001Good evening. Good evening. >> I'd like to call the Georgetown County School District Board of Education workshop to order. Thank you all for being here this evening. We will begin with pledge of allegiance. Following the pledge of allegiance, we will stand for a moment of silence. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] >> Thank you very much. You may be seated. We will now move to our public comment section of the our agenda. This time is reserved for citizens to comment on items appearing on the agenda or to make specific requests of the school district. Each speaker is limited to 3 minutes and the total comment period is generally limited to
00230 minutes. As a reminder, comments should remain constructive and civil. The board does not respond to individual comments during the meeting and complaints about specific personnel or students should be addressed privately. Sorry, should be addressed privately through the appropriate channels. And I'm have some cards in my hand. I'm going call out in the order in which I received them. First, we have Miss Jesse Miller. Her topic is >> I'm sorry, Jesse Walker. Her topic is tailgate. uh on the campuses and she's a concerned citizen/ alumni. >> Good evening, >> board members, superintendent, and community members. I am Jesse Walker, and I proudly represent Jotown High School Alumni Association. I come before you today out of deep concern, not just for a tradition, but for the relationship between this board and alumni community that continues to
003support and uplift our county schools. Recently, we learned that there is a discussion about discontinuing tailgate tailgating on school grounds. What's troubling is that this conversation has moved forward without any communication or input from the alumni associations. Despite the fact that tailgating is a tradition driven by us and supported by years of positive engagement with students, former students, graduates, families, and the broader school community tailgating at Joy Sun High School, I will speak for is not just a game day activity. It is a homecoming for many of us. It is a celebration of legacy, school pride, and connection that doesn't fade after graduation. These gatherings promote unity, involvement, and a chance for generations like the Bulldogs, the Bears, and the Jackets to stand together in support of their school. We fully respect the board's responsibility
004to ensure safety, structure, and order on the campus. But shutting down traditions without talking to the people who have helped build them in this is not the solution. It sends a message that the alumni voices don't matter. And I don't believe that should reflect the values of this school district. We are not here to fight, but to be a part of the solution. If there are concerns about tailgating, whether it's logistics, safety, or policy, then let's sit down and talk about it. We are ready and willing to work together to ensure that the tradition continues in a ways that's respectful, safe, and aligned with the school's goals. We ask that the board delay any final decisions and schedule a formal meeting that includes members of the alumni association so we can all be a part
005of this important conversation. Let's move forward together with collaboration and respect for the benefit of all alumni and the entire school family. There was graduates we spoke with. They didn't have a reason to come back home because they haven't been back home since their graduation. And our schools are 40 years old in the making. But with our tailgate and our alumni, we took the reason away and we show them why they should come back and support their alumni. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you very much, Miss Walker. Next, we have Mr. Steven Grant. Topic: Georgetown High School tailgate concerned citizen. >> Good evening. >> My name is Steven Grant. I am a proud member of this community. Not only that, I am a proud member of an alumni of Georgetown High School. Um
006on tonight I am here to set the record straight and shine spotlight on the undeniable impact of the alumni association for Georgetown High School regarding uh this issue. The Georgetown High School Alumni Association was co-founded in 2015 by an alumni from the classes of 1986, 1988, 1980, 1989, 1992, 94, and 97. The GHS Alumni Association has continued to support and promote positive work working relationship with the current high school students, faculty, and staff. In the last year, the spirit and lead leadership of the members of our organization have been well recognized. We have never been content with the following along, but have taken the initiative in setting the standard for others. Some of our goals and accomplishments since the creation of the association in 2015, we have accomplished many goals. awarded 10 student scholarships to
007since the 2015 2016 school year. Increased our alumni financial membership to 92 in the year of 24-25. Provided financial assistance to the GHS cheerleaders. Hosted an annual JHS alumni association tailgate since 2018. Hosted two blue and gray affairs. Hosted several community cookouts. During this current school year, we would like to turn up the bulldog tenacity and not only meet our goals, but exceed them. Some of those goals are double the scholarship awards for the upcoming school year, promote GHS 40th anniversary, capital campaign to meet our goal of $40,000, exceed 20 the 2425 financial membership, establish several working committees to better assist the executive board. Establish an alumni and student system that will support the GHS students in several several areas including leadership training, mental health awareness, and career development. Host a blue and gray affair
008for 2026, and celebrate the 40 40th Georgetown High School anniversary throughout the 25 26 school year. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Grant. And now we have Mr. Shaquana Nolan Char High School tailgate concerned citizen. [Music] >> Good evening members. >> Good evening. >> Thank you for the opportunity to speak on tonight. Um I just did a small write up to pretty much give you an examples of some things that we have been entailed here during the tailgating festivities so that you guys can understand our perspective. So it says I stand before you not just just as an advocate for the tradition or shall I say something that we have created to be a tradition here in Georgetown County but as a product of Georgetown High School. I'm a proud
009graduate of 2004 alongside with countless others who lived and who have shaped within these various walls of Georgetown High School. So the conversation that we are having tonight is about possibly I guess you can say quote unquote cancelling the activities pertaining to homecoming or tailgating as we have pretty much said it to be. So I'm asking that you please reconsider respectfully because homecoming is just not an event. It has become quote unquote a homecoming in every sense of the word. It brings us back to our roots and it reunites us as families. You see, homecoming is not defined by race, creed, religion, or even politics. It's defined by one unifying truth and that is that we have all walked the halls of Georgetown High School and have become graduates of Georgetown High School. That shared
010experience is what that I feel binds us. That's the common thread that weaves the generations of students, families, teachers, and neighbors together. It's a time where alumni that we are now considered many as doctors, lawyers, educators, service members, and even our business leaders come back not to boast but to show appreciation to the place that we feel that has helped launched us. I feel that that is pretty much our foundation. This is where we have learned discipline, respect, resilience, and character. And we return not just to reminisce, but to invest in the next generation. Homecoming weekend, Homecoming weekend has become truly, I found it, as a family reunion. It fosters community engagement and pride. It connects families and graduates across decades. And as you know, Georgetown High School is coming up on four decades. It
011provides a rare space of mentoringship, storytelling, and hope. When I see these festivities, I see grandparents or toddlers, former teachers catching up with students now making global impacts, and neighbors who have seen others all year long to this particular moment to reconnect in a spirit of joy and most importantly, unity. This isn't about nostalgia. It's about community empowerment. It's about showing today's students that their journey can begin here and take them anywhere. Most importantly, it's about preserving the spirit of belonging to the illustrious George Shanghai that we all have been granted. When you walk through the crowds, you don't just see division. I pretty much see legacy. I see where people are proud where they come from and grateful for what George Shanghai has given them. The kind of pride that fuels support for our
012schools, encourages alumni to come back and strengthen strengthen the communities in which we all rely on. I encourage you not to only keep the homecoming festivities, but to stand with us during them. Be there and be present and experience the purposes and the success for yourselves of which many of us have seen because decisions about this particular tradition. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Well, I was actually to the end. >> I got a little worried. But thank you so much for your time and consideration for this piece allowing me to speak on tonight. >> Thank you very much and thank each of the speakers for being here tonight, taking time out of everybody's busy schedule to come and express your views on this topic and s please know that we will be
013considering your views on any of discussion that will be centered around this particular topic. So, thank you Mary very much. >> Thank you. Our next item is the approval of minutes from our June 17th, 2025 meeting. Is there a motion to approve the minutes as presented? >> Move. >> Second. >> It's been moved and properly second. Is there any discussion? >> All in favor, please say I. >> Any opposes name? >> The motion carried. Next, we have the adoption of tonight's agenda. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda as presented? So move. >> Second. >> Thank you. It's been moved and properly second. Any discussion? >> All in favor, please say I. I. >> Any opposes? Nay. >> Motion carries. Thank you very much. We will now proceed to the information items. First, Dr.
014Gaus will present an overview of a new and updated initiatives, programs, and procedures for the 2526 school year. Dr. Gaus. Good afternoon, Chairman Moore, members of the board, to our district administration, as well as all of team GCSD, and to those who are guests in our um area on this evening as we usher in the new school year. We were just talking about the significance that once we return as a board, as a group, we will be Thank you, Miss Keer. here. We'll be back together again and students will be in the buildings, teachers will be in the buildings, staff members, buses will be rolling. So, it's not long now. As we think about that, we're ushering in a new school year and I want to thank you for your leadership as well as your
015guidance during this time period. Last school year brought many achievements in several areas. Yet we we move forward with the confidence that we can and will achieve even greater in this 2526 school year through various modes of communication, conversation, listening sessions on last year. We learned and gained insight as to how we can improve the educational outcomes of our students. one recurring theme and it still remains clear tonight that there is a need for consistent, clear, transparent communication. Um, our goal as we move forward is that we have implemented several new communication protocol steps to ensure that we will have more input as well as feedback from our stakeholders to ensure that we are consistent with our messaging. We have regular ongoing uh communication with all stakeholders as well as transparent communication. So you will
016hear that theme throughout everything that I present on this on this evening as well as in future um initiatives for our district. So keep that in mind that our goal is to improve our communication to ensure that it is consistent to ensure that it's regular ongoing and transparent. One way of doing that is through our GCSD district handbook. Just as a click quick, excuse me, glimpse. Our handbook entails our policies as well as procedures for the 2526 school year. We encourage all of our stakeholders to peruse our handbook to become familiar with those um policies that have been highlighted as well as procedures that we've updated. I take your attention to this page. On this page, if you frequent this handbook, you will see if there's anything new that's been updated throughout the year. And
017Miss Kibler will be um updating this throughout the year to ensure that that is again regular ongoing transparent communication with any policies, procedures or anything that entails um our students. [Applause] Also within this handbook, I will call your attention to our attendance guidelines specifically referring to policy Jed and Jedr. That policy or those policies refer to the types of absences seat time requirements for our high school or our credit bearing courses for high school as well as late signins and early signouts. Attendance is a key factor in student achievement. Spec specifically of note are the types of absences. Most often we hear the terms excused or unexcused. By state law they are referred to as lawful and unlawful absences. Students can be absent no more than 10 days per school year. That is state law.
018And again for high school credit bearing courses, this equates to what we term as seat time. Per this mandate, students must be in attendance at a minimum of 120 minutes per course. Per one course. Again, 120 hours, excuse me. Students can only miss in any combination 5 days in a block schedule class, and we are in block schedule for our high school. 10 days in a year-long class, that's 180 days, a full year, and three days in a 9 weeks class. That's a quarter. What we term is a quarter, 90 minutes for 45 days. We do offer seat time recovery opportunities outside of the regular school day. But students who do not complete those opportunities or are in or are not in attendance regularly will receive what is termed an FA failure due to absences
019regardless of the academic performance. There are exceptions, but I do encourage everyone to read these guidelines carefully and ensure that all students receive the credit that they deserve for their classes. I do stress that an accumulation of late signins or early sign outs can also lead to a loss of credit. So students have to be mindful, parents have to be mindful of signing students out early for classes or signing in late that this does impede their progress towards uh satisfactory attendance. And again, all of this is outlined within our handbook. Also within our guidelines, you will find visitor guidelines. In accordance with policy KK, visitors are allowed, specifically parents, legal guardians may visit classrooms. However, they must have prior permission from the principal or his or her designate. what that looks like. Checking in through
020the office, receiving all security clearance in order to go and also being in in accordance with whether we're having any testing, assessment or activities within the classroom that can't be um disturbed, per se. I stress that we have um updated volunteer clearance as well as background checks and ensuring that all volunteers have received the clearance and have completed all background checks prior to being allowed to be on the campus and work with students. We put that into action specifically this summer through our summer organization programs and we saw that it was effective with use of our facility use agreement in conjunction with that. So we're pleased to see that that has been enhanced and it is working accordingly. These next few initiatives allow me to say again that they came as a result of listening,
021working with our students, our staffs, our parents and our community. As we look towards our advisory council, we want to continue formally it was called our student our superintendent cabinet meetings. typically or traditionally we have cabinet meetings with our senior level leadership as district administration. So I'm now changing the name of that to our superintendent advisory council. So we will continue to have support staff members, students and parents serving in that capacity to continue to provide input as well as feedback and share how we can improve our schools. I will share that much of what we learned on last year, you saw in the previous slide. Our parents were not aware of attendance guidelines and policies and they also weighed in on what they felt was the importance and how we can enhance messaging in
022order to share that with you all. Free throw Friday, please note that that wasn't just a basketball session. That truly was a factf finding as well as information session where we were able to get data from our students. Things that came out of that this past year, you will now see salad bars at our high school. Again, that is from students giving us input on how they will be able to do better and and perform better by having an enhanced lunch. So, we will have salad bars in all four high schools. Also coming from that, our middle school shared that they want other offerings of lunch. Um, Miss Gamble and the and the food service staff showcased some of those offerings at the end of the year with um, one was Alfredo and one was
023the popular chicken and rice. So, we are looking forward to our students participating more into our feeding and food services and hearing more of what we can do to enhance their experience. I'll also share that our students provided more insight as to how can we help them with bullying situations and anti- vaping, a vape free environment. We will share that in the next couple of slides. GCSD reads allowed us an opportunity to read in our elementary schools, but it didn't just promote literacy. It ensured that we were engaging with our students, with our staff, and we formed relationships. I will share the experience probably was more beneficial for us district administrators than it was for the students because we got to know our students better. We got to know our teachers and staff members better,
024but more importantly, we we strengthen the bond of team GCSD. Again, these will be continued as well as updated initiatives. Getting into more specifics. Bullying, prevention, and intervention. We look at three themes here. Understanding what bullying is, responding, and how do we support those who have been bullied as well as those who have been a bully. The support goes both ways to ensure that we provide wraparound services. By definition, I pull out some of the key words here. It's deliberate. It's repeated. Um, it it is intended to hurt, insult, or threaten someone else. And this can occur on school grounds. It can can occur in classrooms, but important to note that it also can occur outside of school. Cyber bullying, social bull bullying, social media bullying. All of this consists of things that cause an
025imbalance of power. Our policy does refer to bullying. As we look to enhance our prevention and schoolwide practices, our schools will continue with behavior matrices. Those are more commonly seen with any type of positive behavior management system. If you visit schools, you may see be respectful, be responsible. This school is a capturing kids heart school. Those are all positive expectations for what we we want our schools to be. In other words, we have schools of expectations versus schools of rules. As we look to enhance the social emotional learning, our counselors as well as our staff uh promoted these two programs and we've now purchased them in order to be incorporated into our counseling sessions which is quaver ready and satchel pulse. The heartbeat of these lessons is that we are teaching proper decision making. what
026are the wise decisions to make and being kind. It is not necessarily a program that's going to say don't do this, don't do that, but it strives to teach what do we expect? What do we want to see? It's more in a positive manner. And within these programs are intervention programs as well for those that we have to see on the back end. class meetings, advisory programs. These are all ways that we will continue to teach those positive behavior um expectations and unfortunately where we will also have to share what are the consequences for making negative decisions. Important to note staff will be trained at the beginning of the year as well as throughout the year on how to provide these lessons as well as how to teach and watch for signs of bullying. This
027part is semi- new but I want everyone including our stakeholders to understand there are various ways that you can report bullying. Bullying can be reported by staff members. Bullying can be reported by students, parents, guardians or even others. There is a complaint form that has been updated. don't have access, but I'll share it with you. There is a complaint form that has been accessed or has been added, and that complaint form has you completed, but it's anonymous. You do not have to indicate names. Also to note, if you cannot complete the form, if you call the school, if you send an email, see uh someone face to face, the complaint can be made. and that initiates the process of an investigation. In other words, some type of complaint has to be made in order to
028initiate a proper investigation. Once an an investigation is initiated, the principal andor team will need to take certain steps. Again, this is added in, but making sure that we have it documented that these are the steps. We went through this with our principles and administrators on this past week and we ensured that we will follow these steps. If a complaint is made, these need these steps have to be followed prior to the full investigation. Is there a need for an individual intervention safety plan? Do we need to predetermine seating arrangements? Whether it's in a cafeteria, classroom, on the bus, identifying the staff member who will be that safe person. Who's that person that that the bully or the nonbully, the victim will feel comfortable going to? Do we need to have what is called the
029schedule changed and where we do not have these two individuals to confront each other during this time of investigation? specific steps that our administrators have been asked to complete. Of course, take immediate action. And I add in there that they have to notify our law enforcement, our SRO when deemed appropriate. In addition, let district administration know if there is a violation of a policy. Next step, again, gather initial information. Document each step thoroughly. Begin to interview witnesses. Speak with all that are involved. Notice that we have followup. That has been a weakness for us where we may not have been been following up in a timely manner. So our responsiveness we have identified as an area we can improve upon and complete the investigation report. Summarize the findings. Communicate. Communicate. Communicate with families, anyone involved.
030Notice that second bullet says share the outcome of the investigation without revealing specific disciplinary actions per furer. Often we want to know what happened to this person, what happened to that person. Per furper per our guidelines, we can only state up to a certain amount of information. So it's not that we are not being transparent. That's where we have to reach a pause. And again, depending on the severity, parents may be contacted with further information. Administrative actions will be applied. And step nine is key. We'll continue to provide ongoing wraparound supports and interventions so that this does not continue or happen again. Our [Music] consequences are still the same within our um code of conduct. They are outlined. Additional interventions, anti-bullying assemblies or counselor sessions will be led by our counselors. In some cases, we
031have consultants or visitors to come in. And again, implementation of restorative practices or a re-entry plan. What does it look like for students to come back into the school setting to be productive? In summary, things that we have ensured and have went back over with our staffs. Again, the definition, what is bullying? Stressing that reports can be made anonymously by anyone. Also, our stop it app is there. All reports are investigated thoroughly and reported to law enforcement. Parent notification will be made throughout the process. Documentation will be completed and collected. And lastly, we just stress if you see something, say something. I'll just give a quick pause there before I proceed. But that's an update on the bullying prevention and intervention. crapped out. >> As we go into our next topic, at the conclusion of
032last year's um fall festivities on our campuses, we brought together committees. We brought together law enforcement or we visited or had conversations with law enforcement. We also spoke with our administrators, various ones at campuses. Um, we thank the Georgetown High alumni for scheduling a meeting with us in which they provided feedback that helped us. These are proposed guidelines and procedures that I put before you with the effort or goal of ensuring that we do have measures in place per your approval with continuing with conversations with our schools with our community members and with our law enforcement again. So, we're presenting these guidelines today and inviting feedback over the next coming week with the goal of enhancing safety and ensuring school pride still within Georgetown County. Things that I will highlight and again I share this
033with you for your feedback to bring back at the next board meeting as you deem appropriate. Facility use agreements must be completed by any group using our campuses. We have worked on the time to ensure that this is completed in a timely manner. We received feedback that the noise or the volume of music and things in music systems near the playing area did conflict with those students who were performing or those students who were competing. So, we did add in a noise level so that that is not allowed in the area so that it does not impede what's happening on the field or what's happening in the stands for our student athletes. We added even though this is a part that we still had in the past years, we just stressed that all stadium entrances
034should have a designated gate with active weapon and metal detection devices. And I guess the most important bully uh bullet, speaking of bullying, the most important bullet is that violations of these guidelines, they can result in criminal charges or removal from property as well as bans from any future Georgetown County School District athletic events. And again, I share this as an information point for your discussion and for your uh input as to whether we may proceed with conversations with our community members, our administrators, and with our law enforcement. Lastly, our last uh new initiatives and programs and procedures, TMGCSD has um grown. We have added um our deputy superintendent as well as our chief human resources officer as and a transition of one of our um current staff members who will be who will have
035oversight of additional responsibilities. So in this moment I want to recognize and acknowledge our deputy superintendent Sherry Forest who's here this evening. Please stand. Chief Human Resources Officer, Mr. Koo Koo Jr. He's here and Mr. Coins, who's been with us forever and a day like myself. He has uh we've had conversations and he's going to transition into a role that has direct oversight of academics in all grade bands as well as instructional leadership, coaching, and support. so that we have as I have the tag up there so that we will achieve even greater together. So thank you Mr. Coins. I also extend a deep appreciation. They're probably somewhere on vacation right now but deep appreciation to Dr. Morant as well as Mr. Neil and other district administration who provided a great deal of leadership and
036vital support during the transition from deputy to interim to superintendent and I proudly stand as superintendent now again achieve even greater together the degree Fahrenheit mark. We all know or we all have seen it in science 212 represents a boiling point. I was leaving Colombia one day after superintendence meeting and there was a a profound discussion upon grade two the impact of grade two what's happening with literacy what's happening with phonics phonics how are we supporting reading and it seemed that grade two was the emphasis and where we are missing some of our students or losing some of our students so as I began to think about that on the drive fact it came to me that actually it's not just grade two. We have to focus from grade 2 to grade 12. What happens
037at 212 degrees? Water boils. What needs to happen with our students? We have to give that extra degree to ensure that we're not at 210. We're not at 2 to 10th grade. We're not at 2 to 11th grade. But we truly have to go the full distance and ensure that our students are successful from grade 2 all the way to grade 12. So this is a district-wide commitment to literacy as well as improving our practices, turning up the heat and accelerating achievement where it matters the most. So, you will hear more about that at our next board meeting from our academics department, but that is one of our new initiatives specifically targeted um for literacy and enhancing reading instruction. Unfortunately, there's been a heightened emphasis on vape on vaping. We've had some incidents not just
038in Georgetown County, but statewide, nationwide. And so we have a focus on prevention as well as intervention this school year. We've recognized through data and trends. As I just said, we're going to outline some enforcement practices as well as prevention strategies and how can we promote awareness and collaboration. One data point that we gained and several of you came and shared this as well during your visits to our schools that a location where we see the most incidents happening are in our restrooms, in between class changes, and in unsupervised locations. Our current policy and procedures do address vaping. However, after again pulling together a committee of our medical staff, which would be our lead nurse as well as counseling as well as uh safety, administration, parents, teachers, and our lead PE and health teacher, Mr.
039Keith Brown. We came together and we began to look at a progressive prevention and intervention guideline. What our principles told us is that when we rolled out the cell phone guidelines on last year, we saw a better um a better response from our students and that they understood what the consequences would be. It was not a menu of choices, but it was specific what would happen. So, as we work together based on this definition of possessing or having or using a vape, that would be one that is not um composing of an illegal substance, a regular vape. The first violation would be 3 days out of out of school suspension along with a parent and administrative conference. We will provide modules or lessons for intervention as well as a check-in with our counselors for intervention.
040If a student had a second violation, they would receive 5 days out of school suspension. Again, a module or lesson for intervention. and we came together and and composed this probation agreement. key parts that I want to highlight in this agreement helps a little bit is that the students would participate if you notice bullet a participate in a vape free intervention program provided by one of the service providers. So, our sher worker as well as our administrative staff worked to compose a list of available local resources within Georgetown County and neighboring counties that would provide services to our students. We have that list and we would provide that to the parent and the student during the time of signing this probation agreement. Second part is that they would participate in at least at a minimum
041two student counseling sessions with our counselor, our school counselor. And we indicate family because it could be parent, both parents, guardians, those who need to participate counseling sessions with our school counselor as well. Note that this is a probationary time period for one calendar year. We had a discussion and and we talked about whether it should be for a school year. Well, if it happens in April, the school year ends in May. So that's a student only having a probation of one month. But when we speak for a calendar year, that's a 365 day term. So we indicated one calendar year. Refusal to complete this program, these programs or this intervent this probation agreement would result in their packet being forwarded to our hearing officer for a recommendation for expulsion. [Music] Again, that's level two.
042That's possession of a vape not including or not having an illegal substance in it. Level three, what if it does have some type of illegal substance? Let me note that is not for us to determine. Our law enforcement or SRO's intervene at that time and determine for us whether it is uh composing of one of those substances automatically. It is a 5-day out of school suspension with a recommendation for expulsion. Again, notification to law enforcement for appropriate as they deem charges. If law enforcement does not charge, that does not impact what happens at school discipline. Those are two separate entities. School discipline does not result in law enforcement and vice versa. And it is a mandatory completion of our program requirements, not optional. I pause there for you to think about that as I've shared
043kind of a lot. But how do we not get to that step? Prevention, educational programs, health curriculum enhancements, assemblies, class meetings. The educational component is mandatory for all schools to provide for all students. There are two programs that we have looked into specifically and we will use catch my breath as well as EverFi. These are classroombased lessons and they'll also provide interventions for us through our health and PE classes in our younger grades K through five that will be provided through our counseling sessions. And if you notice that last bullet says extracurricular curricular program requirement that one is near and dear to my heart. I do feel that our athletics is a is a opportunity. It is not something that students have to be a part of including marching band and ROC. But we do
044know that each one of those require a level of physical fitness even without having vaping substances in your system. So if they are educated on not what to use during these times, we may have a better success rate of students not having ailments as a result of using vaping. So it is a it will be a mandate for our student athletes as well as those who participate in marching band and ROC to participate in a program in which Mr. Brown, Keith Brown has uh put together and our students will have to participate prior to the start of their first game staff training. Our lead nurse has worked with Tidland's Health and our school nurses will have a presentation in the next couple of weeks on identifying signs of vaping. Again, our counselors will continue to
045work on interventions and referrals, and we will continue to work with all staff on how do we support students their re-entry back into the school after a disciplinary action. Our safety department worked hard on these last pieces. our vaping detection systems, our sensors are in the restrooms, but we have to ensure that we have supervisions in these places. So part of our request to our administration is to turn in a supervision plan to our safety department that outlines how will our areas of high risk be supervised, who will be staffing them, at what times, and how regularly will we have that supervision occurring. Again, we were recipients of funding based on a lawsuit, a civil lawsuit with the Jewel Company. With that money, we've been able to provide or purchase much of what is needed.
046In addition to signage and prevention messaging that will be in our schools and in our facilities, including athletic facilities, stressing no vaping on our campuses. So our next steps again to roll this out to you all our communication campaign. Miss Kibler has worked extremely hard on messaging so that we have a letter that will go out to our parents to ensure that everyone is in agreement or in understanding. I won't say agreement but it has an understanding of the expectations for a vape vape free environment and what are the consequences? Each school will turn in an education plan. How will they go about ensuring that these lessons are provided? And lastly, again, I'll stress the supervision plan. How are our areas of high risk being supervised? We know that this will not be the end
047all be all. We want to have further conversations with our community, our community leaders, but we know it has to start within our walls of Georgetown County School District Schools first. before we go to the next steps. >> Any questions with the vaping policy or the procedures? >> I have one about the vaping. >> Mhm. >> Uh when a student gets to the violation of where they they have to have outside counseling, uh with the cuts of Medicaid, uh would that have any effect on who fits the cost for that? Great question. So the services that we have come up with, these are free services that we have on our list, but certainly that is going to have an impact on as we look at mental health providers and various providers where our students do
048have me uh Medicaid and various um supplemental services and funding. So if that service is not provided, then they're not allowed to come back to school. >> We will ensure if they can't provide a service, we'll find a service to help them. >> Okay. Thanks. >> That was a great question, Mr. Walker. >> I don't have a question, but I would like to make a comment. >> Sure. >> Uh I actually very much like how thorough this is. um through the vaping I think that you've touched base with the intervention I think was very important because that was one thing that concerned me was you know repetitive you know so I think the intervention is top class I think that that is something that we need to make sure we give alternative you know just
049sometimes punishment or just strict discipline doesn't change it >> right >> you know we have to be able to intervene to change that mindset and to help them learn and understand and grow as people and that is what I like the most I think out of all of this is to outline the disciplinary there's no questions this is what it is uh and it has accountability for the students accountability for the parents uh and accountability for us as well to give them what they need so thank you >> thank you I'll say that again it was a team effort pulling together several members of our team and uh going back to the drawing board and figuring out what can we try certainly knowing again as I say it's it's not the end all but it's
050certainly a great starting place and so lastly I'll just share that I I I in shared with you all in my introduction a few months ago that I would have community conversations throughout the year. I certainly did and we will continue with our team GCSD huddles per se having these conversations with various attendance zones moving throughout with organizations, community leaders, um those who can provide in input into how we can better serve our students, our community, and lastly, how can we achieve even greater in this next coming school year? But the emphasis is on we can only do it together. We can't do it separately. We have to come together to achieve greater for our students and for our school district as a whole. So these are our new initiatives, programs, and procedures as well
051as an update. I know it was a lot. Um but if you have any specific questions or questions that you would like for us to answer at a later time, uh please share those with us. Any [Music] questions or comments? >> Looks good. >> I just like to say overall, Dr. G, we certainly appreciate the work that uh obviously went into this right here. And uh you said the word together, and I had to write that in all caps because everything that we just went through, what Dr. G just went through. I think if we pull together, there is nothing that we cannot do. Uh sure some of the punishment songs hard but it's necessary to save our kids. Uh parents your role is huge in all of this right here. Uh help us to
052save our kids. So Dr. Gos, thank you very much for that presentation. >> Thank you. >> Amen. >> Next we will have a capital project update from Mr. Walters and Miss Crystal Edy. >> Good evening Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice Chairman, board members. Dr. Giles, distinguished guest and district staff. >> Good evening. >> I'm going to see which one of these tabs. Right one did a great job. >> Saint, >> all right, we're in business. So, I'm here tonight to present to you a capital projects update. And uh we've got a lot going on this summer and uh the summer gets to be looking really short when you look at some of the things that we have going on. >> So, what I wanted to break our presentation into tonight was first some of our major
053construction projects. I'm going to touch on each of these individually and then the rest of them are kind of ongoing projects that we have too. But I think giving you the whole picture of what's going on is helpful. That is what we're doing is districtwide. So you see we've got four big projects going on right now. I want to start with Rosemary Middle School's auditorium. So as you know our operations team uh does regularly scheduled walkthroughs of facilities and we're looking at all aspects from safety to cleanliness, hygiene, all those factors. So, back in February, we were going through uh Rosemary and we noticed if you see in that first picture, the blocks weren't lined up over the door to the auditorium. Well, that was a red flag. So, we reached out uh to an
054architect who came to look at it uh cuz that is Mr. Cox, as you well know from your many years of experience, that's a loadbearing wall over there. And so, we had concerns about the roof as well. the architect came engaged with a civil engineer and said folks you got a problem. So the recommendation at that point was to remove that section of wall check if the proper supports were in place behind that wall for the se for the roof and uh it's not a small project. It's not something that our facilities department normally would do. So we put that out for bid and guess what? Nobody bid on. So, we went back and we developed a plan. And I really want to stop for a second and commend our facilities team for coming up
055with a plan to do this while they're still doing the regular duties cuz this by itself, while it might look like just taking some blocks down to look behind the wall, Mr. Cox, you can tell them you take the wrong block out at the wrong time, it's going to be a bad day. >> Oh, yeah. >> So, it's it's a dangerous uh thing to do. It has to be done safely and properly. And they got it done. So, we were able to get behind that. Then again, getting our architect and civil engineer in place, they have developed a plan for how we're going to go in and try to get that fixed and do the remediation. So, now we're back into procurement again. While our folks have helped with the architect to develop a plan,
056there's one particular piece that does with the welding of those structural joints up there that requires very sophisticated certifications. And apparently there's only a handful of people that can do that. Uh our folks do not have those certifications because it's not something you do regularly. So we've got that in the hands of procurement. Uh we do have a plan in place and we also have a third party inspector because as you know with these projects like this, the state department's office of school facilities has to be involved. So that they're also monitoring each step of the way. So this one is in process. It's underway. We're going through the steps. Uh right now until we can get that welding piece lined up, we'll have to wait for that to implement the rest of the plan
057to rebuild that wall. Now, Mr. Houston has done a good job of working around the use of the auditorium during that time. Next one I'm going to talk about is uh the Wakamal Fieldhouse and that was a project that was uh vote on by the board some time back. uh we were able to engage architects uh this project was assigned to an architect and with various meetings with with staff and stakeholders uh we developed what the goal is for this project. Uh we've received initial drawings. Those drawings were approved. Now we're back to where just yesterday we've gotten the floor plan. They're working on the mechanical engineering aspects of it. Uh they're getting us a timeline for construction and engineering. And of course, once again, we've got to also get OSF involved from the get-go
058now that we've got the pieces in place to get this project moving. Carvers Bay High athletic facilities. Uh a project was approved some time back for a ticket gate entrance. Uh and looking at the the whole totality of the athletic facilities out there. Uh it's been determined we really need to look at everything. So they did not have a ticket gate entrance that was for all athletic facilities. Still they don't have that. Uh that was what the initial plan was. something along the lines more of what you might see at Georgetown High School for example. So now we've gone back, we've engaged a new architecture firm who has more experience and more resources with dealing with to total plan for athletic facilities, Mosley Architects. And so we have met with them. Um they are going
059to develop a plan for us that addresses several things. I'm going to touch on each of them individually here for a minute. I actually want to go kind of from the bottom up from what this list is. So, the baseball field when it was laid out and put in place many years ago, uh evidently it was not noticed at the time that uh baseball season in the afternoon, the sun was going to be in the pictures and players faces. So, uh different things have been tried over the years. The current uh thing that was in place to try to address that was uh putting a mesh uh net on the back stop to try to block the sun. Well, not only does it not entirely block the sun at certain times the sun gets between
060the uh bleachers and the net, but also because of the wind at that level. And I didn't realize how much the wind blows out there all the time. Every trip I've made out there, the wind's blowing all the time. At that level, what it's done is that the net keeps getting torn down. It's also pulled the back stop forward because the back stop is not made to sustain the weight of the net. So, we met with Conway Fence who put that in. Uh, we brainstormed some ideas on it uh as far as what a solid thing would look like. Basically, kind of like a scoreboard without the scoreboard part, a metal thing. But then we decided we needed to talk to the architect about that because it would have to be independent of the backs
061stop in order to hold the weight. So they came back and met Conway Fence did when the architect came. Uh he has concerns that how deep you would have to anchor post to sustain the weight of a sign that could carry the wind loads for that. So, but they have a expert in one of their offices who not only does K12 athletic fields, but he's also done university baseball stadiums. And so, this type problem usually is more common in the outfield coming back toward the batters. The challenge here is you've got the press box and and the spectator stands behind it. How do you deal with the sun problem and not impede the view of the folks in the press box and spectators and stands? And frankly, it may not be possible. It may be
062that the option, one of the options we will look at is is that you can't spin the baseball field around. You pretty much have to level it off and replace it the way it should have been placed in the first place. Uh that is an expensive proposition, a seven figure proposition. Uh we do not know at this time how much if if there is an option to put some sort of sunblock uh structure up there what that would cost. Uh it would not be inexpensive. Uh we do know though that what we've tried now with mesh does is not going to work. So we're working on that piece. Second piece is the fieldhouse. So we have gone out there. We've looked at that. the architect has looked at that. Uh the challenge is the size
063of it. Where do the visiting teams have access to use facilities? That sort of thing. So, they're going to come back and hopefully within the next probably he said maybe 3 weeks he could give us a broad outline of some options. Can we expand that one, renovate that one? Do we need to do a new one? Some combination of the two of those. So, we're wait we're going to wait and see how that comes out. In the meantime, regardless coming up to the next one, the locker replacement, we have met with the vendor out there. Uh they've taken the measurements. Uh we met with the coaching staff and and found out what their preferences are as far as lockers, having open lockers, not the ones with doors on them. Uh the construction of them being
064the open mesh sidings as opposed to solid siding, that sort of thing. and we met with them a couple of weeks ago and we're waiting on that quote to come in and that would be a job where they would actually come in, remove the current lockers and install new ones. Of course, we need to coordinate that when we get that in hand. Also looking at what the architect's going to give us as far as recommendations for how that fieldhouse should be continued to be used. And then the last item on this uh page is the ticket gate entrance. And what the the vision was for that is that uh as again kind of like Georgetown High have one entrance where people can get into the all the athletic fields. And then another challenge we have
065out there is we really don't have enough handicap parking. And if you remember at Georgetown High, there's handicap parking around the circular drop off in front of u the entrance to the stadium over there. So, we're going to look at that. When you start factoring all these things in, especially if you're looking at the potential of a new fieldhouse and that gate, what looks like a lot of open space out there is not that much. Uh you also be looking at a substantial amount of fencing because for security reasons we want to be able to direct and restrict where people go for different functions. Uh but they're going to what what I ask Mr. McCulla for really is is kind of a menu of options and uh he's going to prepare that for us so
066we can look those over. And uh but you know he kind of also told us if some of them are going to be appetizer prices and some of them will be entree prices. So, that'll be something we'll need to work with you on and get your guidance and direction and look at the potential for funding for those. The Pleasant Hill, uh, I'm calling the farm. I'm really not sure what the exact term is for it. So, out behind the playground beside the gymnasium, uh, Mr. Glover's been working on, uh, being able to have some chickens out there, a greenhouse, some outdoor learning space. But uh as we found out even with something like that, it requires an architect and OSF approval. So what we've done there is that we have uh for security purposes, we've
067added an access control door to the gymnasium. So if students are out there where this facility is, they've got a quick way to get back into the building, whether it's weather or security issue. Uh we've got new cameras that will cover the site of that. And uh we have a schedule ready to put the fencing in. What our holdup is at the moment and and Miss Stone bless you for the efforts that she has put into OSF has sent a long list of questions for the vendors of the chicken coupe and the greenhouse that they need to know specifications, wind loads, that sort of thing. For that, Miss Stone is called, emailed. Uh she's worked very diligently trying to get that information for us. Uh we're going to have our architect see if he can
068find somebody higher up in the chain with these firms that can get it for us. But that's kind of a hold up with that at the moment. The project is moving, but that's kind of a a speed bump we've hit on that. So that's our big projects, but we've got a whole bunch of other stuff that's going on as well. And so I wanted to take a minute and kind of go through some of those with you as well. If you rode by Georgetown High this summer, you may have seen a big giant crane out there for a couple of weeks and wondered what was going on. Well, that's because two of the major air conditioning units, HVAC units, had to be replaced. One over the media center and one over the cafeteria kitchen area.
069And uh we were actually able with the assistance of our academic instruction team work around summer school and beach activities uh to get those in place. So that is done. We have done uh a substantial amount of paint work this summer. Uh really started kind of before summer. We got Andrews High gym painted, but uh just in the last few weeks here, Carver's Bay High has had 24 classrooms completed. Uh Georgetown High has had 30 classrooms completed. And then Georgetown Middle, everything is being they're getting a total paint job done. And uh hopefully that's going to be completed by the end of this week. some of the stuff going back into the spring. We've done some work, paint work at Mville and also at Kensington. Uh flooring replacement, we're working right now at Kensington, that
070back building back there. We're replacing classroom flooring in there. Uh the removal was completed last week. The installation should be concluded by the end of this current week. Playgrounds has been an ongoing project. Uh we've got a lot of new equipment in this week. The big thing is we're getting mulch in. And uh I don't know how much you know about mulch. We can't just go to Home Depot and buy mulch and put it on our playgrounds. It has to meet certain specifications uh for safety and civil liability reasons. And it's a pretty substantial investment. But Mr. Johnson's been working very hard on that to make sure we have that where it should be before school starts. our weight rooms. Uh we have been working on that equipment wise. Uh procurement is working on that
071now getting that information so we can see about the three schools that are going to need some more stuff. Uh I actually found out cuz our folks have been working tonight while this meeting is going on. Uh Georgetown High has weight equipment. We're doing a floor flooring replacement there and we just got notified that that should take place the week of August 18th. The materials should arrive the week of August 11th. installation crew week of August 18th. Uh Motorpool, you're probably wondering why would you put a picture of that bus up there? That is a special bus. We're very excited about that bus because what makes this bus special is you don't have to have a CDL to drive it. Uh that is a challenge for us is that our primary transportation mission is getting
072students students to school and back home in the afternoon. But as you all know, we run thousands of trips every year for field trips, for academic trips, for sports. And so it's difficult finding enough drivers to do that. This bus in order to operate it, all some of them will have to do is they have to still have to have a DOT physical on file. And that also includes they be subject to the same drug testing list as a regular bus driver, but they do not have to have a CDL to use it. It's 14 passenger bus. So, we're going to look at that. Hopefully, it'll be utilized and and you know, we may come back to you and say we might need some more of them if if they're getting used and that will
073help hopefully take some of the load off of our transportation folks that do have CDLs. Um, our radios, we're still working on that. We're at the point we know what radios we've had to input from uh Motorola on that. uh procurement is working with a couple of vendors right now to see if we can get that out. Uh once uh a vendor is selected, we we won't be able to tell you a timetable for delivery until the vendor selected and that of course depends on inventory and supply chain. Our camera project is somewhat in the same situation. Uh we need a major camera overhaul. We have a wonderful camera system. At the time we put it in, it was one of the best in the country, but kind of like me is showing its age
074a little bit. And so it's time for an upgrade on it. And so while we're doing that though, we want to make sure that we're looking at the latest technology. And not only are we not just replacing cameras, but we're trying to stay ahead of the curve on that. So that still is a work in progress. That will be a sevenf figureure project as well. So we want to make sure we take our time and get it right. Looking ahead, a few things we've got coming up. Um, we've got a number of things that, uh, are going to continue. HVAC replacement, those are high dollar projects. Uh, we know that Walko Intermediate will probably be top of the list down the road for the next round. Uh, because they're going to need big of the
075big package heat pumps and probably 42 of the wall units for classrooms. So, that's going to be a major project. Uh, Walk High is going to have some needs. Georgetown High still has some needs and then of course our facilities maintenance department is um staying on top of that and we have a plan so as funds become available we can work our way down a priority list for that and I also want to applaud our HVAC team. Uh you can imagine this time of year with 100 degree heat and we're trying to get ready for school. So, they've been out, we've been out behind them making sure that the classrooms and buildings are ready, that the proper uh temperatures and humidities are in place, uh that everything's functioning properly. We don't need people coming to
076school the first day and no no air conditioning. Uh our plumbing, we're going to have uh some fairly big ticket items for plumbing. Uh Andrews High School is going to need a gym boiler and a fieldhouse water heater. Walk High is going to need a gym boiler. Carver's Bay High is going to need a fieldhouse water heater. Uh which is something else would also be considered as part of that overall thing too depending on how that facility will be used. Georgetown Middle will need a gym boiler and Rosemary will need a gym boiler. Uh roofing another high dollar projects we got right now. We know that probably prioritywise Andrews Elementary has five sections we need to look at getting scheduled. Uh Georgetown High has four sections. Walk has one and these things too. The lead
077time on doing that uh to get some of this work done. We we're working on it now and it might be next year before it gets done because not only are we competing with firm uh with uh districts who are doing repair work, but we're also competing against districts who are doing new construction. The resources and timeline for these things is not always necessarily quick. door hardware and access control. Uh especially some of our electronic doors. We're already working on replacing some of those uh because some of the older ones are no longer supported. Uh I've had conversations with Mr. Bubba Raw, who is the director of safe schools at the state department of education. Uh he's going to be coming down to meet with me and we're going to go out and look at
078some schools uh with the door hardware and access control because I want that to be the focus of our state safety grant this year. Uh, I think that's probably where we could use the most financial help from it. And that's been established by the legislature as one of their priorities in funding. It's only $20 million statewide. We could go through a bunch of that in one request. But, uh, we will certainly take all that they will give us to help us towards that. And then our alarm systems is the last item. We're still doing some work on those. Uh, we started work now. It's going to continue on. uh especially we've still got alarm systems that are using landline dialers trying to make connections with the monitoring systems and uh they aren't particularly reliable. Actually,
079believe it or not, cellular is more reliable. Uh we had to switch one last week. So, we're going ahead and working a plan now getting it together just to whatever land lines are left is let's get rid of those and get to something that's more functional. So, I know I hit a lot of stuff really quick, but uh I would be glad to try to answer any questions you may have or get you more information if I don't have it. >> I do have one question, and this is just because I like to make plans and know for myself. Uh for a lot of these, they're huge expenses as you said. >> Um and sometimes things happen and we don't plan on it and we have to cover it. Um, but I just was wondering
080for some of these, do we have like an estimated end of life for like HVAC units, how long they're going to last? Do we have any types of plan um on how we replace them in the future or >> We do and and that's the the the looking ahead pieces. That's where those plans for those big ticket items is been has been developed and priorities are in place. But as you say, sometimes events can uh shuffle the order of those priorities, >> right? I have one more question. Uh when you were talking about painting, um I noticed that you mentioned um several schools, Mville, uh Georgetown. Is there any plans uh possibly for Andrews in the future? >> Yes. Uh like I said, the gym over there got done. Uh I can't remember. I think
081we've done some at Andrews Elementary, maybe last year. Don't hold me to that. I'd have to go back and check. Um but uh yeah, we we work schedules with that as well. Uh and some of that our paint crew can do. The smaller jobs if it's a handful of classrooms or a hallway, they can handle that. They stay pretty busy doing the maintenance paint work. Uh a lot of that work has to be contracted out and again we have to get on those schedules. Uh we do now because of the way our schedules are set up with the weeks off in October and February uh as well as spring break week. uh we do a lot of work during those weeks. So even though schools might be closed or nothing's going on, our facilities and
082operations folks are working and managing those projects making sure that works gets done without disrupting the operation of the school. And I tell you, I'll give another shout out too because I've been out there with them. There's a lot of weekends there's work going on in those schools and our folks are out there with them getting it done. >> Thank you. with the paint requests. Um just one thing to add, Crystal Ley is not here this evening, but one of the things that she ensures is that with our request for capital project um items, our schools do input that and put in requests that we may not be aware of um firsthand. So, some of these big ticket items of paint of um double-digit classrooms that came through a process of um conversations, excuse me,
083dialogue with our schools. >> Yeah. And and so what Dr. G is saying, we do have a system in place not only for stuffs that we're prioritizing, but we're getting input from our principles as what they think they need. And then our group is top leadership level is looking at that and including that in our capital plan. And sometimes it may be something that may not have caught our attention when we walk through a school, but they've seen it and brought it to our attention and it may jump up the list. So, but we think it's very important that they have a way to be engaged with us in this. We're not just doing this in the district office. Any other question, comment? >> I had a question about the funding. Does most of the
084money for the capital projects come from the bond issues that we've we've generated or where does where does it all come to support this cuz they're obviously really expensive. They are expensive and we have and M. Johnson may want to throw me a lifeline here but briefly what it is we borrow money each year for those type of projects and then there's a repayment plan in the budget for that money but we so we have usually a pretty good idea of how much money is available for those projects each year that we can work with. That's a very simple broad answer. >> Yes sir. And the money most of it does come through those general obligation bonds. Um, but also, if you remember, the board voted, I guess a couple years ago, to move $1.7
085million from the general fund fund balance to help support the Carver's Bay High facility improve athletic improvements as well as the Walkaw High athletic improvements. So, that is part of how it's being funded. Um, and Magnet, the MSAP grant is funding the farm, a good portion of the farm. >> Great. Thank you. That's helpful. And in regards to that, um I want to go back to the Carver. Certainly I'm uh glad to hear of the updates on all the projects that are in progress. Uh but Carver Bay seems to have more question right now than answer. Uh and I would like to focus on that money that was set aside a couple of years ago. Uh I thought that we took off the interest because we understood that the principal now see other things more
086needed rather than the entrance. So, I'm not sure why we're still spending time on the ticket entrance. And we agreed that we're going to not focus on that on the money that has been set aside to use that for other things such as uh the locker room update for the uh football and uh the fieldhouse and and and and just for clarification, the fieldhouse is going to consist of that's going to take care of the concern that they had far as the baseball players not having anywhere to dress. >> Yes, sir. That that's what we've expressed to them that we we've identified that concern. We've had them speak with the coaches. Miss Tucker Young was involved with some of these conversations with us on site. The only reason the ticket thing was in there uh
087is because it was initially part of it. It's not something that has to be done, but we figure if we're asking the architect to give us an athletic facility plan, we might as well get that information. But it may be depending on the cost of these things that we may have to uh recommend that they be done in phases. Uh again we just want to make we want to make sure we have as much information as possible we can present to you because uh some of these things are going to be high ticket items. Don't know but that was not an emphasis on that particular one. And just just one more thing just for clarification. You did involve stakeholders. In other words, the principal, the administrators, the AD in the most recent visits. Correct. >>
088Correct. We actually uh met with met with uh coach and his staff in the in the schoolhouse. They were out there doing some uh washing clothes and uniforms and some maintenance work themselves. And also uh we talked about uh back in March about the equipment that was purchased for uh track um and we well that well that few house that equipment that we were concerned about not having anywhere to store those as well. >> I think we got we got a storage >> agreed to purchase a storage shed for that. >> Yeah, we got a storage shed for that. And and one thing I did did not mention and I should have uh is uh the concern about the uh plexiglass on the concession stand, the ticket windows and such. So we have met with
089our current glass vendor, a local business. Uh what they're recommending at this point is is that we use a tempered glass. >> Uh they've given us a quote for it, rather pricey quote. Uh we've got to look at that a little closer. We've asked them to go back and refigure a couple of things on it. Uh we also told them that there should be a sense of urgency to this. Uh we'd like to if possible depending on procurement issues and the dollar amount uh we'd like to see this done sooner rather than later >> and certainly I would uh uh just say this to uh administrators as well. uh we would we know that we've had that money set aside for the interest and we've had conversation understanding that there was a a lot more
090to get in our ticket interest. I would certainly want to focus on spending that money. >> Yes, sir. >> Uh versus having discussions about what we cannot afford uh or what we don't have money already set aside for. So, I do appreciate all the work that you guys have done, Mr. Walters and Dr. gals and uh but just want to make sure that um we're not focusing on things that right now we cannot do like the baseball field. We know that we don't have enough money to turn it which is ultimately the the uh resolution to the problem that we're having out there uh versus uh that money is sitting there over two years uh and there's things that we need that we can afford with that money. Why not let us go ahead and
091get those things done? >> So, thank you very much. One of the conversations we did have just just to add context is that we want to consider what what things are aesthetically pleasing certainly um wants that we would like but when we were discussing the baseball field I stressed that that is more of a safety concern and that we're looking at that even though it is a capital project uh request it is a safety concern. So even if we cannot um financially afford the the cost of of moving the field, we have to have some type of plan in place prior to next baseball softball season for our students safety wise. So, we are considering other alternatives and um discussions here have have included whether um games need to be changed as far as the
092time home games specifically or whether we need to look at a relocation of the home games because um regardless of of the funding source, it is it is now a safety issue. So, we can't ignore the fact that it's unsafe to have games during that playing time. And and it's not that, let me just add this, it's not that the baseball field is an issue. Um because us softball players, former softball players know that sun will always be in your eye when you're in the sunlight. However, it is a reaction time that is the concern at Carverage Bay and that when it is a pitcher and the reaction time for that ball coming off the bat, >> um that is what causes it to be a safety issue. So considering the baseball field sunscreen, that
093is really a separate request or a separate issue for us. Um the fieldhouse locker room enhancements, ticket gate entrances, that is separate and and I did write a note. I want to go back into it was October 2023 when this was approved, but I want to make sure within the minutes how it is worded or what was approved, whether it was specifically approved for a ticket gate entrance or whether we need to revisit and reapprove or make a motion to alter what was approved. So, we may need to check that, but I'll bring that back to you at next board meeting with your permission. >> I certainly appreciate that very much, Dr. G. Um certainly uh I agree with everything you said especially safety issues cuz I've been at the games and I've seen close
094calls already. So I do appreciate you uh separating that understanding the importance of uh safety issues. So thank you very much. >> Yes sir. Cuz Mr. Moore, that's the first time we as a board have heard anything except te ticket gate and entrance and the fieldhouse for that. Those were two projects and that when this came up in this presentation, >> I was really kind of taken aback since we had never looked at the needs. >> Yes, ma'am. >> At at Carver's Bay as a board and that wasn't under your watch. That just happened over two years ago when >> that project was mentioned. And I do have a question about the wait rooms. Uh, you mentioned there's three schools that are getting enhanced white materials. Were all schools and I don't have a clue
095who they were, but were all schools invited to participate in that project? >> Correct. Mr. Johnson is been working on he did the needs assessment for that. He does our athletics and athletic facilities and so he's been kind of heading up that project for us. But the difference with Georgetown was that they went ahead with their own source of funding to get their weight equipment. So, we're providing the flooring for that weight room. One of the schools was actually uh refurbished or refernished and redone during the bond referendum. That was part of what they they're So, that was the fourth school. The other three were not. And that's that was my concern. Did we actually get input? And since we did, >> yes, ma'am. But they have gone to them and said, "Do you need
096some additional pieces?" And I think they've come back with some some ideas on that. >> Thank you. >> And Mr. Johnson, he did at at our request LA Mr. Johnson, excuse me, last year when we were discussing weight rooms as as far as the athletic piece. Again, safety was our number one concern. and we were hearing of um and seeing some reports in the incident vector system that students were injured um using weight room equipment. So we we uh we asked him to conduct an inventory or an assessment to determine not necessarily how we can enhance um strength and conditioning but how can we ensure that our students that are participating in these activities. Again um that is another safety concern and we want to not just enhance athletics but make sure that our students
097are safe while participating student athletes excuse me. >> That was my question. the safety issue and yes ma'am making certain that we actually had that in every place and I appreciate that. >> Also recently and I think Mr. Walker and I were over at the Georgetown baseball and there is a house there or a facil part of a building that needs to be torn down. Um because it's literally the roof is falling in. And we discussed it that time because it's really you don't even want to walk in it. It's in such bad shape. And uh the booster club over there and those have are working very closely. But I want to make sure that that they're not asking for funding. They're going to be able to fund the rebuild or the new building. They
098are they're very active in that. But that we do have to uh participate in the uh removal of that building. >> And I'm glad you mentioned that, Miss Johnson, because actually Mr. Johnson, Mr. Evans, and myself were in that building this morning looking at it. And uh I think everybody Dr. Giles has certainly seen it as well. I think everybody agrees it needs to go. >> It has to. >> So that's what we're going to be working on with that. Uh as far as what goes beyond that, I'm not fully up to speed, >> but that needs to >> what that plan is. But yeah, I think everybody concurs that that thing needs to come down. >> It was pretty deplorable Friday to see. >> Actually, it was dangerous. >> It was dangerous. We did
099not enter. Any other questions, comments? Mr. Walters, thank you very much. >> Yes, sir. >> Finally, we are here from the safety committee for update. >> Thank you. Robert from Mr. Robert Cox. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, being I'm last on theformational items, I'll be as brief as possible. I know we've been here a while. Um the board has had this uh committee findings report for a couple weeks and I'm sure everybody's read it. I'm sure you understand it and um tonight's not the end of of safety and security for our schools. It's just the beginning. So there a lot of the things, Mr. Chairman, that are on this report will be followed up by Dr. G with her recommendations and um but I'm just going to quickly do a sort of a brief
100uh summary of of what we have here. Um if you're sitting here and you don't have a copy of it, we have copies in the back, hard copies. Feel free to take one, take it home, read it. Um the executive summary just basically talks about what what we've done as a committee. Um we put this report together after four very lengthy meetings with uh lots of people and the report uh basically presents the key findings and recommendations of the safety committee tasked with evaluating current organizational processes and I want to pause there and say to the general public and the board that we found by talking to Dr. Giles and her staff there were much more strength and no weaknesses. The weaknesses to me are just u things that we can improve on. Uh things
101that were already being done, but uh during these meetings, we found ways to actually evolve and make these things even better. But the committee conducted a comprehensive review involving information collection from the Georgetown School District staff, community leaders, and benchmarking against state and other district standards. Our findings reflect both areas again of strength and we had lots of opportunities during our conversations to talk about improvements and uh we really talked about a lot and all that will be accomplished by recommendations and plans of action designed by the superintender uh Dr. Bethany Giles and obviously the full board. These presentations to the board will support Georgetown County Schools District strategic objectives in striving to continuously improve and adapt to an ever evolving climate within the county and the county schools schools. Information will be presented by
102Dr. Giles in the future meetings for the board to review. So again, this is not the end. This is just the beginning of things that we saw that just needed some improvement and we came up with a slogan just make it better. Um, as far as the introduction, uh, this committee was formed again to address some of these safety and security areas uh, for study. Uh, we identified them. Some of the bullet points I'll quickly go over assesses the effectiveness of current operational processes. I want to comment on that, Mr. Chairman. We did a lot of that and we talked about what um Mr. Walters and Mr. Stucky and his staff already had in place and let me tell you, they got a lot going on, a lot of good stuff. But, but as we
103talked um you know as well as I do, when you get people around speaking, there'll be something that can be brought out that can improve these areas. And that's that's basically was our uh our goal. Bullet point number two was evaluate the alignment of the department goals with the overall mission. Recommend strate strategies for continuous improvement. Ensure that in the event of any emergency or crisis within our schools that the district has the best practices and policies in place. And you know as well as I do when it comes to security and safety of our kids. We can't make mistakes. And um I sort of put three or four things together that I got out of this committee. Number one, training is important. We have to train our staff um in the event that uh
104procedures have to be implemented. Number two, consistency among our entire school district is so important that everything is done consistent. Uh we don't need two high schools doing one thing and two doing something different. So we want to develop a program that is very consistent. Number three, monitor those things. Make sure they're being done uh by staff. Number four, maintenance. When I say maintenance, things like doors, uh not shutting, not locking, exit signs not working, emergency lighting, uh and it could it could go on and on. And then last but not least, the most important part, and Dr. Giles touched on it, is Follow-ups. Follow up on things that needed maintenance. um that came out of report. So, training, consistency, monitoring, maintenance, and follow-ups. If you do those things, it's kind of like teaching a
105ball team how to turn a double play. It's repetition. If the shorts stop knows where to go with the ball to second and second goes the first, we won't have to worry about security. It's repetition. And that all involves in training and consistency. And I think those were two main things we got out of this board is training, consistency. And don't get me wrong, there's already a lot of training going on. Um, we're going to move now to um who was on the board. Gosh, it was a lot of people involved. Not only the subcommittee, but uh the um Dr. Giles, safety officers, uh Mr. Alan Walters, Mr. Alani Stucky, and our some of our board members. We had SRO's within the school, um Lieutenant Owens, and other community leaders such as Chief William Pierce
106from the city. And by the way, as we sit here and speak, they are doing a city police department active shooter training right now. So again, training, consistency, and you and you'll have success in security in our schools. Um, Lieutenant Ryan Owens, Major Melvin Garrett, and the sheriff's office was involved in coming over. We'll move now to the methodology. Um, if you're following along, you can flip the page. uh review of internal procedures presented by Mr. Alan Walters. Mr. Walters was very open about what is going on as far as procedures. Now again, we talked about improving those and we are going to improve them. Um we actually sent out a survey uh to all our SRO's and they were able to answer questions on what do they need because you got to understand the
107SRO's they're they're the first line of defense if something was to happen in our school. So, we got the SRO's involved and we need to continue to get those guys involved and ladies and gentlemen to where they can tell us what they need, what they need. Uh, requested input of principles. Obviously, the principles are the CEOs of the schools. They know what their schools need to make them safe and secure. We did a comparative analysis of other school districts practices when available. We had input from the sheriff's department in Georgetown City Police and evaluation of morning entry within the school. We know that's very important. We also know that's something new within our school district. And again, it's been working well, but we did see and found improvement. And again, we're going to make that
108interest with the kids in the morning. Um, we're going to monitor it. We're going to evaluate it to make sure it's the best it can be. So, we met for about four times, April 17th through June 25th with a two-month extension due to a busy May. And I'm going to go over now and wrap this thing up on what did we actually focus on. And I've already touched on this training. And as I go through this before we go to another um finding, I want to stop and see if any board members have any input. So, number one, training. The committee found that Georgetown School District already has extensive training available to staff working within the school district in regards to all areas of safety. But there were a few key areas that could use
109more emphasis. These included the emphasis on all staff's responsibilities to maintain closed doors and report any functional problems to facility services. There was also an identified need for additional training with the open gate systems. Again, these are things that are already in place that just need twe tweaking, just need to get improved. Um, let's talk about after school events. We've touched on um tailgating and I just want to let the public know on camera. We never at any time ever said we were going to get rid of tailgating. Um, I'm for tailgating as long as it's done in a civil manner and uh we're setting examples as adults before our children that are at those homecoming games. I'm all for tailgating. But as you saw tonight already our staff is already writing and has improved
110the tailgating procedures and policies. So, we're already on top of that. But just just know that we never as a committee or as a board ever said no more tailgating. Number two, I mean, number three, school radios. Uh, we know we have a problem with radios, and we're not going to stand up here and tell you we don't, but you've already heard from Mr. Walters. We're evaluating the systems. We're evaluating the vendors, and we're going to have something soon that's going to be better than what we have. Okay? Because without communication in a time of a crisis, you could find yourself in some big trouble. When people staff can't communicate within a building, police can't communicate to to know what's going on, where to go. So, we basically brought the uh chief of police and
111uh the sheriff's department in. We talked about their radio system. We've talked about in depth with Mr. Walters our radio system. And we are going to get an improvement that is on the way. And again, that also uh was first responder radios. Bathroom policy. If you got a good bathroom policy, please send it up. We'll be glad to look at it. Okay. Bathrooms is one of those rooms where a lot of things go on in our schools. That's where bullying goes on. That's where fights go on. That's where vaping goes on. Um, a lot goes on in bathrooms. So, we those are areas that we are actually going to look at improving. We're going to monitor them with policies to ensure uniformly through our schools. And before I go to our last uh findings, is
112there any comments from the board on anything 1 2 3 4 5 that you'd like to say? >> We get through. >> Good. Okay, I'm moving quick. Number six. Now, this is a subject that was discussed in detail. Clear book bags, clear thermos policy. Now, when you say that, everybody breathes deeply because uh clear book bags um there's already several schools within our school system that are using clear book bags and thermoses. Um we have asked uh Dr. Giles to talk with those principles to see what was the positive behind going to clear book bags. I can tell you what the positive is. Everybody's got common sense. It's to be able to see what our children are bringing in our schools. And I'm going to say in looking for weapons, that's one, but looking for
113things like vapes and other things that they may be putting in book bags. We're better to hide something than in a book bag or in a thermos. So, that is something that we're going to look at. We're going to we're going to weigh out the positive with the negative and decide is clear book bags and clear thermoses actually a great idea for just Georgetown County School District. Number six, we've already talked about tonight. Anti- vaping campaign that is on the rise. We got it. We talked about it tonight. So, I won't uh spend a lot of time. Uh, one of the one of the things that we talked about with law enforcement is not just the vape anymore. It's what's put in the vape that could be deadly to our kids. So, you know, intervention
114um you know, and and the juryy's still out on the long-term health risk it is for kids to vape at an early age. We don't know what's going to happen to these children in 5 years of vaping. We just really don't know the health risk, but I'm sure there's going to be some. Um so, we're going to move to recommendations real quick. Based on the findings, the committee recommends that Dr. Giles and her staff prepare for presentation to the full board for review. specific action plans, and she's already done a few of that tonight, and timelines for adjustments and improvements in the following areas. Number one, future after school events such as tailgating, we can put a check in that box. We're moving in that direction. School radio systems, Mr. Walters, we can put a
115check in that box. First responder radio systems, we can put a check in our box there. clear backpack and thermos policy. We cannot check that box yet, but it is something as a board I think we need to discuss. Is it is it good? Is it bad? What are the benefits? What are the drawbacks? Bathroom monitoring policy improvements and whether certain systems could be used in a pilot program to determine effectiveness. We talked in depth about bathrooms during our subcommittee meetings. uh what can we do um better monitoring by staff um you know that again is something that Dr. Giles is going to work on and bring to us she's already touched on it tonight um anti- vaping initiative she presented it tonight Dr. G and her team have already planned to implement additional training
116for staff for the following. Well, atlet number one, open gate training will be held at individual schools on the 24th through the 31st of July and any areas of improvement and safety monitoring will be addressed at that time. Bullet point number two, additional emphasis on door safety during July 9th annual administrator training to staff. Uh that's already been done. Um, you know, doors is not rocket science. They need to open, they need to shut, and they need to be locked. And we need the doors are the thing that's going to keep the bad guys from coming in. And so, we talked in depth to Dr. um, Giles and Mr. Walters about putting together a door um, program to where they are inspected um, by maybe our school safety monitors or by principles. And doors should
117re really be checked by everyone. Teachers should make sure doors are shut because as you know a lot of the deaths that occurred to teachers and students have been because of doors not closing or doors being propped open. And in my conclusion, the committee appreciates the board's trust in undertaking this important review. Through our work, we have identified both the strengths that set the school district apart and the areas where thoughtful improvement will have a great impact. We believe that the superintendent has been actively pursuing solutions to any identified areas of these concerns [Music] and her presentation to the board uh will position Georgetown County District for continued success and resilience and involving cultural climate. What are the last and next steps? Obviously, like I said earlier, this is not the end. This is just
118the beginning of making our schools more safe for our children and our staff and teachers. We'll appoint one present these findings and recommendations to the board for discussion and approval. Develop an implementation plan with clear timelines and accountability for each recommendation. Monitor progress and report regular to the board and outcomes and challenges. If we would do these things again, training, consistency, monitoring, maintenance, and follow-ups, we won't have a problem worrying about our teachers or our students being safe in Georgetown County Schools. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Comments. >> I I have a quick comment. I would like to recognize and thank Fallen Border because she was the acting secretary of these meetings. And as you can tell, they were deep, far-ranging, very complex discussions. And somehow she kept track of it all. And this report that's
119back there on the table and that Robert's talking from is pretty much her product. and it it was a noble effort and kind of a I was just amazed at how fast and well you pulled it together. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you, Scott. >> Yeah, I want to thank um I want to thank you, too. She was sort of my my artificial intelligence. I mean, she got things done and it was very professional. So, thank you so much. Um >> thank you to all of you for that. I appreciate it. Couldn't have done it. It was a team effort. >> It was a team effort. Yeah. Everything we done was a team. I would like to add a couple of things if you don't mind. >> Absolutely. >> Uh I did want
120to reiterate that our safety committee was formed to collect data and to get information and that's what it was for. Um I have had several people ask you know why didn't we do formal recommendations but I would like to take the time to to recognize that it was a quorum on the safety committee. Uh we could not make any recommendations ourselves. uh we needed to make sure that we included the full board which is why we asked Dr. Guiles to continue gathering information so that way it could be be presented to the entire board with the final pieces put together and the plans that she implemented. And she has put months of effort into creating these projects, some of which was delivered uh in the presentation tonight. And uh you know, I have to say
121thank you for listening to our concerns. And uh there were a lot of questions and uh she and her staff uh were phenomenal at responding to the request for information and for giving us what we needed so that way we can know which steps we needed to move forward. Um, so I would like to say thank you because without your leadership and being able to take all of this information, put it together and present it to us in a way that makes sense that we can look at, uh, it it makes it all worthwhile to see the the bullying that you've done, the anti- vaping, uh, and the different things and to know that you heard what we said and you took it and you did what we asked. Um, so I would like to
122say thank you for that. um for the reports that we have seen uh and for all of your effort in this because I know that it does take an astronomical amount of time. That's it. I would like to make one comment. I would like to let the other board members know that said we could do it in open session. It would have been very difficult for us to have gotten all this information collected, all of the data collected, have all of the people come before us to put this together so that it could be presented to the whole board in sessions. We would have been here for days on in an open, you know, session as we are now. So by having a subcommittee that focused on something particular and and safety is extremely important,
123we were able to help uh condense what we need to do and what we need to focus on. So the sub subcommittee was very important in making sure that this was done in an open way. I would like to also add that um something that was not included in the report uh was sometimes we actually receive feedback from staff as well. For example, clear backpack and thermos policy. Uh you know, we asked questions, you know, how do you feel about this? And and we received input from people on whether they like the idea or not. Um especially from uh the security monitors at the school. uh and who better to ask than the people who help protect our entrances at the front uh on what their feelings are. So there was there was a lot
124of information and a lot of input from different angles and different perspectives uh and Dr. G is still continuing to gather information uh to give the best reports possible. >> Any other comments? >> Yeah, I think the clear bags are great. Uh, and not to throw any negativity toward what you guys have done cuz I think y'all did a great job, but I' I've been given some vapes that's so disguised that you might think it's the kids ink pen or something, you know. So, just to say that you're doing a great job, but we're still not 100 and I don't think we're going to ever be 100. But, uh, we're on the right track. >> Yeah. >> Again, Mr. Cox, I certainly want to thank you for chairing this board. Uh, after every meeting, uh,
125you've always called and given me debriefing and I would just like to say Dr. Gson staff, Miss Bordon is not just saying that tonight. Uh, every time I spoke with her in regards to this, she always recognized the amount of effort that it took to get you all the information that they were requesting. So, please know that the board in its entirety appreciate what the district is doing towards safety. Uh, we thank the committee for just gathering more information so we can try and make it better. So, thank everybody for what you've done in regards to our safety for Georgetown County School District. Thank you. >> I'll just ask is it is uh just for direction moving forward. >> Thankfully, we were able to check most of the boxes, most of the bullet points. >>
126We were >> um but the one about clear backpacking thermos policy. Um my my recommendation and and this is from our team is that this would this would not be a goal to implement in the next two weeks. In other words, uh we know that parents have already started purchasing supplies. So we want to ease that anxiety of um those who are listening and and feeling that >> that is where the direction we're going. We would certainly need to have input from beyond just our group. We'd want to have stakeholder input um surveys and interest groups in order to make a well-informed decision and bring that back before you. >> Agreed. >> Any other comments? Thank you very much. We now move to our action items. The first item is the personnel list. The administration
127recommends approval as presented. Is there a motion for the personnel list? >> Move. Second. >> It's been moved and properly second. Is there any discussion? >> All in favor, please say I. >> Any opposes? Nay. The motion carries. Next, we will have our first reading approval of policy EF competitive food sales and slice vending machines. The administration recommend approval. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> It's been promptly moved and second. Is there any discussion? >> All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposers? Nay. The motion carried. Thank you very much. The next item is the first reading for policy IH AF, healthy and nutritious school environment. We recommend for approval. Is there a motion? So moved >> second. >> It's been moved and properly second. Any discussion? >>
128All in favor, please say I. I. >> Any opposes? Nay. The motion carried. We also have the first reading of policy IHA grading assessment system recommended for approval. Is there a motion? >> So move. >> Second. >> It's been moved and properly second. Is there any discussion? All in favor, please say I. I. >> Any opposers? The motion carries. Next, we have out of district transfer request. The administration recommends approval. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> It's been moved and properly second. Any discussions? All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposes? Nay. The motion carry. Thank you very much. We have reached the board and superintendent comments. Board members, are there any comments or requests at this time? >> I would like to put in a plug for
129the Ory Georgetown Tech Center right down the road on 17 for students that are thinking college isn't for them and maybe a skill set is. It was the first time Miss Johnson and I had to visit the tech center. my first time in there and I got to tell you I was not only surprised I was floored and amazed at the level of technology and sophistication and advanced technology that's down there. You would think they got programs in marine engine uh repair, nursing, forestry, uh boat building, uh advanced machining, and welding. And I mean, it's state-of-the-art stuff. And I've gone by that building numerous times, driving down to Charleston or wherever, and I've looked over and thought, "Oh, that's a nice building." I thought that was the tech center. It's huge there. It goes on
130quite a distance and they're even building more buildings. But what's amazing about it is the graduates out of that place are in demand across the country. And if I understood them right, the m the kind of the minimum wage the people are being hired at is depending on location 33 bucks an hour just to get started. And um it's just fabulous. And I don't know how many people know about it or how much we can do as a board, but if if it would be helpful to the board, I'd love to have them come in and make a presentation to us about what's down there because it is mind-boggling. It's a great facility. And the beautiful part beautiful part for the most part, it's free. >> There's no tuition. students may have to buy a
131book here and there or something, but it's in essence free. It's amazing. >> Um, I had to leave and come back and I went back to discuss with some of them some of their what they've got going on. And at that time we did I talked to them about possibly giving some of our middle school students which are in the seventh and eighth grade an introduction out there because not just for our high schools but sometimes in kids are transitioning into high school they really you know don't know about different things and and really they're just thinking oh I'm going to high school but we could possibly integrate some of our middle school children to go out there, see what's there, see what's there, and they can possibly see a future in something or intrigue
132them into something. And I think that maybe we could collaborate doing that during the year at different periods, taking groups out there from the different middle schools and saying, "Hey, this could be your future." And then all of a sudden by the time they get to high school, okay, >> yeah, >> this is something I can see myself doing and have a little bit of a goal because once a child has a goal, they're more apt to follow through. Children that just kind of aimlessly go through school without goals, it, you know, it they don't have anything. But I think we need to start maybe goal orienting. They have a robotics absolute room that is fantastic that is sitting empty, completely empty, no students in it. So, at this point, we've got some robotic classes
133that we need to get out there and kind of try and intrigue these kids into using that. That classroom and facility is completely empty at this point and not being utilized. Is there a way of gals that at um high school children could go out there during high school and take a a um a class on welding or machine tool technology. >> So what much of you all just discussed is already in in action um is through our tech scholars programs. Our students are um the beneficiaries of being able to take classes and and acquire certifications at the advanced manufacturing system um center. In addition to that, if you recall, we do have the teach to teal which is in a partnership as well with HGTC um the Tidland's health scholar program that is in
134collaboration with um HGTC. When you think of our uh P2P, that field trip experience for our eighth graders, they do have opportunities to see what's happening at HGTC so that they can participate and the goal piece that you uh mentioned. That's the uh individual graduation plan that begins happening in the middle school where our students look at what careers. So, you really just gave us a plug as we start back to school and um Thank you for that. We didn't plan it. We didn't plan it, but that was a um >> that was an advertising mechanism. >> The Ory County um tech facility also has some expanded things such as culinary >> and stuff like that that's in Conway that would offer some of the same experiences. So, I I think that we really need
135to let them know that there's other things beyond just what this technic uh does, but that there's some other things over there that might fit their bill because it's it's geared toward um you know uh the hotel motel type things and jobs. Got >> Mr. Coins, you may want to take back this whole meeting. Um Mr. Coins uh proudly is a member of the board of commissioners at HDTC. Um he serves as a represent representative for us. So take all his back Mr. Coins that um >> but I just want to add that most of the things that you've already mentioned we are already doing. >> Um our students have that opportunity to have exposure to those things but exposure is one thing. Committing to do those things and staying locally is another thing. What
136we need to be preaching is that our um tech systems across the state of South Carolina offer a service that many of our students are not willing to accept because we preach four year not two year. >> And I can say that many of my former students who went through that program making a lot more money than I am. >> Absolutely. >> So there's a plus two students out there >> stay local and make lots of money and do a great job >> and they have good job placement. Any other comment? >> And we've had graduates from the tech scholar program in robotics and the megatronics uh and the welding program that have stayed local and have done really well and especially like in our nursing program. Correct. >> And that kind of thing. So
137our our students, that's just a plug to certainly as parents, we need to look at those two-year offerings for our students, too, cuz what Mr. Cohen says very true. We are very busy saying you've got to go to college and we don't include the two-year programs that would really give them a great living. So uh very briefly uh again like to welcome the new members and congratulate those who are in new positions this upcoming year. Uh and in regards to the conversation about Clear Bag at Carver's Bay, just want to give a shout out to Mr. Byron Young who hosted a clear bag giveaway at the Carver Bay um campus. So, thank him very much for that. Uh Mr. Owen B, we look forward to having you in the spotlight at our next meeting. So,
138congratulations on your victory to be a part of the school board here. We certainly look for your addition to be an extra log on the fire that we have growing going here at Georgetown County School District. So, when we blaze that fire as a district, we get our kids to that 212 boiling point and they leave the Georgetown County School District on fire. So congratulations to everyone in the success that we are having moving forward thus far and I'm just excited about seeing what the future's going to bring for our kids here once they leave our school district. Dr. G. >> Thank you again, Chairman Moore, members of the board. Um, as we conclude, I hate to say conclude our summer. Nobody wants to hear that part, but this is our last week of our
1394-day work week. But we are excited about what will happen on next week in which our buildings will be very active as our staff members return on next week. But before we look to next week, this summer has been very very busy. So, I want to salute and thank those staff members, teachers, um, support staff members that engaged in summer programs, um, our beach programs and various programs that they they participated in. Thank you for seeing fit that our students received in Richmond as well as remediation opportunities. Thank you to our food services staff for summer feeding opportunities, our bus drivers and transportation department. We we continued to transport students uh daily. Our facility staff has been very very very busy. Thank you. Even with my additional request, you put those in and and are
140making sure that our buildings are ready on next week. Business services, thank you for ensuring that paychecks continue to go. Um so it was a lot happening over the summer. And lastly, our academic team has been preparing for professional development and ongoing instruction. And so I know I may have missed someone. Human resources. We're striving to fill all vacancies. So this when I say team GCSD, it is truly a team effort. It is not one person. We may have leadership opportunities for individuals, but it's certainly leadership of a team. So thank you to all of team GCSD for all you do. Parents, if you haven't registered your children, please do so. We we need to ensure that schedules are in place and we have account of who's going to uh be in our classes so
141that we can ensure rostering is done correctly. Um thank you to the safety committee. You all did a wonderful job of um challenging us to think beyond and after that first meeting the theme just really resonated and I think we took off after that and that we want to be better. How can we be better? It's not that we're not good. How can we en achieve greater and how can we be better? So, thank you for your findings and recommendations. Salute to Mr. Walters and the safety department and operations department really challenged your thinking and challenged your um your your policies and procedures that you had in place. So, thank you for digging deeper to provide information and answers. Um lastly, again, welcome back unofficially and next week we'll officially begin the welcome back tour
142and and look forward to starting 202526. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Dr. D. >> There is now, >> it won't be long, >> an executive session for the purpose of discussing personnel matters. Uh can I get a motion to enter executive session, please? >> So move. It's a move. >> Second. >> I heard a second in here somewhere. >> Second. >> It's a move in properly second. We're now in executive session. Thank you very much. >> You don't want to go home. >> Okay. We're now back in open session and uh there was no action necessary or appropriate related to the discussion that was held during executive session. Therefore, is there a motion to end our meeting for tonight? >> So move. >> I'll move it. >> All in favor, please I. >>
143Thank you very much. This meeting is adjourned.