001e e e okay I have 6:30 on my watch here so I'll go ahead and call us to order um Miss brandham did we notify the media we did okay and I do declare that we have a quorum with six of seven board members present um Mr Carpenter is not able to join us tonight because of the passing of his sister um Miss Sylvia pulley and if you would indulge me I'd like to take a moment of silence um to remember her and just pray for Mr Carpenter thank you and if you would just please keep Mr Carpenter and his family in your prayers to move forward we do need approval of our agenda I'll make the motion that we approve our agenda I'll second thank you thank you is there any discussion or questions
002all those that will approve the agenda please say I I I any opposed the agenda is approved I do welcome everyone here tonight I'm glad to see that we have a lot of faces in the audience and if you would um I'm going to ask coach Dawkins to introduce um the sander student that will lead us in our Pledge of Allegiance yes ma'am so we will have Miss chlo Robel lead us in our pledge thank you I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you thank you and now if Mr chip Jenkins if you would say the prayer for us let's pray right gracious Heavenly Father we're thankful for the opportunity
003that you've granted to us to gather here to deal with the business in the of District 55 I pray that your holy spirit will give us wisdom and understanding um also want to pray just a special prayer for Mr Carpenter and his family I just pray that in the Gathering of their family that they can find comfort in each other find comfort in you we love thank you for Jesus's name I pray amen amen amen um now we will need approve approval for our minutes for our January 27th work session and board meeting I make a motion to approve the minutes for January 2725 work session and school board meeting second thank you thank you is there any discussion or comments all those in favor of approving the minutes for January 27th work session and
004board meeting please say I I any opposed the minutes are approved now we will move to our Sanders middle school report with uh Mr Josh Dawkins good evening everyone good evening first I'm going to have Miss Wormley come upes so uh this is Miss Sharon wormly um she teaches our uh sped Department uh students um here at Sanders middle school um but she is also Lawrence S 55 teacher of the year so please give it up for Miss [Applause] Wormley good evening good evening thank you to Dr penin and to the school board for the opportunity to speak tonight as teacher of the year a platform that's near and dear to my heart is giving everyone a voice this poem represents the voice of every student in all l55 180 days I sit in your
005classroom but how much do you know about me do you know me beyond what your natural eyes see so when you're preparing lesson plans do you only think about the standards to help me pass the big test or do you think about the methods to help me learn best I know you teachers think you're so smart but we know you talk about us when we're not around treat me like I matter because it's not my fault I live on that side of town all right if I speak to my friends in Spanish please don't label me as disrespectful or think I must be talking about you I'm speaking in language that's comfortable to me when you're with your friends isn't that what you do I appreciate you teaching me the language because I want to
006improve my English when I write and when I speak but as you teach me please don't rob me of what makes me unique we are from Mexico Guatemala and many other places we are not the same even if it's hard for you care enough about me to learn how to say my name box braids sew inss blowouts natural Puffs twist outs locks yes my hair is a part of my culture a big part of what makes me me but don't you dare Judge Me by what you see I wouldn't dare ask you to be colorblind I want you to see the cocoa pantan milk chocolate red bone caramel dark chocolate and everything in between I'm proud of my ancestors beautiful and resilient kings and queens please don't call me lazy just because I don't raise
007my hand sometimes I need extra time to think and I don't want people to laugh at me when I don't understand yes my disability matters so you know what I know and how to teach me but please don't put a label on me I am not my IEP well I'm glad for the opportunity to speak my mind because people don't think about diversity when it comes to people who look like me my skin may be white but there's more to me too than what you see I am unique I am different I am diverse I am me very good thank you Miss Wormley and uh now to uh that's a that's a hard thing to follow but now we are going to uh show uh the sers middle school video um this video was produced
008by um our student body president Miss Chloe Robel and our student body vice president uh Miss Britney Lopez so please um stay tuned um and enjoy um the video for Sanders middle school oh to [Music] gos our and do a great job at helping us do that a them talk about how to themselves that week or that day and he does the same thing for the grade in the gymnasium always are and love to come here [Music] at M School believe that dat drives instruction in our this year in law we have partnered with n tap which has enhanced our teacher development but as well as our Effectiveness in the classroom our teachers they attend of Ma so we look at our math data we examine that to make that we are the best for
009our instruction to our students and also developing our teachers to be more effective in the classroom that is how we understand our students when it comes to sense of numers when it to sense of they when it comes to their education we want to make in the classroom our instruction are high quality but our students are engaged interactive want them to be a part of the instruction have more handson experiences than just a Sit we have seen so much change here at Sanders and I especially have seen it over the course of my years we like to create a learning environment that is fun to be in but also make it so that we are learning efficiently and in a way that sense for all students [Music] thank you thank you all in that's standers
010report do we have any questions or concerns all right thank y'all so much thank you thank you uh thank you coach Dawkins and uh thank you Miss warmly for that poem um that was amazing I wasn't able to understand you read it at the um opening convocation this year and I was not able to be there so I'm glad I got to hear that tonight thank you um Dr Penland we'll turn it over to you so again I want to thank um Miss wory for sharing she's been a great asset this year as she has taken on the manle of being our teacher of the year and also has served extremely well for that so thank you again for coming and sharing with us tonight so in my superintendent report you know I thought somebody
011else would have already stolen my thunder but um we're going to tell you something good we were um at the School Board conference this um weekend and one of our presenters um talked about and um kept saying tell me something good and I couldn't get that little song out of my head for the weekend and I actually had an audio clip but it didn't trans so but um so we're going to talk about some good stuff so some academic highlights I want to share with you we had some BFW wait you have to stop now we all we all have to tell you something good have to tell me something good okay all right I'll let tap with the star [Laughter] yes that is great yes my turn yeah I'm just so thankful for the
012dedication of our teachers I put on this board and to do my RO just just know that yall the front line and just incred um I absolutely Echo what what uh Mr Jenkin has said and for me from the day that I've had my tell me something good is that I got to hear your poem Miss formly because it just it just really touched me and I appreciate you sharing again so um I I'll have to say that the encouragement that I receive daily um through different people and text messages and um constant reminders of I'm here because God has placed me here um has definitely been very uplifting today and every day so that's my something wow well I'm I'm glad to be part of the school board but I want to tell you
013this I celebrated my 73rd birthday so I am aging gracefully fantastic that is something good happy birthday Miss N I think um something that we should all be putting far as you know the Lord woke us all up one and was able to give us the ability to you know go to school and teach and share information with the wonderful students that we have in this District all right Mr Hughes I 6:44 and we halfway through the agenda that's good I fully expected you to say something about your grandbabies I had them all weekend I don't want to talk about them I ain't slept in two days so if I KN off okay sorry for the interruption thank you so all right some of the district updates that I would like to share today are
014some academic highlights again the VFW um winners we had two teachers um our elementary um School category winner was Miss Tammy Wakefield and our Middle School winner for the teacher was Hunter Norris in those categories we had a second and third place from grep Owens that were the Patriots pen essay contest winners and um Sabrina and um my eyes are not that good but you can't see it on that side either um Jasmine is that correct something like that but um sorry for not being able to read that far um but those are the winners also would like to congratulate Hickory Tavern um academic team they are now headed to State um for being the Middle School winner for the week Regional um academic team so very much proud of them and as they advance
015and will compete in March 7th at Lander University against the other state qualifiers and so um we wish them best of luck and we'll be ring them on also want to um talk about our Student Art display um if you didn't get a chance to see yesterday or today that was a great showing of some amazing artwork that our students had put on display at and they housed it at the Martha Franks historic Villa I was able to go over yesterday and see that it was the the amount of work that our kids put into that but also our um Fine Arts teachers they did some amazing work and one of our very own um was commissioned to do um art piece for the rition of villa for their 40th anniversary um also want to
016um kind of promote our seam on the Square event it'll be a free event on April 5th um downtown Lawrence and we'll be on the Square so that'll be um April 5th from 9: to 3 we'll have several different and will be um partnering with the city of lawen First Steps lawren County Chamber and county law so we we're really looking forward to that looking at Fine Arts and also stem activities will be on the Square um we had an amazing Black History Month um opportunities for um at Sanders EV great Court ner Tavern where they had that we actually great courts is this week and E was on um the news with fo Carina yes fo Carolina covered their event and soing opportunities and kind of showing there for Miss Morrison actually was the
017guest speaker atris we um are now celebrating this week is Happy monory week so we're actually be kicking off some activities this week the celebrate the work and the opportunities that we have inside the district for monor and we be sh those throughout the week on Facebook um we have been doing some instructional walkthroughs and seeing some great things um as we've um kind of gone through through led by Miss Wendy burgus and her instructional team going out and kind of inspecting what we expect and we have been seeing some amazing work and some amazing things with our fabulous teachers you you know there there's times that you find things that we need to address with schools and teachers and also with our admin so we'll just kind of share what we saw for areas
018of growth also um we had some amazing professional development on February 17th headed up by Miss Amanda Rose and Miss Burg and her team um as we were able to provide that as an instructional professional development date we have another one coming up on March 17th where I will be able to provide additional training for our teach um some athletic highlights so we're still talking about something good so we had archery from great for is headed the state we have a midle and Elementary um kind of competition there that will be going to compete at the state championship at the state um fairs anding feu tomor Thursday that's great so we're very proud of our um wrestling team at the high school as a team they qualified for State um ended up State Runners up
019but they were an amazing group of kids and had great things there but then they also um qualified individually the following week we had 11 qualifiers to make it the state they went as the top eight of each one of their weight divisions so to qualify 11 kids to state was amazing for our team and then we had one state champion Dakota McCall W Saturday in his weight class we had one first place two second places and a couple of fourth places out of those 11 that went to St very I'm honored to be able to um watch them wrestle for the past couple weeks and um then come out with a state champion and a state as a team we're also very proud of Coach Lawson Jordan who is the head coach of the
020wrestling team he was name region 14a wrestling coach of the year and very proud of all the successes that he's had and everything he's L on the gr um Early Childhood registration um if you missed that last month you at your child's school zone um please do so as early as possible so that we'll have accurate numbers as we plan for next year um inclement weather makeup day um we are still waiting on legislation to go through the house if it continues on we'll make a decision at the end of next month at the next month's board meeting if we have to utilize a makeup day or if the state allows us to do it in a different way through or additional way to make um as part of the building the culture of Excellence
021um the teachers um I sent out this email um or it will sent out for me um if you can't beat the winter Blues join them so they had a month of blue jeans so they're almost out of blue jean days but um it was very much um just my way to say thank you for all they do each and every day um it's amazing to be able to just know you can wake up and put on Blue Jeans um some days um we've had some very very cold days in the month of February Al some rainy days and um it's nice just to throw on those jeans and come on in work and um get the work done because what we do in the buildings each and every day is hard work and so
022anything that we can do to help our teachers as we continue to grow and develop our culture of Excell um and I'll end with this we had a HBCU event Recruitment and resource event at the high school um last week and I have heard R reviews it and as Carlos gets ready to share from the student services side I just want to take this time to thank him for everything he did um to make that a successful event and um I'm sure he'll share some of the highlights of that having kids be able sign and get accepted um to college on site and um that event was amazing too so thank you again for all you do only just a minute only 60 seconds in it forced upon me can't refuse it didn't seek it
023didn't choose it but it's up to me to use it for I'm must suffer by lose it given a count if I abuse it just a tiny little minute but eternity is in it good evening good evening I want to take uh just a couple of minutes that poem is credited uh to Dr Benjamin e may it's called God's minute um if you all would indulge me for the next Maybe three to five minutes I will try my best to get through uh talking about the student services department uh first and foremost I want to thank Dr pen for this opportunity I want to thank you for uh the confidence having enough confidence in me to uh occupy the role that you previously you had I will say that the luster and ore of my
024newness wore off within two weeks so the purpose in our opinion um of the student services department is to lead with the Mantra that students are first uh the student services department is to assist providing students with meaningful access and educational experiences that will prepare them for post-secondary institutions the military or the workforce Workforce excuse me it systematically and I say that sincerely aligns initiatives resources services and supports that not only focus on students academic achievement but their overall well-being and I say that sincerely from the standpoint that I've had parents in my office as early as what 7:15 7:30 uh talking about what we can do to collectively make sure their students uh get the opportunity get the access to either graduate um go to work or go to the military I have phenomenal
025group of individuals that I work with I will say that Miss Manley between Miss Manley Miss Patterson Miss collie and Miss Miller those ladies are phenomenal they have helped me make a smooth transition also with the student support teams that we work with this group hands down is is by far some of the best group of individuals that I've worked with in my 24- year career with the attendance clerks the career development facilitators the middle Health Counselors the nurses and the school counselors that's an Eclectic interesting group of individuals we meet monthly we decided to change up a few things and to I wanted to touch base with each group on a monthly basis just to kind of check in see how they're doing see what they need so with the school counsel we meet
026on the first Tuesday of each of each month uh the career development facilitators we meet on the second Tuesday of each month Mental Health Counselors first Wednesday of each month nurses first Wednesday of each month at 2 o'cl and then the attendance clerks we meet on the last Thursday of each month and again the the entire focus of each meeting is to focus on what we can do from a student services standpoint to ensure that we provide the resources that they need so they can disseminate that information to the students and Families and I will say each meeting has been very spirited regardless of the group that we've worked with each meeting has been very spirited very focused very Student Center we assist with the following activities again we meet monthly so we do a
027lot of PD with each group we try our best to make sure that we have a community resource in the meeting to talk with uh each group about the resources the connections the services that they offer we also assist with the student registration process we work with the Jed Foundation which focuses on student improving students mental health um we work with the behavior threat assessment management teams uh we had our first official meeting with Representatives including our one of the our former board members um we had an the BAM meeting October 29th we also deal with some spirited and sometimes festive expulsion hearings they're they're very very interesting um that's all I can say about this it's very interesting it's just you all wouldn't believe some of the things that we've seen heard and had
028to stop we also deal with treny meetings again those meetings can be very spirited and interesting as well uh we also work closely with mcken vento students we've got students that uh we work with students and families that we work with some of them are as far away as downtown sparenberg we've got some in Clinton they're they're they're I would say strategically but somewhat strategically uh placed throughout the upstate and we've tried our best to make sure that we can accommodate everybody's needs of course you all we're all familiar with the hurricane that that just recently passed uh unfortunately a lot of our students families were displaced and so we are actively trying to make sure that their needs are met whether it's from a uh a clothes standpoint a food standpoint a transportation standpoint
029we've tried we we've done our best that we could to tr to make sure that they have access and the resources that they need and as Dr penan alluded to a few minutes ago uh we did have our inaugural HBC Recruitment and resource event uh we had exactly 13 students to be accepted on the spot seven to South Carolina state six to Benedict College and so we were proud about that because again um the whole point was to make sure that they have exposure and access to uh to the resources out there um I appreciate the guidance counselers U because they were actively as the students were talking to the colleges they were actively printing transcripts so that was phenomenal for them for those students because uh not only did some get accepted on the
030spot but some were offered scholarships on the spot as well so that was that was great um it started out I will say this it started out as a very very um stute Keen recruitment event and then as the hours went by ended up turning into a party and we had music and I will say the fourth lunch by far was the most spirited lunch we actually had to make the children go back to class um because they they had a lot of fun and so I was very appreciative of all the community organizations that came in I appreciate the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce as well as pragma healthc care and Geneva's catering they those were the event sponsors and I appreciate Miss klie for spearheading uh securing those resources because we
031didn't have to spend a dime we didn't have to spend a dime and so we were very very grateful that uh this opportunity presented itself and Miss K again kudos to you for thank you for your assistance with this event um I will say all in all uh the student services department we are actively working um each group does a really good job they've done a Yan's job to make sure the students and families needs are met at this particular point we'll take uh questions and I'll try my best to answer hearing none thank you uh thank you Dr Little John um and we know all about spirited meetings so um Dr pan I'll turn it back over to you so we'll now have have S Representatives come up and share information you would like
032share we did discuss this last time and you have in your packet information that we had last time pictures Mr superintendent members of the board my name is len forus I'm the founder and owner of Milestone Towers um we have uh several Partnerships uh throughout the East Coast we're based in Washington DC uh and some of the Partnerships include uh Charleston schools Richland schools uh Greenville uh Kershaw and Pickins in South Carolina um we're here today to request consent to move forward to propose a communication Tower at um at the middle school location uh particularly because across the street street from the school there's an existing water tank that's being decommissioned and on that water tank are two wireless carriers T-Mobile and AT&T and uh when that Tower when that tank is comes down service
033will be disrupted uh in the uh in the school community and so our proposal is to uh Grant consent from uh School Board to be able to apply for an application to build a new structure that would allow for the service to continue um we're working very closely with uh City who are now going through a zoning ordinance Amendment uh we're watching that very carefully as they uh go about determining uh the proper zoning and proper locations uh where facilities could go so we're still waiting to see exactly what process they go through but uh we've built we've been I've been I started the company 25 years ago we built hundreds of sites and Partnerships with schools and municipalities and i' be Havey to answer any questions that you have um thank you for being
034here tonight um um the first question that I have is did there was communication that came out from County coun or no excuse me city council that they too are looking with another um cell tower company to put a tower within the city as well um do you know anything about that and do you have any requirements on how close you would put your cell tower to another one well we were approached by both AT&T and T-Mobile service will be disrupted uh we've got long-term relationships with them uh to be able to ensure that their Network continues to operate so at this juncture uh our goal is to take the lead from our customers uh but obviously uh there may be other other options but right now the the location absent relocating the tower where
035the tank is right now which I don't believe is is under consideration the closest possible location would be the middle school okay I don't know I don't know I guess question are your what other competitors are in the are well there's obviously ly um you know there's no shortage of companies that build cell towers uh but we specialize and focus on Municipal and school relationships and that's why we've had such great success in the Carolinas we have contracts long-term contracts with Greenville County government Greenville County Schools Pickin schools Richland 2 uh Charleston County Schools Charleston County government uh as well as Kershaw County so we we're probably the most prolific developers in terms of building facilities in Partnerships with municipalities and schools to ensure that we take into consideration the long-term use of the campus
036make sure that we have the flexibility to select locations that will be harmonious with the operation of the school and also we have very a very long 25 years of relationships in U in maintaining the assets as well and so it's kind of our Niche it's kind of what we do I mean there's no there's lots of companies that can build a cell tower but we're really good at uh managing a program that will allow for it to be sustainable and also very trans arent with the community as to what it's going to look like where it will go um we're we're very transparent in terms of identifying uh photo simulations we put that information on a website we make sure people in the community are aware of it well in advance of any Community
037any town hall or public meetings our approach has always been to be able to share transparently everything we're proposing get as much feedback as we can so that as we go through the process uh it's it's a very reciprocal process with the community and with Schoolboard and and elected officials and I assume you'll have offices in South Carol we're based in Northern Virginia uh but we operate in uh Nine States from that location okay so y don't have an office in South Carolina Virginia we're in Northern Virginia yes sir what's the biggest push back that you've gotten from Community when you've tried to to install a self Tower well I think really every site is different in that you have to look at the context of the location and where it's placed um often times
038uh the view shed is really important because people want to make sure that it's buffered in a way and it's it's uh located distances that where the visual impact will be mitigated so every every site has its own unique circumstances uh with respect to uh you know the location and its height and its uh design style um there's always the issue associated with radio energy uh from the antennas uh there's radio energy today from the water tank uh but what we do is we monitor every year and provide a report to our school Partners so they can see precisely how the radio energy from our sites is measured against the the federal standards so we do that every year for all of our school Partners so we can demonstrate that we are well in compliance
039with all the standards that are that are established and if those standards change we we have to we're required to make sure that we comply with them as well okay well the the intent our customers want to be able to stay uh on the tower for at least 20 years or longer uh they make a very strong capital investment of usually half million dollars per tenant to install their equipment so we want to make sure we put we put it in a location that's not going to be uh you know shortterm longterm but after 10 years if the the tower needs to be relocated if you need the property for another purpose we'll pay to move it after 10 years so we we're not handicapping you forever to that location but we do want to
040look very closely at your long-term plans to make sure that we' picked a good location that won't be uh in the way if you do relocate how much is left do you put the property back like it was yes sir and the idea would be we' find we'd work together to try to locate find a location other somewhere else in the campus where it would make sense if indeed that location were required for future development You' mention Town Hall meetings is there something that would go beyond an approval of the board that you would continue to have discussions around here or is this the no absolutely not no this is just the very the first step in the process so if we were to be granted consent to apply for the apply for it once
041the city goes through their process of determining exactly what the ordinance will look like then we'll take a look at it and determine the best next steps once we have that we have a plan and a path with the city planners and the city the the plan Department we would then propose uh effectively uh build a website work with your team to make sure everyone in the school Community received notices we usually uh draw a radius around the site that includes hundreds of locations of of residences we mail uh letters and cards to them to show them where to find the information on the internet so they can see exactly what we're proposing what it's going to look like why it's needed and then we would then after the those that communication is sent out
042to the school Community sent out to the neighborhood we would then schedule a a town hall meeting for input and provide opportunities to answer questions that people may have with respect to what we're proposing is there a fee that we will that you'll be paying us for the site is there yeah there would be no cost to you effectively um we would uh we would effectively share 40% of the revenue of the gross revenue that we receive from our customers and when we construct a tower we would pay $25,000 to the schools in order to be able to compensate you for the costs that you incurred for our legal review review of our plans construction disruption and so forth so that uh you'd be you'd be whole with respect to those uh those costs and
043then uh well right now we have two carriers that want to be on the site that desperately need to be on the site and we think there's opportunity for Verizon and potentially uh Dish Networks to also locate on the tower so our success is your success when we're success at be being able to uh plan for and accommodate other wouse companies how long build to once you break long yeah less than six weeks wow and that includes all the site work as well as all the final a punch up and we would make sure we choreograph the construction with the use of the school so we're not disruptive for sports or any other uses so we would make sure that we fit into the schedule for the operation of the fields during the summer yeah
044summer the to I believe it's slated to be decommissioned in 2026 we got yeah uh the city ordinance is that you mentioned is there currently a city ordinance regarding cell towers yes there are and uh in fact um there the city council um uh on the on the uh 18th of this month just last week uh reviewed the uh the new ordinance they wanted to expand the ordinance to make it more inclusive and to make make it more clear as to where these types of structures as well as other issues that they wanted to address uh they've remanded it back to the Planning Commission on March 11th and then once the Planning Commission uh completes their review then they'll forward it back to the council for a vote we believe in April so we're assuming
045is that the city will go through its process you know the next several months and then we'll have some direction okay any other questions for anyone thank you very good thank you very much for the opportunity thank you appreciate you coming tonight uh now we will move to Mr Lis for our financial report good evening are you dead everyone should have received a copy of the financial report for January of 2025 our balance with the treasurer office as of the end of January was 11 milon 7,4 fiscal year to date re revenues for the general fund for those seven months were 37,5 32,33 with expenditures for that same period of 31 28024 for a difference of 6,252 278 with tax collections for the month of January at 6, 53,6 does anyone have any questions about
046the monthly financial report okay uh with your permission I would like to skip ahead uh to the report on the lead board of directors um before we bring Matt up to discuss the audit report is that okay to rearrange the agenda okay um the lead board of directors held their annual meeting on February the 13th the Laurens education assistance for district 55 or lead corporations the 501c3 organization developed in 2005 to finance various Renovations Energy Management upgrades and capital projects as well as to refinance higher interest rate loans the original lead debt was 39,46 $ 5,000 as of June 30th 2024 the balance was 16, 915,000 and that will serve as member of the ex committee those four m board for I know that on our agenda tonight includes feu start over no you don't
047no you don't my man if anybody missed that because the mic wasn't working sorry uh I think I talked loud enough for the board we'll post your cell number at the end of the meeting don't start over I will not um are there any questions from the board on the lead corpor ation or its board all right well doubling back then to the audit report I'll turn it over to Matt Phillips Matt and his team completed the audit of our 2324 financials and he is here to go over it with you thank you Jim thank you board for having me it's a pleasure to be here um won't take up too much of your time Mike um so um decided to do something a little bit different this year we're going to do these slides
048um the whole 130 page booklets down there I know you're going to read it later so um you know you can get that from Jim but um just going to run through this real quick if there's any questions please let me know we really app appreciate the staff all their hard work um we come in ask a lot of questions um in a short amount of time a lot of information so we really appreciate them getting us all the information um and um just again thank you to them all right so again just starting here Financial audit presentation um going to start with the independent Auditors report this is the report that we issue to um 55 uh details management responsibility which is the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements also includes the
049design implementation and maintenance of internal control relevant to the preparation of the financial statements the responsibility of the auditor is to express an opinion on the financial statements based on an audit uh we conduct our audit in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America and government auditing standards um and we obtain reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from Material misstatement um we do offer an opinion on the financial statements and we issued an unmodified opinion a clean opinion that is the best opinion that the district can receive um and it states that the district's financial statements are fairly stated in all material respects uh just moving on to the numbers um within the audit again just very summarized here but um we have our government-wide financial statements so
050we have our statement of net position uh total assets 70.1 million broken up into Capital assets of 42.1 million and then cash and current assets of 28 million deferred outflows um related to small deferred charge and then um items related to net pension liability and OPB of 23.3 million total liabilities of 144.5 million the majority of that is your 7 1.4 million net pension liability and your 47.4 million OPB liability um deferred outflows are strictly related to those two items I just mentioned net pension liability and Opel liability um net pension is a negative 83 um or 83 million excuse me um right below that I think is being covered up by the the cover there but um without the um 83 without the net pension liability and the op liability we actually have a
051positive net position of 44.3 million so again the net pension liability and the OPB liability um under governmental Accounting Standards um we are required to put those on your book but that's your un uh for the net pension liability especially that's your unfunded portion of retirement uh we receive that information from pipa and I have a slide on that a little later statement of activities under your government-wide financial statements total revenue for the year 84.7 million total expenses 80.2 million so we had an increase in net position of approximately 4.5 million governmental fund fund balance um total fund balance decreased 1.7 million to 20.8 million at year end of that 14.2 million is restricted and so the unassigned fund balance 6.5 million and that is 7.5% of 2024 actual expenditures governmental fund revenues and expenditures
052um just a little little bit of detail on those those total revenues for the year 84.8 million um that's a $213,000 decrease um from 2023 um again small decrease there due to decrease in local and state revenues uh 74,000 over budget for the general fund total expenditures 86.6 or 86.8 million excuse me um 82.1 million of that current operations 1.4 million capital outlay and 3.3 million Debt Service uh 3.9 million 5% increase from 2023 due to increase in support service and expenditures and then 3.8 million over budget for the general fund primarily due to instructor and support services expenditures other significant items again um as I mentioned before net pension liability and OPB liability um gasby 68 and 71 net pension liability for 2024 is approximately 71.4 million net OPB liability for 2024 is approximately
05347.4 million this represents the unfunded portion of pension benefits and um OPB uh owed to the members and other post employment benefits um liabilities are determined by P and provided to the district any questions I'm not an account so you got a lot of numbers out there yes sir counties out there just curious I put your opinion that we yes sir yes sir yes sir that was my question fairly stated I'm not going to say something's not off by a dollar but you know the balance sheet looks good yes sir so we have a clean opinion the financial statements are fairly stated yes sir so after all that we're good yes sir that's all that's it I can just say that next time thank you appreciate it have a great meeting thank you Dr pen
054all right so we'll now um swap over to our learns um lawen learns um I will be asking um Miss Amanda laar Ro and Miss Kelsey Brown to come up um to share with this but um you know we were hit um last week with a very hard blow um it was something that we were you know not anticipating and um we did lose our lawen learns Grant the one that we have been talking about for the past couple of years um that was the 13.5 million um allocation to um kind of change and drive our instruction to change our you know um structure and um we're just going to kind of give you an update of um where we are what we've been doing how it has changed our system and um we'll just
055kind of come back in a few minutes to kind of talk about um what this means for us and where we um would like to head all right I'm going to do a quick um overview so you understand what happened why it happened that kind of thing um so first off it was last Tuesday early Tuesday morning we received a email from the US Department of Ed and it was a grant award termination letter effective immediately this was a three-year award that we were given we are about halfway through that three-year award so we're 18 months into what should have been a three-year award um the reason that was given in the letter was that it was determined that our grant provided funding for programs that promote or take part in Dei initiatives um or
056other initiatives that unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race color religion sex national origin or other or another protected characteristic I want to go on record that is 100% not true um it that also was could have been because it conflicted with the Department's policy of prioritizing Merit fairness and excellence in education and we're going to actually talk to you about how our program actually does those things so um or otherwise fall to serve the best interest of the United States so that's what was stated in the letter we have 30 days calendar days to object or to challenge this termination we do plan to do so um by the end of this week we have contacted a number of our Representatives up at Washington we happen to be up there next week because it
057was already paid for um and we have the opportunity to drop our challenge off to some of our Representatives so they can help Champion our cause if they see so uh fits um all funding for learns that was coming from this grant has been terminated effective immediately we can challenge we don't know how long it will take um for that challenge to be reviewed or when we would get a response back um but really the funding major impacts are our Master Teachers salaries benefits stiens um our teaching specialist stiens our ni coaching support which we have uh terminated that um that agreement at this time and then performance-based compensation for our teachers and things like that so you have heard me talk about learns quite a bit on and off over the past year so
058I thought I would bring um one of our Master Teachers um Kelsey Brown is a not just a master teacher but she actually is also an ni fellow that is something she had to apply for there were over 200 people that were applying for that and I believe there's a total of how many 12 12 out of 200 people across the country she was chosen as one of them so she knows much better the inner workings of what she does in her Phil Master Teachers do so she's going to tell you a little bit about that so that you have a better understanding of what um impact this will have on what we've been doing so far this year so in your packet also as a copy of this um PowerPoint and um some information
059that she may be referring to um or if you have questions we can dig into in a few minutes also thank you bard members for your time and commitment to Student Success I'm here today to address an urgent matter regarding our ability to maintain our continued Collective commitment to students success and speak on behalf of my fellow Master Teachers I became involved with NI as an instructional coach through a partnership with an ni specialist in the 2023 2024 school year this collabora this collaboration provided valuable insights into strength space coaching enabling me to support teachers by building on their existing skills and fostering professional growth through this experience I worked closely with teachers at Ford Elementary School to develop a structured approach for deeply internal internalizing instructional material and implementing them effectively in the classrooms
060additionally I played a key role in working with the instructional leadership team or referred to as ilt sometimes to analyze classroom observations and walk through d data ensuring that instructional improvements were being strategic and sustainable in February of last year I was given the opportunity to attend the net conference alongside other instructional leaders in our district where I gained a greater insight into those processes and structures after the con after the conference our district team came together I think I can speak for all this when I say that we were very energized and inspired and we were excited to align those the new learning with our District's priorities we developed a clear plan to enhance instructional quality close achievement gaps and strengthen teacher retention and these are critical components of our District's strategic plan over
061the summer our district leaders dedicated extensive time to planning and preparing for the implementation of this new structure our schools collaboration to analyze data and develop individualized school school plans strategically examining assess ment results to set targeted goals within each grade level band for our students our Focus was to increase the number of students achieving proficiency on the state assessment by identifying key areas for growth and aligning instructional strategies to address them coming into the 2425 school year we had a Clear Vision about what our roles and responsibilities were going to be within this grant Master Teachers were holding are holding weekly cluster meetings designed to build teacher capacity instructionally and implement the SC Teaching Standards 4.0 rubric which provides a common language for educators and provides relevant feedback necessary to build effective leaders and
062College and Career ready students the work that we conduct in our weekly meetings is thoughtfully planned out based on teacher observations and evidence found in the classrooms with the guiding question always being how will this impact student learning okay you'll notice that I just Advanced the SL slide there and our Master Teachers currently are involved in providing observations along with our administrators and then providing feedback to our teachers coaching them on how they can grow and how they can move forward um in being more effective in the classroom this is an example of one of our teachers in The District in cycle one which is the first three months of this school year their observation was about a 1.86 our goal is a three after just three months of coaching from the Master Teachers within
063this building by the second cycle only three months later they were already at a 2.53 so you can see that their impact is definitely positive and it is making a difference just in a short period of time is this at Ford is this process is this at Ford this is the district school throughout the district yes so inside of your folder there's going to be a few artifacts that I'll just refer to as I'm going through this next part the instructional leadership team including Master teachers created a long range plan I believe that's this first document so this is just an example of Hickory tavern's long range plan um so you can kind of see um each cycle goal and all the data that we use to develop each of those weekly meetings meeting outcomes
064um and exactly what we wanted teachers to be able to do at the end of the meeting and cluster we also meet Faithfully with teachers each week to analyze student work for the purpose of making informed instructional decisions so if you look at the next two artifacts you'll see a Cluster meeting agenda so each week teachers get one of these agendas um it tells them exactly what we're going to be discussing that week we refer to our school goal each week every week we touch face with our school goal so that we can talk about where we're at and advancing towards meeting that goal um we have an identified need each week for this particular agenda we were doing a student work analysis so if you look on the next page um you'll see that
065this was in an 8ighth grade science classroom so we had the teacher to actually do like an item analysis of each one of the questions we broke down each student we pulled out the specific skills that the students were going to need to be able to do to master that standard and then she went through and did a yes or no and then we made instructional next steps based on that analysis and um just created more informed groupings based on that and then we create grouping structures that support necessary differentiation so you can just kind of see an example this is one of our data boards that we do I think most schools have done this some have a data wall our teachers have a folder but this is for second grade specifically so we've
066created one so that the ilt can actually physically move kids and we can look at those students names each week when we meet so we know exactly what students we're talking about um so this process allows us to continuously reflect on and evaluate our current instructional practices as a result of this structured support we've seen measurable improvements in student learning particularly in areas like small group instruction datadriven teaching and literacy and math skills um sorry one more thing in the um folder that I didn't touch on was you'll see an example of Readiness groups so we administered a um grade level spelling assessment and then based on that assessment we created groupings and develop or developed the gping and decided which teachers we're going to be pulling which students based on the results of those
067and then you can also see an example of what our follow-up support looks like these are the follow-up support cards so each week when we meet with teachers every teacher gets follow-up support so that can be um meeting with us we can come in and model a lesson for those teachers we can come in and watch them and give them feedback we can team team teach a lesson so that's just some of the things that go into weekly clusters so the SL I'm sorry um can you walk through just quickly the board and how the sticky notes move and what the colors mean I had the had the privilege of hearing miss pendland explained this to me at at Ford one afternoon and I think that's a great visual to show everyone so this is
068this shows all for proficiency ranges have does not need approaches beats and exceeds and even though this is a second grade classroom and they don't take ready we still want to align that map data to the ready data just so the teachers kind of have an idea so our does not meet students so we have the ranges for fall winter and spring so you'll kind of see there's different colors in every range so does not meat is red approaches is yellow Meats is green and ex is blue so we charted all of their fall data so you'll see fall and winter originally we had all the Reds here yellow green and blue and then when they reassessed in the winter for Benchmark we moved the kids so as you can see we still have a
069lot of kids here who need to grow but we bumped up four of those kids from does not meet to approaches we had some kids who moved out of approaches into meets and so on so throughout the year we just keep referring to this data and then when we pull the reports it'll tell us like specific instructional areas within math and reading because they low in math so we need to actually drill down specifically to what instructional areas is it number sense is it algebraic thinking is it geometry and then drill all the way down to the skill skill gaps that the students have was this program handed down from this learn program or they just kind of say you need to create something internally that does this this there's a there's a tap model
070that are kind of the four components that we talked about but the work that the Master Teachers do some of this comes from their training with an IET and the coaching that we received there but a lot of it comes from our Master Teachers that are experts in effective instruction so we're just needeing what no they weren't saying here's a here's a thing to do and now implement this no this yeah I want to make sure I understand to got the master teacher who is working with classroom teachers correct uh to help with the students and so it's multi ultimately the goal here is to move the kids into an acceptable category learning and the num are going up now understand there's times you can see a master teer in the classroom teaching correct so
071this slide I can show you right now is part of that so this is a experienced teacher pretty Highly Effective Teacher eth grade English language arts last year in 23 24 from her fall data where she started with her students at the beginning of the year you kind of see it's the bottom left you'll see in a minute um and then in the winter they went up and they the amount of growth in that classroom they were 69th percentile in the nation for the amount of growth in the classroom last school year without the support this year she has a ma a master teacher that spends time co- teing in the classro modeling for her mentoring coaching and this year they were 82nd percentile in the country for growth between the fall and the winter
072so it's not just our newer teachers which the previous Slide the evaluation piece I showed you was a newer teacher it also is showing some significant results with our veteran effective teachers they're it's just making them even better how many Master Teachers do we have uh we have 18 Master Teachers 18 18 throughout the nine schools yes so part of that co- teing model too before cluster is that we go first so whatever we're we're asking the teachers to do we need to go into the classrooms to do a couple weeks prior so that we can test out how things are going to go such as implementing a strategy like a student thinking strategy we would go into a classroom first try it out work all those Kinks out before presenting it to teachers and
073then that builds our credibility and trust with teachers because they know it works in this school and it works in this classroom because I've done it ahead of time and I have the data to support it so we've got 18 Master Teachers how has it affected them with this grant being taken away from us do we still have them so this happened last Tuesday we currently still have our Master Teachers they are continuing to work right now that's part of the reason we're here today to find out how much longer we're having them they are I was sitting in ilt this afternoon with my my Ford ilt raise your hands so there's Master Teachers administrators we all sit together and Design This and at that time I was also getting texts from Hickory Taverns ilt
074raise your hand the your Hickory Taverns ilt along with kelc they were all meeting this afternoon we're not stopping because this is what's right for kids and so we're going to continue to do it till somebody tells us we can't all right so as you can see the loss of these structures are going to only deepen the existing challenges that we have right now in education such as low teacher capacity the increasing Reliance on alternative Pathways and the growing number of uncertified teachers in the classroom without the structured professional development and support that the instructional leadership team provides our ability to equip teachers especially those new to the profession who continue to leave the profession because they don't feel supported with the skills and strategies needed for Effective instruction will be significantly diminished these structures
075have been critical in building teacher capacity strengthening instructional practices and ensuring that all students receive a high quality education regardless of their teacher certification pathway without this framework there is a risk of widening achievement gaps increasing teacher burnout and ultimately weakening the overall effectiveness of our schools do do all the schools have Master teacher have a master teacher all schools yes they do all all nine of our schools we also have some quotes that you can look at later if you'd like we have first year teachers and the impact that it's had on them to have this kind of support we have some quotes from teachers that have come from another district and now they understand things better as a result of being here and working um with our Master Teachers and through our our
076uh learns Grant as well as um a newer teacher um that's been a couple years in and what the difference is between now and what it used to be um when she first started and the kind of support that she's receiving so so if I want to ask a question if we took the option of funding what we' lost figure out how to fund it keep the learn program in place or would you want to consider putting those 18 teachers back in the classroom changing that up I know we we implemented learns with this master teacher program that was the motivation behind now two years one and one and a half into it my question and it looks like the numbers are showing that we've seen improvements here but at the same time we're facing
077budgetary Crunch and the community is going to be asking where's the best place to spend money is put and I'll address some of that whenever we wrap up as in kind of the plan and kind of the thought process but I mean if you want to go ahead and yeah I think as the Director of accountability and and um responsible for school Improvement this is going to give us much more bang for our book than and um a lot of other intervention type things that were we're doing so however much of this we can continue is going to be essential if we want to continue the momentum moving forward to transition um and transform the district into a higher achieving District we spent the day as a district leadership team identifying the key components that
078we feel are essential for us to maintain um and then we'll be working with the schools to do the same thing so that we can start to to take a look at if our challenge is not granted which I'll get to that as soon as um Kelsey's done um and uh if we don't get the challenge then we'll have to decide what things are we to keep what aren't we going to keep because we can't so we'll get there so basically we found something that's Works yes and we're going forward and now the money's going correct correct Jody how much money do we have to find um the amount that we need to finish out the year is $795,000 for these teachers I have a couple of questions but I want Miss Brown finish before
079you could have waited Jody to say that sorry okay all right so I just want to close by giving you a personal reflection on why this means so much to me um I am a proud product of this District I have worked in this district for 12 years and I have children in this District so this means a lot to me and I feel a huge sense of personal responsibility and thankful that I got to represent our district um through NI at the national level so this is deeply personal for me I feel a profound um sense of responsibility that we sustain the momentum that we've built and continue strengthening classrooms this isn't just about policy or funding it's about the future of our students and our teachers and our community and I want to
080see our district Thrive not not just for my own children but for every child who comes through the doors so thank you for your time and consideration and I appreciate your ongoing support of students and teachers in our district and I look forward to continuing that success together thank you thank you gson well done thank you thank you and thank you Miss [Applause] Brown she did thank you why the chart um and thank you for explaining that to the full board um the I know the numbers that you've presented with us one I know this you just found out you've just had to scramble to gather information because you know uh other a week ago you didn't know you would have to be defending the program tonight the fair evaluations that you've listed for teachers
081and the student achievement that you've listed I know you've just had to pull you know pull a a snapshot but overall are you seen the needle move in this upward direction throughout the district we are we are we have um you know we used to talk about pockets of Excellence it's not Pockets anymore it's huge chunks um buildings we identified buildings today that we need to go back to and find out what are the key components for them that they can't afford to lose um so we are seeing a big difference um one piece in in Dr Penland mentioned it early on in the meeting that under the direction of Wendy Burgess and the teaching and learning um team we have been out doing walkthroughs and we are seeing the difference when we go into
082the classrooms um we're able to document the actual observations and see how things are different than what they were um prior to implementing uh this grant so in this program so we are seeing that thank you thank you um I know do you want me to talk about the last slide or do we want to talk about that after what we'll do well go ahead and talk about we're in a situation of where we can um submit the challenge submit the appeal and so the components of the challenge and the appeal um Amanda will go through in just a minute but this is something that most strikes of the um funding at the federal level don't have an appeal process so we we know we're very much headed toward um the appeal um we have
083reached out to multiple legislators um I've had a call back from ten sen Senator Tim Scott's office um have reached out to Lindsey Graham's office have spoken with Ellen Weaver and um have different um workings in the way we're going to meet with um Sherry bgs's office on um Thursday and so we're we're reaching out to um our federal representatives to really um look to see if there's options for us to keep the money as we move forward um so Amanda if you'll go on through through the um kind of the kind of the basis of our challenge right so um if you recall towards the beginning um we as to why the grant was um was identified we have a statement in um in our grant every Grant when you apply for a grant
084has preference priorities and if you don't meet preference priorities then you don't get the grant right so um a line in our grant is learns will support making classroom teaching the driving focus of the district's efforts to create schools where Equity diversity and inclusion are embedded in the school culture competitive preference Priority One and Two um it I can't argue that um as you heard Miss warmly today um we accept every child that walks through the classroom um it walks through the doors of our schools and we will continue to do so um we will look at every child individually and determine what they need and help provide that to them whether it's academics or whether it's student support as Dr Little John spoke about earlier in our meeting to make sure that when they
085rock across that stage they have an equal opportunity to be successful um in life and then we include everybody in all activities whether regardless of their race their color or their disability so we can't argue that but the four things the three things that we can look at are our department priorities Merit fairness and excellence in education and so the department notified Us in this letter that those are their three primary priorities so performance-based compensation is Merit um that's what they're talking about our performance-based compensation is based on how people perform in the classroom as well as how their students perform on assessments um the evaluation process is fairness for everybody because everybody is receiving the same evaluation process cycle and we are using the same rubric and everybody has been trained to implement that
086um effectively and then of course excellence in education we are improving student achievement we've seen um pieces of that already as well as educator coaching is a research-based strategy for improving education and we've seen that as well in some of our data so those are going to be the that'll be the focus of our challenge um and hopefully will be successful with that but um and I just kind of want to wrap it up with you know over the past several probably decades we've had instructional coaches we've had people in our buildings that have supported our teachers um but the structure that we have right now finally aligns what we do in cluster how we um have provided information and instruction and evaluation and support around our ni and South 4.0 rubric so all the
087components are finally now in line so we now have multiple supports for um this we don't have teachers over here doing clusters and getting a little PD we don't have somebody coming in and doing evaluation over here that doesn't align with what we're training them and the building and so you don't have all these different pockets of nothing kind of blending together so we now finally have through this grant A system that um we know that will continue no matter what but it's the components of how much support we can still provide in the schools um so principles are able to align their evaluations with the support given to them during their cluster meetings the support that teachers get not only helps them make improvements on strategies and techniques in the classroom which you've heard
088but in turn um increases the student effectivess um and um also their evaluation so it's not only helping our kids but it's helping our um teachers with their evaluation we finally have that true system that intertwines the support for teachers cluster meetings instruction evaluation District instructional leadership teams and school-based instructional leader leadership teams sorry tongue time I do have a quote that I want to pull from one of the Master Teachers um I have not spotted her today but I think she's here um it says cluster has become a safe place a place for teachers to fail to be transparent to do hard things to have hard conversations with leadership I have seen firsthand how teachers have jumped in with both feet and it's impacting their students in major ways so I come today asking
089that we um that you as a board um allow us to continue um funding this program through the remainder of the year and allow us through the budget cycle to figure out how to continue this for next year um this is something that um will cost us um just shy of $800,000 um salaries are around 500,000 with the benefits on top of that and the stiens um brings us right at um $795,000 so looking at that as we move forward that's the request since it is such a a heavy hit to the budget that I um feel like that we have to have you know board um action approval um knowing that we still have a chance to receive the funding back from the feds um I would hate to a a program right now
090and then in two months they say oh you get to keep it um so so um that is really our desire to um figure out a way to make this happen the remainder of the year and then allow us through our budget structures and processing to um keep the structure as we move forward so our our budget was already over that's correct um where would this put us for our fund balance and being still in a good position with the state um for the remainder of this year yeah the um um remainder the general fund balance um at the end of um 630 was 6,510 th000 which represented about 11% of our 2024 25 um budget um 11% is well above the 8% that is required or or that is recommended by the state to
091have in your fund balance basically um a month's um worth of expenditures there so that would um after this hit if we do have the 650 from the original budget the 800 with this um that would put us about 85% um going forward for next year still with at least um a months um salary I mean month's budget as we move forward okay that does not include the 1.5 million for um performance-based compensation just keep the 18 that is correct and and we've had discussions um in our DT and we'll continue to have those discussions um is this expenditure worth not having these people you know or is this purchase worth this is this worth you know um really looking at you know we've already been living lean this year anyway I'm really making those
092choices and decisions of how we move forward but we'll continue to be lean and to see how we can be leaner next year um continuing to support what happens in the classroom because that's what matters um whenever we're looking at making that student achievement available for our kids has to be the change in the teachers Jody if we get to the end of the year if we bail water and keep the ship afloat or the other grants we can go after that would help us pay for this in the coming years or um what we've looked at doing is we have other Federal um kind of Grants which would be kind of our title entitlement grants um you really looking to see what our plan would be um shifting expenditures from there um cutting other
093positions you know um however we can make it happen that's what we're willing to look at you know decisions have not been made because like we said we're um set six days from the notification and so we've got several things kind of rolling around in our head as options but um we do know that the structure and the system that's in place is truly what's making a difference in our buildings right now but right now we trying to get to the end of the year trying to get to the end of the year we'll start the bud yes sir hopefully get the grant back yes sir okay um any additional questions comments okay so um in order to move forward um Dr pendland obviously is asking us for an adjustment in our budget to approve
094the $800,000 to maintain the learns program with the Master Teachers uh from now through the end of the year so if that is something that um someone would like to make a motion on yeah I'll make a motion that we 800,000 needed to fund of scho year we get I second thank you is there any further discussion questions all those in favor of approving an additional $800,000 for our budget to fund the learns program through the end of the school year please say I I any opposed motion passes um I would just like to um thank you thank you you off St TR you know sure you can departments they use when they actually go into assist in the practices SE department and I out we can try use as planning tools well I think
095any tool you can get your hands on we need to implement since we need to find what 1.8 8 million by next year 1.4 excuse me 1.4 1.4 yes so again um thank you slower sounds better if you say it slower sorry again thank you so much for um the commitment that you have to our students but also um the staff that's put in tirelessly um the effort and the work to get this to where we are so thank you again absolutely for those that were able to come thank you for being here yes thank you for being here your commitment and to this program that's always my big question is it working and you being here was a clear sign to me that believe I almost asked the Master Teachers to stand up but
096I didn't want to put that kind of pressure but something to do next year and come more often yeah because we need you to help us find money I did see my quote now I didn't see you at first but you're here um well with that um I think we're finished with the finance and operations part of the meeting and we're on the public participation which I don't think we had anyone sign up so at this point oh go ahead we do need a motion to move in executive session so don't to all in favor any opposed all right we're going to move into executive session for a bit and everybody that's here if you don't stay thank you for coming um I appreciate [Music] yall e e e have um we do have action
097to take we have a list uh list A and B for contract recommendations for the 20 24 25 school year 25 26 25 26 okay one's right a motion 25 26 school year I make a motion we uh accept the contracts for 25 26 school year second a andb second thank you any discussion all those in favor of approving the recommended contracts for certified contracts for 2526 school year please say I I any opposed the motion carries and with no further business on our agenda we are adjourned thank you ma'am thank you thank you for