001I'd like to go ahead go ahead and get this meeting started. It is actually 6:07. We ran a few minutes over there with the Hall of Fame, but it was well worth it. But um we want to thank y'all for coming to our board meeting, our regular schedule board meeting of October 16th. And before I go much further, we just had a Hall of Fame induction out there. So I was going to have Mr. uh Mr. Bray let us know what went on out there. >> Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Key. Uh first off, I was supposed to introduce or at least acknowledge Mr. Moy, Councilman Moy out there. I completely forgot that. So if he takes the time to watch this, you're officially acknowledged. If not, you just you're not. Um uh so out there
002we had our second uh Lex 2 Arts Hall of Fame, which is pretty fantastic. When you leave here, if you can detour that direction and see the wall, you will see seven. Is that right? Seven um folks now. We inducted three this year. >> Nine. Um we inducted three more this year. Steven Wetstone, uh Jeremy, who I get to go back and tell my daughter that he danced with Taylor Swift and she'll be super excited. Uh and then Miss Moore McNeel. So, um now any one of our kids who come to all the amazing performances here, we had one just last night, can look up on that wall and see people who came from the same neighborhoods and have gone to the big big stages of New York and LA and France and all around
003the world. that you can do that being a Casey, West Columbia, Springdale, Pine Ridge resident. So, really, really cool stuff and I'm glad that we get to do that as a board. Thank you, Mr. Key. >> And I think Miss Castle's had something. >> Yes. I wanted to acknowledge we lost one of our own, one of our Lexington two family members, Mr. Kevin uh Valentine and I just want us to be in thought of his former teachers, administrators, his family and siblings and his life will be celebrated tomorrow. And if we could just have a moment of silence for that young man. >> Thank you. >> And also I'd like to recognize Senator Carile Kennedy joining us tonight. He didn't have nothing else better to do. Thank you for being here. And now I'm gonna
004turn it over to Miss Wooten for our airport students. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, tonight we're delighted to have two airport high school students with us. We have Hector Hernandez who will be leading us in the invocation and Allison Calder who will be leading us in the pledge. I'm going to tell you a little bit about both of them, then I'll turn it over to you. Hector Hernandez is a dedicated senior with an impressive 5.1 GPA. Since ninth grade, he has been a dual enrollment student and will graduate with both his high school diploma and an associate degree from Midlands Technical College. Hector currently serves as student body president and holds the rank of cadet command sergeant major and a member of the drill team in JR OC. He is also active in the
005art club, national honor society, STEM club, and Beta Club. Hector plans to attend the University of South Carolina to pursue a degree in psychology while serving in the National Guard. With a long-term goal of becoming a psychiatrist, Hector is committed to leadership, service, and academic excellence. Allison Calder is a senior at Airport High School with a 4.8 A GPA, taking both honors and AP courses. A dedicated student and leader, she has balanced academic excellence with her passion for music and service. Allison is an accomplished vocalist and musician, singing with the airport honors chorus and her church choir, as well as being French horn in the marching band. Allison was selected to the South Carolina Allstate Chorus, the Southern Regional American Coral Director's Honor Corps, and the South Carolina ACDC Honor Choir. She has also been
006a member of the Lexington 2 District Honor Band and Choir, and currently serves as co-president of the Airport High School Choir Leadership Council. In January, she will be traveling with Airport Honors Chorus to perform in Italy. Beyond her musical achievements, Allison has been active in both the Beta Club and the National Honor Society and is a founding member of the Wingmate Club, a program supporting airport special education students. Known for her kindness, respect, and dedication, Allison continually strives to give her best in everything she does while encouraging those around her with positivity and compassion. All righty. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for allowing everyone to be here today. Um allowing for everyone to make it here safely. I ask that you allow this meeting to go as smoothly as possible.
007I ask that you allow for everyone voices to be heard and I allow that you allow for their opinions to be heard as well. U most importantly, I ask that you allow for everyone to make it home safely and make sure they make it to their loved ones in Jesus' name. Amen. >> Amen. >> Please join me in the pledge. 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. All right. And before we get started, I'mma pull an item out of the agenda tonight. I am pulling item 9A. I'mma pull a course out. It will be the young adult literature. We can discuss it later on, but we are pulling it out of
008the agenda for tonight. So, with no objections, the revised agenda stands approved as presented. All right, we will move on into honors and accomplishments now and turn over to Dr. Hefner. >> Great. Thank you, Mr. Keith. First up tonight, Brooklyn Casey High School principal Dr. Vance Jones is going to come to the podium to tell us about two of his top achieving students. It might not surprise you that these two students could not be here tonight because of their activities at Brooklyn Casey. So, in this case, being recognized on senior night at tonight's volleyball game. But a press release has gone out about the National Merit recognitions for these two students. So we asked Dr. Jones to tell us about them tonight. And I I expect we may see them at future board meetings for
009some of their achievements. Dr. Jones. >> All right. Good evening. Uh Dr. Heftner, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Um we are excited to announce um two of our seniors, Amy Lamb and Emma Stury um were both recognized by the from their scores on the PSAT this past school year. Amy Lamb is a senior at Brooklyn Casey High School and she she has been named as a semi- finalist in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program. A prestigious recognition honoring some of the nation's most academically talented seniors. Amy earned this distinction by scoring amongst the top 1% of all seniors and excuse me, all juniors in the country. Now, as a senior, she will continue to compete with 16,000 seniors for one of the 7,000 National Merit Scholarships. And so, as far as Emma's concerned, she
010was recognized as a National Merit commended student. And that is recognized by being in the top 3% of all students on the PSAT as a junior. And so, both of those students show great academic promise. And as Dr. Hefner said hopefully we can get both young ladies back here to be recognized by the board and they had senior night um for tennis tonight. Um we also have senior night for volleyball going on which I will leave and go to after this. But both of these young lady have done wonderful things in our building. Very involved. Um and again we'd love to get them back and have them recognized here by the board. Thank you. >> Excellent. We hope so. Next, I'm excited to share that we have five Lexington 2 teachers from five different schools
011who have been awarded bright ideas grants for some innovative classroom projects thanks to Mid Carolina Electric Cooperative, which is a very strong supporter and partner in education. I would like to invite our bright ideas teachers to come to the podium and introduce themselves and their schools and tell us about their innovative projects for our students. And I think some principles may also be joining them. So if you come on up, we'd love to see you. >> Good evening and thank you so much for this opportunity. I'm Kimberly Harden and I teach at Brooklyn Casey High School. This year's bright ideas grant will help me create from ecosystems to inquiry an aquatic learning lab a living environment where students can explore ecosystems in action. They'll measure t pH, temperature, CO2, and dissolved oxygen levels using the
012probes I received from last year's grant and monitor key nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus and study how they impact water quality and aquatic life. This project brings chemistry, biology, and environmental science um together in one hands-on learning experience. I'll also be working with our marine science teacher, Christy Tate, so even more students can use the custom aquarium for shared lessons and investigations. Thank you so much for recognizing projects that make science come alive and inspire our students to explore the world around them. Thank you. [Applause] Hi, my name is Ryan Gaffffne and I teach at um Busby Creative Arts Academy and I teach ID moderate students and my grant is going towards pores and purpose. We are starting a coffee and soda shop at our school where my students will learn real life employment and
013functional skills and the goal is to make them independent after high school. We will be working on communication skills, money skills, and also just future employment skills. So, they can take this and after they leave high school, they can have skills already to apply to their adulthood. >> Awesome. >> Good evening. My name is Olivia Lawrence and I'm an eighth grade teacher at North Side Middle School. Um, I'm excited to use the funding from Mid Carolina to turn my classroom into a podcasting studio. So, I teach e, like I said, eighth grade ELA, and I'm going to have my students share their stories vocally through podcast. A lot of my students are English language learners, and they don't quite yet have the confidence to speak or write as fluently as they could. And so by
014giving them a voice and truly amplifying it through podcasting, they have the ability to express their creativity in the classroom and share that for others. So I'm excited to order microphones, um, technology equipment, and all of those things so that my students can interview community members, they can share their own creative stories, and they can really have conversations with each other, which is something rare today in schools. So again, thank you for this opportunity, and thank you for Mid Carolina. [Applause] Good evening. Um, I'm here representing Brooke Jones, one of our fourth grade launch teachers at Riverbank. She woke up this morning sick and has no voice. So, she was going to come, but um, she has sent me her summary for her grant. So, I'll let you know what that is. Uh, this project
015will provide fourth grade students with hands-on roller coaster engineering kits to explore physics, engineering, and problem solving. Students will design, test, and refine roller coasters while applying STEM concepts in a creative, engaging way that builds collaboration, critical thinking, and real world problem solving skills. >> Good evening. and I'm here representing Amanda Alman who's our science department chair and she also is sick today and I promised her I would do her justice with her exciting grant and she has been awarded $1,000 for her project which she has titled data at their fingertips modern tools for future scientists. The grant primarily will focus on chemistry 1 and AP chemistry classes which will purchase two wireless chemistry starter bundle probes that measure pH, pressure, temperature, voltage, and conductivity. She said the project will integrate wireless data collection technology
016to transform chemistry labs into dynamic inquirybased environments, allowing students to collect and visualize real-time data and make immediate connections between theory and results. So, she's excited. Thank you. >> And finally tonight, we talked at last month's board meeting about the district's gains on SC Ready. Tonight, we want to give a shout out to 10 Lexington 2 students who achieved perfect scores on SC Ready in English language arts, math, or science in last spring's testing. Several of those students are with us tonight, and I would like to invite them to the podium to join Dr. Rob Bergraph, who's going to tell us about their achievements and introduce them. >> Dr. Dr. Hfner, Mr. Chair, members of the board, every spring, students in grades three through eight take the SC Ready assessment. And though there's a single
017scale that those scores fall on, at each grade level, there is a maximum score that can be achieved. And so these students here tonight achieved that maximum score for their respective grade level in the subject areas that they'll be recognized for. So, it's my pleasure to introduce these students. Um, I will let you know what subject they scored and where they were when they took the test. So, Elena Bowers, come on up. Elena was a fourth grade student at Saluda River Academy for the Arts and had a maximum score on the English language arts test. [Applause] >> William McMillan right behind me. William uh was also at Saluda River Academy for the Arts and as a fourth grade student had a maximum score on the English language arts assessment. Oliver Burgess. Come on up, Oliver.
018Oliver is was a third grade student at Springdale Elementary School and scored a maximum score on the SC Ready math assessment. [Applause] Bennett Ariel was a fourth grade student at Springdale Elementary. Maximum score on the SC Ready math assessment last year. William Anderson. William was a seventh grade student at Selb Busby Creative Arts Academy. had a maximum score also on the SC Ready math assessment last year. >> Parker Vaughn is the senior member of this group. Uh now a ninth grader at airport. Last year as an eighth grade student at RH Fulmer Middle School had a maximum score also on the SC Ready math assessment. Montgomery Slater Montgomery maximum score on the uh science assessment for SC ready as a fourth grade student at Riverbank Elementary School. Cameron Harris. Cameron, as a fourth grade student,
019also at Riverbank Elementary last year, had a maximum score on the SC Ready Science Assessment. And last but not least, Gabriel Gonzalez, as a fourth grade student at Springdale Elementary School last year, had a maximum score also on the science assessment. Thank you, Dr. Bergraph. >> All right. Next item up on the agenda is the public participation. We had one uh sign up tonight to speak and that was Miss Melissa Go forth and we just ask that no profanity be used. We also ask that you do not use staff or students names. The board will not give feedback per policy and will receive all comments as information only. So with that, our first person tonight is Melissa Go forth and she will be speaking on item 10B, which is safety and security. So thank you
020for being here and you have now have five minutes. >> Thank you very much. I wanted to thank the district for the Hispanic Heritage celebration last night. That was so much fun here at the performing arts center. We enjoyed the mariachi performances and the partner organizations participation. Pesos is amazing. Also, we loved all of the student performances, especially the positive affirmations from Riverbank. Uh saw many of those teachers at 7 a.m. yesterday morning and then again at 700 p.m. So, I know that was a long day for all involved and we do appreciate you all putting in the extra hours to have such a nice community celebration. Um, also I do appreciate the Lexington 2 public information officer for responding to the foyer request in a timely manner and at no cost about a security
021matter. And I thought it was important that parents know in regards to the discussion about the sled background checks and the district covering that from 2020 to 2000 that school year 2020 to 2021 to today 58 of 3,399 potential chaperones were prevented from chaperoning our children off campus at least without additional discussions or clearings permissions granted. So, I do think that most I should note I was unable to see if there were duplicate requests for the same parent from schools for privacy issues. So, there could have been a couple of duplicates there. But, I do think most parents appreciate that safeguards are in place to have every chaperone chaperone documented when they leave with our children. They help them with um dietary issues with restrooms, things like that. And we do appreciate Lexington 2 absorbing
022that cost for volunteers. Also, just a reminder that municipal election day is coming up on Tuesday, November 4th. Lexington 2 is not closed on election day this year. So, I'd like to remind all Lexington 2 employees that polls are open that day from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. or you can early vote starting on Monday, October 20th, and ending on Friday, October 31st. Lexon County has one early voting center. That is the main county voter registration office there in Lexington. So if you find yourself on that part of town a Monday through Friday, probably unlikely, but it is there. Otherwise, 7 am to 7 p.m. And I do love that we are doing to your calendars. I help with that committee this past time. We were a state leader in that. I would just like
023to encourage Lexington 2 to make every election day a holiday in the next calendar creation cycle, allowing um that voter flexibility would give every Lex staff member an opportunity um to have flexibility with casting their vote and also possibly earn more money working as a poll manager on election day. And finally, we had picture day at Riverbank Elementary. It went so smooth. And I just thought of you all while we were there because I thought, how about these board members if they came and saw our kids where some of them are just dressed to their very best and some just more importantly came exactly as they were, but they showed up and our teachers are very focused about our kids showing up this year, which I appreciate that emphasis on being there as well. So,
024I encourage you all to save the date and maybe volunteer at a local elementary picture day. I'm talking 7 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. or maybe if you want to see a little bit more chaotic situation, go to a duty-free lunch during teacher appreciation week. Thank you. >> All right, we're going to move on into superintendent reports. I'm going to turn back over to Dr. Hefner. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. If you were here prior to the board meeting, uh, as mentioned, you know, we inducted three new members in the Lexington 2 Fine Arts Hall of Fame. Quickly again, Jeremy Hudson, Jacqueline Moore McNeel, and Steven Wetstone because they deserve to be mentioned multiple times. And I am simply um amazed at the volume of exceptionally talented individuals who have either graduated or served in
025Lexington 2 schools. Uh it was a hard decision in the selection process, but I think we we did a great job. So, thank you for that. And uh in fact, we are hosting the allstate chorus auditions here at the performing arts center in a couple weeks. So, we're growing some more superstars for the future. Just last night, as Miss Goforth mentioned, we hosted the Hispanic Heritage Month celebration and watched a number of our own students perform as part of the event. So hopefully they will grow into a lifetime field with appreciation for the arts. Excited about that. And I want to thank Miss Quickl and her team. I know it took a large amount of people to make that happen. I couldn't name them all, but just thank you for a great event with cultural
026entertainment, food trucks, vendors for our families. We even had our very own um Lexington 2 Barbering and cosmetology who were available to offer free haircuts for any of those in attendance if they if they wanted to um have that happen. And we also have many upcoming events at the pack to include Cecil this Friday night. If you're not sure what you want to do, tickets are still available. the Army Band, Lake Murray Symphony Orchestra, and a number of holiday events to include a variety of Nutcracker performances by different theater groups, dance groups, and school performances. So, I I want to welcome and encourage everybody to come out and enjoy those events. Also, while we shared SC ready and end of course data with you during our last board meeting in September, we're still waiting on
027the South Carolina State Department of Education to finalize school report cards. So we are now told as many of you have heard that these will be released sometime during the first week of November and uh which will allow us to go over those results with you all at that time which we look forward to doing. So Mr. Chair, this concludes my update. >> All right, next up we move into finance. I'm going to turn over to Miss Sky Strickland. >> Good evening everyone. The financials for the month of September were uploaded. Are there any questions about the financials? And I believe the um pack final payment will be made this month. So that report will fall off. >> You're saving Matt a question, huh? >> I was ready. >> All right. Thank you. >> Without
028objection, the monthly financial reports are accepted as presented. All right. We're going to move on into human resources to our nationally known Dr. Cooper. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. board members, Dr. Hafner, uh our director of human resources, Miss Stephanie Hooks, will give our um standard vacancy report and then I'll follow up with the year and review of 2024 2022. >> Good evening, Mr. Chair, Dr. Havner, board members. Um I want to report to you this evening that at this time we have four support staff vacancies and five teacher vacancies, one of which is a special education vacancy. Are there any questions? Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Hugs. Um board members, uh at this time of the year, I'd like to give you a year in review
029and so hope you've had the opportunity to review the five pages of quantitative data that we added for you. And what I'd like to do is just add some narrative to that. Looking back at 2024 2025 school year, the school year was a period of growth, transition, and continued commitment to ensuring that Lexington School District 2 provides every student with access to strong, suitable, and purposed staff. The data does tell the story of how we met our staffing needs, navigated change, and prepare for the future. Pages one and two focus on new hires. Between July 1, 2024 and June 30th, 2025, we welcomed 174 new hires across certified, administrative, and support positions. In the certified area, 110 new classroom teachers, guidance counselors, school librarians, and psychologists joined the district, and the group brought an average
030of 10 years of experience. Their educational backgrounds then ranged from bachelors to doctoral degrees. Several new teachers entered through pathways such as the program of alternative certification for educators, teachers of tomorrow, ABCTE, and Carolina CAP. Ongoing evidence of our district's openness to multiple routes into the teaching profession. 49 of our new hired teachers qualified for in the high demand subject areas such as special education, math, science, and science and qualified for stipens designed to support recruitment in these fields. We did also welcome nine new administrators helping strengthen leadership capacity across our schools. And also we welcome 55 staff members in the support rank and key support roles ranging from instructional assistants to specialists ensuring that schools have the structures needed to operate smoothly and support teachers and students alike. Moving to pages three and four,
031we look at transfers and mobility. So beyond external hiring, there was significant movement within the district. Teachers and staff transferred between schools to better align with student needs and professional growth opportunities. These transfers included teachers stepping into new subject areas, content, for example, coaches moving into leadership roles, for example. This internal flexibility reflects our continued commitment to developing our talent from within while maintaining stability for our schools. And now we're looking at page five. While we experienced growth, the district also navigated turnover. 120 certified staff members left. Some accepted positions in other districts and schools. And this data mirrors our performance objectives identified in strategic plan for the Department of Human Resources. Others left for personal reasons such as family responsibilities or career changes. A small portion left for non-renewal certification issues concerns. and 14
032did close their careers with Lexina School District 2 by retirement. While these departures are consistent with state national trends, they highlight the ongoing importance of investing in retention strategies, mentoring, and professional development. We learned a lot. And here are some here are some of the things that we want to leave with you. Recruitment was very strong. Very strong. Despite a competitive labor market, we successfully hired in critical teaching areas. Retention does remain a challenge. Like districts across the country, turnover continues to shape staffing patterns, particularly in our classroom positions. Flexibility does matter. Transfers and internal moves show our ability to place staff where they are needed most and want to be. And then we balance new and experienced teacher hires. From induction teachers just starting their careers to seasoned educators with advanced degrees. Our hiring
033pool reflects both innovation and stability. As we look forward into this school year, our staffing cycles highlight the resilience in our recruitment efforts and supporting high-quality staff. Our continued emphasis on special education, math and science staffing reflects both state and national demand and our use of multiple pathways, excuse me, into teaching shows our adaptability. So this year and moving forward, we'll not only continue to focus on hiring, but recruitment is retention. You'll be hearing more and more about that. Ensuring that our strong, suitable, and purpose staff remain with us to grow their careers and serve our students and stay with Lexington 2. I'll be glad to entertain any questions you might have. >> One question. Uh, fantastic report. Thank you, not now, but when you get a chance. The 10 years I think was the
034average experience. with there being so many zero and one-year folks. I would love to know what the median is versus the average >> just, you know, we don't need that now or anytime soon, but I would I would be interested to see what our median is versus our average. >> I'll be happy to get >> Thank you, ma'am. >> That concludes our report. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. All right, we're going to move into the instruction part and I'm going to turn over to Dr. McDall. >> Good evening. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good evening, everyone. Um, tonight we bring to you uh two pieces of of or two items for your consideration. The first is consideration of the 2627 innovative and local board approved courses. Each year we ask our high
035schools to submit courses that they would like to see added to the course catalog. Um, our goal over the last couple of years has been to clean up courses to make sure that they reflect the most uh recent requirements for uh different courses that the state requires, but also some prerequisite courses. A local board approved course must meet minimum requirements by being uh related to other courses in the school. It must also have a robust curriculum that we monitor carefully um really looking at all of the components and the requirements for that course. There are four for you to consider tonight and they are um uh the first one is an online learning prep course which actually helps our students who are looking to complete some of the online classes. This gives them uh the
036ability to learn how to navigate platforms, learn how to actually do the functions of those courses. So again, this would be a course that you're approving uh to set the stage for those students to be able to be more successful in some of the online platforms that we have. Uh the second course is a continuation of our dance sequence. Um this allows Brooklyn Casey to continue their their dance piece uh by adding that that five through eight component um which would be the second half of the dance courses to complete that progression for a student. The third course for your approval tonight is a win prep course. So as you know when is a test that students take to determine college and career readiness. Um, this is a prep course just like you would take
037a SAT prep class. That's the equivalent in this particular course. And the final one is Spanish for healthcare employees. Um, that is certainly a field that is beginning to get more and more traction across the country. There are colleges that are now offering programs specifically in healthcare related languages. Um, there's such a need for that. And so this allows us to take students who have passed Spanish one uh and allow them with the opportunity to enroll in this course which actually helps them complete their career uh pathway as well. So um very exciting. We would be probably one of the first school districts to offer that particular type of class. So we're really looking forward to being able to offer that to our students. But these are all for local board approved. So students will
038receive elective credits uh for these courses as marked on the forms that you have. Uh, so those are our four courses that we would present and I'll be happy to answer any questions you have. >> Mr. Chairman, um, I make a motion that we approve the four courses as presented uh, for the 2627 um, school year. >> Have a motion to have a have a second. >> Any discussion on that? >> Dr. McDonald, could I just ask what the process is uh, when somebody asks for a course? like it does that start with a teacher or start with a department and does it go through a principal and then up to the district office before we see it. >> Sure. So the way that process works is each year usually right after school starts the
039first thing we do is put out an appeal for what do we need to add for next year. So it seems kind of odd that we just get started and we start asking for this. So typically a teacher may have an idea for an innovative course. Um it could come from someone on our team who recognizes that we have a hole in programming uh which is where a couple of these have come from over the last year or so. Um so teacher, it can come from an administrator, it can come from someone in our division. Uh it can really come from any of any of those folks. What then has to happen is that that course is looked at. So we look at the requirements that have been proposed for that course. We look at
040what would be an appropriate curriculum. Most importantly, we look at how does this tie to the coursework that's already required of students. um is this a course that that might take for example US history to another level because it may specialize or it may look at um the healthc care piece. We're taking Spanish to another level by applying it differently. So we look at what would be the the course sequence for that. What might curriculum look like? Uh are there resources for this course? Uh and that's a team of folks looking at that. The principal has to review that as part of this process for approval. um particularly if it comes from a teacher and we look at does it fit into the course that we already offered. How does that work? So, so it's
041a pretty laborious process. We go through a whole bunch of steps to look at it before you guys ever get to see it. Um and there are courses that we have denied because we don't see that fit or we don't see how they might be structured in a way that could be a course um that would be relevant for our students. >> Thank you very much. >> Any others? All right, we had a motion in a second. All in favor say I. I. >> All right, motion carries. >> All right, the second item that we bring to you this evening is an approval of the course catalog for 2627. Believe it or not, our high schools will very soon as in some of them I believe in the next couple of days actually start talking
042to kids about courses for next school year. So seems early but it takes that long to be able to do this process. We also have quite a bit of work to do in terms of building uh course schedules and all the things behind the scenes that have to be done. So the course catalog includes every course that is either state required, state approved or approved by this board to date. Um so what's not in here would be the four you just approved. So those will now go into the course catalog uh moving forward. But this book also provides students with a tremendous amount of information about their course sequencing. What do you take before you take the other? what are my prerequisites? Um, so essentially what you have here is the guide that we use
043to help build our schedules and really longterm we'll use for staffing our schools, looking at uh what courses the students want. Remember we asked them for what they're interested in taking as much as we tell them this is what you have to take um in order to reach those those requirements for graduation. So we're just asking for you to approve this so that we can get started on our scheduling process for next year. >> Mr. Chairman. Um, I make a motion that we approve the 2627 high school course guide as presented. >> Second. >> Had a motion and a second. >> Any discussion, Miss Perkit? >> Um, two things, Dr. McDonald. Um, on our copy, it's page 29. I don't know if that helps you. It's the James B. Edward Civics's Education Initiative, and it
044says that students are required to take a civics test. Um, it does not say that they're required to pass it. Are they required to pass it? >> They are not required to pass that test. They are only required to take it as I understand it. >> Okay. Thank you. And then on page 37 of our copy under credit recovery. Um I just wondered uh if you could just explain that a little bit for the benefit of the uh the public, but also I just wondered how many students go into credit recovery. Is this a very small number of students or is this not? So, credit recovery, um, and I'm gonna ask Dr. Bergraph if you would help me make sure we we explain this to you carefully. Um, credit recovery is for a student who
045may be in a situation where they have taken a course and they essentially can't get credit for it. Um, perhaps they've failed or they've gotten behind. Um, there are a number of ways that a student would qualify uh for credit recovery. Typically, we do see a large number of students who need to take advantage of this, not always because of failures, but also because they've missed too many days from school. So, so there are a number of factors that go into that. Do you want to speak to that, Dr. Burcraft? >> Yeah, Mr. Briquette. Normally, uh, students who score the final average between a 51 and a 59 fall into eligibility for credit recovery. Once you have a 60, you earn credit for the course. But students who earn at least a 51 can take
046credit recovery. And what that is is digitally they get essentially the full version of the course, but along the way there are pre-ESTs that they take. And if they can test out of certain modules of the course because they have that knowledge from their time being in it the first time, they skip over those sections and just focus on the parts of the course that they didn't master the first time. Most of the time students who are eligible for credit recovery take it during the summer. Um, but occasionally we do have students take it during the school year. It is I mean I could give you the number. I don't have it off the top of my head if you wanted to know how many participants we have. It's not an extreme number of students.
047Sometimes there's a reason that they didn't earn credit the first time and it's not in their best interest to take credit recovery. It's better for them to take the course in its entirety again and make sure they have that solid foundation. So, that's a conversation that counselors have with students. Um it's not an automatically they're assigned credit recovery. >> And how long do they have to accomplish this if they go into credit recovery? >> Sure. Depends on the high school schedule. uh oftentimes it runs concurrent with a lab that they have on their schedule. So they have time on their schedule to work on it. If that lab at airport for example it's often a semester uh at BC if their lab is for a single period of the day they may have all year
048to complete that because they have 45 minutes each day to work on it. >> So but am I correct in assuming that they're not receiving instruction? They have a teacher of record, a certified teacher of record for so there's virtual instruction through the video, but then if the student has additional questions, if they get stuck on a concept and need some additional help, there is a certified teacher assigned to them that they checks in with them and that they can go to for that additional tutoring and instruction to help them move forward in the course. >> Okay. And and the way they complete that is that they're able to pass all of the modules that are required. Is that correct? Okay. Thanks so much. So, they're essentially earning that credit back. And we we do
049have a number of students who who take advantage of that. We have many more who need to now that we know that that is a metric that the state is tracking for school report card purposes to consider a student to be on track. So, that is something that our high schools certainly recognize that they have got to get more and more students through that that model to be able to earn those credits back. >> Okay. Thank you so much, >> Mr. Yes. Dr. I notice you've got every I assume the course catalog you had every course that we've had plus those four. Do you look at enrollment on elective classes and maybe take some out of the course catalog? >> We do. Great question. We do annually look at those courses that are no longer
050relevant. Um there were some removed I believe for this year. There were some language that we had to tighten for math because as you all recall we made some significant changes to the math sequencing last year, but every year we do look at that. We look at who's taking a course. uh obsolete classes, we let them go. There's no reason to keep them if we're not offering them anymore. Um so, so every year we do a deep scrub of that. That comes back to our counselors, our principles, um our assistant principles for instruction, our team. Everyone looks at this. They've been looking at this for weeks. And so now you're you're seeing the cleaned up version. >> Thank you, Mr. Brick. >> Thank you, sir. Uh dual enrollment. It only shows one class in there.
051I think it's the teacher cadet. I'm assuming we have more than that, but they just we don't see it because it's dual enrollment. That's right. We do. So those courses are are provided by Midlands Tech. So So those are Midlands Tech courses, not Lexington 2 courses. What you would see in here is the hold course. So that's the class that we actually that you all have approved for us to use for scheduling purposes for them to be able to take those courses. >> What makes that one uh teacher cadet dual enrollment course different? Um >> just for my edification >> it's offered at the high schools >> at the school versus going to tech. >> It's more like it's our course. We we we have the faculty for that. We provide everything related to that
052course. Correct. >> Thank you, gentlemen. >> I'm sorry, Dr. I have one other question. uh on page 35 about homeschool students. It says that parents may teach their children at home if the instruction is conducted under the opaces of an association of homeschools which has no fewer than 50 members. Um aren't there three ways in South Carolina that you can legally homeschool? >> That's correct. There are three ways. >> Okay. So, this is not the only way that they could be doing this. >> Rob, do you want to speak to that? You're on what page again? I'm sorry. >> Page 35, homeschool students. Right in the middle. It just lists one way. >> Correct. Yeah, there are. There's through the South Carolina Home School Association. There's through the third party, and then there's a an
053option that they could bring their curriculum to the school board and have the school board be the approving agency. >> So, I just wondered if we needed to correct that. We can amend that. Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you very much. >> And Miss Rucker, Mr. >> Chair, so uh Dr. McDonald and Dr. Hapner, I just want to thank you both again and anybody that works on our ABC report. Um it's you know very important for us to um you know talk about attendance, behavior, uh course progress at every meeting and that report has been so helpful to me and I think many others. The attendance is very easy to follow. the behavior is as well the course progress. I love the highlights on it, but if there's any way that we could make it to
054where we really know as a board if we're making progress, um that that was kind of again the heart behind that, but I know it takes a tremendous amount of uh work for that report. So, I I do appreciate it and I'm glad we're touching on those topics at every meeting. So, >> absolutely, thank you for that. And and every month we look for something that we're touching right now, something that we know is relevant. So this month, how we chose the the C or better, it's report card season. So we're looking at that. But next month, I believe we're going to have some initial results from our lower grades. I was looking for Mary Brooks. I'm not sure where she is. >> I think we're going to have some tentative Kings for next month,
055I believe. So looking at some of our early childhood work, but also we'll have another progress report very soon because, believe it or not, we're close to MAP season part two. So So we'll give you some more data and updates on where we are progressing for sure. >> Very good. Fantastic. Thank you. >> All right, Miss Castles. >> And I I totally understand and that's great. But as long as we are not taking especially our littles and testing them even more than they need to be tested because they get tested an awful lot and uh I want them to be at a floor being read to or putting their hands in a pumpkin or you know and even the older kids but as long as we as a board are not asking more for our
056teachers if it is relevant to them and helpful to their students. >> We we did thank you. we did this year prior to to the school year, we did adjust some of the testing. We cut some things out because honestly it was not necessary. So our thinking was if we can get better quality from fewer, we're going to try to do that as much as we can really with any grade level, but especially those lower grades. And we do believe we're getting some better results now that we're able to monitor that. And Miss Brooks back there and Dr. Bergraph, we really looked hard at how could we minimize some of that. >> All right. And Mr. Great. >> Uh, bouncing back to a couple months ago, we I asked specifically about comparing report cards in
057the elementary 1 through 4 versus MAP or SE Ready 1 through 4, whichever one you want to use. Did we ever get a chance to do that? >> We do have some data. Um, it's gotten a little complicated as we get a hold on the school report card part and some changes in that. Um, but we can certainly revisit that for you. We we have some data that we've started pulling together to look at that >> mid year. you just it would be good because you don't want a kid who feels like they're getting threes on their report card and then all of a sudden get a two and the SE ready and you know take that level of learning down. We want the other way. So, thank you. >> All right, we had a
058motion and a second. All in favor say I. >> I. >> All right, motion carries. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. All right, I'm gonna turn it over now to our operations to Mr. Warren. >> Thank you, uh, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Hafner, you have before you uh this month's uh capital projects update uh for completed uh in progress and and uh TBD work as part of our CPI plan for this year updated from from last month. So that's before you hopefully had a chance to review that and happy to answer any questions um from that document. Any questions on that? >> And then also um our operations update for for this month just hit a few highlights um and the safety and security um continuing to work on our
059BTAM process and develop consistency throughout our schools. That's always our goal is to be consistent, you know, where wherever you are in our district with this process. And so our team has been to several schools here recently and continue that work. I was actually at Conger a couple weeks ago and sitting on one of these as um just that teams in working together talking about that Raptor student safe our new platform for BTAM and just making sure we're on the same page which is which has been really good to see. Uh we also had a uh during our last um cohort day we had a presentation from our coordinator and director of security about uh best practices for uh student searches which was very productive. a lot of good questions, um good feedback and input
060from our team there with our school administrators and we also introduced our uh random search uh process um that we rolled out and will begin this month. Facilities and maintenance, you see a few key highlights there. HVAC replacements continue to happen as part of our CPIF plan. Uh pressure washing as well. Airport football uh the campus stadium was pressure washed of Busby campus. um install some new netting at at BC. And then transportation, bus evacuation drills. We're actually in the middle of those right now. Always a is always a kind of a highlight of the fall and the spring. Get students out there and and and and sit and scoot. Make sure you're following the proper protocols and procedures uh from our transportation department. So, they're in the middle of that. And then lastly, you
061see a lot of things from student support services. Key couple key highlights. We just completed today actually a training uh with the American Institute of Research uh as we continue to work on chronic absenteeism and making sure that we're doing all we can to promote uh good attendance in all of our schools. So really productive three-day training that I heard some really good feedback from from our teams that that were present there. Uh Miss Carla Black, the student um coordinator of student services is going to be our secretary of the SCASA um hearing officers roundt. Great um acknowledgement for her. And then our nurse has been hard at work and you see some of the things she's been working on here in the last month. So happy to answer any questions, provide any kind of
062feedback on that on that update. >> I have one small thing on the attendance for kids that cannot drive. Um just keeping all staff aware that the kid can't necessarily get themsel to school. Um, a lot of times we get into motivating, uh, and then a kid doesn't get a chance to get there at no fault of their own. So now they feel even worse about going to school because they held their class down from getting a prize because for whatever reason they didn't get to school. So just keeping that at the forefront that there's two different worlds of attendance. Those that can get themselves to school and those that cannot. Miss Picket, >> can you just tell us really briefly what Raptor Student Safe is? >> That is the new platform for our uh
063behavior threat assessment matrix. So, what that allows schools to do is anytime there's a a threat assessment done, they can capture that information into a um online system that then can track with the student as they metriculate up to, you know, middle school and high school. it's there for, you know, us to reference if there's further threats that are done. So, it's just a way to um, you know, keep a good database of that information where it's accessible, you know, throughout the student's career here with us. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Any others? You know, we laugh sometimes at the sit and scoot and the bus evacuations and the how the kids took it, you know, before all the evacuation, but we saw last year how important it was of how the
064kids knew exactly what to do, how to do it, and how to handle each other, how they got each other off them buses. So, we thank y'all for Yes, sir. >> them drills. >> Thank you. >> For sure. >> All right. That all you had? No, I have um next up highlight of the night >> our director of our director of uh technology, Mr. Howser is going to present uh some information on uh online student safety. So excited to hear what he has to share. Mr. Howser, >> Mr. Key, uh Dr. Hefner, members of the board, cabinet, thank you. Um yeah, we're going to talk a little bit about keeping our students safe online, but first I'd like to tell you about a conversation I had with my team two years ago. Uh I asked
065them why are they here and we talked about it and of course we've all got spouses, we got kids, people that count on us. So number one reason was money. Understandable. So we talked some more. What's the number two reason? We all agreed that it was the kids PK3 all the way through 12th grade. So I decided we needed to have a visual representation. So I asked each of them asked didn't tell asked the beach to bring in a picture of of a loved one or themselves but the picture had to be when they were in school age. So from K12 up to K12 and we created a wall of why uh you may notice that the P their faces are blurred because in the technology department we believe in Kappa and SIPA and HIPPA
066and all those safety acronyms. So, uh, again, it's it's in our hallway, so you can always come visit us. You can see the unblurred version if you like. Uh, how do we keep the kids safe on the on the internet? We've got firewalls, we've got antivirus, we've got web filters, we've got him. They all work together to keep us safe. >> That would be him. Uh the goal is again to keep the kids safe on the internet. We want them to have access but the internet's a big place and there are parts of it they really don't need to be into. So um we want to make sure that it it's accessible but it's again also safe. Uh to do that we use a product called linewise. Linewise has three portions and tell you about
067the three. Uh the first two part portions are also a linewise and the second portion is called linewise. The third portion actually gave it a separate name. We we'll get to that in a minute. So linewise this portion it monitors where the students go. It allows us to create rules. We can do it with a broad brush or we can do with a scalpel. We can strict restrict the entire district or we can restrict one student or give access to the entire staff or one student. And we have a reporting feature here. Uh this is only a portion of that full screen because again to the left of those of those red categories there would be people's names and again safety. Uh those are places where students have tried to go. It's red because they
068got flagged. they were not allowed. So, we can dig in there, find a student's name, see where they went, where they were trying to go, have a conversation about, you know, why you shouldn't be going to these places. On the right side, those are some of the more popular sites that they're again attempting to get to because it is blocked, so they're not getting there. And again, we can tick click on those options and see again, we get a list of names of which students are going to those places. again, we can have a conversation about, you know, why you're there and why you shouldn't be there. The next piece of line wise is the monitoring what they type. The first part monitors where they go. This portion monitors what they type. So, anything that
069a student types in, any search, an email, a Google doc, that information gets tracked. So again, if they're doing things or writing things that they shouldn't be, the staff at that school gets an email, principal, assistant principal. In some cases, it can be the social worker, uh, the guidance counselor. If the offense is if it's deemed that there's an imminent chance of someone harming themselves or harming another person, a phone call is made again starting with the principal to the assist assistant principal guidance counselors. And at every school, the last three people on the list, oh, she's not here. Uh Santana San Giuliano, Mr. Rodriguez, and Jan Scarberry. They start with the principal and they keep calling until someone picks up the phone because again they believe there's a life in danger. Classwise is third
070portion different name because it's for the teachers. It allows them to have some control of the filtering in their room. So when the cl students come to my class I don't want them to have YouTube which is okay because YouTube's blocked for all students by default. Now, if I want them to have YouTube, I can allow YouTube in my class so that while they're in my class, they can have YouTube when they get to Mr. Warren. He's not a YouTube fan. He doesn't have to do anything because the default is for YouTube to be blocked. So, as soon as they get to his class, no more YouTube for them, unless he wants it. Um, they can also see the screens of every student so they know what they're doing. They can close a tab. This
071is you shouldn't be there. They can close it. They can create their own set of rules. It's called a focus. If I know today there are four websites that I absolutely want them to get to, I put those websites in there when they come to class. That's the only place they can go. Uh to protect our data, we've got the firewall which keeps hopefully keeps the bad people out, blocks viruses, malware, keeps the students from using VPNs to get past our filter to get to places again that they don't need to get to. Every student has a lex2.org email address. They cannot use that address to email people outside of the district. They can only use it for inside the district. and they can only log into their Chromebooks with that email address. And we've
072all of our servers, we back them up nightly, two ways. They're backed up inside the district and we've also got a cloud version. So, we're and we do regular restores just to make sure the data is clean, to make sure that we actually can make the backups. Uh before we get to questions, I want to let I don't want anyone to leave this room thinking that Lex 2 network is a mighty fortress. We do the best we can with what we have and I I we're reasonably safe. I think we are. But we read about every day Fortune 500 companies that get hacked and fished and all their data gets taken. So just know we're doing what we can. We're doing what we can with what we have and then we'll uh take questions. >>
073Miss Rucker, >> um thank you for the report. Uh we have an amazing uh technology department. Thank you. >> And we appreciate all you do every day. I know it's no small task. Uh we haven't gotten a report in a while on this topic and so I really appreciate the report tonight. I want to make sure we're staying on top of things even though I kind of, you know, I knew we were. But it's also always good to hear, you know, >> just the updates on this topic. So I would just say if there's anything, you know, you all ever need from the board, please bring it to us because we want to keep our kids safe. So thank you so much, >> Mr. Bracken. >> Thank you, sir. Uh, I've been in a lot
074of meetings with it and I've never heard it be the highlight of the meeting. So, kudos to you. Like, heck yeah. That's fantastic. Uh, >> hey, today was uh today was National Bosses Day and he gave me a shout out. So, >> scratch back. Scratch back. Yeah. Hey, but it was it's got 5 years ago when I came on, we had a lot of work to do in the IT world and you and your team have done a phenomenal job on a landscape that changes daily and it's very hard and most people only see when you mess up. So kudos to you and your team for uh protecting the kids. That's what it's all about. The only question I have is you back up every night to the cloud and premise. I don't love paying
075for premise service servers. Is there a reason we back up on prim? It was a service we had originally before we went to the cloud. It's still here. It still works. So, we do it just because we have it. >> Fair enough. Thank you, >> Miss Castles. >> Do we have and I guess I'm using the correct word, enough bandwidth for this so it won't cause problems with our other educational programs and and and have we heard of some other districts that have used this just to know that it >> Oh, it has. We've been using it now for almost two years. So, it's yeah, we haven't had any issues as far as bandwidth. We've got plenty. Again, we've got kids that are using uh streaming and the kinds of things that use up a
076lot of bandwidth and we're not we're not hitting the end of what we've got. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Certainly, Mr. Perkit. >> Dr. Hafner, could I just ask this is kind of tangentially related and I know that you guys aren't looking doing anything with people's personal phones, but how are we doing with the phone policy? Uh I mean, As you know, we implemented it last January um as the state asked us to do. And I mean, I'm not going to say the system's perfect. We do have infractions every now and then, but for the most part, uh principles have shared with me that they enjoy seeing their students communicating with each other at lunch and playing games and t, you know, talking and sharing in class more so than they had seen before. So,
077I would say it's been a positive impact. Oh, >> that's great. Thank you. Thank you. You're >> welcome. All right. >> Thank you, Mr. Hower. >> Thank you. >> That concludes operation support for tonight. >> Thank you, Mr. War. >> All right. We're going into unfinished business now. >> All right. >> I'll go ahead and take you. >> Right. Um, Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we um consider second and final reading of propose proposed revisions to board policy GCLE un unencumbered time and proposed revisions to administration rule AR GCL- R unencumbered time. >> Second. >> Got a motion and a second. Any discussion on that? All in favor say I. I. >> Motion carries. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we approve the consideration of the second and final reading of proposed
078revisions to board policy BE board meeting and proposed addition to board policy BEA live streaming board meetings. >> Have a motion and a second. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. Uh, motion carries. All right, we'll move into new business now. >> All right. You want me to help you out with this one? >> You ain't going to help me out with this one right here. This is a long one. >> Okay. >> I wouldn't read that much. >> All right. Um, Mr. Chairman, um, I make a motion for consideration of first reading of policy GBC, staff compensation. Policy GCB, professional staff contracts and compensation. Policy GCK, professional and support staff assignments and transfers. Policy GCQF, discipline, suspension and dismissal of professional staff. Policy GC OA evaluation and instructional personnel. policy IC school year
079A R CCK-R professional and support staff assignments and transfers A R GC O >> Q is that O O A-R evaluation and instructional staff argcqf- R discipline suspension and dismissal of professional staff Second. >> All right, we got motion and a second. Any discussion on all them? >> Thank you, Miss W. >> Anytime. >> All right, Mr. Hall. >> I just did I just had one on on the uh professional staff assignments and trans transfers. Um in the in the green um it just it says all basically says all things being equal, we do seniority. I just was wondering the the the reason behind it just seems like that would leave a lot of that not give you the flexibility that you might need on a transfer on a transfer >> and is it okay
080thank you um it's my understanding Mr. all that the changes that were made to this policy, these policies were so that we would be in alignment with the educator assistance act updates. So that was included in that. >> Good enough. >> Um on policy GCOA, I have a greater appreciation for your job there. Um it just says the appropriate personnel will evaluate the performance of every instructional staff member. Um, do we need to tighten that up in terms of appro appropriate personnel? I mean, is that consistent throughout? Are we talking about for teachers? Is that principles? What does that mean? >> So, there is a stand standard operating procedure that comes through human resources division. Okay. >> And it's exactly like you might think that the principles are responsible for the individuals in their building.
081We are responsible for individuals in our divisions. I'm responsible for individuals on my cabinet. And yes, it's certified and classified staff. >> Okay. >> And it also um references the type of contract this employee whatever category works on and it's it's dictated um by state department of education accreditation certification. >> Um also another question Dr. Cooper for GCO8-R. Um, can you fill us in a little bit on what expanded adept system means? >> Yes, ma'am. The extended assisting developing and evaluating professional teaching staff. That's what ADEP means. It is the big umbrella of evaluation for teachers in any category as well as administrators. And it's more or less referred to as PDEP. Um, is is the measure for principles. And this tells us how we will it it it ties in line with title 59
082teacher employment dismissal. And it tells us how we will evaluate when we will evaluate the methods within how what we will utilize under the adept umbrella and who do we have in the administrative capacity the peer evaluator capacity etc. It just outlines the whole evaluation process for anyone working on a public law contract as a certified educator. And so why is this a brand new policy entirely written in green? Is this not taking the place of something else or why do we have something brand new? >> You know, I'm not really sure other than as Dr. Hafner said, the educator assistance act requirements. We don't have to have an overview of all the induction, all the types of contracts as it says here, second paragraph, induction contract, annual contract one, two, and three, continuing one,
083two, and three. We know that. So for me to know that this is an a rule a rule an administrative rule says that I don't mean we're perfect but we know what our staff and what measure that that we're supposed to apply it with regard to their professional growth and development plan whether it's formative assessment summitive assessment and what uh comprehensive um formative which is the resertification period um I think it just spells it out very specifically uh it is very specific um and I you outside of it mirror mirroring the educator assistance act. You got to have to keep in mind many many folks coming into these positions are new. I I suppose um it's like a law laws created because something happened you know administrative rule is someone needed to tell you how
084to apply what you're supposed to do and and that's what this says to me. We know by virtue of the adept process how to entertain what contracts to entertain what they're evaluate whether it's formative whether it's summative whether it's comprehensive and what have you. I don't know why um it's dictated like this except for to clarify what the educator assistance act requires as of July 1st. So it it just spells it out because you know not many people take tea to read it you know you know what I mean just really truly it's >> right okay I have I have one other question um and it's about GCQF-R and for y'all's benefit that is discipline suspension and dismissal of professional staff and I I think it's important for the public to know that the board
085is generally not made aware of those issues. Uh and the reason is that if somebody asks for a board hearing, uh we have to sort of sit in judgment, if you will, and we're supposed to go into that not having any prior knowledge of what's going on. And I think it's important for y'all to know that because sometimes in the community, you know, a lot more about what's going on at a school, about a problem that's going on with a teacher or an employee or something, and we don't. And so, uh, I wanted to ask the question, Dr. Havner, should the board have an idea about ongoing issues without identification of the school, the individual? I mean, would it be possible for you to say to us, "We we have an issue at Saluda River,
086and we're looking into it." >> Yes, ma'am. We addressed that in our discussion at the last board meeting that we would expand a little bit on whether what it had to do with. still not giving names or details, but whether it was a breach of staff conduct regarding a staff member, a student, um, or anything of that nature. So, we again, like you've mentioned, we don't want to taint your opinion or sway your opinion of any situation so that everybody has a fair appeal process. >> Yeah. Thank you. And I just think it's important for the public to realize that that if you call us and say, "Why aren't you doing anything about this thing going on?" there's a high likelihood we don't know anything about it and that's the reason why is is so
087that our our outlook is not being tainted ahead of time. So thank you. >> Any others? We had a motion and a second. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Motion carries. >> All right. >> We got one more. One more. >> Down on this one. >> All right, hang on. >> Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we consider first reading of proposed revisions to board policy JFAB, admission of nonres resident students. >> Second >> motion and a second. Any discussion, Mr. >> Oh, Mr. All, go ahead. Maybe this for Matt and it might been one of our first board meetings, but we talked about the new athletic transfer rule >> and didn't we consider that we were going to, you know, since some of our athletic teams are having a hard time,
088you know, filling the gap that we were going to have a tuition waiver for for >> So, we did have that conversation. This policy is is applicable based on the um there used to be a deadline for employee choice and student choice and there is still one for student choice in regards to transfer within the district to other schools based on capacity and availability within those grades. But one of the things that we really wanted to update was we um as requested by this board actually last year we made the deadline for some of that earlier but we also as you know hire teachers year round and so if we we don't know by March who we're going to hire in April, May, June, July, August and so we want to give those employees those
089new employees an opportunity to enroll their students in the school of choice based still in capacity. >> Mr. Brick. Good. >> Um, we've skirted around this for five plus years on the tuition part. And now that we've opened this policy back up between first and second reading, I would like us to consider putting some some verbiage in the next paragraph or section. Keep going down a little bit in the tuition. Uh you the discussion has been if there's if there's room available then let's not make a kid pay. We're still getting their seat cost. Um but we've never codified it. We've kind of had some strong discussions but never moved forward. And I think the fact that we're opening this up and I love the fact that we're getting rid of the March 15th that
090makes a lot of sense. But I would love for us to consider a if then statement in tuition simply saying that the tuition you that still stands. However, if there's space and they meet all the criteria, we don't need to make that family pay whatever the CPI price is that week or month or year or whatever it is. >> Noted. Any other discussion on that one? All right, we had a motion in a second. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Motion carries. All right, that wraps us up. That's going to bring us to announcements. And October 29th is early release day. November 2nd, daylight savings time ends. Getting dark on us. November 10th, interims are issued. November 18th, district school showcase at the PAC Center from 5:30 to 7:00. And then November the
09120th is our regular monthly board meeting at here in the district office. And then the good old holiday November 24th through the 28th is our Thanksgiving break. So, thank y'all for coming and I'll turn over to Miss Wooten to take us out of here. >> All right. Um, I make a motion that the board of trustees enter close session for the following. Consideration of personnel appointments and resignation. Legal advice regarding board policy AB. Legal advice regarding personnel matters. >> Second. Have >> a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. >> We are in executive. I am ready. Count it down. >> I make a motion that the meeting be reconvened in open session and the appropriate affidavit executed. Second. >> I have a motion and a second. I All in favor say
092I. >> I. >> All right. Back in executive. Um before we go to this first motion, we've had two board members that has recused from this decision. So we will I will turn this back over to Miss W. >> Um thank you, Mr. Chairman. I make a motion that we accept the recommendation of the superintendent concerning the employee uh personnel employee. Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Motion carries. All right. We will now have Mr. All and Mr. Bray back in. >> Did I say that right? >> I think so. think we're okay. >> We're ready. >> Miss Wooten, is there any other motion? >> Yes, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion that we accept the um administration's recommendations for personnel appointments, uh reappointments, and resignations. >>
093Second. >> All right. Had a motion and a second. All in favor say I. >> Motion carries. >> I make a motion that we adjourn. >> Second. We are