Regular Board Meeting - February 18, 2026

001Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon. >> Welcome to the Wednesday, February 18th regular meeting of the Savannah Chattam County Board of Education. Uh I am so glad to see so many people in the room today. I always like uh like it when our public shows up for our board meetings. I invite you to show up for all of them. Uh today uh we will first I will ask if uh the meeting was posted. I've been assured it was posted. Uh I would now ask you all to please stand uh for the national anthem. Good afternoon. We are just thrilled to have a Garrison String Trio from the Esther F. Garrison School for the Arts. They are under the direction of Mrs. Danette Watford. This is her first year at Garrison taking over the orchestra program. And

002fun fact, she also attended Garrison as a child and was raised in orchestra there. So that's a full circle moment. Um we're just so fortunate to have her and these three lovely ladies, um Chariss, Vivian, and Abby to play the national anthem for you. It's been a long time, um that I can remember having strings perform for us. So we're thrilled about that. After the national anthem, will you please remain standing so that we can recite the pledge of allegiance together? Thank you. Lord, [music] glory. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] [applause] >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Awesome. [applause] Thank you.

003Great job. >> Thank you. >> Let's hear it again for our students from Garrison. [applause] Okay, I will now accept a motion to approve the agenda. >> Move. >> Second. All in favor? All in fa. All in favor? >> Okay. So, uh today our uh IT system is not working up here. So, uh, board members, when you vote, make sure that I I so I can say who voted. So, all right, announcements. Okay. Um, we have a District 8 Woodville Tommpkins town hall meeting on February 25th, uh, at 6:00 p.m. uh, at the school. February 26 through the 28th, uh, the Massie Heritage Center has an exhibit, uh, a Black History Month exhibit. It's free to the public. February 26 at Plant Riverside District Live, we have the Modern Band Bash. Uh we have you'll

004hear bands perform from early elementary to upper elementary to middle school and high school. Something I look forward to. On February 27th, we have the Excellence and Education Gala at the Marriott Savannah Riverfront. Uh at 6:00 PM March 4th, the Women Who Rule Lunchon uh that's at the Savannah Convention Center. That's at 11:00 a.m. March 11th at 8:30 a.m. we have our finance committee meeting. And March 11th, um we have our informal board meeting starting at three. Our regular board meetings starting at 6. And please, please attend. Uh we don't have a lot of uh evening meetings, but we have meetings in the evening, so everyone can attend. And there is a running bet with uh myself and Miss Hall. And if you guys don't show up, I have to buy her breakfast. >> So

005um uh remembrances um Gary Lawrence from in internal audit. He was a senior director. Data passing 11226. Angela McCoy uh from uh Savannah Chadam E-learning Academy Elementary uh one data passing 11226. Tvaris Brown from Dur Middle School data passing one 20226 and Dr. Linda K. Davis, date of passing, 21626. We will all stand for a moment of silence. [clears throat] We will now hear from our superintendent. Uh by way of announcement, I would like to uh submit to the um to the community that there will be a visual uh held for Dr. Linda Davis on Thursday, February 19th at 5:00 p.m. at the Hes Elementary K through8 school at 9116 Whitfield Avenue. >> So I get the privilege and honor to recognize our January student of the month and I could not be more excited

006about that. The superintendent student of the month for January is a third grader at Garrison School for the Arts. She has been recognized as Gator of the month for her outstanding behavior, her positive attitude, and a commitment to learning. Our student of the month has shown tremendous growth this year, blossoming into a confident and eager learner who volunteers to participate in class discussions, reads proudly in her uh and writing aloud, and consistently restates questions independently. Her confidence shines through in all subject areas, and she is especially excelling in math. Her nominator, Nawa Mullenex, said, "She is an an exceptional student who has demonstrated remarkable academic growth and personal development this year. She truly embodies the qualities of a motivated, respectful, and passionate learner, making her the ideal choice for student of the month. Beyond the

007classroom, our student of the month shines as a talented performer participating in theater and chorus performances where she brings joy, creativity, and confidence to the stage. Her well-rounded character, leadership qualities, and dedication to excellence make her a wonderful representative of our school community. When asked about her academic success, our student credited her mother with her motivation. I like to make her proud, she said. >> Please help me congratulate Jayla Bowwar, the superintendent student of the month for the month of January. [applause] >> [applause] >> proud. >> Thank you. [laughter] >> [applause] [applause] >> Jayla, I encourage you to keep working to make your mama proud. I'm 51 years old and I do that every day. I I still wake up every day to make my mama proud. So, that is good. Jayla will be taking

008home several gifts from our sponsors including Members First Credit Union, advertising specialties, Savannah Technical College, Georgia Southern University, Gulfream, and Savannah Schools Federal Credit Union. In addition, Jayla and her English language arts class will receive copies of her favorite book, When Cloud Became a Cloud. That sounds interesting. by Rod Hedson, donated by sponsor, our sponsor, E Shaver Book Seller. Again, congratulations to Jayla, her family, and all of the Garrison School community. Um, and and a special thank you to her nominator, Amy Peters, and the school principal, um, Principal Parks. If I could have her family please stand with her at this time. [applause] members of her school community, if you would like to join them in standing. Thank you so much for wrapping your arms around our students with your support, love, and encouragement. We're

009very proud of her. I will continue with the good news report, a calls for applause. Uh we have three high schools um that are here today that have been named to the 2025 advanced placement program honor role. The AP school honor role recognizes schools whose AP programs deliver results for students while increasing participation. Schools earn this recognition based on criteria that reflect a commitment to increasing a collegebound culture. Providing opportunities for students to earn college credit and maximize college readiness. Schools receiving this honor include the following. And I believe their principles are here or members of the staff and we'll definitely have them come up to the horseshoe to shake hands with our board of education. But those schools are Savannah Arts Academy. They won a platinum. Islands High School came home with a silver.

010And New Hamstead High School a bronze award. Congratulations to the educators, staff, and students. And I'd love to invite those any individuals representing those three schools to join us at the horseshoe. [applause] [cheering] [applause] >> Thank you sir. Congratulations. >> [laughter] >> I would like to continue our celebrations today by congratulating Victor Clinton Rosario and Alexandra Makawak for performance at the GHSA swimming state championships. Victor, a senior at Jenkins High School, won a gold medal in the boys 200 freestyle and he took the silver in the boys 100 butterfly. Savannah Arts Academy sophomore um Alexandria Makawick also earned a silver medal in the girls 100 breaststroke. Congratulations to these hardworking students. We would also like to invite them to the horseshoe to receive their special recognition. [applause] Congratulations. Great job. >> [applause] >> We will

011keep the applause going by extending our gratitude to United Way of the Coastal Empire and all of our community readers, including many of our board members and district staff who visited preK through 2 grade classes to read on January 30th for Read United Day. The day also kicked off a month-long reading challenge for our students. Volunteers delivered a star reading calendar magnet to each student to help track their daily reading at home. We are very excited about that as we are encouraging our families to read together every day to promote early literacy skills and to develop a lifelong love of of reading. The Georgia Department of Education announced that the graduation rate for Georgia students in career technical and agricultural education, also known as CTAE, has risen to 98.45 for the state. And our students

012here in Savannah Chattam County Public School System has outperformed that very high state average earning a 99% of our students um on [applause] for that graduation rate. This rate applies to students who complete a career pathway and underscores the relevance and the impact of having CTAE opportunities. We are thankful for the dedicated educators who provide the support and leadership to make this great success possible. And hats off to the winners and the organizers of the TW 2026 Science and Engineering Fair. This event featured 89 ent entries from the school district with students ranging from elementary through high school. The winning projects were selected from more than 200 overall entries and from over 30 schools in the district-wide competition. These compet these entries reflected creativity, critical thinking, and steam excellence across our district. Well done to

013those participants. Also, congratulations to Miss Crystal Bell, school support officer for the K8 schools. In October, Miss Bell received the Education Research and Developmental Institutes Educational Innovation Award. This award honors prek through 12 leaders who who re-imagine learning through creativity, forward thinking, and a commitment to moving meaningful measures across the district in terms of improvement. As part of this recognition, Dr. Bell was granted a scholarship to be awarded to an educator within the district. So she gets to pay that award forward in terms of a scholarship. This educator in order to be eligible would need to demonstrate strong collaboration, accountability, and a growthoriented leadership approach with a commitment to enhancing learning and practice at the core of their daily activities. It is with great excitement and gratitude that we recognize uh Aaliyah Hicks Campbell who

014is the assistant principal at Pilaski K8 who has met that criteria and will be the recipient of this scholarship. Congratulations to all who have input on this amazing accomplishment. And let's provide Miss Crystal, Dr. Crystal Bell and Miss Aaliyah Hicks Campbell. Um, some extended congratulations by inviting them to the horseshoe. [applause] Thank you. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Congratulations. [applause] >> Just a couple of more uh acknowledgements to make. Finally, a huge thank you to Greg Parker and Parker's Kitchen for their donation of $100,000 to the district. This donation is funded in part by the Fueling the Community program. President Moss accepted the donation on behalf of local teachers and students at the grand opening and ribbon cutting for the company's newest store in Port

015Wentworth. And I'd like to offer congratulations to the Parkers as they celebrate their 50th year as a business. So again, that philanthropic effort is greatly appreciated. And I would now like to pass the opportunity to our professional Senate representatives to share their report for this month. >> Good afternoon. Our last meeting was held on January 22nd. Our discussion was phil, excuse me, it's been a long day. Our discussion was facilitated by Stacy Taylor. The focus of our meeting was innovation within our strategic planning process. We discussed what innovation could mean for SECPSS and agreed that innovation is not change for the sake of change. It is purposeful student centered change that improves outcomes. Key priorities that emerged included starting with clearly defined problems, maintaining a strong focus on students, ensuring sustainability, elevating teacher voice, and

016reducing initiative overload so we can build capacity effectively. When innovation is working, we should see greater student engagement and ownership, more targeted instruction, measurable improvement, and clearer district focus. We also discussed barriers such as limited time, shifting priorities, and misalignment across departments. Our next Senate meeting will be February 19th, 2026. Thank you, >> Mr. Moss. >> Yes. Before we move into the um our matters, there's uh one event that was not included that I wanted to uh share and that is our math textbook review. Um I think our second public session, our second of two is this Thursday um at the Port Wentworth Annex. I'm not sure if that's our official name. Um 507 uh Coastal Highway in Port Wentworth. This is an opportunity for the community to come out and review and provide comment

017on the textbook curricula that we are considering adoption for the district. Um, so encourage any members of the community. I think it's maybe 4 to 6, I'm not sure, is that correct? Yeah, 4 to 6 p.m. So, wanted to share that as well. >> And we're actually looking at extending uh to include another review. So it uh around the end of January 1st of um end of February 1st of March for another opportunity. >> Okay, Mr. Hediger. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh continuing on your agenda today, a host of policy reads for you. Most of these are uh in first readers. Uh several of them are policy actions, some of them are just adjustments to regulation. You have item 6.01, leading off board matters. This is board policy, EGA, staff insurance program, under the 4-year

018review. You'll note on this one, primarily grammatical changes, a few title edits in there, but no uh substantive or material changes are being recommended for this policy. And uh do we do have some changes and tweaks though? So, we're still considering a first read, second read. This would come back for the board's adoption during the March board meeting. >> Thank you. >> Continue. Hearing no comments. Moving on. Item 6.0. >> Sorry. Uh there was a com I'm so sorry. Uh Dr. Howard Hall. >> Thank you. Um I do understand that there is a complimentary life insurance policy offered to our employees that that um at least work within 20 hours or more weekly. Am I correct about that? >> Yes. Uh Mr. Ray will provide some details. >> Okay. So my questions are are there

019options available for those employers who wish to maintain that coverage and if so what is the time frame? >> Yes, we do have um insurance that employees can purchase while they're employed obviously and then this year or actually last year we ended up getting a um one that is transportable after they retire. So now there is one that can be transported after you retire. Is there a regulation that accompanies this policy? Because I'm not sure if everybody would be aware of that. >> There is no regulation. This is a straight policy. Um if that's a component to uh enumerate those specific areas where we go above and beyond and provide those additional components. Um if there are regulatory administrative uh process and procedure to that, we can look at adding a regulation for it. I

020will remind the board administrative regulations are not so much about announcing options or making awareness for them as they are about spelling out the procedural side of the policy and how it's implemented. But we're happy to certainly take a look with that eyeglass. >> Anyone else? >> Okay, continue. >> Continuing on agenda item 6.02. This is board policy EGB student insurance program four-year review. Once again, no material changes here. primarily some uh just clean up language, grammatical things, titles. Um so we are bringing this to the board for a first reader as there were those slight edits would come back for final adoption March 11th meeting but no material changes >> continue. >> Oh, >> sorry. Um along those lines, do we clarify between students who are on one of our buses and students who

021are driving themselves to events because transportation had a bus breakdown or something, but they have to get from their school to an official school event somewhere. >> Um I will defer to Attorney Dennis on that. I I to the way that you've expressed it explicitly. No, it's not written that way in the policy. But >> let me ask it a different way. Are kids covered if >> Yeah. >> they're waiting at the school for a bus to pick them up to take them to an event, the bus breaks down and they scramble and somebody says, "Hey, everybody hop in your personal car to get to the event by three." >> Probably not. But we'd have to take that up with the insurance company and look carefully at the terms under that scenario. But it would

022probably be a coverage issue. I don't know if we could address all those particular scenarios with a policy or a reggg, but it depend on the term of the policy. We'd have to take a look at that, see what their position was. I would say unlikely. I'm I'm also hearing statutoily no, they're not covered. Um, I I've gotten that question sometimes because there'll be a group text on a team's, you know, thread that says, "Hey, we don't have transportation to this event in Wayne County. Who can drive?" Um, and sometimes an adult associated with the school is on that thread. Um, so we just need to we need to clarify with our folks there is or there's not coverage and be careful about those lines. >> Yeah. And I was I was referring to the

023the personal coverage that you get for going to events, not the not the not the actual bus coverage. Yeah, that's that's totally statutory on the bus coverage itself. Thank you. >> Continue. >> Thank you, sir. Moving on. The agendas item 6.03 is a first read review. This is board policy, GAMA, drugfree workplace under the 4-year review. You'll note the there were some changes here in the policy. This will come back again for a second reader in the March 11th meeting. The driver the main drivers on the policy changes here is to ensure that there is clarity for all of our staff to understand certain employees who are subject to drug testing, including those in those categories of random drug testing. And you'll see that uh mention of those with CDLs and you'll see that also

024for um safety campus police for example. So that's been added here for a clarity provision of this particular policy. Also note that in this policy there was a strike where the board over the years has uh provided policy allowances for special events for rentals or things that are happening at uh unique sites that we operate such as uh the Massie Heritage Center or Oakland Island. And there is a provision there where many years ago if a wedding was being held at Oland Island and someone wanted to have beer or wine, they would have to come to the board on each individual uh component and ask for a policy waiver. We cleaned that up by allowing the policy exception to live in board policy and manage that procedurally. We have decided that it is more would

025be better positioned to move that section of this policy into facility usage. So it comes out of gamma with a recommendation later in the agenda you see under policy KG use of school facilities. And when we get to that one we'll explain a few other uh in addition to that policy that we did add. So that's the onus behind the strike on that particular provision. Uh but the main driver on this one is tied to uh the clarity on unique positions for random drug testing. First read. >> Okay. Uh we have a question on that. Mr. Smith, >> thank you for this policy and thank you for this review. On the uh on the header that talks about offduty conduct. Uh there's a line item, I believe it's number three, that talks about uh that

026harms the school systems image or relationship with government regulators. My question to you is this. Uh how do we define that? It seems like that's a very broad statement um and not enough details to describe it. Does that make sense? >> What has harmed the image? >> Yeah. >> Because I have I have thoughts in my mind, but what I think are is damaging or harmful might not be harmful to someone else. So how do we clarify that? Right. And of course this is under the concept of the policy section drugfree workplace. So, what we're looking at is I mean it would obviously have to be something that was was pretty egregious to the point where uh the district felt that it created a disruption or otherwise or um a um uh a component where

027there was so much attention drawn to it that it is is creating other chaos if you will uh on that. But um I I don't I don't recall in the history of this policy the real driver for why that's written the way that is. So would be happy to certainly do a little bit of research and look further into that. I do think that you are absolutely correct that trying to define what is something that is harmful to the image in one mind's eye to another would definitely be a challenge. Uh, and we would certainly lean back to any form of a legal definition that could provide us that, especially if you're talking about a liability for the district. >> Awesome. Uh, also, let me just ask this. Um, when we talk about, uh, drug

028testing, uh, after a drug test may be administered, if a, um, if a positive, uh, result comes, uh, two questions. one, if someone's released from their job pending an investigation, uh, and they're allowed to come back, they they they're found that that is not the case where it's a negative test. Will they be paid backwards for the time that they missed? It's >> a very good question. Um, I I can't say we've had that scenario happen before. We don't a person doesn't employee doesn't get terminated because we're in this process. In other words, just because if just because they're employee and they test positive, there's a process that that the drug testing company goes through the MRO. They're testing the sample. They're testing it again. They're sending it to a doctor. The employee has an

029opportunity to respond as to what this this substance is in their body. Is it prescription? All that goes back and forth for about two or three weeks. It's not until that point that they can't convince the MRO, the company that does the drug screen, that there's a reasonable reason why this substance is in your body or legal reason why this substance in your body. It's not till that point that we would take any action. So, I haven't seen a situation where we've taken an action and something has come back because it's usually already resolved u with them being able to communicate with that doctor to make sure that whatever it is because we don't know what it is. We we don't get involved in that communication with the doctor. So whatever they're telling the doctor,

030they just have to convince the doctor that it is something that is legitimate for them to have under the circumstances. >> But to answer your question, the employee stays on our payroll would not be an issue. There's not anything we do, right? We haven't done anything. >> They may be in another location until we can figure out the this whole process. But they are not taken off payroll. So there wouldn't be an issue of back pay. >> Correct. >> Dr. Hoskins Brown. >> Thank you. Um in the policy um there is a place where it says violation of policy is the third section. Could we put a reference to the facility u exceptions are listed in the facilities policy so that people know that there is a mechanism for exception and it's somewhere but it's

031not here cuz someone who just picks up this policy will think >> yeah I see what you're saying that's a good point yeah that's great point thank you for that and and clearly it's talking about the distribution of alcohol so if you're at a special event a wedding for example and and you have alcohol available to adults, you know, that could be construed as distribution. So that exception then would fall under the policy under KG. We could certainly add that reference there. Yeah. >> Right. Yeah. Well, it says presence. >> Yeah. Right. >> So >> distribution, dispension, presence or use of u in the line. It would fit perfectly there. Yeah. >> Great. Thank you. And then um I am interested in having a conversation. I don't know that the answers would be present today

032about exceptions to the policy um for testing positive because we've talked about the process that can go for some time. Um but then this says if you test positive you are terminated. But then if you look in the regulation, it says if you Let me go to it. >> Thank you. If you if you um test shoot, thank you. Okay, so you're not terminate. You could test positive, not be terminated, and you could admit that you have a problem, get help, and not be fired. >> That is correct. >> So, it's just kind of weird because if you start from the front of this policy, it's you're fired and the further you get back in the policy, the more there is the possibility that maybe you're not fired. Maybe we actually get you some help.

033Um, so those typically occur when the employee self-reports or something comes before they're tested. I I get what you're saying, but that's typically how that happens. >> That's kind of what I thought. My my understanding verbally that what we had been told was that if you self-report, hey, I have a problem and I would like some help. That that doesn't result in termination. But the language here says if you test positive, admit to use or related misconduct or voluntarily seek assistance and are not terminated, you know, it it >> yeah, it's Mr. Kashmar would know. We're trying to make sure we comply with it, the ADA piece there. Um, and so that language has been carefully selected, but we can we can look at at through that lens to make sure we're saying it exactly

034right. But that's the scenario that the ADA puts employers into. >> That'd be great. So for the other seven of us who are not Mr. Kashmar, it would be awesome >> to um >> to have something that's helpful. But then I have and I'm not really worried so much about [laughter] that. >> Um the other thing really I wasn't as worried about that. The thing that I'm really really >> a little concerned about is the safety sensitive job classifications because we have all school safety folks but no medical personnel. And I mean, I'm saying this with all respect for the integrity of med medical personnel. Medical personnel have problems, too. Um, and sometimes find themselves in a place of of challenge. So, it seems to me like medical personnel would also be a safety position

035because they have access and they are dispensing drugs. So, is that not a place of risk that we would want to include in our list of safe safety personnel? Yeah, >> maybe we can think about it. >> Yes, we can think about it. Yes, we can we can we can look at that. Good point. >> Okay. >> Oh, final thing. Sorry. Contractors are consultants. We drug test our employees, but what if you're somebody who is a contractor or or consultant who's doing important work for us who may need further examination? Do we have any mechanism for that? We have a mechanism for contractors that work with children. Yes. But we may not for a construction project or something like that. But if it's somebody directly related to children, yes, we do. >> Okay. Thanks. And

036then this really is the last thing. Uh urine specimen u definitions under collection procedures. There's a very very specific analytical cutoff whereas um such personnel would not observe. Okay. Thi this is one of the instances under which as an employee you would be required to have someone supervise your provision of a urine sample and if it is and the one of these rules is if your last sample had a specific gravity of less than 1.003 and a creatinine concentration below 0.2 g per liter. That's just really specific. Can we just say based upon what standard procedures OSHA regulations like it's just it just seemed there's like a sentence above that that's real general and then we got this highly technical chemical reference that I don't know why we have it that technical >> h yeah

037I'm going to hit a doctor >> that that comes out when you're trying to water like if you're going in that's why those numbers are there >> because different >> that's what I put is dilution maybe somebody snuck some water in their sample >> cuz we get students occasionally in my program that stay hydrated >> and we'll come back that way as a you got to test again because they're overdiluted. >> Yeah. >> So these are based on the normal concentrations of creatinine in normal human samples like if we could just refer to why that's there. >> Yeah. Yes. And and I think it's very useful to have a real bright line number for that because the sensitive nature of what you're asking someone to do. So it no one is on a on a

038scale saying I'm going to I'm going to participate and view or not. >> So >> but it's [snorts] coming from that's coming from an ASM standard, right? Well, the American Society of Testing Method like it's a standard that that comes through. So if we could just cite that, that'd be great. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh Mr. Smith had something else and then uh Dr. Howard Hall. Oh, she took and I'm sorry then Mr. Katchmar and Miss Gowski. >> Anybody else? >> Under the header of uh a recordkeeping, it talks about keeping the negative test results for one year uh and positive results for five years. Uh what's the the logic behind the differences? Well, if it's a negative result, the person's probably been employed and it might be we're just keeping it from that

039standpoint and they may have another they may have another situation where they have to get tested. If it's positive, we really want to know if you try to come back two years from now that there was a test previously to some degree. So, it's like that's kind of the reasoning why you would see it like that. We really do track those um that had a positive test because they will return back in the future. >> Is that a standard U process or policy across different districts or is that something that we >> Well, it actually keeping it is one thing. I mean our policy, the board policy does allow for when a person is terminated or not is terminated but if we have an applicant that comes in for example they would be able to

040return under our current policy after two years. So to some degree we probably need to look at this because it was five years and now now that you said that so to somewhere else you can come back in less than five three years now this was five years which used to be five. So I think that just you just enlightened something that we need to make this line up with the other policy that we changed like a month or so ago. >> Dr. Howard Hall Brown um asked a lot of questions and it covered a lot of um questions that I had. However, I will ask about the education of employees and supervision. How frequent are those supervisors and employees trained in this area? That's um regulations education of employees and supervisors and the training

041supervisor training. So I was just want to know how frequently are we actually training our employees and supervisors. >> Good question. I'm not I would need to get back with you on that on how much we do related to training on that. I'll get back with the board on that. Okay, >> Mr. Catchmar. >> Yeah. First, I would just ask that before we make any changes or adjustments or additions, the policy is drafted to conform with the Georgia Drug-Free Public Workforce Act. So, some of this language in here might be statutory. We might just let's make sure we're not changing something that's in there because of the statute. And then second, uh I think I appreciate the shout out, Mr. Dennis. I hope it's because I was an I'm I'm an employment law attorney and

042not because you think I have a raging drug problem, [laughter] which I do not for the record. Thank you. >> All righty then. >> Yes, Miss Miss Kowski, >> this this might seem a silly question, but I'll ask it anyways. Um, with the increase in CBD use products that are legally obtained, are we seeing an increase in positive uh results? And is this something that we need to address either in education or in policy otherwise? >> In short, uh yes, we have seen an increase, but I will say our threshold is not zero. So there is a there is a point where um it's usually not contributed to gummies. So in other words, somebody may have a result but that result doesn't cross a threshold where once you cross this threshold, it's more than a

043gummy. It's not a zero tolerance. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Anyone else on drugs? [laughter] I'm sorry. >> I'm sorry. >> [laughter] >> Just wanted to make sure y'all were y'all were still listening. Okay. Um, continue. Mr. >> All right, sir. Moving on and getting off drugs. We're going to get on to item 6.04, which is board policy GBI, professional personnel evaluation. This again is under our four-year review process. You will note on this particular one there are no policy changes. So we are bringing only administrative regulation changes for the board for the board's review. Uh the primary changes here you'll see that we've made some updates to include evaluation deadline change from the May 1st date to May 15th. Also updates allow the uh for the appropriate use of an evaluation tool as a

044line to job descriptions. Uh this is an important piece of the great work we've been doing to improve our evaluations and knowing the effectiveness of all employees is not just a blanket approach but one that is customized to their actual work duties and aligned to job description. So you see that written in the regulation. So again this is a regulation for the board's review subject to the board's uh final comments on this. We will consider this one complete under board policy BDD BDE for your review. Of course, that is subject to your feedback. >> Uh, Dr. Hodson's round. >> Thank you. I don't have any concerns with the policy. There's a place in the regulation where it talks about um uh well, I'll simply read it. It is uh item number, it was nine, it's

045been changed to eight. If there are indications that the final evaluation, the one that is supposed to be done by May 1st, if there are indications that the final evaluation of a certificated employee is such that the evaluator will recommend that the employee be terminated or non-renewed, then the evaluation record of the employee must be submitted to the office of talent and human resources by March 15th. So, can I'm what I'm unclear about is um first that indication is subjective. Like what's indication like have they gotten in trouble a couple of times before March 15th? Is it that's so that's kind of one one question. What is the indication? And as an employee, how would you know if you didn't get in trouble that you might not get renewed if your evaluation is not due

046until May 1st? So is it something from like the is it something based on the previous year >> that you have to make improvement or resolve whatever that is before March 15th of the next year and you might not get renewed. >> I can how are we the basis of my question is how are we making sure that people are not getting blindsided. You think you're doing good. >> Yes. >> Your evaluation's coming up in April and in March 15th your supervisor turns in something like this person's not working. How how do we >> Sure. Thank you for that. Um, an evaluation should be a year-long process that starts at the beginning of the year and culminates. So, think about March, May 15th as a culmination. And so something should have started in July, August,

047October, um, sorry, October, October, November at the latest. We get into December, January, employees should know. Um on the certified side which is disappointing to we issue early contracts in February. So contracts are already issued to the majority employees right now anybody who principles had concern about getting to that term indications. So any indications that a principal would have had that they had concerns, maybe somebody had a high absenteeism, maybe it was other factors, maybe there was a disciplinary issue, whatever it was, principal held the contract, that's the one that will get um sent or not sent by the time we get to May 15th based on whether or not at that point in time there's enough documentation that we have to actually non-renew that person or that person decides that they see the see

048that, you know, they're not doing a good job and they go ahead and resign or whatever the case may be by May 15th. The March 15th is that hole got you don't come up after March 15th was something some issue that you say the person should have been termin needs to get terminated in May. We need to know we're I mean May 15th is really like a drop dead. We we should have known way before then, but that's just a kind of a date that's in there so that nobody can think they can come in April about some issue with some employee that we might have held, but you didn't tell us what it was and then now we don't know and the employee gets blindsided. So all that's a continuation of what you said

049over time that have evolved into this policy. >> That's really really helpful and I think that the thought behind that is very promp employee. The only thing that I would add is that nothing in the regulation currently says what you started with, which was evaluation is a year-long process that should have been initiated by that time. So, if you're a new person, like if the as a in practice, >> our staff probably know that, but this a new person coming if we could add a sentence that says, you know, you ought to be getting feedback or something. >> Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. Absolutely. Okay. Anyone else? >> Moving along on the agenda, we have your next policy read, which is item 6.05, board policy GBKA, professional personnel layoff. This is again under

050the 4-year review process. You will see that there are uh fairly extensive changes here in the policy and some modifications to the regulation as well. Primary changes that we wanted to do was be very clear and provide definitions in the situation where a reduction in force is necessary such as a riff and of course requirements that are in uh step lock step with uh statutory rules and state board of education rules as well uh that govern the process for developing criteria for those who would be subject uh to a reduction in force. You'll also see as part of the policy, uh it does require that the superintendent bring a plan to the board if this is part of is a case where it is needed. Uh this has been a a pretty good exercise for

051us as we went through this policy review because we realized there were a lot of components of it that really should be updated uh and brought into current standing and also uh definitions provided. So this is a first read for the board under this review. We'd come back March 11th for a second read adoption. >> Uh Dr. bring them in. >> Yeah, I just wanted to go on record saying this is just a review and uh a lot of definitions and there's no current conversation on a reduction in force because this policy just went from like five sentences to like two pages and it's if if it hits the news massive talk on reduction in force. It's just it's just laying it out. There are no conversations for reduction in force. >> Very good. Thank

052you. >> Thank you. >> Yes, [snorts] Dr. Albert Hall. I will share that I was a product of riff. Um a lot of times you have when you have a state position. I was um a lead math teacher and we lost the funding. In most cases in central office positions if you're certified it's usually a place where you can fit. So I end up going to a school of course as a um title one teacher. But in some cases when there are classified staff involved, I wonder how will RIF have an impact on them because it's a little more difficult to place classified as opposed to certified. >> Anyone else? >> All right, continue. >> Next item on your agenda. This is item 6.06, board policy KG, use of school facilities. Uh this one again

053as we mentioned earlier was part of the uh component of changes that we did under the GMA and we struck that language and moved it into use of facilities fits much better in this particular area. You'll note that the language primarily was all kept uh we maintain the process for uh instances where events shall be reviewed and subject to approval based on uh certain conditions. And again, this comes back to what we're calling the limited event-based alcoholic beverage allowance for Massie Heritage Center and the Oakland Island Wildlife Center. This now will live in board policy KG. The only changes on this particular policy. Uh there are no changes to the policy. The only changes are on the regulation side only. So again, we're bringing this to the board for the board's review and awareness and

054subject to your feedback, we will consider this one complete. I will add that one thing that we did add was including a requirement under the facility use agreement in these circumstances for a $1 million limit of liability coverage. This came in part from the legal review and also was coming to us from the Georgia School Boards Association risk management uh team that we work with as a good practice for us for coverage in events where someone may want to rent the facility and have beer or wine. regulation only. >> Dr. Bringman, >> um I just want to use the regulation as a plug for something that I would like us to continue to try to look into. And I'm sorry, Miss Davidson. Um use of athletic facilities. We have all these and I knew Dr.

055Grav, thank you. I knew she'd shake her head. Um we have all these lovely facilities that have been paid for either by Eastloss or other tax revenue. And I would just love for some way for us to maintain um safe environments, secure environments, but accessible to our community outside of school hours. Um I hate to see them just sit when we have tracks that people could go run at. We have soccer fields that people but but I don't know the mechanics of that. I'm not going to be able to fix that. But I really would like us to look into how other districts uh make that happen. Thank you. >> Yes. And I would echo that. I think that's that may be a side conversation that we we can tackle during retreat, but I agree.

056Okay. >> And like our philosophy is yes >> generally >> what happens is it's just the coordination of the principal agreeing we have to have a custodian willing to work we have to have security that so it's all the layers under it that have to come together but our philosophical approach what I have said is that the answer needs to start with yes but all the other pieces have to come together um in order for it to work. And the principal's role in it is is an important piece. >> Yeah. I I fully hear you. I got friends that drive to Bluffton to run on the tracks and there's nobody else there. The lights are just turned on. And I know that that's the far other end. >> Yeah. >> And I don't know how

057to meet the middle because I don't want facilities ruined and I'm not thinking that citizenry will do that, but it could happen. Um and I don't want people hurt when nobody's So I I I get it. But other districts that are public schools are just, you know, leaving the door open. Um, so there's got to be somewhere in the middle. I don't I don't know where, but something like maybe just scheduled every so often, you know, a rotation so that people, you know, the runners or the soccer players or the baseball players know that on this Saturday of this month, it's the Jenkins Field and then the next Saturday it's the Islands. and okay, one of them's open and they've got to go and move. And I I don't know. It's another way to engage

058our community, maybe make some community partnerships. I I understand that we want it to be. Yes. I just And I get the stickiness of it. It's just it would be a nice thing to have for the community. >> Just don't let the lawyers get involved. >> Yes. Um Mr. Scotch mark >> the I've been in several communities where it was open to the public and there's a big camera >> and there's a big sign that says you're on camera and for the one person out of 2,000 that does something stupid hopefully they get caught and prosecuted but don't punish the rest of the community because you expect the worst behavior out of potential visitors. >> I agree. Uh, Miss Corbski, >> I'll just go. You know, I think it it's not only our athletic facilities,

059which I absolutely agree with that. Um, but it's also our playgrounds. We have schools and playgrounds in many communities where that's the only outlet for our young people. And, um, it's public dollars and I would love for us, Trust for Public Land has a partnership. They're currently working with Atlanta public schools to open school playgrounds to the community. So models do exist and I would encourage us to we talk about it and then we don't we just kind of don't talk about it until it comes up again. So I would like us to continue this conversation and really in earnest try and see if we can come up with even if it's a pilot you know let's let's try it see how it works put up a big camera says smile maybe you have to

060show I don't know but um I think we're smart people and we can figure out a way to explore the opportunity. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> All right, continue. Mr. Higer, >> next item on your agenda, we have item 6.07. This is facility naming for the board of education police department annex. We received a recommendation for the naming of the annex. That recommendation was received and moved along by the superintendent who appointed a committee. Two committee meetings were held and we are now bringing the announcement to the board as a first read per policy stipulations. I'll now turn over the uh agenda to uh your exeicio of the committee because the annex lies in district 8. Uh Dr. Howard Hall will uh bring you some words. >> Yes. Since the facility lies in my

061district, district 8, I have been assigned as the ex official and there were two meetings that convened. The agenda materials was posted on the board docs and the committee unanimously agreed on the recommendation for the naming of the annex. So, at this time, I'm going to [clears throat] ask my colleague, Miss Connie Hall, if she would bring forth the recommendation and reasons for naming the the naming recognition that everyone has announced to agreed upon. >> Um, first, I'd like to publicly thank Miss Tamika Trible. She was of such help to us moving this along and making sure that everyone was in place and um getting us to this moment. So, thank you, Miss Trible. Um, wherever you are, if you're watching, I am proud to bring forward the naming recommendation for the board of education

062police department annex situated as a component of the Davis Edwards Harris Educational Complex and included as part of the journey a joint uh I think that means adjoining athletic complex for Groves and Mercer. During his tenure, Mr. Lawa was a consistent and influential [clears throat] advocate for the safety, development, and future opportunities of our students. He understood that school safety is not only about protection. It is also about prevention, mentorship, and building positive pathways for young people. His vision and support helped strengthen the relationship between our schools and our campus police department. and he was instrumental in elevating programs that offered students structure, purpose, and hope. As a former chief of police, Mr. Laauo played a key role in creating and championing the junior police academy program for middle school students. This initiative has provided

063early exposure to leadership, discipline, teamwork, citizenship, and service, values that align with the mission of public education. The naming of the board of education police department annex honors the contributions of Mr. Larry Lowour recognizing his dedication to education and his roles as a school resource officer, chief of police, and his civic duties performed as an advocate for the citizenry of our county, including past chairman of the board of assessors and his service as a SDC PSS school board member for district 6. He was also a proud member and veteran of the United States Marine Corps. It is for these reasons that we recommend the Board of Education Police Department Annex be named the Larry Lowour Board of Education Police Department Annex. Thank you board member Howard Hall and uh board member Miss Hall for those

064uh words and for the rationale on the recommendation of this naming. Again, this is a first read. This will come back to the board of education during the March 11th meeting, which I remind everyone is an evening meeting 6:00 p.m. March 11th uh for action and official vote. Next on your agenda, we do have an action item that is >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Sorry. Uh we have someone else to speak before we get to this. Dr. How Dr. Hoskins Brown. Sorry. >> Thanks. I appreciate I just wanted to thank my colleagues for this work and for for um uh this planned honor that we'll approve at another time. I um um wanted to share just a couple of words about Mr. Lowour. He was perfectly imperfect um in his passion for orderly, well-appointed, fully

065supported um school environments. And he had the highest expectations for students. He was one of the ones at the board accountability meetings who wanted to know why our metrics weren't higher, why we weren't looking for 100% on everything, why our key performance indicators were incremental. Um his example is still instructive to me uh to this day. Um I remember with a smile how he was an unexpected fan um and an unexpected friend uh for several of us. I treasured his sensibility um as a Marine and it bonded him to the Marine that I have at home. Um, so I'm glad that we're doing this because he epitomized the idea that we are not so different, not as we think and only if we insist on being. So, thank you for letting me share that. >>

066Anyone else? >> Okay, >> continue on your agenda. Again, we do have a facility naming for the grows JOTC wing. This is an action item for the board of education. Uh pursuant to board policy FDC. Uh the superintendent has appointed a committee for the review of the recommendation of this naming. Two meetings were held and the announcement under first read was read previously at the board's last meeting in January. We now have a recommendation based on a unanimous agreement of the committee that the Groves High School JOTC wing shall be named in honor of Sergeant Tyrone L. Chisum for reasons that were stated during the January 14th meeting of course are enclosed in your board agenda item and have been posted to board docs. Once again, this is the recommendation that the Groves High School

067JOTC wing be named the Sergeant Tyrone L. Chisum Jot TC Wing. Thus, be it resolved that upon recommendation of the superintendent that the board does now approve the naming recommendation for the Groves High School JOTC wing. >> Uh, it's been moved by Dr. Howard Hall, >> seconded by Mr. Katchchmar. Uh before we vote on this, we have Major Major Wilson and a guest to speak to this. >> Yes, we have Major Henry Gibbs III. I am honored to invite you all to come up. And also retired Sergeant First Class Frederick Wilson. >> Okay. who I have who I had a chance to help raise um back during the um early 80s as a young teen at Fairwood Park and when I served as a recreational leader for the city of Savannah. I'm just so proud

068of the man he has become and at this moment if y'all would please express your sentiments regarding [snorts] Sergeant Tyrone El Chisum. >> Good afternoon. Uh, as stated, my name is retired Army retired Sergeant First Class Frederick Wilson. And, uh, I would like to thank Savannah Chattam County Board of Education, Gross High School and Air Force Major, Henry Gear, the third for allowing my hero, my younger brother, Sergeant Tyrone Chisum legacy, to live in this honor of his model and mine, Sergeant and Major Henry Gibbs as well at Gro High School. Thank you very much. >> Uh, good afternoon everyone. Uh, like as has been stated, my name is Major Henry Gibson the third. I go by Hank. Uh, product of Chattam County Schools, born and raised in Savannah, raised up in West Savannah, Fairwood

069Homes to be exact. Um, the reason I brought this petition up was growing up in the city, you've seen a lot of people, a lot of places named after different people. Uh, and I wanted those that come from where we come from and those behind me to understand what Tyrone meant to me, went to meant to our community and to his family. Uh, as you read the vision of the board education of public schools from school to the world, all students prepared to be successful, productive citizens. Uh, as I stated in my letter, there are three things that we were taught as young black men in Savannah, Georgia, especially in the West Savannah community. You will go to jail. You will go to jail for using or selling drugs. And the third thing was you

070would die in the streets of Savannah, Georgia. Uh, Tyrone exceeded the first two. Never did any of those. But he did die. But he didn't die in the streets of Savannah, Georgia. He died in Afghanistan. Protecting this country. I mean Iraq, I'm sorry. protecting this country and he was a productive citizen and he was a product of this school system. So I want to say thank you to all of you for allowing this this opportunity and this honor and I I can't wait for the ceremony so we can make this happen and make it official. So thank you all for your time and Miss Trible, thank you and to the naming committee and Dr. Howard Hall for allowing us to present this. Thank you >> and thank you for your service. [applause] Any discussion? All

071right. There being none. Uh all in favor. Thank you. Item 6.09 on your board of education matters. We have a board proclamation for adoption celebrating National School Counseling Week. [clears throat] Whereas school counselors are employed in our schools to help students reach their full potential. And whereas school counselors are actively committed to helping students explore their abilities, strengths, interests, and talents as these traits relate to career awareness and development. And whereas school counselors help families focus on ways to further the academic, career, and social emotional development of their children. And whereas school counselors work with teachers and other educators to help students explore their potential and set realistic goals for themselves. And whereas school counselors seek to identify and utilize community resources that can enhance and complement comprehensive school counseling programs and help students become

072productive members of society. And whereas comprehensive school counseling programs are considered an integral part of the educational process that enables all students to achieve success in school. Therefore, we do now proclaim February 2nd through February 6, 2026 as National School Counseling Week. >> I'll accept a motion. >> Moved and and moved by Mr. Smith, seconded by Dr. Howard Hall. Uh, any discussion? Yes, Dr. Bringman. Um, I don't think anybody on the board could tell y'all thank you enough. It's been a rough week. Um, and I was happy to know that our district values counselors that we try our hardest to fill every single one of those unfilled counseling positions that we try to go beyond that ridiculous 400 students to one counselor or whatever it is. Um, and that we're always striving to have more

073of you helping our students, but also our staff and hopefully helping each other to make a whole student, not just an academic student. So, um, thank you from the bottom of my heart and thank you from probably everybody up here for the tireless work that probably isn't thanked often enough. All right. All in favor? All in favor? [clears throat] It's unanimous. And do we have any counselors here? >> Yeah. Do you have counselors? [applause] [applause] >> [applause] >> Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thankful. >> [applause] >> And final item in your board of education matters. We have another board proclamation for the board's adoption. Of course, we're very excited with CTAE month and Savannah Chattam County Public Schools. CTAE programs earning a 99% graduation rate, besting the state. We now have a

074board proclamation for career technical agricultural education month. Whereas February 1st through 28th, 2026 has been designated career technical agricultural education CTE month by the Association for Career and Technical Education. And whereas CTE offers students the opportunity to gain the academic, technical, and employability skills necessary for true career readiness. And whereas students in CTAE programs participate in the authentic meaningful experiences that improve the quality of their education and increase their engagement and achievement. And whereas CTAE provides students with career exploration opportunities early in their educational experience which enables them to make informed and beneficial decisions about their academic coursework and pursue established programs of study and career pathways. Whereas leaders from business and industry nationwide report increasing challenges related to addressing the skills gap and connecting qualified personnels with careers in critical and growing CTA related

075fields such as advanced manufacturing, cyber security, energy, healthcare, information technology, transportation and whereas CTAE prepares students for these and other fulfilling careers by offering integrated programs of study that link secondary and postsec secondary education and lead to the attainment of industry recognized credentials. And whereas CTAE programs ensure that employers have access to a qualified and thriving workforce, ensuring our nation is a strong and competitive economy. Therefore, we do now proclaim February 1st through 28th, 2026 as CTAE month. and witness thereof, we officially affix the seal of the Savannah Cadam County Board of Public Education to this proclamation on this 18th day of February, 2026. Mr. Roger Moss, board president S. Denise Watts, Superintendent. >> I'll accept a motion. >> Move and seconded. >> All right. All [clears throat] in favor? >> Thank you. Um, we

076have our CTA staff. [applause] All >> [applause] >> right. [applause] [laughter] >> Thank you so much for all you do. you. Thanks. >> Part of the show right now. Get them organized for >> two. to it. >> Yeah. [clears throat] [applause] >> That concludes your board of education matters of the February 18th agenda. Turning the agenda to the board president for the consent agenda and other action items today. >> Thank you. I I'll accept a motion to ex uh gosh I'll accept a motion to >> approve that word. Uh our consent agenda. >> So moved. >> Okay. Moved by Mr. Smith, seconded by um Mrs. Hall. Uh all in favor. Yes. And one state. All right. Thank you very much. Ro financials. All right. Now we have our financials. Good afternoon everyone. The financials that

077were included in your packet for this month um covered the first half of the year ending December 31st, 2025. And [clears throat] it um that also um include it's 40% of our school year. Um for fund 100, our general revenue, um our property taxes collected were lower than last year. This time by 3%. Uh we're at 57.9% of the property taxes were collected. Overall revenues are at 55% of budget. our fund 100 um expenditures, our en energy expenditures are lower at 36% of budget compared to 43.6% 6% last year. The same time our teacher salaries were higher this year at 43.9 compared to 37% of the budget and our par profofessionals salary expenditures are higher at 37% compared to um what is expected at 31%. Overall our total expenditures are at 45.6% compared to 39%

078last year. Um that was just a quick um overview of our um uh fund 100. We have any questions at this time? >> Any questions? >> Nope. has a purpose. Okay. Item number 8.02, budget transfer, budget reallocation for midyear spending priorities. The following budget amendment will utilize additional revenue received through interest income and tab along with a transfer of identified departmental funds to support mid-year priorities that have been identified by administration. Throughout this process, staff has reviewed and compared the budget to actuals for the first half of fiscal year 26 to strategically repurpose funds. The resulting use of revenue and the reallocation of unspent resources will fund $6,872,675 in expenditures. The identified expenditures were developed using the following criteria. Prioritizing strategic alignment to district needs. Shows evidence of impact and meaningful outcomes. Supports staff development.

079Supports safety. Supports facility needs. Provides resources for the unfunded stated state mandates. The resulting budget amendment will reinvest funds to expand services that have shown early success and that are demonstrating positive student and staff outcomes or that are aligned to the department and facility needs and safety. administration seeks to redirect funds to support the purchases of goods and services as outlined on your item. Staff STE seeks to make early purchases to ensure receipt of goods in a timely manner or to meet requirements for compliance with some of the new state and federal mandates. The budget action shown is now requested to support the identified midyear priorities. So we are talking from fund 100 increasing revenue by 4,928,622 um to cover expenses. We're going to then transfer those monies into contribution to other funds. 4.4, excuse

080me, 4,483,675 going to fund 308. And that's for construction and furniture. and then transferring $1,944,53 from other expenses um to be used for those items. Thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the amendment of the general fund 100 and capital projects 308 budgeted revenues and expenditures by 6,872,675 for the allocation of funds to support the identified midyear priorities. >> Moved and seconded. Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> Hang on. >> Sorry. >> Yes. >> I'm sorry if I missed this and you mentioned the Ignite tutoring. This will expand it. How how much will this expand? The ignite tutoring. >> Ignite tutoring $639,000. >> Yeah. I mean, how many I'm sorry, how many like students or additional schools? >> Yeah. So, it um it would expand this by

081500 students. Okay. across um a number of schools. We will be expanding the number of students um in the pilot schools and so and then we're going to add additional schools to that list. So I think it's roughly 8 nine schools or so, but it's a total of 500 students that we're expanding to. Our initial um pallet was 100 students and so now we including an additional 500. >> Okay. And I think this is a really important thing to highlight. Um we talked about it at length during our academic excellence committee meeting, but I think this is a great example. We are seeing very strong results already from our pilot of the 100 students that are in um experiencing the Ignite tutoring. And so this shows we're not waiting. Um I know Miss Campbell has

082been an a big advocate for expanding this. Um we're not waiting. we are making that change now so that we can see uh more improvement in uh more areas across our schools and for more students. So certainly support um allocation of these funds. Thank you >> Dr. Dr. Bringman. >> Yeah. And from the finance committee side of the house, I hope that future iterations of our budget and thus future meetings, we will have more budget reallocations, quarter year, midyear, >> that when we see something's working, we move funds rather than just, you know, make the budget bigger the next year. Be like, no, we can move this over there because it's not getting spent or it hasn't yielded um fruit. So, thank you for showing us that this can be done the same day we

083spoke about it for a really long time this morning. >> [laughter] >> Anyone else? All right. Now, let's vote. All in favor? And once again, unanimous. Thank you. I like that. >> Item number 8.03, Esplash 3, Jenkins High School New School Project closeout budget transfer. Staff requests the following budget transfer within ESPL 3. All work associated with East Splash 3 is completed at Jenkins High School. The remaining funds will be transferred to East Splash 3 unallocated account and used to support plum plumbing improvements at New Hamstead K8 school. The all of the transfers um are outlined for you on the item. Thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the transfer of funds from Jenkins High School new school project accounts to East Splash 3 unallocated account. And be

084it further resolved that the board approve the transfer of funds from East Blush 3 unallocated account to East Blush 3 New Hamstead K8 new school construction account in the amount of 1,182,170. >> Moved by Mr. Catchmar, seconded by Miss Hall. Uh discussion always good to get money back. Love it. >> Not so good to immediately spend it, [laughter] >> but it's needed. [laughter] >> All right. All in favor? >> Thank you. >> Item number 8.04 04 MC26070 artificial turf for Savannah High School baseball and softball fields. East blasts 4. East blasts floor 4 work scope includes installing artificial surfaces on the baseball and softball fields at district high schools. The first fields scheduled to receive the new artificial surface are located at Savannah High School, which has had an unplayable grass surface for several years.

085The project will consist of demolition and removal of existing fields and fences, re regrading of for drainage, site utility piping, new artificial surfaces, back stops and fences, dugouts, score tables, scoreboards. In order to coordinate the design with the field requirement for an artificial surface, it will it was decided to engage a contractor early in design through a cooperative state contract. operations does not request approval to utilize, excuse me, operation does now request approval to utilize the Gordon contract for the installation of artificial turf for the Savannah High School baseball and softball fields. The cost for this work include including allowances for unsuitable soils is $4,291,900. In support of this action, staff also requests the budget transfer. The transfer is required to provide funds for the artificial turf for Savannah High School baseball and softball fields

086as detailed above. Thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the use of Gordon Guardian contract GA- ST02-080820-PCI you using prime contractors for a cost including allowances for unsuitable soils of $4,291,900 and be it further Further resolve that the board approve the budget transfer from East Splash 5 site improvements account E5 Savannah High baseball softball field turf account. >> Ah yes moved by Miss Hall. >> She wants a second. [laughter] >> Okay. And seconded by Mr. Catchmore. Any discussion? I know. Go ahead. Miss >> Hall. Okay, [laughter] I just want to say thank you to everyone involved who helped move this project forward. Um, I know Mr. Dre Jones is here. He had a big part in this. U, Miss Callahan, um, Miss, uh, Megan Richardson, I thank you

087so much for all you're doing. and the students there are very appreciative even though by the time this is all done I think a lot of them will have graduated but for the children who are coming this is going to be wonderful thank you >> yes Dr. bring with me. >> I want Miss Hall to run the bases at the ribbon cutting. Okay. So, you better start training. Okay. >> And I You're running the bases. >> Anybody there who'd like to come? >> Anyone else? >> All right. All in favor? >> Wonderful. Thank you. >> 8.05 05 RFPC26-03 CMR services for Hubert Middle School renovation east 3 and eastplash 4. The purchasing department received three proposals in response to RFPC26-03 CMR services for Hubitt Middle School renovation. The intent of the solicitation was to establish

088a contract for construction management at risk services for Hubitt Middle School renovation. The request for proposal was evaluated on the following criteria. Company information 5% experience on similar projects 15% staff plan staffing plan 10% and GMP proposal and schedule at 70%. The administrative review was was conducted and all three vendors responds responses were deemed responsive and responsible. After the evaluation committee conducted evaluations, the Sammit Corporation was rated the highest scoring vendor. Staff recommended that Sammit Corporation be awarded RFPC25-03 CMR services for Hubert Middle School renovations for a total guaranteed maximum price in the amount of 17,171,793 including all construction costs, a 3% CMR fee, and CMR contingency. As outlined, the funding sources for this project is East Splash 3 and East Splash 4 funds. Thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that

089the board approve the award of RFPC26-03 esplass CMR services for Hubert Middle School to Sammit Corporation with a guaranteed maximum price amount of 17,171,793. >> Moved by Mr. agreement seconded by Miss Campbell. Um discussion. [snorts] >> I'm just very glad to see this moving forward. The energy around what we're going to see happening at Hubert was palpable at the community meeting and there was a lot of feedback about being happy to being being given the opportunity to provide feedback and looking forward to when the team was going to return um as we move forward in the process. So, I look forward to that and thank you. >> Anyone else? All right. All in favor? >> Wonderful. >> Item number 8.06 bid C26-08 SECCPSS alternative school renovation esplash 4. The purchasing department received bids from seven

090vendors in response to bid C26-08 SCCPSS alternative school renovation. The intent of this solicitation is to establish a contract for the renovate, excuse me, the renovation of the old SECPSS Mercer Middle School, which will be housed which will house four different school programs. Building Bridges High School, Building Bridges Middle School, Wings Elementary, and CILA. Staff recommend that the bid be awarded to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, which was determined to be Carol Daniel Construction Company at a total cost of 20,421,260 as outlined in your packet. The funding source for this is ESPL 4. Thus be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board now approve the contract with Carol Daniel Construction Company, the lowest responsive and responsible bidder for the SECCPSS alternative schools renovation project at a total cost of

09120,421,260. >> Second move and seconded. Okay. Uh discussion. Uh Dr. Howard Hall, >> thank you. I'm looking forward to this because these renovations will foster a more conducive and learning environment for our students. Um we know that e-learning is also alternative. A lot of times we look at alternative schools as being students that's um struggling um being successful in the traditional schools. On here is it's listed as building bridges high school, but they're really programs. They're not I know we call them schools and we I just want to make sure the public understands that building bridges is not a school. It's a program for the and wings as well as um the middle school although that's the grade span that they cover. So I don't know how we can actually word it or will it

092matter but that's something I thought I'd just bring up that they're programs as opposed to schools. However, e-learning is a school and we I'm looking forward to see the renovations for e-learning also because with the technology that they use and the space that they can also have when they come out there because they do meet face to face on certain times. So, we're looking forward to that renovation. >> Um I second what uh Dr. Dr. Howard Hall was saying and you notice when you focus your attention on something it can blossom and I'm hoping that what will happen with uh the children actually going into a renovated and and uh academic environment that it will help their behavior so that they can quickly return to their home schools because like she's saying yes this is

093not some place you come to stay. you come to kind of get yourself renovated and then you go back to your home school. So, um Dr. Watts, I really thank you for focusing on our building bridges middle and high programs because they were in need of that attention uh that we give all of our other schools. >> Anyone else? All right. All in favor? >> All right. Thank you. >> Item number 8.07, furniture, fixture, and equipment for Georgetown K8 School and budget transfer east plus 4. On April 9th, 2025, the board approved an extension of the annual contracts for districtwide furniture, fixture, and equipment bid C19-05 and RFP C23-01 for Mason's Inc. and Georgia Specialty Equipment LLC. Staff requests to utilize bid C19-05 and RFP C23-01 districtwide FF and E contracts with Mason Inc. and

094Georgia Specialty Equipment LLC bid 24-0, excuse me, 24-41 custodial equipment and various statewide contracts. In support of this action, staff also requests the following budget transfer. The transfer is required to provide funds for the furniture, fixture, and equipment and custodial equipment for Georgetown K8 School as detailed on your packet. Thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the purchase of furniture, fixtures, and equipment and custodial equipment for Georgetown K8 School F&E using bid C19-05 and RFPC23-01 districtwide FFNE contracts Mason Inc. and G Georgia Specialty Equipment LLC and bid 24-41 custodial equipment and v and various statewide contracts and be it further resolved that the board approve the budget transfer from Georgetown K8 school construction account to Georgetown K8 school expend expendable non-computer equipment FFN account for 1 million 516,75.92.

095>> It's been moved by uh moved by Miss Hall, seconded by Dr. Bringman. Uh any >> I'm sorry. >> Did you revise it? >> No, this is the FF. >> No, that's printed. That's fine. >> The lawyer's just saying because she didn't I don't think she stated and be further resolved. No, she >> she didn't state that 10 jam and will also be used under tips contract 230301 for the purchase of Georgetown FF. She also left out HNI workplace international international and >> that's as okay as printed. >> Okay. Just kidding. Let's state that again. >> You want me to read you want me to list all of the I said statewide contracts. Ask that. We're good. >> Who made the motion? That's the person. >> Who made the motion? Okay. >> Yeah. >> Just

096say it's print. >> Move to move to approve the resolution as printed. >> There you go. All right. >> David. >> I second it. >> Perfect. Now, any discussion? No. All in favor? >> As printed. >> All right. >> Okay. Item number 8.08 esplast 4 audio enhancement budget transfer. This is classroom audio safe alert and camera communication systems. The audio enhancement systems integration project includes upgrades to districtwide intercom classroom communications and classroom audiovisisual systems. The highlights of this transfer enhance classroom audio systems for improved student engagement and reduces teacher fatigue. School intercom systems, edge cams, camera systems are included in classrooms for enhanced learning and provides professional development for staff and contain specific security support mechanisms. integrates currently current safety systems to create redundancies and failsafe frameworks in schools such as access control, vape detection

097and emergency response but buttons include safe signal alert for education system. Safe is an alert notification system designed to work with audio enhancements classroom systems, allowing a teacher wearing their microphone to discreetly signal for help in the event of an emergency and includes optional components for the inclusion of additional safe alert systems for all staff. This work will be completed under RFP25-26 multimedia media classroom presentation systems and learning commons audiovisisual annual contract awarded to Net Planner Systems Inc. This budget transfer will cover the cost of implementing the safe alert system infrastructure supports safe alert badges. To support this work, the capital programs and maintenance department requests the budget transfers as outlined in your packet. Thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the requested budget transfer in the amount

098of 1,51,310. >> It's been moved by Miss Hall, seconded by Mr. Catchmar. Any discussion, Miss Hall? >> Uh, I've been doing a little research and I uh sent the possible topic to Dr. watch for our retreat about using the audio enhancement system to help our teachers self-monitor their lessons. So that that would be a way for them to uh be able to go back, review the uh lesson that's been taped that they did and with the academic coach sit down and actually be able to look at that lesson, that delivery, and see places in there that the teacher might improve. So it it's I' I've sent it to Dr. Watts. We haven't uh discussed it any further yet, but audio enhancement has so many features that I think will be able to help us um

099down the line other than the wonderful safety badge that you have on that you can press the button to let people know you need help. Um, Miss Kowski, >> does [snorts] this complete the deployment of these to all of our schools or do we still have schools that we are >> So, we're about 75% complete with the deployment. >> Okay. >> It has to be completed by June 30th. >> By June 30th. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Um, all in favor? >> Yes. Thank you. >> All right. So, good afternoon. >> Afternoon, >> Mr. President, board members, Dr. Watts. Today, I am presenting the resolution for attendance boundary realignment for implementation beginning in school year 2627. This recommendation follows a comprehensive operational review of attendance boundaries in the east side middle school

100corridor and the western Chattam County to better align enrollment and facility capacity use along with improving transportation efficiency and supporting upcoming east blast or education special purpose local option sales tax facility investments. A prior recommendation was presented in the December board meeting and tabled by the board. Following that discussion, staff reassessed routing capacity and implementation impacts. The superintendent has withdrawn the previous recommendation and now brings forward the revised final recommendation. The recommendation includes moving students in the Bonaventure area from Hubert Middle School to Myers Middle School, transitioning Pooler Elementary School to a preK early learning center beginning in school year 2829 with our Puler Elementary students uh swinging over and staff swinging over to Bloomingdale Elementary School during the renovation for school years 2627 and 2728. consolidating the prek programs currently located at New Hamstead

101K8, West Chadam Elementary, and Bloomingdale Elementary at the Pooler site upon reopening in the school year 2829 time frame. providing administrative placement flexibility for certain impacted neighborhoods, including the Hunt Club, Fort Argyle, and John Carter Road, assuming capacity is available at those sites, and families provide transportation. phasing Bloomingdale Elementary to a K8 school u adding one year each year with school year 2627 adding the sixth grade 2728 adding the seventh grade and 2829 adding the eighth grade. These adjustments support improved facility utilization, transportation efficiency and feeder alignment. Thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the scout school boundary modifications that include Bloomingdale Elementary School, Pooler Elementary School, Puler Early Learning Center in the future uh West Chadam Elementary School, West Chadam Middle School, New Hamstead KA Meyers Middle

102School and Hubert Middle School as described in this agenda and the detailed in the associated boundary maps. These changes further the district's goals to optimize facility usage, improve transportation efficiency, and ensure equitable access to high quality educational environments. >> All right, discussion. >> I have a question for you. Thank you for this uh review. Uh just out of curiosity, will this be an ongoing process? and um yeah, an ongoing process. When we talk about uh schools that's being underutilized, I know that I have a school in my district uh Duran Middle School that is underutilized at this moment. Uh we talked about using this school uh to send some students there at one point. So, I'm just trying to see how would we address and approach those concerns moving forward. >> Absolutely. So under our

103superintendent's direction, we try to uh do boundary realignments every 3 to five years because it does impact our students so much. But we are constantly looking at our data and uh one of our our goals in the near future is to have a facility master plan that would be for 10 years. So that way we could incorporate our projected changes in the near future. We are looking at our underutilized and our overutilized from a a student enrollment perspective to make sure that we are uh planning ahead for those adjustments. >> Okay. So, >> I'll just also add if there's a new school being built or some major renovation happening in between a 3 to 5year period, uh we would have to move on it much sooner. We wouldn't be able to wait three to five

104years. So, um, taking into account major bis, uh, building renovations and new construction is kind of a separate entity. >> Absolutely. >> If that makes sense. >> Anyone else? Uh, Miss Campbell, >> I just wanted to say thank you for being patient with me and community members while we were trying to figure out what was going to happen. Um, generally I think this plan is great and it's going to work and last for at least three to five years. It was the best option for how we utilize the buildings best. Um, and I'm excited to hear what's coming for Puller Elementary and Bloomingdale as we transition it to a middle school. So, thank you to the district for being open to all the questions and concerns and stuff. Just just again I'm sorry to go

105backwards but >> just out of curiosity again um when a school is underutilized for uh more than 3 to 5 years or 10 years or etc. What is our approach uh to that campus? What is our mindset towards uh that that that campus? >> Absolutely. So I'll jump in and then if Dr. Watts has any additional comments. So we want to make sure that we are uh best supporting our scholars within the building, our staff within the building and then maximizing our community resources. So there might be an opportunity that we uh utilize part of the building for other purposes. So for example, maybe we would have a daycare or other early learning that could utilize some of our buildings in the future. So it's really looking at from a holistic approach as to what

106is needed to best support that school and the community. I would say there are many factors we have to consider. And if you've been following the news, and this is not to bring alarm to our district, but many uh districts across Georgia and across the country are having to close and consolidate schools. Um that would have to be something we would have to consider. Um we would be of course looking at how community partnerships. Um I want to also in our next strategic plan look at how we um strategically go about recapturing students who have left the district um for homeschool and charter school if we can re I know recapture is probably not the best word um but we have lost a significant number of students um for a myriad of reasons and we

107need to do some more investigation on why we have students leaving but all of these factors and we don't have it codif ified. So, I'm not giving you a clean answer, but we have a lot of factors that we're looking into to make sure that our buildings are better utilized. >> Understood. I I think that those are great responses. While they are great responses, they're very um opposites in in the extremes. So my I guess one question I would like to ask is has there been uh any thought put into any of the underutilized schools and directly I would like to ask about Duran Middle School because again we have uh we had their name on the list and we've removed it. So I'm just trying to get clarity on what the approach is that

108we're thinking towards that campus. I don't want to. And you can probably tell I'm dancing around the answer because I don't have a direct answer for you today. I think we are considering all of the things that both Miss Davidson and and I mentioned. What I would like to do is have more time to think about it with my team given all the things that are on the table that could be considered so that we have a better way to articulate what our plan is. it would be premature for me to try to come up with something. Even though I have ideas, it's not going to be as clean as you need it to be for response right now. >> Gotcha. >> And I also don't want to raise fear in the community or I

109don't, you know, I I just want to be very careful in my response. >> Of course. >> So, um, if you would afford us the time to do that, I would appreciate it. >> Okay. >> Dr. Bringman. >> Yeah. And I'll I'll uh piggyback on that. I think um one thing, you know, I wasn't a huge part of this, so I looked over and I was like, "Is this good?" And she's like, "Yeah." Um time and time again, Dr. Watts and the district staff have brought a plan and been able to walk it back and re-engage and re-imagine and try to make it the best fit. Like redistricting is never going to be the best fit for everybody. Just isn't. Um, but I believe that we have done a great job at trying to lessen

110the impact and be thoughtful about stewardship both of our facilities and resources and stewardship of our families. Um, and trying to find that intersection. Um, so, um, I believe that the district's going to continue to do that for all of our buildings that might be underutilized in areas where we have to make maybe more difficult um, decisions. So, thank you for your intentionality. >> And I want to add one more thing as a part of our next strategic plan, and I know the board accountability committee has had a chance to hear this, but we're using the word the district, the district's plan, the district's plan. It will be our plan co-designed with the community. So I am going to try to move us back from always being the the solution. We come in with a

111solution and then people respond to the solution. I'd like to engage people on the front end and say here's the problem of practice. Here's all the data that we can tell you. These are all of our parameters, our boundaries, the money we have. What solutions do you have? and then us take those solutions back and try to come up with a plan that is more community oriented. So I I'm really desiring to move towards a co-design model versus what is the district's plan um because it needs to be our plan. >> Understood. If it appears in any way that I am uh against or not in agreement with the plan that has been proposed, I don't want that to be the case. My only concern is the inclusion or the exclusion of a certain school

112or schools. So that I want to be clear in that. So thank you. >> Yes. >> Anyone else? >> All right. All in favor? >> Y. >> All right. Thank you very much. So, where's my list? Here we go. All right. It is now time for public uh speakers. And I am thrilled today that we have so many of our students speaking. I am just it it warms my heart. It really does. Um I I I love to give our students voice and be assured we hear you. But first uh we will have uh Miss Angelisa Bryant. Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon. >> It's a pleasure to see all the students that is coming to speak. I come today to speak life not only for my child but for every family who relies on the

113board to ensure that laws, policies and procedures are followed. This district operates with a budget of over $940 million to educate and to protect students. We teach our children to follow rules. Are [snorts] we holding ourselves to the same standards? For the record, my fura amendment request was received on December the 18th. Volume went off. Sorry about that. December the 18th, 2025. Under federal law, the district had 45 days to issue a determination, yes or written denial, with due pro process rights. That deadline expired on February the 1st, 2025. The response was issued on February 11, after the deadline. This is not about tone. This is not about communication style. It is about procedure compliance. Furpa means something. parents rights. It means something. Parents have the right to have timely lawful responses matters. If operational

114practices are changing how parents access statutory rights, that is not communication issues. That is oversight issues. Oversight is not opposition. Accountability is not conflict. When parents speaks up, that is not disruption. It is speaking life. I am asking this board to ensure furpa and procedures are followed as written consistently and without delay. When I stand, I stand for life and I will continue to stand for my child and for every child. Thank you. You okay? And I hope I get your name your name correct. Marren. All right. I'm not gonna even attempt your last name because please >> I have some uh papers I'd like to distribute to the board if possible. >> Sorry. >> What are they speaking of? >> Okay. Hello, my name is Marin Hel. I'm a student at the Savannah Arts

115Academy and I'm here today to speak to you about the French program at my school. There's a quote often attributed to 9th century Holy Roman Emperor and King of the Frank Charlemagne. It reads, "To have another language is to possess another soul." In an increasingly globalized world, the power of connection fueled by language is a growing one. French, in particular, is the fifth most spoken language in the world and is a language of diplomacy through its roles as the official language of the International Olympic Committee. It's used in more than 29 countries and its more than 300 million speakers worldwide. It is a language of arts and culture, the very subjects that the Savan Arts Academy prides ourselves in emphasizing. Is the language of ballet, of composers like Biz and Dus, of revolutionary 20th century

116new wave cinema, and of painters like Monae and Dega. Additionally, the mere act of learning a language offers students the opportunity to reap immense benefits. Multilinguism has been shown to increase brain plasticity over the course of one's life. And studies have shown that language learners perform better creatively and across a host of academic subjects. But the benefits of language learning are well documented. What I wish to impart on you today is the importance of our French program at Savannah Arts and why it is imperative [clears throat] that the program is not allowed to shutter. The Savannah Arts program has seen incredible success in recent years, bridging students from school to the franophhone world, but now finds itself in a unique position. Our most recent teacher left at the end of last semester to pursue his

117PhD, a commendable endeavor. We wish him enormous success in the logical next step for the department would appear to merely involve finding a teacher with the suitable credentials to fill his place. Instead, the department finds itself on the chopping block. The current course offerings as communicated by SAA administrators propose only a single block of French one of French 2, excuse me, for the freshmen currently enrolled in French one. This marks the end of French 3, AP French, and the enrollment of any new students in the department, effectively shuttering it for good. Not only would this leave Savannah Arts with just one foreign language, a strange position for a school that advertises its consistently high state ranking after the Italian program at a similar fate. It also strands those students already in the enrolled in the

118department, including myself, with no opportunity to advance beyond the basic two-year language requirement at SAA or to the AP level, something top universities often look for in applicants. Additionally, the cancellation of the Savannah Arts French Department would mean the end of a considerable international diplomatic effort. The port cities of Savannah and Dunkerk, France, have shared a long econom e economic and diplomatic relationship exemplified through the language and cultural exchange program participated in by students studying French at Savannah Arts and partner schools Lis Augustier and collage Gaspar Melo in France. Students between the schools have exchanged handwritten letters in a mixture of French and English for almost three years with [snorts] expansions to the program focused on international diplomacy already planned for coming years. Included with the papers already distributed to you is a copy of

119a letter written by Madame Christine Vhorn and her students at Lis August Unlier in support of our plea for the continuation of our program that I urge you to read in its entirety. >> All right. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Additionally, Mia Guom Capel, the English teachers and principal of Kles Gasparamelo have also sent a letter of their support. The SAA French Department is valuable. What has been communicated by SAA administrators is that the French department has a funding and support problem. I stand here today to offer a solution to the support portion. Among the papers I've distributed is a petition signed by 70 Savannah Arts students, a growing number as our petition considers to continues to receive signatures, many of whom who have indicated their intentions to

120continue with the French program if offered the opportunity. Their comments are also included in the papers. I stand here with the support of SA parents and alumni, the French honorary council in Savannah, Madame Val Gronzo and Madame Verh and the college Gaspar Melo and the school Augustier in Dunkerk. I ask now that anyone at the meeting in support of the French program stand with me at this time. >> Madame superintendent, board members, we are here. The support is here. We ask now that you consider our plea and work with SAD administrators to find the funding. The Savannah Arts Academy French Department is worth it. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Merci. Okay. So, um guys, technically you have three minutes. Um >> no worries. No worries. It was You were fantastic. >> Fantastic. You were absolutely

121fantastic or fantastic. Um so uh Harmon give us the business. [clears throat] >> Uh good afternoon U board and staff. Um here to speak on a completely different issue. We had signed up in a certain order but it kind of got out of whack. Totally fine. [laughter] Um so good afternoon. Uh I first want to briefly express the gratitude of the SAA piano department. Uh this happened some years ago, but you all granted or the district granted us an extra teacher. Uh and we we very much appreciate it. Uh and we wanted to to mention that. Um now in 2021, SECPSS suspended its bus service to choice programs. Uh this affected several thousand students at STEM, Garrison, Jenkins, Woodville, Savannah Arts, and more. And when thinking of affected students, I want to give one example

122and I'll call her V for the purposes of of this speech. Uh V was a Spanish arts academy student who lived relatively far from the school somewhere approximating 30 minutes. Um and her single mother single mother sometimes disappeared for days on end leaving her unable to get to school and even when her mother was present uh V was often tardy through no fault of her own. uh she received ISS several times even under the co era's more lenient tardy policy again through no fault of her own uh and while V has since graduated there are hundreds of students who face similar challenges and now the district is cracking down on tardies and absences issuing detentions after five tardies and supposedly requiring zeros for work miss due to unexcused absences and in doing so we've moved

123the goalpost instead of accepting its responsibility to provide transportation for public schools teachers are being asked to essentially grade a behavior. And in the opinion of many educators and students, grading attendance this way is unethical. Now, some are probably thinking that students should simply get a driver's license, carpool, or enroll at their home schools. Um, but in reality, it's rarely that simple. Many families do not have an extra car or cannot afford the insurance for a teen driver, are unable to find a nearby carpool, or have to choose between a school that is not the right fit for them and a choice school that may be 30 minutes or more away. uh working with the student ambassador program at SA, I've come across a repeat question from prospective students and their parents and it said,

124"How will I get to school or how will my child get to school?" And it's one I've never been able to answer because seemingly nobody else in this room can give an answer. And there's a growing concern and while I don't believe this to be true that uh working families are being denied access to choice programs by design, the students who are admitted but can't attend SAA are evidence enough that transportation is essential for SAA's long-term survival. And while the bus driver shortage is understandable, this district has options. Uh, the easiest of which is to spread out school start times to allow the same bus drivers to drive more students over a longer period of time, presumably paid as such. Um, and if Savannah Arts has to start at 9:00 or later, so be it

125if it means everyone can get to school every morning. Um, students and parents tend to prefer a much later start time anyway. And so when considering how to move forward, I would like the district to ask themselves a simple question. What about Vic and the hundreds of students in her situation? Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Okay. Uh, Madam Madden. >> Hello to council members and all in attendance. I'm here today on behalf of the Savannah Arts Student Council speaking on the issue of the district's new restroom policy. For those who are not aware, recently in Chattam County, schools have been mandated to close off half of their bathrooms during teaching time. Students who naturally might need to leave class than spend more time wandering around the halls to find the restroom that is

126open to them. For all the district policy changes dedicated to keeping students in classes, a policy that causes them to leave for longer periods of time feels somewhat counterintuitive. I'm here today to ask the board what this policy hopes to do for Savannah Arts. We consistently have the best attendance rates, the highest scores. When asking our student council adviser, he confirmed we haven't had a fight in eight years. So why is it then that SAA is policed as if there is a severe problem? I mean, it it isn't just about the bathroom issue, but how Savannah Arts is viewed within the district. Why should we receive the same punishments and restrictions as all other schools, but not exactly the same rewards? I mean, my Savannah Arts comply with a policy that penalizes our students when

127we lack the root issues. Why then do we not receive the one reward our choice school could use the most, transportation? We're not here to attack or criticize this board, but to just point out the unfairness in the recent rules. As a member of the SAA student council, I can only ask that you think about how choice schools are consistently the highest performing yet are lumped in with blanket policies to treat problems we do not have. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. >> My question. >> Okay. >> I've never heard of this policy. Do you know about this policy? >> This policy? >> We don't know anything about this bathroom policy. Okay. >> It's not a policy. >> Oh, it's not a policy. >> Okay. Is it a

128regulation? >> No. >> This is a this is being implemented by a school. >> It's a procedural guidance that will provide it to principles in the light of some of the things that was happening across the district. But we can look at individual scenarios to see where we can make flexibility in that procedural guidance that was provided to principles. >> Thank you. It is my it's my also my understanding that if a principal has a supervisory plan for the bathrooms then the bathrooms can be >> That is correct. The ask was to make sure that there was a supervisory plan and that um there was an adult there to monitor actions around the bathroom and not just to blanketly shut them down. But if during the class change, we wanted to make sure that every

129a every aspect of a school had an adult supervising student actions. So that in any case um any act of um violating our student code of conduct doesn't happen and that can happen at any school at any time. >> Just for our procedural awareness, can we get be sent that guidance? I mean we I trust you to handle it, but can you send it to us so that we know what it is? >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, Aiden Lee, >> I'll just add one more comment on that because I did do an extensive amount of inquiry around that at the beginning of the year. Many of our principles are asking for consistency across schools. They don't want situations where they are >> different >> having to uphold different standards

130than another school because parents compare and community members compare and children compare. So a and I also think you will see that as we reveal more of the feedback that we're getting around the strategic plan that there overwhelmingly what we're seeing as a consistent theme and I'm giving early information is the desire for consistency to say we are not a system of schools we are a school system. Um, and so we are we are trying to respond to that while also honoring that schools are different. But but there is a belief and I will be the main believer to say we are a school system, not a system of schools and there has to be some baseline experience that every child can expect regardless of the school that they attend. Now how we balance that,

131that is the art that we'll have to figure out. But um this is not just you know the people myself or Dr. Barnes uh calling for that consistency. It's coming from principles and it's coming from parents and teachers as well. >> Mr. Lee. >> Yeah. Thank you. Um good afternoon. Uh my name is Aiden Lee. I'm a senior at Sven Arts Academy. Um and I guess I'm kind of talking about the same thread of what Madam was talking about and what you were talking about just now. Um, but first I just want to thank everyone for staying this late u listening to us speak. Um, I know it's been a long day, I'm sure. And um, we're all grateful that we're able to speak today. Um, we're all here this afternoon because we really care

132about spin arts. We're um, a big part of the community. We really care about the community and we want everyone to succeed, whether it's students, administrators, or teachers. And we've recognized that there's often a structural challenge um when teachers, students, and administrators are trying to better our school and that sometimes there are policies that are written for the whole district that can have unintended consequences. Um just this morning I was talking to a math teacher and he was recounting his difficulty in justifying the fact that he would have to double his um tests and assignments because of a blanket grading policy that was assigned to the whole district. Um, and sometimes I mean these common these conversations can feel common fold where the district is some like scary entity that's out to get us even

133if the source is a wellmeating policy that probably has a net positive impact overall. And there have been some examples of this this afternoon. And while they might seem like separate concerns, um I think they share a common route that different schools are different and sometimes would benefit from a system that can recognize those differences even if the universal overarching policies are towards one big vision. Um so we encourage district to consider finding a structured process that can attend uh address these district-wide policies while maintaining um equity whether it's giving more um principles a bit more discretion in things like grading policy, attendance policy um or bathroom policy where they can look at their schools and address the individual problems that they might have instead of big overarching policies. um and we respect the decisions

134that the district makes and we try and follow them. But when there's um bit of um misunderstandings or conflicts that arise from them, there is often like a sense of like lack of communication, then we're just here to kind of express that perspective, that point of view today. So, thank you for your time and for considering um our voices today. >> Thank you very much. Thank you, >> Bringman. Um, please stay so we can talk to you afterwards. A lot of times speakers come and then they say they're three minutes and then they're gone before we can get behind from behind the horseshoes. So if you're willing to chat with us, please stick around. At least I will chat with you. >> Yes. >> Don't want to behold everybody else. >> All right. Anyone have

135any business to bring before the board? Say >> thank you. It's been moved. >> Thank you. All in favor say I. >> We're turn.