping to do is move us toward a better return on our investment, which uh we'll look again. And we've made some progress in the past with uh budgeting. Uh even this year, we I think
031we have fewer teachers working for us than we did the year before. We'll be looking at those numbers as carefully as we can for the next year. And so what I think we'll be doing is encouraging our school staff to take advantage of these class sizes that they have. And I'm thinking if I'm in a classroom with 10 or 12 kids, if every child doesn't hit proficient, I'm taking it personally. And we'll do all we can to train our teachers and keep them up with uh what needs to happen. But we want to get our focus on to excellence in the classroom to getting a return on our investment so that what you have provided them with with all this uh support will result in uh greater achievement on our end of course assessments, our
032end of school testing. I just wanted to bring that to your attention early on because uh I think like it'll it sets a real point of concentration that we need to be looking at this year. Any questions or comments from the board? >> This is good good data and good feedback for sure. All huge concerns. >> Yes, ma'am. and what you heard on uh from our two schools that presented today, you're you're seeing teachers and principles taking it to heart and and I'm I'm thinking we'll see great results and we may when the state report cards come out, those will be I think usually October >> uh we may see results even from last year that are better than the previous year and we're excited about that and hoping for that and then we're hoping
033that for the year to come we'll see improvements improvements again. That would be uh your superintendent school. >> Thank you for that. And Dr. McDonald with our legislative update. >> Um there's really not much of a legislative update because our legislation's out till January. um they really haven't released uh many goals, but one of the things that stories that folks may have been following in the news is that our federal government was holding on to some federal funds and those were recently released to the state. So, we have uh title two funding coming toward our state, which supports teacher training, title three funding supporting multilingual learners, and title four funding supporting well-rounded education, safe and healthy schools, and effective use of technology. And so while we don't have all of the amounts yet, we're really
034really excited um that that was able to come on through so that we can support teachers in their learning, support students and their ability to do well in our schools, and of course just make sure we're taking care of the kid fully. But definitely look forward to future things that may come out of our legislature. I know that Dr. Mercer had a chance to connect with Mr. Whitmire, Representative Whitmire today, and he let us know that they're going to be of course working toward increasing teacher pay in South Carolina so that we're continuing to meet be competitive in the Southeast. So that's something we'll look forward to hearing more about and I know will make our teachers really excited. >> All right, any questions? All right, thank you for that. Now, Mr. Shikling for the
035GUI financial report. So, this report is um going to be um uh fairly uh short and not very exciting. Um the on the revenue side, our first payment that we get from the county will be April or I'm sorry, August 15th. And so in July, we don't really see any revenue. Um what we get from the county is acrewed back to the prior month. So we're always a month behind. Um the the tier 1, 2, and three property taxes that are listed on line line items four, five, and six. Those also are passed through from the county to us. Um so in the next report, we'll see what really amounts to July's numbers. Um in the August report for the local revenues, tuition um is starting to come in. We've got, you know, open seats
036for 4K that parents have purchased. We also have some tuition payers for um out of out of county um and other um selections for um alleart classes. And u one of the things that Mrs. McCormack asked about last month that I didn't have a great answer to and I apologize was the refunds line item 15. Um you know I gave you a couple examples of revenues that come in there but one of the largest ones actually is our sale of uh excised um or or surplused equipment. So, old pallets of technology, vehicles that are now no longer worth investing in repairing, um we put those on a website called Gov Deals. And those are often purchased by um folks who want to try to refurbish them or um you know, entities that want to use
037them for various purposes. And um in the state revenue area, um I'd draw your attention to a couple of line items there. Um, lines 22 and 23, those are going to be our general fund state support of schools. And then also on line 27, that is the educational improvement act support of schools. Those line items are the ones that we talk about with uh their their subject to pupil counts. Um, and so we got our most recent um payment report to the school district. the the final projection from the state that we built our budget around and the sum of those revenue categories was about 50 million. It was 50,191,000. Um we built our budget in a little bit of a defensive position. You know, we talked about that pretty prominently in the budget development.
038Um and so we budgeted 49,650,000 about $550,000 less. Um, our original allocation now as released in August is 49,150,000. So that's about $500,000 less than what we've budgeted and about a million dollars less than the original projection. Um, so I'm going to keep I'm going to keep my eyes on that tightly throughout the process here. When we get to our 45th day and we submit our initial numbers to the state, we'll see how those adjust. And then of course our 135th day numbers will will render what our final results would be at the end of the fiscal cycle. Um but we've talked about that in prior budget development sessions and so I thought I'd give an update on where that stands. Um when we look at expenditures, this is where the the non-exiting part comes
039in. Um not really a lot of payroll here as it's only staff that work throughout the summer. So generally administration, some custodial and buildings. So um very low spending. Um what you'll see on the check report um is a number of um we give seed money to the buildings for their pupil activity. Um that is a check cut from the district. The buildings deposit that into their local accounts. They can use that as they see fit for pupil activities. You'll also see a number of instructional software renewals. And so July is our month where we reup our annual subscriptions for various softwares whether that's our human enterprise system. Um, you see building security in there. Um, you see a number of different instructional softwares and then our insurance bills. We've got a 50 50% of
040our insurance bills are paid upfront as well. Um, so the dispersement report is a little bit larger and longer than normal, but expenditure detail is a little bit less. Um, and then lastly, we've got ongoing capital projects and you know, Dr. Mercer asked for an update on those for himself, but um the verdict was that anything that was in that first phase of our long-term building plan is now either complete, in progress, or shovel ready for the for the spring. Um and Mr. Han, Mr. Hanby was, you know, giving the update. There's only so many roofing and paving companies and only so many weeks in the summer. And so you fit what you can and and then you triage um from there. So that's the report and I'm happy to answer any questions you might
041have. Any questions? All right. Thank you for that report as well. All right. Now, Mr. Hanby, our long range building plan. >> Yes, ma'am. Um, in the at the board retreat, we kind of broached the topic of uh having to maybe look at where we are on our long range plan and do some adjusting. And part of that is referenced by um for those of you that have been on the board a while, the facility study we did in 2022 um a comprehensive study where we tried to narrow down what was due in like two to five years uh had life left in it, what had six to 10 and what was 11 and beyond. Um well, we've we've kind of taken a little bit longer because more things have come up and we spent
042a little bit more money quite honestly in phase one. Um, and we're currently, as as Mr. Shiklin said, finishing up the majority of that. We the two big things that we have right now are the Wala Middle roofing project, which is ongoing. It's it's a little under $2 million. And then we're doing um a lot of upgrades to our PA systems in the buildings so that they work with Centiggics and they'll talk with them and that will allow us to have the full effect of the Centiggics badges that we have. Um, so that's about to a tune of $600,000 with the with a high percentage of that being replacing the system completely at Senate High School. Um so just to give you an idea of of where we are, the the reason that um there
043has been discussion internally uh in leadership and and with facilities folks for Kiwi to move up um is because if you look in the study, we are um the roof that we have on K the majority of the building, we replace the roof on the gym and on the block building, but the rest of the the the buildings would need um uh a new roof. and we're in year 17 of the current roof. They're usually good 20 22 years. Um so, you know, we push that back five or six years, that's going to be cutting it close and and you know, then we'd be looking at, you know, couple million dollars to to replace the roof. Um so, we also in this study, the HVAC um is going to need to be upgraded in the
044near future if we don't get them a new facility to the tune of about three and almost three and a half million dollars. So if you you know those two together get us over $5 million that we don't want to spend on something that we're going to move out of and that and so that's the thought process along with the fact that we we have um if if you looked at the ones that were there James Brown and Orchard Park and just flip-flopping Kiwi with those potentially um they while it's not an ideal situation they haven't gained population so they're still able to use the spaces that they have uh at both Park and uh James and Brown. Um I did reach out to those principles last week to let them know this would be
045on the topic for discussion. Um but no matter what we do, we're going to have to start banking some money from our bond sale. So that part will come up later. We're we're not exactly sure what it's going to be. They're going to give you a high-end number. We don't know if it'll be that high. But what we did when we did Senica Middle was we put about $13 million back a year for two and a half years to get us the start money because the m a lot of the the costs in in building a building are going to be upfront. You know, as you wind down the project, the the payouts become less and less. So, so we need to have close to $30 million in the bank uh ready to go for
046us to do west uh a new Qi Elementary School and and construction is very capital intensive from a cash flow. So, the construction manager will provide us a cash flow projection. Um and if you're relying upon a future bond issuance hoping that you don't incur upfront costs until you can access that funding, that's a dangerous place to live. So, you do want to make sure you've got a balance to get you through almost that entire schedule of cash flows um before you're relying on any sort of new funding. >> And and we I talked to um I talked to the folks at Thompson Turner, one of our contracted groups. U they're doing Pendleton High School now, which obviously the high school is different, but they're doing a couple of elementary schools in Spartanber area and
047some other places. And um you know with everything by the time you acquire some some land and and that and go through all the testing and that um you know that we're looking between 40 and $45 million is what they told me would be the best guess. I tried to go on the high end just because I don't want us to ever come up short and people say well you said it was going to be 38,000 $38 million and now it's 42 million. Well, I can't control the tariffs and the inflation and that. I can give you my best guess based on experts other than me looking at it. Um, so that's that's where we are with that. Um, another change was the cost at Orchard Park and uh James and Brown went up um
048just again because everything's going up. Uh I estimate those with help from facilities and and the folks at the uh construction firms and the HVAC people to be about $35 million. Um that's doing a gym at James and Brown um and not one at Orchard Park. That would put Kiwi I mean excuse me that would put Westminster L down and it backed that up a couple years just again because you're going to be building a building and then banking money. you're gonna add the additions, then banking money, then you're going to build a new elementary school, then you're going to bank money, then you're going to build a new middle school. And that that to me is, you know, obviously the most concerning to me is phase two right now. The others could change. You
049know, you guys have the opportunity to change it whenever you want. If the board changes, then that could change. But my big concern is we're worried about Kiwi not lasting as long as it would need to last if we don't move on it next. >> Mr. Hanny, how serious are the HBAC upgrades at Orchard Park? Are they an issue that's going to >> They're not an issue. We want to do those. Um, you know, that building along with James Brown and Fair Oak were all done at the same time with the same kind of building envelope and it's not a really it's not a great system. There's a lot of open air up top. want to plug that and that, but it's not something that is air quality issue or they're having to sit in
050100 degrees or 38 degrees. It it's functioning as it should. We would just like to um get it to where it needs to be and you know change out some of those the way they have the returns and just the open air at vents at the bottom of some of the doors and things. It's just not the best uh best system. So, we would do that. Uh I talked with Mr. Mr. Wro today, we would try to do that that part of uh Orchard Park concurrent with the other with with Kiwi because we we're not going to be able to wait till 2030 >> 32. Okay, great. >> So, that's five to$7 million for that as well. >> Um and you mentioned the strategic badges. How are those going this year? Great, >> ma'am. I'm
051sorry. >> The badges, how are they? >> Uh we it it's been good so far. Uh we've only had we've done a lot of testing because they have to test within the first 15 days by state law. They do a fire drill in seven days and you have to do now the code red and so they have to call Mr. Price soon to be Dr. Price by the way um the in December, but they call uh Mr. Price and he sets it on test mode for them and then we all get the alert so we know when they're going on. But I to me this has been the best thing you guys have done for security. I think it's uh the most uh helpful thing we have and that's why it's important to get those
052PA systems working because what it'll do is it'll come across the PA tell everybody this is not a drill go to where you're supposed to go. It'll come across every desktop computer, every board, video board that's up and the kids will see the same thing as the staff. So, >> right. Thank you. I appreciate that you pointed out that KEI needs to move up and also um mentioning that we've lost approximately 200 more students. I think that given the growth of new housing developments going up, possibility of student populations changing. Uh I'm glad that you brought up that this might change after that going forward because uh certainly those dynamics would play into whether or not you need to add extra classrooms uh and so forth. So thanks for bringing that up so that that
053can be a point of talking. >> Yeah. And and and you know trying to project something out 8 10 12 years is is tough um just just based on that. But um I think this is our best guess that that we can have a guesstimate at this time. I think we really need to focus in on phase two right now and let that be Kiwi. If if you guys would >> adjustment >> on the Kiwi school, is it is that going to require extra property? >> It will. Um, so there are two there are two options. Uh, I've I've got a folder on my desk that uh I've had since we decided this was going to going to happen. um with multiple multiple potential sites, but um you know, there's not enough room on the
054site we have now to have school going and build it. But if we could gather some land around that, that might be a possibility. Um or we can look at a couple of different sites that people have reached out to us about. But, um we haven't really, uh dove too deep into that yet because at first it was farther down line. Um, if this goes through and that we will we'll definitely uh ramp up the the looking for land for for Kiwi, but there's just not enough on what we 22 acre site. Um, we can't have kids in the school and build over where the parking lot is and the track is. There's just not enough room there. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Other questions? while you're while you're >> at it. Weapons detection update,
055>> right? Um so, uh with the uh weapons detection, um the the first thing that happened was they will would not when we ordered them, they won't send them to you until you schedule training. Well, you can't do training until school's in session. Um so, we had we had looked at it and we had talked to them. We scheduled training for this week actually in in August. Uh then she came back and there was a conflict. Plus we had talked in with our principles and everybody. Uh Miss Hughes heavily involved, law enforcement heavily involved. When we do the training, it's it's it's a day uh it's an afternoon of training which is right now scheduled for September 8th. Um it's it's like 1 to 3, but we've got to have any administrator who will be
056running the machine or watching the machine or working with with the devices. SRO's any other staff, district staff that'll be gone. I got facility guys that will have to be at that. We didn't feel like it was the best thing to start school and three days later pull out half your all your admin from the high school, middle school, SRO's and and such. So, uh, they worked with us and they'd already shipped our devices because they said they wouldn't ship them till we scheduled training. But we now have training scheduled on the 8th, which is the next board meeting day. I asked them how long it would go and they said it wouldn't interfere with the board meeting. And then they will stay on site. They will spend the night and they will be with
057us as we implement it the first time the next day. So everybody's going to know when it's going to start, but they don't know where. Um so they train us, then they come out with us and they observe and help and make sure we understand what we're doing and we do it the right way. Um when we first set up our initial time using them, if that makes sense. So that's kind of where we are with that. >> And how many how many did we officially end up >> six >> purchasing? >> So we're going to the plan we've talked about is three entrances, two at each entrance, one that everybody walks through that you make a little wider. the secondary one which is to check the second check after you've set the alarm off
058and we don't throw your book bag or you've put your phone over here or you've taken out whatever set off the metal detector as long as it wasn't something inappropriate. >> There's some interesting statistics in the news this evening from the Greenville County >> um input and how this has gone over the three-year period that they have put these into their schools. Uh so in the last two years they um obtained an average of 35 weapons per year and they didn't really say whether those were knives, guns, whatever. But uh there's no question that this is a good move uh going forward for the security and I'm happy that we're moving in that direction. >> Okay. Any other questions for Mr. Hy? All right. Then policy CCA, our organizational chart. >> Yes, ma'am. Uh what
059you have in front of you is basically the past organizational chart with three changes. Uh one, we've added the PIO and two we have combined the director of accountability and assessment, director of data management into one position. And then with the ATSI director, we've just changed the line of authority. So few minor changes to the organizational chart to make it more accurately reflect our current condition. >> Now moving on to discussion and possible action items. Uh Mr. Shikling on the bond resolution. >> Yep. So this is a regular procedure for us on an annual basis. We did used to do this in the spring around March up until last year. Last year was the first year we did this in the fall. Um that's the issuance of debt for our capital program. The rationale for
060moving in into doing it in the fall was that the assessment figures would be concrete um from across the street. And so with our goal of trying to maintain a particular millage rate um having a more concrete denominator allows u we use um Mr. Brian Nurick with Compass MUN um as our um bond advisor. It allows him to do a better calculation of what amount of money is going to result in that bond I'm sorry in that millage rate that we are um seeking or that we find desirable. Um so I would draw your attention to the the attachment includes the appendices that will actually be the notice of sale and um some of the closing documents. Um but on page two um under line item E um and Sandy, do you have the ability
061to just move it to? Yep. Right there. Thank you. Um the the threshold for our borrowing is governed by state law and that's based upon the entire taxable assessment value of property within the district. So you're seeing that value as of June 30th was 752 well 753 million with rounding and so we can u bond up to 8% of that value. So with our amount outstanding um we may incur up to 31 million and so with our desirable millage rate and with the amortization schedule we feel comfortable with that value that is being approved by the board is actually up to 27.5 that also allows for some variability or fluctuation in those assessments um if those numbers are not 100% concrete. Um so that's what this resolution does. It simply um allows our um bond
062advisor to prepare a sale and advertise it and then we um get signatures on it and bring back to you the results and uh how much value we were able to um value we were able to capture for the mill rate that we desire. Um, one of the things I would note as well as our, you know, our move during budget season to move some money into the capital fund, um, reduces that target mill rate, but we also have the ability to adjust our payment schedule, um, to render us enough money to do what we need to do in different phases of the capital plan. Um, and so in the future, the board of course could look at the total amount of debt that can be issued and determine that there's a different goal if
063need be. So, any questions that I can answer for you? So, at this time, I would like to get a motion to approve the issuance of this bond resolution. >> I make a motion that we um pass a resolution authorizing the issuance and sale of not to exceed 27.5 million general general obligation bonds. >> Second. >> All right. Motion a second. Any further discussion? All right. Hearing none. All in favor. All right. Thank you. And then now policy IHBG or homeschool policy. Dr. Mercer. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. In front of you, you have policy IHBG. And in red are the changes that district administration is recommending to the board to take. Um and all of this is based on schoolboards association recommendate uh recommended policies. We normally would not have brought that to you
064as just this policy and you can see where there are some strikethroughs where we're taking some things out of the policy. But, uh, the real reason is, uh, we've had, uh, homeschool parent asking us to wave the, um, tuition that they have to pay to take a course at HCTC, which state law allows us to to do so. But, um, one of the things we have learned is there is a bill in front of the South Carolina legislature. It's House Bill 3802 and that passed the House uh unanimously back on May 7th. It was a 106 to zero voice vote which eliminates the ability for districts to uh charge tuition for those co-curricular classes. And uh that happened in May towards the end of the session. They sent it the next day to the Senate
065for approval. We got assigned to a committee and uh the session uh time lapsed out. So, they'll be bringing it up uh this coming uh January again. And I understand from one legislator that I've spoken to that he feels fairly certain it's going to happen. So, we have very few students that are asking to come to us or home uh school. And u it's one of those issues that I could very easily argue both sides. If I was a homeschool parent, I paid my taxes. Why do I have to pay more? want to have to pay tuition. But on the other side, we don't get the reimbursement for that student taking the space uh to pay the teacher, that kind of thing. So anyway, it just seemed to us that perhaps since it's going to
066go ahead and pass, we're dealing mainly with just a parent or two, we might give them a break that we would ask the board to u it's our recommendation that you would pass the changes to IHBG and we thought since we were bringing that piece to you, we'd go ahead and bring the the other pieces in there that uh come from guidance from the South Carolina School Board Association. Normally we bring a policy and uh first time we bring it to you it would be just uh uh for your information. The the second month it would be for first reading and the third month it would be for second reading. We would ask the board to consider if you would like to go ahead and move right to first reading tonight and u it wouldn't
067be become policy until you approved it on second reading. All right. So, can I have a motion and a second for first reading on policy IHBG? >> May I ask one question? >> I think we need the motion to discuss it. >> Okay. Y I will make a motion then that we uh move to put into action policy IHBG, homeschooling with the U document that we see before us. >> Second. >> All right. Now, question and discussion. >> Um, doing this regardless of whether the house passes it or not, it's going to be based on per availability. So, if if the class becomes full to capacity, uh, then the student would be denied. It wouldn't have anything to do with homeschooling. Is that is that correct? Is my >> That would still be correct. and
068other fees that uh our students pay. For instance, I mentioned to someone I sent a text this morning to my 13-year-old grandson. Hope you have a great day at school. And I fully expected to get a phone call from him tonight saying, "Poppy, how many cheesecakes do you want to buy?" There's just certain things that we have to do with fundraising and that. So, uh, anyone that benefited from this would still have those fees. And this is only for co-curricular and extracurricular activities. Um, still the the courses within the school are still uh, >> am I right about that? >> Yes, it's all explained. >> That's correct. >> Do you do you know if there's going to be any state money available to reimburse the districts for these students that attend? >> I would. >>
069Is that a possibility? >> Uh, yes it is, but I would bet not. >> Okay. I think that's kind of what we're we're waiting on the state legislature to do in this House bill um 3802 is for them to work out everything that school districts are facing with funding, with graduation requirements, how does this affect um credits and and transcript requests and that sort of stuff. All the the minutia details that they're working out within the legislature. >> Okay. >> So that it falls back on on us next year. Now, so had discussion, we've got a motion and a second. Any further discussion? >> All right. All in favor of first reading policy IHBG. All right. Thank you. >> So, so I have a question. Maybe shouldn't I don't know if now's the time to
070ask it or not, but the people the people who we currently have taken money from who are participating in those classes, do we wait till the second reading and we just continue on like we are. I'll just need to tell my office because that's where all the people come that do that, >> right? If the board >> votes to pass it next month. I take a question debate. Okay. >> All right. Now, Mr. Handy on graduation update. >> Yes. And it's a I'm going just be honest. It's a struggle right now with with getting information. So, um we met on June 2nd and the retreat and and the board meeting. Um I have a text message on my phone where I sent it. Well, I actually called the guy that I used to contact down
071there and he's like, "I ain't worked there for four years, Steve." He said, "I work in Nashville now." I'm like, "Well, good for you. can you tell me who to contact? He gave me the guy's name and number. I reached out to him. Um he replied to me uh the next day and told me to go online and complete this form with a date and he said, "Use May 22nd as your date because that's the only one that might be available." Um so I went on there and I did that form that same week and um didn't hear anything back. got a got a generic email that said, "Okay, you filled out the form for this date and somebody will reach out." And it says, "Click here if you have questions. You can go ask
072them in there." Well, I didn't do that the first time. I just emailed the same guy back that I've been talking to. Can I have somebody reach out to me because I need to know how much it costs. I need to know the setup arrangements and, you know, just to go through because our board is interested in making an adjustment potentially. That was uh that was July 7th asking for more detail. On July 14th, I got an email back copying another person who works at Clemson asking that person to get me the info. On July 28th, I emailed them both again and I said, "I just need the info. I got a board meeting coming up. Can you please help me?" I went to the form. I wrote the question in there where it says
073ask questions and we communicate through this form. Please reach out to me. Here's my number here. I gave him every number I had. Still hadn't heard. Um August 1st I went back to the site, left him another message. Still waiting. So, I tell you that to tell you that um I think we've got potentially May 22nd reserve, but I don't have any idea what it costs, what the logistics are, anything else about it. I do know that's the last day of school for students. That's a half day for us. Um we could do 2, 4:30, and 7 if we needed to do graduations that way. Potentially get everybody where they needed to be um in time. There's no option for Saturday for the next five years because Pickkins County has that. Thursday um one of
074the Anderson districts has um but uh I have not been able to get concrete answers to my questions. I can tell you what it cost us the last time we went there and it was about 32 grand total. >> And when was that? >> And that would have been 20 >> 19. Were you okay? Didn't we do drive-throughs in 2019 or was that 2020? >> 2020. Um, so and just just as a side note, um, I I I do worry, um, because I sit in the office where they call most of the time and I know that there have been at least two calls this time during the summer about graduation and when it was um, and changing the date after we've got the calendar out um, could be significant for some folks. um the
075high one a high school principal reached out to me when they saw the agenda and asked if that's what it was about and um wanted me to mention that the high three high school principles and the students have typically enjoyed having it at their home stadium. Um but we know that it's just a matter of it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when the weather's going to get us and that might flip everybody's decision but they haven't had that problem so they enjoy having it at their their stadiums. So, I will keep working. I will call I actually I'm actually going to try a different avenue next time. I'm going to go through the athletic department. I'm going try that that avenue and see if I can get some help getting getting
076the answers we need. Um, and if I get them, I'll email you all with with the numbers. That way, you'll have them as soon board meeting so you can make a decision when you need make a decision. It's hard to make that decision now quite honestly because I don't have all the information to give you and it's not for lack of trying. I promise you >> we understand um the bureaucratic processes of large universities. >> I didn't have any issues when when Jason was doing it. I don't I don't know what what the change has been other but I >> Okay. So, we will not take any action on that and we'll just wait to hear any updates as you get them. Okay. At this time, any board member comments? >> I would uh I
077would like to take an opportunity to uh mention that the board has not had any meetings um no call meetings to discuss how we're going to go forward in choosing uh the next superintendent. I think that the presentation to the community has led them to believe that we will not consider uh anybody except outside candidates and I just want to make a statement from um from myself that we have not engaged in that conversation. Uh that is not our plan. We have we have had we have people that have come to our district in the last two to three years that are actually from the outside and they have brought some tremendous opportunities for us to make advancement in instruction and uh if those persons are interested I certainly don't want them to feel that
078the door is closed because uh the community has the perception that we're only going to choose from the outside. So I just thought I would take the opportunity to uh state that from myself. Thank you. >> All right. At this time I would like to ask for a motion to go into executive session to discuss personnel items, employment recommendations and changes and contractual matter regarding our superintendent search. >> Move. Second. >> All right. Motion to second. Any discussion? All in favor? Thank you.