001Good evening. Good evening. Emergency. I now call to order the regular meeting of the Georgetown County School District Board of Education for meeting for Tuesday, May the 6, 2025. Thank you all for joining us. At this time, I'd like to invite Miss Ava Hurdle, a student from McDonald Elementary School, to lead us in the pledge of allegiance, followed by a moment of silence. Good evening, Superintendent Gals, Georgetown County School Board, cabinet members, parents, and guests. Today I have the proud honor of introducing a mighty seagull from McDonald Elementary, Miss Ava Hurdle. At the beginning of this year, Ava faced challenges that were unusual for her character this year. But with the help of her mother asking for help, our guidance counselors, teachers, RBHS counselors, assistant principal, and myself, we develop a plan for Ava to
002be successful. Before the end of the first nine weeks, she was moved into another class. Knowing she had the potential to be a great student was never an issue. Finding the right place for her was vital to her well-being. The move was a transition that she fought against but later accepted. Upon her acceptance of the change, Ava started to thrive. Ava's confidence improved with time and so did her academics. She started to take responsibility for her learning, asking for help and later contributing to the lesson. She became a model student and a scholar. One of the greatest moments for me was when I witnessed her helping another student who was struggling. The change that has happened has given her a new purpose. She's a hard-working young lady who has set goals academically for herself and
003has improved in all areas of her educational life. Ava has also joined the first Georgetown Youth Academy fifth grade team for girls. Um, she inspires to play professional basketball. I present to you Ava Hurdle, who will lead the pledge of allegiance. Let's give her [Applause] Please stand for the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence. I pledge allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic of which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible and liberty and justice for us. Now for a moment of silence. Now for a moment of silence. Thank you. Say thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Miss Ava. And congratulations on your accomplishments. We begin tonight's meeting with a special recognition. Please welcome Superintendent Dr. Bethany Gauss as she presents
004the doc Dr. Celeste Pringle Turnaround Achievement Awards honoring students who have shown outstanding growth and perseverance this school year. Good afternoon, Chairman Moore, members of the board, to our district administration, but most importantly to our Georgetown County School District family, and to our distinguished recognized students on this afternoon. It is with great pride, deep respect, and a bit of emotion that I introduce the Turnaround Student Awards created in memory of Dr. Celeste Pringle, a lifelong champion for students in Georgetown County School District. Dr. Pringle dedicated more than 40 years of her life to education. Years marked by an unwavering commitment to the success, growth, and well-being of every child she served. Dr. Pringle believed deeply in the potential of every student. She worked tirelessly to ensure that each one, regardless of background or circumstance, had
005the opportunity to thrive. Her focus remained the same, doing what was best for children. In her honor, the Turnaround student award celebrates students who have shown remarkable perseverance as well as growth in their academic journeys. These students have faced challenges headon, made the choice to change their path, and are now forging ahead with purpose and promise. Their stories embody the very heart of Dr. Pringle's legacy of resilience, transformation, and the power of believing in yourself. We're proud to recognize these students, and in doing so, we continue the work and the spirit of this person who believed every child was worth fighting for. So this afternoon, Miss Kibler will announce the students. I ask that you please come forward with me and we recognize these well-deserved students at this time. from Andrews Elementary. Dante Smith from
006Andrews High School. Robin Leah Kerry from Browns Ferry Elementary School from Browns Ferry Elementary School for the Creative and Performing Arts. Tedric Hayden Maxwell Reed from Carver's Bay Early College and Career High School. Anton Conurs from Carver's Bay Middle Steam Academy. Alicia Henderson from Coastal Monasuri Charter School. Drew Wigle from Georgetown County Adult Education. Quan Morant from Georgetown High School. Destiny Grayson from Georgetown Middle School. Miriam Reed from Kensington Elementary School. Emmanuel Hernandez Santiago from Mville Elementary School. Brandon Carter Brown from McDonald Elementary School. Ava Hurdle from Plannersville Elementary Digital Immersion School. Janiah Cumbi from Pleasant Hill Elementary Stream Academy. Jvier Pitman from Rosemary Middle School. Kenneth Mcnite from Sampet Elementary School. Adeline Lambert from Wakamal Elementary School. Javier Montana Clark from from Wakamal High School. Rashad Blocker from Wakamal Intermediate School. Kaylee Khales Rutled
007from Wakamal Middle School. Olivia Walford Will you join me in congratulating them? [Applause] [Music] You guys are really going to miss the best part. a [Music] lot. That's really good. Congratulations to all of our award recipients. We are very proud of your hard work and dedication. Please keep up the good work. And I must say this about the Dr. Challes Pringle award. Uh I was one of those students when she was the principal at my high school. Wasn't a very good student till I met her. Uh back then she was able to carry around a paddle and the name of it was Bully and and she used it on me but and principles don't get any ideas. Y'all can't do that these days here. But uh she was very inspirational in my life and uh
008helping me to become the better student that I became. So this is an honor for you guys to receive a an award in her name. So congratulation [Applause] again. Next we will move to our approval of minutes from the April 15th, 2025 board meeting. Board members, you have received a copy of the minutes for review. May I have a motion to approve the minutes as presented? So moved. Second. Second. It has been moved and second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposes? The minutes are approved. We will now adopt the agenda for tonight's meeting. Oh, okay. Absolutely. Thank you very much. You my best chance. Thank you. Hey, thank you. Thank you very much. We will now adopt the agenda for tonight's meeting. May I have a motion
009to approve the agenda as presented? Some moved. Second. It has been moved and second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposer? The agenda is adopted. We now move into our information items. First up, Coastal Monastery Charter School update presented by Miss Chris Burgon. Burggeron. Mr. Bon. Mr. Chris Burggeron. Thank you. I know it's going to Let's see here. I got to hit share. shade here. Oops. There we go. Good evening, Dr. Gaus. Uh, members of the GCSD board. Uh, my name is Chris Berser. I'm the director at Coastal Monastery Charter School. This is Mr. Rick Richardson. He's our board chair of the Coastal Monatory Charter School Board. Um, thank you for allowing us to come in and give you our uh, State of the Union address here
010this evening. Let you know what we're doing. I'm going to try and see if I can get this clicker to work. I don't know if forward. There we go. Uh, here's our mission statement. Our mission hasn't changed since the school was founded 12 years ago. The mission of Coastal Monastery Charter School is to produce highly educated, self-directed, socially responsible citizens who work collaboratively, respectfully, and peacefully as individual yet interdependent learners in a diverse and nurturing community. Through the unique combination of empirically validated monastery principles, localized charter governance, and open access, Coastal Monatory Charter School further aims to provide Georgetown County School District with an academically excellent and financially accountable public school choice. Uh this is our 12th year in existence. Uh opened our doors on August 2nd, 20 uh 2nd, 2024. Uh we're currently at
011236 students and we currently have 36 students on our enrollment weight list grades 1 through eight. We do celebrate Pi Day. I'll go back to that one. That's a good shot right there. Um we're very thankful that we get the opportunity to participate in a lot of GCSD activities. The art awards academic fair, the Dodson Awards coming up. Uh we had some members of our uh student body make the elementary honor choir this year. Uh we took we actually took place in the first uh March of Dimes. We took place in the March of Dimes um fundraiser this year. Uh GCSE reads where uh Mr. Cohens and Dr. Gals came to our school. Uh the academic fairs, the junior academic bowl, and a lot of other great activities here. We also do some outreach of
012our own. We do a lot of beach cleanups. We had a penny wars during our monastery education week in late February to support mountain pathways monastery in Boone, North Carolina that got wiped out uh during the hurricane. Uh we do several food drives, one to benefit Friendship Place. Um we take pride in our practical life skills. Uh we preach grace and courtesy, good manners, sharing responsibility of keeping a clean classroom in the lunchroom. um do a lot of gardening. Let's see here. Some additional opportunities. We've added students in the word last year. So, this is our second year of doing students in the word. Uh we have a lot of afterchool clubs. We just got um FCA going for the third year um at our school and we just added back girls on the run.
013We've had Girls on the Run in the past and um we brought it back again this year and it's been very successful. Uh we do a lot of field experiences with our students. We do uh Black River Cypress Preserve is a really hot bed for us to send our kids to. Uh Monasuri Model UN is a trip for sixth graders. They go to the Monasuri Conference, Model UN Conference in New York uh in March. Simei is the Catalina Island Marine Institute. We send middle schoolers out there. U they fund raise for those trips and it's all paid for through their fundraising and and parent contributions. Um, with our demographics, um, we've seen an increase in students in the Georgetown and Andrews area, um, since 2020. And that's been one of our kind of goals of
014the charter is to try and, um, increase our enrollment from those areas. Um, we still have renewed our billboard. We always have a billboard down on 521. We've added a billboard this year in Paulie's Island to help us out. Um, we have several community open houses, parent night, and obviously our monastery night during Monatory Education Week. Whoops. Did I hit the wrong button? There we go. Um, at the time of making this, uh, where I'm just going to focus on our I Ready scores. Uh, we accomplished 50% of our growth goal for this year, um, in reading. At this point, um, our median, uh, goal in our median growth goal in I Ready was exceeded by, um, CM said the median I got to get the score right. The median score was 124% of the
015growth goal. So that's basically the 50th percentile was 124% of at their meeting their growth goal in reading for us this year. um in math they accomplished 39% at that point in time. Our median growth goal is up to 90% at this point in time after spring I ready testing. Um this has been an ongoing project. Um, our PTO has worked hard with an outdoor community center which is adjacent to our property and we're still kind of working on our planned future construction looking to add some additional space for our growing population. And then our re most recent auditors report was completed in November 2024 with no s significant funding findings. Our fund balance remains steady and this was our 12th consecutive successful audit. Um, we look forward to our continued partnership with Georgetown County
016School District and we look forward to being a a positive school for the community here. Thank you. Any questions? Yeah, I have a question. Are you finding that your school attendance number, the maximum you can take is pretty limited now, or do you have openings? Um, we do have openings. We still have openings at the first grade level. We're not like for incoming first graders. Um we do have a few openings at each of the grade levels as I mean it's we're kind of similar to the other schools. People come and go, people move away. Um so it depends on the day, the week, the month, whether we have an opening at uh grade levels or not. And to be considered, that's just an application. It's just a Yeah, it's just an application. There's no
017um it's not like they have to pay like a tuition or anything like that. It's just I want to be considered to come here and we'll invite them in, have a conversation, have them give them a tour, see if this is a school that is right for them and their family. Great. Thank you so much. Got it. Any other questions? Thank you very much, Mr. Burgron. Thank you very much. We appreciate you uh your support and coming to present to you. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have a budget update from Miss from Miss Lisa Johnson. [Music] Board members, Chairman Moore, Dr. G, thank you for the opportunity tonight to bring a a first draft of the general fund budget for 2526. Um on the page two is a list of the priorities that you
018all um voted on and we tallied and that's uh how those fell out. So we have tried to build the budget around your your priorities. The uh proposed general fund revenue increase for 2526. This would be from additional tax collections and growth that the county experienced is right at 2.8 million. State aid to classrooms and bus drivers salaries and workers comp is an increase of 1.3 million. And I will say that that was that's not based on our 135day numbers. So that some of these numbers may change slightly as we get those projections from the state and when Colombia gets everything decided. Um, we're going to get additional state reimbured property taxes from tier three at 1.4 million and additional EIA state aid to classrooms of 315,000. And then we have some additional local revenues
019that we've included this year. Um, mainly interest income as we've been able to earn interest on our bank balances more over the last year. So that gives us $6,189,390 in additional revenue to um pay for the new things and the mandated increases that we have. The next screen is the mandated salary increases plus related fringe benefits. We are well we believe the state's going to increase the teacher salary schedule by 1500 in each sale and that's what we've budgeted for. Teachers are also if they're eligible for a STEP, they are required to get that. Bus drivers are um considered school district employees, but they're also considered state employees. And so we've got them with a 2% increase and a STEP. And we're still I'm still not sure about the group health insurance. At one point
020it was going to be um employee and then we've heard that it may be employer. So I've put it in there um pending final decisions. So we're covered if we need to be. So that puts us at 2,2568.889 in mandated increases for salary and benefits. The next screen is additional mandated increases. Um when we have more income then and uh charter schools gets an additional piece. So that we've included some money there. We um feel like they'll we're going to have some increases in contracted services. Um, you know, there's a lot of questions about what things are going to cost over the next year. So, we've added 100,000. We are going to be required to pay the state department for what they call hazardous and other mileage transportation. We've we used to do this in
021the past and then the state um quit sending us the invoice and now I think they're going to start again. So, we're uh talked to Mr. Walters in transportation and we're adding 22,000 to cover that. Utilities are going up. We're estimating about 200,000. Um the next items are teachers and special services teachers, pair professionals uh for different classes that are mandated for compliance. The extended um maternity paternity leave would be additional long-term subs. that is not specifically to school districts, but it we're somehow looped into the state if they say state employees. So, we're still kind of waiting on what that's going to look like, too. And luckily, we um we got a coupon for uh decreasing our workers comp and property and casualty insurance for 25 26. It may not be recurring, but for
022this year, it'll save us 150,000. So we've built that into the um into the budget. So the total mandating increases including the salaries benefits and this page are 4.6 million. These we call district practice related increases. These are the things that traditionally we have tried to do and that is to increase all other classified salary scales by 2%. And give step increases when they're due. increase administrator salary scale by 2% and steps. We increasing the temporary rate to 1478 which is um the 2% increase on the classified scale as well as the hourly rate for those employees that are contracted through Kelly. The next items are software items that were purchased through ESSER that are considered to be very important and necessary for uh ongoing. And then we've gotten some additional temporary staff because we're
023covering more uh events with security. We have added some additional bus monitors and special ed um AEAs which are additional educational assistance. We were able to reduce our teacher FTE by 9 where we could with lower enrollment and that saved us 855,000. So we've netted that against those expenditures. So the district practice related increases are right at 1.2 million. These next items are the items that the the school principles and um their spokespersons came to you and uh presented in the last several months. And you can um you can see what those are. Those are the keep the interventionists. They're already in the budget so there's no dollar amount. keep the RBHS counselors and those are already in local and Medicaid budgets. The middle schools um keep the interventionists as well. And then those are
024the requests. Um if you want me to go through each one, I'm happy to or if you have questions about any of them, I'm happy to to answer those. This page of request is right at 1 and a half million. And the next page is uh right at half a million. So if you go to page nine, this kind of shows you where we would end up. Our additional revenue is 6.2. Our mandated salary and fringes are 2.3. Other increases mandated are 2.3. The district practice historical increases are 1.2. That puts us at um total expenditures of 5.8. We have 400,000 um excess revenues over expenditures. The request on pages seven and eight are right at 2 million. So if everything was funded as requested, we're a million and a half short. I have a
025question. It's Patty. [Music] Miss Johnson, thank you very much for the breakout. I certainly understand, but I want uh and I guess my first question is or my first comment is our CTE coaches at our high schools or whatever we call them are also in this budget, right? Yes, ma'am. Okay. CCR. The CCR. All right. I know they had a name. All right. I have very many concerns about these additional positions that are listed on page seven. Uh many of them would cause us to be in uh out of compliance if we did not provide them for all schools. Many would add to our budget where we already have overages in schools and would cause us to be that much more over. Our top priority is teacher salaries and employee salaries. when the people around
026us are already giving their teachers multiple thousands of dollar raises and our people who've stayed with us all of the time and worked hard with us and continue to we need to recruit. I have a real concern in adding on top of on top of positions when we are our administrators that work six and a half days a week in the spring. I I mean they do very long nights and some of the salaries in adjacent counties to us are not just in the $10,000 more but in tens of thousand dollars more. We are going to have to look very strongly at our people budgets in order to keep our people and to recruit new ones. I would like to see us take a very strong look at what these positions entail, how they truly
027would affect achievement so that we can be sure that we are being fair to all of our employees. So, I would like to have a very deep dive into where we are. Not saying that these are not valued things that we would like to see happen, but right now I'd like to see where we are. And I'd like for our HR department to look at our comparisons to salary schedules by the people on either side and around us because we're having a hard time keeping up if we only give the teacher $1,500 mandated raise. So, I do have a I'd like to have a deeper dive into this budget and certainly think we need to look very clearly at where we're going. Any other questions or comment? I do have a question, Miss Johnson. Um,
028regarding there were several that you said pending and I know in our workshop it was already briefly discussed, but I did have a question. Do we know when we will have more of an answer on that? Uh May 8th, I believe, is supposed to be the final day, but then they come back in conference committee and I wish I could tell you. I wish I knew. I wish we could get answers in April so or March so that we could but sometimes it's June honestly before we know for sure what we hold what's included and what's not included. Yeah, that's why I was wondering because one of them was for 400,000 which is actually what we have to work with now. So then that would almost double if we could get an answer on that
029one. But thank you. I appreciate it. Any other question comment? I'd just like to say uh in regards to the budget, the budget is always the toughest thing for like I've said before for me to work on as a board member because it is the people who are making these requests. We want to take care of the people because they deserve it, but they are the one who's making the request and they're requesting these positions because they want to avoid stress. They need more money, yes, but two, we don't want to stress them out of a job as well. So the budget is very tough. I just want the public to know that this is this is a tough conversation for us. Uh like I said, when the people come and they make these requests,
030I feel like we should not say no to nothing that they ask for because the job that they have is so important. Um but we're certainly wanting to be competitive to our neighbors. Um and hopefully that'll be help us to retain our teachers. But just know that it's a I understand Miss Johnson, it's a very difficult job that you have. We commend you on the job that you do. Thank you. Uh but we're just going to try to do our best to make the best decisions uh that we can to support our teachers, staff, and make sure our kids have what they need to be educated. Yes, sir. Mr. Moore, in in response to that, I too value what people ask for. But when you take an aerial view and you ask for a position,
031that would mean you had to add nine more positions to be in compliance or two more high-paying com positions to be in compliance. That just skims the surface. And if you have one high school that asks for a position, then how can you not share that with other high schools who if that's the need, we can't give them? And we've never taken a look at how many positions were actually over in all of these schools at this point in the year. Now, we took nine positions away, which I do I will applaud that. It's hard to take a position from a school. I understand that. But at the same time, continuing to layer on top of positions, example, in two years when we have to fund all the positions that have been put in the
032magnet programs to sustain them. We're going to have to layer those positions back on top of positions. And if we keep giving those positions out, we're going to be very deeply in a hole. This year, as an example, last year we got only $4.8 million in that extra money. This year we got more. We were fortunate, but we're not guaranteed to get that much money moving forward. And if we've layered on positions and haven't taken care of our people, I'm going to be honest with you, we're going to lose our people. And that's a real sad thing to say, but that's really true. And we value all of our people. We value their requests. We know they think that and really believe that that's the best thing for their school, but I'm quite honest with
033you. We got to value all of our schools across the board. And some of our schools have lots of extra positions already that they've gotten. We can't keep doing unequally what we do for schools. So, I'm not against the people who brought their requests, but I'm very honest about the fact if we don't take care of our people, we're going to lose them. I would also like to add to that that I believe that I agree 100%. I think that our teachers uh experience and deal with a lot more uh on a daily basis. Uh but not only we do need to look into how to not only raise it for retaining but we need to raise it to be competitive to bring in those experienced teachers as well. I think that the more we
034can increase our pay, then the more we can compete with other counties. And I think we we owe it to our teachers who have been dedicated to our county as well as the teachers that are coming in who want to stay. Any other comment? And we do have um Miss Hamill the 135day teacher allocation all calculated. If you would like, we could present that if it's okay with Dr. G's. Sure. To the to you all to so you can see where we are. Thank you. That would be wonderful because I'm I'm aware that over the last since COVID came and since we got esser money and since we paid for everything and we didn't take them away because we were told as a board that attrition would take care of all those positions and I
035certainly do not want anybody to lose a job. So don't hear me hear me. That's not what I'm saying. But I am saying that where we have extra positions in schools and we have an a way of those positions becoming those positions down the road. We don't need to layer more positions on top of um and I am very concerned about that. And is there a figure that you would like me to run some projections on as far as teacher salary increases if not 1,500? Is there a a target that you'd like me to work some numbers on? Why not? It's hard to think. I would say let's look at let's look at at least the $2500 one that we did last year, okay? and let's look at all of our employ like we did
036with coaches and all the other things that we've done uh because I am very concerned. I mean all of our people work very hard and and I and our all of our pair of professionals work very hard. I I have no doubt all of our bus drivers, all of our food service people, we have everybody in this district, all of our custodial staff, I mean you name it. Anybody that works in our district works hard. Yes. And in order for us to look at our whole total population and see where can we get the best service for helping them in order for them to to stay with us and be vested in us and not want to look for the very next thing that comes available because I think that that's really important. Yeah. While
037we're looking at those numbers, I'd also be interested in seeing what is the difference in the cost of living in the different counties to which we're losing people because I suspect it's substantially higher. I could be wrong, but um it'd be interesting to see, you know, if somebody's leaving Georgetown County to go to Ory County, what's the increase in the cost of living up there compared to what they have here? Mr. Debose, most of our teachers in order to afford somewhere to live, a lot of our teachers are living in Ory County County because it's cheap and and in Mount Pleasant and in other places because of our housing situation right here. I was going to say that our housing situation is the key thing here. So I think it's very necessarily that they can't
038afford you know our our pay is there but we do not have the housing and the rental properties available for hardly anybody. I mean it is scarce right now and those are at a premium. So a lot of our issues with them going to Ory County to live is because we don't have the housing here available. It's not that they necessarily want to go there. We just flat don't have it. Yeah. And those are some things that uh we're looking into. I think Miss Johnson is aware of some things as well as I am that we are looking into. We understand that that's a key issue far as housing and that can also be an incentive as well. So those are things that we are looking at. We're not oblivious to those situations. We are
039very much aware of that. Um, and I'm glad Scott brought that as far as the cost of living in these different areas because if you're asking Georgetown to compete with Ory County and Charleston, you're asking a lot of Georgetown County. That's just not going to happen. So, we have to be realistic about that. Uh, I've spoken with some of the principles and they understand, thank God I work with some smart, well, these are some smart individuals that I've spoken with and they understand that they're asking for all of this, but they understand the budget and how it works. They know that all of that is not possible. But what I want us to do is just do our best to take into consideration, not just consider what they're asking for. I want their ask to
040be considered seriously understanding that we cannot give them everything and they do understand that. So I want them to get a period. Absolutely. But I want them to get some of their ask as well because they if they didn't need it, they would not be asking for it. So certainly let's take their ask into serious consideration when we uh look at the budget as well as a pay raise. I'm all for that. I think that my opinion is teachers, educators, y'all should be making more than anybody in this country because your job is just that important. We always tell our kids, hey, you can grow up to be anything you want to be if you get a good education, but guess who's responsible for getting that to them? Parents and teachers. So, yeah, I believe
041that you guys need to be the most highest paid job in this area, but that's not how it is. Uh, we're going to do what we can uh from a board perspective to to try to help with that. So, just know that it's a it's not an easy job. Like I've always say, dealing with the budget is a tough job. I want to give the teachers, administrators, everything they ask for, but I know and they know that that's not possible. Any other question coming? Just just for our understanding, Miss Johnson, I think we're tasked with bringing back or even we can provide this for you um the 135day count allocations and what we look like at each school um based on that count. um consider raising the the 1,500 uh cap to 25, right? Um
042a salary study. Um and we understand y'all here we have our homework team uh admin salary study from our neighboring districts. And I think what's also important to consider is districts like us, not just neighbors, but those who have the the income ability. Um, so we we'll add that. And I'd like to I'd like to also right right quick what I what I'll task our group to do along with principles is to prioritize within our request what is an absolute um if we all remember the sir's wish book sometimes we got that and we just circled items we wanted. Um, so we'll prioritize some of that to to determine what's more realistic understanding where we are and what do we feel are a higher order of requests versus um just a wish item. Sounds great.
043That being said, I'd like to look at the uh comparison not only to uh equal counties like Greenwood and some of those have the same population count that we do, same demographics that we do. I'd like it to be uh because we're never going to compare to Charleston and and we're we're there. We can't compare to them. So therefore, we're not going to be able to do that. The only thing we got going for us right now is we're at the beach and everybody wants to live at the beach. These young people coming out of school. Um our thing is the housing. It is a a very big thing. And also, you know, every teacher needs to be appreciated and they are. They are the first line of defense for these kids that learn and
044the principles. And I want them to know that we appreciate every minute they spend and every minute that is not on a clock that they spend cuz they do. But a budget is a budget and we're a numbers person and we have to live within that budget. And so, you know, we're constrained by it. So, yes, do I want to give them that thing, but we still got to be realistic about the numbers. And we also have to look at our debt service and everything else that goes with that. We have a lot of things that can make the budget up and that's debt service. It's also maintenance and other capital improvements that have to be made. So, uh, you know, it's a big plate. Thank you very much. Could I just one other comment?
045The one thing that I don't think is in the budget last year, speaking of employee appreciation, we gave close to a million dollars in bonuses. Yes, sir. and that that hasn't been pumped in that is not included unless it's not included in the budget or any of the discussion we've been having. So that's a big number too we need to be thinking about. Would it be your direction that that's you'd want to know that just as a as a side note potential as a side note then just a side note just side notes not promising anything I think so all right I think we did that just because there was the funding there you know that may not be Johnson really reminded us that that is something we have for this year and you're right
046it was because we had er indirect cost and we did have that wasn't necessarily. So, we didn't really budget the 1 million. We took it out of fund balance because of the indirect cost that we received in 2324. Right. So, if that were something the board wanted to do, it would need to be a line item in the budget. We'd appreciate that as a side note to consider. Thank you very much, Mr. Johnson. Thank you. Next up, uh, annual update to policy JC JCA JECB presented by Miss Christy Kibler. He tried to work. [Music] Good evening, Chairman Moore, Dr. Giles, members of the board. As you're aware, in May of 1970, the south the school district of Georgetown County was placed under a court order by a federal judge. And part of our agreement as
047we're under this continue to remain under this court order, if you look down in one, two, three, the fourth, the last sentence in the fourth paragraph, um, let me get down to it. says under the majority to minority that this ratio has to be updated annually based on the 135day report of attendance. Miss Gal presented the 135day report of attendance um at our most recently past meeting. Um and in evaluating those numbers I can share that our percent our ratios have remained the same for the 2425 school year. So that portion of the document does not have to be updated though we do have to revisit this document every year as a part of that that order. The one change that I am suggesting for this document since we are we did have to look
048at it is if you look at page two under magnet schools and this is just just simply a rewarding um updating the wording. The last time this document was officially looked at we had not yet implemented the magnet program. So it has been recommended that we update the sectional magnet schools just so that anyone reading the policy even though it was dated recognizes that we are operating the pathways to success magnet program. So the changes are very simple in that section. Again once the federal money has gone away and whatever we decide to do with the magnet program if we continue it we will update it. Then if at any point we decide to remove the magnet program, we will have to remove it from this policy. But this policy, like I mentioned in the
049beginning, does have to be revisited every year to make sure that our numbers from majority time to minority are updated and that we're conscious and constantly looking at those numbers. So that's the only changes that I have proposed for this. Does anybody have any questions? Any questions? Thank you very much, Ms. Keepa, and thank you very much to all the presenters for the important updates. Next on the agenda is action items. Uh personnel list presented by Mr. Scott Batton, Mr. Richard Neil. The administration recommends approval of the personnel list 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 opposers? The motion is approved. Resolutions regarding general obligation bonds presented by Miss Lisa Johnson. The administration
050recommends approval of a resolution authorizing a not to exceed 23.5 million general obligation bond through the fall 2025 SCO go program to fund annual maintenance and capital projects and pay in insurance cur costs. May I have a motion? So moved. Second. It has been moved and second. Is there any discussion? All in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposes? The motion is approved. Strategic plan update presented by Miss Barono. The administration recommends approval of the strategic plan update as presented. May I have a motion? So moved. Second. It has been moved and second. Is there any discussion? All in favor? In favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposes. The motion is approved. At this time, I open the floor for any comments or requests from the board members or Superintendent Dr. Gaus. Yes,
051Chairman. I want to uh give the board an update on our security and safety committee and also the uh staff and general public. Um, I won't take long, but before I get into the security and safety committee and what we've already done in the last month, I just want to make a statement that these two subcommittee meetings um have proven one thing to me that when there's an important subject such as security and safety and we break away from this atmosphere, we get in a room, so much can get done. uh those of you who have been to that meeting or meetings uh you can you can tell uh anyone what we've accomplished in those meetings. It's just a de different atmosphere. But first of all, let me say that the safety and security um
052committee has met twice and um both times have been right lengthy. Um we've we've just had some great discussion. And I'd like to thank um the board members who have attended um Fallon, Scott, Eileen, myself. I'd also like to thank Dr. Giles, Alan Walters, and Lonnie Stucky for taking their time out of their evenings to attend these subcommittee meetings. Um it's just there's been so much accomplished. It's unbelievable. I I just can't describe how well these subcommittee meetings have been. If you've been there, you know what I'm talking about. Um, I do want to announce that our May meetings are going to be postponed because of May being such a busy month. So, we are going to reconvene at uh Dr. G's suggestion in June. We'll have a couple more subcommittee meetings and we'll have
053a report. Um, but I just wanted to just share with the board how well that these meetings have been. Um, again, I can't describe how good they've been unless you were there. And I think the people that have been there, the staff, Dr. Giles, and the board members can also express that same opinion. I would like to say a great big thank you to the Beach Singers. Mhm. I I will tell you that if you had been at the Beach Singers concerts after CO, Beach had always been one of our very programs of excellence. And when COVID came, our our beach program fell apart because like many things, our children didn't participate. And when we first convened, Miss Gina Naron had very small number of young people that came for the very first year. And
054when they presented this year, the third year after CO, I will tell you it was incomparable how much they'd grown. And I'd like to say a special thank you to the parents who've had their children involved. I want to encourage those parents that will send your children this summer to all of our arts programs because they are really important in the life of your child and Miss Narren has done an outstanding job with the program that she's brought forward and the dedication of those students and the extra people who've come and participated. The musicians have been just an immeasurable part. So, thank you. And it was an absolutely great situation and they've grown so much over those years that you could not measure it. I would certainly like to add u uh special thank to
055the sec uh safety committee. Thank you guys very much. The first meeting I was actually out of the country visiting my daughter. Uh in the second meeting, I told Rob, I called him Mr. Cox. We called each other Rob Keith. Uh I was at Andrew High School enjoying music and band, choir and band on that night and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Uh I love going into the school. I called Rob. I said, "Hey, look, not going to be there because this is where I want to be at tonight at the school." And two, uh Sunday I was delighted to see uh Miss Patty and Scott at the Beach Sers. And honestly, I started to sing and kind of show them up a little bit, but I wanted to I wanted to be about the kids,
056but I thoroughly maybe later I thoroughly enjoy uh my music band and chorus. I I sung in the chorus in high school and I love going back and just hearing these kids and they're doing such an awesome job. So, uh just like Miss Patty said, I thank the directors uh teachers at the school and also the beach program for getting these kids to where they are. Um and and uh I'd like to also ask everyone to please keep the Carvers Bay Middle School in prayer. Uh this has been a tough year for us in the Bay Area and uh we just ask that you continue to keep that area and that family in in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you very much. I would like to say this too and a lot of people, you
057know, look at the sports and the ball games and all that as the things, but I told some young people in a choir one day, I said, "Do you know music changes your life?" Because you can go into a room and I will give you an example. I like beach music. My grandson learned early on that if he wanted to get me Mimi out of a bad mood, play beach music. So it does change your mood. It changes your life. It changes your attitude and it improves you. So therefore, music is a vital part of the educational system and it introduces a lot of things that children never knew they could do and express themselves. And I, you know, I I still like baseball and you know, Villanova, I mean, they last night they won.
058Anyhow, but I do know that that is such a vital part absolutely of our educational system and I thank them for it. And I do say that our um security, we have a lot of things on our plate, but keeping our children safe and our staff safe and also making sure that our children are educated and that's the two major jobs that we have. The rest of it we got to work around. And so therefore, our committee is really diving in and figuring it out. and it's so important so that everybody in those schools feel safe. So, I want to thank everybody on the committee for doing that and look forward to finishing it up. I would like to actually thank everyone who's been involved uh with all of this, especially recently. I've had a
059lot of questions. Um even Miss Johnson, she's sat down and answered questions thoroughly. uh for someone new like myself to understand before I make a vote or before you know I come up here and I want to make sure that I understand and sometimes I have a lot of questions uh but they have been very good at presenting information and explaining it in a way so that way I can understand each item and make an educated decision. You know we are a school district so it should be educated all the way through. Um and with the safety committee it's the same thing. uh we have asked for information and we have been having it provided and I know it takes time and I know that it it takes out of their day and we're trying
060to find that balance not to overwhelm and not to consume it uh but for that time and for the dedication and the answers uh that we have received that I have received I would like to say thank you and know that you all put forth a lot of effort and it it is appreciated. Thank you very much. Any other comments? Dr. Gos, thank you all for your comments, your input, your feedback. Certainly, um, it helps us to make informed decisions and and move our district in the direction we should be moving in. Um, speaking specifically about the committee meetings. Um, thank you for your leadership as well as, um, being a team player and listening to things that we have. And I think from that committee the first after the first meeting I was able
061to get an understanding of the direction we're going in and it's ultimately to improve things and make things better as we discussed this. Not saying that things aren't great. We just want to make it better. So thank you um not just to the committee but to our entire board because I know that is your goal to make things better in all areas of our district. Again thank you. Um, as we move forward, uh, this week, we have several appreciations. Um, so let me just say to begin with, thank you team GCSZ for all that you do. But specifically, this week is teacher appreciation week. We are celebrating and recognizing incredible educators who inspire and uplift our teach our students each and every day. So, we thank them for all of all that they do. It's
062also nurse appreciation. Certainly, they play a critical role in the healthy um environment of our school. So, we thank them for all that they do. Our speech pathologists were recognized. Um so, we join in thanking them and recognizing them as well. on Thursday. New to Georgetown County School District, we've previously held a several evenings of events where we recognize of the year winners and we will have one of the year celebration on Thursday where we recognize all of our of the year recipients. So, we're looking forward to announcing our um winners, but certainly everybody is a winner in all that they do. As we head into the weekend, we recognize it is Mother's Day weekend. So, we do um wish all of our mothers a happy Mother's Day on this weekend and thank you for
063the strength, support, and the care that you provide to our students and to our to us. As we look into this week, we have started testing. Um, it is a testing time in more than one way, but specifically speaking for state testing. Students, parents, especially students, again, we encourage you to do your very best. Um, one student asked me on last week, um, what happens if I don't do my best or I don't perform. I said, ultimately, our goal is that you do your best. whatever mark you get, we'll deal with it. But as long as we know that you did your very best, that's when we're satisfied. So, we don't want to put pressure on our students to to help us with data, but we want them to ultimately do their very best. So,
064students, do your best on this week. Lastly, um you know, it hasn't gotten easier, and I don't think it'll ever get easier when we have to make these types of announcements. And for Georgetown County School District, we've had to make this seemingly too many times this year. But we do grieve the loss of Raymond Johnson. Raymond was a beloved student at Carver's Bay Middle Steam Academy. Raymond was also a part of our superintendent student cabinet. Um, and to me and just a short while of knowing him, he was the epitome of a true student and being well-rounded as an athlete as well as a robotics star and again serving on various councils for leadership. So, we will forever cherish his memory and we keep Carvers Bay Middle School, but specifically his family, his friends, and
065the entire community in our thoughts at this time. Thank you. Thank you very much. We will now enter executive session to discuss personnel matters. May I have a motion to enter executive session? So moved. Second. It's been moved and [Music] second. We are now in executive session. Okay.