001has been duly notified the regular board Workshop session meeting for today is now in session and we will begin with a moment of silence would you please stand peace thank you pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God [Music] thank you for everybody who's in attendance our board members our District staff and all of our visitors the first thing on our agenda this night is the recognition of Georgetown County School District board members our theme of the month is moving forward together first I'd like to recognize Delta Sigma Theta sorority Miss Michelle Greene good afternoon but we're gonna move forward with you we're gonna get started okay all right so chairman Gaskins members of the board Mr Price our superintendent
002Dr Bethany gowns our assistant superintendent and District staff good afternoon good afternoon I am Dr Michelle green president of Georgetown alumni chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority Incorporated a professional non-profit Public Service organization of college educated women our chapter amendments made this a special day to come in your presence to express our sincere appreciation to you for all that you do to ensure a sound and quality education for the boys and girls in Georgetown County School District Sorrows meaning all Deltas please stand at this time [Music] I want to thank you for representing our illustrious sorority for this special moment of appreciation to the board remain standing board members you play such a vital role in the lives of our children you serve as parents teachers mentors and support staff men and women of Valor
003our professional non-profit Public Service organization's mission is to provide scholarship and service in our communities with a focus on Sisterhood scholarship service and social action our local local organization continues to implement programs and projects in our schools and throughout the communities in Georgetown County such as Delta Academy that's an after-school enrichment program for middle school girls and the Delta gems program an enrichment mentoring after school program for high school girls our annual 10 conference for students ages 10 through 18 along with their parents will take place virtually again this year on March 25th 2023 with professional certified presenters and speakers and workshops to share information on various 10 related topics with a focused theme also I'll buy any old Women's Conference for the communities is scheduled virtually for April 15th its focus will be physical
004mental spiritual parental and Financial Health annually we award 13 to 15 000 dollars in scholarships to our high school seniors all four high schools are awarded to academic and one needs base scholarship we also recognize our high school students for their academic and Leadership skills and achievement at our annual May week minority student achievement week program our political awareness through US focuses on raising the awareness of the value of being a registered voter and being a voice in Social Action initiatives therefore we annually hold a voters registration drive for 18 year old students in our four high schools and the adults at the Howard Education Center in conclusion we the members of Georgetown alumni chapter of Delta Sigma Theta thority Incorporated thank you for being mighty men and women of Valor for our boys and
005girls and we appreciate you affording us the opportunity to share with you just the fraction a small fraction of the services we offer to our schools and Community we just stopped by to tell you you are our educational Champions We commend you for a job well done we thank you so at this time I'm asking that members of Georgetown alumni chapter will stop to give you a very small token of appreciation just to let you know we appreciate you and we want you to continue to move forward doing great things in Georgetown County School District thank you we'd like to thank you for the sorority represents to Georgetown County we don't know what we would do without you thank you so much for all that you do for us and for all the kids in
006Georgetown County thank you thank you very much thank you so much I appreciate it thank you very much and next I'd like to recognize uh Miss Doreen grant for Asia principal Carver's Bay Middle School [Music] forward together that is the theme for this year's School Board Association we cannot walk together except we agree to the mighty men and women of Georgetown County School Board I bring you greetings from Georgetown County Schools as I serve as a representative today of a small fraction of the men and women who serve countlessly in our schools to our board superintendent to our to our board president to our superintendent to Dr Giles thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak on today on behalf of Georgetown county schools we do know that your work is tireless your hours
007never stop your work never ceases for the children here in Georgetown County School District we thank you for your ability to just to agree to disagree we thank you for your tired effort we thank you for coming out to our schools and seeing about our children we thank you for the fact that you see it necessary to bring equity and quality to all schools throughout Georgetown County School District so on this day the data has been set aside for all board members in 600 districts across the state We Salute You So it is my honor to give you just a small token of what it is that we think you may enjoy thank you thank you [Music] [Applause] and just so you can see somebody we have colleagues and I'll do it please stand if
008you are a principal or assistant principal in Georgetown County School District [Music] foreign [Applause] ERS and our district principals assistant principals our district office administrators we could not do this without you you play a vital role thank you so much [Music] thank you so much appreciate it to you thank you Miss Frazier thank you so much thank you very much thank you thank you so much thank you so behind the mighty mighty great men and women at Georgetown County School Board there's always somebody in the wind who's tirelessly get everything done and make it seem effortless so for all your hard work we just want to public acknowledge you as well thank you for all you do to make sure that everything is in order for our children and our men and women in this
009District [Applause] foreign next I'd like to recognize Mr Keith Price thank you Mr chair School District leadership is incomplete without an invested informed and involved School Board Georgetown County School District is so fortunate to have board members who check all of these boxes and have the best interest of all students employees and family members in mind as they carry out their duties on behalf of our school district and all of its employees employees we thank you all for your leadership and for answering the call of public service and we have a gift for each of you that's been placed behind you up here behind your seat as a small token of appreciation on behalf of all employees of Georgetown county school district we thank you thank you thank you very much we do appreciate it
010the next on our agenda is public comments as as the board we value public comments and for this evening just a reminder comments or requests should be brief and to the point as possible and shall not exceed three minutes it must not mention specific names of students or personnel public comments will be aired live but the board typically will not respond to individual comments and this evening we have one public comment coming from Miss Elizabeth Elizabeth thank you known as Liz Liz thank you Ford superintendent price as a retired Georgetown teacher as was my late husband I have a great investment and support of our County our school and most of all my colleagues and friends that are still teaching I come to you with on behalf of myself and many other concerned citizens and
011groups we have been monitoring closely and are very alarmed at a rising hostile antagonistic attitude that is being directed at Educators particularly and school boards and schools this is manifesting itself and accusations that teachers are indoctrinating students with radicalization and socialist ideologies this is advocating censorship of curriculum which includes Banning books now we know very well that if you try to censor curriculum that are mandated and by our standards directed by policies and legislation are directed towards scaffolding to a child's development then that's what Educators do that's what we do that's what we're trained to do if you start interfering then you're going to have students lose essential critical thinking skills you're going to have children have their identity and empathy to a diverse world around them impaired you are going to directly exasperate the
012issue of teacher intention and recruitment you're going to increase a distrust and divisiveness between the community and educators we don't want this it's not fair and it's a terrible burden for teachers to have this and it is becoming pervasive and it again is increasing what I do is I urge our community to come together and trust us work together let us be proactive not reactive let us build our Public Schools up not tear them down volunteer in the schools become involved in your child's PTO come involved in media centers and find out what an incredible enriching environment it is if we share this Mutual joy and support of public education we can defeat this negativity and we can have a stronger healthier relationship thank you thank you very much the next agenda is the approval
013of the minutes of our last board meeting I trust that every board member has looked through the minutes is there a motion on the floor to approve the minutes so moved second it has been moved and second all in favor of the approval of minutes minutes please do so by saying aye aye all opposed say nay the motion is passed the deck's second set of minutes is minutes from our uh board retreat back in December is there a motion to approve those minutes I make a motion to approve okay it's been moved in second and um we're all those in favor of approval the Amendments please say aye aye all opposed say nay the motion has been passed the next item for approval is the adoption of our agenda is there a motion to approve
014our agenda second it's been moved in second we will now vote on that motion all in favor say aye I all opposed say nay the motion has passed the next thing on our agenda is Georgetown County School District School Board ethical principal pledge pledge each year the South Carolina School Board Association asks board members from around the state to recommit to fulfilling their roles in in a fully informed and ethically committed manner serving as a board member and representing the students employees and families of Georgetown county is a role that we take seriously and have a great deal of pride in as part of our renewed commitment we will all participate in the signing of the 2023 ethical principles posters that we will gladly display in our boardroom throughout the year so now if our
015board members will walk over here here and sign the pledge and after that I think Miss Keebler is going to do a group photo foreign [Music] foreign thank you how could happen okay the next item on our agenda is an action item looking at the Personnel list the administration recommends the approval of the Personnel list as presented your emotion [Music] it's been moved and second is there any discussion [Applause] if there's no discussions we will now vote on that motion all in favor say aye aye all opposed say nay the motion is carried moving on to our next item information items tonight we have the coastal Montessori Charter School update Miss Rosemary grade the director and Miss Tyler easterling the board chair welcome thank you you ready okay good evening Mr Gaskins Mr Price and
016board members thank you for giving us the opportunity to talk with you about Coastal Montessori charter school tonight I'm Tyler easterling our cmcs board chair is here with me and together we'll provide an overview of our school and we know that you have a long agenda so we're going to be as brief as possible cmcs opened its doors on August 15 2022 this past August for its 10th first day of school 10 years our current enrollment is 234 and during our open enrollment period we received 51 applications for next school year um 20 let's see 31 of those are first grade and we have 36 students on a wait list for grades two through eight so we're accepting applications as we speak actually we've had a pretty busy schedule this past semester with lots of
017activities that our students and staff participated in we had a Harry Potter Day which was a huge school-wide event the kids had a blast with this students and staff dressed up as their favorite Harry Potter that's the third the fourth slide there Harry Potter character enduring the student's Lunch Period staff members perform skits from the story for the students and students participated if you know the Harry Potter stories you know this in a sorting ceremony like the one in the book so they had a really good time with that we also have pumpkin math and that um it's a unit study utilizing Hands-On measurements during the month of October Halloween pumpkins every Elementary student receives a pumpkin and with that through carving and Seed counting students apply their math skills in addition subtraction multiplication angles
018to mention a few of the skills teachers have students using and they have much fun doing it so big Hands-On math project we now are in the process of of having student presentations in our school covet's gone so we're wide open students research and they do presentations for their parents on their research project our next event like this one will be a cultural Fair on January 26th where students will research different cultures for their presentations and of course we're going to invite parents and anybody who wants to come any board members of course and that's on the 26th students will get to show off what they've learned and because our students have the opportunity to present projects so often and presentations their public speaking skills are generally strong that's one thing that we have noticed
019we also had a family movie night which was well attended and a lot of fun I think we've got a picture of that up there huge screen just before Thanksgiving our students participated in the Thanksgiving feast and they created the feast and the the theme was pasta so they made all kinds of pasta dishes and shared it with each other and had a good time doing that we also have an annual Halloween parade and a couple months back we had a community open house Community open house not necessarily for parents parents came because we had a book fair but this event was for community members to come out to the school to see what Montessori is all about and we had a really big turnout so we were very pleased with that thank you this
020is one thing I'm uh particularly proud of we have a community outreach program all of our students go out into the community and volunteer their time and talents once a month some of the activities they participate in include the following some students visit residents at Arbor Landing Assisted Living we have a group that goes monthly to East Bay to clean up the park we have a group that goes to welcome my elementary school and they read with The Kindergartners and this is a big hit we have a Pawleys Island beach cleanup we had a shoe drive for Saint Francis Animal Center a food drive for the Baskerville food pantry they go to Carolina human reinvestment Community Gardens and of course all four paws so we're we're getting involved and the the kids love it and
021the community members love it as well um also this past semester our students have had these opportunities they participate in the annual participation in the seeds to Shoreline program they plant harvested spartina seeds in the fall this is what you see around marshy areas they nurture them all winter in the greenhouse and then they plant them back into the salt marsh at Oyster Landing in Murrells Inlet and we do this every spring so it's an annual event we also have our students sharing in the responsibility of keeping a clean classroom and lunchroom students actually help clean their classrooms daily and they volunteer to help clean the cafeteria after lunches daily so so they're they're doing community service within the school as well and we have practical life skills of course we we really focus on
022Grace and courtesy and good manners food preparation and gardening thank you additional opportunities we offer the same thing the other middle schools here do algebra one honors and English one honors we have Spanish for all grades grades one through eight Spanish gardening and cooking we have violin lessons this year we have guitar lessons this year and after school art club and a chorus Club as well we also had last summer several summer summer camps actually a little bit more than several and we plan to do that again this coming summer we had a Weird Science Camp Marine Science Camp a Fitness Camp a sports camp and an art camp we hope to add some of those some to that list this summer our students have been provided field trips that include biking hiking and kayaking
023at Black River Cypress Preserve a tour of the museums on Front Street in Georgetown we go to Brookgreen Gardens we go to Huntington Beach State Park and hopcop Barony lots of educational programs in all of those areas and we've even done yoga on the beach so the kids love that upcoming field trips our sixth graders some of our sixth graders are going to New York City for the model U.N United Nations annual conference and they are going to learn about other countries and cultures and they will that they're actually studying in preparation for that trip but they're going to meet students from all over the world during this event so we're real excited about that we have a trip for middle schoolers to the Boeing facility in Charleston planned this spring also some middle schoolers
024are going to be able to go to Catalina Island Marine Institute in California and that's going to take place over spring break and this too is an educational trip students are going to study all things Marine during that week so that's going to be a big deal Carowinds we have a trip there and we always go to Carowinds on when they have their stem day and so that too is educational students will participate in science and math related activities on that day and then of course ride roller coasters and that sort of thing um we also are going to send our students to Pathways to possibilities career day in Myrtle Beach and that's going to take place in uh February and that's a career Expo for Middle School school students our demographics are beginning to
025change uh two years ago students from the Pawleys Island area made up 74 of our population that number is Now 46 percent two years ago students from Georgetown Andrews and Merle's Inlet made up 23 percent of our population that number this year is 53 percent so we are getting students from other areas of the the county other than just Pawleys Island so we're happy about that as far as test scores are concerned this is information on last year's spring SC ready scores and I'll let you look at the the numbers there but overall our results show that our averages are higher than the state averages you can see there the third one there the approaches meets or exceeds expectations is 81.2 percent and the state average is 73.94 now as I told you last year
026math is a little bit different as far as test scores go in grades one through six I almost need to read this to you but in grades one through six the when they take the state standardized test they are not taking a test on standards they necessarily have covered yet and that is simply because the Montessori sequence of Standards is different from the traditional sequence of standards and students are tested on the traditional sequence of Standards so it's a little bit out of whack but by the time students get to seventh grade everybody's being taught the same standards at the same time and we see a difference there you can look down at um in this second paragraph the part that is underlined there and the meets or exceeds expectations category cmcs score 4.2 percentage
027points higher than the state average so it always comes back to that Middle School level we we do perform in the Middle School we're performing all along but it's the test that that measures us so whenever we get to middle school we do do better than the state and approaches meets or exceeds expectations category our schools our students scored nine percentage points higher than the state average so Middle School is The Telltale there uh down below we have a chart that shows you the algebra one and of course results and as compared to the state you can see that that we're outperforming as far as the the state is concerned State averages [Music] our fund balance is in good shape with the amounts in our reserves being approximately 2.2 million our annual Auditors report in
028December was excellent and the balance is projected to be good and positive foreign ER because she is the expert in what's getting ready to happen at our school so what's next for us we're really excited with the growth that's happening at the school we see some need for expansion in our building so we have been working for the last six months to look at what that would look like so we have secured an architect and we will be adding some additional office spaces for staff we're also going to be adding dedicated classrooms for our specials So currently our music Spanish and a lot of our special education they just move around from classroom to classroom they don't have their own dedicated classroom so we're excited that we're going to be able to add on some
029rooms which will allow our Music Teacher Spanish teacher and other special education teachers to have their own dedicated room and not have to have a travel cart that goes up and down the hallway all day so we're very excited about that we're hoping to start on the project later this spring and we will be using the money from our reserves for that so we're really excited that the school will be able to support this growth itself and really happy that we'll still be able to leave a decent amount in the reserves as well so before I wanted to go I also just want to thank Miss gray this is not something she would have let me put in the presentation so I have to do it a little bit off the cuff but she um
030we have an extended contract with her and she will be staying on with us through June of 2025 so we know that she's with us and hopefully we'll be with us for much longer but we know guaranteed she'll be with us through 2025. um she's done amazing things for our school and we're very very lucky to have her so thank you I have to say to y'all um once again thank you for your support uh you do support our school and we know that and we do appreciate it we appreciate all you have done and continue to do not just for the students in our school but for the students in the entire County we do appreciate you thank you thank you are there any questions for Miss gray on the city Sterling I just
031have a comment um I wanted to commend you for 10 years I think that's amazing and you've got you've seen a lot of growth so um you're doing the right thing so keep up the good work I'm also excited about your upcoming model Montessori model U.N conference in New York it just reminds me that uh 10 years ago my son Joshua was one of the first groups that went for that went and I'm glad to see that program is continuing because it's very educational it means a lot and just like all your other programs it really promotes public speaking and and learning about different cultures and appreciating different cultures so whatever you're doing keep up the good work thank you thank you thank you I also have a comment I also thoroughly enjoyed Harry Potter
032day I was off you were that day so I went but everything I saw and every child that I spoke with and everything that was going on was just so exciting and interesting and and fun and learning yeah so that that that's all all great things happening so yeah thank you and I have a question as well as far as the demographic have you noticed any dramatic change as far as the demographic are you noticing any students from like high poverty areas being able to come to your facility or we are um matter of fact the well really Andrews we've got a couple kids from Carver's Bay a big group from from Georgetown so yeah we are and um you know some of them really Thrive when they get there Montessori is for a lot
033of children and you know when when they get there if they're in the higher grades it's kind of a shock to them the culture that we have there and what we do and how we do things but they seem to fall right in you know after a while and and get along well and and become montessorians so but yeah we are and we're working on that we actively Market uh in the other areas on this side of of I guess you could say the river because Polly's is over there on the other side and so we we go out into the communities here and kind of search for children the community event that you uh spoke that spoke about earlier did you notice anyone from this side of the river come out to that Community
034event and do you think that contributed to the numbers increasing if I could go back to that I would look at that I don't know um I feel sure we had probably a couple hundred people there that night so I hope so we did Market it and I just hope that they did come but we've gotten the word out over the last year and we've gotten a lot of requests from a lot of these requests for next year in grades two through eight are from this side and so um you know we'll see what happens next next summer if they come with us thank you very much yeah I have a question Miss gray is your attendance maxed out now at the Montessori it is not it's not maxed out it's not um we are
035maxed out almost in the lower elementary that's grades one two three our biggest room for students is in grades seven and eight which you know is is uh more common I guess for someone to come in the earlier years than to transfer in Middle School years we did have some this year though thank you I had a question I was just curious how are the excursions how are they financed I mean going to Catalina Island in California where students fundraise fundraising they fundraise all students have the opportunity they can fundraise you know to go and then some parents are just paying you know so it just depends but we give every student the opportunity to fundraise to go right okay thank you very interesting so I have a question uh at what grade level do
036they qualify to make these trips the well all of our kids go out the truth like the model U.N the New York trip that's for sixth graders sixth graders yeah yes and then seventh and eighth graders are going to the Catalina Islands so and we'll have that hopefully every single year so is this all sixth graders are select group it's open to all sixth graders and they too fundraise thank you very much okay thank you appreciate all you do thank you the next thing on our agenda goes to Miss Lisa Ackerman talking to us about the contract for our fire alarm replacement for Maryville and Waccamaw Elementary School and Waccamaw Middle good evening chairman Gaskins members of the board Mr Price the information item that you have in your packet this evening and and that
037backup is based on a public solicitation that we did right before the Christmas holidays these are the last three schools with the bond referendum that need to have their fire alarm systems replaced this is a full full school replacement of the fire alarm at each of these three sites so this is the the last group that needs to be addressed we are paying funding these out of bond savings from prior from the prior projects so this is not going against the district's eight percent Capital Money it is being funded out of the bond program the two bidders that we had jci and CMI both are reputable companies you've got the bid tab in your in your packet the pricing was fairly close but CMI did come out as the the low bidder they did work
038for us previously at Andrews Elementary and Pleasant Hill Elementary under the bond program as well so we have a relationship with them already if there's any questions I'll be happy to address those now yeah I do this is about safety and I know when I was in school you know our alarm system is when we heard the alarm and we had a drill or whatever these alums sophisticated to the point of if somebody comes in a unattended door that nobody's seen do this alum in the office or somebody's aware that somebody might be opening the door somewhere in the building that no sir this is a fire alarm system but I'm gonna it is but I want to verify I'm thinking with um Tyrone his new system I thought it may have been a combination
039of no it's not a security system it's solely a fire alarm system correct yes they're just fire alarm and how much is that um the low bidder was 941 684 dollars and eight cents and that's all three schools that's Waccamaw Elementary Maryville Elementary and Waccamaw Middle School and that's actually 168 000 less than we what we had budgeted after we came through and re-budgeted those monies with the savings that was left so it's a it's a good it's a good price it's less than what we were expecting okay and back to my other question are the alarms on doors in the schools if it's open and no one's attending it I'm not the best person to to field that that request I don't know if Alan or Tyrone you want to address that for the
040born I wish I could but I'm not the best person for that I just want to ask because I'm you know if I'm in the school and somebody walks in an unattended doing do we get some kind of alarm telling us somebody just walked in so a good evening Mr chairman board members Mr Price Mr Walker we do not have that at this time uh it is really cost prohibitive right now we've looked at it the Technology's there but you have the hardware element that's involved with it and literally we have hundreds of doors but then you also have to have somebody each location that could Monitor and be able to respond to it so like I said we've looked at it with not ruling it out in the future but it's not something that
041we currently have at this time um and even if you don't start out whatever you do in the school the school the doors that are you know most likely not to be visible to nobody you know something to think about and people coming to schools because I've heard of people coming in unattended doors well like I said we've looked at it at the hospital for instance has some of that technology so uh we're aware of it uh it's just it's something we'll probably have to bring back to you at a later time because it would be a major Capital project okay thanks foreign ER and I have one question the war two was to who jci no sir it's to CMI okay and they were the lowest bidder yes sir that was the 960 some
042thousand yes sir thank you and this will come back to us at the next board meeting as an action item correct yes sir yes sir thank you thank you the next thing on our agenda is with this Thompson to discuss with us are policy review uh and as Mr as Miss Thompson is coming forward um as you may recall at our board retreat Workshop back in December um the board discussed going through our policy manual and chunking different policies to to look at them and to examine them to see if there's any items that may want to be revised or adjusted as we go through this and the decision was made to begin with Section B which covers board governance and so the the uh plus you'll see one um policy on your agenda from
043section I these were policies that were pulled out and discussed during the retreat and so they will be the first batch that we are bringing to you for your review uh as we work through our entire policy manual so Ms Thompson we'll turn it over to you to begin with BCA good evening chairman Gaskins members of the board Mr Price first I apologize for my voice it is a little rocky but I will do my best to project and make sure that y'all can hear me and try not to have any coughing fits while I'm up here um the first policy that you all wanted to review was policy BCA commencement of term of office and with all of these policies tonight um we're kind of having a refreshing change of pace and that you
044all have changes that you want to make and I want to listen to those changes and try to add context to why we may have a policy written the way it is and whether we can legally change it to include particular pieces of language so that first policy commencement of term of office um I was hoping you all could share with me what specific changes you were looking for in that policy if any because I think you all pulled this one at your board retreat um it could be and this is just hazarding a guess here it could be the last line vacancies on the boards standing or ad hoc committees shall be filled by appointment of the chairman that statement has been called into question previously because we don't currently have any ad hoc
045committees or standing committees of the board um I don't know if that's the section you all wanted to address or not yes ma'am I think the other thing we were talking about was were we going to set a date to have instead of it being like a week after that that some boards had actually a ceremony for the swearing men and that they said it like for the at a certain time that's correct it's part of the discussion if you look at sentence two where it says as soon as practical as soon as is practical thereafter new members will be sworn in and take the oath of office and the practice has been that we would wait until the next board meeting following the certification of the vote and so the discussion was rather than
046waiting until the next board meeting to actually have a separate installation ceremony with nothing on the agenda except that and if that was something that the board was interested in doing which I believe there was an Express favor in doing it that way as we move forward then technically it would not require a change in policy but that was why this one was discussed at that time I will share with you all that the first sentence the term of office of every elected board member must commits one week following the certification of Ezra election that is state law that piece cannot be changed anything else well vacant season board officer positions shall be filled by board vote that is also part of our local legislation so those are two elements of that policy that cannot
047be changed but if you wanted to add in a swearing-in ceremony or something like that that's certainly something we could do yeah okay what we would want to help okay so do something we uh maybe at our next meeting to bring back a recommendation that may include language about the um the induction or installation ceremony okay that sounds wonderful I'll be sure to do that before the next meeting um the next policy that you've all asked to review was policy BCB board officers um again I wasn't at your meeting to talk about what specific changes you wanted to make to this a lot of this particular policy excuse me is encompassed in our local legislation that was passed in June of so um there are certain things that we could and couldn't change one of
048the items that I think you all were looking at was the sentence the terms of such offices shall be fixed by the board for periods of not exceeding two years and persons holding such offices shall be eligible to succeed themselves is that I think that's part of where a question or concern arose that particular sentence is one that is included in our local legislation that was passed by our local delegation and the state legislature in June of 2021. I will say that that's been on our policy manual or in our policy manual since at least 1962. yeah I apologize um it could be changed but it would take an approval by our local legislation or local delegation I had made the recommendation with with a change in like with the chairman that the chairman can
049only serve two consecutive terms it didn't take a break before serving again but that language would we have to go to the local delegation of that language technically yes under our decree from 2008 from the Department of Justice approved by the federal government we do have to have any change to that particular section would have to be approved by our local delegation it's not impossible but it's certainly something we could add you I've got great friends back here I'm on like my third mint I have a question Bill So currently our uh the chairman position what I'm reading here um should be re-elected or voted on every two years that's correct okay for us to change that to four years A full term because let's feel like a chairman needs four years to to make
050a difference uh what procedure would we have to go through to get that changed would that be a local vote here or that would be State legislation or there are very few pieces of your board policy manual that you can't change but that's one of them cannot correct can I I'm so sorry I apologize it's okay um and and that's simply due to the fact that in 2008 we had a a separate not our not our typical desegregation decree that a lot of us talk about but a separate decree from the Department of Justice approved by the federal court and in that it laid out exactly how our duty our um board would be elected where the board members would be elected from the terms of the board members and the terms of the board
051um um officers and so we it we ended up putting that as actual local legislation in June of 2021 voted on by the whole state legislature but that that's not to say that we couldn't change it it would just require us going to our local delegation saying here's a change that we'd like to make they would they would then propose that on the floor as a as a full Amendment for the legislature legislator to vote on the only issue that we need to be aware of which is what happened exactly this time last year my goodness I'm so embarrassed I'm so sorry um is that the governor will veto our local legislation and then we'll have to have it overridden Bibles to legislature after that okay so this is a process that has to happen
052so the two years is is Statewide it's for every District or just Georgetown well there are several districts that have that but it is not a Statewide regulation it is just for Georgetown County in our local legislation that was required by our decree in 2008 okay I'm not going to have you talk anymore I'm so sorry was the original suggestion that the board chair would serve no longer than four years the more than two terms no more than no more than two tenure terms a person can serve longer but they would need to take a two-year break so we don't get you know get stagnant stagnant with a board chair correct correct definitely a change that could be made I mean if you all are interested in me talking with our um there's a there's
053a legislative um liaison so to speak at the State House who helped us draft our last piece of local legislation I could talk to him about how long it would take us to put this together I don't think it'll be very long and um and kind of see what his feel is with the new legislature um what it would be like to get this done again a couple years you know now it'll be two years after we did this you know in 2021 I'm happy to speak with him about that before the next board meeting I think it's worth pursuing okay I think we need to be in agreement that four years is what we all as a group want yep and no more than two four-year terms um two two year terms I'm sorry
054yep thank you all right I will go ahead and speak with the legislative liaison and see what his thoughts are on that and bring him back to you at the next board meeting thank you okay um the next one is policy ddb bddc agenda format um and agenda preparation and dissemination um I am open to whatever it is that you all wanted to do with this one and happy to make any changes I don't believe that there's anything in this one um except for the pieces that are governed by foia that we couldn't change my only recommendation is with the word somatics is um the agenda must be received by the superintendent saying one week in advance puts seven days in advance okay [Music] and a lot of this is is specifically listed out in
055foia so there's not not too much wiggle room on this one in terms of when um agendas have to be posted there is some wiggle room on when materials can be distributed to the board um that could be before after that three-day period That's not covered by state law um see that agendas are you know the superintendent has to see that they're posted for 24 hours prior to the meeting that's been state law so but if you just wanted to clarify that seven days that's fine okay anything else on that one yeah foreign I did have a question about that one it says that emergency meetings may be exempt from this requirement clarification Boya allows um entities public entities public bodies to hold emergency meetings with less than 24-hour advance notice but it has to
056go through a procedure once you get here stating that I think either two-thirds or three quarters of you believe that the meeting has to be held as an emergency and then there's other pieces in there that we've talked about a couple times before on agenda items you can't take any action on certain items there's certain parameters that you have to meet for that emergency meeting but it is specifically spelled out in foia line by line so they're rare and and certainly not advised but they have they they have a place when you need them foreign okay the next policy is BHD board member compensation and expenses um I'm going to let you all take the lead on on this one certainly our policy states that board members would receive compensation for their services at a
057rate of 25 percent of the base teacher salary that's been frozen in place for 20 years um so discussion step aside I'm so sorry um I'll go first um you know this is a this is a policy that was that was created somewhere in the 97 98 school year so for the next three or four years school board members made 25 percent of the base pay at that time of a school teacher in 2003 it was voted to 2002-2003 year to freeze that and just reading this uh paper it says at the rate paid for freezing just that year now obviously 20 19 20 years have passed and it's still frozen um I'm under the opinion and it's not about money to me but I'm not under the opinion that from 2003 until 2022 there
058would have been gradual increases for the school board it wouldn't have been a raise of a thousand dollars it could have been as little as 200 and that would always would have been based on the teacher's base salary so through the 20 years it would have been a gradual increase here we're looking at a big increase because it's been frozen for 20 years my opinion is this is a policy 25 percent of the base pay of today's School teachers my opinion is it should be unfroze and it's not about the money it's about a policy that should not ever be frozen for 20 years I think this was intended for that particular year for a particular reason now you got to keep in mind shortly after it was frozen we entered into a recession okay
059so there was probably good reason we're not going to touch free unfreezing the salary because we're in a recession from 2007 until our city start coming out around 2012 when things got better um so I'm under opinion this is not necessarily a raise this is just opening back up a policy that was Julia elected on and was a policy in 1997 and 98 that has been frozen too long and again it's not about the pay to me it's about the policy and the policy is 25 percent if we do anything to this my opinion would be we got to change the policy because the policy is written it's just Frozen well I ran some numbers and I guess I agree that the policy needs to be unfrozen I think we ought to stick with the
06025 percent until proven otherwise but I think we ought to phase it in um so the numbers I ran I just looked at um and I'll kind of give you a summary it's an interesting figure that the the Frozen salary of six thousand seven hundred nineteen dollars if you add in inflation between 2003 and today 2023 guess what it is it's exactly 10 686 dollars is the equivalent of that amount back in 2003. so there are 34 counties in the state of South Carolina that's pay their boards at least a hundred dollars a month there are some that pay less than that and there's some that pay none of that of those 34 counties the average salary across those 34 is 6 706 dollars so we are currently at quote the average there are 19
061counties in South Carolina that pay more than Georgetown County and if you average those of the 19 that pay more the average is 8 496 dollars the seven highest counties in South Carolina average 10 562 dollars five highest counties average eleven thousand four hundred and twenty six there are five counties that touch on or surround Georgetown County Ori Marion Williamsburg Berkeley and Charleston the average salary of those five counties is eight thousand nine hundred and fifty nine dollars if you take out the lowest salary and the highest salary and you look at Marion Berkeley and Charleston the average there of those Three Counties is eight thousand so uh another interesting number that I'll throw out to you just for the board to consider is I I had the I studied the salary increase as teachers
062have gotten since 2003 and they've had at least 10. and when you compare the difference between the base salary and what the board should have been paid along the 25 percent rule the the board as a as an entity has forfeited 100 basically ground numbers 190 000 over those 20 years wow um so I believe the board we should unfreeze it I think the board ought to together maybe think about what we think it I I think it ought to be phased in and we look at we keep the 25 percent in place as the metric we're going to look at but recognizing that if we jump it right away it's a big bump to the budget and but I do think the board members there are only three new board members they're everybody else
063on this board has been on the board for two six Sandra how long you've been on for how long 14 14 years so they've basically whether it's been raised or not have passed up a lot of money so and again it's not about the salary nobody's going to get rich on these salaries obviously but I do think I've only been on this board now for a few months but I got to tell you and I have no reason to think every board member on this board doesn't take what they're doing seriously it's a lot of work there are tons of material that have to be read budgets to go over off-site meetings we go to conferences that take up full weekends we got one coming up in February that's going to take up four whole
064days and yeah they're good learning opportunities but there also ought to be some compensation to the board so that's those are the numbers um I think we ought to phase it in but we ought to stay fixed on the 25 percent and see what that looks like in a couple years but figure out what we want to phase it in as as a board that's my recommendation yeah so it doesn't look like we're that far off from a lot of counties we're not really that far off based on your numbers correct yeah well in terms of where we should be Yumi yeah where we should we're not that far off yeah would we consider phasing it in with the next election cycle I I would suggest we phase it in as immediately as we can
065for the for the board members that have been passing up income for all these years I think they're owed something and we can't just retroactively that's just my own thinking that we ought to find some way some increase not the total 25 percent but some phased in amount it would catch up I have a question is there a reason why there's not a line item in our budget for board compensation that's a great question I think probably there should be there's a reason for it I'm sorry uh for me I agree with everybody saying here uh not to rush into anything to give the budget up a big hit but uh well I've been here six years I think I'm the next behind Miss Johnson and believe me nobody's gonna going to get rich on
066this job if that's what you'll pay for you need to walk away right now but I would say this here we make trips we go to events uh I know I've come out of pocket a lot more than what we're allowed it and all uh I look for is a little bit of fairness not a whole lot so um I think it's something we need to just revisit and get some serious thought and we're a smaller County this says this policy says board members may be reimbursed for mileage to and from board meetings we don't get real we don't ask people you know and we're a small County we don't even do that and that's not even one person Georgetown County I've never turned in a mile no no but you know like was stated
067um there are there are expenses and there is a lot of work and um I think a phasing in approach would be feasible but it's definitely something that I'm in favor of us looking forward to yeah has anybody did the numbers on basically what the budget would increase Keith if it was to be unfrozen now and not phased so we know what it is no sir I think it was kind of look at an average is probably maybe 40 Grand maybe I think we calculated a difference of what it would be if it was an unfrozen effective immediately right and so we would take that number for the eight board members and the difference for the board chair and calculate that Mr Jenkins worked on that after it was brought up in the retreat for
068discussion I don't I hate to put you on the spot Mr Jenkins I don't know if you still have those numbers Andy you could share that sure he does good evening everyone when you peruse the agenda you kind of figure questions that might come up for me currently if you're looking at the 2223 base teacher salary a board member receives 6 719 if you're looking at 25 percent of the 2223 salary you're looking at 9 460 and that is an increase of 3931.75 cents per board member so 36 000 would be an additional hit yes sorry did I say 36 oh yeah plus benefits yeah that that just is the base salary not including any friends that would go along with that and that's generally figured at 40 percent so we're looking at somewhere around
069up 30 some thousand to forty thousand dollar budget increase you're probably looking at roughly fifty two hundred dollars per board member okay there are nine of you so it's going to be between forty five and fifty thousand dollars okay if that happens immediately can this budget handle that we we've got some savings um when they were open so I you know I think we could allocate another line item savings to that I just thank God that everybody's job was not frozen in 2003 because that happened in 2007 when I was with the county we never got a cost of living increase for five years and it hurt so thank God that everybody else kept their pay during these 20 years yes sir but we are still Lisa correct me if I'm wrong we're still one
070year behind in steps for our teachers we didn't always get an increase as teachers should the line where the last paragraph board members may be reimbursed for mileage to and from board meetings at the Internal Revenue Service reimbursement rate I think there was an issue with that Miss Johnson you brought up uh of commuting commuting Converse anybody for coming to work right so why we should take that yeah that that should be scratched could be taken out yeah yeah I agree with that that specific line actually may be part of state law let me double check that there's a specific provision for board member compensation and state law and I I want to say that might be in there as a as a kind of a wonky change to say let me double check that
071Mr chairman um and uh certainly I respect all of my colleagues uh opinion but I do have my own um I didn't run any numbers but what I'm afraid of is the temperature I don't want to lose the the public confidence in our intentions as far as the work that we're doing I like to earn whatever I get and just being the new guy I just felt that I haven't earned anything uh it wasn't financials that I looked at when I seek this position and I don't want to give any of my constituents the impression that that's what my intentions are so at this time right here for me because I've had this conversation with a couple of my board members Mr Price uh 98 of the conversations that I get in the public is
072always about folks needing more money I hate to know that that's the main concern that I'm running across so far hopefully that conversation will change more to educational stuff I would like to say but at this time right here I I would just incline not be inclined to request uh pay raise for the board simply because of the temperature out there everybody else who's working hard cafeteria workers bus drivers we've been hearing this for a while now and we've been dealing with the pandemic at this time right here we're not in a recession but the pandemic came out and brought brought on a whole change as far as uh our community and folks just needed more money because everything else is going up around them so like I said I just don't want to bother
073the temperature of the public right now far as what they might think our intentions are with the work that we're doing and I know that we all are sincerely working for uh better education for our kids and I'm not questioning that from any of my colleagues up here it's just the public temperature that I'm concerned about well and um I agree with Mr Moore in the fact that you said it wasn't about a pay raise but it would be a pay raise um what you know we can you know semantics aside we can call it anything you want but if we turned around and said okay we're unfreezing this today and next next month we get this increase it's still a pay raise again I did not I didn't get into education for the money
074obviously but uh money is nice we know that we all like money but um the 25 concerns me I think that's a big jump and I know Mr Gaskins uh mentioned maybe a gradual increase if we're looking to unfreeze or maybe even and I don't know that anybody's mentioned this but maybe even look at the idea of just a base pay like a stipend so you know what if if the average around our counties is eight thousand dollars but maybe we want to go with six thousand I know there are people maybe in this room who worked in I remember years and years ago when Georgetown County was one of the top paid school boards in the state and we all sat back as teachers and went what in the world you know as our
075sides and not that our board members at that time weren't working hard I'm not talking about that it's just that obviously Horry County is a lot bigger than us so their board members are you know being paid more um so maybe look at the idea of maybe a stipend or I don't know if we can call you know again semantics but maybe just a base for all of us instead of saying we're going to increase every year and then on the election cycle look at it you know in cost of living and that sort of thing maybe raise it then and I'm also agreeing with maybe we wait until the next election cycle because I am concerned as Mr Moore said you know constituents oh immediately wasn't that nice board you all get those new
076board members in there you all you know voted to raise your pay it's not a good look across there so I can remember when the board froze the salaries and I can remember our teachers and all of our folks having not any raises for a period of time and it was a very difficult time period and then I look at where we are compared to some of the counties around us and our pay scales and how does that compare because some of our sister counties pay more than we do to their employees our teachers so I'm inclined to say it whatever we do we do need to look at the temperature around us and we do need to look at our employees and and we need to be very conscious of because at that time
077the board was getting really high compensation compared to what our County folks made yeah and so I was on the other end of that so I do know that that's the way it was and I do think we need to look very seriously at and I think a 25 for me that would not be something that I could support yeah yeah yes yes comment my my feeling and concern was about you know the budgeting and so again if you know because of some other positions that may be needed or weren't filled because of whatever reason you know I would just assume let an increase for me be used for something else um I would just throw this in I I like the idea of having a scale to set board compensation I'm not sure I
078can totally buy into 25 as that scale and I cannot buy in for this to be immediately implemented if we if we whatever we decide I would be in support of waiting to the next board cycle next election before it's implemented yeah yeah I think what Congress I think what we found ourselves in here is we've got a 20-year increase that just doesn't right I mean if this would have been a gradual increase from 2003 at 200 of a year or 500 a year we wouldn't be having this conversation but all of a sudden 20 years that 25 percent has been frozen all of a sudden we got this big huge raise that the temperature is not going to look good but if it would have been a gradual increase based on 25 percent then
079we wouldn't be having this conversation but this big all of a sudden we're going to unfreeze this after 20 years and we're all going to get this big pay that's what the temperature is going to look like we're getting this big 4 000 year raise which we would have had it if it had not been on uh Frozen in 2003. it looks like we've got several options yeah I think that's a good thing go ahead uh thank you for the discussion and and our our team can come back with with different scenarios what what I will need a little bit of direction on in order to work with them is when we talk about scaling um we need some kind of idea of what the board is thinking as far as scaling to you cap
080it at a dollar amount do you cap it at a percentage do you spread it out over time what what are the thoughts from the board just so our team can have a little Direction about some different proposals to bring back if there are any thoughts about what scaling it out might look like for your consideration [Music] well um we don't know what the other boards are going to do between now and 2025 I think we needed I think we need a metric of some kind we need as a board to agree that this is what we're going to fix our number on CE you have that number then we can scale it in or we can decide not to scale it in I think for me personally I just think the board members and
081they're only what three of us that are really new to this board and I think it's up to the other board members to decide of you know do they think they deserve some some pay um I think all board members ought to share and whatever is being paid but I think that's for the board to decide what's the metric we want to look at do we want to be paid the average of the counties that are around us do we think we belong somewhere else we make that decision and then we can decide to scale it I'm for scaling it a little bit immediately a little bit next year and then bring it in 2025 have it reach that number whatever it is whether it's 25 percent or it's 20 percent or it's the average
082of the counties but that we have because if we just for instance if we keep deferring this come 2025 it's going to be a huge increase absolutely and you're worried public perception now the public I would hope the public could understand that this has been frozen for 20 years that the board as a whole has passed up or forfeited 190 000 in that period of time so so had you been a board member that whole time you would have forfeited probably about twenty one thousand dollars I think the board the public can understand that it's been frozen and I think if we give them a decent explanation of what we're trying to do I think they can understand it but if we defer it whatever we're going to do another two years we can decide
083on a number now but it's probably not going to be the right number in two years I think the public would understand but it's still a question of a dollar amount that's that's a lot of increase for somebody to comprehend that other people are not getting that increase and that's my concern also but scaling I agree with I don't know that I agree with 25 percent as our top of the scale you all know I'm not the math person you know but I I think the the 20 maybe we scale it I don't know five percent to get to 20 or I I don't know that that those are numbers people that need to work with that but I think 20 25 seems a lot that's why I made a suggestion it's about the policy
084if we're going to change this right right we need to change the policy exactly you know that's what we need to do and we can do that I would agree with 25 back in 1998 right and and so that and then the scaling makes sense because we get gradual increases I mean we we've given yeah you know that could we look at 20 and try to look at way we can scale that in over the next yeah 2025. this has helped I think what we can do is bring back a few different options of of of several different percentages and what that would look like and then have some discussion about how you might want to scale that over time so we can take that I thought we were locked in at 25 but that's
085yeah our team can work together to bring up several different scenarios based on different percentages for you to review at the next meeting absolutely all right thank you [Music] thank you all um again I apologize profusely for um my episode the final policy that you all wanted to review was policy ICA school year calendar um and and this is again partially governed by state law partially not um but I think some of what you all um were were more interested in is is when the pilot when the calendar is presented to the public or to you to the public and and how many years are in that and that's that's certainly um at your discretion when you want it presented and for how many years you want to present it that has no um bearing
086in state law one way or the other so I'm certainly up for any of your suggestions for that I'll bring your attention to the last sentence in the section where it says school calendar and that was the sentence that was discussed which pinpoints a timeline each year that this calendar is brought forward for consideration and approval so that was the line that that we spent time discussing during the retreat so it's back up for your um your public comment at this time and if there's any suggestion or thought or recommendation about bringing multiple years calendars that's something that could be added as well I believe in our discussion at one time Georgetown County School District did a three-year calendar proposal and then they they got into the habit of modifying or changing altering those calendars
087down the road that had been approved too far in advance so it dropped back to one year so um maybe one or two years would be the magic number but going Beyond two may may continue to be challenging did we not talk about moving it to fall maybe I'd drunk that yeah instead of approval in the spring I think we talked about in the fall just to give the community and and our person out right um you know more chance to plan [Music] also could maybe present like two count two years in advance yeah two would be yeah thank you and then just don't change in other words if you went ahead and did a two-year calendar you'd have like a 22-23 calendar and then a 23-24 but then the following year to keep that
088two-year you'd have to prove it 25-26 because to do two calendars at a time and then wait two years and do two more calendars right which is one of the reasons we got away from the three-year calendar as well thank you so we could bring back the concept of bringing a two years of a rolling calendar in the fall of each year do you all like the term fall do you want something more specific do you want um or are you okay with the the kind of functional concept to fall yeah probably early fall we want to give the public and those who are really implant into planning as much time in advance so that they can take into account uh maybe about October yeah and the vacation so I think early what did you
089say I said maybe about October didn't we talk about October if I could interject just from 17 years of being on the calendar committee or maybe not um the world's worst is um keep in mind that most the employees are not in session during the summer so the optimal time before going to do something like this would be to plant it in the spring so I would just caution if you're going to have it brought in the fall that's not going to be enough time for the calendar committee to truly meet and have that done so I would say would probably be at the Terminus of that school year so in other words we would start meeting roughly about this time every year and then presenting a calendar to you before the end of that
090current school year I think we were talking about maybe in advance like not for the so if we were planning now for 24. I got you 25 that would be in in the fall not in the spring for 24 25 but in like we would have already had one by October for that year am I am I right about that is that okay so so if if what Mr if I understand you correctly Mr Jenkins we've already voted and approved the calendar for 23.24 right yes so in the spring they would begin working on the 24-25 and 25-26 school year to bring to you for consideration [Music] because obviously we'd have to catch up a year because yeah it's just different if we plant it in the fall that's just a quick turnaround time right
091and I'm just putting that out there to anybody who's interested in being on the calendar committee that it would just be a springtime assessment right so the work for the calendar will begin in the spring but in regards to the last sentence and policy that would be adjusted to the fall yes that's when it's presented to the board right yes right right yes yeah okay um so we'll we'll make some changes to that policy as well and bring those for the next board meeting um I believe that was all the the policies that I had for this evening and I'll be sure to make whatever revisions and then suggestions you all have and bring you some um new new drafts next time thank you thank you moving forward with the Howard Park update Mr Keith
092Price mm-hmm [Music] good evening Mr chair and Ladies and Gentlemen of the board I bring back to you this evening an update on the Howard Park proposal we've had two presentations of this so far with a few amendments and at our last meeting when this was presented there was a request to pull some more members of the city together along with board member representation to discuss this project a little more specifically and a little further and so we had the opportunity to do that and so what I'll be presenting to you tonight you'll see the proposal in its original form and then also what has been added or revised since our last meeting so as you can see the original members who are a part of this conversation are outlined in white in the change
093or addition is outlined in green so then that will be consistent throughout the presentation so you see here where we've added an additional city council member in Mr Morris mayor Giro attended as well as four of our school board members who were a part of the conversation reminder that the intent was to invest in a beautification project in the West End and to add a basketball court for Georgetown youth on the west end and then to create an additional recreational and Leisure space for City and County residents the new addition was a discussion to possibly build two basketball courts instead of one because if you look at those who who go to basketball courts that are for public use and oftentimes older taller youth take up one court and then you'll have smaller younger children
094who are participating on the other so that's where that discussion LED that hey it may be a good idea to have two courts so that there will be some options for children of all ages so just as a review The Proposal looked like this and this is just a rough sketch and you can see the backwards C that's towards the top of the um of the graphic is Howard um and over to the side where you see the the artist rendering is uh the green part is the park that's surrounded by a walkway two different playgrounds that would be age appropriate for younger and older children and then you see the orangey yellowish spot that is outlining a basketball court and in our discussions we talked about we need to be able to access the
095back side of Howard because we still use it for storage and supplies and we need to be able to load and unload in that area and putting things in their place the way this is drawn would become problematic so this is just a rendering this is not a final sketch but an idea of what the park would look like so moving forward you see that one thing a couple of things have changed in the original proposal the city was going to share 25 percent of the operations and maintenance annual costs for the person who would be staffed to um to for the upkeep of the park and that has changed to the city is now willing to give 50 percent of the O M cost so instead of them allocating and pledging in 93.70 per
096year to cover the the salary for that employee they're now going to pay 18 740. that's an estimate based on current employment rates the additional the other additional is that was added this is part of a discussion it's now been formalized that the city will be responsible for securing the access gates after hours and the public access gate would be located in the parking lot for the auditorium not on the school side so the city would have the ability to come in and on unlock and lock that as needed based on the Park's availability with the county no changes right now they're focused on if this comes together as an approval that they would cover the balance of the construction costs that they would consider in their 24 budget new additions for our changes for
097the school district's responsibility first you see where after our discussion the school district responsibility for the employee servicing the park has dropped from 75 percent to 50 percent and so instead of allocating 28 110 the district would now be allocating approximately eighteen seven forty so a ten thousand dollar per year savings um the park and the basketball court access to Howard students during school hours that has been formalized so during school hours it can only be accessed by the students and the employees at Howard outside of school hours it would be open to the public additional points you see where it's open to the public during the non-school hours some specific points that were discussed and formalizes that the park would be accessible only during daylight hours there's no lighting that is planned for this
098project um the school just as a comparison school is in session for 180 days per year from 8 30 to 3 30. that's when it's only accessible by students so therefore the public would have access to the other 185 days so the requested Financial commitment this was something that was mentioned and discussed for the district to share in the construction of a basketball court and that would be something for the board to consider if that's something they that um that you would be interested in but I can tell you that I received a formal letter from the city on Friday that they are willing to assume the responsibility of the cost of those two basketball courts if we go with two basketball courts so that's a recent update since this was shared with you last
099Thursday and then um the other thing that was formalized is that the construction of the basketball courts would have to be away from the building so that we could still access the storage [Applause] [Music] so the only change to the timeline was that there was a conversation about possibly two basketball courts instead of one and then if the basketball courts is the only renovation remember that there's an option here that the board can say we'll go into an agreement only to add basketball courts if that is the decision of the board then the cost for the operation and maintenance for the employee to upkeep the park wouldn't be necessary because there would be no Park to upkeep so from the city their interest was that the board had reservations about going with a park and
100basketball courts and they and you guys didn't feel comfortable going in that direction they would still be interested in just adding basketball courts if we could have dual access for school hours and non-school hours so um if the basketball court is the only renovation to to campus there will be no need for extra o m staff to maintain Lawns therefore there would be no impact to the budget for us to allocate funds for that employee for the upkeep other than the share construction costs for the basketball courts if the board decided to assist with that cost so what now um the we struck the last bullet where the board could take no action and make a request for more specific information to be gathered and brought back for further consideration that's what we did so
101now it's uh one of a couple of things number one the board could take no action to move forward with the proposal not in favor of the of the park not in favor of the basketball courts we'll just leave it as it is that's one option um or the board could take action and move forward with the proposal at this time as presented they could approve the use of the property for this joint project or they could approve sharing and construction costs for an additional basketball court and then the board would work with the city to join a to draft a joint letter of support to send the County Council so one action one option that's not there is the board could also vote to just do basketball courts no Park so you could consider
102taking action to go forward with the park and the basketball court no Park just a basketball court or no Park no basketball court and I see uh Dr Sandra you to see is here who is our city manager for Georgetown and so she has been very helpful throughout this process this is something that our city council is very passionate about they would like to see an opportunity for this for the Youth on the West End and so I bring this to you for updated information no action would be taken tonight this is a chance to discuss ask any clarifying questions and um we'll be asking for you to take some type of action at the next board meeting but I'll open it up if you have any questions at this time yes I do uh
103well not being biased because that is my neighborhood but I see a lot of ladies walking kids you know through discreet and around that Community I would probably love to have a park to go and sit down watch him play on the swings or whatever and uh basketball I see kids in the street to the West End where some of you guys probably never travel so that would be very useful in that community so um I would hope everybody would would be in favor of going forward with a park and basketball coach there I know that's my recommendation well yeah mine too and I like the idea of two basketball courts because you know old guys like Mr Walker might want to play and then we got you know his grandkids might want to play
104on another court but I'm all kidding aside but no I like the idea of two and the changes we talked about you know sending it back um couple of months ago that um you know those were worked on and so I I like it the way it is there I agree I think um especially with the park because that gives you more opportunities for families to to gather I guess a question I have and you may have answered it earlier is um are there facilities available like is there a restroom and other facilities available to folks who are using the park or basketball courts I don't believe so no ma'am there's no extra Plumbing because that would require an extra expense so it would just be the basketball horse there's no lighting so you wouldn't
105have an an incurred electrical bill to pay for the lighting of the park so it would really just be accessible for daylight hours and the city would come and secure the gate and yeah and they still have access to the gym as well you know so during daylight hours yes sir you know uh it's just this would come in handy at certain times like in the summer if the gyms close kids could be out a little bit longer you know doing whatever out there the most is is there enough room for two basketball courts and a decent sized park or just the park if if it's that's something that I may have to get an architect or someone who has design capabilities to take a closer look to draw that to scale to see what
106it would look like but if you go back to the presentation basically you'd be doubling this space correct of that basketball court that's currently drafted there so you could see that and it may it may mean some readjustments of how many playgrounds we have or what the walkway may look like around the park but um I would think that you could get two basketball courts and some green space in there one of the original ideas for that walkway around the park was that it would be a tricycle path and so if you wanted to ride a little tricycle going around the playground then you'd be able to do that as well that was one addition if one's going to be more geared to a smaller youth it could be a smaller Court it don't have
107to be a tissue size as a um you know High School guys in order or a half court yeah so very short that they could it's a learning situation for them yeah would we have playground equipment on this park or is it truly just a walking there would be playground equipment and that would be funded by the county that would be part of their project that they would come in to do the playground portion correct me if I'm wrong Dr udacy but that was the part that the county was going to pick up outside the city was going to pick up the basketball courts and the county was going to do the Green Space any trees or plants as well as the playground equipment because we will need upkeep and that kind of thing and
108the county would do that with having the floor down for the playground equipment that kind of thing right the city would take care of the O M the operation and maintenance and management fees and so that would be our portion to that is because we would have our students would have access to it 180 days out of the year we would be paying a portion of that for the upkeep and maintenance of that I would like to have the opportunity to go visit the site to sort of visualize the layout if we could arrange that that would be awesome anybody else like to participate [Music] I think it's a great idea Mr chairman um in regard I hate to be the bad guy tonight but I feel like I am as a result of the
109kids ending up at Howard adult is that for good behavior or something that they the fact that they end up there well Howard is um it serves two purposes purposes one part of Howard is for our our adult education program and so students opt for adult education for a variety of reasons and then the other part of Howard is reserved for our alternative educational setting so students who may have made some bad choices at school they may be assigned to Howard alternative for a designated period of time and so they would be there for that established time and then they work their way back into their home school if certain conditions are met within 45 days so so how are we've got Howard adult or we call adult education at Howard and then we've got
110Howard alternative for our students who are there for a temporary amount of time and it's just my General Sessions background that's speaking to me right now when I was working with the General Sessions Court I would go to the Detention Center to do applications for attorneys and when I would get there is like the guys who are incarcerated they're watching The Price is Right playing card having a good time so what I found is that I saw a lot of repeat offenders so now my instincts tell me if my kids do something wrong then I'm not going to reward them so much I want them to not have to end up back at Howard so that's just one of my concerns rewarding them for bad behavior as far as the alternative perspective part of the
111Howard Adult Center so well part of what we part of what we've done now is is our students who are there they have a period of time during the day unless they have done something to compromise that they get an opportunity to go out side but right now they've got one green space that's along the side or the front of the school with really nothing to do there but to go out and talk yeah I want them to never ever want to go back there again sure I understand that right and and I don't want to also don't want to punish the community for a few slip up in school right and those kids shouldn't be rewarded to go outside if they got something going on but we shouldn't you know punish the community and
112not want to do it because of that so um thank you Mr Price thank you moving along with our agenda we have the presentation of the 2021-22 annual copter comprehensive financial report this Lisa Johnson and Mr Harris darver yes sir um chairman Gaskins board members tonight Harris darver is here he's a CPA partner with Darwin Kelly and he performed the audit this year Financial audit and I'm going to turn it over to him and I'll be here for questions foreign members of the board thank you for having me tonight um jump right into the audit here our audit this year was conducted by myself as the engagement partner Leslie Kelly my business partner in quality control partner as well as Kirk spots was on staff as uh on site for engagement staff we began the
113audit doing preliminary field work in August of 22 came back in October November after trial balances were issued did the main field work then and issued our reports in November 28th prior to the December 1 deadline and as you can see below it was submitted timely to the Department of Ed and the federal audit Clearinghouse on November 29th our independent Auditors report um the opinion stated that we've audited the financial statements as of and for the year into June 30th 22 so a little over six months ago in our opinion the financial statements present fairly in all material respects the financial position of the school district as of June 30th 22 in the respective changes in financial position and cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the
114United States of America going through the summary of audit results quickly over the financial statements we issued an unmodified opinion which is a clean opinion the highest level opinion you can receive on financial statements when evaluating internal control deficiencies over financial reporting we did identify one material weakness there were no significant deficiencies identified and no non-compliance material to the financial statements identified looking at the federal Awards once again we issued a clean unmodified opinion on the highest level opinion you can get internal control deficiencies over the federal Awards there were no material weaknesses and no significant deficiencies the three major programs that we audited this year were the special education cluster commonly known as idea the education stabilization fund commonly known as Esser and that included all three pots of Esser esser-1 remaining funding sr2
115and sr3 the beginning of sr3 lastly we audited the supporting effective instruction state grants as you can see there was one finding I'll go over that briefly it's related to the reconciliation and recording of debt related payments um these were all Financial transactional recordings there was no additional cash outlays or anything that the disrespect it was just in the terms of recording and reconciling these balances as you'll see here there were two separate errors in posting debt related transactions one a short-term issuance proceeds as other financing sources and principal repayments as fund expenditures this recorded adjustments of five million dollars to the offsetting other financing sources and uses accounts it netted to zero but it's just a terminology of how short-term issuances get recorded in governmental finances in addition on the district recorded an additional
116principal and interest payment on a long-term debt and error as interest income this required material audit adjustments to reduce the account holding those resources and reducing the related interest income by approximately 1.7 million dollars are there any questions related to the summary of audit results and then we'll get into some numbers from the year moving forward looking at the statement of net position if you'll remember this statement incorporates both the district's long-term obligations on that statement you'll see assets of approximately 377 million with cash and Investments making up 74 million in capital assets of 287.2 million deferred outflows of 60 million liabilities of 458 million with debt making up 194 million and pension and no pep liabilities of 245 million deferred inflows of 40.5 million with a negative net position of 60.8 million if you
117look your net investment in capital assets portions of that net position 125 million restricted net position of 17 million with unrestricted of the negative 203 looking at the negative net position if you'll remember in 2016-17 pension opeb related liabilities had to be recorded on government books that accounts for approximately 225 million dollars of liability as the district's net proportionate share of the pension and no ped liabilities if you remove those from this statement that would leave a positive net position of 165 000. um I caution looking at that number because they are included in the district's liabilities but I do like to show this because it does remove those and that was an addition in 1617 for financial statement reporting commonly we look at the general fund when we look at finances of the district
118looking at the general fund's balance sheet for the year into June 30th 22 we had assets of approximately 34.3 million dollars with cash making up 20 million dollars liabilities were 11 million dollars 11.8 excuse me with most of that being summer salary accruals for salary and benefits deferred inflows related to taxes of 1.5 ending with a positive net position in the general fund of 20.9 million 20.6 of that being unassigned looking at revenues for the year revenues totaled just under 92 million dollars with local tax revenues being 45 million in state revenues being 44 million dollars on the expenditure side of 91 million dollars instructional expenditures were 47.4 with Support Services totaling 41.4 million dollars other financing sources which are transfers and flexibility and indirect costs from other funds totaled three million dollars with a
119net increase in your fund balance in the general fund for the year of 3.9 million dollars foreign any questions related to that related to any of the numbers I know I'm flying pretty quick but I know you've had a chance to review the report so I'm just giving you a quick highlights here a lot of times we look at fiscal accountability for boards this is act 23 that went into legislation and I believe in 2018 that established the fund balance level of 8.33 or one month's worth of operating expenditures districts total expenditures in the general fund as we went over previously was just over 91 million dollars that act 23 compliance would require 7.5 million your unassigned balance as you can see here is 20.5 million leaving you approximately 22.6 in that calculation [Music] next
120we have the certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting the gfoa recognizes conformance with high standards and preparation of these Financial reports it's an application process a scrutinize this report scrutinizes the years prior I would like to report that the district was awarded the certificate regarding their 21 Financial audit and we do anticipate receiving that award this year for the 22 Financial audit and are there any questions otherwise that concludes the presentation on the financial audit I had one question on the on the pensions the yes 225 million yes are those are those considered underfunded or what what exactly is that exactly um so the state pension plan is prescribed by piba um on the state level they have their own board um and they dictate the contribution levels as well as the retirements
121so it's made up of two buckets here there's two trust funds that are set up one is for retirement and one is for other post-employments which account for health as you know as members of the retirement system and health benefit system they're entitled those benefits long after they terminate employment so when we look at the employer costs of these Associated benefits this is the proportionate share of that liability for the district it's looked at on a state level done by the states actuary that they hire and they proportionate proportionally allocate out individual portions of that liability to every employer in the state that is a part of that system and that varies based off of the size of the district it varies based off of various factors that the actuary computes and we use those
122numbers as computed by that actuary okay thank you thank you very much good news yes the next on our agenda is going to call Lisa up to to do the procurement which Harris is going to present as well so Harris I'm just going to turn it over to you wonderful thank you um in presenting the procurement audit my business partner lesla Kelly conducts the procurement audit for the district um as you may or may not be aware the procurement audit is prescribed by the state South Carolina state fiscal accountability Authority division of procurement Services office of audit and certification that's a mouthful essentially they prescribe a audit program that dictates exact procedures that we are required to do in order to test the district's compliance with not only the district's procurement code but with any
123requirements that the state might have in that audit program I will not go through in full detail as it's a lengthy four-page report of detailed um testing that we had to do on the district's procurement code but I would like to say that we did perform those procedures for the year ended June 30th 22 in testing that those procedures outlined in the district's procurement code were followed as accordance to the plan looking at all of those procedures that are outlined on those four-page report we did have one deficiency that I'd like to point out and that's related to the disa the districts unauthorized procurement ratification process we did find one transaction that was considered paid prior to the ratification being completed we have discussed this with District management they feel it is an isolated instance
124we have nothing that would lead that to be anything other than that are there any questions related to the district's procurement policies that was our only deficiency we noted thank you [Music] Miss Johnson you're on again and Mr chair as uh Miss Johnson and Mr Street come forward to prepare uh one of the the reports that we do annually is our per pupil expenditure report and this may sound familiar because we just went over this back in the fall but whenever we were making that presentation there were some questions about uh per pupil expenditure amounts at some schools in relation to others and why there was this a significant difference and a lot of that has to do with school size and so I asked our team Miss Johnson and her team to come back
125and give a little more information about that and so she has worked with some of her team members Mr street is here tonight to assist but they pulled out some some comparative numbers for our four smallest schools to talk about that and how the per pupil allocation and expenditures compare with the smaller schools with the other schools in our district so Ms Johnson will turn over to you thank you Mr Price chairman Gaskins board members um to give you a little bit of background the pupil expenditures or PPE by school building level is required to be published by the esa which is every student succeeds act um it is based on a calculation using our audited expenditure data which we just finished so we were able to pull our 22 numbers into tonight's presentation along
126with the 135 ADM or average daily membership plus our three and four-year-old counts since it is required to be published by law South Carolina includes it on the school report cards so I'm sure you probably have noticed it at some point I think the first year of it was 2017-18. um there are some expenditures and I have really simplified this but because there are pieces and parts of account numbers that mean something to us that probably would not mean a lot to you guys so these expenditures are not included and that's Statewide so they're trying to be consistent in the way that we all report this is anything related to Debt Service which is any payments of principal interest or cost of issuance of bonds during the year no capital projects or equipment that's everything
127in our capital projects plan finishing up the bond referendum plan um vacuum cleaners none of that is included in in these figures pupil activities pupil activities are the school-related clubs and Athletics and things like that that are raising money in the schools but they're spent on the activities so those were are omitted as well and then adult education is not included intergovernmental expenditures such as payments to other governmental units if we have to pay the state department for something payments to the charter school and transfers between funds like indirect costs are not included in the per pupil figures So based on our enrollment the four smallest schools and they're in alphabetical order Browns Ferry Elementary Carvers Bay Middle School plantersville elementary school in sampitt elementary school we could include it have included a couple other
128small schools in there but over the four years these were the consistently the most the smallest ones and this just gives you a picture of four years worth of average daily membership and average daily membership is calculates the frequency at which the students are in Schools Enrollment is a snapshot so enrollment today would be just the kids that are active in our schools today but average daily membership goes across the whole year for the students that are maybe in and out or they're only there for a short time we get credit for those in funding so this gives you um the average daily membership and enrollment for the schools for 2018 19 through 20 21 22. [Music] and these are the Issa per pupil expenditures for the same years um you can see that Brown's
129Ferry started at 15 141 in 2019. and in 2022 it's up to 19456. that's a 28 and a half percent increase in those expenditures per pupil Harvest made Metal started at eleven thousand five for uh 1819 and are up to 14 773 for 21.22 and that is about a 34. point two percent increase the plantersville started at 22 183 and you'll notice that in 2020 it actually excuse me increased more and then decreased again in 2021 excuse me in looking at that we found that they had two certified staff members on extended medical leave that year so we were not only paying the staff member for being out but we were paying a substitute extra in that school which bumped those numbers up so um because it's such a small campus and small number it
130really impacted the average and Samford Elementary was at 11 909 and is up to 16 738 in 2122 and this the next slide shows you what it all of our elementary schools um if we're averaged is 14 467. we did not include custom Montessori charter school and we did not include Waccamaw Intermediate because the grades were just so different from what we were looking at with the other schools so you can see how the the three smallest elementary schools compare to the district-wide average if you look down at the second line 13 795 we excluded the smallest schools that's what the average would be without the higher averages that those small schools produce same thing for the Middle School the all middle schools was 12 12 917 and the middle schools without curves Bay middle
131was twelve thousand five fifty six and what I'd like to call your attention though and it was on the previous screen as well is that the grade configuration at Waccamaw Middle and Waccamaw Elementary calls those schools to be higher because of the the way that the grades are are situated we've looked at the average teacher salary we used this year's teacher salary on excluding benefits and you can see the district's average is 57 333. um the all the schools two of the schools are way below or fairly below and then you have one that's fairly High we were looking to see if if the schools had more turnover we're not able to keep the experienced teachers were they bring having to bring in a lot of new inexperienced teachers but um in plantersville apparently they've
132been able to hang on to their their staff and this just gives you a bar graph of those per pupil expenditures through those four years so that you can kind of kind of get a visual of what that what has happened this is Brown's fairies this is the student demographics we've got the male female and white other and African-American and broken down by percentage we use last year's 135 day for these numbers and this is Staff demographics based on this year male female white and African-American and this is the list of the positions at each of the small schools just to give you an idea they have 9.8 teachers at Browns Ferry and then a total of 14 certified staff including the certified staff that works with the whole school we've got 12 classified staff
133members for a total staff of 26. they also have 2.6 temporary employees at their location same thing for cars Bay middle the bar graph to just show you what the change in those per pupil expenditures over the four years look like student demographics male female and then Hispanic other white African-American percentages and staff demographics male female and I think we have Asian white and African-American and this is the Carver spade metal certified staff these are the teachers that they have in place currently and the additional certified staff brings them to 23. classified staff is 14.4 so they have total staff of 37.4 and one temporary assistant principal and I would like to point out while we're here that there are a lot of special ed services that we were not able to capture it may
134be 30 minutes in a school um once a week twice a week that kind of thing so we've not captured those ftes in these numbers but Mr kavirus is he's they've got it and we know that they're all being served we just haven't counted them in these temporary staff in these staff counts and here's plantersville um and you can see where it went up more in 2020 and then came down um 2020 and 2021 also are the covid impacted years and so it's very difficult to compare the things that that you would normally be able to compare if we hadn't had covid a lot of things happened and we had to do a lot of things that were extra we paid employees at the end of that 1920 school year when schools closed in March
135so we paid everybody through the end of the year so it's it's still very difficult to um to really get a handle on what the impact of that was and here's plantersville's student demographics and staff demographics and here's a list of their staff they have seven and a half teachers and then um a total of 11 with the staff members that come in and work with the entire School and nine classified staff members total of 20. [Applause] have one instructional assistant um because we we have a combined class of pre-K and K at that school so we brought in an extra instructional assistant to help that with that and here's sampit and what theirs looks like over four years with the bar graph and their student demographics as well male female race and staff demographics
136[Applause] and this is their staff listing they have 19 teachers and with a total of 24.5 certified staff and 16.2 classified staff for a total of 40.7 I have one Title One temporary teacher that's paid on a timesheet that does interventions so that's she uses Title One money for that one and that's that's what we have I'll be happy to try to answer questions or bring back additional information if that would be your wish I'd like to say thank you because I think that paints a very clear picture of the expenditures that we're making per student in some of our smaller environments and when you look at at plantersville with the numbers of students that are there how does that rank as far as small schools in our state do you have any idea I
137believe if it hasn't changed it's the smallest Elementary School in the state okay and we are paying a tremendous amount of money per pupil as compared to the other schools and when we're looking at programs across our whole District it's concerning that that we're expending that many dollars and I wonder if we could get some information about the demographics of where these children live and proximities to some of our other elementary schools and you know before we at Kensington had a very large population and that population has decreased some too and so when I know we took a look at that several several years ago and the travel time and that kind of thing but I'm wondering if we could look at our student population in proximity to the adjacent schools to see if serving
138them in buildings that are all certainly and I certainly would never want us to lose use of our facility at plantersville there's lots of repurposing I think we could do there but I would like to look at how that population would span out and where those children might fit in if we could raise the numbers in our other schools that per pupil amount would go down and serve the children in the same way so that does concern me especially when we look at programs and and what we're going to do in other schools across our district so I'd really like that for us to look further into that this may be redundant of what you were saying but I'm curious has any thought ever been given to combining Brown's Ferry and plantersville to get the
139numbers up and the cost down for pupil we we approached it back during the recession when we were having budget cuts but it it obviously it didn't happen so but we did talk about it the board talked about it we brought some information to the board at that time and but our enrollments have decreased markedly overall since that time as well in those particular schools and other schools across our district it isn't just those schools because as we look at all four of these the enrollment decline it is real but looking at combining some school populations would certainly free up some dollars and not that everything's about dollars but in this day with budget the way it is and funding programs it's very difficult you can only spend that dollar in one place so I
140certainly think it really does take another look at that uh Mr Price uh I think we had a conversation last year about combining and uh I don't think we ever Revisited but we were supposed to correct me if I'm wrong there was some discussion about uh Bond projects that was going on and this was about two and a half years ago and um there was no request at that time to con to to move forward with that discussion so it was it was stopped and halted at that point I didn't remember exactly what we talked about but I think we said you were going to get some information and come back to us I don't think we ever went back to it and look into it again see what you want to bring back to
141us foreign you might want to look at the mileage between plantersville and Brown's Ferry and plantersville and Kensington I'm not sure what the big difference would be in the mileage but just thinking it's got to be close [Applause] because I'd probably be more interested in knowing why everybody's leaving the Planters really going to other schools schools yeah and that would warrant looking at where our population is coming from you know they're because some of them where their residence is and um any other questions or discussion thank you very much Johnson the next thing on our budget is board budget priorities um I don't know if this is going to be up on the screen but you have the handout of the priorities that we came up with at our board retreat through a survey that
142we did this was based on tallying the sheets that created that we all ranked if you look at it you'll see what's Falls number one two and three recruitment retention efforts is number one number two increase salary for all employees three academic Behavior interventions then you can see what fell below I don't know if there's any discussion or questions I don't I wanted y'all to make sure you are you see this because we will use this if we're all in agreement as we go through our budget process this year for the next school year [Applause] if there's no questions or thoughts we're going to move on to legislative updates miss Lynn Ford thank you Mr chair some time ago we've been talking about um how we can bring legislative issues more to the Forefront just
143so that we're all aware as a but as a board in what issues are impacting the state as well as mainly local for our school board and for school district and so we decided that it would be necessary to have at least a monthly update for our for our board meetings and so I prepared something and and don't worry I'm not going to go through all four pages of this that was mainly for your for your review I'm just gonna hit some highlights um and it's organizational meeting in December the house unanimously re-elected Merle Smith Jr as a speaker of the house and the house also re-elected Tommy Pope as Speaker pro tempore um lawmakers pre-filed more than 840 bills this past November and December several of which addressed the South Carolina School boards Association
144legislative resolutions and I just wanted to share a couple of highlights here um South Carolina School Board school start date resolution supports amending state law to give local school boards the authority to set the school year start date the South Carolina School Board association's elimination of the education oversight committee resolution supports eliminating the agency and transferring its duties to the South Carolina Department of Education um there's also a retired teacher salary cap resolution that supports the elimination of the salary cap for retired classroom teachers and then the other thing I wanted to mention the center for school Behavioral Health there's a bill that authorizes the State Department of Education to accept credentials of schools psychologists social workers and guidance counselors to serve as school psychologists in the state under certain conditions um finally the set
145Senate education committee met on Thursday this past Thursday to debate a bill that provides Public Funding for students to attend the private school or public school this was a full committee meeting where no public testimony was taken during the meeting it's the same legislation that passed the Senate this past legislation legislative session the provision requiring scholarship students take the same state standardized test required of schools public school students is not included in the current bill that the committee is taking up so that's something that we are keeping an eye on um in other areas budget preparations the state superintendent Spearman had provided the office of administration with her last budget proposal and she's listed her highlights as and then the governor also had his budget proposals obviously the incoming um the incoming State superintendent will
146probably have differing proposals from the current one and so we will see what those what those budget revisions look like when they come when they come through and just as a reminder our local Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a legislative breakfast where our local legislative members will participate in the 2023 legislative breakfast on Friday January 27th at Polly's Plantation thank you very much Miss Ford moving on to our board superintendent comments or requests just a reminder that on the 27th there's the all-county band performance at Andrews High School I think it's 6 p.m and on Saturday the 28th is the academic Fair then the next weekend you got to forgive me I can't remember the date I think it's an email out is that the state teacher of the year is going to be here
147in the Board Room February 2nd February the 2nd at 5 pm State teacher of the year will be here meeting with teacher forum and the school board is invited are there any other comments from I certainly would like to say thank you to our financial Folks at the district the audit is a very very difficult process as you go through and and everything is tested they certainly have done a wonderful job of managing the funds and our position as a district is so strong that we should all be very proud but it takes a lot of work and a lot of people so I'd like to say thank you for a job well done and thank you for preparing for us tonight things that we can look at so that we can make better decisions
148as a board so I appreciate your work tremendously Mr Cox so we all voted unanimously on the Personnel list yes one of my biggest concerns on that list it's too late now but when I saw Bradley Adams down as the football coach recommendation keep does that mean he is in effective tomorrow or is that just a recommendation and will there be another vote I'll Reserve comment on that at this time okay because I'm going to get 500 phone calls when I leave here so what I saw on the recommendation was his name with an effective date and a replacement but what you're telling me is that's not really carved in stone yet well I'll Reserve comment until okay afterwards okay all right thank you any other comments to price all right thank you Mr chair
149uh good evening Mr chair and Ladies and Gentlemen of the board Happy New Year to everyone it's hard to believe but today marks the first day of semester two in a school year that is zooming by since we last met in December we received great news from the Department of Safety of Public Safety that the Howard campus has been approved for a school resource officer Grant which means we will be adding an SRO there at no cost to the district the city of Georgetown has already begun this process to identify this person so we expect them that they will be joining us very soon we also learned that Waccamaw high school has been named one of the Southern Regional Education boards Pacesetter School award recipients and they will be recognized at the making schools work
150conference this summer in Orlando Florida so congratulations to Mr George and the warrior family at Waccamaw High and then finally in honor of Dr Martin Luther King Jr day which was celebrated yesterday I share one of his quotes intelligence plus character that is the goal of true education and as we all work to provide a quality education for all students may we also work to grow and develop the character of our students as they prepare to shape our future moving forward thank you Mr chair thank you the decks on our agenda is executive session for the discussion of pending legal case updates is there a motion that would go into an executive session so moved second it's been moved and it's been second all in favor say aye aye all opposed nay the motion is
151carried and we will Retreat to the executive session [Music]