001Thank you. >> Good evening. >> I call order this August the 19th, 2025 regular board work session of the Georgetown County School District of Board of Education. I would like to welcome everyone and thank you all for being here this afternoon. At this time, please stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by a moment of silence. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to [clears throat] the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Now for a moment of silence, please. [clears throat] Thank you very much. You may be seated. And this is usually where we'll do public comments, but we didn't receive any request for public comments tonight. So, we're going to skip over public comments
002and move right into approval of minutes. Uh board members, you have received the minutes from the August 5th, 2025 meeting. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> It's been moved and properly second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposes? Motion carried. Thank you very much. >> Next, we'll need to adopt tonight's agenda. >> Do I have a motion to adopt tonight's agenda as presented? >> So move. >> Second. It's been moved and properly seconded. Any discussion? All in favor, please say I. I. >> Any opposers? Thank you very much. Motion carried. Moving right along, we will now move to our information items. Miss Christy Keebler will present file JDA- E, student conduct, code of conduct. Good evening, Chairman Moore
003and members of the board. Dr. Gaus, good evening. Um, at the last meeting, we discussed the uh discipline code of conduct and you guys had some questions and so I wanted to bring it back to you with additional revisions that I made based off of the input that you provided at the last meeting. So, I'm going to kind of go page by page through it just so you'll be aware of those. Um the first revision is that as I was looking at the discipline code of conduct, I focused on three things. First, I focused on the personal electronic communication device, making sure that the policy we passed earlier this year aligned with what was in the student code of conduct. Then I looked at harassment, intimidation, and bullying and making sure that it was in
004the code of conduct correctly. And then I looked at the tobacco use which aligns with our vaping prevention to make sure that what we say are our procedures aligns with what's in the code of conduct. So as I looked at the discipline code of conduct, I focused only on those three specific areas as they're directly tied to policies that have recently passed or that we are currently in the process of passing changes to. So the first thing that I looked at in level one was if you go to the fourth page of level to page four there was the very last item was actually unauthorized device. This does not this level one infraction listed here did not align with what was passed by the board earlier this year. So I am recommending that this entire
005block this entire row be stricken. So then if you go into if it's a level two infraction again as I stated the last time because our policy is personal [clears throat] electronic device I added the word personal which I highlighted in yellow. I didn't really change anything here, but just as a review, we took off three of the suggested interventions and then we did add in two consequences and remove the recommendation for expulsion just to make sure that it aligned with what we shared with our families and what we put in our policy earlier this year. >> So, does that mean since we were eliminating potentially the level one violation that it's now just been upgraded to the level two? >> Yes. Yes. And then um we took off recommendation for expulsion because we when
006this was presented to the board previously and when we discussed it and shared it with our families. If it comes to the point of refusal to obey or escalates as a discipline behavior issue, that's when it would move to recommendation for expulsion. It wouldn't be actually the having the device. It would be the behaviors associated with possibly refusing to give up your device or the repetitive infractions for having a device, but it's not the actual personal electronic device that would cause you to have that recommendation for expulsion. If you move on to the next page, as I was reviewing this document with Dr. Guiles, we realized that harassment, intimidation, and bullying are actually in multiple places in this document. Um, based on our policy on harassment, intimidation, and bullying, it is actually a level three
007infraction. So, my recommendation is that we strike this entire row. Again, you're going to see harassment, intimidation, and bullying as we move further through the code of conduct, but that is the recommendation that I'm making at this point, um, is that we completely remove it from level two. Moving on down in level two, if you go to keep going, you'll see um tobacco use. We did add the word or use. It's not just possession of a tobacco product, but it's also use of a tobacco product. And then we added interventions and we added consequences to align with those procedures that have already been shared with parents this year. Again, the out of school suspension is three or five days. Three days for your first offense, 5 days for your second offense. Parent conference is in
008there. Um the referral to the ceation program, the probation agreement, the restorative practice modules, all of those are things that we're adding as interventions. Moving on in um to level three, code of conduct is where some additional changes have been made since our last meeting. And if you go to so previously there was a row that just said intimidation and I need to underline I I didn't I should have underlined and highlighted the word harassment. So, I took this definition for harassment intimidation straight from the policy that you guys are looking at later tonight for your first reading approval. Um, I added in that verbiage which you can see highlighted. Um, we didn't change any of the interventions or any of the consequences, but we made sure that the description lines up with the policy.
009And then we have a separate one on further down that goes for with bullying. Make sure I have it in there. Maybe further up. And it's before that. I apologize. It was before that where bullying it is pulled out because it does notate that bullying consists of an imbalance of p of power. Um and then the intervention. So nothing changed with the bullying. There's bullying is in a row, but we did update the harassment and intimidation. So, any questions about any of those changes? I I I think I probably know what the term means, gesturing or gesture. Um, what's what's kind of the the thought process on that as as far as what constitutes harassment or intimidation by gestures? Is that just an obscene gesturing or >> gesture is is just as it it says
010later on. It could be a written or verbal or um you may gesture with your hands or >> Okay. >> some type of um symbolism. >> Okay. Sort of like cutthroat or >> gotcha. Okay. Just like I'm talking with my hands right now and I shouldn't be >> a threat to do something. Okay, got you. >> Hand gesture or something. >> It's that insult that demeanes which stating it it can be with a gesture. It doesn't we can't we can't set the gestures aside and say that they don't do the same thing as words or the same thing as the written expression. >> And and the reason I bring that up is, you know, obviously things like that are open to interpretation. I think um if you look at the if you look at the
011way the policy on harassment, intimidation and bullying is done, you're you are looking for the the big focuses on the insulting and the demeaning. It's also the disruption to the orderly operation of the school and that is a big defining factor is is that gesture disruptive. >> And is it the intent that both the harassment, intimidation and the bullying policies are being read in conjunction together? >> Mhm. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> I think you said the key word, excuse me, one more time. You said the key word just now was going to add the intent of the gesture. Right. >> What what's the what's the meaning of it? >> Got it. Yeah. >> Thank you, Mr. Kler. >> And the policy is actually uh harassment, intimidation, and bullying. They're just separated out in here
012because uh when this policy was created, there was that wanting to to talk about that imbalance of power that does exist within the bullying system. I will let you know, we're having trouble with the sound system. Our system was struck by lightning a couple of weeks ago. So, we're doing what we can with the sound. So, any other questions on that policy [snorts] or that exhibit? >> Thank you very much. Next, I guess you're not finished with us. Miss Scout is next. Next. You're >> doing the Ruby's kids. >> Oh, that's right. So, the district has, and this is just kind of an update to you, the district has nonprofits [clears throat] that lease space within this building. Three of those are listed on the tonight's agenda. Miss Ruby's Kids, Healthy Learners, and the Walk
013Regional Council of Government is actually the Unbudsman's Office. Um, Miss Ruby's Kids and WA Regional Council of Government have a space leased on the hallway behind you. Miss Ruby's Kids leases two spaces. Uh Walkm Regional Council of Government leases one space. And then Healthy Learners is actually on the main hall. If you've ever been to um the superintendent's office, it's a couple of doors down from there. And they lease one space. Um Miss Ruby's Kids is a 2-year lease that that was agreed upon prior to me bringing this to you. Um, Wakamal Regional Council of Government actually is in the second year of a three-year lease and Healthy Learners because of their organization requests, they do a yearto-year lease. All of them are automatic renewals, but our board policy does dictate that that the board
014has to be made aware each year if we're continuing through with renewal of those leases. There's one additional lease for another nonprofit in this building, but I am still in the works on that one. So, I wasn't comfortable bringing it to you tonight. I want to bring it to you when I know that it's going to go through. >> Any questions, Miss Keer? Thank you very much. >> Next, we will hear from Mrs. Miss G, Miss Beth G. >> Jeez. >> And this is for our 11th day enrollment summary. >> Yes. Um, good evening, Chairman Moore, Dr. Guiles, board members, and guests. This evening, I'd like to present to you a comparison of our 11th day enrollment numbers versus the projections that we made last spring. Um, you may be asking yourself, why the 11th
015day? Um, typically in the past, we've done a count on the 10th day of school, but we don't actually drop students who are active in our power school, CIS, until the 11th day of school. We give them 10 absences not to show up. um usually because they're going to another school out of district and we haven't received those uh requests for records yet. So, we've dropped those students and that's why we chose to do the 11th day versus the 10th day this year. Um just a reminder of how they came up with the projections in the spring. What they do is they take the current grade level and they roll that number up to the future grade level. So, fourth graders last year would be the projections for fifth graders this year. um they do
016take into consideration 11th graders who graduated last year when calculating this year's 12th graders. And the only grade level that this doesn't really work for would be kindergarten because we do have so many children in prek programs that are private. So we're not really aware of what those numbers would be when they're added to ours. So moving ahead, if we take a look at the Andrews area, um you're going to see that most schools in this area have not met their projected enrollment. um and their projected enrollment numbers with the exception of Andrews Elementary where there was a projected enrollment of 531 and as of Friday which was our 11th day they had 539 students enrolled. Um and I should stress that this is kindergarten through fifth grade at that school. It starts with kindergarten
017and goes through 12th grade for these projections. We will also look at some prek numbers. Okay, moving on to the Carver's Bay area. Um, as you can see, all the schools in the Carver's Bay area met or exceeded their projected student enrollments with the exception of Plantersville Elementary, um, whose projected enrollment was 67 and as of this past Friday, they were at 65 for K5 students. In the Georgetown area, uh, most schools met or exceeded their projected enrollments with the exceptions of Georgetown High, whose projected enrollment was 929, and their 11th day enrollment was 916, and McDonald Elementary, whose projected enrollment was 347, while their 11th day enrollment was 321. But as you can see, overall, there was an area total that was exceeded by 31. All right, moving on to the Waka area. You
018will see that every school with the exception of Waka Elementary exceeded enrollment projections. Wakima Elementary had a projected enrollment of 491 and on Friday their enrollment was 468. The intermediate, middle, and high schools all had significantly higher 11th day enrollments than their projected numbers. Um, Coastal Monasuri provides us with their projection and they projected 245. They had actually had 14 less than that on Friday. And then looking at all the areas kind of as a total comparison, you're going to notice that all attendance areas with the exceptions of Andrews attendance area and coastal monastery all exceeded their projected um student enrollment numbers. I do want to also include that this this represents all of our students K through 12. So we're we're not separating anyone receiving special services or anything. They're all together in these
019numbers. Okay. So that's looking at the areas as a total. And then SERP or our 4K programs. This is kind of where we stand. The way they come up with these projections is they take the number of preschool classes in a school and multiply that by 20 because that's the max enrollment for prek classes. And so this is where we stand here. Most schools are very near their projections with the exception of Andrews Elementary School. >> Are those numbers included in the areawide numbers or the area? >> They are not. No, sir. The area wide numbers are K through 12. >> Okay. Thank you. >> They are not. That's why I kind of separated those out. >> And just for clarification, the sir deer the four year olds. >> Yes. >> I don't know if
020she said that. >> Yes. All right. So, kind of in summary, the enrollment numbers uh were above projections in all attendance areas other than Andrews and Coastal Monasuri. Um the Waka area showed the most significant um I don't want to use the word improvement because it was a projection. Uh but kind of the the biggest uh gap there in the positive for them. Um we are actually conducting another student count tomorrow. Tomorrow is our 14th day of school. So, we will be conducting another student count on tomorrow and we'll be looking at uh we look at gender, race, and uh self-contained versus regular education. Um I do want to say I want to thank our outstanding power school clerks because they have put so much time and energy into getting all these counts as accurate
021as possible. It's a lot of data and they're doing their very very best and doing a great job at it. They are phenomenal. And at this time, if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer. Yeah, >> I do have a question. >> Yeah, >> I know previously, you know, we were discussing uh drops in enrollment in certain areas and what the cause is. Uh I am wondering, you know, if we can get any information on why it is that the Andrews area seems to be consistently dropping their numbers. Um from the last few discussions that I think we've had about it, uh if we can get, you know, are they transferring to other schools within the district? Are they transferring out of district? Uh those are questions that I would like to know
022because we can't start to, you know, fix whatever the issue is. You know, what are the parents doing? Are we losing population? What's going on? You know, >> I think I did pull something similar last year for you all where we we looked at who who had withdrawn and we looked at their exit comments, why why they withdrew. Okay. >> So, I can do that for you again. >> Thank you. >> Sure. >> Any other questions? Does this reflect uh students that are transferring from say a school in town to Walk them? Is that when you adjust them and there's some that >> they would be adjusted and then they would count in Wacom's numbers. >> Okay. Yes. But it but it may be a negative over here but a positive over there. Is that
023how that's done? >> It's when students leave one school and go to another they become active in that other school. We only count our active student population. So they're inactive at one school, we don't c they don't get counted at that school. So it doesn't Yes, it does negatively impact the one school because they lost. So there might be a negative there, but it might be because they transferred to another school within our area >> and and we'll be able to see that when we look at those withdrawal codes, >> Miss G. Thank you very much. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> And before I move forward, I just like to let my principles, my administrators, I didn't know, thank you guys for being here tonight. Uh, I'm thinking I'm in church because everybody's on the
024right hand side and that's usually how my church look. [laughter] But thank you for being here. Yeah, Miss Duck, I went there. [clears throat] >> Okay, next we'll move on to our action items. Uh, the action item is a personnel list. Administration recommends approval as presented. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> It's been moved and properly second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say I. >> I. Any opposers? Thank you very much. Motion carry. Next, we're going to look at policy JF, student rights and responsibility. And this is for the first reading. Uh prior to moving to the vote, Miss Keebler will share with us an update on changes that was made at the last board since the last board. >> So, hello again. Um, when we were discussing the
025tobacco products on page four, um, you asked me to make sure that I included assigned interventions. So, if you look at the top of page five, the sentence now reads, "Students who violate the district's tobacco products policy will be assigned interventions and subject to disciplinary action, including some suspension from school. And we also added andor a recommendation for expulsion. So I just before you went into a vote on it, I did want to let you know that that change that you requested at the last meeting was made. >> Thank you very much. >> Can I get a motion to accept the >> So moved. >> Second. >> It's been moved and properly second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposers? Thank you very much. The motion carry. Next, Miss
026Kever. Policy JFA, harassment, intimidation, or bullying. First reading. Uh, >> so we had some extensive discussion at the last meeting about not just removing the word, not just letting it say file a complaint, but explicitly explaining how you could file a complaint. So, I added using one of the following methods. One, verbally to school administration. two, using the harassment, intimidation, and bullying complaint form available at all schools and on the district website, or three, using the district's anonymous reporting app. I did not name what the reporting app was because if it changes, then we would have to go in and change um the name of the app, but then again, that was uh those changes were made, additions were made at your request from the last meeting. >> I need to ask for clarification. >>
027Yes, ma'am. Um, and and I may have read it and just overlooked it. Is this if a teacher or a staff member witnesses the harassment or the bullying? Do they have a set protocol that they use as coming from a form? Do they file a report of witnessing uh bullying? So, a staff member should report it to administration for the investigation process to begin. Certainly, if a staff member does not feel comfortable reporting it um firsthand, they can't anonymously report it the same way. They can use the app, they can use um the form or again verbally, but they they still have >> aware that they can do this. do have verbiage in here stating that, you know, because >> that's very important. A lot of staff members may witness something, >> but they may
028be uncomfortable with, you know, whatever. And I just would like for it to be clear that how they can do it. >> And I'm just wondering, >> some things they're mandated, >> right? >> It's not an option whether they feel comfortable or not >> for reporting. But also on top of that, wouldn't it be more akin to say >> you witness a kid committing a an infraction, then it goes through that disciplinary referral as opposed to necessarily going through the bullying >> reporting is as how I would understand that to work. >> And this policy is specifically for students, >> right? >> So this this policy, if you look how it's t where it says reporting, >> it's a separate a separate set of >> it's separate. It it falls under that, you know, staff
029conduct and reporting. >> Okay. So, the staff conduct covers that. Yes. Okay. >> Yes, ma'am. >> All right. Miss Kimler, the the only question I would have is this is I and I can't recall uh because I know there was a a fair amount of discussion about striking that using the attached form because that attached form was going to change. I don't remember if we actually have fully fleshed out that form yet. I I just don't recall is is do we have that or is that >> the form? The form I will email the form to you following tonight's meeting to get your feedback on it. It won't be in we're going to strike the exhibit completely from policy and that way the form can be changed over time. We can put it on the
030school's letter head different things like that. Um we did Dr. Dr. G and I have worked on the form, tweaking some of the words so that you you saw the form the last time. We've been tweaking some of the words to make sure that we don't use words that people don't readily know what they mean. So, that form will be shared and >> and I remember you saying we were going to make this as foolproof as we could. >> Right. >> So, I I just couldn't remember if we had gotten a finalized version of that form yet or not. So, thank you. I'm sorry. >> Any other question? Thank you very much, Miss Ke. The administration recommends approval as presented. Do I have a motion? >> So move. >> Second. >> It's been moved and
031properly second. Any any discussions? All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposers? Thank you very much. The motion carries. At this time, I'll open the floor for comments or requests from board members or the superintendent. I I'd just like to express uh my condolences to uh Dr. Hamill's family on the recent loss of one of their family members. So, >> Dr. Hamill. >> Okay. Dr. Hamill, he said um to Dr. Hamill, David Hamill, and the loss of his father-in-law. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Sorry to hear. I wasn't aware. >> I didn't understand. I'm sorry. >> It's the sound system. That's all. >> The sound is Thank you very much. >> No, no problem. >> Any other comments? >> Yes. Um I I just need to um ask Dr. Giles, have we
032gotten any progress on getting the reports for the security from the schools? I wanted, you know, I had asked for individual school reports so that we can be updated on what what needs to be done and what needs repairs need to be done in that process. And do we have those reports available? >> I already have them good some of them, but we're trying to aim towards an end of the month being able to show you the complete list of the entire month where we are. But I am getting weekly reports and where we are with our staff um or our building facility work orders. But the actual safety reports um work orders as well as um monthly inspections, those will be monthly at the end of each month and they'll be in a folder
033provided. >> That way we can see them a month, ma'am. >> Okay. >> Dr. G, >> thank you to our board members. I want to say um I really appreciate all that you are doing. The questions that you're asking are really um helping us to move forward in achieving our vision and goals for Georgetown County School District. Specifically, I want to thank Miss Goud, Miss Armstrong, and Miss Collins as they worked very diligently on providing our enrollment reports. Um job well done with that. And I'm pleased to see that our enrollment did not dip um in the manner in which we may have been expecting but we saw gains in some areas and those gains or those areas where we did not see the gains we're definitely going to work on those reports um Miss
034Border to see what is happening. We certainly have some ideas as we are competing with some private schools and different things and as well as in some of our rural areas uh people are choosing to move away. So, several factors there, but we'll be able to have the specifics of that. I also want to thank those members of the community as well as our staff and law enforcement who participated in a meeting on last week with us and we're continuing to work towards um towards a resolution and being able to do ultimately what is best for our students while also saluting our schools and the pride that we have in our schools. Thank you again to team GCSD and all that you do daily and we look forward to continuing this week. >> Thank you
035very much. If there is no further business, may I get a motion to adjourn? >> I would actually like to say something if it's okay. >> I No, >> I haven't told everyone, you know, exactly why I wasn't here last meeting, but I would like to extend a sincere thank you to staff of the county. Uh there have been some interesting circumstances with my own child and to see the support uh and the love that actually has come from our staff uh to support our family and our child who is going through some circumstances. Uh, you know, bullying is it's very real. And as a parent, uh, when you have no control over the safety or your child's mental well-being when they leave your arms, to know that they go somewhere, that they are going
036to be kept safe and out of harm's way can make a huge, huge difference. and the teamwork uh and the collaboration with this district on helping you know our family go through this time. I could never ever tell you thank you enough and uh it makes a difference and I'd like to thank the superintendent uh Dr. Guiles for her hard work uh along with the other staff on working on these policies for bullying and intimidation because it is a multiaceted approach that we need and there are children that do need that intervention. Uh you know emotionally we don't know what they go through at home and we can't fix everything that happens when they are in our doors. But when we take that extra effort to make sure that we give that seed planted into
037their life to help make that change, that's what we're all here for as teachers, as staff, as parents, and being able to personally witness, the sincere appreciation, love, and care from multiple people with everything that we were going through. Um, I just commend the school district. Uh, and I encourage anyone else who experiences different things, please reach out. Uh, our school district cares and don't be afraid to ask for help because they're there. So, that's all I would like to say. So, thank you. >> That's like Thank you for sharing that. uh sometime when you look at us as a board it might take the human aspect of us out of the picture but know that we deal with these situations as well as we do have kids in school so thank you very much
038for sharing that any other business may I get a motion to adjourn >> so moved >> second move second all in favor please say I I this meeting is adjourned thank you very much >> I think this is the shortest meeting this is