001good afternoon and welcome to the regular meeting of the Savannah Chatham County Board of Education being held today Wednesday May 10 2012 . it's our pleasure to welcome those who are present with us here today and those who are watching online we remind you that as the courtesy of this meeting is being streamed live it can be viewed by visiting www.secpss.com has been advertised in accordance with the requirements of the law and she assures me that it has uh if you'll announce stand with me as we welcome our special guests who are here today to sing the national anthem will remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance Mr board president I have received honor to introduce the singer of today's national anthem Miss uh Kimberly akima could be here today so I have the honor
002of welcoming Miss omariona Grant who is going to sing the national anthem she's an active member of the advanced chorus in musical theater programs at Beach High School Roblox not only active in the Arts but also in sports and other programs as well so that's now of course that you will remain standing for the performance of our national anthem followed by the Pledge of Allegiance ladies and gentlemen a Mariana Grant [Music] Delight what's so proudly we out at the Twilight less gleaming whose bought stripes and bright stars [Music] please streaming [Music] singing again [Music] for the land and the fruit [Applause] [Music] [Applause] of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the Lord foreign [Applause] [Laughter] report a second being moved and seconded all in favor hi thank you very much our announcements uh we have this
003is very important we have a public hearing a board public hearing on the budget Wednesday May 17th here in the Whitney complex at 6 00 PM again aboard public hearing on the budget Wednesday May 17th hear the Whitney building at 6 00 pm and now from yes so um we sadly have to announce the following death um Cordy Wright um academic Affairs date of death April 28th Dandy Taylor sped transition specialist from Savannah High date of death April 15th Stacy Bragg mathematics from Islands High School date of death April 22nd it will all stand for a moment of silence good afternoon uh president of the Board of Education and um our colleagues are with us today it is my pleasure to provide the superintendent's report which will include uh two proclamations and I will call
004on members of the team 10 to make those uh presentations we will start with uh teacher appreciation week we have already started that celebration we started actually last week with recognizing our principles and this week we have the opportunity to recognize our teachers and our nurses my colleague here um Mr Smith who is representing District Five representative [Laughter] I will read our Proclamation for national teacher appreciation week thank you to recognize the valuable contributions of our teachers the Board of Education would like to officially recognize teacher appreciation week that was designated nationally from May 8th through May 12th of 2023. thus be it resolved that the following Proclamation be adopted whereas Savannah Chatham County Public School teachers make school great and whereas teachers work to open minds to new ideas knowledge and dreams and whereas
005teachers keep American democracy Alive by laying the foundation for good citizenship and whereas teachers fill many roles as listeners explorers role models and motivators and mentors whereas the teachers leave a lasting influence on us long after our school days are only memories now therefore be it resolved that we recognize the week of May 8th through the 12th of 2023 as a national teacher appreciation week to celebrate the significant contributions our teachers make for our students and this wonderful community and that all citizens take time throughout the month of May so thank teachers adopted this 10th day of May 2023 it is signed by Mr Roger Moss board president as well as Dr Anne Labette superintendent thank you very much I'll have someone second that motion and all in favor aye we invite Mrs Whalen to
006come through and represent the teachers that we love so much [Applause] thank you so much thank you again Mr Smith and thank you Mrs Willow for representing the best of the best we appreciate your presence and valuable contributions that you and your colleagues make to our students every day we will now have our resolution uh Proclamation for nurses uh being read by our own Dr Bergman physical therapist we enjoyed our nurses this morning had a wonderful um reception for them thank you for being here to celebrate with us as a healthcare provider but also a board member to represent our School nurses School nurses are considered an integral part of the education process contributing to the well-being of every child to ensure all students achieve success in school we offer gratitude for School nurses not
007just on this national school nurse day but in every opportunity throughout the year the following Proclamation be adopted whereas All Families deserve to feel confident that their children will be cared for when they are at school and whereas all students have a right to have their physical and mental health needs safely met while in the school setting and whereas students today face more complex and life-threatening health problems requiring care in school and whereas School nurses have served a critical role in improving public health and ensuring students academic success for more than 120 years and whereas School nurses are professional nurses that Advance the well-being and lifelong achievements of all students by serving on the front lines and providing a critical safety net for our nation's most fragile children and whereas School nurses act as a
008liaison to the school Community families and health care providers on behalf of children by promoting wellness and improving Health outcomes and whereas School nurses are members of school-based teams providing care coordination to address the school population and whereas School nurses understand the link between health and learning and RNA position to make a positive difference for children every day now therefore be resolved that we along with the National Association of School nurses celebrate and acknowledge the accomplishments of School nurses everywhere and their efforts to meet the needs of today's students by providing and advocating for quality student-centered care and that we offer gratitude for School nurses not just on this national school nurse day but in every opportunity throughout the year signed for president Mr Roger moss and superintendent Dr am M and LaVette all in
009favor I we are very proud to welcome our uh lead nurse nurse Wilson the class of nurses and we're going to ask our very own instructional support person of the year nurse hours to join them as they come through the horseshoe foreign [Applause] um again a big congratulations and thank you to all of our School nurses and I am always delighted to welcome them to our meetings and to remind them of how important they are to ensuring the health and well-being of all of our students and our staff and in most businesses our families so thank you very much for being here today I'm delighted to continue the report by sharing and introducing uh you to our student of the month our student of the month is a 10th grade student at Savannah Chatham Early
010Learning Academy she's an honors student she has perfect attendance for the 22-23 school year and she promises she'll be here for the next few days for extracurricular activities he's a member of the student council and the swim team at Savannah quarters Principal Brown Hall tells us that our scholar has a positive spirit and seeks to uplift both her peers and others around her she participated in the distribution of supplies at the greed and treat how to beat high school and she makes earnings to raise money for Haiti she also created Sea Dragon earrings specifically we're all looking for our peers our student of the month loves writing has won several writing contests to include the Veterans Affairs um essay contest twice the Tybee writing contest the Arbor Day writing contest and the Black History Month
011poetry contest hosted by the Savannah Morning News she volunteers with Savannah Baptist center youth group and she plays piano at the church at Godley Station additionally she received the Sandy Hook promise award and she has taken sign language classes with Oklahoma School for the Deaf her nominator said this young lady is a leader and a giver and that is why she deserves to be recognized as a Guiding Light in the ocean of sea dragons our student of the month will be taking home multiple gifts courtesy of our community business partners um our student of the month will receive a gift card from Members First Federal Credit Union and the Corn Law Firm she'll also receive a meal voucher and merchandise from Chicken Salad Chick and I will tell you that I will ask her to
012share that with me [Music] sweet treats he and students of her English language arts class will receive printed copies of her favorite book Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen sellers lastly she will take home a portrait by upscale photography that is provided by Savannah Chatham County Public Schools I am proud to introduce you to our student of the month for April Ms Isabella Evans [Applause] thank you thank you [Music] [Applause] Isabella is planning to attend Mercy University to major in music or Human Services congratulations your family stand up so that we can thank them foreign [Applause] thank you for joining us today we hope you enjoy all of your wonderful gifts that you'll have a great summer and we're looking forward to learning more about your academic Adventures [Applause] we have several other good items
013to share with you this afternoon we are so excited that it's May and every student that I've met in the last two weeks has been able to tell me exactly how many days are left in the school year um so we're going to start with a big congratulations to Moses Alexander McNeil our behavior intervention specialist at Hubert middle school he was named the 2024 instructional support person of the year at the annual banquet which is held on Tuesday April 25th year we are one of the few districts that recognizes support staff and this year as we have in previous years among those honored were nurses school resource officers paraprofessionals custodians cafeteria workers media clerks counselor clerks and secretaries each School chooses a site-based representative who then competes to be named The District's instructional supporters of
014the Year Mr McNeil will join the superintendent's professional Senate in school year 23-24 and he will be sitting over the space where Miss Towers is sitting at the moment we are excited and thank you all who are able to join us that evening to celebrate in that event the annual superintendent's cop competition a competition amongst all the JROTC units in Savannah County Public Schools was held Saturday April 15th the competitive event includes Squadron Color Guard Cadet physical fitness challenge academic testing Marksmanship and a basketball tournament Jenkins High School team prevailed for the second consecutive year and was named the winner of the 2022-23 superintendents cup we wish to congratulate all of our teams and it was Mr Moss's first all unit competition and he was blown away he did not leave he was there the
015entire day uh it is such an appalling such a thrilling opportunity to see our students the best of the best in competition that also means that Jenkins team will likely perform again at the convocation for this year STEM Academy at Bartlett seventh grader Caleb Williams is the FBLA future business of America level champion in the video game challenge competition he is now moving on to Nationals and we will be joining the upcoming FBLA National leadership conference we're very proud of this journey and this achievement the annual books blankets and family fun event was a huge success as one of the district's Signature Events thousands thousands of parents business partners and community members came out to celebrate literacy and reading celebrity readers from all over the county came to share their love of reading thank you
016to everyone who make who made the event a huge success thank you to those of you who were able to spend part of your Saturday with us on that day County Public Schools is the proud recipient of an outstanding project award for Herschel V Jenkins High School from learning by Design magazine the project consisted of the design and construction of the new high school to replace the existing one uh school that was located that is located on a 40 Acre Site special thanks to our valued Partners at the peer mediation Center in support of our peer mediators and restorative Youth Court volunteers during their youth Awards and recognition celebration our schools and students were honored for their work and received Peacemaker medallions congratulations to Jacob's high school and Garrison K-8 for their school level Awards
017and to all of our recipients who are honored for their contributions to this very important partnership please know that we celebrated Mayday in Calhoun Square on May 5th thanks to Massey School staff friends of Massey Wesley Church Elementary and K-8 Schools board members families and all of those visitors even around the square participated in our annual Declaration of spring theater if you have not yet had that experience we invite you to come and see joy and learning in motion it is the concert where every little kindergartner first and second grader enjoys the music and they are dancing from the time they get there and singing until the time they leave who is the Thanksgiving music festival for us continued uh support of the musical explorers concerts Mercy Tamika Williams is this year's Junior Achievement Colonial
018group Discovery Center top educator for junior achievements Finance Park Mrs Williams will be highlighted on the Junior Achievement Finance Park social media and has been invited to be their guest of honor as a teacher appreciation of Celebration tomorrow at the center congratulations to Ms Williams the Savannah College of Art and Design unveiled the most recent paint our Parks art initiative at Hodge Elementary the initiative was envisioned by scat president Paula Wallace and focuses on serving the citizens of Savannah and Atlanta through scad's Supreme mentality network of students and alumni more than 100 scared served students faculty and staff volunteered we wish to thank our Hodge elementary students who served as models for this great work on their campus and wish to thank our friends and partners at scad for their continued support we invite you
019to go over to the Hodge campus and view that beautiful work that was done by the scad faculty and volunteers congratulations to teacher Specialists for K-5 social studies Tamika Courtney McClinton Ms McClendon has been selected as one of only 30 Educators Nationwide to participate in the 2023 White House history teacher Institute we're very excited for her participation in that took first place at the Excel South Georgia welding competition on April 20th Tanner is an intern at JCB and a senior in the workplace learning program at Woodville Tompkins we're very excited for what he's been able to do and we think he will join those other graduates of the welding program at Woodville who are now also employed at JCB and have moved to the level of Masterwork we expect the same thing for him 35
020elementary students from Garrison K-8 Hodge Elementary Jacob D Smith and New Hampshire were among more than 300 Georgia students who participated in the sixth annual Georgia College primary and Elementary division science and engineering fair in Milledgeville Georgia on March 9th for students across the state in grades K-5 21 of those 35 secpss students placed either first second or third at the state level in the state competition the American college application campaign recognized Johnson High School as a 2022 School of Excellence for increasing the number of first generation students pursuing higher education Johnson is one of the 23 students in the nation and the only state in Georgia to be recognized with this exemplary award please join me also in congratulating with Bill Tompkins seniors Jordan Haskell and Micaiah West who were named as a 2023
021Gates Millennium Scholars gay Scholars receive funding for the full cost of their undergraduate tuition only 300 students are selected each year well done and it is a repeat for the Woodville Nation they have repeatedly and we are very happy to acknowledge Jordan and Makai today Mercer Middle School is the winner of the Georgia Council on economic Education Spring 2023 stock market game for our congressional district Mercer seventh grade team consisting Scholars Allison Suarez Hernandez Emma Ramirez Ramirez and William Perez Serrato achieved the highest portfolio Equity of all middle schools competing from their initial investment amount of one hundred thousand dollars their portfolio gained a positive return of 7.5 above S P 500 growth these calls will be recognized at an award luncheon in Atlanta and I would suggest I would suggest that we consider adding
022them to the budget committee uh finally thanks to educate Chatham foundation for its support of our celebrations and recognitions of our nurses today and our social workers last month we look forward to their continued support as they will also sponsor our inspirational educator awards that we uh conduct or we present annually during our high school graduations there is so much more to report um I will ask now that our uh professional Senate report be presented to you in summary by Mrs Whalen and nurse um stars our final superintendent April 18th with our annual q a session with board members um thank you to the four board members who are able to attend this Cornelia Hall Miss Denise Grabowski Mr David bringman and Roger Moss thank you for attending we did have discussions surrounding a budget
023and how that impacts employee raises we did receive an update on the superintendent search and discussion was held around ways that we can improve handling behavioral issues in the classroom for those unable to attend you all missed a Priceless moment a surprise for Dr LaVette party [Music] appreciate them and we thank you for your service as well they have tackled some pretty um intense topics this year a lot of attention given to teacher burnout giving us really solid um feedback on how we can reduce stress and reduce burnout and the conditions that we need to consider for even planning our Wellness days they gave input on our calendar for the next few years so if you have concerns they certainly gave us lots of feedback on calendar and just a number of issues we appreciate
024the additional time that you gave to organizing those meetings receiving feedback during the meeting and organizing them in a way that allowed the district to benefit from your wisdom so thank you for your service and we are looking forward to not only continuing to hear from you but also to benefit from the voices that you represent straight so thank you so much for your service we appreciate you thank you I just wanted to again thank both of you and the teachers Senate and staff senate for inviting us um yes it was a great meeting I'm sorry the Q a got cut a little short by what one can only you the words don't we should actually have that video of that because words are not explaining the hilarity that ensued and the the biggest surprise
025I think of Dr lavette's tenure um how how the district pulled it off and the teachers and the staff pulled this off with a marching band being hidden long enough to March into the surprise um if we could have a blow up of the picture of Dr Levin's face when she first figured out that things were happening and then inviting a good 20 Past teachers and support people uh to come and share their thanks um really again uh I stated that there was a great kickoff during you know a re-emphasis of I think the board members were there of us understanding what the teachers and the staff are looking for and I know it helped me and I believe it really helped the whole entire board um design our leadership profile if we could put
026that type of energy into written words and I really think that that we did that and that's what we're looking for um so again thank you for allowing us to be there and and celebrate with you um because it really does again get it back to the this is for the teachers this is for the students this is for the public um so thank you again for allowing us to kind of take over because there were a bunch of other questions [Music] thank you thank you all very much just gotten into her um [Music] so were you there yeah okay so everybody who she's ever surprised you all got her back yeah I will add I mean we I don't know how we kept that a secret everybody [Laughter] I appreciate this show of love
027and I think it also just reminded us of how important it is to have positive relationships and to recognize the value of each person brings to the table when we do the work together we respect each other and respect what is required in order to help our children be successful so I thank you um I do usually know everything that's going on I did not know that all right board matters thank you sir moving along on the agenda we have item 6.01 under board matters if you policy reviews here in this section of today's agenda this is a four-year review it's policy IBB which is charter schools and particularly interesting in this particular code section uh one that we started when we got into the review was really that we recognize that as state law
028has very clear requirements on the duties of the Board of Education as an authorizer for its charter schools that operate within the Lea there is a component in there that speaks to the board having a vision of chartering and that is really where we stop started in the review of this particular policy and it led into a lot of cleanup language and some components of the policy side were better set in the regulation side and we embodied some aspirational and Visionary chartering type languages for the boards review so so this is a first reader under the four-year process policy IBB any questions comments okay hearing on moving on in your agenda we do have the item 6.03 which is board policy g d b a this is paraprofessional qualifications and duties again this is a
029four-year review first reader mostly clean up language here as we went through this we realized that there was some clarification type language especially with the positions that are noted in here to make sure that it aligns with Federal definitions of paraprofessionals and also just some cleaner language on current uh references and terminologies that we use such as what you see in the changes between a certification or license uh so those have been cleaned up to uh mirror where we are currently but primarily we saw a requirement to give the language in line with the titles as what's defined in a federal language so this is a first reader on this again for your review subject to the boards our review and feedback we'll bring it back for a second adoption and an export meeting thank
030you questions thank you sir moving on to again this is a four-year review first reader um well actually let me clarify that in a in a sense we don't really have any policy modifications here so we do subject to if there are any further changes by the board uh we will ask that the board do a test that we've completed the four-year policy review however there were some modifications on the regulation side and again this is under the professional personal Personnel assignment and we did have some areas in here to clean up some language for current terminology current titles as well uh to be very clear in the current state of how we're operating so you see that fairly minimal changes but again all regulation side so with the board's review of this regulation if
031there are no further changes on the policy side we would like to confirm this one as officially reviewed under the four-year process uh doctor thank you um I just caught this in a second read under the regulation transfer voluntary we still are calling it a chief officer at the end of that second paragraph rather than a deputies I don't know if that needs to be changed or not um because we've eliminated a chief academic officer in other places I don't know that title yeah I appreciate that eyeglass um the it's really kind of it's General reference to the appropriate chief officer uh there's a feeling that we need to be very specific on that we can look at that component but you may have a review that is done by the deputy superintendent of teaching
032and learning along with the chief officer of Human Resources so we currently left that alone that makes sense um and then just because I've had some teachers asked me about the like trying to transfer during um the school year is there a outside of this regulation somewhere where there is how this works how this looks or is it uh more of an open process no if you look at the um it it goes further to describe if there's a problem but it just initially says transferred during the course of the school year will be handled through the normal advertising application an interview process stop Okay so does the approval from the like so say I'm a teacher I see a posting mid-year School B yeah am I allowed just to apply or do I need
033to get permission to apply uh when does that when is the approval need to happen the approval need to happen after I've been granted the the position foreign subjects you no further comments thank you very much accept the motion to approve our consent agenda I move that we approve our consent agenda um any discussion yeah all in favor all opposed all it's saying none of us okay um yes hello we're ready to move on in the agenda consent is now fully adopted moving on to the next goal section for a presentation that we have developed for the for the board this is a particular presentation that has a cross-functional component to it and two goal set owners we do have as a part of a district accountability system the metric under goal 2 which does
034track business Partnerships and the way that we engage with the community at large now one of the things we seek to do in our Partnerships of course is to properly align them in ways that support student achievement which has the cross-functional component under goal one obviously with uh student achievement so if you have a couple individuals here today that will be providing you updates on the work that we do in these components for our our goals of the Board of Education and of course is the administration I will note that on the screen you'll see that of course goal one for Student Success and academic achievement there is a component in there that talks about increasing the number of sustainable Pathways for careers jobs and of course entrepreneurship opportunities for youth take that a step
035further and you'll see cross-pollination which I think in many ways in the board had agreed and many of us when we were development development of the way forward strategic plan that having some cross-functional components was a good thing you see that obviously under gold too uh which is really the nature of why we're reporting today for the Board of Education you'll see that the Partnerships are really focused on compliant combining on the job work-based learning and training skills that are aligned to instruction in the classroom so there you have it with the cross-functional component something that we wanted to do today to further illustrate the benefit of Partnerships across our community and it's something that you've heard the Board of Education really talking about for years I can remember a board retreat many many years
036ago when the board used to go to Jekyll Island and we talked about a little thing called wrap around services and at that time some of the work that we were doing in the district was evolving and we were really digging some ground on that term fast forward to where we are today very proud that we have made amazing steps forward in wraparound Services we're able to provide our children and this really goes to highlighting the strength of our school district and understanding the whole child and a need to be able to speak to social emotional learning and well-being obviously the impacts of covid coming out of covid and Hyper accelerated that to a great extent but it really crystallized the strength of a lot of our Partnerships that we have and I'd be remiss
037if I didn't say uh some of the work that we've done has been applauded nationally and we've gotten attention from National associations in fact we just had the School Association of superintendents in town last week part of the reason they wanted to come to Savannah Chatham county is because their cohort was talking about social emotional learning and well-being and he wanted to hear about some of our Partnerships and the initiatives that we were doing to support the whole child so you hear a little bit about that component as well as we again look to expand and talk about the benefit of Partnerships of course in these components that we have under the Strategic plan the specific objectives that do uh indicate the rationale and why we're here today to talk and update the board on
038these particular goal areas now you'll see objectives that say increasing in promoting the number of work-life experiences and creative opportunities for students then of course on our goal two same thing increasing and supporting opportunities for stakeholder engagement so that really sets the tone for much of what we're going going to talk about here in the next few slides for you do have our colleagues with me today who will be walking you through today's presentation of course Dr Angie Lewis our executive director of The Office of College and Career Readiness we'll speak to you about things like career clusters Pathways industry certifications and other strategic components that we have as we engage with the business partners our Economic Development liaison Mr Clyde Newton will be here to talk to you about how he works hand in
039hand to develop these Partnerships and really even from a Global Perspective from a district work that we do that is beyond the realm of working directly under the office of College and Career Readiness strategies that we have but when we get an ask from a new business partner how do you manage them from whether it's a site-based component with a school or a district level initiative and then of course we're hearing from our director of School counseling Ms Kimberly McGuire to talk to you about father's Partnerships under the very important social emotional learning component so that'll now turn the presentation over to Dr Angie Lewis good afternoon again um as you all know we um according to the slides we have 17 clusters um in Chatham County and we're fortunate to have all 17 and
040many of you may be familiar with the 16 classes in the state of Georgia adopted another one in this um energy and Chatham County has an energy program here as well in addition to that we have over 150 150 career clusters now of the 150 there are four 40 45 non-duplicated and that means that those um Pathways that are non-duclear are only at one um School in the district and then we also have nine industry certified schools uh high schools that means that there are programs in our school that are industry certified through the state of Georgia that means that we have a sample of Excellence on our programs that we work with business partners and we train our students as we would with um industry and Industry guidelines I am happy to report the
041number on um that I'm I'm about to quote right now change just a little bit as of yesterday um afternoon we had over 2 334 students um credentialed and um um assessment and they uh completed the emergency um the EMR uh program as well to test the assessment and those students pass those numbers are not included in this precipitation we got these scores um last night so we're very proud of those students [Applause] right now we have about 918 students that participated in work-based learning our business partners have been very helpful and very strategic and helping us hire our students and train our students and I do want to say one thing uh Dr Lavette mentioned Tanner yeah um earlier antenna is now working at JCB and he competed through JCB with the school district
042and he did an excellent job and the one thing uh his instructor with Wilbur wanted me to know he competed against college students and did well he was um number one in the um in this area so and we're very proud of that also um when we are speaking of dual enrollment our students are doing extremely well and doing enrollment courses we have over 965 students Explorer post is another program that we have uh we um do it and as with in conjunction with the Boy Scouts of America and those students learn about medical engineering Public Safety as well as well-being uh we have a Explorer post program at Beach High School and medical program as well as and as well with uh Woodville Tompkins those students that go through that year process they get
043to work with doctors work with lawyers work with Engineers they get to see what they're doing they have Hands-On and I had the privilege of attending the graduation last week and all students did very well no students those are students that want to go on to be to continue in the medical profession right now we have about 235 students that are uh participating in internships the internships can be paid most of them are paid we try to get them paid because we want business partners to understand that when students are being paid they learn how to manage their money but also um young people now always say I know my value [Laughter] as well um also under the um industry credentials what they call it now at the state level is the credential value we're
044continued to work on those numbers and getting those kids acclimated through that program so they're getting the certification but they also those are the students that's also participating in um dual enrollment those are also the students that have um are working now in a field that matches their pathway so we're doing extremely well with that yes yes we um we talk a lot about industry certification without really a clear explanation of what industry certification is can you um share what industry certification is why is that important what does that mean um in terms of the student going through a program with me for the program what does it mean for the students to earn the certification from that industry all right so the two types of Industry certification is certification of the actual program that
045means that the state comes in there's a there's a two-year process with a three-year process that each pathway would have to go through and so business and industry come in we have our um Advisory Board they come in they see what um we are teaching they work with the students they work with the teachers they're making sure that the pro what the kids are learning in the classroom matches industry so that is that is through certification and that particular certification follows the program not the teacher not the student but the school and the program so if a teacher in this industry Works to get a program industry certify and then leave retires or transfer that certification stays with the school and they they stop that process over again but it's still certified because you know
046we get certified every five years then it's also the credential of value and the certification of the students so every year when the students enroll in a path when you complete the third class they have to be enrolled in the third class and they have to be passing those students take up an assessment that assessment may be unwielding Healthcare science just like I said earlier phlebotomy those students receive their certification and it's not teacher written exams those are the National exams and we have the receipts to prove it because they're not cheap we write a grant every year to help the cost of the exams those exams are the same exams that you would take if you um were going to get into a particular area and what that shows uh industry is that we're
047training the students to actually come and work and be prepared for the future so those students that complete that certification that is their certification um to use uh we have students that's working presently at um St Joe's town uh courtesy Cooper uh we have a child that was hired at Memorial Hospital once the and and they're they're in demand they're in demand as soon as we get them certified we have um organizations and companies trying to hire them um offering them opportunities to stay here in Savannah that's what we want to do we want to grow our own and um give these kids opportunities so they'll stay here in Savannah and go to school here and work here is when they decide that they want to invest in what you're doing [Music] and we already
048have the money the checks have been deposited they are investing this in us and our students so that we can uh support their aviation maintenance they're investing today so that they will realize a benefit in the future and one more along with business partner Investments Authority thousand dollar investment in scholarships that were 20 months ago wearing puffs we have a Early Learning Center at forming where Jordan realized the importance of nurturing developing a child from early ages so they invested 200 000 for a plate a soft Place area inside of the gym for me so we are really connecting with our business partner we are proud of these achievements that we have um on the topic of market knowledge how are we getting information about what's going on in our community a couple things I
049want to touch base on uh I'll start first with connection to careers we have a connection to careers video series where we have engaged our local business and industry partners and we've interviewed them right here in horseshoe with uh our colleague Michelle Bongo to interview them to find out what it is they offer in a way of jobs uh salaries benefits so that our students may have this information and if the students or the parents want to learn a little more about this business they could just put up our website and click on the video and become abreast of what's going on as far as these dozen companies that we have and we're going to grow that bigger series even more um economic development for educators course uh almost four years of adoptable vet we
050created the economic development for educators course along with our partners at Ceta they do data analysis and they watched what's coming to our area and they know companies are expanding what companies will want to locate here and uh they provide us full-time information about that they provide over a six-month period where we go to their facility and they educate us on economic development and then we also have pailed discussions with local business and industry employers and uh it's been a good class in fact we've got some of our administrators who are alone now that class and uh we'll have several more that are trying to get in to the class but it really gives an opportunity for us to find out from the people that determine uh how our our city and our region is
051going to grow economically and how and what our role as educators are in that process and uh some of the uh the the the the takeaways and why this course was uh created because we wanted to strengthen and grow the relationships between our school district and local employers uh with the goal of opening lines of communication and laying groundwork for Meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships is also the opportunity for lesser-known companies to be showcased and for us to get an understanding of who they are and what they do there are a lot of good organizations good companies do not well known because they're small and as well no small business fuels the economy in our country another reason why this course was created was to provide expert experiential learning that allows Educators to better understand
052their role in Economic Development and opportunities available for students who work for local employers and we also want to improve the local Workforce pipeline by ensuring that those who have direct access to the students principals teachers and counselors understand the needs of employers and opportunities available for students before and after graduation there's a couple of items along this line uh we try to focus on where the opportunities are through activities that we have like the kids bids uh career fair and that's where we bring in all of our third and fifth graders to one area had been to them all but we had to change and uh I don't know where Dr Lewis is going to put it next year but uh it takes a lot of patience and planning to bring in all your
053third and fifth graders to educate them about careers in the future we also uh have uh two job fairs for our softball Jews and seniors who are thinking about employment right after high school we have at least 50 or 60 employees that are present that will come and interview our kids that I have to admit a lot of them come Dress for Success here very impressive and I think they they get they get social report was required to move on Beyond High School program uh one thing that's been lacking in part of what we do is is increasing awareness a lot of folks when they come and visit by tour and and other means they say I didn't know you had that one of the things we've done is we have a business and industry
054tour where we invite members from the business community and Industry to take a tour of our facilities particularly at CTE facilities because once they see what we have invested in these programs they feel inclined to want to try to get some of the Town pool that's coming through these programs again question yes this morning at our budget workshop and our informal session we've been talking about Partnerships and we need about eight good partners ready to fund um our Pre-K classrooms at about 200 000 per year so if we could please give you that challenge how many were there 268 children who want to be in pre-k who can't right now because we don't have the funding for them so of course they're growing every day so the sooner the better so we'll give you that
055challenge here we're willing to help you I mean everybody I see who I think might have two hundred thousand dollars for a year now that's per year we took what three years but um we have a lot of contractors who make a lot of money through this school district so that might be a place you know for us to start anyone else in continuation speaking of some of our notable uh Partnerships as I was I'm talking earlier about Beach High School and the phlebotomy uh program and so they have the community clinic where they see not only the community but also um they have a relationship with the police department and us and uh the fire department where they come in and hand the violence extremely I had mine done and the students are very
056professional and um I got my little information in the mail because I was thinking when I say camera writing me um but they sent me my information but not only did they send it to me but they forwarded it to my doctor because my doctor said so it is a um excellent program this is um cheap short but great plug if you want to get to biometric experience um we also have um a partnership with golf student and um class they earlier they gave us so I have an emails to start this program this program has been um in effect for the last past um four years I am happy to say that we had our first um graduating class this year and um we have a signing uh signing event that will happen on
057March April on me I'm sorry me 17. so if you don't have anything to do about 11 o'clock um May 17th at my building they'll we'll have four students um they have completed the program and decided to go on to work at Gulfstream as opposed to um I'm doing other things we have four students we have two students that earn their aircraft Tech assembly technician and the avionics and solar certificate we had um and we have females that also earned the avionics installment certificate and we have another student that earned both the aircraft assembly technician and to be honest I'm a certificates in those students have decided to take a position on what Gulfstream and so we're doing the signing on my building I think that's great and I want to Applause [Applause] because those
058students were also enrolled in dual enrollment at the same time also with Georgia Power as um Mr Newton was speaking what we did we received a grant and it's the equity through education grant and one of the things that we wanted to do is serve the whole child and many times you have kids who parents work two and three jobs in order to make ends meet so what we wanted to do was offer them an opportunity to receive additional training and training that they will receive at the same training that their their kids received in high school so they'll understand what the kids are learning but also to give them opportunity to learn a new skill and apply for um jobs so we started the upscaling and reskilling program we call leap at least stands
059for leading leaning by oh yeah that's right leaning by empowering and advancing parents and we started out the first class we had about 75 um parents and Community uh members to sign up for and they took the classes for four weeks we had a graduation it was really a wonderful time and so um one of the things that the answer is to do it again because we were going to wait and start it at the beginning of the school year but because of the man was so great and we didn't have additional funding to do it we decided to hold another session in this session we have about 97 parents that have applied for it and some of the classes that they're taking this welding and they'll get OSHA certified Carpenter and electrical CDL training
060basic computers we also have an English to Spanish and Spanish to English class that's our biggest class I think they have we have to split the class um because we tried to keep between 15 to 20 people um so we had to split that class that's a huge class and it's a very successful class so we have those um particular Partnerships going on we are very grateful to Gulfstream with helping with that so it's not only the lead program but the three-year-old program that we have at Google and then the future we'll have that for me and we are definitely looking for the business partners to help grow those programs we also have a partnership with minimum first um Credit Union I'm sure you all know Ashley Ashley has been here a while and we
061have a student um and borrow money the deposit money and work with the students in their learning um every day we have two students there now they're getting ready to hide two more students so it's a wonderful Partnerships and they're also learning how to manage um their money and um it's a great program to work with the students at Woodville but the credit union is open to all employees and the students in the district let's see what you see before you are numbers based on how we're performing with our level of Engagement with regard to Partnerships and uh and uh engagement with those that can help us with our mission uh as of uh the school year we had about approximately 360 16 School based business partners um these could be uh folks that come
062in to provide you know gifts for classrooms adopt the classroom there's a variety of things that uh folks can do we have a 65 District business partners through our office of College and Career readiness Dr uh Lewis uh leans on these folks for support with our business Affairs and our Student Success Expo and uh kids business and a lot of the uh Productions she does events like Productions because they're usually pretty big especially books blankets and family fun these are these are Productions also uh we have 150 ceac members Career Education advisory Council these are people in business and industry that come to connect with Educators so they can find out what's being taught in the classroom and how they can share what's being done on the job site so these folks help us provide
063relevance to the students so we're teaching you this because if you get a job at JCP you're going to need this it's a good job having these business partners helps us to provide relevance to to why we're teaching what we're teaching to our students and uh we just recently revamped our volunteer program it's called Vista now some of you remember operation but we have this now volunteers and schools targeting achievement so and uh as of right now we have about a little bit 5600 uh registered volunteers and uh what we're doing is uh executing recognition through our engagement uh with a seat in our business partner we are one of 10 school districts that received the economic development partnership designation from the Georgia Department of Education and this is a pretty significant Milestone because it
064has the rigorous criteria and at the end we were successful and we received a monetary uh Grant from Georgia Power for 2500 for having gone through this process so that we use those funds to continue Economic Development activities and uh in order to get this award we had to have a solid pathway alignment to make sure that things were teaching in our classrooms aligned with what business and industry needs we had to have uh industry certification of adoptive Lewis mentioned and we had to have a culture of Economic Development so that partnership with cedar really helps to enhance that as well McGuire thank you and good afternoon I'm proud here to talk about something we've already recognized our School nurses this semester you recognize our school counselors our school social workers last year about the
065same time we had an idea to bring in a Wellness Center component based on all of the data and everything that we were seeing from the covid-19 pandemic and so as we look at that our Wellness Center which has two counselors who are licensed professional counselors and then we also have a certified health educator who also works there who had is a um social work um that Wellness Center seeks to assist in conducting Wellness or mental health assessments for student faculty and staff they also provide resources and support as well as strategies that support wholeness and wellness um they also utilize that you may have seen our social media accounts we have Instagram and Facebook accounts where we publish Wellness tips and strategies with this being mental health awareness to that um through our Wellness
066Center we actually operate the SOS program which is normally supporting our students that's one of the places where our school counselors while they focus on those academic career and social emotional needs they do not provide intensive therapy it's more brief solution focused to help the student get back in the classroom through this SOS program they can actually receive some of those therapeutic services free of charge which we're able to do through our American recipe plan uh Grant funds um we've also done professional development for staff many of you have heard about Wellness learning day and with our partners we were able to increase from last year only having 35 sessions to actually having over 70 sessions this year collaborating with organizations such as Savannah Tech healthy Savannah safety safety net um revive Day Spa St
067Joseph's Campbell African-American health information Resource Center as well as the clinic the community clinic at beach they were also part of that Wellness learning day event um we do individual consultations for our staff to help connect them with EAP services or other resources in the area because when you think about wellness and you think about health there are several components to that it's not just Stress Management things but there's also a financial component also physical health several different dynamics that go into that we also have provided Crisis Support when needed and then we are also helping to supervise the next uh group or our next generation of counselors and then we've had two Social Work students in our collaboration with Savannah State as well as with Georgia Southern um through our funds with the American
068Rescue plan act we were able to provide break boxes to all of our schools and if you're not familiar with the break box um those kids have items in there that help students if they are experiencing ADHD or experiencing instances stress there are materials there that our counselors can use we've also this year for the first time in a long time we're able to send some of our counselors to the American school council Association conference so that they can get additional training our counselors from the Wellness Center have even been able to attend trains as well and with the groups that you see here um we are collaborating with them on a regular basis you'll notice Apex they offer some of those therapeutic clinical Mental Health Services in our schools collaborating with families um you're
069more than familiar with the courtesy Cooper Health Center which provides those Behavioral Health Services but also they do assessments uh Health assessments for our students Chatham safety net has come in and done workshops for our staff on various topics and we're also in the process of collaborating to um actually have some of our school counselors go through the process of becoming licensed professional counselors so that again we can expand those services through the wellness center to offer more therapeutic services so all of this is done because of our collaboration with our Community Partners I want to thank the team for bringing you lots of information here today I'd also like to take an opportunity to thank the board for giving us a little extended time to tell you about the many Partnerships and things that
070we're doing uh here across the district this is something that will normally happen in an informal session but we have so much to talk about today in the informal that we have the opportunity here today so thank you very much for your time and your listening to us as we not only brag a little bit about the great things we're doing here in the district but trying to connect it for you to the why behind it and miss all you hit it right on the head one of the reasons that we have an economic development liaison is to bridge that Gap and hit on the structural goals of the school district that goes back to the real reason why we're here the academic success of our children and 37 000 that we serve and it
071is the full spectrum from the Pre-K babies all the way to those 12 12th graders that are about to walk the stage here this month so exciting for all of us so on the screen very quickly we are looking forward obviously we wanted to have a greater establishment of priority levels for Partnerships our categorical work that we do we'll be using the data you saw here today in some of those numbers as baselines one thing I'm very excited about is defining partnership bases by market segmentation and trying to align that on a geo-targeted approach definitely um determined by our schools in a very definite uh strategic and thoughtful Manner and of course aligned segments through District needs such as like Miss Hall did for us right here at this very meeting this is an example
072of why Partnerships matter a new partner that we have with step one Automotive well guess what they provided three thousand dollars to one of our classroom teachers that may seem like a simple thing where does it go to putting people on in jobs in the workforce but you know what going to the morale of our Educators and the work that they do day in and day out and finding ways to recognize them is a critical component of an agency of our size and the success really of any agency especially the success of our agency or 85 of our annual budget is made up of people so we think Step One automotive for this little special gift that they provided this classroom educator we know that she'll put it to great work in Halls of a
073B Williams with that concluding our presentation any questions of the board for sure I will uh um I couldn't find another District in the state that has all 17 do we know not that many um that's that's amazing um we spoke a lot about the phlebotomy program and be shy um those individuals have to get 36 before they get to sit for their tests so I will use this to Market that program if you need your blood checked it's not just them taking your blood just to practice it's set off to a lab as Dr Lewis said you get mail and you forgot what's coming from Saint Joseph's coming to you um those students worked hand in hand with a nurse practitioner they live out a learned experience um and that leads me and I
074got everybody um and take it back in Full Circle that um a long time ago not in a far away place um I didn't get into the choice program I wanted to get into because I didn't have the Merit to get in there and I was denied entry into a choice program and luckily my second choice program accepted me and then I was at beach high it was my district in school but I got into because teachers taught me what I could be um so thank you as a Alum but I thank you knowing that my daughter will be this year like there the world will stop revolving before that is stopped and not because of me um because of the teachers that she's had Dr Perry's the the Mr matey who even though he
075might be stubborn he's an engineer and and it teaches her who she wants to be yeah um but she's learned those things um and she's been pushed so much in other avenues Within These career Pathways to not only be an engineering typically engineer you're going to sit behind desk but she's got other teachers on the other side of the board never thought she'd take four years of French that are pushing her to be a leader you know and those typically are not things yeah yes there are Engineers they're leaders but pushing both of those I don't think so it might have been in the balance style thing somebody said Thank you to the parents because you're the engines of these students being here and I was thinking no the engines are inside our buildings um
076at best on the fuel because they come home to me and they sleep and I feed and I love on them but really the engine has been built for myself and for my student in the programs that we offer and I know we're changing Savannah Chatham County one welder at a time one full honest at a time and I would ask everybody that's a citizen when you're working interacting with somebody in those type of Industries so I can't applaud you enough um thank you for having all these choices and not just at one school yeah it's a cross is spread out and as Miss Hall said earlier today let's keep spreading it let's get it deeper um so that we can have these excellent opportunities at every school across the district thank you uh doctor
077just very quickly thank you for everything thank you for your presentation and this is really the blueprint of before ease enroll enlist employ in entrepreneurship thank you so much we have a we have we had that time at the end of the at the end no we have that time at the end um so thank you for highlighting that and I think one thing with that information on the website there's opportunities within that to provide some examples of the types of volunteer opportunities that are available that can be an easier Gateway especially if somebody doesn't have a relationship with a particular school so that's just one idea I would put forward to the team to consider so thanks so much for everything great work thank you very much [Applause] [Music] and now Mr Jackson with
078the financials good afternoon everyone the board members and the public the financial statements for the month of March were sent to you earlier and posted on that website are there any questions has unanticipated gains as negatives so on page one under local interest line 15 um it's got we have we and we estimated a negative 75 000 in interest earned we actually got 419.97 which is represented it's a gain but it's a negative and then but the available budget because it exceeds what we thought we would get is 495 419.97 why is munis still making gains negative um unfortunately that's the way their their reports are set up in their system I actually have staff at a conference as we speak they're in um right now and that was one of the main either in
079units or through another software where we can make our reports a little bit more user-friendly instead of the way they look coming directly out of the system so hopefully in the next month or so we have something that looks different than what you see before you okay [Music] so at the end of the year we're hoping that it washes that that one we appla positive and one but we may be negative in another category if that makes sense so we won't go adjust our budget or increase our budget just because we have more interest because we may be short on Revenue somewhere else for the year projects where there are only two Revenue sources and interests when we get interest in capital projects that is truly additional income Revenue we're not there yet we won't
080know until the end of the year we have it but it's not protected there are there are expenditures that are occurring at the same rate correct budgeted to take place where we need that additional Revenue to coverage or Falls from another source yeah yes okay I can't remember who this morning was talking about wanting you to pull up uh the fund balance I know that's patient yeah and we were looking at the budget we were discussing this morning was looking at about a 15 million dollars so that's about a 15 of what we're a little lesson 15 of what we're sitting at 1051 million correct so that's way over well we'll go to the 42 42 I see okay yeah and we're explaining folks it could be say the end of June July was taken
081it could be 151 but by October November because we don't have those big deposits monthly it could go down to 40 million dollars for 30 million dollars because we have to cover payroll and other expenditures but we have big deposits in November or December then we have big deposits in June and July foreign [Applause] that's right there good afternoon I'm pleased to present the change order report for the first quarter of uh 2023. developed the majority of these change orders are associated with The Groves K-12 School they're also however our change or is associated with New Hampstead K-8 as we work to close out that contract with cppi one other thing I'd like to note um in response to some earlier audits we have initiated a changed control board and this board takes a look
082at all change orders that are requested and number one first uh first take a look at them and make sure that their legitimate change orders and secondly takes a look and make sure that these change orders and the dollars that are associated with them are all conformists with the contract so all these have gone under that review also and I'll be happy to take any questions okay then if I can get into the quarterly report s no reason to have to tell me that's interesting the uh quarterly report we want to First Take a look at our E3 budget the majority of the costs remaining uh in E3 are all associated with construction you'll see that in the 2023 we are projecting about 124 million dollars of expenses of project expenditures and once that's completed
083we do have some dollars that still are in uh expenditure in 2024 and that mostly is the uh the K-12 so as we complete 2023 uh we will be uh good ways into completing all of the E3 projects our E4 budget the uh what we've done some calculating and we have about in E4 we have about 360 million dollars that are budgeted in new construction additions renovation work s HVAC projects Etc currently we are engaged in 65 percent costs of those budget projects that that are in E4 and now the majority of their work is design related however in the next 90 days we are going to put many project multiple projects into construction and so we have about 150 million dollars of construction costs that we're going to be starting on in the next
08490 days so as you can see our expenditures in 2022 were not real strong but in 23-24 they really pick up one other thing I wanted to note is that our proceeds for 2023 we're about 123 million our projections for 20 I'm sorry for 22 are projections for 23 are 100 and uh or 88 million I'm sorry and as we are showing and seeing that we are uh our projections are coming in over budgets so that we do expect that we will have a larger proceed and so that will help uh you know offset any negatives that we might see in the cost report so everything's coming along real well as far as E4 is concerned lots of projects are going to be going into construction you've already made some awards you have one tonight
085and there will be uh more of them gmps on our two major projects the Windsor Forest High School and um and the Pulaski school that we'll be doing in the next couple of months so in construction we have the K-12 obviously lots of finches floor ceiling wall finishes completing the one aspect of this project that we do not have under contract yet is the site work we have a field house we have to build stadium and all of the athletic fields that are associated with that school that that package is uh in the process of being completed and again within the next 60 days we should have that bid and ready for contract award High School you had approved a component change order last month uh that project is scheduled to get started uh after
086school gets completed this year um again working on a lot of the summer work day has to be done in order to uh keep the students on campus and allow for the new construction to begin Bloomingdale their uh that school is going to be moved to New Hampstead K-8 and so that work is all in progress to have them ready to go over there after that the building will be ready for Demolition and then starting construction in the fall for the new Bloomingdale Elementary School the number of additions are in progress Savannah Arts of course that's the one that we're building a new kitchen cafeteria that will be completed in July and so we'll be ready for use in uh in August the old cafeteria kitchen is uh getting ready to be demolished again while
087school is completed and then there are a lot of parking upgrades that are going to be done uh there's gonna be a lot all that the parking lot with asphalt and different pavers and such so a site utility work a lot of work is going to be happening around on that campus this summer and then the renovation work will also be completed through the summer time with the auditorium finishing up on sitting in there and uh throughout the building just all new finishes station uh you have a contract award coming up later for that with that contract award we'll be able to get started with the classroom editions on that project and then Pulaski again we have some summer work that we have to do as far as making uh new parking lot and that
088will allow area for the construction for the addition so we'll get going with that this summer and there'll be a GMP change order that we'll be presenting in next month there are a lot of other projects in E4 renovation projects and again all of these are in various stages most of them in planning and design so we'll be able to separate those in as we move through them and then a lot of other projects also that are included in this budget um just a couple of them I'd like to highlight that interchange bus restroom facility so the bus drivers will have a new facility uh come the start of August that's going to be completed in July and then there are a lot of HVAC Renovations new HVAC systems going in schools we do have
089this summer starting in Duran Myers Garden City also there's some HVAC work that will be done at Coastal uh we would like to be able to do a lot more but quite frankly the market is saturated and we can only do so many projects at a time plus that of course we've talked about the difficulty it is to get HVAC equipment very long lead time so we're purchasing equipment this year for the work that we're going to be doing next summer and it goes on for three four years like that re-roofing is pretty much the same thing we've got a number of projects that are all forbid right now including at Southwest Middle School and and uh West Chatham Middle School um again we have pretty much saturated that market and so we do have
090a lot of roofs however that are going to be under construction this summer there's an else replacement that will be occurring and then we'll be able to start on many of these other ones that are going to be awarded uh in the next month also uh another that high school practice fields are going to just want to again um emphasize that we are going to be putting artificial turf fields at Islands Beach Johnson New Hampstead and Savannah and because we have multiple contractors that are working on these fields we'll be able to start them all at the same time all summer that we work in and uh and are scheduled to be completed by the start of school in Woodville Tompkins is in design right now so that project will also be been off shortly
091for a new athletic artificial Athletic Field at that school 25 electric bus charging stations are being installed out by the um Campbell Road so that's another thing that's going to be done through the uh through the summer and fall time and I will take any questions program oh Mike thank you that's like yesterday um we got the cafeteria is going to be ready for them in August when will the auditorium slash theater um be accessible I know they have had to be really really flexible this year and probably use a lot of their skill to reimagine what spaces look like across the the entire County actually they were in tiny this last weekend um so what does that look like on the timeline that will be completed for the first of August also in school
092there you go um is looking fabulous goodbye all the time so I know that the school's excited about that as well um on the parking um one of the questions I asked a while ago was about how bike parking was going to be integrated into the upgrades I know previously there was just a note on the plans to provide by parking but we do have a pretty high percentage of our students who ride their bikes so um when you have an opportunity if you could just send me an update on that um what it appreciate some of the information about how that's going to be handled in the renovations and then looking at the renovations list um and no longer see Jacob G Smith listed has it fallen off the list is being evaluated uh
093in scoped out to determine what work would need to be done to it in order for it continue to be and to operate as as a school that it currently is and that will include finishing work and some HVAC work and exterior work also so no one hasn't dropped off our radar screen I'm sorry I just know there's been a lot of conversations thank you yes foreign [Laughter] um we'll help to bring that down some information miss all I just want to say please extend the capital projects anyone else okay continue or yes yes would like to offer a motion that we approve items 9.02 to 9.08 as one motion seconded any discussion all in favor aye this is an emotion to combine them okay [Music] so I move that we approve the combined motion
094of 9.03 to 9.08 it's been moved it's been seconded all in favor any discussion David do we need any explanation on all of this just being East lost continual high level East losses it's all to a three foreign [Music] for the electronics energy conversation conservation services all right anywhere discussion all in favor okay that's eight maybe that's that's yeah that word uh so it is eight four and one Center okay all right we are now going up first of all we'll have our officer Hollis will give us our safe Construction good evening remember the most beautiful comments are those that are related to the matters of policy all of which the board has jurisdiction speakers have a maximum of three minutes in which to speak at the description of the board chair the time maybe
095lessons do lesson due to the number of speakers signed up and the agenda of the meeting City Board policy bcbi public participation in board meetings all comments shall be made in a professional manner that is not disruptive to the meeting gets to avoid name-calling towards staff and board members and should avoid using profanity please follow the instructions to the right to call anyone out of order who violates the rules of public appearance the board further established the rules of conduct in the court in accordance with your official court of Georgia 20-2-58 c 3 through board policy bcbi public participation in public and policy board BC board meeting the Quorum and board meetings we appreciate your interests in the work of our school system copy of their notes or support a material for the board to
096review thank you thank you very much we have quite a few people signed up today um I will uh stress that uh we have you will have three minutes uh first we have Miss Beth macaroni thank you good afternoon good afternoon good afternoon more than one board member has used the argument if we support Banning pornographic books from school libraries and we'll have to be in the Bible due to the Song of Solomon today I'd like to rebut this argument let's start with the law itself Georgia statute 1612-103 clearly defines obscenity as any visual that shows an image of a person or a portion of the human body which depicts sexually explicit nudity sexual conduct or sadomasochistic abuse or any media with narrative accounts of the same and which ticket as a whole is harmful
097to minors by the statute it's against the law for any person to expose materials that fit this definition to minors however another Georgia statute 16-12-104 exclude School libraries for being subject to this law let's use this legal definition of obsidity to test the need to ban the Bible as pornographic the most unashamedly graphic examples of erotica in the Song of Solomon would include the following quote the Allure of her garden the blossoming of her Orchard and the metaphor of his abdomen is carved Ivory would any of us be charged with breaking the obscenity statute by sharing this with a minor that would be laughable and thrown out of court however you will be on shaky legal ground if you share the book Eleanor and Park with a minor unless you're a school librarian quote I
098know you are a you smell like c-u-m do I make you wet do you think we should get in the backseat wow it was huge it was glorious Park landed on top of her s-u-c-k me off this book is at nine Savannah Chatham County school high school libraries so what types of books do we recommend it's very simple age-appropriate subject matter of any genre that doesn't contain obscenity as defined by Georgia statue 16 language from only School libraries isn't Banning them it's time for all school board members pastors parents and citizens to stand up for keeping our school libraries safe from the evils of porn silence in the face of evil is evil itself not to speak is to speak not to act is to act thank you thank you very much uh next we
099have Michelle gay thank you um the book Lucky by Alice sebold is available in the Jenkins High School media center and this is one of many passages but this is just one he began to need his best against the opening of my vagina insert his fingers into it three or four at a time something tore I began to believe I was wet now it made me excited he was intrigued as he worked his whole fist up into my vagina and pumped it laughs that help girls or women overcome the trauma of rape but this book is not this thing probably increases trauma if any person's been a great victim this is not going to help this is going to hurt it's almost like a how-to book actually in the United States to protect children from
100early exposure to potentially damaging adult content and this is clearly adult content um we just heard a presentation of y'all were concerned about mental health students I agree that's a problem but this is not healthy material for anybody I mean I just felt it was so hard for me to read that it's awful so here's a reasonable litmus test if you feel uncomfortable reading a book to someone else's child then that book should not be available to students in the school library and if you think this book has value or any of the others we've presented over the last year go read that book about students show us the literary value this book lucky would have probably fail the Miller test the Miller test is a litmus test Supreme Court for determining if a book
101meets the standard um [Music] or any local or Internet Bookseller we support children being exposed to different viewpoints ideas and opinions however we draw the line and exposing them to material that is without question pornographic and obscene suggestions of excellent books but it's a more efficient use of everyone's time to discuss the admittedly smaller list of books that are a problem a person is no not only by what he believes or firms but also what he rejects and denies and we reject pornography for minor Public School students thank you thank you very much uh Mr Rick Rooney running sorry president boss board members I'd like to speak to the issue of selection of our next superintendent Silicon Valley I was the vice president of Cisco Systems and retired from that company in 2001. you might
102imagine I had a lot of executive recruitment in my career and here's what I learned first there's no perfect candidate you're never going to find somebody to checks all the boxes and can do everything you want them to do so given that it's important to focus on your top priorities what are the three things this person is going to have to do in the next five years those should be your top priorities and find a person who has demonstrated experience in accomplishing those things in another organization you're going to have the right person and how does that apply to the Savannah Channel school system here are the three things I think the next superintendent should have demonstrated experience doing first transitioning school system for balanced literacy to the science of reading this is a complex
103task the lives and futures of thousands of students right on are being able to do this successfully second excellent schools have excellent principles of hiring and retaining excellent principles giving them the authority and the autonomy by holding them accountable for running the schools third run an efficient and decentralized organization our chosen candidate must have a wrong school system that has a relatively low the expenditure on overhead again if we pick something like that I think we're a well positioned for the future lasted my remaining time I'd like to mention one other thing you may remember I talked about Dr Jack silver the superintendent of the Bethlehem School District a couple months ago he's the gentleman who led Bethlehem from balance literacy to the science of reading over a six-year period they're reading uh increase from
10445 to 85 percent I've spoken with Dr Silva about the transition and asked if he'd be willing to speak to members of our board and administration about the process he went through and what he learned he's graciously agreed to participate in the zoo meeting to do that and I will have uh his office and each of you a zoom invitation if you'd like to attend you'd be very welcome instead of participate in that I think would be very useful uh has excellent experience that we need here thank you thank you very much [Applause] [Music] Lena Ali hello this is my first time speaking at a school board meeting I'm a resident of Savannah I was born here I attended public schools here for part of my childhood I come from a family of immigrants um
105from Palestine I've spent my life going back and forth between here Turtle Island and Palestine I work for a local non-profit my iron Equity Southeast I've been volunteering and learning with them since we're students at Armstrong State eight years ago since they were Savannah undocumented youth Alliance as you may know we work closely with immigrant families and have recently released their report right here it's largely based on feedback from parents we work with and I have copies if y'all need any so many parents and students who do not have English as their first language are facing issues with language accessibility and discrimination in Chatham County Public Schools and um Southeast has been working closely with NYU Metro Center to research the impact of language accessibility in Chatham County compared to the rest of the state
106of Georgia the report is more than 30 pages long so I just like to share the highlights with y'all or whoever has not been able to review it the one in the last decade the Hispanic Latino population has experienced a rapid 66 growth in Savannah Chatham County and we know this number will only increase and we are going to see more immigrant families coming to our district partially because of the Hyundai plan and other industries that are growing up here but two Hispanic children are also the fastest growing student demographic and the school system representing 12 of The District or wanting every eight students and three only 69 of English language learners graduate high school compared to 88 of all students who graduate in Chatham County and this should be a major head flag to
107the district number four from conversations and surveys that we conducted with parents we found that any interactions was correlated well we found that frequently they have tried to rely they do rely on their child to translate nearly two-thirds of the time and any interactions with correlated issues or discussions and children shouldn't have to do that and they need there needs to be more bilingual staff to address this uh more than a number five more than half of the parents we interacted with and Survey we're not satisfied with parents full communication I'm sorry we're out of town thank you please leave that with the officer here and he will make sure that it's given to the staff now I noticed that we have several people signed up to speak to the same issue um do you
108did she present what you're you're going to present okay all right I have to go back Hector Lopez right here oh how's it going thank you uh my name is Eric Lopez I'm a resident of the chat of Chatham County uh uh I'd like to continue uh sharing the specific recommendations that I think should be going on uh mama has been a public school teacher for over 25 years so throughout my whole life I have you know witness this firsthand um my son's getting ready to start school this fall and considering that English isn't his first language you know I uh have I'm concerned about his experience um you know my first our first recommendation would be translation interpretation uh higher and fairly compensated bilingual staff to provide timely translation of all documents and emergency
109notices and provide interpretation at all decision making meetings such as this you know um there currently isn't a translation available online for the recordings of meetings the district shares publicly although there is an option to translate most of the district website most of the attachments for important forms that are still only available in English you know and uh it is also important to ensure that bilingual staff are available for in-person assistance for parents and students who don't speak English so they can stay informed and have a say in how the school districts run there must be bilingual staff members available at all times so that ell or Spanish-speaking Spanish teachers are not pulled away from the classroom to translate which is you know a problem that goes on every day uh enrollment assistance another thing
110higher full-time culturally competent bilingual staff to enroll esol students in sccpss to ensure that children new to the area are enrolled in a timely manner you know there's it shouldn't be a problem to try to enroll my son if if I don't speak English luckily I do but there are a lot of people in this area who don't and that's a big problem uh more counselors and social workers higher culturally competent counselors and social Works to provide social economic social emotional support for students prioritizing by legal counselors to ensure that all students receive this much needed support because that is you know counselors who would speak Spanish and English you know thank you very much I apologize thank you thank you very much uh Christina can you hear me okay yes hi everyone thank you
111for having us uh my name is southeast through my work I've had the privilege of working with Spanish-speaking families and witness firsthand how they struggle to communicate with teachers principals and other staff because of language barriers I would like to note that the recommendations in the recent migrant Equity Southeast report have been supported by 15 organizations that include local Statewide and National organizations that prioritize funding and resources for students we are glad that as ccpss is open to having discussions about creating change and improving language Equity however we are now in the next phase where we must take those necessary steps to create that change Chatham County becomes more diverse every day and now is the time to create this change before it becomes harder to keep up with the needs of non-english speaking families
112positive words alone will not make this happen we must take action the district needs to make it a priority to hire competent bilingual staff and must not rely so heavily on volunteers or staff giving their free time it is important to know that fair compensation is crucial to attracting and maintaining bilingual competent staff I have here in the job description that you posted on the school district website you're offering 15 an hour to people who are bilingual and are required to be able to provide simultaneous interpretation Support Services as a person who is bilingual and is someone who works with viable people all the time let me tell you this bilingual people deserve more than that if a person speaks more than one language it means that they can communicate with twice as many people
113and it means it should be fairly compensated for that this should not be regarded as simply an entry-level position because it's not the work isn't easy it's literally a superpower based on our research other districts in our state have that have also have large populations of bilingual students they almost double what sccpss is offering or at least a salary with benefits to fulfill similar roles is this as good as it gets for the bilingual families in our district if 15 an hour is 15 an hour all the district is willing to invest on bilingual staff that make such major differences in the lives of immigrant students uh this shows that the district really isn't really willing to invest a whole lot if 50 is and what we're willing to provide this is not only a
114matter of not being able to hire bilingual people it's a matter of valuing and being willing to invest more in these positions I believe change is possible if I deny I would not be here I asked you today please invest more in resources thank you okay uh America turn again since there is not currently uh interpreter available um we ask that she have a slightly more time um could could someone interpret lives yeah I mean this is still three minutes okay that is correct um frustrations of the parents in terms of that their children are vulnerable for not knowing English please take and please consider the voices of the of the Hispanic parents who do not speak English there's many kids who are not studying anymore [Music] and their childhood is being robbed by the
115rights of this by this problem primordial is the education of the kids is important and it should be given the uh the importance that it has that they deserves [Applause] and a reflectionary question is if you guys would have been the children would you guys be in the same position that you guys are now thank you thank you okay and finally Melissa um if you want to if you want to stay here to translate you can okay I'll bet you're reading are you reading um okay okay all right hi my name is [Music] hi my name is Melissa I was born in Beaufort South Carolina I live my whole life in Mexico due to Mama needing to return um into language barriers [Music] foreign Georgia and I would like to go to school but the
116English is a problem for me now that I don't understand too much and I can't go into classes um yes um foreign are on our children and I was robbed of my right to learn in the country that I was born in this this is [Music] after 20 years time back to learn uh to have a better future thank you thank you yes uh Mr board chair I think that um it would be good if we get the simple question when people sign up to speak if they will need translation services that's a great idea whether we put that on the form or whether that's something that we just articulate that's a great idea I might also suggest if we're going to do that but we also have um signing available because I know for
117graduation we certainly do that for all services in our school districts across the country that have interpreters so we need to know that we um certainly have been soliciting um interpreters they are not readily available is share with you earlier so if there's a need for translators we need to plan for that we need to budget for it we also need to secure the staff to do both the translation and also the signing absolutely anyone else meme come on sir [Music] okay what's your name sir I used to be a teacher all my life I taught English in Kuwait I talked English in Syria I talked English in turkey and now I am very proud to say that I am American citizen and I care very much for the education in Savannah and first of
118all I'd like to thank you the board of teaching and education in Savannah for giving me the chance I didn't know that I should sign before giving a few comments about my experience with my daughter in the different stages of Education in Savannah first I'd like to thank you very much your schools are wonderful your teachers are very professional your care concerning our students as refugees are amazing let me say thank you very much people of America I am an American now and thank you for all the care that you exert to the refugees I have very comments if you allow me to speak yes concerning that my experience with my daughter now she behaves badly because of addiction in the restrooms in the restroom there are small gangs that day try to threaten especially
119the weak students and force them to buy drugs and Vapes and a lot of things that make the students go dizzy and drowsy and so on please make sure about the restroom where the small gangs gather and they spread all the those pills that kill our students that stop and hinders the education the second thing is the cell phone all students when they listen to the teacher they don't listen they are trying to hide their heads behind the backs of their friends and they are on the cell phone a lot of teachers notice that but sometimes they neglect it so the cell phones in the school in the inside classrooms are chosen it hinders listening to the teachers so please take a low death for business students to take their cell phone inside the school
120or at least inside the classrooms I don't know how to express my gratitude to the board of teaching for all the achievement that I heard about I am very proud that they the town is my town this country is my country thank you very much thank you thank you very much all right yes I have a emotion to adjourn thank you very much and thank you all for coming out today I'm sorry