001foreign well i think it's close enough to the six o'clock hour that we can begin and i want to welcome each one of you to our regular meeting of the school district of oconee county board of trustees tonight september 20th as we begin all of our meetings we begin with a moment of silence and if you would like to join us i you're welcome to and if not we will we will have that moment of silence now i'm in i ask you now to stand with me as we speak the pledge of allegiance to play attention salute pledge i pledge allegiance last week each of you received an agenda for tonight's meeting september 20th 2021 did anybody have any changes anything on it all right if not then it will with no objection it is
002approved as presented it's now time for public comment um as you know this is limited to 30 minutes and this week we had nine people sign up who wanted to speak so again i had the authority to change the five minute limit so i'm going to ask that you try your best to refrain from going more than three minutes with your comments uh many of the comments are the same you know i think we did so well last week because so many people got to speak and they all were well respected and i just ask you that we we do that again tonight so we will start our 30 minutes of public comment at this time and mrs bathy will call our first speaker last week this was not on so people couldn't hear what
003i said but uh so we'll go over to kind of the same things um there is a fight for crt creeping into the schools um there's a lady here that came in a few meetings ago and said that she was going to use her white privilege to see that these type ideas are taught one of the ladies here on this board will be speaking at their meeting on sunday so we know how one of you stand but um anyway just wanted to to bring it back up so that people can hear me this time that mr thorsen when we brought that to you last time that with the book that i brought within 48 hours it was in the paper that there was no proof to the pudding and all the teachers reached out to
004me and said that you didn't communicate with a single one of them so it was hard to do an investigation without speaking to the people who were making the complaints so therefore it appears to be 100 cover up so since everybody can hear me i want to once again put out there that we are looking for a third party investigation for somebody who is not personal friends of the people that are being investigated which mr thorsen i believe is so therefore i would like to we would all like to see and if that has to come out of somebody's pocket i'm sure that we'll all be happy to pitch in and pay pay the bill but we want to see we want to see some accurate truth here on this and i want to read
005you something right quick i know i got three minutes only the head this right here is from the oconee county democratic party school board meeting monday night it is critical that we have represented the school board district school district board meeting please plan to attend in person and mass plan to arrive early at 5 30 to claim as many seats as possible we want to fill the seats with pro public schools pro mask and schools pro vaccine people a small vocal minority is attending the school board meetings are threatened to remove any member who does not vote their way that's me i'm one of that but it's not a small majority i'm simply a spokesperson for a very large group now sign up to speak now to discuss your support of covet protocols in schools
006and other public pro-public anti-racist education issues only 30 minutes are allowed to public comment the beginning of each meeting five-minute limit if we fill the slots the lunatic right wing don't get to speak to speak sign up by contacting senator sandra bay that's your party thank you [Music] all right we are here to speak we are paying attention people are going to lose jobs the question is which ones of you are going to be the one it's not it's not a personal attack i want you to understand this this is not a personal attack and i know somebody looking around i'll be real quick i'll be real quick so uh it's simply policy if you do policy that the people are against the people will vote other people in your place [Music] good evening guys
007is it all probably not thank you for all you guys do it really is appreciated i do know that we are continuing to fight um against and let y'all guys know how we feel about what i believe is the beginning and that is a mass mandate i still believe that that's where a lot of problems start do y'all guys know that in new york city the beacon of all of this that they will make their kids sit outside during lunch and will not let them speak during lunch they're not allowed to speak during lunch because of this fear that this mass mandate uh entails they've even went as far as voting there's people that would actually vote to say that kids shouldn't have lunch if the weather is not nice outside because it's too dangerous
008that is insanity this is where if you guys want to know why we're so passionate about this mass mandate because we believe this is where it starts we all know where vaccines are and we're not against neither one of them but we are against not having the choice and we will fight and we will fight long and hard for this we believe in it passionately we are not against mass and we are not against vaccines we are 100 against a mandate for both and we know it starts with a mass mandate and we just will continue to let you guys know that that is the voice of oconee county and that is what a majority of oconee county believes we currently rank 44th in the country in education that's where we need to fight we
009need to support our teachers we need to love our teachers we need to love our nurses that are here i think the lady was sitting here last week who was awesome who said you know what we need to back up some of this stuff that that's being implemented is nonsense and we need to back up and let's make some different decisions i was proud of her i thought she did an excellent job and i think that that's what it's going to take from you guys when it comes time because it's going to come back we're confident that they're not going to let this thing die and as long as this virus is around these kind of things especially starting with the mass mandate will continue to come up and what's the next thing and what's
010the next thing and what's the next thing those who give up a little bit of you know liberty for a little bit of safety really deserve neither and that comes from benjamin franklin and i think you guys need to remember that when we start backing up our liberties for safety pretty soon we will have neither it's been proven over and over in new york and in l.a over and over i mean those people are fleeing those places and that's there's a reason why to us as parents this is one of the places starts locally and we're going to continue to say that so thank you guys you are appreciated [Music] good evening when i was first initially scheduled to speak tonight i wanted to talk about my son she said who has autism and the
011facts that the meeting that we have on the first day of elementary school those restraints that were put on him and i had researched that that proves that every special needs kid is suffering from that and it's the restraint on social um just what i'm looking for just the lack of intersectional interaction is is really hurting these kids but i found out something that was more important and it was more scary and that's that i have here with me for every one of you this is not even going to last that long what this is that i have in here is basically it's basically a declaration of war on the parents of oconee county it's a list straight from the democratic party of oconee county stating all the problems with crt i also have the
012flyer that one of the members of this board are going to be at a fundraiser for that party who are looking to restrain the parents of this county and it's ridiculous it's sickening it's disgusting that a political party would come in here and stop parents from going and bringing their concerns to this new to this board to try and get things fixed because they want to push their own agenda and their own ideology on the kids of this county they're not fighting the republican party they're fighting the penance of this county and it's ridiculous and the fact that this board won't sit here and call a boat and say no we're not going to do this stop it because these board meetings are becoming a war zone and it's becoming a war zone across this
013country and it's ridiculous it's supposed to be about the education of our kids but that mission statement right there it means something and people want to come in here and fight about politics and it's stupid we've got to stop this i want you all to seriously stop pushing politics on these kids it's absolutely ridiculous we need to bring the issues that actually matter i know y'all are tired of this coding fight every week every meeting it's a fight about covert the supreme court's already ruled that the mass can't be pushed dr thorson you've made that statement very clear thank you but it's rough [Music] hey can you hear me um i'm going to keep it brief i i want to thank you for this opportunity to come and have my voice heard and i think
014i represent quite a few people um parents of oconee county school children um i'm not going to try and talk about um whether or not we think masks should be the thing that we do or not what i'm going to talk about is harm okay i'm willing to accept that maybe marks aren't the right thing to do but the harm if i'm wrong is that a bunch of kids and a bunch of teachers just have a piece of cloth over their face i want other people to think about what's the harm if they're wrong okay that's all i'm gonna say thank you another chair as i represent an organization naming would i had the full 10 minutes i had been told i would have i'm sorry do i have the full 10 minutes excuse me
015seven seven okay um i gave a copy of my comments to the secretary so if red wants to see address them later so i'll just kind of skip over them so my name is linda holt and i'm the resident of oconee county and i'm a board member of the local affiliate for nami the nami is an acronym for the national alliance on mental illness and nominee is a national organization but we have a local affiliate that covers anderson oconee and pickens counties the national nominee as well as the local affiliate offers many different opportunities to educate the public about mental health issues and offer a lot of support groups for people who are suffering from mental illness and also for family members of those who have mental illness a local affiliate has several different projects
016that we work on including training law enforcement officers for crisis intervention training i actually participate in that as well role playing scenarios for the officers to practice the skills that they learn also i'm one of the facilitators for our family support groups as i have a family member who has a mental illness let's see [Applause] so one of mommy's main goals is to ensure that people get help early since mental health conditions typically begin during childhood adolescence or young adulthood we have compiled essential information and resources intended to help young people get mental health support they need mental health conditions are very common research shows that more than six youth or adolescents will experience a mental health condition in any given time additionally 50 of our lifetime mental health conditions begin before the age of
01714 and 75 percent start before the age of 24. however identifying warning signs or symptoms and seeking treatment early can make a difference in reducing the impact of a mental health condition i want to make sure y'all are aware of one of the programs that nami provides [Applause] called ending the silence it is a prevention and early intervention presentation that engages youth school staff and families in a discussion about mental health it's available free for three different audiences students families and school staff is presented by a trained group of a young adult ages 18 to 35 with a mental health condition along with an adult with a mental health condition or a family member of a person who has a mental health condition audience members learn to recognize the early warning signs of mental health
018conditions and what to do if they or someone they know is showing these signs by engaging youth school staff and families in the discussion about mental health conditions young people dealing with mental health conditions realize they're not alone nomi's ending the science program does not recommend or endorse any medications or other medical therapies the mommy ending the silence program was developed in 2007 in an army affiliate in illinois and then in 2013 they generously gifted the program to the national nominee for oversight and technical assist assistance so our local affiliate vinami nami lop coordinates the distribution of ending the silence from middle and high schools through a paid coordinator miss bethany henry miss henry started working on this initiative in august of 2019 since that time ending the silence has been presented in person or
019virtually through schools across the state and has reached over 18 000 participants let's see i'll just give you one comment i had a couple but one comment of a student made after going through this presentation this student said uh i believe i've had depression since seventh grade i've been holding me in for a really long time after hearing the presentation i went home and told my mom i told her i need help with this because it is something i can not fix myself i have tried and tried now after school today after meeting with the psychiatrist i'm really scared but i know i'm doing the right thing so i think that's a student whose life has been changed by this program since september is national suicide prevention month ms henry initiated a go rom-grain suicide
020prevention campaign as an additional means of engagement now lime green is the color that is branded for suicide prevention so some people wonder why lime green but it stands out and that initiative uses school football games to reinforce the materials presented unify students and faculty in fun and public commitment and recognize the school's administration for their support i went to one of these events at durham football game a couple friday nights ago and it was amazing there was so much energy produced about these students and how excited they were to learn about mental health and how they could be a lifesaver so i'm gonna skip down the two asks i have with you tonight as board members is please direct the department of student services safety and security to engage with the miami organization and
021this is henry and mrs henry specifically to explore opportunities for sharing the ending the science program in the midland high schools in oconee county i provided you with a couple of flowers this one has information at the bottom about a webinar it's a one-hour webinar that anybody can call into we'd love to have this information shared through the schools as much as possible i also gave you a flyer that is designed to be posted in schools on bulletin boards and bathrooms anywhere and it has little tags at the bottom because students bills pull off the know where they can get help we're really excited about the event this saturday the hike for hope and we will have a table there him will that's there i won't be there personally but i'm really excited about the
022opportunity to coordinate our efforts for the students of this county thank you [Music] can okay good evening my name is whitney husscamp i want to thank you guys for allowing me to speak today i know all of you are in a hard position to make decisions for i know personally my granddad sat up the superintendent for 18 years fred hamilton and he also served there for a long time so i know what you guys will do is not easy but i have two little girls one who is currently attending northside elementary the other who will be attending in a couple years and my oldest is actually in second grade so two years ago in kindergarten her kindergarten got cut off short and for a lot of those that can be such a hard time because
023kindergarten is such a vital year learning how to read and then coming back to school the next year is also hard that wasn't a hard decision for us because our oldest is an extrovert she needs that social interaction because that is who she is and but it was hard for her it was hard for her to go in to be masked to have to sit away from their friends to be told daily all right guys you can't care to be around each other you need to set apart you don't really okay i know you have friends in other classes i know you might see them in the hallway but again don't get me wrong and that can be so hard for kids i really appreciate them coming in forming around us because that is something
024that we are dealing with with this coded stuff you see the studies how much suicide has gone up and it's getting younger and younger 10 11 year olds you know when i was in school it was never heard of rarely and now it's 10 11 12 year olds that's they're babies they're still babies and you know i think last year is a time that was just hard for my daughter in general because she lost a grandmother i lost my mom and having her to go to school you don't get those hugs you don't get those things from that so what i ask of you today is think about that you know the school board is made up of elected officials to carry out the will of the community so what do those people want how
025are you finding out what those people in your district want do they want masks and are you voting for that or are you voting against that and what else are they doing are we talking about boosting their immune systems with vitamins hey longer recess so many people are vitamin d deficient take them outside longer so those are things that when you do discuss masks whether you decide to implement them or not ask that you find out what the people in your districts want thank you shireen i'd like to thank you guys for what you do and i know all the stuff is hard i'm sharing head first i like to start by saying that at last board meeting you emphasize the fact that you wanted to keep as many kids in school as possible i
026mean we now know the supreme court has sided with the majority also the freedom of choice thank god they remember we still live in america with that choice being made you too also have a choice choose what is best for your county listen to your majority like miss houston said your hands are not tied you make the choice to go with the heck guidelines you choose to eliminate you can you can choose to eliminate sending healthy children home just in case this is also put into effect by dhec to i'm sure pressure of the boards and making nice mandates but honestly children i mean it doesn't make sense to send nine kids home for one kid being sick as as the charts said that you guys posted a couple of weeks ago just because and
027then two because they're all wearing masks it just it doesn't make any sense and d heck i mean you can choose to disregard the seating charts and simply go with what makes sense until a child has symptoms let me i mean we have nurses they can check the temperature they can check for symptoms that's what they're for i mean death cases in children in south carolina the two children that died in aitkin county had underlying conditions one was in a wheelchair and would not wear a mask if it were mandated because several special needs children cannot do so i found it ironic that the group that advocates for special needs children were the ones trying to push the mass mandates with the supreme court pushing normal kids to wear masks to somehow protect their children
028that cannot wear masks if you have a child that's more vulnerable have them wear a mask if it makes you feel safer but do not believe the school system to require everyone to it's just not and it's us and finally i mean you know we know that the fully vaccinated can still get give and die of covet so the push to separate the two groups is now watered down because one group is no safer than the other in the factual realm i hear people you know talking about the numbers because dictators love numbers and charts but again how will you know until you get it regardless what any chart says you might be the exception either way you as an individual will take a chance with the virus with vaccine or without a vaccine every
029individual has to ask those questions of themselves no one should be mandated to take anything that may or may not work it's not a flu shot in fact scenes kill people too just like kovid you the facts remain to be considered the heck guides you you can choose to make your own choice regardless of what dx says all right we thank each of you who spoke tonight thank you for sharing your views all right this time we will begin our regular meeting um and we begin that with the approval of minutes now y'all received minutes from the august 16 2021 combined board meeting august 31st 2021 special college board meeting and the september 13 2021 work session meeting um did anybody see anything have any corrections on those all right then those three sets of
030minutes will stand approved with no objection and at this time dr thorson will have the superintendent's report thank you miss mccormick just a couple of quick things tonight i told you last week that the numbers seem to be on the decline at this point that is still holding up i looked this afternoon after dhec updated their positive case counts on their website today september 4th was the peak day for the seven day average of positive cases in south carolina as of today that number is down below 4 000 so a little higher than a 25 percent reduction on the seven day case count so that's certainly good news if you drill that down to oconee county on august 30th was our high of about 116 cases a day seven day average and that number is
031down to 80. we did see a little rise for a couple days that's going back down so that is our lowest seven day average since august 24th i believe so it appears that numbers are going in the right direction which is encouraging and we still hope to be able to kind of get back to normal as soon as possible we did announce primarily our most restrictive environments are the elementary schools those are certainly the students who don't have the choice to get vaccinated at this time we announced at the beginning of the year that we would kind of put some interventions in place through the first nine weeks which would be mid-october and our our goal is hopefully if these numbers keep falling that we'll be able to kind of open things back up like
032field trips and visitors and things like that at that time but we'll continue monitoring that the other just piece of information i wanted to share with you and you may have read it i'm actually looking at wgog's site mr mangram has has reported it there but county council will hear a presentation from christy hubbard tomorrow night about millage recommendations for the county they are voting tomorrow night so they'll they'll not only hear the presentation but they'll set millage tomorrow night miss moore and i went across the street earlier today and met with miss hubbard so we feel good about what she plans to recommend and i think it'll be a hopefully a positive meeting tomorrow night and we'll know a little bit more about our budget i still always think it's a little bit backwards
033in south carolina that we have to get you guys to approve a budget county council approves a budget and we don't know what village is until september two months into the budget year but but that's where we are and uh that'll take place tomorrow night so we should you know watch the news on wednesday morning and i'm sure they'll let us know where where those values were set and i think that is all i had okay thank you there was a discussion uh asking about a seneca middle school update so i'm happy to provide that with what we can't it's been a long process and we still have a ways to go but the the good news is the timeline remains the same for opening that we told you back in february uh august of
0342024 we have been working through duke energy and with trail jumper season our district team to uh work through the power line situation that's running through the property and we we feel like in the last uh several months we've made a lot of progress on that we actually have a timeline for that which has been moved up about four months from what they originally gave us and gets us close to the window that trail needs to to get the the building going so we're we're looking at that happening and those lines being changed out in mid-march of next year part of it will depend exactly on when they can shut down there's a plant that will have to close and go offline for about eight hours to 12 hours while they actually switch the power
035over so they're working with that but we've got a window and it's no later than the end of end of march we received last week our permits from d-hat for erosion control and they approved our erosion control plan from our engineers so we are scheduling our pre-construction meeting for next monday where we go on site which is required by law to go on site and then if weather permits in about four weeks we think the the dirt should be pushed where they need it for deep power we're gonna kind of get their area set up first and then we're gonna work on the areas away from where they're gonna be moving the lines uh with the silver work the ante drawings are are about eighty percent done we have a meeting on wednesday in greenville
036we're going to go over a few more of the details we're now looking at things like ceiling heights a little closer and kind of looking at any kind of value engineering we may still be able to do to keep costs down as most everybody knows with everything costs have gone up for materials and supplies there's also a lot of wait time for a lot of the materials so we've actually looked at some materials and because they kind of gave us a heads up that in the next couple months there's going to be a 8 to 10 increase we have pre-ordered some things and trying to get ahead of it things we know will need especially for the storm control and erosion control but material costs are our concern we hope to have the bid documents
037ready to go out in november usually give them two to three weeks with that and then we'll have the meeting and select the subcontractors and go through that so basically we're trying to look for ways to keep the budget in line and ensure that the seneca middle school gets the facility that they didn't deserve anybody had a question sounds great thank you for that update um under action items the first one was the south carolina school board association voting delegates when i started looking at this we first talked about it last week our delegate information does not have to be in until november 15th and they have not yet sent out the agenda for the meeting or any of the details of the meeting so i would like a motion that we um table this
038vote until our second meeting in october that would be october 18th and we could decide on our delegates do we have a little more information on what's going on at the december meeting someone said i have a motion okay so okay all in favor okay all right um tonight we also have as an action item the second reading i'm on policy cce the organizational chart and did anybody have we've had this before for several weeks to look at um you may have done i can just brief summary it really gets us in line with the organization's organizational structure that we have here at the district office just an update to clarify a couple of titles and make sure a couple of positions that weren't listed on the previous version are listed but this is an
039accurate reflection of the district leadership okay anybody had any questions on that as i said we've looked at it several weeks so um if there are if there's nothing else then i will ask for an emotion to approve a second reading policy cce organizational chart move second all right all in favor and that is the end of our regular meeting um at this time we will go into executive session for employment recommendations and changes and a legal update concerning employer requests for jason brown professional development presentations are there any objections to the executive session okay