001[Music] Good evening. Good evening. It got quiet, so I guess it's time to get started. Uh, welcome to the March 18th work session of the Georgetown County School District Board of Education. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Thank you all for being with us this evening. At this time, I'll ask that you please stand as we begin with our pledge of allegiance and following with 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. Thank you. You may be seated. [Music] March is music in our schools month and we are excited to continue celebrating the arts and education tonight with a performance by the Georgetown middle school chorus. Miss
002Keebler will give us introduction. As Mr. More mentioned, March is music in our schools month, which is a national celebration that reminds us of the powerful role music and the arts play in a well-rounded education. Music not only enhances academic performance, it also builds confidence, creativity, and collaboration skills in students of all ages. Tonight, we continue our celebration with a performance from the Georgetown Middle School Advanced Chorus under the direction of Miss Ruthie Phil. Miss Fieldchek is a passionate and experienced educator who has spent 20 years teaching in Georgetown County School District. She previously taught at Browns Ferry Elementary, Plannersville Elementary, and McDonald Elementary Schools and has spent the last four years at Georgetown Middle. In addition to her work during the school year, she also leads the district's summer beach drama program, helping students
003develop their love of the performing arts year round. The chorus is currently preparing for an up upcoming adjudication and performance trip to Carowinds where they'll share their voices and enjoy a well-earned day of fun. Please join me in welcoming Miss Ruthie Philek and the Georgetown Middle School chorus. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] At this time, I also would like to invite our board members to join the audience coming down on this side over here. And we do have seats for you up here in the front. [Music] Forever. Forever. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Oh, I am with you. With [Music] you. Away away. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Oh, fire. Fire. I am fire. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. guys. Okay. [Music] That are a wonder. [Music] Okay. My [Music] Oh my heart. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music]
004I can't make you. Do you know who I am? Do you really [Music] know [Music] that you know I wonder where you are? Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. in my [Music] heart. I would ask you I [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] in my head for the rest of You want to continue? Yeah. You want to do it from here? Greetings, Chairman Moore, members of the board, Dr. Giles, district staff, and guests. Students from Georgetown County School District excelled at the South Carolina Future Business Leaders of America, FBLA, State Leadership Conference, which was held February 3rd through 5th of this year in Greenville. FBLA is a nonprofit educational association for students preparing for careers in business and business related fields through academic competitions, leadership development, and networking opportunities. FBLA equips
005students with the skills needed to succeed in college careers and beyond. This evening, we are so proud to recognize two state champions from Carver's Bay Early College and Career High School. Assistant Principal Jeremy Bonser will join me in recognizing these talented students. Students and their advisor, if you would please come forward as your name is called. Asher Misatesta achieved first place in entrepreneurship. And we also have Alyssa Gamble who achieved first place. Future business leaders. Again, Carver Bay's FBLA advisor is Miss Melissa Alustin. These students are now eligible to represent South Carolina and Georgetown County School District at the FBLA National Leadership Conference, which will be held June 29th through July 22nd in Anaheim, California. So, congratulations again to these outstanding student leaders and their advisor on a job well done. Thank you. All right.
006On three. One, two, three. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you, Chairman, Chairman Moore, members of the board, Dr. G, and guest. Tonight, we are thrilled to recognize the student athletes and coaches from Waka High School who have made school history this season on the wrestling mat. Assisting with this afternoon's recognition are Waka's principal, Hunter Eddie, and wrestling coach Don Williams. Please join me in congratulating Patrick Gallagher, the 2025 3A state wrestling champ. While Wakama has had three previous state champions, Patrick holds the distinction of being the first in school history to win a 3A state championship. A remarkable achievement that places him in a class of his own. But Patrick isn't the only one here we're celebrating this evening. Walcom High School is proud to have five all-star wrestlers for the 2425 season. A true testament
007to the strength and depth of the program. Owen Patterson finished fourth in the state. Aiden Hastings finished third in the state. Cole Shields finished third in the state. Lana Coleman made school history as the girl state runnerup, becoming the first female wrestler from Wakamau to place in the girl state championship. Girl power, girl power. And once again, Patrick Gallagher, your 3A state championship champions. These students These student athletes have shown incredible grit, determination, and heart both on and off the mat. Please join me in congratulating Coach Williams, Patrick Gallagher, and the entire Wakama High School wrestling team for an unforgettable season of hard work, perseverance, and excellence. Let's give them a big round of applause. If I can get y'all. [Music] on three. One, two, three. All right. All right. Thank you. Congratulations. That's the
008best part of the meat. Yeah. Yeah. That's the best part of me. Nothing look here. Now you guys. Oh. Oh, you're fine. You're fine. Too choo. [Music] Good evening, Chairman Moore. Dr. GS. Good evening. board members, district staff, and guests. I'm here tonight to present to you some ladies that were we have been in great partnership with over the last three years as a one of three districts in the state as a fitness grand influencer district. They're going to explain a little bit more about that. So, I'm going to welcome to if you will help me welcome Miss Meing, Miss Ayes, and Miss Phillips. [Applause] Okay. So, how do we get the slides to show on the working? Thank you. Okay, be right there. And I guess while they're doing that, I'll go ahead and
009get started. We just thank y'all so much for having us this evening. Um, we're excited to be here. You probably have seen our faces a couple times uh as we popped up at a few district admin meetings. However, tonight is a little bit different because we want to really celebrate your your PE teachers and leaders as SE fitness gram influencers as Keith was just mentioning. And so I'm going to have to pick on Keith for just a second. Because of his amazing leadership over these past few years, um we've been able to really garner a really good relationship with your teachers. And um and during that time we've had the chance for the teachers to receive quality PD opportunities and um we've even come in and provided technical assistance um as far as um specifically
010on your healthy schools assessment goals and um all of that was really possible because of the awesome work that Keith does. And so I just wanted to give him props and um please continue to protect him. He's amazing. Y'all district have a really really great guy on your team. Okay. Um he's a blessing here. So all right, we have a few pictures up here from um one of our favorite ways that we've gotten to hang out with your PE teachers. Uh some of the feedback that we have received was that they wanted more opportunities for peer-to-peer networking and so every year we had a fitness gram um summit and that was a chance for them to do that. So they would let their hair down at the beach in Myrtle Beach every year and um
011connect, share ideas and a bunch of other things during that time. And so this is just a little bit of a highlight of that. And again, it was such a good it's been an honor to to work with your PE teachers. And something else that you might or may not know know is that y'all are featured in um one of our fitness gram videos where we were looking at school districts who um prioritize physical activity. That is one of the reasons why you all are influencers because of the amazing work that y'all are doing. Um, and again, Keith is at the helm of a lot of that. Erica's going to go into a couple more details. And, um, I'm going to play this video so y'all can see some of those familiar faces from your
012district. Give me a second. I hope it works, y'all. And if it doesn't, well, if it doesn't, then we can always send the video to y'all. Yes, Keith will actually Keith is very proud of his PE teachers being featured in this video. So, we'll make sure that y'all get to see it later, but we won't hold up too much of your time. But one of the biggest thing that the video highlighted is how Georgetown County School District has been a model not only in our state but also across the country and working with partners to successfully leverage resources for your schools. So thanks to Keith's leadership and the hard work of your PE teachers since 2019 your district has received over $340,000 in grants and services from partners across the state. This funding was used
013to enhance your physical education program and to provide more opportunities for your students to be physically active. The reason why your school district and your PE program was chosen to receive these fundings and services is because of the work of your PE teachers. They're doing the fitness testing. They're collecting the fitness gram data. They're assessing your school environments to see what your current policies and practices are. They're developing action plans and then they're implementing improvements. using that data that they're collecting. Because of that work, folks in the community and across the state see that they have the capacity to be able to use funding to take it even further to support students health from head to heart. So if you're like public health professionals, you're educators, right? So you love data. We do too in
014public health, especially when that data goes in a positive direction. So whenever we can measure success, so this is a snapshot of some of the data that we've been collecting from your school district as influencers showing those improvements in physical education and physical activity. So from the spring of 23 to the spring of 24, the percentage of your schools in your district that were in full compliance, that means they were implementing all the proven practices for physical activity increased from 39 to 45%. That included providing more opportunities for students to be physically active before and after school, as well as thinking about some of that funding they received, providing a variety of equipment for your students, whether that equipment was used in PE, recess, or in a general education classroom. What is so very critically
015important about that equipment piece is that it exposed students to activities and sports that otherwise they never would have had the opportunity to be exposed to and to learn about. giving them the chance to learn activities that they may be interested in in a lifetime. Whether that was the gaga pit, the rock climbing wall, or even bowling, it gave every chance, every student a chance to find something they interested in. In addition, around that same time for physical education, we saw an increase of 53 to 61% of the schools meeting all of those proven practices for PE. And one of the biggest successes in that was providing students with more minutes to actually be in the PE classroom, which is not an easy change, but is a sustainable and very impactful change. So with that,
016even though our project has completed with your school district, we at DPH are dedicated to continue to share your school district success stories. We'll continue to do that at a state level as well as through all of our national partners uh as well. And in that we will always be here and available for your PE teachers to continue to provide resources and technical assistance as we can. And wrapping this all up, we have a few special thanks to give. We want to thank all of the district and school administrators uh for welcoming us and opening your doors to your schools, especially because we came knocking literally right after CO. It was a wall of time for all of us. So, if it wasn't for your buyin and support, none of this would have happened. We
017also want to again thank Keith for being such a fitness gram champion, not only in your district, but in the state of South Carolina. It has become incredibly evident how much all of his PE teachers respect him and how much he respects them in return. And I have seen him, we both have go above and beyond to make sure that his teachers have everything they need in order to be successful. And I think the partnerships and the funding and the improvements in environment and students health is a testimony to that. And then the last thanks we want to give is again to all of your PE teachers in your district. They're the ones who are collecting that fitness gram data. They are also the ones who are using that data from the individual student level
018to help make improvements to your school and district level with community members. And then for us working at the state level, if they weren't collecting that data, we wouldn't have a solid foundation to stand on when we go to key decision makers and ask them to prioritize physical activity in schools and ask them to provide more resources for our PE teachers and our schools as it relates to physical fitness. So with that, again, just thank you. Thank you for your time today. And then we also have this beautiful trophy that we are presenting to your school district for being fitness influencers. So Keith will hand you the trophy. So thanks again everybody. [Music] [Applause] Certainly want to thank uh the Georgetown Middle School chorus with Miss Fchek for their performance tonight. And we say congratulations
019to all the honores and Bana and Erica. Just in case you're wondering why Mr. Brown is such an awesome guy, it's all in the first name. That's funny. Oh. Oh, that's not on my paper. Kind of wrote that in my strip here. That's funny. Thank you guys very much. The next item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes from the March 4th, 2025 board meeting. We don't have any. So move. Second. It's been moved and properly second. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposes? Nay. Minutes are approved. Thank you very much. Next, we will adopt the agenda for tonight's meeting. May I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented? So move. Second. Thank you. It's been moved and second. Is there any discussion? All in favor, please say I.
020I. Any opposes? Nay. Thank you. The agenda is approved. And now we move into our action items. Personnel list. The first action item is to approval of the personnel list. The administration recommends approval of the personnel list as presented. May I have a motion? So moved. Second. Thank you very much. It's been moved and properly second. Any discussion? I have a question. Yes, sir. I was just curious about retirement. I noticed a lot of these have like 10 to 12 years and I'm assuming they've got credit from be teaching elsewhere. How does that work with the employment? I mean, do they get credit? to South Carolina. For instance, someone moves from Colorado, does the retirement piece of their teaching follow them to South Carolina or to South Carolina have to give them 30 years or
021whatever credit out of our budget. I'm just curious. Mr. Batton is going to assist. Thank you very much. I I can address that. The um anyone moving out of state, their their uh retirement does not follow them. The retirement starts once they start here. So they do not go from one public um education for let's say it's Colorado to um uh South Carolina. They would start over. They do not bring that. So they would have to either keep their retirement in that school district or in and rolled it over to something else that they would do. But they do not start that. The only thing that would bring across with them is their years of experience that would go to their certification and payment. But retirement is completely separate. Okay? And so their their 10
022years is simply credit from South Carolina for the 10 years that they've been here. Yes. On whatever. So if we had 10 years in Colorado, they would get 10 years at Colorado, but they would start at zero years as far as a retirement in South Carolina, but they would get those 10 years possibly. It's a process of for their certification process, but retirement and certification are two different things. Okay. All right, sir. Good. Thank you. Y any other question or discussion? All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposes? Nay. Thank you. The motion carry. Next, we will hear the audit presentation from Miss Lisa Johnson and Miss Emily. So, we check. Subject. Is that right? Subcheck. Um, Chairman Moore, board members, and Dr. Gals. This is Emily Subject CPA from uh Green Fenny Polly
023in Charleston. She is the lead in our audit and she's a partner. I'm going to let her do her presentation which will give you the highlights um and some of the figures out of the audit and then then we'll both be available to answer questions. Thank you. Good evening. Um, again, I'm Emily Sabchek with Greenfinny Collie and I'm presenting the results of the financial statement audit for the year ended June 30th, 2024. There we [Music] go. Before we get into the financial results, it's important to remember that the financial statements are the responsibility of the district. So, we assist with the preparation of those financial statements, but ultimately the district takes ownership of those financials. Um, and all that information is coming from the district. And so it's important that the district has good policies
024and procedures in place to ensure that that financial information is reliable as we are auditing that information at year end, but you are relying on the financial information that you're receiving throughout the year when making strategic decisions on behalf of the district. And so having good policies and procedures and strong internal controls will help mitigate the risk of misstatements in that information. Our responsibility as your auditor is to audit the financial information provided and issue an opinion based on our audit. We have issued an unmodified opinion this year. That's a clean opinion, the opinion that you want. And that opinion provides reasonable assurance that the financial statements are materially correct. So reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but it's not absolute. We're not looking at every single transaction that occurred during the year.
025And we're also using materiality in designing our audit procedures, which means we're not auditing down to the penny. We'd be here year round if we were doing that. So now we'll look at your general fund. Your general fund had an increasing fund balance of 188,000, bringing total fund balance as of June 30th to 27.4 million. Included in that, we have several different classifications of that fund balance. The first is our non-spendable fund balance. This is fund balance that just as it sounds like is not in spendable form. 316,000 relates to your prepaid expenses. So cash has already gone out the door, but the expenses will be recognized in a future year. We then have committed fund balance of 150,000. These are commitments made by the board um for special programs that will be expended in
026future years. We next have assigned fund balance that totals 2.9 million um that relates to 2 million that was used to balance your fiscal 25 budget. And then you have 900,000 that was approved by the board for the team GCSD bonuses that were paid in December. After we remove those various classifications, we're left with unassigned fund balance of 24 million. That's what's available for available for future operations. That fund balance represents 22% of your actual 2024 expenditures um or 20% of your budgeted fiscal 2025 expenditures. So we use that to gauge how healthy is that fund balance. Um and we have a couple of benchmarks that we can compare it to. The government finance officers association is a national organization that provides a generic benchmark for all local governments across the country that you should
027have at least 2 months of your operating expenditures in that fund balance. So that would be about 17%. Um the state has a minimum fund balance requirement of one month of operating expenditures in your fund balance. So the state says you may not bring that fund balance below 1 month which is about 8 and a half%. Um and so as you can see you're a little bit above um the national benchmark. Um but there are a number of different factors that you want to consider that are unique to Georgetown County School District when considering what your target fund balance is. Some of those factors are included here. Um a big one is your cash flows. We're measuring fund balance as of June 30th. So you've got about 6 months of cash flows before your property
028tax revenues are going to start coming in. And so when we look at your fund balance at June 30th, that's going to look a lot different from what it looks like in November and December. We also want to consider what your future capital needs and determining how you want to fund those future non-recurring costs. Um do you want to use fund balance or do you want to issue debt? Having a healthy fund balance allows you to achieve the best interest rates possible when you do issue debt. So, a lot of good reasons why maintaining that healthy fund balance is important. So, now we'll look at your general fund activity for the year. Your revenues totaled 106.6 million. That was a 7% increase from the prior year. Um, that increase was partially due to increased property
029tax revenues. Um, you also saw an increase in your state revenues and revenues came in about 3% better than what you had budgeted. So, very close to budget there. For your general fund expenditures, they totaled 111 million for the year. That was a 12% increase from the prior year. Uh primarily due to increases in personnel cost. So both on the salaries and fringe benefits. Your expenditures came in about 3% higher than what you had budgeted. And that was due to several different factors. One of those being the board approved bonuses that were paid in the fall of 2023. Um, you also had some equipment leases and subscription agreements that were included in your expenditures for reporting purposes. Um, but those were not included in your budgeted expenditures. So now if we look at all of
030your funds combined, so we're combining your general fund plus your special revenue, EIA and food service funds as well as debt service and capital projects funds. We're looking at total revenues for the district of 172 million compared to expenditures of about 167 million. We also report net other financing sources of 768,000 and that relates to some new and amended subscription agreements that were entered into during the year. When we look at your governmental funds, we focus on current assets and current liabilities, but we also report your governmentwide financial statements where we include your long-term assets and obligations. So, you have total capital assets of about 296 million as of June 30th. That was a slight decrease from the prior year as your depreciation expense exceeded your capital additions. Your long-term obligations totaled 182.5 million. That
031was a decrease of 6 million from the prior year as you had principal payments and premium amortizations that were only partially offset by the issuance of those new subscription subscription agreements. In addition to your long-term debt, we also report your compensated absences liability. That was 1.3 million as of June 30th. That represents your earned but unused vacation leave as of year end. And then along with your more traditional long-term obligations, we also continue to report your net pension and net OPED liabilities. As you'll probably recall, these relate to your participation in the state retirement system and the state retirey healthcare plan. So, these are not direct liabilities of the district. Um, these are your proportionate share of the total unfunded actuarial liabilities of the of the system and of the plan. Um, and so like
032I said, they are not direct liabilities of the district and they are also estimates. So they are changing yeartoyear based on various assumptions. Um, and so while the liabilities themselves are significant at 133.5 and 89.2 million, what's more significant to the district, what has a direct impact on both your operating budget and your cash flows is the mandated employer contribution rates. Those are set by the state and those rates have been steadily increasing for many years now. Your state retirement system rate reached a rate of 18.5% for fiscal 24. Um it did remain at 18 1/2 for fiscal 25 and there are no current um increases uh set to occur in the future. However, we also don't expect that rate to come down anytime soon. And so with a rate of 18 and a.5% in
033addition to the state retirey health care plan rate of 6.35% um just those factors alone um have a significant impact on your operating budget. So when you're making personnel decisions it's very important that you're capturing not only the impact of salaries but also the significant impact of your fringe benefits. We had one accounting change for fiscal 24. um the board approved that the district convert its food service fund from an enterprise fund to a special revenue fund. So in the prior year when it was reported as an enterprise fund that meant that it was on a full acrual basis. So, in addition to current assets and current liabilities, the food service fund at the fund level also had to report capital assets and long-term obligations, which meant that it was reporting its piece of those
034net pension and OPED liabilities um on its fund level financial statements. And so, by converting it to a special revenue fund, it's now reported as a governmental fund. So, again, focusing just on your current assets and current liabilities. um which helps give a more transparent picture of the actual current activities of the fund. Um and we believe that this is appropriate uh based on the governmental accounting standards as special revenue funds are intended to be used for funds whose primary revenue sources are committed or restricted for a certain purpose. And as you know, your food service fund, the revenues of that fund, um, the large majority are from federal reimbursements for meals served. And so reporting it as a as a special revenue fund, I believe, is the most appropriate way to report those activities.
035For fiscal 25, we will have another accounting change. This won't have as much of an impact on your financial statements as it impacts only your governmentwide financial statements. U, but we will be implementing Gazsby number 101. This provides new guidance for compensated absences that will require you to capture um some liability, some additional liability for earned but unused sick leave. Under the current guidance, we're only recording a liability for earned but unused vacation leave that would be paid out upon termination of employment. Um because sick leave is only paid out when it's used, the current guidance does not ask us to acrew a liability for that. However, the future guidance will ask us to pick some of that up. Um and so I'll uh highlight some more of those changes next year when we um
036see what implementation looks like. So in addition to our financial statement audit, we also performed the single audit for the district. That's the additional compliance audit that's required by the federal government. As part of that single audit, this year we audited three major programs. We audited the child nutrition cluster, magnet schools assistance, and also the ESSER program. I'm pleased to say we had no findings related to the single audit. So, no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses, no significant instances of non-compliance to report. So, that's great news for the district. Um, in addition, we also had no findings related to the financial statement audit. Um, and again that really reflects on all the hard work that your finance team is putting in day in day out throughout the year in addition to the significant amount of
037time that's demanded of them at year end for financial closeout purposes. So really excellent job on their part. In addition to your financial statements, we also issue a management letter each year that provides some required communications from us to management and to the board. So if you haven't already had a chance to review that, I encourage you to do so. It gives some highlights of the audit process and the results of the audit. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have at this time. One other thing that I did want to note before I close out is that the district did again for fiscal 23 receive the certificate of excellence from the government finance officers association. Um the district goes above and beyond each year in not only preparing the required financial statements that
038are required by the state but also um adding some additional information and statistical information um to meet the requirements of the government finance officers association uh financial reporting program and uh they have again gone through that process for fiscal 24 and the report has been submitted and we have no reason to believe that that certificate won't again be received. D. So, thank you. And I'll open it up to questions now. Any questions? Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. The administration recommends approval of the audit as presented. May I have a motion? So move. Second. It's been moved and second. Is there any discussion? All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposes say nay. The audit is approved. Thank you very much. We now move into the information items. Gear up South Carolina
039presented by Dr. Charlotte Parham. And I'm struggling to see without my glasses here, so please excuse me. Uh, good evening, Mr. Chairman and members of the board. I am not Charlotte Parham. uh she is right over here and uh I'm also joined by Dr. Alli Bryan. She's the uh PI on Gear Up SC. She also serves as our associate dean for research in the college of education. And my name is Tommy Hodgees and I am the dean of the college of education at the University of South Carolina. So delighted to have a few minutes with you. The room really cleared out once the kids got done. Uh but I'm happy to share a few things about what we've been up to. Um, I've been dean at USC for the last uh four years. I've been
040at USC for 13 years. And I'll say uh over the last several years, we have uh made a concerted effort to ensure that we are in every corner of the state serving kids all across South Carolina in profound ways. We are the the flagship college of education and in fact we are one of the leading colleges of education in the United States. Um, one of the things that we noticed uh about 2 or 3 years ago was that South Carolina had grown delinquent in its applications for gear up. Uh, gear up is a national program. Uh, and again, I should say gear up is an acronym for gaining early awareness and readiness for undergraduate programs. So, it's a it's a project and a and a funding stream to help facilitate students understanding of post-secondary options,
041whether that be through technical college systems, other kinds of two-year campuses, four-year campuses, uh truly anywhere. But our interest is in supporting higher education institutions in South Carolina. Um what again back on our delinquency we noticed that South Carolina had not applied for a gear up grant for a few cycles. Uh so we worked with the governor's office and and uh with Governor McMaster's blessing uh on behalf of South Carolina submitted for a Gear Up grant. Didn't get it. Re resubmitted the second year and got it. And so now we're launching um Gear Up which is a $35 million grant. uh over 7 years is $5 million a year. Uh the the project will support roughly 22,000 middle school kids from grade 6 all the way through their 12th grade year and as they head
042out into wherever the world takes them once they finish high school. Uh our interest is in ensuring that that every child leaves high school with an understanding of the pathways that they have before them. uh whether that be through military service, whether that be through employment or whether that be through in this case a real strong interest in postsecary attainment. It'll be up to the kids as to which direction they want to want to go, but we want it to be a choice that they make and not something that has been made for them based upon where they are in their lives. So again, just to put a little bit more meat on the bones for what Gear Up entails, it focuses on academic performance and preparation again for post-secary attainment. We focus on increasing
043high school graduation rates and participation in post-secary ed. Um, we want to make sure that they understand all the nuances and the things that go into post-secondary attainment, whether that be through uh things as uh uh mundane and maybe milk toast as filling out the FASA form and how they go about doing that to where do they go for college visits and how do they submit transcripts and all of those kinds of things as well as increasing their understanding around workforce opportunities. We want to know want we want every student to understand what options they have before them and where they can lead in their own lives. We also serve teachers and staff members to make sure that they're aware of the multitude of pathways that exist for students and to make sure that they're
044prepared to support students in that way. Um as I said, Gear Up has existed for some time. It's not new. There is a lot of data on it. Um it has received uh uh resounding success all across the country. Uh it has resulted upward mobility for students who who do go through and achieve post-secary attainment. Uh we see not only enrollment but persistence in those post-secondary programs supports workforce development in the regions in which it occurs as well as economic growth in those regions. Uh, one of the things that I really like about Gear Up as as we're implementing this project all across South Carolina and various districts, it allows for localized control. So, there are going to be things that you all as as Georgetown County School District want to do that maybe uh
045Greenville, another partner, uh, is not interested in or Williamsburg, another partner, or Clarendon doesn't want to do, or some of the Lexington districts that are participating. maybe they don't want to be involved in some of those things, but you do, or vice versa. You have a lot of localized control and ability to make it unique for what Georgetown needs. Um, it's also an opportunity to have workforce and industry intersect with the education community in new and profound ways. So really excited about opportunities for those in industry to intersect with students again to make salient the educational needs that students need to have in order to enter those kinds of skilled workforce that we need in South Carolina. I I think we we all know the uh plethora of advanced manufacturing that takes place in South
046Carolina that necessitates a a highly skilled workforce. There's going to be applications and artificial intelligence and a whole layer of needs that are going to persist in the years ahead in order for South Carolina to remain competitive as well as to be able to recruit talent to our state. So, Gear Up is a is a really important mechanism to be able to do that. Again, it's a triedand-true effort all across the country and we're happy to be able to bring that to Georgetown. And again, um delighted that to be here and again, I brought along two experts. So, do you wish to ask any deeper, more granular questions about what gear up in Georgetown might be? So, thank you, Mr. Hodgees. Thank you very much. I got a couple questions. Yes. All right. So, um
047I guess my most important question is how can we get some of this money? Right. Okay. Um that's an important question. Um, and my second question is, is the money when it comes to the district or to our county, is that coming directly to our district, to our technical colleges or our local four-year colleges like Coastal Carolina? How is that money distributed? And how can we apply and receive some of that grant money? Do you all want to talk a little bit about funding? Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. You're the money man. I'm the I love money. So um so yes there so the way our program is implemented we have is it's twoprong. So you know he talked about how we have some localized spaces. So in those localized spaces and I had great meetings
048with Dr. GS and I had a meeting earlier. We were deciding on different things that we're doing locally. So in those spaces you all tell us what we need and then we just pay for it. That's one thing. There's another space where we are cutting checks directly to the school district. So, you already got money coming. And in that space, those funds are just to help um if we have teacher stipens that are helping with the Gear Up programming. So, we're going to do summer camps, we're going to do college tours, we're going to do all kind of great things that are going to be inviting, fun, but also opening the kids and exploring them, seeing something that that they may not have seen before. You know, we like to say that we want to
049change the narrative of what they think is possible. And so that is seen through a lot of ways. Some of that will be cutting you a check and and implementing some things that you may do here. And then some of the things you tell us what you want and then we'll cut the check directly to the vendor. Wow. Awesome. And I'm I'm sure Dr. Giles and Miss Arian's on top of that. And they are great to work. We appreciate it. Thank you. I have one question. And uh are there any particular grades like where do you start like junior seniors in high school or or what? So so what we have is a cohort and priority model. So some of you I was looking at the Georgetown kids I was like those are some of
050our babies. So we sixth and seventh grade all of your sixth and seventh grade in your participating schools. Now, all of Georgetown schools are not in the program only because it is um it's a program that's targeted to schools that have at least 50% for your reduced lunch. So, I think you had one middle school and maybe one high school, is that right, Dr. Giles? Correct. That did not qualify for that. And so, with that said, Georgetown is one of those schools that that qualified for the program. sixth and seventh grade. I think that you have eighth grade at the school as well. So, is it sixth, seventh, and eth? So, your sixth and seventh grade babies are going to be in our Georgetown in our uh Gear Up program. And then we have 12th
051grade. So, our priority, those are the students at all the 12th graders that go through Georgetown, Carver's Bay, and Andrews High. All of those three uh high schools, every senior, we will do programming for them as well. Nice. I guess my next question is are we new to this? Uh have we been involved uh as a district? Are we new to this? Are we involved? This is our this is our first year as uh the dean was saying we applied with um USC couple of years ago. We were unsuccessful but um we put our name in the hat again and we gave it a good turn and we were successful in being awarding the grant at this time. So, this will be the first time that Georgetown County does embark on this, but we're well
052on the way with kickoffs being planned um for next month, which is April, as well as our senior focus days. So, we we're excited about what's uh to have or to happen in our district and we thank USC for the partnership. Yeah, we're delighted. And I want to add one piece to that around the grade levels. Um, so the sixth and seventh graders that are in the project now, they that cohort will be followed all the way through graduation. So if it's a seven-year project, catch them in sixth grade all the way through 12th grade. That's the seven years of the project there. So it follows those students all the way into high school. That was good. And and with additional layering of support every year for seniors. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. G. And
053Scott, we were just at a meeting this morning that really could be a boost for Georgetown, and I was wondering if those funding, we could do something with that funding toward that uh uh Andrew High School and their project of trying to expand that Black River project. So, the seniors at Andrew High would be able to have um collegegoing experiences. We may be able to tie those into the experiences with the Black River Education Initiative. The sixth and seventh graders transitioning, maybe by time they're 5 years into the grant, we may be able to do things along the way, but this would be more specific and um tied to student experiences for college and career readiness. So certainly we may be able to tie that into the Trying to figure out another little place we
054can snatch some money. I think you just did. Yes, ma'am. Any other question? We appreciate it, Miss Hodge. Thank you very much. [Music] Healthy learners update presented by Miss D. Noel and Miss Green. Miss Green. I think Do we Oh, I'm sorry. I only have one hand. You Hey, how are you? My name is D. New and I am Thank you. I'm the program manager for Healthy Learners PD. And this is Martha Green. She's our student service coordinator for Georgetown. I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with her. Her office is right down the hall. So, you probably see her frequently. Um, while she's getting our We got the old one. I got it on. Oh, we have a presentation for you. But while she's working on that, Martha is going to hand um
055out some folders who has some information about our program for those of you who may not be familiar with us. And I'll give you a little background. Um we are a nonprofit ministry that began over 30 years ago in Richland and Lexington counties. We partner with school districts to provide medical services and healthcare services for the students. Um one thing that stands out with us is that we actually provide the transportation. And so a lot of our regions that we go to um like they were talking about free and reduced lunch, the Medicaid rate, but obviously the resources of transportation is an issue in all of these areas. And so we work locally with providers and the school nurses through screenings and other avenues to help identify the kids who need vision, dental, behavioral health.
056And then we partner with our local providers if possible to provide those services. And a lot of what we do is transportation. um if the parent just needs help navigating the health system as far as finding out a provider who accepts their insurance or um where they need to go if they're new to the area, then we will help with that. But probably 98% of what we do is provide the transportation. In that file in that folder, you'll also see last year's um final report of the numbers for this for the school district um of the services and the students that we served. So that's some more information that you can look over. And in the meantime, I'm going to show you a little slide here that we've put together to tell you a little
057more about our program. I just need to This was one of our first school nurses back um probably in the early 90s who helped get this partnership started in Richland, Lexon Community Counties, as well as the attorney Nex and Puit. Um, we have a lot of providers and partnerships, their board members basically through them that we've had for many years and they have helped to expand our services across the state to I think we're almost in every county in the state now. So that's something that we're striving for. 1989 was the first year it started in one school in Colombia and then since then as you can see in 2005 we've actually expanded across the state. And just to give you an idea in the PD, what we encompass as the PD goes from Georgetown,
058Williamsburg, Marian, Dylan, um Marboro, Chesterfield, and Darlington. In 2024, Healthy Learners um are is serving over 244 schools for 17 counties. Over 2,700 families have been assisted and over 3,600 students have been served. And as you can see, one thing that we're very proud of is the health screenings. That's something that we have been very active with to assist with not only the school districts but camps, daycarees, first steps um to help identify those barriers early on in kids who may not know that they have a deficit whether it's hearing or vision. And um since then we've actually helped with over 17,000 barriers of of learn of of medical issues and traveling the miles of course being in a rural area we do a lot of traveling. So, we've actually traveled over 140,000 miles and
059Martha has probably done a third of that. Um, this is our 16th year here in Georgetown. We're so excited to be here and we thank all of you for your past support as well as our future support. We are in 19 schools here in Georgetown and um since 2022, we've actually served over 550 students. And like I said, Martha's been traveling. She keeps the road hot. She has traveled over 10,000 miles. And since that time, we have invested over $350,000 in the community. That is one thing that we look for. Um, most of our kids, again, are on Medicaid. So, obviously, we get them with a provider who accepts that Medicaid. However, if they are uninsured or if it's a service that Medicaid does not cover, since we are a ministry, we actually step in
060and we'll pay for that. So, if they need a replacement pair of glasses, if they are um need a root canal and Medicaid's not going to cover it, we work with the providers to get a reduced rate and we help pay for that service that most of the time they would do without. So, um that's something that we're very proud of and we also try to keep it locally as well. Our mission um in the spirit of the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine, Healthy Learners, is devoted to removing children's health barriers to learning with love and compassion. And our vision is that all children are healthy and able to reach their full potential. This is a short film that kind of gives you an overview of our program. Uh-oh. Let's see if I can
061get it. In a world filled with endless possibilities, one thing stands as the foundation for success. education, opening opportunities, and advancing voices that never once thought they would never be heard. At Healthy Learners, we believe that every child, no matter what their means, race, or circumstances, deserves the opportunity for a bright future, healthy, happy, and thriving. Yet for many children in disadvantaged communities in South Carolina, their future because of unressed health barriers to their learning, vision, hearing loss, mental pain, uncontrolled asthma, mental health challenges, obstacles to shatter dreams, challenges Heat. Yeah. Heat. I'm not sure if it's going to go. You might need some assistance. Here she comes. Let's skip it. You heard her one of these box. Thank you. Okay. So the why obviously the vision problems 80% of learning happening happens through sight.
062So, a vision related learning problem can greatly hinder a child's ability to succeed at school. Hearing problems, if they're if that's left untreated, that um causes delays in the development of speech and language and those usually lead to learning problems. And dental problems, we obviously see a lot of dental needs in our areas. Um there's chronic dental pain and they're four times more likely to have a low grade point average. And asthma, it's one of our leading chronic illnesses among children and adolescents in South Carolina. and it's also one of the leading causes of school absenteeism. So, Healthy Learners is targeting these areas to try to help increase um these children to get the care that they need and and obviously have an impact on their behavioral as well as their grades and absenteeism to
063keep them in school. Providing students with access to vision and dental care can result in a decrease of behavioral referrals by 72% as well as students experiencing gains in English and math. Over our 30 plus years, we've actually had a lot of surveys and a lot of data that shows us once we start on once that child becomes a healthy learner student, we monitor their grades, their discipline problems, absenteeism, and we can see that those things actually improve once they become a healthy healthy learner's child. So whether it's for vision needs, behavioral, or even dental, um when you look at that and if you think about yourself, if you're not feeling well, if your head hurts, your tooth is hurting, you're not going to be at your best and you're not going to perform well.
064So these kids that are in school day in and day out, you know, it's really difficult for them to learn. And so this is one thing that we're targeting to try to get these kids early on in grades to make sure that they are um going to be at their full potential and that they aren't deficits that they're not aware of. Of the 2,74 families that we served in 2024, 71% were on Medicaid, 24% had no health insurance, 60% of those had at least one parent working, 40% was a single parent household, and 91% were people of color. Our model for the road to healing, um, this is just kind of how our original model started. This is kind of how we identify the the students obviously from screening, school staff, family members, the community
065and different organizations. Once we get that information, we engage with our caregivers, get a student health history, identify their obstacles, and work on starting their care plan. We um have over 33 Georgetown County providers and we work with the care what we call coordinating care basically with the transportation, the scheduling, paperwork. If a parent um if the child is eligible for Medicaid and they're not on it, then we help them to get on to get Medicaid or get any other resources they may qualify for. We also uh do the healthc care um providing that whether it's um like I said with the Medicaid applications, the dental, the vision, behavioral health and then obviously our final overall is to make sure the students are thriving, their overall health is improved, school attendance and grades. the outcomes.
066These are just some surveys and some um information and some quotes from parents of the past that you can feel free to read. But in our parent survey reports, 96% of parents report their child's academics improved after being seen by healthy learners. 99% of parents report their child's overall health improved after being served by healthy learners. And 98% of parents report that healthy learners um improved their attendance actually improved after being with healthy learners. Our 25 2025 plans for Georgetown County um include to restore the health of at least 250 students. That's basically every year we want to increase our number of students and these are individual students. So we may see a student for multiple services, but they're only going to get counted one time. Um lift at least 1,700 health barriers to learning.
067We're going to target elementary school students to increase positive health outcomes early. And if you'll look at our report that we gave you, you can see the breakdown students um by schools. PreK, preK, and kindergarten are low are our lowest numbers really in Georgetown. That is actually completely opposite of most of our other school districts. Most of the time we see most of our kids in the early grades here at Georgetown Elementary, middle, and high school. So, we have been working closely with the lead nurse as well as the other nurses in our district to help identify these kids um to see what, you know, if there is a need there that we're missing out on, how we can partner with the school nurse and each individual school, specifically the elementary schools to help identify
068these kids at an earlier age to go ahead and, you know, get them glasses or get them the dental care that they need and also for the behavioral health, mental health. If we can get them into counseling early, we can help with their behavior at school, discipline problems, and obviously from the past and the history that we can show that their grades are improving, their behavior is better, and they're more likely to attend school. Our projected investment for the community is $153,750. Again, that is not necessarily um how many services we're providing. That's basically what funds we we are paying out of pocket for kids who are uninsured or underinsured. And I'm going to leave it open for any questions. Any questions? Yes, Miss Patty. I I I don't have a question, but I have
069a comment. Yes, ma'am. I want to say that you have done so many good things over such a very long time for so many of our children. Thank you. Thank you. Because in many cases, they didn't have transportation or they didn't have a parent that could take the child at that time. Yes, ma'am. And you have worked with us for over a long period of time. So, well, thank you. Thank you so much. And Martha has been here since day one. She's got a great relationship with everyone. She does a wonderful job. Um, and we do build relationships with these families over time. And like you said, a lot of these, you know, some people have different opinions about the program. Well, you know, you're doing something the parent should do or doing this. We
070want to enable that parent. We want to educate them on the importance of health, but a lot of this is out of their control. They don't realize they don't know how to navigate the medical system. They don't have transportation. They're choosing between taking a day off from work, taking their child to the doctor, or not getting or getting paid. So, with this resource, we're very proud to be a part of Healthy Learners and we're excited that we're here in Georgetown and we're excited about the future of Georgetown. We know that there's still a lot of kids that are have needs here and that we want to meet those needs. Thank you. I have a question. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Because thank you is not enough for all
071that y'all do because that the children can't function unless they have all these resources supporting them. Do you at any time during y'all's um trying to identify children um work so to find out if there are any children within the foster care system that are identified that could possibly need resources? A lot of times, yeah, DSS or the f they'll usually reach out to us or either through the the school nurse. Um you know, there's a lot of legal issues in that. So, um, but normally that they will contact us if they have a child or the school nurse will and we will navigate this and and work with them just like everyone else. But it is a kind of a touchy subject depending on who the legal guardian is and um, you know, getting
072the Medicaid or medical history. Sometimes that's not easily available and stuff, but we work with them as as much as we can. And we do have some kids that we have served through the foster system. Yeah. because I was thinking about the emotional support because those children are and Martha may can speak to that more directly in the area, but I know we are we do make sure that we are um in contact with DSS and local agencies to make them aware of our services. But yes, ma'am, most of the time they'll just contact us directly or through the school nurse whether that child has not been to the doctor and there's been a, you know, past history of things. But any way that we could work with them, we're we're more than willing to
073to do that. Thank you very much. Because that's so essential. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Any other question? And I would just like to say thank you as well because I'm very familiar with your program. I know a lot of parents who are enrolled in it and you're doing a tremendous work. So, thank you very much and we pray that you continue to keep it up. Thank you. Thank you. And again, I want to just say thank you so much for your school district for the support we've had since day one. and we um are very lucky to have it and we certainly appreciate it. We're lucky to have you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Department of Budgets request presentation presented by the members of our cabinet. We're going to keep rolling. Um but first we
074do have Mr. coins who'll get us started with academics and uh student services and after that operations. Certainly if you have any questions in between um they'll be prepared to answer and we thank those members of cabinet as well as members of specific departments um knowing that these are requests uh and a tough budgetary year. But some of this you will hear a recurring theme that we lost funding or funding sources are are over um specifically esser funds. So that's the reason for the majority of several of the requests. So Mr. Coins, if you get us started and we'll roll right through. Okay, get that over. I can't get this. Okay. Normally, it comes up here when you click on it, but it didn't do it. Not like it did. [Applause] Sorry, I'm having mouse
075issues. Want to clear the room? I was seeing if anyone wanted to continue music in our schools. Ready? Mr. Cox is our musician. He's our musician. I clear the roof. I start singing to clear the room. Not that there are a lot of people left here, but okay. Good evening. As Dr. G mentioned, I'm Mr. Coins. I'm um the dire executive director for elementary schools and I'm going to begin the presentations for the academic and student services department for um this evening. Good evening, Chairman Moore, board members, Dr. NAL's district staff and any guests that may be remaining. I don't think they are, but they may be in social land. I first want to thank you all for what you do for staff and students in Georgetown County. We appreciate your support, encouragement, and visibility.
076We extremely proud of the growth and gains we have experienced over the course of this year and know that this will continue because of our commitment and your commitment to great teaching and learning experiences. This evening I want to share with two with you two requests on behalf of the elementary schools. The first is letterland. It is imperative that we maintain this researchbased curriculum for teaching phonics, funological awareness and foundational literacy skills. Letterland aligns with letters which is required by our state for our teachers to be trained in the science of reading um for um for all K through three teachers and our special ed teachers as well who serve K through3 students. The letter land is a platform that many of you probably have seen or experienced in our schools where letters are transformed
077into characters and children are taught with friendly pictograms in a digital type environment and they all live in an imaginary place called Letterland. So Letterland has an intentional spiraling curriculum that means foundational literacy skills are taught, practiced, reviewed and reply applied. And that's important. Taught, practiced, reviewed, and applied. Our administration and teachers all support this request. And as Dr. G mentioned, this is not a new expense. However, the funding source must change due to the dissolvement of the previous funding source. So that's why we're presenting this request to you tonight, and the estimated cost is around $165,000. I saw a board me say, "Wow, keep rolling." All right. The second request is for RTI stored. This is a platform that we use for grades K through 8. And by utilizing RTI stored, it's like a
078data warehouse where staff can critically create and review plans that will specifically target academic and behavioral deficiencies, thus reducing the time it would take to compile data from various sources. This platform is not only userfriendly for our staff, it provides specific resources that are practical and accessible for teachers to use for tiered levels of academic intervention and behavioral intervention as well. This is also not a new expense, but due to the funding source being have um dissolved, we must find a new funding source. And the estimated cost is, I'm sorry, is around $35,000. Any questions before our next were these previously funded? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Okay, Dr. Marinel, good evening. Good evening. I have been asked to present to you on I Ready. Um we have two compon well actually three components of I
079Ready. Um the first is I Ready literacy task. We are asking for this to replace dibbles. Dibbles in the past has been our required u screener for our early literacy skills that cover or tasks that cover K2. Um it was funded previously through ESSER as well as I Ready. However, with our um adoption of I Ready the last several years, they now incorporate an I Ready literacy task, which is a early literacy screener that is approved by the state and it is already a part of the I Ready programs that we purchase. Um therefore, if we were to uh be approved for the I Ready literacy task, um it would absorb the $35,000 that we would have to spend on the dibbles because um kit refurbishment replacement and then soft the licensing per student cost
080that is there um there. So, we are asking this to be able to replace it and it will deduct $35,000 from our overall request for that. The second and third, I Ready itself um began and was adopted as our interim formative assessment that came about um as a required by provisa proviso 1.74. There is a link for that proviso for you to peruse. It specifically states that um each school district is required to assess students diagnostically three times of year and we have to um upload that data three times per year by Pacific designated time. Um then the state collects all the data across the state and they present that in a report um to the legislation. I ready itself um has several components. I spoke to you about the early literacy tasks that are
081now available. We also um have ready instruction which includes curriculum uh readymade curriculum for ELA and math. It also has personalized pathways um in which um we use that towards small group differentiation so that we can narrow in or zone in on individual student academic needs. There is um PD involved for ongoing PD for those returning as well as new um hirees that need to um be onboarded for the I Ready program and then um we have the cost that is there. The state reimbures us. That number is wrong. It was updated. Please ignore that. The actual cost is in the little paragraph. Um, the state reimbures us for 1 through 8th grade. Proviso 1.74 originally began as a requirement for 1st through 9th grade. Um, and then the second year and thereafter they moved
082to just first through 8th grade. um based on the information and data that we have seen from I Ready that has been so useful to us our school elementary schools asked um to bring on kindergarten. So kindergarten is actually um a part of our program as well. So it goes K8th for our district. The total cost um is there and you see the estimated reimbursement that's based on the reimbursement we received last year for first through 8th grade. Then you see that we have deducted um the cost that we would have to uh see if we continue dibbles because again dibbles is that require is we have to have a K2 screener that's a requirement. Um, and then title two, we work with title two, Miss Watford's office to pay for the PD that's available.
083So then you see at the very bottom line that overall estimated cost to the to the district and in previous years has funded this cost. Any questions on I already Yes. um now that there's going to be new textbooks and new curriculum criteria, how is this I Ready test going to conform with that? So, I Ready is based on national standards that are um we look towards our state standards for and it also works towards the skills that are missing to close the achievement gap that is there. So in the past what we've done is taken the curriculum that's been adopted and we look at it and use it with we use I ready with it to determine where we have standards that we can use that ready for and not. So example you might
084have 10 lessons in a math lesson but not all 10 lessons deal with the standards that we're going to cover for second grade math. So, we don't necessarily use all 10 lessons. We would supplement our curriculum with what is standardsbased unless it's personalized. It may be that one of those standards um involves a skill that a student might be missing. I Ready um is it generates the data and it's I'm I'm can't think of the word, but if you're taking It works with def, but it you take the test and let's say you get three right, you're going to keep on going. If you miss three, it's going to bump you back down. It's adaptable. That's the word. It's adaptable to your level so that it is helping um close that gap that student might
085have so that we are closing those grade level deficits so that our kids were seeing two and three grade levels behind. we're growing them towards the grade level that they need to be on. Is there anywhere that we can um look at the I Ready test and grade levels as a board, is there anything that is accessible to us so that I, you know, if I wanted to go in and look at the second grade or fifth grade or whatever it is, I already test. Yes, ma'am. Is there a way that we can do that? There are sample um lessons and assessments out there. I don't necessarily know that the diagnostic piece is is out there, but it they're looking at as versus I just want to kind of look at it. You know, I'm
086just want to see that. I can make that available. Okay. Are there any alternative options to the I Ready program? So, yes, there are. The state has a list of um adoption formative assessments. STAR is one. MAP measures of academic progress is one. Um I know those two specifically, but there's a list and I think this is the list that they are narrowing to only have like five options. So who decides what what our school district does whether we're I ready or whatever? It's based on um evaluation, program evaluation. Uh whether we're seeing it meet the needs of the student, um the feedback we received from the teachers and um the leadership team, I can tell you that when I started here, started um up three years ago, that's my fourth year. When I first
087started, we had moved from MAP to I ready um based on feedback that was received from staff and leadership. Okay. One of the things I'll share um previously we were a MAP or NWA district. uh what became um a tradition was more so just looking for a score and meeting that cut score and that's what was driving our um implementation of NWA or MAP um when we started using I ready we became more focused on skills and the skill gaps that our students have um as well as content area standards and how they were aligned. So I feel that our responses that we have gotten from our teachers as well as even student engagement, we've seen increases and been able and have been able to better diagnose or pinpoint where our students have those gaps
088and to decrease those gaps. And um you will hear us often say grow in the green. Um that green is often driven by where we see the green in our map, excuse me, in our I Ready score. So we we have had experience in several assessments even STAR um but we've seen the most or the latest improvements through I Ready. I'll say that you can also see I Ready um on the state report card. It's what we report out on for our first and second graders on track for success. um and the formative assessment that districts have because the ELA standards went through revision um and new adoption first before math they we won't have target growth for report card for ELA but they are looking at those formative assessments as being that target growth.
089I I will share that from information from teachers, the resources that follow the I Ready appear to be those which are easier for teachers to navigate. The map resources were very difficult to to navigate and these resources are much easier to navigate. Also, as I look at our adoption for tonight, it appears that our math and some other things are moving in that same trended direction. So, we I I would think we would have a hard time wanting to move from one to another to another. I think it would be difficult for teachers uh if standards and that kind of thing are being taught through I Ready Math in elementary school and the resources for the diagnostic path is through I Ready and then we would put a different diagnostic assessment. I would think that
090would be a very difficult path for teachers to to navigate. That's just an opinion from looking from afar and from a data standpoint I can I can say um I have used um map and map our formal one and I ready and I will say I ready gives you an that annual growth or typical growth and that stretch growth whereas the previous program we used it was set at the 50th percentile and for um any student to typically be met you have to be performing performing at least at the 61st percentile. So even those goals that are set within certain programs, you have to look at that as well. Well, and with I Ready, um, we know that that stretch growth. um we've seen the evidence and have the data that if we're working towards
091that stretch growth that the students are mastering those standards to be met or above on SC ready and to have growth which is where our state report card is going. I also do think though we have to monitor how much time we are spending in that computerized program at the school levels because that is also even though our state wants that diagnostic kind of measurement I think that's a real important thing going forward and that we monitor the amount of time that students just progress address on a computerized program that it we certainly have to have that integrated small group and and I can say and Mr. Cohen might speak more on that I can say as a team we do receive the usage reports so we know um individual and grade schoolwide where that's
092going and we are moving that focus from a usage report a usage standpoint to the skill mastery standard mastery standpoint. Thank you. Yeah, I've got just a comment and I don't really want to offend anybody with this comment, but I've said this since going on this board. I think education has just got so complicated. You know, I was a student taught with a teacher on a chalkboard in a workbook. Okay? And a lot of people here was taught that way. So, I think education has got just way too complicated on the way we teach children. That's just my opinion. Uh secondly, I don't mind funding education in Georgetown County as long as it works. You know, I have no problem with Dibbles Letterland as long as we can see results. But what I would like
093to see is our school district and the state of South Carolina move to more basic teaching like we were all taught when we were in school. And um my last question is this, that was a comment. Are most of these programs, Dibbles, Letterland, computer-based? Are these students that are actually doing this on a computer or are teachers teaching? So I can tell you for Dibbles and and I Ready, it's a combination. Um I Ready has lessons and curriculums that are bookbased uh paperbased and computer-based and letterland is the same. Okay. So there is teacher interaction. Yes sir. Like and that's what we promote. That's why um we're moving we're trying to move the focus from the usage of it to the um the skill mastery piece. Okay. I have to agree with Mr. Cox too
094that we've gotten so complicated that sometimes we've lost the children in the in the complicated Absolutely. stuff and it it's it's basic. You know, sometimes we make things more complicated than they need to be. I would just like to say um complication is necessary these days because what what we learned and how we learned back then that was to fit the society back then. I think uh that computers and stuff is necessary because that's what's out there. You're hardly going to get a job unless you know how to navigate yourself around computers and stuff that. So I think having that introduction in the kids' classroom is very important as well. Yes, we have to have basic to build off of, but nec nevertheless, I think that complication is necessary in preparing our kids for the
095job force that is out there today. It's just not the same like it was when we were coming up. Uh things has changed. And again, I I agree with with Keith on that, but we need to see results. Yeah. And that's the key thing. if if if our children are going through this and they're not getting that interaction um with a teacher and it's just with a computer every day, you know, that's that's a big thing. And if they're going up and we've still got a nation that's probably doing pretty lousy when it comes to 8th grade, then we're not doing something right. You know what I mean? We we've got to toss it up and start making things look a little different. And that was one of the thing I uh before I became
096a schoolboard member, I would come here and just sit and see what I could learn. That's one of the thing I liked about I Ready because all the data information that you get now you know where to put your focus because you have the data to compare it to. So I've always been a fan of I Ready before I got this seat up here. So um I'm I certainly support it. I just want to make a comment about Letterland. I was at I want to say Brown's Ferry last year when the the little kids little kid did their little presentation and there I it was fantastic and those kids I mean and they were little kids maybe kindergarten first grade I mean and they knew those letters they knew those words they I mean and
097of course you know coming from the performance standpoint that I like I mean they were up there acting and singing and they were having a good time and they knew all that stuff but so that's just another way for them to Absolutely. It's a healthy balance. I I I'll say that it's a balance between um uh teacher instruction, student interaction with with devices and interaction and engagement with one another. So, our instructional team during our learning walks and and our leaders during their walks, they are looking for that healthy balance of of a little bit of each so that we can have the positive results that we're aiming for. So it it's a little bit of all. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Marva Tut, executive director of secondary schools and um I just have a
098few items that we would like to recommend or request. Um in math we are requesting edge elastics. While we're currently using Mastery Connect for common assessment benchmarks, which are common formative assessments, it is not userfriendly for teachers or students nor students. The feedback from Mastery Connect does not allow our teachers to give as much meaningful feedback or make timely decision about the needs of their students. Edge elastics would offer a realtime source of feedback and data to drive our instruction. It would also provide teachers with one singular place to do daily assessments, practice, common formative assessments, and secure exams. The features of the program are much more userfriendly, promote efficiency in grading and feedback, as well as providing highquality standards aligned assessment items in all core areas. We currently pay for two programs, Mastery Connect
099and Performance Matters for assessments and final exams respectively. This would take the place of both programs. The cost of the program is estimated $27,000. What was the cost of the the other? I would have to pull that. I do have to pull that. That was a question I had for myself. Any questions? Okay. All right. Social studies. We're requesting 7th grade Nestrom atlases. This desk atlas is a more rigorous curriculum in middle school which provides increased knowledge of geographic places and concepts which are important to the tested area. This is a one-time cost of $6,000. Okay, science. We're requesting science lab training to go with the HMH series. And this is for differentiation for all learners with an emphasis on appropriate planning, instructional delivery, and assessment to ensure student success. Teachers have requested training on
100how to use the kits because what's currently available is online and y'all just talked about that and they prefer in-person training. This would provide hands-on learning for all the science concepts and it's a onetime cost of $6,000 for 6 through 8 English language arts. We are requesting a department chair, one stipen for a department chair for the entire district of $1,000 to provide leadership, facilitate professional development, and ensure curriculum alignment and instructional practices for our world language programs. That's a one-time well that would be a recurring cost of $1,000 per year for one person. At this time, we don't have anybody. Kim Gross, our ELA person, is trying to do both and she's not she would prefer to have some support with the world languages because she doesn't feel as well verssed in world languages.
101Okay. All right. And then summer session pacing guide work, three teachers per school at $4,400. And this is to address the development and refinement of highquality pacing and curriculum guides that align with state standards and district goals. Okay. Are there any questions? Thank you. Okay. Good evening. I'm Adrienne Watford, the director of special programs. On behalf of the special programs department, I along with our media specialist would like to request consideration of purchasing the platform Beanstack for the 2025 2026 school year. Beanstack is a platform that is currently being managed and used by our media specialists and used by our students and faculty and staff throughout our district. It was previously paid for by ESSER funds which are no longer available as we've discussed tonight. Incorporating Beantock into our reading programs has proven to be
102a valuable tool cultivating a culture of reading. The real-time updates on Beanstack has kept students actively involved with lead changes sparking excitement and sustained participation. Its competitive features and real-time tracking have not only increased circulation but also fostered a vibrant reading community. We look forward to continuing to implement strategies using Beanstack with our students of all ages to motivate healthy reading habits, foster the love of reading, and increase student achievement. The total cost for the 2025 2026 school year would be $16,625. We appreciate you all and all you do to support our students and we appreciate your consideration of this request. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Pamela Vin, director of college and career readiness for the district. I'm here to share a request on behalf of our school counselors, our RBHS specialists and school psychologists
103in regards to social emotional learning, which we term as SEAL, uh to ask a request for curriculum resources. Beginning with our elementary level, uh the package that we are currently using is quaver ready and the board at this point last year allowed us to uh purchase that particular curriculum package using ESR funds. So that is currently in use and we're asking to continue that uh with a budgeted amount of $25,000. We would like to continue to build our program and work with our secondary school students, middle and high school students. And so the again school counselors, the school psychologist, RBHS specialists came together and reviewed and what they found was satchel pulse for our middle and high schools to do just one year would be $30,000. So why are we looking at social emotional learning?
104What is the the rationale or the consideration behind doing this and having it now to be a K12 initiative? And well, it's important for several reasons, but we want to help students to have the the tools, the skill set in order to develop empathy, to be able to have understanding for each other, in order to promote that critical uh thinking and decision making. How do we deal with peer pressure uh in the schools? How do we make decisions even regarding our academics? Overall, we're looking at academic performance and we never forget about school climate and to be able to improve our academic achievement. We want students to have those tools to help to reduce behavior issues and just create a more overall positive school culture. And we must always remember our uh mission statement. Our
105vision is it goes beyond even the classroom so that when students graduate when they leave us we talk about citizenship. So how does this support mental health well-being and overall long-term social emotional uh supports and overcoming struggles? So we'll be able to use these same skills in future workplace endeavors. So we are requesting uh the SEAL curriculum supports through those two programs. Any questions? Thank you. Need to ask a question. Um, do we I know this is strictly for the high school students or middle and high going up, but I personally think it's very essential that our young children and elementary schools learn some of these coping skills because if they learn it early enough, they can carry it through and we may not have the same issues at the high school and the middle
106school level if we can figure out how to help them cope at a at an earlier age. And so, you know, as as good as this is, and I I think it's essential, I think that we need to try and incorporate some of this at like the fourth and fifth grade levels so that these children get some coping skills there before they enter this puberty section of their lives. I mean, after they're out the shoot, you know, uh, so to speak, some of that coping skill just goes out to window. But if we can get them a little bit earlier that I think that maybe we could incorporate something at that level, you know. So I I would like to see us try to work with something that would create a program for that. Yes,
107ma'am. And we are requesting we want to continue. Understand? Yeah, I certainly know that. But I think as a board maybe we need to look at something like that. Certainly. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, Chairman Moore, Dr. Gals, and board members. On behalf of the special services department, I would like to um to make requests tonight on behalf of our department. But before I do, I do want to take this time to publicly thank our department. This year the state department went through a lot of changes this year and it included a detailed and a different way of evaluating students as well as a new IEP system. And so this has been a struggling year for our teachers, our department. So I just want to publicly thank them for all that that they have
108done this year. On behalf of the special services department, I would like to provide a list of things we need. The first part deals with compliance. The second part deals with requests. We are governed by the state regulations and guidelines as well as IDA. For those who may not know, is the individuals with disabilities education act which is a federal law that ensures students with disabilities have a free and appropriate public education and it covers from birth to 21. Therefore, we are governed by state regulations also in terms of our numbers. There are certain number of students that can be in our special education classes. We have state guidelines and we are audited from time to time on those numbers. Just to give you a reference point, in 2023 when we began the school year,
109we had 13 we had 1,371 students. When we last did our poll, we had 1,517 students. So as you can see the needs in this districts are in this district is growing. So we have to find inventive ways to meet those needs. From previous um board presentations you have seen that in some of our schools they have been identified um as having a subgroup with um students with disabilities who are not performing. And when we pack our classrooms more than what the state regulations allow, we start to see where we are not able to close those gaps. So therefore, one of the first things we're asking for are several classes this year because of increased numbers at Samp and Pleasant Hill. We had to open up classes to relieve that number. We are also asking
110for a preschool disabilities class at Browns Fairy Elementary. We have a very robust um child find clinic and we are governed to find those students in ages three and four. And so therefore all of our preschool classrooms are now will start in the fall very full. And so we are we have to open up a class at Brownsbury and Mville Elementary. One of the other populations that's growing in our district is our students with autism or intellectual disabilities. So we are requesting that we open up a class also at Mville Elementary. Those classes at Mville Elementary will pull students will help address the overload of students from Kingsington, from the Kingsington area, the Sampin area, um some of the McDonald area and the classroom at Bronze Fra will allow some of our students who are
111at McDonald Elementary to be served in their own home school. It will also service students from the Pleasant Hill area, the Plannersville area, and some of the Kingsington area. We have a large number of students who will be leaving will be leaving the elementary school this year. And those students receive core placement. Those students who receive core placements um receive all of their ELA or ELA in math from a special education teacher. Because of the numbers that will be going into the middle school at Carver Bay Middle, we are requesting one teacher as well as a PAR professional to help address those needs. We are only asking for one year because after this year we are expecting that the numbers in the eighth grade when they move to the high school will level out and
112we may not need that additional person after this year. We are also asking for a.5 um teacher at Rosemary as well as Andrews High due to the increase in numbers. We have three classrooms um who will need extra help because of the needs of those students and those classes are at Wakama High, Angress Elementary and Samp Elementary due to the needs of some of our students with more complex needs. Currently we have six occupational therapists but we have a large number of students that we are serving. We are because we have students who are also being served ages three and four in our private schools by federal law. We have to serve those students. Some of those students are receiving occupational therapy and some of those students are also receiving speech language therapy. With a
113large number of students our occupational therapists are seeing their case loads are ranging anywhere from 60 to 70 plus students. With that in mind, every time one of those occupational therapists have to attend a meeting, they're missing valuable service time with the students. When they do that, those hours add up and we owe those students compensatory time. But when you think about a minimum of an hour to two hours for an IEP meeting in addition to the number of hours it takes to evaluate a student, all of those hours they will have to make up for those students. With the needs of some of our students, especially with our autism population growing, we are also seeing a high number of students who are also experiencing sensory processing disorders. And with that the occupational therapist also
114helps to address those needs. We are also asking for a certified occupational therapy assistant. This will h will help cut down on the number of hours of compensatory service time we are owed we owe students anytime we want to use this occupational therapy assistance. So when our when our occupational therapists are in IP meetings or they're evaluating a student that's not one that they are already seeing, the occupational therapy can also go therapy assistant can go in and help provide some of those services to our students to relieve the number of compensatory time owed. As of right now, we have some students, well, we have some therapists who are owing students over 70 plus hours. That is in our book that is unacceptable as unacceptable for some of our therapists to have to owe that
115amount of hours to students. We are also asking for two speech and language pathologists. Once I as I said before, we have to serve students in who are ages three and four also in private schools as well as our own. State regulation says that speech language pathologists can have up to 60, but we have some speech language pathologists who have 70 plus students on their case load. And as you think about these numbers, keep in mind we're only in the month of March and we have several students that are in evaluation right now. So those numbers are only going to increase with that. We are also asking for two schoolside colleges. It takes several hours to complete evaluations for our students. And I just want to make sure I give you some of the time
116that it takes them just to complete an autism testing with the evaluation and report. It's taken some of our school psychologists up to 15 to 20 hours to complete that. To complete a cross battery assessment, which you know we have a growing need of um students who are being identified as dyslexia, it has taken anywhere from 12 to 16 hours. Just to do a standard report to look at why a student may be behaving the way they're doing, we talked about earlier about the seal. When anytime one of our students have repeated offense, repeated offense, we have to look at that and conduct what we call a functional behavior assessment. And with that, sometimes that take anywhere from 5 to 8 hours. When we have students with complex needs and we have to put additional
117person with that student that just to do that study and to write the report, we're looking at anywhere from 5 to eight hours. And with all of the discipline issues we're having in some of our schools, going back to the SEAL, every time one of a student, a student with the disability receives a certain number of referrals, they have to deal with something called manifestation determination. And when they do that, that takes anywhere from 3 to 5 hours. And we have several students who are constantly getting in trouble. So we the school psychologists have to go ahead they prep the work and they have to have those meetings and so that adds to their to their load just like our occupational therapists and speech language therapists. We because we have several private schools in our
118district. This includes some of the daycarees. This includes any church that has a school. When we get a referral that says a student needs, they have a question and they're thinking this child may have a disability, our school psychologist, our district, we have to evaluate that student, which means our school psychologists are not only evaluating students in the district, but we also have to evaluate students in private and daycarees. with our growing numbers of students with autism. We are so glad that some of our students do not need that direct ABA support every day and now we're moving some students to more of a consult model. We don't have enough staff to supervise our ABA therapists. So requesting that a a BCBA um point up to point 6 about three days a week be able
119to provide those services for our students with cons who are receiving consult services. This will prevent them from backtracking and will continue to help them with their growth and will prevent them from coming back into the program where they have to receive direct services. Without Childfind team, it has to be a multidisciplinary team. And so, one of the members of the team has to be a special education teacher. And with that teacher, we also would like to use that teacher to also provide some attenerate services to our students who are ages three and four in daycarees and some of our private schools who are three and four. By federal law, if the IP team determines that a student that's in a private school who's ages three and four needs some academic support, we have to
120give it to them. This will prevent if we can serve some of those students in their programs, this will prevent us from having to provide transportation to bring them and transport them from their g daycarees into our district. as well as that itinerant teacher could also that would also lessen the numbers that we will have to add to our already um overloaded prek classrooms. So if we have to bring a student in and they have to stay in that program half the day they're taking a seat when they really don't need that. As you can see we already having to open up several prek classes. So we're trying not to open up an an additional class just to serve those students um from the private and daycarees by federal law IDA part of that cons
121um deals with assisted technology. We started we we restarted the assisted technology team about 3 years ago and we are so pleased that we now have a great evaluation system where we can determine what are some of the needs of our students and we have a lot of students who have devices that are low tech as well as high-tech. We have some students who have iPads that are being used as communication device. It is a great joy when you when a student is able to walk around the school and be able to tell you what their needs are. And so we are very proud of some of our students of the way they are being able to communicate using some of their iPads or even their eye gaze machine. And so to keep the apps
122on those the apps some of the apps on those um iPads can cost anywhere from $300 or more. And so we just want to make sure that we are able to continue to serve those students who have some of those com um communication needs and other needs as well. We in Georgetown County School District, we have had several crisis throughout this year. We started this year with the crisis before some of our team members were even back at work. And we have a very dedicated staff and part of our crisis care team. Anytime something happens with a staff member or a student, our team members go out. We have a core team and then we have supplemental teams members that come and help. And so we've been very fortunate to have a grief counseling training.
123We've also had training our suicide risk training. And so we're asking for additional funds to make sure our crisis care team have all the necessary tools they can to address any crisis that may arise in our district. Um and so one of the professional developments that we're looking at is something dealing with trauma informed. And so that's the one main focus of the training we would like to provide our RBHS school counselors um and school psychologists with the way some of our evaluations are going uh school psychologist assessments are now being um they're through they're more digital and so with the iPads we have to purchase the apps once we start getting all of the apps on the iPads for our school psychologists. Some of the money will decrease from year to year because we're
124not spending 40 to 60 plus thousands on just evaluation hard copies for our school psychologists, our speech language pathologist and autism autism group. They also use those iPads as well as to progress monitor and to assess students. And there's also parts on those um that they use the iPads for to also use as part of instruction to make sure that our school psychologist, SLPs, and autism group have what they need. We're asking also for that to be for you to okay that for us as well as well. We have several students in our district. From time to time they experience challenging behaviors and because of those challenging behaviors sometimes we have to have trained staff to be able to deal with those students and part of that training c it comes up every year. They
125have to be renewed every year. and that training for those materials and just to have an additional person to help with their training will cost anywhere from $15,000. However, if um if Mr. Walters is able to get his grant, that number may be decreased, but we want to make sure we have an additional person to be trained. When we accept trainings for teachers districtwide to come and be trained, the teams from each school that's identified, if one of our trainers is out and cannot perform, that means we're going to have to find more subs retrain. I mean, we will have to find another day for them to find different subs and sometimes it just messes up the schedule. And with the number of the number of trainings we have to conduct, having two people, having
126an additional person, right now we have two, but we're looking to get an additional person trained just to make sure we have enough staff that's able to train the the teachers and the staff from each school that needs to be trained. As part of our child child find team, as I stated before, it has to be multidisciplinary. So, we have to make sure we have a gened teacher, a special ed teacher, as well as other service providers. And so, we do need one gened teacher to sit during those meetings um for up to 15 hours monthly. Our nursing staff h sees a lot of students on a daily basis. There are sometimes is into the thousands when you look at it per week, per month. And so with those needs, as we are starting to
127see students come into our school with more complex medical needs, we're asking for an itinerate nurse as well as five to to keep the five health room assistants we have right now. our nursing needs are growing and with and with the documentation that we have to have and with the growing number of diabetics, we have to make sure we have a trained um nurse on staff. The Andrews 3K program, we have we have just a few students who will be in Andrews Elementary in the 3K program. If we are not able to fund this program for part for part of the day, then those students, those three year olds will need to get on the bus and travel to Sampet, which will be the closest preschool class that they will be able to attend. So,
128we're asking for a.5 for the 3K numbers at Andrews. They cannot go into the 4K class next year at Andrews because that class is starting out full. And due to SSRE funding, we're asking for the district to also um fund. ISL is a computer-based program that standards online. Several of our all of our teachers have been using this program for the last couple of years, but with SF funding ending, we're asking for that to be [Music] renewed. Any questions? Any question? Thank you. I do have one question. I'm sorry. I do have one question. Have Have you noticed and this is just as an observation? I'm not I'm not expecting statistics or anything. Mhm. Have you noticed that in the old like the middle school up that with the new vaping and the pot that
129they're smoking and the different things that they're getting into that we're seeing any differences in the behavior and the behavior issues? I don't think we have any direct correlation to be able to give a a a researchable answer to that. Um it was research on it as to how the effects of that does. I can share that we are recipients of of a jewel um you know that's the brand um lawsuit we where we participated year before last and we're now receiving those um payments. And so one of the next steps is for us to educate ourselves as well as our students and our community on um the effects of of usage of vapes. So that that is the next steps that we will be bringing to you. Okay. Good. Any other questions? Thank you
130very much. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, board members, Dr. Giles. Uh my presentation will be brief, one item on one slide. And what we're asking you for is uh we want to take a position in our facilities maintenance department. Uh we had one of our HVAC team members retire and we posted that job and it sat out there for a year and we just can't find anybody for it. But between our existing team members and technology, we've made that work. So, we've identified though another need and that is we need somebody that can work on our security cameras. Uh, we're about to embark on a major undertaking. Our camera system is aging. Cameras are dropping. Uh, we're having server issues. And so, we did an analysis and looked at how much we're
131paying our vendors in labor and travel that we thought by repurposing this position, we can bring that inhouse. And not only will it save us a significant amount of money, an example I'll give you is we looked at one of our smaller schools and got a quote on replacing the cameras in that school and just the labor and travel cost was about $11,000. So you can see it there'll be substantial savings with this position. But perhaps more importantly, I think it's going to help us keep schools safer because we can get these cameras back up and running quicker if we've got somebody here and not have to wait days or weeks to get uh a technician from a firm to come out and do that for us. So, that's what we're requesting is that we
132can reallocate that position into a camera technician. Well, bingo, Mr. uh Walters. Today, uh, my wife and I were on the phone with the security company cuz you know what? The camera on the back and the front, they don't work no more. We need new ones, they say. So, we ordered new ones, but nobody can't come out until the first of the month to install them. So, uh, I kind of feel you. It's a challenge. And in talking with other districts and, uh, you know, even Department of Juvenile Justice is putting a new camera system. They've just hired a technician away from all of those companies to work directly for them so that we can deal with these things a lot faster. So, I think this is would be a good move for us. Well,
133I told them I need them installed this week, but they said they can't do it. Yeah, it's a challenge. Yeah. M Waters, do you have a salary on this position in mind? Not I can get it to you. I think it was a maintenance two position. I I believe what it is. We can we can get that to you, but it's something that was already there. So, we're not asking actually for new money. It's just to repurpose. Repurposing. Gotcha. So, anybody that heard that uh I got backup cameras, so don't come to my house. That's what I was trying to tell Mr. Walker to limit his comments. Backup cameras as well. Yeah, that was just two of many, Mr. Walker, that you had. Thank you very much. Any other questions? Thank you very much, Mr.
134Mr. Co. Those are the That's the end of um our departmental presentations. Thank you all. So now we'll Yes, we're So now we move forward to Oh, here we go. Good evening again. Um as a member of the course catalog course request committee, I stand before you. um asking and providing information on course requests for the 2526 school year. Schools are provided with a course request form. Um and those are to be submitted the end of February 1st of March each year and then the course catalog content committee gets together to review those um questions we might have. We send those back to the school or meet with the schools. Um our committee is com composed of um a multiaceted group of people. We have our district content coaches. Um our cis director Miss Gal,
135Miss Kibler who was the pretty much the person writer or editor revisor of the catalog. Um myself Dr. Vine when elementary or middle and high is needed we in um Dr. Tut and Mr. Cohens are invited and then as we need others though they're invited as well. Um what you will find is a link on the agenda to those requests that we are bringing before you tonight. The major u ones to point out are the math of course are being aligned to the new um state department math pathways. um that's in the middle and the high course catalog. Um ROC ROC was is now under um college and career technical education that has been added. It moves from the various local board approved courses to the specified ones. Um as you will see under career
136and technology. Do you have any questions on course request? Any questions? These were the books that we looked at the other day that we came in and he's next. That's him. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. So, good evening again. Um, attached in front of you, you should find a listing of the textbook and instructional resources or materials that were recommended by the office of academics and students services for possible use beginning the 2526 school year. Textbooks and other instructional materials that the state department or the state board of education reviewed and approved on January 7th of 2025 have been thoroughly examined by teachers and administrators. Each textbook publishing company was invited to provide an overview of their materials for teachers, coaches, and administrators on January 13th and 14th. Additionally, publishers were invited to the
137invited to the state textbook caravans to um present their approved materials. These caravans were held statewide during February and representatives from Georgetown County attended caravans in Myrtle Beach and in Florence. And as um Miss Johnson just alluded to, prior to the last board meeting, you all were invited to peruse this materials in the classroom here at the Beck building. So this evening, we are presenting to you the recommendations for materials to be adopted for the 2526 school year and I'm going to go over them by um grade level band. For mathematics grades K through 5, the recommendation is I Ready Classroom Mathematics, which is curriculum associates. For middle schools, mathematics grades 6 through 8. The recommendation is Math Nation from South Carolina. Accelerated Learning is the vendor for high school selections. Algebra 1, geometry with
138statistics, algebra 2 with probability, envision mathematics, which is a Savage learning company. Pre-calculus, which is the Blitzer, the Savage Learning Company, Calculus, also Savis Learning Company. Statistical modeling and AP statistics is also Savath Learning Company. Discrete mathematics is also Savas Learning Company. Reasoning and mathematics is Savath Learning Company as well. Applications and modeling is mathematics standards which is BW Walch and the AP Calculus course being recommended is calculus for AP which is National Geographic. These are the recommendations main made to you for information tonight and we are expecting or hoping that you will approve them at your next board meeting so we can present our options to the state board so we can provide those um those names to them so we can begin ordering those materials for the 25 26 school year question. Will
139you still have those books available for us? It's no longer in that room but we have them. Okay. Yes, ma'am. I I didn't get but a second to look at them. I'm just We have them um my office B127 and I think D what is the conference room number? D121. They're in this building. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Well, fine. Any other questions? I want to thank um Mr. Coins and the instructional team this year. The goal was to ensure that all teachers had an opportunity. Whether they took advantage of that opportunity, that's on them. But our instructional leaders um really made a concerted effort to get all input from our teachers, those who are boots on the ground that are working with these materials to ensure that the best possible um choice is made. So we
140want to thank those who led the efforts and we certainly thank our teachers and instructional leaders for participating in the effort and using of their time wisely to um contribute to what materials we will use with our students. So thank you and huge shout out to all of those that were involved. Thank you. Thank you to each presenter uh for the information that you shared with us on this evening. [Music] We're now down to board and superintendent comment or request at this time. Yes, Miss Chris. Yes. Good evening everyone. Um I I just had a couple things. I wanted to um request if I could for the child finding clinic to come and do a presentation for the board so that we can all learn the purpose and the process of that. And uh second,
141I wanted to just take a moment to share the positive and productive walkthrough that uh we did last week with Dr. Giles. Um it was insightful experience and um it allowed us to see firsthand what is working well in our schools as well as to identify critical areas that need improvement. we were able to identify school policies that are making a difference such as uh we learned about the e-ass and clear water bottles um that I think we should consider making district-wide policies. So, I appreciate Dr. Gile's um hands-on approach and your commitment to making sure that we are continuously improving and um just wanted to, you know, thank you for providing us that valuable opportunity. I think it was very very productive and I look forward to uh working together to implement um positive
142changes across our district. Thank you. I would like to say the same. We went over and went through schools and I too we all identified different issues that we needed to do do work on and also some of the positive things that are going on. And that being said there everybody looks at everything from a different perspective. And so by everybody having different perspectives, we're all watching and looking for different items which are essential to making everything work. Um we've got some good things going on and we've got some things that we may need to make some modifications to make them better. Um, but I did see a a lot of different ways that different principles are handling different things and we need to kind of, as Christie said, we can incorporate those and make
143them a standard and not just an individual school because we need consistency. Consistency is essential to all of from education right on down is to be consistent throughout the system, no matter whether it's security or whatever. So, um, yeah, I've learned a lot and and we do have some good things going on and I think we can work together on getting some things better. Thank you. Anyone else? Yeah, I got a comment. So, um, we literally won't be ordering chalkboards next week. That was just a expression of mine on education. So, we won't put that in the budget, Mr. Chairman. But anyway, um three of us this uh Thursday will be flying to Atlanta, Georgia for 4 days at a national schoolboard conference meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. Myself, Randy Walker, and Miss Fallon um who's
144not here tonight, but we'll be leaving Thursday to attend the National School Board Conference. I'm looking forward to learning, Mr. Chairman, from other states. Um you know, there'll be states there that are in the top five in the nation. There'll be states that are in the bottom 50. So, I look forward to seeing what some other states are doing that are working that that we can use here in South Carolina and Georgetown County. And um I too applaud everybody who presented tonight. I think everything that was presented we all take serious and uh we'll take a close look at budgeting those items for you guys and thank you for what you do. I certainly like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Cox, Mr. Walker and Miss Fallon who's not here called let me know
145that she had something urgent that came up but uh for for going and and and gathering information. Uh we're going to certainly look to teach them some good things that we're doing here in George Young as well as perhaps learning from them. Uh Miss Christie and Miss Eileen. I thank you guys very much for taking that opportunity with Dr. Gaus. I spoke with both you guys and I was encouraged by the feedback that I got from you guys. So, I look forward to getting an opportunity to join the school walk with you as well and learning some things as well. And uh just want to continue to uh be positive and let's look for ways to solve problems uh and communicate and work together. Well, I'll say this from going on previous trips. Uh, you
146know, you guys being here in Georgetown, you may think some things are not so well, but when you go and talk to some guy from Witchaw, some little state, uh, way out in the Midwest and just listen to some of the problems that they got, you come back home and said, "Wow, we're doing not so bad." We have problems, you know. Yeah. The state, too. Anyone else? Dr. G. Thank you, Chairman Moore, members of the board. Um, certainly I thank all the presenters, our members of our team for presenting your budget request. I also want to salute Gear Up um the direct the director, excuse me, the dean and the PI for making the trip down uh to Georgetown to share what's positive about the Gear Up Grant. And we're looking forward to to next
147things with that. And certainly we salute healthy learners. Um they have a impactful role in our district and certainly um health whether mental or physical plays an impact on our students performance. So we are thankful for them and certainly that leads into the physical fitness and what Mr. Keith Brown and the presenters shared. I do um sticking with the theme of athletics and and physical fitness. It is athletic trainer appreciation month. So, we salute our four athletic trainers. Um around this time last year, I think we were trying to find athletic trainers for all of our schools. And I'm proud to say that we do um have a full capacity with our athletic trainers and we know especially after not having the impact that they play with our students and um their health. So we
148we we are thankful for our athletic trainers and we're looking forward to saluting them throughout the month. It is procurement month and we also um recognize members of our procurement department and the role that they play um through our audit. We heard things and and we know that they play a valuable role as well. So we salute members of our procurement department. Um, again, as you were saying, as far as feedback that we get from our leadership walks, thank you all for taking those walks with me. I think it's very key that we do hear the feedback that our teachers and our staff members provide us while we're walking. And as you said, Miss Johnson, we do have different perspectives, but when we bring those perspectives together, it's amazing what we can accomplish. And so
149I'm looking forward to putting um things from our walk into action. I'm looking forward to the rest of the walks. I really am. Yes, ma'am. Um as we continue to get free uh feedback, uh free throw Fridays are continuing and we're getting valuable feedback from our students. Uh we'll continue Friday for those who are watching or participating in Andrews. Um so we encourage parents to sign up for that that um effort and we'll have our superintendent advisory council meetings in April. Um on a sad note I do share that um our school family experienced two losses over the past couple of weeks. Um, first uh we remember Miss Zel Dar who was a former school board member and we thank we we are remembering her commitment and passion for education and and we salute the
150work that she did on the school board. We also remember and honor Christian Washington, a beloved student athlete from Carver Bay Early College and Career High School. um from what I hear and what I saw, he brought joy as well as friendship to many and competition on the basketball court. So, we continue to keep those uh members of those families in our thoughts and they have our deepest sympathy and we know that this this is hard for Georgetown County School District as a family because we've walked this walk too many times this school year. But I want to salute our crisis care team members who have been walking that walk with us and with our students and community during each tragedy. So, um, huge shout out and salute to members of our crisis care team
151and that includes members of our clergy who are members of the community as well. So, we we thank everyone for wrapping around our school district and hugging our school district as we've been in this time of need. So thank you and we continue to keep those members in our thoughts. Thank you very much. We do have an executive session for the purpose of discussing personnel employment matters on our agenda. May I have a motion to move to executive session? So moved. Second. It's been moved and properly second. All in favor? Any discussions? All in favor, please say I. I any opposes? Nay. Motion carried. We're now in executive session. Am I going to need to read that? Am I going to need to read something?