001I'd like to call this meeting to order thank you all for being here tonight to begin I would like to invite Dr Carla Brandon principal of M Maryville Elementary School to introduce Mr Mason Jordan who will lead us in the pledge of leading followed by a Moment of Silence good evening Dr gals chairman more board members District staff and guests I would like to thank you for the opportunity to introduce you all to Mason Jordan Mason is a fifth grader in mville elementary and he's 11 years old he is a proud member of the House of river his hobbies include collecting toy cars Hunting Fishing and anything outdoors his favorite subject in school is math he says what he loves most about mville is that everyone greets you in the mornings and welcomes you to
002your day and I would have to say that's part of what we love most about Mason is his fabulous manners and his ability to put a smile on our faces when he walks in the door every day so without further Ado Mason Jordan good evening everyone thank you for having me here tonight first I would like to thank you for all that you do for the students of Georgetown county school district now please write r for the Pledge of [Music] Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag in the United States of America and to the Republic for religious stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all please remaining please remain standing for the moment of silent you may be seated thank you again for this opportunity have a great rest of
003your [Music] [Applause] [Music] day thank you very much Mr Mason and I encourage you to continue to keep putting smile on everyone's face next we will be celebrate we will celebrate music in our schools month Miss Kibler will come and share a few remarks before we enjoy a special performance from the Wall Middle School chorus under the direction of Miss Megan clayer and if I mispronounce that please forgive me it was perfect awesome all right Dr GS and board members I am going to invite you at this time to exit the stage toward the far wall over here where the screen is we do have reserved seating on the front row down here so that you guys can enjoy the concert music in our schools month is a time to celebrate the vital role that
004music education plays in student learning and person personal growth As We Know music Fosters creativity teamwork and self-expression while also enhancing academic success we are grateful for the dedicated music educators in our district to inspire and nurture our students talents every day tonight we are pleased to welcome Megan chin clay who is in her fifth year of teaching and currently leads chorus General music and drama at walal Middle School under her leadership the Wall Middle School concert choir earned a superior rating last year at the South Carolina music educators Association solo and Ensemble Festival in just 15 days Miss clay and her students will embark on an exciting journey to Walt Disney World where they will participate in a Disney imagination campus singing Workshop as part of their 5-day trip joining us tonight to perform
005is the walal middle school concert choir accompanied by Miss Sylvia pler Coral director at wall High School please join me in welcoming Miss Megan chin clay and her students thank you so much to Dr gues and our school board for inviting us this evening to celebrate music in our school's month to begin our concert we are going to start with the national anthem so I ask that you please rise and observe with us [Music] the light sooud the Twilight stripes and through the for the [Music] soing the rock [Music] sing prove through the night that our flag was still there oh s do St for the land of the and the home of the thank you so much our next piece is entitled Stand Together by Jim papules I picked this um piece of music
006earlier this year um for music in our schools month but also for anti-bullying Awareness Month where we looked at all of the lyrics together in the fall and really studied about being together as a chorus and as students at walal Middle School it became their favorite piece in the fall so they asked to bring back this evening for you tonight please enjoy with Miss ker Stand Together [Music] stand see the rain that's falling down below where I takes us to a place we all can be [Music] by gring H and trees [Music] we will follow with our hearts PR we can [Music] dream by [Music] Dre if we we will s might [Music] to our heart we will stand side by side with our dreams we will sing We Will Sing For Freedom when we
007sing with our hearts we we we the [Music] our last s for you this evening is entitled Festival song to thank you so much for having us this evening and happy music in our schools mon [Music] me [Music] shall toong to [Music] GL [Music] GL shall [Music] shall [Music] toong [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you so much happy music in our school's [Music] mon thank you thank you'all thank you y'all did a great job [Music] we certainly want to thank the won Middle School course for their performances once again tonight yes [Music] thank you we start want to thank the welcom Middle School Course once again uh just knowing that the Arts in our school is just as important as the academic because our goal is to develop well-rounded students we now move to the public
008comments or requests this section is reserved for comments from the audience on any item appearing on the agenda or for for citizens to make specific requests of the school districts or raise issues for future discussions those who wish to speak should have completed a comment card and submitted it prior to the start of the meeting public comments will be AED live but the board typically does not respond to individual comments during the meeting the entire public comment period is generally limited to 30 minutes with each speaker allowed up to 3 minutes please remember that while constructive criticism of school operation and program is welcomed the board will not hear complaints regarding specific Personnel or students such matters should be addressed privately with the appropriate supervisor Personnel I will now call the names of those who
009have signed up to speak and first we have Mr Bill gasin and his topic is going to be the Black River learning initiative and good to see you again Mr gasin good to see you it's the honor to stand before you board chairman Moore board members and Dr GS and District staff I'm here today standing in front of you in support of the Black River learning initiative at Andrews High School a program dedicated to fostering careers and employment based on the economic impact the Black River Stak Park system will bring to Andrews in Georgetown County back in October if you remember we had a board presentation about the project Miss mahome Dr Vine and Aon P did a presentation we hope you would invite us back to do another presentation the Black River State Park
010will have a large economic impact on Andrews and the surrounding area there be there will be an impact on future jobs in park management agriculture Land Management for Street environmental jobs entrepreneurship and much more the Black River initiative seeks to prepare interested high school students for the next chapter of their lives whether it's going on for future education or going directly into the workforce that would be the goal of the program so that students graduate from high school could go into the workforce locally the advisory committee envisions developing a public and private partnership to support the initiative already a private Foundation has invested money into this partnership today I am here to request your support coming from miss mahom this evening about an additional allocation in the 2526 school year this position will kickstart the
011initiative and the and the the advisory committee made up about 15 to 20 different people representing the South Carolina Stakes Parks um the Parsons Foundation uh local uh interest and the Black River pres Black River Preserve we will continue to seek funding private funding and Public Funding to support this as we move forward I encourage you to support the request that Miss mahom will make this evening if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me it is my honor to be here thank you thank you very much Mr [Music] gasin our next speaker will be Miss Nikki Howard and her topic is going to be attendance good evening thank you all for giving me a moment to speak with you um I am the mom of a student from wakama Intermediate School
012and a student at wakama high school and um I appreciate the job that you all do for our children in our schools um recently my youngest had the flu and was out of school for a week um I he woke up Sunday morning with a fever I reached out to his teacher that day and let her know what was going on I reached out to the school on Monday morning and let them know that he had the flu that he had started T oflu we'd get him back as soon as we could I wouldn't bring him back too soon um called again tues or Wednesday and let them know that while I had hoped he was ready to come back he was not he was going to be out a little longer and got a
013text message on Wednesday that said your child has five unlawful absences you have to come in for a meeting um that crawled all over me because that made me feel like the school didn't believe that I was telling them the truth that he really had the flu so I called the school they called me back the next day and assured me that they did not want him to come back um that type of text message only affects rule following parents those are the parents that are going to go ahead and feel like oh my gosh I told them he had the flu this is apparently not a sufficient enough reason not to be in school I need to send him back to school tomorrow these are unlawful absences and now I have to come in
014for a meeting with your district office um people who are breaking your rules don't care about text messages like that but those of us who follow your rules are going to send our kids back to school when they're still sick and I've talked to several parents and several teachers in classrooms this year who have said said that there are more sick kids at school this year than any year before um I can guarantee you it's because of those text messages it the first of all the use of the word unlawful um it's kind of threatening and it also makes us feel like we um we don't know our children well enough to be able to determine whether or not we feel like they're sick now my child has a doctor's excuse that's coming back to
015school with him but I don't think we should also have to go to the doctor for every fever either when there's a school policy in place that says they should stay home if they have a fever over a certain temperature um the school informed me that they have no control over those text messages and so that's where I wanted to bring this to your attention if there's an attendance issue the parent should be being contacted by the school not the district that's not the district doesn't know anything about my child but the school does so they knew he was sick they wouldn't have sent me that text message I feel like this new system that's been adopted this year has um verbiage that is kind of threatening and that doesn't give us any um it
016didn't say make sure you bring a doctor's excuse in it didn't give us any steps to follow other than you have to come in for a meeting because you've broken rules and um so I just wanted to bring that to your attention I don't know that y'all knew about about that and um it's something worth further investigation thank you for your time thank you very much Miss Howard next we have Miss Shannon kneiser attendance niser niser thank you very much yes you're welcome thank you guys for having me here today um I'm here just to kind of echo Miss Howard's argument um I had a very very similar situation happened with my child um actually two children they both had flu I have three kids in school right now two of which are in the
017Intermediate School one who is in ele um and two of them did end up also getting the flu and they were out for about a week and I got the same exact text message and I panicked and I'm a lawyer I'm a local lawyer and I'm like oh my God I don't even know what this means it's an unlawful absence I'm texting Nikki because she's you know she's higher up in the community too she's got some experience in the school district so I'm texting her and I'm like what does this even mean she hasn't even gone to school yet so I'm here just to kind of echo in her arguments but I I do want to address how these absences are being categorized specifically um so you'll see you guys have a policy in the
018district it's in the student handbook that identifies lawful absences versus unlawful absences and you can find that on page nine of your student policy now if you wanted to refer to that in your policy it it clearly says that lawful absences are defined as such so lawful absences are absences due to illness injury death in the family or some other insurmountable condition the fact that attendance was Impractical or inadvisable due to any of these reasons must be confirmed by the student's parent or guardian or licensed physician to school officials within 3 days of the the students return to school my child hadn't even returned to school yet when I got the text message so you know it's kind of in contradiction to the policy so the policy says I have three days from the students
019return to school to provide that note but I'm already being told that my St my students or my kids have unlawful absence so how is that the case if I haven't even had the opportunity to return my child to school with a note so I'm just here to ask that your policy be in line with how those text messages are being you know delivered to the parents yes give us three days once that student turns back you know turns into uh a note to the school give us three days if we don't turn a note in then you can say that the child has an unlawful absence because you don't know if it's lawful or unlawful upon their return if they haven't return turned yet so I'm just here to kind of say your categorization
020of your lawful versus unlawful is kind of threatening for one and two I do return my my children I did return her back to school as soon as I got that text message because I was like oh gosh I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this uh I'm going to get in trouble if she's not in school I'm afraid of Tru Andy you know things you know I don't know what to think I've never seen that text message before so um I just wanted to bring that to you you guys and so I'm here Echo Nikki's argument and thank you guys for your time I appreciate it thank you very much Mr niser and I certainly want to thank everyone who took time to share their thoughts uh with us tonight thank you
021the next item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes from our February 4th 2025 meeting the administration recommends approval of these minutes as presented may I have a motion to approve the minutes so moved second thank you very much it's been moved and second is there any discussion all in favor please say I I any opposers nay the minutes are approved thank you 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 thank you this been moved then second is there is there any discussions all in favors please say I I any oppos to say nay the agenda is adopted thank you very much we will now hear budget request presentations from our principles presented on behalf of their
022respective schools Mr Travis cleta Elementary School for princi for the elementary schools and Miss Jeanie Haynes for the middle school and then we have Miss tanka Mo Mahone for the high schools and please let me just say for the record that Mr Scott deos is joining us virtually uh for tonight's meeting thank you chairman Moore members of the school board Dr GES and District leaders on behalf of the Elementary School principles I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your unwavering support and commitment to creating a positive and enriching learning environment for the students in our County your dedication to academic excellence and student well-being allows us to provide the best possible education for our children and we truly appreciate the time resources and decisions you invest in making that a reality tonight
023I'm here to present the elementary budget requests for the 2526 school year requests that directly align with our mission to to support student achievement social emotional growth and teacher Effectiveness as a collective group we are requesting funding for two critical positions we currently have these positions we'd like to maintain these positions the first one is an interventionist uh they provide targeted reading and math interventions that help close achievement gaps and ensure that every student has strong AC a strong academic foundation and we want to we're also requesting to maintain our rbhs counselor to support the social tional wellbeing of our students they work closely with teachers and administrators to provide strategies that promote positive behavior and mental health in our schools additionally we have some individual School requests I'm just going to say these first
024but then these uh principal will come up and speak on their behalf Kensington Elementary is requesting a math interventionist Browns fairy Elementary is requesting admin administrative assistant or assistant principal and a receptionist clerical assistant and wall Elementary is requesting a special area teacher these requests are not just about maintaining or adding positions in our schools they're about investing in our future our students Futures by providing additional academic social and Operational Support we can continue to Foster successful Learners engage Educators in thriving schools I want to thank you for your time and for your continued support of our schools we appreciate your thoughtful consideration of these request and look forward to working work together to create the best possible learning environment for every student in Georgetown County if you have any questions at this time regarding
025the collective request I'm happy to answer them before turning over my colleagues colleagues to discuss their individual needs questions all right thank you Dr cot thank you thank you Mr clack good evening uh board uh chairman chairman Moore um Dr GS and all of the board members good evening to each and every one of you I am here to share um the request for math interventionist on behalf of Kings Inon Elementary School um currently an interventionist would continue to play a critical role in closing the student achievement gaps in math um we have a we currently have a reading interventionist and we're seeing great gains with that um reading interventionist and we're sure that we will also see some gains with the math intervention as well let me also add that of course our teachers
026are providing good strong support in the classroom setting where intervention is taking place for 30 minutes daily however we do find that those students do need some uh some added support uh which is the reason for the request for math interventionist uh interventionist will continue to provide intensive instruction for all students with the major math uh deficits the interventionist would continue to close any foundational gaps that student may have with early math skills through targeted instruction and progress monitoring as we take a look at our data um our SE ready data as well as our I ready data we took a look at our data from 2022 up into 2024 in regards to in regards to our SE ready math data uh looking at our 2022 data we looking at does not meet and the
027approaching category which would be the collection of students that did not meet um the state standards for math uh 2022 we're at 44.1% uh which means we had 55.9% of our students meeting in 2023 we had 40.6% of our students not meeting the standards as indicated by the state 2024 our SE ready math data showed that 51.8% of our students did not meet uh as we take a look at our I ready data from 2022 up until this time in 2022 we had 54% of our students below grade level 2023 56% 2024 56% as well currently based off of our winter data we're at 72% of our students that are below grade level so once again we do believe that if we were to obtain funding for a math interventionist we would be able to
028see some gains as we have been seeing with our uh with the our reading interventionist and with the content area of reading uh just very quickly as it relates to our um SE ready data taking a look at gains that we do believe that has been met by a strong reading interventionist from um looking at even by grade level um I'm looking at my third grade um my third grade students and we had a gain of 8.1% of our students that were in the meat in exceeding exceeding category uh for our fourth graders we had a whopping 30% of our students to make gains um in the area of reading um and for our uh fifth graders we had four .3% of our students to make gains uh so overall this is a 14% increase
029for all of those grade levels combined so once again I feel like that is adequate and uh also substantial uh growth and I do contribute to that to having a wonderful strong interventionist that's providing good strong intervention to our tier 2 and also our tier three students as well so once again today I stand here as the proud principal of kingsington Elementary School requesting funding for a math interventionist so that our babies can make gains and growth and meet State Standards District standards and also School standards do we have any questions Mr Cobb I have a few questions uh first of all thank you for what you do at Kensington uh my first question is um how does your number of interventionist compare now back when we had the SR funds where you at as
030far as what you had and what you may have lost and have you lost anybody yet in terms of interventions yeah the number the number of intervention mhm total um we if I understand the question correct we only have a um we only have a reading interventionist at this time um so we don't have uh we're not tied of one some schools are tied to one and they can provide more support um in terms of Manpower um and Staffing uh but kingsington Elementary School we only have one interventionist um and that's a reading intervention that has been provided because of erer funds so you only have one current we do okay so even during the period of Esra funds you had no more than one correct okay and that particular interventionist is is skilled in
031math uh she is a certified uh teacher so therefore she is skilled she's licensed to teach math um however our def deficit has been so strong in the area of reading um that that's where she's been focusing much of her um her time and her attention which is why I feel like we have seen the gains that we have in the area of Ela um as it relates to the measure of uh South Carolina um assessment State assessment as well as our I ready assessment um currently our interventionist serves about 37 students um in grades um currently um in grades 1 through 5 um and her day starts at 7:40 each day and ends um at 1:35 so she's going hard and strong all day long um putting in that work to support those tier
0322 and tier three students so once again I feel that if we were to be able to mirror that same thing on the math side we would be able to see some gains as well if we were to take those that same interventionist and spreader thin Through Math and with reading again I do believe that we would not see the gains that we need and I feel strongly that when children have a strong deficit in an area they do require more time they require more attention and the attention of a skilled and I'll I'll reiterate that a skilled um interventionist I feel strong that my reading interventionist and I know we're here to talk about math but I feel strongly that our reading interventionist is not just a regular teaching I hope that I do
033not offend anyone but she has been taking courses in regards to intervention uh in particular so that she can sharpen those skills so that she can serve those students to the best of her ability and she has been doing that hence once again the reason we have seen the gains we have seen thank you so much you're welcome thank you good evening good evening good evening chairman excuse me chairman Moore Dr GS and board members we are we I am here standing before you requesting an administrative assistant or um an assistant principal to support the daily operations of Browns fairy I am requesting this because within the last seven years our enrollment has grown and we do have a high sped population which requires me to attend several meetings and we know just for a
034child to even have an IEP there is a minimum of three to four meetings beginning with your your sit your eligibility and so forth so there are lots of meetings along with the daily demands of the job and in addition to the huge pillars that have been added such as magnet and Avid I'm also requesting a receptionist or a clerical assistance to assist with guest relations this person will be in the front office because my data quality clerk this person does not have her own office this person currently works at the front office so really she's a data quality clerk SL receptionist and it's two jobs but it is posted as one so I am requesting additional assistance in the front office I know that on the slide it does not say um I'm even
035willing to look at uh five because anything is better than nothing but I am standing before you requesting a need because of the increase at Browns fairy I am making these requests because in order for great things to happen we need a little additional support in that area and I'm asking that you all I'm standing here humbly before you asking that you all please consider our requests at Browns fairy Elementary any questions you're asking for two positions the admin assisted and the reception is correct that's correct thank you and I will say I have reflected on my last seven years at Browns Ferry and I went through and I'm like I haven't been requesting these things consistently for seven years so when I reflected the answer was 7 years ago when I got there uh
036the we had a full-time secretary uh a full-time bookkeeper or senior secretary that person was actually in the front office back then but that person no longer is in the front office and in all honesty I do understand the importance of a bookkeeper that's not where you want fun you want you want your funds to be counted out open and in the public so they do need to have that safe space because money sometimes is in the front um with a bookkeeper every day so you have to be safe safer than sorry when it comes to stuff such as that so that is the biggest difference I would say and also you said 7 years ago can you tell us a little bit about what extra responsibility got added to the schools while we started
037the magnet in the aid program yes magnet and Avid are two huge pillars however I will Begin by saying that is one of the best things that has happened to Browns Fair because it does peak the interest of our children that is how they learn when it comes to the magnet um our msap director Miss Stone she is very instrumental in supporting us each and every day but with that comes additional task and additional demands so we have additional meetings with principal and magnet lead teachers we have additional responsibilities with professional development and training we have additional responsibilities where we're meeting with u meeting the needs of our children and families and this also requires additional professional development for our children when it comes to Avid it is the same thing so that's in addition
038more meetings trainings professional development um learning all of that in addition to what is needed so that we can be successful with the magnet program along with that the attendance um has increased which is good trouble if you ask me I'm excited about that so all of those things have increased and I really would not want it any other way any other questions thank you very much M Grant thank you so much I look forward to hearing from you all soon good evening chairman Moore superintendent Dr GS and board members um District Personnel um thank you for having me I am again this is the second year I am requesting from W Elementary School um a special area teacher so our special areas as you know are our art music PE typically um I know
039that our school is somewhat like a primary school so we only go up to third grade but I think people don't understand how big our numbers are um so for example these numbers have changed quite just as slightly these are updated I updated this last week but we have a total of 500 and um 53 students right now and we currently have three full-time special Area Teachers one Ela one math excuse me one PE um one art and one music and I think our my colleagues have talked about intervention and how important it is and another piece of that intervention is collaborating and being with our regular Ed teachers and having really on plc's plc's are are professional learning communities um Miss Johnson actually got the opportunity to s in on one of those she
040came and she um she came on a great day as our third grade that was in there and they're talking about their third grade students not their classroom students who I was very proud that you got to see that um but asking for this special area teacher is going to open up some more flexibility within our master schedule it is very difficult I will be honest um to try to keep that common planning and that professional Learning Community going when I don't know I can't put seven classes some somewhere all at the same time if that makes sense so for example this year I have a third grade class my third grade we have seven classrooms I have three special Area Teachers so we have to be creative so therefore we are using our guidance
041counselors and we're using our media Specialists and they um are in our special area rotation so we can continue to have our plc's I want to make sure my people are taken care of because I think that is most important because when my people are taken care of then that means that my children and are students are going to be taken care of so work conditions really matter and we're in a situation where we're really stretching people then especially when it comes to unincumbered time so there's a lot of pieces to the puzzle for asking for this one position and I think it'll make a big difference and give some flexibility within our master schedule um our media specialist is a media specialist um and she has classes all day and she's also trying to
042be a media specialist our I have a 1.5 I do share one of our guidance counselors with with um the intermediate school so I have those classes in the morning but guidance counselors or guidance counselors and they have their own responsibilities but unfortunately for us to continue to have our common planning and our um plc's we have to utilize those people and that's really tough that's a tough decision to make um and they have been gracious and we share the load and our front office people even help with unincumbered time we are using every person available in our building um and I just think that I I would really love you to take a look at our numbers like you know in depth and our staff because I think that this is something that we
043really need to help move forward I think I said to Miss Johnson after the PLC if we don't have this interventionist what you just saw happen won't exist if we don't have common planning or that time allotted into our master schedule these great conversations about data won't exist so I am this is the second year I'm just asking for a special area teacher I was able to be creative this year and I did have a regular um classroom teacher I was able to move to a stem position so if I got this position that would probably be where I would go because some of our younger kids don't get that opportunity and this is about opportunity for the kids too you know that they get those all of those experiences other than just you know
044math Ela science and social studies so there's just so many pieces um and so many great reasons I believe to request his position um so that's kind of the overview of it but does anybody have any questions I know it's kind of it's a lot and it's kind of difficult because there's lots of things I threw out at you considering um planning time master schedule questions I have a question okay I got a little lost when I read the word special area to me that's a special area can you define for me and elaborate what is a special area teacher and what are these special areas yes so special areas usually what we say in um Elementary world I came from middle school world where you're probably used to them being called electives band R
045PE those types of things so at the elementary level we refer refer to them as special area classes um so we have one PE class one art class and one um music class so again because I have I'm trying to accommodate seven classrooms I'm having to be creative by using guidance counselors to have guidance classes our media specialist they will do Story Time book checkout um Miss Danish is amazing and she actually has our third graders St a weekly um news show so there's great things that come along with those people being part of the rotation of the special area opportunity for our students I just think that it would be great if they had more time to do their primary responsibilities and have maybe one or two special area classes rather than to try
046to fit all of that in and do it effectively are these special area teachers helping teachers or they for example a music teacher knows music how is the special area teacher helping that music teacher well the special area teacher special area is kind of um the team as you will te an Ela team a language arts team special area team is going to consist of all those special areas music art PE Etc does that make sense so they are acting sort of as an assist they are yes they are and um the special area our special Area Teachers um I will say they are also you know a huge piece of trying to figure out how to manage all this unincumbered time master schedule while keeping commoning planning and plc's and they do um they
047do the unincumbered time lunch duty and things like that I know Miss Kathy knows exactly what I'm talking about she walked around with me when you come to my school I'm going to make you stay for like ever you have to so I please come and see see us and you know you'll kind of get a better idea of it but um I hope I answered your question you did okay anybody else I actually have a question M uh this is more for curiosity but basically from what you're saying these other you know positions are helping you in filling up this space by taking time out of what would be their normal duties to assist in the special area so to put it into perspective and I'm just going to kind of throw it at
048you see if you can um answer them so for example the guidance counselor so I've already you know heard that guidance counselors are already interventionists um there's such a huge case load for all of them already so if your guidance counselor is assisting in the special area how much time out of their day do they actually have to spend doing the special area versus what would normally be their duties that's a great question for example um one of my my full-time guidance counselor has two classes so she has two scheduled classes and she sees all of our um kindergarteners and um third graders and so the other time allotted is where she does her primary responsibilities which would be pulling her small groups um doing her friendship Fridays um checkin check outs she does that
049in the morning and afternoon but on top of that she also does a lot of behind the scenes stuff she's you know she do she's doing our student climate surveys um she does our um permanent records and there's also you know it would be great especially when we're talking about a lot of mental health situations and really trying to address social emotional issues especially with our babies to have her available more would definitely be ideal thank you mhm now you did say you've got 550 students yes ma'am right now I as I look right before I came here I have 5 53 now I will say that that does include my prease MH and I will tell you so they're not they don't go to special area every day so you can take let's say
050500 but those pre kids because I think it's important um that they start experienc in special area to some extent our um prek kids do go to Media Center or Library like once a week our prek our four-year-olds go to PE twice a week because it's important for us to introduce them to those large bases and moving around the the building so I will to clarify the we're really focusing on my kindergarten through third grade who will be who go to special areas every single day that makes sense yeah so you're you're talking about maybe half of the school population no no ma'am I'm talking about maybe taking away 45 kids okay and everybody else has to be accommodated okay just take away that yeah 500 short yeah that make sense M okay when you
051talk about your numbers I I think it's important for us to know that a school your school doesn't have a K through five or a prek through five so we have a lot more classes to cover simultaneously with unencumbered lunches or time during the day and you're also talking about a number of teachers at a particular grade level that have to have that same common unencumbered time in order to be able to do planning and we just looked at math textbooks and when you're talking about having that professional development or having those conversations I think it's important for us to note that though your number may not be as high as school X or Y that have 500 some students those are kind of together so you've got so many more classes simultaneously and I
052think that presents itself with challenges when you've got three special areas and you've got seven teachers to cover simultaneously for the teachers to have a planning period yes ma'am and I think that's the misconception because we only go up to third grade you know typically on average a elementary school have a team of four to five teachers five being on the high side um you know so they can they can make it work um Title One schools can you know maybe get an additional PE teacher or an additional art teacher obviously we're not title one so we don't get any of that um those special funds um there was a time that we did um have a few our teachers pay through um title two but that's no longer happening either so this is we're
053really we're completely relying on local that's all we have so you're trying to put a number of students in places simultaneously in order to be able to afford your teachers the same planning time another school might have and I think that's important for us to understand because when you're using your office staff and that kind of thing to cover for the time that you're having the unencumbered time yeah uh that that presents itself with challenges yes and and I like I said my team I have a fabulous staff and and when we have these conversations and they ask questions my front office ladies were I'm transparent and they they needed me to sit down with them last year at the end of the last year and explain why they needed to help out with lunch
054duty which is totally fine um and when I explained it and and we kind of walked through it they they were on board but it is tough and especially as a leader um like I said from the beginning I think it's just super important that we work conditions are huge and making sure that there's balance there is huge and if that's there then the instruction is going to be what it needs to be I believe everybody thank you thank you I appreciate your time you good evening um thank you so much for having me I'm Jenny Haynes I am the principal at wal Middle School representing the fabulous Middle School principles of gcsd I want to thank superintendent Dr GES chairman Moore and the other fabulous um school board members here for giving us your
055time um I want to say that Proverbs 226 states to train up a child in the way that he should go even when he is old he will not depart from it and I think that that is so important that we recognize how much team gcsd works together to train up our children with the foundations that they need for their education um and success in their career in life and so I just want to thank you so much for all that you do for us um here as as a collective collaborative um Educators for team gcsd the middle school principls got together and we discussed um all that we need all of our needs um and we just really have some simple requests to not lose anybody and gain a few extra people if that's
056okay with you um but in all seriousness um we know that um education is is tough and um and we're trying to all make it work we have very four very different schools um that have different needs and so what we have asked is for to right now keep all of our current allocations um in order to address the priorities of small smaller teacher to- student class ratio and the growth of the bottom 20% of students that are counted twice on the state report cards we feel keeping the current allocations will assist with teachers being able to handle the small group and intervention initiatives within the classroom it is very important that we try to keep our and maintain our student to teacher ratio I'm so sorry about that but our student to teacher ratio
057so that we can give our small groups and interventions within our classroom setting you have the data right there from all four of our middle schools that talk about our interventionist we all currently have an interventionist and we're so so thankful for that I know that wall alone our intervention sees about 52 students a day um and that's through small groups of classes but also through the warrior time which is our home room time so those interventionists are huge in order to help our assist our teachers um with their small groups and in-class interventionists as well so we are asking to keep all of our current allocations um to maintain the the success that you we've been able to see at our schools the second thing that we are asking for is an additional certified
058allocation to accommodate the needs of each individual school with an elective position you just heard a lot about electives um they are important piece you saw our students perform tonight um and some of the reasons that's the reason why they're coming to school is to do those things that really Drive their passion and that's where we kind of hookline and sinker them um and really get them to be involved in the school setting as a whole this position would help by adding more electives for the middle schools to help with class sizes it would also add to the type of Diversified electives we currently have and assist in staying competitive with other middle schools and neighboring counties we see a lot of needs that our students have especially with their interest at this age where
059they're trying to try new things and so this elective position would be huge for all four of our schools again I say it again our schools are vastly different and we have different electives that are at each school they're not all exactly the same and so this position would allow us to determine which kind of elective our school needs depending on our clientele the last thing that we were asking for is an additional non-certified classified allocation to accommodate the needs of each individual School serve multiple needs like ISS to assist with their restorative practices to address Behavior or assist with the state required 30 minutes of unencumbered time you just heard of that as well this would really help we are seeing just behaviors across the board um I know that y'all have talked about
060that a lot this year um but this would this position would really help our faculty and staff when we're looking at those um ISS positions to assist with those restorative practices with like a lunch detention ISS restorative conversations that our students need to have in order to M to recognize the behavior and hopefully learn from that um it would also help with covering lunch duty or when we have IEPs and 504s for that 30 minutes unencumbered time at at this time we don't have any individual needs um that we would like to discuss so really the Middle School principles got together and felt like these were the three um of our top needs um and we were all in agreement to that any questions missus thank you very much wow thank you you just said
061it all very well so oh I appreciate that thank you so much good evening I am here today to present for the High School principles again thank you last year you guys agreed to provide us with a college and career coach and that has been a phenomenal addition to our schools this year we are requesting a computer lab monitor our proor there will be the request is for one per High School their sole purpose is to monitor the virtual learning and various learning platforms whether it be Apex courses dual enrollment courses virtual SC those courses all Impact our school report card and graduation rate it's important to note that because we are on a modified attendance schedule several time times during the start of the school year we'll have students who will transfer in and
062they will not have attended school and because of the state required 12 120 hours we have to find ways to help them make up that seat time in addition when you have a High School freshman they have to receive a minimum of six credits again we know the transition from middle school to high school can be very difficult therefore often times we have students who fall behind that first semester Apex courses allows us to help those students recover credits so having a dedicated person to monitor them will help because it'll help them stay motivated they can ensure that they are actually doing the cour work they're there in real time to assist them when they get stuck on assignments that is why we're requesting all of us are requesting one computer lab monitor or Proctor
063does anyone have questions about the consensus request no question at this time there are only two schools that are making individual requests Andrews High School and Carver Bay High School for Andrews High School I am requesting one full-time CTE teacher the sole purpose of that teacher is to implement a new C CTE pathway in October I spoke spoke to the board about the pathway and this past January we began implementing the first course currently that course is being taught by one of my science teachers this pathway will be in partnership with Black River Cypress preserve and various colleges we think that this program not only will Revitalize our students and make them desire to come to Andrews Moore but will also become a flagship program for Georgetown County School District as you know we're about
064to have a state park that is in within walking distance of Andrews High School this past pathway is not only going to be one pathway but the way that we currently have it designed it will create completers in actually two Pathways and that to us is a very exciting adventure for our students it would also provide non-traditional activities for our students based on surveys and other interviews and focus groups that we have done with students they are excited about this program they are energetic and they are ready to take on this new challenge so at this time Andrews High is requesting one additional CTE teacher are there any questions for Andrews before Carver's Bay comes up yeah can you define the CTA um acronym for me please um the Career Technical education sorry I had
065a blank moment Career Technical education rear technical education mhm okay thank you which path ways I guess are are we looking at developing and how many students are we talking about being served by this additional allocation so the pathways that we're looking to serve because of how CTE is set up we can serve next year it would have to grow each year because you have to add the classes on each year we're actually looking at two different Pathways one would be under sustainability and one will also be environmental Agricultural Science you can easily serve depending on how we set it up and our Partnerships we're looking to probably serve three classes a semester 4 you probably can get about 45 kids through a semester or more depending on the courses it all depends on the
066courses we select and how we set it up so which actual certification are we looking at for this CTE course the exact name I have it in my phone I didn't bring that up here and I don't want to give you the wrong name today do you have I know one is in the forestry field if I'm not mistaken yeah one is for stre like the exact name so we have forestry fields we are looking at um we have forestry um Agricultural Science environmental and sustainability are the three but I don't have but there's not a particular certification is it science they are they are certification forestry is a certification and that certification there's um ory Georgetown Tech is also about to begin a forestry program as well but that's an actual certification for our
067teacher that I guess I'm not being clear oh you meant for the teacher not the student I'm sorry I'm not explaining it correctly um what certification for a teacher are we looking looking at to teach this particular set of classes so there are several different teacher certifications that you can use right now Clemson University is one of the universities that you can partner with that actually has a major that is focused on developing teachers for this type of program Miss Pat Miss ham I'm sorry it would be very similar to what we have um for example at Carver beeh High with the a science that type of um certification would be needed for the science classes specifically she's already using a science teacher that has that portion but the needed request now for for Andrews
068High is um the a science type certification that that I'm sorry that was my question that's all right and if we do an a science teacher just as a point of clarification that's more than an allocation that's extra days and and which we look to have support from climpson extension and extension right correct thank you I'm sorry no okay it I got one more question um these courses for CTE for example we use forestry since we talking about forestry well some of these courses similar to the nursing courses will transfer to the technical college um forestry um major correct it would currently we are in there is a advisory committee for this project and currently we are in discussions with two area two local colleges regarding transferring of those credits and the certifications possibly for
069some of our students to even leave high school with the actual certification from the college nice thank you the Cox if I can add um Miss Miss Mahone really um is selling her program and the IDE is short they're they're looking at three things that that we are that we have a goal for that's for our students to be enrolled so that's our ory Georgetown Tech or whatever college program we can have we've also looked into the possibility of how these students can enlist in the military and how these uh skills are transferable into the military setting and lastly if if they choose for neither college or military what career paths um they can be um afforded so we're looking at three things and and not that I'm trying to sell this position I I
070definitely want us to know that we're looking at the three options of Career College and Military it's not just um a college offering correct thank you may I ask one question yes ma'am we have um Baro over there which is hob call and it has a Clemson Extension there that does a lot of Forestry and it's a direct have you have you actually talked to anybody over there that we could utilize their their um format over there to incorporate some learning because they do have a forestry program from Clemson there so that is in the next the next phase so we decided when we met as an advisory committee that we were going to phase in certain parts so right now it was getting the first class in um which we started in January and
071then the second phase was to get a dedicated teacher and to start working with the local um the local businesses and different facilities so that we can then grow the program with two dedic it'll be one dedicated teacher which is CTE and then we'll also still use our science teacher so that they can work together to really grow the program okay thank you any other questions thank you very much thank you Mr Moore I do have a comment our Middle School T programs I want us to be aware that we already have four extra allocations in our middle schools so when we're talking about the number of teachers and our middle schools we have already allocated for extra position ions to one to each middle school so I think we have to be cognizant of
072that as we look forward to our budget and I just like to say that that is a a concern as we look forward uh that we have to be uh and and a second comment I'd like to make is we have to be very careful when we add positions at one school such as an interventionist that we would have to do that for all of our schools that we can't just add a position at one school because we'd be out of compliance then with the funds that are being spent in our district so we do have to be very careful with those needs as we go forward thank you very much M Tucker thank you for hearing our requests car Bay um last year I think um cars Bay Early College and Career High School
073also asked for a guidance counselor um it's not up there but we are considering or asking for a0 five with the demands and the enrollment and the increase of students um at our school and hopefully they will continue to grow in the demands of um their needs I think it would be beneficial and I see that our guidance counselor is stretched really really thin with everything that she doing like all of the other principles have said trying to accommodate with what we have um not saying our students are going totally lacking but we can see that there would be Improvement um if we had at least a point five to help with a counselor an avid teacher Avid is a strategy and a program that we have been blessed to be introduced with now that
074we are a part of the magnet program and we um at early at carers Bay Early College are using our Avid teacher to really help our students who would normally not be on the honors track giving them the tools that they need to be successful in the classroom with really pushing um organizational skills and the things that they need and we have seen growth just in this year with their grades those students that would not normally be in honors now that they're in honors having that extra support it really goes a long way we've even seen an increase even though I heard in elementary you they were asking for interventionist it is like a kind of an interventionist within the building keeping them up and a breast on you know making sure that they are
075on top of their their academic so we have seen a great increase in student um grades with the Avid teacher but we're asking for an additional because next year out of the five schools that are magnet the high school they have actually an avid elective so with that next year will have a 9th 10th 11th and 12th grade class that would need to be accommodated and one teacher along with the other responsibilities that they have as a magnet Avid lead um would cause maybe our students not to get all that they that we see is working right now so we would even if it's a0 five with that as well we are really pushing to see if we can get an avid teacher a CTE teacher as we know that CTE is very important care
076technology education we are now the early college and with that we want to broaden our um opportunities for our students we have an amazing agricultural program that is thriving at cars Bay um high school we also have culinary that's thriving and we also are trying to get back into our building our um Sciences our um the nursing program we see a high need in that but again we would need a teacher we don't have a teacher we are using one of our science teachers at the time biology teachers and we do know that biology is a tested subject so when we are pulling teachers that we already have to teach our CTE um classes not really CTE classes but um classes that are not you know uh biology we're taking away from that Effective Teacher
077in biology and one of the teachers that we're using we're actually using two of our biology teachers they have really good test scores so when we do that because now we need them to help with the The Sciences um as far as health science or um another class it is taking away from um our school report card and our grades because we know we want the most effective efficient teacher in that classroom especially when we're talking all all classes are very very important I'm not saying that but especially our EOC courses because that is a reflection on our school report card and it is a reflection on the district and like all the other school great things are happening but if we just had a little bit of extra help in certain areas you would
078really see the gains um that are really taking place in our schools and last but not least we have a music teacher she is currently 0.5 um we want to expand our arts program she um right now is doing U A Chorus class and a piano this year our um piano class we would like it to grow but because she's only 0.5 and we do share her with the Middle School we're also cutting off drama um so our kids are now we are compromising by having a drama club what they did um for the black history program was absolutely amazing and I can only imagine what they could have done if they were in that class in a drama class um because we do want to support all of our kids you have kids that
079are um that will go toward Arts you have kids that will want to go into different fields and so I think it's our job as Educators to make sure that every kid finds their Niche and that we help them excel in that so thank you for hearing our request any questions yeah did I hear you say you already had one Avid teacher yes we do and you're asking for one one more so yes right now the Avid teacher that we have is being paid out of the grant that our our school the magnet grant that we have been blessed with in the five area schools um after we are finished in the next two years that position will be gone and so we are training teachers within our building so that they we won't need
080a I guess to hire several Avid teachers because we will then be able to use them but again if we're using a teacher that we already have in our building to teach an avid elective then what other class are we either adding more students to because we need that position and so we have to add more students to that class maybe it's an honors class we also have enrollment so we're we're having our teachers there's no space for anything extra at this point unless we get um an additional body in the building thank you any other questions first ID just like to make comment on and I'd like to say congratulations on the second place finish for the mark trial that was what last weekend yes so congratulations on that and I thought about that
081when you started talking about drama because I've actually had the opportunity to go to one of those and you can tell the difference is sometime the kids who take drama class do those presentation a little bit better but second place I'm very proud of you guys and I do want to say that that they were able to have that opportunity because of a CTE course that they are currently in and so um our teacher Miss Austin who has a heavy heavy load because in that um area we only have the one teacher so she's taking on the business entrepreneurship all of the things and so that those group of students were able to have that experience they did very very well um we even had the lawyer who actually volunteered her time to come out
082and work with our students praise them judges that have met them and they would have not had that opportunity had um we not had that CTE teacher so career and Technology education is very very important for our kids and I wanted to also say uh because of the magnet school in our area you're you're that last phase of what we promised them uh bronze fairy Fine Arts we need that to continue at the high school level the agriculture program that's going well at your high school we know what it's doing at Pleasant Hill Elementary so it's important for us to make sure that you have all the TOs that's necessary to get them out the door on what they've already gotten at the elementary and middle school level so we certainly look to take a
083look at the budget and see what we can do so thank you guys very much thank you I'd like to say thank you to the presentations tonight that been made to the board it's not that I I will share with you that all of your all of the wish lists were important and all of the passion you put into asking for the wish list are important but you can only spend a dollar one time and I have to tell you that it's a tough decision into what you spend a dollar on but I appreciate very much the fact that you care enough to present and share what you believe that would help your school be the best school and us to be the best District in this state of South Carolina because I think we're
084there and we're we're going to keep moving forward so thank you and in addition to what Miss Patty said uh I think this is one of the toughest part of being on the board is to have you guys come and ask for something and we just can't say here it go because we know the work that you that the responsibility that you have and we want to uh Supply with all the tools necessary that you're asking for but we understand that they are some budget restraints but please know that it is certainly the board's intention to get you everything that we can get you that you need to make sure that our kids are successful so again on behalf of the board thank you very much for your presentation tonight okay and I see her
085pulling her hair out over there Miss Johnson but next Miss Lisa Johnson will provide an update on the district corrective action [Music] plan just close this good evening chairman Moore board members and Dr GES the purpose of this presentation tonight is to provide you with an update on the most recent fiscal year ended June 30th 2024 audit I'll address the delay in its completion the resulting fisal fiscal watch notice from the state department and the corrective action report that we submitted to the state department also despite the delay we are pleased to report that the audit was completed successfully with no issues or findings now um to address the audit delay I'd first like to give you some background we were notified on March the 5th of 2024 that our previous s external auditor was
086leaving the industry we immediately be began reaching out to audit firms on the pre-approved list from the state auditor's office as required for availability and Staffing to handle an audit for a district our size and with the major federal programs that we have most firms had already staffed and scheduled their existing audit clients with June 30th year ends several other audit firms on the list had also left the industry indry while some only audit one or two districts Andor Charter Schools um after several discussions and a lot of of contacts we um greenfy colie LLC agreed to perform our audit but knew that we would not have it completed by the December 1st due date we notified the board um of missing the December 1st deadline and the need for change in Auditors on May
0877th 24 at the meeting and on May 21st 2024 the board approved green finny colie LLC as our new external auditor with with the reminder that we would not meet the December 1st deadline the audit was completed and submitted on February 14th 2025 rather than January 30th 2025 which was our goal the 15-day delay resulted in a fiscal watch notice as required by the state law first year audits do typically require more time due to um the transfer of financial records from the previous auditor um the establishment of their audit procedures alignment with their methodology and um they do tend to require more extensive review process of our systems internal controls and financial reporting the corrective act action plan that you had in your packet was we established an audit timeline that was confirmed and
088part worked out with our external Auditors in their memo there's a memo in your packet from them that begins with the interim field workor in May June 2025 year in audit field workor starting on October 13th 2025 and then resulting in audit submission on December 1st 2025 this schedule is the same one that we basically have used in Prior years and we've never submitted the audit past the December 1st deadline before this year we will conduct um as a part of the corrective action plan we will also conduct regular check-ins with the external audit team to monitor audit Readiness will facilitate Communications between the Auditors and the finance team as needed and I will come back to the board as well as the State Department of Education on October 31st and um submit a status
089report on the audit we will also try to mitigate the risk of another Sudden Change in external Auditors um it's the first time in 30 plus years that it's happened but just in case we will identify pre-qualify and assess availability so that we have a list of optional external Auditors if needed and like I said this is the first time that we've lost an external auditor three months before the year end that they were supposed to audit so what's next the corrective action plan that we discussed tonight was submitted to the State Department of Education on Friday February 28th the state department representative emailed this afternoon that our plan appears to be an acceptable corrective action plan he plans to draft the approval letter tomorrow to forward through the state Department's approval tool or hierarchy
090and it should be fully approved within 30 days we will be eligible to come off fiscal watch when our audit is submitted on time for fiscal year ended junee 30th 2025 um my team and the district all of us acknowledge the importance of timely financial reporting as evidenced by historically filing Audits and required reports in a timely manner we take the delay of this year's audit very seriously even though we did not have full control over the audit schedule and final submission date we are committed to avoiding any future delays therefore we will submit the fiscal year ended June 30th 2025 audit on December 1st 2025 you'll receive a packet after the meeting tonight with your printed audit and required auditor communication correspondence enclosed we ask you to please review it um make your list
091of questions bring it with you to the March 18th board meeting and we will have our external audit firm partner here to present the key points and highlights to you all as well as we'll all be available to answer any questions questions that you have do you have any questions tonight I just I got a couple um so green Finley and colie they're out of where they have offices we're working with the office in Charleston but they have offices in Greenville I think it's Malden and Charleston and this was a a you had never worked with this firm before no sir we had not and um do you think one of the delays was based on number one it was somewhat of an emergency and number two they just weren't used to our bookkeeping it
092was more of this scheduling aspect um they had already scheduled their work their audits basically before they found out we needed an auditor so um they had they took us after they finished the others basically yeah and what's your feelings about continuing with this company I mean I'm not saying that let us down but in a sense they did you know they knew the deadlines do do you feel like we'll continue with this I I Would S I would recommend that we do um everything has been has been a a good relationship we've had good working relationship there just were some unforeseen um we actually we had not that that makes a huge difference but we had three snow days for them and us that's correct so you know that did have some impact but
093um I would like to try another year MH and I don't anticipate that we'll have any more problems do you feel like the delay was based on under Staffing by them or just um I I didn't recognize that they were short staff now you know we did the Christmas was in there right and did they give you a reason why we were late um I think not exactly a reason which we just got to Janu January 30th and realized it was not ready gotcha and we were 15 days over the 60-day right so we submitted on 75 days right instead of 60 yes okay and last question being that we're on that physical watch now by the state when will we be released are we going to have to submit 25 to or is it
094like a probation or it I definitely when we submit the 25 audit um but then it also says in the in the letter that they sent that let's see you can't be released in the fiscal year so we're on fiscal watch through June 30th for sure I'm not sure if we made some appeal after that with proof that we have you know are on track for the audit if they would go ahead and releas us that would maybe be a possibility but I'm not sure about that okay thank you Miss Johnson when we engaged with this firm and we were only given a very small number of firms to choose from yes ma'am that were approved by the state right but when we engaged with this firm and we presented it they said they wouldn't
095probably meet the December they wouldn't meet that but they would meet the January 30th I guess that was my question did they tell you ahead of time that we they weren't going to meet that no ma'am it it just was over the month of January that when they got to close to the well the week of the 30th that they just were not going to have it finished but I I know that when we presented it and when you presented it to us it was with the assumption that well wasn't just an assumption had actually said to us that they would meet the January right deadline yes so I think that's important to know that we were under that assumption uh doesn't make physical watch any less there but right but we were under the
096assumption they were going to meet their end of the bargain for the January date that's correct thank you thank you any other questions thank you very much Mr J thank you as our last information item I'll share some highlights from our sou Carolina school board's Association conference that we just attended to and I actually uh took like five pages of notes uh while I was at the conference but I won't read all five there are some things that I did highlight um and I must say that I went to this um conference uh looking for certain things I wanted to know how can I be a better board member and a more effective cheerers and so my might my notes might reflect perhaps what I was looking to gain from the conference and I'm just
097going to read as I took notes so if it sounds out of order Perhaps it is but it's a day here a day there and a day there and I just just takeing notes and one of the things that I I thought I gained from the conference were was that Bo members should not go to schools and and make principles feel bullied uh we should go there and be seen be heard encouraging as a board and that will make us more valuable uh I learned that we need to learn our jobs which like I said I went looking for information and do our job and and and and in saying that we have to learn ours do ours and allow others to do theirs as well uh and keep in mind that meekness is certainly
098not a weakness we should not in the school we should not be in the school addressing the teachers or the principles cafeteria workers bus drivers castorian Etc uh the only person that works for this board is Dr gals and that's very important for us to keep in mind we must allow him or her to do their job uh the public comment make reasons for and I'm just skip over that uh don't feel like you have to know everything as a board members let's not feel like we have to know everything we don't have to know everything uh don't feel like uh you have to micromanage no two principles teachers and other District employees you do not work for the board just thought i' throw that out here only the superintendent board members should not interfere
099with the day-to-day operation of the superintendent work with the superintendent talk with her how can we help you and not just request information so that we can attempt to micromanage are you NOS y or okays why does that matter either you are adding or taking away from the board's culture how do you take away being all over the place do your job celebrate the schools officials instead of always complaining and that goes for the public as well listen to understand not to respond and these are just like I said all over the board the things that I learned if we as a board members are questioning results is fine but but how about letting everyone do their job the constant request of information and wanting to review contracts is not our job as a board
100member building better relationship with administrative and their staff can certainly go a long way make sure teachers are felt heard and and I'm saying all of that was a lot that I learned this week but uh every time I go to the conference there is always something that I learn there and this is not to say that as a board member we cannot ask any questions because that's certainly not what I'm trying to imply but we have to ask question with the good intentions far as how can we help out and let us come together as a board and not I think we've talked about this before far as having Pockets here and there within the board we're only effective as as as we're going to be as a whole board in its entirety remember
101our vote counts only as one so it's just important for us to learn our jobs care about the rules that we're governed by and let let us do our job as a board and not as a individual and allow others to do their job and let's make them feel supported thank you very much first action item on tonight's agenda is the approval of the Personnel list the administration recommends approval of the Personnel list as presented may I have a motion to approve so moved thank you can I get a second second it has been moved and second is there any discussion all in favor please say I I I any opposers nay I thank you Scott was the Personnel lift is approved next we will discuss the approval of the winter storm makeup dates Dr
102gals presents this item chairman more members of The Board District administration and to our extended joran County School District family I know everyone is um anxious to hear about this as requested I'm bringing back a revised makeup day proposal um this proposal we sought the guidance of our uh school board or our State Department of Education and so we share this with you on this evening um again January 22nd through the 24th were our official snow days um as we look to make those three days up knowing that we've already exhausted our five allotted e-learning days The Proposal is that March 21st which was originally on the calendar as a teacher work dat will now be an in-person instructional day um what we were provided with guidance is that January 22nd and 23rd would be
103able to count for that March 21st date just want you to catch that part we we can use those two days to catch or to do March 21st and May 29th which is what was originally scheduled as a half day which is toward the end of the year I do note that it may not benefit um us instructionally at that time of year as we would have already have had graduations for some of our schools as well as testing for um all of our schools um it would be able to turn into a full day and count for January 24th so with that that makes up our three days um that have to be made up before we can seek uh local board approval just as a note again March 21st was to be a
104teacher work day or a staff development day so our school administration as well as our cabinet members would need to present plans to us for approval um to account for our employees that would need to make up 7.5 hours just as a note those are our employees who work 188 days or more examples of of makeup hours would be um working after hours for training for professional out uh development or various school events or approved District level events certainly uh administrators could count this time that they're here now with us supporting us through our board meetings so we would find a uniform or a consistent way of counting 7 and 1 half hours for all staff members that are 188 days and I feel more than sure um that wouldn't be hard as we all
105work extra and put in that time um just as a note the third nine weeks would now end on March 3 March 21st excuse me and our fourth nine weeks would be March 24th through May 30th are there any questions on this I have one question do we have already sort of have a plan for how the teachers would be able to make up that 7 and 1 half hours or so it's already kind of in the works that if we approve this today we have an idea of how that would happen much of our schools have already made up ideas for that based on if we were using April 18th so that would carry over into March 21st now okay versus April 18th thank you yes ma'am any other question thank you very much
106Dr C the administration recommends approval of of the winter storm makeup days as presented may I have a motion to approve so move thank you very much can I get a second second thank you it has been moved and second is there any discussion all in favor please say I I any opposers name the motion is approved thank you very much next we have a request for forgiveness of one miss school day for Georgetown Middle School on September 10th 2024 and this is in accordance with South Carolina law at this time Dr gal will explain why this request is being made again chairman more members of The Board District in men and our Georgetown County family specifically Georgetown middle school on September 10th um around that 9th we had a a water outage um that
107carried over into the 10th um due to that water outage and water issues it was deemed necessary for us to not operate in person on that day our students did operate remotely our staff operated remotely so what we are asking at this time um as we are over the five e-learning days that would mean uh Georgetown Middle did a sixth day we're asking for forgiveness for that day as we have now approved the three days that uh we have to make up so that's one additional day and by state law uh our board can now forgive that fourth day so we're asking you that um that we not forgive in terms of thinking that Georgetown Middle School students did not do any work or that our staff didn't but certainly on September 10th um they
108they worked remotely and virtually so we asked that for calendar purposes you forgive that day on on September 10th thank you very much any discussion the administration recommends approval of the waiver may I have a motion to approve so move second it's been moved in properly second uh is there any discussion no no discussion all in favor please say I I I any opposers name thank you Scott if you're hearing a little noise Scott is on the computer here virtually motion carries thank you very much Dr gal at this time I invite the board members and superintendent Dr GS to share any comments or requests we start with board members Miss Patty I I would like to say a special thank you to our students who participated last week in the academic bowls I would
109also like to tell you that it was the most exciting kind of time between our schools and the way that the bowl was changed or adapted I'd like to say a special thank you to miss Kibler who did an outstanding job of looking at format and making certain that the questions were more applicable to our students and things they could do the timing and all for giving them the amount of time to answer I thought it was one of the most fantastic events that it's been and it was really good I'd like to say thank you to the staff who stayed late those nights and helped with that particular I I guess it was just an exciting thing and I'd like to say thank you to to our students the coaches of those teams talk
110about makeup extra hours the coaches that had coach those children they did a phenomenal job the second thing I'd like to say is at the conference this weekend I heard a presenter all the presenters were fantastic I will say that they were they were really really good they talked a lot about human relationships and how we value each other and I thought that was very very special in the time in which we live I thought that it brought forth a lot of comaraderie but secondly at one of the presentations that was offered it talked about how important it was for your school board to sell your school district that public education the only way it's going to be great and we're going to attract students to come to us is by our selling what we
111do and that particular District had 70% of their people constituents in their area that didn't have kids in their school and they talked about how it was so important to get literature in their hands and for us to be the mouthpieces that actually talked about the great things that were going on in our school district and when I left there I felt in invigorated and I think that's very important for us as a school board that's just an opinion but I will share it openly I think it's a a great thing to talk about the great things that are going on in our schools and to get them into the hands of all of our public I don't know how we can do it because they had a marketing department we have a marketing department
112of Miss Kibler but I think that's really important and and as you can tell yeah it really invigorated me to see how wonderful it is for us to go out and to be able to talk about and talk to the other people in our community about our schools and I just implore us as a board and as a district to talk about it because we do great things and that really did do lots and you know when the superintendent of the Year spoke I said our superintendent is just as good as that superintendent we've got great things going on here and I think we have to sell that all out through our community I I just was very excited about that that was good I got I have something to say we move that direction
113um I'll jump on that with Patty um also it was a fantastic conference and glad we were able to attend um another thing I want to talk about is Friday night I attended the Andrews High School inaugural um Hall of Fame induction and they inducted um Kenny coach Kenny hazeldon um John Stamper and Irving Irving white right um three phenomenal sports figures um and we've talked about too and Andrew's High School um is unique in the fact that it's 100 plus 100 plus years old so they only inducted three this time um so we've got lots of athletes and I know all the schools I think maybe we were missing one Hall of Fame they're working on theirs um but just and y'all know how art related I am and how I love the art
114but I love my sports too okay and um all the things that these three PE individuals at that school did for all the kids that came after them and how impressed I was and of course I taught one of them and worked with one of them um a long time but um just wanted to shout out to Andrew's high school and all the great things going on there also this backy I just wanted to again thank you to the wacamaw midddle school choir that performed earlier that was amazing and I just was really Blown Away by those kids what a phenomenal job that they did um my uh key takeaways from the conference I just wanted to share a few um it gave me a great fresh insight into the District budget which was extremely
115helpful and um ready to Dive Right into that um networking with fellow board members provided me the opportunity to forge great connections which was really wonderful as well and um one of the um Breakaway sessions that really kind of hit home with me was um that success equals the growth in student achievement which includes the board support transparency Vision culture communication and accountability and that just I've really been thinking about that for over the last week or so what that really means and what what that means as me as a board for me as a board member as well and um one the the name of of that breakout session was Rome wasn't built in a today and I I got a copy of that for all of you if you'd like it it was
116really really some great information um and the um one of the quotes that I took away that I wanted to share with you all was Perfection is not attainable but if we Chase Perfection we will catch excellence and then lastly I just want to thank all of our community volunteers going and and visiting all the schools recently and seeing volunteers coming in whether it's supporting staff or reading to kids and what a huge different that it makes and you know you know we say all the time it takes a village I just want to invite our community members um business owners grandparents come in and and and read a book or just ask how you can support cuz I I guarantee you that it will make your day these kids are are awesome and when
117we invest in our kids we're investing in our community and that's really important Miss Johnson okay um since Scott and I made the trip to Colombia um and again all the presenters are great I wish we could give everybody what they want because that's where it starts is in the classroom and y'all are the first line and these children y'all are the heroes for them and I think they y'all don't get enough credit principes teachers and all down for all you do for all of our young people because they look at you and you model what they need to look for but Scott and I Scott are you there Scott Scott's not there oh there you are okay no Scott and I um had the opportunity to go to Colombia and uh visit with we
118were supposed to meet with the superintendent but she was sick so we met with the deputy superintendent along with um uh the liaison for the school boards and uh Rebecca gunson we really found out a lot we discovered a lot of uh information that is great it's coming down the pike I'm really excited about the new math standard we're going to actually get back to what really counts as two and two is for and um that is going to see I think that in the future years we're going to see a tremendous change and um the scores because it's something that can be taught easily and children can learn it easily and so I'm looking forward to our elementary schools from 1 to three us focusing on getting those kids what they need because they
119are our foundation but I did take some gifts from Georgetown we left uh with a invite uh from to the superintendent to come down and also we invited them to do more video chatting with boards we felt that would be helpful that if she can't get to all the districts that she set up video chats with boards so that we could interact personally with them and ask the questions that are needed and that way we can not just get it through the channels but we can get it from directly and they were most appreciative and we look forward to hopefully getting them to come down but um Scott did give us and I won't go into detail because we're going long but we did um give you a summary of the information that we collected
120and we did find out things that we have uh a little more um variations that we can use and you know that we have a little more ability to change things that we weren't aware of and um that are not necessarily mandated and so those were good things that we learned and um I think that that that when we have cooperation and a connection Georgetown now has a u Scott and I by our presence in Colombia that gave them a connection to Georgetown and since we're a small District they probably don't hear from small districts very often so um that was very positive Scott do you have anything you want to add M well I was uh we were reminded up there that uh superintendent Weaver has a very ambitious goal that by 2030 which
121is only you know 5 years away that we want the school systems to be at all the kids to be at 75% uh grade proficient and that's a very ambitious goal and we're going to you know Georgetown county is going to have to figure out how we're going to do our part to have our kids all at 75% or 75% of them great proficient so a lot of work ahead and and be up to the you know the board and Dr GES and others to figure out how we're going to make it happen but it was a really good meeting good good exchange and they're very very much interested in what we're doing down here and and willing to be contacts for us and they gave us some good contacts too to uh to lean
122on for additional expertise and Advance advice so very good meeting very good meeting I'm going to keep mine just piggybacking off of what everyone else has said uh but I would like to thank you know everyone here for answering questions especially Dr gues I appreciate your time that you've given with me uh to answer questions and you know to explain things so that way I understand since I am new to the board but it's a learning process and I appreciate you you know taking the time to follow along with me and and guide me in the right direction uh I do appreciate you know the relationships that I made while we were at the conference um I've actually uh made connections with several other board members and other counties so that way uh we exchange
123numbers so I can always have a mentor and somebody that I can call and talk to who's been on the board for years um you know who isn't here in Georgetown so but it's amazing to make those connections and to form those bonds uh and to continue to learn and grow and uh I appreciate all of you for your help as we work together as a board uh as they said you know in training a single board member is nothing because the power of the board is when we vote together so thank you everybody and just right quick ID like to throw a challenge out to our parents who are busy working and we understand that that is the case in a lot of our homes especially in the area where I'm from and you
124cannot make it to the school every school play or every class night or whatever I challenge you to 15 15 minutes of your tired time when you get home from work just ask your kids what did you do today in school and you'll be surpris how much of a difference that'll make that kid would want to go to school and want to learn something so they can have that conversation with their parent when they go home so I challenge my parents understanding the work schedule just 15 minutes of your time just to talk about what your kid did in school that day and I promise you that's we'll see the difference when they do get to our prek schools thank you very much go thank you again chairman more members of the board um I'm
125certainly um reinvigorated by your comments just now going off script certainly um I hear the passion and as I noted Mr Moore and Miss Anderson's shirt you know we we we wonder what our why is but it's it's simply two words because kids and and that is why we do everything that we do um on a daily basis and I certainly can hear it and I see it and all that you do as board members of the why that you joined our school board and I'm looking forward to continuing our work together um for our kids because of kids um speeding into my comments because I can get on that Soap Box welcome March um I read a quote that said March is when um snow boots meet flip flops so that is certainly what
126our weather is doing to us right now to principal Haynes and our music director Miss clay and our wall Middle School chorus thank you for ushering in music in our schools month that was certainly a fine performance and the theme of Music in our school's month this um this year is Unity through music so I'm excited about the unity that we see and we hear in our schools and it is noted that music is one common denominator that can unite us um we thank our schools for showcasing awesome talents over the past few weeks through their performances and showcases congratulations to each of our winter sports teams for good seasons over this uh past season and we salute Patrick Gallagher is our 3A state champion in wrestling from wal high school so go walk War
127years and great job Patrick in representing um wall high school and Georgetown County School District special recognitions this week and this month we appreciate the dedication and hard work of our school social workers um it is school Social Work week and we as a district have a social worker so we salute her work it is also maintenance work or appreciation day so we salute our facility Police Department on Friday and again I've already noted music in our schools month throughout the month of March um we've also noted that the bnell foundation has a 25 day kindness challenge so we'd like to thank that they've jumped on to our heart of kindness challenge um so we will join in with bell over the next 25 days for their kindness challenge um and show kindness throughout our
128County specific you've already noted but again congratulations to wall High School who are the senior academic bold Champs and congratulations Georgetown Middle School for being Junior academic bold Champs um certainly those teams are the champions but our individual students and Scholars are all champions for what we saw on last week lastly um thank you to everyone that's on our team um who give of themselves daily for our children sometimes the work can seem daunting um you may not get your individual recognitions but again it's for our students and collectively um we support and we thank you for all that you do so thank you as always team gcsd Mr Moore thank you very much all hearts are clear that concludes our agenda for tonight may I have a motion to so move can I get
129a second second all in favor please say I I I any opposes motion carries thank you very much for your time and commitment this meeting is adjourned