001I'll call our meeting to order. Miss Brandom, did we notify the media? >> We did. >> Thank you. And I do declare that we have a quorum with six of seven board members present. I know Miss Kit is on her way. We will need approval for the agenda to move forward. >> I make the motion that we approve today's agenda. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any questions? All in favor of approving the agenda, please say I. >> Any opposed? I want to welcome everyone today and as we have been doing the past few months, I want to go around the table and do tell me something good. So, Mr. Hughes, I'm going to start with you. >> I didn't make the trip to Clemson, Sarah. That's good. >> My something good is today is my
002oldest um baby's birthday. She's 14, but I'm gonna have to do some making up when I get home cuz she's bad that I'm at the board meeting. >> You should have brought her with you. >> My something good is that my uh knee replacement, it is healing great. Thank God for that. >> My something good will be that couple weeks ago, we were able to celebrate my parents' 60th wedding anniversary. >> Oh, that's fantastic. Uh, mine's something good is that I got to have my oldest daughter home from school this weekend. So, that was fun. >> Oh, something good. U, we're excited that after u 24 years in our house, we're redoing our kitchen. >> That's fantastic. >> My wife is so excited. >> No doubt. >> Thanks everyone. Um, and I just welcome everyone
003here tonight. And Miss Nance, we are so glad to have you back. I'm glad that you're recovering well and it's good to have you back around the table. >> Thank you. >> So, um if now we will stand and I'm going to let um Is Pinland here? >> Oh, there you are. I'm gonna let Miss Pinland announce or introduce our um introduce our students that are going to lead us in the pledge. Thank you. We have five students here with us from Ford. Um we have uh Mia Sanchez, Macy Pitman, Mason Livingston, Laa Neely, and Trace Neely. And Mia is gonna begin our pledge for us. Please stand and join us in the pledge of aliance to the American flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which
004it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. I appreciate you guys leading us tonight. And now if I could uh Miss Nance, would you lead us in a prayer? >> Yes. Let us pray. Our heavenly father, we come to see me, Lord God, recognizing you as the high priest, King of Kings, and we said thank you. We thank you, Lord, for your love and grace that you sustain us each and every day. Father God, we ask you continue to bless this district, bless the administrative staff, especially our children, God. And as your board, give us wisdom, God, to make good decisions throughout the board meeting. And we're just grateful. And I say, "Amen." >> Amen. Thank you, Miss Nance. Now, we will need approval for our minutes
005from the August 25th meeting. If I could get a motion for that. >> I'll make a motion we approve the minutes. >> I'll second. >> Thank you. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor of approving the minutes for the August 25th board meeting, please say I. I. >> Any opposed? >> The motion is approved. And now I'll turn it over to Miss Kim Pinland for our report for Ford Elementary. >> Good evening. Good evening. >> I'm honored to be here tonight to share information about Ford Elementary School. I am proud to be a pr the principal of such a special place with such a dedicated staff and hardworking students. I am proud to be an Eagle again. And I want to thank our students Mia, Macy, Mason, Laa, and Trace for being here tonight.
006I appreciate their help with the pledge of allegiance and they will also help with a part of our presentation tonight. Okay. Board's demographics include 21% African-American, 42% Hispanic Latino, 31% white, and 6% two or more races with a poverty index of 89.8%. I would like to begin by pointing out big idea number one from the book, The Illustrated Guide to Visible Learning. This book presents the research from John Hattie and others on the visible learning strategies that work best in schools. Big idea number one, as Dr. Pinland has presented before, explains the importance of creating a positive five-star climate before learning and achievement can take place. Last school year at Ford, we focused on the environment. We set expectations for safety, instruction, and behavior. This year, we have continued our focus on climate through our
007five-star eagle values. Our school theme this year is excellence in every flight, powered by fivestar eagles. Our five-star eagle values of respect, responsibility, resilience, readiness, and results help guide us to strive for excellence. We talk about our five-star eagle values each day to help the students understand how they can show these values and achieve excellence in every flight that they take. Tonight, our students will share what each value means. And I will add a little more about how we live it at school each day. >> Trace will share about respect. Hang on just a second. At our school, respect is the foundation of a safe and supportive community. We model kindness, listen to each other, and value every voice. Mason will share about responsibility. >> We teach students that their actions matter. Whether it's completing
008assignments, being on time, or treating others well, responsibility helps our Eagles grow as leaders. >> Resilience. Resilience means we keep going even when it is hard. >> Challenges are opportunities to learn. We celebrate effort, persistence, and the courage to keep trying until we succeed. Thank you, Macy. Now, Mia will share about readiness. >> Readiness. Readiness means we come prepared to learn and grow. >> When our eagles are ready with materials, focus, and a positive mindset, they open the door to discovery and achievement each day. and Laa will share with us about results. >> Results means we set goals and achieve them with pride. >> Very good. >> We encourage students to dream big, set goals and work hard to reach them. The pride in the results motivates us to soar even higher. Here is a
009picture of our five-star eagle values in action. Our students and staff have the opportunity to fill out five star eagle shoutout cards and turn them in to be announced during morning announcements. These shoutouts identify which Eagle values were displayed and provide a short description of the actions of others. Once the shoutouts are announced, they are added to our board for everyone to see. It is a pleasant time for students and staff to hear their names announced with an explanation of how they are soaring to excellence in every flight powered by these five-star Eagle values. Thank you students for sharing our values tonight. We feel that the focus on these values have helped to continue the work to create a five-star culture of excellence. This focus on climate first fosters the learning environment so that our
010eagles will continue to grow, learn, and achieve. Thank you. You may sit down. [Applause] >> Now, let's take an eagle's eye view of our data. Preliminary SC ready scores show an overall increase in both ELA and math achievement. We know that we still have much work to do to continue this growth in order to close the achievement gap, but we are proud to see the progress. The read to succeed law affects third grade students who are scoring below expectations either on MAP or SC ready at the end of the year. At the beginning of the 2425 school year, we had 54 third grade students who scored below math expectations. After looking at the exemptions, which may include previous retentions or services provided, this number reduced to 37. But at the end of the year, through
011the hard work of our staff and our students last year, this large number was reduced to only nine students. At the end of last year and throughout the school year last year, we talked as a staff that this large read to succeed number was the responsibility of everyone, not just third grade teachers. We worked just as hard in kindergarten through second grades as in third through fifth grades to provide high quality instruction that would help change these high numbers of low performance. This year, fall MAP scores indicate that we have 37 third graders who score below expectations, but after exemptions, we have 23 read to succeed students. This lower number shows evidence of growth that more third graders are showing readiness than the previous year. Also, overall fall 2025 mean MAP scores show an increase
012in both reading and math when compared to the overall 2024 fall mean MAP scores. In addition, for the first time in five years, our academic interventionists are able to serve all of the students who scored below the 20th percentile in reading. In previous years, there have been more there have been 30 or more students who have scored below the 20th percentile, restricting our interventionist from serving all of the students who needed their services. And due to an increase in student achievement, we have 14 new Beta Club members who will be inducted into this new club led by Lisa Leair, our guidance counselor. We will continue to soar for success. Some of our next steps for moving forward include academic goals of setting student growth goals based on current data, constant data analysis, and making math
013and science a focus due to lower academic performance in these areas. The STEM lab has already helped to focus on both of these subjects in all grade levels. We will continue our work with thinking maps and right from the beginning to include narrative training for teachers. Since our ML progress is still low on access testing that takes place in January, we're working hard to make datadriven instructional decisions to help these students show progress when they take this test again. We also have a scheduled when time and that means what I need time in all grade levels to focus on small group instruction. Classroom guidance lessons are scheduled consistently to help us to stay focused on the five-star eagle values. Fivestar eagle shoutouts will continue and help keep our school climate positive. We also still have
014community support from local churches and businesses and the school improvement council. The collaborative learning that takes place with our reading buddies and the good news club really makes a difference with our students. They enjoy the positive relationships and the one-on-one time. And thank you, Miss Nance, for your participation as one of our reading buddies. >> Our school theme is excellence in every flight. Powered by fivestar eagles. Our five-star eagle values of respect, responsibility, resilience, readiness, and results will help guide our Eagles to excellence. At Ford Elementary, excellence is more than a goal. It's in every flight that we take. Thank you for your time and your support, and we invite you to come visit us to watch our Eagles soar. >> That's good. >> Thank you, Miss Pinland. We will move right along to district
015updates with Dr. Penland. >> Sure. There's several um components to our updates. So um I'll just kind of keep it brief with um my words. So again um Miss Pendlean did um kind of reiterate our building a five-star culture of excellence and um thank you so much for everything you're doing and everything that you do for the kids there at Ford. Um we are doing a 2.0. So the district update for um building that five-star culture of excellence. Um we have the theme of anchored in accountability and again the five A's for the fivestar culture. Um we'll focus on the academics, the arts, the athletics, the attendance and atmosphere and very much um of what Miss Pend just um reiterated. We're looking at as a district. So, whenever we're anchored in the accountability, um we
016are looking at celebrating our um academics. Um for the students who last year scored a 100 on their EOCC, um we'll be recognizing them at the football game on October 17th, and that's the REN football game. So, we'll be able to um acknowledge about 6800s that um were scored. Some of those will be dual um students that scored um 100 on two or more exams. So, it's not right at 68 students, but we'll be um celebrating them at the football game. Um also focusing on our academics um in October. We'll be um celebrating um the National Disability Employment Awareness Month. We'll be able to um house that and actually celebrate that throughout our schools. And also on October the 29th, we'll be having and partnering with the um um Lawrence inter agency committee um to
017um plan and host the disability employment awareness lunchon at the ridge and we'll be sending out um invit invitations to you for that. But that is October the 29th and we'll be sharing that. And this is the 80th year 80th anniversary of the National Disability Employment Awareness Month. Um and again this um year's theme is celebrating value and talent. Um whenever we start looking at the arts um want to appreciate um everything that Jenny Carti continues to do do for us. She wrote um an arts grant for each one of our schools and all nine were awarded. So we'll be getting $90,000 for the grants for the arts um here in the next um few weeks. We'll be receiving those GANs and we'll actually be able to put in their plans um into place for
018that. So again, thank you to Jenny Carti for writing those and Cindy Wright for leading that initiative for us too. Um on our athletics, um we did want to um celebrate our golf girls golf team um received their first win last week and appreciate um our coaches and one of those is Mr. Little um who's also assistant coach there and volunteers his time for that. So it was a great um win for them. Um, two of the girls scored a 45 and one um shot a 50 I mean 47. So they were able to receive their win um this past weekend or this past week. Um we did have homecoming um last week or two weeks ago I guess it is now from this Friday and um we had homecoming queen um Satira I think
019is Satara. Yeah. um um is Epting was our queen and we had the other four um that represented the school I mean the school in their um grade level. So congratulations to them also. Um again for our fall October um fall break um and and we lost a little bit of the formatting there but students and teachers will um be looking at the lefthand side. So October um students and teachers will be off the entire week. Um coming back on the 13th for professional development day. Um students will return on the 14th. Um 240 260 day employees will work like a summer week. So they'll work the four days the 6th through the 9th be off the 10th and we'll be back for the professional development week um professional development day on October 13th. And
020again, as we get ready to start talking about um data and whenever um Miss Lacrose comes up, um perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we will catch excellence. And whenever we're focusing on the five-star culture of excellence, that's what we're after. And that's a quote by Vince Lombardi. So, I'll turn it over to Miss Lro. >> Good evening. Good evening. Just as a reminder for those that may be uh listening, I'm Amanda Lacrose, director of accountability, federal programs um and professional learning. Today I'm here to talk to you about the state assessment scores from last school year, the 2425 school year. To just kind of summarize, we have high school and of course exams that take place in December each year. We're not allowed to share those results until all results are
021in. They um the rest of the end of course exams are given in the spring and then all of our SC ready for grades three through eight both in English language arts which is ELA and mathematics are given in uh the spring. So all of those assessments were given in the spring. They are scored outside of the district obviously it's at uh the state manages that we get preliminary results in late July. We continue to get results um we got finalized results I would say the beginning of September and then now we are getting results that will actually impact the school report cards and those will come out next month. So, what you'll see tonight is very similar to the packet that I sent last week. Our high school and of course exam scores actually
022went up a little bit since I sent you that packet. Um because there were some scores that we had of students that did very well that did not get counted for whatever reason. Um, I just want to say a big thank you to our district test coordinator, Angie Bigham, as well as Megan Culbertson and Cassie Powers at the high school for taking the time to go person by person, student by student, assessment by assessment to find missing scores. We found two missing scores for Grey Court as well this morning. So, you know, those are things that that are going to matter when our our report cards come out. So, with that, I'll kind of get us started. We are of course you heard a couple times today building a five-star culture of excellence and one
023of those areas that uh we are focusing on is academics. Um we need to have a strong school climate in order for learning to take place and then from the learning that's where we start to see the achievement and that's what I'm going to talk to you about tonight. Um I'm very excited to share with you the next couple of slides. Um actually I want to share with you um our goals. Um, we did talk about and I feel that uh Dr. Penland just spoke to this when he said that if we chase perfection then we're going to get um improvement or excellence. That's what it was is excellence. Um Vince Lombardi I should know. Sorry. Um but what we are doing is we are chasing this orange line. Um, the state of South Carolina's
024Department of Ed has created a a goal for all districts or for the state overall to have 75% of all students proficient in um our state assessments by 2030. So the orange line is taking us from where we were in 2017 2018 school year to the 2029 2030 school year. So you will notice that the green line is Lauren's 55. So we're a little below our projected um rate of where we want to be. The blue line is the state average. And so you may notice, and I gave you a variety of other graphs as well that do the same thing. And so I'm explaining to you what you're seeing in your packet. Um we do follow pretty much the state's dips and rises, but what we are doing is our distance between the green
025line and the blue line is getting smaller. Um, this right now is showing you our SC ready English language arts proficiency rate. We are getting closer and closer to the state average um, every year that that we um, that we go and so we're pleased about that. We're also obviously on a trajectory to catch that orange line and so that is our goal. We have set um district goals that we'll be sharing with you next month when the report cards come out that are specifically designed to get us to that orange line in all of the areas that you saw in the packet. Um obviously in math when you take a look at math we again are following the state um with the dips and the rises and things we have a little bit more
026work to do in the area of math. Um we're going to talk to you a little bit about that tonight. Uh Wendy Burgess, director of teaching and learning, is going to come up towards the end of the presentation with me and we'll share what she and I have been working on um to help move that needle. So um but these next couple of slides we're really pleased with and let me explain a little bit about what you're seeing. If you recall, 2020 was the year that we do not have any scores because that was COVID. So if you go back and you look at these graphs that those are those big dips. You see them at that 202021 school year after COVID achievement dropped. It dropped everywhere. It dropped here in Lawrence. It dropped in
027the state. It dropped nationally. And now obviously our goal is to increase. These are our scores for 24 25 uh ELA English language arts. So that is our reading and writing in each of our elementary schools. Uh we had schools that set goals for themselves last year anywhere from 10 to 15%. You will notice EB Morris and Ford Elementary School grew more than 10% from the previous year. We have not seen growth like this um in anywhere in the chart. Um so for the past six years um and we're really pleased with that. You will notice that uh Greycourt was not that far behind with 8.7% growth. Um and Lawrence Elementary also grew. Our Hickory Tavern grew by 16.5%. And Waterlue grew at 11.8%. Those two schools are in a little bit of a different
028color because they are above the state average. Lawrence 55, our goal is to not be at the state average. It is to be above the state average. in Hickory Tavern Elementary and Waterlue Elementary have already achieved that and so our goal is to keep them there and keep them moving forward. So that is a big celebration. Um at the middle school, you will notice all four of our middle schools grew in their achievement from the year before. Again, we had upwards of almost 10% at Great Court Middle and at Hickory Tavern Middle School. Laurens Middle was not that far behind with a 7.3% increase. um our high school English and this is where your number is going to see a little differently than that was in the packet because this is what got adjusted and
029we were pleased with that was if you recall English one used to be the end of course exam. So I kept that on there so that you have some historical perspective of how we did when the when the assessment was given at English one and it was moved in the 22 23 school year to English two. We started out with a 49% proficient. We went to 56.85. Now we're at 57.1. Um, and we're closing in on the state average as well. We also, if you refer back to your packet that I sent out last week, if you look at their graph, the English two graph is at the orange goal line that we're looking at. So that however, that's not where we're going to stop. We need to keep growing every year and we want
030to be above that orange line. So, um we'll continue to work there. But all of this growth and all of this progress is a result of the hard work of our administrators and our teachers in the building. We are implementing the TAP. We started with the TAP model last year. We kept a lot of pieces of the TAP model. Um we call it the Lawrence 55 model that involves our district instructional leadership team. It involves our based instructional leadership teams. We have instructional coaches at every building. It's about um it it's less than half of what we had last year. However, they are still working diligently to provide clusters, which are weekly professional learning to our staff as well as analyzing student work, analyzing student data that uh Miss Pendland had just referred to with
031the MAP testing and things to find out what do students need to know and where are they struggling, what additional supports do they need, and um where are we doing well and we want to continue to move in that direction and continue to do it. We don't want to stop doing something if we know that it's working. So, we are continuing with that model to do that. Um, so we have those systems in place and that's what we're building on. Did you have a a question to ask? >> Can you help me better understand what these percentages really represent? Is this a test that they took that they >> only certain percentage is it pass fail or is it a percentage at a certain threshold? >> Right. So, it is proficiency. The prof the percentages
032that we're looking at are proficiency. So proficiency in the SC ready is that students are either meeting expectations or exceeding expectations. You combine that number together and that's the percentage that you're seeing. Okay? >> So the percentage you're not seeing is that they either do not meet or they're approaching proficiency. And so our job is to implement those systems we have in place to move those kids up and then keep those that are there up there. >> And that's through the state the testing state. >> Correct. This is the state testing. At the high school, it's a little different. Just so that you're aware, in the on the EOCC, there's a ABC, B, C, D, there's an F. Um, but A, B, and C are proficient. Anything below that is not proficient. So, that's what
033those percentages are. >> Thank you. >> So, um, obviously I had mentioned that, you know, we have some work to do in math. We did see some growth and some progress in math. Um, once again, you see EB has a 7.5% increase in math. board as well increased in math. Um along with Great Court Elementary, some of our other other schools slipped a little bit. Um Waterlue, however, you will see again is in blue. Um which means not only did they increase, but they are above the state average. The state average and I want to keep in mind when you look at these scores here, although Hickory Tavern did drop a little bit, they are 40.7 and they're very close to that state average. um they are our second highest percentage in the district, but
034there are some things that that we'll look at and help support them with through those structures that we're using um to continue to help them move forward. We have a number of other things that we'll talk a little bit about um as well in math and science um towards the end at middle school, which has always seemed to be our biggest um area that we're really concerned about with math. Um we did see growth which which we were pleased about at Hickory Tavern in Lawrence Middle and at Sanders. Obviously, we want to see much more growth um in math. So, those structures that we put in place last year with the TAP model and now is the learn the Lawrence 55 model. Um we will continue those and we are focusing the majority of our
035professional development days and our analyzing of student work in the area of math this year because we did it in English language arts last year and clearly it worked and Now, our focus will be math. Um, at the high school, we have algebra 1. As you know, that is building from all of the years before. And so, when we have our previous years that are lower, we anticipate that that we're probably going to see that as they get to the high school. they do make up um quite a bit of of ground when they get to the high school, but we need um our students coming out of the middle school to be a little bit higher and then our high school to continue to make up ground. I just want to put on your
036radar that algebra 1 next year or this school year will only be those that are repeating. So, we have very few people taking the algebra 1 and a course exam. The following year, then we will have almost two grades taking the Yes. Yes. The algebra one and it will be at the end of sophomore year. So the whole state of South Carolina has moved algebra 1 to the end of sophomore year rather than the end of freshman year. Um so and then we also have um science was assessed for the very first time last year with the new science standards. Um and we saw a little bit of of growth in our schools that were a little bit lower. um two years ago, last year, you'll notice there are no scores. Um and so we'll
037continue to work there. We're excited for the things that are going on within the district and we'll talk Miss Burgess will talk about those in just a minute. Our um middle schools, three of our four schools went up in the area of science and then at our high school, it was two years ago that we saw some big jumps in the end of course exams for proficiency in high school. we've kept those relative levels um but we're not moving up. So there's some things that we're gonna we're going to work on at the high school as far as our um approaches to to the TAC model and implementing the analyzing of student work and things like that. So you know now the question is okay all those results are great but now what right? So,
038I'm gonna have Miss Burgess come up with me because we've been working hand in hand in developing our staff in supporting our schools and really working to to look at individual student data and to implement primarily that Lawrence 55 model which is our district instructional leadership team which we co-f facilitate the building instructional leadership teams, the clusters that we uh run every week for our teachers because it's a big support to them. Um so we are going to continue the Lawrence 55 model and then um we're also doing some other pieces. So we'll kind of speak about those happy to. So within our Lawrence 55 model, another layer that we've added this year is we are actually bringing our school administrators a couple time once a quarter um to meet with us during our district
039leadership team meeting and that gives us a chance to work with them on looking at our district level data and making those um strides to be very laser focused so that we have that common language. We also are using the visible learning. You heard Miss Penland talk about the visible learning the John Hattie the research has been done for us. All we have to do is learn the model and implement that with our Lawrence 55 model which Amanda and I spent all day today um in a meeting and we'll spend all day again tomorrow to also to support that visible learning implementation of of course another layer that we are adding is the high quality instructional materials. We've done a great job with implementing the ELA high quality learning materials. Now, we are very focused
040on the math. As you all know, y'all approved our new curriculum um last spring. And so, all of those items are now uh in the hands of teachers and students. And so, you also approved those early release days which were that was another wonderful layer to add for professional development. So, now the teachers have their full days and they have those early release days. And so that's where we will be working on those math and science standards to um increase those scores. Thinking about personalized learning and data analysis. So during cluster, our instructional coaches, they help teachers to analyze student work. So they're taking the actual work that the students have done. They analyze that. What do the students need to work on? What are they what have they mastered already? So we can move
041on past that and spend more time on what they need help with. And so that personalized learning and that data analysis we has been the key to the huge growth that we've started to see in English language arts. And we're going to continue that both in math and in science and our other subject areas. and that is supported by that weekly cluster um that we do along with some of our new tools and resources that we'll talk about in just a second with >> and a good example of the data analysis is what Miss Brown showed y'all last year when we were talking about um keeping the Lawrence 55 model here in Lawren County. And remember how she had that folder and it opened up and the students were coded green, yellow, and red? That
042is a breakdown of every student's data being analyzed so that the the school level uh leadership teams know exactly where every student is and how and where to move them. And we actually watched this in process with Miss Pinland um last year. And so I just want to it just really resonated as she presented her third grade numbers because as they worked through their data with their individual teacher folders, they really laser focused on those students that were not meeting that third grade cut score. And that is how and and they used every minute of the day with those students. And those students were not just that third grade teacher students, they really belong to the entire building. she pulled in her PE teacher, her art teacher, cafeteria staff, everybody was supporting those students to
043help pull them up. So, that part is is pivotal and and that has been a a big change that I feel like we have seen in Lawrence School District 55 um under Amanda's leadership. But, of course, we always want to celebrate steam. That is Dr. Pinland's vision. We had a wonderful steam uh on the square day. As you know, we have added uh but we endearingly refer to her as Miss Frizle. Miss Frizzle is all the kids know Miss Frizzle. She's a She's a cartoon character and she does all these science experiments. Well, we now have Miss Frizzle. She was actually dressed like Miss Frizle today. She went and visited a school, but she'll be in all the schools supporting the STEM labs. We have adopted our STEM lab curriculum. We are thrilled about this.
044The Steam Bus uh full roll out the last week of September. Um, if you are available on September the 29th, Fox 21 is coming to Lawrence Elementary School to watch Miss Frizzle in action and to watch our kids use drones. So, please come join us. We're excited about that. And then, of course, the use of AI because whether we like it or not, the world is becoming technology sav savvy. We need to know how to drive those Tesla trucks, etc., and so on. So, we've got a couple AI supports that we um can access through the South Carolina Learns application that the state has funded. And then also class link. Um some of those include um Edmond well edmentum is something that we fund at the district level but Amamira is um what we use
045for ELA and then for math we have um Alex um with with the math adoption. But what those um items generate is that personalized learning for those students. So the students when they click in on their Chromebook or their iPad, they get a um computer friend that helps them study their ELA and their math skills. And so that provides them what they need during their win time. So we're really excited about growing that in Lawrence School District 55. And then last but not least, school plans. >> School plans. So if you recall three years ago when I came in, it was the first time the state required school improvement plans. And so we did school improvement plans for the schools that were identified that needed to do those. And then we quickly rolled into a
046couple months later, every school had a school plan. Last year, every school had a school plan that is part of the Lawrence 55 model. So every one of our schools already has a school plan. They have school goals. They have identified what their target um percentage for growth will be. As I mentioned, some of our schools met that in ELA last year. We want to set those high. We're going to continue to set those high and then they identify how they're going to get there. Um, and then this year we did it a little bit different and I'll let Miss Burgess talk about that, but she and I have been to all but the two schools so far and that has been a fabulous fabulous extension of what we've been doing with school plans. We've
047gone to each school oneonone, sat down with them, they went through their data, and they talked through their strengths and their areas of growth. and it has just really been a great time for them to share what they are doing. Um it's a been a good time for us to talk about common language and what we're doing to push our district and our schools individually to the to level up. Um and I Dr. um Harris says it nicely. He says that if you got a coach out there and they don't have a plan of improvement or they don't have a plan in general, what are you going to do with that coach? Well, Dr. Pinland and Dr. Harris. Sometimes I think they they probably sit across the table from the two of us and they
048think, "Oh my, oh me, I don't know which one." But um there's always a plan here and we're always pushing for excellence. Um so I promise you we're going to continue to level up in terms of teaching and learning and and data. >> Um so with that, I'll just let you know what's coming next month as well as what's coming for packets. Okay. So, my plan is to give you a district assessment report. You have the first draft of that with the assessment results that was sent to you on Wednesday. Obviously, there are some numbers that were changed already because the states playing with some things. So, I will give you the finalized assessment results next next meeting because then they're final. We can't change them even if they got it wrong. Um, you will
049have report card ratings. You will have student progress which we've had some big big student progress in some of our schools. We remember the very first year we saw Waterlue's rating go up and it was because of student progress. It was not because of the achievement and then achievement quickly followed. So student progress is the first step. um multilingual learner progress, school climate, which you've heard a lot about today because that's first, learning second, achievements third, graduation rates, college and career readiness, and then if you have any clarifications or any questions or any additional information you want me to add, just let me know what that is and I'll I'll try to provide that for you. So, um with that, do you have questions for either one of us or for me with our Thank
050you. I appreciate it. Welcome, >> Dr. Harris. All right. Good evening to the board and everyone here in attendance tonight. We'll switch gears a little bit and talk about operations for a few minutes. I wanted to begin by just um giving a shout out to my guys in maintenance. This is our this is our crew of eight um who uh do such a good job for us every day. These guys literally go through hundreds of maintenance requests each month and um and they do a good job getting to that and and really are hard workers. Drew Allen is our supervisor. Then Brent Crawford, Seth Hill, Matthew Malone, Patterson, Albert Sharp, Cody Smith, and Josh Smith are our maintenance crew. And we're going to be losing Cody. I wanted to recognize him publicly. He's going to
051be moving um over and working closer to home in Greenwood. So, want to thank him for several years here in Lawrence 55, the good work that he's done, and we we'll be replacing him, but he'll be he'll be difficult to replace. Um we have been um going through and talking about the Sanders building. Um it's been very exciting for us to have something brand new here in Lawrence 55 as far as classrooms are concerned. U I want to give a shout out to Edcon and Josh Edwards and Lance Franks from the general contractor Edcon. They did a tremendous job for us. We're a great partner in that project. also the McMill and Pas and Smith. Um Ben is here tonight. He he represents that company as well. The architects and um Michael Tuning with design
052and then Larry Bishop with dayto-day did a really good job for us and we appreciate those guys. Just a few pictures from Sanders. If you haven't seen u the building, this is it from um the uh I guess that would be the south end and then just the the full scope of the building and then inside the building. And um again, we just feel like they did a they did a tremendous job for us in putting this building together. It took a little bit of time and some effort and they worked with us a lot to get the price down where we could afford this but we came out with a very nice building and we had a great great time over there recently with um with the dedication for the building. I want to
053read just some student comments about the building. I I found these kind of kind of interesting. Um Connor says it makes me feel more focused. The old building would get me distracted but this building is so clean and it's easier to do my work. And uh that's what that's the type thing we like to hear. This building has positively affected my education by giving me a clean environment and a good workspace to do my work easier. That's Cameron. The new building has more equipment for us to use in science. Everything looks new and smells better than the other building. Is overall an awesome building. Um the building is big and the classes are right beside each other. The classes are bigger and we have more materials. It is super duper clean. Okay. And um it
054has been nice. The building is nice and the water tastes good. And this is um this is the best one. This new building has affected my education by separating me from all the other drama in other grades. The furniture is very nice. Now, nobody I had no idea there was drama in middle school. So this was our this was our time over um with the dedication. Dr. Finland of course had some words to say. Um Miss Little was there. Josh Dawkins came back. Um he was the principal before Mr. Schwabi and was with us through this project and he was back to celebrate that. U Mr. Schwabi is our new principal over there and he's doing a he's doing a great job so far. and again the kids and this is why we do it
055uh for these kids and um they're they're very excited about the about the new building. So Sanders has been a success and uh we uh we're very proud of of the work that's been done over there. I wanted to talk a little bit about safety related work that we've had done or have ongoing here in the district right now. Um safety safety gates at Hickory Tavern Sanders and LPA. Um these are grant funed things. I'll show you a picture of those in just a second. Some access work for those are in progress. So, this work is going on right now. We've had some new intercoms go in buildings. I think Ford was the last one that got one and um they are doing work over at EB Morris right now. Um couple of elevators that
056we had to do a lot of work on. That was a much more expensive project than you might imagine, but we've got a lot of upgrades done to the elevator elevators at Grey Court and also um at Ford. Um the GCO entrance, we'll be putting in a new entrance there at that building. Um and it will be much safer up front as a result of that. Um you may have seen down at the end of the high school some new fencing going up down there is that that is completed and then delayed egress. We have all of our elementary self-contained rooms will be um getting delay delayed egress and that work is in progress right now. Um the gates that I'm talking about look like this. These will be mechanized and um and so that
057that these are up fencing is up and we're waiting right now for A3 communications to give us the electronic part of that. This is at down at the end of the Sanders building near the kitchen. This gate goes in there and it will be the same type of outfit. And then at LPA, this is what we call a prehung gate right here and it will have access where they can buzz in from way from where they'll have to go in and we have a new awning going down there um to LPA as well. So, some good work. BMW Fence has done this work at all three places. Um, we have a new grant um that we'll find out about probably in November. We applied for this grant. This is uh safety um and this is
058what we'll be looking to purchase should we get those funds. Um the strategics badge activated alert system for all schools. This will be a badge that people will wear um and they'll be able to alert us um if something is going on um and they could let us know, you know, what type of, you know, whe whether um someone is needed in in particular areas of the building. This is a system that district 56 uses and we're we're very excited about being able to perhaps get that camera system at Lawrence High School um is going to be comprehensive. We got money in the last grant for that. Didn't quite have enough. So, we've reapplied for some more here so we can get the system that we that we need. Um, window tent is big in
059the state right now. And even even bulletproof window tent and we've got some money. We're asking for some money for that so we can better secure some high-risk areas that we have areas near roads, things like that where uh or or walk-in areas where in front of schools that we might be able to put some of that in. So that's we're working towards that. Door locks for all schools, that's something that's ongoing. And this is a $1.2 million total request from the state. We hope to put that to good work. um upcoming and ongoing work in October, October around October 20th, we'll be doing HVAC in the auxiliary gym. That's a pretty big project. 12 HVAC replacements at several schools. The Anderson Drive property, if you've driven by there lately, you've noticed that we we
060bush hoged out there and we're starting the process of cleaning that up and getting that ready for transportation next year. Um I mentioned delayed egress already. um parking lot lighting upgrades at the high school and also here at the district office. Um gym work at Lawrence Middle School. We had to do a lot of outdoor work there first to keep water from running in under under the door into the building. And we're going to after we got that solved, we're going to look at a new gym floor for Lawrence Middle School. Um we'll have the parking lot sealed and coated, painted at the high school, the student parking that's going to happen in October. We have two roofing projects going on this year, LPA and at Lawrence High School. We'll finish the the pod area
061there, the flat part of the pods and get that done. And then we've got some new commons flooring at Lawrence High School. If you haven't seen that, that came out to be a very good project and and a very good look for that school. And the last thing on my list is we had a meeting last week with teachers um and staff from around the district, teachers of the year, and um I have 14 items that were given to me from that meeting on 9:10 that I'm trying to work through. Now, we have another meeting coming up with students. So, I'll have another list to u to keep me busy going forward. So, that's what I have for you. That was short and sweet. Anybody got any questions? Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Harris.
062Um, I enjoy several of us were able to come to the ribbon cutting at Sanders and I enjoyed that very much. I only my eyes got wide though when you guys offered them sugary unlitted uh drinks and cookies to take into that new building. I was like, what are we doing? But anyway, it was it was a great it was a great day. I was happy to be there. Um, now up next on our list is we will talk to Milstone Towers and I believe there are some representatives here. >> Good evening, Madam Chair. Um, Dr. Dr. Harris, thank you for the opportunity uh to present, give you an update, respect the board uh on the project and also answer any questions that you may have on on the project as well. Um with me,
063I do have Andrew Peterson who's a licensed um um RF engineer that is here to answer any specific RF uh questions that you may have. We also have representatives from AT&T and FirstNet uh that are available if there's any specific uh questions for AT&T or First Net as well. >> Uh so quick uh update on who we are. Essentially, we've been in business for almost 25 years. Uh we're based out of Rustin, Virginia. We do do a lot of work with private public partnerships um a lot of municipalities um and school districts all throughout the east coast and uh southeast. Um that's really our primary focus is when we have a challenging site when the carriers have a challenging site to come to Milestone and work with us. So you know we've developed over 200
064sites um we have um a lot of districts in South Carolina specifically that we work with. uh we establish um towers on their properties um and again in exchange for that there's a uh revenue share that is provided to the school districts um to generate um you know additional funds for them um some of the current partnerships include uh Greenville uh Pickkins uh Richland 2 Charleston County uh Kershaw these are a few that are specifically South Carolina in terms of the background of the project. Um, essentially the project came to us as a result of a need, a critical need that it was highlighted by both AT&T and and um, T-Mobile. Um, today there's a water tank that is near Lawrence Middle School that essentially is coming down. I believe it's uh, it's scheduled to
065come down in March of next year. Uh currently both AT&T and T-Mobile are on that water tank with their antennas and essentially need a a uh new place to go. Um if if we don't find a place essentially that coverage, you know, will create a significant coverage gap um and potentially emergency management concerns for the coverage area that you see highlighted here. So we work with Dr. uh Harris and Dr. Penland to identify a location that we thought would be appropriate for um for the coverage that is needed in um to exchange. Uh here you can see a little bit of the T-Mobile coverage and what you see on the left is essentially without the coverage without the antennas uh either on the water tank or a new location and you see the coverage on
066the right is the coverage with the uh based on the new location and Here you see the one for AT&T as well. The left is without the uh the water tank and to the right is with the with the coverage with the antennas. As you can see the darker colors in both is essentially showing you that the coverage essentially where it's targeted and what the biggest impact is going to be. Uh in terms of FirstNet, there is a significant um you know gap in terms of um AT&T partners with FirstNet uh to provide essentially a specialized service for emergency manage uh management uh folks. Uh that so in case of an emergency they have a special uh uh you know broadband that they use and they can still communicate in case of you know some
067sort of emergency. And these are all the uh different agencies in Lawrence that are using that that um first net and potentially would be impacted as a result of losing that coverage here. >> Uh we did hold a community meeting back in May um this year um essentially where we proposed we talked about the project um talked about the site itself. Uh we send out um notices to about uh half mile radius. Um there was um two notices that went out two two weeks before and one week before. We held it on a Zoom call. Typically we do that simply because it's uh allows us to record it but also allows folks to attend you know if you're not able to make it back from you know uh in time to a particular location right
068um we had about six attendees I believe at that call um and as a result of that call we did make some modifications I'll walk through a couple slides and show you that uh essentially um so the essentially here it's you know it is adding the project is adding a um you know critical infrastructure to an area of need meaning that there is no place for AT&T uh T-Mobile or even Verizon once the water tank is is um is is gone. Um we did make changes as a result of the town hall to the tower. Um we did get feedback during the call about u you know visibility visual impact. Um the height I think originally was around 240 235 in terms of heat. Um, and as a result, we worked the feedback we worked
069with both AT&T and T-Mobile to determine what their, you know, if they could go lower, right? Uh, one of the reasons for going lower is that, you know, at a anything above 200 ft. Um, the the FAA would require it to be lit. So, there'll be a light on the tower that's emitting, you know, constantly. Um, so by reducing the height below 200 ft, we don't have to deal with that uh that requirement. So obviously it's a lesser visual impact. Also the structure um type itself change. Uh anything above 200 feet requires it to be a um lattice tower. So self-supporting uh which basically just creates a little bit more of visual impact. Uh I know on the way here uh on the road there's quite a few lattice towers. um only in Lawrence City
070itself um do you see monopoles um and obviously monopoles are a little bit less impactful and so you'll see as a result here that there's um less impact less visual impact as a result of that change uh finally uh we did clear some critical um milestones in terms of regulatory clearance and specifically NEPA so that's really the the one of the major um you know regulatory hurdles that we have go through in terms of no environmental impact, no environmental impact to any historic properties, um things like that that are highlighted as far as that that that analysis. Here's uh uh it's really difficult to see obviously in the in the uh image here. Uh but we'll post this uh presentation on the uh on the project website as well, but you can see on the
071left is um is actually the the lattice tower. uh on the right is would be the new design which you is not visible from this uh vantage point. Um on here it is visible um again it's much less visible on the left I'm sorry on the right um than on the on the on the left and then finally here right directly from it you can see that you can still see it but I certainly can't see um obviously my site's not as good as it used to be but certainly the on the right is not as visible to me from this from where I'm standing right now. Um, in terms of virus safety, uh, like I said, Andrew Peterson, who's a licensed PE, can specifically address any of those, uh, any of those questions. Um,
072one thing that I will say from a milestone perspective with all our agreements that we have. Um it is critical for us to understand that where we stand on um you know RF emissions for all the properties that we deal with municipalities and school districts. We do a test on a yearly basis. uh is done by an independent party and they essentially come on site and will me take measurements both outside and inside the buildings to determine what the value is um the emission uh at at that point and uh see where it um how it hits the FCC threshold. So in all most of our sites um I would say that that threshold is less than 2% of the FCC standard which is significantly lower. Um in some cases it may jump up to
0735% but again it's it's relatively you know significantly much lower than the FCC standard threshold. Um, one thing that we have done, um, and Andy can talk a little bit about it is he's done a model for the current project that essentially looks at, um, uh, tries to model like the worst case scenario in terms of the antennas at power, uh, how they're pointed and so on to show you what that potentially, uh, emission rate would be in comparison to CF FCC standard. Um, the other we have done uh is we've uh commissioned a another study that will be the physical study uh to be taken both at the um you know the park uh at the middle school and the elementary school uh that that will be coordinated within the next couple weeks with
074Dr. Harris and Dr. Penland to u you know to have that you know that third third party come in and actually do that those readings to establish the baseline. Um, we've been doing these for over 20 years. Um, we have a school district in Virginia, Fairfax County, uh, one of the largest districts in, uh, in the country. Um, I believe they have about 25 sites, the 25 towers on their properties. And they essentially every year that we send them the report, they publish, they have a website where those reports are published. Um, that link is also in this PowerPoint. Um, and accessible to the public. Um, in the history that we've been working with Fairfax County, um, never has any school come even close to the threshold that the FCC um, establishes. Um, there are
075several organizations that address FCC um, you know, u RF admissions. um World Health Organization specifically is the primary one that you know recently came up with the uh the latest assessment. Again, I'll let Andy address those points um since he's really the expert. Um another thing that we did uh recently just to comparison, we did a similar study at Greer Elementary uh I'm sorry, Greer High School in this scenario. Um and the um and this is kind kind of similar to what we're going to do uh in the next couple weeks. Before the tower itself, this site, the average emission was.3% of the FCC limit. Um so that's just to recognize that there's always um uh RF emissions um in the environment. Um without a tower there is um and obviously in this scenario there
076is already antennas that are nearby. So we would expect perhaps a little bit more than that, but I would be surprised it's been significantly more than that. Um, this just kind of shows you a little bit of that study in terms of locations of where it's the tower is going to be and points where the uh the the uh testing is is done. Um as you can see here again the this is just trying to show you the the rate uh the levels uh all within you know a couple percentage points of the overall FCC threshold that is established. Um and I think that's going to be um it for me. I'm going to switch over to the second presentation. Yes. There's not enough space in that location. Ultimately, >> the um the the ground
077space that is need needed is about a 50 by 50 ground. >> Uh I'm not sure exactly how big the water the foundation, but in terms of like uh coordinating and figure out the uh position. >> Right. Right. We have the same problem in um currently in Virginia where another tower is coming down. A um water tanks coming down and trying to figure it out with with that. Right. Because uh there's not enough space. Um the foundations come down and it can be a little I guess coordinating. Um so just switch it over to Eddie. He can talk about specifically RF admissions. Thanks Azie. Uh I'm Andrew Peterson. Um president of DBM Engineering. Um I've been involved in the design and uh radio frequency emissions compliance aspects of these types of facilities uh now for
078about 30 years. um been accepted as an expert in the field of radio frequency design and electromagnetic emissions um in hundreds if not thousands of municipal before municipal bodies um hundreds if not thousands of times and in state and federal courts u probably a hundred times or so over the years. Um my firm was established in 2006. Um and I service mainly the major wireless providers and their ecosystem of uh subcontractors and tower developers. Milestone being a tower developer. Um I have undergraduate and graduate degrees in electrical engineering both from Lehigh University, registered uh and licensed professional engineer. Um and um as I said been doing this work for a few decades now. Um and uh specifically uh for for this proposal um what I've done is um examined what's what's being proposed and I've
079also examined uh the existing facilities on the water tank. Um and uh when I what what I mean when I say I've examined them is I I collect all the information of what's being proposed by AT&T and T-Mobile on the new tower. Uh their antenna configurations uh the overall structure height and the and more importantly the height that those antennas are planning to be installed. Um and then using uh the office of engineering technology bulletin 65 which is uh a publication by the federal communications commission. That document has the guidelines um that engineers like myself are are able to use um and the formulas that we're able to use to assess a facility that's being proposed. It's not on the air yet. So we can't go out and measure uh what the electromagnetic emissions environment
080will be like surrounding it. But what we can do is use the formulas that are prescribed in that document. And there's some basics they are some basic physics formulas that cover uh the propagation of electromagnetic energy. Um we use those formulas and we also use a set of uh worst case assumptions. And what I like to do and what I always do is I use the absolute worst case assumptions. Um So those include 100% ground reflection. That assumption alone um assumes that an individual near a tower is walking on a mirror which would reflect the incident power um 100%. So they are exposed to the the direct energy from the antennas by line of sight and then an equally powerful uh uh uh energy from from a reflection from the ground. that single assumption um
081will double the incident power quadrupling the incident power density. Um so that single assumption can quadruple the outputs. Um beyond that we use some some more obvious worst case assumptions including maximum antenna gain. So we imagine that we are aware that antenna is focusing the most energy. Uh we assume uh maximum power output. Uh we We we negate any attenuation that would uh be caused by any environmental or man-made clutter like buildings or trees. Um and then we assume 247 365 exposure with maximum power. Um and then um in this case I've also assumed a maximum surrounding topography adjustment. So there is some topography in the area. Um, I wouldn't say it's aggressive topography, but there there's a difference of maybe 50 feet or so depending on where where we're looking in the area surrounding
082the facility about quarter mile. So, I've assumed um that the uh the uh individual location that's being analyzed is at the peak of that surrounding topography, which will negate some of the gains in uh the the height of the antennas now being elevated a little bit higher than they were at the water tank. So all that being said um and all those worst case assumptions being baked in uh the cumul the cumulative levels um would not exceed 6.02% of the applicable FCC standard at any location surrounding this proposed facility that's in the compound itself or at any distance um near the facility and at any height of ground level surrounding the facility. Um again assuming that worst case in height is in all areas surrounding that facility. Um the re in reality um what happens
083when we do these worst case assessments is there's usually about a t-fold increase in the uh output that that these assessments yield. So what I mean by that is when we go out and measure which milestone has talked about already um that they do have a a set schedule to measure these facilities every year. Um they'll likely find that the exposure levels are going to be less than 1%. My calculations are no more than 6%. Um and typically it's about 10 times of an exaggeration because of all these upper limit assumptions. So that's what I would fully expect in this in this case um is that um we are you know we're demonstrating compliance with this um this anticipated exposure report but I think what we'll find when we go out and do the actual
084measurements is is we'll be about 10 times below or about a half a percent. Um and and when I say half a percent or 6% that is that is measured against the FCC's uh limits which are 100%. So, anything below 100% is compliant with the FCC standard. In a case like this, um I would anticipate being uh below um worst case at 6% which is about 20 times below. In reality, it's probably going to be more like 200 times or more below. Um so, the facility will be compliant and it will be compliant by by quite a large margin. Okay. Can I interrupt real quick and ask some questions? >> Sure. So, I know the FCC is a federal agency and you're talking about their compliance or you're being compliant to what they their threshold.
085What what I would like to better understand is if you say that you've got a cellular company that's has a RF energy that's at the 100% level that SEC says we're going to let you transmit this level at 100%. Is that a harmful is is that even at 100% of what the FCC says, is that harmful to humans? In other words, if you if somehow T-Mo starts broadcasting at that percentage, can it harm a human? So, I I think um just to be clear that T-Mobile, AT&T, they they are transmitting at the maximum power and and I'm ass well my assumption here is that they are transmitting at the maximum power that their installed radios can transmit at 100% of the time uh 24 hours a day. That's never the case. um that would only
086occur when the the system is fully loaded and even then there's some headroom that's left on on those those radios because there's overhead messaging that has to go back and forth to facilitate calls and a lot of hand shaking that goes on. So the reality is those those radios can never be fully at 100%. Um my assumption is that they are at 100% 247 365. Um, so it's, and I think this is getting to the heart of the question, um, it's not as if something can uh, break or malfunction and then all of a sudden they're transmitting at 100%. And I didn't mean to imply that they're holding back power. Um, when I say they're, you know, we're saying 6%, that's at at ground levels of uh, public occupation. um those are the the levels
087of exposure there would be at a maximum around 6% of the FCC's allowable limit of of 100%. So I hope that >> yeah I I hear what you're saying. So that means that there's no way that that T-Mobile or AT&T in this scenario is going to produce a RF energy that's going to be harmful to humans. >> That's there there's no way they can exceed the FCC limits. And is the FCC limits just crazy high then? >> If we're talking about FCC says here's 100% and everyone's down here at six. >> Well, no. Um and and really where they come into play is when you have let's say a rooftop installation where folks can be on that roof. Um, and it's very common in more urban air in more urban areas where where we oftentimes
088use rooftops as antenna support platforms because there's not a whole lot of tow not not a whole lot of room for towers and and water tanks and and billboards and other things that that we can use in more rural areas. And you have folks up there by virtue of their employment, you know, whether they're HBAC professionals or roofers or what have you. Um and in those cases when an individual can get within let's say 10 15 feet of the front of the antennas that's yes yes those those um areas can be above exposure limits. So there's there's rules that we follow as an industry on how to mitigate that risk including signage and barriers and things of that nature and just generally design the design of those where we put the antennas out toward the
089edge of the buildings. That way we we limit those those exposure areas. But that that's really where and that's a great question, but that's really where these these uh guidelines u be become very important. Not that they're not always important, but so with knowing that this tower is going to go right with two schools, we got a middle school and elementary school right there. Are we is there any concern that we're going to be producing more RF energy than what the than what was on the water to or what is on the water tower today? So, I did take a look at that, too. And and it really comes down to height above ground level because the the energy from these types of facilities, from these antennas on a blackboard or in a textbook, it
090it decreases with the square of the distance. So, every time you double your distance, you quadruple the the you you you take 1/4 of the power. Um and so distance is is key there which is why a rooftop scenario where folks can get very close to the antennas um can produce those higher levels. Um but what we have here is um some additional height in fact significantly. Um so in this case where we have the the uh the lower of the two sets of antennas being T-Mobile here planned at 185 ft above grade um at the water tank which is about 120 ft. The the the carriers at the crown of the tank their antennas are right in that range 120 125 ft or so. Um so they're much closer to the ground. Now there
091is some elevation change in the areas surrounding the proposed pole. the the grade actually comes up. If we look at areas within about a quarter mile, there are some peaks um where there there are some grade change that brings it up 50 or so feet, 50, 40, 50 feet, something like that, maybe even a little bit more. 60 feet is is kind of a probably a very worst case assumption um from what I looked at. So you you end up with with basically a net zero, let's say, where the height of the water tank, yes, it's lower, but that as is typical, the water tanks located at a higher point um to make best use of the gravity to feed the water system. Um whereas we have this this uh tower that's kind of sitting
092I'll say sitting down a bit maybe with with respect to the surrounding topography. But but those two things balance out here. So, um, and what Milestone's going to do here is go out and take those pre-measurements not only around the water tank, um, but also on these two school campuses to see as a baseline. Um, so we can actually compare and see what what what the addition of the tower tower uh has done to the radio frequency environment. Um, we can see what the removal has done um from the water tank. But my calculations and my experience in this case um would I would say that the levels that we're going to see around the schools are going to be pretty much in line with what we already have in the areas surrounding the water
093tank um and in both cases compliant by a very wide margin. >> Sure. Can you speak to as you know we had um we had >> thanks. So you know last month we had um we had community member come in express interest or concern about what was happening as far as the cell tower uh is concerned. Um, she had also provided, and I don't know if Candace got to hand these out or share with you, but she provided a document, a petition of about 50 signatures of individuals in that particular community that, you know, are have their concerns as well. Um, and I actually see a lot of them in the audience tonight. So, um, and this may not be a question for you, but so I'll just let whoever one wants to answer it.
094I know that you said you sent out two notifications to the community and you said a half a mile radius. About how many flyers or mailers would you say that you sent out >> to how many people or homes? How many residents? >> I want to say I I would have to go back and confirm, but I think I want to say it's at least 500. >> 500. Yes. >> Okay. So, if you sent out 500 mailers twice >> and then when you of a mile away. >> Well, >> bear with me a moment if you would, but if you sent out 500, even if they didn't go to the individuals sitting here, but you only had, and I understand on the Zoom call that night, you said you had six participants. I think some
095of those were district employees, so I wouldn't even count those as participants. Um, I think there were two homeowners that actually called in for for the Zoom to ask questions. Um, did it concern you or raise a red flag at all that you hadn't done a good job advertising what you were trying to do so people could express their concerns? Because what what I'm sitting here now concerned with is that, you know, we made a decision. we move forward with something and trusting the information that you guys had provided and trusting the administration and we move forward. We made a vote and we signed a contract and then after the fact once it's kind of getting talked about then I've got a a large population of community in here very concerned because they never got
096to express their concerns originally. >> So every project is very different. So in cases we have a lot of people show up in those town halls. In some cases we have one or two individuals. So it's never it's never there's never a gauge in a sense. Um it all they're all very different. So when we only had a couple folks from the residents that show up, it wasn't a surprise. >> Okay. I would if I could. I don't and we're really we're really not like for the audience to ask questions. That's really not what that's not what we can do tonight really. Um so I'm I'm sorry. I know you asked a question earlier, but um what I would like to see is you know and if if you guys object just say no. We
097can't take a vote. We can't do anything like that tonight because that's not part of our agenda. But what I would like to see um if we had a general consensus is that let's just put the brakes on for a second. do the testing that you're talking about um as it relates to the water tower and then where the new location would be and then allow these community members to come back on that Zoom call with you again so you can share those results and they can express their concerns and address some of the issues that they have. um because I would love for the community to be on board with the decisions that that we're making related to this because it impacts them as they live in that very specific area. So, I mean
098just to give us because you said you're going to do that in a couple of weeks, right? >> Yes, we're scheduling that. I'm expecting to have a date tomorrow and you know what we'll do is um we'll post Andy's report on there, you know, this week. Uh and the plan was that additional report on the website on the project website whenever that one's available. >> And where's this project website? Is it something that's linked to our website that anybody can view or do we know? >> I didn't >> Sorry, >> didn't we have that posted whenever the issue came? >> Okay. So, we'll get that um posted on our website to link to your site. >> Okay. So would would you be willing to do that and offer another Zoom so these community members can
099ask questions and address you directly? >> Absolutely. Um when as soon as we have the report, you know, that way we have something to show. >> Um more than happy to have another call. >> Okay. And um you know we'll share with you the list of um you know addresses that we have for that radius that we'll send out to >> and maybe we could post something on our Facebook page or on those the schools in that area post something theirs and a link um once a Zoom is set up. Um, I just I would just like since only two people out of the community that you sent the flyers to, since only two people showed up, but we have many more than two people tonight and then 50 on this petition. I just want
100to make sure that their voice gets heard and that their concerns are addressed. >> Sure. Understood. >> So, everybody okay with that? >> All right. I'm going to let you ask one question and then I can't break any more rules. >> Correct. >> We have signed a contract. Okay. But I want I want to make sure that everyone's concerns are addressed. And I don't see why we can't just take that step before we go down the road even further. And then we can circle back because I'm sure Dr. Harris and Dr. Penland will be on that call as well. So, um I'm just trying to make sure that the community gets their voice heard. So, Okay. >> I don't know the answer to that question. >> Okay. We Well, I look, I just wanted I
101want you to be able to get the answers you need. Um, and I'm happy for you guys to ask as many questions as you want, but we just can't do it in this particular forum. Um, so that's why the Zoom would be good again. And that if you have any specific questions that are related to the board or the administration as as how this process went, please just reach out to us directly. Um, because I I know any of us would be glad to talk to you and if I don't know the answer, then we'll figure it out. we'll find the answer. So, >> and and I think I say if there's something really out of hand here and it it just comes to show that we we it's not a proper thing to do,
102we'll take steps to to correct that. I mean, it's I know we've signed a contract, but if there is something here that's terrible and it's going to be harmful, I'm the first guy that's going to sit in line and go, I don't want to do this. Uh, but we have cell towers all over the place and you know the fact that we're the if y'all go and look where the cell tower is today, it's not that much further from where we are where it's going to be at today. So >> that site's 150 by 150. So it's not too small. Yeah, but but you're talking about building a cell tower while tearing before you tear down a water tower. >> Yes, you absolutely have to. That's the goal here is to is to set up
103a cell tower before they tear down. Let's not let's not let's not get back and forth. Um, I just want to make sure, you know, shame on me because I didn't do the due diligence that this section of the community has done before we got to this point and before we signed the contract. Um, so I think that it I don't think that we're doing any harm by just taking a break, doing the work as far as um the RF emissions and testing that and then allowing the community to speak up again. So, um I I just think that's the right thing to do if if everybody's okay with that. So, but Other than that, I I we don't have any or I don't have anything else for you, but the rest of the board
104may have something. I'm not sure. >> Well, I appreciate y'all coming. >> Thank you so much. >> You know, it it does make me feel better that there's engineers that are looking at this and, you know, making sure that we're not doing something that's just completely off offkilter here. So, I appreciate your time and effort. >> Thank you. And I would I don't know if we have um Miss Madden or I see you back at the door. If there's a piece of paper that these members can write their name or email address on to receive the link if they want before they leave, I'm happy for us to do that. So, but thank you gentlemen. I appreciate you coming tonight. >> Okay, lost my place. Okay, now we will move into our facilities report with
105Mr. Ben Thompson if he is still in the room. Greetings. Good evening, board. >> Good evening. >> All right. Good good to be with you. Uh again, Ben Thompson here representing McMillan Pass and Smith uh architecture. It was great to see earlier tonight uh the progress that's been made on uh Sanders Middle School. I love those quotes from the kids. Uh I'm going to get those quotes and share those uh with our firm uh in in that way, too. So wonderful start uh when we talk about facilities tonight in that regard. Uh tonight my purpose here is to really go over and summarize uh the last couple of years that we've been working in the background on uh planning for the future for your portfolio of buildings. Uh as you're aware um we had shortterm
106midterm and long-term plans that we had to really think about uh to direct the district in uh in the dis in the direction that it needed to go. um for for its facilities. Uh you heard uh Mr. Harris uh report back on some of the projects that are upcoming, some of the projects that are complete. All of those were part and parcel to that initial assessment that we did uh in in a couple years ago. So uh this is uh this is the summation of kind of where we are uh today. Uh we started with some very basic questions. Uh how do we keep our schools up to date? uh York, we went through a lot of facility assessments. We went through uh also growth trends uh in in Lawrence County, Lawrence 55 here specifically.
107And we looked at your existing schools from a capacity standpoint, all in the effort to really understand what is possible and what is the best uh next step from that uh planning standpoint. So, we're able to get to a maintenance plan. Uh, and now we are at that capital improvements plan or that long-term uh, plan stage. Uh, great thing about these next couple of slides are these these are not necessarily my words. These are y'all's uh, input into what are the guiding principles that we as a board, we as a district are looking at in creating a long-term plan for the future here at Lawrence 55 from a facility standpoint. Um, you know, those are those are words on the screen that I that I can barely read uh right now, but a lot all
108of those are are exactly uh coming from the discussions that we've had in multiple workshops uh and multiple interactions uh over the year over the years. We also culminated that in looking at a a long-term facility mission statement uh for where you want this long-term plan uh to go. And so I'll leave that with you. If you'll remember, we did a lot of exercizes together uh to really come to uh what the purpose of of this creation of this plan uh would be uh overall. Uh so with with that um we went through um once we had that planning uh once we had that baseline of information uh as far as the data of facilities about the costs about the enrollment about the growth uh then we went through a series of exercises on uh
109on what's possible. Uh all of those all of those uh came to um a couple of different conclusions. We looked at those with you guys and uh and decided that the highest priority was first your existing facilities of course from a maintenance um and operational standpoint, safety and security issues uh and of course the the largest uh project that needed the most work which was uh the district high school. Not to say that other projects aren't necessary as you move through time, but those were the three highest uh priorities uh overall. We also talked about uh last time specifically the meth the methods in which funding uh to begin to think about those uh in correlation with how are you uh providing this overall long-term plan. Uh right now the district is using a pay
110as you go u model meaning you're using your ongoing uh yearly uh tax funds to fund either improvements, renovations, additions as they come along. Uh but there are other you know there are other methods uh available to you as you look at a larger investment or a larger plan longer term plan. Um overall uh really what we're trying to do over the course of the next several months. Um, and we'll get to the schedule on this in just a few moments, but what we're trying to do in the next several months is validate precisely what is needed in that long-term plan and really make make sure that we understand the cost implications to that first. Uh, the the uh needs that you have secondly um because they will continue to escalate. You heard uh Dr.
111Harris mentioned roofs. you know, those things are are ongoing things that you have to kind of keep up year on uh year over year. Uh so we have to mend all those uh together into a long-term capital plan. Um overall, and just very briefly uh where we landed the last time that we spoke uh was uh looking at each one of those elementary schools uh from a maintenance uh standpoint. We looked at some higher needs as far as circulation on those campuses uh go. We goes uh we also looked at Ford uh elementary school specifically more than the maintenance plan required meaning there were some windows that needed to be replaced. There were some um ADA accessible items that needed to be uh that need to occur on that campus specifically. Uh so that's part
112of your pay as you go or part of your ongoing uh improvement plan. uh overall again at Hickory Tavern uh and Lawrence Middle School. Those are uh those are schools in which we kind of captured what the needs are from a enrollment standpoint and from a maintenance standpoint overall. So we're able to provide some direction in that um in that uh ongoing plan as well. separately and apart from but part of that uh whole capital improvement plan is Greg Cord Owens um K8 campus in which we do know that from a growth and trending standpoint that you have additional classroom needs out there and and additional maintenance needs out there that are that are necessary in a in a in a midterm and long-term uh capacity. And finally, uh, looking at that overall, um, third
113part of the overall capital improvements plan, the the high school, uh, we went we went and looked at, uh, and evaluated the different scenarios for high school with you guys. Uh, and we found that a phased approach might seem the most appropriate here, both in terms of value, uh, operation, uh, and budget. Uh, at the end of the day, you do have a significant piece of property that is already operational. So that's an important feature, something that you don't have to pay for in addition to uh what you have already. Uh but and the the question was uh from from you guys to me was is it even possible on that site? So I think we we looked at that last time and and found that it is feasible to to do a phased approach
114on this site. That does not mean that we don't have to do some renovations uh to the existing campus. we don't have to do some infrastructure changes uh and the like to really improve that campus holistically and comprehensively uh with any addition overall. So now the the is it the right time? You know, we're at that stage where most of the u the studying has been complete. Uh we're at that stage where we want to start to get interactive with uh not only you as internal stakeholders um uh those at the high school and make sure that we understand how the building needs to operate, how it needs to work educationally. So we're at that stage of engagement. Uh we're also at the stage of engagement where we want to uh broaden that out to
115uh you guys first uh and then the communities uh at large as well to get their input overall. One thing that we would suggest um in in uh in looking at the structure of that engagement would be first uh those initial meetings with uh from a master planning standpoint so that we understand that program. That's what I mean by understanding how the how the space works for teachers and staff and students u programs uh overall. So we'll be we'll be engaging with uh the district there to to get boots on the ground at the high school to understand uh that side of it so that we can provide you with an overall layout of what that facility might look like uh at the end of the day from a feasibility standpoint. So that's a series
116of um progress uh that will will over the course of the next two months. In addition to the master planning side of it, uh those engagement and listening sessions, there are a lot of vehicles that we've used uh previously that I would recommend that we continue to use. Surveys uh work well, broad-based uh those individual meetings where you can actually take uh commentary from um uh community members directly. Uh those seem to work pretty pretty well as as well. uh and then back to you at the end of the day uh for for further discussion uh analysis uh and direction uh moving forward. So I'll stop right there just this is the 20,000 foot level before we get into the next three months of a lot of activity where we're going to where we're going
117to talk and engage not only here in this room but outside of these walls uh in in uh uh in in the community uh overall. So want to make sure that's all right with you and and keep moving forward. Yeah, I think so. Do you think that um by the end of We're still in September, aren't we? >> It is still September. >> For a minute, I was thinking we're already in October. So, you think during the month of October, you will be able to have surveys completed and community listening sessions? >> Probably not. Well, surveys uh begun. Um I would roll those surveys for a couple of months um this year. so that you have the results at the end of the year going into next year. >> Okay. >> That way you can
118put yourself in a position to make a decision after all the other parts are complete as well. >> Okay. Okay. And the the community listening sessions is what you would go ahead and start those in October. And >> Right. I'd go ahead and get information out. Go ahead and start those in in Octo. >> And are you thinking one at every school like we've done in the past or do you have a different recommendation? >> We were sorry. We were originally thinking six and kind of do them in community areas. Okay. >> And trying to do one during the day here so if people didn't couldn't come and then trying to do different ones, but we're looking at the two weeks after um fall break is trying to schedule those. >> Okay, that's good. I
119mean obviously I mean you know we're we are only in the space that we could even consider this if the community says yes. So we want to make sure that every opportunity is given for them to provide feedback and see you know I notice on these back few pages you've got some layouts done you know for people to actually see what the option are see what we're going to do um to get their buy in >> right >> so >> yeah I think that's an important point is is uh these are all great ideas and we we've all worked in the analysis side of it for for a long time now let's take it and make sure that this is precisely what you need from a community standpoint and really put a budget to it,
120put a schedule to it, uh put some put some visualization to it so that we understand precisely what you're getting out of the equation. >> Y okay. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you so much. I appreciate it. >> Yeah. Thank you. Okay. And now we will move into oh our board readings uh board policies. We have several um for second reading. >> So I'll just read these off and kind of give you opportunities to ask questions. Um if we would like we can do all of number three together with um one motion since all these are the second reading ones. So whenever you look at um the first one which is um CC exhibit this is the um organizational chart um this has been updated to add district stakeholders, board of
121trustees, principles and also names of the um different members of cabinet. Any questions on CC-e? >> No, I think unless it had some sort of change to it, you probably don't even have to like address it like unless there was some sort of change. >> All right. Um, and I think GBEC um and GBE notice to employees. This was just the drug and alcohol-free workplace. Um those were just kind of updated and the um rule was there to um update that also. Um policy GCR dual and none employment professionals. Um I don't think we made any changes from last from the first reading. um policy DJ purchasing. Um we did make changes here and also changes from the original board packet um that was sent out this time. Um the purpose was to and um
122to combine the rule DJR and um DJ into one document. So DJR if approved would um be um removed from the policy manual just so that it is all wrapped up into the um one. We also have added the um statement at the end of the document um to say superintendent authority to modify. That's just in case we have any um absences um not um vacancies, emergencies um or medical or other circumstances that would warrant flexibility. Any such changes must be made within the intent to maintain operational efficiency and safeguard the district's financial integrity while ensure appropriate oversight is preserved. Any >> Yeah. So, on this one, did everyone see that that paragraph that came through for that one? Um, as I was reading that, um, since this was an addition since the first time
123that we looked at this policy, um, if you're looking at the paragraph, I thought that it really just needed to state the superintendent retains the authority to modify approvers in the event of vacancies, emergencies, or medical issues. um and not and not have the abil and not have the ability to change approval levels. >> Okay. >> So um but I did write that there. I know this came up after the fact. So I don't >> Okay. Um so we'll pull this one out whenever we vote and make a motion to change >> that. So pull that. >> All right. Um, so continuing on, we have policy BD, I'm sorry, DB, um, annual budget. Um, I don't think there was anything that we changed on here from last time. I didn't bring my last month's notes.
124And then DG D-R is going into the purchasing cards. Um, no additional changes there. >> I think the only change you made is that the one that you had business office or something and you changed it to CFO. >> CFO probably say um policy DBJ budget transfers. Um this is the one that um just basically um has to have board approval um if we make any changes um to the fund balance or anticipate going into the fund balance. That was not any additional changes from last first reading. Um policy DKC-e there was a blank over there um on the far right um and we filled that in. I think it was the 8.6 for adult ed. Um that's the only thing that changed there. Policy GCB, professional staff contracts, we did not change anything else,
125but the only thing that was added to this policy was that we would not rehire any employee that has been terminated or resigned in lie of termination due to failure with comply with district policy. And then policy ADF um district wellness. The only thing that we know changes from last first reading and then policy BA board meeting notifications. Um this was the one that we just added um or designate to be able to do that and also posted on social media. Um no additional changes from last meeting. um A R I K A-R tests and examinations. Um this one we did change from last reading to clarify that the high school has the discretion to allow seniors to exempt final exams um if they meet the following criteria, but everybody else is in um expected
126to take um finals um at the high school. I think that's all of second readings. >> Okay. >> So, we would need a motion for all of them except >> for DJ. >> DJ. >> So, uh if we can make a motion to approve all the second readings with the exception of policy DJ. >> I'll make a motion to approve all of them with except DJ. >> Thank you. >> I'll second. >> Thank you. Is there any questions or concerns? All those in favor of approving the second readings for all policies listed with the exception of DJ, please say I. >> Any opposed? >> Thank you. So now we'll need a um a motion to approve policy DJ with the um paragraph superintendent authority to modify but removing the um statement or adjust the required
127approval levels and also removing do you want to remove that too? Is that what you're >> Yes. and also >> um or other circumstances that warrant flexibility. >> I'll make a motion that we accept the revisions that Dr. Pinland just um verified for policy DJ. >> I'll second. >> Thank you. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor of approving policy DJ as presented with the changes from Dr. Penland, please say I. >> Any opposed? Okay. >> All right. So, let me get back in my book. >> Okay. We have two policies for first reading. Um, this is the live stream. This is policy BEA, live streaming of board meetings. we already do most of this stuff. Um so this is now required by the state um to be implemented by January and so this
128policy just basically puts into the manual the requirements by the state which we are already um adhering to. It also lists out technical disruptions. Um if for some reason technology went down, we have so many days to post um a recording of the video or um audio in that standpoint. So um that is um BEA. Any questions on the live streaming? Okay. The other policy EF food service um this is just adding a statement for community eligibility provision program. Um this is our C where our students um are eligible to eat free meals. Um this is something that's just required to document um that program in our system. And so that will just be an addition to the policy um EF. Any questions on that one? >> How is that different from the fact that
129we're title one district and we're already providing free meals? >> Okay. Title One is a um kind of a federal allocation based on the poverty of students and that goes to fund um supplies, materials, staffing um to impoverished schools. Um community eligibility is a USDA more um under the Department of um health I think is the one that they're under now. Um so that funding comes in for reimbursements of meals to students. So, we're already This is what we're already doing. >> This is what we're already doing. It's just um solidifying it in our policy. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any questions on those? All right. So, that'll be first reading. We'll bring those back for second reading next month. And then the um number five. So we have three um exhibits or rules that
130um we did not clean up whenever we um cleaned up a lot of these policies and they were mostly in the forms. So whenever you look at J I Ae um which is the form for them to fill out. We're basically just removing the um terminology gender identity. Um and that's the same thing on GBA. Um just removing the gender identity to match our policies and also um with GBA C-R um removing um the um notifi I mean the reference to gender identity um sexual orientation is still in there. Discrimination, harassment, that does not change um that we're still against harassment and retaliation. and it's just um cleaning it up those exhibits or rules to match our policies. Those are for information only. We'll just go ahead and make those changes and those don't need
131a vote. >> Okay. >> All right. I mean, we keep going. >> If anyone's keeping up, we're on section three of the board packet that Miss Brandon sent out. I'm right there with you. >> Yes. So now we are on number six under board operations. So we are now going into the um board of directors appointment for first steps. um we have to request and get board approval for our appointment of an individual to this board and we are um requesting that we um or that you as the board approve Miss Angela Compton to serve um in that capacity of the board for first steps and this will need a um >> who picked her >> um they recommended her from first steps um because since replacing Linda Wessel and she was an employee in
132the teaching learning department. So they requested somebody to be on the um from the office of the >> So um we will need a motion to approve Miss Angela Compton to serve as our representative on the Lawrence County First Step. >> I'll make a motion that we do that. >> I second. Thank you. Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor of approving Miss Angela Compton as our Lawrence County First Steps Board of Directors appointment, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Okay. And next up is um me, the South Carolina School Board Association has its annual meeting every December and this year it will take place on December 6 um at the Charleston Marriott. We will have two delegates go. One would be a voting delegate, one would be an alternate. This is
133something that we're not going to vote on tonight, but I wanted to make sure everybody was aware and think about it and consider your schedule. This is something that you would like to do. Um I know I've done it several years. I enjoy going down there. I know Heather uh did it la you were down there two years. Yeah, you've done it two years. >> Two years in a Um, but if anyone else wants to do that, just speak up and we will take a vote on that for in October. So, >> okay. So, so you you say one is going to be a delegate, one is going to be an alternate, >> right? The alternate goes just in case the delegate can't something she's sick or he's sick or whatever. So, we send two
134people. So since we have two votes, then we have to vote that proxy for that person to vote for both of them. >> Whoever we choose to send down as the delegate and the alternate, we will approve as a board those two individuals. So when they arrive, they have the authority from the board to do both votes, either the delegate or the alternate, whichever one ends up in the room that day. So yes, we will vote on that and approve that. next month. >> But could you send two delegates? One to each vote. One person gets one vote. >> No. >> So it's it's one delegate that gets two votes. >> Yes. Okay. That's it. One person, two votes. >> Yeah. And that's just all directed by the school board association. Okay. Now, uh, Miss
135Wendy Burgess for our school year, our school, excuse me, our 26 27 school year local board approved courses. Good evening. One more time, um, Lawrence 55 school board. Um, in your packet, you noticed that there was a memorandum from the office of teaching and learning. We are recommending that you approve the 49 courses for the 2627 school year that u support our steam learning and college career and military ready graduates. Are any of these new courses? >> No, those will not be new courses. Are there any questions for Miss Burgess? Okay. Um if we could get a a motion to approve these local approved board courses. Excuse me. Local board approved courses. >> I'll make a motion. >> Thank you, Mr. Hughes. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Jenkins. Any questions or discussion? Okay. All
136those in favor of approving the 2627 school year local board approved courses, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Okay. >> Thank you, Miss Burgess. >> Thank you. >> All right. In your packet, you'll see the monthly financial report. Um, in your cash flow estimates, um, as of 8312025, um, balance with the treasur was 7,230,91. Um, with revenues being 6,382162 and the expenditures being 5,434,913 with the difference of being 947,249. Um, also the total C tax collections for the month was $42,535. Any questions on the cash flow and then we can get into the monthly budget to actuals? >> Thank you. >> All right. Um, in your budget the actuals, you also have um the comparison for expenditures. Um you will see that through the August 31st 2025 we have spent um 5,434,913
137and um of the 9 mill I mean 59,771,000 um that is budgeted which represents 9% of our expenditures um for the months going forward. We'll add another line, another column to this and we'll add actual percent of um used per budget line. Um so for example, whenever you look at repairs and maintenance, which is 323, you'll see that we've already spent 254,000 of a $870 um,000 budget, which is about 25% of our budget, which is kind of out of line of everything else. So, this will just kind of help us to be able to see if there are some flags and some identification areas that we need to look at. Um, I did look up that that's a lot of loan um care maintenance. That's a lot of um you know getting the schools treated
138for um bugs and that kind of stuff prior to and doing a lot of that type of thing. So, a lot of that's upfront um purchases and expenditures that um did kind of flag that to be a little bit higher than normal. Everything else um seems to be within um uh one to I mean 1 to 16%. >> Right. >> Thank you. >> Um then you have your budget to actual revenue comparison. Um you'll see that in the revenue we have received um 6,382,162 um dollars in revenue through August 31st um which is the budget of um 59,771,000. We've received 10% of our revenue um at this point in time. >> Have a question. >> Yes, sir. >> Is the board included in that? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. Ask that because the last time
139Miss N was told that she couldn't attend a conference. That correct? >> Uh do you remember? I don't Was that the end of last year? >> No, that was the was it to Atlanta? >> I think that was the spring conference. Yes. >> Yeah. Right. So, we had um whenever we looked at the budget that we were um going to be out or be going barely over um by if we would have spent the second person that would have put us way over budget for that. So, yes, I did make the call to only send one person. So the 125,000 is not board only. That is all local travel which some of that is principal travel. Some of that is school level professional development. That's some district level and it's also board um included in
140that 332. >> So you saying it's possible everybody else to use up the money the board have enough to travel? >> Um it's all allocated based on different levels of travel. Um like I said, so we already allocated so much to boards, so much to schools, so much to um other departments. Um and so everybody has kind of their piece of that 125. Yes. Any additional questions on the um financial report? >> I have 10 questions. I'm just kidding. I have no questions. >> Um, >> is that all? >> Yeah. >> Thank you for the budget. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. And I I appreciate that you're going to add in that percent of use. I really think that's going to be a great >> way just to kind of track. So, and Miss Brandom,
141I we had no public participation, correct? So now we will need a motion to enter executive session. >> I'll make the motion we enter executive session. >> Okay. Any questions? All those in favor of approving executive session, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. Here we go. All right, I'll call us back into order. It's 911. We have It's 911. We have one item that needs board action from executive session and that is to approve a list of certified employee resignations. If we could get a motion from >> I'll make a motion to approve. Get out of here. >> Say any any comments or discussion? All those in favor of approving the certified employee resignation list, please say I. >> Any opposed? >> All right, it's approved. And >> you too. I
142got to adjourn. With no further business, I will adjourn our meeting. Thank you.