001Good evening. I will call this meeting, this May 20 to2 workshop, work session of Georgetown County School District Board of Education uh to order. Thank you all for joining us tonight. At this time, I ask everyone to please stand and join us in the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You may be seated. Because we didn't receive any cards for public comments, we're going to skip over public comments and requests and we'll go to the approval of minutes. Board, you have received the minutes from our May the 6, 2025 meeting. May I have a motion to approve the minutes
002as presented? So move second. It has been moved and second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposers. Thank you very much. The minutes are approved. Now for the adoption of the agenda. We will now adopt tonight's agenda. May I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented? Second. It has been moved and properly second. Any discussion? All of those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposes? The agenda is approved. Thank you very much. We now move on onto our information items. First up, our quarter three finance report presented by Miss Lisa Johnson, Chairman Moore, board members, Dr. Giles. Um I'd like to present our third our quarter ended March 20 31st 2025 um report for you tonight. We are um at 81% collected with our revenue
003even though we had budgeted 2 million out of fund balance. So I'm am feeling like we're probably going to make up the majority at least maybe 1.7 of that uh 2 million that we had thought was going to come out of fund balance. So that is good news and that is from taxes, tax collections and state reimburseed property taxes. Our expenditures are on track for uh the same as last year. We were at 71% last year at this time. We're at 69 now. Um so and we did have some positions that we have not been able to fill. So that may account for the uh the lag. But um our revenue is ahead I mean is is ahead of our exp our expenditures are ahead of our revenue because of the teacher salaries that we'll
004be paying over the summer. Um teachers and pair pros and um so everything's looking like we're on track to be within budget on both revenues and expenditures. Any questions? No questions. Thank you very much. Miss Johnson's. Now, Miss Johnson, the 135 35th day teacher allocation report for 2025 2026. Yes, sir. In your packet tonight, you should have this presentation. Um, I'll give you on on the slide number two, I'll give you some information on how we arrive at you hear us talk about teacher allocations. This is how we come up with those allocations. We use for kindergarten and grades 2 through 8 a number of 21 students to one teacher. Grade 1 18 to1 and high schools u small is 16 to1 and large is 18 to1. When we uh tell you that we project
005enrollment we take the kindergarten and grade one and use the same enrollment as the current year. Um, that usually works out fine. We don't know how many 4K kids are coming from other daycarees and other other schools. Grades 1 through 11, we move them up to grades 2 through 12. We take out high school seniors that graduate at the end of first semester and juniors that graduate early. We do not include any special needs students that spend 60% or more of the school day with their special education teachers. The allocations exclude for elementary schools special areas which is art, music, PE, um guidance, media specialists, special education, gifted and talented and preschool 4K. Middle school excludes guidance, media specialists, special education, gifted and talented. High school excludes guidance, media specialist, special education, and ROC. We
006count career tech uh CTE teachers as 75 of any FTE because those classes tend to be smaller um just due to the the numbers of students that are in those courses. Driver's education teachers are a part of the high school teacher allocation except for Carver's Bay. So when you look at your high schools, um we've got the projected enrollment, the local teacher allocation that would would generate those teachers and then the actual teachers that we have in place right now. So you can see um local teachers over under for the high schools and then we have additional allocations approved by the board. So, those are extra add-ons that we do not count as a part of the allocation that that you as the board has have given the schools. Um, we've also got the uh
007college and career ready coaches and um the jobs for America's graduates, the JAG, and that is partially funded um locally and and part grant. ROC as well is local and federal except for walkab high I think they'll be 100% local at least initially and then the schools that have title one um they do have some positions and those are there for you too as well as the magnet any questions on the high schools middle schools um same thing there they are um the local to teachers the fourth line over and under based on the formula. You can see how that falls out. We were able to recoup one position from Georgetown Middle and you'll um that is included in the budget as a a savings or reduction of expenditures. Um there are several board approved
008additional allocations already included in the middle schools as well as the interventionist or academic support teachers. gifted and talented is excluded and then we added the instructional facilitator last year at Wakam Middle School. Uh we do have they do have some title one positions and one school will be losing that uh one teacher that was for reduced class size because they no they no longer qualify for that. Carvers Bay Middle School had two in the magnet. One was a dance position for just one year. So that will actually go down to one for 25 26 and then elementary. Um you can we tried to split it so it's easier to read for you but you can same thing same same lines and same information for those reduction of local teachers. We were able to recoup
009uh several there from from those schools. And then this next one as well as um these schools too. So you can go through to the next one. And the overall totals um you can see that we have 22 we were over 22.1 teachers. We've recouped nine of them that are included in the budget tonight. So that leaves us over by 13.1. And then there's 13 additional allocations approved by the board. And then the 13.7 academic support teachers and then gifted and talented special areas that don't count in the elementary. Any questions about any of that? Thank you very much. Okay, Mr. Johnson. 2025 2026 budget update. Yes, sir. Um, slide two is the list of your board priorities that you um all came up with, I think, at the retreat in December. And I think
010you'll see that this budget um addresses most if not all of those um those priorities. These are the proposed increases. There's a slight change from from the last meeting due to getting some updated state department um projections from the based on the 135day and the Senate Finance Committee version. So, of course, you know, we still don't have an approved budget in Colombia yet. So, but this is we we feel like this is going to be pretty close to where we'll end up. So we have um at this time 6.3 million additional revenue and these are the mandated increases. Um the mandated uh increase to the teacher salary it'll be each sale of the teacher salary scale is 1,500. That would take our beginning teacher salary to 49103 from 47603 right now. and that was going
011to cost about 1.3 million. Includes teacher steps, includes bus driver salary um scales increasing by 2% and that is going to take the beginning bus pay from 1791 an hour to $1827 an hour and the bus driver step is included as well. We did find out on the group health insurance that the rate of increase is going to be 4.6 starting in January. So, I've adjusted this slightly down because we had it at 4.9%. Um, these numbers, the reimbursement for transportation, which is the fourth third fourth line in the in the graph, is was increased by 28,000. We've got some better numbers and increased percentages on what they're going to charge us for hazardous and other mileage. The utility cost increase is no longer pending. We're going to need that. The special services mandated for
012compliance. That is um reallocation of two and a half teachers and nine new teaching positions and 12 and a half pair pro positions and that's 1 1,380,000. The extended maternity paternity leave is still included at this point. We're not sure if that's going to get changed or not. So we we have been advised to leave it and that's an additional 30 days of long-term subs for maternity and 10 days for paternity. So that's where we ended up with the total mandated increases 4.6. the district practice related increases. We've increased all of the classified salary scales by 2% and included a step increase for those employees as well as an increase of 2% to the administrator salary scale and a step. We're increasing the temporary rate from 1449 to 1478 to u match what we've been
013doing for the classified and as well as the Kelly services um temporary employees. We've included the software licenses for the different things that instruction feels are very much needed and would keep us um doing some of the same programs that we were doing through ESSER. And the additional temporary salary is to help cover the special ed and behavior bus monitors, the special ed, additional education assistance, and some additional events uh security for events. And that number in total did not change from the last time you saw it. These are the department and school requests that are already in the budget that the schools asked to keep and we've just listed them there. And uh the CCR coaches are also a part of that. the additional board request. Last time we were here, you all asked
014me to look at an additional thousand dollars for teacher salaries, which would be a total of 2500. That would take our beginning teacher salary with a bachelor's and zero years experience to 50,103. And that would cost an additional $835,273. We also do think it's important um for equity that we add a special area teacher at Wakamal Elementary School. So we are recommending that for 95,000. So total additional requests to be considered are 930,273. These other department and school requests um we have gone through them and have either we have decided that we need to look at different ways to fund those explore some other options. Um, one of the principles has also asked to take off several of hers. So, that is, um, we're not advising or recommending those at this time. Page 10, these
015are the things that we're going to have to figure out through our grants and through our other programs how to fund, and we'll we're going to work through all of that. Some of those things we've used temporary help already with. So, we'll just continue to do that rather than add positions at this time. And there's one that's not on there that I need to add back, and that was the um allocate reallocate the maintenance position to security cameras. So, I'll add that back. So if you look at page 11, um total revenue is 6,283 193. Um total expenditures that we're uh recommending are 6,713491, which leaves us 430,298 short, which is about 1 mil. Um, and that and I'm saying about because when reassessment happens, it could be totally different. Um, we're estimating growth in
016the county at 2% untaxed growth. It could be more. So, I won't know all of that until we get a little closer to summer. And if anything major changes, of course, I would bring that back to you. And then talking about millillage and mills, the current projected value of an operating mill is $428,000 and we're at 127 mills right now. The current cost of a mill to the taxpayers is $6 per $100,000 of assessed value and it would apply to second homes, businesses, and rental properties. The district millage rate increase limitation is capped at 3.31% of current millillage this year or an additional 4.2 mills without using the millage look back provision. But I say all that because the millage will be adjusted or rolled back for 2526 due to county reassessment to equal current
017year tax collections plus untaxed growth. you cannot have a windfall from reassessment. And we won't, like I said, we will not have those final numbers until probably this summer. So, the max increase with what we're recommending tonight would be a mill and maybe hopefully maybe not even a mill. Thank you very much. Any questions, Miss Johnson? Again, thank you very much for all the work that you do. Oh, thank you, Mr. Moore. Um and if I can just say if the board is is in agreement um with the expenditures that we've presented tonight in consensus agreement not vote we'll go ahead and advertise the public hearing and budget um adoption for June 20th which is your regular work session if that's okay. Um, if the 2526 budget is approved as we're presenting it tonight, our
018new budget total for revenues and expenditures will be 124 million 116411. Any objections for that? You may do so. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Moving along, uh, our 2025 2026 school calendar, Mr. Scott Batton. Thank you. Good evening, Chairman Moore, Vice Chair Walker, board members, Dr. Guiles, district staff, and guests. Um, I'm here tonight presenting the previously approved 2526 uh calendar. Uh, after review of the calendar and the impact of the weather related events and closures that we had this year, um, we are suggesting the following changes for your consideration. Um, current makeup days. If you look at the current makeup days in the center part there, um halfway down, right now we have January 6th and April 3rd as our makeup days for next school year. Uh January 6th when it
019was devised, um that was chosen because it was a halfway point. Most of our makeup days were because of hurricane and tropical storms. Last year we had everything. We had even the winter storm. So that one would not help us if we were looking at a winter storm in January. The April 3rd is Good Friday and we've already discussed that at a previous meeting that Good Friday is something that the board wants to avoid. And so what we're asking for is in consideration is moving the makeup days to that midwinter break, February 16th and 17th. That would be Monday and Tuesday. If you look at the second semester, there's not a whole lot of opportunity to put makeup days. Um, when you get to spring break, then you fall to the Good Friday and then
020if you no school on Good Friday and then if you move to spring break, it breaks it up. So, that would be very difficult. So, that's why we're asking for or the consideration of um January 16th and 17th. Um, and if you look at February 16th, I'm sorry, not January, February 16th, it is President's Day. We did talk to the state and other school districts around us. We did get authorization to um that you can go to school on President's Day if it is a makeup day and it is necessary. Other school districts do the same thing and the state has given us permission to do that. Some of the school district did that this year and will continue it next year. So, if you would like to proceed with those changes, a vote would
021be required at the next meeting. Again, changing from fe January 6th and April 3rd as our makeup days to now having them February 16th and 17th. That's consideration. Any questions? Any questions? Thank you very much, Mr. B. Thank you. Next board meeting dates. Dart Gals. Thank you, Chairman Moore, members of the board. Briefly, I want to share with you board meeting dates for next year. We've given you or we have before you version one as well as version two. And just to add a distinction between the two in version one, we recognize that fall break during that first week or when it would be a first board meeting. We have the option of course not to meet and it would be the same during mid- winter break on that date when we would be on
022winter break not to meet. However, version two includes meetings on those dates. So, we would ask for your guidance on which you would prefer and that while schools are closed unofficially during those breaks, we do have administrators on campuses. So, we are able to meet. So it would be at your discretion at which you would prefer whether we are not meeting when schools are not in session or whether we meet when schools are in session only. I do add that we have some options for board retreat dates. Of course those would be advertised and open. Otherwise the distinction falls between those two date those two weeks. Okay. Any questions? Comment very much. If we had meetings during breaks, I mean we'd have a lot of people that might want to be on break or need
023to be on break that would have to be here. Correct. No. Only the staff that you see before you now. You all want to go on a break? Let's go back there. Sh. Remind me to answer that off camera. Do you foresee any problems we might have if we don't meet? Would we have extra long meetings when we did meet? So, what I would say is that if we get to a period in September or even August to where we see a need for a called meeting, we would have that ability. Okay, that's what I was going to suggest is that if there's something that we actually have to do, it's mandatory. Yeah. Yeah. Any other comments? The only thing I see is in the the March uh date and then long time until the
024April date and that's in the contract season and that kind of thing. So that would mean we would have to begin our calendar for looking at all that earlier and certainly we could, but that contracts would have to already be approved before by March 17th if we kept the usual date for contracts. That's just I'm not against that. I'm just saying that would be the only thing I see. That's a good point. And and again, we would have that ability to add dates or we could have our work sessions to where we have discussions before moving forward with any type of approval. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. You do say work sessions and stuff that you're going to present us with some dates for work work sessions. Absolutely. What we do today? All right. Sounds great.
025Any other questions? Comment. Can't we just work around the dates? I mean, thank you very much. Moving along. Safety committee meetings. Mr. Cox. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, at our last uh safety and security meeting, uh we had just received a calendar of our May events and it was it was overwhelming. Next week will be overwhelming. And so, it was such a busy month, Mr. chairman that we uh talked at our last safety and security meeting about moving those meetings up to June which means we've had two we'll have two more in June. Um so we spoke about it and all board member all committee members were in agreement because of the busy month that we would move it up a month. So, what I'd like to do tonight is officially um ask you
026as chairman um that you grant permission for us to move it up a month and our report will be due the first meeting in July, which is July 15th. So, I'd like to officially ask permission to uh to do that tonight. And I certainly appreciate the work that the safety committee has been doing and I do appreciate that we the committee recognizing that May has been a very busy month and is a very busy month for us and uh this does not require a vote and uh with understanding that and understanding the importance of the committee and the work that you're doing. I would certainly not add in a meeting but extending the counciling this month and moving it to June and thus uh your report be due on July the 15th at that meeting.
027Yes, that's why we're asking. Yes. and that's exactly what we'll do. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. That doesn't mean we're not working though. We were up early this morning. Yeah. You know, I I do want to comment that even though the committee is not working at our meetings, we are still working some during the day. We had a great visit with staff this morning and Mr. Walters and the uh the folks that are actually uh monitoring the kids as they come in. It was just a great time. I will say that I was very impressed at the flow of the kids. Uh no backups with kids coming in. It ran real smooth. So, uh we're still working. We're just not having those evening meetings. Absolutely. Sounds great. Thank you very much. Moving on
028to tonight's action items, personnel list and uh presented by Mr. Scott Batton and Mr. Richard Neil. The administration recommends approval of the personnel list as presented. May I have a motion? So move. Can I get a second? Second. Thank you. It has been moved and second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposes? The personnel list is approved. Thank you very much. Annual update to policy JC JCA JCB B excuse me presented by Miss Keebler. Thank you very much. The administration received recommendation of reading of the approval of the policy JCJCA JECB as presented. May I have a motion? So move. Second. It has been moved and second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor please say I. I. Any opposes? The policy update is approved. Thank you
029very much. Okay. Next. Out of district transfer requests. The administration recommends approval of the outofd district transfer request as presented. May I have a motion? Some moved. Second. Thank you very much. Was moved and second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposes? The transfer requests are approved. Thank you very much. Okay, that went quick. Board superintendent comments or requests. At this time, I invite any comments or requests from the board members or our superintendent, Dr. Gaus. And I'm going to take this opportunity and go first. I think I got choked up because of this right here on what I'm about to read. Yeah. Miss Siloski, are you paying attention? Yes. You. The board would like to thank Miss Chris Scalowski for 15 years of service reporting the school
030board and district news throughout our local newspapers. Currently the Coastal Observer, she has been a true friend to the board and to GCSD. Her stories have been full of integrity, truth, honesty, and respect. Chris has always spoken to and listened to the board members as well as school personnel and community members with interests. We are most happily and that's most but not all happy for you most happily for Chris as she moves on to a news new chapter. Although we will miss her sitting at the media table taking pictures here at the district function and talking to us after meetings we are excited for her retirement and waiting to hear where life takes her on her next adventure. Mr. Low, we thank you very much and congratulations to you on your retirement. Yeah, I'm not
031clapping for that. Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to um you know, I'm I'm not used to getting up at 6:30 every morning, and I just want to thank you staff members. Y'all get up early every morning to greet these kids, but I want to thank Fallon, Scott, and Eileen for getting up at 6:30 this morning like you guys. That was tough. We were at the school around 7:00. So, thank you for our children and the staff that is out front greeting these kids. Thank you so much. And Mr. Cox, I thought I heard some giggles and it's because you said getting up early is 6:30. Oh, really? Is that what it was? What time do y'all get up? Bye. Oh my god. Okay. Thank you. I just like to say thank you to our schools
032for participating in the balorate services this weekend. They were well attended and I appreciate the community and the community of people who surround our children. It was it was a wonderful experience to see that our community supports the children in all that they do all the way until they walk across that stage and they will from that point on. So, thank you. Thank you to the ministerial associations and thank you to the people who have done students in the word and the FCAs that's been a very big part of our school district. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like to uh commend our student athletes uh this Saturday uh past I uh travel to Columbia uh Richland Northeast High School to watch the state track meets and our athletes. They competed so well. They're well behaved
033and uh they're well followed by all the the people in our community and I just want to uh commend them whether they came in first, second or or didn't place at all. Uh they all were well behaved and respected what they were doing. So I just wanted to commend those kids. Thank you, Mr. Walker. Mr. Johnson. Yeah, I'd like to thank the the the athletes. There were a bunch of teams all over this county that were going to playoffs and different things. And we have all of the music and the talented kids that are going and uh representing Georgetown. And I'd like to thank the staff that takes care of them because y'all are the extended mamas and dads. And I appreciate that so much because without y'all getting them together and doing all the
034work it takes to try and herd this bunch of ants, as I call them, it couldn't be done. And these kids take this for the rest of their lives. These are impressions that go with them the rest of their lives. And I want to thank everybody that participates in putting all of these programs together. And I thank the kids, too. The kids are doing a great job, but without the the guidance, it would be pretty tough. Thank you very much. And I just want to give a shout out to my Carvers Bayer. I'm sorry. That's okay. All right. But so this regular season for baseball and Carvers Bay is usually not known for his baseball program and they had a pretty rough regular season. However, we made it to the playoff. We're in third round
035of the playoffs and if we're going to lose, that's the way we want to lose. We were down seven to2 in the fifth inning I guess. Uh we came back tied and went the extra inning. Took the lead in extra inning nine to seven and unfortunately the other team came back and scored a little bit more run than we did. So they won the game but nevertheless I could have not have been more proud of those kids and the coaching staff of the effort that they gave. So I just want them to know that uh that's what hard work pays does pays off when you put the hard work in. You can expect to be competitive. I don't care about winning all the games but let's be competitive. and that's what they started to just
036show in the playoff game. So, I'm looking I'm very excited and looking forward to next year with the beer fans as well and also uh the track event that took place at Carverage Bay. Very proud of uh the effort that the district itself made to make that happen. I do want to request one thing Dr. G. Um there are some couple of things that I want we had on the work order. I want to get an update on at our next meeting. Um okay. About that concession stand. Gotcha. Thank you very much. All right. So, thank you. Um, we're nearing the end of the school year. Uh, but there's still a lot of work to be done and this is the most busy time, believe it or not. So, briefly, I will share some updates.
037Congratulations again to our CTE completers who were recognized on this afternoon. We do wish them the best and we want them to remember as I said in my remarks that they are built for what's next and we know that we will hear positive from them as they enter into the world. High school graduations begin this week with the Georgetown adult education program Thursday. We do have a change of location there. So, just keep in mind that it will be at Georgetown High School's gymnasium for for the Georgetown Adult Ed program. Tuesday, next week, Georgetown High School. Wednesday, Walk High School. Thursday, Andrews High School. And Friday, we will end with Carver's Bay. So, keep those in mind. We do ask that our parents and community members please uh stay tuned or watch our media pages
038for updates as well as information with guidelines so that we will all be prepared for those momentous occasions. I want to also as I was listening to you all speak about the spring sports events. We do congratulate the Walk High School boys track team. they won overall for the team um the state championship in track. So we congratulate Wakamal High School, the staff, the administration and our community at Walkal. We also salute the Carvers Bay um individual champions in the 4x4. There were uh the girls champions as well as the boys champions in that event. So, we will recognize them during our next board meeting. As we are still in some of the playoffs in golf, we do want to recognize and send a special thank you to our bus drivers. They uh made it
039happen. The transportation department during the spring season, there were a lot of buses going in a lot of different directions and they literally drove the extra mile to make it happen. So, we want to thank our transportation department and our bus drivers for making it happen for us during this busiest part of the season. Lastly, and um certainly there's more that I could say about the end of the year. We do recognize there are still some tests that are going on, exams, end of year exams. So, students, stay focused. Don't give up yet. Continue to do your very best. Um staff and teachers, hold on. hang in there with us. Seven more days, but who's counting? Um, we're going to make it. Uh, lastly, it's with a heavy heart again that I bring this um
040and and and I I do my best to stay strong, but I recognize that our staff and our students um are heavy again on today. We learned of the passing of one of our students at Brownsferry Elementary School for the Creative and Performing Arts. Um, Miss Maya Whitley passed on this morning and we will continue to stand strong with Browns Fairy during this time and we also continue to keep those in in in our school family, Georgetown County School District family in our thoughts during these times. Um, I am so proud. Even though these are sorrowful moments, I could never be more proud of a community. And when I say community, it is all four parts of this community that make one team. And I could never be more proud than the crisis care team,
041the staff members, the students, and again, the community that support one another during these sorrowful moments. So, if there is a ray of sunshine in all of this, I'm thankful for the team and I'm thankful for all who are a part of the team. So, thank you for all you do. Um, as I spoke to Miss Grant this afternoon, I I heard how in such a s short time Maya still contributed to the staff and to the to the student body and she left her mark at Browns Ferry and we will continue to stand with Browns Fairy during this time. Thank you, chairman. Thank you. With that being said, that conclude I'm sorry. Nothing. I'm just Well, then that concludes our agenda for tonight. May I have a motion to adjourn, please? So moved. Second.
042All in favor, please say I. I. I. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much. [Music]