001Oh, that's [Music] Good afternoon. Can I have the mic? Yes. Good afternoon and welcome to the Wednesday, April 9th, 2025 regular um meeting of the Savannah Cadam County Board of Education. Um and I will confirm that we have posted the agenda. It's been been confirmed. Uh we will now please stand for the national anthem. Good afternoon. We are thrilled to have with us today the students from um Charles Ellis K8 School. This is their band and uh a couple things to say about them. First of all, they are directed by Mrs. Sarah Balden and also uh they played for large group performance evaluation last month in March and they received the highest rating that can be achieved which is a superior. So we're very proud of the group for that. Um another accolade for this
002school is of the of the kids that are eligible to participate in band in their student population, 60% of them do participate in the band. So, we're very excited to have them with us. Um, would you please remain standing after the national anthem for the pledge of allegiance? Thank you. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [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. [Applause] Great job. Thank you. Let me get a picture for you. Michael instrument. Wow. Oh, I was You were on that one. Oh, younger now. Let's hear it again for Charles Ellis. [Applause] All right. I'll accept a motion to approve the agenda. Excuse me, Mr. Moss. I would like
003to make a motion to amend the approved agenda. I would like to amend the agenda and delete item 7.24, 24 the administrative lease for the use of Georgia Tech Savannah. Okay. I would also like to amend uh the agenda to remove 7.31 EEOC the claim to DOE matters to 6.15. Okay. Uh anyone second? Second. Second. Thank you. Uh, all in favor? I All right. All right. I'm not in order today. Sorry. Here we go. Here are our announcements for today. Um, good. Make sure I'm in the right place. Um, capital improvement committee meeting, uh, is Tuesday, April 15th, uh, at 2 PM here in the Whitney complex. Finance committee meeting is Wednesday, April 16th at 9:00 a.m. here at Whitney. um board finance workshop Wednesday, April 16th, uh from 10:00 a.m. to noon here at
004Whitney. Uh, we have a holiday on Good Friday. Um, uh, Friday, April 18th. Audit committee meeting, April 24th at 8:00 a.m. April 26 is our books, blankets, and family fun. uh AP April 26 at Daffen Park starting at 10:00 a.m. Then um our business partner event is Thursday, May 1st at Oatland Island uh wildlife center. Um, in remembrances today we have uh Peggy uh Varnador uh date of passing 12625 uh elementary from Haven Elementary. Um we have a custodial worker Althia Hagens date of passing 320 32925. uh custodial worker Walter Willie Baker Jr. uh Beach High School date of passing 33025 and another custodial worker custo custodial worker um Donna Harris uh from Savannah Arts Academy date of passing 32025. If we all would stand for a moment of silence. We'll now have the superintendence
005report. Thank you. I am excited to introduce our March student of the month. The superintendent student of the month for March is a fifth grader at May Howard Elementary School. He has shown tremendous academic and leadership growth and has maintained high honor role all year. He participated in the social studies fair for the district and won second place. Our student also is the lead captain for his robotics team and secretary for student council. This scholar was on the first Lego League robotics team and they advanced to the state competition. He has been named a highflying Hulk for trustworthiness and he serves on the safety patrol. His extracurricular activities include basketball, soccer, swimming, wrestling, flag football, and jitsu. His nominator wrote that this young man is an exceptional leader. He works hard to perform at the
006highest level in academics. He has worked before, after, and during school to help lead the robotics team to the state level compete competition against middle schoolers. He is humble, but he is also supportive. He is kind and compliments his team members and peers. He always has a positive attitude and is willing to lend a hand. He is a true true leader in action. When asked what motivates him to strive for academic success, our student told us that he wants to be he wants to get into a good college and get a good job and he knows that hard work will pay off. Please help me congratulate Wyatt Giovani, the student superintendent student of the month for March. Thank you. [Applause] Wyatt will be taking home several gifts from our sponsors, including Members First Credit Union,
007Advertising Specialties, Georgia Southern University, Gfream, and a $100 check from Savannah Schools Federal Credit Union. In addition, Wyatt and his ELA class will receive copies of uh his favorite book, Way of the Warrior Kid by Joo Willin, donated by our sponsor, ES Shaver Book Seller. Again, congratulations. If his family is here, I would love for them to have the opportunity to stand and be acknowledged. Thank you for everything you have done to prepare a student, our student of the month. Um, and also his nominator and principal, if they are here today, Miss Christina LS and the school principal, Katherine Taylor. [Applause] Oh, she was a teacher of the year finalist also. Thank you. Awesome. Great work, Wyatt. We're proud of you. Um, I will now move on to our good news report. There are many
008reasons here for additional applause. We are excited to celebrate our teachers of the year, instructional support staff of the year, and our first ever principal of the year last month at our inaugural excellence in education gayla. Congratulations to the 2026 teacher of the year, Jennifer Hughes from Southwest Middle School, the instructional support person of the year, Jabari Heyman from Windsor Forest High School, and the principal of the year, Alfred Maguire from Woodville Tommpkins. We enjoyed celebrating all of our winners and thank the sponsors greatly who made that event possible. It was truly a night of educational excellence. And let's add to our teacher of the year accolades. We have learned recently that the Georgia Charter School Association has named Mrs. Robin Allison the 2025 Charter School Teacher of the Year. This educator from Tybee Island
009Maritime Academy was recognized at the GCSA annual conference. The Charter School Teacher of the Year Award spotlights dynamic educators who have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to charter school students, their families, and their communities. We are proud of Miss Allison, and we thank her for all she does to serve our students. And she is here today. Also, we'd love for her to stand to be acknowledged. Thank you so much. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, something's always cooking in the school nutrition program. Last month, local and regional vendors shared their samples at the future in the future is now food fair. Students and staff were able to share their opinions about the food and try breakfast and lunch items. What a great way to hear the
010voices of our team. And we also want to congratulate the student chef team from Coastal Middle School who took second and third place in the Georgia Department of Education School Nutrition Division Student Chef Competition with their entries of fruit parfait and kiche bites. Teams from across the state submitted student developed recipes featuring Georgia grown ingredients. This competition not only meets Georgia education standards but also provides students with handson learning opportunities. The winning recipes will be standardized and served as a part of the school meals across Georgia. Congratulations to Miss Beecher and the team of student chefs. Thank you also to Chef Bird for lending your skills and expertise to this competition. Last month, we told you about a great success of the play cards from Live Oak Public Libraries libraries. The program was a hit
011and we are excited to see our youngest readers engaging with the libraries and all of the resources that are available to them. Congratulations to Charles Ellis Monasuri kindergarteners for the outstanding performance in checking out more resources than any other class. They won a pizza party from Donado's and heard from celebrity readers from WT WOC. Also, I would like to extend a congratulations to Jenkins robotics team for their amazing finish at the Georgia First Robotics Competition. The team which took home the sustainability award at a recent competition in Dalton, Georgia, qualified for the district competition at Georgia Southern Statesboro campus. Jenkins competed with teams from around the Peach Tree District. Participants call it the hardest fun you'll ever have. The award celebrates and recognizes a team that has developed sustainable practices to have a positive environment
012environmental impact and achieve long-term continuity. Hardy congratulations goes to the Savannah High School Blue Jacket basketball team for their comeback victory over Macintosh County last month. I was in the audience. It was awesome. The team's first state title since 1998. The game was very competitive with each team going on big runs and trading leads. Savannah High trailed by double digits once in the third quarter and then again in the fourth, but this team of 11 seniors never quit. Don't sleep on them. They said, "Don't sleep on us." Um the their victory has been celebrated multiple times with a blue jacket celebration at the high school, a proclamation by Savannah City Council, and a visit to the S Chattam County Commission as well. I'd like to recognize the basketball team and please have them come and
013make their way around the horseshoe. We welcome Rammon Anderson, Mare Joiner, Chance Hendrickx, Gerante [Applause] Brown, Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. [Applause] Congratulations. We also have Stefan Fox, Deshawn Davis, Zmart, Ahmad Hall, Tyright, Kayen Wright, Deari Noel, Laquadre Haynes, Martavius Rice, Marcus Reynolds, Renard Jackson, and Martell Mitch Mitchell. The managers on the team include Shaman Ruth, Josh Trop Tropio, and Brandon Smith. And we also would like to congratulate our head coach and assisting coaching staff. Congratulations to all. I'll shoot your email. Dr. Watts. I just like to say this that these boys played together at Hubert. They have been together since they played middle school ball at Hubert and they went on to Savannah High and many private schools not only from Chattam County but all throughout the state of Georgia tried to recruit some of those
014boys but they all made a vow to stay together and they went to the state. Awesome. Thank you. A lot of undo influence to take. Thank you so much. We indeed have a lot to celebrate in Savannah Chattam County Public School System. And with that said, I'd love to pass the microphone and the agenda over to a our representatives from professional senate for their report. Good afternoon. Um, I'm going to do a slightly shortened version. So, we covered multiple topics at our last meeting and we had a chance to all sit at a giant round table together which was just awesome for discussion. Uh, so we covered ESOL. We had Dr. Bernardet Gomez Crowe uh, director of ESOL services who provided insight into how the district is currently meeting needs of ESOL students and also
015shared that principles should reach out if additional support staff are needed. We also discussed student behavior. Concerns were expressed regarding consequences for inappropriate student behavior in schools and on buses. Dr. Watt shared that principles have discretion to handle discipline at the school level and to decide if there is a hired position for ISS at the school. Rachel Hurst from the Office of School Leadership talked about mentorships, coaching principles, and highlighting positive relationships and goals. Teachers and staff should be continuing to use the five-step discipline model not only for documentation but also for goal setting. Uh the Senate was informed of a new electronic workflow field trip approval process created by Doug Winters. However, this submission process needs revision. Our chief uh operations officer, Miss Davidson, stated that she would follow up on the process and
016on the communication side and ask about teachers having access to that workflow. Since our meeting, Mr. Winters, has reached out for examples of documents for teachers and has stated that the department is working to update the field trip workflow process. The topic of e-learning days was revisited to verify that neither school nor district trainings will overlap with remote teaching duties and that protected planning time will be incorporated into the school year calendar. Additionally, when a planning day occurs between quarters on the calendar, it was requested that grades be due on that planning day rather than on the school day prior. Uh, a teacher asked about receiving information regarding an audit. Uh, Mr. Mr. Butler clarified that this is a random selection of teachers to determine the level of consistency of teaching and pacing curriculum across
017the district, not an assessment on individual teachers. Dr. Watts added that this is to ensure that all students are receiving a baseline educational experience. uh one of our own uh instructional support persons of the year, Matthew Tilly, will be pre uh providing presenting a virtual uh uh presentation entitled being part of the machine based on research that he did and pre presented at our counselor's conference. Uh that will be on Tuesday, April 15th from 5 to 6. And our final Senate meeting of the school year will be held on Monday, May 5th from 4:15 to 5:15 at Jenkins High School. Thank you. Mr. Edgar. Thank you, sir. Moving on in your agenda, we have board of education matters, a host of policies to review here, and a few other action items for the board. Number
018one on your rundown, item 6.01. This is a 4-year review of policy. This is a first reader for the board of education. We'll come back for a second read adoption. Primarily revisions that you'll see here are for clarity related to compensation uh for board of education members and to update legislative actions uh that have occurred um that provide for authorization of compensation. First read thank you no comments one. Perfect move. Continuing on your agenda item 6.02. This is board policy DJ. This is the regulation only. So we have uh some changes only to the administrative regulation which we're bringing for the board's uh review and of course subject to the board's uh comments on and feedback. We'll consider this complete under the board policy 4-year review process. uh you'll see that the primary rationale in
019modifications under this policy were to streamline procedures and processes for identifying or reporting and invest in investigating irregularities uh as it falls in expenditure of funds. Uh so you'll see that we have identified two primary primary points of contact uh for initiating the reporting of any irregularities that may be suspected. Again, this is a first read. We'll come back for second read adoption next board meeting. Any comments, questions? Thank you. Moving on. Item 6.03. This is board policy G. Uh this is under the 4-year review. There are changes recommended. So, this would be a first reader which would come back for a second read adoption at the subsequent board meeting. Primarily changes have been provided here for improved clarity and specific references to tobacco products. Uh I will also raise up that there are references
020in this uh policy section that speak to uh nicotine that primarily focuses on uh nicotine uh products that dispense nicotine such as uh vaping cigarettes and things like that. Uh this policy, if you'll recall, was up for a first reader uh back in the March agenda, but it was tabled. So, of course, the board would have to take a motion to remove this to the table from the table uh for an appropriate review under this first read process. Move to remove from the table the first read of board policy GN and moved. It's been moved and seconded. Uh any discussion? All in favor? Removed from the table. Oh yeah, sure. Okay. Now we can discuss. Now we may discuss. Yeah. And of course the modifications as I've explained are what have been provided. Uh just
021again this is a first reader. This would come back for second read adoption in May. Mr. Catchmar. Um, so the title of the policy is employee tobacco and nicotine use, but then nicotine doesn't really appear. Um, and I I just want to make sure we capture the broad depth of tobacco and nicotine delivery products that are out there while also um understanding that sometimes they're medically prescribed uses like smoking sensation, patches, etc. Um, I just I think we're being too narrow in our definition of vape and ecigarettes. There's all sorts of stuff out there. Just go down to the convenience store and you can see what can be used to deliver tobacco and nicotine. So to the extent this is a model for what we do broader with students as well, we just need to
022be a little more thoughtful about that I think. Yeah, thank you. Uh, received and we have had uh internal discussions on that. We've also had the legal team looking at it from that same exact eyeglass. And one of the things that we come back to is in situations where an individual may have a medical prescription for say nicotine patch if they're trying to quit smoking. We've seen that before. We want to make sure that our policy doesn't uh create an issue in situations like that. But also to uh make it uh broad enough in the scope that we are identifying those u that are being used in a manner that they they shouldn't be. and and thank you for raising up the modeling of behavior for our students. So, we'll continue to look at it
023with that eyeglass and bring back modifications to the next second read adoption. Anyone else? Dr. I I would I would further that to the modeling side of the house. And I have no clue how to even write it because there are tons of non-nicotine pouches that are energy products and other additives that model the same behavior of a non-nicotine. But I don't know if you want to put that in your nicotine policy. But when you look at modeling, if you've got the teacher that's grabbing the plastic container of non-nicotine pouches and putting a pouch in because it's just a caffeine thing or I mean they're out there. Um I don't know how we yes how we police that how we monitor it and how do we then send it off to make sure it isn't
024a nicotine like so I don't know how but I I will say that in part of our discussions we have looked at what other areas of policy in in code section G which is relative to employees would some of this be applicable. So, but I mean that gets pretty broad when you're talking about really use of substance, which again we have policy that governs and prohibits certain uses of substances by staff, by employees, and that's in the uh use of drugs uh component where we do have policy that that is in that area. There may be some areas there that we can look at language that would provide a gateway for that. But I I think we have to look very carefully um in how we would do that, especially from our legal perspective so
025that we aren't getting so uh ministerial in the language that's in the policy that it's automatically creating a policy violation. Uh fully understand because I think the the substances would not be illegal at all. It's just are we trying to monitor um that word modeling. Yeah. Uh Mr. Kowski. And I I think I this is a little bit of a tangent, but that may go to a broader I guess professional responsibility or expectation of teachers as models for our students. And I I know that's not something we might be able to regulate, but I certainly think that we could discuss policies that have an expectation of um you know, as we are preparing our students to be good citizens that we have to model that behavior. So, probably not this policy, but just triggered that
026thought. All right, moving on. Okay, next item on your agenda. Another policy review here. This came up as a four-year review. There's a slight modification to an outdated reference to a school year that we cleaned up on the policy side. Uh, this will require a second reader, so it will come back to the board in May. uh you will see that there have been modifications to the regulation and primarily this is being brought to the board after we've had discussion you'll recall in the uh retreat back in February this was a topic that we had discussed we also had received uh some recommendations from the godly station school council to take a look at a policy and what we could do to allow spirit wear uh to be part of the approved wear that is
027allowable in the student uniform and dress code. So uh staff have looked at that closely and have had discussions even with students uh with school principles and administrators uh much internal discussion with administration as well and landed that the spiritware uh provisions would certainly be allowable in that. So that modification has been made and a few other tweaks as well uh in the regulation. So this is a first reader. We'll come back for second read adoption in May. Okay. Uh any comments? Moving on, item 6.06. This is your board policy KJ, which is under advertising. Board policy advertising. And what we have here again is a Sorry, hang on. Did I skip? Hang on. Sorry, we jumped looking at the monitor. There we go. Sorry. Thank you for that. Uh 6.05 homeless students. So, uh,
028this particular one is coming to the board. Item 6.05, JBC homeless, under the four-year review. Uh, this will be a first reader for the board of education. Uh, we have made some, uh, cleanup language in here primarily to make clear references, improve some formatting, uh, and clarity on language. One of them you'll see specifically is uh a reference clearly to the homeless liaison uh in the policy uh where wherein you'll see it previously was talking about the school principal to be resolved. Uh but of course those authorities on the regulation side that spoke to the principal were also expanded a little further uh for the design as well. So a few changes here um not sweeping changes but primarily some cleanup language uh and to get us in line with current practice. First read, Miss
029Grabowski, I know sometimes the titles of our policies are handed to us from others. I don't know if this is one of those or not, if we have any flexibility, but even if we have to keep this title within the text of the um policy and the regulation, I would like us to consider the phrase students experiencing homelessness as opposed to labeling students as homeless. Yeah. Thank you. Y Uh I think either could be but it the the point is to not label the student as their state of living. Yes, understood. Thank you for that. And uh that is certainly something that we we can look at and and make modifications throughout the policy as where that is referenced. But again to your point uh as we are part of the GSBA and we use
030the the assembly process for the policy manual that is a state level and that the code section for this area JBC under is listed as homeless students but that doesn't stop us from making revisions in the actual copy of of the language. To that point do we have the ability to uh provide suggestions back to GSBA? um because that is this is like that terminology this is antiquated terminology and it's well known that this is antiquated um terminology that as a state we should not be using so if we have the chance to elevate that um I think we should point taken I suggested that we tell our liaison and as yes right taken yes she may consider speaking with the board's legislative liaison and make that uh recommendation uh we are happy to support
031the board in any of that manner. Uh we have had success years ago where there was some language that was questionable in one of the titles that uh was successfully changed. So yes. Yeah. The next item for the board of education to review this is policy KJ advertising in schools. This one comes to the board with regulation changes only. So, we're bringing it to the board for the board's review and awareness of modifications. And of course, under the four-year process, subject to the board's uh feedback here under this review be considered complete under the 4-year process. You will see that much of the language has been cleaned up and streamlined here uh in references to uh creating a detailed administrative guidance document where much of the details on how advertising is managed. the definition definition
032of advertising versus definition of sponsorship situations where advertising might come through that may have a monetary component to it for revenue stream which would require an agreement which would require proper signature authority are also included in this particular rundown. Uh so we have made modifications to that uh received some early feedback on it which we are uh reviewing very closely uh but primarily cleanup language here in this particular area of uh the board's policy uh through the regulation. Dr. Hoskins Brown. Thank you. I sent some comments on this policy um about how one knows whether or not something is approved and I know that staff responded that there some mechanisms for doing that. I know on on university campuses or in other governed like federal buildings if something is up it has a stamp. This
033is I know in the archaic time of paper postings but is there how are we managing this now? This is an existing policy. How are we managing whether or not something has already been approved or not? Yeah. So the primary governance that you'll see is in the regulation which stipulates that criteria and what we're talking about is the area of distribution of literature and the current language does provide the uh approval process which will go through the superintendent or designate and that design has been defined as a communications office. We do receive requests for distribution of literature that the communications office does receive, but I wouldn't be able to say in totality without being able to do a full deep dive on how schools are receiving things like for example that was exampled where uh
034a reference of scholarships that might be uh uh applicable in the world of education or civic components uh could be distributed as literature. Um now one of the things that you'll note in the regulation as well is it talks about uh distribution of literature through students. So then what that comes down to is actually putting a piece of of literature or collateral in a student's book bag and sending it home with the child in that distribution process. So what we as we went through this, we realized that there are areas that we need to clean up for greater uh clarity for our administrators in how all of that is governed and creating an administrative guidance document. We have some some general language, but we want to memorialize it in an administrative guidance document under the
035authority of the superintendent through the language in the regulation and and stipulate much of this very clearly. The other part is the language in there that does say that the distribution is then left to the determination of the principal to provide that authority on the site level but would be first be based on certain criteria and we recognize that that criteria can be specified uh with with greater detail. Uh Dr. Go ahead I'm sorry at all. Just so your answer clarifies for me that we don't have a defined way that we're managing this from school to school or or it's it's being done but but I don't I still don't know how it's being done from school to school. Um and I don't necessarily need to manage it but I think it needs to be
036understood publicly. Um, I've heard from community members for over a course of several years who have offered scholarships that don't get any applications. Yes. And the way that they send it out is often I'm going to send a stack of these flyers to the school and we didn't get any applications from X school or they only get all their applications from one school because there's a teacher or someone there that that made it available. And so that's how what why I asked that question. I wanted to know whether we were the bottleneck, whether it never gets posted um or whether there's a mechanism for sharing that information that can be made more available. So I look forward to when you got you you said you're coming up with some administrative processes. I look forward to
037hearing what that is that makes more of those opportunities um available. um specifically as it relates to scholarships, a lot of times those organizations will send those either to myself or to our new um directive counseling services and we then disseminate it to the school counselors. We also um have a section on the website. We are in the process of updating that where we will post those opportunities as well. Um and then on top of that, we have asked schools to make sure that they have either whether it's through a Remind account or some sort of senior posting. A lot of them have newsletters where they are posting that information. So, we try to make sure like for scholarships because we have gotten some that we were not able to post um that we have
038sent that out and let schools know that those are approved to make sure that they are sharing them. Okay. Thank you very much. Uh Dr. Howard Hall and then Miss Kowski. Thank you. I just wanted to ask how how does advertising apply to entities that lease our buildings? A lot of times we have different teams that may lease, you know, our gym. And how does how does advertising apply to them, what they can and cannot advertise on our property as a third party by leasing? I'd have to we'd have to review the agreement under the lease. There should be a component in there for signage. So the the definition of advertising if if they do have signage in there that identifies who that entity is uh as compared to an entity that may want to
039put advertising up that says, "Hey, half off price on Nike shoes. Come down to my business and buy them." Uh that's a different category and we need to review that separately. Uh but the but signage the awareness of signage would be something that would need to be memorialized in the lease if they wanted to put it on one of our structures because that does have an operational impact too. There is cost and there is the the impact of what it does to the structure u and when you take it down as well and also thank you to technology for moving that large monitor. It's nice to be able to sit here and see everybody over there in that section. Thank you so very much for doing that. Mrs. um the conversation about scholarships and getting
040information to students made me think about the system that we use the Peach Jar um system which I think is great as a parent. So is the review process for materials that goes out through Peach Jar the same as what a paper flyer goes through? And is there any like if we receive something in paper does it automatically go out through Peach Jar? So there are similarities to that. The peach jar process is is managed through communications. So either Stacy Jennings or Sheila Blanco are at the point of access on that. Uh and they will review it for the criteria that is listed in the in the regulation that you see. Uh we we have found that that has been a really nice tool for us uh because it does eliminate just on the weight
041of paper and distribution of paper. Uh you can imagine that some partners have even come to us and asked us to print their own collateral for them for yes for distribution that has happened. Um so so Peach Star has eliminated that in many ways and plus it also has uh certain um uh provisions in there that allow us some flexibility in making sure that it gets a wider reach for families as well. Families can opt in or opt out on the receiving of that. But the process is similar. Uh the primary thing is govern as currently is written which we have not eliminated from uh uh board regulation KJ. Uh which are those four list of criteria areas and those four main buckets for distribution of literature and we also stand behind which is previously
042written uh which is there will be no distribution of literature that is of religious or political nature for example. Anyone else? All right. Moving on in your agenda, we have board policy JGCB. This is student immunizations on this particular policy. Uh we are bringing you some uh revisions here. This is uh through the regulation only. So bringing this to the board uh for a review. The primary driver here is our uh school nursing team uh has been doing some great work in the review of policies and working with us on this four-year policy review process. Uh you'll note that one of the main changes in here is really the addition of a reference to the religious objection to immunization which is a required form uh by the department of health form 2208. The team thought
043it was very important to specifically mention that in the regulation. Uh so again this is a regulation subject to the board's uh review here would be complete under policy uh for your review policy. Dr. Bringman. Yeah. on the on the policy statement, what is it, four and five, a parent, guardian and the superintendent are reinstated in seven and eight further down under parent guardian objection. So I don't know if those could be um married in their verbiage. Um and then a lot of this policy reads like it should actually fit in the regulation. I don't know if other board I don't know if we as a board want to control it that much, but a lot of it reads to me like regulatory stuff versus Yeah, because we're going to do headlights next and headlights,
044you know, our policy is that it's not a great thing and we're going to let the superintendent deal with it. But in immunizations, we're like, we're going to have a bunch of stuff that we can actually change about immunizations. So I don't know if uh yeah what move over I I I don't know if we should be or any elected body should say no school district no immunizations because the way this policy is it I guess we could try to do that still but um yeah some of it's just redundant but also it just seems like it could bump over but that might just be me. No, we we've had we've had success uh in the past in looking at at policies that have heavy policy language that that seems more appropriate as you've stated
045for the regulation. Uh this one it kind of came in primarily because of that form. So that's how we looked at it. Uh hearing you say that just in a quick uh scan of it. I I you're right. There are areas that are that are redundant or could be easily moved into the regulation. So let us get back with the team. will talk to the nursing team and and and look at what makes really good sense from a legal standpoint too uh on this on on what would remain versus what could go to the rag. We we have a nurse right here. Uh would you have anything you would like to add to this conversation? I personally don't my um administrator Lisa Wilson's here. She would love to talk. Is she there? Invite nurse Wilson.
046We can have her. I love it. Love it. Me, too. She really likes when hry kids throw snowballs at her truck when they're driving by. To be clear, my husband stopped that truck, but it was a fun fight. Good afternoon. Afternoon. Thank you guys for letting me be here today, and thank you, Nurse Bordon, for passing that ball over to my direction. Um, we have spent an immense amount of time on this policy looking at it. We've done a lot of work in congruence with the Department of Public Health and with the Children's Health uh healthcare of Atlanta system. I do see what you're saying as far as some of the redundancy. There was a strike in number eight of the first um several sentences that took us down to the supporting documents, i.e. those
047were um are listed on my strike. But I can see where we need or we could make that um we could eliminate some of the verbiage on the first part if that would make you more comfortable. Some of it though um is guided by the state and we have to include it. But for any part that is redundant, we could take a second look at that. Thank you. Do you want me to stand here while you look at the last one too in case I have to come back up? Oh, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. All right. Right. So, nurse Horson will stick around for the next item, which is headlight. And uh this is the review that we've done or the four-year review. Again, the nursing team uh has been doing great work
048in reviewing policies and bringing things to us that are are up for four-year review. Uh this is regulation only. So, to what's been already pointed out, there's pretty tight uh simple to the point language on the policy side. We don't have any revisions there. uh you'll see that there are cleanup language on the regulation side. Uh and much of this talks about in situations where you have siblings and you may have a case uh where you realize that in the same household uh this could create a a greater spread and processes for that uh and also processes for uh a student's return to school and how that is managed and the individuals that manage that as well. Uh so this is uh language that is in the regulation side only for the board's review. Uh
049Dr. Howard Hall. Thank you. Um number two, when it says when an infected child has siblings in the same household that's been included, brother, sister, etc., and in the same school. What about the same household and multiple schools due to grade span? You may have a third grader and a 12th grader in the same household. So should that be included in here to include grade spans multiple schools, same household? So we have discussed the confidentiality issue of stating you know what's going on with one student with another another school and our at this point our approach is to speak to the parents. That's more of an educational piece for us to state that we're either happy to check those siblings where we are or we ask that they notify the school or give us permission
050to notify the school. Thank you, Nurse Wilson. And I did see several of you doing this while we were talking about it. So happy to do some checks with nurse Bordon right after the meeting. Dr. bring I'm I'm gonna keep you on the hot side hot seat. Nurse Wilson, is there a and it might be somewhere else in some other part of our policies on just taking care of children outside of educating them where a nurse would be a mandatory reporter on the issue rising to abuse. That is a case byase. Yeah. Um situation we would having having seen neglect. Yes. Yeah. And it's been one of the signs of it. Yeah. So, so that is something that we consider if we see repeated cases or if we see a parent that doesn't seem to
051be moving in the direction of getting assistance. We're very fortunate to have some community resources who agree to treat at a lower or discounted charge. Um we don't generally treat ourselves because the parent has to bring in anything. However, if the parent brings in the product, we are happy to show the the parent how to use it. Awesome. Thank you. Would you like to ask one more question? I mean, ah, touche. I saw that. Thank you so much again. We appreciate your support from the nursing department. Thank you. Uh, we have another policy component here and this is a little different for us. We're not making any policy revisions here, but we did want to bring an awareness document to the board because we've had some previous discussions on um on this particular subject and
052one of the things that we've seen in the legislative session is there is HB340 which did pass. Uh we don't know yet when the governor will sign it. I did look today on the legislative actions of the governor's list and uh he has not signed or vetoed HB340. the distra distraction-free education act. But upon this coming into law, what this will do is it will create uh the requirement for procedures and processes for managing personal devices. Um, one of the things that we're finding with this is that um, they have worked in a timing schedule uh, on the implementation of these devices and and you'll note that uh, subject to this becoming law uh, that there is a full year of uh, process is no later than to implement this. So you you'll see language
053that says no later than July 1, 2026. Uh, no school student in kindergarten through grade 8 shall be permitted to access personal electronic devices during the school day. So what does that do? That immediately triggers the work that we'll need to do under the effective policy JCDAF use of electronic devices by students. Would want to call out that if you go through our existing policy uh you will see the foundation of many components that actually have now gone through in this particular bill. Uh in our policy as currently written, we do give classroom uh teachers the authority to manage cell phones and not allow the use of cell phones. That's currently written uh in our policy as as an applicable thing. Uh one of the things we have heard from educators uh uh when you
054talk about this subject is they do appreciate having a blanket statewide oneizefits-all set the bar on how to manage this particular area. So, this law came through and it it really does do that. Some of the things that we're going to have to look at when we get into the policy implication side of the house is you'll note that this is just written for grade spans K through 8. Um, it would be to the board's purview if they wanted it to be scoping all the way K12. So, we would need to look at that. Uh, storage methods. You've already heard us talking about various schools that have phone lockers uh and how that's working and how the administrators look at it as a an item that has to be managed. Well, now you're also going
055to have it with this law from a disciplinary action component and how will that be managed as well. So, we're going to be looking at those components. Uh the use of the cell phones or personal devices, communication devices at off-site events. this this there is language in this law and this bill should it become law that provides certain allowances uh for students to use personal devices should they go on field trips or athletic events and things like that but to look at that for the policy component as well and other unique considerations such as allowable components under an IEP uh or a medical plan and then we would have to do a communication plan with the uh with any changes under this policy. So, we lay that out just for the board's early awareness and
056the public's early awareness that uh this has happened. It's been complete under the gold dome. The governor now has 40 days to either sign, veto, or do nothing. Uh the governor can also do nothing with with this and it would subsequently then become law and we would have to take action from them. I do suspect that we'll see guidance coming from the state board of education on this as well uh which we want to hear before we make changes to our policy. But I think our policy with language that's currently written uh we're poised pretty well to make a pivot here uh with what has been stipulated in this House bill. Okay. So I know we have a lot of us want to talk about this. So Miss Hall, Dr. Bringman, who else? Miss Campbell.
057And I will too. So go ahead. Okay. I don't really have much to say except I'm thrilled. But I hope this is an instance, Dr. Watch, where we can take off our bureaucratic hats and get this done quickly. It doesn't need to take us to 2026 to get this going. And since we've all pretty much decided it's harmful, let's see how quickly we can implement this as opposed to um dragging it out just because we have the time to do so. Sure. Can I respond? Yes, ma'am. So uh the implementation getting the policy to you all and passed and cascaded down to schools is not going to be an issue in terms of time. It is onboarding a community that this will be a change for and you will have some families that are not
058aligned to how we think or how this policy reads. And so it will be um the work of our schools, teachers and principles to operationalize something that could potentially arise as additional disciplinary issues, upset parents and things of that nature. So I don't anticipate a timing from the administrative piece, but from operationalizing it down to families, that is going to be a more complicated change management process. You have kids and families that are accustomed to bringing phones and when we now say they cannot, their parents may not be as aligned as we are. So, we have to prepare for that and we have to prepare our principles for that because it could turn into additional discipline that teachers and principles are now having to deal with. Well, um just as our principal, uh Kevin Wall
059was saying this morning about Oglethorp, um the children have a free time early morning to do that and then they're put away. So, I guess what I'm saying, I would not want parent obstruction to hold us up from getting it going and then we'll deal with that as we go as opposed to waiting for everything to be perfect before we implement it. Dr. Ringman. Yeah. Um, we've got I know two teachers of the year in the building. Um, so I was kind and I don't know if we've got other teachers. I know we've got a a school site administrator back there. Just what are your feelings if you want to share on your word? You I wrote it as you were saying it. um the operationalization of this at the teacher level, classroom management level
060of not only a cell phone but of AirPods, of any headphones, of what else we got here? Smartwatches, just pretty much anything. And what are your Yeah, there you Yeah, your face kind of tells me you got something in there. Hey, sure. And I'm I'm also interested in listening to to other feedback just to see different perspectives. But um this is obviously a topic that's come through the Senate as well. We've discussed about electronic devices and I can tell you personally my husband works at STEM and they have you know stopped doing phones and that's been a very positive thing. Um, one of the things we talked about in the Senate was um, that not using cell phones at the younger levels, K through eight, would be a positive thing for the most part and
061that for high school, you know, at that point, um, even though they have Chromebooks, you know, they have laptops. Um, I can tell you personally, I have students that use phones to use tuners, to use metronomes to access additional tools that we use in AP music theory classes. So um so having that flexibility still at the high school level has is really nice but at the younger level get having them trained to focus their attention on their academics I find to be a positive thing. So that that would be and and that would be my point for now. Um I'm sorry I asked if you got something to say. Yes. Please come to the mic. I mean I it is it's just everybody's having to think about it. I I see dollar signs next to
062some of it because are we going to have standardized holding containers for all these things? Are we just going to outlaw them? Like I I see it as another another state mandate that's not paid for because we're definitely going to have to spend teacher time on making sure it's it's a cost. Good afternoon everyone. Uh we actually announced to our families last year um to a room full of applause. Um parents are happy that they don't have to be the bad guy. Um they're just being honest with you. Uh we purchased phone lockers. Um, we worked on a few different systems to put that into place with feedback from our colleagues about what what worked. Students do come to school with a device still. As soon as home room uh is concluded, those devices are
063locked up, brought to a central location. That's where they're housed throughout the day. They have zero access to it until the end of the day. Um, I wouldn't guess what the median age of the board is, but I think many of you, like me, went to school at a time where the most reliable form of communication was adult to adult, and we have seen that happen. Again, parents contact us instead of texting their child during the school day. Um, there's a lot of benefits to this. Um, there is going to be an associated cost if you allow devices to come. Um, we talked very specifically to our colleagues about what that responsibility is with the device. And so that's when it was decided that they'll collect. They won't get into power struggles with kids about
064that. An administrator is always available. Um hasn't happened yet. Students surrender their device. We take it to a central location. At the end of the day, the last five minutes before dismissal, the devices are given back out. It has worked really well. when we've run into something that's a problem with implementation, we solve it together much like any other organization would. Thank you. Uh, Miss Campbell, I I think this is an incredible thing. Um, I am a little curious where we go as far as high school. I I hear you about it being good through K through eight, but one thing I've heard from teachers um is that it's causing some of the behavioral issues that we see and speak to as well as maybe some of the safety issues in high school. Um so
065that's something I would like to explore is can we since if we're going to make a change, can we go ahead and just make it, you know, universal across our schools. Um, another thing I hear from teachers is not just that it takes away, you know, the issue with the parents not wanting to be the bad guy, but it helps them because every teacher doesn't seem to feel like they have the authority to maybe do something that another teacher feels like they do have the authority to do. And so because it's not a blanket policy that says do not allow this, then the teacher feels torn like you know is we give them electronics is how I see it. Um and you know it even the bill does make accommodation for IEP students etc. So
066um I think this is great. Thank you. Mrs. Graowski. Um so just as Mr. Aldridge made the comment about you know parents don't have to be the bad guy if we have this policy. I mean in some ways we don't have to be the bad guy for the K through eight right because the state is now assuming it becomes state law. So, it's not a copout, but it is like we're we're, you know, following state law. I do think the sticky point is going to be the high school. Both of my kids are band kids. They both use their phones as tuners. My daughter is the editor of the yearbook. She uses her phone to go around and take pictures for preparing and developing the yearbook. Um, so I think it's going to be really,
067really critical that we have a very intentional engagement specifically with our high school teachers. um as we explore that. I also know that um even at the high school level it is a real challenge too. So I don't know where I am on the high school. I'm just going to say that because I see the the pros and the cons and I think if we have oh you can't have a phone unless you're a band student. It's a really slippery slope, right? So, I just think we need to fully understand that and we may have to take more time to do that as easy as it would be to just go K through 12 out of the gate. Um, so that's something I'm still very much pondering. Um, as for the cost, we charge for
068things that aren't required already at our schools. We charge for parking. I don't see why we can't charge for for storage of cell phone. you know, if it's a if it's if it's an optional thing, um I don't think it has to necessarily be a cost that we bear. Mr. Kashmire, yeah, I I was going to make the same point that we don't have to pick a side if the state tells us here's here's the rule. We can be righteously indignant about being told what to do from Atlanta. Um, and then take either side depending on the parent who, you know, I'm being a little flippant, but at the end of the day, why are we even talking about it? If we're being told what to do, we got to do it. Um, on the
069high school issue, this was going to be a discussion point at our last retreat and then we ran long talking about spiritware and other stuff. We really need to have a conversation about this and um not just presuppose that the entire board or district is supportive of a complete ban in high school. My view just my initial reaction is we already have a policy that says the classroom teacher can decide when and how to use electronic devices. So what we're really saying is gosh, we're not enforcing our existing policy, so let's make a harsher policy. Um, so I, you know, let's just talk that through. Um, because to Miss Graham's point, I mean, some kids use them for productive reasons. Um, mine used them for research when their computer didn't work. Um, you know, so
070there there are some positives. Um, kids in high school have to communicate about shared child care responsibilities, things like that. And quite frankly, when there's a school emergency and we're taking an hour and a half to confirm our facts, but the parent wants to know if my kid is still alive, um, that's that's a real concern that comes up as well. So, I'm not sitting here saying, uh, I want kids in high school to have a cell phone no matter what. I just think there's some things we really need to talk through and debate about what we're going to do, um, particularly above 8th grade. Um, Hoskins Brown, then Howard Hall. I'm gonna have something to say. Go ahead. Um, do our students have to use multifactor authentication for anything. Multi multiffactor is enabled if
071they leave the country. Okay. So besides that, students can get resets on their emails and stuff if without using multiffactor. That's correct. Okay. So that doesn't have to be a concern, but a lot of us for other websites and other uses, you have to have a phone if you're trying to log into something. Um, so if you're using anything like that and and I'm not pro phone, I'm not anti-phone. I'm I'm amophone, I guess, about it. I just don't um when I joined the district, we had no phones and yet people were sending phones and parents had all of these exceptions about why their student had to have a phone. Um and we're going to have that happen again. Um so there there going to be parent exceptions for everything that a student is doing
072that is a district activity for which they use their phone. We should have multiple metronomes. We can supply district cameras. I was yearbook photographer. I got a camera, you know. So, I think that there are needs that can be met that would make them not have to use their personal technology. I don't mind them using their personal technology, but for every kid that gets to use their phone for whatever purpose, that's going to be another family that says, "Well, my child ought to be able to have their phone." And I distinctly remember when we had an anti-phone policy. We had parents who were vehement about being able to reach their child at any time during the day when they wanted to and there are probably still such families in our district and I don't know
073what answers we're going to give them but there are there are folks who are going to who are going to feel that way. So I I look forward to how we move this out. I like the idea of the investment in tools that make it easier uh for teachers to be able to put these um phones away and that minimize um our risk. But it it is going to be in the beginning it's going to be a little bit costly. It's going to be time consuming. It is going to generate some frustration by teachers who are trying to manage manage these tools for young people who don't want to comply. And then there's the whole spectrum of students who use their phones for all sorts of therapeutic or addictive reasons that's not documented in any
074plan, but is definitely part of the management plan or mood management plan that parents and that child uses um you know to get through their day. Uh so I I think there's just a lot of nuances to this that I hope we spend this time working out. Dr. Howard Hall. Yes, we've already mentioned that HB 340 makes it simple or easier for us for grades K through 8, but we know that the caveat comes in high schools. We do have pilot programs going on. And is it one for high school? Do we have a high school pallet? Yeah, I'm understanding Johnson High School and uh right off the top of my mind and Beach High School may actually have one as well. But yeah, so we've had the um the foam lockers for example at
075Johnson High School. We are on the superintendent's first day tour this year. In fact, uh the principal did take us around and showed us how that was working. Um so yes, we do have experience with it. So how how is it working? Is there anybody here that can kind of speak on it since we do have the power to see, you know, where we're going moving forward regarding our high schools? Um the academic team may be able to provide some feedback. The only thing I can say is uh one of one of the ways we gauge what's hot and what's a hot topic is are we getting emails to the superintendent's inbox and we we have not had any cell phone complaints in the superintendent's inbox this year. So I'm not aware that it's going
076uh badly uh there but uh but defer to academics if they have any additional feedback. Uh so to date we do not have any uh negative response um from the pilot. Um so but we're still monitoring that. And then we're also looking at other schools that have also, you know, taken the initiative to restrict cell phones and follow, you know, our existing policy and those that have went out and purchased their own storage um boxes. Um and so there's another high school, Beach High School, um that the principal did this as well. And um so we going to get feedback from him how that is working at his school. Um I also visited um Ogthor Charter just to see how their process was working and um so all of those things we're collecting to inform
077how we you know can come up with a more strategy strategize a pro process to combat all the concerns that may arise as the implementation of this policy and law. Are these storage boxes per classroom or per wing or how are they lo located throughout the school? So in the instant in the situations that I have observed u these are per classroom um and they actually are lock boxes. Uh so at Ogthorp there are actually like a little wall locker in the actual high schools. They are small little lock boxes that actually sit in a uh specified area of the classroom um that students when they walk in they actually deposit the device in that lock box at the end of the instructional lesson um they get it out of it and when they go
078to the next class. So in the music classroom you can have the autonomy to say okay you don't have to put your phones in your in the lock boxes because today we're going to use the phones for this particular um activity or strategy. If that was the case in at your school, if you had the boxes, I think if we were to use the boxes that um I think the the best thing at least for music would be to invest in individual tuners, that sort of thing, because they they have it right there and we use them every day. And so unlike certain lessons and some classes where it would be a one-off lesson where they might need to use it, we we do use them daily. Um, so I think if if that were
079the way that we were to go with the lock boxes, we would need to find another solution. Can you use iPhones to do that? Not iPhones, iPads. Excuse me. iPads. Yes. So maybe you can if you had iPads in your music classrooms, your students wouldn't have to use their iPhones because now they can use the iPads. That is the one the one to one on the behalf of the school board. Yes, absolutely. We have um so the iPads also have access to various tuner apps and metronome apps as well. Okay. So, two things. Um I have spoken with some teachers and and this one teacher really explained it so well. He says the situation that they're in right now and they they teach at one of our high schools. The situation is this. Teacher A
080is more liberal with cell phone use than teacher B. So teacher B gets a lot of push back because teacher A said it was okay for me to have my cell phone out. I think this is why it is so important that we have have a policy. Uh I don't like that we're I don't think it's a great thing that the state is is having to tell us to do something I think we should have already done. But that's my that's my opinion. Um there is a and if you talk to Chief Enoch, I know I do not want you to speak today, Mr. Chief Enoch. Um love you to death. Uh but he will tell you the safety issues that we have with our high school students having cell phones. The amount of threats,
081the amount of uh you know setting up fights, the amount of calling kids at another high school and telling them to go open the door so some other kids can get into the school. That's a safety issue as far as our parents are concerned. And and I think this is just something in general. Um, I know that one of our very popular private schools this past year went to outline out outline cell phones. Now, if if you think you're going to get push back, let me tell you something. Private school parents, oh my god, in heaven. But they did it because it was the right thing to do. Um I think this is I think this is a longer discussion that we need to have but I think it is past time that we have
082have this discussion and come to a consensus. Um, you know, our kids need to be concentrating on learning and we need to have, you know, I'll give a perfect example. I'll shut up. So, when the children's choir travels, we do not allow cell phones. You know, you'd say, "Oh my gosh, you know, how are the kids going to take pictures? We have a photographer that we take with us." Parents, parents will complain of, "Oh my god, you know, kids will return home and the comments we get from parents is, "Oh my god, they did. They said they didn't miss their phone because they were present the whole time." Our kids need to be present at all time in our schools. And if you want to see how distracting phones are, I'm going to tell you
083the challenge with this I think one of the challenges with this policy is that we've got to teach our staff to go without cell phones. No, that's not in the rules. But if if we're telling our students and they see the teachers on that phone like, you know, 70% of the time. So, um, again, this is a a long discussion and I know it is not easy and it's going to cost us money. Oh, on the money side, one of the things that, you know, I have always uh supported and I continue to support is we need to reach out more to our business partners. You know what? Let's get our business partners to help us buy these buy these these these pockets. We don't we don't have to pay for it. So, all right.
084Anyone else? Next item on your board agenda is board proclamation for National School Library Month. A proclamation will be presented to celebrate National School Library Month to recognize library media technology specialists who actively encourage students to read to expand their abilities, interests, and curiosity in the world they live in and beyond. Library media technology specialists are considered an integral part of the educational process that enables student achievement and success in school. In their role, library media technology specialists coach classroom teachers in using digital resources, emerging technologies and online software. They are known to be digital integrationists, innovation specialists, digital learning specialists, reading interventionists, and technology integration coaches. Furthermore, library and media technology specialists evaluate evaluate online databases for potential use and licensing, investigate educational resources for staff and students, locate resources in multiple languages, and
085seek out books and materials that cater to the reading levels and interests of all students. Thus be it resolved by the board of public education that we do hereby proclaim the month of April 2025 as National School Library Month. And here is the proclamation. Thus be it resolved that the following pro proclamation be adopted. Whereas April 2025 has been designated the 40th annual National School Library Month. And whereas school libraries provide materials for teachers and students that will encourage growth in knowledge. And whereas school libraries provide materials that will develop literary, cultural, aesthetic appreciation and ethical standards. And whereas school libraries provide materials that reflect the ideas and beliefs of our American culture and world heritage. And whereas school libraries provide books to encourage students to read for pleasure and are considered a fun place
086to go. And whereas school libraries provide materials to meet individual needs, varied interests, abilities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and maturity levels of the students serve. And now therefore, it be resolved that the month of April 2025 be proclaimed National School Library Month, proclaimed this 9th day of April, 2025, signed by board president, Mr. Roger Moss, and Superintendent Dr. Denise Watts. Okay. I'll take a motion. It's moved and seconded. All in favor? I. And we have some of our librarians here. Yay. We have Solomon, Graata. Thank you for so much. Thank you for all you do. Appreciate it. Thank you for all you do. Thanks for all you do. I'm sorry. Thanks. Next on your agenda, Mr. board president is the review of draft calendars for the uh subsequent uh two additional years after what the board has
087previously adopted under the calendar process for the 2025 2026 school calendar. Uh these are being presented to the board for awareness and uh review at this particular board meeting. Uh you'll note that these calendars were built again under the framework of the previously adopted 2025 2026 calendar. Uh take into account some key factors that consider to be influential in the development of this calendar and that is of course the timing for the first day of school, state assessments, staff planning days, uh the use of remote learning days, St. Patrick's Day, federal holidays including Veterans Day, and the Thanksgiving and the winter break. Uh this particular calendar does both of them contain 180 instructional days. Uh 10 staff planning days, five pre-planning days have been scheduled on these calendars and two postplanning days. You'll notice also
088in this calendar that the use of the previously known e-learning days are now remote learning days and they have been minimized to one in each semester. So there's only two remote learning days in each of these calendars that are being presented here for this particular draft. Of course, major breaks are scheduled at the conclusion of winter assessments and in advance of the spring assessments. Uh the calendars uh for this particular calendar or these calendars are important to note that uh they were favorable at the end of the year which created a lot of discussion at the adoption of the 2025 2026 calendar. uh what the allowance in these particular calendars goes and the way that the uh dates flow in these uh forward years is that Memorial Day is very late in the month in
0892027 and 2028. So what that did was that allowed us to complete the school year and to have the two postplanning days before that Memorial Day weekend which we realized was a challenge at the last uh adoption of the calendar. And I do want to reiterate that the superintendent in the adoption of that calendar had provided the option for remote work uh for teachers on that day uh which additional guidance will be provided before the start of next school year on that. But this is not an issue in the 2026 and 2027 and the 2027 2028 school year calendars. Uh so they've been provided in advance to the board of education and they have been posted to board docs uh subject to the conclusion of this particular review. These calendars will be posted uh to
090the district's website for additional awareness from parents uh and the community at large and then we would bring it back for a final adoption and recommendation in May. Uh Dr. Hoskins Brown, Mrs. Kowski, Dr. Ringman, Mr. Williams. I'm Mr. Williams. Mrs. Smith, sorry. Williams. Uh, excellent job on the calendar. The um I I appreciate all of the things that were done to uh generate this draft. Uh the only comment I have is that we h the only federal holiday that we did not recognize by name on here is uh Columbus Day. Um, so in order to be consistent, it would probably be good if we did that and that falls during the fall holiday. Yes, ma'am. That would be in 2026, October 12th. We will certainly make note of that. Uh, that is at extended
091uh also known as my birthday by the way. Oh, and happy birthday. So, we will mark that on the calendar as well in 2026. Uh, so uh but thank you for that. We'll raise that up and when we create our also menu that lists those days off and that is a school uh staff and student holiday which again is that favorable. The Senate and the teachers who provided us feedback appreciated that extended fall break there. So you really do see that's a nice 4-day weekend. That's not the 20 we that's not October 12th and 26. Correct. and and then also um the 11th in 2027. That is what I have correct. Okay. You just you just kept referring to 2026. So I was I'm sorry. October 12th, 2026. And then for the other calendar, it
092would be October 11th of 2027. Okay. So we would just list it the way we have St. Patrick's Day list. Yes, ma'am. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Uh Miss Gravowski. Um, thank you for providing these. I'd be curious if you would um if maybe we could also get a list. I know we usually try and structure the calendar around testing days. Is it do we know the testing days for both calendars or only for next year at this point? Well, it's a it's a little bit of a a far ranging look on that, but if you look back at historical actions of the state when they put out the testing windows, uh this falls in line with that. In fact, Dr. May is here. she may be able to comment specifically on that. Uh we do
093as a requirement of the board, we put up we post annually at the beginning of the school year the dates of the assessment calendar. So we'll be working on that for 20 2025 2026 calendar, but to project it that far forward in this we're basing it on what has been historical um action of the state which has been very consistent with those windows of assessment. Uh this was both of these calendars were reviewed by the assessment uh division of the school district and uh we're certainly uh applauded particularly for the balance of the calendars and then again when we when we build these and we share with the community at large and many ask particularly when you get into the start of the school year as in the why behind it is we we want
094to provide as much academic days and instructional time for students prior to those major state assessments. Uh spring is a little bit different but the window does work and when it starts in April versus extending into May. So when you come out of spring break you do have a little bit of a variance of time and transition uh for those students to get back into their educational rhythm. Uh but I defer any technical questions on that to uh the assessment team and Dr. May. Well and I think that I don't Dr. May do you have anything you want to add before I um Mr. Heditor is very much correct and we do not anticipate any conflict. In fact, uh this revised calendar um works very well with our typical state assessment um dates. Okay. Well,
095and I think as we post these to the website, I think and I I don't know if they're there yet or not, but providing some of the rationale to the community about why the calendar is structured the way it is, I think is really helpful for them to be able to understand. And um I think we'll have a lot of people that are happy to see the remote learning days have been reduced. And along the the lines of those, I know that's something the superintendent has already been thinking about how we reinvision what those days even look like. And I would suggest maybe that's an academic excellence committee topic uh that we could maybe look at sooner rather than later before next school year if possible. We have actually already started that process internally uh
096meeting with principles getting their input on it. So we should have something that we can present very soon around um how we are reimagining the remote learning. Okay. And then as we post Thank you. As we post this to the website, are we going to have a mechanism for people to be able to provide feedback um directly as a part of that 30-day kind of community review? Yeah, definitely. Uh we we will do that. We'll provide a little feedback uh window where they can provide us comments. Um I you know, we we did that with the the previous calendar that was adopted 2025 2026 calendar. Um, this very much is in line with what that calendar looks like as well. Uh, but with additional benefit that's for reasons that have already been stated, but we'll
097certainly provide that feedback mechanism and see if there's anything that is um, wildly different than what we traditionally hear when we get feedback on the calendar. Okay. Thank you so much, Smith. Dr. Brman. Uh, thank you. Uh, thank you for bringing two. Um, I would love if we just kept one year ahead, so next year if we could do the following year, that way we're always at least two calendars out. Um, I would love for the roll out, um, stealing some of what Miss Gowski said to have some phrasing on the landing page of these calendars discussing, um, the reinvisioning of remote learning. So, that's kind of uh, I mean, doesn't have to be completely fleshed out, but it's going to be different than e-learning. you've got ideas. So does the academics. So let let
098y'all discuss that. And then I know we talked a lot about makeup days the last time we brought up calendars. I would love don't know if it can happen, but I would love instead of just having this little designated makeup day section down here to actually have some algorithm rubric that says if by this date i.e. the end of a nine weeks or the end of a semester we have missed x number of days these will be the makeup days not designated makeup days but if we miss x number of days I don't think I should select that academics can but you put out a number if and parents will know oh we're getting close to that threshold that those are going to be makeup days and it's just there it isn't like we come
099to us as a board we're like now let's have some makeup days like no it's you hit another ice stom and we're out for 5 days. If that's the number, boom, two of those have to be made up. And these are the days that are getting snatched for the first half of the year. And if it happens in the second half of the year that a hurricane decides to visit us and we miss that many days, I don't know. Something that almost takes it out of our hands because we've already stated it so long ago that it's not like a well, we don't want to do it this year. It's just it is if this then this. Yeah. But I don't know if I'm not speaking for the board. That's just Bringman. Um I think
100I got I think I got four votes and me maybe I got cookies. Oh yes, Mr. Hediger and I have already spoken about this but I just wanted to mention it briefly. Um since we have an extended pre-planning uh for the next couple of years here where we have five days you know typically one of those days is for district planning. we do, you know, PL activities. Um, uh, as you know, even though they're planning days, a lot of times those are used for meetings and trainings and and a lot of activities. So, um, I I would love to see because through our Senate, as you probably have heard me say many times, uh, one of our goals is protected planning time and to hopefully indicate that on the school year calendar. And so um
101as a possibility to uh designate one of those pre-planning days as protected planning time so that any meetings or trainings would not be scheduled on that one day. So at least there's some time that is not interrupted with other activities. Anyone else? Dr. Tanya how I won't repeat anything that everyone has said. I would just like to say that the highlight of these calendars is having a fall break. As a retired teacher, there was no such thing during my tenure of a fall break. Not even that. We didn't have a spring break. Our spring break consisted of Good Friday and the following Monday. So, this is excellent for teachers to have fall break, then they have the the holidays around Thanksgiving, then they have the winter break, and also a spring break. So this is
102just awesome for our teachers. They they need they need this respit time. Uh Miss Hall, I just want to back up what our teacher of the year was saying. Certainly out of five days, they should be able to expect more than just one day protected. So we will work on that to get your protection for at least two of those five days. It's probably the principles who we Dr. Watts need to make sure they understand what protected me. It shouldn't be difficult to incorporate that. We have uh now no meat weeks already. They're not on our formal calendar, but they're communicated internally. So, it's a similar process. We just need to designate the days and say these are protected and teachers have that time in their classroom. So, we have an internal structure for that
103already. Yeah, it is a a bit unique here in the fact that these calendars now represent a full week of pre-planning and that that that appears to have been celebrated greatly by our instructional staff. Uh one thing that we have always done as well with the calendars which we will identify and change the icon and make sure that everyone is aware of it before the school year starts is also establish that district planning day before school starts. Uh what Miss Graham is talking about as well is providing an icon in there that says this is a protected staff planning day because there's a lot of things happening before school opens and with five days of a window now it's plausible to think that that would be viable to do. Um we have shared that uh
104with our academic team Dr. Barnes and Derek Butler have looked at that um and initially have provided with some favorable response, but we would need to look at the calendars and the dates and all of those activities that need to happen uh to see what makes best sense. Yes, we should also be considering uh the day before grading is to be submitted as some of the the time in which we protect teachers from having to go out and do external things. So, didn't want to uh reiterate anything that was already said, but I did want to make sure that I leaned in on the e-learning conversation. Uh that was what the items I was going to bring up. But can you tell me this, Mr. Kirk? How many e-learning days do we generally have again?
105So, um there's a little history to this. Uh the e-learning days came about after COVID and part of the impact that we saw there was the the use of technology at home and learning in a in an environment out of the face-to-face environment gave us some leverage in the way that we provided instruction to our students. But we also saw it as an avenue to provide some staff planning time or duties that our educators might need to do if it were uh situated in a half day. Now, you'll notice that some districts across the nation use regularly in their calendars a half day. And now that doesn't make good sense. We've found here it's very difficult with transportation. You get the kids there. By the time you teach them up a little bit, you got
106to give them some lunch and then you're thinking about dismissal. So, it never worked really well having the children at home on an e-learning day while staff are at work at their desks and then when that half day is over of instruction and they transition right into the workplace where they can do staff planning, parent meetings and things like that was the onus of the e-learning day when it was originally brought about in the calendar. We found on our first go with it that there was success with it and we expanded the use of e-learning days up to four on the calendar that you've seen in recent years. However, some of the work and the way that we have been able to manage e-learning days and the evolution of process and student needs, we've learned
107that we have to do some pivoting in this particular area. that feedback that we've gotten from the professional senate has been really instrumental uh in that work and what we're hearing from our teachers as well and how we manage that. So you'll see that what these calendars do is it represents that transition and hearing that and moving now to a remote learning component that isn't as heavily uh derived on the uh technical piece which can create a problem for connectivity for example at home but there aren't as many infrequency. So you do have a remote learning day in these calendars as you see now semester 1 and in semester 2 which provides some good balance. Thank you. Anyone else? Next on your agenda item 6.12. This is an action item for the board of education
108and this is the facility naming of the Bloomingdale Elementary Gymnasium. Of course, in accordance with board policy FDC and administrative regulation FDR, FDC-R, uh, naming of facilities, a team was appointed by the superintendent uh, to provide recommendations on the naming of Bloomingale Elementary School Gymnasium. You will recall from the first read at the March board agenda. Uh this particular uh action item came about by a request from a community member who wanted to rename Bloomingdale Elementary. Well, Bloomingdale Elementary is not a new school. Bloomingdale Elementary is an established school. However, we realize there is a new facility. So, while we are moving students into a brand new, beautiful multi-million dollar facility, the name Bloomingdale Elementary stands strong. uh the constituent who provided this after meeting with the committee and having some good dialogue and exchange
109uh retracted that request. But the committee did decide that the individual for which they wanted to originally name that school in this particular request uh was certainly providing a great level of um uh work in the community and work that this individual had done with the school district historically over time. So they decided to memorialize that name and recognize it appropriately by renaming the gymnasium under this in honor of this individual. So the first read has been done. Information has been provided by the board. There was some discussion in May. Now comes your action. So, in accordance with board policy that does state before adopting a name for a facility or a portion of a facility, the name shall be presented to the board at one meeting and voted on the board at the next
110meeting. The committee has unanimously agreed that upon the opening of the newly constructed Bloomingdale Elementary that the gym be named after Dr. Ronald Wayne Bland. Thus be it recommended to the board of education on support of the committee for naming the gymnasium and upon recommendation of the superintendent that the Bloomingdale Elementary School gymnasium now be named Dr. Ronald Wayne Bland Gymnasium. I'll accept a motion. It's been moved and seconded. Oh yes. Any discussion? I'm sorry. um for our community. Is there any type of bio or history we can get about Dr. So um even when I was campaigning I had everyone talked about Dr. Bland. Um people knew him young and old. Um even though the school remained Bloomingdale Elementary, it was not contentious. It was um people were looking for a way to name
111something after him. and we actually found it to be even more fitting that it be the gymnasium because of his tight connection with the rec center. Um, but he was a public school teacher. He was also an administrator. Um, he was a fire chief, a city councilman and his his life was cut short and people have been looking for a way to memorialize him. And this is beautiful because the gym has its own vestibule. the city will be able to work with the school district in um utilizing it after hours for the community and we'll un you know un unveil it in the sign um around the time we open the school and make that a community activity. So um it has been a great thing and I feel like we've given the community a
112chance to honor him. Anyone else? I just want to uh echo Miss Campbell's uh statements and and to say that he um had an impact on students from across the district. Um there's some remembrances from Groves. There's some remembrances clearly from the Bloomingdale committee. There are those of us who remember him from Beach High School as an administrator. So, he's one of those individuals who served throughout his career across the district and it's nice to be able to recognize that. anything. Oh, I just wanted the community to know. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. All right. Um, there being no more discussion, all in favor? Wonderful. Okay. So, good afternoon. We're moving on to 6.13. So on behalf of the division of operations and department of transportation partnering with the office of school leadership division, we bring for
113your consideration a SECPSS bell schedule modification for next school year 2526. The following bell time modifications are proposed to accommodate school movement due to construction projects. These bell time adjustments are needed to support transportation and route updates for swing site schools and to return Bloomingdale Elementary to the elementary schedule as it has been on the adjusted schedule. So, the recommendation is for Bloomingdale to return to the 9:15 to 4:00 p.m., the Jacob G to go to 8:45 to 3:30, and Georgetown K8 to go to 9 to 4:00 p.m. Thus, it thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the recommended bell schedule beginning in the school year 2526. Been moved. um seconded a discussion. Yes, Dr. Brman. Um I'm sure y'all have studied it, but it is really hard
114to think that we aren't putting those buses coming from Georgetown to Largo in more traffic by bumping it 45 minutes later. I don't know. I'm not I I drive it all the time. I just it it it feels like it's going to be and it might be that you got that's probably somebody doing a double bag is what I'm guessing. Yes. and the transportation team has thoroughly vetted it and it was their recommended times. Find what? We need 10 bus drivers they got to find by next school year. Yeah, we'll see those those kids. We give them back their screens for that long bus ride home because they're going to be sitting on 20. They'll be sitting on 204. Mr. Catch and then Miss Dr. Howard Hall. It's time for my annual plug and complaint
115about our bell times and calendar. Um, y'all don't even know what I'm going to say. Yeah, we do. Okay. Um so one an annual plug for looking at a um a contained feeder system K12 where we don't just do our traditional calendar but do whatever the trendy term for 12 month school is now um not year- round school but continuous learning um six eight weeks on two weeks off etc. Uh, I think we should I continue to think we should look at that at least as a choice within our system for parents who want to do that K12. And then second, uh, yearly I look at research that says high school kids should be starting school later and elementary kids should be starting school earlier. We do the opposite. Uh I understand and I know
116there are practical considerations like child care, after school activities, work etc. But if we want to focus on the best learning, uh we should take a look at our bell times and um we looked at this 10 15 years ago. We piloted some reverse bell times. Um, in my humble opinion, it was not a well- modeled or well um operated pilot. Um, I think it's time to at least have another conversation about that. And with that, I will probably support this anyway because of all of the hard work put in to make this work. Um, I guess tangentially I will mention we continue to have transportation issues. Um, at our retreat a year and two months ago or a year and a month ago, we talked about some temporary solutions like smaller buses, etc., but
117also talked about really trying to tackle transportation this budget cycle. I'm looking forward to that this budget cycle. Um, and uh I know there's some staff looking at each other like, what the heck's he talking about? Um, but it's a it's a interconnected issue um and an interconnected conversation. So, I appreciate the hard work that's gone into this. I think we're doing the exact opposite of what we should be doing. Dr. Howard Hall. Yes. My question is regarding Rice Creek. I know that last year there were some concerns about starting at 9:00 due to districtwide professional learning and also due to the sporting events since some schools especially when they're when there's um football season, basketball season, the majority of the schools starting at 7:40 getting out at um 2:20 I guess. Yeah, around that
118time and these schools of the Rice Creek for example in Georgetown now starting at 9:00. So I I'm not sure have you all considered anything about trying to make it more consistent that these K8s and middle schools can always start during the same time. I know that Rice Creek is the closest thing to Effingham County. We're, you know, we're way out, but it it does pose problems. I knew because they have so far to drive in town when there's a gang and they release at 4:00. So that's been a concern. Thank you. I was not aware of that um that matter from Rice Creek, but I'll make note of that and see what options for Georgetown their um swing is just because they're going to the swing site. Miss Hall, I championed continuous learning for
119my first four or five years on the board and then kind of gave up. I'm so happy to hear you bring it up again and resurrect it. And again, Mr. Moss, there's another challenge for a workshop to fully uh look at that again would be a wonderful thing. And um pilots do help us. So I don't want to offer my three high school. I have three high schools in my district. But I believe a pilot could work so that if we want to look at this, where did the research come from? I mean, they had to have piloted lots of schools to get to the point where they decided it's better for high school students to go later. So, um, I'd be happy to have that discussion of piloting, trying to pilot it again to
120see if we actually see a growth with our students who get to come later. Miss Kowalsski, you just expect me to say something, right? Yeah. You just had that look. Well, I think I think when we talk about piloting things that have to do with time or calendars and we don't do it districtwide, it's g it it's going to be really really difficult particularly for families who have children in different schools. Um I I appreciate the idea but I think one of the challenges and I was not on the board when we p piloted the ear the different times before but I think one of the challenges was if you didn't have the districts around you doing the same thing and a lot of it was driven by athletics that the timing just made things
121difficult. So that maybe that was the look on my face of I think it would be but I do think um you know both of those points are worthy of a more in-depth conversation for sure. Anyone else? So, uh, my understanding of the studies that were done about, um, start times for high school versus elementary, uh, were studies, uh, based on physiology, based on the physiology of high school students versus elementary kids. uh uh including sleeping patterns. You know, kids, high school students, high school student, they just don't it doesn't kick in until about 9:00 for high school students. Any of you that have high school students as as kids, you know that Yeah. You know that 6:30 in the morning, they're not there. I I disagree, but Yeah. So, But um so I I
122I would like for us to go back and look at that again. You know, let's not fight phys physiology. So all right, uh Mr. Smith. Oh, okay. Go ahead. I I was going to say uh it kind of speaks to the idea of preparing them for the real world as well in some regards. Uh trying to possibly wake them up and get them in the mode of going to work earlier. Uh I believe that that is a is a jump start. But I do understand your your statement. Uh but I also believe that it's two ways of looking at it across the board. Now, the other side of that for elementary kids is they check out at about 2 o'clock. So, having kids in having elementary kids in school past 2:00, those last two hours.
123So, everything. Yeah. So, it's just something I I would just like for us to look at that again. Okay. Moving on. Okay, so now we're moving on to 6.14. So, oh, we didn't I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We We need to vote on the bill schedule. My apologies. Okay, it was already moved and seconded. Uh, I'll close discussion. All in favor? It's a courtesy. Yes. Yes. The yes is courtesy. Yes. Okay. All right. So moving on to 6.14. So the USDA community eligibility provision the board resolution to proceed. So in support of student achievement and the effective stewardship of available resources, the district seeks to utilize the community eligibility provision also known as C authorized by the healthy hungerfree kids act of 2010 through the United States Department of Agriculture USDA. This program allows eligible schools
124and school districts to provide breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students. With board approval, the district seeks to take necessary steps for implementation to include required notifications to the state and or federal agencies. The program term will commence in the 2526 school year to include four additional years subject to annual renewal and renewal provisions if necessary. The program has been reviewed by staff, the board attorney, and is supported by the superintendent. Board approval is required at this time. Thus, be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approved the enclosed resolution and authorize the superintendent or her designate to take all necessary steps to enter into the agreement with United States Department of Agriculture for the implementation and maintenance of the community eligibility provision program to include the execution
125of all required documents. It's been moved. Second move and seconded. Uh I'm sure there's discussion. Mr. Catchmark. Yeah. So my question is um we get reimbursed. Yes. One, is the Department of Agriculture going to exist in six months? Two, do we know we're going to get reimbursed? How much money are we going to expend in anticipation of reimbursement? Has there been any reassurances from the state or from the current administration that this program isn't going away? So, it is like all other federal programs that it is subject to continuation. However, we have reached out to GDAU at this time. They are not aware of any indication that there is going to be changes. So, we're going to move forward with our request for you to approve the uh recommendation resolution and hope that we can
126benefit from the free services. We don't anticipate spending a lot of money. However, we can keep in mind um if we're not receiving our reimbursements or it doesn't appear to see that we would uh that the reimbursements would not come in, then we could uh bring back recommendations for changes. What was the uh what's the current reimbursement schedule? Is it yearly? Is it six months? Is it quarterly? I do not know, but I can get that information to you. What I'm hearing is we can monitor as we go and pull the plug if we need to. Yes. Okay. Dr. Bringman, I just want to say thank you. Uh this was going on now seven years at a forum when I ran the first time when I first saw this and said, "Why can't we do
127that?" and never really took off. So, I am thankful to the district team that made this happen. This just makes sense. This really should just be a national thing. Um, and just be be done with it. You know, for a lot of our children, these are their two meals. um for some families that don't fill out the paperwork that should be getting those meals already for free, those children don't get food. So, just being able to look at every child the same. Um, I can only imagine that our food nutrition uh employees are like they're I would I'm smiling on behalf of them because no longer do they have to go, oh, let me go throw together a sandwich or something to give the kid whose parent forgot to go to power school and add
128money or the kid that forgot their number that has to go to the back of the line to try to remember their number. Um just yeah all that stigma gone and how many children that were like hey that lunch looks better than what my home lunch looks like let me eat it it and maybe it is more nutritious. So um I'm just thrilled. Um and I hope we roll this out with a red carpet so families actually know starting next year just sending kids to school to learn we got them. So, thank you so much to all the people that had to work to make sure that this was a viable option for us. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Howard Hall, then Mrs. Kowalsski. Yes, I was going to I have three
129concerns which I am excited about this because we've talked about this for a long time, but there are some some concerns and Mr. Kashmar mentioned one about our dependency on federal reimbursement. you know, we don't know anything about policy changes or budget cuts. Another concern is um the hidden cost. If we have an influx of students that normally don't eat breakfast and lunch and they begin to eat more breakfast and lunch, the hidden costs such as supplies, um purchasing additional supplies, possibly maintaining the equipment that we have or purchasing more equipment or and also employing more staff, hiring more staff. So those are some hidden costs to consider. And then another factor is maintaining our high standards. We don't want to water down our high standards of our nutrition standards. But by having an influx
130of students and increasing the number of students who are taking advantage of breakfast and lunch, we want to ensure that we maintain that high quality of nutritional values. Absolutely. Yes, ma'am. And quality is is our first priority. So, we will not waver on our quality because we have a higher quantity. Yes, sir. Just a quick question on that on that uh note. Uh do we I'm not trying to shine a light on us on a in a negative light uh ne negative way, but do we have a lot of food that we throw away or that's not used? So, our uh nutri executive director of nutrition is evaluating that and trying to change our procedure. Historically, we have made uh just large batches throughout the day and what we've so she's trying to change the
131process to anticipate how many students are coming, make a batch, and then have one ready for when the next student comes back, but not make so much that we're throwing it away. We're also working closely with our students to value what do they want, right? So, trying to uh she has um broken down a casserole, right? So rather than have it together and the students not eat it, provide the different sections of the casserole. So still same element of nutrition, but they're enticed to eat it in different ways. Good question. Thank you. Uh I'm sorry, Mrs. Grabbowski. Okay. Um so I appreciate the conversation we had about this at our last retreat. Um because we were able to dive a little bit deeper and I think the idea of the allocart servings that we discussed
132at that point to Mr. Smith's point of eliminating food waste is an excellent direction to go in. Um, and I'm excited about coupling this with our new food, you know, the food expo that, um, Dr. Watts talked about in the introduction and hopefully we can really celebrate and promote this as a as a, you know, take a new look at, you know, school lunch and maybe we even call it something besides school lunch. I don't know. But, um, I'm very excited about moving forward on this. Thank you, Dr. Hoskins Brown. Thank you. Uh thanks for this recommendation. It has been a long time in its development. Um in your response to one of the other questions that made me think about how we use data about attendance to inform other operations. Um, and so my
133question, which is not necessarily one to be answered now, but um whether or not there's a um a I'm sure for each school they have a a feel or a number or an algorithm for how much they prepare or statistically how many students um the average number of students that eat per day. But I wonder since we're trying to move to having our attendance data more up todate if it wouldn't have some value for the food service leader to know what the attendance is at the school by like the second block. Um because then they know they could decrease by 10% or up by 20% and reduce food waste just by knowing roughly who's in the building. Yes. Thank you. This is exciting. All right, there being no more discussion. All in favor? Yes. Thank
134you so much. This is exciting. Final item for the board's action in board of education matters. We had one item that was adjusted in the agenda and moved to board of education matters. We do have an action item for the board on a resolution of claim wherein the Savannah Chattam County Public School System has reached an agreement following a settlement conference that was facilitated by the EEOC to resolve claims of a former employee had asserted in EEOC charge number 415202400434 and any other EEOC claims she may have asserted in connection with her prior employment with the Savannah Chattam County Public School System. with no admission of liability by Savannah Chattam Public Schools for the sum of $30,000 subject to school board approval. Therefore, upon recommendation of the superintendent, the school board authorizes the superintendent or
135her designate to settle the claim all without any admission of liability by Savannah Chattam County Public School System and ratifies all actions to execute on behalf of the board a settlement agreement provided for payment of $30,000 to the claimant resolving EEOC charge number 415202400434 and any other EEOC claims. that claimant might assert in connection with her prior employment with no admission of liability by Savannah Chattam County Public School System with such other terms and conditions the superintendent and legal counsel consider reasonable and [Music] appropriate moved seconded um any discussion I think we discussed that okay um there being no more discussion All in favor? All opposed? Okay. All right. Thank you. Yes. Yes. 54. No, it failed. There we go. Yes. So, for the record, sir, we're seeing that there were four yays and five
136nays on. So the motion would fail. Yes. Yeah. That concludes the board of education matters. Passing over the consent agenda to the board president. Oh yes. Have a motion to approve the consent agenda. So wrong. So moved. Moved. Seconded. I mute a second. Second. Oh, thank you. Um, all in favor? This is a consent agenda. All right. Opposed? Abstaining. Thank you. Where are we? Okay. So, um our uh we have a we have someone here to speak on this agenda item. Uh so, you know what? Why don't we have you present first and then you can speak. Thank you. Oh, no. doesn't sound good. Good afternoon and thank you very much for um allowing the presentation for the school year 2024 college and career ready performance index. So, as you know, um this is a
137key performance outcome aligned with our district accountability system advance. With regard to the CCRPI in school year 2023, the overall score was eliminated and what we have are the five components that you see before you. Content mastery assesses whether students are achieving at the level necessary to be prepared for the next grade, college, or career. Progress measures how much growth students are demonstrating relative to academically similar students. Closing gaps measures whether students, all students as well as student subgroups are making improvements in achievement rates. Readiness measures students participating in activities preparing them for and demonstrating readiness for the next level, college, or career. And graduation rate, which applies to high school, reflects whether students are graduating from high school with a regular diploma, four-year cohort, or within five years, the five-year cohort. When we look
138at the CCRPI components as well as their individual indicators, all are rated on a scale of 0 to 100. Content mastery assesses um performance achievement with in four subject or content areas. English language arts, ELA, mathematics, science, and social studies. progress is assessed with regard to ELA growth and mathematics growth as well as progress toward English language proficiency for our English learner students. Closing gaps has to do with meeting achievement improvement targets. One thing to note is that the closing gaps formula was revised such that the baseline performance in school year 2022 is subtracted from 90. Previous to this revised calculation, it was 100 minus the baseline multiplied by 0.03. that improvement target based on the 2022 baseline is in fact um in place for a five-year period. And we'll talk about what the implementation
139of math standards last year indicated with regard to this when we get to that indicator. Readiness at the elementary and middle school levels indicates at or above grade level reading, student attendance and beyond the core. At the high school um readiness comprises the reading indicator, student attendance, accelerated enrollment, pathway completion, and college and career readiness. Graduation rate is a weighted formula that takes into account both the four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate as well as the five-year adjusted cohort graduation rate. Advance. So when you look at our overall performance in school year 2024, what you will note is that the district achieved gains over the previous school year in nearly all CCRPI components and grade bands. Specifically, the district improved content mastery and readiness in all grade bands. District progress declined in elementary, but rose by
140nearly nine points at both the middle and high school levels. The district's CCPI graduation rate did decline by just over one point due to a decrease in the 4-year adjusted cohort rate. When it comes to the comparison with the seven other districts that comprise our comparison group, SECPSS outperformed all in every grade band and for all CCRPI components. The district performance did fall below the state in content mastery readiness and elementary level progress but we met or exceeded state performance in all elementary and middle grades progress closing gaps at all grade levels as well as the graduation rate. So when we look at each of the indicators we come to content mastery first advance. So with regard to content mastery these are achievement scores in ELA mathematics science and social studies as assessed on the
141Georgia milestones assessment system or summit of assessment as well as the Georgia alternate assessment GA 2.0. When students perform and receive a scale score, those scores then translate into an achievement band or an achievement level. So the way this calculation works is that we calculate the percentage of students whose scores fall within the beginning learner achievement level. the percentage that fall within the developing learner achievement level, those who fall within the proficient learner achievement level as well as those who fall within the distinguished. At the beginning level, the weight is a zero. Meaning that for that percentage of students is who score within the beginning learner achievement level, they do not yield any contribution to our overall content mastery score. Developing learners will earn us half a point. So that percentage is multiplied by 0.5
142and contributes accordingly to the overall score. Proficient learners earn us full credit 1.0. So that percentage translates directly into the composite and then distinguished learners earn us one and a half points. So that percentage is weighted at 1.5 and contributes accordingly to the overall score. So when you look at our performance as stated we are per outperforming the comparison group which is notated by yellow. The district is in green, state is in blue. So we are still falling below the state across four content areas. Any questions with regard to content mastery? Miss Hall, Dr. May, I'd just like to hear your assessment of why the state is so far ahead of us. What what do you think? um the comparison groups, you know how I feel about about that, who we're comparing ourselves to, but
143the state being so far ahead of us does concern me. What do you think? So, with regard to the state, we could speculate all day long. You have to think about the variability across the entire state of Georgia. So when it comes to our school district, we are largely urban with more unique challenges and higher percentage of students who would fall within the economically disadvantaged category. That is not going to be the case for other areas of the state. And we see a highly significant inverse correlation between economic disadvantaged status and overall achievement. So if you're looking for what my primary goto factor would be, that would be it. So, but also that great variabilility um in thinking about that the law of averages and what that means for the overall state, you will have
144those higher achieving smaller districts who are contributing. Okay. That that certainly parallels my thinking, but I wanted to to know what you as an expert thought. Yes, ma'am. Any other questions? continue. So, we'll advance to progress. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Miss Campbell. So, I I just had a question about um the I know we've talked about standardizing the rigor and stuff across the district and I this sort of made me think of it because it looks like we um I guess Miss Hall just mentioned as well that the state seems to be outpacing us on a lot of these levels unfortunately, but our graduation rate is like we're just doing great in that department. But it seems to me like that should be closer or lower than the state average if we're not doing
145as well in content mastery your progress. Is that incorrect? Um so you have to look at the criteria um for graduation. So with regard to meeting the exact statemandated criteria for high school graduation in the state of Georgia, our performance accurately reflects meeting all of those. You will not find that to be a perfect correlation with achievement because we don't have a situation where only those kids who are overly performing in terms of mostly A's and B's are the only ones who get to graduate. Those C students are also graduating and you have to think about that variability and the fact that we're talking about meeting those standards to pass the courses necessary and to meet the full graduation criteria. I guess my point would be with content mastery, let's say ELA is included and
146as we heard earlier, there are sixth graders rising into um you know middle school that are on a third grade reading level. I mean, how how is it that they're graduating and meeting the criterion but can't read at level maybe in 12th grade? I keep seeing these articles and such. The test data does not influence gradu passing the class. Yeah. So you can a student can pass the class and not pass the test which goes back to the conversation about rigor in the classroom and grading practices across the district. Okay. I agree. Okay. Thank you. Uh Dr. Hoskins Brown. Well, just participating in the in the sub conversation. So it it seems like from these data what we see is that um more of our students stay and finish even if they're not finishing performing
147very high whereas in other places maybe young people just don't stay. Um, so we'll have a higher graduate, we could have a higher graduation rate than they, but they could have a higher achievement rate because the ones who stay stay and perform well, the ones that are not performing well don't have the may not participate or may not have the credit recovery that we have. And so if you're not reading at your grade level, but you have to master the content, then that means somebody's doing credit recovery for you, some type of remediation where you're getting moved through that content at your level of understanding and being able to demonstrate mastery. And that may not occur via the end of course test. That may occur some other way through your academic experience that allows you
148to move and allows you to move through that grade. Um, so I I um I think it's important um the way that we look at these weighted levels. That's that's why we don't get a lot of credit for a beginning learner. Um all even though a beginning learner takes a whole lot more effort um and that's you know particularly unfair. So thank you for walking us through these statistics Dr. Howard Hall. And also when we look at our GMASS scores and you think about students being promoted, we we we're not considering multiple criteria selection. They have other exams. You have your I Ready, your MAP along with the classroom. So when you look at the test only, it appears just like it appears, you know, the data shows what we're how we're compared regarding the
149state just with this GMASS, but with multiple criteria. that is what allows our students to be promoted and it's it's also to graduate as well. So it's just not looking at one factor but right now we're concentrating on GMAS only. Yes. And to that if I may, I'd like to add that it's really important when you look at this performance for content mastery and achievement level. This is a single snapshot in time. This is one day limited time frame standardized test. So think about those students who perform well in class day in day out. They perform well on their quizzes, their tests, but they're not good standardized test takers because anxiety creeps in. Their performance will be lower than expected than what we see in their grades, than what we see in their earned GPA.
150And also that we'll get to when we move to grow. I I I want to make sure though in addition to everything that you just said, we have to make sure that the rigor in the classroom absolutely matches the rigor of the test. And teachers have discretion about the types of assignments that they give students. And there is uh practice a lot of times around meeting students where they are which I support that we do need to meet students where they are but at some point if a student doesn't have access and practice around what the real test is going to show when they get that in front of them the first time at the end of the year they're illprepared. So, this is a classroom rigor discussion that has to be addressed across our
151district. I'm excited that we have HMH now as a literacy resource, which will provide students more opportunities to actually be exposed to text and activities that they will see when it comes to some of these tests. and we're just not relying on um everyone's discretion about what shows up in front of a student. Dr. Bringman, and I know this is more anecdotal, but these students also have a huge effect on this. How do we ensure that students actually care? Oh, they don't. My son goes to one of the specialty programs and he has classmates that it's either who can score the lowest and they go in on a group and they're like who can I want to see who can make the lowest on our I Ready they just had I think they just tested
152just recently correct yeah and he had friends that were going in trying to see who could make the lowest I Ready score and the other was who could finish the test the fastest and one of them was done in like five No, my son knows not. He ain't playing that game. He might have tried to get I ready gone with a petition, but um but but those students exist and that's at the school where they their parents had to put them in a lottery. So, how pervasive is it's it's it's not a ton of the data, but I'm sure that that child's pulling it down a ton because they're making a two. Um, so I don't know how you reach those students on standardized tests. That's why I I abore them. There just isn't there
153are other ways to to show that a student is making success. Um, and I I don't I surely as we're here now, I'll just bring it up. I do not want to tie these type of standardized tests to our teachers um contracts and their merit. I we've had to talk about how we incentivize our good teachers. They're all great to me, but incentivizing by test score is not a way that I could support because I know students that would figure out that that's the way it's happening and would snowball a teacher's outcomes because they didn't like them. because that teacher was one of the teachers that actually held them to the academic rigor and always took their cell phones away. Um, it's one of the other reasons I don't really I mean this is how
154I'm scored as a professor and I always I'm like can you tell me what their grade was in the class? Can you put that can we have the correlation or the causation of the student that wants to give everybody a one on their student on their faculty evaluation. Show me what they made in the class and how much. So, we can't say, "Oh, well, that teacher gets paid more because all of her GMAS scores were higher because I know how students behave and they'll try to destroy a great teacher just for the the sake of it." So, just remember that when we continue to have those merit conversations. Anyone else? Okay. I I just have one comment. I am not thrilled that the state of Georgia that our content mastery for elementary is 67.8. What
155that means is 32% of our students in the state of Georgia are not proficient. I am not happy that in the state of Georgia only 64% of middle schoolers or even 68% of high schoolers I and and you can call me pie in the sky but I truly believe this. I believe that our that our goals are not only to exceed our composite group and you know how much I hate it. Um we need to get closer to being way above the state average. That's not that is not good for a state. Those numbers are not good for a state, especially the amount of money we spend. So, I'm that that that is not my goal. Yes. And the last comment I'll make that I think is important for everyone to note, especially as we
156go into next school year where we are anticipating the math standards to change across the entire state. Anytime you see a change in standards, a ch a change in the way the test is written, you can have the exact same students with the exact same teachers doing the exact same things. And because the rules changed, you're going to see a decline. So, I'm not hoping that I am anticipating I guess is what I'm saying. Next year, when we look at this data, you're going to see performance drop across the entire state. And I want to remind everybody that that's not because something changed in this district. It's going to be because the standards changed. And so every time teachers get good at the standards, they move the line. They move the line. And then there
157has to be a readjustment to that. And that does not mean teaching got worse. That does not mean kids are not performing. It just means that the sport changed. And so now we're playing a different sport, but they forgot, you know, we had to catch up to that. So there are so many dynamics that go into interpreting this data. It is I caution anyone who is simply looking at a number and making an assumption about a child, a school, a district, or this state. There are so many things that go into it. So I just that's my caution to everyone. And there are brilliant kids that just do not test well. Brilliant. And they will go on and do great things in life. You don't want to see my SAT score to be quite honest.
158You'd be surprised maybe that I was sitting here. Don't tell it. Oh, I'm telling it because there are many kids like that. And so I just caution people around looking at a number and making broad assumptions about any child, any school or any district. Thank you very much. And it is important to note that the math exactly as Dr. Watts indicated uh the math standards were new for school year 20 23 2024. It was our first year of implementing those new math standards. And as we move into the next school year, we will be implementing brand new ELA standards. But as we move to the next two components, I want you to really focus on where we shine and where I think the bright spot really is with regard to our discussion with content mastery.
159So as we move to the discussion of progress, what we see is that our growth is significant. Progress measures growth in both ELA and mathematics and they are based on student growth percentiles that are calculated as long as we have scores from the previous years. We also look at how well English learners are progressing toward English language proficiency on the access for ELLs. With regard to this weighted formula, growth in ELA and math both account for 45% of the overall score and progress toward English language proficiency counts for another 10%. One thing I do want to note um and make everybody aware is that we must have a an EEL subgroup of at least 15 students and those students have to have two consecutive years of access for English learner scores and they both need
160to be in the state of Georgia. If one of our schools does not meet that criteria, what that means is that their weighted score will be a 50% 50% simply based on ELA and math. So any questions with regard to our overall performance as you can see we have strong growth across all three grade bands. Yes. Um and this is just Just thinking philosophically about these data, there was a story on NPR earlier this week that was talking about grade inflation. Um, and so at I believe in our growth. Um, but as devil's advocate, has anyone studied the rate of growth or the progress of growth that is indicative of fraud? Like when growth is growth truly growth or when growth is manifest of great inflation or whatever other form of data manipulation there is
161or like um or what they used to call social promotion. I am not aware of that research specific to K12. I can definitely look into it. But with regard to the way this progress score is calculated, please understand that what's happening with these SGPS and um the calculation here is that we're matching students with their academically similar peers. Meaning that we're looking at performance from the previous year. So let's say this third grader scored at 520. Then we're just looking at the entire group of students in the state of Georgia who also scored at 520 and then how do they do in 2324 as compared to 2223. Does that make sense? So if our third grader who scored 520 in the next year scores a 580, they will probably, and this is just me projecting,
162will hit somewhere between the 80th and 85th percentile of performance. meaning that they are outperforming progress-wise, outgrowing 80 to 85% of their academically similar peers who may have stayed the same, some may have declined year-over-year. So, that's where this data comes into play. Okay. So, just to make sure that I'm I'm clear, all of those all of these um bars and this histogram being similar is is not only encouraging because we're kind of on on par with our colleagues, but it also um if if SECPSS was being compared internally and the comps the comparison group was being compared internally and the same for the state, then if there was something kind kind of weird happening that was not a natural progress of the student. Then our growth could be abnormally high or abnormally low. That's
163where you would see the fraud. Yes. But or inflation. Yes. But keep in mind this is just a single data point assessment um across and the comparison is being done from one school year to the other. So it really minimizes the possibility of fraudulent activity or a significant impact in that regard one school year to the other for that school a single assessment point or a single assessment point. So you couldn't detect if there was something strange happening one year to the next. Um Christie, do you want to weigh in if there was something? I'm sorry if you're explaining it and I'm just not getting it because I if there So um I can tell you Good does take a careful look at achievement at content mastery performance from year to year. So if there
164is an abnormally high increase in one of our schools that is inconsistent with similar schools in the state of Georgia, they will caught it us. They will ask for additional information about what may have happened within that school within our district that would have move that needle that much. Got it. So there is a data pattern that hm that doesn't look right. we need to look at it type thing. Yes. Okay. And so we wouldn't find ourselves going along eight years congratulating ourselves that we're so awesome. Yes. Okay. And then find out Yes. five years ago somebody was making up some grades. We that would be triggered and we would have an academic program audit by correct. And again just just to be very clear this is all based on GMASS. So all of the
165standard protocols that are associated just like Dr. May said with the follow-up analysis and audits, those occur every year. Um and so you know there are definitely some fairly tight controls around the administration of GMASS um associated with these SGPS. I appreciate y'all Dr. Howard Hall. When we look at our content mastery and then we see the progress with, you know, we see the data for our progress and closing the gap, can that be used as some type of correlation to explain the graduation rate? Because many times when we look at the content mastery and we hear it all the time, well, you know, your third graders on on grade level, but then look at the graduation rate. But when we continue to look at the progress and closing the gap, wouldn't that be some
166type of correlation that we could use to explain that? Absolutely. In that what you're showing is that students are consistently growing year-over-year and they're growing at a high level. We're not talking about progress that is 50th percentile or lower. We're talking about progress in the mid 80s to over 90th percentile. That's huge. That is significant progress. And it also shows how students are making up for those learning losses that all of you are very well aware within the context of the pandemic. All of the research, the initial research showed it would take approximately five years to make up those losses. And then with the NAPE data that has come out in the last two years, reassessments, better analyses were done, closer analyses with better controls as well, Dr. Hoskins Brown, where they limited, they looked
167at restricted range within different subgroups as well as overall. And what they show now is that it's a minimum of 10 years to go back to preandemic achievement. So I think that's a really significant factor that we have to take into account. But these growth numbers are really impressive. They show great progress and they show a lot of work on behalf of our teachers and students alike. Uh, Miss Hall, just an optimistic look at things. Dr. May, I don't know if I mentioned this to you, but I happened to go to Johnson High one day and um, talked with some sophomores, juniors, and graduating seniors, and they were telling me about topics they were doing their papers on, spring papers. some of the ideas and some of the knowledge that those students had. I was
168I mean I was flabbergasted. They are so much smarter to me than lots of kids in past years. They are we have some brilliant kids. So that has changed my mind entirely because I used to be, you know, a testing hawk, you know, but uh we have brilliant we have some brilliant children and it's not going to be on a piece of paper like this. Like Dr. Watt said, you're going to see them out in the world changing things as as they mature. So, um I'm not at all despondent the way I used to be, but I mean I I want certainly I want our kids to do as well as they possibly can on these measures of course, but I'm not any longer thinking that this is the answer here. We need to talk
169to some of the students who are actually graduating and and see the uh you know the minds that they actually have. Yes, ma'am. continue. Wonderful. So, as we continue to closing gaps, this takes into account how well student groups meet their improvement target. So, keep in mind the improvement target was set with a baseline data from school year 2122. The revised formula has 90 as the top level from which we subtract that baseline. We multiply it by 0.03 3 and then that target so let's say that equals 0.9 increase that 0.9 increase in the overall achievement score is what we are expecting the content mastery score every one of those five years does that make sense to everybody that they scored a 60.9 overall right for the school last year then what do we expect
170in terms of meeting that target for the following year a 61.8 that's your new target. So when it comes to closing gaps what we see is across the board we are performing very well. It's strong sustained um growth and com it combines with achievement in this regard. And what we're seeing is that at the elementary level, we are at a 100% in terms of closing those gaps, matching the state, and we are well outperforming at both the middle and high school level, both our cal group and most importantly that the state look at our middle grades. Any questions on this data as we move forward to readiness here? We're looking at students participating in activities that are preparing them for and demonstrating readiness for the next grade level college or career. For elementary and middle
171school, this includes reading at or above grade level student attendance and beyond the core courses. At high school, we look at um grade level reading, student attendance, accelerated enrollment, pathway completions, and college and career readiness. So what we see here is that we are outperforming the comp group but still falling below the state at the three grade bands. Any questions? Yes. How much is how much is attendance? I'm guessing it's 33% of exactly elementary. Well, it it's the state, so it doesn't always make sense. So, it's 33% of the score for the And then 20 is it 20% at high school? Exactly. Equally weighted. Okay, perfect. That's a weird thing to wait. Um, okay. Any other questions on readiness performance? All right. So as we advance to our graduation rate, what we see is that
172we fell 1.2 points from our previous year performance, but we are still well outperforming both the state and the comparison group. Any questions on this? All right. All right, good afternoon. I get the privilege of speaking to you about some of our continuous improvement strategies that are ongoing throughout this school year. So, first I will talk about highquality tier one instruction. So, we've talked a little bit about interventions and things. The main focus this year, K through 12, has been on that high quality tier one instruction, not just in reading, but math, science, social studies, and really focusing on how to address rigor of the standard. Um, and making sure all students receive that high quality instruction. We've done some of those things through really purposeful core instructional walks. Um, I know our team in
173curriculum and instruction, office of instructional excellence from our special ed department, our EL leaders have partnered with the OSL team to get into schools, walk side by side with leaders, um, provide some feedback on what we're seeing in instructional practices, and then provide next steps, then come back and follow that up with another cycle. Here were your next steps that we gave you. Where are you with that implementation? What support do you need, etc. So that has been an ongoing cycle. Principal coaching um from the office of school leadership, our network superintendent and school support officers have had ongoing coaching cycles um with their principles where they review data and again get into classrooms and talk um elbow-to elbow about the instructional um strategies that are being implemented within their building. There's also the CT3
174support where our some of our middle schools, um, a couple of high schools and elementary schools are, um, going through a training process with the school leadership office on real-time coaching and feedback so that they're making sure that their feedback is directly aligned to instructional improvement um, and really getting deep at those things that are focused on rigor and how to change um, instructional practice. We also have um a great team working on our district attendance plan that includes monitoring support and interventions that go along with absenteeism, home visits. You've heard a lot about that. Um and really focus on focusing on building strong relationships with our students and our families so that they understand as you know attendance matters. um increasing engagement with families and with students and in implementing positive incentives um and
175those vary from school to school um that really get students engaged, get them wanting to come to school. We talked about that a little bit earlier. Um and then celebrating them when they are present in school. Next slide. Okay, I have to click here. All right. So, our next set of strategies um comprehensive academic support for sustained growth and acceleration. So, we have multi-tered systems of supports in place for our um teachers and our students. Um each grade band, elementary, middle, and high school has an instructional focus block or at elementary we call that a differentiated instruction block where we focus on intervention. So we have very well- definfined tier one direct instruction grade level standards blocks of time and then there's a period of time where teachers address the individual needs of students in
176reading andor math. Uh some schools um at grade bands also have afterchool and Saturday tutorials. We have the twilight extended learning and recovery and then advanced coursework and enrichment for students who are ready to take that step above. And then finally, we have formative assessments used to identify gaps in learning. This is where our HMH literacy has been uh very helpful because we now have the same tool across all of our schools for teachers not to just provide instruction, but also to look at assessing students at the level of rigor of the standard um from the same type of assessment tool. We also have a mirror literacy. Um our initial reports this year from BOI to MOI with our younger students was definitely um a a large gain in their reading on grade level. Um
177so we decreased um our percentage of students who were struggling just in that short period of time. Excited to see what that looks like toward the end of the year. We also have DRC beacon math that is a state assessment tool that we use in a formative way. So it provides us the opportunity to assess math standards with students throughout the year based on their learning progressions in those standards but also allows us to see what those tested areas would look like on GMass. So the platform actually provides the real time this is what you're going to see on GMASS. How are you doing in answering those questions? How are you performing? and then provides teachers with opportunities for intervention as well as resources to be able to address students who are performing below who
178might be performing at or even above grade level. And then we as you are aware we have our I Ready literacy and math where students take that assessment and then they have their continued learning path. And then if needed, the toolbox provides additional resources for teachers to provide um instruction during those um intervention blocks as opposed to tier one instruction. Okay, next slide. All right. Additionally, we have professional learning that is ongoing um coaching and support with our EL um teachers. There's been a large focus on vocabulary instruction as we know that's a main um component of what our EL students need. So they have also been able to lean into the HMH resources so that they have a toolbox of things to be able to pull strategies from consistently from school to school as
179well as learning best practices for the implementation of vocabulary strategies. Professional learning, coaching, and support through specially designed instruction for our students with disabilities is ongoing with our teachers and administrators. Also, we have letters training for teachers, administrators, and district support staff. Um, our administrators just wrapped up their last unit um about three or four weeks ago. So, they are complete with their five unit cycle. We have um facilitators who have just finished volume two. Um so we have trained in our district currently right now 30 um academic coaches and district staff members who can deliver that letters training now uh for volume one and we'll work on that for volume two and then we have teachers who will finish up with unit six by the end of this school year and only have two
180more units to go next year. So they have been real troopers. And then we have ongoing professional learning for instructional practices to support the implementation of our math standards. Um that has been ongoing unit by unit digging into what do the standards actually look like? What do they mean? As opposed to this is how I've always taught this particular concept or skill. This is now what the state is saying students at this grade level need to learn and be able to do. So, I gave you a lot of information questions. Uh, Miss Graowski, um, thank you for this and it's great to see I mean this is a really critical part I think of this presentation what we are doing to continue to grow and improve. So, thank you for that. And also, we just
181want to take a moment to um encourage any board members or members of the community who may not have seen our last academic excellence committee meeting. Um, Miss Goldman, our chief literacy officer, did a wonderful presentation about our literacy as our north star and all the work that is going into that and the progress we are already seeing. So would encourage anyone to um take a moment and really review that presentation to learn more about the effectiveness of our literacy strategies in particular. Thank you, Dr. Howard Hall. Thank you. This is great. I I've loved what what you're doing with our continuous improvement strategies. However, I do have the question of who and how are we assisting our teachers that are continuously struggling with classroom management issues because it's hard to teach anything when there's
182problems within the classroom and who or how are we assisting our principles that's struggling with their school culture. Okay, I can certainly address that. Um I know in our monthly principal meetings, we've had lots of training and ongoing discussions. um with climate and culture. We've had some guest speakers who've come in um during that time to help um our principles understand what climate and culture is and how to develop that and be able to bring strategies back to their school. Part of the core action walk that I mentioned before addresses student engagement, which then leads you to look at, are students passively engaged, meaning they're looking at you and they're nodding or they're fiddling, or are they cognitively engaged in the instruction that's going on. So those core action walks have allowed us the opportunity
183to really help our leaders and teachers recognize the difference between the two so that they can work on some of those behaviors that do result through that difference of engagement. Yes. I noticed that you have your learning walks and are you seeing big differences within classrooms within a school and major significant difference and um as opposed to other schools when you're comparing I I would say that there are some differences um sometimes within schools and across schools. Um sometimes within a school there may be an outlier classroom where you might see a lot of really great things happening across but there might be one classroom. Um, but one of the things that has been really helpful with those climate and culture discussions during the monthly leadership meetings is that our principles are able to engage
184across buildings across elementary, middle, and high school and be able to share out strategies and best practices. And then those ongoing core walks, we can see the implementation of those strategies as well as identify schools that might need support. For example, our professional learning department has specialists who are part of support for each of the OSL SSO networks and they go in and provide support. So, if there is a school struggling, professional learning goes in and provides training and and support. If there is the outlier classroom, then they may provide just that one-on-one teacher support. Are your learning walks announced or they're they are calendared out? Yes, ma'am. Um, and the a big reason for that is because we want the administration to be part of that. Um, so that we're not coming in and
185doing it to them, but we're there doing it with them. Mr. Kashmar, um, appreciate all the information. Um, I'm I'm I'm the cynical and jaded old guy on the board. All of that was great, but it doesn't really matter because the standards are being changed next year and we'll have new KPIs, right? So, as far as KPIs, no, not necessarily. Um, so I'll give you maybe some good news on the standards change. Okay. When we did our textbook adoption, we our rubric was built off of the new standards. So, we were looking for a resource that would provide us what we needed knowing that the new standards were coming. In terms of training for the new standards, we intentionally pushed some of that until January because so much of what the teachers are learning to
186do with their HMH implementation is directly connected. So rather than say you're going to have to do this vocabulary strategy next year and focus on vocabulary this way, they got into practicing the vocabulary routine and now they can see this is why we were doing it because this is where it matches up in the standard. So we will see some differences. We are going to see some things like kindergarten and first grade teachers maybe have given fluency assessments um to see how you know accurately and quickly students can read word by word. That's not an expectation until second grade in the new standards. So we're going to have to look at the new standards and really take into consideration what we thought or did previously. Now what are the expectations for this current grade level?
187And I'll give you one more piece of information I think will be helpful. Our current ELA standards, there's nine of them. There's nine at kindergarten, there's nine at first grade, there's nine all the way through high school. And they change with one to two words. The new standards give very clear expectations of student learning. So instead of saying students need to learn how to decode, it's going to tell you what types of decoding to what level of decoding needs to happen at kindergarten, at first grade, at second grade. So I think some of what we talked about earlier about interpretation of what instruction should look like. It's going to be very clear for teachers. this is what my students are supposed to learn and master and then shows the progression of this is where they're
188going the next year. I personally 26 years in education, former first grade teacher, think this is the best set of standards we've had in my entire career. That means he'll go away in two years probably. Please no. I know. So I I I really appreciate that. Um and these are I'm going to make two kind of philosophical comments. Um and these are another workshoping opportunity. So we always talk about the standards are changing changing. I'd like to know how. Sure. So for example, is it you know we think uh students in seventh grade should know the Pythagorean theorem. We're moving that to fifth grade now. Well, of course you're going to get be lower next year because you haven't those kids haven't built on the knowledge necessary to get there. So, is there like what's
189the process for changing the standards? And is it just moving the the grade level upon which certain things should be known how to be done? Um, or is it is there actually a wellthoughtout um educationally based process for changing the standards or is it kind of random? Um, or is it a little bit of both? Is it political? Is it what's the flavor of the month? All of the above. I'd like to know more about that because this dubtales into my second comment. I've been on the board 14 years. Just about every year. Um, so the the the greatest movement we've seen I've seen is our graduation rate. Um, but just about every year, no matter what the standards were, no matter what our tests were, we were below the state, above our comp group,
190and a little below our neighboring counties, which had much less higher much less poverty levels, higher income levels. And I don't care what the test was, when we were doing ITBS, whatever it is, we've kind of stayed in that kind of comparison. And then we always get into the well, it's just a test. That's not a snapshot of where our kids are. Um, you know, so we shouldn't really focus on that. But then other times we're like, our third grade literacy numbers are down. That's going to be our touchstone and we're going to dump millions of dollars into that meeting that metric. And I don't have a I I don't have a problem with that. I I I think we have to decide philosophically what are the standards we want as a district and not
191just say okay we're going to pivot to whatever the state says the new standards are and try to reach those goals. Like I've always wondered why don't we set as our standard locally Singapore or South Korea or Finland or Canada or whatever the top 10 5 10 countries in the world for education are and say those are our standards and we're going to design a system to meet those high performing standards. I don't care what Fulton County does. I don't care what Iowa does. Um so that's more of a philosophical question. And if our third graders don't meet that standard, but by the time they graduate from high school, the whole point of K12 is to get somebody out of high school prepared for the world, right? I mean, that's really simple. But so I
192always like our graduation rate and I'm always defend you know when I get attacked in public about our scores are awful our you know they are concerning in snapshots but there's lies damn lies and statistics right and and you can say that about our third grade scores our sixth grade scores and our graduation rate there's people who say that's manufactured well I look at kids who graduate and are they holding down jobs? are they being successful in college? Are they coming back saying, "I wasn't prepared." And for the most part, they're not. Now, some are, but some aren't. Um, and so I take pride in our graduation rate. I know you have to pass the end of course test, and it's a percentage of your grade to graduate. So, it's not total social promotion and
193social graduation. But from a philosophical standpoint, every year we have the same conversation and we fret about our scores going one or two points and nothing has changed in 15 years since I've been here. So why don't we philosophically do what like Massachusetts did 40 years ago and said here are our standards as a state and we're going to that's going to be our touchstone or whatever some of those states that have kept their standards the same instead of playing the game that Georgia plays which is every three to five years the standards change and we just we're on the same you know hamster wheel. All right, I'm done. Maybe that's a philosophical workshop. That is a workshop. Let's you know workshop. Well, I will tell you I I don't get to be my superhero
194from a childhood and be I Dream of Genie and blink and we're at the end of the test and we can see the results. I wish that I could do that. But what I will tell you is at Godly Station kindergarten students writing full-on sentences and stories where they're using their sound wall to sound out words and apply what they've learned on paper. We've seen students writing like you would not believe. And that is one thing that has been a struggle for us. We've seen I talked with formy talked with the principal after their um MOI data point and she and her academic coach and a teacher said we've never seen the growth in phmic awareness and phonics with our kindergarten students like we've seen this year. So, I can't tell you what it's going
195to look like after GMASS, but I can tell you that we have some really hardworking teachers who are really focused on applying what they're learning and doing it in the classroom, and they're open for feedback. And our kids are learning at a very significant rate. And so, I'm I'm nervous, but I'm excited and optimistic. And none of my comments were directed at our hardworking folks. No, no, no. I know that. I don't like I don't like the game. I don't like the rules. I don't like the playing field. And it's the wrong rules, the wrong playing field, the wrong game. Yes. All right. So, is that it? That's it. Thank you. Now, we did have one person who signed up to speak on uh CRPP IY X. Yeah, that one. Uh, Mr. Rick Rooney. Thank
196you. Good afternoon. Uh I'd like to start or actually speak about one small piece of that whole presentation which is content mastery in elementary schools because that's where our northstar lives, right? Literacy. So just to go back to the data, the state score was 67.8, 8. The comp county score was 50.7 and Savannah Cadam County was 54.4 with a four-point gain over last year. So, first of all, all of this is pre-science of reading, right? Because we just started that last August with the class. So, all this data is ahead of all that. But that that was the score for last year. So, you know, in the discussion, you could see, well, we're not as good as the state. We're better than the comp counties. You know, so I think first of all, comparing ourselves
197to the comp counties is totally irrelevant. It may make us feel good because we're better than some other mediocre counties, but it has nothing to do with the quality of education in Chattam County. Nothing. Even the average is somewhat deceptive. Our average score was 54.9, right? So that's all our students averaged to 54.9. So if you look at school averages, we have seven schools who exceeded that average by more than 10 points. So 65 or higher. Seven schools. The highest was 96.5. So big range. A lot of schools up above. Below the average, we had 15 schools that were 10 points or more below the average. So we have we have like a barbell system. Okay. So the 10 the 15 schools that were below eight of them were actually so 10 points or below
198was 45 or below 15 schools eight of those 15 were in the 30s and one and the low school was 33.7. So again we got a barbell we got 93 something up here and we got 33 down there. Now, if we focused on those low performing schools, we'd have a whole different discussion. Complacency would go out the window. I've been coming to board meetings, the regular board meetings, the informal board meetings, committee meetings for two and a half years. I have never seen a thoughtful probing discussion about what is going on in our low performing schools that keeps them low performing. gets talked about a little bit. Got talked here before. This all said, "What's the problem?" Oh, what's poverty? Okay. So, the top school in this 24 report, elementary school, the 93.5 or 96.5,
199whatever it was, that's a school that has 80% of the kids who are economically disadvantaged. So, shockingly as it may seem, you can teach poor kids to read. I know that's a shocking proposition, but it's true. So, I think is this goes back to what I talked about last month. The culture of mediocrity, I know my three minutes is just about up. It is. The culture of mediocrity that this board has created and promagated through the system has to change. You've got to go for excellence. You've got to work hard at those bottom schools. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Next, financials, right? Yes. Good afternoon everyone. Good afternoon. My boss told me 30 seconds. There you go. Um the the financials that you have in front of you are for
200the month of February. We are at 67% twothirds of our school year almost have gone. Um for fund 100 our general revenues our local property taxes are currently at 60 65% of the budget and that we are we are lower than um than last year was at 66%. At this point we think that our final tax collections will be collected to the budgeted amounts. Our total general fund actual revenues are at 65.6% of our current budget compared to 66. So we're about where we were same time last year. Now our general fund expenditures, actual expenditures for teachers, we are at 52.4% of our modified budget, which is lower than expected, 67% for this time of the year. And our other supported salaries were at 58.7% and that's also lower than what's expected at 60 to
201se 67%. Our total general fund actual expenditures are at 53.67% of our budget compared to 52%. So, at this time, our um we're tracking along pretty good on our general fund, and we have um about the same thing with our other funds, but nothing um nothing to report on those unless you have some questions. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Almost. Good evening. Um, first item I believe is these plots for George Brown. Hang on. My My colleagues have asked me to make a motion. Oh, Adam, baby, go for it. My colleagues have asked me to make a motion to combine nine items 9.01, 9.03, 9.04, 9.05. 9.06 9.07 and 9.08 as one motion. I'll leave the east plus 5 resolution as a separate item. Correction 9.01 is financial 9.02 to 9.08. Yes, ma'am.
202Okay. and uh and it was seconded. Okay. Yes, Dr. Bringer. I'm going to have my same remarks as last meeting. Um, I feel like in transparency, we should be looking at each one of these individually so that they're read so that that if there is discussion, it's not like, oh, I'm just, you know, it's 5:37, so let's move on. Um, so I again would like us to start earlier on board days so that we actually go through each one of these separately. They're pulled out of consent because they're over a certain amount of money. Um, so that's just my two cents. I don't disagree with Dr. Bringman. I just had three people whisper to me, Dion, will you make a motion? So, I tried to support my colleagues, but what I will say is that
203if we modulate our discussion earlier in the day when we're caffeinated and happy, then we won't be dragging until 6:00. Um, and perhaps also doing the financials earlier, doing financials and academics, which generate a lot of discussion earlier. Um, I think there are lots of options. So, I'm I would be perfectly fine for this motion to be defeated. Um but here for Okay. Uh all in favor of the motion. Yeah. Nobody. All right. All oppose by proxy. I've got Dr. I mean, now now moving forward, let's start earlier so we get out here at two so we actually can have like a 15-minute lunch where we aren't having to do work and actually Yeah, just we we were elected to be here as long as it takes to do the work. So, moving forward, I'm
204going to continue to be a crab. Your sentiment is heard and I've got it. Thank you. And also what Mr. Kashmir said we could oh no uh Dion said we can modulate our remarks. What as brilliant as we all are we can modulate our remarks a bit and that will help. I think we got elected for remarks and when people tell us to say I for one I for one love to be redundant about things that are important to me. I can modulate myself and I think everybody can think about is their comment essential to the progress of the meeting. So I'll okay um so I I just a point of order although we are putting all of those together they are still red. Yes. Yes. Um I and I also have a question. Have
205is um Reverend Smith on break or has he departed? Okay. Another work obligation. Okay. Um yeah. So all of them would be read, right? Um I mean I I'm I'm fine. I can withdraw the motion. I It already passed. Oh, well, I was kind of concerned. I was about having others present to vote on the items. Okay. So, each one will be read and we still have to vote on them individually. So, we don't. Yeah. No, it's a combined motion. So, you have to read all the Oh, got it. Okay. So, I'm reading the dust be resolved portion on all of them. Yes. Yes. But um I'm sorry if you don't mind um Mr. Chair, one thing I do want to point out about Dr. Bringman's comment is that all of these items are in
206the public side of board docs and they are there for people to review. Um and so they are not being decided under the cover of darkness. Um so they they are available. Thank Okay. A+ 4 GMP change order number one and budget transfer. Thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve a GMP of $41,221,64 for RFP C24-15 CM off services for JG Smith Elementary School renovations for Bfare Betty Construction LLC and be it further resolved upon that the board approve the budget transfer from its plas contingencies account to Montgomery swing site and JG Smith Elementary construction and contingency accounts as described above. Next item is plus four, Windsor Forest High School, J Don GMP change order number 27. Thus be resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the
207board approve GMP change order number 272 J Dunn Construction Company Incorporated for the construction of the Windsor Forest High School replacement school in the amount of $749,361 for the additional asbestous abatement work increase the GMP to 83,223634 $223,634 and revise project substantial completion to March 11th, 2026. Next item, bid 25-07, good elementary school roof replacement and budget transfer. Thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approved the contract with Owens Roofing Incorporated for the Gula Elementary School roof replacement at a total cost of 1,646,421 and be further resolved that the board approved the budget transfer from East Plots 3 unallocated and G Elementary School roof replacement construction account to Google Elementary school roof replacement roofing account as described above. Next items, bid C19-05, districtwide furniture, fixers, and equipment annual contract.
208Thus be resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve a one-year contract extension for bid C19-05 districtwide furniture fixtures and equipment annual contract to Georgia Specialty Equipment LLC and Mason Incorporated with an estimated cost of $3 million. Next item bid C20-18 Furniture Fixtures and Equipment Districtwide annual contract. Thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve a one-year contract extension for bid C20-18 furniture fisters and equipment 2020 districtwide annual contract to specialty school specialy incorporated for an estimated cost of $1 million. Next item, Georgia statewide contract um for bus purchases from Yansy Bus Sales and Service and Rush Truck Centers of Georgia Incorporated. Thus be it be be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the ratification of purchases totaling $669,387 to
209Yansy bus sales and service and Rush Truck Centers of Georgia Incorporated via Georgia statewide contract SWL 2020630-00001003 and be it further resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the renewal of Georgia statewide contract SWL2020630-00001 0003 the fianci bus sales and service and rush truck centers of Georgia incorporated for the period of January 1st 2025 through December 31st 2025 at an estimated cost of $887,657 $7. Next item. That's it. That's it. Nope. One more before the I'm sorry. 9.08. Sorry. Yep. Georgia statewide contract for communications. Uh Motorola um Aaggelon Agillan Alter Cloud Platform video management system. Thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the use of Georgia statewide contract 99999- SPD 000000172 with A3 communications to purchase Motorola Avagillan Alta cloud platform for video management
210systems at an estimated cost of 1 million $692,000. Yes, sir. Moved and seconded. No, no, we need a motion to Yes. It's been moved to approved and second. All in favor? Thank you. All right. And ending on a very positive note, Eastloast continuation resolution, also known as East Bloss 5, certification of results. The voters approve the continuation of the educational purpose local option sales tax on March 18th, 2025. The superintendent now requests that the board pass the accompanying resolution to announce the results of the election and to provide documentation for potential financing and other purposes. Thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the resolution of the board of education for the city of Savannah and the county of Chadam declaring results of an election held March 18, 2025 and certificate of
211the board of elections of Chattam County, Georgia be adopted and the officers of the board of education be authorized to execute the documents and provide such certified copies to the appropriate agencies as may be necessary or desirable. I'm sorry. Um, I'll take a motion. Second. Move and second it. Any discussion? Yes. Thank you. Thank you to the community. Exactly. Right. There are things that will happen in our district that are a result of your vote of support that would not happen otherwise. So, we thank you sincerely for your confidence um and for your endorsement of the decisions that we've made in the past, for forgiveness for the mistakes that we've made in the past, and we we look forward to what we'll be able to do um with your pennies and our tourist pennies. Please
212come to Savannah and spend money. Thank you. Yes. All right. Uh, no. There being no more discussion, all in favor. All right. Thank you. All right. We have a few people that have signed up to speak today. Uh, A Bryant and you will have three minutes. Good afternoon. I come today to work as a cohesive team member as a parent. The board is responsible for establishing the vision, goals, and policies for our school system. You are accountable to the public for performance of the school district. I come to make a request to include the parents at the table. When all parents are included, you will see outcomes increase for the betterment of the total child. I noticed at most board meetings we hear from the teachers, support staff, and sometimes the student representative. We as
213parents have to wait until the end of the day, and we have only three minutes. On April the 28th, 2022, Governor Bryant Kemp signed the House Bill 1178, Parents Bill of Rights. In his speech, Governor Kimp stated parents should have a seat at the table and their voices heard and respected in their children's education. On February the 19th, 2025, I made a request to know about parent committees and the advisory committee. Still no response to meet or to contact me back per my emails. We the parents are equal partners in the growth of all 36,000 students in this system. I come knocking at the door for access for parents to be allowed full access and transparency. Governor Kemp is currently also making mental health a resource. Most importantly, Governor Kemp stated parents should be at
214the table fully. When the parents are at the table, I believe students will succeed. Discipline data will decrease. The child will be balanced and ready for the future. Please open the door. Please start following up on parent communications and to allow parents a seat at this table. Thank you. Thank you very much, Robert Gard. Good afternoon. My name is Bob Keart. I'm a vice president of the Savannah Navy League and I'm accompanied by Mary Ellen Sprag who's a member of the Savannah Navy League. Just to be clear, uh the Navy League of the United States is not part of the Navy. We get no money from the Navy. We're strictly a civilian organization and we have objectives. One of our primary objectives is to promote education of youth in US government, the structure of a
215free country and the importance of sea services, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Maritime Marine for the protection and support of our country's economic prosperity. We believe that NJRTC, Navy JRTC is a very valuable curriculum for high school students and we're very sorry to report that Navy support for the longived NJRLTC program at Johnson High School has been stopped. This is after three years of failed annual inspections. High school NJRLTC is great. It's a win-win for the Savannah school public system. It's a win for the students and that's the most important part of it. It's a bargain for the for the system. The win for the students is number one, it educates students on US government and civics and it provides focused training and life skills and this is really important for the life skills of
216the kids in our high school. These kids are growing up and this provides uh teamwork, personal responsibility, leadership, respect for authority, personal self-respect and time timely action. and that is how to get something done when you want it done. The win for the public school system is the Navy under when it's an approved system, approved program, the Navy pays 50% of the instructor's salary. That's stopped now at Johnson High School. Navy provides individual textbooks for each school year. Navy provides Navy uniforms for all cadetses. All of that's at no cost. Naval science instructors report directly to the school principal, not the Navy League, not to the Navy for the the principal is the boss. We have problems recruiting and retraining NJRT instructors here in Savannah. That's a big problem for us right now at Johnson
217High School. Has been for some time. Not many Navy people retire here. They retire in Jacksonville. They retire in Charleston, but not very many come to Savannah. So relocation for a lowpaying job is kind of a roadblock. The other second part of that is the pay rate here is very low. Uh it's the minimum number accepted by the accepted by the Navy. Uh you have a lot of company in that boat. It'd be great if you could just step a little bit up. The uh a couple of years ago we had we had a a great Navy retired chief at the at the U Jenkins, Chief Russell Burns. He resigned from resigned from Jenkins to move to the same level position at South Effingham High School. He was doing a great job at Jenkins. And
218Jenkins is still in great shape. Thank God for that. But the uh when he just that little move, no promotion or nothing. He makes $14,000 a year more in Jenkins, I mean in Effingham than he did in Jenkins High School. We got to get competitive with the rest of the world in terms of paying these guys. Give them a little bit more money and give them an opportunity to advance. Finally, Navy League would respectfully ask this board of education to recognize the significant positive impact JRLTC can have on our high school students and please take action to improve recruiting and retaining NJRLT instructors at Jenkins and Johnson High School. We, Savannah Navy League, would be happy to discuss ideas that we believe would help in this situation. Please contact us. Thank you very much. Thank
219you very much. She has a question. Yeah, Miss Hall. First of all, I want to say hi to Miss Spray. It's so nice to see you. I thought that was you out there. Um, I want everyone to know that we at Johnson High School absolutely want this program to be resuscitated and expanded. We are in the recruitment phase and as he was mentioning, it's very hard to find um a suitable person here. We've been doing that for some time. If I'm correct, Dr. Watts, looking for that person. So, we will have to have the discussion if a higher salary would indeed make that difference. But I want everyone to know that we fully endorse this program at that high school. And we hope to uh get this rectified as soon as possible. And Savannah Navy
220is willing to help in any way we can. Yes, we've been focusing on on going to Paris Island. They they have a lot of recruit. In fact, the two uh um at at South Effingham and at Jenkins, those are both Marines running those programs and they do a terrific job in both cases. We need to get one for you at Johnson because those guys, they do a great job. They really love the kids and really work hard to help those kids grow. Absolutely. Thank you very much. Thank you for your support. Thank you very much. Um, hang on a second. Okay, I've got to pronounce this person's name correctly. All right. Are they not here? Okay. Um, Sukana Hosp. No. Okay. All right. Raymond Watson. Good afternoon. Um to the board to the board of
221education. Um just speaking on behalf of like just in general if we especially if you're going to like to do the letters trainings, the document training, I mean like the documents that go with it, the online training and then when we come back from spring break, you take our full day for training. So, we can't even be in our classroom for letters. It would be really appreciative if we're told we're going to be paid our stipen that we get it. That was two weeks ago, but that's another thing. Um, to the parents and the community members here in Savannah, I'm just going to talk to you guys. Uh, last November, I came to this place and I expressed my frustration of how I was struggling and how I had a routine going that I felt
222was working that I had data that was showed that. However, I was told no that that in that that could not go. At that time, I had 43% of my kids could not identify all the uppercase and lowercase letters. I had data to back that up. But I was told no by administration that I could not do what was working for my students following the letters training that we are supposed to be in. I had a decision to make. Either let my students fail or just close the door as many teachers do and do what we do. I closed the door and did what I wanted to do because that's what we do. And I'm speaking to my parents and community members. The success we have is because we close the door and do what
223we need to do. I went from 43% to 92% today know all their letters uppercase and lowerase. That don't sound big, but it's amazing. Um, my I Ready data that we just finished concerning phonics because that's what a big focus went from 54% that were two or more grade levels behind to we are now at almost 60% on grade level because I followed letters. Even when my boss is telling me no, I followed letters. I have the data. I can know where my kids needed. I had I have two kids that were uh had meetings last school year to possibly be put in special education. Both of them kids are either mid third grade or at the end of third grade. Why? Because I focused on their phonics. I focused on letters. I focused on
224what we y'all were telling us to train in and it worked. Let us do our job. We're doing it. We're not being heard. Okay. Because to my parents and community members who I'm just going to talk to that November, I mean, yeah, November and then March, I'm screaming, pulling the alarm. How many people in this room to parents and and my administrator, how many people in this room or my administration reached out to say, "Hey, can I help?" Zero. instead. I'm sorry. One board member in November said, "Do you have Esau students outside?" I said, "Yes, ma'am. That's tough." She got in the car. So, thank you. Thank you. All right. Not everyone at once. Um, there's been a move to adjourn. Oh, I'm sorry, Miss Hall. We didn't do the East Plus part of
225the agenda. Will that be at the next We did. We just No, no. I'm talking about Mr. Botra's the not not the change orders and things. I'm talking about the update, the Espots update. I thought that was not part of this. Okay. Yes. Yes. Yes. I'm sorry. on the list again. Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. You're on the list twice. Okay. Make up fast. All right. We are so excited to hear from you again. Okay. So, I have a paper that I want to distribute to all of you. It's a research paper I did uh documenting the cost of failure. What happens when children can't read at grade level when they exit third grade? There's a ton of research about the qualitative factors that influence their life. They're going to be in discipline problems in school.
226They're going to drop out of school. They're going to have children before they're married. They're going to get involved in the criminal justice system. They're going to be undermployed. They're going to live in poverty. High percentage of these is very well documented and I've got lots of references in here. The question I wanted to ask was, how much does that cost us? because we as taxpayers pay for that all those things. So here's the bottom line. On average, each of these children will cost taxpayers of Chattam County $400,000 over their lifetime. It's a lot of money. This spring [Music] roughly,00 children will exit our school system who didn't read at grade level when they left third grade. 1100. that will cost taxpayers over their lifetime $450 million. Currently in the school system between grades four
227and 12, we have 10,000 kids who didn't read at grade level when they left third grade. Those 10,000 are going to move out into the community and they are going to cost the taxpayers of Chattam County 4 billion dollars. This is very, very expensive. So, we have to change. We have to do more. We're not doing enough. I loved what Andrea was saying about the progress we're making, and that's great, but it it's not enough. We have to change the culture in the system or we're not going to get there. Thank you. That's it. Thank you, Mr. I would like to pass these out. Okay. Now I'll accept a motion to adjourn. Second. It's been moved and seconded. No. David. David. All in favor. David, you're going to vote no. David transl. [Music]