Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees - March 20, 2025

001e e e good evening it is 6:00 March 20th 2025 and this is our uh regular schedule Board of Trustees meeting um but before we get started as you can tell uh Miss Rucker is out tonight she is still out recovering so hopefully she'll be back uh next next meeting so we wish her well and tonight before we got starting here we had a hero and heroism um reception upstairs and we inducted Bernie Atkins into the uh heroes hall of fame and so it's a big honor to get in there and you think about heroes to be called a hero for the entire district is a big accomplishment and then I was I was down at Hilton Head this past weekend and I went in one outlets and it had a sign there at the

002cat it said we honor our heroes it had military First Responders nurses and then it had teachers and I saw that and I started thinking you know it's odd to see that sign all a sudden we have Heroes this week and I started thinking the teachers was on the bottom because they taught everybody that was above them it started with a teacher all the teachers that we have they're Heroes they're Heroes to us to our kids cuz you don't know what kid is watching you what ad minist what kid is watching you how you act how you conduct yourself and how you teach yourself but the teachers on that list was the most important because you could not become a fireman you could not become a first responder you could not become a nurse or

003a doctor without a teacher to get you started so we thank our teachers we thank our administrators we know it's a hard job but we thank you for everything you do and to be called a hero is an accomplishment we got a lot of them there's Heroes there that taught me and that's the reason why I'm sitting here I never thought I'd be sitting here when I got out of school but there was a teacher that was a he wrote to me that instilled something in me to get back to the community to the school so thank the teachers thank all administrators on behalf of the board we just want to thank you all so but without anything else said I'm turn it over to miss woen there we want to see we can let

004some more people in looks like there's still a bunch of people can y'all if y'all are by the door can y'all scoot forward so the people outside can come in keep it on coming I think we got more room on this side over here too it's no fun being stuck outside large groups and y'all come on around behind the desk some want to come on up a little closer get them all in here get on [Music] camera y'all worked hard to get in here come [Music] on oh my goodness I know me out there I didn't either I could just see the heads piling up out that looks pretty good okay we are delighted to have with us tonight two students from uh Brooklyn Casey high school that will be leading um the invocation and

005Pledge of Allegiance doing the invocation is Kaden moris Kaden is a senior at Brooklyn Casey high school he is ranked third in the class of 2025 he is very involved in both his schools and community during school Kaden assists with such events as trunk Retreat football games sustainability club and National Honor Society outside of school he is very active in his church devoted to his faith and his family additionally Kaden volunteers at any event possible from archery tournaments to helping shut inss around his community as of now Kaden is undecided on a college however he plans to Ma an electrical engineer some of Caden's achievements are being a member of the National Honor Society earning his AP Capstone diploma passing Eight AP classes being accepted to USC honors Clemson Walford and tnu in Nashville being

006a part of a national qualified archery team for seven years and gaining the paleta fellow scholarship not to tell you where to go but go Gamecocks um Kayla Isel is a senior at Brooklyn Casey high school and she will be leading Us in the Pledge of Allegiance Kayla who runs track and Coss country she is the National Honor society's vice president and sustainability club's president Kayla is ranked first in the class of 2025 she was awarded AP scholar with distinction and also received the AP Capstone award After High School Kayla will be attending USC majoring in environmental science USC has awarded Kayla the valid dictorian scholarship all right let us pray dear heavenly father we thank you for this wonderful day you have given to us in the rain to wash away all the p

007and we thank you for this time together that you have given us God and just be with us as decisions are made and we just make better plans for the school district as great as it is we can always improve and we thank you for everything you've done for us and everything you are going to do for us God in Jesus name we pray amen amen I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you both all no objection the consent agenda stands approved as presented and we'll move to public participation I don't think we have any tonight all right we're going to move on over to I think we're going to honors

008and accomplishment I'm going turn over to Dr Hafner thank you Mr chair March is music in our schools month and youth youth art month and we are excited tonight to be able to highlight some of our high performers in the Arts we're going to start honors and accomplishments tonight with a short video of highlights from our district honor band Orchestra and choir programs our district art show and the gifted and talented theater performance all showcased here at the Performing Art Center Mr LeBlanc will start us off with the video and then I believe he will be asking any art teachers or directors here tonight who have worked with students who were part of these groups to come forward to be recognized and after that we'll be recognizing winners from our district art show so Mr

009LeBlanc you have thank you so much Mr chairman Dr hner members of the board I am proud to recognize the many students and staff members who have played a vital role in our district Fine Arts clinics uh cohorts and programs this year in tonight's video that you're about to view you'll see excerpts from each of the programs Dr Hafner mentioned as well as um you'll get to see some footage from the art show but I encourage you before you leave the building today make sure that you tour the wonderful work that um our students and staff have done outside um I'm really proud of the progress that our our team has made over the last couple of years and we're just getting started uh student participation in these programs has gone from 416 students last

010school year to 541 this school year um our department leads many of which are here tonight um and their Department spend a great deal of time uh prepping for these things and providing opportunities for our students so I'm just thankful that you all allowed them the opportunity to be recognized tonight at the conclusion as Dr Hafner mention of this video please if you are a um one of our teachers or directors if you will join me right over here um I would like for you to introduce yourself your school and what you teach but for now let's get a snapshot [Music] [Laughter] [Music] must be something we can do do about what this seder your majesty he's in your favorite flower bed that's no matter let him be the poor creature must need it rest

011if sleeping so soundly yes your majesty so the great Pickers S as a s slept on don't do it Pandora listen to your friend in Almighty zo I don't have to listen to anyone go away you'll be sorry [Music] [Applause] [Music] am [Music] ther [Music] ther shall be free I shall be free [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] together together together together together we are together together together together together [Music] all right all right if you would please come up my teachers and staff members visual art folks y'all hang tight for a second Miss Len slogger is going to call youall up in a second Gage Thomas congre Elementary with General music and choir Amanda hinona airport High School chorus Stephanie Walker Saluda River Academy for the Arts Theater Hunter Reese Busby Creative Arts Academy Middle School

012band Christy Gwen Nora Middle School orchestra hello my name is Titus McCutchen I the new band director at BR and Casey High School good evening I'm Beth Brooks I'm the Coral director at Busby Creative Arts Academy so uh Miss Len slogger as you come up I just want to remind everyone that in the coming uh next few weeks we have next weekend our Frozen Jr Show tickets can be found at lex2.org or you can go to L2 pack. lex2.org it is going to be phenomenal um our Anna and Elsa formed for about a th000 people this morning at the Columbia convention center and received a standing ovation so please uh come support them next weekend it's going to be awesome um I'll turn it over to [Music] you hi I'm Tabitha Laden slager I am

013the visual arts teacher at Pine Ridge Middle School as well as our district Visual Arts lead and I'm going to be announcing um the winners for our district Visual Arts show some of our uh winners were not able to be in attendance this evening but I will be announcing all of their names however if you're here please come forward to the podium and uh receive your award when I call your name I'm going to start with high school we have honorable mention for Lily wadlington from BC high school we also have honorable mention for matey Cervantes monano from BC high school [Applause] honorable mention for Zoe Carter she actually received two honorable missions from airport High School [Applause] congratulations um another honorable mention for Ava lafallet from airport High School [Applause] third place for three-dimensional

014art in high school is Savannah Scott third place for two-dimensional artwork in high school is jayen [Applause] tames second place for 3D in high school is zeria Washington [Applause] second place for two-dimensional artwork in high school is Cesar Alonzo [Applause] Sano first place for threedimensional art in high school is Jennifer Hernandez Val alasco from BC high school first first place for two-dimensional art is Amelia Gaffney from airport high school and then our Best in Show for high school was Holly kissling from airport high school as well for Middle School we have perie Patel for honorable mention from [Applause] pineridge honorable mention also for Emma peoples from pin Ridge Kayla Castillo Estrada from pin Ridge honorable mention as well Destiny Williams honorable mention from [Applause] Busby honorable mention for Chandler Dorne from [Applause] Fulmer third place

015for three-dimensional art in middle school is Lily Edwards from Northside third place for two-dimensional artwork Elena Sullivan also from [Applause] Northside second place for three-dimensional artwork Alicia Pera from Fulmer Middle School second place for two-dimensional artwork Anderson sterky from Northside Middle School first place for three-dimensional is Jaden Rogers from pinr first place for two-dimensional is Lan K from Busby and then Best in Show for Middle School is Elizabeth boyin from [Applause] Fulmer all right and then Elementary honorable mentions we have Grayson Durham from Riverbank [Applause] livan lines from Springdale Kennedy Samuel from Saluda [Applause] River pay Po from [Applause] Casey Brita Mendes Perez also at Casey Jasmine Rivers [Applause] Conger Bo W from [Applause] Springdale there you go he gracious Miss Carmichaels third grade class did a collaborative work that one arable mentioned from [Applause]

016Casey Demi McCullum from Riverbank Austin Kent from wood Ava Finch from wood is third place [Applause] 3D third place for two-dimensional art is Brady [Applause] Davis second place for three-dimensional art is Jesus Morales Lopez from wood second place for 2D is cesarano Sarat from Conger first place for threedimensional is Wyatt D from [Applause] Springdale and first place for two-dimensional is Olivia Anderson from wood and then our best in show is darly Perez Miranda from Conger for elementary if I could please now have all of our art teachers that are present come in introduce themselves and say where they are working I would appreciate that so we can show some recognition for your hard work work thank you guys hello my name is Morris W visual arts teacher for Fulmer middle hello I'm Carol cthu I'm

017at Busby Creative Arts Academy Caitlyn Bailey I'm at Conger Elementary hi my name is Courtney Wen I'm one of the two art teachers at her bir Wood Elementary alongside Miss Aaron Irwin hi I'm Molly Curran from airport High School Michelle Giovani from Brooklyn Casey high school thank you guys wonderful thank you all now we have uh Miss Stephanie Walker again of Saluda River Academy for the Arts and Hunter Reese as well with Busby Creative Arts Academy who will be telling us about the our ABC School red designations at each of their uh respective schools and what it means for Saluda River in Busby yes thank you so much we're happy to be here tonight um I want to start off by just talking a little bit about what ABC is and what it stands for

018so ABC stands for arts in basic curriculum and that Institute provides leadership to achieve quality comprehensive Arts education for all students in South Carolina and that they have access to Rich Arts Rich education ational opportunities as a core component of the curriculum the ABC Institute is cooperatively directed by the South Carolina Arts commission the South Carolina Department of Education and winthrip University the ABC Institute provides various Arts grants and school certifications networking with ABC schools meetings workshops conferences institutes and more and ABC even has their own app so ABC currently serves 3,816 students and there are 65 ABC schools in South Carolina including Saluda River and Busby and Hunter is going to talk a little bit about the certification process um every year uh ABC serves as model schools for others in the ABC Network

019and those who aspire to be ABC schools so at the end of every year you have to submit artifacts showing that you've um submitted and um completed things off of your school strategic plan um and through the funding given through ABC through the district Etc so at the end of every year you're submitting five artifacts uh we both went through our recertification year this year meaning that we had to look back at the last three years and select some of the artifacts that we felt best encapsulated our growth as our art schools um so that's kind of the process that we went through after that we had to have an interview with ABC where we talk about the growth and how our Arts programs in both schools are being supported and how we're accomplishing things

020on our strategic plan and serving as that model school for others in uh the ABC Network and as well as those who aspire to be um at Busby we use that um as a repair budget for our Strings program our Arts programs each get an allotment of money to help them buy supplies and materials as well as providing art carts that allow our content teachers to have Arts integration in the content classroom Miss Walker is going to talk it's an honor to be in ABC school this was my first year as a grant manager so quite a doozy of a year to to go through recertification but very happy to help lead that for our school at Busby Creative Arts Academy yes we've done so much um with the financial support from ABC um they

021do offer us $112,500 each year um so with that we have also met the goals in our strategic plan um those include having Artisan residents work with our students um last year our fifth graders to paint a legacy mural that's really really beautiful with a local artist um it helps to uh provide field trips um State Arts festivals resources for curriculum and integration Productions professional development for teachers and lots of community outreach so we're really really proud to be an ABC School of Distinction thank you next up we have invited some of our fall and winter are athletes who receive prestigious recognitions in their Sports to come here tonight and be recognized along with their coaches and the athletic directors we know many of our athletes play in multiple Sports throughout the year so not

022everyone could be here tonight but we have a story and a list of all the athletes and their recognitions on our website so be sure to check out um that piece of work but before we get to our high schools I would like to invite our former boys basketball coach Bryant Stewart to the podium to talk about his team season and a deep playoff run also congratulations to coach Stewart on your pay it forward award from watch Fox and the Jeff coat firm that was great thank you so much I'm gonna let uh I've got four of my guys here tonight um as you said a lot of them are playing sports right now and tied up in other things but I'm going to let them introduce their name and what grade they're in and

023then I'll say a few words my name is tler Wilson and I play for former Middle basketball school and we I'm in eighth grade Trevor Thompson eighth grade Newton Harvey eighth grade Dakota Jones 8th grade um yeah yeah I'm going to I'm going to brag on these four especially um these four played on the basketball team for two years in a row now as seventh and eighth graders uh and for those who were involved and and and connected to the school um to see the turnaround that they did from seventh graders to eighth graders was nothing short of remarkable you know we talk a lot about being special as a team and what that means and and we Define that a lot of different ways um but these these guys truly truly are special and

024I'm extremely proud of them and thank you for this honor and recognition of course thank you that's so now let's invite our high schools up to the podium to introduce athletes and coaches and tell us about their fall and winner recognitions come on up coach good evening I see some new Schoolboard members congratulations I got hope I get to meet you soon uh I'm Shane filler athletic director at airport high school I'm going to introduce our fall and our winter All Region All State and our REM remarkable performances so first have all our airport athletes just come up and stand behind me and when I say your name just step forward and please give a wave please hold your applause to the end so first we'll start with our All Region football this year uh

025our quarterback del rico Edy Not only was named All Region but he was named All State freshman linebacker Montreal Keys was all region All State and played in the north south All-Star game Ben humph sophomore offensive lineman was named All Region Daniel buts sophomore defensive lineman was also named all region in addition to Montrail Avery Jones a senior wide receiver participated in the north south game this year Bryant Cherry who will hear his name again here in a minute was selected to play in the I20 Bowl which is schools across the Columbia area volleyball Riley colner was named All Region volleyball our competitive cheer team had three members on the All Region team Emerson centerfit Taran Gooding and Jamiah jivers and our coach Emily Fiddler was named region Coach of the Year our boys volleyball

026team and led by coach Shane Beaver had the first region championship in boys volleyball in school history there you go from our boys basketball team Daniel Jeff was selected All Region also won MVP of an All-Star Game this weekend and our girls basketball team Justa booth and Angel Mae were named All Region from our wrestling team Bryant Cherry who we mentioned earlier about Football Talk multiple sport athletes was named region wrestler of the year and was all state Jonathan Brown was an all region wrestler Bianca Bryant All Region given Dyer and Skyler Simmons so we had five All Region wrestlers Bryant Cherry was also selected to participate in the north south game for wrestling and finally our bowling team finished State runner up lost on the last shot in the 10th Frame to River Bluff

027needed a nine and got a seven but Zoe Christian had the highest female score in the state so we appreciate everyone's support up here everyone that's in the crowd we thank you very much at airport high school we look forward to coming back and introducing our spring athletes as they accomplished great things as well thank you Mr schilit for helping us and everything that we do please give our All Region All State athletes a round of applause now I'll pass off the mic to coach kurn or Mr Jones and Brooklyn Casey [Applause] right all right I am uh going to have to extend the microphone a little bit all right I'm Lewis Clin the new athletic director and uh football coach at Brooklyn Casey High School um going to get uh our coaches and athletes

028that are in attendance come on Coach Carl there you go um you guys can kind of do the same thing follow sup and uh I'm going to talk about a few of these guys I'm the new kid on the Block um and then I'm going to EMP coaches to come up here and talk talk about their teams individually as well but uh this is an awesome opportunity um to celebrate success we have kind of adopted the motto in the past two or three weeks kind of one of mind that success is the standard so this needs to be something that we build upon um certainly for all the sports and the Sports Seasons but uh as we move forward um but in football I know we have I know coach Chris Wright is here and

029Coach Wells we had a couple of coaches um but we had um five All Region football players and as I call your name you can uh um step up here U beside me um and hold your applause till the end we'll kind of do them as a group but in all region football we had Tyree Johnson ma maon Jones Jordan Browning okay um obrien lepart and Noah Jeffcoat um you guys can come on going up and then we had two that participated in All-Star football game Javon Edwards participated in the north south and Tyrone Jackson U participated in the uh I20 Bowl so for those football players we can give them a round of applause I told Jordan i' like for him to stand next to me he makes me better looking when just like

030no we both got the same goodlooking smile but these guys have done a great job I've enjoyed getting to know them the past few weeks being there and uh look forward to the ones that are coming back um developing a relationship with them and even our seniors that are leaving like I told them we now have a a common Bond and if they need me I'll help them in any way shape or form but uh football players step back and then the uh competitive cheer and the competition cheer coach Carl come on up that's going to going to empower that and I'm going to let Coach Carl talk about her cheer team I'm a little shorter than you so sorry y'all okay we had an awesome competitive season uh it was a great time bringing

031competitive cheer back to Brooklyn KY High School it was awesome to just see how many new athletes we had we actually had I had a stack of letters we had 11 new Varsity letters on Varsity this year so I would love to uh mention our three All Region cheerleaders and our one honorable mention all region um y'all can just come stand up here Charlie Dawkins pashe Butler Lydia bule and shyenne Kraut thank y' all right Jordan that crowd made you look bad dog that's it all right now for our uh our basketball I'll let Coach Wells come up here and he'll talk about boys basketball and then he can segue into girls basketball I think we have a couple of our assistant coaches and also the parents and families as some of these athletes are

032here as well and obviously we like to thank them and we encourage our athletes to thank the people that brought you here and that's usually Mom Dad Aunt Uncle any of any of those people in your support group make sure you thank them um for their support but I'll uh pass the Baton now to coach Wells good evening good evening good evening good evening how y'all doing uh I'm here to talk about our boys basketball team this season um awesome job uh the guys I don't know where they at right now they must be a Au basketball practice but uh they did an awesome job this season um many accomplishments uh first thing I could think of we had 19 wins um some huge wins by the way uh three wins that's I think about

033the top of my head is uh Conway high school was a 5A School uh they won the conference down at the beach uh we beat them River Bluff won their conference uh we beat them and great Collegian we beat them uh so those are three big wins that I feel like uh we did a pretty good job uh not not only that uh we played in three tournaments and we played in the championship game two out of three tournaments we went to Carolina Forest uh we played in the championship game against Christ Church and in our tournament which is Casey rball classic we played in Championship gang against number one team in 5A basketball Burns uh we lost but the guys very they played well um but overall just an awesome season uh we lost

034second round of the playoffs we lost 81 to 75 and overtime to the number two team in the state um many many reasons behind that I don't know one reason is that team shot 45 free throws and we shot 15 but but overall I'm very proud of the guys I'm very proud of the guys they played hard we had three All Region players uh one of was AJ Edwards um another kid was isai aie and then we had Carter Jackson um along with that also we had one kid that was selected to playing the north south game we're very fortunate in lexon District 2 that we've hosted the north south basketball game which brings the top 24 kids from the state of South Carolina to Brooklyn Casey high school every year for the last five

035years uh so every year on March 29th the entire state of South Carolina High School basketball is present at Brooklyn Cas High School um not only that while I'm up and speaking we talking about fall we also for the third year this past year we host a north south volleyball game so every the top 24 volleyball players in state of South Carolina come to Brooklyn casing high school every year just awesome that our district uh we get a chance to just showcase our facilities and uh all the things that we do have U over at Brooklyn Case High School but AJ Edwards He's going to play in the north south game on March 29th uh and along with AJ I was very fortunate enough to be selected too as a north south coach so me

036and AJ will will both participate in with that being said I appreciate your support for boards basketball this season at Brook Cas High School uh we continue we're going to continue to push we continue to do great things and we going continue to represent election District too well I'mma turn over to our girls basketball coach good afternoon my name is Tamara Chavis and I'm one of the assistant basketball coaches at Brooklyn casy High School we had a great year um with the young crew that we had um 60% of the team was ninth graders so they have a bright future in front of us in front of them and our All Region player is here which is one of our Dynamic freshman this remember her name delaya Rouse or lelay cuz she is going to

037be a top prospect thank you and I I'll I'll close but in closing I will say this about girls basketball about 6 years ago the place I came from had a very similar group of freshmen um Joyce Edwards being one of those or actually she might have been in the eighth grade and that the entire team was made up of freshman and uh and eighth graders and they ended up winning two state championships so good things to come from girls basketball for sure but I would like to thank um the board uh Dr Hafner um Dr Jones and uh give one more round of applause for these young people and the coaches for their accomplishments thank you thank you as we wrap up honors and accomplishments tonight I'd like to come back to two things

038from our honors and accomplishments from the February board meeting first you might recall the pin Ridge Middle School academic challenge team was here and they were headed to the state championship and I would like to share that they came in second place in the state at that event and they finished their regular season undefeated so let's give them a round of applause if we could and also as you might Rec recall Brooke hayatt a fourth grade case Elementary Lex 2 launch teacher who was a finalist here last month for the South Carolina ASC induction teacher of the year well on March 6th a week later Brooke was selected as the winner for that award which is given to a firste teacher who has created an environment for their students that is healthy and safe students

039feel supported challenged and engaged so we thank Miss hayatt for showing that much Mastery in her first year and just wish her [Applause] congratulations all right well I'm GNA turn it back over to Dr hat for a superintendent update thank you Mr chair my update this evening involves something that is near and dear to my heart we all know that there are moments or experiences that can kind of change the trajectory of your life and for me that was student government in high school I'm not suggesting I was a wayward child I just know that I did not see in myself the potential that the adult leaders in my life did and you've also likely heard me say that I've have no doubt that experience was the beginning of why I'm here today when we

040talk about heroes that theme really resonated I mentioned that to Lola Richberg earlier tonight tonight I want to highlight the work of two exceptional young leaders who have exhibited initiative and collaboration across our district in an effort to increase school spirit support our athletes and grow the student experience at this time I would like to ask airport High School principal Mr Matt chillet and his student body president Miss Abby relly and BC high school principal Dr Vance Jones and his student body president Mr Paxton MGO to come forward and tell us a little bit about the request that you made to myself and this Board of Trustees that was a great introduction D Dr Hafner so thank you and good evening to everyone it's a pleasure to be here today because you know tonight and

041all nights are always about students but this is 100% student Le and you're in for a real treat and I'm not going to steal their Thunder but my student body president Abby who's Fabulous by the way is struggling with a major life decision I'm gonna put it out there Abby currently she has been accepted to and is about 5050 University of Florida and University ofth South Carolina so good luck Abby on your selection um so two two great schools um for a great young lady and a tough decision ahead but she came to meet with me recently with a fantastic idea that these these two individuals have come up with which will improve the student experience which you said in student life for students at airport high school and BC high for many years I

042was highly impressed with what she shared fully supported it which is what you're going to hear about today but keep in mind this is 100% student driven Dr Jones and I are just glad to support it and bring it forward to each of you and I'm excited to be here tonight as well um with my student body president Paxon MGO um a wonderful student leader in our building for the last couple of years um he's been the student um class treasurer for the freshman and sophomore year student body vice president last year and now he's our student body president um just a great leader always involved always trying to get our students going um leader of our student section in our building um on Friday nights and at every game just about every time I

043turn around he's there and so just a great leader excited to have him here um to present for you guys tonight to talk about his wonderful idea that they came up with um to get more students involved um around our building and I'm excited to announced that he will be attending the best college in South Carolina if I can say so myself wford College where I attended and so I'm excited to um see all the wonderful things that he will carry on once he's on that campus and so I will step aside so that our student leaders can talk about their wonderful idea um that they've had good evening um so basically we got this idea because for the past couple of years now our students have been having to choose between we don't want

044to make them choose between their next meal and coming to an athletic sporting event and our athletes are one of what makes BC and Airport our schools and so we wanted a sports pass to be able to be used for our students across the district to be able for there to be easier access for most of our students to come um this way that we can lower our prices and we will allow for easier more participation and all that good stuff so yeah increase more Spirit that's about that's about it and then we recently this past weekend attended SCC for the first time in decades at BC and a little fun fact SC was started in the conference room at Brooklyn Casey in 1948 and the first president of of the state was from Brooklyn

045Casey so we're excited to join back in that Legacy and we earned the um silver honors Council for first time in a while so we're excited about that hey I did want to speak a little bit more about the student passes or the reduced prices for the football games one of the biggest reasons I was really excited to push for this change was the financial accessibility point a lot of students at both of our schools can't afford to pay the Base ticket price required when attending games because of limited Financial Resources the cost of attending these sporting events quickly add up and I've seen firsthand students picking out which games they want to attend because they don't have the money to pay to like attend all of them so during the football season we host

046around six home games and the tickets are priced at around $8 each this adds up to be almost $50 if a student wants to attend every game and that's only for football we still host games for basketball soccer baseball track and other sports so a student who wants to actively attend all these games it can quickly add up to hundreds of of dollars the financial expectation is extremely unrealistic for these students and I strongly believe that the cost of these events shouldn't be the students burden instead we should be happy to host our students in an accessible and safe environment where they can participate in school spirit and feel more involved with their school community and then I also wanted to talk about um attending sasc State this past weekend it's a really good opportunity

047for our Student Government members to attend a convention with other Student Government members in our state where we learn more about leadership running events in our school and we just learn how to be a better Student Government so we get the opportunity to submit projects and it's a few different requirements like upholding a constitution regularly attending meetings and such um so we were honored as a gold council at the state level and we're still waiting back to here at the national level but we're hopeful and we also were able to submit three different projects um to receive rankings on those so we submitted our Valentine's baskets for fundraising we submitted our Winter Fest for community service and our teacher appreciation for recognition we received first place in recognition and first place in community service which

048was very important to our student council because we work really hard so it's really nice to see us getting recognized on the state state level for those um accomplishments so thank you guys in conclusion I will say that due to uh the efforts of these exceptional young leaders uh we spoke with the principls of the schools and kind of talked about gate money and that kind of thing and we're going to start out with a $2 student ticket as long as they have their Lexington 2 ID so that's any middle and high school and they can come to to our games this spring starting tomorrow uh for $2 a ticket and we'll pilot it and see how this goes but we're very excited to give it give it a good shot so thank you for

049all your hard work and everything that you do I think we had a question I just wanted to say something guys thank you so much for being a voice for your student body well they're gone but that is here he comes I was just saying there is thank you so much for being a voice for your student body and speaking up for them and I know Dr Hafner when I was able to attend that conference that is amazing I know you guys have been very involved and I'm so glad that Brooklyn Casey is starting to go back to that conference thank you so much that is amazing thanks thank [Applause] youall all right you done yes sir okay we're gonna move on into Finance we're going to turn it over to miss trickin now with

050the financial reports good good evening everyone um you received a copy of the financials prior to the meeting and I was just going to ask are there any questions about the financials that you received Mr chair the only question I have is uh as I sent you earlier the interest on investments is significantly higher I went back and looked last year and I think we budgeted 200k we got like one basically a million more than that this year we budgeted 500k and we're already burned way over at 220% my question not about the budgeting I I feel confident that we can tighten that up but is this investment on our cash yes so do we have any so in on the accounting side of it this is not truly an investment we're just counting it

051as a investment through the revenue yes what what we do is the the tax revenue we receive from the County comes into our operating cash account and I transfer that mainly the the when we get the taxes so the big cash deposits I transfer that to the ELP account where we earn a better interest rate and then I draw that down as we need it like to make payroll and to do accounts payable so this this income stream is from our cash flow sitting in the the state lgif or whatever it's called and the interest that we're getting off that that yes so back in like 2021 22 when it was at you know one or less than 1% a month then that's what kind of we doing but now that we're in the fours

052and 5% a month that's why it needs to be adjusted y okay thank you I think it was all yep that was all thank you anybody else all right without objection the monthly financial report are set as presented and we're going to turn over to human resources to Dr Cooper good evening Mr chair members of the board Dr hater I'm going to call up Director of Human Resources M Stephanie hux who will give you our standard vacancy update Mr chair board members and Dr hner good evening do have the Staffing report for you today um as of this afternoon we have 11 support vacancies 29 regular education vacancies and 11 special education vacancies there any questions okay no questions that concludes our report thank you all right we're going to move on into instruction with

053Dr McDonald thank you Mr chairman good night good evening everybody um first off I just want to remind you you have your monthly ABC report at your table which will be uploaded to the portal I believe tomorrow morning um but we wanted to just call your attention I have added to you hot off the presses the latest map results from this Administration uh the third administration of the test this year so just want to make sure you had that call attention to that in your packet um as youall recall we give that three times a year at our April meeting we're going to bring to you our full results so that you'll be able to look back from start to finish see what those final projections are um one note of caution as you look

054at this and then you go to the April material we still have some students who are doing makeup so there could be a little shift here and there but we think for the most part they're they're just about complete so that shouldn't show up a whole lot difference um but we are we are hard at work right now working with schools on on how to close those gaps that still exist looking at those Trend pieces to really help our teachers understand where we want to go with that uh moving forward but again we'll have a full report for you in April um when we'll look at a whole year worth of map information um the next item that I want to um just speak to very briefly is um as yall have have asked us

055to work on and we have been hard at work at is looking at some high school learning options that are flexible in nature so we um have convened that team to work already um we have some homework assignments that have gone out to that group to start pulling some information and really looking at uh who we're targeting how we're going to Target them and how we're going to support that work uh and our goal is to have that of course in place for the fall um and at minimum a pilot for some students but we have some great ideas already out there and we'll have a better report for you soon uh about what that's going to look like and how that work is going to transform uh our high school experience for kids to

056give them more opportunities to do things in a more flexible way so we've got lots of things coming that direction for you also want to um my my first agenda item tonight um that I wanted to hit but before I do that are there any questions about any of the information that you have so far one question uh thanks for this report I think it maybe was the January Workshop sometime prior to tonight we talked about pun intended mapping the map scores to the Elementary report cards did we ever get a chance to kind of get a feel for that um we've tried to look at some things where it may be it's hard it's a hard comparison because one is a ejection based on any given time the other one is based on a

057whole different system so it's hard to do apples for apples we can get a close projection of what that could look like but it'll be very difficult to do a an Apples to Apples comparison so to speak and just kind of as a reminder it's less about making sure that you know this matches directly to that but more about if I have a kid who goes to one school and a kid who goes to another school that we starting to find a way to wait those ones twos and threes and fours appropriately on a report card cuz I some of the subjects is very very subjective but then some of them are you know you have a pretty strong Foundation to follow so I think it would less of like trying to say oh are

058we doing something wrong here or there just making sure that it's more unified across the board I I think map this year for us has proven to open a lot of question marks about a lot of our assessment methods and systems and so we're going to be doing some thorough review of that and that will include looking back at report card how does how did these data sets give us more information to be able to more accurately project where a kid is um we have some other tools that we're looking at and just really in general our whole assessment platform just how do we do that how often are we doing that what does that look like um and that'll be part of our curriculum work that our teachers are going to do with us

059this summer um and have that all in place for the fall thank you y thank you the the next the first agenda item that I had tonight Mr chairman um I want to provide for you is as you all recall back in August seems like three years ago but it really has just been a few months um we brought you a proposal to approve a waiver request for the state of South Carolina to allow us to do um high school credits through exams and um as part of the request at that time when the board approved it you asked us to give you a update so tonight I'm going to give you the first update but I'm going to do it through one more student recognition because I think to help you understand how valuable

060this is you have to meet a young man um I'm going to introduce him Jonathan Ramirez Batista raave your hand there he is um who is with us tonight I want to tell you about Jonathan and then tell you what he did because Jonathan is our first Jonathan was the first student in Lexington 2 to take advantage of this assessment method to receive high school credit Jonathan's a student at airport High School um exemplary student by the way um enrolled in honors classes he is an immigrant student who arrived from Mexico at seven years old in our country um a member of the airport band placed a trombone and the euphonium um and made region band twice playing the tuba so I'm impressed like like that's pretty impressive um he plans to attend Midland's Tech

061uh and then transferred to the University of South Carolina to receive a bachelor's degree in engineering while also working on a performance degree so he can continue his instruments um as I said he was our first student and as promised we wanted a rigorous assessment that would give kids a challenge to make sure that they earn credit if they take that exam and then we award them credit um the test that we chose for foreign language is called stamp it's a St test it's a national test that is reflective of the state standards but it really assesses thoroughly kids ability um Reading Writing listening and speaking skills are all tested in this in this system um these tests are aligned to us and the European proficiency standards so in working with the state department um

062and putting this together Jonathan was our first to take this because he we felt pretty confident that he could earn some credit in Spanish um through exam rather than having to sit through classes so Jonathan took the test um and scored Advanced low in speaking Advanced mid in listening and reading and when we started to evaluate what he should earn for his scores Jonathan didn't just earn Spanish one credit Jonathan earned Spanish two credit and also Spanish three credit so he's going to earn three high school credits off of his success on one exam so we have now saved him three courses from having to take those um but most importantly he performed that high and will now enroll uh in Spanish 4 so he has gotten all of his credits from just sitting for

063an exam that was administered by a person from this office um at the school and also because of all of this he also has already earned his seal of biliteracy um for demonstrating Proficiency in English and Spanish so I I wanted him to be here tonight when we talk about him because I I'm just going to admit we were quite surprised and happy when we saw your score a whole bunch of us on the hall were all talking about how exciting it is to not just get one credit but three credits from his score so I think we ought to give him a round of applause you anything would you like to say anything to this board yeah I just want to say thank you for um inviting me here and I I think it's

064very important that people like me try to continue their education in their own native language because when I first arrived here I didn't know any English so I only focus on English but now that I'm getting into higher education some of the stuff that I'm learning in English I'm not learning in Spanish and I'm losing some of the ability um to speak in Spanish or to write writing was my lowest score in the assessment and that's what I want to focus now that I'm enrolling on engl in Spanish for um I want to be able to bble to write I want to be able to you know connect with my my past CU I mean you never want to lose that idea you want to lose where you came from because your Beginnings are always

065they're the reason that you're here to this day so I think that's one of the most important things to remember [Music] we're very proud of Jonathan and we are we are we wanted to Showcase his work because we are about to launch some additional tests so students who are looking for ways to get those credits we can provide them with that exam so this was our first success story we hope to bring you more and more of those in the future um so that you can see the great things our kids are doing uh through that so thank you for being here tonight um next up on the on my report um is our update on the underperforming schools as you all recall um back at the beginning I guess in January we we brought

066this to you uh and per state statute we're required to give you four updates a year uh on the progress of our of our schools and so this is our what we'll call our 30-day update um we are not going to read through all of the slides because those are just the restated goals uh and so tonight the the the first if you'll stop at that first slide back up just a little bit for me just as a reminder of some things that we've done sort of at the global level um we are at the at the district level more of a global perspective um all of these schools of course we're continuing our problem solving team meetings uh with these schools they've all had two of those now where we've brought our district team

067together to really work to analyze and really help support work that's happening in the school uh as well as continuing to to support teachers in the building uh through our content Specialists uh and providing whatever supports we can to help these schools reach these goals and thus improve their performance um and so tonight um rather than again reading through all of this we provided this to you um uh with the 30-day reports and if you'll kind of scroll down uh each school has provided for you their update things they've been working on things they've been working to achieve over the last uh 30 days of this and again we will bring this back to you um in in another we'll bring this back to you three more times uh to review but I did want

068to give you all an opportunity to ask any questions you might have about the work that's happening at our schools our principles are here uh and certainly we would love for them to answer questions that you might have Mr chair the only thing I'd say is I would love when we get the next one you can tell qualitatively there's a lot of work going on but quantitatively we don't have much to Target sure and all these are going to be based on that quantitative result so if we can get to if we want to be able to kind of be real and say hey here's where the change management needs to happen let's make it is is targeted and niched to the quantitative bullets in these results not that all this wonderful quality state of

069where it doesn't matter and it does but it's the number that's going to really show yes sir and and we do we also totally understand that and expect that in the next round you will see um results of benchmark assessments for EOC courses um potentially some projected graduation rat so there will be many more metrics that we'll be able to show with you U because we'll have those data in Hand by then m b I just wanted to comment on the same thing congratulations to to all of you who are working so hard I app appreciate your effort so much I particularly appreciated that Casey Elementary made it really easy for us by saying last year 76 students were meets and exceed or exceeds and this year 123 students are meets or exceeds and that's

070actually what we're talking about is just assume that all of this fabulous work that you're doing is over our heads okay and it helps us a lot if we just have a very simple metric to go by and um everybody else uh said uh our plan is to improve Well we'd like to know how you're going to improve specifically via numbers and and I think goals are important you know they're important for everybody you know if you're trying to do a walking program and you say I'm just going to walk a little bit more than I did yesterday well that might be five steps but if you say I'm going to walk two miles and I was walking one mile then you've actually got something to shoot for so that would be a big help

071to us if we knew specifically what it was that you were shooting for so thanks very much guys Mr H yeah I appreciate all the I have a hard time I appreciate all the from the being new on the board understanding the work that each of the schools are doing to improve the report cards but you know I probably need it you know and this goes out to the general public just a little more I say dumb down maybe it's the wrong word but red green yellow you know how we doing that that type of thing maybe it's too early to tell but just something that's more concise for us as board members to understand but also just you know the general public to kind of understand our progress that's my only Fe sir any

072others right still got than you more you thank you sir my final piece this evening is um it's textbook adoption season uh and so tonight we bring to you um for consideration and approval um the math materials they are up for adoption this year and uh Jennifer wise our math content specialist is going to provide you with some information about thatd good evening Mr chair members of the board Dr Hafner we would like to share with you our process for reviewing instructional materials to support the 2025 South Carolina College and Career ready mathematics standards which will fully be implemented during the 24 25 school year our recommendations for materials and our implementation plan this work began at the state level in the summer of 2024 the South Carolina Department of Education partnered with Ed reports

073an independent company that reviews instructional materials and they designed a thorough rubric to review curricular options for state level approval the review process at the state level included three gateways the first of which involved alignment of resources to the 2025 South Carolina College and Career ready mathematics content and process standards the State Board of Education approved the initial list in January and approved additional options in February after a cure period which allowed Publishers to resubmit updated resour resources as a district we took a four-pronged approach with the approval of the initial list we shared links to digital access and feedback forms to Lexington 2 staff members we also posted the information on the district website for Community review and feedback this feedback was reviewed as our first data point next we used an evaluation rubric

074similar to the states to review texts which included precise alignment to standards for specific grade levels and courses and the reading levels to which the texts were written as a third consideration we attended a textbook Caravan with members of the instruction division that support our special populations we often hear from teachers that they desire resources that provide effective supports and and strategies for students with disabilities and multilingual Learners as such we asked our coordinators for special services and the director of multilingual and ESO services to review the instructional materials for those supports as a final step we invited representatives from schools to come to listening sessions held at the district education center we took notes as teachers shared pros and cons from each resource we also specifically considered one standard that would be new for

075grade bands or courses and teachers reviewed each of the texts for alignment to those resources that would be available for teachers when teaching lessons associated with that standard this process was detailed and rigorous and but it allowed us to consider many aspects of the instructional resources and ensure that we were identifying those which would provide the greatest benefit to our students and teachers based on this process we identified these texts for each of the grade bands and courses listed as a point of note it the resources would also be used to support our immersion Advanced and honors courses for example our immersion for our immersion classes there are Spanish versions of The Envision texts similarly if approved we would use the Invision resources available for our Advanced middle school math classes and the math Nation

076resources for our honors geometry Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 courses recognizing that we have teachers who may teach multiple levels of a course we wanted to to limit the number of platforms between which they needed to switch given there are many changes for the K12 mathematics next year we're working to ensure teachers are comfortable and confident with the standards and instructional resources we've identified focused areas for that work with those areas of focus we've created a timeline for offerings we want to ensure that multiple opportunities are available for teachers and that we can work to approach this in a man in a manner that's both digestible but not overwhelming for example there can be a large number of supplementary resources that accompany instructional materials we want to gradually introduce those resources it is wonderful if

077someone wants to explore them on his or her own but we want to be careful not to attempt to incorporate too many things at one time as an additional point we want to provide information to teachers as soon as possible but also incorporate Refreshers and opportunities for teachers who will be new to Lexington School Lexington 2 next school year with that thank you for your time and I'm happy to answer any questions you have Mr chair I move that we accept the recommended books from the instruction have a motion do I have a second second can I just have a comment um you know I have a lot of concern about the math and you guys are the experts on the the textbooks and the materials um but I'm sure you're aware that in the

078United States as a whole 78% of eighth graders can't do math on an eighth grade level and our district is sort of in that same boat with everybody else and what I note about our our scores like our state scores of last year is that we drop down consistently from third grade to eighth grade that we have about 40% of them in the third grade who are on grade level and they just drop off and drop off and what that says to me is that that we're not that our teaching or learning is not strong enough in those first three years that as they have to do more complex math and as they have to do word problems where they're actually reading uh that that they're not able to do it and so I know

079that the state has these new standards coming in and I just wonder how confident y'all feel in these new materials and in teachers abilities to adapt to them so that we actually some see some improvement in that so thank you for that question um one of the pieces that our new standards are addressing in many of the resources that you see listed all of the resources that you see listed here look at the mathematical approach of what we actually call concrete to representational to abstract we learn mathematics best when we can put our hands on it and that is true for a kindergarten student but it is also for True for a student who is in upper level mathematics in high school so we have really made intentional purchases with some of our math funds

080to put manipulatives in all math classes including our high schools we brought in professional development for it through the month of January we actually did sessions on what are called algebra tiles it teaches me how to work with even quadratic functions in Algebra 2 but do it with my hand so that I can see that and not only did we invite core content Math teachers but we also invited teachers who were in academic Support classes and our multilingual specialist so as students are getting support outside of their math classes all individuals who are working with them feel confident in that work and we're working with our coordinators and directors for special populations to offer more of those and continue to provide manipulatives for all those levels so that gives us that concrete piece then we

081move to representational we could call that pictoral where I'm going to look at visuals or even a manipulative on a screen if I don't have my hands on it but it's still pictoral that's going to be that representational phase so I start to kind of phase out of always needing my hands on it I may still at times we're not looking at silos it's kind of more like um not a layer cake but a mar cake is a great way to think about it and as I phase through these and then it's with that understanding what we would say building conceptual development that I move into that abstract and we're going to see that procedural fluency so since that's how we're learning that we're making sure that the professional development and the resources we provide

082align with that and we've looked at these texts with that same knowledge in mind so is this new for us is this a new approach I'm just wondering how we got to where we are now uh because I'm assuming we've got a lot of great Math teachers I have to assume that and so I mean is this new is it a new approach so what I would say is for the last maybe decade and a half we've really been looking at mathematics from a modeling standpoint so it is different than just approaching it algorithmically but seeing models understanding the concept of how it works together and um some of you may remember the unit circle from pre-calculus and remembering where everything goes but the reality is it's really just a bunch of circles around themselves

083so if I understand Tri sorry circles a bunch of triangles excuse me fan around so if I understand triangles I can actually really master and that's at an eighth grade level with special right triangles I can have a strong understanding of this pre-calculus skill and so it's looking to see where those connections are and building it and strengthening those models it's different than many of us learned mathematics myself included it's different than we were teaching mathematics when I first um came in at the profession as well so some of it is building our capacity to understand the models we're working with teachers we're working with our coaches I'm learning myself like we're um every time we have the opportunity to grow and strengthen our understanding that's more that we can um support our students as

084well and that's where you're going to see the transition in our standards as well is looking at the models so that again we can build that con that conceptual understanding have a strong firm foundation of the mathematics that then allows us to interact compute calculate we also look at how are we assessing what we're assessing if I'm looking at something that is the surface area of a cylinder but I don't allow a student to use a calculator I'm actually assessing their computation not their ability to perform this other task and so we're being really intentional I think the state is doing a great job with looking at standards as well and enabling us supporting with that um supporting us in that and even yesterday they U well actually two days ago they put out a

085memo for the offerings that they're going to be having around the state in the coming months to support teachers in addition to the work that we're doing we were able to push that out to our teachers we um we know spots are limited and we wanted as many as we could get so we pushed that out and we've already had a number of teachers reaching out telling me they're like I registered for this one I registered for that and it's been really exciting like our teacher we've had great conversations with our teachers I visit schools on a very regular basis and many I have full day sessions every month where um with every teacher in the building and we talk about what's working what questions do we have and we can almost have many methods

086or like college math classes in small sessions so we can feel confident about what we're going to do next to support students oh excellent thank you so much' and Dr McDonald I'm assuming come this time next year that you'll be giving us some feedback on how this curriculum is working we will We Will and and if I can just add to what Miss Wise has has shared already I think the the main piece for us right now is to help our teachers know that maybe that resource you had from 15 years ago it hadn't produced the results we want so let's look at these resources because they are well aligned and there's going to be some great supports for them and as we write curriculum this summer we're trying to make it so that our

087teachers will be able to pick it up day one and be able to get to work um I I'm one of those I don't want to see them spending six months trying to plan and prepare let's give them as much as we can to get them going uh so they can work with our kids' needs and I do think that we've got the right resources and as we pull some of these um Myriad of Technology programs that we have to support math we're going to focus on a core group and really be strong in those areas like take a step back from having too much to really right sizing what we need to do uh and I think that's going to be our approach our whole team has kind of taken that approach already um

088so we will definitely bring back a report for yall okay thank you so much and I hope you're can see the results in the scores that's where we want to see it most thank you Miss Wise I uh I definitely don't know pedagogi I don't even like saying that word um but my kids did monori when they were young and their manipulatives seemed very similar to what you're talking about like that was just how they teach math they build it and then they model it and move forward um and it was was successful from DC and then back here you could just see that the kids picked it up so what you're saying makes tons of sense however in the monory world the acceleration was up to the kid and I can my my I

089don't know if it's a concern but my question is if I'm working with manipulatives and I got it I've got that 10 by 10 makes uh you know 100 and I take 10 up and now I've got a cube I I've seen it then a lot of the kids in like the monor world World they move right past the modeling to kind of like the math what we used to call the math do we have that ability to to kind of keep the ball rolling on the acceleration side while also not letting other kids in that same class fall behind I feel like that might be tough with classes of 24 third graders so one of the things that does thank you for that question one of the things that does make that possible is

090having the manipulatives available for students but that if you can demonstrate this in another way that's okay so we've actually looked at um for some of our um math assessments we've actually moved to giving those in almost more of an interview Style with the students so we can have them explain to us how they knew the answer and how they could come about it and maybe they are going to need to have their hands on those manipulatives um and we we see this a lot in our earlier grades but we are assessing it for some of we are using this for a method for some of our Assessments in third grade as well with multiplication facts like how do you go about finding this answer because that's going to allow me to assess your understanding

091and also provide intervention to help you strengthen that understanding and so to your answer yes there's spaces for each of those at some points when we move into a different method we are moving into the expectations for a different grade level so we're being intentional of like when do we recognize that we're shifting into content that is um de the depth of the grade level standard but when are we stepping into another grade level as well so being knowledgeable of that and that even though maybe I am working in the algorithmic space right now when I see a problem that's just a little bit different than what I've done before that it's okay to Pivot back and pick up one of those manipulatives and so that I can freely move between the three and I

092don't feel like I have to be living in just one I feel like that's going to be a big to to miss brette question that's going to be a big change that's not the world that you know we're used to especially in math so I look forward to seeing how that works you we know there's success around it so I appreciate everything youall doing to it thank you thank you thank you any others all right we got a motion in a second all in favor C uh all oppos motion carries 6 that concludes from me tonight thank you sir all right we're GNA move on into operations and turn over to Mr Warren thank you uh Mr chair members of the board Dr Hafner excited to provide another operations update tonight for you from the

093of March as you see uh things continue to roll in the world of operations a few highlights here um that I'd like to point out uh Safety and Security um we actually hosted a pre-planning meeting with multiple stakeholders in Emergency Management from across the state recently uh we're going to be the host of an evacuation seminar uh this Summer that will bring together uh not only you know School staffs and um you know law enforcement but also you know pios um other emergency responders uh really just working through those scenarios um you don't you don't rise to the occasion you rise to the level of your practice and your preparation so really excited about the work that that Miss San Juliano is doing and that department especially you know with us being able to be

094the really the you know leader I feel like uh in the safety you know World here in the area hosting bringing these folks in um being open to you know kind of being the host sites for multiple trainings and events with with our law enforcement and emergency resp respond response Partners uh facilities and maintenance you know more highlights there there for you you know for our team there um uh retention wall was built at airport High School's baseball softball field really excited about that we've had a lot of erosion issues there over the years and uh Mr mcfur had a vision there to correct that issue and so I encourage you to go by and see that work you know very excited about how that's turned out you know once we get some grass seed

095down and that starts to take it's going to be really a you know um a beautiful um even more beautiful facility for our student athletes to utilize uh HVAC control work continues across the district with with with work happening at Wood Elementary uh to improve the controls there and then you know paint continues something we focused on this year I mean it's it sounds like a little but it makes a lot of difference when you get out there and you really you know focus on you know dressing up your areas um with uh batting cages being painted uh exterior doors being painted and also awnings at airport at the arena and Fieldhouse being painted so just you know really makes those areas pop makes them look new and um really brings a lot of Pride

096and excitement you know to those facilities down in transportation you know once again like I said before with Safety and Security being a leader in the industry I also feel like Transportation here in lexton to you know very similar uh we have one of the best um you know GIS mapping um you know systems that I've seen you know in the time that I've done this and our partnership with the county has allowed us to do that with our school zones being located actually on the lexon County website so continue to to refine uh those Maps uh making sure you can you know turn on and off multiple undesired layers you can zoom in and out you know for those different boundaries you know really you know helps with our community kind of seeing you

097know where where they would go to school the boundaries and as folks that want to move here it's very easy to navigate and identify our school zones uh student Support Services um you know school choice and employee choice is being finalized also want to highlight a couple weeks ago March 2 through the eth was National School social worker week you know was happy and excited to go by you know meet with them for a little bit you know towards the end of that week and thank them for all the work that they do you know for our families and communities here here in lexon too so just want to you know celebrate them one more time and then lastly Athletics I included the list of athletes that you heard from earlier um just want to

098recognize them one more time lots of great things happening in the world of Athletics here lexon to and just wanted to acknowledge you know their accomplish this one last time by including them in in this this this month's update um any questions on that on that piece also included um you in your information is our cpif update for uh for this month you know as as work continues and you know across across the district so happy to answer any questions or um respond anything that you that you'd like me to good M cast thank you uh you probably know what I'm going to ask about so where are we with the scoreboard for the rook and Casey it's been installed um and we are just uh fine-tuning um some connections there with the wiring and

099all looking to flip it on the end of next week is is what we're tracking for well I'm glad to hear that but I'm I'm disappointed that we have had three games for women's and men's soccer no uh I don't even know how they do the uh not the pledge but the national anthem coaches are having to yell at the referees to get the time I don't know how the kids play I here's what I would say if we walked in this board room tonight and there was no air I feel like we would get someone and go get fans so I was going to say the next game I hope if it's not ready that we can do something to accommodate them to have a clock to play because I don't even know how

100that's that work but I just hate for visitors uh to come to play and for our team to play without a clock to even see so I'm glad that's about ready yes ma'am any other questions all right concludes my report thank you we're going to move into under new business right back to me right back to you um so before you tonight you have the first reading of our Capital Improvement uh budget for the 25 uh 26 school year um you see that is you know a draft cpif you know for for first reading and we do want to hit a few highlights first before I take any questions um I won't go through every single one of these list it is a pretty extensive list you know through work you know with our principles

101and our maintenance facilities team kind of identifying continueing to work on some some needs that we have you know across the district you see the first portion there is for our technology needs our annual uh uh 3 through 12 Chromebook refresh you see the budget for that also the iPad refresh for grades K through two and then um you know computer lab refresh we budget for that every year you know to make sure we're um upgrading computer labs you know across the district you know with new with new devices and then server and our ups upgrades and and then rolling down into you know the operations portion of our uh cpif draft uh once again we talked about this a lot last year really you know intentional focus on HVAC and Roofing um you know

102across the district really feel good about where we are you know with that work been very intentional about you know that building envelope and so you'll see HVAC work at airport as the auditorium units there's two large units there and several other smaller ones that we're looking to to address with this um moving down you see Busby is as a roof replacement that school was open in 2005 so above that 20year Mark uh for the lifespan of a roof so you see that budget there to replace the roof at Busby and then you go down to see also we've talked about this before about catching some rooftop units at Busby along with um along with the roof that's when you want to do those rooftop units if you can it's not always feasible but if

103it is feasible it's always best to to catch those rooftop units you know when you're when you're replacing the roof uh Brook and Casey High School we're going to do an awning from the Fine Arts Wing to The West Wing to help you know when there's weather issues um to make sure students have have cover when they make that make that trip um to the um to the West Wing uh HVAC replacement there as well looking at the science Wing uh part of the South wing and possibly possibly the East Wing now just we'll see how much we can get done for that and and catch the most critical areas you know in that area at BC um you see there's elementary school work some additional playground equipment at Casey um some canopies excited about

104this at Newbridge some canopies for their outside area to be a be able to go outside and um you know when it's sunny or even you know uh raining some areas for for shelter out there um some front office Renovations we've done a lot of that work continue to do that looking at North Side Middle to um do some work there and then at Pine Ridge um some erosion control and talking to um Miss Solon there you know just really trying to focus on that back area a little bit better and and avoid you know some backup that we see there you know from time to time that's something we'll look at doing HVAC upgrades there I know we we've talked about some some issues we've had at River bank and and looking at um

105doing some more work there to avoid uh more issues in the future um we've had some failes without equipment and so we really need to to be intentional about addressing that and then you see some more Roofing at Springdale and also at sluta River you know catching the remainder of those roofs from their most recent uh renovations to bring those roofs fully into warranty uh would be would be a very big win for us and in our department and then you see uh Transportation the last time time we purchased an an activity bus was back in the uh 1920 was the last time we purchased an activity bus you know for transportation so we do need to to upgrade that Fleet and you see that those three buses there um and also Paving Paving around

106the district with a focus on Airport and BC to do some milling and resurfacing you know of asphalt that was horse and buggy back then wasn't it yeah that's right that's right 20 yeah 2020 not 1920 well yeah 2019 I was wondering what was so funny I thought it was I thought it was the guy vacuuming I didn't know if that was like yeah if we' have waited since 1920 we'd have a little different I'm not sure I'd be sitting here if uh if that was that was the case but uh 2019 2020 was the last time we purchased buses um I'm not sure Tony's still be hanging around if uh made him work with that um and then you know hbac controls you know we we did a lot of that work this year

107and want to continue that um also you'll see a placeholder um at the very bottom and and that is for property acquisition and other major construction um that being you know a focus on you know what's in our what's in our um Capital Improvement plan is a new congre elementary school and then also after that a new Transportation facility so with this you know we're starting to eark earmark some funds you know for that work that we'll continue to talk about but you know with cpif you have three years uh to make those expenses once once you commit the funds and we feel like you know we can be in position to start you know funding those projects um within that time frame for for holding some of these funds you know for that work

108so once again first reading uh for our 2526 cpif draft and happy to answer any questions that that you might have Mr chairman um I'd like to make a motion that we approve first reading of the CPI F budget for year 26 as presented I have a motion I have a second we have a second all right any discussion um with it being a first reading um how we have typically done it minus maybe the last meeting I'm good for voting for it but I do think in the future we should have the long range discussions that maybe we'll have some discussions in executive prior to voting on this that is a kind of a backward plan so we should have those discussions long range plan should be agreed upon where we're going and then

109we should take the cpif budget and with that millage that is thrown on top of it and do a first reading after that and then leaving one month for the audience and everybody who pays attention to be able to come back speak on it and make adjustments before the second reading so I think we're fine here um hopefully we can keep this precedent where where we move forward with first readings on two reading items but I definitely think that's something we need to keep in mind all M brette yeah can I just say that being new I mean it would be very helpful to me to see a long range Improvement plan because I'm I'm sort of seeing this with no point of reference if you will I don't know how long it's been since

110we've done any of these things Etc and um so so it's either that I just vote Yes that we can do it it's sort of cold turkey not knowing anything about it or actually have a frame of reference to see when with these things done is this a good use of these funds should we do this now should we put this off a year Etc so I'm assuming from what my fellow board members are saying that we'll see a long range plan before we approve this because it just would be helpful to me yes' you will any other discussion all right all in favor say I I all oppose motion carries all right we're GNA move now into consideration of five student travel requests Mr chairman um I if if it's all right with the

111board I'm going to combine B and C and make a motion that we approve the five student travel request as presented and we approve the consideration of travel request for the dec administrator as per minuted all right I have a motion and a second all in favor or any discussion on that all in favor say I I oppose motion carries all right we going to go into announcements now March 27th 2025 that dreaded day report card are issued April 17th 2025 interims are issued and April 16th 2025 would be a junior scholar reception in the pack auditor Atrium out there at 5:15 and our meeting if you notice it has been moved up from the 17th to a Wednesday April the 16th 2025 that would be the regular monthly meeting Board of Trustees at 6:00

112um April 18th through 25th a spring break May first 2025 board Workshop here at District Education Center May 6 human resource spring career Expo in the pack Lobby from 4 to 6 and also on May 6 2025 is the airport High School Education Foundation G that will be held over at Innovation Center at 6 o'clock and then May 15th will be our next regular monthly meeting of the Board of Trustees here at 6 o00 all right we will move into executive session and I believe M Wen take take us there I will um I make a motion that the Board of Trustees enter close session for the following discussion regarding Lexington 2 properties consideration of personnel reappointments and consideration of appointments and resignations second we have a motion as a second all in favor say

113I I we in executive e e e I'm straight all right go straight okay Mr chairman I make a motion that the Board of Trustees um reconvene an open session and the appropriate affidavit executed second all I got a motion in a second all in favor say I back in open Mr chairman I make a motion that we accept uh the administration's recommendation for report of breach to the South Carolina Department of Education on Mr chairman I make a motion that we accept all of the personnel reappointments as presented second motion and a second all in favor say I I I motion carries Mr chairman I make a motion that we accept all the uh administration's recommendations for appointments and resignations second have a motion in a second all in favor say I motion carries

114motion to adourn second we are a journe