Regular Board Meeting - May 8, 2024

001e e e good afternoon after afternoon welcome to the regular meeting of the board of public education for the city of Savannah and the county of chadam uh this meeting is being live streamed so those of you watching on the live stream hello um we will I'll start by asking if uh the meeting was notice was posted and the agenda I've been assured it has we will start with our opening exercises if you will all stand for our uh national anthem and Pledge of Allegiance good afternoon today we are pleased to have obadia rodway he is a freshman at beach high school and he will be performing The National anthem on the alto saxophone yeah yay Beach this is his seventh year playing the saxophone and obadia is currently a member of the Savannah youth

002philarmonic one of our wonderful Community Partners if you would please remain standing after the national anthem for the Pledge of Allegiance thank you [Music] d [Music] the [Music] w [Applause] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all [Applause] let's hear it again for [Applause] obia okay accept a motion to approve the agenda make a motion to approve the agenda second moved in seconded all in favor okay thank you oh and we do have announcements today as soon as I get to them so uh first of all we like to uh congratulate our superintendent uh she was the uh speaker at the Girl Scout breakfast this morning and she did an excellent job [Applause]

003you okay we have a public hearing this evening at 6: PM this is uh hearing number one on our budget at 6: PM uh Thursday I guess that's tomorrow uh the junior Police Academy graduation ceremony at w Woodle Tomkins perfect um and it starts at 5: on Friday May 10th this is big on Friday May 10th we will have the ribbon cutting of the multicampus 612 I know Dr Howard Hall is very happy Merc and gross uh so um again that is Friday uh at noon at uh at uh Priscilla's hamus way in Garden City May 14th we have our 2024 retirement reception at the Armstrong Center at Georgia Southern Armstrong campus um Wednesday May 15th we have the finance advisory committee meeting here at 9: Wednesday May 15th is MayDay at the Massie Heritage

004Center in Calhoun Square um no I'm sorry that is now is that is now Taylor Square make that adjustment okay and there are more announcements Wednesday May Wednesday May 15th we have public hearing number two on the budget at 6: p.m. in this room Thursday May 16th uh we have a capital Improvement committee meeting at 900 a.m. here at Whitney Thursday May 16th we have the official closing event for Largo Tibet uh School uh and will be at Largo Tibet school on uh Tibet Avenue May 20th through May 23rd all of my board members and I will see each other for a long time those are all of our high school graduations so um on Monday May 20th we have new Hampstead at 9: Islands at 1 and Savannah Arts at 5: Tuesday we have

005Jenkins at 9 Windor Forest at 1 Beach High School at 5 yes Wednesday Woodville Tomkins at 9 Johnson High School at 1 grow uh at Thursday School of liberal art liberal studies at Savannah high school at 9: and Savannah chadam e-learning and Savannah Early College at 100 pm. and uh in our remembrances okay great we have two um we we have uh uh don Nichol Donna Nicholls uh date of passing April 5th 202 4 she was a teacher at West chadam Middle School if we'd all stand for a moment of silence and now for our good news yes it is a point of privilege to micophone it's a point of privilege to be able to bring some good news uh into the room today for us to celebrate and acknowledge and I'd like to start

006that by acknowledging our March student of the month our student of the month for the month of March is a fifth grader at May Howard Elementary School this young scholar is in the robotics club and participated in the first Lego League competition this year he is also a part of the gifted program advanced mathematics and has maintained a high honor role all year and as a fifth grader it's not easy to maintain a 97 GPA but he certainly works hard to attain this goal said Miss lines who nominated him he is always smiling and he wants to put his best foot forward he is working at a sixth grade level in math 99th percentile in IRA ready and has shown tremendous growth all year when describing our student of the month Miss Lon said we

007started a robotics Club this year at May Howard and one student would always find new strategies to code because he wanted to learn but he also wanted to help his teammates he went above and beyond and would even work during his lunch periods to help his robotics team succeed our student explained his experience at the robotics competition and he said it was the best day of my life we were learning while having fun when asked what motivates him to strive for academic success our students said I like making my family happy and proud of me most of my cousins attend the University of Georgia or Georgia Tech and I want to follow in their footsteps please help me to congratulate the Stu the superintendent student of the month for a for the month of April

008excuse me Justin ha [Applause] congratulations man good job thank you sir congratulations you congratulations next chair you're on that L you'll receive multiple gifts from our Community Partners gift cards from Members First Credit Union Georgia United Credit Union Plant Riverside District gelato Savannah Music Festival and the Five Spot restaurant plus he will receive merchandise from advertising Specialties Savannah State University Georgia Southern University Gulfstream and Bahama Joe's Justin and his students from his English language arts class will receive copies of his favorite book Hatchet one of my favorites as well by Gary Paulson from our sponsor e shaver book sellers again congratulations to Justin I'm extremely proud of you Justin and I would love for his nominator Miss lines to please stand thank you so much for acknowledging this wonderful student and I would love to

009have his family please stand you should be very proud I'd like to continue uh with calls for Applause by uh talking a little bit about some good news that's happening in our school district thanks to everyone who came out and supported books blankets and family fun on I apologize is the principal of his school present I do not know I'm sorry I'm so sorry yes please please stand please stand I [Applause] apologize thanks to everyone who came out and supported books blankets and family fund on April 27th we had Chamber of Commerce weather and a Park full of people who enjoy the fellowship the food and most importantly reading thousands of students staff and their families fill the part for a great day focused on literacy thank you to the office of College and Career

010Readiness for organizing to our staff who came out on a Saturday and worked and supported this event as well as our Community Partners for sharing their resources and to sponsor uh for making this entire event possible and a success also congratulations to Savannah Arts Academy Woodville Tomkins High School Savannah Early College High School Islands high school and Jenkins High School for being named among the top high schools in the country by US News and World Report each year the news magazine publishes a list of rankings for schools across the entire nation and the rankings of high schools with these rankings first published in 2007 and in 2021 the publisher added rankings of elementary and middle schools to the list so with that said congratulations to stem Academy at Bartlett Garrison School for the Arts Savannah

011Classical Academy and Coastal Middle School for high rankings among the middle schools and Jacob G Smith Savannah Classical Academy Marsh Point Elementary tby Island marama Academy and Garrison School for the Arts for their recognition in the elementary category we officially welcome commencement season exciting time of the year as students begin to to step into the next phase of their lives we kicked off the season with the celebration of Excellence at Woodville Tomkins Auditorium last month where we had our valedictorians our salutatorians our star students and our International students being recognized at that event I would like to extend a big thank you to our school counselors who put in the extra time uh for organizing this event watch our website for all the details about graduate uation that are up and coming we look forward

012to seeing all of you at the commencement exercises May 20th through the 23rd at the inm market Arena also congratulations to Dr Angie Lewis on her reappointment to the Career and Technical education advisory commission by our Governor Brian km The Advisory Board strengthens ctae program Statewide by providing input for curriculum and related program activities as well as helping to increase Community awareness and participation in ctae programs Dr Lewis's participation on that state committee is a testament to her leadership and her outstanding work that is being done right here in Savannah chadam County Public School System also thank you to the mediation center of the coastal Empire for their acknowledgement of our students at the youth peacemakers recognition and awards ceremony we appreciate the partnership that we have with the mediation Center and guiding peer problem

013solving through youth programs such as the positive peer influencers program peer mediation and the mediation Center's Youth Court jenin High School won the Platinum award for the most mediations facilitated by school peer mediation team Charles Ellis monor and wsor Forest High School both won peer mediation marketing Awards several students were recognize with these Awards as well you can see all of the award winners at our district website sccpss.com middle and high school students from across Georgia gathered in Athens Georgia earlier this month to present their original research compete for awards and interact with top level professional scientists and engineers at the Georgia science and engineering Fair Savannah chattam County public schools had six students from two schools earn recognitions this year congratulations to Eleanor OK Conor of Garrison School of the Performing Arts devel Goldson

014Piper M Henry Keller Sims all and all of the STEM Academy at Bartlet students Piper also received a nomination to the National therof Fisher s scientific Junior innovators challenge that was a mouthful and the honors in science and technology just keep on coming in for our students Georgia College and State University recently H hosted its annual state science and engineering competition for kindergarten through fifth grade which featured 454 students who submitted 328 projects from 101 schools sccpss students from Jacob G Smith new Hamstead K8 White Bluff Elementary herd Elementry and Garrison schools for the Arts fielded several successful entries which included a first place Grand Mastery Honor best of math and a computational and physical sciences award congratulations to all the students who participated and to their teachers for putting in the work to be

015successful in this competition and if all of that is not enough I have even more to celebrate hats off to the Savannah High marching Blue Jackets they picked up the viewers Choice Award at the Battle of the books at Six Flags in Atlanta they competed against bands from Alabama Arkansas Georgia Louisiana North Carolina and Tennessee congratulations to all students and to our band director Mr Reginal Mitchell and finally please join me in a big round of applause for our Scholars who were named to the 2024 class of gates Scholars these Year's awardees are Cameron Middleton Jamari sharp and Timothy Williams all from Woodville Tomkins and Tania truel from Beach High School Miss Tru is also the valedictorian of her class and this year's star student this marks the sixth time in the past three years

016and seventh time overall that Woodville Tomkins students have been honored with this prestigious scholarship and the fourth time overall for Beach High School this year only 750 students were selected from over 53,000 applic ations from across the country as awardees they will receive funding for the full cost of attendance of their undergrad uh College tuition in addition to support for their undergraduate studies they will also receive mentorship career support and leadership development it is indeed my honor to invite these Scholars to the front to the Horseshoe to come forward to be recognized for the for the Board of Education and I'd love for their family if they are present today to please stand great job thank you extremely PR andamar very proud and our gate scholar from Beach is not present today but we want

017to acknowledge her again and celebrate her family as well we have we [Applause] do we had a lot of good news for this month um and uh Miss Dylan it's going to be hard for you to follow that I'm going to pass you the mic let you try I know darn it that's okay um this past month on April 18th we held our professional Senate meeting and this was our last formal meeting of the school year Bittersweet you know we're glad to get out but so much has been accomplished this year to add to the continuity of the Senate teachers and instructional support persons that will represent next year were invited and attended along with Miss Emily Graham the 2025 teacher of the year in preparation for this meeting questions were submitted to the board

018members ahead of time and the board members did an amazing job listening and addressing the questions presented ranging from topics from cell phones textbooks class siiz waivers preparing to meet future needs populations and mental Wellness I know this is going to shock you we ran out of time in our hour and 30 minutes um there was so much to share and thank you board members for being there going forward it was discussed that the board members would be invited earlier in the school year rather than at the end of the school year many of the concerns that were pres submitted were operational and administration based the cabinet is going to go through the questions and we'll provide updates that will be emailed early in May as with all meetings this year are all present provided

019open and transparent communication thank you to all of the stakeholders together we can together we will respectfully submitted from Reagan Dylan and Moses mcneel and I have the honor and privilege of recognizing two very critical work groups within um Savannah Chad County public school system if you do not know already this week is national teacher appreciation week um so if you know a teacher which we all do because by virtue of being in this room I would invite you to extend personal acknowledgement and gratitude for the efforts that they bring forth each and every day in service of our students um and I'll be excited in just a second to read their Proclamation and if we have individuals here representing that group we'd love for them to come to the front um and also national

020school nurse day is a very critical Day within this week and we want to celebrate our nurses this week also with a proclamation am I reading those I don't want to but um first off uh this morning we also had there was also breakfast to recognize that appreciation for the School nurses um it was an honor actually to be there this morning and to all School nurses once again thank you for everything you do so here is a proclamation it's presented to celebrate national school nurse Day School nurses are considered an integral part of the educational process contributing to the well-being of every child to ensure all students achieve success in schools we along with the National Association of School nurses celebrate and acknowledge the accomplishments of School nurses everywhere in their efforts to meet

021the needs of today's students by providing and advocating for the quality student centered care we offer gratitude for School nurses not just on this national school nurse day but in every opportunity throughout the year thus be it resolved by this board of public education to be hereby Proclaim May 8th 2024 as national school nurse day I'll accept a motion so move it's been moved in second it all in favor thank you so we have nurses present today so uh nurses that are present please come [Applause] forward to read their names Victoria Stewart Raven dfor Sparkle Richford Stephanie Tut Tanya Anderson Dolores bordon Suzanne Hansen Stephanie Nails Sarah Williams Vanessa Arbuckle Brenda Sant Kier bugas Marie Robertson Zira north northern Murphy T Lucas Karen mcferson and gay [Music] one of the hardest jobs yeah it does

022David yes good afternoon it is my uh privilege and honor and I'm sure all of us would fight over wanting to read the proclamation for national teacher appreciation week yes um I I will agree with uh Mr Johnson it was nice to spend time with the nurses this morning to thank them for what they do um one of them already wrote us a thank you for thanking them so um just just a great time to celebrate our staff um so it again my honor and privilege um on behalf of this board to read this Proclamation um so to recognize the valuable contributions of our teachers the Board of Education would like to officially recognize teacher appreciation week that is designated nationally from May 6th through May 10th 2024 thus be it resolved that the following

023Proclamation be adopted whereas Savannah chadam County Public School teachers make schools great and whereas teachers work to open minds to new ideas knowledge and dreams and whereas teachers keep American democracy Alive by laying the foundation for good citizenship and whereas teachers fill many roles as listeners explorers Role Models motivators and mentors and whereas teachers leave a lasting influence on us long after our school days our only memories now therefore be it resolved that we recognize the week of May 6 10 May 6 through 10th 202024 as national teacher appreciation week to celebrate the significant contributions our teachers make for our students in this community and that all citizens take time all through the month of May and really the entire year to thank a teacher adopted this 8th day of May 2024 signed Mr Roger

024Moss board president Dr Denise Watts superintendent seconded all in favor [Applause] yes you're a teacher too sweetie are there any other teachers please come forward me come on come on [Applause] thank you oh there's my other teacher I know [Laughter] teacher thank you sir I did want to take the opportunity as well as uh the instructional support person our nurse from oglethorp Charter is leaving right now but uh Miss bordon is also the instruction support person of the year for 2025 thank you for your service and of course uh she's going to follow in the great foot footsteps of Mr Moses mcneel Mr isy with okay and that's our queue moving along in the agenda we're moving into the Board of Education matters for the board today we have a number of policies to go

025over some of these are uh first readers for the board you'll see before you on item 6.01 this is policy bdh suspension of waivers you'll note that this is a mid period review and the reason we're bringing this forward to the board is we've made modification for this policy language to be updated which is in concert with the board's action item of later on in the agenda with the adoption of the Strategic waiver school system contract so this is the first reader here we'll bring it back for the second reader at the next board meeting to officially memorialize this language thank you moving on yeah oh I'm sorry that's sorry um thank you uh in one of the the edits that's on this document is that all of the statutes that are being that the

026waivers are cited from um it's being taken out of the policy so my question is where will an updated list be housed if it's not going to be in the policy yes um those will be part of the contract so the Georgia Department of Education posts all the final contracts on their website to include all the approved waivers so in order to being able to track multiple sites to ensure any changes and waivers are done we eliminated it from the policy so that there's only one location to find those approved waivers which would be the State Department of Education okay so we're going to put in an application that has all of the waivers that we want and when they if if they approve all of them if they don't approve all of them does

027that mean you have to modify the application before they upload it um the final list will be approved by the state board and then that will be posted so we're currently in the process of negotiating those final waivers okay all right thank you I just wanted to make sure it was available somewhere um for us to find it thanks of course in a matter of transparency as well we'll we'll have an area on our website where we will post links to that just to make it easy for the general public if they're searching for it to to find it so um but it um taking it out of the the policy language allows um you know we We'll Never Say Never I guess when it comes to contracts so if there was a midyear or

028mid period review or a change from the state that would require modifications to it we realize well then we have to keep going back to modify the policy so does it make good sense to list this in here when it really lives in the actual contract which is at the State uh but again we'll we'll make it easy for citizens to find that thank you that was my concern is that policies a one-page policy is where a parent can see that yeah but now we're saying go to the state to the State Board website which I don't even like going to um so but I understand the logic and as long as we have hyperlinks that get people there I think that's fine excellent okay moving on hearing no other comments moving on to your

029next item on the agenda 6.02 this is board policy BD which is policy development this is a 4-year review we have made some modifications for improved language here but of course this is the primary area of the the board's wheelhouse and the ownership of policies uh one of the great things that we do as an Administration and board as we review these publicly during board meetings as a standard course of our progress and a standard part of our policy which is enumerated in uh language on the four-year review so this is um we believe improved language which really memorializes better the role of the board in what it does in the policy development process this is a first reader we'll come back for second at next agenda okay any uh Miss Kowski thank you um

030so I like that in the second paragraph it really focus Fus is on the the involvement of the community which I think is great and I guess it is implied that that Community includes our district community of our teachers and staff that are the ones that are most directed by our policy but I think it would be really helpful to explicitly state that um with the intentionality of understanding the way in which our policies affect our internal team and the way in which they're interacting with and our students obviously um but that's just a a comment I would offer for consideration uh Dr bringman any anytime I can sing your Praises I love how this is written um I love that it states community that um it used to say just the superintendent which wasn't

031our practice so thank you for making it to where we it has always been a collaborative um process um I have never felt that I couldn't bring some policy idea in front of everyone it might have only gotten my vote um but but but we have the process by which anybody can bring policy to a board member and if they can get a board member to go okay yeah I'll present that to the rest of the board that's what happens here um and that doesn't happen in some of the other governmental institutions um in the state of chadam um so thank you for writing it down this way and Community hear what we're saying we write policy with you whether it be teachers nurses students um if you think something needs to change and it's

032something that we think needs to change as well we want to bring It Forward that's how we direct the superintendent to direct her staff to move us forward so um it has worked for me I think it's worked for fellow board members as well as well and I don't know if I could be in an elected position where I would have to make sure I had a majority already to bring an idea or a policy forward so I'm glad that this is written the way it is thank you anyone else thank you excellent thank you sir moving on in the agenda on your next lineup we have item 6.03 this is board policy BH code of ethics once again this is part of the four-year review process you'll note that we've gone through this and

033there are no recommended changes for it the language stands uh as quality language as written uh therefore we'd like to consider that subject to any uh final comments of the board this one is considered as reviewed uh under the four-year policy review process okay uh Dr hus drown thank you I don't have any changes for this policy just have a question about the sanction process um or just what a sanction is in some entities a sanction is that it is a it's a communication of disapproval of a action of some kind and then there's a fine or there's something else but we don't have that so just to be clear is a sanction just a process that board members can review the ACT of another board member convene a hearing decide whether or not those

034actions are in violation of ethical policy and then have a vote to say yes we sanction that board member is it is the sanction just uh a demerit or a naughty letter is that what it is and I'm okay with that I just need to be clear because we we talked about sanctions a number of years ago um and but but I don't think we ever defin what what sanction was yeah I think this is a great place to get a little additional feedback from a legal perspective the the the way it is written does provide it says the word appropriate the appropriate sanction as well in the language so that could be anything from uh being uh admonished in uh in a way of a Written Letter we've seen that before that's been uh

035governmental agencies have used but I think the one thing that we don't see and it's not listed in here as any discussion of uh suspensions or things like that but see that goes into a further review of the how far would the board go in what is deemed as appropriate and the the other caveats are there are also uh governance rules statute as elected officials that you are elected officials and you have a term to serve so I think we could get a little additional uh language on that just to clarify it for the board's understanding in process thanks I'd appreciate that and I just think In fairness any colleague that you ought to know what sanction is before you're in it don't decide what the appropriate thing is when someone is in the process

036of sanction because it's subjective and if you know someone could divide devise something much more punitive um then is necessary or or is appropriate so any if we could just get the definition of sanction if it is something other than a letter from our legal team at some point in the future I would like that to know that Miss Hall we had a situation a few years ago where uh what we did what we considered a sanction did not meet the standards at all of the governing of uh it was advanc Cog at all in fact that was part of the reason that we were placed on probation because they felt we had not done our due diligence in sanctioning so we do need to clarify that and and uh Mr katmar we can come

037up with a long list of potential sanctions but at the end of the day it's we don't have the power to remove people in elected positions um and I think we get into a real gray area if we try to remove them or bar them from trying to sit in their seat during a board meeting so I I think it has to be guided by legal um and we just I we need to be careful um to not pre-prescribed those particular facts on the merits and make a decision then collectively right um so there's a there's a I understand what you're saying too I think there's a fine line of of two that you know potentially including but not limited to you know something like that we just need to be careful I think thank

038you and that and since the the history the the issue of our history has come up that is my concern we wrote a letter of concern because we thought that was the appropriate method to convey that there was some behaviors that we thought were not representative of the organization and cogia said yeah that doesn't count so what I'm interested in is what is a sanction that if we say that we we took action as a responsible group to try to change a direction or something that was going on that Cog would say yes that qualifies as a sanction and I think a letter of sanction would be that we didn't execute that letter in that way we didn't follow this process exactly I was written um so I just want to get clarified I I

039think that as elected officials who part of our currency um is the hygiene of our reputation a letter can be sufficiently embarrassing and notable to indicate that you're not acting in the way that people believe that you should so I don't know that I need a list of these different things that Mr catchar says would be difficult to codify in the first place I just want to make sure we're on the same page with the people who police Us in policing ourselves so I'm going to defer that to legal and we will we'll hear back from soon right any excellent so hearing no changes to that policy we'd like to consider it officially reviewed now and our four-year policy review process and we will provide additional Clarity for you on those uh topics that were

040discussed through our legal department uh moving forward on your agenda we now have board policy ikb which is controversial issues and this is a policy that we have had for some time in the school district and I do want to make sure that this is not one that is uh conflated with or confused with the divisive Concepts or any of the other policies that we have recently adopted under say parent Bill of Rights this really is a generalized approach to saying and understanding that in the world of teaching there are going to be times where something could be considered controversial to someone and you have guide rails for how that is to be approached and the policy also provides what you shall not do as well and you'll note that we did change a little

041bit of that language uh the idea was to provide some improved language there and this ends up being a again four-year review first reader second read at your next agenda uh Dr Albert all yes thank you I know that controversial issues is akin to sensitive topics and I know that we're trying to keep it separate from SB 377 so do you think that there should be a regulation attached to this policy since there's is a close relation between SB 377 well interesting you raised that because we did have some internal discussions about the value of the policy as it stands as written the guidance that we got uh from legal was really that well this is really more broad scope in so it it does stand on its own Merit for what it it does

042however I think that trying to actually enumerate a regulation from this may be a bit of a challenge for us in that it would be difficult to stipulate uh what one might determine as a controversial issue that one someone else may not the key in here is the guide rails that says that you need to as a classroom educator to understand the sensitivity of that approach it correctly but do not be persuasive so you'll note that that language that used to say indoctrination has now been changed to shall not persuade uh to have your own personal belief or philosophy so the the the guide rails on that I I think are fairly clear but uh we're happy to sit down and talk further primarily with our academic team to see if there would be anything

043that would stipulate a regulation for folks to further understand this so again the regulation is really the how do you carry out the policy but as we read this policy it's really just kind of General guidelines on understanding that these topics are there but the key shall not is is tied to that don't persuade anyone of your personal your own personal views so this would be more of a professional development you think as far as academic Affairs is concerned yeah so perfect teachers so so actually yes I think that's more where it would be embedded as oppos as opposed to a regulation we did have that conversation and very similar to what you discussed earlier it could get very subjective and includes so much so basically embedding this not just in professional development but also

044in handbooks that administrators give to teachers and then doing those reminders in terms of not to persuade and making sure that they understand what this means anyone else thank you okay next item on your agenda our final policy read for today this is 6.05 this is also a review for you which comes in as a mid period review in something that we noticed uh as in administration and it came actually as a request from an employee and the primary driver for this on the tuition revision is on the policy side where we do say that the tuition will be waved for employees who have children who live out of County but have children who are attending the school where they work what we didn't have in there was the extension of that to include charter

045schools so we have extended that that's the really the only language change uh in here uh previous uh policies we had extended the definition of guardianship so you do see that there's the guardian ship SL agent component reference here uh but the the primary changes within the policy there uh to further Define that when we say employees that also includes Charter uh employees of charter schools that are operating within our school district uh Mr catmar so I need some clarity this so this is a policy driven revision and not a state law driven revision is that right state law provides a flexib ility for school districts to make the determination of waving tuition uh outside of uh the tuition is based on the verification that a you are a Georgia resident and B that you

046are working for the educational institution I.E Savannah chanam County Public Schools so what what we have done locally is determined in this policy recommendation is to say that Charter School staff are also staff of the Savannah chadam County public school system okay and so is the intent that if you live outside if the child lives outside of chadam County and attends a charter school inside of chadam County they will not be charged tuition if the staff member works there okay is that our purview or is that the Charter School's decision that that's my first question and my second question is I'm I'm reading this so I see the third paragraph and it says say children of full-time employees who go to the school their parents work in won't be charged tuition but to be clear

047if if we have a family that lives out of chadam County and a parent works at Garrison the child can't go to any school in the district they can only go to the school where their parent works is that accurate or could they go to any school in the district Yeah by law that is absolutely correct the law states that a a parent child can is by law have the right to attend the school where the parent works okay so we don't we don't allow out of state students to try to go to any in out of state out of County student to go to any in-county school unless their parent works there that's that's the first right that is correct if they attend a separate School within the district they are charge tuition so

048we do allow outof count students to attend Inc count schools but we charge to okay so now my question is if you work outside of the county and you work at a charter school can your child go tuition free to any school in the county is that what this policy says No it should not it should say that the child can attend the charter school okay so I think that needs to be clarified because when I when I read when I read the amendment I I think we need to clarify tuition won't be charged for a child attending the the regular school or the charter school in which their parent is employed yes okay for for point of for point of clarity I we we did actually what drove this change was we did want

049to allow uh Charter School uh employees the same benefit of the ability to attend our schools um so that that was that was the intention so that would be a different than a charter school because the scenario that that came up that this arose out of was not someone seeking to be at a charter school it was to be at one of our schools and we wanted to treat that Charter School uh employee the same as our own employee and when this was drafted that treatment wasn't there so I mean we we can take this back to the drawing board and make sure we're all straight cuz it seems like we got a lot of confusion but that was the Genesis of this change so so okay so that's that's my that's my what I

050was trying to get at because I get an out of state out of County geez an out of County teacher working at one of our public schools non-charter schools um us providing tuition free access for their child but we get funding for that child a an out of County teacher who works at a charter school we don't get that funding that funding goes to the Charter School um but yet we're providing the opportunity to attend any school in the district tuition free so there's there are different trade-offs there so I was trying to figure out the intent of the policy and then I go back to are we allowed to make this decision for a charter school um in terms of charging tuition or not and that's I need Clarity on that as well um

051all okay yeah I I um I have the the same question um in terms of whether or not we could make that decision I mean we can if it's in the contract whatever is in the contract when they receive the contract then we can do um but then there's managing those numbers you know over the course of you know over the course of year managing those data and make sure it's captured because then we would have to give the money we have to give money for the entire enrollment so that means the the money given to that school would include that for the parents uh for the for the CH for the children of the employees right and um it would include the the the tuition for the child of the employee and also those

052numbers for the employees how does that count for the numbers we talked about earlier with with suy King Taylor with weight list with limited seats with any of those things so if we're bringing all our policies I just think from a governance point of view I would like to see all those things packaged in the contract and then we know the car the contract carries forward and all the rules travel with it and then we know the money can follow those rules uh but the the legal uh opinion of the questions that Mr kashmar have has asked would be helpful and my question um Mr M is that if I teach at Garrison and my child does not succeed at in the lottery what is the situation for that Mr uh Feliciano they still have

053to meet the criteria in order to be eligible for the choice program so if there but but isn't so so the the choice is is referenced in policy and it speaks to uh weight being weight listed meeting the criteria in available space okay but I can see we don't have any flexibility with that the way the policy is currently written um unless we were to change that language I mean the key thing is as as we're we're talking about here is there are you do have to look at the space configurations on any given location uh regarding that there is language in here that also says that we have the reserve the right right to deny so there are certain flexibilities in how we manage that um so we're happy to look deeper into this

054uh from all of these perspectives okay I was um just informed uh we need to look at this policy again yeah thank you okay all right all right so we'll punt that one back we'll take it back through another legal review and uh get these questions answered make sure that we're uh sufficient to uh the board's will item 6.06 is board norms and protocols uh this is an action item of the board and what this does is it is the annual norms and protocols document that the board shall agree to which provides a certain level and distinction of quality standards and good governance practice in fact the board GMS and protocols do set clear expectations for school board operation communication and the governance of the school system document further supports the board development and memorializes

055appropriate etiquette and clear clearly establishes the roles and responsibilities of the board as a governance body the following norms and protocols have been provided in advance for the Board of Education and they've also been posted publicly to board docs for the Public's review they're now presented for the board's final re review and adoption anyone to move yes it's move seconded uh discuss question I'll just offer that a lot of what is in our ethics policy is mirrored in our Norms um so I uh appreciate how that's been encapsulated in something that we will memorialize this year Miss Hall Mr Ross I was hoping there'd be something here about our training so that we would find a way to you know expand our opportunities uh for learning but I see this is not the venue here

056to do that we'll have to look that's something you have to take up with GBA yeah my favorite people people okay all right all right uh yes Mr Johnson um real quick I I want to um Echo what Dr Hoskins Brown said about this being having a lot to do with our code of ethics but it's also with our normal sop that we already um operate in and I do like the fact that it puts in here about talks about team 10 the nine board members and the superintendent working together I I really do like that so thank you great all right all right any other discussion there being none uh all in favor that is unanimous I like that thank you next next item on your agenda is naming of facilities multicampus second read

057good afternoon policy FDC naming facilities states that before adopting a name for a facility the name shall be presented to the board at one meeting and voted on by the board at the next meeting based on the reconfiguration of the ghoul Mercer Groves multic complex as a result of the modifications implemented through the long range facilities plan phase one the campus previously named the GMG k 12 will need to be renamed in accordance with policy FDC and administration administrative regulation FD r-r naming facilities a committee was appointed by the superintendent to provide a recommendation for renaming the GMG K12 multic complex two committee meetings were held and a proposed name was presented to the board during the regularly scheduled board meeting on April 10th 2024 since the April board meeting the committee has reviewed the

058sequence of the names and concluded that a revised naming order should be offered for the board's consideration prior to adoption the naming sequence is listed in alphabetical order and is now recommended as Davis Edwards Harris educational complex I want to state that I had the honor and pleasure of of facilitating this committee which was established in accordance with board policy FDC in that the following stakeholders were invited to serve as members School leadership represented principal of merca Middle School Dr Christian Panton was present as well as school principal of Groves High School Dr Monique Hazard Robinson Mr Glenn Jones alumni and former mayor of Port Wentworth Dr Gary Monroe alumni of Groves High School summer Coleman 12th grade honor student at Groves High School Rashida Harris parent of sixth grade student at Mercer Middle School

059and Dr Tanya Howard Hall the board member of The District in which the facility is located served in the role as an ex official member we were fortunate to have broad representation from these individuals who committed to this process committee members who were in attendance engaged in robust discussion and we found that a common theme continued to surface the need to honor the original land owners in 1955 who ultimately had to Forfeit their land for the construction of Robert Groves High School in keeping with the spirit of how we have honored previous land donors much like the complex on the south side where South Southwest Elementary and Southwest Middle Schools reside the committee agreed to pay homage to these families through the naming of the school complex the recommendation is now presented for the board's

060review and action thus be it resolved upon recommendation of the superintendent that the board approved the naming of the multic complex facility as the Davis Edwards Harris educational complex accept a motion to move I'll accept a second it's been moved and seconded uh we do have someone who has signed up to speak to this I don't know if they are here or not uh yes okay uh Dr Gary Monroe okay sir you have three minutes yes good afternoon Mr chair uh Madam superintendent to everyone on this prestigious board who has the tremendous task of establishing the pathway of high Higher Learning in chadam County it uh gives me a great honor and privilege to be sitting in the position that I'm sitting in and that's being a representative of the families who we are seeking

061to honor with regard to this very distinguished um institution of learning grows High School uh I know you said I have three minutes but time really does not permit the sentiment of the families that I've had the opportunity of sitting with some members of the community are are 99 years of age 90 years of age 85 years of age and to have the opportunity and I'm certainly grateful of of Dr Oliver and Dr Hall who uh I guess tasked me with being a Grassroots historian to obtain all the information necessary to move forward on this uh honor honoring of the families but this is more than just writing or wrong we are making a determination to do the right thing by giving honor to where honor is due I serve on the as president of

062the Garden City Homestead Association which is the oldest organization in the city of Garden City which was established in 1963 to combat and contend segregation and to support opportunities in these communities from which these families derive from to ensure that they will have opportunities of recreation and after school activities and so when we consider the very prerequisites for naming a school building and that is with regard to a person having to be deceased and they have to have made a significant contribution to education it was concluded what greater contribution that was made than the sacrifice that was made by the predecessors who we are honoring today and so as I stand here today and thank you for this opportunity and thank you all for the uh even considering uh this second reading meeting and subsequent

063vote I want you to know that uh we are not opening uh a old wound we are healing an old scab and the families are grateful and they're thankful some will be coming from Detroit Michigan some will be coming from New Jersey some from Atlanta some from all over the country and they have expressed their gratitude and gratefulness that uh the long arm of Justice have come back to honor those families who had as it was alluded their properties taken by the legalization of condemnation but we know that there is therefore now no condemnation to them who walk according to the spirit so again sir thank you for this opportunity and I look to see you all not only at the ribbon cutting but as we honor those ribbons in the sky thank you sir

064thank you very much okay um uh any other discussion uh Dr Hoskins Brown and then Dr okay oh that's that's no problem as I sit here and I think from Cottages to an educational complex from an educational complex to a curriculum from a curriculum to college readiness and career I am honored to have served on the committee and just to give you another backstory our previous superintendent Dr Ann levette wanted to ensure that the Board of Education was not encroaching on private property so she did a research and requested a copy of the C certificate of appraisal and that is when the story of Davis Edwards and the Harris family was revealed and I just thought I share that information and the reason why we chose educational complex because it personifies the unique flexibility of

065that multisite it has the ability to adjust in the present as well as the future and just to give an example it originally was going to be a K12 school but due to circumstances and the growth of West chadam we had to use the flexibility of the unique space within that building to convert it to a 612 facility I'm looking very forward in attending the ribbon cutting which will convene on Friday at 12:00 and I will invite the public and everyone to come out and attend and I will say don't meet me there beat me there thank you thank you uh how Brown thank you um I am really happy to see this this action uh taking place and even the the changes that have occurred over time um African-American communities formed by natural aggregation

066and affinity and coalescence but they also formed um because of the consequences of redlining um and so when there opportunities to recognize a history of African-American communities um it appeals to me in a great way um largely by one of the roles that I another rule that I serve some of you may be aware that I chair uh a na a federal commission the gichi cultural heritage Corridor Commission which is a Four State National Heritage area under the park service and one of the biggest problems that the cultural Corridor is facing is loss of land in gichi communities so I think that this naming it's it's an acknowledgement of the value of African-American land preservation uh and communities um but it's also evidence that our district is good at doing multiple good things at one

067time we had to we we we needed to rename and we took an opportunity in the renaming to do multiple good things uh at one time and I'm very proud of that act any uh Mr Kowski this is a very minor thing but just thinking ahead to when there is a sign or or whatnot I know many times when you have multiple names they are separated by a dash instead of a comma are we going to use commas or do we need to get that particular in the naming of the facility so I think at this time we'll make sure that it is grammatically correct coming from the English teacher and then um I know that's super detailed but wanted to bring it up now and not until later and then I did I did

068run this by Dr Howard Hall and fully fully respect um and appreciate all of the work by the committee because clearly there was a lot of thought that went into this um I I did ask Dr uh Howard Hall if she would consider campus instead of educational complex as a as a more precise way um and to me something that that emanates the educational nature of it um but respect if that is not the the will of the committee but I did want to just throw that out there for the consideration of the board Mr Johnson um for those people who were not able to watch or attend the last meeting um I wanted to remind the public that the Davis Edwards Harris educational complex is for the complex the whole area is still going

069to be Gro and it's still going to be Marshal with inside of it um so those people who are alumni of those schools don't worry those schools are not going away with just naming the complex we're naming the area and honor of these families so I just want to make sure that the public was aware of that Dr bringman we've been on the topic long enough so I've been able to think um and it brings me great joy to know that a teacher in the future will be able to tell her students or his students why those three names reside on this land and I don't know who found all these documents that we've been shared maybe M Dr Monroe thank I mean this if if I've got I know somebody's got the original somewhere

070so it's going to be shared um so that those students will be able to say this is why um you know as a beach highr a lot of people say oh you went to school at the beach I I know even people in savan sometimes they're like why is this called the beach it's not about and and to have been educated on who that name is it's the same that will happen here um so a teaching moment about our history the US's history um just again it's the small things so thank you that mean so so much so so much and that story will change some child's outlook on what they do for the rest of their life Howard Hall yes and I just like to close by saying that is why I mentioned the

071backstory when Dr levette did the research every school has an archive all the information is actually found at the board of education and in the packets that the board members have we actually have pictures of the Cottages we have the outline details of what was on that property such as chicken coops and hog pins it even talked about the new property that was adjacent to this particular property for another group of another race shall I say and due to imminent domain that you know we know the rest of the story but it's all in it's all in archives at the Board of Education every school has a story and it was just interesting that it was forgotten about but due to some other circumstances the superintendent was led Dr levette was led to let me

072do a little research to find out whether or not we are encroaching on private property and that's when all of this came about and I'm very grateful and thankful for that M Hall um I see Mr uh Joseph schwarzer is here from the Morning News and perhaps we could give him a copy of this because this is newsworthy oh he already has it he does have it J okay very good I was getting ready to say there's a motion on the floor I would love to vote for it think everybody excited we have some more discussion go it's just picking up on what Dr bringman said I love that we have names reflected in so many of our schools but it's hard to find that information so this is just a I don't know maybe

073the communications team and our lovely new website maybe there's an opportunity to really celebrate and Elevate the names that are associated with all of our schools um throughout the district they are in the archives in the basement all right all right any more discussion okay great okay okay there be over discussion uh all in favor it is unan thank you very much and thank you [Applause] committee board of education has an action item for a lease of facility on its agenda today this is lease a facility for the coastal Empire empire monory Charter School Board owned certain property located at 2001 Cynthia Street in Savannah and seeks to lease the premise to the coastal Empire monor Community organiz ation doing business as Coastal Empire monory Charter School a Georgia nonprofit organization and locally approved K5

074Charter School authorized by the board and the Georgia Department of Education the lease has been posted to board dos publicly and has been provided in advance to the Board of Education key terms for the lease with the effective date based on the last signature to fully execute the agreement with a facility turnover date planned for July 7th the board as listed in the lease the landlord has provided best efforts to locate suitable space with input from the coastal Empire monory Charter School the tenant so that the tenant May relocate to the aforementioned property not later than the fy2 school year which is July 1st 2024 the agreement has been reviewed by the board attorney and is supported by the superintendent thus be it resolved upon recommendation of the superintendent that the board of public education

075does hereby approved the enclosed lease agreement providing suitable space for the coastal Empire monory charter school subject to the stipulations of the agreement and its exhibits and does hereby authorize the superintendent to sign the agreement moved moved and seconded any discussion all right there being none all in favor oh we're so getting along so well today um I just jinx it no um that was unanimous by the way okay all right um before you have one more agenda item sir and Board of Education matters which is the contract resolution for strategic waiver school system good afternoon afternoon afternoon all strategic waiver school system contracts in Georgia are set to to expire on June 30th 2024 uh the administration intent is to continue operating under a strategic waiver school system performance contract during the renewal application

076process three teams were established for an in-depth review and discussion on the waiver options provided by the Georgia Department of Education the Administration has carefully reviewed each of the flexibility options offered by the Georgia Department of Education and in doing so presented appendix a flexibility components of the contract for public involvement on the Georgia flexibility waivers a draft renewal contract and appendix a flexibility wavers have been prepared for review and is now presented for board approval the contract that is in your packets and posted on Bardock has been provided by the Georgia Department of Education we do not control the information that is placed on it there is an error or a mistake made the Georgia Department of Education is aware of that but they has informed me that I can proceed and provide it

077to the board for approval that when the State Board approves the contract then the final Rev vision and updated one will be provided back to the leas so just wanted to informed you of that is that error on page three that's the one that has the repeating item good then thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the Savannah chadam County Board of public education does hereby approve the application and contract for the Strategic waiver school system and its component to be submitted to the Georgia Department of Education for final State approval and authorizes the board chair and the superintendent to fully execute the agreement upon final negotiations with the Georgia Department of Education okay I'll accept a motion so moved and seconded uh any discussion yes Michael Mr Johnson sorry it's

078that's fine I've been called worse than um I just want to say for those who also didn't watch the meeting when we talked about this last time um the state's basically saying we're going to we have to do a Swiss um they're not letting us change it from anything else so we're just doing the best that we can with the waivers that we're able to do okay all right uh any other discussion okay all in favor yes yes thank you very much it you now okay um before we go to I Kurt I need some guidance here because we have someone oh no that's later I'm sorry yes you're on your consent agenda no we're fine we're fine excellent good go ahead so uh I will accept a motion to approve the consent agenda second

079okay um any discussions none good uh all in favor are is that yes that's a no okay all right that is keep your hands up please uh that's five yes okay uh uh all opposed two oppos all abstaining and two abstaining all right thank you off next uh have approval of the minutes for the meeting okay um I one I good good afternoon again we have a few items up under strategic priority I believe it's number one all of the items have been posted to board docs and board members have received copies of the agenda items so excuse me if I skim through some of them as I read them the first one is RFP 21-28 multimedia classroom presentation systems this is just an annual contract extension um on May 10th 2023 the board approved

080the second annual renewal Award of RFP 21-28 multimedia classroom presentation systems the annual contract to the to the firm net planner Systems Incorporated now staff is just requesting and extension of the contract the funding source is coming out of East PL thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the contract extension of RFP 21-28 multimedia classroom presentation systems annual contract to the firm of net planner systems Incorporated at an estimated cost of 2 Mill $2,800,000 moved seconded M to second that yes thank you okay any discussion okay uh all in favor okay Miss okay the next item is RFP 24 t-07 device charging cards for pre through fifth grade classrooms to Ary Jones education Solutions the division of Technology request approval to utilize the contract awarded to Ary Jones

081educational Solutions under RFP 24-4 and approved by the board at an original amount of $4 million to purchase 534 charging carts for prek through fifth grade classrooms the funding source is S3 thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the purchase of 534 device charging cards from Ary Jones educational Solutions using the district contract awarded under RFP 24-7 in the amount of 850,000 $77 so moved and seconded uh uh discussion yes yes so Mr Jackson Every prek through fifth grade classroom will get a uh charging uh station I'm going to ask m f felo to verify that's the is to provide a set of devices within the classroom for each teacher so they don't have to go back and forth to the media center that's great good all right

082uh any other discussion all in favor okay that is eight and this house side here okay continue okay the next item is again under RFP 24 07 HP Chromebook purchase again the vendors Ary Jones educational Solutions the division of Technology requests approval to utilize the contract awarded to Eric Jones educational Solutions under RFP 2407 and approved by the board at an original amount of $4 million to purchase 3,000 3,000 HP Chromebooks replaced obsolete student devices throughout the district the the funding for this would come from East PL 4 thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the purchase of 3,000 HP Chromebooks from Ary Jones educational Solutions using the district contract awarded under RFP 24-7 in the amount of 1,447 40 moved and seconded any discussion Miss Hall um

083Mr Jackson where is Ary Jones located uh they have a satellite office here locally that we deal with and a warehouse okay any other if anything goes wrong with the Chrome we have someone on site to get there and take care of okay yes nice uh any other discussion all right all in favor Z okay the last item under this section is for RFP 24-38 International teacher recruitment Services annual contract the purchasing department received one proposal in response to R 24-38 International teacher recruitment Services annual contract a proposal was received from inag in Incorporated out of Atlanta Georgia the funding source would be various accounts in the general fund and Title One thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the contract award to the firm of inter Incorporated

084to provide International teacher recruitment Services total estimated annual cost of 4 million3 44,8 180 for the school year 2024 through 25 moved and seconded uh discussion I have a question for wats if we um hire a teacher internationally and they don't um perform well on their tias evaluation but we've contracted for their room and board and that kind of thing how does that work itself out can I respond to that yes um as it relates to this particular group of teachers these are on J1 so we we have a contract with the company not the teacher the teacher has a contract with the company so we don't have a contract with the teacher in this situation so if a teacher doesn't work out and they have then they get sent back or sent back with

085the company and they will get a replacement teacher that we would choose of our choosing thank you m Kowski um so I have two questions I noticed that we only received one response is this a company that we have worked with in the past we began with them in 2003 um so you'll see multiple contracts since 2003 there have been other years when we've had multiple um multiple vendors get selected along with them but they've been consistently here um consistent for that long yes okay and then second question and I think this is kind of related to miss Hall's question um because of the unique nature I know sometimes our International teachers work out beautifully in a school and sometimes it's not such a great fit do we have any say so in the individual

086teachers that are number one are provided by the company to the district and then where in particular those teachers may go yes yes on both of those so we we interview these teachers just like any other teacher in other words our principls um are interviewing the teachers they're making a selection they're deciding for that individual to come to their school um be a part of their staff they end up being a part of the staff just like anything else they may work out they may not they don't work out for whatever reason if it's if it's the end of the year where okay you know we're trying to get them to grow but then it didn't work out maybe they don't return next year if it's something egregious maybe we don't return the mil of

087year all depends on what it is but they're not treated any differently than our current than our other staff as it relates to that um year by year they're here but in any given year they could stop cuz because the contract is with the company not with the individual teachers okay thank you any other discussion all right all in favor all right we're unanimous thank you good afternoon everyone good afternoon our financial statements for this month we are covering year-to date through March 31st so we're our 75% finished with our school year um our general funds um so far we are we have collected 68% of our budget Which is higher um than we had collected this time last year we were at 65% of the budget um our total actual revenues we are at

08870% compared to 67% last year um our expenditures our actual expenditures for our teachers we're at 61% of the budget um at this point in time of the year we would think we'd be at 75% of the cost but we're at 61% um of our teachers cost that's been budgeted and for our support salaries we're at 55% again we would expect to be between 70 75% so both of those numbers are lower than budgeted um our total General actual expenditures for this year we're at 59% for of actual expenditures compared to this time last year at 61% for our general funds then we go to our school nutrition fund 600 School nutrition at this point we're showing a loss of um almost $1.1 million um we have budgeted operating transfers from our general funds of

089$3.1 million so far this year we've only transferred $1.5 million um so this next month we we will be looking at the school nutrition costs to make the determination if we're going to transfer some of the um operating funds from the general funds to help compensate them or just look at the total cost that they're expecting for the next couple of months of the year we did a review of the school nutrition um expenses last month to make sure that all of the expenses had been captured through March and this is where we are at this point showing a loss of $1.1 million um so that's where we are with school nutrition do we have any questions yes Mr catmar Mr Kowski I I think I saw Hoskins Brown no okay good not this time

090okay not this time all right fun 600 is like our it's like an issue every year um and well I'm not saying it critically cuz they're there are factors that we can't anticipate sometimes and we have we have some hard contracts for dairy or pizza or but then we also have um cost that fluctuate I I guess so I understand there's some challenges there um we can't hard bid everything um but we try to um but I guess my question is kind of how we've allocated the funding here cuz I see I see uh 2.4 million in food usage offset by the 2.4 million in federal grants um so I'm trying to figure out and then I see the I see the salary issue I understand the salary issue but the budget for salary is

091the same it's 12 a little over 12 million so where is the operating loss coming from and if we're if there's Grant a change in grant money that exactly matches food usage costs I'm why why do we have a loss what is it from um and is it inflation over the year is it you know changes in food prices or is it labor do we know the majority losses almost every year I know we tried to adjust for that I don't know if that's the same you want to sometimes we've had some of the budget issues in in nutrition over the years have been labor some have been food cost um you I get I but what I'm seeing here is the there's a negative 2.4 on the Federal Grant and a positive 2.4 on

092food usage um I'm trying to understand what this data is showing us and there I see a million 1.1 million on the local other line and then negative 1.1 on the supplies correct so where why do why is there a million dollar shortfall is it because of food costs is it the amorphous supplies whatever that means um but I understand I guess what you're saying in your report or what you were saying was we're going to have uh salary payments required over the next 3 months but the rest revenue is going to dip because so we need to cover the salaries I get that but we let me just ask a simple question why do we have a million dollar shortage how's that okay we have realized I'm trying to look at the budget yeah

093um there's been some innovative ideas being put forth by our school Nutrition department that we're expecting to see some changes next year um the new administration at and school nutrition um kind of questioned our numbers and asked us to stop making the transfer for the from the general fund to the school nutrition you see we still have over here 1.5 1 Point almost $1.6 million that we budgeted to help to supplement the costs in school nutrition that we have not used yet this year so if we were we were use we were doing one2 of that each month and in December December we've only we only have six a half of that has been allocated so if we go back to doing the supplement we would this loss that you're seeing here would be covered

094where's the half is that line 54 the um line 20 the operating transfers you see we budgeted $3.1 million for the year and the actual so far is only 1.56 yeah we also got the 1.54 and we've got 1.56 available to use yeah that we have budgeted that we have not used yeah and and the chime in in essence this year and and the previous year we anticipated um having a shortage in with the food service revenues compared to their actual expenditures um couple of things Rising food cost and the rising Personnel cost because the last few years we've we've been doing cost of living and step increases to Food Service um School Food Service fund and they really cannot support those increases at the rates that they charge for food for students we don't

095want to increase food cost the cost of a meal for a child so we've basically been supplementing the additional cost cost increase in the G Farm but in actuality if you take out the $3 million transfer we put in we really started the year with a $3 million gap that we knew we're going to have to cover from the ger fund I got you so wait what what you're saying is it's a timing issue we've got the budget for it we just haven't moved the money corre yet right now we haven't mve the money okay because because the staff wanted to see how the operations would pan out so now they see now they see I get it okay um I was just reading the report where it said hey we got a I'm like

096okay what's going on but we don't have a loss it's a timing issue we've budgeted for it already corre Okay best practice is we want to make it self-sufficient but we've been trying to do that for a decade and never never got okay M Kowski well I don't know if it was last month or the month before we did have an agenda item to look at the adult cost of meals and that was pulled for additional analysis so is that additional analysis happening in concert with the evaluation of the overall budget it is happening and we've uh the Child Nutrition department is getting some training and updates from the state so we decided to hold off until we have all the information that we need okay perfect thank you Mr Mr Johnson um I know

097I've asked this question of the superintendent about having how other districts are able to do um free breakfast and lunch um have we looked any more into that and what we would have to do as a district still investigating that thank you anyone else yes how all yes my question is regarding the teacher the expenditures for teacher salaries with the um deduction in percentage is that due to um teacher um vacancies vacancies thank you teacher vacancies or estimating teachers that may um pursue or have received higher degrees or whatever what what is the factor leading factor for that decrease for the expenditure and teacher salaries it's primarily vacancies okay all right anyone else continue thank you h and while I have a moment of I believe that is another topic that we want to bring

098to the finance committee to talk about food service in a in a kind of separate presentation to bring you up to speed but as you as someone pointed out it hasn't changed in the last few years and it's only going to get I hate to say get worse as as long as we continue to give uh colas and steps to employees they're going to struggle even more in the food service area uh the next agenda item out of H PL 2 is the hva C Renovations for Meyers it's the budget transfer to transfer un unallocated funds to a HVAC renovation project in the amount of 3,584 46 thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approved the budget transfer and funding source change as noted okay it's been moved seconded

099question no questions no discussion wonderful uh all in favor all right continue and this one coincides with the previous transfer and I should have pointed out we initially was going to do the HVAC SE Renovations out of East PL 4 um but staff decided to use East BL 2 to try to close out east BL 2 that was on the previous transfer this one is to take the money that we budgeted in East PL 4 from the renovations and just put it back into basically an unallocated account for each hvsc projects for other sites again in the amount of 3,500 84,4 thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the budget transfer as noted mov seconded um any discussion all in favor okay thank you okay the next item

100is for bid 24-12 renovations to Henderson e fory Jr Elementary Learning Center the purchasing department received one bid in response to bid C2 24-12 renovations to hendery forming Junior Early Learning Center for SS sccpss B was received from the samit corporations out of Savanah Georgia staff recommends that the award be made to the samit corporation for the total cost cost of 8,969 796 the funding source would be e will be East plus 4 thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the award of bid C2 24-12 renovations to Henderson e fory Jr Early Learning Center to samit corporations for the total cost of 8,969 $796 moved and seconded any discussion yes Mr Johnson all I don't know if because we've been here a little while but my memories oh

101my memories not there we've done work with Sam Corporation before correct okay and they and so them being the only one to respond to the bid is we know the work we know the quality we're good that's correct yes thank you all right uh any more discussion yes Miss Hall just the question is that unusual for us to just get one response is there something in our presentation that might have not I wouldn't say it's unusual but the more and more we put out rfps and bids the number of people responding is getting fewer and fewer and I think it's because of the work that's out there in community the industry itself is so busy okay all right no discussion all in favor thank you very much okay the next transfer again is for hendy

102Henderson eform Renovations and this is for the FF and e um this budget is transferring $2 million from a construction contra cont ract to an account to pay for non-expendable computer equipment thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the budget transfer as noted it's been moved and seconded any discussion all in favor thank you the next item is for the Olive hope modifications and it's approval of a new work order under Statewide and indefinite Quality Construction contract using a Georgia Statewide contract coer Georgia comprehensive Academy is scheduled to occupy a wing in the alive hope K8 School beginning the start of the 2024 school year Renovations are needed to the alive hope facility to meet special program needs for Coastal Georgia comprehensive Academy and these renov Renovations need

103to be completed over the summer staff has reviewed the proposal and find it to be complete and in the best interest of the district for the total cost and schedule that superintendent supports the recommendation to use State contract and give the award to Johnson Lots Construction LLC the proposal has also been reviewed by the board attorney the funding source it's coming out of fund 308 modifications thus be it res resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approved the proposal for the alive hope K8 Co Georgia comprehensive Academy modifications from Johnson Lots construction L LLC and enter into a contract with Johnson Lots Construction LLC under the terms of the state contract number dd- S2 291 in the total lumpsum amount of $951,000 [Music] two people here to speak on this agenda item

104uh first uh Mr William Delo well do you want three minutes or six minutes do it separately we were supposed to bring um documents for you guys to look at but I didn't know how I was supposed to distribute those I have yeah all right okay thank you good afternoon how are you thank you you're Rachel Lee I am Rachel Lee okay and most of you probably don't know me at all um I um own a construction company for the past 35 years called RL construction and we have bid and successfully have uh produced so many so many projects for you guys in fact I renovated this building 35 years ago it's been a long time we um but getting to the point um we bid this project competive ly bid this project on March

105the 7th and um two bids were received and um the low bidder um had a some type of mathematical error and withdrew his bid which put RL construction as the apparent low bidder at bid time um that was on March the 7th um we made some calls down to the purchasing department twice and left voicemail to talk about the project see where we're going on it we're going to rebid it what what we're going to do um we're ready and able we we do a lot of Summer work for you guys every summer we have Renovations uh we completed the Coastal Middle School last summer um the transportation a brand new building over on 516 so we're used to doing very quick projects um anyway we um understand that on March on April the 24th

1064 we were issued a letter that the project had been cancelled and so at that point I felt like probably you were going to rebid it and um then on Monday morning I looked at the agenda for this meeting here and noticed that there was a agenda to award the project to Johnson locks construction um I was just flabbergasted I didn't know what to to think um you've got so much documentation in here but on page 17 uh there's a basis of contract award the rules and regulations of how you can award the project when you have um two biders when you have bids in excess of a budget I don't know um but you guys can at your sole discretion reject all bids supplement the budget or negotiate with the lowest responsive and responsible

107better and that's the question of the day there I understand that there was negotiations that's been taking place with Johnson locks for the past eight weeks and um we were not given that opportunity whatsoever we didn't even get a call back to try to negotiate this job if need be to get it within a budget um and we're we're local we're right around the corner we operate a business in District One and we're a woman on business been in business 35 years and we we would like the opportunity to have tried to negotiate with this project and um I just I don't understand the cancellation letter is it cancelled is it not cancelled I mean we're here today to y'all to award to Johnson lock so I don't understand um you want to add well

108yeah we we don't feel like this has been fair and um we we would you know we've done a lot of good work for this district and um we would like to be everybody to be held to the same standards uh we looked over the schedule of values with uh Johnson locks and um they weren't held to the same standards as our price they no punitive damages at all we were held to 1,000 a day so I mean it's not the same there's also you know other allowances they had where we were required to give a lum some contract the uh and the bid tab our bid tabs were publ size where they could price this out and use our prices that we gave at bedtime which was unfair the uh their proposal date was

109dated before the uh cancellation letter that we received so it's like the front door and the back door was open you know coming in and out we it's just they were getting prices without us having the same opportunity we are ready and willing and able to do this project we have a proven TR uh track record the start date is 20 days from now it's the 28th and then the completion date is eight weeks after that and we've completed every summer projects just like the same magnitude 1.2 million and we're ready to go we're local we're right around the corner we're not a huge contractor but we put our our love in the project yeah and we I don't know we urge you to vote no our this proposal our bid is for reconsider 120

110days from from the DAT of bid I have to hold withhold that uh price for 120 days with a 5% bid Bond and um so my price is good um or we can negotiate um we're just ready to do the project and it's it's got our name all over it it's just not it's just not fair we we went to the bid we produced a bid we went to the pre-bid and this other company could have bid it at bid time but chose not to so that's where we are on it we're ready we just wanted the opportunity to sit down with you guys and let you know how we feel okay thank you very much thank you thank you any other discussion yes Miss Kowski I would like some clar ification from staff understand

111that we had two biders the one withdrew and it's my understanding that we did not go back to potentially negotiate on the bid received from our construction is that I understand the sensitivity of the time but I I would like some clarification on whether or not we did that and if not or if there was other concerns with the proposal um no having uh two bids and then having the low bidder asked to be excused because he did make a material error left us with I'm sorry can you repeat that Mr Huna I'm sorry um having two bids and then having the low bidder asked to be excused because he made a material error in his bid that left us with one bid and we just did not feel that that bid was in the

112best interest to move forward so what you would do then is cancel and put the project back out forbid we've done that a number of times but due to the tightness of the schedule that we had with this project we looked at alternate methods that could be used and so that is how we came up with a proposal that we had based on the state contract and I just like to also mention that all of this was done under the guidance of of a legal councel miss all uh I would hope that we could maybe table this or if if there's no time left then um because uh Mr Hing their their situation seems to be that they were not fully kept in in contact with even though they called and and emailed and that

113kind of thing about what was going on what decision was um in play would you agree to that well there's once the bid is is uh is is made and and we have it you know it's it's not our policy to be negotiating and to uh you know look at like how it's a lumpsum bid um are you going to lower your number well then why didn't you lower your number when you bid it uh so no the bid is on the table uh we look at the bid we look at the circumstances we look at our particular schedule and things and again it was just in the best interest in this particular bid to go forward with the process that we did Mr casm all right we just awarded a contract where there was

114one bidder um so you've identified I mean you said it's you didn't think it was in the best interest of the district um so we went to the state contract um was it price was it proposed timeline to complete the schedule um and and I don't I'm I don't want to second guess the decision I want to know the process was transparent and fair um and so if there was a difference between proposed timelines if we thought that the the the cost uh proposed by the bidder was too high okay those are I get those reasons but all I've heard is we didn't think it was in the best interest and there was you know the soulle bidder we just gave a contract to a project where there was a soulle bidder so helped me

115understand a little more and kind of provide me some assurances that the process was transparent and fair sure and in this particular case the uh second bidder was twice the low bidder like I said the low bidder had made a a material error but based upon our Architects estimate the second bidder still was substantially higher than what his estimate was in the case of the previous award that contract amount came in on the estimate and so that's why that was awarded and it wasn't pulled back at that particular time and did the bidder was there a difference in schedule proposed schedule to get the project done as well was that a concern or was it just basically it was way off what the architect estimated it it was the primary concern that drove it was

116the was the the cost okay and the decision to go to the state contract was because we need to get this work done by beginning of school and if we had rebid the entire project it would have been a 30 or 60 or 90day process correct if we would have rebid we would not have been able to get it awarded and get that work done this summer okay [Music] and I want to ask this question I don't know if if it can be answered because of the process but why did we go that route rather than negotiate with the bid the one bid uh it was it was just felt it would best it was at this point to go the other route than to look at any kind of a negotiation any other process

117because this was a uh hard bid yeah Mr Sunny do you have something you want to say I pass couple ofs go go to the mic please mik go to the mic please so I don't know if I should read this or not should can we make this Joe's going to do an open record request now know so we had two different project managers who worked with RL construction and they filled out they did they mentioned two projects one was a Coastal Middle School and the other one was the that building at the transportation so I'll read one comment from my unsatisfactory construction was not completed per contract schedule the second project said that in addition to quality issues there were other project was extended well beyond 30 days required to complete it those were

118the two reasons I selected not to give it to them um Dr bringman just I'm just doing math and thank you for coming and speaking thank you for doing construction please continue to bid on things because as we heard earlier there's too much work out there so thank you for opening up a dialogue and I feel like this is one of those like squeeze points of we needed something done quickly RFP takes a long time we can just hop on the state thing and it it and it's a quicker process which is unfortunate to some degree to to local um but it was a I'm doing math is a 28% difference between your initial bid and then the 951 that is in this bid for the state contract um because yours was at 1.28 is

119that yeah but it never chared it's a different scope of can can y'all tell us what the what changed in the scope just so we I just want to know the whole I would dispute that I I don't I don't agree that it was a different scope of work because the other contractor bid the plans and the specifications so it is the same scope as far as physically okay other contractor I John John Johnson I'm sorry Johnson so the new possibly voted on bid you're saying bid the same and is going to provide the exact same thing scul of work exactly okay with the same fixture same terazzo if we want terazzo yeah okay correct liqu liquidated yes go ahead go I I I hear the liquidated damages issue but liquidated damages are charged for

120not finishing the project on time and it's paid by the contractor so are you I mean I guess what I'm hearing is you built in you built in uh cost to pay liquidated because you couldn't you were anticipating not getting it done by by the date I mean I I don't understand the that distinction um okay they had 2500 we had 50,000 they negotiated that contract we did not negotiate at all we gave them the drawings and they sent us a proposal yeah their their proposal is extremely detailed they go through and with estimators estimate the work and they put together actually a the uh you know the scope each itemized and then they have a unit price amount and that unit price amount is a state contract amount so we could go down through

121our architect has gone down through and looked at all of the items his proposal is almost a half inch thick uh very very detailed breakdown with the state approved unit prices and that's the way they come up with with their pricing and their propos so okay any other discussion um any other discussion from the board thank you uh all in favor of giving the reate the resolution yes the resolution is uh uh let's see approve the contract for the is Hope K8 uh cgca modifications to John Johnson locks construction and the L sum of 82 all in favor okay all opposed two opposed abstaining to abstain passes thank you continue Mr Jackson yes sir okay the next item it's a budget transfer within fund 308 again for the alive hope K8 site for the relocation

122of the Coastal Georgia comprehensive Academy the capital projects Department request the following budget transfer within fund 308 for culture Georgia comprehensive Academy Wing modification construction work contingency Access Control Data C cabling and security cameras in the amount of 1,118 37 thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the budget transfer as noted I'll accept a motion moved and seconded uh any discussion yes Mr Kowski just real quickly because I've got a lot of feedback about water fountain from some constituents these are the ones that are the fountain in the No No we're we're in is Hope yeah not there yet sorry I'm just ready to get we're moving money okay sorry moving money sorry I'll save mine any any other discussion all in favor all right thank you very

123much now we're going to move to water thank you this is a districtwide filtered water fountain and bottle filler station wall panels replacement filters and installation which is a onetime purchase under Statewide contract SPD d001 to WW Granger the division of operation is requesting approval to purchase filtered water fountains and bottle filler stations wall panels replacement filters filters and installation of 50 districtwide districtwide site locations from the EST Georgia Statewide contract with WW Granger Statewide contracts are established by state purchasing through the department of administrative services for the benefit of government entities located throughout Georgia the funding source again is esa3 or the American recovery program funding in the amount of 2,242 26.72 thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the the purchase of 57 districtwide filter water

124fountains and bottle bottle filler stations replacement filters and installation at a estimated cost identified in the chart above for a total cost after Savings of 2,242 26.72 it's been moved moved and seconded uh discussion now now sorry I was just going there so these are the the ones that it's one unit it's a fountain and a filler all in one perfect thank you yes ma'am yes ma'am anyone else okay all in favor all right thank you very much and the last item is the from the Transportation Department to purchase typ a micr buses off of Statewide contract the Department of Transportation Department of Transportation is requesting board approval for the purchase of type a micro buses from the established Georgia Statewide contracts staff recommends approving the purchase of 10 type a micro buses to meet

125the district districts need to expand student transportation option the following buses have been identified for purchase the 10 buses from yansy Bus Sales and Service account line would be the ger fund within the transportation department thus be resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the purchase of 10 typ a micro buses from yansy Bus Sales and servicing service utilizing Statewide contract s swc 999999 SPD w2200 630- 001 as identified in the chart above at a total cost of 1,145 40 okay been moved and seconded any discussion uh all in favor thank you very much okay it is now time for us to hear from the public uh first we have Mr Harmon Chanel who was a student love seeing students here yeah that's right who by the way was Dr Watts's

126Anvil tutor the other day so yes sir um I have 12 copies of the first and second page of a policy um I was informed by an email to bring um materials which I would be speaking about so uh how would that be distributed um it's front and back just one page per person um um hi there so uh I've received a little bit of an introduction but my name is Harmon chanol and I'm a sophomore at the Savanah Arts Academy um I recently had a lengthy and informative discussion with a group of peers and Dr Watts um on a variety of topics and one that came up was grading and specifically we brought up a policy that governs how transfer credits from outside the district are handled which is what I wish to talk

127about today the gener the general consensus was that grading systems and standards vary so wildly between schools even within this District that it is very difficult for one school to weigh the grades of another now the specific policy I wish to discuss is ih-1 uh grading systems uh more specifically the section entitled conversion of transfer grades and letter grades to numerical grades for transfer students and you'll find it on page two it's front and back um now the current policy states that credits will be entered at the midpoint of a letter grade when a transfer school's transcript states only a letter so that's 95 for a 85 for B Etc now this is an incredibly arbitrary conversion and it is generally harmful in several ways uh now please allow me to give a personal anecdote

128as I explain why um I took a course over the summer at an accredited online school and this was due to uh sccpss summer program limitations and I was hoping to um knock out a math class so I could take more advanced math classes during the school year and I got my wish uh and I was able to enroll in an AP math class uh however I was informed by my school counselor that because the transcript from the transfer School states only in a it would have to be entered as an arbitrary midpoint on my transcript uh my original Hope was that this credit could be entered as simply credit or no grade or something to that effect as I sought neither an advantage nor disadvantage over my peers in terms of class Rank and

129GPA uh now based on my research of gdoe rules and please correct me if I'm mistaken um the state requires that transfer credits be issued but makes no mention of numerical grades uh one example of this gdoe policy uh 16-5-101 15 states uh local Boards of Education shall accept student course credits earned at an accredited school and leaves it at that the state policy leaves out how to convert grades and my assumption is that this was left open and intentionally for flexibility uh other academic institutions are known for accepting transfer credits but not grades especially within the university system of Georgia because they recognize that every school has a slightly different standard of grading and attempting to convert between such standards does far more harm than good uh especially in competitive environments such as San

130Arts where fractions of a point are vital the current policy places otherwise capable transfer students at an inherent disadvantage if their original School happens to favor a different grading system and I've spoken recently to uh several of these students uh at my school um while I know it seems like a relatively Petty concern I would like to remind the board that the number of students who transfer into the district each year is not insignificant and this policy may affect a large portion of the students including those from the 18 states that use a purely letter system um even when transferring grades from 100 point scale it is unwise to take into account student performance at a completely different environment because every state school and district has a different standard uh certain students can gain the

131system While others feel locked out of it uh to be clear the current policy does give some leeway to principles but based on my reading does not allow for complete exemption of credits from GPA now the easiest and most comprehensive solution is to enter transfer grades with a code of P that generally indicates a passing score with no letter or numerical grade attached this would allow credits to appear on transcripts without weighing grades by another school standards uh additionally no student would be able to to gain an unfair disadvantage or advantage over their peers uh please consider we working this section of iha-1 to better foster academic growth and competition for transfer students thank you thank you very much J Wow we get a Super's note on [Laughter] yesing is on my agenda to explore

132next school year Harmon can you please stay until the very end so I can chat with you yes oh make them yes okay um next is Miss uh Teresa Watson here she is not okay uh Peter robine good afternoon afternoon before I get start I want I say like to request that the board be courteous to the taxpayers don't make the general public wait till the end of the meeting I personally lose time out of work when I come to these meetings I worked a 10hour construction day yesterday in the heat so when I come here I lose money which I can barely afford thank you so our schools need to implement a freedom oriented curriculum we need to teach Freedom as a curriculum the curriculum needs to Encompass history Civics free market capitalism and

133it needs to acknowledge the presence of God In The Establishment and history of our country and when I say God I'm referring to to the one true God God in heaven his son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit this was the god of our founding fathers it was the god of Herod Tubman Herod Tubman was a devout Christian she never took credit for her amazing courage she never did that she gave all that glory to God that should be taught in school I recently passed a milestone I have now recited the entire Declaration of Independence out loud from memory over 2 200 times God is referenced four times in the Declaration of Independence in the third reference our founding fathers ask God for help to start this country and that goes

134we therefore the representatives of the United States of America in general Congress assembled appealing to the Supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions every Christian knows who the Supreme judge of the world is that needs to be taught in school Biblical scripture is written on the Liberty Bell what is that scripture Roger do you know anybody nobody knows isn't that funny on the Liberty Bell Biblical scripture it's Leviticus 2510 Proclaim Liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof that should be taught in school every student should know this so we need to read a new curriculum and this curriculum needs to be taught in schools to every child every student at every school every grade level and at every year I'm happy to come and help you design this curriculum

135we need to have benchmarks for every year and graduation needs to be merit-based no one should graduate high school without understanding our constitution I teach the Constitution at a local church every week thank you very very much that was three and a half minutes why am I being cut off when everyone else gets to speak longer anyway thank you for your time and I'm going to ask you for a phone call no one here is deter my phone calls Roger I've called you many times you never return my phone call Dr watch please return my phone call are we happy to come and talk to you and thank you thank you please give me a call we have an appointment and I will come talk to you I I would like to have equal time

136please the person before me spoke for 4 and a half minutes next we have uh Mrs Elise Rush [Music] hi good afternoon my name is Elise Rush um I'm the director of the studio Savannah and this is Trina Dunn She's the director of Gretchen Green School of Dance um we're local dance Educators in the community we serve a lot of the children here and we're mostly here to talk to you today about the facility request for the theaters in the public school um I'm not sure if you're aware but since it's the system has been more centralized it's become really non-accessible for people to rent out um we have utilized the theaters and the public school systems for many many years before it kind of got switched over like after Co um I know during

137Co it was kind of hands off but then then it came back and then everything's been renovated and there's it's beautiful and there's many you know beautiful theaters available in the city um and we'd love to you know bring that to the community and bring our students there and our families there and you know have some revenue for the school board like we want to we want to rent those from you and there's a lot of studios in town that also really feel the same we're all really struggling finding venues for our recital um that's our you know that's the focal point of our whole season is bringing all the families and the students together so they can have an end of the year show and the public school system really houses the majority of

138the venues in Savannah so without access to these theaters um we're all really kind of struggling to find a suitable place a lot of Studios have stopped even off offing end of the year shows so mainly I want to talk about yeah how it it's a centralized system so there's not really a direct contact at the school level to to you know make that make it happen so it's kind of like around we get you know put in circles and at the end of the day we're not ever ever really able to book it um so I don't know if there's a more direct way that we could kind of resolve the solution solu resolve the problem um because we're very flexible we would take any date that would be available we'll take a Wednesday

139night a Sunday after schools out of session you know we'll be very flexible okay um also I think some other concerns they had was um staffing issues to staff the events of outside rentals um we'd like to propose potentially Contracting out custodial Services um I know some other venues in town have it that way or security service is you can contract that out if um like I know Cultural Arts Center does that if we rent out them we have to get our own security system so whatever solution we could find to make those theaters that you guys just poured so much money into accessible to the community and get some return on your investment where we're we're represent like just a small percentage of the studios in town that would like to be a part

140of that thank you yeah thank you m right thank thank you thank you thank you thank you very much Mr Rick Rooney good afternoon president Moss board members yeah Dr Watts I was out of Town two days last week and missed two very important meetings going to have to stop traveling I guess the first was the accountability meeting held by Dr Hoskins Browns uh fortunately I was able to watch the video when I got back which was really good the discussion was about the updated strategic plan I was extremely impressed by the progress Dr was unor team have made on that uh the plan is coherent cross functional multi-dimensional has challenging goals that will be measured it's too bad the whole board wasn't there for that conversation I'd recommend those that you were not on

141the committee watch that video I'd also recommend that to the public as a whole the second meeting was the Community Partnership meeting hosted by Sherry Goldman and her team uh Mayor Johnson was in attendance as was Dr Watts this was not recorded but miss Goldman was kind enough to give George woods and I a run through on the presentation she made it was superb I would recommend you invite her to do that at an informal meeting sometime she provided a context for the literacy plan with data about the district about our literacy statistics the science of reading State legislation governing literacy most important was the literacy plan itself it is extremely well thought through I can't emphasize that enough covers all levels of the organization from the staff to principles School administrators teachers it encompasses

142the letters training that's underway the new curricula that's coming in uh this next year early intervention programs and more it's uh it's it's kind of a dream come true it's a coherent plan that will provide focus in the whole system the goal every child will learn to read it's going to take time but it will happen the results won't be overnight but it will happen that plan is going as it's executed will change our system I ask that the board communicate to your constituents that this is underway and that it's going to take time so people don't expect the world to turn over in one year or two years this is going to take time but it's going to happen so given that I was thinking back where we were a year ago I remember

143going to the 208 Bull Street standing outside as you announced the hiring of Dr Watts was just about this time last year Dr Watts had uh you've been here 10 year 10 months now you've accomplished a lot we're committed to the teaching based on the science of reading we're training 1500 teachers in letter letters we have a new curriculum coming in last year we had a literacy plan that was mediocre at best this year we have a literacy plan that's going to transform our teaching process so we're on the right Road Dr wats I want to congratulate you and your team for the enormous progress you've made in a very short time our children are going to be the beneficiaries of this work and so I thank you thank you thank you Mr rning all

144right next we have Mr Michael Harrell well it's an honor to be here I'm coming under my own steam uh because this topic the aces study which is adverse childhood experiences is something that's close to me and I'm not I don't have anybody behind me it's just one citizen talking to this to the borders how many of you know about the as of study and the trauma informed Society how do you how did you know about it because you called me and you told me about it thank you very much it was a great that really inspired me to come and talk to this to the board what this study is is about adverse childhood experiences and it was done by the CDC and um the kaisa per Permanente uh who are an insurance firm

145for they sell health insurance what they found out is what what it covers what the a study covers is physical sexual and verbal abuse physical and emotional neglect a family member who is depressed or diagnosed with another mental illness uh addicted to alcohol and other substances a person in prison and a witnessing a mother being abused and losing a parents separation from divorce and other things th this is um what the Ace of study covers and what they found and they did this in California and and Kaiser permanent is Big it was like a 177,000 people uh was in in their survey and they had the full medical history of them what they found was that 84 uh I'm sorry 64% of the adults that they they did in America have at least one a

146score and um and if you have one a score there's an 87% chance you'll have a as score you'll have more than one Asus score ASUS ASUS is just a test a 10 question test and whatever your score is on that test is what your score is now here's a here's some of the other results that that that it impacts and that is um this is from the national in 2015 National survey on drug use uh and health that's a the people who who track drug use in America it says that uh 91 million people take pain relievers 38 million take tranquilizers um 13 million take uh stimulants and set then and prescription sedatives so all these the the huge amount of people are taking drugs because the quality of life is not right they

147have psychosomatic diseases or maladies that are caused from these um adverse childhood experiences and then this brings into the quality of life which is ases is a number one factor for uh prison inmates the number one factor for obesity and eating disorders the number one factor for mental and health issues the number one factor for homelessness and so on there's a whole bunch of them PTSD and all that and here's one of the things that was really ground shaking really kind of rattled your bones when you when the CDC this is from the cdc's website they talk about how Asus is is the increases the risk or there's the factor for uh chronic illness and prior and and prior physical health these are the diseases that are associated with adverse childhood experiences sir you run

148out of time okay thank you you but you can leave that with us no this is just my notes but I want to I'd like to do is propose that more information uh be gathered by the board on this topic um and thank you very much thank you very much all right anyone have any new business for the board that not being the case I'll accept a motion to adjourn moved and seconded all in favor I we will see some of you at 6 o' for the budget hearing