001consequences. >> All right. Good evening. We welcome you all here to our board meeting on today, which is March the 9th, 2026. I'll now ask for a motion to go into executive session. >> Yes, ma'am. I'll make a motion that we um exit to executive session to convene um certified recommendations, classified resignations, contractual matters related to the financial audit services. We >> have a second. One second. It Hello. All right. Um, we need a motion to adjourn from executive session. >> I make a motion we have >> a second. >> All in favor? >> Okay. In item 3.0, uh, we need to have a motion regarding our agenda. >> Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda to separate the certified staff recommendations as discussed in executive session. >> Have a
002second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> All right. Dr. Nutter, has the media been notified? >> Yes. >> All right. Now, we'll turn it over to Dr. Sanders. Please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. 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. Please join me in a moment of silence. >> Thank you. >> All right. Good evening, Chairman Sutton, Dr. Nutter, members of the board. Hope everyone is doing well. Tonight's student spotlight features Alexis Beamis from the Swansea High School Freshman Academy. Alexis is a ninth grade student at Freshman High, I'm sorry, Swansy High Freshman Academy who has all already established herself as a strong student leader. She is the
003proud daughter of Jeremy and Melissa Beis and the sister of Kaden. Alexis's commitment to excellence is evident through both her academic achievements and her active involvement in school organizations. Academically, she has maintained an A average throughout the school year and has earned honoral recognition each nine weeks. She particularly enjoys English where she has discovered a passion and a strong talent for writing. Beyond the classroom, Alexis is an engaged and dedicated student leader. She serves as the student body president, is an active member of HOSA, and participates in JRTC. In recognition of her leadership and de dedication, Alexis was named JRTC cadet of the month for January. One of her favorite things about her school is the people, and she strives each day to be a supportive and hardworking classmate who contributes positively to the school
004community. Outside of school, Alexis enjoys spending time with her family, especially visiting the park or playing games together. She also enjoys reading, watching Tom and Jerry, and caring for her pet Otis. After graduation, Alexis aspires to be a military working dog handler, combining her desire to serve others with her love for animals. She also hopes to one day travel to Alaska. Her goals, interest, and dedication to learning reflect the bright future ahead of her and the positive example she sets for her peers at the Freshman Academy. We present Alexis Venus. >> Thank you. Like I said, my name is Alexis Bumis and I'm extremely honored to be here representing the Swansea freshman academy as student council president. I am not only student council president but also a proud member of HOSA and a cadet in
005JRTC. On top of my involvement in student council JRTC and HOSA, I'm an honors English and honor honors algebra. These classes have challenged me to do better in school. One of my favorite things I have done in my English honors class was creating a PSA video. My group chose to talk about teen suicide awareness. And we didn't just make a video. We had to present it to a board of judges from outside of the freshman academy. Throughout the project, I learned a lot of stuff, including how to determine the signs of a struggling teen, howing to how to deal with suicidal thoughts, and how to ask for help, which I believe is the most important thing for a teenager to learn. In student council, my main mission was to create events that this entire student
006body would enjoy and want to participate in. So, in the quarter two, I created a holiday themed event that consisted of plenty of games and student council sold hot chocolate and chocolate chip chip cookies for a fundraiser to raise money for our shirts. Um, we've also done multiple spirit weeks this year, including our Christmas spirit week in December. But one of my favorite things that the student council has done this year was creating a huge banner and having the entire student body sign it for our counselor, Miss Young, our guidance for guidance counselor appreciation. I enjoyed doing this because I know just how hard Miss Young works and I really wanted to give her the celebration that she deserved. On top of all that I've done to student council, I've done just as much in
007Jer. My main reason for joining JRC was because I plan on joining the military after high school and become becoming a military working dog handler in the US Marines. I want to do this because I've always enjoyed working with animals and I have a passion for helping others and serving my serving my country. Some other opportunities I've had in JTC is the privilege to represent our school in three three parades including homecoming and two Christmas parades. I also was able to participate in a car wash fundraiser of the Bojangles and Casey to support my battalion. But one of the most moving experiences was performing in our vet veterans day play. This by far was one of the most important experiences this year because I understand that being a veteran isn't easy and that many veter
008veterans struggle after leaving the military to live a normal life and I was really honored to be able to show how much I respect our veterans. As I reflect on this year, this year has been one of the most memorable and enjoyable. I can only thank my teachers, administrators, and staff for that. Thank you for your time tonight and for allowing me to give you a glimpse of what my experience at the Freshman Academy has been. Have a great rest of your evening. >> Any questions for Alexis? >> Amazing. He said just a glimpse. >> Good job. Is that one of the shirts that you have on there? >> Yes, ma'am. I designed it myself for student council. So, >> good job. Alexis, proud of what you all are doing at the Freshman Academy and
009had the privilege to be with you all early this year. Enjoy that time that we had uh with your team there. Uh do is there anything that we can do to help support student council or any of the other endeavors as board members? >> Um there's not really nothing that can come off the top of my mind. Um student council, we just strive to make the school a better place. As I said, we do as much to encourage the student body to be better people and to enjoy their high school life, but other than that, I really don't think there's anything I can really do to help as of right now. >> Okay. Well, if you think of anything, you got all these guys on. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Recognition.
010All right. Up for student recognitions. Chairman Sutton and Dr. Nutter, if you could join me up front. Midlands Technical College hosted its fifth annual high school welding skills competition on February 20th, which featured 39 students representing 13 high schools across South Carolina. During the event, student work was evaluated by three IND industry professionals who served as judges and assessed each student's performance. Students also competed for more than $10,000 in total prizes generously donated by local and national industry suppliers. This evening, we are proud to recognize Shea Rajger for earning first place in the competition. An outstanding accomplishment that reflects both exceptional skill and dedication to the craft of welding. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Sam Hills Middle School participates in the Lexington 10 Athletic Conference, which is the home of eight middle schools in Lexington
011and Newberry counties. Lex 10 offers competition for the middle school teams in football, volleyball, basketball, and track. Tonight, we recognize the following student athletes that were selected as this year's Lex 10 allconerence members for their performance in basketball. For girls basketball, Ariel Hughes and Paisley West. And for boys basketball, Eli Miller, Isaac Sharp, and Quincy Sutton. Do one over there and one over here. I'm going to get several. Okay. Congratulations athletes. Tonight we also recognize the South Carolina High School League region 4 class 3A all region players from Swansea High School for the winter sports season. Our varsity girls basketball team demonstrated resilience, determination, and a strong commitment to growth throughout the season. Our student athletes continued to compete with pride and represented us with outstanding effort in sportsmanship. We are proud to recognize Tyiana
012Jackson for being selected as an all region performer by coaches from across region 3, class 3A. Our varsity boys basketball team also showed perseverance and dedication throughout the season focused on building a strong foundation for the future of the program. The team continued to compete with heart and tiger proud pride throughout the year. We are proud to recognize this evening Zishan Jameson for being selected as an all region performer by coaches across region 4 class 3A. CONGRATULATIONS, ATHLETES. >> Thank you, Chairman Sutman. Congratulations to all parents and students on your great accomplishments are off to you all. And u if any of you all need to leave now would be the time to segue or you can stay for the rest of all these great things. >> Nice to see everyone. >> Congratulations. Yes. >>
013Congratulations to you. >> Very humbling. Is there anything on our public forum tonight? >> No, sir. >> All right. Now, we'll move on to voting on our session. So, now we will need a motion to amend the agenda. We've already done that. Okay. >> A cot. >> So now we'll need a motion to accept the uh certified employment recommendation for item A for candidate A. >> I'll make a second. >> Accept candidate A. >> I'll second. >> All in favor. Let me hear a motion for candidate B. Make a motion. Cate B. >> A second. >> All in favor? >> And next we're here a motion for candidate C. Make a motion for candidate C. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> Next we hear a motion for our final certified recommendation. Candidate D. >>
014I'll make a motion for candidate D. >> A second. All in favor? >> I I >> opposed. I >> So those are received as presented. And next we will move on to the motion to approve the district contract for financial auditing services. I make a motion to accept the recommendation for administration from administration to award the annual financial audit services to Martin Smith and company CPAs for the 2026, 2027, and 2028 physical years. >> I'll second that motion. All in favor? All right. Next, we need a motion to approve our minutes from the February 9th meeting. >> I make a motion we approve the February 9th minutes. Second. >> All in favor? >> Ime 8.0 are board reflections. Got two things. The uh conference was great. Learned a lot. uh some great speakers um especially
015like the the lady bought her book and I forget her name off the top of my head but uh it was it was a great conference and then also um our golf team held the uh first ever mini golf classic and they had 70 players and raised a bunch of money for the golf team so it was a huge success >> was a great conference and I can't remember her name either in I'm going to look it up right now she read it's a great recommendation book and if you just indulge me just find it. Do you all remember the name? >> I can find it for you. >> I know my wife's already read it all. >> I already read it. It's I highly recommend the book. I can't find it. I didn't buy
016it on Amazon from her. >> Liz Liz Huntley. >> Liz Huntley. >> More than a more than a bird. >> Yeah. She's an attorney out of Alabama. has a absolutely inspiring story. It's a very easy, very quick read about an hour, hour and a half read. Um, she was an absolutely incredible speaker. I even suggested Mr. to Dr. Mo that we have her for professional development. She was she was fantastic. But that conference overall was very well attended by everyone and a lot of good information. >> She actually spoke to us through the eyes of a child. So everything she said it was like through the eyes of a child. I'm speaking to you all through the eyes of a child letting us know what children go through. >> Um this conference with me was
017like a was like a revival if I could say so >> you know because it it was um where we've been going and learning different things about the children administration but this was all about us as board members and our responsibilities. So it gave us opportunity to build relationships with one another which is something that's very important. So it was it was very inspirational and like I said it was like a revival to remind us of our why why we do what we do and um how we are to work as a team. And so now I know who has my what was it? >> Your back >> my back I'm on your front row row. >> Front row row row. >> Front row. So we all we've learned who's on our front row. >>
018Okay. >> But I had your back in Chicago. >> Okay. This may not be a board reflection, but I attended the reception that they held for us on Saturday evening >> and I won a free registration to the September the December meeting in Charleston. Oh, great. District. What a wonderful. Any further reflections? >> All right, we've taken your audience, but we're going to turn it over to you. >> All right, good evening. I'm Joy O'Neal. I'm the principal at Swansea Freshman Academy. I've brought my team member here. This is Miss Peterson, our assistant principal. Um and we're just going to share a couple of things about what the freshman academy has going on. Um so as far as our 2526 strategic focus areas, uh this was some of the goals that we had for this
019year. Um students earning the honor role will meet or exceeds 24% and then students qualifying for promotion to the 10th grade will meet or exceeds 92%. Um this is just some of our celebrations that we've had for honor roll. Our first quarter we had 21.3%. Um we celebrated those students back in October. And then for quarter 2 we had 17.2% and that was in January. Usually we see quarter 2 being a little stressful for our students. Um that's when they're finally getting in the swing of things being a freshman in high school and it's a lot different from the middle school. So um sometimes we see them go backwards before they go forward. but I'm confident that they're going to be where they need to be. Um, so percentage of students passing all classes for
020quarter 1, we had 91% of our students passing all of their classes. For quarter two, we were at 80% and then hopefully we'll be up um for quarter 3. Um, this is our longitudinal data. So, in the blue, that was uh 2024. Um and then yeah nongr 24 um and then last year nonGR25 um those numbers for on track graduate and the percentage of passing math and English those are where we ended at the end of the year. So we were at 91.5% on track for graduation. Um we had 91% in math and then 93% in English. Um currently for March uh we are at 81% on track for graduation. Uh 87% passing math and then 80 or 90% passing English. I will say that we were a little bit lower than that at March
021of last year. So we are making some gains which I'm very excited and happy to say that. Um some of our strategies and outcomes that we use at the freshman academy this year was our first year with I Ready. Um, we use I Ready reading and math. Um, the good thing is we've had some students that have tested completely out of I Ready, which is good. Um, that means that they are on 9th grade level or higher um or above nth grade level in reading and in math. Um, what we have done with those students is either we have done ACT SAT prep with those students because we um give the I Ready uh my path during our advisory classes. So we have that on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 45 minutes. Um and so either
022students are on I Ready or the students that have tested out they have the SAT and ACT prep. We also have created a um SEAL class that some of our students take and it's based on math strategy. Um what we've seen just in the district across the board is that math is a struggling area for some of our students. So we've provided some more intervention for those students. Um as far as math is concerned, we also have content recovery pull out. So at the end of each quarter, students have the opportunity to recover um and master that content that maybe they did not do well on um during the quarter. So we have time for them to do that. We have afterchool tutoring every Tuesday. Um and that consists of two to three of our
023certified teachers working with our students to ensure that they are meeting expectations and again mastering that content. Um we have lunchtime attendance recovery and students take great advantage of that. Um we have that every day. Um and then Saturday attendance and recovery and also tutoring which will start that the 21st of March will be our first Saturday that we're offering that. This is our ready progress. Um so as you can see um fall uh you know there was a a 74% of our students were three grade levels or below. Um as you can see for winter that percentage has dropped which is good. Um now we're at 58% of students three grade levels of or below. So that means that we are growing um when we look at the winter in read both reading and
024um in math of course we have a higher percentage in math um as I stated you know those students do struggle a little bit more in math um and therefore we have dropped that percentage as well um those students will take that diagnostic uh the third week of March. So we hopefully will see a lot more gains um once we get to that diagnostic for spring. Some of our highlights for our student engagement. We've had a couple of spirit weeks as Alexis told you guys about. Um we've tried to get students in the library. So we had fiction pride and fun. That was something that we did at the freshman academy as well as the high school. Um just an opportunity for students to choose, you know, different books once they read them. Um they
025actually received a ticket to the fair um if they were the one drawn for that. So the students really enjoyed that. Also, blind date with a book. Um it's same type of concept where students get a wrap book. They don't know what book it is and then they read it and they give a little vi uh they give a little um summary of what that book was about. Um and then they got a Stanley if uh they were chosen for that. Uh March Madness is a little competition that we do with our freshmen. It gets intense, but it's really fun. We do it as a school. Um, and our two teams, our purple and gold team, compete against each other um, for the highest percentage of students passing their classes. So, we usually do that
026around March because we know we got 50 days left of school and we really want those kids grinding and and getting those credits. Um, so that's a fun competition. So, every week, uh, starting this week actually, uh, they receive some type of prize for the winning classes. Um, this week is going to be popcorn. Next week will be ice cream. Um, the third week will be they'll have some outside time because our kids don't get to get outside very much, but now that it's springtime, they really like out outside. Um, and then for the last week, they get a pizza party, but that's that's one class. They they battle for that pizza. Um, some of the things that we some other things that we have done is um Dr. C Wright was gracious enough to
027allow all of our students to go to the cake program at the high school, which is very important for our students. Um, sometimes when we talk about the programs that we have at the high school, without them actually seeing it, they can't visualize what that means. Um, so when we get to the IGP process, which we're currently in, they have the opportunity to see those programs and they really enjoy it because it helps them to make a more informed decision about, you know, what they're going to be doing next year and those hands-on opportunities that they have at the high school. One thing that Miss Peterson found um was our think fast teen driver safety program. And this is something that we'll do in April. Um, it's kind of like a game show. It's a
028free event um that they come out to our schools. They set it up as a game show. They have um different teams and they battle against each other for information that they know about safety and teen driving. What we know is that our students are are embarking on permits and getting ready to get their license um mid year next year. So, it's just a fun thing for us to do at the freshman academy. And then we also have our quarterly celebrations. So each of our students have to meet expectations in order to attend those quarterly celebrations. Some of those celebrations look like me getting pied in the face. Um that was their challenge. That was great. Um and then they do different events. Most of the time our student council and our beta club are
029the ones that actually put those events on for our students at the end of each quarter. >> What type of pie? >> It was actually shaving cream, which was the worst. Um, we also do our PSAs for English. That was something Alexis talked about as well. Each of our students choose something that they're very interested in and they present to a group of judges. Most of the time it's from the community library or um different educators in the community that come out and hear. And also teacher cadet was um some of our judges this year as well. We also had our health science Christmas play. Um, and they did a great job. They actually performed, as you can see, during lunchtime and the kids had a ball with it. Um, it's just something fun again
030for us to do during the holidays. Um, they talked about stress of a teen, uh, which is really important because in the ninth grade, I feel like they stay stressed. Uh, that's their first year of high school and it's very, very different from the middle school. Um, we had a guest speaker, Mr. Quincy Sutton. He does look familiar, doesn't he? Um, and he talked about perceptions to become reality. And that's something that we talk about a lot with our students. Um, he also was gracious enough to provide planners to all of our teachers. Um, and actually with our ready for success uh class, we were actually able to give a lot of our students planners as well. So, thank you, Mr. Sutton. Um, and then JROTC alumni alumni, they came back and spoke to some
031of our students in JROTC. We have a lot of students that graduated um, last year that are doing some great things. You probably see some familiar faces in those pictures. Um, but it's just really nice to see, you know, what a year's time makes when those kids go off into the community um, and become young adults. So, that was pretty awesome. our staff engagement. We do a lot of different team building. We do a chili cook off during um Thanksgiving. Everybody enjoys that. Um we do like chili or soup. And unfortunately, we've had the same teacher win both years. It's like fantastic. Um she does a really great uh chicken soup. And then um we also have desserts and we do a cook off there with our desserts as well. Um, we also do our
03212 days of Christmas which you can see um at the top two corners and that's just gift cards that me and Miss Peterson buy for our staff and we choose a teacher for the last 12 days that we're in school and they get to get a little treat. Um some of our Beta Club highlights, we've had our induction, we had fall festival, um Beta Club food drive, Beta convention, they helped with our quarter events. Um we did hunted hallways during fall festival, which was actually pretty awesome to watch. Um I went through the hunted hallways with some of our community members and particularly some of our younger kids were like, I'm not going in there. But um we create our hallways to be like a haunted house and they kind of travel through our our
033uh school and that's really fun to watch. Um they also do our recycling um every week and then we also have our edge store which they manage our edge store which gives uh free hygiene products to our students. student council. They've done holiday door decorating contests which again the same teacher that has won the soup also wins the decorating. She's so extravagant with her door. I had a picture up here but I guess it didn't transfer here. But I mean her door is phenomenal. If y'all want to come to the freshman academy um during Christmas you will see she puts a lot of effort there. um our holiday light display. This was our first year being a part of that. And then we also did bus driver appreciation for our bus drivers. Gave them a
034little Cersei. Um some of the things that we've done as far as guidance is concerned is that we've had college and career readiness lunch interviews, which was actually really cool. Um Miss Young and a couple of other staff members interviewed students during lunchtime. They pulled out different interview questions. um and then they got interviewed on the spot. So that just helps them to be more college and career ready. Um be pro be proud is the little bus that comes out to us and they have um cate like uh simulators and things like that for the students to have hands-on opportunities. And then our students also went to Midlands Tech for um a field study. >> And that's it. Any questions? It's always Thanksgiving, that last day that we get out before Thanksgiving. So, y'all come
035by. There's plenty plenty left. >> Fantastic. >> Thank you so much. >> Dr. Atinson. >> Good evening, Mr. Chair, Dr. Nutter, and members of the board. I have for you tonight uh an additional textbook to consider for um approval. As you know, all of our courses and their textbooks are approved by the Department of Education. They send us a list of books that our teachers um are able to go through the process which your policy JJ. Uh every school has a committee uh that goes through this process based on that policy. Once the committee has made their selections, then of course that name is um submitted to the office of the superintendent and of course they also have support from the office of academics. So tonight I am bringing forth uh our Spanish text authentic
036levels one through three for your consideration for adoption. >> Motion to adopt. >> I make a motion we adopt secondary Spanish text. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Nutter. Um, I'm going to start off with the February monthly financial report. Um, for February, we collected a little over well, we're at a little over $29.5 million um year to date. That represents about 66.4% 4% of the annual revenue budget at this point. Um that's under prior year's average um which is around 71.9. We spoke about this last month um that we're continuing to watch that um because the collections for this month still we still were not aligning. I I went and did a little more digging analysis. when
037I look back at the reassessment year the the five years ago um to see the trends by month, we actually are a little bit higher compared to that particular year because of appeals. So that definitely made me feel a little better. Um, I also met with the Lexington County CFOs for school districts um, the other week and one of the things we put on the agenda and discussed was collections and just to get a feel if everyone else was seeing the same thing and they all were anxiously awaiting the next month to felt like it was appeals but they're seeing the same percentages at this point. So, I'm still very confident that when we get our collections in March for February that that will probably be some of the appeal pieces rolling over. So, I
038still I'm not concerned, but just still watching it. Um, but did feel a little better after we looked at those things. Um, as far as expenditures go, we've expended a little over 28.7 million year to date, um, or 59.3% of the annual expenditure budget. That is above prior year's average of roughly 55.1%, but that's before considering the fact that we did the transfer to the capital projects of $4 million. When you take that out of the calculation, um, our year-to-day exto to date expended is around 51% which is below our our normal average. So, I felt pretty good about that as well. Um, any questions about the monthly financial report? Okay, we'll move on to the budget update. Um wanted to just briefly touch on um the few big things for Houseways and Means budget.
039Um they once again deliberated about two days and the highlights from their recommendations. The biggest thing was that that $2,000 per sale for the teacher salary schedule um seems to be passing along. Um my understanding from folks that work closely with legislators is that's looking pretty solid at this point. So unless something major changes, um we do anticipate that that's pretty much what they they'll stick with. Again, that could change, but that's what we're anticipating. That would bring the state minimum salaries to 50 um,500. Just so you know, if we were to implement the same at the bottom of our salary schedule, that would bring our starting salary to 53.5. So, we would still be a good 300 3,000 above the state minimum for that starting teacher pay. Um, they also put additional funding for
040the education scholarship trust fund, which I'm sure y'all have heard lots about. Um they've put some additional funding for instructional materials, school bus leases, and some school safety grants as well. There were several other things, but those are some of the the highlights. Um at this point, we continue um through their projections even they are saying that we're not going to have any increase in health insurance costs for employers this year. So that's good news. Hopefully that'll make it all the way through as well because that definitely does impact us. Um so that would be good. I have not heard anything about retirement yet. So we'll we'll keep an eye on that as well. Um the state department of education told us last week that they hope to have the revenue projections from the house
041ways and means andor house depending on what the house does this week but hopefully by the end of this week which will be good. That'll be our first um opportunity to do some projections for revenues and kind of see where we might might be falling out. Um full house is deliberating this week on the budget. So things will start moving a hope hopefully a little bit faster at this point. I wanted to also just kind of remind everyone these are some of the same type slides that we looked at last year as we went through the budget process. But just for the general public and as a reminder to um all of us, we're just walking through some of where our our dollars come from. As you can see, our about 26% of our revenue
042comes from local tax dollars. Um we have about 72% coming from state funds and 2% coming from other. One of the things I just wanted to mention was as you're you're looking at the local tax revenue and the factors that contribute to those dollars. Um the only thing we really have any say or control over is what our meal value that we request is. We can't control the assessments. We can't control any of the tax um exemptions that they put out there. We can't control the collection rates. So the the really the only thing that we have any sort of control over is going to be that millage rate and or the the number of mills levied that also has restrictions on it as well. But just kind of want to remind you of that
043with regards to state revenue. Um there are multiple different factors as you can see that drive what those revenues are. none of these um are items that we actually can influence or control. So again, these are these are drivers that we don't we really can't um influence at all. So those are things such as our student enrollment um the state student enrollment uh index of tax payability and what our um our area can can carry burden-wise from the from our tax basis. But those are just a few of the things that as they fluctuate that state revenue can fluctuate. One of the things I will mention here with the state funding formula and you guys probably remember a lot of this from last year and we've experienced it this year. I think I mentioned at
044the last meeting that um our state aid to classroom had gone down by like 200 and something thousands and fortunately we have offsets in interest that that help level that out. But those changes don't just tie to whether our student enrollment goes up or down. They're also influenced by other districts. So if the statewide student enrollment changes, then that can fluctuate um revenues for all the districts as well. So that is where we see some changes. It we could actually grow children in a year and depending on what happens at the state level, we could lose funding in the middle of the year. So that it's just one of the dynamics of the new funding formula that's interesting. So we try and keep an eye on that. But 72% of our our total revenues come
045from state sources. And then finally um the 2% that comes from other revenue sources primarily interest and some small tuition amounts, rentals, etc. So that makes up a a pretty small portion of our revenues. with regards to expenditures and where we spend our money. Um, as you can see, when you look at salaries and fringe benefits, that makes up a a large portion of what our of what's our budget spent on um about 85.4%. when you pull out of the contracted services the cost um and budget line items that we have for substitutes because we pay those as a contracted service instead of a salary. When you put those together, it represents about 87% of our budget. So that's just kind of give you a perspective of what's tied up in human resources and where
046we pay for people basically um for the most part. Oh, outside of that, um, an additional 8 about 8.4% is spent on the budget with regards to utilities and the remaining contracted services. And that leaves roughly 4.6% um for supplies, materials, equipment, and other cost. So that just as a perspective to go into, the majority of our budget is tied up with people at this point. Okay, just looking forward and this is really really early, but just wanting to kind of throw some things out there to remember. You know, every year one of our biggest cost as we're going into planning for the next budget year is going to be step increases. Um you starting out with certified and teacher salary schedule increases. Those are mandated by the state. So that off the top you're
047going to have that. Um, fortunately, if they continue with no increase for health insurance premiums, that's great because usually that's the next little chunk that you you really don't have a choice with. Um, we'll continue to watch the retirement sir charge and and any retirees health insurance costs that might go up. And then you also have step increase for all other employees. So, those are the the vast majority of the cost what makes up the bulk of a cost increase in any given year. Um, one of the things I also wanted to mention, you probably have heard in newsletters and such about the Watercraft property tax relief that's out there. Um, from what I'm hearing, y'all may have heard differently, but I'm hearing that some way, shape, or form, this is probably going to pass.
048Um, it's kind of going fast track. Um, at this point, just going off of the 43% that I've heard thrown out there, um, they're projecting that 43% of the fair market value of watercrafts at this point, um, would no longer be taxed. So, if I apply that to what we receive every year for watercraft or what we received last year for watercraft revenue, that would roughly um, translate about $75,000 loss in revenue. So, I mean, it's it's a teacher, you know. Uh, so yeah, definitely is something we want to watch. There's also I didn't put it on the slide, but Homestead exemption is also out there um with consideration for edits to it. It's very difficult to tell exactly how that how much that would impact us, but my understanding is that they have written
049in that there'll be state revenue to help offset any loss of revenue from that. But you know how that goes. It may not be fully funded, but but that's what's out there right now related to homestead. So, I don't anticipate it being a huge impact, but but >> we are >> um I think it's increasing it to like $175,000 and there's also some changes. I think they're changes, but there was clarification on like how many years you had to be residents. >> Um but it's increasing, I think, the dollar amount of the exemption. So, it's still a smaller little bit smaller population, but there there's really not it's not easy to estimate what that would impact us, but they have said that they're going to be offsetting that with homestead revenue that's supposed to come
050to us. So, uh they haven't said that about the watercraft. So, but anyway, we'll we'll keep watching that, but I want to go ahead and throw that out there because that is one thing going into next year we'll look at and keep in mind. Um, we'll continue to evaluate our needs and look at strategies for aligning budget. Um, we're digging in this week, hopefully getting a little bit further into the budget, especially if we get some of those projections this week. So, any questions about the budget and upcoming process? >> Thank you'all. >> Yes, we have three travel request to share with you. These are for extended day or overnight trips. In fact, all three of these are overnight trips and board policy uh provides that they first go to the uh principal school for
051approval and then to office of superintendent to you all. So the first one is a trip coming up this week with uh HOSP um which is uh the uh future health professionals and it is the state leadership conference in North Charleston to you about that prior and they are going to go to that March 11th through the >> I make a motion we approve the host of field trip March 11th through 13th. >> All in favor? >> Our second uh is a athletic uh the SHS boys golf tournament. Actually, it's the Diamondback tournament in Lor, South Carolina. That is the 28th and the 29th of March coming up. And um that is for uh five golfers to attend that and we bring that to >> make a motion. We approve the high school boys. >>
052I'll second. >> All in favor. And the uh last is uh a field trip uh future business leaders of America uh for uh students that are in the uh third course uh that engages with that at the school level. um Miss Render Raleigh and Miss uh Shaina Myers, Denise Myers, uh join with a group of um 10 students maximum at this point uh to uh New York City uh on April 20th through the 25th. um that um they will be traveling via Amtrak via train and uh taking that route and uh participating in uh this trade uh convention uh in uh the Javis Convention Center in New York City. Make a motion we approve the FBLA business in New York City April 20th. Second. >> The only other things that we have are just reminders
053as far as the statement of economic interest. I'm sure that everyone has completed that, but if you have not, uh March 30th is your deadline. Uh and then of course we have future board meetings and events. Uh, three of you all are going to the Costco conference. That's >> also in a couple weeks or actually this week, my bad. >> And I appreciate Miss Williams and Dr. Sanders putting together for you and excellent job with that. We look forward to hearing what you all have to share from there. And then our next board meeting, just a reminder that that's on April 20th due to spring break. Uh so it'll be later in April uh than the second Monday of the month. And uh that's what we make a motion. >> I'll second favor. >> Thank
054you all so much.