001Good evening. >> Good evening. >> I will call to order our September 16th, 2025 regular board workshop of the Georgetown County School District Board of Trustees. Thank you all for being here this evening. At this time, please stand and join us in the pledge of allegiance and followed by a moment of silence. Pledge 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. >> Now please for a moment of silence. >> Thank you very much. You may be seated. We are excited to move now to the special recognition. Miss Keebler will lead us in the unveiling of portraits of our administrators of the year, teacher of the year, support staff of the year, and bus driver of
002the year. Miss Keer, >> Chairman Moore, members of the board, I do invite you to come down to the floor so you can participate in the recognition of our of the year recipients. [Music] Come all the way down. Thank you. Chairman Moore, members of the board, Dr. Guileles, district administration and guest, it is with great honor that I come before you this afternoon to unveil the portraits for the 2526 of the year recipients. The of the year recipients went through a rigorous process that included a nomination, interview, and portfolio assessment, each displaying a true commitment to the education profession. Georgetown County School District proudly presents the following 2526 of the year recipients. Representing the Transportation Department GCSD bus driver of the year, Mr. Derek Williams. and Mr. Williams is going to unveil his portrait. This
003is his This This was his first time seeing it. >> From Andrews Elementary, our support staff of the year, Miss Michelle Scott. and Miss Scott's going to unveil her portrait. Miss Miss Scott, you want to hold it up so they can see it? Two points >> from Mville Elementary. Our teacher of the year, Miss Katherine Turner. [Music] And Miss Turner is going to unveil her portrait. >> Hey, there. And also from Mville Elementary, our administrator of the year, Dr. Carla Brandon. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> Have to live with her now though. >> And Dr. Brandon will unveil her portrait again. Congratulations to our 2526 of the year recipients. We're going to pause for a few pictures. So, while I'm getting their pictures over here, if you guys would go to the
004top step and then they'll just have a bad One, two, three. You guys will pick your portraits up and I'm going to have you stand in front of them with your [Music] will come all the way up to the edge and Dr. if you'll come down and stand in the middle. I'm going to get two of you to stand on this side and two of you to stand on. Will you come down one step? >> Mr. Deose, you can stay down one step. Come down one step. >> Yep. Right there. Yep. That looks good. All right, on three. 1 2 3. And again on three. 1 2 3. >> Congratulations. [Music] >> Thank you, sir. We're good. Everybody's talking to me. >> She has five. >> She's always so short. >> I stubbed out. >>
005You should have faces that you and Randy could have done the >> Again, congratulations to all the recipients and especially to the young man's mom. Sweet. Congratulations. There being no public comments card uh submitted, we're going to move to now approval of the minutes. Board members, you have received the minutes from our September 2nd, 2025 meeting. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes as presented? >> So move second. >> Any questions? All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposers? Thank you very much. The minute the motion carries. Next, we will move we will need to adopt the agenda for tonight. Do I have a motion to adopt the agenda the agenda as presented? >> So moved. Second. >> Any questions? >> All in favor, please say I. I. >> I.
006>> Any opposers? Thank you very much. Motion carries. Our first information item this evening is to be is the presentation of the proposed 2627 and 2728 Georgetown County School District calendar. Mr. Scott Baton, >> Chairman Moore, Vice Chair Walker, board members, Dr. Guiles, district administration, and guests. Um, I'm back tonight um to provide twoformational items after the discussion of last um board meeting. U went out back to the um calendar committee and the South Carolina Elections Commission also has regulations. And so one of the changes that we had to make to the 26 27 um calendar that was proposed is the every evennumbered year for a general election is we're supposed to take election day off. So that is November 3rd. So the calendar committee looked at that. So we will have to take November
0073rd off which is the calendar that you have uh currently in front of you. And then so that will move the first day of school back to Monday, August 3rd, 2025. The teachers would come back on Friday the 24th, July 24th, 2025. Then the only adjustment to the quarters is that the first quarter would end on Monday, October 5th instead of Tuesday, October 6th. And that was um suggested by the uh calendar committee and sent to you as far as theformational item for the calendar change. There's no change to the 2728. Um, usually it would a presidential election, but we realized it was a um for all general elections for that. So, that correction was made. The second part of this is the um sorry, the second part of this is the survey that came
008out as a result of our conversation at our last board meeting. um survey question was basically between the if we wanted to keep the modified year- round calendar or if we wanted to go back to a traditional uh calendar. And so the survey results were sent out via email to all Georgetown County School District employees. It was placed on social media both at the school district site and also local media outlets um whether it was print or um in in um other media sources. Um, SCASA News also picked it up and it was also provided at through SCASA News which is the administrative um through South Carolina Department of Education. So it was out there in a lot of different capacities um in the calendar itself or the um the first the overall results that
009we looked at traditional calendar is in the red the modified is in the blue. So 77.2% 2% of those who responded in the survey would like to keep the modified year- round calendar and 22.8% were the traditional calendar. So that's the overall results of what we received. The um survey went out from um on got to make sure I'm right with this. September 8th, I'm sorry, October I'm sorry I'm all over the place with my September 8th last Monday and it ended on Friday the 12th. So it was out for a full week. Um do that. Apologize from stumbling on my words. All right. So, this is the voting responses. We divide it up to uh community members. Um Georgetown County School District current and student uh Georgetown County School District employee, parent or guardian.
010And then the other ones could be a combination of if it was a community member and they also happened to be an employee. They were parent and guardian and also was a um community member, parent and guardian that was a Georgetown County employee or they were all three of those things. So, those counted in all of those as we looked at that those responses breakdown of those areas. Um, for Georgetown County School District employees, you look at how many voted and it was um 84.1% were in favor of staying with the modified year- round calendar and 15.9% um were in favor of the traditional calendar of our employees that participated in the survey. parents. Um you can see how many voted for the parents and again it was 76.1% um wanted to stay with the
011modified year- round calendar continuing and then you had 23.9% of the parents were looking at the traditional calendar community members of the votes are there that's 72.2% would like to stay at the modified year- round calendar and then you had 26.8% that were interested in the traditional and then you had the students who um participated in the survey again 75.4% 4% of those participated would like to stay with modified and then 24.6 wanted of the students wanted to stay with traditional. So that is the presentation of um the calendar survey that was sent out. So those are the twoformational items that I was providing tonight. Any questions or comments? >> Any questions coming? >> Just just a couple. Um during at the interim between the last meeting and and tonight, I've gotten a couple questions
012about concerning the the calendar committee itself. Uh one of those questions was how does one get onto or is selected for that committee? And then the second is >> um kind of related to that. I mean everything we do is public, you know, comments, things of that nature. uh but it doesn't extend to the calendar committee. So I was wondering what the reasoning behind not making uh those members of the committee either publicly known or listed. Um I'm just kind of con concerned a little bit about the transparency about the people making that proposal. >> Understand completely. Um so as far as the calendar committee selection um that is several different things of the year finalist uh both past and present finalist and winners um could could be selected for that committee. Um what we
013did is we tried to look at the different attendance zones and all three levels elementary, middle and high to be represented in all three all four attendance zones to be represented. So we looked at the of the year also. Then we look at nominations from both um district and um school principles of maybe community members or anything that would be interested in serving on the calendar committee. It could be a PTO president. It could be someone that serves within that role, a business member or anything like that. So that's kind of how it's looked at as we develop that. Um this is the second time that I've been a part of the calendar committee. The first time I was kind of a co-cal committee person. this one I've been the so I I followed what
014we had done in the past. Historically we have not shared the names of those people that are on um the calendar committee. Those who are on the calendar committee can share what they want but we did not go out and purposely go out and say this is the person that's on the calendar committee for that. Now you asking that that is something that we definitely can look at for future calendars um to make if that's if that's the direction of the board and district administration is making those things um public. But that's the reason historically we have not and I just followed what we had done in the past for the past however many calendar committees we've had. >> Sure. And and and and again not you know assigning any any nefarious just concerned a
015little bit about the transparency of those people especially considering >> the proposal is pretty much in full form when it gets to to us for a vote. So that's that's the reason I'm asking that question >> and and that's one of the reasons that we did the survey based on the information last time and then the survey kind of uh followed along with with the modified. So >> Sure. >> Yes sir. Thank you for the questions. >> Okay. Go ahead. Um I followed a lot of the social media views from the community and uh also work with some students in a job I work sometime and they've come to me and asked my opinion about it and I told them uh I'm going to let that be up to you guys but all of them
016are in favor of that calendar. So the views kind of similar to what the results you show here from everybody I've talked to and what I've read. Who's on the committee? I don't see where that matters a lot, but you know, you could look into that yourself. >> Yes. >> I I do have one question. Just one question. Yes, ma'am. >> Uh I noticed you had Oh, okay. I I do have a couple of comments. I'd like to say thank you to everybody that participated and sharing their voice. >> Yes, ma'am. >> You know, that's a very important part of of our community. But the second comment I have is that no matter who does the calendar committee, we still have to have 180 days. And if we want it to be over by Christmas,
017we don't have a lot of latitude in when it starts and if we want a similar kind of breaks or if we want no breaks. But when we voted for a modified in order to give us the breaks, there's not much chance that we have. It's pretty much ingrained in stone based on the committee and the people in our community. If they want a modified uh calendar and you have to have 180 days and Thanksgiving isn't going to move and you want to be through by Christmas, you're kind of caught in a window just like with election day. There's no choice except to give election day. Yes, ma'am. So I I I just share that the calendar committee doesn't make a grave amount of difference other than do we want to continue and we look
018like we do for the next two school years with this calendar. And I'd like to say thank you because first of all it's a thankless job and secondly of all thank you for participating in making this choice. I think that's a critical voice. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Johnson. >> Yes. I And I go along with everything that um Pam said, but I just have a question. And the question is, did we have anybody that's representative on the athletics department because we do have to we have other >> we had >> districts that are in different they're in a different setting or a different from us. And so it we've got a competing thing there and we have to accommodate their district and our district as far as our school days and stuff
019like that. Not that that's our top priority, but I do think we should get some input >> and um >> and when we when we looked at it, we did not look at it as athletics because it was an academic calendar. I understand what you're saying, but we did have parents on there who have students who are in athletics. We had teachers who are coaches. Um, we had administrators who have kids in athletics. So, okay. There was parents and community members who also and business owners who actually had kids that are participating not just in sports, but all sorts of activities that also take them away. Band and choir and other types of things that might take them away during that time period. >> Um, so yes. Yes, ma'am. We did consider that as far
020as having someone like athletic on there. No, that was not put on there. um as far as and and as far as the the communities and things like that, um many of the school districts around us do have very similar types of things, but not completely the same. >> Okay. >> And I'll I'll just add um I did reach out to several coaches and athletic directors for their input. >> Okay. as well as students. And believe it or not, they were more thankful for the opportunity for a an academic break or an instructional break versus a break in um athletic regimen or schedules during that fall break. Um, one student in particular made the point that practice time changed so that they could have the remainder of their day, but he actually was more interested
021in keeping that 3 or 4:00 whatever time so that he could keep his regimen together. So, we we did reach out to coaches as well as um athlete student athletes for further insight. >> Okay. Okay. Miss Border, >> uh I would like to say you know I sincerely appreciate surveys uh because in the end no matter what uh we represent the people uh and any you know governing body our role is to basically try to find the best decision. Uh and the majority of the time it needs to go towards what the majority want. uh and although I can have my own opinion whenever it comes down to it, this matters more to me than anything else. And I think that if we can, you know, find what it is that caused the 23 or
02225%, you know, and maybe make uh, for example, I had said previously, transitioning from a different county, maybe we can make welcome packets for parents who are transitioning who just need to know those places to bring their children. you know, if we can find different ways to accommodate those differences uh while still trying to align with what the majority of the people who are participating actually say. Uh then I think that's my own opinion and I think that we need to go with what the majority say. >> Mr. One of the things that was interesting to me cuz I remember the initial discussions about the modified calendar and one of the biggest concerns was from business owners that they were not going to have students available during the tourist season to help out that they
023were going to lose them early. And as we've gone further into this, I do not hear much from business owners about that. they seem to have accommodated. And maybe part of that 25% is kids that wish they had time to, you know, work more during the summer to earn money. I don't know. But it's really interesting that we haven't heard a an outcry from business owners about they've adjusted. They seem to have. Do we know for sure whether what would you have any comment on that, Scott? >> I can respond to that. Yes. Yes. >> I wasn't going to say anything, but yes, we have heard from business owners. And here's my thing to business owners. We want to make our kids because this is an academic calendar. We want to make them business owners
024as well, not just some help. So, whatever we think is best for our kids, I think that's what we're the direction we need to go into. So, we heard from them, but nevertheless, >> a lot of a lot of them. >> I've gotten quite a few. >> Have you? And for about that issue? >> Yes, sir. >> Interesting. Okay. Thank you, m >> Mr. Duz. We we had a business owner on the committee and they were not in favor of the traditional when it started and they have made adjustments just as been stated by many of them and they did not want to go back to the traditional calendar because they had made the adjustments on their end even though it was difficult at the beginning as many have stated that's they have made the
025adjustments and they have made it work. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other question come in Mr. Bat? Thank you very much you and your committee. Thank you very much. We will now move to our action items. The first action item is the personnel list. The administration recommends approval as presented. Do I have a motion? >> So move. >> Second. >> It's been moved and properly second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> Any opposers? Thank you very much. Motion carry. Our next action item is policy DIA anti-fraud for first reading approval. The administration recommends approval of as presented. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor, please say I. I. >> Any opposers? Thank you very much. Motion carries. The next
026item is policy GCLE unencumbered time for the first read and approval. The administration recommend approval as presented. Do I have a motion? So >> move second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposers? Thank you very much. Motion carries. >> The next is policy BDD, live streaming of school board meetings for the first reading approval. The administration recommends approval as presented. Do I have a motion? >> So move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposers? >> Thank you very much. Motion carries. Our final action item is the appointment of three voting delegates and up to three alternates. Well, we've talked about that already. uh to participate in the South Carolina School Board Association 2025 delegate assembly. This will
027be held Saturday, December the 6, 2025 during the South Carolina School Board Association annual business meeting in conjunction with the Legislative Advocacy Conference. And I've uh talked to Mr. Jared >> and Mr. Walker and Mr. Cox and they've agreed uh that they will serve as our delegates. And uh at this time right here, I think it's just you three, myself and Miss Kathy. Miss Kathy cannot vote. So, I'll serve as an alternate. However, if anyone decides to sign up for the al uh conference after this date, uh I ask that you be an alternate as well. But uh I do have you gentlemen, and I appreciate you very much for offering to serve in that capacity for us. Okay. >> So, again, that'll be Mr. Jared, uh Mr. Walker, and Mr. Cox as our delegates
028for our meeting on December 6, 2025. And just as um addition to this, I mean before then um I would recommend we all look at that, >> you know, um what the proposals are um for that and what we're voting on so we can and if we need to discuss that at a future date, we can we can do that just so we're all on the same page when we look at them. >> Yes. >> So so we know what we're voting for >> or against. Anything else? Thank you very much. Okay. At this time, I'll open the floor for comments or requests from the board members or the superintendent. I just want to make one comment about the um Howard community day last night that several of us attended and um it was really
029nice. I mean, unfortunately, a lot of people didn't attend and maybe next year um Dr. Anderson, maybe we can get some more people out there. Um, but it was lovely. The weather was beautiful. There was a DJ. People were dancing and having a good time. So, um, and just as recognition to our adult ed program. Um, that is necessary in some aspects and we're all lifelong learners, I hope. Um, so that's, you know, just kind of wanted to shout out to that Dr. Anderson and her staff and Howard Adult Ed. >> Thank you very much. Okay, I just want to ask everybody out there, everybody here, uh, we have a student fighting for his life right now that was shot last week and, um, spoke with his mother. She feels like he's going to pull
030through, but it's going to be a long road. So, I'm just asking everybody to keep him in prayer. Okay. >> I would like to make a comment about our bus drivers. Uh, personally speaking, it was probably two weeks ago. Uh, my daughter's bus driver reminded me of what an important job that they have for transporting our children to and from the school safely. Uh, and I ended up laughing about it later, but my daughter walks from my porch to go meet the bus. And whenever she was there and the bus was stopped, I turned around and started walking back inside. And all of a sudden, I heard honking. And I immediately turned around and I saw a white truck that was not stopping. And that bus driver laid on that horn so hard I think
031anybody would have been afraid to even come close. And so when my daughter came home, I said, "Was your bus driver honking at the white truck?" And she said, "Yes." And I said, "You make sure you tell your bus driver that I love her." So they have to pay attention as our children go to and from school. And it's very, very important. And it is one of the hardest jobs to be able to make sure that they cross those streets and they get on safely and they are transported back to school. And not only do they have to keep peace on that bus as much as they can, but they bring our babies home to us safely. So I think that they do deserve that extra acknowledgement today. And I would like to thank my
032daughter's bus driver one more time. >> Yeah, Mr. Chairman, I visited uh Georgetown High School last week, I think it was, or maybe late in the week before just to observe the security as the kids were coming in. you know, we started this process a couple years ago and, you know, had so many different options and we came down to one and um so I visited just to see how things were going and I just want to tell you that I was just totally blown away at the staff at Georgetown High School and I'm sure at other high schools that I plan to visit, but I just want to give a shout out to Mr. Walters and Mr. Stucky and Bethany. You could tell these people had been trained. Not only were they checking binders,
033they were checking thermoses, taking tops off of thermoses, you know, sniffing for for odd odors that could have been in the thermos. It was just so perfect. I saw no flaws. And I just want to send a shout out to that staff on what a job they are doing there. Um, and I'm sure all the other high schools that I plan to visit will I'll see the same and I'm sure they all got the same training. So, good job, Allan. We're good. Yeah. I mean, I'll just add uh had the privilege of volunteering with the uh welcome cross country team this past weekend uh on their cross country meet, the Warrior Invitational. Actually got to work with Dr. Hamill on the parking uh which was really really fun. Uh amazing uh members of the community
034stepping up, volunteering. uh had a little kid actually in the concession stand said that uh he really liked uh volunteering because it made him feel good inside. So uh got some good things going on up in that area as well. Okay. >> And just quickly uh Dr. Anderson, you know that you and I were still working on that one issue, right? We'll talk about it later, but I want to certainly uh echo what Miss Kathy said. um uh to you and your staff uh to your your graduates uh I don't know if you guys really realize the difference you make in uh folks younger kids life because what they show is that it's never too late like I said last night and that's important for them to know that they may fall down or delay
035it Melissa Jefferson Wood and mom tells her delay doesn't mean deny and that's what they're teaching our youth is even though their success might be delayed it doesn't have to be denied So, thank you very much again for what you and your staff do do at the Howard Adult Center. And uh to our principles that are here tonight. Thank you guys very much for taking time to come out to the meeting. We certainly appreciate your presence here. Uh and we're open to anything that you have to say or ask us. Please know that we're always available. Uh and speaking of Melissa Jefferson Wooding, she is just the fastest woman in the world. That's it. >> No big deal. Well, congratulations to her and her family on their success as well. >> Thank you, Chairman Moore.
036You took some of my thunder there, but um thank you, Chairman Moore, Vice Chair, Mr. Walker, to our board members, our district administration, our entire GCSD family. Um congratulations again to all of our of the year staff members. We're looking forward to achieving even greater together and we're ready for a year of recognizing them in different capacity and hoping to get more input from um staff members such as that. Mr. um on you mentioned committees and and this is part of the work that those of the year staff members do. they don't just get a beautiful picture made, but they actually are working and representing our district in various capacities throughout the year. So, we do look forward to working together with them and doing even more. Um, again, a special congratulations to Melissa Jefferson
037Wooden. Um, I am certainly like a proud parent with her. uh she was a student of mine at Browns Fairy as principal and then I had the honor of shaking her hand across the stage in the capacity of high school principal. So I can't wait to shake her shake the hand of a world champion. She will also be beginning her quest for the 200 meters on tomorrow. That goes through September 19th and we're counting on finals already for that. And then on September 20th and 21st, she'll begin the 4x100. So, we're cheering on Melissa as she continues her quest as a world champion. We want to thank our law enforcement officials as well over the past couple of weeks. We've been doing safety walks in preparation for homecoming events, and we thank them for that
038collaboration and ongoing discussion about how we can remain safe and be secure to the extent pos uh possible. So, we want to thank our law enforcement officials for working collaboratively and having that true partnership um together. We do salute the National Adult Education and Literacy Week activities that started on last evening at our Georgetown County Adult Education Program and we look forward to continuing activities to encourage um a productive community and even more in our community as we educate our our greater community. Lastly, tomorrow will be our first early dismissal. Note, I say early dismissal, it is not a half day. It is an early dismissal. The goal of our early dismissals is to provide an opportunity for our staff members for professional learning and professional development. So, I ask that you please be mindful
039of the adjusted schedules at each of our um grade levels or grade bands um for dismissal times on tomorrow. and let's have a great remainder of the week. And as always, thank you team GCSD and principles. I told you someone was watching that you all are starting to attend board meeting. So, thank you. Thank you very much, Dr. Gus. We do have advice regarding the superintendent contract. This advice is in preparation for the annual superintendent evaluation. Do I have a motion to enter executive session? >> So moved. >> Second. All in favor? I I We're now in executive session.