001Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this Berkeley County Board of Education meeting this Monday, July 21st, 2025. I call this meeting to order. I declare a quorum is present and the media has been notified. I'll now entertain a motion to approve the agenda. >> Made the motion. >> Second. >> There's a motion by Mr. Ramsey, a second by Mr. Baker. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, we'll call the question. All in favor, please respond by saying I. >> I. Opposed? Nay. The eyes have it. 6. I'll now entertain a motion to approve the minutes from the board meeting on July 7th, 2025. >> Make a motion. >> Second. >> There's a motion by Mr. Ramsey, a second by Mr. Baker. Are there any comments, changes to the board meeting minutes for July 7th, 2025?
002Hearing none, we'll call the question. All in favor, please respond by saying I. I. Opposed. Nay. The eyes have it. 6. I'll now entertain a motion to enter into executive session. >> Made the motion. >> Second. >> There's a motion by Mr. Ramsey, a second by Mr. Baker. The stated purpose of executive session is discussion of employment contracts and/or appointment of administrators as needed. Discussion of contractual negotiations regarding acquisition of potential highway 52 school site. Two student attendance appeals. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll call the question. All in favor, please respond by saying I. I. Opposed? Nay. The eyes have it. We are in executive session. I'll now entertain a motion to return to regular session. >> Made the motion. >> Second. >> There's a motion by Mr. Ramsey, a second by
003Miss Littleton to return to regular session. Like to state for the record that no action was taken in executive session and also note that Miss Davenport and Mr. McQuillin are on participating via telephone. Davenport is not >> she is she's not okay. I'm sorry. Mr. McQuillin is on the phone. Um not Miss Davenport. Uh any other discussion hearing? None. We'll call the question. All in favor, please respond by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed? Nay. The eyes have it. 8 Z. Please now stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance 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. >> Moving on to agenda item 4 A. There are no no one has signed up
004for citizen comments prior to the meeting. So, we'll now move to 5A, the superintendent report. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, and to our board and to everyone in attendance, our cabinet, and all that are in attendance this evening. As we prepare for the new school year, we are excited to report that certified general education vacancies are at the lowest since before the pandemic. With just nine openings at the high school vacancy level, six at middle school, and two at the elementary level, this marks a significant accomplishment for our district and reflects the incredible efforts of our human resources team and our school leaders. So, I would like to thank them for their dedication. We're beginning the year with a strong staffing in place and renewed momentum to support students across the district. A huge accomplishment.
005So now we remain committed to fully staffing all classrooms and continue to focus on filling our critical special education positions um which include uh 17 at elementary, 10.5 at the middle school and 11.5 at the high school. Um even with these remaining um needs, our overall vacancy numbers are among the lowest we've experienced in re uh recent years. We are encouraged by this progress and grateful for the continued support and collaboration across our district. I want to give you some um information about our summer reading camp outcomes for our third graders. As part of our early literacy efforts, we had 4845 third grader students that scored um below on this SE ready ELA or does not meet on the SE ready ELA assessment. Of those, 286 of those students qualified for a good cause exemption.
006Um, and this summer we welcomed 272 students participated. All didn't qualify, but some uh still chose to attend. So 272 students um participated in uh summer reading camp and we had 55 students that achieved the score of 498 on the I Ready exam um or assessment. that's meeting the state's criteria to avoid uh retention. Ultimately, there are 100 students that were retained based on reading performance and eligibility. We commend the hard work of our educators and students and remain committed to ensuring all children are reading on grade level by the end of third grade. Preliminary test data. We have received our embargoed SE ready state testing results. While official details cannot be released until the statewide embargo is lifted in September, I can share that we are extremely encouraged by the progress shown. Many of
007our schools saw significant, some even double-digit improvements in performance. And based on these promising results, we anticipate revisiting and raising our 2026 academic achievement goals in ELA in the coming uh months. And so when we get these the data released and embar unembarged, we will um share some um public displays so everyone can see the progress there. So we're very excited. Um promising uh data that's to to come out soon. Former JK Elementary um ribbon cutting. On Saturday, we hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony for the former JK Gordon Elementary School building. Although it is no longer operating as an elementary school, the facility has been repurposed to support a range of district initiatives and will available be available for use by um approved outside organizations through our facility use process. I would like to thank
008Mr. Ramsay, Miss Davenport, Mr. Bordon, and Miss Bradley for their support on Saturday. One Berkeley back to school festival. Uh, as we prepare for the start of the new school year, we are thrilled to once again host our annual One Berkeley back to school festival. And this event will be held on Saturday, August 2nd from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the Monks Corner Recreational Regional Recreational um complex. And the district will be distributing several thousand book bags filled with basic school supplies on a first come, first serve basis. We look forward to celebrating the upcoming school year with our families and community partners. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Dixon. >> We'll now move on to the action as required from executive session. Um we'll start with the students. Um is there a motion
009for student number one attendance appeal? >> I make the motion to approve student number one's appeal. >> Second. And madam chair, I'm going to recuse. >> Uh I'm sorry, Miss Coats. I'm lost my train of thought for a minute. I did get in advance of the meeting uh in writing recusal from Miss Coats on student number one. Um there's a motion by Ramsey, a second by Walford to approve the appeal. Is there any further discussion? >> Hearing none, we'll call the question. All in favor, please respond by saying I. >> I. I. >> I. >> Opposed? Nay. >> Nay. >> The eyes have it. 62. Now entertain a motion for student number two. >> Madame chair, I move that we deny the appeal of student number two. Second. >> There's a motion by Miss Bradley,
010a second by Miss Littleton to deny the appeal of student number two. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll call the question. All in favor, please respond by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed? Nay. >> Nay. The eyes have at 71. We'll now move on to um the administrative issues from executive session. >> Madam chair, I move to accept the personnel recommendations of the administration as discussed in executive session for the current school year. >> Second. There's a motion by Ramsey, a second by Walford to accept the recommendations as discussed in executive session. Are there any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll call the question. All in favor, please respond by saying I. >> I. Opposed? Nay. >> The eyes have it. 80. Madame Chair, I move to authorize the district to exercise imminent domain
011under South Carolina Code 5919200 and the South Carolina imminent domain procedure act to acquire property for the planned school along the Highway 52 corridor and to authorize a superintendent to take all necessary and appropriate action to effectuate such acquisition, including the engagement of legal counsel to commence imminent domain proceedings. >> Second. >> There's a motion by Mr. Baker, a second by Miss Littleton. Is there any further discussion? >> Hearing none, we'll call the question. All in favor, please respond by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed? Nay. The eyes have it. 8 Z. We'll now move on to um our committee reports. Uh first, a report from the Committee on Academics and Innovation, Chair Kathy Littleton. Madame Chair, the Committee on Academics and Innovation met on July 7th, 2025. And on recommendation of the committee, I
012move to approve the Head Start budget expenditure report for May 2025 and Head Start credit report for May 2025. >> We have a recommendation from committee. No second is required. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll call the question. All in favor, please respond by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed? Nay. Madam Chair, that concludes my report. >> Next is the Committee on Finance and Human Resources, Chairman Michael Ramsey. >> Madam Chairwoman, the Committee on Finance and Human Resources met on July the 7th, 2025. And on recommendation of the committee, I move to approve out ofstate travel as presented. >> We have a recommendation from committee. No second is required. Is there any further discussion? >> Hearing none, we'll call the question. All in favor, please respond by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed?
013Nay. The eyes have it. 8-0. >> Also on recommendation to committee, I move to approve the first reading amendment of policy GCCA, vacation leave and holidays as presented by administration. >> We have a recommendation from committee. No second is required. Is there any further discussion? >> Did want to ask um Miss Bulmer, I did have a question about the financial cost of adding the days. I meant to email you that question in advance. Do we have an estimate of the cost of adding the days? >> We are allowing employees to acrew up to 60 days, but if they >> Excuse me, can you speak from the mic so they can hear you? >> We're allowing employees to acrew up to 60 days because of the change in our policy so that they won't lose any
014leave. But if they separate from the district, we're still only paying them out for 45 days. So it won't be any cost. >> Okay. So why isn't 45 days why isn't 6 weeks of rollover or 9 weeks of rollover enough? because of the change in the policy that we made this year um when we added the 15 the 10 or 15 days on July 1 plus they're starting to acrue their leave at a day and a quarter or um what one and a quarter um on the under the new vacation policy some folks would have lost some leave. >> How? Because if they because they're only allowed to carry over 45 days. So they carried over that 45 days. And um it's really going to affect next year more than it is this year because
015people that had the 45 days when they carried over then they got 15 and now they're going to acrewue another 15 they'd have to use basically 30 days. >> So basically >> in one year. So, they um will have to take a certain amount if they want to they're not going to get paid for those 15 extra days. >> That's correct. If they were to separate. Yeah. If they were to separate. So, if they wanted to retire and utilize those days, then they could say their last day in the office is this date, but their actual retirement date is this date. and they would use their vacation leave to cover that time out of the office until their official um but they would still get paid out for if 45 up to 45 days. >>
016So I assume if we don't allow additional days to carry over we will have some number of people who will have 15 days that will be take it or leave it >> basically. Yes, ma'am. And so we'll have to >> we'll either have a mass number of people going on vacation during the summer months when it's probably the busiest for us or you know taking you know 30 days of leave which I've encouraged my staff that's in that situation to like take extra time at Thanksgiving and Christmas and that kind of thing to get their leave back down to that 45day mark. >> Okay. I feel like I understand better now. I but I think I I don't want it to get lost that we're talking about vacation time. I mean, if vacation is a
017benefit to the compensation package, it appears it would be utilized. What I'm hearing is a lot of conversations about why it's not being utilized. >> Yes, ma'am. >> And so I I I don't it's right now the worst case scenario of an employee working for us for 10 years or less. The absolute worst case they could run into is they are allowed to take 22 weeks of not working and getting paid between August 1st and June 30th. That's covering every scenario that could happen to a based on our policy and the sick leave and the vacation time. If you add parental parent leave, that goes to 28 weeks. I don't know how that's not enough. That that becomes the problem that I have with this. I don't I I think that's fine. I think that's
018a good compensation. I don't know why it's not enough. But thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll call the question. All in favor, please respond by saying I. >> I. >> Nay. >> Opposed? Nay. >> The eyes have it. 71. >> Madam Chairwoman, that concludes my report. >> Next is the Committee on Capital Planning, Chairman Joe Baker. You're recognized. >> Madam Chairwoman, the Committee on Capital Planning met on July 7, 2025. And on recommendation of the committee, I move to approve the award of RFP 73424-25 for on call mold and disaster remediation services to >> SRA avocado. Let's just say doing business as St. Clean South Carolina for an initial one-year term valued at $175,000 with the option to renew automatically for four additional years uh for four additional
019one-year terms, I'm sorry, for an estimated contract value of $875,000. At the end of the 5-year contract term, the superintendent may extend this contract for an additional two years. >> Yes, sir. We have a recommendation from committee. No second is required. Serra Alvacondo doing business as Dairy Queen, South Carolina. Is there any further discussion? >> I made it through the previous one. I wasn't going to answer that one. >> Here we go. >> Have a question for information. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Do we have any schools in need of mold remediation at this time? Do we know? We have air quality um issues at different schools at different times during the year and at this time we are chatting with some schools. Yes. >> Okay. All right. >> All right. Any further discussion? Hearing none,
020we'll call the question. All in favor, please respond by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed? Nay. The eyes have it 80. Also on recommendation of the committee, I move to approve a change order to the contract for Hanahan Elementary School HVAC replacement and roof repair project to Triad Mechanical Contractors for the general project allowance amount of $75,000 bringing the contract total to 2,330,000. >> We have a recommendation from the committee. No second is required. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll call the question. And all in favor, please respond by saying I. >> I. Opposed. Nay. The eyes have it. 8 Z. >> Madam Chairwoman, that concludes my report. >> Thank you so much. Um, I'll now entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Made the motion. >> Second. >> There's a motion by Mr.
021Ramsey, a second by Miss Littleton to adjurnn. I would like to thank our staff for being here for a second meeting in um July for us to do both committee meetings um and the full board meeting. I appreciate it. I know these are um some days where you need to rest. So hopefully we got done in time. Any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll call the question. All in favor, please respond by saying I. I. Opposed? Nay. The eyes have it. We are adjourned.