001good afternoon ladies and gentlemen welcome to the berkeley county board of education meeting this tuesday may 11 2021. i call the meeting to order i declare him a quorum of members present the media has been notified do we have a motion to approve the agenda so move mr jack second i have a motion by mr wright the second my miss tanner we have any discussion all in favor of the motion say aye aye opposed eyes have it unanimous 9-0 you have a motion to approve the minutes of the board meeting on april 27 2021 so move second i have a motion by mr mcquillen the second by miss wofford all in favor of approving the motion to respond by saying aye aye opposed nay eyes have it nine zero motion is approved do we have
002a motion to approve the minutes of the budget workshop on april 27 2021 so move do we have a second second i have a motion for mr mcquillen the second mr maroon all in favor of approving emotion say aye aye opposed nay guys have it none zero do we have a motion to enter into executive session we have a motion for mr wright second from ms littleton the stated purpose of the executive sessions are to be the discussion of the employment appointment and compensation of the position of superintendent which is an employee and person regulated by a public body to see discussion of employment demotion discipline or release of an employee or employees as needed and 2d one student explosion appeal all in favor of entering into executive session say aye aye opposed nay eyes
003have it 9-0 we are in executive session [Music] do we have a motion to return to regular session so moved second i have a motion from mr mcquillen a second miss tanner to return to regular session all in favor of return of the regular session say i i oppose nay eyes have it by a vote of 8-0 for the record no action was taken in executive session we are in regular session ladies and gentlemen please stand for the pledge of allegiance remain standing for a moment of silence to the back of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for thy all be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us
004our trust [Music] thank you you may be seated [Music] ladies and gentlemen i think we may be aware all may be aware of the governor's executive action that was taken a while ago this evening this afternoon late so if if you want to address the board under the comments and the governor's proclamation has satisfied your concerns then you certainly do not have to come before the board but if you want to you certainly can and i will certainly call your name for that so citizens comments procedures in order to conduct the meeting in an orderly and efficient manner we ask that you honor the following guidelines stakeholder comments are welcomed and encouraged however the board will not take immediate action on public comments at this meeting any person wishing to address the board must register
005prior to the meeting comments must be regarding programs policies or procedures comments regarding complaints against employees other than district level executives or references to students other than the child of the speaker will not be heard in public session groups addressing the same topic should select one speaker comments will be limited to three minutes per speaker the more chair reserves the right to allow additional time or to halt public comments that do not adhere to the guidelines first speaker is miss ann conder under board duties and transparency welcome ms condor the hiring of the school superintendent who shares the community's visions and values as a huge responsibility of the board but the hiring process of others within the district should not be your focus however if the board deems it necessary to be involved in that
006hiring process then it's my understanding that you must follow the foia guidelines as if hiring at the superintendent level i might add that hiring an employee is entirely different from going under contract with consultants counselors advisors etc all of these folks have contracts that can be deter terminated at the pleasure of the board such folks are not employees of the district they are contracted and each contract contains severability clauses generally favorable towards the district for example far removed from the employing or hiring of mrs richardson mr whitley was brought in under contract and retained to serve initially as interim legal counsel for the district how do i know i was there for example um well for example our then board gave him a shot because he had an impeccable reputation was well respected in the
007community is a native of berkeley county practiced in berkeley county serves in berkeley county and had a reputation of working for the best interest of his community he also agreed to give us a bargain rate that no other lawyer of his caliber would have agreed upon as he began his contractual service he was able to recapture over two million dollars in revenues lost by mr brantley thomas helped put bradley behind bars was able to bring two other miscreants to trial who were also found guilty of misuse of district facilities and recovered brantley's retirement funds that continue to be paid to the district thus we continued retaining mr bit whitley because of his abilities to recover monies provide sound legal advice and continue to keep at bay corruption and theft within our district we got a
008real deal he received payment for services provided not a paycheck unlike ms richardson he was never employed by the district with contingencies only an employee can enjoy he was contracted we also contracted and retained other lawyers who specialized in labor relations real estate law etc as the needs arose in case you've forgotten mr wright who is not here i see again there was a huge difference between how we contracted with mr whitley and how the hiring of miss richardson occurred we were open we were honest about his contract and it was never debated behind closed doors there was no hr committee formed and what appears now to many of us an attempt to circumvent public review there was no question about transparency excuse me miss connor your time is up thank you good i'm finished
009the next speaker is terry hardesty the concern or comment is for you regarding david barrow does that follow policies procedures and what was the other thing we'll allow mr hardesty to speak this is a letter from nancy childs written to catherine long mahoney when she was representing the school district in charleston halliman dear miss mahoney i represent a 12-year employee of the berkeley county school district who has been sexually harassed by her supervisor and subjected to a sexually hostile work environment for a number of years i have evaluated this case as described below and will recommend that she settle and release all claims for the relief requested below the facts and mrs x's case certainly fit within the law existing in the fourth circuit on hostile work environment clearly the administration knew about the harassment
010of miss x by mr david barrow as far back as the year 2000 mr bearer constantly made comments about mrs x appearance frequently made kissing gestures with his lips and tongue touched her arms and shoulders and at one point called her into his office blocked her exit while he changed his shirt at that time he asked her to change her clothing in front of him as well she told him on numerous occasions to stop and eventually complained about his harassment to the superintendent and assistant superintendent of the school district dr floyd the superintendent refused to hear any details about the extent of harassment from mrs x instead preferring to bury his head in the sand dr floyd and mr sanders assistant superintendent assured mrs x that they would investigate and fail to follow up with
011her even though mr barrow moved to another job location upon his promotion from principal to supervisor of the berkeley middle and high schools he continued to come to mrs x's office as part of his job indicating that their investigation was superficial and not in compliance with the school district's own policy a court would find that the school district failed to exercise reasonable care to prevent and correctly promptly and correct promptly the harassing behavior in the state instead gave mr barrow carte blanche to can he continue to make frequent visits to mrs x's office to intimidate her with his shoulder rubs comments and leering looks we believe there's ample evidence to corroborate mrs x's protest of mr barrow's unwelcome conduct in the presence of supervisory personnel the school district should have known the unwelcome conduct for
012mr barrow continued until march 2004 when the district could not ignore it in light of the written complaint by mrs x we feel confident that the eeoc completes that after the eeoc completes its investigation there will be a forecast determination of the sexual harassment and sexual sexually hostile work environment i'm going to stop here and i will say that there was a finding of harassment by eeoc thank you [Applause] the next speaker is garrus davis curriculum concern mr davis welcome appreciate the opportunity school board and to everybody that's in here get to say a few words can you hear me all right okay again my name is garrus davis and i'm here on behalf of a group of parents and citizens we live in hanahan and some of us have children in the k-12 school
013system this evening we have a concern we bring to the school board as well as a means of managing the concern the concern centers on the new york times sponsored history curriculum known as the new york times 1619 project we feel as do many scholars important parts of the history presented in the 1619 curriculum lacks scholarship and vetting to support its authenticity the first major area of that is controversial as projects claim that the founding of our country was not in when we fought the revolution for independence from england but rather it was in 1619 when the first slaves landed in america the second major claim is the american capitalism was founded on violence upon slaves to get ever higher production of agricultural products such as cotton to be sure there was violence whether you
014are or are not familiar with the issues you may reference a copy of two web links that we have brought that will save you a lot of time rather than waiting through a thousand web links where everybody is weighing in the two links are important and we consider them as source documents because they are inherently objective one is a letter from scholars to the new york times the producers of the project material challenging the material and its authenticity as well as the response from new york times the other one is inherently objective in its actual excerpts from the new york times curriculum now some of you are familiar with this i'm sure and some of you aren't but regardless we recommend both of those links because they cut right to the chase and it'll solidify
015whatever your opinion is now in addition and we're running out of time we want the berkeley county school system to put a management process in place that will ensure that parents will be notified in advance before any of that curriculum makes it into the classroom thank you for your time thank you sir [Applause] next speaker is miss cindy mclaughlin a mask in school removal thank you for allowing me to speak um i realized you what you had said at the beginning about the um yes ma'am governor's statement but i do want to still come up and um express my concerns my youngest daughter is in school in berkeley county she began going to school in eighth grade i homeschooled all my children my oldest two are graduated grown my youngest wanted to experience the public
016school system for herself so in eighth grade we allowed her to go to school it was hard for her in the beginning because no one in the school at that time wanted to help her know what was going on she had no idea how it even worked in the beginning so it was very hard in the beginning but we made it through that was in eighth grade then she went in ninth grade and then the covet hit the school shut down so that was not a very good experience for her and then this year she's in school she went traditionally at the beginning of this year but did not make it through the first part of it because of the masked mandate i have not worn a mask the entire time anywhere i have ever
017been but she wanted to go to school so i let her go she didn't make it through because of that so we we brought her home to do the blended learner now she is also in choir in school they are made to wear masks when they have to sing and i do not agree with that if you've ever been in choir and you have had to take a deep breath to hold a note for the long period that you're supposed to hold that note you are not able to do that when something is obstructing your breath for you to take that that deep breath but they are required to wear that now i have to pay choir fees for for her to be in choir and when i went this past saturday to see the
018schools all elementary middle and high school perform i had to sit there and i could not even see the faces of those children they looked so sad now i know they were excited to perform but they were sad their faces were sad looking so i would just implore you that you take in consideration what the governor has said and let these children go back to school all of them even the blended without mask and let them get back to their lives and then one other thing i want you to think about if the roles were turned and on this covet thing and we told you that you were not allowed to wear a mask how would you feel that's all i have thank you man next speaker is miss christy gore mask vaccines welcome ms
019gore good evening first off i'd like to say that we do appreciate your service even during this hard time but second i come to you as a parent tonight i try to stay out of these board meets to let you guys run this how you are elected to do so i have a 15 year old who has been highly affected by this coveted situation thank god that the governor has done an executive order today he has not been able to play football because of a mask not coveted we're not scared of covet it's health conditions because of a mask because he was born with acute asthma he's not been able to socialize with his friends at school i hope and highly encourage that you guys do follow this executive order these children need to be
020back in school my son was a a b honors student it has affected his grades it's affected him in his mental health and also now my concern is after watching the news last night charleston county is trying to pass where the vaccines are required for 12 years old and up and i come to you as a parent pleading with you that all three of these vaccines are still in case studies they're not due to pass a case study until 2022 and 2023 and as a parent i am highly concerned about charleston county trying to pass this and it influenced you guys to try to influence to try to pass this uh requirement for a vaccine that has not even been approved only for emergency conditions and at most we just want pro-choice pro-choice for mask
021pro-choice for vaccines if someone else's child wants to wear a mask so be it if someone else's um wants their child to have that vaccine so be it but just have respect for both sides of this it's hard enough for these children um not being able to have a normal school experience and it's very concerning for as a parent i see my son he's the best years of his life he's 15 years old and he is missing out on the best years of his life because of a mask and possibly now a vaccine requirement so i ask you as grandparents and his parents to think about that and just give us a choice in this matter thank you [Applause] the next speaker is dr chris hanley board administrative procedures welcome mr hanley dr handle excuse
022me chairman vero dr ingram members of the board so i noticed yesterday that this board had an executive session session executive session to discuss compensation and benefits for a future superintendent i thought that was a little odd because you would think that those would be negotiated after the superintendent is chosen and then i arrived today and found that you were having a uh a session with one of those candidates which i am glad to see but i would have liked to have seen that advertised a little bit better i would have liked to have attended i would like to heard what your candidate had to say you know it's it's it's important that we the public get a chance to hear from these candidates that we have the opportunity to to discuss with them their
023feelings about issues that go on in our schools unfortunately i think this is showing the same kind of pattern of the lack of transparency that the board showed in hiring the last high profile hire just like your last hire we're curious if you've already made your choice and that you've already possibly begun the contractual agreement uh negotiations and that the only time you're going to allow public comments is after the ink is all but signed on the paper as with the last hire we request that you would stop the process until we were out have the opportunity as a public to get to know these candidates and then the opportunity to comment to the board uh it would then be appropriate for the board to have a hearing to debate the merits of each candidate
024the second issue i would like to discuss quickly is the proposal to waive the educational requirements to promote students who have only successfully completed half of the required core subjects although i agree that the last 14 months have been very difficult for many students as well as for our country as a whole passing students who have not been successful does them no favors they are likely to be perpetually behind and playing catch-up for the remainder of their academic careers please reject this proposal not as a punishment for students or teachers but as an act of mercy for those students and allow them to be successful in their futures later on thank you thank you sir [Applause] next speaker is patrick blymester the governor's executive order it looked like patrick i'm sorry i apologize um yeah
025the executive orders passed today and that's awesome um for choice um my thing is is on april 29th the governor actually put out a video and on there he literally said that this is an issue that was up to the parents and not the schools and school board and then when i emailed the appropriate point person that you've told they said it didn't matter so my thing is is how is this going to go um you know because i've always felt like like in this the school actually you know the wording was encouraged and the governor lifted the mass mandate my it didn't matter it school still be required and of course you know there's a difference in those definitions and i really think schools should know that but how i mean how's that gonna
026work you know this is an executive order from our governor is somebody gonna get to override that that's my biggest thing the other thing is they've mentioned vaccine passports and then the other one is someone mentioned um you know talking about the 1619 project you know and they said they want to know about it before it starts i'm here to tell you it's already there if you have brain pop on your children's chromebook i don't even have that subscription and i can get on there and certain ones come up and every one of them whether it be black lives matter whether it be gay pride or whatever those are free but if i really want to read about somebody then i gotta have it but if i want to get on my granddaughters all that's
027there to me why is anything about gay pride a black lives matter or gen anything like that on anything in elementary school those kids don't know their own sexuality muscles but the next whatever genders that people want to talk they have okay so it's here look on your kids chromebooks know what's going on because it's underneath our noses again thank you [Applause] the next speaker is nicole rubric's school requirements question mark welcome him thank you yeah i put question mark because at that point we weren't sure exactly what was going on with mcmaster um i obviously know how i feel you guys obviously know those that were here last time how i feel and how ultimately my children feel because it's not really about me it's about them so um kind of just to piggyback
028on both what they said um is this and i know you guys can't answer us obviously but are these things going to be followed through with with what the executive order is are you guys gonna try to make your own decisions i say this because i've seen schools just like you guys have your rules as encouraged schools still making their own decisions saying oh no it's required even when we can present to them it says encouraged doesn't mean required medical forms from doctors saying my children or these children should not medically be wearing one they're going through depression anxiety whatever's and still to be forced to wear them even though it's going against your protocols or against your wording at least if nothing else um so my thing is i just want to make sure
029that the executive orders are going to be followed out through the district and the schools ultimately the schools the schools that we can come to you guys if the schools are breaking the protocols or if they're breaking the executive orders and forcing things on our children that should not be forced on them and also with a vaccines i mean we obviously are still unaware of a majority of things that what they're going to do with them how they're going to go about how they're going to force what knots ultimately if we could just put an ear bug or worm in your ear just to think about at least allowing us to choose if we have that for our children because we are parents we choose if we give them vaccines from birth we choose to
030give birth to them we make all these choices we should not have those choices taken away and forced on them so basically i'm just coming to say i hope you guys follow through with executive order don't try to fight it don't do anything else and let that be your thing to with the teachers that want to complain hey it's executive order sorry we got to do it at least you guys get your way out but for us parents i'm grateful for and i'm hoping that you guys can enforce it and also how can we guarantee and when will this start tomorrow if yes no if no i don't know so if you guys can get that out to us as soon as you can and if it's a form i can sign it tonight have
031it notarized in the morning and i'll send it with my kids whatever i have to do you guys just let it know i've already been sending them with your protocols the encouragement give them the definition i am very important and it's very important for my children to get this taken care of so i appreciate your time thank you the next speaker is karen parker vaccines and curriculum welcome ms parker good evening and thank you again for your time um i i don't want to repeat but i will reinforce i guess it shifted a little bit today so i'm very proud of our governor and i know that y'all would have done and made the right choice anyway and i appreciate the time that y'all spent and i know y'all are feeling a lot of calls
032a lot of emails and i know there's a lot of things to look at when making these decisions so i appreciate what you're doing um next on our agenda is we are getting started in berkeley county we are organizing we are going to be active and involved in what's happening in our children's school of course like the curriculum is on agenda for us and the vaccines are going to be on agenda for us so if there are any parents teachers staff principals anybody out there that are concerned about the vaccines being mandated if you will text eight four three nine zero zero seven one five seven again text eight four three nine zero zero so we can get organized and get ready for the future thank you so much for your time thank you [Applause]
033the next speaker is tony sims on covet misinformation tony sims welcome mr sims you may have to speak kind of loud thank you everybody we can't hear you tony can you hear me you hear me now yes thank you thank you everybody um for those of you who don't know me my name is anthony sims i'm a registered nurse here in tri county in the tri county area i work at a 28 bed icu level 2 trauma center critical care i have been dealing with this this past year the whole time since the start of it i have national certification and critical care nursing and trauma care nursing i teach new nurses in critical care and i follow evidence-based practice along with surgeons other hospitalists intensivist pulmonologists in order to do what we need to
034do can you hear me still hear me no you hear me now yeah still good yeah you're going to have to speak right into that mr sims i need to thank you what i would like to talk about is my concern i'm not quite sure the public understands what we see in the hospital setting day to day okay i'm not sure you know what it's like to breathe with a hundred percent oxygen on your face and still not be able to catch your breath for days before we decide it's necessary to intubate you in order to save your life and we know still then 80 chance that you will not come off the ventilator that's what we were dealing with those patients that i had didn't care whether i voted left or right up or
035down sideways what my political beliefs were you know what they wanted from me to care for them to do what was best for them to save them they wanted their family they couldn't be in there i was a stranger to them but i held their hand and prayed with them when they asked for it i used my personal phone to do face time with their family to give them updates at the bedside with them [Music] i would leave these shifts and come home turn the tv on and see one station say one thing and another say another thing and it was disheartening especially from a profession that up until then voted at the highest rate of trust in this country so why are you not believing us then when we had to enact these measures
036all we asked was for certain things to be put in place to decrease the risk now you have valid points my concern is we taking we're taking truths and weaponizing and mobilizing it but it's not the whole truth right yes there was a one percent death rate yes children are less likely to get it right but here's the rest of it what does one percent look like in a thousand new cases in a tri-county area with only maybe 200 icu bets what happens to my trauma patients from motor vehicle accidents gunshot wounds and stabbings what happens your time is up but i appreciate your comments thank you sir sorry that's it and i'd like to submit evidence-based practice research on masks yes thank you [Music] next on the agenda is any action as required for
037items from executive session uh first stu the only student expulsion appeal chairperson bear on the matter student one i move that we grant the expulsion appeal under the conditions and qualifications discussed in executive session which are to be handled by the administration we have a motion for mr mcquillan do we have a second second a second from ms marone for the administration to handle uh under the guidelines as discussed in executive session do we have uh may have all in favor say aye aye any opposed nay you guys have it 8-0 the motion carries the next item is temporary committee assignments uh we do not need to have any temporary uh assignments because the majority of the board members are present i need a motion to recess so that the committees may uh may deliberate
038second i have a motion by mr mcquill in a second by ms tanner all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed nay guys have it unanimously a zero miss littleton i'm calling the committee on academics innovation to order i declare there's a quorum of committee members present and note that the media has been given proper notice pursuant to the freedom of information act the first agenda item is the head start budget expenditure report for march 2021 and head start credit report for march 2021. what is the pleasure of the committee madam chair i make a motion to approve the head start budget expenditures report for march 2021 and head start credit card report for march 2021. second we have a motion by dr wickfall on the second by mr ramsey any discussion all in
039favor say aye aye passes three to zero second agenda item is promotion criteria for students in grades six through eight dr anthony dixon you're recognized [Music] uh good evening um the recommendation from academics and innovation is to prove a one-year exemption to the promotion criteria of uh students in grades six through eight uh for 2020 2021 school year by modifying the following sections that's bcsd policy ike grades six through eight promotion criteria and criterion one modification to read as follows the students the student has earned passing grades in the following two core courses english language arts and mathematics grade six through eight interviewer promotion retention um status retained for summer program the modification to reasons read as follows a student may take in a district approved summer program up to two core academic courses through
040content recovery and ela and math that he or she failed during the regular school year a student mastering the core ela and mass math courses through the regular school year and summer content recovery will be promoted at the conclusion of the summer programs dr dixon asked some questions and concerns so you haven't well my first question is what are you doing at the elementary level so right now if you um look in the policy the elementary level has a criteria has three different criterion to pass and then the middle school has won and so elementary has to meet one of the criterion so the criterion is separated for elementary in ela and math science and social studies and the third criterion being attendance and for middle school is one criterion that says ela math science
041and social studies and attendance and so theirs reads that they must pass all meet the all of the criterion which is just one and then elementary says they must meet one of the criteria which would be either criterion one criterion two or criterion three and then the elementary to do that they have their reading and summer um they're reading summer camps and they also have additional um summer components that the t schools put in place so they have to do math ela and either science or social studies at the elementary level so if well on the um policy that was looking at so criterion one says they need to have even passed ela and math and or math and then criterion two separates it to science and social studies so it's a matter of how
042it's outlined and criterion three identifies it as attendance so the um the retention piece that's described in the policy states they have to meet one of the criteria or you know not meet one of the criterion to be retained so that means either ela and math or science and social studies or attendance okay so let's talk eighth graders correct you're gonna send eighth graders off to high school and they didn't pass any science or social studies and and last year the fourth quarter we kind of gave a reprieve there so now we're talking really you know you know a year and a quarter that we're gonna give them a break so now no what is helping do like the element middle schools are putting on a content they're doing content recovery now for all subjects
043however students cannot attend um summer school if they don't make all of those they only can go to summer school for ela and math and then so students can't get to summer school because they're failing four so what they want to do is work with the students during the content recovery now if they're failing for subjects to help them recover the content to get to a passing area so students are still being held accountable in order for them to attend summer school for ela and some math so so i'm sorry one year exemption so that it's just a one year exemption to be able to do that um and then we will look at the policies so it can mirror how elementary looks ensure that we're putting students can either go to summer school for
044all four areas or they can go to summer school you know instead of going to school summer school for only two areas okay and so so what are we saying to our social studies and science teachers on the middle schools i'm right i'm treading that because did this come from principles did this come from district office where did this so this came from principal uh recommendation of principles uh in the middle school and some of them uh well not all of them but they all were taught they all talked about it they all talked about the content recovery and they all talked about the benefits that it could be for their students okay and why can't we just do at least one do you see what i'm saying i know there are students that just
045didn't didn't even try right and so that's why we bring it to the board you know for this discussion and as a recommendation so we can have this dialogue you know okay among each other i just i'm struggling real hard with science and social studies and i don't want to send a message to the teachers that their jobs are not important and that that they should feel undervalued with it and i also don't want to send a message to parents and students that for the next however many days we have left what are we at 25 i think um that your child doesn't have to do anything no and definitely that's not the message because they're going to be implementing content recovery in all subject areas until summer school so it's an opportunity to get
046students to summer school okay i just might i understand i just feel like maybe we should look at at least three of them and if that fourth they're at least trying and attempting it's just my thoughts [Music] dr dixon can you give me an idea of the number of students that are currently not passing those two subjects i can definitely get uh those specific numbers for you but i you know in talks to uh one principal there uh have almost 300 students that are not passing all four that's in one school [Music] and it could be from not participating you know a number of number of things years ago uh the promotion retention policy in the middle middle levels was basically what uh miss tanner was referring to you had to pass ela in math
047and either social studies or science and then there was a move afoot to require all four for promotion um i get where we're going but it looks like we're i hate to say watering it down a little bit too much so i i'm concerned about that i have spoken directly with some with some teachers and some administrators that are that are would like to have some more conversation about this before the board actually votes this up or down yes okay i agree i i think there needs to be conversations with everyone i think there needs to be conversations with the school principals the teachers the students and the parents and the reason for that is is i think that's also another another side that we're not seeing right so we're seeing that the the students
048are behind right for example there's 300 in one school so let's just say if we do what's proposed and we forgive and these children that are in eighth grade they go to high school so now they're starting behind right and then they're going to continue and they're going to continue to struggle um we're not really doing a justice for them right so um i think that with this being a year of craziness right it's black white it's gray it's yellow it's pink it's it's everything and knowing that the choice has been a um the word of the year i would probably say choice right um and we're here for one reason and that's education bottom line so i think that we need to revisit this get the right numbers get the information get the data
049see where the students are each grade level the schools break it down more more specifically math science social studies ela and let's see how we can work together and i'm just asking and it's i'm just asking because i'm the type of person i like to put everything out there for the summer schools programs is it just going to school have we talked about doing anything virtual to have our students be able to catch up is there any self self assessment things that our students can do at home so then maybe they can take courses and work with the parents and maybe parents can maybe help teach and do something like this is there is there is it just black and white or have we talked about other options to get our students ahead no and
050i want to hopefully i can clarify the um the voice of the middle school principals who you know shared this uh concern that they're not just um allowing students it's more on just not passing students because they are going to focus on you know test incomes and they're looking at each individual student now and ensuring like if you're not passing a course what you would typically go through during a learning year and that's what they've done is content recovery and so what content recovery does is looks they look at the academic standards for a specific subject that a student is not meeting and they provide individual you know personalized instruction or content recovery on those specific areas until the student meets uh the standards there and meets it to where they're receiving a passing grade
051so content recovery is not a new concept in middle or high school but i certainly um understand your request of you know seeking more data to share but i do want to make sure i just emphasize that it's not a give up or allowance of students to pass but is um that the teachers have you know they work hard throughout the year and if a student is not passing you know by interims or the end of the quarter that they are we're cut helping students recover the content and they're going to focus on that until the end of the school year in order so students like right now if you were failing you know four areas you know the students could not go to summer school at all so they want to be able to
052say okay give you an opportunity you're failing four areas from june until you know from june 2nd until june 17th we're going to focus our content on two of those areas your content recovery and get you to where you're meeting those standards and meeting those expectations so you're passing it so now you're failing you know two subjects and i can send you to summer school right now as it stands they wouldn't be able to go to summer school for all four um subjects so it's just one extra push and one extra effort for the principals and the teachers but just wanted to you know make sure i clarify that not give you a false sense that it's a opportunity just to say hey we're going to let it go we're going to pass a student
053but more so are going to be able to hone in on like two subjects for the students who are failing for get recover the content instead of overwhelming a student who has already if they're failing for um because of you know not participating is because they're probably either unmotivated or overwhelmed and i'm feeling four subjects i can't i won't be able to get the summer schools so i'm just going to give up so they're going to recover the content i do have one more question um and then the only reason i'm asking this is because when we said the 300 the audience was like oh so if that was the reaction from here i can only imagine what the rest of the 37 000 parents are saying so um do our parents know where their
054child stands can every parent say yes i know where my child stands right now and i'm not saying i'm not asking this is an opportunity i think for us to just this is what yes to think and answer and then be able to relay that message back and that's all i'm saying i understand and this is what parents are doing you know this is what the principals are doing not only principals but the teachers uh they're calling these you know students uh they're having conferences they're doing either virtually guidance counselors are involved our social workers are working extremely hard i'm making home visits to say hey look this is where we are you know we need you um to come back in or we need you you know to log in if you don't feel
055safe coming in and we need you you know to participate and so the schools are really you know principals are working very hard and teachers are working extremely hard to ensure that they're calling these parents and letting them know where they are parent involvement is key fair involved one last thing for me i just parents are allowed to appeal promotions and retentions yes yeah is it your hope or intention that this will alleviate that it was i mean because i mean as a mom as a mom so i'm taking my school board hat off but as a mom well i could say a couple things here but if if my child was in this position i'll be doggone you don't get the pie if if you didn't do the work i think a lot of
056parents would want to say that in the perfect world and then when that child comes to them and they're you know teary-eyed or they have some i don't think all parents may i agree um so i would want to i would want every parent to have that um saying um uh choice for choice that you you know you're sharing and so we got parents across the board that may not so we do get a number of appeals throughout the summer and and i get it you are retained one time you have like a 50 chance of graduating you're retained two times it's like 90 i get it so um but i guess numbers would i think numbers okay where kathy was headed with that was a good spot yeah the way i look at it
057right now is i would be derelict in my duty as a board member if i was to vote in favor for this at this time this is completely dead on arrival for me at this time this is this is kind of a serious issue of whether to wear a mask or not wear a mask or whether to go virtual or not go virtual this is a an extremely serious issue so with with me personally i do talk to some of the principals i do talk to some of the parents and and i typically always want to support the administration and support the professionals the people who are doctors in education who have done this for 20-plus years and got a consensus of when you add all this educational educators up i mean you probably get
058thousands of years but um until this is explained better and and can make sense to me where i really see that it's benefiting the children um i get the the summer school aspect of it but just just on the on the surface of it like i say at this time i i can i cannot be for this at all first like say we got to get some numbers we the the board and the district has to get serious and take responsibility and say hey we got x amount of kids that have failed okay first thing is you take responsibility okay you don't it's not a matter of blame whether it's the parent's fault whether it's our fart as a board for the policies we made or whose fault but we got to take responsibility and
059be trans be honest about it because it's a lot of kids that's going to fail and like say we've been through basically world war iii this past year with kovid i mean my own children like say you do you know where your children stand i know exactly where my children stand and they've done worse this year and they've done any year in school now they've weathered through but it's been a mentally challenged year for my kids and they come from the best perfect two parents full support environment i mean been blessed since the day they were born unlike a lot of our poor little babies that aren't that that are that are fighting many fights so um yeah we still need a lot of work on this one i appreciate the administration finding trying to
060find solutions but like i said just on on the surface until i get educated more on this until we know what the numbers are i will not be for this plan thank you i'm sure what was the what was the term you used the alternative term alternative term for learning loss unfinished learning unfinished learning and so as i hear you this is um what yo what you're doing is the administration with your professional career is you're looking at what's best for students and you've got an opportunity to make it less rigorous to give them an opportunity to catch up or hold that student back that's what you're ultimately trying to avoid is holding that student back because they're failing yes but not make it less rigorous i think that's what everyone's hearing we want to
061make sure that we can put a bird's eye view on instead of the entire pie for a few weeks put the bird's eye view on the most crucial pieces of the pie for you know now until the end of the school year when we'll have them all day and have more hours to dedicate to just focused instruction on those areas and then if those students are successful with that content so we're still finishing the learning they're still being required to meet said standards in those areas now they can take the other half of the pie for summer school and so this is giving them an opportunity to get to summer school but we're taking i guess i understand we're saying is making it more clear or understandable but it's chunking the pie right it doesn't
062say that yeah what it says right you gotta pass to math and english okay you can take the math and the english and summer school okay well what about the science and the social security you know but what [Music] nowadays that social studies doesn't seem to be as important and maybe science isn't important because i know we always go back to the old three r's unit but no it's it's definitely all of those are pushed because when you're in high school you have 30 you know a chance for 32 credits and you all those include science social studies english math and um you know electives such as fine arts rotc i don't see you pick it up there but if we take it seriously from k through um 12. is there any other discussion i
063just i think some board members want data um it'd be helpful to have the data for some of the board members i'm not on this committee so i can't vote in favor of it if i was i would vote on it because you're the you're the academic and curriculum expert i'm not right and this is the interim academic incorrect yeah no that's right but i but i appreciate you bringing this aboard i don't want you to think that we don't we distrust you or don't think you're qualified no no i don't feel that way at all i feel like it's a recommendation to the board to uh obtain the feedback that we need yeah i haven't had a chance to ask a question so if i could ask one really quickly so my concern about
064whether we select this solution or a different solution is timing correct because i saw it also on the full board agenda tonight so that makes me think that we're under some kind of time pressure so if we don't take up some kind of motion out of committee tonight and bring that to the full board will no matter what you decide can we make take timely action for kids i um i i believe that if we uh need to go back and get the data and you know get more or seek additional clarification i can work with uh we can work with middle school principals and our coordinators and um we'll come back at another we'll come back again in may and the content recovery piece was going to begin in june so that still would
065give us some time that was just giving um principals and teachers time to at least get preliminary numbers and get started in preparation so we could still have time and the data is not just for me the data is for the public and for everyone else to see i trust everything that you guys are doing um but the data is just for every that the public can see why we're choosing of what we're doing totally understandable dr dixon i appreciate your presentation if we get that data back i'd appreciate it and i'm not going to call for a motion at this time we'll do we'll worry about it thank you all right thank you i agree all right you have a question thank you dr dixon thank you something else before you close out okay
066i would just like to interject with a question um and this is for you ms smith um just wanted some clarification on the step increase um will head start employees be included um can you just give a give give us an update on that in regards certainly with head start employees they will not receive a step increase they are not on berkeley county school district salary scale and i believe at the last meeting a 1.22 increase was a cost of living increased was provided to head start okay thank you you're welcome you good yes um at this time i will entertain a motion to adjourn the committee meeting so that the finance and capital committee meeting is so moved second question by dr wick paul second by littleton all in favor say aye aye aye
067passes three to zero mac it's all yours i'm calling the committee on finance and capital planning to order i declare there's a quorum of committee members present note that the media has been given proper notice pursuant to the freedom of information act the first agenda item is out of state travel ashley smith you're recognized good evening chairman mcquillen board members and dr ingram administration is recommending for approval the out of state travel as presented on board docs make a motion to approve the out-of-state travel is presented do we have a second circle there any discussion hearing none i'll call the question all in favor please respond by saying aye aye eyes have it two to zero the second agenda item is the first reading of general fund budget 2021 2022 ms smith you're again recognized
068thank you this is the first reading of the 2021-2022 general fund budget this budget was developed based on several expectations no increase in millage and maintaining millage of 151.8 a 5 increase in local tax revenue a reduction in efa based on our projections received from ways and means and based on the same formula allocations as the previous year this chart shows our millage over the past 10 years and our current millage rate at 151.8 the projected revenue for 2122 totals 328.4 million dollars which includes our local tax revenue fee in lieu of taxes efa funding state age classrooms teacher salary and bus driver aid local property tax relief merchant inventory a pipa credit for retirement indirect cost miscellaneous revenue and funds expected based on student growth in the district our total projected expenditures equal 324.8
069million 82 percent of the projected expenditures are in salaries and benefits at 266.6 million 2.5 million for our self-insured workers compensation program which includes two positions insurance at 5.3 utilities including water electric and gas is 10.5 million purchase services including kelly services is at 18 million supplies at 15.8 additional school support at 1.9 transfers 170 170 000 and positions required for growth is at 716 000 which includes four aps 1.5 guidance two custodians one office clerk and one attendance clerk in summary the projected revenue for 2122 is 328.3 million and operating expenditures total 324.8 leaving us with the remaining funds to allocate of 3.5 million the board has already approved the 2021 step increase along with the 2 salary increase and administration is requesting funding for reading coaches in the amount of 349 000 and
070a step increase for 2021 2022 for all employees it is mandated for teachers but the total cost would be 3.3 million of the 3.3 million 2.1 is the cost for teachers and 1.1 is the cost for the remaining employees in our discussions at the last board workshop and as requested administration has compiled a list of requests for board approval six positions for the maintenance department for a total of three hundred and forty four thousand two psychologists to improve our rate ratios shifting us from one to one thousand one hundred and forty nine to one to one thousand eighty two overall two positions for the office of communications one school improvement coordinator for human resources five esl teachers to be utilized across the district based on need three adult ed teachers one ap position at st
071stephens middle athletic trainer supplements and two assistant track coaches per high school and one paralegal if we fund all of these requests this will require a designation of fund balance in the amount of 7.7 million before we ask for a motion i wanted to mention a few items that we discussed in the workshops we received notification of our sr3 allocation and it is estimated to be 72 million of the esser funds 20 which 14.4 million is required to be spent on learning loss we have begun preliminary discussions on the use of sr3 funds and we will be reviewing the options for the third grade class size reduction additional days for power school clerks and media specialists along with other recommendations including capital projects at a later date the last item i wanted to mention is
072the increase in board stipends i included a list of all school board stipends across the state as information and some additional information for your your review on board docs if the board would like to add this item to the budget we can amend the motion are there any questions let me uh make the motion to approve uh first reading of the 2021-22 general fund as presented soon we have a motion in a second is there any discussion i'd like to start by saying this is just first reading and so this can be changed and amended yes it can can um you tell me how many of the positions that we added that are going to be coming out of the fund balance over and above what we had to spend and what your opinion is
073as a professional about taking out reoccurring funds from the fund balance all positions would be recurring and they are all coming out of fund balance and as i have stated many many times i would be very cautious on putting recurring expenditures into a budget without the revenue to support it the reason is because you are basically going into your savings there is the potential that we could receive additional revenue in the fut in future years however i cannot guarantee that um but you would want to be careful dipping into your savings account over and over and over just like you would in your own personal life but these are administration recommendations as we were charged with doing but i would not be doing my job if i did not answer your question honestly it is
074very um you have to be very careful when you consistently do things over and over that go into fund balance thank you for your discussion so hi i wanted to ask the question about the paralegal at 71 000 is that the salary and benefit that includes benefits and yes did i did i miss a conversation about a paralegal or did someone input that separately because i don't i don't recall talking about that and the board workshop that was not in the board workshop when we discussed administrative recommendations um that came up as a topic of conversation dr ingram would you like to elaborate um and maybe my memory's too foggy i thought that had been some conversation about that that um there would be there would be a need um [Music] instead of simply a
075administrative assistant someone with a background that could assist a legal person so um something doesn't have to be done now or immediately but it might be something that the board would want to consider further down the road um is it dr graham is it in lieu of an administrative assistant or is it an addition to a administrative assistant i think eventually given the volume of work that we have in legal overall i think it would eventually have to be just in my opinion in addition to someone who just answers the phone things like that just simply based on the volume of what we get we get it seems like i get almost weekly sometimes multi you know more than once a week uh correspondence from uh attorneys that require responses uh so i think that
076the workload is uh could be challenging for any one person without some assistance um [Music] that's again that's just i don't have a legal background it's just based on what i've seen over the years we did note that now actually convince correct me if i'm wrong i actually think that some of the salaries for some of our executive assistants may actually be higher than um i'm not sure it seemed like that was at some levels um a paralegal may mirror or parallel what um a regular administrative assistant would make i guess depending on the experience that could be depending on the experience of the individual yes sir right but i don't think it's out of line with what some of our uh regular clerical folks make i don't think some of them maybe not all
077of them but some of them is that accurate yeah further discussion hearing none i'll call the question all in favor please respond by saying aye aye eyes have it two to zero the motion is approved the third agenda item is the 2021 2022 elementary middle and high school supply slash travel allocation in high school sports formulas ms smith you are again recognized um if there are no questions we are calling for asking for a motion to approve mr chairman make a motion to approve the 2021 2022 elementary middle and high school travel supply allocation formulas and high school sports formulas as presented second we have a motion in a second all in favor please respond by saying aye all opposed motion passes the next agenda item is ifb 584 2021 running track renovations and resurfacing
078projects two schools ms smith you're recognized again this project was an invitation for bid to secure a contractor to resurface and perform needed renovations to the running tracks located at berkeley high school in goose creek high school this was an extremely competitive bid process with a total of six bids received this will be funded by our capital funds awarded to geosurfaces south east incorporated for a base bid of one million five hundred and twelve thousand two hundred twenty five dollars with an alternate bid our alternate one is 3707 with a contract total of one million five hundred and sixteen thousand thank you do we have a motion mr chairman i make a motion to approve the award of ifb 584-2021 for running track renovations and resurfacing at berkeley high and goose creek high to geo
079surfaces southeast incorporated for a total project cost of 1 516 thousand dollars for the base bid and alternate one second we have a we have a motion and a second is there any discussion yes um when will those renovations start diane do you know when those renovations will begin [Music] we anticipate they will start and end before football season that's what we're trying to do and i can't agree to start date and i apologize i have to make sure you hear me say that i don't know you know what i don't know is better than not saying anything so that we appreciate that get an answer because i can't remember they were supposed to start right away but i don't remember so the plan is for it to be completed before football season yes okay
080this is actually going to be an action item as well to to expedite this yes so that we can get started very soon i believe we discussed this in executive session at one point in time too okay actually it was open session as well i believe we discussed that in the workshop we we beat this horse dead all right we've got a motion and a second any more discussion all in favor please respond by saying aye aye ice have it vote of two to zero what item are we on the next item is the fifth agenda item rfq 597 2021 roofing and building envelope consultants for an indefinite delivery contract ms smith you're recognized again this procurement process was conducted to select two firms to act as roofing and building envelope consultants for the district
081for the next two years for all major roofing replacements repairs and evaluations awarded as an indefinite delivery contract the contract term shall be for a maximum term of two years or until the maximum value of three hundred thousand dollars is reached no single project shall exceed one hundred thousand dollars this was a qualifications based procurement and the awarded vendors were the top two ranked firms based on scoring applied by the evaluation committee and will be primarily funded by capital and general funds awarded to the building envelope enclosure group wnwm building envelope consultants llc single project limit one hundred thousand dollars with not to exceed three hundred thousand over a two year term do we have a motion mr chairman i make a motion to approve the award of 597 2021 to the building envelope enclosure
082group and wm building envelope consultants llc as an indefinite delivery contract for roofing and building envelope consulting for a maximum term of two years or until the minimum maximum contract of three hundred thousand dollars is reached with no single project to exceed one hundred thousand dollars we have a second we have a motion a second is there any discussion here hearing none i'll call the question all in favor please respond by saying aye aye eyes have it two to zero the next agenda item is ifb 601 2021 athletic field paint ms smith you're recognized again this invitation for bid was conducted to leverage best pricing to obtain a source of supply for athletic field paint used by all high schools for various sports the initial contract term shall be for one year with the option
083to renew for four additional one-year terms the purchase made against this contract will primarily come from activity and general funds awarded to pioneer manufacturing company with an estimated annual contract value of thirty thousand four hundred nineteen dollars and four cents and a total uh contract value for five years of one hundred fifty two thousand ninety five dollars and twenty cents we have a motion mr chairman i make a motion to approve the award of ifb 601-2021 for athletic field paint to pioneer manufacturing company for an initial term of one year with an estimated annual contract of thirty thousand four hundred nineteen dollars four cent with the option to renew four additional one-year terms for potential contract value of one hundred fifty two thousand ninety five dollars twenty cent second we have a motion a second
084is there any discussion hearing none i'll call the question all in favor please respond by saying aye aye i just have it by a vote of two to zero the next agenda item is ifb 605 industrial chemicals for facilities ms smith thank you this invitation for bid was conducted to obtain a source of supply and leverage best pricing for a variety of industrial chemicals for use in the district's cooling towers septic tanks and other equipment and vehicles to be purchased on and as needed basis to maintain warehouse inventory or deliver directly to specific schools or facilities award is recommended to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder which would be certified labs estimated annual contract value 37 061.63 cents with an estimated total contract value for five years of 185 308 dollars and 15 cents we
085have a motion mr chairman i make a motion to approve ifb 605-2021 for industrial chemicals for facilities to be purchased on an as needed basis for an initial term of one year for an estimated annual value of 37 061.63 with the option of renewal of four additional one-year terms for a potential contract value of 185 308.15 second we have a motion a second is there any discussion hearing none i'll call the question all in favor please respond by saying aye aye eyes have it two to zero thank you the final item on tonight's agenda is the request to lease a portion of 132 charles b gibson avenue to the city of goose creek mr jackson you're recognized i understand councilman uh berkeley county councilman philip obi is here as well good evening chairman mcquill and
086dr ingram members of the board at this time i'd like to invite mr phillip obie and mr t.j roston representing the city of discrete committee chairman quillin committee members and members of the board it's um i want to be up here present to you tonight uh a lease that we want to enter into with the city of goose creek to be able to put a park there at sedgefield middle um i might there's a few copies there of a presentation that kind of shows where the park's going to go so across the street if you might remember where sedgefield middle is at is on some vacant land there by the bus ramp what we have within the city of goose creek is they also have a recreation department so inside the recreation department it does
087not include all areas that are inside the city proper so as you look at this map you'll see on the first page of the presentation that it shows you what the recreation district is in the entire city and then highlighted in yellow which is not part of the city but is inside the recreation district what we'd like to do is be able to put a park in that yellow section over there by sedgefield middle for those folks that live in the sedgefield willowbrook and howe hall area to have a park over there there are no parks currently in that area if you flip to the third page you'll see the outline ariel of the school and then highlighted there in yellow is the area that the city would lease to be able to put the
088park in and then on the back page of that is the final thing on what the city would be able to provide with putting that park there they would be responsible for getting the funding to put that part there they'd also put a fence around the park to be able to protect the kids that are playing that park from running out into the street and they would also take care of the grass cutting and also any trash pickup from that park tj you have anything to add uh yeah as councilman obi said we'd love to be a part of this project we do think that there's a need for park space in this specific area that you see there as you mentioned we do serve all the city but also what used to be the
089old recreation district our initial investment for this park would be anywhere from 55 to 75 000 uh which would include the playground as well as the fencing around it taking care of the yearly maintenance obviously would be up to us which we do with all of our 13 parks across the city so certainly we'd love to work with the school district in the county to to make this happen so if you have any questions i'll be glad to answer anything thank you sir i make a motion to lease the parcel to the city of goose creek subject to the following terms the city of goose creek would cover any costs associated with the transaction the city of goose creek would execute a disclaimer and indemnification agreements which would establish that the berkeley county school district
090has made no representations concerning the parcel and will not have any continuing responsibility for the parcel while in use by the city we have a second second uh just a question here we have a motion in a second is there any discussion yes just uh what's the what's the landmass we're talking about is it a half acre acre or if you look at that entire yellow highlighted area is about an acre but i imagine the park would take up probably about a half an acre if not less of that area okay and a lease agreement between the city and the school district that's correct okay and would the city be covering liability insurance on that property yes we will okay any further discussion hearing none i'll call the question all in favor please respond by
091saying aye aye eyes have it on a vote of two to zero at this time i'd entertain a motion to adjourn so move second we have a motion to adjourn all in favor please respond by saying aye aye aye we are adjourned so that we can resume the regular meeting we got another committee i think human resources i'm calling the committee on human resources to order we only have two action items for two items i declare there is a quorum of committee members present and note that the media has been given proper notice pursuant to the freedom of information act first virginia first agenda item is the first reading approval to revise policy gccaa sick leave dr karen whitley you're recognized [Music] good evening madam chairman superintendent ingram and board members we are asking for
092first reading approval to revise policy gccaa sick leave this revision clarifies sick leave accrual sick leave will not be accrued during any period of unpaid leave a full-time employee is a person employed in a position for which certification is required by the south carolina department of education who works at least 30 hours per week other revisions include updated position title and failure to provide documentation may result in unpaid leave what is the pleasure of the committee i moved to i'm sorry i'm gonna push that up moved a motion to a move to approve the first reading to revise policy g c c a a sickly second have a motion from ms sally wofford in a second from miss kelly marone all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed motion is proved three to zero
093second agenda item is the first reading approval to revise policy gbc staff compensation payroll practices and deductions dr whitley you are again recognized thank you we are asking for first reading approval to revise policy gbc staff compensation payroll practices and deductions this revision will allow for charges for meals and other expenses incurred by the district for the benefit of an employee to be deducted from an employee's compensation if the employee fails to reimburse the district are there any questions what is the pleasure of the committee i make the motion to approve the first reading of the revised policy gbc staff compensation payroll practices and deductions second there is a motion by ms kelly marone and a second by ms sally wofford all in favor say aye aye any opposed is there any discussion hearing none
094motion carries three to zero thank you at this time i will entertain a motion to adjourn and return to the board meeting so moved second a motion by miss sally wofford in a second by ms kelly marone we are back in regular session i make a motion excuse me i need a motion to return to regular sessions mr mcquillen makes the motion the second about miss tanner any discussion all in favor return to regular session say aye aye opposed nay eyes have it 8-0 uh we were going to go to miss littleton for the promotion criteria for six and eight but we have tabled that yes so we will go to uh mr mcquillen mr chairman the committee on finance capital planning met earlier this evening and on recommendation video move to approve the award
095of ifb 584-2021 for running track renovations and resurfacing at berkeley high school in goose creek high to geo surfaces southeast incorporated for a total project cost of one million five hundred sixteen thousand dollars for the base bid and alternate one we have a recommendation from committee no second is required is there any discussion all in favor please say aye aye aye opposed nay eyes have it a zero mr chairman that concludes my report thank you mr mcquillen uh dr ingram your superintendent's report thank you mr chair board members staff members members of the audience i was prepared to read a statement that was collaboratively developed regarding the loosening of restrictions for face coverings and i wanted to say that because i want the audience to know that we do listen and in part we were
096we were going to say that certainly children could be at their desks without face coverings things of that nature similar but the the governor's uh executive order supersedes all that so i won't read the entire uh order of the governor um but it did i was able i think this phone works or maybe it's operator error here um that uh and i'm reading from one of the local news sites and it's got the governor in quotes we've known for months that our schools are some of the safest places when it comes to coven 19 with every adult in our state having the opportunity to receive a vaccine it goes against all logic to continue to force our children especially the youngest children to wear a mask against their parents wishes whether a child wears a
097mask in school is a decision that should be left only to a student's parents i would like to say that what i was going to read closely mirrors what the governor's executive order was and we had prepared that prior to the governor's order so you know as long as we get a good result that's what we want we want everybody to stay safe and we certainly want our kids to be able to return to school in a as normal or whether arya back in school i'm proud to say that we've got over 25 000 of our kids back in school and have been in school since uh you know september 8th i have colleagues i have a colleague in california who i'd like and i think i've said this before so forgive me for repeating
098myself but they just went back to school april 12th in california in some places at least in this particular instance in the district and i'm going to be my home district actually just started back up just to the north of us um april 12th as well so i think berkeley's got a lot to be proud of in the fact that we've actually gotten our you know a lot of our kids back in school so so that's a good thing and i know we've still got challenges and i am looking forward to full normal normalcy next year uh so so that was part of what i was going to say but of course we're going to comply with the governor's executive order i assure you i would like to also congratulate several our principal several of
099our principals this year uh for winning the local principal of the year designation dr creighton eddings for the elementary level at mount holly miss heather taylor for the secondary level at stratford high assistant principals of the year ms reth miriam barr westview elementary for the elementary school assistant principal of the year and miss jayden diaz also from stratford is the secondary assistant principal of the year and i would like to congratulate principal natalie locklear of fox bank elementary for being named a patriotic principal by the employee support of the guard and reserve organization i saw natalie today she's thrilled to receive that award and i would be two other things i'd like to mention next time you see christy furrow please congratulate her goose creek assist elementary assistant principal uh christy furrow we've already mentioned
100that she's the state assistant principal of the year for the state of south carolina but she's also a finalist for national assistant principal of the year which is a pretty big deal so next time you see christy make sure you congratulate her on that feat and also i'd like to congratulate dr missy laberge missy's not here tonight but she's the principal of cane bay elementary she was she's the first graduate of the clemson doctoral program addressing educational complexities across south carolina so congratulations to dr missy laberge for that also mr chair you have historically board members you have your meeting dates for the 21 22 school year in your packets historically we do take a vote on that as part of my superintendent's report so um mr barrow if you would like to make a
101motion or have someone make emotional if there's a question or concern about any of the dates no i'll make the motion i make a motion to approve the 2021-2022 board meeting date for first reading as presented by the superintendent second we have a motion by mr barrow second by mr mcquillan do we have any discussion all in favor say aye aye aye aye aye aye jose motion carries unanimously zero mr mr chair that concludes my report for the evening thank you dr ingram just a couple of housekeeping notes for the board members you should find a letter from us antoinette jones the head start director asking us to comply with the governance training if you would go online and and go through that training and then submit your name to miss lacy verifying that we
102have complied with that requirement it would be appreciated and secondly and lastly i want to commend the the board for the selection of the three finalists for the superintendent positions we've interviewed two finalists and tomorrow night we will finalize our in-house candidates and we are wishing them all well we are we're going to have a very tough deliberation but hopefully in the next few days we will be able to name our new superintendent which will begin effectively on july 1. so uh do i have a motion to adjourn so moved second i have a motion from miss littleton a secretary ms marone any discussion all in favor say i i oppose nay we are adjourned [Music]