001meeting of the Union County School Board of Proceedings to order. U at this time I'd ask Mrs. Beth Atne if she leads an invocation and pledge of allegiance. >> Would you stand and bow, please? Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity to come together tonight as a school board for our district, Lord. And we thank you for all the blessings you've already blessed us with today. And Lord, we pray as we make decisions tonight that we'll be mindful of your will in our lives and the lives of our students. And Lord, we just pray pray that you will bless our students and their families through this holiday season and keep us all safe. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Attention. Salute. Pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
002and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Is there a need for an agenda? >> No, sir. Um, we need a motion for approve the agenda. >> Mr. Brewington >> Second. Any discussion of the agenda? Miss P, if you call the role, please. >> Mr. Burlington. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss Anthony. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Ivy. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Lipy. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss Mcorris. >> Miss Shropshshire. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Tro, >> yes ma'am. >> And Mr. Massie? >> Yes, ma'am. >> The motion is approved. This time I entertain a motion to go to executive session to discuss personnel matters, contractual and career readiness. Motion >> Mr. Truit. >> Second. >> Mr. Robshshire. Any discussion this point?
003Miss Penny, if you call the role, please. >> Mr. Truit. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Shropshshire. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Burlington. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Ivy? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Lipsy? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss McMorris? Yes, ma'am. >> Miss Anthony. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Massie. >> Yes, ma'am. The motion's approved and I have 632 Okay. is back in open session. While in executive session, no votes were taken. M P, do we have confirmation notice to the meeting? >> Yes, sir. Entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the 11:24 meeting. M >> I got a second from >> Mr. Truit. >> Any discussion on the minutes? Miss P, if you would call the role, please. >> Mr. Shire. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Tro, >> yes ma'am. >> Mr. Burlington.
004>> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Ivy? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Lipy? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss Mcorris? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss Anthony? Yes, ma'am. >> And Mr. Massie. >> Yes, ma'am. >> The motion is approved. >> Administration request the approval of the December 2025 report. >> Make a motion we approve. >> Miss Anthony. >> Second. >> Miss Brewington. Any discussion on the personnel report? Miss Pit, if you would call the RO, please. >> Miss Anthony? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Burlington. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Ivy? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Lipy? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss McMorris? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mshshire. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Shro, >> yes, ma'am. >> And Mr. Massie? >> Yes, ma'am. >> The motion is approved. >> Thank you. >> I'd like to make a motion
005to approve the superintendent's recommendation of a holiday bonus for all of our employees. We have a motion on the floor to approve superintendent's recommendation for holiday bonuses for employees. Second have a second from Mr. Lipy. We have any discussion. >> Miss Petty, call a roll, please. >> Mr. Burlington? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Lipy. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Ivy? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss McGoris? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss Shropshshire? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Shuit? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss Anthony? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Massie? Yes, ma'am. >> The motion is approved. >> Mitch, >> Miss Mitchell. >> Good evening. It's the recommendation from the administration that we award the contract for food service kitchen equipment preventive maintenance and repair to JES equipment sales and service out of Aville, South Carolina. This
006vendor came in with the highest score and the lowest per hour rate at $85 per hour. >> Entertain a motion to approve the administration's recommendation. >> Second, >> Mr. Truit motion. I >> miss Anthony. Second. >> Any other discussions on this? Miss. Pity, if you would call the role, please. >> Mr. Truit. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss Anthony. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Broington. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Ivy? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Lampy? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss McVoris? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Robshshire. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Massie? >> Yes, ma'am. >> The motion is approved. This time I'll ask um Mr. Truth, Miss Anthony, to share highlights from the legislative advocacy conference. You want to go first? One. >> Uh well, first thing, it was good that uh Miss Anthony
007was there. Uh I tried to explain to her what the delegate assembly would be like. And if you've never been in the delegate assembly, uh >> it was a treat. >> Sometimes it can be a circus. So, I'm glad somebody else saw it with their own eyes. But there's a lot of good information, uh proposals, resolutions, uh that they'll be taken to uh the Senate and the House about things that the Department of Education is looking to get. But I always like to listen to Patrick Kelly who is uh over the government affairs uh director of government affairs uh for the Palmetto State Teachers Association. I always like to hear from him because uh not only are we as a school board here to do uh what's best for our children, we have to look
008out for our teachers. We have to make sure that our teachers, our administrators, uh, are taken care of and we give you a reason to stay here with Union County Schools. So, I always like to hear what he has to say from our teachers throughout the state. And he was last year, he gave a list of things that the teachers had brought to him uh, through PTSA. And I wanted to go over that list again this year. uh he said you know for years and years it was pay it was compensation compensation but uh now compensation has been better so it is kind of fallen down the list not that it isn't important but there are some other issues that have taken the place of compensation and the first one was uh he said you
009teachers said that they needed time to do their jobs they wanted to teach. They didn't want to have meetings on top of meetings on top of training on top of training on top of meetings. They wanted to teach their students. That was number one. Uh number two was school safety. Uh they all wanted to know that when they went into their facility to teach that they and their children were going to be safe. And I'm glad that we're working on some initiatives here in our district to to make our schools safer. Compensation and benefits had uh dropped down to number three this year. Um and then what I thought would maybe be number one or number two was number four, but he said it was uh promptly moving up the list uh was persistent disruptive
010student behavior. He said he had a lot of teachers talking about, you know, the the that there was students who were constantly some of the same students constantly causing the disruptions and uh it was costing time in the classroom. It was costing time uh for the teachers to be able to do uh what they are called to do. So those are just things that we have to consider and and I want all of our teachers, all of our students, uh you know, all of our taxpayed citizens to know that me personally, I take this list to to to heart because Patrick Kelly is not just a representative. He's a teacher. He teaches social studies at Blackwood High School. He's not just somebody in a government position. He does it every day. he has his pulse
011on what the teachers uh are needing. And for me personally, uh I take that as a challenge and want to try to do the best that I can and and the best that our board can do uh to support our teachers. So, uh that was the main thing that I focused on there. >> I should have gone first cuz that's everything I was I'm just kidding. Um Patrick Kelly was a great speaker. um he is a teacher and he is of course a representative and he did have a lot of things that um as a former teacher those are things that would you know be on my mind as well but I will add to um what he did say um the education uh the working conditions in education and the work life balance he
012also hit on that for our teachers so that's something that you know is at the forefront of my mind keeping our people where they can be effective providing what they need um making sure that they're heard. He also suggested meeting with teacher forums and I know that our district does do a good job with that. We do have a a group of teachers that represent each location. So, um I think our teachers are heard in our district. Um, but I will say one of we we had several different um sessions and the first session that we went to and this is my first opportunity attending this conference because I've not had the best help the past couple of years when it rolled around. So, I was pleased to be able to go. Um, but the
013first session was with some of our lawmakers. We had two senators and two representatives from the House of Representatives. We had Terry Alexander who is with the House and Neil Collins who's with the House and then Russell Aut who is um a Senate representative and then our very own representative Shane Martin was there. So it was really neat to listen to these guys talk about the different things that they're concerned with with education as well. Um they're concerned with student safety. They were talking about the money for SRO passing unanimously in the Senate. Um Shane Martin is also a former schoolboard member. So he's very much in touch with how school boards work and what we face. And all four of these representatives did say that if we have concerns in our area that we
014should voice those concerns to them. That's what they're there for, to represent us. And if they are not told that there's an issue, of course, they can't address that issue. So, um, a couple of the statements that were made are educators are really the first responders, meaning they train all of the other professions that are out there. Your EMTs, your fire department uh, representatives and your police officers were taught and they're taught by others how to do their jobs. So, educators are really first responders as well. And then um the main thing that I took away from their round table where they were sharing information was they're not very concerned about school report cards either. So they want us to put out good people that can represent our communities and know how to handle themselves
015and do the things that need to be done dayto-day. Good citizens. Um they want to make our schools safe. They want to give us what we need to be able to educate our students. and they're very con, you know, concerned with how that money is spent and they're trying to represent it, excuse me, represent us at a state level. So, um, if we do have concerns that we should voice those concerns. >> Thank you. Next superintendent, before you get started on and give you a little token from the school board for Christmas, it's not what teachers are going to get, but we are going to give you a little bonus tonight. We uh we do appreciate what you do and a lot of times putting up with us is enough but uh we appreciate what
016you do on a day-to-day basis. Thank you. Thank all of you. I appreciate >> Thank you. And Mr. Chair, I will go into my updates. First of all, last week we had a special guest uh stop at SS Middle School. They had the chance to welcome and host State Superintendent Ellen Weaver. Want to brag on two pieces of that. First of all, Dr. Cartina staff did a wonderful job of preparing for that welcome, but the other big piece, they got to showcase a lot of good student talent during that visit. So, want to brag on not just the setup and organization of the welcome, but what we saw and the student performances and state superintendent was very pleased also. So we thank her for stopping here in Union County and also the moment we got
017to kind of showcase uh what we do here in Union County. We had one hour to showcase. So they did a great job. Speaking of our students, uh more bragging, we have our superintendent student advisory board. We met for our second time last week and I want to say they just continued to really show off their leadership skills and they had actually three guest presenters this past time and um did not mind asking those guests questions and making comments to their presentations. So they are very attentive. They ask good questions and always at the end we give them an opportunity to bring feedback to represent the voice of their school especially the student voice because we want to hear what's on the minds of a student. I always say if you want the truth ask
018a student because they going to tell you. So uh they voice those ideas they bring us questions and that helps us develop their next agenda um for the next meeting in February. In fact, we'll uh maybe bring some of your board members in one time and you can watch the student board members uh perform in action. But I just want to brag on them because uh we have some great student leadership in Union County Schools. Um those 12 on that board just represent a host of student leaders that we have in this district. So we are blessed to have them. one opportunity coming up and I will be sending you an email as far as to the school board. January the 15th. Um you can go ahead and write that date down. We're going to
019plan some um mini u sessions, some small group sessions with you uh three to four at a time and what we're going to do is bring you the opportunity to find out more of updates of where we are with our cradle to career movement and planning. In fact, on that day, our partners from Sparta Academic Movement and the United Way, the Pemont will also join just so that you know where we are with that process, where we're going, and how it's going to benefit our school district, especially our students. And uh as that movement moves forward, so we'll get that to you in the email for January the 15th. And we are going to do more afternoon time and we even said start the last one at about five o'clock to try to help with
020some of our workers on the board got those shifts and worked out of town. Let's see. Before I go into some dates, I do want to make a recommendation to the board. Um recommend that uh we extend the custodial contract with Bud Group for the 2026 27 school year. Okay, we have a recommendation from the superintendent. I have a motion to accept it. >> Mr. Brewington, >> second. >> Miss Anthony, second. Any further discussion? >> Miss Penny, if you would call the role, please. >> Mr. Brewington. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss Anthony. >> Yes, ma'am. Mr. Ivy. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Ley. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss McMorris. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss Shropshshire. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Truit. >> Yes, ma'am. >> And Mr. Massie? >> Yes, ma'am. The motion is approved.
021>> All right. Now, a lot of updates and reminders. Um, Miss Mitchell was just at the podium and the big days coming up for packing some food boxes uh next couple days and then on this Thursday the 18th starting at 12:00 at the fairgrounds holiday groceries to go. And it's my understanding from Miss Mitchell that all tickets have been reserved and we even have a waiting list. So, uh, excited to have, uh, this moment for our community as we send the food packages home with our students. What's the number? >> Uh, 2500 original tickets were available. So, 2500 plus a waiting list. It's a lot of packing to do next couple of days. And we appreciate, let me say this to Union County Fairgrounds for letting us house uh materials there, supplies u to and
022also to set up our assembly lines for to do the packing. So, and a a number Miss Mitchell will know better, but there's a number of volunteers from even outside the school district from the community that's coming in to help pack. So, that that speaks volumes too for our community. So, we're very thankful for all the ones that's going to have a hand in this process. Thursday, December 18th, is actually a half day for our students. And then our winter break will begin on December the 19th. Our teachers return for staff development on January the 5th and then that'll be followed by our seniors returning for class on January the 6th. And I especially want to take this time uh on behalf of our school district to all of our staff members, our students, and
023our whole community, and say merry Christmas, and we hope you have a happy holiday during this time with your family and friends. And Mr. Chair and board members, we have a special for you tonight. So, I've been directed to turn this over to Miss Abby. Yes, sir. >> And you gonna take it from here. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Yeah. Before I start, if you any of you parents want to move around to get pictures, just move them at your free will. We don't mind. And thank you for being here. >> Our G major scale. >> Each note is played four times. >> One, two, one, two. There we go. A B C D E and Very good. All right. One, two. Here we go. Very good. And that's all we have
024for today. All right. >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> All right. Board me to remind me we normally do a student recognition, but you you brought on a little bit different flavor tonight, some entertainment. So students, if you could stand for a moment, if you'll make a line and come around, wave, Mr. Brewington, they'd like to fist bump all of you and kind of congratulate. Okay, so we appreciate your performance. >> That was awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much for Christmas. Great job. >> Thank you. Fantastic. It was great. Good job. >> Great job. One more round of applause. >> Good job. ALMOST BEFORE it's done. center stage. Yes, I should get all I have, Mr. Chair. Okay, at this time we're going to have a committee appointment. Um, according to board of policy, the
025board chair can, uh, appoint a committee. I'm going to appoint a committee to, um, review our policies dealing with, uh, chaperones, uh, trips by students, and make sure they're all aligned because it seems to be a little bit of confusion and some wording. And uh I'm gonna ask Miss Anthony if she's willing to uh serve because you do have some school experience, a little bit of HR experience and kind of head this committee up. >> Yes, sir. >> U Miss Shropshshire, you've expressed a big interest in this and you have a student involved also. So if you're willing, I'd love for you to >> I will. >> Sir, Mr. Lipsy uh since you taught since the beginning of time and was in school system like me for a long time. >> You've been involved with
026and still are cuz he he works with the North South Allstar Games. So he still has his hands in this if you're willing. And I talked Mr. Jeter today who has uh a lot of years on the board. I think he lost count. I know I did, but he was willing to serve too. if y'all would and look into these and let's see if we can get everything aligned and the wording to where it crosses over. Well, we don't we don't have any confusion. Um, according to policy, I don't think we have to vote on it, but you did put action. If the board would like to, we will vote since we put it down as an action item. We probably need this. I'm going to entertain action. >> I second. >> Mr. Bruins, second
027by Mr. Truit. Any more discussion on the communic if you would call a role please. >> Mr. Burlington. >> Yes ma'am. >> Mr. Shro. >> Yes ma'am. >> Mr. Abby. >> Yes ma'am. >> Mr. Lampy. >> Yes ma'am. >> Miss Mcorris. >> Mr. Robshshire. >> Yes ma'am. >> Miss Anthony. >> Yes ma'am. >> And Mr. Massie. >> Yes ma'am. >> The motion is approved. >> And Dr. Bird. Good evening. >> Good evening. >> Tonight we have um two principles coming to you to share information about their school footprint is an action item. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for allowing me to come tonight to talk to you a little bit on our school report card data. Before I do that, I do want to recognize a couple of people, members of our team that
028are here tonight, Miss Jennifer Deon and Miss Kim Glenn, assistant principles. And then I have Miss Carter, our math um interventionist coach. and Miss Jen Roberts, our reading coach, and Miss Amanda Button, our reading interventionist. And these ladies have been very instrumental in the growth that we experienced this year along with our amazing teachers and students. If you will look at your packet that you have um and also on the panel, our school rating for Jonesville, we get two ratings, two report cards, one for elementary, one for middle. We were average in both of those categories with 45 points each and the elementary and the middle category. Looking at our academic achievement for SC ready ELA and elementary for the 24 I also included past year's data for reference for 2425 we had 53.3% of
029our students who were scoring meets or at six which is above the district average or an increase of 5.3% over the previous year ready ELA for middle school 51.2% 2% meeting or exceeding which is above the district average with 11.5% increase. SC ready math in elementary 35.6% which is above the district average for an 8.8% increase and SC ready math for middle we had 21.2 two meeting or exceeding and that is a 3.9% increase over the previous school year and both of those were average ratings. Looking at our preparing for student success for elementary our overall rating in that category was unsatisfactory and you can see a quick breakdown there of some of the things that fall in that category. Our science which is our fourth graders testing this past school year had 32.7 meeting
030or exceeding which was down 5.5% from the previous test. We did not test the school year before but 23. Our kindergarten readiness falls in that category. We had 32.7% of our students demonstrating readiness for kindergarten. Our first grade students on track for success for ELA was 92.3% which was above the district and state average. Math 84.6% also above the district and state average. Our second grade on track success for ELA 76.6 above district and state average and math 57.8 which was above the state average. For Jonesville Middle, our overall rating in this category was below average. Our science is the only subject only test that counted in this area. For middle school, we had 46.3% median seating, which was a 17.7% increase from the previous year with 1123, which was above the district average. The
031next slide or handout that you'll see is SC ready student progress for elementary. Again, I gave you a three-year span there, but I do want to highlight a few things. Um, for this past school year, we had 49.3% which was above the district and state average for our percentage of progress points earned. Also looking at our MATS, um we were 59% in that category this past year above district and state average. And for our MAT abts, we were 31.3% which was above the state average. And that's for elementary. Looking at middle school, we'll highlight a few things here. Um Lavo was p performing 20% of students. We were at 50.8% 8% which was above the district and state average. And this next part I'm not quite sure how to explain. We were average for um
032elementary school climate. And if you look at our percentages for parents and teachers in those categories, we were above 90% in each category. students as well except for the 88% in the uh satisfied with social and physical environment and our rating was average but if you look at the next slide which is middle school which I can't explain we have the same percentages for teachers and parents and then our student percentages were lower than the elementary but we had a good rating for school climate for middle school so I can't explain that haven't been yet to understand why that is. Yes. >> Do you know how many parents participated in the surveys? Does it tell you that? And is that >> It does. Um the only difference I could see in that was the students.
033We had a little bit difference with the the student percentages because for elementary it was three through five and then we did six. So we did have a little bit of a higher percentage in students. They use the same information for teachers and parents for both. next steps. And I'm not going to read all this because you have it in your packet, but I do want to highlight that um some of the things that are going on at Jonesville this year with our curriculum and instructional focus. We are fully implementing HMH reading into reading in K5 and study sync into six through 8. We have full implementation of the I Ready personalized learning and the I Ready math curriculum in K8. Um in that we've always talked about I already we have the diagnostic assessments
034three times a year. Um we're also consistent in use with our state standards, our district pacing guides, curriculum frameworks. Um we make sure that our teachers are using those in their daily lesson planning and we also have begun implementation this year and we've written many looking at planning in PLC's we have weekly K through five math and ELA PLC's in which our instructional coaches are instrumental in this process um working with our teachers to make sure their standards are aligned with their lesson plans looking at that data and making those decisions um based on what our students need. Bi-weekly PLC's in grades 6 through 8 and math and science monthly ELA PLC's in grades 6 through 8 with consultant Wendy Martell. MTSS and student reporting. We conduct monthly MTSS meetings. Again, we're looking at data
035and behav academic and behavioral progress of our students. We have ongoing use of classroom quaranted data and progress monitoring tools. Individual reading plans for students in grades 1 through five to guide targeted instruction and ongoing progress monitoring. Tier one core instruction strengthen before intensifying intervention supports. And next we look at our professional development and coaching support. And I have to say that our math and reading coaches have been instrumental in these um aspects of what's going on at Jonesville each week with the continuous PD and coaching that we have going on. We also have support from curriculum associates with our ID curriculums, two to three instructional walkthroughs per year, professional learning support from Dr. book and then ongoing coaching for reading and math coaches through modeling, co-planning, co-eing and reflection monitoring and accountability. We have
036we maintain schoolwide data trackers across literacy, math, attendance and behavior to monitor progress of students. Quarterly leadership reviews to look at celebrations and areas of growth and strategic acts action sets. vertical alignment conversations at least once per semester to ensure progression of skills across grade levels, common expectations for student learning, student learning outcomes, and alignment of tier one instruction. And those are just a quick brief overview of some of the things that we're doing. This is a picture of our student council. And you will notice that throughout the presentation I had pictures um because I like to put faces with when we're talking about our students. Sometimes we get hung up on just the data and what it tells us. But also I do want to remember that there are there's a lot more to
037our students than just this one time snapshot of SC ready. And then this is a picture of our awesome staff that does. >> That's it. >> Any questions? >> Mr. TR got one. Um, how big a problem is tardiness? Is it a daily problem? >> Yes. >> Is it a big problem? But I wouldn't I would say attendance in general is a huge issue because you got to come to school to learn >> and we have lot >> I know we saw that with Miss >> Eddie. Yes. >> Last month and it's the same thing here. >> Yep. >> So I mean I guess we're we get to a point to where it's disruptive. It's, you know, and I spoke with someone down at the delegate assembly and asked them a couple of them and
038they were talking about truency and truency cord and how those things were backed up and it was just so we're not the only ones. I talked to several districts and and one of the districts said that that was their biggest complaint from principles of schools was absences and tardiness especially in the elementary. >> Yes, that would be one of our biggest complaints because you got to be there to learn. >> Just want to make sure >> makes it difficult. >> I think it's going to be a through the district thing. Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. T. >> Thank you. All right. Well, good evening everyone. >> Good evening. So in your packet you received prior to the meeting there was a copy of our improvement plan and there was an
039additional copy put out your seat tonight that is a little bit larger copy. Um as we were framing those and getting those ready for the package the template was formatted in such a great way that it needed some extra love and attention. So, um, I was able to work on that for you a little bit your reading pleasure. We're going to begin first with our school report card. Now, I know last year I stood up here and it was a a heavy night for me and for our school. Um, last year we were sitting on an unsatisfactory rating with 32 points earned. And this school year, our report card is showing a 40, which is an 8 point increase. We came out of the unsatisfactory rating. We're still below average, but we are, if you
040look at the bottom table there, we are two points from average. And while two points is is the next step up, we are we are aiming higher because if we can go up eight points, we can do that again. So we are continuing to work. Um as you can see from the year before, we're even higher than two years ago where we were then still working on those things. Here is a quick overview of our school report card for the last three years. In bold, under the 2024 25 column, you'll see the number of points for each of those areas and then the um the number of points increase in green to the right. So, we increased overall eight points on our report card, which is amazing growth in one year. Um academic achievement we
041increased 1.32 points. Student progress 5.58 points and then school climate up almost one point. Breaking down SC ready specifically ELA for meet and exceeds we went up 6.3 points this school year um or this past school year I should say. Um, and then in each of those other areas, you'll see improvements in our meets, our approaches, and our does not meet. You'll notice again a decrease, an 11 point decrease in our does not meet students. Um, meaning those are going upwards in those higher performing categories. For ready math, we saw a 2% increase from the previous year. Still under what we were two years ago there, but we are we are seeing improvement for sure from last year and math continues to be an area needing additional support there. Preparing for success. I think this
042is this is a tough one across the board for science specifically. Um, our exceeds went up in this one and that's a significant gain there. But, um, our fourth grade science wasn't tested and scored the year before. Um, but we are continuing to work with that. And currently this year, our fourth grade science teacher is um undergoing an extensive study with Clemson University through their science blast program and that's Miss Amy Petty and doing a great job on it. So I really anticipate that for increasing this year student progress the lot of numbers and a lot of words on the screen but this particular one is about our growth. um looking at progress from third and fourth grade and fourth to fifth grade and then looking at our lowest performing 20% of students. And if
043you look at the column on the right, it's all green with significant changes there. Um grade improvement and how we are growing our students. And this is figuring in ELA and math. those students that were in third grade going to fourth grade and fourth grade going to fifth grade. And again, significantly looking at growth with our lowest performing 20% of students and how we are growing that population. Our school climate last year this this section was below average. we came up to an average rating for our school climate, an increase of almost one whole point. Um, it was enough to move us to the next performance level up. And again, we saw the same thing. I didn't I didn't fit on this for tonight, but we've seen the same thing. We'll have in the 90s%
04490% and higher. Some of them 100% satisfaction rating, but then you still end up with an average rating. So, it's it's a magical formula they have to figure this stuff out. We're going to shift over to our continuous improvement plan, which is the action item on your agenda tonight. And again, there's lots and lots of words on on that page. If you look at the packet I gave you a copy of tonight, it's still a little small, but it's better than the original was having on this template was was so pulled the goals and the action steps for each of the three goals included in the plan. The first goal is a resource and equity goal, and I focus this goal around our student progress. We saw a lot of gains in our student progress
045area this year on our report card and we want to continue to see us grow those students. So what we're looking for is a 10% increase for um the overall percentage of progress points earned from 41.5% to 51.5%. And increase the percentage points for the student progress to the lowest 20% of students. um from 47.9 to 57.9 in spring of 26. We'll do this by those action steps on the side because it is a resource and equity goal. Um looking at how we are closing that gap and meeting the needs of students. The first thing on there is providing students with a laptop which our district does um and dedicated time at school to ensure the access to the learning program including I already learning paths in reading and math. Then providing high quality tier
046tier one instruction to all students. providing intervention services to students through additional uh reading interventions with phological awareness and phonics being the focus for striving students in ELA providing intervention services uh through math for striving students and then this is an important one particularly for our school but I'm sure all across our district providing support services to students and teachers such as mental health therapists, school counselors including character education That's performance goal one. You flip your page to performance goal two. This one is focused strictly on ELA and so we are looking to increase the percentage of all students scoring meet. This year we were at 40.7% of students meets and exceeds. We're looking for a 10point increase in SC ready ELA in the spring of 26. There are four main things that we will
047do to make sure that we get there. Uh one is providing educators with coaching rounds professional development that is ongoing including letters training support for teachers with a focus on phological awareness and phonics utilizing um HMH into reading curriculum and on one support in the ELA instructional planning with teachers. In addition to that, uh we also have ongoing training and PD using our I Ready program looking at data and analys and analyzing our data, understanding the state standards, and then implementing effective teaching strategies and assessments in ELA classrooms. All of that leading to high quality tier one instruction to students. And then once we get that data, we use that data in PLC's to meet to analyze the data, reflect, talk, and plan moving forward. Um, all of this feeding into how we're supporting our
048teachers with our instructional approaches. And then finally, providing intervention services through additional reading interventions in those areas. So, we're looking at helping our teachers by providing the training and professional development, providing high quality instruction, using the data we get from the assessments to plan moving forward, and then providing intervention to the students who still need it. Performance goal three and the final goal is on mathematics. We are here looking to increase the percentage of all students who are need to increase from 28 to 38% on SC ready for math in spring 26. And again I went back with these same four um strategies. Keep it simple, keep it streamlined, keep your focus. Provide educators with coaching rounds and professional development to support the content area. provides high quality tier one instruction making sure teachers know
049everything they know need to know and have everything they need to have to teach the students use the PLC model to analyze our data and plan moving forward and then providing those intervention services for students who still need the packet that you received has additional information that supports the plan, including who's responsible for each of these components, estimated cost, which are truly estimated cost. Um, and then how will monitor the product of these goals along the way? This is when does this start? Once it's approved here, it goes to the state department for their approval. If I'm correct, Dr. Once it's approved here, it goes to the state department and Nathan that has been approved and it goes into action. >> So on the progress monitoring monitoring page, it says 45th day, 90th day, 135th
050day. It won't we won't have 135 days left for it to be evaluated, will we? So you'll have to adjust that. I'm just curious how it's going to be how those um >> checkpoints are going to >> send us actual dates each year. They send us the dates that we are to intern. >> So they redo that. Okay. >> Understood. Thank you. >> Bruin is the total cost thing just what total cost these programs is. Is that what that is? >> Those are estimated total costs. Um I I pulled a lot of the estimates from last year's plan as well when we really dug into that. Um but a lot of those those numbers are That's just like taking account teachers and then the program itself, >> right? And then where some of the some
051of the support systems are the same for each goal, you really shouldn't count it twice when you're looking at the funding if it's already been paid for in one category. So, I would not say that's an accurate measure of of the cost associated with it. It is doubled up for sure. Sure. >> Do you have what you need in order to accomplish these goals or is there anything that the board needs to take into consideration to help you get to these goals? >> The way it's working this year has been the best I've seen in a while. Um, we have Melissa Emman. She's here tonight. She's our reading coach and we also she's full-time reading coach. That's her soul thing. She also helps with letters training. She's great to have a a master glitters trainer
052in in house. We also have Courtney Lancaster. There's Courtney. She's new to us this year. She came over from Jonesville and she is serving this year as a halftime math coach, halftime math interventionist. And that gets us both. But I really need both in full-time moms. And really and truly, we were talking about it earlier today. the amount of impact a half-time interventionist can make versus the impact a full-time math coach could make on teachers that would then impact student achievement and student performance. I think we would see bigger impact, bigger outreach with a full-time math coach, but also funding is funding is a thing that we have to consider. So last year we didn't have a math coach at all and I had a halftime math interventionist which was split. She was amazing was
053Elizabeth Kelly >> and she was split between Monarch and Buffalo and when she was there it was great and I learned I learned so much from her. She is a data queen. Um, but we really need that instructional coach piece to be a a driving force for especially looking at math scores and we see that there's a need for it. Um, new curriculum come out with the I Ready curriculum, the training that went into third, fourth, and fifth grade last year. Well, now it's being pushed to K2. We still have the learning walks like M Taylor was saying. Um, but there's there's a lot to it and I don't want to ease up on that, but that's a lot on a school building principal to take on that. I tried to take it on last
054year just because we didn't have anybody. We didn't have that full-time person or a math coach that could really focus enough attention on it. And unfortunately, I couldn't focus enough attention on it either. It's just a lot in all the when you look at all the different things. Um so what I'm afraid of is is those positions even sustaining moving forward. I want us to right now I support the um the reading interventionist in our title one plan and I support half of the math coach um salary benefits in our plan. The other part of the math intervention is to pay for through the district. So funding is I'm always nervous about funding and we're we're already scheduling budget meetings for January, end of January to look at where we're going for next year. But
055obviously we're showing growth. We're headed in the right direction. Eight points is significant. And to be honest with you, when when report cards hit and then I think it was November 3rd and I reached out to Dr. Bird, Dr. Far, we were talking about I like I'm pulling my staff together. We're going to we're going to talk that afternoon and I said I really want it to be focused on the growth because eight points in a year is significant and I don't want it to be the conversation of but it's still not enough. I'm not standing here to celebrate, woohoo, we're below average. That's not what point is. The point is eight points improvement in a year and we're on the right track. So I wanted it to be focused on the eight and if
056we can do that in one year, we can do it again. So we are we felt the pressure a lot of it was a hard year last year. It was a heavy year and um it's it's been a tough start this year just because of you know some growing pains and how our building has changed this year but my teachers are working and I don't think I've ever worked so hard in my life but everybody it's a it's a good push that's really making people dig in and um we just keep Miss, >> are you I I don't know where everybody's elementary school is with the readiness grouping and I ready and all of that. Are you using any of that this year to kind of keep moving in that direction? Are y'all readiness grouping
057or have you started that process? I don't know where Buffalo is with that. >> We um initially we were going to go all in all great Why not? Why not? But we ended up backing off um a little bit. We are focused on tracking first and second grade right now. Um in second grade, we're seeing a lot more a lot more growth and shifts at this point. and first grade is we've seen some shifts. One of the biggest things is how are we how are we supporting every student in our building? How are we so so much of your your attention often goes to your students that need the most help? And they do. They need the most help. But a lot of times some of the other students that are kind of on autopilot
058because they can do and they're more self-sufficient um maybe they're not pushed quite as much. And so it really has directed attention to those students to push them and continue to to move them in a direction of higher performance as well while being able to break down your curriculum to support your students that need it at a different level. And not with the intent of watering it down, but just presenting it in a different way that um will build more conceptual knowledge as well. Anyone else have a question? >> Make a motion we accept the um improvement plan. I believe that's what it's called. Okay. Mshshire made a motion to approve the plan. Looking for a second. Second, Mr. Truit. I have a second. Any other discussion or questions? Yes, sir. >> You and just
059check it off. >> Yes. >> What else? >> M. Petty, if you would call the role, please. >> Mr. Rob. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Tro. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Burlington. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Ivy? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Ley? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss Boris? Yes, ma'am. >> Miss Anthony. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Massie. >> Yes, ma'am. >> The motion's approved. >> Pleasure. >> Thank you. >> We have the request for two overnight field trips um for our wrestling team at the high school for January the 9th and 10th to Columbia, South Carolina. and February 20th to the 21st um for the high school league individual championship if we have someone make it to the championship. >> Motion we accept field trip request >> second motion Mr. Lip second for
060Miss Anthony to accept the approve the field trip request. Any questions about those trips? >> Miss Penny if you would call a role please. >> There was a second on that one. >> I'm sorry. Yes. Mr. Lipy. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss Anthony. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Broson. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Ivy. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss McMorris. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Shire. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Truit. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Massie. >> Yes, ma'am. >> The motion's approved. >> Mr. Griffin count time. >> Good evening everyone. Good evening. We have the November financial report. Revenues year to date 835,000. State revenues and transfers 10.9 million. Total revenues year to date 11.7 million. Expenditures year-to- date payroll 11.3 million. Year-to date operating expenses 3 million. Total year-to- date expenditures 14.3
061million. Net operating results for November is -2.5 million. Money's going to start rolling in in January. So that's normal this time of year. >> Any questions about the financials? >> Question. >> Um, everyone should have a copy of your capital project budget amendment that we're proposing. So we are proposing to add an additional $540,000 that would extend the capital project budget to June the 30th, 2026. And then we would present a new budget for 2627 in July. This will get us more in line with our current budget cycle and I think it will be much easier for everyone to understand when we're presenting and for us to keep track with our numbers a lot better. Um, everybody has a summary page and then on the second page, the second column amendment is the $540,000. So,
062does anyone have any questions about some of the line items? We have three major projects. um the UCM gym chim um gym, excuse me, paint and graphics, the full replacement in the gym, and Sims Middle School silk coating and striping. That's three of the major projects that we're adding. And then additional summer maintenance that Mr. Hane would normally do. >> What's involved in this? Maybe a question for you. Uh what's involved in the gym replacement? taking the whole floor out or >> so there's a couple of dead spots. Um there's two around the jump circle and there's some in the paint. So yes, to remove the to remove the wood and have it replaced. I talked to a couple of people and they said it needs to be replaced every 12 to 15 years and
063last time I remember and you can correct me. I don't think we've done it. We might have done it the first year consolidation. The hardwood was put in and so we haven't updated that. >> Yeah, I think you correct on that. >> Any other questions about line items? >> The pain floor and ceilings $150,000 a big jump from $100,000 to 15. That does include the gym, painting the gym, the graphics. Mr. Haney, you want to answer some of that? >> That includes the graphics and the paint in the gym. And we had a sort of a late request after Coach Moss took over. Going to be looking at the weight room flooring, some graphics, some paint, possibly that load bearing wall, taking out part of that if possible, and have an engineer look at that.
064Going to do the gym carpeting at Buffalo, which is really old. We'll put down we'll put down LVP flooring in there and paint those stripes. And then you got the additional work that we do throughout the district. So my my biggest question other than where's the money coming from is why is a half million dollar added at the you know halfway point of our year. What was this done in the beginning of the budget and not halfway through our budget? Well, normally we would do we would present our budget in February. That would take us through the whole next year. So with us not doing that, these are the items that will get him through summer. Normally when we present in February, that would take him through his summer projects. >> Okay. So it it's
065this is kind of that >> if we do, >> this is just kind of the bridge between getting from here to the new budget cycle that you're proposing that we start in July >> to get us right on the right track to where we're more in our reg. >> Where's the money coming from? Um we get about 1.2 million every year in September um from our bond that's for capital money only. So it's going to come from there. We get that every September to approve. >> All right. We have a motion from Mr. Ivy to approve >> second Mr. M the capital fund. Mr. Lipy second. Any further discussion on the capital Mr. Pro call, please. >> Mr. Ivy, >> yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Lipy. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Burlington. >> Yes, ma'am. >>
066Miss McMorris. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Shropshshire. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Truit. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss Anthony? >> Yes, ma'am. And Mr. Massie? >> Yes, ma'am. >> The motion's approved. >> Thank you, Mr. Lipy. >> I would uh like to make a motion we return to executive session to continue with personnel matters and contractual issues. Okay. We have a motion to return back to executive session. Second from Mr. Brewington. Any discussion? Any call ro? >> Mr. Lacy. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Burlington. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Ivy. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss Mcorris? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Robshshire. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Truit. >> Yes, ma'am. Miss >> Anthony. >> Yes, ma'am. Mr. Massie. >> Yes, ma'am. The motion is approved. And I have 84. County School Board is back
067in open session during executive session. No votes were taken. Um is there any business we need to attend? Miss Anthony. >> Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion that we dispose of the parent complaint based on the board finding no merit to the complaint. >> I have a motion for Miss Anthony to dispose of the parent complaint. I need a second. >> A second. Mr. >> Lipy. Second. Any further discussion? Mr. Penny, if you would please call a role. >> Miss Anthony. >> Yes, ma'am. Mr. Lipsy. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Burlington. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Ivy? >> Yes, ma'am. Mr. Robshshire. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Truett. >> Yes, ma'am. >> And Mr. Massie. >> Miss Penny. Having no uh conflict of interest, I'd like to recuse myself anyway. >> So, you
068abstain? >> Yeah. However you want to put it. >> Motion's approved. >> Any other um business? Mr. Robot. >> I make a motion that we um approve the implementation of AVID at Sims Middle School. All right, we have a motion to approve the AVID program at Sims Middle School. Second from Miss Anthony. Any further discussion on this program? >> Motion, Miss Penn, if you want to call. >> I do have a question. >> You did. I'm sorry I missed you. >> Mr. Carti, >> is there >> Yeah, come on up. >> Stay too long and get the police officer moved. So if if this is implemented, what type of um results are you expecting to see and how soon? >> So like I said, we're going to begin with a related arts course. So initially
069the results are going to be smaller, but the the hope and plan is we'll start seeing the incremental results within the next two or three years. My goal is this has a positive impact on students being able to find information that is going to be the huge huge movement on it. Um, as far as concrete results, I can't necessarily say guarantee, hey, next five years, this is going to happen. I had that magic eightball. You know, I think the lottery 1.1 billion, but um, you know, my goal is to see this impact at least these sixth graders by the time they're in eighth grade to see this continue to trend, uh, in the right direction on SC. Mr. Bruin, do you have something? >> I know you spoke B spoke to us in an executive
070session. Can you give quick synopsis of it since we airing across the YouTube? >> Yeah. What AVID is is AVID is a framework for student learning and um you know it doesn't add the goal is is not to add anything to teachers but the goal is to provide our students an opportunity to learn skills. they they can better shape the way they learn things. Um from note takingaking to being able to interact, learn the job skills, being able to speak out in front of people, be able to shake hands um in a way that is built into the system that doesn't necessarily add a tremendous amount to teachers plates. >> Anybody else have anything from Mr. Truly? So the kind of piggy back off what Mr. Ivy said, how do we gauge success? We we
071do I ready and everything with points, percentages. How are we going to say, you know, in three or four years? This success program was a success or not a success because we expect our our principles and our schools to go by point system percentages. uh are are you are you willing to put a percentage on improvement in in in certain areas or how do we how how are we going to gauge if this was worth uh the money, worth the time, worth the effort? >> So, I'm spending federal funds on this. So I actually have to look at the data every single year and say because I use title one funds this is how it has impacted my student body whether it's the students who apply for the AVID class and get into it tracking
072those students um that that cohort and how they're doing and how they're being successful once we have gradewide implementation. So what we're going to do is or what my plan is is to look at our SC ready results who what is continuing to climb. I know that's one test. Uh it's one day, it's reading two days, but it it's important. Um because it's the culmination of everything. I mean, in football, why do we keep scoring? We want to know what the winners is. Um and we have been moving and trending in the right direction. And I talk I'm going to love to talk to you guys in January about the movement we have had and um from talking to other building level principles at metal level about the successes they've had. They a lot of
073them have pointed to AVID being the successor, being the game changer because if you look at the test blueprints that they send out to us um the state gives us, hey, this is where students do well. This is what our students need to grow on consistently. And the only prerequisite as a middle school we have for preparing students for success is our sixth grade science course. What this says is students being able to read and interpret a graph. Sounds easy. sounds like something we should be able to do. Um, but it gets increasingly difficult. Um, a lot of our students coming into us with found foundational issues, so we're working to mend those. And I do think once we get avid cross the sixth grade hallway, we'll see we'll see that success. And in three
074years, I would love to say, hey, this is where we were when we talked back in December at 9:37, and this is where we are today. Um, but the overall goal is to have a significant impact on ELA and math readiness. And if you want to look at like one of the big indicators on a student graduating high school, sixth grade math, one of the biggest indicators of a student goes to postsecary is eighth grade math SC ready scores. U so the goal is those scores have so many other indicator factors that we need to do things that we can that's in our control have a positive impact on. And I think the app is going to be one of those things. >> You have a tracking system that you follow the students. So you
075have a cohort of students that you'll be able to see how they're performing in their academic classes, their leadership skills, their abilities to be able to problem solve and move beyond. And then you'll also see that you'll be able to track their growth in student achievement when it comes to SC ready and any other standardized assessment. But the primary goal is to get them graduated from high school. That's your finish line. How many in that cohort graduate from high school and have an active plan ready to go because these are students who are underrepresented on a college campus. So, we're targeting a select group of students. >> And I want to give a shout out to Carver Middle School because I know I said that in executive session. Um I believe the number is that
076in Spartberg the seven districts they have a cohort that goes and they start their freshman year at the University of South Carolina upstate campus and they start taking college courses day one of their high school career. Carver had a tremendous amount of students that got into that program and when you talk to their principal over there he he credits it to their AVID background because they get in that program there's an interview process they have to sit down they have to talk to a panel they have to write a paper uh they have to talk about goals um so you with our partnership going forward with USU and I think this is going to be a tremendous thing to increase those numbers of our dual uh enrollment programs and also educational track programs that become
077available Second in the ninth and 10th grade. >> Anything else? Well, Miss Petty, if you would call a role, please. >> Miss Shropshshire. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss Anthony? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Burlington? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Ivy? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Lipy? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Tro, >> yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Massie? >> Yes, ma'am. >> The motion is approved. >> Anybody else? >> Made a motion to adjurnn and I'll second him. >> All right. Who made the most? >> Kevin. Miss. Everybody else getting up. >> 9:39.