Laurens County School District 55 - Board Meeting

001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> at 6:30, so I will go ahead and call us to order. Ms. Branum, did we notify the media? We did. Thank you. And I do declare that we have a quorum with all four members present. Um we will need approval for the agenda before we move forward. I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor of approving the agenda, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Uh the agenda is approved. And uh welcome everyone. Thank you for being here tonight. Um and I'm going to do my um say something good. Oh no, tell me something good. All right, who wants to start? I'll start. Okay. My something good is that I'm grateful for God's grace. Absolutely. My something good

002is we have reached graduation season and I just want to say congratulations to all the high school graduates who's going to be graduating, the eighth graders who's going to be moving to the high school, and the kindergartners who's moving up to the first grade. My something good is 90 in May and everybody at Long Leaf is going to love me again. Uh my something good is um my daughter will be going to the high school next year and I'm excited about it. I'm really excited about it. My something good is when you're father or parent of older children, you don't get the opportunity to have them all under one roof very often. This past weekend we I I had two students graduating from two different colleges. And so I I I missed one graduation and

003went to the other. And my wife missed when I was out. That's what we had to do with the Battle of Conquerors. But we made it a whole weekend, graduation weekend. And then all of my kids came and it was just such a delight that for all my kids to be under one roof, around a kitchen table, and just laughing and just being a family. That's nice. They're good. Jay? Sure. Uh Miss Cartnell, go ahead. You know it's kind of hard to have something good all the time. But in the last couple of weeks we've had two kids involved in crime. One of our kids shot somebody and they killed him. Um Saturday night a group retaliated shot another kid and he's laying in the hospital. So my great thing is first of all our

004kids are talking. Yeah, thank you Mr. Carpenter. You're welcome. Okay. All right, my something good is I'm almost two weeks out from my gallbladder surgery and doing well so I'm still trying to figure out the life without a gallbladder. >> [snorts and laughter] >> It gradually improves. It gets better. Yeah, you'll get back to normal. Um my something good is for two weekends in a row I had Candy graduate from Winthrop life two weekends ago and then yesterday McKenzie graduated from Wofford so we're proud of them and um it was fun and having everybody together. So All right, and now I will um thank you for all for participating and now I will turn it over to uh Mr. Entrican to introduce our student who's going to lead us in the pledge. Well, I have

005the good fortune of introducing We did. an eighth grader and a first grader uh from DCO. Come on around. I can see one of them. >> [laughter] >> All right, and they are uh an uncle and a niece and they are also the uh child and grandchild of our SRO Marty Crane. So this is our eighth grader Jonathan Crane and Leah Crane. Fantastic. Let's see. Please. please stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. United States of America. And to the republic And to the republic for which we stand, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Thank you students for being here tonight. Thank you, Mr. Antrican. And um just to make sure we we did approve the agenda, right? We

006did that. Yes. Okay. So, Mr. Harper was asking. I just wanted to make sure I didn't blank and go past that. Um Mr. Jenkins, will you lead us in prayer? Yes. Let us all bow our Gracious heavenly Father, we recognize you as our God and our forgiver. Lord, we thank you for your comfort in times of need. We celebrate some good times. You help us through the bad. Father, we ask your blessings on this evening. We hope you'll give all of us insights and wisdom to make good decisions that further your kingdom through this school district. We look to you for grace and mercy every day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Um now we do need approval for our minutes. Um for the uh April 27th work session and board

007meeting, and then also our work session on May 4th. Um I do have a question regarding the minutes for our May 4th board meeting. Um No, excuse me. Our April 27th board meeting. But we if someone would like to make a motion to go through to go ahead and approve our work session minutes for April 27th and May 4th, and then I can share about the board meeting minutes. I'll make a motion to approve our work session minutes for April 27th and May 4th. I'll second. Thank you. Any questions or discussions there? All right. All those in favor of approving our April 27th and May 4th work session minutes, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? All right. The motion carries. Our board meeting minutes um for April 27th, um if no one's had If

008you haven't had the opportunity to to glance over those uh prior to now, if you want to take a minute to do so, I will share the the section that is concerning to me is fiscal watch, and that is kind of a few pages down on the minutes. That particular section, I do not think reflects exactly and accurately what transpired in our meeting. Um and um it it specifically like one There's several things that I think are missing, but one key line is it states that Ms. Kitt asked about voting to take action to appeal, but the board stated they did not have a plan yet to vote on. What actually happened was we were asked if we wanted to take a vote to appeal, and Ms. Kitt pointed out that we had passed our

009deadline to appeal. So, that um and I know it's difficult to get everything down as we're walking through it, but I do think that that section maybe go back maybe we're going to go back and watch the video to kind of correct that to what it should say, and we can approve those next month. So, you're going to table approving April 27th minutes for corrections and then approve them in our June. Yes. Yes. So. >> be motioned and then motioned? Yes, it does. Then I'll make a motion that we um not vote on April 27th board meeting minutes today, but we correct based on watching past video of that meeting and vote on them those minutes in our next board meeting in June. I'll second. Thank you. Um any questions or discussion? All those in

010favor of tabling our vote for the April 27th board meeting minutes, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right, the motion carries. Thank you. And now we will move to Mr. Antrican to present his report on GCA. Which by the way was my school. No pressure, huh? Well, knowing that also uh Ms. Little, uh you had mentioned uh the amount of pride that you had your in your daughter walking across the stage at Winthrop. Uh as my I guess you could say happiness moment, I was at that same event that you were. Oh, wow. There are some under the sound of my voice who recognize my daughter. We were There were times we were worried she wouldn't even get a high school diploma. Some of Some of you might know that. And she walked off

011the stage at Winthrop that day with an MBA. Fantastic. >> a lot of proud moments for me as a father, but also that's a LDHS graduate for us to be proud of. All right. I also want to thank each and every one of you and Dr. Penland for the opportunity you gave me last year to serve the teachers and students of Gray Court. It has been absolutely fantastic and I love every minute of it. The people that are out there at GCO, I know that there's going to be folks that come up to this podium and say this and that about their building. We are the best. We are the best at what we do and we're proud of it and I'm going to give you some examples of that today. First of all, one

012of the things that's important to us, Dr. Penland does have the the anchors for the five-star accountability and that's something that we try to live out each day. And one of the things that I guess you could say that I do as a leader is I put out on every single thing we do that excellence is the standard. It's not just the five stars, it is the standard of what we do. And when you put that out on everything you do, it forces you to live up to it because if that's what you're advertising that you are, you better make sure every day and every decision and everything that you do reflects that and I can tell you we try very hard to do that every day at GCO through the five anchors that Dr.

013Penland gives us. And so my presentation for you today from Gray Court is what we are doing to try to make those five anchors work for us. So, we are attaining excellence in our academics. One of the things that we're trying to do is make that orange and red as small as possible and we are getting better at that uh over last year. Now, this is our map testing in reading for the elementary. Of course, we want the yellow, the green, and the blue to be bigger, but it is improving and we got a lot to be proud of and I'll show you why a little bit later. This is what our middle school is doing in reading. Now, this was just for map. We don't have uh we have preliminary SC Ready data, but

014not enough for it to be added to this yet. Okay? Our goal uh, in growth for mathematics because we did have a brand new curriculum that we're having to do this year. And growth right now matters in mathematics a little bit more than achievement. So, you can see that our growth in the elementary school and what we're doing in the middle school. So, we're seeing the growth that we're looking for and hopefully it's going to translate into achievement uh, on SC Ready. And one of the things we want to make sure we do, and this is just a small example. If I put every example up there of everything that we do to try to recognize uh, academic success, that would be my 20-minute presentation or more. So, we make sure that we celebrate every

015little thing and every little academic success that our students have both publicly and privately inside of our building. And the weight reason I believe that we are having uh, this growth and success is has nothing to do with me. And I know you see my head up there on that instructional leadership team. But, I'm telling you that those people are the reason why. Particularly, I want to give some credit to the two ladies that are here with me today. That's Ms. Molly Raines and Merica Dyer. They are essential to what we do each day as well as some of the folks that you see on this slide. So, just like everybody else, we have those weekly uh, ILT meetings. We have weekly cluster meetings uh, where we focus on instructional needs that we figured out

016through our data through the year. And we I don't know if if any other schools do this, we develop our own observational tools that we use to collect data in order to drive our decision-making. >> [clears throat] >> So, there's our three primary coaches, Ms. Merica Dyer, Ms. Kennedy Campbell and Sue Broder. And some of the things that they do and one of the as you can see the slide, I don't want to read everything to you, you can read it for yourself. But, I want uh, our our bottom bullet seems to be cut off a little bit right there. But, one of the things that I think we should really take pride in at GCO is some of the stuff that we did to implement instructional strategies for our ML students. We saw a

017double in the amount of students on MLs that graduated out of the program this past year compared to the one before. So, I want to give credit to our gen ed teachers and particularly our coaches for providing some strategies for our teachers to help with our MLs. One of the things Dr. Pender also wants is for us to be great in the arts with creativity and excellence. So, as you can see, I've got our folks up there. And I want to particularly highlight Ms. Deborah Evans. Uh one of the things that was important to me, as you know, I came out of the arts as a high school teacher. I wanted to make sure that the arts had a voice in our instructional leadership. So, I invited Ms. Deborah Evans to be a part of

018our instructional leadership team. And boy, has that been amazing. She has some fantastic strategies. One of the things that some of you guys may not realize is pretty much every teacher is evaluated on the 4.0 rubric. And an arts teacher is a living, breathing example of how the 4.0 rubric should happen every single day. Every one of them. And PE teachers as well. So, it's great having Ms. Deborah Evans in there to help provide some of those guidance to gen ed teachers on how they can achieve some of those things and some of those strategies. Uh also, you can see down there Ms. Bree Grindstaff. We also ran an honors art for some of our uh middle school students that enjoy that and and Mr. Hill ran a chess club. So, we got some neat

019things happening with our art teachers. And that's just a small highlight of some of the stuff that they can do. Like I said again, I could go on for 20 minutes just about some of the stuff that these folks achieved. Um want to read this quote to you from Ms. Mary Price, where she says, "Gray Court Elementary Yard has had a year full of creativity, growth, and exploration. From learning about color mixing to working with 3D art forms such as paper mache and clay, students have the opportunity to watch their ideas come to life through the creative exploration. Now, the thing that's great about Ms. Price is if you looked at her lesson plans, yes, there is art standards there, but you'll also find ELA ones, math. So, she's really doing a great job, all

020of our arts teachers, in implementing other standards into their work so that they're doubling up on it and really helping us out. All right. Another thing Dr. Penland wants is character and competition in athletics. Our athletic director, Mr. Terrance Leggett, is the living, breathing example of character in athletics. He is absolutely amazing. Not only does he do a great job of having good and athletic teams out there cuz you can see from what all he does there, he does a lot of the coaching of a lot of different sports and activities at GCO. But, he is the primary guy to make sure our student athletes show great academic success, but most importantly, he holds them to a standard and character that he himself exhibits. And he is an absolute superstar at GCO, and we're so

021fortunate to have him. And you can see his quote right there. He means it. When he says he wants our student athletes to be the best on the field, but in the classroom first, he lives it and he breathes it and he holds them accountable. And I thank him for it as often as I can. Okay? We also had this year the Broad River conference champions in volleyball. And another championship that's kind of special to us and it's kind of not over is our archery team represented us at the the Southeast region of the of Nationals, and they've qualified to go on to the United States Nationals. They'll be doing that shoot in uh June down I think it's the middle of June down in Daytona Beach. So, they're still not done. They're still representing

022us at a high level. As you can see coach Leggett there smiling all about it. All right. Our cheerleading squad. It's not often that you can say you have an LDHS Hall of Famer as one of your uh coaches, but we are so fortunate to have Miss Island there working with our girls basketball team. And again, there's coach Leggett running another sport. Football. We were really proud of this this year. This was the first time that we had done Girls on the Run in which we are specifically trying to build character in some of our young ladies just by using um running a 5K as the tool to do that. So, I want to thank those coaches and those young ladies that did that. Miss Raines was up uh in Spartanburg the day that they

023actually did the 5K run to support our students. And I also believe in the virtue and the values of what our PE teachers bring every day in making sure that they bring character and competition to what we do. And in fact, down in the bottom right corner, you can see a lot of times there. That was a sort of a post I had taken where I was sharing things with teachers where I was showing them this is what this coach does to show how they are meeting this point of the part of the 4.0. So, they are outstanding folks at GCO. This lady right here is amazing also. Miss Kay Arnold, our attendance clerk. Uh she on a daily basis is calling students to say, "Why are you not here today? What are some options

024we can do to try to make sure you're here tomorrow?" And I think for her it was making those contacts with parents and building those relationships that has caused us to have a really big increase in attendance because she's she hasn't forgotten them. It isn't oh, they didn't show up. They didn't show up. She gets on the phone and says, "Why are you not here today?" That's a lot of pressure for a parent sometimes to have to answer. And so, you can see what our average daily rate is per grade. And I would give a lot of credit to that to Miss Kay for making sure she stays on top of it and making sure the parents know that we're watching for them. Particularly when it comes to some of our other groups that we've

025got to make sure they're not getting instruction if they're not in the building. And I want to give Miss Kay a lot of credit for making sure that this particular group is in the building every day. And we have a lot to be proud of with Miss Kay. Um our teacher climate report that came back, it was pretty good. Uh I think the lady told me if it was above 75, you're in great shape. So, I'll just let you sort of take a look at some of those categories there where our teachers feel like some things are going really well for them. And the number on the right is a comparison to what it was last year. And of course, atmosphere being the last thing, which is kind of the culture of our building. So,

026what you see here is on the far left just as a small example of some of the things that we do and then some of the highlights that I have for you. So, once again, I want to thank all of you guys for giving me the opportunity to serve the students and teachers at Gray Court. It has been an absolute pleasure. And I thank you guys for your support. Thank you, Mr. Anderson. All right, now I'll turn it over to Dr. Penland for the superintendent's report. So, our first thing on the agenda for my district update for this month will be to recognize our junior scholars. Um the State Department of Education reads this way. It says the South Carolina Junior Scholar Program was developed by South Carolina Department of Education during the 85-86 school

027year to reflect the statewide effort to improve education in South Carolina and to provide the needs of students possessing exceptional talent. The purpose of this program is to identify these students and to provide opportunities that will facilitate their intellectual growth, broaden their individual interests, and promote their scholastic achievement. Students must be enrolled in eighth grade to be recognized for junior scholar, and these are the students who have scored 550 or higher on PSAT or NMSQT or in in writing and reading or a 530 on the math test of the PSAT. And so, we are now excited to identify these students that have been recognized by our state for junior scholars for this past school year. So, will the following students come up and we will recognize you. So, Jackson Adams from Sanders Middle School. And

028so, you're actually receiving a certificate and bumper stickers that say South Carolina Junior Scholar parent, which will be allow you to um promote that. And then we also have Trent Richie from Greencord Owens. We have Christian Campbell from Lawrence Middle. We have Tyler Wilson from Lawrence Middle. Jessamine Jones from Greencord Owens. And Benjamin Robinson from Lawrence Middle. So, congratulations to our very intelligent students who have scored very well on the PSAT and congratulations to your parents, too. >> [applause] >> All right, the next thing is the end of the school year is here and so we'll be recognizing Memorial Day next Monday and we'll have graduation on Friday of next week. And so just kind of make make everybody mark their calendars. We are finishing up with our SC Ready testing and our end of

029course testing at our schools and so I think we're down to very few makeups over the next few days. Also want to do a shout-out for our track state qualifiers. If you see there, I've got a couple of pictures of a couple of people. The girls triple jump, Chris Carter, she came in third in the state for 4A track. And also down there you see Z Simpson, which is top middle. He was first. He was a state champion for boys 400 meter hurdles for Lawrence 55 and so they competed this past week and so congratulations to to and I appreciate everything um Juwan Stephen does for our um track and field um and also um everything he does at the high school. All right. And so, we will now jump into the next thing on

030the agenda will be the 27-28 calendar, which will be for first reading for you. Um we have um over the past um couple of months, we have been working with Lawrence 56. We do a combined calendar um between the two districts. Um we have had three milli- um meetings to develop and review. We've looked at three different calendars, a modified um that we currently run, a traditional that we'd go back to starting the after the third Monday of August and running into June, and we also have the modified with two-week breaks um like we did the first year that we um were implementing the calendar committee I mean um modified calendar. And so, the um we received parent and staff feedback um and we had our last meeting on May 6th. I'm sorry that says

031next meeting, but we just had our last meeting and um we are presenting today first reading for our more May board meeting on the calendar that is in your packet. Um some of the um survey information that we received was 712 um participants on our survey um with um 63% um for our district coming back with modified one-week breaks, and then you also have um 22% for modified two-week breaks, 14% um for traditional. And Clinton there um modified one-week break was closer to 70% whenever they did their survey, um but then you can see the breakdown of who actually um completed that survey um for us in the um district. Sure. Yeah. I'll um send that um survey information out. Yep. Um and so, you can see here um the proposed calendar will be a,

032um, Let me get my copy, so it's a little bit easier for me to read. Glasses work, but not quite that far. And so, um, you'll see that we have a 3-day and a 2-day, um, teacher work, um, week. And this is for the '27-'28, so this is not next school year. So, this will be the following year. Um, with, um, early release days built in. You'll see fall break. Um, the first week of break will be the week, second week in October. You'll see that there is also, um, the full week at Thanksgiving, which will be two, um, utilizing two makeup days there. Two full weeks in December. Um, with a start of January 3rd to come back, um, there. And you'll see spring break week is the second week in April. With a

033finish date of, um, May 25th will be graduation. May 26th will be a teacher work day. And then you would end up with, um, being completed with school prior to Memorial Day. So, that's, um, the way that this calendar and the committee, um, voted, um, and the way that the calendar committee works is we come together, um, and look at a couple of calendar options. We go through that with everybody that's on the calendar committee, um, come up with the first draft. That first draft is taken back to the schools, um, for feedback. We come back together, and that feedback is then, um, developed, um, into a final version. Um, this year that final version was also, um, recommended that we look at because there was some people requesting we go back to traditional, some

034people that we were requested to do the two-week breaks. And so, the two-week break, um, you can kind of see those red weeks in there, which is around, um, October and June, I mean sorry, April. Those will be two red weeks if we went with the two weeks, but that would also bump the green days two more weeks into June. So, we would not actually finish until probably the 9th of June if we did that. So, that was kind of why the mentality was to go back to the modified that is proposed here. And so, that's for first reading. Do we have any other questions? Will you back up to the survey and tell Okay, it looks like the largest portion is that purple on the left. Who Who What is that group? I can't

035So, that is That's looking at the number of people who submitted the survey to the and so, that purple group is the parent group. Okay. Yeah. The blue block, which is a fourth, is our teacher group. Okay. Thank you. All right. Um The summer learning opportunities that are here, Miss Burgess was not able to be with us and so, in this setting, you'll be able to see the information that is here for our summer opportunities. Um the goals for the summer learning opportunities, you know, is really preventative enrichment acceleration for our students. The focus areas will be academic focus, English language arts, math, science, and specific remediation with our enrichment activities being in the arts, sports, STEM workshops, and field trips. So, we'll be able to provide several of these different opportunities through the $100,000

036that was um able to be allocated to us through the state for additional funds through different types of grants. The summer learning logistics will start June 2nd for our teacher work day, then June 3rd 8 12 15 through 18 22 through 25 will be our days that students are actually in the buildings. Our full day program operations will be for cert app summer reading camp first and third and you can see the times there for students and teachers and then our half day programs will be 21st century summer reading camp extension and our PE course and our high school middle school to high school bridges program and you'll see that those are half day programs from 7:50 to 12:20 for our students. They will be served breakfast and lunch during this program and here you

037can see the summer learning programs kind of how they are the grade levels that they'll be provided services for. This is a huge puzzle that we had to put together with all of our different grants because some of this is paid for by title one 21st century summer reading camp summer reading camp extension funds and so you have all of these different components and then also the summer PE was our EDA grant. So you have a lot of different components that we try to utilize and grab funding across the state and through our different programs to be able to provide these summer learning experiences for our kids. That was quick. Does anybody have any questions for that? All right. Now Miss Madden will give us our HR update. Okay. I think you can me. Right?

038All right. >> [laughter] >> I thought I'd say it before you did, Pamela. >> Uh well, my name is Renee Madden and I am the director of HR and I'm here to present some data that we have compiled from the Human Resources Department. In my department, I work with some wonderful ladies. I say this every year and every year it continues to be true. I work with um Tracy McNewer. See if it's turned on on the side. What now? Okay. Well. Thank you. I work with Tracy. She's our administrative assistant. She keeps things going. She makes sure that we're paying the bills and doing things in an orderly fashion and that is always needed. Alicia Scott deals with our uh special projects, whether that be bridging the gap with programs for our parapros to move

039into other positions. She also deals with teacher certification and um teacher evaluation and that is a huge piece. And also Ms. Nobles, Rebecca Nobles deals with everything with benefits, whether that be your insurance benefits, whether that be benefits that are offered through third-party companies, as well as retirement. So, um they all have huge jobs and I appreciate everything that they do. Okay. Tonight, I want to talk a little bit about teacher engagement. That's been a focus for HR and we have partnered with Upbeat, which is a company that helps us by providing surveys that give us data to let us know which direction to go next. In other words, it lets us know what's working well and it also lets us know what is not working so well. And Mr. Intrigan actually used some of

040that Upbeat data and I was glad to see that. Okay. Higher teacher engagement leads to higher teacher retention, which is something that we all know that we need, and higher student achievement, which is what the purpose is for all of us even being here. Research shows that fostering a fostering positive working conditions for teachers is not just about staff morale and retention. It's linked to measurable student outcomes. And I want to be clear when I say working conditions, I am in the in some way speaking in terms of facilities, but it's broader than that. The working conditions deals with the environment, the atmosphere, and the culture that's created at school. Research shows that teachers who feel connected, supported, valued, are more than likely they're going to remain in the profession and particularly remain in the

041district where they are working. And this positively impacts students. Teacher engagement includes uh the individuals feeling respected and supported, building positive relationships with those around them, being included in the decision-making processes where possible. We know that's not always possible, but our principals do strive to include them in processes where it is appropriate. Having access to meaningful professional development, feeling a sense of purpose, motivation, and belonging, and believing their work is appreciated and impactful. Now, with regard to retention, if the teacher is feeling this way, and I say teachers, but I mean teachers, uh guidance counselors, paraprofessionals, but this particular survey focuses more on certified employees. But if they feel this way, they're more likely, as I said, to remain in Laurens County School District 55, experience higher job satisfaction, demonstrate professionalism, which means I won't

042be sent out to a lot of different places, avoid burnout, and contribute positively to school culture and morale. When this does not happen, employees leave. We have higher teacher turnover. Now, with regard to student achievement, if the teacher is engaged, they're able to build those strong relationships with their students that they teach, but they're also able to build those relationships with students they don't even teach, such as when they're on the hall or when they're in the hall for hall duty. They feel comfortable engaging with those students, creating positive and effective classroom environments, delivering high-quality instruction, and just really overall being responsive to the needs of our students. Now, having said all that, what does that mean for the leaders in the district? And in particular, in this particular case, I'm speaking in terms of

043our principals because they are right here in the building with the teachers. The research is letting us know that we need to prioritize teacher working conditions as a strategic lever for student success. We need to use this engagement data to identify areas for improvement, such as what you shared with us. Um, even in HR, we've seen some data that came back that was not good, and we had to make adjustments with that as well. We should recognize that engagement improvements may lead to measurable academic gains, and consider teacher teacher engagement as a part of comprehensive school improvement planning. And we all know we are undergoing the process of strategic planning and this will be a piece of that for human resources. So, the goals that we focused on for this year dealt with teacher voice.

044We're really dealing with teacher engagement and that includes teacher voice, professional growth, career path, satisfaction and purpose, principal / teacher trust, and the work environment versus the school environment. Our goal was to have above 80% participation from all of our certified employees. We were able to get 92% participation, so we feel this is good solid data. And I'm just going to go through a few Well, actually, a couple of the slides because we did have some areas of growth. The red bar is referring to this time last year, 2025, and the blue is where we are now. And as you can see, we have had some increases. Um when we deal with appreciation, as I stated earlier, when people Well, I guess people in general feel that they are appreciated and their work is meaningful,

045they do have a tendency to stay where they are and that did um increase from 77% to 80% and a lot of that is thanks to our communications department because they have been doing a lot [clears throat] of things to try to make certain that all employees do feel appreciated. Um supervisory / principal relationships, that did go up from 87% to 90%. Recruitment, 77% to 79%, but that recruitment also includes teachers talking to other individuals about coming and working in the district. Evaluation up slightly from 90% to 91% and autonomy from 87% to 88%. Now, this evaluation and autonomy, I think that directly correlates with the things that we're doing in teaching and learning with I L T district D I L T um as well as cluster because our teachers are understanding the expectation

046and they're able to work autonomously through having um cluster and things of that nature. And then I just have one more slide I want to show uh with some data. The future commitment. All of these little areas uh refer to questions that are on the survey. One question was, I can see myself teaching at my school for at least the next year. That also increased. And and these are overall scores. I would recommend working at my school to a friend. That was a slight increase. Okay. Let's talk about some specific things that the survey deals with. Um this was an area of strength for us. The domain was principal teacher trust. Overall, because there's several questions within that domain, they were 90% positive. And that is up 3%. And a sample of one of the

047questions, this is question 12, is my principal backs me up when I need support. That particular question was 91% positive. Satisfaction and purpose. Overall, on all the questions, there was a 93% positive response, but there's that wasn't a change. So, it didn't increase, but it did not decrease. One of the questions, the work that I do each day has a lasting positive impact on students was 97% positive. Instructional leadership, overall all of the questions were 94 are the responses were 94% positive. That is up 2%. Sample of the question is the principal at my school is an effective instructional leader. That was 90% positive. And as I said, I do believe that goes back to our cluster meetings where our principals are able to get in front of our staff along with our instructional coaching

048and master teachers and they all are able to get in there and learn from each other and then they're able to share that with our faculty and staff. All right, now let's talk about an area of opportunity. Professional development is the particular domain. Uh overall all the questions they were 74% positive and that is down 4%. One of the questions was, my professional development organized by my district helps me improve my teaching. That particular question received 63% positive response. Teacher voice and leadership, 82% kind of stays the same um as it was last year. Administrators at my school actively seek input from teachers when making important decisions. Overall response was 74%. And compensation and career path, 54% for all of the questions, 54% positive. That is down 2%. Teachers at my school have opportunities to

049advance their careers through new or expanded roles. Overall that particular question received an 81% positive response. So those are just a few areas. There are other areas of improvement, but I just wanted to give you give you an example that it does give you positive data, but it will also tell you where you need to improve. Um and now let's look at our schools overall. Spring to spring growth in all areas of focus and schools were to choose a minimum of three goals for areas of improvement. And they could be in uh teacher principal trust. It could be in instructional leadership. Various goals. But we had three schools that made growth in all of their areas. That was E. B. Morse Elementary, Gray-Court Elementary School, and Laurens Middle School. Our schools that had growth in

050one of the three areas of focus were Ford Elementary, Hickory Tavern School, Laurens District High School, and Laurens Elementary School. Our schools that did not see spring to spring growth in their area of focus, and this could mean that they stayed the same, just as some of the questions that I went through earlier, but those schools are Sanders Middle School and Waterloo Elementary School. Now what we do with this information is uh there's coaching that is provided to try to help our administrators. We coach We coach them to improve upon their weaknesses. And this is just an example of one of the goals. All right, at E. B. Morse, um Dr. Bailey and his team formed an instructional leadership goal. The key strategy was as a faculty, we will develop a shared understanding of the

051actions and behaviors of instructional leadership. The administrative team will routinely reflect on their efforts toward meeting these expectations. The domain, of course, was in instructional leadership, and that particular domain overall, there were 98% positive responses. That's up 15%. This specific question, which is cut off at the bottom, but it says, "The principal at my school communicates a clear vision for teaching and learning." That particular question, which is why it was selected, received 100% positive responses. And that was up 19%. >> [clears throat] >> Um Lawrence Middle School. Ms. Macalvain um wanted to work on the domain of school safety and order. The strategy was, "In partnership with teachers, we will develop a behavior matrix to be used schoolwide. Teachers will routinely analyze behavior data. The principal will provide resources for teachers to self-reflect on classroom

052management." As I said, the domain was school safety and order, and overall in that particular domain, there were 66% positive responses. That is up 6%. And one reason why this was selected was because last year it was low. So, the principal decided to focus to bring that up. Um the specific question, "Disciplinary practices are applied fairly to all students at my school." 43% positive, that's up 7%. And the last school I'm going to talk about is Hickory Tavern. Appreciation was selected as a targeted area of growth. Using a leadership inventory, administration will survey the teachers and analyze the responses to determine how best to acknowledge their contributions to the success of the school. That particular domain is obviously appreciation. All of the questions in that particular domain now are 87% positive, that's up 31%. One

053specific question, "Administrators at my school let me know when I'm doing great work." 87% positive, that is up 29%. Having said all that, the point is that teacher engagement directly impacts so many things, um including retention as well as achievement. It is [snorts] important that we do foster a supportive, collaborative, and respectful environment that will help increase the retention of our employees. And it will also create conditions where students can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. Any questions? I have one question. Do you develop these questions, or do they come from Upbeat? They do come from Upbeat, but we are able to select from a group of questions based on what we feel our needs are. So, let's say in domain um instructional leadership, there may be 30 questions. We will select four that really pinpoint

054[snorts] what we want to target. If we don't see a question, we can create the question, and they can do the research, and they will put that in the survey as well. Okay. And when you're comparing year-over-year results, are you using just uh similar questions to compare, not necessarily the exact same questions each year? That is correct. Okay. All right. Thank you, Ms. Madden. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. Appreciate all you and your department do. Thank you. We do appreciate it. That's important, engagement. >> [snorts] >> Is Ms. Wright here? She's not. I'll go and do it. All right. Next, our fine arts strategic plan. Um this was presented last month by um Ms. Amanda Lackey-Rose. Um it is up for board approval that we um, realized um, during the meeting that we needed.

055So, um, it is now back um, in front of you for board approval. Um, there have been no changes since it was presented last month. Do we have any questions? All right, hearing no questions, if we could get a motion to approve the fine arts strategic plan. I'll make a motion that we accept the fine arts strategic plan. I'll second. Thank you. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor of approving the fine arts strategic plan, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? All right, the plan is approved. Thank you, Dr. Finlan. All right. Um, in our next um, section for board operations, um, you'll see that on number one, two, and three are second readings of professional staff of GCK professional staff assignments and transfers, GCC professional leaves and absences, and GDC support staff

056leaves and absences. Um, this was presented with additional changes last month um, for that first reading and we bumped the approval to this month. Do we have any other questions on these three policies? So, I think we can we can go ahead and combine policy GCC and GDC for a motion. Um, policy GCK um, there was some wording in it that I wanted to ask about. Okay. Um, in the policy it states the board must be notified of all teacher reassignments. In in the context of this policy, does teacher mean teacher contract, so that would include a principal or an AP or whoever, or does it just specifically mean teacher? Um the way the state um EAA came through, it was the um information was based on the teacher of a classroom. So, what their

057assignment would be, and so that's where um this um revised language came from. Okay. If y'all want to apply that beyond, I mean that would be fine, but at the same time, this came from to address the EAA, which was based on the Educator Accountability Assistance Act or Educator Assistance Act, um which was passed last year. So, that was strictly toward um teachers. Okay, in other policies where we use the terminology uh because the policy is labeled professional staff assignments, do we refer to professional staff only as teacher all the way through our policies, or does that sometimes apply to other staff as well? It probably blends. So, if we need to change the terminology, we'll >> I think we probably should clarify it a bit because the policy it's the the title of the

058policy makes me think that it would include others. So, we can change the name to GCK Teacher Assignments and Transfers. Okay. Also, under transfers second line after principal, that word needs to be removed before or the superintendent. Where are you? Where it says transfer. Oh, okay. Okay. I was Yep. >> Okay. Principal the superintendent or his designee. Okay. And change the title of this to teacher assignments and transfers. Okay. And then the other thing And applies not just to this policy, this question really relates to the other policies listed here, but what I've noticed, for some reason, we are changing our issue date, not just reflecting our like revised date at the bottom. So, I just want to make sure whatever we're doing is consistent with all the policies. Okay. So, we'll work with Ms.

059Brineman and the South Carolina School Board Association to make sure we're doing that correctly. Yeah. So, just as long as it's consistent. So. >> Right. All right. So, with that, if we could hold policy GCK, um and we could go ahead and and do a motion for the next two policies listed. >> So, you may bring one back next month for a second reading? Yes. Okay. And we probably need a a motion to table that to to next month. I make a motion that we table the policy GCK approval until next month. I'll second. Any questions or discussions? All those in favor of table laying policy GCK until next month, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right. So, the most motion passes. And then now we'll need a policy to approve of Go ahead.

060>> [snorts] >> Um we would have to create a time to discuss it before the next meeting if we wanted to do that. Yeah. Okay. I'll make a note of that, Mr. Carpenter, and get with you. I'll make a motion for GCC and GDC to be approved. Thank you, Ms. Dance. Thank you, Heather. Um any questions or discussions regarding those two policies? All those in favor of approving policy GCC and policy GDC, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right, so those that motion passes. Um policy J F A B C transfer students um is listed as first reading. This is not a first reading um but I did want to update you on some information that we received from the state. The state has requested that any um district that already has a transfer

061policy submit that to the state department for feedback um based on the new guidelines of what they're requiring for transfers. So, that submission has been um made about 2 weeks ago. Um we were um anticipating possibly receiving a feedback prior to the board meeting, but we have not. So, that will continue to be based on if we receive feedback when that um actually comes back. If there any changes um to that policy that they recommend, um the deadline for that is the end of August. So, that would be at the August um meeting for that um information. Any district that does not have a transfer policy would have to um implement that by the start by the end of um August also. Um this was um one of those [snorts] that um came through state

062regulation of um updating transfer policies to basically um provide anybody the opportunity to go to any other school in the district. And so, that was um something that we had to have rules based on and that can um be um like what we have already have is due to space, due to teaching um capacities, and that type of thing. So, we already work um closely with our student um populations um student um our Dr. Carlos Littlejohn, um he runs that department for us and looking at the transfers and space as we um allow or deny those um transfers. And And so, and that's not the goal for this, but it is the goal for um kind of the school choice pushed by the state, and that's what's been passed through the um state legislation, and

063they've provided model policy, and that's why we're trying to get our current policy that we've been using for years for inter- and intra-district transfers um approved so that we won't have to follow state model policy. Um we have to have a policy that's approved by the state. Yes. But if the state came back and said you have to give everybody the option of choosing whatever school they want to go to, you can't No, I didn't. Oh, I got that. I understand. I I understand all of that. I understand why you have to draw the lines, but my point is are we bound by state law if they come back and say that those that students can choose what school they want to go to? I don't I don't know where we are with that, but

064I know there's talk about providing school choice. Well, I don't think that the I don't think that it Or let me rephrase that. I think it includes limitations. If there's no space at the school, there's no space at the school. So, the answer's no, you can't transfer. You can't choose to go to that school. >> And And so, what we've been using as our current limitations and current guidelines we're wanting to try to get past by the state. And so that's where we are. It's a not change um or open up the borders any more than what we That's a Okay. Because the state model guidelines um provides a lot more flexibility and a lot more requirements to prove that you have space, don't have space, that type of thing. So we're trying to get

065our um policy passed. I just want everybody to understand that's political what they're doing. Uh oh yeah, 100%. I I understand that, too. Because it's political and they're saying you need to wait your turn, right? So it's What can Well, I think Well, I don't Yeah, I I share this concern. >> you have in um side of um your pocket, the JFAB C, is um the one that we currently have. So there's no changes based on that, but um I will also send all the um kind of the backup of what the state is requiring and kind of their model policy um as we move forward, too. So trying to get this one that you already approved in the state um mean for our district to pass. [snorts] Are you anticipating the state coming back

066saying uh that's not >> heard anybody received anybody any feedback yet, so. Okay. I just got um confirmation that they received it and that they would be getting back with us. We also have to look at the time that we follow, you know. Mhm. We were in a time people were more logical Now we are illogical as we push in political times. Right. And um some of the conversation, too, has been around um how we've requested people to continue to fill out their um forms over the last um few weeks. Um Dr. Littlejohn and his you know structured wanting to have all paperwork correct and have it in a timely manner. You know, really worked for us to push out a reminder for parents to if you have if you are on special permission, you

067need to remember that you have to apply annually. And so if people don't apply annually, they lose their special permission. And that's just something that documentation that we're wanting to kind of address now as we kind of go forward, too. They go ahead. >> that we have always done. Yes, this is not anything that's different. There have been But I filling out paperwork yearly. Right. That's something that we've always done. Yes. But have we done That that's the thing is you know, we're trying to clean up you know, our processes. Typically, we have you know, kind of nodded away from you know, requiring it once you get into a school, but require it whenever you swap schools. For example, if I requested from Lawrence Elementary to EB and I did that in first grade, I

068wouldn't ask for it again until you know, sometimes that had not been asked for until they went to the middle school. So they were kind of approved to go to that school versus the time that they were swapping. So that has been the only time that we have kind of varied away from that is sometimes that has kind of gotten blurred as you know, is it every year or is it whenever you change grade bands? And so that's kind of been the issue there, but we're trying to make sure that we have a document for everything because part of this has been whenever you deny or revoke privileges, there is a section on the back of our form that really talks about the reasons that you can be revoked and a lot of that's tied

069to discipline. And people will come back and say, "Well, I didn't sign that this time." You know, so it's more of a also a way to ensure that we're reminding everybody that just because you have special permission doesn't mean that you're granted special permission forever. And also that does not mean that you are um you know, guaranteed that special permission because you got to behave, you got to keep your grades up, or you can go back to And And some of that's due to attendance. So, if you have a chronically absent person that could be riding a bus in their zone but chooses to go somewhere else, then it might be that you go back to your home school and then ride a bus every day. So, that's kind of that pop situation. >> The

070since you since you brought up sending out that letter the letter that was sent out does not align with the policy that's in front of us. It was an active solicitation of choose the school that you feel your kid's going to be most academically inclined for. So, it is you know, and you and I have talked about this, but it is it it doesn't align with the policy. Okay. So And sorry for that. Okay. That was handled through our student populations and our communications and so uh I approved it and that was kind of um where they um wanted it uh be able to verify the documentation that we needed to be able to place our kids correctly for next year. Okay. >> So, we can move on to our next policy. So, it's that

071one will be coming back to us next month. Um and so, um we had a board member request that the policy B E D A and also policy um B E D B, board member notification, I mean board meeting notification and board agenda um be modified um to reflect the information that you see there. Um this is for first reading. Any questions on those two? And this is basically just setting us a set date before each um scheduled meeting um that you would have all your documentation um and board packet by Tuesday. And then the notification to the public would also go out. Any questions? All right. Um next item on the agenda is the bond referendum discussion. And um we will kind of bring that up um as kind of discussed and um chair

072vice chair, we wanted to bring that to the board um to decide if that is still something that the board wants to do and pursue for our June um agenda to be able to um bring that um to the board for a vote. That would make it to the November um ballot. The concern is that do we wait until we're off off fiscal watch and show that we're in good faith with everybody to move forward or do we continue as planned and strive for a November referendum? One thing we mentioned that was mentioned in the the chair vice chair meeting was having the slide to show financial impact of taxes. Did Do we have that? >> not add that to my I'm sorry I forgot that. Okay. Does anybody want to open up discussion? Or

073make a motion and we'll go from there. I know sir I don't feel 100% this sure this will get through. You know Dr. Harris and I met with the architect and kind of contractors yesterday to kind of re-evaluate the cost you know and is that something that the board wants to save of this list of every school you know you put a couple of priorities pieces on there and do possibly I'm just going to grab two the high school and Great Court. You know at the first referendum ask for that amount versus asking for the whole 192 million you know. So what is the level of ask that we want to do for our you know referendum as we move forward. Is everything that was projected was that was capital projects across the school district.

074That's what was presented to the board with Ben Thompson and then you have a phased in rebuild that would cost an X amount. You have so much that would cost for like Greycourt to have 10 additional rooms and some remodeling. So, that's the different thing. So, you have different items at each school um that we could um prioritize um and ask or go ahead and ask for it all, see how the community um votes and then come back and um revisit uh go lower. Um, if you do not do a um tied to an election, um that would be a special election that um we would have to you know, um I don't know what the fee would that be um what that would look like um if we were to look at that. >>

075between 20 and 30 thousand dollars to do a special election. That would That would be on the school district, so I wouldn't recommend that. >> given some suggestions when we met in Waterloo. Are there other scenarios that we could do instead of it just solely falling on the shoulders of the taxpayers? Have you been able to have any conversations Um, you know, a couple of those um options, you know, one penny sales tax um was out there. You know, that's something that we're going to um work with Clinton to hopefully go after that for the Kate Center, which would be um that type of thing. So, with that um penny sales tax that is countywide, so um it would need to benefit both Laurens and Clinton. And so, that's where we feel like that would

076be the beneficial there. Um, whenever you start looking at capital um funds and what's our limit for um you know, kind of um referendums um to not referendums, but to borrow money in different ways. Um, that's um where we would look at that. Um, we've also been able to do the um I just lost the name of it, performance contract um to kind of look at kind of hammering down some of those um all the options in a little bit different way so that whenever you're looking at everything on that list, everything on that list doesn't have to be referendum. Some of that can be through capital projects that we do through our 8% money or it can be done through performance contracts. So, part of that is what we could kind of hammer down

077and say, here's our priority and we're going to ask for X amount for referendum and then we'll do X amount through performance contracts and X amount through our contracts. And so, that'll just I mean, through our capital funds. So, we have looked at that, but that doesn't bring down the ask a huge amount. Doesn't cut it in half. So. So, this price would be on top of the inflation. Um, yes. Is this going to make any difference? Mhm. On top of the inflation as well as on top of the real assessment here. I mean, I've always said I think the timing is Timing? Timing is really the fact that the information of how much each person is expected to pay. You haven't provided us with that list. That's what we were asking for. Right. And

078I totally forgot to include that in my slides. So. So, um, our goal in bringing this to the board tonight, um, was really to you know, there's a lot of work to be done in all sorts of areas and so, you know, the thinking was if if we want to continue with this, we just vote tonight that at least yes, we want to keep talking about it and and the district would continue to work on it. However, if we see that this is not the right time, let's go ahead and say no, let's put a pause on it, um, so the district doesn't spend time on it when they could be spending time on other things. So, that was really the intent of bringing it to everyone tonight. So. So, I guess the question is,

079do we need to present a referendum statement in June ready to be voted on in the June meeting? I I just I don't think we have enough information. I haven't been given enough information to be able to make such a big decision at the next meeting. We need to And I will say this, I do think I I know we've been on this road before. I do think that Dr. Penland and Dr. Harris um uh Ben Thompson, I do think that we have had a very elaborate plan laid in front of us as far as what that that piece would look like. But as far as tying it into what kind of budget are we about to approve, what what's the outcome of our audit that we're about to talk about, there's outside pieces that

080I think um have created a timing situation that you know, that isn't quite desirable, I guess. Yeah, I I think the the fact that we're on fiscal watch we've got this mill millage that we need to you know, figure out and the the county assessment coming up. I think putting a referendum in front of the community was is [snorts] is going to be little overbearing. So, it's a lot. >> [clears throat] >> We've got to pay for it. Yeah, there are going to be people that are upset that we haven't pulled the trigger on getting a new school. I mean, there are will be people that are like, y'all need to do this. But it's like, well, where's the money coming from? That's what it boils down to. >> Well, some of those same people

081are the same ones that aren't willing to write a check. >> That's exactly what I'm saying. >> whether it be in form of a tax check or anything else. So, >> um but so yes, if there's a motion somebody wants to put forth. Yes, I'll make a motion that we do not go forward with the referendum at this at this time. Yeah, I'll second. Is there any further discussion or comments on it? All right. All those in favor that we pause the work on the referendum at this time, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right. I'm just going to make a comment too. For me, I I think we are at a point in the juncture in the school district where we need to consider some big projects. I really do. And I would

082And I hate that we're not at a point where we can do it because of the the just the cost and the our locals bearing that. So, you know, it's not off the table. That's what I'm saying is is I still think we need to keep an eye on on on the ball there. You just erased it. All right. Um Ms. Kitt, you're up next. Uh okay. So, we received an email back in February about the South Carolina School Board Association South Carolina School Board Association's officers and board of directors. Uh if anybody wanted to be nominated for those. We do not have a director in our area available, but there are two positions for the South Carolina School Board Association, the president-elect and the treasurer secretary. Um Ms. Little um has uh would like

083to be nominated at for the treasurer secretary position and that requires the board to make a motion to um uh have her as a candidate for that opportunity with the SCSBA. I'll make a motion. I'll second. Thank you, Sheriff. Is there any discussion or questions? All those in favor of voting um for Kathy Little to be nominated for the school board uh directors officers as treasurer secretary, please say I. I. Um any opposed? Thank you. The motion carries. Thank you. I appreciate that. And now we move on to our finance and operations section with Ms. London presenting our monthly financial report and discussion of our um general fund budget. So, here to present the financial statements for the month of April 2026. At the end of April, we had a balance with our treasurer's office

084of 10,360,099. This is compared to 10,580,498 at this time last year. Our revenues this year as of April are at 50,752 versus 51,599,465 this time last year. Expenditures are at 45,855,422 versus 47,317,333 this time last year. So, our net income year-to-date is 5,897,338 versus 4,242,132 this time last year. Our tax collections for the month of April were 2 million 598 956 versus 2 million 890,734 this time last year. Moving on to the revenues we've collected year-to-date, we have received um 87% of our budgeted revenues for the year. I would like to uh point everyone to the first line of ad valorem taxes for the year. Um when we were reconciling our accounts during the month of April, we [snorts] noticed a coding error when we collected the homestead exemption during the month of November. So,

085if it looks like the ad valorem tax went down, it's reclassified down below where it says state revenue. Um the property tax relief number now is 1 million 824,000. So, that was a coding area error on our general ledger system. So, any questions about our revenues? Okay, so moving on to our expenditures during the month of April, we did have a small budget amendment. We uh reclassified an item from the principal payment for our concert fund loan. We took it out of the budgeted item for the interest payment so that we could have enough to pay for our our interest and principal payment during the month of of April. We are coming in at our goal remaining of expenditures for the month or 16.67% but we're actually at 23%. So any questions about the monthly

086financials? So Ms. London, just based on those percentages, do you think that we're going to be well within our budget come the end of our fiscal year? Um I believe so because we if you look at the the the salaries that are remaining as of the month end of November, it it's showing 8 million. So while we're at the end of April, you think well we've got two more months of salaries and that would be but you've also got the accrual salaries that we have to accrue. So these are folks that get paid in July for the time they worked prior to June 30th. So while they're not getting paid until July, we have to accrue them back because it's related to the period as of June 30th. So does that make sense? >> Mhm.

087And I also do want to point out we talked um in the previous uh board meeting about the Lawrence County School Resource Officers. We finally got those invoices during the month of May. So those are being paid during the month of May and they add up to about $500,000. So we've we're getting the whole year's worth right now. Have you been able to sort that out so they are you know, we're getting that in a more timely fashion? Uh we we have discussed that with them but you know, the year's about over now so Right. Right. But for the future, yeah. try to renegotiate what we're paying them and we'll have a we'll discuss with them if we could get those in a timely manner. Hopefully. Thank you. So let's move on to the budget.

088We had our budget workshop earlier at 5:00 where I presented two budget versions. One version is with no millage increase and a second version was with a 4.4 millage increase. So, I'm going to highlight some things I touched talked about in the work session. So, if we're going to look at a no millage increase, um we're we're talking about um estimated revenues of 60,996,181. This will increase our budget of revenues of about $500,000 for our ad valorem property taxes. Um we're getting a little more in FELLOW revenue for the year of 368. Um most of our other local and state money is going to remain about the same, not much change there. But, when you come down to the state aid to classroom money that we are getting from the state, um we're not getting

089much more to cover the increase in what we're required to pay salaries. So, for example, the health insurance line item is now rolled into the state aid to classroom general fund number. The health insurance is we're getting is 506,000 less, but we're getting 697 more for EIA funding. We're getting a little more, 182,000 in retiree insurance. And if you go down to the bottom where we have the transfers from um the EIA state aid to classroom number, we're getting 360 306 326,000 less. So, it's not much of an increase over the prior year. We have budgeted our tier one and tier two money the same as the prior year. And we have a slight we have an increase in our tier three money of $306,000. So, this revenue is with a no millage increase. So,

090with a no millage increase, our revenues our expenditures, excuse me. We um our expenditures this year include a $2,000 increase per cell for the teacher salary schedule. This is what is being mandated by the state. And that will cost us $898,186. For non-teachers who are not on a salary scale, we are going to give them a step increase as well as a a 2% raise. Administrative pay scale folks will get a step increase, but with no percentage. And our student nutrition is um is funded out of their student nutrition program, so it's not really considered in the general fund. But, those schedules have been provided for information only. So, any other employees who are not on a salary scale, this budget includes a 2% increase. >> [snorts] >> This budget, since it has no no

091millage increase, we are considering the move removal of 6% six positions from the general fund. So, we hope to be able to do this from through attrition, not just eliminating jobs, but so if a if a person leaves, we might could um you know, move that person to a different different job throughout the year. So, um our health and dental, the rates do not change for the year. The rates that that employers and employee pays. Um we're going to keep the same for unemployment compensation. And we're going to budget less for workman's comp insurance in the general fund cuz so we had to reallocate some of the workman comp uh expenditures to other funds like with the with the food service fund and some of our federal funds. Currently, the general fund has been absorbing,

092I believe, uh most of that cost. Um we continue to have budget increases for instructional and improvement services and student services. Um some of this is related to contract to provide a special education and therapy services. And um while we do get federal money for special education, it's generally not enough to cover what we're required to to spend for those students. Um so we're going to be we have a budget for document management fee. This is for storage of student records. We have to store our student records for 99 years. And um we have a slight increase in case we do do an auditor change for next year and this is just a conservative estimate. It may not be that. We're going to keep the clean uh the same cleaning services as last year. We

093currently outsource that to a vendor. So, we're going to keep those for next year. Um we have some increase in our repairs and maintenance due to landscaping service in increases. We're going to be uh purchasing a software system to do background checks for employees and volunteers. Um So, the amount for for professional and technical services that line item includes expenditures for our school resource officers with the city of Lawrence and the county of Lawrence. And we're hoping that we can um have a meeting with them and maybe negotiate our contract with them. We have an energy saving service provider that we are terminating our contract with effective September 30th, so that should save us a little money there. We're budgeting the same for travel and a little bit more for supplies this year as costs

094are going up. Same amount has been budgeted for principal and interest for next year for our concert fund loan payment. And we've budgeted the amount for our liability and and tort insurance at this moment remains the same. But, we also have budgeted a little bit extra, $29,000, for increase in student insurance. Um membership fees, we had a reclassification from the prior year. Um The increase in membership fees is due to reclassify our week payment payment to a due and fee and we took it out of the other objects account. >> [cough] >> So, that's our budget with a no millage increase. So, moving on to the second version that I've presented, it's a um this version um is for a 4.4 millage increase. This is in conjunction with what Lawrence 55 is going to present

095tonight also. I mean, I'm sorry, Lawrence 56 will be presenting tonight also. We are in collaboration with that school district, so our millage rate [snorts] has to stay the same. So, this budget represents a 4.4 millage increase. So, all numbers are the same for revenue except the ad valorem taxes. Um this number we are budgeting uh $600,000 more in additional tax collections. But, this amount is uncertain at this moment of what the millage should be because we don't have final assessment numbers at this time. We have gotten information from our uh from the county that the value of a mill for all four school districts is coming in at about um $234,000. So, I'm assuming $90,000 of that at at at least is probably attributed to our school district. So, the value of a mill

096for us at $90,000 means we would need 168 mills. But, like I said, that amount is uncertain at this moment. So, if we do the millage increase, it would put us at a at revenues of 61,621 $181. So, moving on to our expenditure assumptions, if we do a 4.4 millage increase, um everything stays the same except for keep six positions that we're considering moving out of the general fund. We would keep the salaries and their fringes in the general fund. Are there any questions for me? I think at this point just to kind of pull back in what we had talked about during the work session and that would be just to to two things. One, understanding what you have clarified that those six positions would not be teachers. So, I want to put that

097out there for the public to hear. And so, for the board to understand what those six positions would be. And then the administrative salary schedule, the discussion there and understanding to allow the administrative schedule to also get the 2%. What is that dollar amount and then also what would it be if we allowed it just at the school level for principals and assistant principals? So, the administrative scale is staying the same. They're just getting a step and a raise. So, are you requesting us to follow up with that amount of how much it would cost? Right. >> both. To add To add both. Not only a step, but also the 2% increase. So, if the admin got a step and a 2% What the teachers are going to be getting. Right. So, you want to

0982% raise for the principals and the APs? Yes. At the schools? Yeah, the school level employees. Okay, any other questions? Thank you, Ms. London. All right, and now we will have uh Mr. Matt Phillips present us with our financial audit. Mr. Phillips, welcome. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Board, for having me. We have the slides up here for you, maybe. Um Mr. Do we have a copy? Candace, did you print copies of this? Is it in the packet? It's Well, it may be separately in the packet. It's not in the All right, Mr. Phillips, you keep moving and we'll we'll grab Or nice going to come and make copies for me. But yeah, you keep moving though. We'll we'll catch up on the copies when we get them. No problem. Um here, swap with Just

099as far as like the slides. I don't think I'm Oh, there. That makes sense. Then on the side This one on the side. >> [snorts] >> When did you swap clickers? [snorts] Got it. Um so, just to start, independent auditor's report, management's responsibility on the left is preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements. Um as well as the design, implementation, and main maintenance of internal control relevant to the preparation of financial statements. Um on the right side, auditor's responsibility, uh express an opinion on the financial statements based on the audit. Uh the audit was conducted in accordance with the auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America and [snorts] government auditing standards, um and issued to obtain reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatement. The auditor's opinion, we

100issued an unmodified opinion. Uh the district financial statements are fairly stated in all material respects. Government-wide financial statements, um these are our full accrual uh financial statements. And so, on the left side, we have our statement of net position. Uh total assets are 72.4 million. Of that, 44.6 million capital assets that are being depreciated over time. 27.8 million cash and current assets. Our deferred outflows, we have 29.6 million. Uh total liabilities are 152.8 million. Um of that, 600 and uh 69.7 million is our net pension liability and 57.9 million is our OPEB. Uh deferred inflows are 27.3 million and that our total net position is uh -78.4 million. [snorts] It's cut off a little bit there, but um that's 49.5 million without the NPL and OPEB. Uh on the right side, statement of activities, uh

101total revenues are at 90.6 million, total expenses 85.7 million. So, we had an increase in net position of approximately 4.9 million uh for the year. Uh governmental fund fund balance, um again this is our modified accrual basis fund financial statements. Total fund balance decreased 2.3 million to 18.5 million at year end. Uh restricted amounts were 15.2 million of that 18.5. The unassigned fund balance of 3.2 million is 3.5% of 2025 actual expenditures. Uh a little bit more information on our governmental fund revenues and expenditures. Total revenues 92.6 million. Uh that is an 5.8 million 6.9% increase from 2024 uh due to increase in local and federal revenues. Uh that is 318 over budget for the general fund. Uh total expenditures 92.9 million. 84.4 million of that is current um expenditures. 4.8 million of that is

102capital outlay and 3.7 million of that is debt service. Uh 6 million or 6.9% increase from 2024 due to increase in support services and capital outlay expenditures. Uh 2.3 million over budget for the general fund primarily due to instruction and support services expenditures. Other significant items uh as mentioned earlier GASB 68 and 71 the pension liability for 2025 is approximately 69.7 million. Our net OPEB liability for 2025 is approximately 57.9 million. Um the uh net pension liability represents the unfunded portion of pension benefits owed to the members and other post-employment benefits for the OPEB. These liabilities are determined by being provided to the actuaries. Um compliance under our audit of under uniform guidance, no findings significant deficiencies or material weaknesses were noted in relation to federal awards. A financial statement material weakness was identified as

103financial reconciliation. Um our single audit was required for 2025 and the major program was title one and ESSER. Any questions? Just just clarifying. So, on the the revenues and the expenses, so you got 90 million. That includes all of federal programs, too. That's all funds. >> Everything. >> Yes, sir. So, um and then when we look at the expenses, that 85 million, that is what it cost to run the the school district. Um on the government-wide side, yes, sir. >> Right. Okay. I just want to bring that clarity cuz when you look at what our budget looks like, it's not 90 million dollars. They're like, "Well, where'd that money come from?" But it is Those Our budget, correct me if I'm wrong, Ms. London, is it doesn't include the federal. Only includes the the state

104and local revenues, but this audit includes everything. >> Yes, sir. Okay. Um So, we still don't have like the audit like Where's the audit? The audit book? Uh yes, sir. The audit was finalized on uh Friday and then the uploads to SCDE were today. Um so, we can get you the the finalized audit. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Um So, um I'm not under governmental fund balance {dash} fund balance, that slide, um the unassigned fund balance of 3.2 million, that I just want clarification. That is our fund balance that we're required to hold by the state to equal a certain amount. Is that correct? >> That particular fund balance is the general fund fund balance. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Okay. And we're at 3.5% and we should be at 8% >> I thought it was like

1058%. Is that right? 8% Okay. And then we um you know, and some of these numbers are a shock because we actually talked about this last August a little bit uh when Mr. Wallace was still here. But for the year ending 2025, we overspent our budget by $2.3 million. Yes, ma'am. On the general fund? >> Based on what you have provided. Okay. Without getting board approval for any of that for that overspend. Okay. Anybody have any questions or anything else? Mr. Phillips, thank you so much for coming tonight. I'm sorry you had to wait for such a lengthy meeting to present that, but I appreciate it. And if you would just get us the the final budget when you have it available, I appreciate that. Yes, ma'am. Have a great evening. >> much change from

106the draft that you provided >> No. previously? Okay. Okay. All right, that's good. Thank you so much. >> All right. Well, Matt, before you leave, um I would like to um apologize, clarify, and correct a previous statement that um um we that I mentioned um last month during a um financial status. The designation of fiscal watch was not due to issues with the auditor. And so, um but rather um result of timing changes, challenges, including um issues recording to our closing of our financial books during the audit process. So um specifically the absence of a CFO during a critical period of closing our books limited our ability to finalize all accounts with the requirement timeline that you had set for us. So since the appointment of our new CFO Ms. LeAnn London, she and her

107team have worked diligently with you to collaborate and get this closed and I appreciate all your work with us and everything that we've done. And additionally she has provided all the necessary documentation that she needed for you to get everything closed. So I appreciate you working with us and everything that you've done for us. Absolutely. Have a great evening. All right, thanks. Thank you Mr. Have a good night. Okay and next we will move on to the fiscal watch response. So you should have a hard copy of this at your place. And it will look like this. I did um I did send this out earlier in an email just as soon as it was put together. You may or may not have had a chance to read it. Um So we drafted this I

108guess it was after our last um board meeting sent to you the finance in the the finance committee of the board and then we received information for some changes today or Friday. Yeah, I'm not sure which one. And then those changes have been made and so this would be the financial recovery plan that is due to us going on fiscal watch because the delay um delayed audit submission. Which was due um So Dr. Finlan had worked with I guess Ms. London and Dr. Harris and created a an initial document and the finance committee which I took the recommendation of Mr. Carpenter and we created a finance committee. It was myself, Mr. Jenkins, and Ms. Kitt. And we had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Penland, the auditor, Ms. London, Dr. Harris on a couple of

109occasions. So, they came up with this plan and then we just made a few minor adjustments to timelines and wording. So, um But, yes, we do need to approve this tonight because this does need to be to the state department no later than the 13th of June. So. So, if you have any questions or if you would like to make a motion. Yeah, I'll make a motion that we accept the financial recovery plan that's been submitted. I'll second. Are there any questions or discussion? All those in favor of submitting the financial recovery plan as presented, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right, the plan is approved. So. And just let me know like if you want me to sign this copy or another copy or >> I would like to. Then, what's the next

110step here? Who's going to submit this? Who's taking responsibility? And And I would like I think we need to add this as part of our agenda that we get a report at every meeting about where we are with our fiscal watch. >> Yeah. That's a good idea. So, I've received that letter and so I have the contact of who we need to submit that to. So, I'll I'll take that responsibility. Okay, thanks you. And And page two does include a corrective actions column, who's the responsible party, and at what timeline or notification that the event needs to take place. So, all that's laid out very clearly. So. Um Okay, with that, we we do not have any participation tonight. Okay, we will need a motion to enter into executive session. Thank you. Thank you. Any

111questions? All those in favor of moving to executive session, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right, we will move to executive session. >> Mhm. >> It is 9:31. I will call us back to order. We do have a few matters to attend to from executive session. We have certified contract certified employee contracts and the retirement employee You said retirement or resignation? resignation Oh, your way it says retirement on here. Okay. Sorry. That's why I kept saying that. Okay. So, we need a vote a motion for our certified contracts and our resignation list that was presented in executive session. >> Yeah, I'll make the motion that we accept the list of certified employees and the resignation list. I'll second. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor to approve the certified employee contract and our

112resignation list for the 25-26 school year or is it 20 26-27 26-27 school year, please say I. I. Any of those? Okay. Those are approved. And All right, certified contract Okay. And now we um we do have one additional um conversation. We are concerned about the letter that went out as it's not uh aligned with the board policy for the um transfer students. Um So, I believe we have someone who wants to make a motion there. I want to make a motion that we rescind that letter um based on the chaos in my call and the undoing of our um equity rule which restricts the original students. And be rescinded on those bases. I'll second. Any questions or comments? All right. All those in favor of rescinding the or rescinding the transfer letter, please say

113I. I. I. Any opposed? All right. That motion carries, too. Um with no uh further business on our agenda, we will adjourn. Thank you. Thank you.