Board Meeting 5/12/2025

001I want to welcome everybody to tonight's uh meeting. This is the regular scheduled board meeting. Today is Monday, May 12th. And if you will join me, we will open with a moment of silence, please. Amen. Thank you. And at this time, we will stand and say the pledge of allegiance. Attention. Salute pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Next on our agenda is the approval of the agenda. So, does anybody have any changes or additions they would like to make? All right. Hearing none, our agenda will stand approved. And at this time, I would like to introduce Miss Tina Hut to introduce our teacher forum scholarship recipients. So,

002I'm going to introduce three of our students, one from each high school, um, West Oak High School, Wahala High School, and Sakica High School, who are the recipients of this year's, um, teacher forum educator scholarship. And so these three students went through a an interview process and uh with a panel of three judges and they also filled out an application, wrote an essay and so they are um very um very they they have gone through a a process to become this recipient. So they've done done well. And so I'm going to start by calling William Lucas Harbell from Cica High from West Oak High School and Ellie Gibson from Wala High School. [Applause] And Miss Hunt, if it's okay, we'll ask the school board to come down and maybe take a picture with you guys

003so we can get it on our website. I think we need to back up so that our board members can stand on the stage. and is they're returning to their seats. Just to clarify, these are students in Okone County right now that are going to major in education and hope to be teachers one day. So, we'll certainly hope to recruit them back. Um, and they each received a $3,000 scholarship. So, congratulations students. That is wonderful accomplishment. We hope to see you back in the classroom one day. All right. Now, are our one of our favorite times of every meeting and that is our school highlights where we get to hear from the wonderful things that are going on in our schools. So, first I would like to ask Mr. Brandon Blackwell from West Oak or

004excuse me, um, April Gamrell from West Middle School. Come up. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. I have assistant principal, Mr. Antonio Scott. How are y'all? um he is in the process of getting some internships and he is going through his master's and doctorate level. So he is younger and he has a lot more time than us old people. Um thank you so much for allowing us to come and be um to showcase our school. We have a lot of things that we are proud of, but this year we really wanted to hone in to our benchmarks for Q1, QT, Q2, QT. There we go. Um, and Q3. So, if you want to go to the next slide, I'll let you drive it. So, this year, our district and school initiative dealt with implementing PLC's, which

005is professional learning communities. And what we did is we spoke with grade level chairs and our department chairs and we wanted to implement a flex time during our bell schedule during the school year. So what we did is we met with them. We had inside resources that do a wonderful job using something called mastery connect. It's a program that we use and what we did was we changed our bail bail schedule to that way students and teachers could meet with those students for 30 minutes a day. So basically we honed into mastery connect. We wanted to see more rigorous instruction in the classroom using those mastery connect quest type questions that our students will see on our SE ready test that we have just done. Um we have gone through the writing, we have gone

006through both reading parts. Tomorrow we will be participating in our math and then Thursday our sixth grade science students will be participating. So using our Mastery Connect and our com common formative assessments with our teachers, I just want to hone in on the benchmark three testing data that we took. So looking at the first column, and I hope you can see that we have each content area, sixth grade ELA, math, science. We have six, seventh grade ELA, math, and eighth grade ELA and math. And just to make us proud and what we want to make you understand is our teachers have taken accountability of our data. What they've done is they have worked hard together to see what we're missing in the classroom. What the students are missing. Is it specific words daily during instruction?

007So if you see for the 23 and 24 you will see the percentage of students that are projected to either score meet or exceeds with SD ready standards. So if you look at 23 and 24 you can see tremendous growth in certain areas especially with sixth grade math, seventh grade ELA, eighth grade ELA and then seventh grade ELA. We have 3.7% in some areas but if you look we have double figures with the amount of growth that we are seeing. So we are very excited to see what our students are going to score with SC ready and we have been praising our students, praising our teachers. Um we had cake one day. We had cupcakes and popcorn and real coke for an incentive. So, we're just excited about what we're doing, you know, and scoring

008the highest in the district on benchmark for Q3. That's something that we're very proud of. But I won't take all of the time. Um, we're just supposed to take five to seven minutes. But if you'll look at page three, here's some things that we are very proud of as well. This year, working with our school improvement council, we are West Oak Warriors. We have a giving heart. So you can take a look at some of the things that we've been doing with um Hurricane Helen relief. We also um have two teachers that are from Rosman, North Carolina. We actually went and hosted a cookout. Our beta club, we built some twin beds for those students in December that do not have a bed to sleep in. Um, we also the Beta Club and our FFA,

009we um donated over 500 items to our Ronald McDonald House. So, we have a lot of things that we're very proud of. Does anybody have any questions? I won't take all your time. I could go on and go go on because I'm just so proud of what we're doing. Our our teachers and students are showing out and we love it. Mr. Scott, you have anything? Go Warriors. Well, it is evident. So, thank you for all of the work you guys are doing and your teachers as well. All right, we'll let them know. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Now, Mr. Brandon Blackwell from West Oak High School. Good evening and u thank you for allowing us to come today to talk with you guys about a tremendous partnership that we have between two

010of our programs at West High School. I have with me Sarah Hayes is our agriculture teacher and Nikki Roland is our teacher of the learning and functional education life class. And we also have two students with us that in a few moments are going to speak with you guys about our program. So our ACT program has the equin class and her class works closely with Miss Roland's class in order to provide opportunities um for students with with those classes. Um I have to brag on her. She she's our current teacher of the year and things like this is exactly why she's our teacher of the year. Um we also have a little a little gift for you guys that's relevant to what we're talking about today and at this time I would like to ask

011Miss Hayes. Yeah, I was just going to explain the the classes that we have involved um in this partnership. So there's my class which is a functional self-contained classroom. Um I serve 15 students um and disabilities range. Um I have a lot of students with autism, but we also have a lot of um specific learning disabilities and other healthy parents. And then there's also the moderate severe classroom for our entire um West area um and high school. And um that class is also a partnership with our program So again, I'm Sarah Hayes from Woke High School. I'm the agriculture teacher there. Um, and I teach Ecoin 2, which is a class where my agriculture students can help participate um, in an ecoin therapy program for our um, transitional and functional needs students. Um so each

012year each sum spring semester what we do is we have our agriculture students who um take the class they are able to be partnered with a um functional ac academic student. Um here's the majority of our students that participated this um spring semester. So what we do is at the beginning of the semester um we spend a week or two playing games and letting them get to know each other so that they feel comfortable working with each other um and can kind of form a relationship where they feel comfortable with each other. So once we do that um that's whenever we get our students out at the barn and help them um learn about our livestock animals. One of the events that we host each year is our farm day and that gives our students

013a chance to present all of our animals to the schools at West Oak um and just kind of let them know about what they're learning at the barn and with the animals. So right here, here's Braden. He was presenting one of our horses. Um you can see him. He did a great job. So once they are comfortable handling the livestock animals and learning how to safely be around them, that's whenever we give them the opportunity to start riding. So before they ride, my agriculture students are trained as sidewalkers and leaders. And those are the people that help keep the students safe on the horse while they're riding. So once they're trained with that, um, our students are able to come outside and they ride the horses. Some of them choose to not ride. They choose

014to just lead the animals. But throughout the semester, um, we're able to play games with them on the horses and really promote, um, balance and coordination, um, muscle growth, self-confidence, teamwork, all that stuff through, um, activities and games on the animals. And then at the end of the semester is whenever we host a um, best horse show ever. So, here's our group from last year. You can see it takes a pretty big group to have our horse show go well. Um, but this just gives them the opportunity to showcase what they've learned throughout the semester to their friends and family in attendance. So, what I would like to do is invite everyone to our horse show this weekend, May 17th. It's at 10:00 a.m. at the Michael Hair Memorial Arena. Um, and this is going

015to give all of our students a chance to show everyone in attendance what they've learned and um, showcase those skills. So, we are going to let Braden right here tell us a little bit about why he's excited about the show and what he's learned at in the class. I am I I Hi, my name is Braden and the the the one the the the one way I love about her class is that my that that we all that that that I trust her and and and make and and and I trust her kids at the at her class. I I am so excited to to be in her class. And I love being go going to the horse show and and ride and and and make all sorts of new friends. [Music] And and I

016love I and I love my my teacher. Thank you. Thank you. I want to brag on Braden for a second. He has been taking the class for a couple years now and he is finally able to get on the horse by himself. So, we've worked very hard to make that happen and he's done a really good job with that. Next, we have got Paige. He's taken the class a couple years now as well. And so, I'm Paige Nars. Um, this is my second year taking Ecoin 2 class. I'm just going to tell you a reason why I like the class. So, I enjoy getting to see the students, their smiling faces whenever we get to go outside and groom and then ride the horses and they just really enjoy getting to do that. And um

017they really look up to us, too. So, great. Good job. So, just from this small example, you can see how important this program is at West High School and and how much we all appreciate it. And if you ever have a chance to just come out, it's typically was it second block? Second block. Yeah, second block. If you guys are ever around and and you want to stop by and and see the class in person, it really is an amazing thing to see. Um and the bags that you have in front of you, it's it's just a gift from from these folks. What you'll find in there is a a hand painted horseshoe in the spirit of of what we're discussing. And then Miss Roland's class also has a business. You want to speak? you

018want to speak about that for a second? Um, we run a bakery business within the school um called Exceptional Needs, Needs with a KN. Um, and we just do baked goods for teachers once um a month. And we really work on social skills in relation to delivering those goods, but also math, reading, reading recipes, measuring ingredients, and and working on our life skills in the kitchen. So, yeah. So, in the spirit of that, you'll find a little treat in there. So much again, we we appreciate you giving us the time to to brag on these programs and um and if you have any questions for me. Well, thank you and and congratulations, Miss Hayes. And thank you also, Miss Roland, for all you do. These are these are the type of programs that we are

019especially fond of for all the work that you guys do. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Now, if everybody had a moment to approve or read over our minutes from the last April 14th meeting. Anybody have any questions? All right. With that, those minutes will stand approved. And now it's time for our public comment section. So, I just want to share a little reminder. We certainly value our community's input and appreciate your willingness to share your thoughts with us. To ensure an efficient and respectful uh process for everyone, we ask that all speakers have signed up in advance um as indicated in policy BEDH. Each speaker will be allotted five minutes. We also ask that speakers maintain a respectful and courteous demeanor. Our role is certainly to listen to your concerns, but we do not engage

020in immediate questions during the public comment section. Um, if you have extensive information that you would like to share or would like to provide us with written comments, please submit them to Miss Bay. Um, and we will get those answered uh as necessary or or deemed appropriate. So, Miss Bay, Miss Row. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Jolie Row. Um, I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. Um, I am here to advocate for a shift in how we as a district think about student safety, specifically regarding the prevention of child sexual abuse. Um, right now many systems still place the burden of safety on the children to speak up or know the signs or to say no. Um, but we know that it's not the children's responsibility to

021protect themselves from abuse. It's ours. Um, it's the responsibility of every adult in this school community to actively work to prevent abuse before it happens and to respond appropriately if it does. Um, unfortunately, the reality is bleak. One in 10 children will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday. And in over 90% of those cases, the child knows the abuser. All too often, these warning signs are missed or just worse, just ignored. We can't afford to rely on outdated assumptions or vague conduct expectations. We need clear, enforcable policies that protect our students and guidance that helps our staff recognize and avoid risky situations like unsupervised one-on-one interactions, gift giving, or inappropriate touch. That is why I am asking the board to review and strengthen our current policies around teacher student boundaries and to consider implementing

022mandatory training for all staff using trusted evidence-based programs like darkness to light stewards of children for example. This training is not just another box to check. It equips adults with the tools to recognize warning signs to set clear boundaries and to intervene early when some right. The second amazing tool that Darkness to Light provides is their partner in prevention program. Um, and an organization can receive this distinction when they have successfully done these three things. Um, they've used the stewards of children training to educate their staff and volunteers who interact with youth. They conduct background checks on staff and volunteers who work with the kids and by implementing policy that limits opportunities for adult interaction alone with kids. And one of my favorite parts of the training, which I recently completed, is the sample code

023of conduct they provide um to the organizations working with kids. And I brought it with me tonight if you guys want to see a copy afterwards. Um in general, prevention is super powerful and programs like this have a proven track record of reducing incidents of abuse in schools. Um finally, I'd just like to say this. These policies are not about assuming the worst in our staff. They're actually about building a culture of transparency, accountability, and safety. And these clear policies protect everyone, not just the students, the teachers as well. So, let's shift the burden off the children and onto us, the adults, where it always should have been. And let's be proactive, not reactive, by leading by example and making child safety our highest priority. Thank you for your time and for your commitment to

024the well-being of every student in this district. Barry Sanders. Madam Chairwoman, members of the board, thank you for uh opportunity to speak this evening. My name is Barry Sanders and I speak tonight on behalf of thousands of voters and taxpayers who are not only committed to strong public education, but equally committed to responsible stewardship of public funds. Let me begin with a simple truth. Support for education does not mean a blank check. Let's talk numbers because numbers don't lie. As of today, the school district of Coney County holds 37 million in reserves, a fund balance that exceeds your own state policy by 20% by nearly eight percentage points. In fact, district projections show that another 2.75 million will be added by the fiscal year end, pushing the ballot team closer to 40 million. And yet,

025despite that surplus, the district now asked taxpayers to shoulder an additional 3.35 million in local revenues this year. That equates to a 4.9 mil tax increase on top the 1.4 mills last year. A tax height that was never disclosed in your public hearings or meetings. That lack of disclosure matters. Trust in government depends on transparency. And yet, last year's omission forces county council to absorb that increase, not because it was fair, but because it was the only way to protect taxpayers from a burden they were never informed about. We cannot afford a repeat of that breakdown. We're also aware that student enrollment is decreasing, not rising. The district's own presentation acknowledges a reduction in teaching positions and yet the budget continues to expand. That expansion, unfortunately, is not driven by the classroom. According to the

026fiscal year 2026 budget, classroom instruction only increased by 3.5%. Yet, administrative salaries and benefits increased by a whopping 15% and 22% of all salary increases went to administration, not to teachers. Let me be crystal clear. We support teachers. We support education. But the classroom instruction grows by 3% and administrative costs rise by 15%. We are no longer funding priorities. We're feeding a bureaucracy. And this isn't partisan critique. It's a call for common sense budgeting. Let us also not forget two at fiscal year 24, the district collected 6.8 8 million more in combined state and local revenues than budgeted. That's not conservative forecasting. That's over collection. And it contributed directly to today's oversized reserve. And so tonight, I ask you to do a responsible thing. Use a portion of your reserve to meet this year's needs.

027As every household and every business in this county must do in tough times, you have the reserves to meet your needs. What we do, what we need now is the leadership to match your resources. Let's respect the people who pay the bills and let's deliver a budget that puts students ahead of surpluses and taxpayers ahead of politics. Thank you, Mr. Sanders. Katherine Oaks. Hi, thank you for letting me speak tonight. My name is Katherine Oaks. I will keep this very short and simple. Um, I just want to let you know that I do have two sons in the school district. My oldest just graduated in December and my youngest is a freshman in high school. Um, so they've been in the district now for about 11 years. And I just want to say that I

028do support the district in their um I guess it would be their funding for this next school year. Um, I would like to see more um funds towards special education, for occupational therapy and speech therapy and um mostly for special education. And I just wanted to say thank you all for what you do for our community and for our students. And um I am in support of you guys. And that's it. Thank you, Miss Kim Jackson. Yes, ma'am. Good evening, board members and Dr. Thorland. I'm here to talk about the House Bill 382 regarding the equal access law and homeschool student participation. I've been before this committee before and I've spoken more recently to Dr. Kerman on this subject. A few weeks ago, I and many others testified before the South Carolina House Education Committee

029in Colombia regarding amending the language of the Equal Access Law to more clearly define its intent. While our uh county has done a good job with sports um and opportunities there, it's still charging a $500 additional fee for homeschool students that want to participate in band and orchestra. And I think is it any class during the day right now? Yes. Um the the amended language is in the handout that I gave you. I wanted to go over the pertinent sections. There's just two short ones. Um and I'd like to uh turn first to the first page which is section A six and seven. Uh real quickly before we even do that, there is an amendment coming to this bill that will uh talk about capacity. So that if a let's say a cosmetology class fills

030up, you're not going to be required to hire an additional teacher. So there's not going to be any economic impact for the sections we're looking at tonight. So uh section A six and seven like to read that. This is the language that uh will continue on as it goes through the rest of the House floor and then onto the Senate. Extracurricular activities include, but are not limited to athletics, band, orchestra, chorus, drama, theater, speech, debate, JOTC, uh, and their activities, and career and technical education. Um, JOTC is actually covered by federal law now because they found homeschool students are very good recruits, so they want to get them in early. uh career and technical education includes but is not limited to cosmetology shop, machine welding, vocational and technical education. I think that's where they really

031wanted to have that capacity role because those fill up. What we'd really like to see down the road is some extra monies come to the school districts when we do fill those classes up, especially if you have outside participation. But that would be another bill. If you could turn to the last page, section G, and this is uh pertinent to our county. A school district may not charge a governor school student or a homeschool student a participation fee or otherwise assess any cost. I'm going to skip to the bottom. That is also not charged to other pool uh public school students that are participating in that activity. So, we're not asking for extra um uh any kind of extra help. We just want the same equal treatment that the public school students are getting. Um,

032this bill uh in the commit in the education committee was passed by unanimous vote. That was Democrats, Republicans alike. There wasn't one dissenting person. Um, as a matter of fact, I thanked our local representative, Adam Duncan, for his vote. He said this was an easy one. It was the right thing to do. Um, also, uh, we expect that this is going to move very easily and very quickly with some additional amendments through the rest of the House and into the Senate. Uh, but as you know, the wheels of government turns slowly and we'll have to take this back up in January when the legislative session starts again, walk it through the Senate as well. So, it's going to take a year. Wouldn't it be better to get out in front of this and as Adam

033Duncan said, do the right thing? So, um, Dr. Keterman and fellow board members, if you could change this policy or start working on at least those two things, that $500 fee is really a barrier to low-income families. I mean, it's an impossible barrier for them to get over. So, um, when, uh, we came back from Colombia, we did see the the big budget surplus or at least the reserve surplus. And when I did the foyer request back in 22, my kids are in college now. They had collected $1,500 from two students. Uh, one was my daughter and then another was a 14-year-old who wanted to participate in band and orchestra. I wrote the check for my daughter, but she emptied her bank account in order to do that. And um, do we really need to

034be paying or emptying 14-year-olds bank accounts whose par and her parents, by the way, pay the same school taxes as everybody else. So playing in the orchestra was a terrific experience for my daughters. Um the teachers love having homeschool students. They love having them in there. It's a win all the way around to do this. Uh when my daughter participated in the senior orchestra uh her senior year, she was number four or five. And if you're familiar, there's usually 30 kids or so in an orchestra. It was really run down after COVID. So they needed her. Uh she also went on to represent Wahala at the state orchestra which is very unusual in violin very difficult. So I'm asking you to change this policy to reflect the will of the community the teachers and as

035Adam Duncan said again do the right thing. I'm happy to answer any question uh questions. Dr. Kerman has my uh phone number and email and let's thank you for your time. Thank you Mr. Jr. slack. All right. Good evening, Dr. Kerman, of course, uh, the rest of the board, and to Dr. Thorman, who had several conversations. We had an opportunity to meet face to face, and I appreciate your time uh, this evening. Um, of course, Mr. Barry Sanders with precision. He just basically kind of stole him with thunder. But, you know, but you know, I'm not mad. But, uh, we're just going to just highlight a couple of just sort of common sense issues about budget. And of course, as you all are here, um there are two things that you have asked of the

036public as you ran for these seats and that is the the trust. And those two things trusting them with their children and almost as important trusting them with their money. And those are two very very important things uh in today's time. And of course, uh, I've lived in three states and, uh, South Carolina is my home. I think it's the greatest state, uh, in the union and Okone County is, uh, the best county in the state of South Carolina. But as we see a shift in culture across the nation, um there are hints of things um sort of like u various ideologies that are even slightly creeping into our school systems even here in OKone County. And then there is a serious serious scrutiny on academic performance across the nation. And as much as it

037might hurt, uh, the state of South Carolina probably isn't fairing as good as it could. Uh, and as much as I love this state and as proud as I am and I support uh, education, the teachers, I started out decades ago as a truent officer. And then, yeah, I had to knock on doors and and get those kids back into school. And then uh I served as a substitute teacher for a per for a period of time and then work with and counseling with at risk students. Uh so what why I do this is for the next generation the next generation. And so that's why we see today sort of a heightened sensitivity when it comes to not only the academic performance, but we see a heightened sensitivity when it comes to public spending that

038we're as prudent, as pragmatic, and as frugal. We get the most for our money. And so, uh, I'm asking going forward, you have the public that's supporting you and behind you and that you always provide clarity, transparency with that. Uh, I I I love this county. And so, we're I'm wanting to see you recruit the best and the brightest teachers. uh scour the nation if you have to because we want the best and the brightest teachers coming to OKone County to teach our next generation of students. I was very proud uh of the students that were here and so we want to see the best coming and we want to see them come back to OK Coney County. My problem with these students is that they didn't bring enough gift bags for everybody which is

039snack. So if you want to share it, that's that we don't have any problem with it. But we want to see the ranking of South Carolina schools, especially OKone County. We want to see that rise and we want to see as of course clarity, transparency in the budget and and really as far as taxpayers concerned, yeah, there is no blank check. So, we want to see prudent and wise spending and uh that's pretty much all we want. I want to see South Carolina schools ranked number one. I don't want to see us um in the in in the lower percentiles. There are 50 states. Uh and I've depending on which report you read, you will see South Carolina ranking anywhere from 40th to 46th to 47th. And then that all depends on the reports that

040you read. I want to see South Carolina number one. I won't settle for two, three, or four. I want to see South Carolina number one. But most importantly, let us be prudent with our budget and be transparent. Thank you for your time. All right. Thank you guys for all of your your comments. We certainly appreciate that. So, now is board member comments. Anybody have anything they'd like to share? I do. Um, the budget for new board members is a learning process. Um, and even though this is my third year here, I'm still in a learning process. One of the things that I've learned is that that the state of South Carolina is the only state in the United States that does not use real estate property taxes for education. You can look up and learn

041about Act 388. Am I correct? That will help clarify for you that fact. Also, um, we sit in a situation where we are at a time of of our year where it's time for us to do budgeting and we can come up with what we need to function for the next year, but we have no clue on what the money is going to look like coming in from the taxes that we are allowed to utilize. So, we come up with a budget of what we need, what we feel like we can do to function and pay, be competitive in the jobs that we're offering to get the best teachers available, to be competitive with custodians and teachers aids and bus drivers. And over my time sitting here, those costs have increased greatly. In fact, this

042is my 50th year in working in the education in Okone County. And at this time, teachers are pay getting paid more than ever. Ever. So, I realize that the cost of everything going on is up. I realize that we're facing uncertainty and the cost of things that we need just to keep a building open and going and and floors clean and and bathrooms running and so forth and so on. And it is costly. And at no time have we not been 100% uh studious in what we were projecting to spend and what we need to go forward. When the state mandates that we raise teacher pay and then they say you this is where we want it to be and this is where it looks like we're going to hand out a $5,000 raise. But

043the reality of that is not true. Then the state gives you x number of dollars for that and then you've got to come up with the rest to do the mandated thing. They will issue provisos and say you have to do this or you have to give bus drivers a 2.9% raise. You got to come up with the money. So they might give you 1.7 of that percentage and then you got to come up with the rest. So unless we are completely transparent and help you study those things to understand those things and when you look at OKone County is in the top 15 state uh counties in South Carolina to provide the funds for public education. But that's not where we are when you look across the board. Our county is required I believe

044correct me if I'm wrong to provide us with 41% of our budget needs. Other counties get more than that because their tax base is not equal to ours. They're it's lower so they get more money from the state. So they don't have to pay as much. So it's a complicated process that when we start our process to to formulate a budget, we don't know what those numbers are. And so I don't even know today if we actually know what a meal will be worth when we come back and start on July 1. So it is it is complicated. It's not easy to understand and I'm not going to sit here and and say that I understand all the workings of it because I'm still it's still a learning process for me. Um, but I wanted

045to share those thoughts with you. Nobody's trying to uh hide anything or cover up anything. I've heard several uh demeaning comments like, "We know how many administrators you got. We're across the street. We how we see how many cars are out there." There are things going on in this building all day long. Teacher training meetings. There are people that work in this building that don't have administrative pay level. There are u secretaries and and other workers that are here uh that are not on administrative pay. So every car parked out there is not an administrator. Uh and also people walk across the street park over here because closer to the door they want to go in. So a lot lot can be said about those things. But when we're making comments of those that nature

046out in public and people hear that they act on that. So, I think we're at 7% or so uh in administration. That's really not a high number. Could we make some cuts? Yes. Could we use some of that fund balance? Yes. Are we going to work through that? Yes. Uh so, please don't lose faith in us. Trust us to do the right thing. Thank you for your comments. We are listening. And I could not have said that any better. But I also want to address Miss Row. So thank you for u sharing sharing that about you know your your desire to see us improve some training. I do want to update you that we are doing and implementing a first for our district coming up at the end of May. We are bringing in a

047phenomenal speaker to do some of this sort of training for our teachers because I sat in on a session with this specific person training how to how to identify child sex trafficking and what are the signs of that in our classroom happening on a daily basis because we're the ones that are on the forefront watching our students every day. So if our teachers can get in front of this, we absolutely agree that this needs to happen. So we are certainly working on that for you. All right. Any other comments? All right. Now moving on to our discussion items. First up is our superintendence report. Thank you. Uh just a couple of pieces of information. Want to update everyone about graduation. just remind everyone it's less than two weeks away. Uh we have our graduation. Um

048we do just want to share with the public that we do choose to hold our graduations at each high school in the stadium. Um while we didn't poll seniors this year, we have pulled students in the in the past and it is overwhelmingly in favor of hosting graduations at the the high school stadiums. they like to graduate from their schools. Um so that's why we've kept that up for the past several years. Um we do so at 8:30 in the morning um for two reasons. Number one, it's less likely to be raining this time of year. Afternoon showers are pretty prevalent and it's less likely to be raining in the morning. It's also cooler. um at, you know, 10:00, everybody wearing gowns and and dressed up with, you know, slacks and a button-up shirt. It

049it gets quite warm. So, that's why we've chosen to do that. And um the graduations have gone off really well. It's bound to happen at some point that we'll battle rain. Um but but we do uh we do have backup plans should that happen. But just want to remind folks that graduation's coming up. What a great time to celebrate our students who most of whom have been with us for 13 years and uh we're looking forward to those. So May 24th. Um I also want to point out um you have a handout at your place um that just has some draft board goals and in hearing board member comments over the previous year. We've made a couple of changes that I want you to be aware of. And of course this is ideas from our

050leadership team that is just for you to think about. At the board meeting on June 2nd, you'll have a chance to make this your own. anything you want to add, delete, change between now and then is certainly um again this is your document. But one thing we did on this draft for next year's goals is we did try to make all of the student achievement goals. We actually first of all we renamed that section. It used to be instruction or something around that. We changed it to student achievement. And you'll notice that those six bullets are very definable and and timebound goals. So we want to move in that direction for that section. Now the other three uh student well-being, operational efficiency, and high quality workforce. I still feel like those need to be present.

051It's a little more difficult to do kind of what we call smart goals around there because some of them are ongoing. For example, we're talking about budgeting. budgeting for our schools is something that's going to be a goal every year. And uh again, not quite as easy to to make it a smart goal like those student achievement goals are, but this is just for you to consider as we approach the June 2nd meeting to make that document document um you know what you want it to be. Uh the third bullet I have here, teacher appreciation week. Uh we just enjoyed that last week. Uh I heard stories of the great things happening in our schools where different uh booster groups and parent support groups were honoring our teachers. We've had different community um community organizations

052or businesses honoring our teachers. Um so just want to put a plug in. It's a great a great week to celebrate and we certainly want to celebrate all of our teachers and uh just thankful that we get a chance to uh say thank you to our teachers. And then finally, my um fourth topic here, I'm gonna pass over to Dr. McDonald to share some good news. So, I'm really excited just to share our preliminary uh SC ready projections. And so, across the year, we've talked a few different times about how our state has changed the mechanism or the the benchmark for how students will have to engage in summer reading camp. Whereas before in the past there were two categories of students who whenever it came to does not meet expectations there was does not

053meet one and does not meet two. And only students who are in that does not meet one section had to attend summer reading camp. And we've talked about how this year it's all students in that does not meet category have to attend summer reading camp. So we've been tracking and our administrators, our teachers, our reading coaches have been doing a fantastic job of just keeping a pulse on the data as we've gone throughout the year. and I've talked to you guys and presented the data across the year. So about three weeks ago, we had students take the math assessment for the spring administration. And what you'll notice is whenever we look at students who do not have a good cause exemption, and I went ahead and listed those good cause exemptions down there as a

054quick reminder if you need one. We are now down to 69 students at our organization who do not have a good cause exemption who unless uh this week is SC ready week. So really excited about that. Parents, if your kids are up, please send them home, send them to bed. Uh but your SD ready scores depending on how they perform this week that 69 could decrease, right? Um and then of course there could be some students that we didn't anticipate who might score does not meet. But the good news is any student not in the 69 has already met that 186 benchmark. So they would not have to attend summer reading camp even though we would invite them to attend summer reading camp. So across our district whenever we took this math administration of the

055748 third grade students in our organization there were 148 students who scored below 186 which is about 20% which means that 80% of our third grade students are where exactly where we want them to be. They're projected to score either approaches meets or exceeds on that third grade SC ready assessment which is really uh honestly it's just mindboggling. I I've been sending emails left and right to teachers just to say thank you so much for your work and your dedication and your commitment. At this moment, there are 69 students who they do not have that good cause exemption. 79 of them do have a good cause exemption. And so while we note that those 79 students are not where we want them to be, we know and we have identified their areas of weakness. Whether

056they're MLP student, a multilingual student who's receiving services, whether it's a student who's been receiving intervention, reading intervention for the past two years, whether it's a student who has an IEP, an individualized education plan with targeted reading goals. These are students that we already have embedded practices in place to support them and get them to where they need to go. And again, we'll invite them to summer reading camp. But there's only 69 students that we now have a nice way to really look at and pinpoint where they are and also develop a plan to even support them going in next year. Whether that means um they attend summer reading camp, they pass that assessment at the end of summer reading camp and they're in fourth grade, we'll have a plan to support them in fourth

057grade because we know they weren't where we wanted them to be at the end of third grade. or if that means they don't attend summer reading camp or they attend and don't make that 186 and they're repeating third grade, we'll have a nice clearly defined plan in place based on their work at summer reading camp where we're going to pinpoint those needs so that we can really support those students. So, I just wanted to take a second really just to celebrate our teachers, celebrate our administrators. they've done some really focused work on looking at student data, using that student data to be responsive in their instruction and help take our kids where they need to go. So, uh, whenever you see a teacher out there, uh, you folks in the audience, if you see a

058third grade teacher, please give them a pat on the back because they are, uh, if I can use a colloquialism, they're getting after it, uh, in the classroom and I'm really excited about that. Great news. All right, we're gonna continue with the South Carolina legislative update. Yes, ma'am. All right, so we're gonna I don't have the clicker, and that's okay. We're going to keep on going to the next slide, if you will. Uh the four that I'm bringing forward tonight are all bills that have been passed in the Senate and in the House, and all they're doing is waiting our governor to sign. Um we had uh Miss Jackson who earlier let us know that the legislative session has ended and so these are bills that we would be looking at actually going into law

059if our governor goes ahead and puts those forward. So the first one is one that we've talked about a few different times that education lottery scholarship program. So that's just waiting on our governor's signature. A couple of things just to pull out even though you have the information in front of you is that this year the cap is 10,000 students that the state would support through this program and the households have to earn up to 300% of the federal poverty level. And so if you're trying to figure out what that would look like, a family of four, that threshold would be if they made $96,450, those students would be eligible to participate in this program. And that student could receive $7,500 for a scholarship to attend private or public schools. And like we said before,

060students who might be transferring from one public school to another, there would not be any prohibition from the South Carolina High School League in their ability to participate in sports. So that one is just waiting for the governor's signature. The next one is the Educators Assistance Act. This one I think is really getting celebrated across the state from uh teachers up and down the coastline and to the mountains and beyond. It's something that teachers have really spoke out for and they've been trying to get passed for a couple of years now. And so now it's actually at the governor's desk. This bill would modify the teacher certification requirements. So before you had to have that 120 hours within five years, the responsibility of providing that professional development shifts to the school district. And so you're

061going to see that we increase the number of district professional development days from three to four so that teachers get four days, six hours of PD across five years would mean they had their 124 hours of reertification. So that teachers do not have to seek out extra courses on their own time. They don't have to take graduate level courses in order to get make up for those hours. It'd be job embedded professional development that would lead toward reertification. You also notice that it establishes a lifetime teaching certificate for retired educators so that they don't have to continuously apply for that reertification. They can just uh do it the one time and then they stay lifetime. So, Coach Holder, if you want to look back into that, I can give you some direction there. Um it

062also revises teacher contract and assignment procedures. just making sure that teachers know um when I believe it's 14 days of the school year exactly what grade they're going to be teaching, what content area they're going to be teaching and it increases I already mentioned that one. It also requires districts to implement sick leave banks for all school staff. And then the last one is one where by May 1st, uh, if they're not provided written notification of contract reemployment decisions, a district can be fined for by $10,000 per affected teacher and that teacher's contract would be automatically renewed. But our HR department works really hard to make sure those things get out on time. So, um, hopeful there. The next one, uh, we have school meals for students in poverty. And I kind of tagged Jay

063up to say if you have any questions, he's probably going to be your guy. But this has been in proviso up until this point. And so they wanted to just really codify it in law. Just says that each year districts will identify the number of students who live in poverty. And so we see the different measures that we use to identify students in poverty that they're going to qualify for that free breakfast and free lunches. And then that school boards, they're going to talk going to indicate their degree of participation in the community elability provision program. Um, and Jay does that at the beginning of each year. We've talked about it here with the C participation will look like where that first year we did only elementary schools. This year our elementary and middle and

064high schools all got that free um breakfast and lunch. So that's what that is. And then schools of course can't publicly identify or penalize students and able to pay for a meal or if they acrew a debt. So we wouldn't say you have to have this alternate lunch because you have a debt. And then I believe there was one more And this one is a course to help recruit uh folks into the field of education S78 credit for work experience. It would allow individuals who are pursuing a teaching certificate or who hold a teaching certificate but maybe didn't come through come to education in a traditional pathway to be able to count some of their other experiences toward their teaching certificate. Um, one of the things that it says here, SCDE, so the state department

065must award one year of experience on the teacher salary schedule for every two years of full-time relevant non-eing occupational experience. So you wouldn't say that working in, you know, uh on an agricultural farm that that's going to relate to ELA experience, but if it was somebody who worked on an agricultural farm and they were teaching agriculture, those years of experience could be related to that for that teacher salary scale. One thing to note is that it only impacts their where they get paid on the teacher salary scale, not towards retirement or their health plan service credit. And so those are the things we're waiting to see if our governor will sign and we're excited to see what happens as the budget continues to roll through the state house. If anybody has any questions, thank you.

066All right, our April finance report, Mr. Shickling. Okay, so I'm going to take you through the April finance report. Um now and I we'll start on the revenue side and with a reminder that um when we see our county collections, we are uh receiving the prior month's collections into our bank account um as turned over to us. I I do think that it's important for us to u be accurate with our terminology and and how this process works. So each year the school districts make makes a request for a amount of money necessary to fund the budget. For this year as you see on that first line that request was 55,650,000. Um from there it is then the county auditor's responsibility to collect the final assessment values and uh go through a process of mathematics

067and division to determine what tax rate is necessary to collect that amount of money. Um so it is it is uh an accurate statement to say that the school district has received more money than requested for the past several years. Um if you look at this uh and that's due to whatever calculation is made that is not a ministerial duty of the school district. Now if you look at the current budget um what you will see is that based on the the current trend for collections there's some concern in my mind about the fact that we will fall short of that requested number. Um now in the in the budget process last year um whatever calculations are made across the street were scrutinized. We had conversations about the resultant tax rate and and it seems

068collections are happening differently this year. Um so again when we look at next year we we should have no reliance upon an assumption that there's going to be an overcolction on our behalf by the county. Um so there is some concern there. We're currently at 52.3 million. Um fee and loo is over budget. Again fee and loo are agreements that are made by the economic alliance our industrial development agency to prompt investment in the county. um agreements that the district is not always privy to receiving, nor can we accurately determine what amounts the district will receive. Um so that's one of those items where we conservatively budget for that. Um aside from that, uh local homestead and property tier three taxes are exactly what we are told by the state they're going to be. So

069you see very little variance there on the ones that we have collected thus far. Um and then on item 12, interest on investments. Again due to the extraordinarily high interest uh environment right now um on our deposited funds we are achieving more than budget um which we have benefited from the past couple years. So on the revenue side um we're looking at a current month's revenue of 11 million74,000. Um on the uh expenditure side again you know 90% of our budget is personnel which means 90% of our expenditures are salaries and benefits. Um so those are tracking exactly like we would anticipate that they would throughout the course of uh the month and you can see a $107 million of expenditures. Um, and so one thing I would note, you know, we've talked about it

070is the necessity of that fund balance in throughout the fall before we have our tax collections, before we have money turned over to us by the county where our revenues may be 3 million, but our payroll is still 10 million. Um, and so that's a cash flow um that's a cash flow issue for us. Um, and that fund balance helps us to have the funds necessary to make payroll. When it comes to the dispersement report, um largest items there are food service management contract um as well as um some of our regular utilities and inventories for fuel. Um you can see a little bit less spending on the capital side as we're going to gear up for summer here and we're closing down some of the stuff we've been working on. Um and then the

071uh current capital projects are included for you in included is budget uh and expense to date. Um, any questions that I can answer for you? [Music] Anybody? Okay, proceed on to the budget update. Okay. Um, so we've had three or four presentations at this point where we've discussed the parameters of this budget. That is here for your second reading. um want to reiterate that um it is based upon the state's desire to increase the teacher pay scale by $1,500 per teacher. Um our calculation is that with take-home pay, the average teacher compensation increase would be about three and a half% or just shy thereof. Um in accordance to that, we have u made a 3% increase to all salary scales for our classified workers. um trying to be as competitive as we can and equitable

072as we can. And then um of course administrator salary schedule is a 2 and a.5%. So I do think it's important to note that the administrative salary schedule is the lowest percentile growth of any of our employee groups. Um, I do know comments have been made to the effect of um a percentage on a on a chart that includes an entire class of employees being moved between terminology for different positions. Um, so that's not representative of administrators receiving an inordinate pay increase. It's actually the lowest percentage increase of any of the positions in the district. Um, so those are the parameters here. Here you can see a 2.3% overall increase in salaries which is um certainly modest in in today's operating environment. Um employee benefits are increasing. We are we are seeing a 4 and

073a.5% increase to um pebbuzz healthcare employer contribution at this point. Um as well as increased you know there's a 25% for retirement. So every dollar an employee increases on their salary, we're giving them another 25 cents into the retirement account. Um and then just the growth of of costs for commodities in terms of utilities, um custodial supplies, you know, we have we have found that our budget is is barely capturing what our true needs are in terms of repairs of our buildings and grounds. Um at the bottom there would reiterate, you know, we're looking at 88 to 89% of our budget being personnel. Um again as we have moved from directly employing our substitutes to contracting them through a service um that service appears as a contractual cost. So you see growth in contractuals. Um

074part of that is the state's uh addition of the six weeks u maternal or paternal leave. Now that's going to be going up to 12 weeks. We know legislatively. Um so again increase for mandated costs there. Um, in looking at the funding sources at the bottom, so where does the money come from? Um, I think important to note that in last year's budget, we did appropriate $825,000,000 of fund balance. So, we budgeted for our revenues to be short of our expenditures by 800,000. Um, we have certain articulated principles of budgeting. One of them is to maintain salaries that are as competitive as possible with our counterparts in the region. Um so our attempt in trying to do that causes the budget to grow. Um and one of those is to maintain a balanced budget where

075revenues match expenditures um to the greatest extent possible. And so you know if you look at the growth in revenues versus the growth in budget, the re the growth in revenues is slightly higher because there's $825,000 that we had as a deficit this year that we were trying to eliminate next year. Um so you know in the budget conversation um in looking at long-term projections um the sustainability of the budget is something that concerns the CFO. So when the when the there's a necessity to appropriate fund balance in the terms of 800,000 um and then we've increased salaries, we've increased contractual costs, so on and so forth. Then that gap grows to 2.5 3 million. If we allow that gap to remain and utilize our savings to fund that gap, the savings gets expended. The

076operating expenses are still there the next year because people expect to get paid. Bills expect to get paid and then those numbers compound. And now the expenditures are larger than revenues and larger numbers compound larger. And now we have a $4 million gap. And by the time we're out of fund balance now, we have to ask for a 10 mil increase or lay off 50 people. And so I don't believe that there is any dispute that we have a fund balance that is in excess of our policy. I do think the conversation is about how to responsibly manage that fund balance and reduce it without jeopardizing the long-term fiscal health of the school district. Um so the initial budget was one that adhered to those guidelines and parameters in an attempt to do so. Um

077what we are going to ask and I think Dr. Thoren will speak to it later is for the board's consideration to leave the expenditure budget budget intact and then have a conversation about the variance between revenues or other items that we may be able to address that fund balance with. Um, so I thought it was important to articulate all of that before the board's consideration for a second reading. And if I could just jump in real quick, then I think it was said tonight, but also in something maybe I saw online about the fund balance being in excess of our own policy. Our policy is a minimum. So our policy says the minimum fund balance would be 20%. It does not. So, so we're not in conflict with our policy right now. Is it higher

078than the minimum? It is. Um, and and people can have differing opinions on what's too much in a fund balance, and that's perfectly fine to have differing opinions, but we're not in um violation of the the policy that you have in place. May I ask one question? So, um, the 3.5% teacher raise, we have the group that is paid bachelors plus 18 hours, and it's my understanding, unless that's changed in the last week, that the state will not be funding any increase for that group. That's correct. So, if we continue that same raise across there, we will be encumbering that total amount of money. Is that correct? Yes, that is a small number. They looked at that number and and we would want to hold them harmless. Right. Absolutely. With your permission, but but then

079we would um not allow anyone else to join that group since the state is doing away with it. So, we would not um add anyone in the future. It would go straight from bachelors to masters. Yeah, my previous comment was that the state does these things and issues us these charges with no funds attached to carry it. Whether it's one or whether it's a thousand, doesn't matter. um if they're not going to fund that at the same rate they do the regular teacher with the bachelor's or the masters or the doctorate then uh we have to pick that up or we would be looking at telling people you know you're not getting a raise and we're not going to do that because that that's not the environment that we want to have and um it

080may come up later uh well it will come up later when we talk about the fund balance and capital budget update um however Mr. Shikling and I had a meeting late last week with Mr. Durham and and Mr. Mai. Um I think county council the bottom line is what county council's requesting is that we spend down our fund balance a little bit. And there are two ways they're asking us to do that. And one we'll get to with the the capital budget. But I I think they're asking us what I would recommend is that we approve the budget as it was approved last time. That will cause us to have deficit spending. Um it will cause revenues to be a little bit less than expenditures in our budget next year. We don't know exactly how

081much because we don't have the final value of a mill. The worst case scenario would be $2.5 million. Yeah. The the difficulty um is again to the to the process of calculating the val the the value of a mill and the actual millage rate is based upon the projected values for assessment. The average growth over the last four years for our property values is 5.75%. The county auditor's estimation for this year is 6%. So if there were virtually no growth then there would be a necessity to raise that rate. Um if there was growth then a lower rate would generate more revenue. And so I think again um to your comments Mrs. Holder we don't know what those numbers will be nor are we responsible for calculating them. Right. And and no one knows until

082that's set in September typically. Um so we think that value will be be a little bit higher and I think what council has indicated if we um if you as a board would agree to drop our capital millage from 30 to 28.6 and our financial advisor can can peg that pretty close. He can make that happen. um they would cap our operational budget at 110 mills and um and that's what would cause the deficit spending on our part. But next year is a reassessment year and they have talked about um that would give them an opportunity to reconsider so that we wouldn't I think the the fear Mr. Shikling has articulated several times is that we get into a cycle of deficit spending. That would be a problem and and I think they are committed

083to not allowing that happen next year when the reassessment year. So, um yes, ma'am. So, let me just understand you're you're saying go ahead and approve the budget as it stands and everything stays the same and we're not looking at any of these deficits on this page. That's correct. That's that's what No teacher cuts. That's correct. Okay. because I I saw like 34. That's that's correct. No, those were worst case scenario ideas only, not not anything we were recommending. It was just if we got to a place where we had to make reductions. It was some places where it it would be possible that that's all that list was. Um so Mr. and I after that meeting Friday um feel confident recommending approval of the budget as is with a commitment from council that next

084year during a reassessment year they'll make sure that we're not continuing in deficit spending. Yeah. And in our budget binder um I believe it's two years ago you will see that we began to approach 29% of budget in fund balance and took proactive measures to reallocate fund balance into capital. So that is a very responsible utilization of excess funds which is why I think Dr. Thorsland and I in conjunction with the county council felt like it was a it was a acceptable um gesture. All right. Any other questions? All right. Our soul source report. Yeah. Yeah, the soul soul source um is simply a procurement term for when there is only one option from which you can purchase something. Um and so our our purchasing director is our purchase agent in her vested the power

085of making that determination. And so the things that she needs to look at are what is the need and what are the viable al alternatives to that need. Um so that you know the competition can be sought if there's competition to be had. Um her determination for these various vendors is that um primarily software programs um that due to what the functions of the software are and how we intend to use them there's really only one viable option which is to use that software. Um so you'll see nearpod newsa um Aztec software instructure these are particular softwares that serve functions for us and um you know if they did have competition that function similarly it would be disruptive to bid and switch software vendors frequently a lot of them deal with student data and delivery

086of instruction. Teachers are accustomed to it. Children are accustomed to it. Um so that we purchase those with a sole source determination. Um the largest on there actually is um you would you would call it a a consistency um whereas we have uh PA systems that are managed by one company or or uh manufactured by one company. And so in order to um upgrade them to interact with the strategic badge correctly um we had to make investments in those. And so for consistencyy's sake, you can't use uh somebody else's components to upgrade a proprietary system. So that's one reason you can use sole source procurement. Um so that report has been furnished to you simply because of of policy. Um but that's how those determinations are made. Um if there's any questions in particular about

087items on there, I can do my best to answer those for you. I was just curious, what is solution tree? Solution Tree is um the the company that leads um professional learning community. I want to make sure I say it right. Professional learning communities. And so that is the model that we have been using to lead our PLC work. Um and then if you see a hotel in conjunction with that, that's because that's where that conference is being held and the bulk group rates for that. And so that's why it's our sole source. Great. Thank you. [Music] All right. Next is our PLC collaboration time for teachers. Sure. Happy to give Mr. Shikling a short break. Uh you've already heard a little bit about uh some of the the work that our schools are doing

088and professional learning communities do uh to really focus on improving student outcomes and student experience. But uh tonight I'd like to give you a brief update around uh some of our PLC work around collaboration which is one of the big rocks or big ideas within the professional learning communities training. As you know one of the key tenants uh of the the prof professional learning communities is ensuring highquality learning experiences for all students regardless of which school they attend or to which class they are assigned through weekly collaboration among teachers within the same grade level or course. Uh and research is clear here that in order to be most effective, this collaboration should take place with our teachers at least weekly for at least 50 minutes to an hour. And this past year uh in response

089to that research, we adjusted our high school bell schedules by 15 minutes on Wednesdays to allow our course teams to meet uh more strategically. And while this time adjustment was very very small, uh these few minutes at the beginning of the day have provided the additional time needed for teachers to do some of this important work. Happy to report that we've seen some great progress during this first year in several areas. The collaboration time has been uh used to develop common formative assessments, design model lessons, analyze data regarding student needs, and really plan for some of these interventions that you heard about a little bit earlier in the evening. We know that we still have some work to do and certainly have opportunities to continue to grow. But we've begun to see the benefits of

090this collaborative time and improving the quality of daily instruction as well as our ability to meet the individual needs of our students. Uh as we begin to plan for next year, we're going to continue to look for ways to increase the impact of this collaborative time uh for our high school teacher teams. And we're uh now beginning to uh consider what expansion might look like and making some adjustments to ensure that our middle school and elementary school teachers have uh access to this same opportunity. Any any other questions? I would like to say that um I appreciate the opportunity that we had to go and be in the schools and see some of this work in action and uh I do believe that it was a very positive move for us to move uh to

091go into this PLC um collaboration. I think it's working and I think we're a couple of years away maybe from being way up there where where I think we can go. Uh, but I appreciate the work that y'all are doing and and the teachers uh and the time that they're spending during the day and at home and on the weekends to collaborate with each other, work together for the betterment of our students. Thank you. All right. Next is our discussion and possible action. Um, Mr. Hamby on our weapons detection. Okay, I have the numbers. Um so if we uh look at full implementation in the secondary schools that would be our three middle schools, our three high schools, our career center and Okone Academy, our alternative setting. Um we would looking because I'm still trying

092to determine and we've tal we're talking about the need at the front area where there's a need for two like there would be everywhere else. Um, so we're looking somewhere between uh700 and $810,000 just for the equipment. If we looked at doing uh something uh less to begin with and did like some other districts do, maybe do some random get a get a set of six. Uh, so then you'd be looking at about $120,000. They're roughly $20,000 a set. So we, you know, could go from as far as uh go from nothing. I mean, we can say not spend any money on it. We could spend 120,000 roughly uh and be able to do it randomly uh at different schools pick days, calendars, athletic events, whatever, fine art events. Um or you know the request

093was to know what it would be to have it in all elementary all secondary schools. And uh I'm just going to say the way I'm thinking that's going to be $810,000 just for grades 9 through 12 or that six. That's six through 12. career center and OA. So, a school, have we looked at operational costs or is that still um we we have not tremendously uh because we just not sure with everything with the budget which direction we go. Um because this would be a this is a capital expense. Um but we've we've talked about if we did um started with random to work through and see if there were grants available in the fall that we might could get to continue on. We've we've actually talked about forming a team with some of us

094and some of our facilities folks to do it and take it off to school because the one thing you you we all saw when we went over there was I mean like the principal at Stevens County Middle, he said that's what he does from 7:15 to 8:15. He doesn't do anything else. He's deal he's doing that. So, um, you know, it's it's going to be more, but we haven't gotten a a price. We talked a little bit about Miss Hughes needing some more help if that was going to be the case. Um, but, uh, you know, if we started maybe with a with this random earlier in the process, uh, there wouldn't be a lot of additional costs because we would try to make that happen. I mean like literally people sitting around this table

095with facilities and during the day it would be just left up to the school personnel. Well, and you you wouldn't necessarily have to do it during the day. Uh you know, you can do it all at like when when Greenville County does it. They go to a school in the morning, load it back up, move it, go to another school in the afternoon, load it back up. But it's not random. If it's permanently there, right? It does have to be maintained during the day. Then it would be school staff that would take over largely administrative staff for the you know maintaining it moving them in in place and out of place but there would have to be additional staff assistance during the high traffic times for search bags and setup's 5 10 minutes. Setup's not

096hard for them. They're they're pretty user friendly um as far as setup goes. But it's when you know we have a high 1100 students coming through and somebody multiple people going to set that off with something in their bag that that's okay to be there. Um you know but we still got to check that bag and that's got to be you know an administrator a teacher and then if you look at multiple locations you know three at each high school um pretty much for sure you you got to have people at all those locations. Another concern we've talked about a little bit is just what that would look like in our reception areas. We're just trying to kind of think through how we would do that because some of our reception areas have the employee

097behind glass um behind a desk and having that person be able to come out and and man a a weapons detection station. Um you know, we have some some work to think through some of those things. Not saying it'll be impossible, but that would be maybe one other advantage just and and over the summer we can certainly collaborate with our principles and and try to work through that, but we're um not a 100% sure that our current office staffing would be able to accommodate their their normal tasks as well as because there are a lot of visitors that come into school. Absolutely. Day in and day out. And if someone has to continually get up from their desk, go to a a metal detection station, and then back to their desk, it would be considerable

098interruption. How does the most recent budget discussions impact our decision making on this tonight? Um, well, as I said, you know, we we spent a well, we're in the process of spending about a million7 by the time we get those PA systems upgraded for strategics. Um, and if we, you know, looked at this and did the 800,000, I mean, that's just more coming out of capital and pushing projects, other projects potentially back. Father, if um, yeah, I think it would be pertinent to let me go ahead and just kind of mention some of this um, fund balance, capital budget update because they really do kind of go hand inand particularly with your question, Dr. Keterman. U, Mr. Mr. Shikling, what would that number? So, county county council has requested we try to reduce our capital

099millage from 30 to 28.6 and we can do that by allocating some of our general fund balance reserve to the capital budget. Um, that essentially replaces money that we would borrow. That's why we wouldn't borrow as much. That's why the the capital millage would go down, but we would move general fund balance over to to take the place of that. That's spending down our fund balance. Um the amount request that would be required to get the value of a of a school district capital mill is about 750,000. So times 1.6 is roughly 1.2 million. So, so we would need to move um a little bit somewhere between a million million five from um general fund balance over to the capital side. Um so that would um certainly buying and now moving 1.2 to, let's say,

100from the fund balance over to the capital side to to allow us to keep working on our capital plan without noticing the the um lowering uh the lower millage. Um that that's two things that have come out of of that fund that fund balance or the capital plan and and weapons detection will be another thing. So, um it it could be prudent to because that the survey was clear that people do think weapons detection is is um needed. It it could be that that we start with random detection. That kind of delays the decision about front offices and and the staff having to man the stations every morning. it still implements it, but it would be more on district staff, less on school staff, and it would be less money out of the capital budget

101as well. So, that would be an option. But again, we're going to do whatever you ask us to do. And if I if I could add, you know, when we talk about operating, operating is recurring, operating is matching expenses to revenues, right? And and the concern about the responsibility of having a gap there is really the problem. So, you know, aside from any insinuation that the district is trying to hoard money, um there's not a resistance to responsibly investing that fund balance, uh I think the concern is is doing that to fund recurring costs. So, this would represent a one-time cost, and a one-time cost is an appropriate use of one-time surpluses. So I think it's just a comfort level, but we're also going to be spending into that general fund balance just in our

102general operating budget next year as well. So um it is and I and um another consideration is that the everyday what Andy and Elizabeth talked about with PLC's and our schools have those on Wednesday morning. Well, there'll be no administrators involved on Wednesday mornings because they're going to be out at the at the metal detectors. Um, you know, so when they come in. So, that was one of the other things we talked about, too. It's being able to continue that because we feel like we're building some good momentum on that. And administrators are vital to to that success and being in there making sure it's done the way it's supposed to be done. And and I certainly don't want that to be seen as a we can't do all this and and throwing up resistance.

103We will figure out a way to continue our PLC's because I agree with Miss Holder. It's probably been the best thing that that we've done in the past couple of years. Um, and we will continue that. We're just a little concerned about the the morning PLC time with the additional strain on administrators if we implement the everyday detection. Well, and isn't it true? I think maybe previously you sent something out to us that there are some things that there's some grants and things available um but they're not necessarily going to pay retroactively. So if we move this not all at one time, there's a more of a chance that we would get some there. There is a chance that if we implemented the random screening and went ahead and spent, let's say, $120,000 so that

104we could have a system that we could randomly screen the secondary schools at the beginning of school. There are two grants that are available. The one is just the the grant that the state has done through the state department of education for for district safety measures. We expect that to come out again in the fall and we've been successful. We've gotten quite a bit of funding the past two years. We feel like we could ask for additional funding for metal detectors and receive that. And then there's another grant, Miss Dodd, is called the is the stop school violence prevention grant. It's a federal grant that would be due mid June. Um I don't believe the decision on that, of course, because it takes a while would be announced until early fall. But we would have

105the opportunity to that's up to 500,000 over a three-year period. It wouldn't be that we could do all of that in the first year, but we would have the opportunity to apply for that grant as well. So that 800 and it would cover metal weapons detection is acceptable funding with that one. And are there any others out there? Those are the two that I'm aware of as of right now. There are a couple other school safety grants available from the federal government, but they are more to cover addition what would be for us probably additional staff like additional school resource officers. I don't know of another one right now that would cover weapons detection. And one more question. I know there was some talk uh by Senator Alexander about some money coming through with the

106budget that he would make sure we got retroactively for the no for the for the badges. Oh, I don't know. did that his comment at our um legislative delegation breakfast was to make sure that we submitted all of those costs with the uh request for fiscal impact and we did with an itemized number. So I I have not seen or heard of an update to that but it was provided. All right. So do we want to take action on this tonight? got to do something. I think the community's expecting something in the fall. If we did two sets, so you had one randomly moving through the high school and one randomly moving through the middle school. Is that is that too much? We would probably we're thinking I don't know six to 10 people to

107go to a school and implement that because it would be district staff taking it to a school and then moving students through it. Um I think it might stretch us to have two teams of six to 10 to do so but we do feel like we could do multiple schools in a day. So, so I think if we got one set that could be used randomly, we could make sure it's implemented at all of our secondary schools on a random basis. Okay. My final question is if we if we had one set, say that we started up in August and then we saw availability of money coming in from grants or whatever to purchase another set that we could start implementation say in January. Absolutely. The safety grant from the state is usually due at

108the end of August, but we get the announcements of those funds. Um I believe it has the report has to be to the state um committee by November 1st. So we get to know we would know that one for sure in the fall. And that one is more of like a block style grant. Um, I think it depends on the school the number of school districts who apply for how much money goes where, but we've been very successful with that one, which would and it would certainly be enough to cover at least another if not two sets. What is the delay in ordering once you decide you want one? Uh, they they have said six to eight weeks. Now, that was a month ago and I know they've been business was picking up for them.

109Um, so but I I would think if I, you know, reached out to them this week, we would would have it plenty of time to train for because they they provide training for your staff and they're there the first day you use it to make sure it goes the way it's supposed to. And when you say one set, is that is that covering multiple doors in one set is six. Okay. I'm sorry you said that. We got two where the students come in from the parking lot and you know because you go through everybody goes through one. If you get dinged then you go check your bag there and then you go through a separate one instead of holding that other one back up. So that keeps the flow going. So at each location you

110have two. My my question that I I'm debating is do you have to have two at the front the main entrance? And I I think we might get by with one there but um that's something we got to figure out the logistics on as we go into it. That's another thing. I just think it gives us an opportunity to work out any kinks and make sure that we're prepared to put something in there and try not to do it that's going to put too much more on our staff that's in the building. Um well, I would like to make a motion that we do purchase one set um of metal detectors to be um in use early in the school year, hopefully in August, but certainly early next year. Second. All right, I've got a

111motion and a second on the table. Any further discussion, questions? All right, hearing none. All in favor? All right. I know. Thank you. So, just to be clear, so that would be for random detection. Random detection to start as soon as possible in the fall. We'll pursue those grants with weapons detection for further implementation once the board approves that. Is that That's it. Okay. Great. That's it. And I think that'll give us an opportunity to really see how it's going to work um more so than going crazy. Give Miss Gibson Mar and we'll begin the process. Thank you. Great. Now, um, Miss Dodd, our marketing plan information. Sure. And I'm just going to stand up because I'm not sure I can always be heard there. So, at last, um, board meeting, you requested that we

112pursue the possibility of a marketing firm to work with us to kind of do a better job of sharing our story. And so, um, the state department has an approved vendor list. There is a huge number of marketing firms on there. So over the last couple weeks, I've interviewed 10 different firms. I tried to focus on those that would be Colombia and Forward to make um working with them easier. I started with explaining who we were and kind of what we were looking for in a marketing firm. I kind of gave them an update on some deliverables that we might be interested in. Um maybe updating our recruiting materials. um a community state of the schools publication, an updated Yokone video, and an overall plan with the um underlying possibility of what rebranding would look

113like, whether that was not just logo, but more of our mission, vision, and commitments. Um and so I would try to do it a pretty um standard process so that I was fair to each one of them. And I asked the following questions, where they were located. Did they anticipate an in-person or virtual um consultation or a blended model? Whether they had K12 experience and if they did not have K12 experience, whether they had other educational experience. I also asked if they could share some portfolio samples for us so that when we were ready to move forward, we had things to look at and as as well as if they had um photography or videography experience with children because I think that'll be an important piece for us. So, out of the 10, there were

114really four that I felt like could meet our needs. I'm sure all of them could, and there may be others on the list that could do that as well, but I felt four of them um were really engaging. And so, at this point, I'd love to make some time for Dr. Keterman and Miss McCormack for us to get together and look at those and the answers and my feedback for those four. And maybe then we can choose up to four, but I think at least two of those to reinterview with you in the process and maybe some deeper questions about what you are interested in. Okay. Any questions? That's really interesting. Thank you for taking it that far. Yep. All right. So, would we like to take action on on this or we'll just agree

115to serve on that committee? Yes. Yeah. Okay. So, if we could get a time maybe that the two of you could come up here and and Miss Dod and I would love to sit with you and go through what she's done so far. Okay. Possibly. So, now additional updates on the thumb. Yes. So, um I think to show um good faith to county council that um we would be amendable to their suggestions. Um if you agree and and I do think Mr. Shikling and I would would bring this to you as a recommendation. I do think appropriating 1.2 $1.2 million from the general fund balance to our capital budget in order to bring millillage down from 30 to 28.6. Yeah. 1. So 1.4 mil reduction in our capital budget. I think if you approve that

116tonight, it would show good faith to them. Um, and again, I feel like the amount of money in our fund balance, it's it's negotiable. I don't feel bad about making the recommendation because it's not going to negatively impact students. It's not going to negatively impact teachers. Um, it's just going to draw down what we would commonly refer to as a savings account a little bit, but but not below our policy called for levels. Um, and I do think this shows good faith and um, I fully anticipate county council to um, follow through on the commitment that they made to us. And and I would note, you know, we don't know what growth of a mill will be. Um, hopefully 6 is is a floor and hopefully would capture more growth. Um, and so between what

117our initial budget for revenues is and and no growth whatsoever, somewhere in the middle there hopefully is the reality and that will determine how much of our general fund balance would have been necessary to close that cap. That's just for the record, what is our fund balance percentage at this time? I mean um our policy states of prior year's expense so it's roughly 29%. Okay. U again Moody's Moody's looks at 25% and up as it's optimal for a school district um school districts that I have studied or compared to before. That's not uncommon. Um but you know it it isn't in excess of our minimum certainly. But this 37% that seems to be out there is not accurate. No, the dollar value is 37 billion. Yes. 37 million as a percent of our spending is

118but our budget is is pretty tight. I won't name a name, but Mr. Mr. Shikling told me we have a a district in the upstate that allocated 3 million 23 million from its general fund balance to its capital program just because they had collected that much more money. I we did overreceive for the past several years but not those kinds of numbers. Well, it it is a common practice for school districts to double budget people that are all otherwise grant funded. So, for example, in the conversation about federal funds perhaps being lost, those those would be carried as open positions in their general fund and there would be funds to pay them. We don't engage in that practice. There are districts that carry ghost positions or codes that people can't see that have appropriations on

119them. We don't engage in that practice. So, that is that is why my concern exists when we talk about having a budget gap. We have very little contingent funds is the terminology I would use. Very little contingent funds in our budget. Thank you. So, we need to make this move right now. Um, I told Mr. Durham that that Mr. Shikling and I would love to come back across the street and report on any action that took place tonight. So, that would be my recommendation. Yes, ma'am. I'd like to move that we um transfer $1.2 $2 million from our general fund balance to the capital. I second that. All right. We've got a motion and a second to transfer 1.4 mills over from operating to capital. Any further discussion? All in favor? All right. 5. Thank

120you. I think that'll go a long way towards um meeting the requests of county council. Thank you for doing that. All right. Next is our public hearing for our budget discussion. Do we have anyone signed up for public hearing? No. Okay. Is there anything left to Is there anything? Yeah. Okay. Um action items. Our 26 general plan budget second reading approval. I make the motion that we present that we um approve the motion to approve the FY26 general fund budget as presented. Second. All right. Motion and second to approve. Second reading. Any further discussion, questions? All right. All in favor? All right. 5 on that one. Thank you for that. All right. Now, it is time for executive session. So, if we can get a motion, break into executive session. We will we will discuss

121personnel items, employment recommendations, changes, and our superintendent evaluation and contract. I make a motion that we go into executive session for personnel items and superintendent evaluation and contract. Second motion and second. All right. All in favor? All right. Thank you.