Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees - May 15, 2025

001I'm going to call to order a regular monthly meeting of the board of trustees. Um before we get started, um you know, Matthew 19:14, Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." You know, April 17th is going to be etched in our minds forever. Lexon 2 suffered a loss, suffered a accident. And so, you know, I just want you to take time to think of loss of loved ones that we had because, you know, there was a lot of weeping, a lot of sorrow. I saw a lot of hugging. the next day at Pine Ridge to see the students come together and hug each other. Tears were flowing, them holding hands and saying a prayer. And the community ran

002a flag pole holding hands and praying. It kind of reminded us of the one we lost because you see each day at in the cafeteria he would gather his friends around them. They'd hold hands and pray before they ate their lunch. So, so tonight we just want to take time to honor him, honor the school, and honor the Pine Ridge family. So, I'm going ask you to can we have a moment of silence tonight for the student, the school, our community, and our district. Thank y'all. Now I'm going to turn it over to Miss Wooten and let her introduce two of our students tonight. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We're delighted to have uh a student from Airport High School and a student from Brooklyn Casey High School tonight. Tonight we have leading the invocation is

003Raleigh Wilbornne. Raleigh is a senior at Airport High School. He has a GPA of 5.533 and is currently first in his class. Well done. Riley has served as the team captain for both the boys golf and volleyball teams, leading our volleyball team to a regional championship and guiding both teams to the playoffs. Raleigh was selected as a scholar athlete of the week by Watch Fox. Airport High School named him a Casey West Columbia Rotary Club student of the quarter. He is currently serves as president of the Beta Club and is a member of the National Honor Society. Riley served as a junior marshall last year for graduation. He also attended Boy State last summer. Riley will be earning an associate degree in arts and science through Midland's Technical College, which he earned while attending the

004Lexington 2 early college program. He plans to attend Clemson University in the fall to pursue a degree in chemical engineering. Tonight, from Brooklyn Casey High School, leading us in the pledge of allegiance, we have Virginia Libby, and most of us know her as Ginger. Virginia uh is a senior at Brooklyn Casey High School. Throughout her time at BC, she has played an active role in various clubs and extra extracurricular activity. Virginia has been a member of the BC varsity swim team since the eighth grade. She also has performed in a multitude of theater performances over the past four years, including her most recent production where she played Carol in the babysitter for Brooklyn Casey's 2025 senior directing showcase. She has been an active member in BC student council, serving as the junior class vice president

005last year and the student activities director this year. Virginia has greatly contributed to events such as the 2024 homecoming dancing parade as well as the 2025 parade, 2025 senior prom, and very soon the 2025 senior awards night taking place on May 21st. After high school, she plans to attend the University of South Carolina in the fall where she will pursue an international business degree for the next four years. Thank you both for being here. Okay, Riley, you can step up and lead and then well, you can follow. Dear heavenly father, thank you for the day you've given us today and thank you for all your many blessings. Please provide the board members wisdom as they are tasked to make decisions regarding the students, teachers, and faculty of the district. Please continue to comfort students, families,

006friends, and all those involved in the recent tragedy within the Pineriidge community. Thank you for the wonderful school year just completed and the many blessings you have bestowed upon us. I pray that we honor you with the decisions we make. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. 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 both. ain't no GPA can get that high. I ain't never see a number that high in my grades. But we're going to move on along and u with no objections, the consent agenda will stand approved as presented. All right. And I'm going to move on into honors and accomplishments and I'm going to turn over to Dr.

007Hapner. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First up tonight, I would like to invite Newbridge Academy Director Kelly Reia to the podium to introduce us to a student who has won an essay award and tell us a little bit about that. Good evening, uh, Mr. Chair, board members, Dr. Hfner, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to be here. Um, this evening I have the honor to, uh, recognize, this is Anthony Miranda. He is a former student of Newbridge Academy. Um, Anthony placed first in the South Carolina SIFMA Foundation's Invest Wright competition. Um he again attended New Bridge back in the fall and in the fall he participated um in the uh again the invest right competition with his social studies teacher Dr. Monica Hart excuse me. So Anthony um again is a seventh grade student. He

008is um a current student at Busby Middle School. Um he was with us in the fall but again he through his writing again began planting a seed for a financially secure future. Um Anony's essay was chosen among thousands of essays in the state of South Carolina. Um his essay demonstrated a clear understanding of diversification, long-term investing, and risk, which are all core concepts and that defined the smart financial decision-making. Warren Buffett once said that someone is sitting in shade today because someone else planted a tree long ago. Um that idea is the heart of Anony's winning essay where it emphasized the value of building a financial stability through informed investing. So I am thrilled to celebrate Anthony and this outstanding achievement. He is again setting a powerful example of how financial education um helps young

009people to take control of their future by understanding long-term investing. Students like Anthony are building not just portfolios but actually real financial comp. [Applause] I'm just am grateful to for the reward like and for the teacher that helped me and mostly my ELA teachers who like and teach me how to write essays and and Dr. hard new newbish who helped me like and to make it like sound more good and like help me with like the with the ELA and words that I didn't understand and to make it sound like like to see it can sounded like more better and thank you for like I really grateful for the win the first place and thank you to my mom especially for always being to me and and she's the best mom. Why did you say

010that? That's great. Earlier this week, members of the class of 2025 were invited by the South Carolina Department of Education to the annual military honor chord ceremony. This year's event was held at Fort Jackson and it recognized seniors who have made a commitment to entering military service upon graduation. As everyone here knows, Lexington 2 has a strong military tradition in our schools. And as of today, the district has 20 seniors in the class of 2025 with plans to enter the military upon graduation. And we are so proud of them and their service to our country. I believe we have a slide on our TV screens here in the boardroom listing all of their names. I know some of these students are here with us tonight. We would like to invite you to to come to

011the podium and introduce yourselves and the high school that you're from and tell us which branch of the military you plan to to join. Uh hello, my name is Jonas McCoy and I'm from Brooklyn Casey High School and I plan well I've joined the Marine Corpse. Uh hello, my name is Jayen Copenhagen. I go to Brooklyn Casey High School as well and I'll be joining the Navy. Good evening. My name is Linda Torres Porter. I'm from Brooklyn Casey High School and I'll be going Navy. My name is Ashley Sios Rios. I'm from Brooklyn Casey High School and I'm planning on joining the US Navy. My name is Rashidita Thornton. I go to Brooklyn Casey High School and I joined Army. Oh, the Army National Guard. Good evening. My name is Israel Vedto Campos and I

012joined the US Army National Guard and I'm from Airport High School. Good evening. I'm Donald Derek and I'm from Brooklyn Casey High School and I joined the Air Force. Ladies and gentlemen of the school board, um thank you for allowing them to be here. Um I'm very proud of every last kid whatever high school they came from. Um I think it takes a special person to serve our nation and um I think these kids are most of them I know most of them I'm had. And so I think they're going to do a fabulous job and then one day they're going to come back to our community and do great things as well. And so, thank you y'all for letting us be here. Thank you. Thank you all for your service. Finally, as you know,

013our graduation ceremonies for the nearly 550 members of the class of 2025 are less than two weeks away. Tonight, we have Airport High School Principal Mr. Matt Schillot and Brooklyn Casey principal Dr. Vance Jones and Stacy Baker, director of Kate uh career and technology education who are going to introduce us to 15 of those graduating seniors and highlight their time here in Lexington 2. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Hafner. It is a pleasure to be here and this is a special moment for for the high schools uh in Lexington, too. Um it's a good problem to have when you run into an extreme challenge of only bringing six people to you tonight. um when you're, you know, crossing about 280 in less than two weeks at Airport High School. But I

014think you'll be real excited to to see the students that we have before you today. And I'm excited to highlight them and to celebrate them. I share a little bit about them and they're going to tell you what their future plans are. Uh the first student I want to talk about you have seen before. Her name is Rain Marie Morris. A few highlights for her as she's been extremely involved in extracurricular activities and her academic success. She was a part of student government. She's been the student body vice president. She's really proud of bringing back airport's FCA. She was a leader in that. She's a student in Midland's Tech dual enrollment program and recently graduated with her general studies certificate and associates in art and also a completer of Lex 2's Innovation Sports Medicine program.

015Um, in addition to all this, she's been involved in Beta Club, National Honor Society, National Technical Honor Society. She was a representative of Airport High School at Pimeto Girls State. Um, and also two of her favorite sports that she's lettered in is both volleyball and tennis. She's been a junior marshall. I had the pleasure of bringing her as the Rotary Club student of the quarter and the Casey West Columbia student of the quarter as well. So, I'd like to introduce you to again Raymarie Morris. [Applause] Hi there. Um, as you know, I'm Ray Morris. I'm a senior at Airport High School. Um, I plan to attend University of South Carolina to major in exercise science and minor in psychology to further in preoccupational therapy. The next student I'd like to recognize is Mahi Patel. Currently,

016obviously a senior at Airport High School. What's special about this is she is completing her second year at airport and has nothing but glowing things to say about her experience not only at airport but in Lexon school district too. Um she's really proud about being part of this supportive community has played a significant role in the shaping the person she is today not only as a student but has become quite the leader at airport high school. Throughout her time, she's focused on pursuing academic excellence both in school life and outside, specifically member of the Beta Club and student government, where she's developed the leadership skills that will take her to the next level. She's currently serving as the senior class vice president and has the honor of representing our school at the South Carolina Association

017of Student Council State Convention, which is where Airport High School is recognized as a gold group. Um she's really passionate about being a leader not only in the community but through her student activities and I'm going to share her uh let her share a little bit about her future plans. Hi, my name is Mahi Patel and I'm a senior at Airport High School. I plan to go to University of South Carolina to major in accounting and probably work at a bank after that. Yeah. Thank you. The third student I'll bring before you actually just saw is Israel Ovedo Compos who obviously is headed into the military. Come on forward, sir. Um, this student right here has had the privilege of growing both academically and personally within our district over the last 13 years and has

018loved being a part of this community that has shaped who he is as both a student and a human being. Um throughout his time, his proudest accomplishments include the United States Marine Corpse Leadership Award, the Grand Lodge of Ancient Freemasons of South Carolina ROC Leadership Award, Drill Champion Award, um from the Senate of South Carolina, and he's going to tell you a little bit more about what he's going to do next. Good evening. As I previously mentioned, I am Israel Campos and I have recently recently been accepted to the Citadel. So, I plan to go to the Citadel and major in computer programming. Next student I'd like to introduce you to is Landon Chavez. uh he is currently a top 10% of his class and he's a co-founder of airport's pretty new STEM club. I

019think this is year two if my memory serves me right that they um created studentled on their own. Um, he's the Beta Club correspondent secretary two years in a row, an AP scholar, and as he listed, he's a proud owner owner of his general college study certificate, his associates of arts, and his associates of science from Midlands Tech through our very own dual enrollment program. over the last four years. He says Lexon 2 and Airport High School has provided him with incredible opportunities and the greatest motiv motivation that he could ask for from all the access to advanced courseworks and encouragement from his passionate teachers and counselors. So that's really cool to hear and he'll let you tell let him tell you what he's doing next. Hello, my name is Lennon Chavez and I and

020I am attending the University of South Carolina and plan to major in chemical engineering. All right, Miss Wooten, you did a fabulous job of the introduction of this next student, but I'm I'm going to probably say some of the stuff that you said and maybe add a few things, but I'm going to bring back forward um Rally Wilburn, who is um officially going to be our validictorian in less than two weeks. Um but he's obviously a student at Airport High School. And one of the things that he right off the bat mentioned was his unwavering support from his teachers, coaches, and the school district. He's been fortunate to serve as the team captain for both boys golf and volleyball teams, leading our boys volleyball team to a region championship and guiding both teams to the

021playoff. Along the way, um he's been honored as a watchfox scholar athlete of the week and I had the honor of taking him as the KC West Columbia's Rotary um student of the quarter. Additionally, he's worked really hard to be at the top of his class and has served as the president of our Beta Club chapter. One of his proudest accomplishments is earning his associates degree in arts and science before even graduating high school. An opportunity made possible through the district's investment in his education. He's beyond grateful for the early college program which has saved him thousands of dollars by covering the cost of education. We seen a theme here which is a good theme. Uh Airport High School has been instrumental in supporting his passion specifically in chemistry and engineering encouraging him to challenge

022himself and explore his potential. He'll now tell you a little bit more about where he's going next. Hey, I'm Riley. I plan on attending Clemson University and major in chemical engineering. [Applause] Mr. Key, you're right. I think that's the highest GPA I also have have heard of in my time. Um, so I I agree with you. The next student, um, his name is Andy Ralden Garcia. Um, unfortunately he is not here today, but I pro I told him I promised I'd recognize him as he has earned this honor. He got scheduled to work at the last minute and fulfilled his responsibilities and went to work tonight, which shows what kind of human being that he is, even though he regrets not being here. So, just share a little bit about how active he is. Um,

023he's basketball player from Airport High School, served on student council since his sophomore year, first as a senator, then junior class president, and is currently our senior class president. Andy. In addition, Andy is part of our chorus program and has participated in theater all four years at airport. He's had the privilege, which we get to hear every single day, of being the lead announcer for our morning announcements. This year, with his lead, he delivered our announcements in Spanish um as well as English during Hispanic Heritage Month and helped highlight notable African-American leaders, both local and national during Black History Month, as he took it upon himself to make sure that we were reaching all the students at Airport High School. So, in his absence, I'd like to recognize Andy. He's a wonderful kid. We look

024forward to seeing you at graduation 8 a.m. after Memorial Day. Good evening, Mr. Chair, uh, Superintendent Hefner, members of the board. I'm excited to have my Brooklyn Casey High School seniors here with me tonight. Um again, as we get ready for graduation at 8 am on the 28th of this month, we are excited to host you guys as well. And so we'll start off with Ginger Virginia, Ginger Libby, um who is a senior at Brooklyn Casey High School with a 4.38 GPA. She was a member of our varsity swim team since 8th grade, participated in numerous theater productions, a member of the National Thespian Society, a member of our honors choir, and has sang all over the country um with Miss Humphrey's, a member of student council, very active in that, a junior class vice

025president last year, student activities director this year. um organized major school events, last year's homecoming parade and dance, this year's senior prom, and as well this year's um awards night. And so hopefully we'll see you all on awards night as well, which is the 21st. And now I'll step aside as Ginger comes and tells you her plans for next year. Hello, my name is Ginger Libby and I plan to attend the University of South Carolina in the fall and I'll study international business there. [Applause] Next we have Jenny Gonzalez. Jenny is also a senior with a 4.33 GPA. Um does a great job of volunteering all around our building. She is a member of our international club, an honor student in our building, a member of the gifted and talented dance team. Um has danced

026all over Colombia this year. had a production last night at our school where they did a wonderful job. And at this time, I'll step aside as she tells you her plans for next year. Hello, my name is Jenny Gonzalez and after graduating, I'm attending to Columbia College Honors Program to major in educational [Applause] studies. Next, we have Miss Lillian Buchanan. um call her Li Lily. Um GPA 3.924, accepted to six different colleges. Um activities at BC, very involved with our volleyball team over three years, played golf as a senior, a member of student council where she was very active. Um school improvement council where she was very vocal and supported our students in that role and participated in various clubs around the building. At this time, Lily will tell you where she's headed to school.

027Hello everyone. My name is Lilian Buchanan. I'm attending the University of South Carolina in the fall and I plan to major in exercise science following a pre-med track. Just say it. Student body president Paxton MGO. Um 4.3 GPA. Third generation Bearcat, participated with our varsity golf team, a five-year letterman, two-time state champion attendee, a leader in our fellowship of Christian athletes, a member of the national honor society, the Latin honor society, the school improvement council, the superintendence roundt, the Brooklyn Casey High School Educational Foundation Board, student council for four years and is an Eagle Scout as well and now serves as an adult scout. Scoutmaster. I will step aside. The shirt will tell you a lot about where he is going to school next year. Good evening. My name is Paxton Emergo. I plan to

028attend Walford College in the fall. Uh I'm going to major in government with a minor in business and then on the pre-law track. Jance Bryant, a senior as well with a 4.47 47 GPA was honored last night at our um program for our scholars here in this beautiful building. Some of her accomplishments, she's a member of the Latin club and earned a bronze seal of biiteracy there. Um a member of the Black Student Union for two years where she was president this year and she was a college process ambassador for the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education. has done a wonderful job as a leader in our building. Hi. Oh, sorry. Hi. My name is Jance Bryant. I'll be attending the University of South Carolina and with a major in journalism. And finally, Jonas, um,

029who you saw a little bit ago, but he was accepted into three colleges. um decided to go on the track that you all just heard about, but his activities while at Brooklyn Casey High School was a member of our football team for four years, as well as a member of our track team, JOTC. Um participated in many fashion shows and other school activities and a member of our black student union. Um tomorrow afternoon he will be participating in the state championships for our track and field team in the long jump as well as the 4 by1 4x1. So 5:00 tomorrow at Spring Valley, let's have our fingers crossed that we can bring the R&D Northeast that we can bring it home. Hello, my name is Jon McCoy and even though I am going with the

030Marines, I do still plan on studying at uh Southern New Hampshire University for personal I think personal wealth and visit. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, school board members, and Dr. Hfner. I'm here representing the innovation center tonight, and I'm going to tell you about two of our three students. One is at said track practice preparing for tomorrow night. Um, but we will start with um Keegan Brazzle. Um, he's a senior at Airport High School, a dedicated and versatile student with a passion for technology and the digital arts. He's a double completer in computer programming that he took with Mr. Crotwell in digital art and design with Miss Arlage at the innovation center. He also earned his career and life essentials certification. Keegan has demonstrated exceptional skill in both technical and creative fields. In addition to the

031courses he took to meet the completed requirements, he also took four additional courses in multimedia and animation with Miss Reamer, which helped enhance his expertise in a broad range of digital content creation. He applies a strong work ethic and customer service skills every day at work, which is at Chick-fil-A, where he's developed teamwork, communication, and leadership abilities. His diverse background equips him with a unique blend of creativity and technical proficiency, which makes him an ideal candidate for roles that require innovation and problem solving. And I'm going to let him tell you his plans for after graduation. Hello, my name is Keegan Brazzle and uh I'll be attending USC Aken uh next fall and I will be majoring in video game and simulation. Nice. And so even though DeAndre Dunar is not here, I do want

032to tell you about him. He's a senior at Brooklyn Casey High School. Um he's also a welding completer. He took all four welding courses with Mr. Thompson at the innovation center. While there, he also earned his OSHA 10 certification and his American Welding Society certification. Um, DeAndre was a general management concentrator, having taken entrepreneurship and accounting with Miss Conurs at Brooklyn Casey. He's currently ranked eighth in South Carolina in the 800 meters and after graduation he plans to attend Midlands Tech. And so, next is Andrew Harney, who's a senior at Airport High School. During his freshman and sophomore years, he participated in JOTC and the drill team. During his sophomore year, began taking courses at the innovation center and found that he enjoyed his time in the electricity classes. From there, his knowledge grew in

033the areas of residential wiring, electrical pipe bending, and wiring practices for specific electrical appliances. Andrew completed all four electricity courses with Mr. Kaufman at the innovation center, which made him an electricity completer. He received his OSHA 10 and first aid AED CPR certifications there as well. And I'm going to let him tell you his plans for after graduation. Even um I want to say thank you for letting me stand with you all. And I also want to give a personal thank you to Mr. Kyle Kaufman and Kimberly Plouden for letting me get to this position. I wouldn't be here without them. But after I graduate from high school, I'll be getting to go out to Midland's Technical College and I'll be working with Michelin while I'm there as well because they helped me reach into

034their um Michelin technical scholarship or scholars uh scholarship. It's a bit hard to pronounce, but I'm very proud to be here and I could not be more thankful for people who have helped me get here, especially everyone at the innovation center. [Applause] All right, that's an impressive group there. Um, we're going to move on into public participation and Miss Don in here. We just have one. I have one tonight and that will be Melissa. Go forth. Um, you will have five minutes 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 up tonight will be Melissa. Go forth. And thank you for

035being here. And you will have five minutes. Thank you for having me tonight. I plan to speak at the last meeting about the CPIF process, capital projects, as well as MAP, um, but didn't get here on time. um tonight. I wanted to make sure that I was here to speak and I'm sorry to to speak on such um an unpleasant topic, but it is I feel a necessity as a parent and I do feel like it's material facts that need to be covered. Our district was forever changed since our last regular meeting on Wednesday, April the 16th. That was the night before the Pine Ridge Middle School tragedy. I um like I said, I plan to speak that night um to demand transparency and more scrutiny about the CPIF process. Just bringing light what that

036policy is for our board. That's policy um DIIB and then the expected timeline for that. Um, April 16th was a long or that night. It was sort of a a regular meeting, but it was also different because it was a Wednesday night instead of a thursday, the day that the tragedy took place, um, that was actually field day for Riverbank. And on the 16th, the night of our meeting, while we're talking about these CPIF expenses, both of my kids got on buses to go to field trips. One went to a strawberry farm and the other went to um Saluda Scholes to release trout and an incredible launch um program that we have with the lower Saluda River and SEDDNR. Something we're very excited about and we would never want them to miss out on. We

037appreciate those trips very much. We look forward to our field trips and everything that the staff and those drivers do to take care of our kids as well as the chaperoons. Usually I'm a chaperon at those trips as well. Growing up, I was always a bus rider in Clover and our bus driver my entire school life lived in our neighborhood. So, we were the first ones on the bus, first last ones off. It was a very long day for a student and for them as well. Um, but in Clover, especially in the 90s and the 2000s, we were not getting on the interstate very often at all. And if we were, we were definitely on um what was believed to be the safest activity bus available at that time. Once I learned about the tragedy

038after, like I said, a field day and we had a fun movie night planned with other Lex 2 parents, I immediately thought about one of Mr. Warren's first updates from August 2023 when he said, "We have 265 total routes and our buses roll 5,455 miles per day." If you think about that on a map, that's driving to San Francisco and back to West Columbia every day. That's what we do day in and day out in Lexington, too. And I believe at that point he was talking about just the normal bus routes, not necessarily even the activity bus schedule. And in the previous years, we've actually gotten this past year um an update about those trips. In fact, I believe the January update said that we had taken almost 800 activity and event trips at that

039point. So looking back before then, I had never paid much attention to the transportation updates, but hindsight and a tragedy do demand transparency and a clearer perspective. Like one of those updates um from April said that the spring bus evacuation drills were being scheduled. I hope that we're looking at I know we do them in the fall as well or in the summer anticipating. So I'm not saying those are the one drill, but I hope we're looking at that process. Um, I'm sure everything is being investigated, but as we ask other districts in our state and families to join us for security summits, for sports championships, to go to the zoo, which our counties support, to travel here to the Midlands on the interstate, our students should be traveling just as safely as those. Which

040brings me, I'm running out of time, but August 2022, I was here. I watched Miss Kesler talk about the reallocation of $105,000, I believe it was, in CPIF funds to eliminate an activity bus for six metal detectors at sporting events. In April, it was pointed out that in addition to those those funds being allocated, then we haven't bought activity buses since 2020. And the upcoming CPIF request for this coming fiscal year asked that we purchase three activity buses. And in the meantime, in November, some of you voted for the very first time to approve $5.3 million in additional CPIF funds for roofing HVAC, which is a necessity, but also stadium turf. I have so much more to say about this. I'm out of time, but your decisions have weight, and our safety should be the

041utmost priority for every single person in this room. CPIF process should follow as bylaw state. Thank you very much. Thank you, Miss Goforth. All right, we're going to move on into our divisional reports and I'm going turn it over to Dr. Hefner for superintendent update. We still chair. Um, this will be brief. This time of year in the education world, we recognize the end of the year with a culmination of performances, awards for hard work and achievement, and most importantly, promotion and graduation ceremonies. The closing out of one school year comes with pride and excitement for both the students and adults, but also the renewed angst about the unknowns ahead, those youngsters going off to college and military. So, while we have not embarked on our graduation ceremonies just yet, this time is somewhat of

042a closing out of one remarkable experience with all the celebrations of the school year with hope and appreciation for what the next year will bring. My hope is that students and adults in Lexington, too, can take some time this summer to do the same. And so, to our graduating seniors, job well done. and we look forward to our official graduation speeches um the following Tuesday and Wednesday following Memorial Day weekend. So I look forward to seeing you all there. Mr. Chair, that's our report. Brief report this evening. Short and sweet. All right, we're going to move on into our finance reports. I'm going turn over to Miss Strickland. Good evening everyone. The first three items on the agenda under financial reports were uploaded to um the the new board docs platform diligent. Are there any

043um questions about the financial reports for the month of April? Mr. Chair, uh and this might be not just for you, Scott, but for uh Dr. Hafner. Uh recently from at least two different schools I've heard I never knew the term was clicks but teachers saying hey I can't get X Y and Z printed because I'm out of my a lotment of clicks. Um but then as you know the pupil activity fund continues to grow at pretty much every school. If we have general pupil activity funds, that decision to be able to afford more clicks or printing, is that fully on the principal or who who makes that call? And how can we help if it's important? How can we help make sure these teachers can print stuff using that money that is sitting there

044year after year after year? And we have a contract for printing and that's allocated per teacher in the building. Um that I need you to remember also please Mr. Bray that the pupil activity funds are typically generated and designated for items for the school building. It would not go to something like copies. So um that's something that we can talk about with the principal and if you have a specific example that you want to share with me later I'd love to look into it for you. Gotcha. So at the end of the day it is a contract that we use for the printing based off that number. Thank you. Yeah. And I I'll talk to you about one of them offline cuz that one they that school there's plenty of pupil activity money that can

045be allocated that's not just for prom or something like that. So I think being able to know how to utilize that and being better educated will help potentially if it is an issue. Thank you. Thank you. There any other questions on finance? All right. Without objection, the monthly financial reports are accepted as presented. Okay. I have one more thing on the agenda. Okay. The the risk assessment score. So, Mr. Key, you should have gotten a letter from the state department as well as Dr. Hafner. The federal government requires the state department of education to monitor the federal grant awards passed down to school districts. They do this by assigning school districts a risk assessment score. This score is based upon the overall financial and programmatic performance as demonstrated through 10 criteria. The criteria are required

046reporting, turnover of key personnel, programmatic compliance, physical compliance, performance, frequency and need of technical assistance, financial stability, quality of management systems, timeliness of annual financial audit submission, and other material factors. I'm not going to read the high-risk numbers. I'm not going to read the medium risk numbers. Let's talk about the low risk numbers. So, a score of 18 and below indicate low risk. In 22 in 2022 2023, our risk score was a 15. So, we were considered low risk. event. I'm happy to inform you and applaud my team and our other Lex 2 teams that our risk score that our risk assessment score has dropped to a 10 this year. That was for 2024. I reached out to the state department to find out what the perfect risk score is and it's a nine. So,

047we still have some work to do and y'all know I'm competitive and we're going to get there. I want to be the best in the state. So, um, I applaud Little X2 teams as, um, we accomplish this goal to get our risk score down. And that's all I have. All righty. We're going to move on into human resource. I'm going to turn over to Dr. Cooper. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll call on our director of human resources, Miss Stephanie Hu, to provide our current vacancy report. Thank you. Congratulations, Miss Strickland, and finance department. Um, Mr. Chair, board members, and Dr. Hefner, good evening. I do have an updated vacancy report although I will say it is changing hour by hour. So as of this afternoon and it has changed since then. Um our support vacancies

048are at 19. Our regular teacher educational um education vacancies are at 37 and our sunshine is we have six special education vacancies. So it will be changing tomorrow. So, if you would like another update, feel free to reach out. Thank you. Got a question. Questions? Yes. I'm sorry. Yeah. And maybe this is with with should be with the budget, but um one of some of the feedback I've gotten is like we we've added positions to potentially added positions to the budget, but then teachers have all signed contracts in all the districts in the state. So just wonder how we manage that that calendar if there's something we should do different in the future when we are are adding positions so that we can get you know the most qualified people to to apply. Mr. All

049I'd be glad to to answer that question for us. You're right. Um everyone in the state who is certified and under the K12 environment is already signed if they've been offered a position. So anytime we are allocated new FTEEs the s and obviously our budget process is what it is but the sooner that we can get it out there and get it posted the the better. I mean we are all voling for the same folks at the same time. So in this world um you the soon the sooner we can get it out there the better. You you might recall we have a couple of ML positions out there as well as couple of three well a three and 4K sped position and all of our other positions are just as specific and in need.

050But the reason those are out there now is for under the likelihood that we would not be able to attract a candidate. So timing is everything. Thank you. I I just didn't know if maybe we could study what some other school districts are doing because I know the the budget's the budget when the general assembly approves it. We don't know don't know what we have. But somehow I think maybe some of the other school districts are getting ahead of it or maybe they're playing some whatif scenarios. I don't know. But it just seems like it puts us in a um you know the lower hand as far as filling some of these positions. Well, I will say contract return and by statute it's May 10th. This year May 10th was on a Saturday and I

051understand some school districts required them back on that Friday but technically they cannot require them back before the 10th. Our our staff actually got an additional day. How about that? Um just so that it it put us a little bit behind but it it if you weigh it out we thought that was what was best for our staff. But you know there's nothing off the table. We're always looking to innovate. So yes, thank you. We'll keep on doing it. Absolutely always open to ideas. But I would also say in my final comments here and that is that having our vacancy list roll and Stephanie's right. I mean it's just not dayto day. It's minuteby minute. It really is. Yes it is. Um and um so at this time of the year is cyclical. You will

052see this now. Of course we'd like to have zero zero vacancies. Um and we're not don't get me wrong I don't we all struggle in the same ways but we'll get it down. I mean you know we will. It's not going to be easy, but but we will. And it's much less than it used to be trend data wise at this point of the year in terms of after contract return. Does that help? Okay. Thank you. Anything else? Any other questions? We're going to move on into instruction and I'm going to turn it over to Dr. McDonald. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good evening, everybody. Um, I have two brief items for you tonight. Surprise. Um, mine's the short part. First up tonight, just want to give you a quick update on our Lex 2 Flex

053high school uh flexibility plan that's been submitted to the state department. We are still waiting a final approval on that, but that is not going to stall our progress. We are beginning to recruit students to be a part of that initiative um and moving forward with plans to to get that underway for the fall. So, um, we just need the final yes, but we we know that there are even some portions of that that that we feel pretty confident will still be within the law, uh, regardless of what our final approval is, but we don't want to miss the opportunity to recruit students and get them lined up. So, we are moving forward with that project. Uh the second item for tonight is uh a consideration. As you all know from way back in the

054the fall, uh we've been cleaning up our course catalog and looking at some holes that we have, but also looking at some opportunities. And tonight, we're presenting to you a local board approved course uh request that requires your approval for a course that we would like to add to the innovation center uh potentially next spring uh but definitely by the fall of 26. So, it's going to take us a minute. And the reason we need an early approval is to start making the plans of what this course will look like. This will serve as a survey opportunity for students who may have an interest in career fields but don't know exactly what they want to do yet. So maybe I don't want to do electricity or carpentry specifically, but I might need to experience both

055of those along with a business course to help me understand how that can turn me into an entrepreneur. So, this would give us the opportunity to look at some introductory uh career skills that students are going to need to go out and start a business or run their own um salon or whatever it might be, but also requiring them to participate in some of our other programs uh as we do that. And this would would give us a chance to allow kids to sort of sample. We're looking at ninth and tth graders uh who have not yet experienced the innovation center. this we give them an opportunity to go out and experience those programs and then make a determination about which one they might or two that they may want to complete as a high

056school student. Um there are lots of districts in the state that currently do this as a way to get more and more students to to engage in these programs and we believe this will be a value ad to our program. Mr. Chairman. Yes. Um I make a motion that we accept the administration's recommendation for an additional uh 2526 uh course request career exploration seminar. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion on that? Okay. So, will this be an elective? I'm assuming. Yes, ma'am. This is an elective course. So, they'll get a credit for an elective. Okay. Do we have such a thing as a general ed credit as opposed to college prep? Because it doesn't sound like what you're describing is leading people toward college prep. So So with with the way the state has

057categorized courses, it's either an advanced placement, a college prep, an honors, or a dual enrollment. So that's that's just the state language there. Okay. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Uh, I get that we kind of build this curriculum. It presumably most of the districts that do it already or have something like it, they have a a Kate center and they've built it to theirs. Presumably, they don't all have a pretty awesome uh art center as well. So my question is can we let the exploration be across all non hardcore academic side and let them come over here and see you know if we get to the lighting and technology thing here or any other you know they got a whole semester they should have plenty of time to explore everything. Absolutely. And that would

058be our intention because there also remember some CTE courses in our two high schools as well. So, this would give us an opportunity to really look at how we might partner with that because in the in the fine arts world, maybe I need that business course at the school to be able to learn how to do things, but maybe I need that carpentry piece to learn how to run a stage show. So, yes, all of those would be options that we could eventually build into this model. The only other request and you know you can water something down by putting too much but I and I know we have plenty of uh teacher cadet programs and all those but if that exploration could at least hit on the different types of teachers. I mean we

059always we sit here every month and see sped teachers or a vacancy. If just one day of the curriculum could run them through either, you know, special ed or through ML or something to get them experienced at that in 10th grade just for a day, that would be beneficial for all of us collectively. Absolutely. And we do have some changes to that to that teacher cadet program next year that will make it much more robust with the goal of doing exactly what you just asked us to do. So, so we do have some some work around uh with changing some programming that's that's already approved that's already there, but also allowing us some additional ways to get kids into classrooms that maybe didn't know they wanted to be a teacher, but now they could. But

060also the early childhood part as well, which we know is a is is really a career void right now because there just aren't enough people to work in daycarees. Thank you. Any others? All right. All in favor say I. Uh, all oppose. Motion carries. That's all we had. Dr. McDonald. All right. I'm going to turn over. We'll move into operations now. I'm going to turn over to Mr. Warren for operations update. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Dr. Hafner, happy to provide another operations update for May. You'll see listed here on this uh document a few highlights from our department and the work that's occurred uh just in this last month. I hit a few highlights safety and security uh really intentional there with our schools and graduations, you know, coming up in

061a few weeks working with them on logistics. A lot goes into that. Of course, the schools do the bulk of the planning, but we do uh facilitate some of the traffic flow and security and all the things that go along with that. So, that's been going on. also continuing to plan our, you know, safety uh training that we talked about, you know, last month with uh law enforcement partners during the month of June. Uh that continues to to go on planning planning for that. And then providing support to our schools and students and staff. Uh that that that's a pretty consistent theme and and safety and security. Uh facilities and maintenance, you see a lengthy list here. I do want to highlight that that this is all work that occurred during spring break. Um, so

062you know that's we've talked about that before that that our team you know summer you know doesn't really exist in the world of operations and really you know education as a whole with all of our departments. But um during spring break you see you know uh HBAC units were installed at North Side Middle. Uh we started uh preparation may there for the roof replacement at Northside Middle. Lots of flooring was installed. You know countertop renovations at Wood Elementary. Um like sound system in BC's gymnasium. Um, and then we've started removing lockers uh from, you know, our middle schools, provide, you know, some more space in the hallways there. And those really aren't utilized, you know, like like they used to be. So, we've started that process in our middle schools to allow more space for

063the kids to move in the hallways. Um, and that's been received very well by by our schools really at their request um to to make that happen. Uh, information technology, you know, that's ongoing as well. Even over spring break, work occurs there. uh security cameras, intercom systems, um uh fiber upgrades um at at BC and then student services. You see, you know, celebrated some of our special folks in the last few weeks with uh National School Nurse Day on May the 7th and then um uh National Appreciation Day for our mental health providers and counselors on May the 12th. So, just want to celebrate their work and um all they do, you know, especially, you know, um as we've mentioned here recently, but the support they provide is is really paramount and essential for our

064for our students and for our staff. Um and then just roll right into, you know, CPIF, you know, updates for for you have that document as well to show the projects that are completed and then the ones that are that are in progress. You see, we only have a just a really one um that hasn't been started yet, but that's that's we're about to start that at Wood with the courtyard upgrades, but all the ones in yellow, you'll see um the bulk of those uh will will u be finished during the summer. So, continue to to work on those to um improve our, you know, facilities and campuses and grounds here here in the district. So, happy to answer any questions. Any Mr. Gray? I have one request, not for, you know, probably a great

065summertime request, but every time I look at this and I see the iPad refresh, it just makes me wonder how much we truly need iPads in first and second grade if it is actually making a difference. I know that several countries recently have removed screens completely out of elementary world. I'm not suggesting we do that with all the state testing. I don't I'm not I don't know enough about it to even ask for an opinion, but I do feel pretty confident that first, second, kindergarten, $300,000 every year on something that may even be harming our children versus helping them is something that I would love for us to have uh some data informed backing before we vote next year on the CPIF to keep just throwing iPads at kids left and right. M Rucker, I

066would love to see that as well. So, thank you for bringing that up, Mr. Bray. I'd also just like to say um the status um report here, you know, noting completed and progress TBD. That has been very helpful to just have that every month. So, thank you for the way you reported that. I appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Bet. A lot of this done during spring break. Of course, you know, he was the driving force behind that. So, but we appreciate that and and you got that's when you can get things done, you know, when the schools are. Well, thank you very much. I did want to just ask, this is very tangential, what happens to those 500 hallway lockers? Um, we uh work with our um state surplus department. They they get junked um

067and you know, they're they're recycled. You know, that that metal is is recycled. So, um you know, they're really not of use um anymore after they come out of the walls. A lot of damage is done to them. And so, uh, we go through state surplus to, um, you know, dispose of those. But you're pretty sure they don't just go into a landfill someplace. No, ma'am. They're recycled. Okay. Okay. Thanks. I appreciate it. Yes, ma'am. Any others, Mr. Warren? Uh, if it's okay, I would love to go back to instruction. I just wanted to ask if I know that we have calendars for the next two years. Do we have start times yet or do we expect that later? I meant to ask that under instruction and forgot. Start times for the school for next

068year. Yeah. By school. You know, it was something that we kind of battled with this year. And I'm wanting to see if we've got that kind of on the record for next year, at least for our high schools. Yeah. For the high schools. Yes. They'll be starting at 8. Oh gosh. And I'm going to get the wrong. All three of them be starting at the same time. Both high schools will start at the same time and end at the same time. Yes. Perfect. Thank you. And along that same line, will their schedules be aligned so that the kids can go to the center? Their schedules will be much more aligned this year so that there is that easier transition piece so we can protect as much class time as possible. We've got a couple of

069of class changes. You know, one needs three minutes, one needs five. We're still fleshing that out, but our goal is to have that published and out to the public. Hopefully, our goal would be by the last day of school so that folks will know how to prepare for what next year schedule will look like. Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we're going to move into some new business here and I'm going to see who wants to tackle this elephant in the room now with our general fund budget. I don't know if Mr. Dr. Hafner or Mr. Chair, I want to thank the board for their time vested in our budget uh work session on May 1st. We're excited to bring you all what we believe are viable options for the school district while keeping

070us competitive in the Midlands and our state with recruiting and retention, but also for consideration of any other thoughts that you may have for us this evening. So, I'll turn it over to Mrs. Strickland. All right. So, um the first page in the budget packet is our revenue. Our revenue from the state is based on the House Ways and Means version. The Senate has approved their bud their budget. The um House two has approved their second round their second budget, but we have not gotten any updated projections from the state department, you know, since we had the budget workshop. So, these are the same revenue numbers that you saw in the budget workshop. Um, if you note the the 2526 general fund revenue budget, I did remove the three almost $3.4 million of fund balance

071that we used to balance the budget for this current fiscal year. So, our our new proposed general fund revenue budget is $129,155,143. So, that's where we are with revenue. Any questions about that before we we move to the next page? Okay, the next page is talking about our millillage. Um, per South Carolina revenue and physical affairs, we can um capture the population growth in our school district by 35%. That equates to 0.59 mills. Okay, so that's for the population in our school district. We can also capture the CPI and that's the consumer price index and what that really is is the changes the changes in prices over time and a key indicator of that is inflation. So we can increase our um or we can capture the CPI 2.95% and that equates to five mills

072for CPI. So that total millage that we can capture is 3.3%. Which equates to 5.59 mills. So because this year is um reassessment on property values, we have roll back millage. So what that means is our millillage will go from 183.9 and it rolls back to 169.3. Okay, that's done every five years by the county. And then we can capture the 5.59 mills. So based on the county information, our the the adjusted estimated assessed value is 282,31,196. So the value of a meal is $282,3120. So when you take our roll back millage plus the capturing growth in CPI, that's 174.98 mills and you multiply that by the estimated value of a mill, you get 49,349818. So the capturing of the 5.59 mills equates to1,576,517. That that that revenue is included in my revenue budget for

0732526. So capturing the growth in CPI is included. Are there any questions about that? Mr. Chair when we when it comes time to voting um we will have to approve the budget and approve a millage increase right it's two separate items it would be within the scenario that you approve okay yeah so the so the next page are there any other questions before I move to the next page the next page just shows that um what our millillage is compared to our surrounding districts including Richland one and Richland 2 and for 2025 I don't have those what the other school districts are doing at this point in time. So that's just a comparison so you can see where we are compared to the surrounding school districts. The next page I have is the expense budget

074and there there are two scenarios the same two scenarios that we talked about in the budget workshop. Scenario one, you see the salary infringes and the salary and fringes make up 84% of our budget. You see last year it made up 83% of our budget and it is broken out by instruction and in and support and community services. Those two those two percentages are shown. Programs and operations are 16% compared to last year 17%. And then you see the additional request listed underneath. The highlighted items in green is what has already been approved by the board for next year. So you see those included and then I reduced them to net zero. So you see the total expenses for scenario one. And I'll explain the difference between scenario one and scenario two. after we look

075at scenario two. Can I ask you a question on this real quick? Sure. Back to um your question about putting uh offers out earlier. Those four or however many that are highlighted in blue, we approved those earlier. Was that for them to start this year or to approve them for next year? Next year. So theoretically, I mean, we have precedent. If y'all came to us in December with the wish list instead of April with the wish list, we could approve any of the positions just like we did these four and then you could begin hiring those before we get to that May 10th cut off cut off date. Correct. Correct. Thank you. Okay. All right. So the next page is scenario two. you see the um percentages for the instruction salary infringes and support and

076community service salary infringes. Um the same programs and operations as in scenario one. None of that changed and also the additional requests are the same as in scenario one. So you see the total for that. Okay, let's talk about the difference between the two scenarios and that has to do with the teacher salary schedule. Well, actually all of the salary schedules. So, scenario one, um, everyone that is eligible for a step increase, the certified, classified, and administrators all receive the step increase. So, if you're eligible, you receive the step increase. Step zero increased by $1,500 on that on that salary scale. And that excluded that excludes bachelor plus 18 which increased by a thousand. The state department is removing based on the last budget that was approved. The state department is removing the bachelor's plus

07718 column. That's all I can say about that at this point. That's all I know right now. As far as certification, I'm not sure how that's going to be handled. U Mr. chair. So in the same note though, if you look at the state's minimum salary, they stop at 28 plus, but we go to 29 and 30 and I think Lexington one goes to something like 40 or something asinine. Uh however, that sets precedent that we can still keep a five column page chart versus a four column page chart. Correct. Yeah. I mean, if we can add rows, we can add columns. Correct? We could. Okay. Well, it it but it would ba be based on because we have to pay based on the certification. So that's where so we just might have to self-certify

078would be the big hurdle. What you're saying is we have to acknowledge the plus 18 when it's not acknowledged on the scale set for by the state department. Correct. That would be the the hurdle that is there. The hope and the hope would be that the state department will grandfather these folks in and maintain that code within their system so that we can move forward on the new four column scale with with the grandfather the grandfather end the current okay right that's the hope I like it thank you okay okay so back to the the salary schedule so the variance between the steps mirrors the state department's 2526 minimum teacher salary schedule. So if you look at the state department's teacher salary schedule, the minimum teacher salary schedule and you take the difference in between

079the steps, our scenario one steps do the exact same thing all the way down until our current salary schedule is more than what that calculation down would be. And if you have I think Aaron um gave you the salary schedules the the amounts in yellow is where we walk into the current salary schedule. Okay. Um the in scenario one the classified and administrators receive a 1% cost of living and then the bus drivers receive the required 2% to the state minimum bus driver salary schedule. The there's an increase in the employer side of health insurance. I think in the House version it was on the employee and I think I'm say um the Senate I think switched it to add it to the employer columns. They're the same at the bachelors and the bachelor's plus

08018 are the same down until step 18. Yep. So that way, you know, if if a new teacher is hired, and to be honest, we're not exactly sure what the state department's going to do, but let's say they were bachelor's plus 18, but now they're a bachelor's, you know, they would be placed on our bachelor's scale because that's the certificate they would get is a bachelor's if the bachelor's plus 18 goes away. Okay. So, but our current teachers that are that are bachelor's plus 18, they would just remain on this column until we can match the bachelor's plus 18 and the bachelors together. And I don't I mean, I don't know if that would be next year or three years or however long it takes to to merge those two. It'll it'll be less than

081a few years. We hope. Yeah. Miss Rucker question. Yes. So, scenario one, it does, like we said, seem to have more consistent steps. Um, but I would also like to see that in addition to the step that everyone get at least a $500 bump. If you look at it, the bump for the step, but you also go up a step. So, was there was there any spot that didn't have that? look like any ran through the bachelor's it was year 20 on my screen right now need my readers 23 it looks like it goes to that's where it starts with if you're currently in 23 if you're currently you would get the step so I know the step is you know a pay raise 63978 but compared to the budget last year to the budget

082this there to I would like to see the additional or where it is zero. I would like to see cuz just on quick math that one would still be $1,200 pay increase if you're year 23 bachelors not plus to to next year's. But I agree if any of them are less than 500 or you know and I did ask that question. I got a a quick answer. Was it around 160? We were estimating around 160,000 to be able to accomplish that. I don't have Okay. I don't I'm sorry. I don't remember what I sent back. But it also looks like scenario one would would be the one that we could most likely either not possibly not have a millage increase if we maybe go back and look a little deeper in the budget or maybe

083reduce the reduce the mills. So, just in general, I I really like scenario one with possible the with the possibility of making that that adjustment that I just mentioned. Okay. What you shared today was $162,000. Yeah. I love the consistency of of scenario one. Okay. All right. So, scenario two. So scenario two, same certified classified administrators receive a step increase if they're eligible, and we added $1,500 to each sale to the current to the current teacher salary schedule. So each sale got an increase of $1,500 to what we have what is our current salary schedule. Classified and administrators receive a 2% cost of living. same bus everything below everything below the line the underline are the same bus drivers receive the required 2% of the state minimum salary schedule and the employee this includes the

084employer increase in health insurance of 2.3% for the six months it's 4.6% 6% for the calendar year. So those are the two salary schedules. Are there any questions about the second salary schedule two? Well, I have a question, but I'll let you finish because I'm gonna combine them. The question I have questions on both. Okay. All right. So, we're going to go to the next page. This is the school allocations. Um we I've changed it a little bit over some concerns for the allocations that happened last year. So this year we just have the flat amount for elementary and middle school and then high school and 60% of that and it's going to be still be based on the 135th ADM. So that will be their total total allocation will be if it's the high

085school $125 times their ad 135th ADM and then they get that allocation but 60% has to be spent on instructional activities and 40% on support services and per our board policy if you remember we cannot move money from instruction to support services unless it's for like a field trip something for the students. Um, and I think in within the instruction or the support services, there may be amounts that are set that can't be adjusted like media. You know, I'm we're going to talk about those things. So, there may be some set amounts in there, but that's that's how we're going to do um the school allocations at this point. Are there any questions about that? Yeah, two questions. First one is I appreciate that we do it off the 135th. However, you you obviously can't

086base that in the first, you know, month of school or the first three months of school. So, how do you do you release pieces of the budget or do you go back and change it or is it based off last year's 135? Last year's 135th. Gotcha. That makes more sense. Uh, and then the other question is, um, the only kind of, and I'm sure there's other ones, especially the people in the crowd will probably think of them, but the only thing that I can think of that isn't covered outside of athletics or education would be those few um, non- high school league activities. Athletic, archery comes to mind. So, do we have any type of set to cover the the programs that have those, you know, lost inthe-middle programs such as archery? One of the

087things that we talked about after our conversation this spring was revisiting all of our stipen schedules and supplement schedules to make sure that they um are more streamlined. And of course, if obviously if it's the will of the board to add clubs and that's something that we're going to have to talk about because that is a budget impact. And does I'm sure there's other ones, but does archery count as a club across the board? Yes. It's not a high school league. Gotcha. M. Yeah. Um, in formulating the the total budget amount, do you look at all the vacancies that we went through and make an estimate of where because I assume we're probably going to hire people at a lower step than than than the vacancies and the retirees and all that. Do you try

088to capture that and what your total estimate is for the for the vacancies? I do budget 100% for the vacancies and I use a master's and I've changed to step 10 um just to try to get that middle, you know, because we could hire a doctorate with 30 years and that's a lot more expensive than a a bachelor's with zero. So hopefully in the end it all equals out. But that's what I use as a master's at at step 10. How about do you account for I I don't know if it's the right word. I call it labor float. You know, you're going to have people leave during the year. It's going to take, you know, I know you bring subs in, but it's going to take a while to replace them. Do you account

089for that at all? Is there some percentage you kind of, you know, lower your labor budget for? If that makes sense. No, I budget based on when like if if we hire a teacher, a bachelor's in 15, that's what I budget for. and I don't adjust, you know, because I don't know if we're gonna hire if that teacher leaves, I don't know if we're gonna turn around and fill it real quick or, you know, wait until the next fiscal year to fill it. So, I budget 100% and it stays. You know, one one thought going forward is you could look over historical averages and see, you know, and shave a little bit off of it. I think you would find out actuals versus budgets are going to usually come under because of that situation. You

090got more. Are you ready for me? A little bit. Okay. Two more pages. Okay. Just the the the next page is the um just a summary of the two scenarios. Um so you can see the difference the revenue and expense and you see the net difference between the two scenarios. Um I will say I have there are um some some projections that we have just gotten this week. For instance, we received from Skidza our workers comp projection for next year and it increased almost $150,000. So, there's some things that it's going to have I'm going to have to tweak some of these numbers for the second reading just to get that stuff included. I mean, I just got that projection this week. Um, so I'm just letting you know about that. So, that's that's the

091summary for the two scenarios. And then on the last page, the fund balance you see um as of June 30th, 2024, we are sitting at 19%. The state requires us to be at 8.33% and that's to keep us from going on physical watch. Um so we are sitting at a good place with our fund balance percentage. Okay, I can take a question. Okay. All right. Um, so, uh, we talked this week and I asked you to put it in, uh, elementary vocabulary for me. So, I want to make sure so that the public can hear what you told me and where I am on this. They're very similar as far as money. It's look, it's, you know, threequarters of a million dollars difference, a little over. Um, but anyway, and this is what I asked

092you in scenario one, you can do the the grafting and the the coloring and all that, but at the end of the day, we're taking money away from our teachers that are higher up that have been with us 20 years, 25 years, and now some, we've got some that are retiring, coming back at 35 years and then we're only giving our support staff and our other staff 1% raise. Correct. Correct. But 1% or 2%. All right. Well, 1% versus 2% 1% if somebody makes $22,000 that's $220. Correct. Okay. And they get paid 24 times a year. So, I mean, you can do the math. Now, if you do uh across the board for everybody and everybody's part of the same team and everybody gets the 1,500 and everybody gets the step increase and they also

093get and then the ones that aren't certified get the the 2%. the other the 2%, you know, 220 and then you say they make 22,000 support staff and 220 goes to 440 and you tax it and then you divide that by being paid 24 times a year. They may be able to buy just a little bit more in the grocery store and they may be able to buy another half tank of gas. I don't know. But again, at the end of the day, I understand and it it does sound very nice the way you we're kind of meshing and trying to get everybody kind of on the same page, but we're not rewarding the ones that have stayed with us from day one. And that's where I have a problem. And we're not rewarding our

094whole team. So, they're very similar and you have put so much work into it and I greatly appreciate it. But I, you know, this board member uh really likes scenario two because it's across the board. It takes care of the entire team and it also tells our teachers that we appreciate them whether they're year one or they're year 30. But thank you, Mr. Chair. If I look at these things that you gave me, scenario one, step difference within schedule, scenario two, step distance difference within schedule, I get a completely different picture than what Miss Wooten just pointed out. So step one and scenario one and kind of across the board is the first four get a $250 step increase and then 500 up to 10 to make sure we're looking at the same things. But

095like it's pretty much 250 to 500 and then when you get to step 24 it becomes greater than a grand. You know 1160 1183 blah blah blah. If I look at scenario two just to make sure I'm reading it right. Step one 2 3 4 gets $200. Step 22 23 24500 1200 1231. That's that's the difference between this step schedule. Correct. All right. So, that was question one. Question number two is personal property tax law that is being floated with the boats. Yes. I didn't Yes. I didn't see a change in revenue between last time and this time and it seems like that is I'll leave the floor open for a second on that one. Well, that's Do we have Has the county given us any kind of intel on what they think that impact

096would be? No. So if we I mean at the end of the day we have two worlds of revenue state and local right and local we we're saying maybe we can get away with like scenario one we could do it with three mills increase only going out and saying hey we got to increase you by three mills two is I think six or so but that could change drastically if the state if the local we don't get to count all of the boats is it just boats or is it cars too boats it's just boats And I don't want to do this. I I still think we go ahead and vote on the first reading, but I think it for everybody, we need to understand that based off how that goes. That's a that's a

097huge revenue chunk, right? That's that's again, you know, I I being the reassessment year, I based my projections off what I received from the county and I haven't gotten anything since the boat tax conversation stuff has been talked about. Um, so we don't really have a good way like first reading versus second reading can be drastically different if if I receive a a change from the county, right? Because if not, we won't know that until well into the budget season and we I mean worst case scenario, we go to fund balance. That's we got 2019%. So life is okay. Yes. Okay. So, thank you. To follow up on that, when I talked to you, Miss Strickland, I did ask point blank, both of these are are we're going back and capturing the 5.9 mill on

098both of these. Realistically, you can't honestly say to us that we can't we may only can use three or we may not have to use any, you know, and I understand that. But I did ask I mean honestly it looks like we're going to have to go back and capture no matter what scenario ends up getting voted through the 5.9 both both of these scenarios that's the 5.9 right both of both of these scenarios are capturing the 5.9 okay in in these in in the budgets I have presented okay with that being said um Mr. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we accept the um administration's recommendation for the first reading with the two scenarios for the 2526 general fund budget. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. All right. Any

099discussion? Than our expenses. Correct. So to go back to the question we were talking about prior to the motion, if we went don't you don't have to do it, but if we went all the way back up to the top to see the price of a mill for Lexington 2, it's like 200 something something. So if I divided 763 by 280, I do not need to use the 5.5 ms. Correct? Just want to make that abundantly clear. Scenario one does not need 5.5 because there's a net surplus of 763,7286. But that that also does not include the increase in workers comp. That was about $150,000. Okay. That that I couldn't, you know, but to Mr. All's point that is still if we look historically this current budget we returned how much money that was budgeted

100from our fund balance back to the fund balance 3 million and if I had to take a wild guess and go look line item by line item that is because we do 100% budgeting on vacancies which I I completely get it let's be more conservative instead of having to come back and ask for money but like year in year out we are always a bit overconervative on the revenue and you know or we're we're a bit conservative on the expenditures. So, we always, you know, y'all do a great job of making sure you're not coming to ask for more money. Um, if we're already asking for more money, but we haven't been using it. We returned over three million this year. I completely agree with Miss Rucker that we could get to the point of

101pending what the big hit for the boat taxes could be. we could get to not having to go ask every single person in Lexington to to raise their mills by definitely not five. We don't have to do that in scenario one, but maybe not even three. To that point, Mr. Bray, um, one of the things that Sky was able to do was redirect some expenditures that we budgeted for to other funds like ESSER. We were able to put a great deal of our cleaning contract in ESSER. That comes to mind. Um, trying to think of the other examples that we talked about, Miss Strickland, but she was able to to save in the general to use the rest of that. Yes, sir. Oh, and the the um sale of the the old DEC. Yes. That

102Yes. Those two things came together as a windfall. Yes. Mr. Chairman, Mr. I know I mentioned this in the workshop, but could you please share with us um what instructional programs are covered in the budget and what those programs do for us, please? Yes. So, um as you all recall, we had a number of technology purchases, programs, softwares that we purchased with ESRE funding. Of course, those funds have disappeared. So, um this year, we have really looked at which programs we're utilizing the most. We've done a a monthly usage report on those. We're going back to talk to teachers about what's the best, what's most successful. So, for the coming year, we've included things such as um adding the ability to catalog classroom materials so that we can be in compliance with state laws in

103that regard. Um the funding that we built in also includes things such as our software that we have to have for the Three Rivers campus. Um project lead the way fees, uh our library management software to help us keep our our cataloges up to date. Um that also includes our software to to help us better manage our data. Um which is our our MTSS system that we call Panorama. Um that also includes some testing purchases as well as some other software that we have to have for instruction such as our high school courses and things like that. So um those are the large um expenses within that technology program category. Uh but we have purged several this year and we just met Friday I believe. um to review a couple of more that are just

104duplicitous and we don't need them. So, we're not going to spend money to renew them. This is a pretty bare bones list. I'm not a fan of having 10 if one is going to get the job done and it's the right one. Very good. Okay. Thank you. Um we spoke at the budget workshop about um addressing the the multil- language classroom situation by adding translators or assistants, etc. Do we have anything in this budget for that? You want there's um information in front of you. I'm gonna let Dr. McDonald explain what what it is and what it means. So, we provided for you tonight um some some more numbers to give you some information to to make a more informed decision. Of course, as you all know, you have already approved two positions. Um I'm

105going to ask you to start with the third page of the document that looks like this. Um and then we'll work our way backward so you can see what you have. If you start with that bottom right hand corner of the paper, you'll see our historical FTEEs for multilingual teachers. So these are the folks who are providing direct instruction to students who speak uh languages other than English. Um you can see way back in 2122 we had 16 of those folks. We're up to 23 now including the two that you've already approved um that are built into this budget process. Uh we wanted to also make sure that you kind of saw what this looks like from school to school. So if you go back to the first page, um you can start with with

106with the elementary schools. You see by grade level how many kids qualify as an ML student. So these are the folks who are receiving services from a teacher, from a multilingual teacher uh during the day. So you see by grade level and then you see on the next column, those are monitored services. So these are kids that are that are really getting nothing more than having their grades checked, making sure that they're still at school, that they're still making progress. So to give you some idea of what that looks like from school to school, we also included as as I shared at the workshop that there is a state recommendation. There is this is one of the only areas where the state does not give us a hard requirement. For example, with PE a teacher

107can't teach more than 150 students in a day. That's a that's a regulation. With MLS, it's simply a recommendation of 60 to one. Um, and you can see if you do the math in some points in our district, we've been as high as a hundred students per ML teacher. And now we're down closer and closer to that recommended level. Uh, and you can see we we've provided you by school what that looks like as well as the number of FTEEs that we've allocated so far for each school. And this is a projection. So if we realize that that you know, for example, I'll give you a great one. If you look at Springdale right now, we've projected one FTE there. But we already know that that's going to likely part of that FT will need

108to shift potentially to another school where based on the projection we're seeing a larger number of students. So, so that is a little bit fluid until we get a little closer um to the end of really laying those numbers out. And of course, that depends on registration numbers and all of those things. Um so, our goal was to give you this to sort of see where we allocate those those 23 positions that we currently have. to your question. Um, we've talked a lot with staff about what would it look like to add additional interpreters into classrooms? What would it look like to add teaching assistance for this purpose? And the answer is I don't know that there is a specific recommendation other than to look at those ML teacher allocations. Um, we've not really seen

109where it benefits a student to be pulled out for these purposes. the benefit as we talked about before is putting them in the classroom with their English speaking peers where they can learn, they can be immersed into that whole experience. Um so so at this point we had not included any additional support staff um for that purpose. Um now again we want to continue to monitor what that those numbers look like for students who will require direct service because that is the most restrictive um um resource that we're going to have to use and it's the most limited one. um when you consider that for example at a congeree we have one person who's going to work with with roughly 79 kids so that is a high number and that's where what I mentioned like

110Springdale for example we may have to use part of that person's time at a different school um to serve that number does that answer your question I hope that answers your question or at least well it does somewhat but but that what you're describing uh doesn't do anything to alleviate that first grade teacher I described who comes in and she's got 20 Spanish speaking kids and she doesn't speak a word of Spanish. And I'm not sure that people uh that the people that you have inquired from what would that look like in the classroom, they might not know what that would look like in the classroom because they haven't had anybody interpreting in the classroom. And so um I I don't see how having ratio of 79 students to one teacher I don't see I

111just don't see how adding two additional multi- language teachers it will help but it it's not going to help in a huge way. Sure. And so you know I just don't I don't feel like we've addressed that issue. We we haven't addressed those teachers who are telling us they're drowning because they can't they they don't feel that they can teach effectively in their classrooms. And so I I'm assuming you have answered the question though that there is nothing in the budget for that which we discussed in the budget workshop. Nothing currently. One one thing I would would like to address is the the idea that there might be 20 kids in a first grade class who who are ML. Part of the reason I gave you the numbers the way that they're presented was to

112show you what present. So, for example, if if we go to Riverbank Elementary, um, and about 30% of their students receive direct service, but if you look at their first grade, for example, there are eight first grade sections at Riverbank Elementary School. 56 divided by 8. It makes it almost impossible to have that large of a number. It is a big number. it. Sure, five is a large number, but but the the sometimes I believe the the task feels much larger. And so I feel like it might be 25 students who require these extra extra support services, but most of our classes are going to have very few MLS in that general ed classroom. So when I'm sitting in third grade, there aren't always going to be three4s of the class who is an ML

113recipient of additional service. So, yes, all of our teachers need extra support to be able to teach all of our kids no matter what their their needs are. Um, so I don't want to downplay that, but also that that number overall. That's why I wanted to make sure you had the percentages to see what a school looks like and then by grade level what those numbers look like as well. Okay. So like for instance on this like Riverbank first grade when it says direct services 56 uh does anything on here indicate for us the number of classroom sections we're talking about or is it is it 56 total students? It's 56 total in first grade and those divided by eight classrooms. Is everything eight classrooms ju just at Riverbank? That was the only example I

114gave. Okay. But but what I'm saying is does this anywhere on here tell us the number of classrooms that it's being divided by? See because all I'm seeing is like at Riverbank it's 79 to one. I don't have any way of knowing how many classes there are within the second grade for instance. So that is actually in the the supplemental materials that we gave you at the workshop. There is a list of of by school. Okay. How many sections that each each grade level has. So so that information is in your in your workshop notebook. Okay. Well, let me just say that I, you know, just based on people calling me uh teachers m there are there are teachers who feel that they need more support with language help and so I just want that

115known that we're making an effort at that. Mr. Chair, on that uh report that um Miss Berquette is talking about direct services versus monitored services, is that like levels one, two, and three versus four and five? Yes. Yes. So, so the lowest level and make sure I get my numbers right. Miss, where's Miss Quickle? There she is. If I'm a zero, one, two, I have the most significant need and therefore require those significant direct services. If I'm a four or five or a nine, I require less to none. As an English speaker, you only require criteria efficiency and cont. So in this column direct services that's 01 and two. So that's there's no zero. It's one those are all direct. Those are all direct services but those models and how we serve students the state

116we have to It's up to districts to determine what that looks like. And so for us, a student that is obviously lower proficiency should get more number of minutes of instruction. So that would be the goal. And I know there's no state um guideline, but there is a lot of DOJ DOJ precedent like Ory County got has a lot of that. We're we're with I I don't want to just be good enough for the government. I to your point, I want us to make sure we're supporting our teachers and these poor kids that don't speak the language that school is being taught to them in. However, we're though we don't have goalposts from the state, we're following DOJ's not going to come in here next week and say, "Hey, y we we certainly want that

117neither. We do not want that either." Um, so, so our goal would be to, you know, we spent a lot of time at the beginning of the year looking at a a 40page report about Aken County School District where they were in some some trouble for some things that they were not providing services for. And we one of the first things I asked Miss Quickle to do was to look at our model and make sure that we were above wherever the minimum that they had established what, you know, for that district as as their corrective action. And so we were able to to look at that and really address some of those those gaps. Um, again, that's part of the request for some additional teachers already is is to help make sure that we're fully

118compliant, that we're able to provide those services and resources that we're required to provide and also look at how can we enhance that as well. Um, that may be certainly during the day. That's also some afterchool support. That's that's some parenting support. I mean, it's a little bit of everything that we build into to the federal budget part of this as much as we do the general fund budget with the teacher piece. to break it down Barney style for me. I'm a teacher in third grade and I get a level one ML kid comes into my class. How are these personnel going to help that kid and help me with the other 21 kids in my class? So, and you know honestly that's a challenge but it's one that I think that we've addressed. We

119are fortunate to have two district coaches. And so we have provided exponentially at a classroom level um strategies that will support language development for all students. The strategies that we're trying to to share and provide for classroom teachers not only support students students. supports any student in your classroom. Now, having said that, this is a marathon, not a sprint. I think sometimes there is this and you think through the lens of how what happens if I pick myself up and I set myself down in France where I don't speak the language. How long does that take for me to acquire second language? And so, we we have this sense of urgency because we have our standards to and we really know that this that this is what we're accountable for. So, so there's this level

120of wanting to meet that need and it's going to be met overnight. It's a progression but with indepth consistent and intentional application of strategies those students will data we've got. So I'll give an example Miss just just be careful not to name a school and a number because these are embargo data so we can't really talk about them out loud. I'm not going to reference the school but but I'm going to reference some We just got some data back on. So we target a group of students, small group of students. We gave them um in January um about 15 students. We got um an update on that data today. There were 14 students of the 15 that exponentially improved in writing. And so so the data is showing that if we are intentional and strategic

121um then then the results will speak for themselves. And so then you look at reading we looked at each of those domains. And so the majority of the students in that particular group um there there may be two students in a group that might be read um for reading but but of those goals and that was based on that was based on their previous year's proficiency score. Um I don't think any student increased less than one point. So for student over what time period? Over since January. Now the challenge with that is I have 21 students in my class, right? And so I think that is some of probably the conversations that you're hearing um because it does take um it takes time but and confident that we do have the support to come alongside

122teachers. Um we've been working with teachers this year on planning coing like side by side with um with every every level of teacher. Um sometimes it's a matter of opening the door because it feels like one more thing. Um and we don't want that. So we're trying to um blend that. But I do think that Lexington um offers a great deal of support. Um but in fairness to our teachers, our influx came quickly and and and so we are we are making gains and I think that we will continue to see that. um to speak a little bit to um the the translators in the classroom, that's that's a challenge simply because the state the language of instruction for the state of South Carolina is English. And so in order for us to um expand

123their English abilities, we've got to meet them where they are with the language and kind of scaffold it from there. So to best We've got to kind of chunk that language in English, provide them the supports in their native language. Um, be honest with you, we've done a lot of work with teachers this year, too, on how to use um strategically AI resources that will literally say, do I have a student, please create me a lesson plan? And it will So, we're trying to give them more um resources and um and um but I do think it's a matter of continuing to develop the supports um and our services look different for each student. Just to speak a little bit that we have students that we pull out. We have what's called a sheltered instruction

124um general classroom where we have our teachers trained um in sheltered instruction strategies which is for language development through content. Um we have a push in model. So so we have immersion. So we have a variety of service models that really speak to the needs of different levels of students. Um the challenge that we have and I will hungry might be the perfect example. sometimes whack them all. Hungry last year had maybe 30 less and so this year they grew exponentially and a lot of those are lower proficiency students and that comes with a challenge and so we continue to meet the needs um and I do feel like we um we have a strong email team that works with the general teachers um and we also have coaches that do support. So I think

125that we're headed in the right direction. Um what we have to continue to do is to provide opportunities to go in and support teachers and meet them where they are. Um whether it be through co- teaching, whe but but again we've also talked about some additional programming that we'd like to consider for next year. So trying to be thinking out of the box on what that looks like um to address the concerns that you are hearing. One of the one of the I'm sorry I let me interrupt you, but one of the things that we did at the request after the workshop was to start contacting other districts about what their ratios look like, where they were number-wise, um needwise, support-wise. So, we do have some of that information that we're still working to collect

126as well, just to hear what what other districts look like. There are some that are still 120 to1 and there were some significantly less than us, closer to the 50 to1 mark. So, and there were some districts who do sort of a hybrid. When you have a school that has a higher needs population, you would have more or less. So, so there's some different models out there that we're going to continue to collect and and I guess we'll work with Dr. Hafner and and determine if that's something that maybe needs to be included in a in a in a second reading of a budget. Um, if it looks like that maybe we are really behind or again, as our projections clean up, the more kids that register and reregister for next year, there's a plug.

127Please register your kids for school for next year. It helps us more cleanly project sort of where these numbers may lie and what that might look like when we get into the classroom so that we can even with our principles make sure that that when they're scheduling they're intentionally scheduling a class so it is more balanced that you have high level learners you have low-level learners you have ML learners you have students with disabilities that you have a good group of students in your classrooms that which will in turn eventually make it much more manageable for our teachers I love to hear the kind of I don't know if it was a pilot but that intensive or 21 folks. Um, I think you mentioned like intentional and strategic. To me, I kind of hear a

128bit, not to disagree with that, but I hear a bit more intentive and targeted. it was, which to me is kind of a win. But to a non-educator, that makes me wonder, is there not a way that we can target at least the ML proficiency ones and twos much more before, to your point, going to Paris was across the pond. A couple weeks ago, we had an interpreter with us for like a day and a half and life was easy. I felt like a ML4, but then we had a day and a half where I didn't. and you just can't learn hardly anything as much as you know I want to. So I know there's all these lovely laws out there but can we work to instead my only fear is I I'm 100% behind

129putting more resources to ML. I think anybody looks at it and says we need to do that. My concern is that we're spreading the resources out wide instead of pulling them in and targeting those ones and those twos so that they can get back and and you know actually be a contributor to the classroom. Sure. And and let me let me speak to that, Miss Quickle. Um so one of the things with with this particular initiative it was to specifically identify a core group of kids that we could focus on um sort of a treatment to to look and see if it worked. Well, we get some of the preliminary data that suggest that it probably did work. Um the the next step is to to continue to look at things like for example with

130our Lex 2.5 funding, how do we specifically target a group of kids for that afterchool support? um we've done that in some places. So we'll be monitoring to see what the return on that has been this year as well. So so there are lots of those kinds of examples and even within the confines of of of a regular school day, you know, how much pullout time do I get versus how much inclusion time do I get? All of those things are really that that's sort of that holistic program that we have to look at and figure out where that works and how do we best utilize the staff that we have to make it happen within the school day. Is there a law that min minimizes the amount of and pull out time they can

131have? While there's nothing specific because remember it's by individual kids need. Um it does get challenging sometimes in order to to to to give for example if I come straight to the country and I speak no English. I'm going to spend more time with the ML teacher than a kid who maybe speaks much more proficient. So if they're a three for example, right? Um that kid's going to have a lot less time. there there's there's nothing that says that. However, the guidance is that this student is going to spend as much time as possible in the general ed setting. So, they're going to be in the the fourth grade class or in the sixth grade class as opposed to to being out in a different environment. Thank you. All right. Any others? I just want

132to make one clarifying statement. Both of these salary schedules, neither one of these salary schedules take anything away from teachers. So, a teacher will not be making less next year than they do this year. I just want to make that very clear that we we cannot and will not do that. So, Mr. Chairman, just would you just clarify for me that the motion that is on the floor is that we will accept one of these, but we have not determined which one. Is that what we're saying? We going we're voting on a motion that has both scenarios in it. Okay, Mr. Chair, get further explanation at the next meeting. Can we vote on a budget that's not balanced legally? out the gnomes. Yeah, because neither of these options are balanced. If I was to make

133the motion, obviously I I think one is light days better than two, but my motion would be that we go with one with a balanced budget to be whatever that millage would be, 3.12, knowing that that could change between now and next. I don't I I can't feel comfortable voting for two scenarios because that doesn't really help anybody out there know what's going on. But it also neither of them are balanced in this one. You know, one's 10K under and one's 780K over. So, so as the numbers shore up and we get confirmation, the hope would be that you'd be able to get much closer to a zero zero zeroed out on that bottom line that was up earlier. Well, do you know if we can legally vote on an unbalanced budget? Thank you. Yeah.

134And Mr. Great. The the benefit of saying that we're going to vote on two things is it does give the public the opportunity to tell us if they if they prefer one over the other. Okay. Any other discussion and go back to our motion and our second and we will call for a vote. All in favor say I. I. I. All oppose. Nay. All right. Motion carries. 51. Do my old math. That's tough there. All right. All right. We're going to move into the next thing is consideration of release time for religion. Do I have a motion for that? Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we approve um the administration's recommendation for the 2526 release time for religious instruction to the following schools. And if I'm not mistaken, it is all of our schools.

135So, let the record note that, please. I have a motion to and I have a second. I want any discussion on that. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. All right, we're going to move over to consideration of proposed um revisions to board policy Ike. M Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we approve the administration's recommendations for the pro proposed revisions to board policy Ike promotion and retention of students. Have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. I have a a second. Alert. Any discussion? Mr. Chair, what I don't overly have an issue one way or the other. Um, but why was this a model policy that came through? Why why did we get this? I I just saw it today. We want to be in in alignment with state

136requirements for promotion and our previous policy when it changed. We did not update our policy right away and it needs to be updated to align with state. So, right now, if we don't vote on this, we're out of alignment with state D. Correct. Thank you. Any more discussion? Well, yeah. I I have a question because this is this policy has been in effect for years and years and years and um I asked for the information. Uh it states in here that parents have to be informed uh by the last interim if their children are in danger of of being uh held back for the lack of a better word. And the information that I got is that this year there were almost 400 sets of parents who were given that information but in the previous

137year uh we only we only uh retained 20 students. So it's 0.05% 05% of the students that we said were in danger that were actually held back. And it's uh it's it's a little hard for me to imagine that 9.95% of them 99.95% of them actually mastered the grade level curriculum in that little short period of time between the last interim and the end of the school year. I mean, I can see where that might be possible for a high school student, but it's hard for me to imagine that a third grade student accomplishes that. So, so how do we resolve that? And how how does that fit together with the fact that we've only got about 30% of kids who are functioning on grade level? H how's how does that all fit together? So,

138so there are a number of things in that. the the policy also speaks to that promotion for a grade is not the only reason for a promotion of a student or or even a placement into the next grade level. Um, if I'm a student with a disability, um, that's going to be decided by an IEP team. If I'm an ML kid, that's going to be decided by the the support team in place. U, many of our students do summer programming. So, they've gone to summer school. They've they've done um read to succeed camp, for example, in elementary school. they've participated in some of those extra opportunities to get them at least to the point where they are um at promotion status. Um you know, I can't speak to the to the disparity in that number

139because I wasn't here at that time. However, you know, in general, one of the one of the most um one of the greatest reasons for a student to become a dropout, it's almost 95% that a student is more likely to drop out if they are retained after first grade. um one-time retention. They're almost 95% more likely to be a dropout. And so retention is always the very last option. Um we also look at what interventions we can put in place for the next year. So what kind of supports if this student moves on to the next grade level, what can we do to provide them with additional support to help them get caught up? Um students who are retained research study after research study for the last 45 50 years have said that keeping that

140kid back ought to be the last possible no reserve option because by by allowing them to sit another year and experience the same thing, there's no guarantee that they're going to get it a second time. There may be something larger. There may be something more intense. So, so that is probably why you don't see those numbers match. And and likely we'll never see those numbers match when we look at where a student's performing versus what what that retention look like or or any of that kind of piece. Um it's kind of one of those oldtime discussions about why if my kid can make C's in class, they show up as not meets on the state test at the end of the year. Well, there's a disparity between what I grade as a teacher when I

141see your face in class versus what I sometimes score when I don't see your face. So, the computer doesn't know the kid's face, but the teacher does. And they're building in those opportunities to help that kid be successful so they can metriculate on. Well, you know, that all makes sense to me. But I will say this that if you look at the numbers for our district overall, uh first grade moving up through fifth grade, their performance drops down and drops down and drops down. And I just think that the reason is because the foundation isn't there. They're behind in the first grade. They go to the second grade. They're more behind. They keep going. And our pattern in our school district is that by the time they get to fifth grade, we have a bunch

142of kids that that are vastly underperforming. And my concern is the student uh I mean, if you if you have a little fifth grader who is reading on a second grade, sixmonth level, um they don't want to read in front of the class. they can't keep up with the math work because they can't read the the word problems. Um, I understand, you know, but back in my day, people were actually you actually failed a grade. You just actually didn't get to go forward because you didn't meet the criteria. And um, I mean, that was a terrible thing for students. I mean, people hated it and their parents hated it. But in point of fact, there there has to be some accountability where we say you can't just let students keep being behind behind behind behind.

143And um our our numbers speak to that overall in the whole district. And so I just I just have a lot of concern about about this. But a a specific question that I would have is one of the changes here says requirements for promotion of each grade level in alignment with ontrack accountability metrics. What are ontrack accountability metrics? So that's state language that that's still relatively newer language that requires that a student have certain courses and a certain number of courses in order to move on. If I, for example, if I don't have um an English an English one, so so for me to move from 9th to 10th grade, I have to have uh six credits. If I don't have those six credits as they're spelled out for the state, then I'm considered off

144track for graduation. Um and that's what that's referring to. Okay? And so three units of science are required for graduation. But we removed science in both instances from from uh 9th to 10th, 10th to 11th. We removed science. Why did we do that? Or people aren't going to take three sciences in 12th grade, are they? So So in No, they shouldn't. That would not be smart for a student for sure. However, that's what the state has required that a student has to have by the time they reach that 12th grade. So if I'm scheduling across, that's why we work with our individual graduation plans is so that that doesn't happen. But the state is saying that for me to metriculate, for me to be on track for graduation, that's that shows up when I get

145ready to move to that 12th grade level. Yeah. I just don't understand why we're removing science. It's it's already in there. We haven't removed it. That's the way the state has now written the requirement. So your policy doesn't match what the state says. Yes, I still have to have three sciences. I don't however have to have them in the order in which this policy was presented. Okay. But the district couldn't decide to keep science. So then our students would be held to a different standard which means that our metriculation schedule would look different than what the state is requiring. So it would make it almost it would make it much harder for us in some cases to be able to tell you this is the percent of kids that we think are off track for

146graduation. So that that would be the effect of that if we didn't make those changes to reflect the way the state calculates those numbers. Yeah. I just don't understand. It says from grade 10 to grade 11 one unit of science. Well, if they've gotten to 11th grade and they've got to have three by the next year. It it doesn't seem like it's very punitive to say, well, you should get one of them before 11th grade. So in the course of scheduling the students are going to be scheduled for those science courses starting in the ninth grade moving up. What the state department is saying is that that is not one of the requirements to be promoted in the power school system in the eyes of the state department. Okay for those classes most of our

147students in nth and grade are going to take biology one. So they're going to get that one out of the way. But it's not a hard fast requirement. I could take biology one. I could take marine science. I could take a whole battery of sciences as a senior. That's not ideal. That's not what we as a district would would would would inform our kids and our parents to make the selection to do. It doesn't, however, show up as making them off track for graduation until that indicator. Okay. Um, just one other question. Under the read to s uh to succeed statemandated retention, it says the student will be retained in the third grade if the student fails to demonstrate reading proficiency at the end of the year as indicated by a score at the lowest

148achievement level on the state's summitive reading assessment. Can y'all explain that to us? So, so each year the state provides us with a with a number a score that a student has to meet. And so when a when a student if a student progresses, they attend summer reading camp, they take an assessment, if they meet that score, then they don't have to be retained. If they don't meet that score, they would have to be retained. And so last year, as an example, there were six students who who were we were required to retain because they did not make that minimum score on the read to succeed um piece. And Rob, let me make sure, Dr. Bergraph, that I'm saying that correctly. I just don't want to misstate how that works. Yes. The first question is

149all students in theory unless they have a good cause they do have to be retained. However, says that students do have the option and the requirement to attend summer reading to get that extra assistance in reading. They at the end of summer reading camp. So, have we been doing that presently? That's the system that's presently in place. So, so what percentage of students that are retained in third grade actually move up in the summer? I mean, can you give me just a ballpark figure? total were retained last year. Now I also don't want to give a false impression when the state minimum score it is truly that it is a minimum score to move forward. It does not mean that they are proficient readers to move on to fourth grade but they have satisfied the

150minimum requirement. In the past, also something that was allowable was a performance-based portfolio that could show that they had progressed and mastered the skills that they were deficient in. That will no longer be an option. And and I will say our schools have worked very hard to lower that number that have to go to summer reading camp. Um we've had some tremendous work happening in the six elementary schools the last probably two months when we said, "Okay, this is the list. This is who right now is projecting to go. What are we going to do about it?" and our schools really stepped up and did some great work to help minimize that number that are required to attend. But most importantly, the kids replied and made that minimum score um many of them exceeding it

151when they were given another assessment in order to not have to go to summer reading camp. So, you know, there's another opportunity for us to do that later as well, right? I I am alarmed though by what you just said, which is that doesn't mean they're ready for fourth grade and and that's that's the state standard that we're talking about. That's not up to us. But I mean, that's rather alarming and that speaks to the fact that our numbers go down and down and down through fifth grade. So, madam, Mr. Chair, um my I completely get what Miss Berquette is saying and I am I've never been trained in all this world. So, my concern lesson on pedigogy and all that fun stuff and retaining and etc. My concern is that we have a policy

152that we can't follow. that that is not fair for us to set a policy that y'all can't follow. And if I look at I'll accept that I should have looked at this at some other time in my years sitting here, but if I look at grades three through five, it says to be promoted from one grade to the next, the student must earn a passing grade. Um, all our elementaryaries use one through four. Now, a quick Google tells me that passing is a three or a four. our one through fours on our grades. I brought it up I think two meetings ago and our one through fours and maps less sie ready don't merge maybe this is why but if so are we setting the kids up for failure in the long term by not

153having those mash or are we setting y'all up for failure by have forcing you into a spot where you know it's probably best for this kid to move forward but they're not meeting this policy so we're just going to operate in gray like I I don't want us giving y'all an area of gray that's kind of like the two Number one is are we doing what's best for the kid? So I don't I I'm sure that's way bigger than trying to answer right now, but it's something that I'm concerned on. And when did this state policy change that was making us update this? Was it recent or is it a while back? Within the last year. Yeah, it's fairly recent. It's a rolling implementation. So they started with the freshman class. My I don't want

154to change the motion and this is first reading right tonight. Tonight the the request is to get us compliant with that high school piece. Um you know I Dr. Hfner if the board wanted to revisit that at some point the other language there are some other parts that you know if you all decided to revisit is this first reading. What was the motion? was to approve it. The revisions can we So the motion needs to be first and second reading and what is not on here. Usually we put first reading. We can't just approve on a policy without first and second reading, but we can combine first and second reading. What's the What is the Does anybody know what the motion says right now? The motion I said said the to accept the policy to

155accept the policy as presented. All right. I move to amend the motion to say we accept a first reading of Ike and then stop. And then my request of y'all on if that amendment goes through is that between now and the next month we get a little bit more adjustment to all of IKE because I don't feel comfortable giving you amended Ike that still leaves some really big like probably even legal gaps on what we're how y'all are enforcing this policy. So my my motion is to amend the motion to say first reading. Okay. Second. But what I was going to say is it also would be useful to hear from the public about this issue. I mean I really would like to know what people think about retention versus not retention and etc. The

156discussion portion I have a question. If we looked at other school districts, would we see a policy exactly like this? Or did we take did we just take the wording from the state and make it our policy or did we take the and I'm new. I'm sorry. Or did we just take the you know the actions that the state required and and put it in our own wording? I'm a little confused. I would venture to tell you that the original policy came from a model policy provided by the schoolboards association and when legislation changes we have to adapt our policy to change with it. That high school piece is a have to are we okay to wait till next month for the second reading or is there any time I guess as long as we

157okay? I have a question. Okay. Our reading coaches, interventionists, how how much time do they spend with teachers versus the students? Is it kind of like a 5050 or 80, you know, interventionists spend 100% of their time with students? Um, reading coaches spend time probably half their time is spent with teachers and the other half is spent with teachers and students. So in that that combo support style role, I don't know exactly what that looks like in the schools and like um so like if I'm a reading coach, I'm going to spend time working with just groups of teachers trying to help them with those reading strategies and skills, but I'm also going to go into the classroom of the teacher who's really struggling and help her with her kids and help figure out how

158to support what what they're trying to do together in the classroom. just wondering what you know trying to increase you know our kids reading levels a little quicker you know maybe there's some we could spend a little I mean and it might you know there might be disadvantages to that too but it might be good just possibly to spend more time look at some changes there like what you know what can we do you know with these policies and our budget to you know expedite that process of um you know getting to reading at grade level Mr. Chair, were you done? Sorry. Um, to exactly to that point, and I know we're kind of in a different motion right now, but there's been several issues brought up, at least to me, and presumably the rest

159of the board members about coaches and RTI and all that. And when I hear ML, what I I was excited about is it was targeted. Um, we have a pretty cool district the way it's set up where we have two high schools and we have two really large elementary schools and like it it is pretty even to where I I would love to I mean in the world of education we truly are building the plane constantly while flying it. And I would love to see us in a world where there like where we can't sit right here and say this policy is 100% data proven. There's there's always caveats left or right. I would love to see us do some piloting um one school etc where we can start to really target instead of just

160kind of mass net um maybe having a billion coaches and RTI makes a big difference but I've seen some school districts that are very similar to ours that got rid of all their interventionist and coaches and reduced their classroom and they saw massive leaps and bounds. There's way too many variables to say which one's 100% going to work, but we have we have the like the the format of a district to be able to really work in piloting and I I I would love to see a bit more of that um next year unless you can say definitively this is 100% the best way to move forward and then if so that we should do it across the board. But if if there's a fair amount of maybe this method's better or not, well by

161goodness, let's try it. I agree. All right, we got a motion. Oh, Mr. I just I just I'm I'm a little confused again. Um uh we got a policy that's required by the state. Is I worry that we are going to change the state policy or is I worry that we're not in compliance with state policy because I don't know what's going to happen between first and second reading with the policy itself. I'll answer that to my amended motion. My worry in the it at the very crux of what we do and how we operate, we do not have to have a policy. If there's a statute, if the state legislature has written a rule or if the SDE has something out there, we do not have to regurgitate that. However, we can't have something

162that is against it. Just like the state can't go against the federal world unless it's, you know, a marijuana law. But outside of that, we can't usurp their law or change it. we can just add to it. So my concern I get us trying to add to it or regurgitate it so that we're in compliance. But if at the same time we're passing this policy to be in compliance. We could just get rid of it, then I don't want the policy to have stuff that we our administration and our teachers can't actually enforce. We're setting either teachers up for failure, kids up for failure, administration for failure, or all three. So, so my concern is if this came through several months ago, there's no exig, you know, urgency. Let's get it right so that it

163can be a policy that we push out for the district for the administration to work to actually change the positive trajectory of kids' lives. That's where I one example would be the grades three through five as far as the the you know what constitutes passing with the one through four scale. I don't know that that felt like a question that we we need to look into. So if we don't know the answer and nobody else, you know, I was also going to say, Mr. All that uh we we are not in any way required to adopt what the South Carolina School Boards Association recommends. I mean, we're free to write our own policies however we want them to be. So this is not coming to us from the state, i.e. the government telling us what

164to do. We have to be in compliance with certain things, but we can word it ourselves however we want it to be. I guess would be it would be a or not have it at all. Yeah, I bet it's some requirements from the state and then I would guess it's some that was just a a recommended model policy probably years past. So, it's probably a merge of both. specific part in question tonight is language directly from state requirements and that we will have I mean but again if this policy was not there we still have to follow that requirement correct that's that's the point that I think is very important to understand we could cancel Ike right now and be in full compliance because then we just go to the next tier of law so

165why would we push a policy that as things that we cannot enforce to meet a requirement we don't have to meet. That's that's where my motion comes in. And first and first reading one meeting, second reading the next is what we you know typically do and what we want to do unless there is a reason that it's very urgent. So I think first reading makes sense here. All right. Um all in favor of the amended motion of this being a first reading say I. I I All oppose. Motion carries. We still need to vote on the regular motion. We just need to vote the main motion down. Yeah. Yes. Can we go back to the main The first motion was to approve policy as presented and we had a second on that. Um sorry, we

166did have a second. The the first motion has now been amended. So now we're voting not on the amendment but the new motion that is on the first reading of it. All right. So, we had a we had a motion and we had a second. All in favor of the motion. Don't Don't we have to change the wording though? You said we amended it. We amended. That's what the amendment. Could you just read to me what it now says? Well, we amended it to where it we are just doing first reading, right, of it. But there but you have language written down for that on what we're now voting for. Well, we're and we're voting for the revisions of board policy Ike, promotion and retention of students, which we just discussed. Yeah. First read. First

167read. Yes. All right. We got a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. All right. Now, we're going to move to consideration of addition of new board policy. We go. JLCG JLCG seizure and safe schools. Mr. Chair, a motion on that. I'll make a motion that we um consider uh first reading of the addition of new board policy JLCG seizure safe schools. Second. I had a motion and a second. Any discussion? My question is going to be the same here. I'm sure this is a model policy. Obviously, there's federal statute and state statute that cover this. I didn't look into it. Does our policy say something different than federal or state statute? This policy was lifted right out of the state regs for actually a new policy. It

168is. Yeah. Effective July 1st we have to have in place. Right out of the state 5910 215. Okay. First reading second reading. I said first you said first. Okay. Any other discussions on that one? All right. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. All right. Next one is consideration of proposed revisions to board policy JLCD assisting students with medications and other health needs. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that uh we approve um consideration of perosted uh revision to board policy JLCD assisting students with medication and other health needs. First reading. Second. I had a motion and a second. Any discussion? On the the second page of this under proposed changes, um it says including the administration of medication and training requirements for school personnel with direct contact information will be provided

169to additional personnel on recognizing signs and symptoms associated with specific medical conditions. Um that last part, that last sentence is a little scary to me as a nurse. uh because uh nurses go to school for years to understand signs and symptoms associated with medical conditions and I think it would be really easy to misassess someone and so I'm fine with the first sentence which says meet the needs of students including the administration medication and training requirements for school personnel with direct contact but I'm I'm afraid that might be sort of a liability issue if we say we've provided enough information for somebody to assess a student and then they assess the student incorrectly. Um, I know that sounds real straightforward if y'all are thinking about something like having a seizure, but if somebody's having an

170asthma attack, I mean, it can be there can be many levels of that, which we don't really want school personnel sort of deciding what is the best thing to do about them. So, I just wanted to point that out. Y'all might not not care about it, but there you go. Mr. share. If you um scroll down to the proposed changes at the end, that's part of what came out of the regs 596380 that it basically is a hold harmless on that particular um addressing of the medical needs if the parent has signed off on it in an IHP or something like that to make it Barney style for a non-medical person. That means that we're going to teach people how to recognize seizures. Yes, we have to. That training is required. I I I get

171the whole purpose of it and I will vote for it. But I do wish that the verbiage that was changed just kept it to seizures. You know, that way we're not trying to train the average teacher and expecting them, yeah, we're holding the district harmless, but is that putting more pressure on a teacher to now have to know how to recognize any signs of any a kid with IHP. Yeah. And actually Dr. Hefner, if you will look at that whole harmless, it says arising out of self-monitoring, selfadministration of medication or administration of medication. It doesn't say anything about diagnosing anybody. No, those are for the students who are allowed to self-medicate. I I understand. But what I'm saying is that does not address this question that I was concerned about misassessing someone. the district there's

172nothing to indicate that the district is being held harmless for a judgment that somebody makes about something. So, and what I can include for you all are those particular state rags where it was lifted from and we can have further discussion and I I can say this too regarding this. You turned it off. I'm sorry. There you go. regarding this um you know the seizure safe schools act it was is resulting from act number 128 and we are very fortunate that we have RNs in all of our schools and this diagnosing is not in a vacuum the requirement is that anyone who works with a student who has an individual health plan must be advised of what's in it and must be trained in the recognition of epilepsy and seizure disorders and so forth under

173the direction of the school nurse so that particular part of replying to this requirement is is pretty much an administrative rule. In other words, how are you going to roll this out and how you know what is the accountability? So just so that you know that in a nutshell. Well, could could we add that where we say be provided to additional personnel additional personnel on recognizing signs and symptoms associated with medical specific medical conditions under the supervision of a registered nurse which is under the supervision of the lead nurse which is under the supervision of the lead nurse consultant. Say yes ma'am. Yeah. I mean, I I think that that would give us a little bit more cover because this really sounds like you could be teaching a bus driver to recognize something and there's

174no nurse on there, right? So, yes. All right, we had a motion and a second with no more discussion. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. on that motion. Um I know we voted for the first reading, but will the administration look to add that verbiage? Sure. Okay. Gracias. All right. And that moves us down to consideration of student travel requests. Airport High School JOTC students to attend JCLC summer camp at Fort Jackson June 8th through 13, 2025. To have a motion. Yeah. And Mr. Mr. Chairman, I believe we actually had one added. Am I not Am I correct at the last minute? There's two. Yeah, I know. So, I'm going to um make a motion that we accept the airport high school request for the JOTC cadet to the leadership challenge

175summer camp. and that we also approve um the boys golf team student um on Sunday the 18th through Tuesday May 20th at uh Cross Creek Plantation in Sica. Got a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I oppose. Motion carries and bless y'all for staying with us tonight. We are moving to announcements. Okay. May 20th, 2025, adult education graduation, Lexon 2 Performing Arts Center at 700 p.m. May 26, 2025 is Memorial Day holiday. May 27th is student half day. May 27th, Airport High School graduation at Eagle Stadium at 8:00 a.m. May 28th, student half day, last day of school. May 28th, end of fourth, nine weeks. May 28th, BC High School graduation at Bearcat Stadium, 8 a.m. And May 29th, teacher and service day, last day. May 30th is report cards issued. All

176right. And we are Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that the board of trustees enter close session for the following consideration of personnel appointments, reappointments, and resignations. Second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. We in executive. Kristen. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that the meeting be reconvened in open session and the appropriate affidavit executed. Second. We got a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. Motion carries. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we go. does make I want to make a note that in the minutes I recuse myself from personal appointments and department. All right, Mr. Okay, Mr. Chairman, um I make a motion that we accept the administration's recommendation of personnel appointments, resignations, and retirees. Second. Got a motion and a second. All

177in favor say I. Uh um Mr. Chairman, I make a recommendation that um we accept the administration's um I make a motion, excuse me, that we accept the administration's recommendation for candidate A for the director of the innovation center. Second. Motion and second. All in favor say I. I. Motion carries. A move to adjourn. Second.