001foreign [Music] County Board of Education being held on today uh April 12 2023. uh we remind you that uh as a courtesy this meeting is being streamed live and can be viewed by visiting www.sccpss.com ah I would ask Mrs Olivia Hill Miller our board secretary if this meeting has been advertised in accordance with the requirements of the law and she assures me that it has uh if you will now stand with me um normally at this point we would have a school group uh singing the national anthem however we had some technical difficulties with the school arriving police still stand and you will get the national anthem from me boy by the dawn's early light oh it's so proudly we at the twilight's Alaska rights and bright stars through the perilous fights all the rabbits
002we watched were so gladly streaming [Music] through the night [Music] the whole operative [Applause] and to the Republic for which his hands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you okay I will now accept a motion to approve the agenda uh move that the agenda be approved for the deletion of item 7.27 bid c23-16 bi-directional amplification and distributed antenna system insulation and revision to item 7.23 RFP 23-37 learning management system annual contract thank you uh it is thank you very much uh uh make a motion to amend the approved agenda to add item 7.46 intergovernmental agreement second action amended and restated intergovernmental agreement with Garden City thank you second all in favor thank you hey uh we have a few announcements um okay uh we'll have a public hearing on
003the budget Wednesday April 26th here in the Whitney building at 6 pm there is an audience committee meeting on Thursday April 27th here in the Whitney Administration Building and we have a capital Improvement committee meeting on July 26th at 9 00 A.M yes um they were also going to have a budget committee meeting on Wednesday May 10th at 10 I mean excuse me at um 9 A.M prior to the informal 4B thank you very much okay uh it is customary that we recognize those members of the district past and prisons who have passed away in the last month today we read the following names of what it's like to publicly recognize their contributions to our school district and this community Williams um date of Death March 3rd 2023 Frankie Washington library media specialists uh Tompkins
004Middle date of death April 2nd 2023 Alma zettler executive secretary Financial Services date of Death March 2023. would you all please Mr President yes please add now and request that we uh take a moment of silence also for the six lives that were lost in Nashville Tennessee absolutely thank you uh would you please join me now as we all stand together and pay respect thank you we will now have the superintendent report good afternoon Mr President officers and members of the board it's my pleasure to offer the good news report and the student of the month report for this month actually we'll begin with the school library month thank you for making that adjustment Mr Johnson will read our Proclamation for a national school library thank you thank you National School library month Proclamation the
005day for the national library for natural Library April 2023 there's more to the story of most idea that libraries are places to get connected to technology by using Broadband computer and other digital resources libraries also offer our students opportunities to connect with media programs ideas and classes and addition to books to recognize the valuable contributions of our school library media technology Specialists the Board of Education would like to proclaim the month of April 2023 as National School library month thus be resolved that the following Proclamation be adopted whereas April 2023 has been designated the 38th annual National School library month and whereas School libraries provide materials for teachers and students that will encourage both the knowledge and we're at school library provide materials that will develop literacy cultural the beliefs of our American culture or
006Heritage and we're at school libraries provide books to encourage students to read for pleasure and are considered a fun place to go and whereas School libraries provide materials to meet individual needs varied interests abilities socioeconomic backgrounds and maturity levels of the students served and now therefore be able to resolved at the month of April 2023 be proclaimed after school library month superintendent I'd like a second please thank you uh we are pleased this afternoon to have the following staff members join us and we will ask them to come forward as we call them to shake hands with everyone in the Horseshoe here Joey Johnson from White Bluff Elementary Mrs prosper from Coastal Middle Miss Tomlin from Woodville Tompkins Miss Brown instructional technology lead program manager and Kelly Shea from Jacob G Smith Elementary [Applause] thank
007you very much thank you we thank you for your service and we appreciate your being here today to celebrate our national school library month thank you so much without my colleagues I am now ready for the student of the month it gives me great pleasure to introduce you to yet another one of our super Scholars our student for the month of March is an eighth grade student at s-k-8 her accomplishments include high honor roll honor roll art medals and she's currently enrolled in high school Spanish as well as High School courses for ninth grade literature composition and Algebra 1 honors our student has a long history of achievement in the fifth grade she was a spelling bee finalist in sixth grade this scholar was a member of the safety patrol and one of the finalist
008in the savannah arts art competition with her Harriet Tubman portrait entry presently she is the school council president and she designed the cover art for the school yearbook in her spare time our honors student assist and Community projects such as litter clean up at Lake mayor and she also volunteers at Compassion church her athletic Endeavors have included a swim team and cross country and she is currently taking weekly drum lessons spare time her nominator Angel Kelly told us that this student is one of the most driven I've had the pleasure of working with she's a natural bone leader Natural Born leader I have extremely high hopes for this young lady and would not at all be surprised if she aspires to be the first female president of the United States when asked what motivates her
009to strive for academic success she stated my future I want to be very independent when I am older and successful my mother inspires me to be a strong independent woman she has a master's in nursing and is a nurse practitioner this shows me that you can achieve your goals I take my learning and knowledge very seriously actually another month is taking home multiple gifts that our community business partners provide for her a gift card from Members First Federal Credit Union and the horn Law Firm also she will receive a meal voucher and merchandise from Chicken Salad Chick so we will have our personal conversation about that as well as a dozen cupcakes from Jay's sweet treats she will take home a portrait by upscale photography that is provided by Savannah Chatham County Public Schools we
010are proud to announce our student of the month for March Brianna Cuevas thank you foreign [Music] [Laughter] [Applause] this is indeed the best part of the meeting we look forward to learning more about each of our Scholars that we have the opportunity to highlight I'm also happy to share some additional good news with you today and to also um invite some of our long-term Partners to come up and be recognized as well we want to offer again uh congratulations to Woodville Tompkins Spanish teacher uh Bertha delgadio um you may be familiar with her you've seen her before she was named Georgia Georgia's World Language teacher of the year for 2023-24 [Applause] at the foreign language Association of Georgia's annual uh conference that's an association of instructors administrators and others involved in foreign language teaching and
011promotion of cultural understanding the teacher of the year award recognizes teachers who strive to enhance students interest in acquisition of and Proficiency in the second language he's won multiple Awards before it seems like every year we hear something about her scholarly achievements and we're always delighted to recognize the achievement of our staff two of our students were named winners in their divisions of the 13th annual Leopold's creative writing contest in 2023 the theme of this year's contest was courage reggae Holden an eighth grade student at Woodville Tompkins won the 9 through 12th grade division and eighth grader Brianna Jones of the e-learning academy was named the winner of the sixth through eighth grade division Leopold sponsors the contest every year in collaboration with Live Oak public libraries the winner each division is awarded an ice
012cream party for his or her class it was our honor and privilege to welcome the United States Air Force Honor Guard drill team to Beach High School for a special performance on March 15th the United States Air Force honor God a drill team is a 22 person unit based out of Washington DC that travels the country displaying the Precision drill and finest Beach High School was selected as the first High School in the state of Georgia to view this performance largely based on the number and quality of students in the Air Force JROTC program at beach the students were enthralled with him with the performance and got to spend time targeting with the drill team after the performance to learn more about their jobs we wish to offer congratulations to Mr Larry Jackson and the
013team in the finance division who recently received the distinguished budget presentation award from the government Finance Officers Association this award represents a significant achievement and reflects the commitment to meeting the highest principles of governmental budgeting to receive the award the budgeting Services Department had to satisfy nationally recognized guidelines for Effective budget presentation we wish to offer a special congratulations today to the 60 parents and staff members who completed our upskilling and reskilling program this effort appropriately named leading by empowering and advancing parents was co-sponsored by the equity through education grant from Georgia Power the training was provided in areas like web design welding commercial driver's license residential wiring Safe Serve introduction to Spanish and several other areas we are inviting our families all 25 000 or so to join us on Saturday April 22nd blankets
014and family fun we have traditionally had about 10 000 or so members to come out for that event it is our largest annual event to promote and support family literacy there will be book giveaways information from partners for families and students celebrity readers food trucks and more we will be sending reminders of course home to our families for them to join us on that day and if we are very fortunate we generally have great weather and we have lots of blankets and people laying out in the sun and just enjoying um literacy at its finest thanks to WTOC for its support as well of our second literacy effort with books for kids drive that will start very soon it starts actually next week and we will have places all around the city that will be
015working in conjunction with WTOC to collect new and gently used books for grades K through three so we are excited that WTOC will be helping us with that effort again this year and those who are recognizing [Applause] I'm very happy to be able to um again highlight some of our Community Partners and we'll start with United Way of the coastal Empire we like to offer a special thanks to our friends from the United Way of the coastal Empire for the Herculean efforts in making read United day a huge success across the coastal Empire on February 14th Reed United was celebrated at over 30 schools over 45 classrooms and provided nearly 10 000 books to our Scholars United Way volunteers do their part to help close the Early Childhood literacy Gap by reading aloud to pre-k
016through second grade students and giving each child a book to take home that a caring power of United Way volunteers made a huge impact on the lives of our youngest Learners and we cannot thank you enough for all that you do to support Savannah Chatham County Public Schools please join me and give me a big round of applause to the reunited team led by Brent Grant Sherry Dean Laura Humphries and we're going to ask them to come up and allow you to thank them personally [Applause] Siri thank you thank you thank you and while they have done a great job of reunited um we don't let let this opportunity go without thanking our United Way for all that they do uh for us they work with us on several different efforts and today we're singling
017out reunited because it was clearly a Herculean effort they did that work across United and to be in that many places at once in coordinate effort really took a lot of work so thank you again [Applause] we also wish to at this time uh recognize Savannah RX during the pandemic so many generous Partners stepped up to provide everything from personal protective equipment to vaccines to code the test there is nearly a constant demand for medical supplies often exceeding the supply on hand many school districts did not have the benefit of a local partner who had connections in the medical supply business but sccpsat met Josh Mallard and the Savannah RX team Savannah RX has donated numerous supplies and was a true partner in our fight against the pandemic their support as a community partner continues
018even in the post-pandemic ERA with medical supplies for our medical Allied students and donations of covid-19 tests that have been instrumental throughout this school year for our staff please join in thanking Josh Mallard for his continued support of our district and we're going to ask him to come forward [Applause] thank you so much again support our students who are studying the LR Health at Beach and at Woodville Tompkins also benefit greatly from their continued support of our school district and finally for our Community Partners spotlights I'd like to remind you of our relationship with Savannah ghost pirates one of the most exciting things to come to Savannah in a long time you think about it in the he part of the country is our relationship with a professional as hockey this is coming to the
019city with the gargantuan supply of enthusiasm and they have embraced our school system and our students several schools have had visits by Davey the ghost pirates mascot and he's also made appearances at our recent I pledge event where students were asked to make a safety pledge most recently the educate Chatham Foundation was the beneficiary of the ghost pirates through a fundraiser that demonstrated their commitment to education and more than a few of you have participated with us in that fundraiser we appreciate it portions of the proceeds were donated to the foundation from the first ever sccpss hockey night where I have the opportunity to do an official drop of the park we're excited to bring forward Anthony we've worked with this along we're on first name bases Anthony Benji please come forward with a brief
020presentation and we like people who bring checks yes I just wanted to thank you guys so much for embracing us and I this is my ninth season in hockey and but Across the Nation I can honestly tell you I've never been anywhere where you walk into schools and you just feel the energy any enthusiasm to be there and to Tanner act with your staff your students it's been so wonderful all year long whether it's the mascot going in to the kindergarten the first grades one of the players go and read books it's been just so amazing to be able to just entertain and just be part of your school system so on behalf of all our organizations we just want to thank you guys for opening your arms and letting us be part of that
021because we understand what you guys are doing or you're shaping the minds of Tomorrow Savannah and just from being in schools and just seeing everything I can tell you that I am so excited to see where the city's going to interacting with your faculty so thank you so much for making this person so memorable and just letting us let the kids shine at the games and sing in front of 7 000 fans so [Music] so thank you guys so much for having us here today that's um respond to the emails and smoke signals he does responded to those as well thank you Anthony foreign followers again thank you Anthony for your partnership we really appreciate it uh it's been exciting to watch our students and we've had students perform uh the national anthem we've had
022students come down and to ride the machines that's to just come down and greet the players so it's been um an absolutely awesome event and we are just we just need our ride above the Zamboni that's what we need to just work on that for us we have this whole group on there yes we'd be remiss if we did mention the amount on that giant check which were proceeds donated from the very first Savannah Chatham Public Schools night at the rink which was three thousand dollars to the educate Chatham Foundation thank you requirements thank you mister thank you so much we appreciate it we want to remember that and that money is going directly to the Education Foundation which of course is our foundation we support um we'll round about our report today from our
023representatives from professional Senate we are very pleased to have some comments today from Mrs Whalen Mrs Sauer Staples join us today as well they have continued their work around um teacher burnout they've also given some feedback around the a summary yeah so I actually have um a report from the past two meetings uh we had our first meeting in February 28th um for the new school year we discussed the new learning management system which was a hot topic for teachers uh Dr Laura May did come and do a presentation of the adoption process for the new learning management system um that will be replacing its learning next school year and every question and answer session was held we also had a presentation for Mr Dustin Allen of the Georgia Department of Education educator Support Services
024he discussed the supports that will be offered next year as part of the Georgia leads teacher evaluation pilot technical support will be provided to further evaluate factors leading to teacher burnouts that will be phase two of the teacher burnout reports um during the meeting teachers of the professional Senate continued working in their small groups to discuss the specific practices leading to burnout a final report has now been provided to Dr levette that includes practices and recommendations to ovba burnout in Savannah Georgia County Public Schools um Additionally the instructional support staff held small group discussions the instructional support Personnel continue discussions focused on how to make positive changes in our area of work some suggestions or Wellness days throughout the year to alleviate stress additional support and resources that give staff more opportunities for learning in
025their area and also to provide training for staff so that they can positively communicate with parents and help them become more accountable and then the closing Elizabeth Whalen closed a meeting by asking if any members of the Senate would like to continue smaller discussions in March several members indicated the desire to meet a small group Senate meeting was scheduled for March 23 2023 the meeting was adjourned at 5 15 pm and a second small group meeting was held virtually March 23rd which was the date of the board retreat we did have a District representative Dr Michael Michelle Panton from Human Resources came and supported the small group we had five teachers mostly comprised of special education teachers so they held a really rich discussion about the specific instances that they experience that are contributing to
026burnout um so we did recommend to Dr Patton that the phase two of the teacher burnout really should include some special education teachers so that they can deal with their own sets of issues um so the meeting was closed and we will have our final board meeting April 18th at 4 15 where we will welcome all of the board members who attend thank you very much for your report we appreciate uh the work that you continue to do um as I advised we have shared the report with the um academic team and certainly with our principles as well we'll have a full conversation with them about it we also want to make sure that we are giving attention to those practices that have in fact proven to reduce the stress not only on teachers but
027on all employees so while we've given great attention to our teaching for us we are continuing to look at uh Wellness efforts that must be in place for all and employee groups we appreciate the work that you've done and um Mr President Office members I am thank you very much Mr Ediger thank you Mr board president moving on to the agenda into Board of Education matters we do have a host of policies to review most of these are four-year reviews we do have one second reader which I'll explain when we get uh to that on the agenda first one item 6.01 is board policy jqk this is a four-year review on our exchange students policy uh we did think that in some of the language uh primarily on the regulation side that we added some
028clarity in air to make sure that individuals understood that this program is not a program for the awarding of a diploma also that we are committed as an agency to provide culturally immersive opportunities for exchange students in our American schools as a part of our program and then some other uh updates to um current best practices regulation changes primarily okay first reader yes let's move on moving on item 6.02 this is board policy ihd this is also a four-year review and again this is the first read in this process but really minimal changes here note nothing to substance to change primarily formatting and grammatical updates okay is the another session continue moving on 6.03 and other four-year review first reader this is the policy review and regulation review on the child abuse and neglect much
029of this is driven by state law and requirements under state law the review uh determined that there were no need for any changes so subject to the board's final review on this will consider this complete in our four-year review process thank you okay let's move on moving on to item 6.04 this is another four-year review this is policy jba compulsory attendance and again this particular policy review uh resulted in no policy changes and no changes to the regulation either so subject to the board's final review will consider this complete under our 40 review process doctor the students control in District eight we have a serious problem with trains trains blocking traffic trains blocking roads trains blocking highways and although it's also reference that we have late buses we have late Walkers and car rides do
030for the train so I just thought if we could just add another event regarding the training problem that we have in District 8. well our goal was to use the word events in a broad spectrum so uh what we'll do is we'll huddle with the legal team to see if there's a way to to say that with some special specific not to completely specify that a train in District eight but uh generally about events that could create um someone to be late for circumstances that are beyond their control [Laughter] the district standpoint administratively we we can make a specific reference to things like that in guidance to the principles and how they interpret that policy language um so it kind of don't know that there's necessarily anything that we have to change in the regulation
031but I know that I've heard from students and parents challenges now we don't have transportation to our choice programs that if you have children in different programs the logistical issues around that and I'm not saying that we again it's just something for us to be mindful of I don't know if it requires necessarily a change to a regulation or policy or maybe it's something worth administrative way we don't want to create you know an acceptance of visual Alternatives but we also want to balance that with I think the tolerance of where we are so just to comment on that uh Wisconsin okay all right no one else all right okay thank you for moving on to the agenda this is board policy IDC H we're calling this a mid period review because some changes came
032down in the State Board of Education on their state board of education rule for dual enrollment um really a fairly simple change we thought it was equality change though in their language because in the programs offered through dual enrollment they did use some very general terminology of it what was referred to as option A or option b they have clarified that language to ensure that what they're talking about is dual enrollment requirements for a traditional high school diploma or an accelerated career diploma so we've taken that language extracted it straight from the S but Boe Rule and included it in our regulation thank you uh discussion excellent so of course that was a regulation review only there were no changes to the policy this is the second reader you'll recall during the previous board meeting
033we did bring an update on our four-year review uh regarding jgff automobile use typically this would fall in the consent agenda when we went back and we had some feedback from the board on the first review we recognized that some of the language and how we reference registering a vehicle was a little misleading with where someone might think about an actual vehicle registration and that's not what that is of course the students would have to have all of that information about what we want is the students to register their vehicle with the school for the privilege of parking on campus and that's been explained uh with a little more clarity in the language in doing that we also recognize that much of the language on the policy side was really regulation language so there's a
034lot of red copy that's why I wanted to bring it back to the the board so you're fully aware that the only tweak is the clarity on the student registration of their vehicle with the school for the privilege of parking and that the other changes are to take language that was in the policy and put it where it should reside in the administrative regulation with all that said this does bring forward a action item for the for the board because again uh this is a second reader so we'd asked what the policy review that was previously done and with the changes that we brought forward now that the Board review this and upon recommendation of the superintendent that the board approves board policy jgff automobile use sort of a second removed and seconded discussion yes
035yes okay all right um I'm fine with this um are there any schools that are actually charging a fee okay yes they are so I understand the expenses uh maybe incurred um is there a limit on what that fee can be and that may not need to be in the regulation but just um what do we know about how the fees are being experienced is there anything that we need to know about that as we're looking at the regulation so we'll have a discussion with High School principles it's been a long time since I've collected what those various fees are typically that fees should only really include what it cost or a little bit to decal itself because they usually make them to be more permanent the hard plastic decals but we'll collect that from
036each High School to determine exactly what those fees are because it's been years since I collected them thank you and and when you do that and when we talk about it again can we talk about can we get a short description of what the student parking experience is like condition of the lot crowning like you know what's the experience of the customer you know getting the decal okay it's been moved and seconded uh all in favor okay um sorry I'm sorry all right uh it is nine zero zero final item for the board's action under Board of Education matters this is the annual boards vote on the Georgia school boards Association legislative positions the board did discuss these positions during the board's Spring retreat uh if you'll recall by uh annual protocol the gsba brings
037this forward and has a deadline uh just before May for Boards of Education as a group to agree on their legislative positions that goes forward in his discussed extensively in the June summer meeting which is held here in Savannah and it also provides the platform for the remainder of the year as a move about uh and work with other boards of Education across Georgia so the board has previously reviewed this has been provided in your board packets and has been posted publicly to the board docs website and now comes forward for the board's final review in action thus be resolved at the gsba 2023 legislative positions supported be supported as printed by the Board of Education discussion I just want to command the staff on doing an excellent job generating this to go we experience
038this process every year where we get thoughtful consideration to what is happening with our decision makers and this is an extraordinarily good job of articulating a lot of different priorities um some of which are borrowed from our leadership with our sister uh boards in the state which is really good job really good document and thank you anyone else hey it's been moved and seconded all in favor it's one two three four five six uh opposed okay I've seen so it's six two one thank you I can complete the Board of Education matters turning the agenda back over to the board president for your consent agenda hey everyone has read the consent agenda I will take a bush okay um uh any discussion okay all in favor one two three four five six opposed abstain all
039right six two one thank you yes um Mr chair for individuals who have issues with portions of the consent agenda you are still entertaining their request to remove items that they may have questions about sure okay thank you okay um ah now make sure it is now time for special appearances uh first we will have our safety briefing no sir I am so sorry Mr Jackson I'm so sorry [Music] 28th 2023 um really don't have a lot of different changes in activities are currently 3.1 percent of the budget which is a little bit lower than the last year 3.7 percent what we think the final collection would be close to the budgeted amounts of fund actual revenues are 63.3 the car modified budget as compared to the city three percent last year as far as
040senators and general funds National expenditures for teachers are 53.2 percent of the current modified budget which is a little bit lower than expected of the 67 for this point of the year of the support salaries are 44 which is lower than an expected range of 60 to 67 but I believe both most of the board member realize uh the challenges that we have in finding staff to work um for the district along with other employers total from expenses modified budget as prepared to 62 last year all the other programs in the grants and funds are pretty much aligned um I'm going to find that we normally highlight Just for information School Food Service which is from 600 . 63 profit net profit of 234 777 um we actually budgeted to transfer 3.1 million dollars from
041the general funds to support School nutrition 2.1 million dollars of the transfer has been recorded as of February revenues for a decrease next month due to the spring break and significantly in June while salary expenditures continue however there's no other concerns of activities food nutrition or any of the other funds or any questions at this time for the financials thank you move on to attend items the first is suicide Dimensions request board approach to move accumulate funds from district-wide vacant positions to provide funds to the Urgent School site repairs and correct information measures and the chart below we are moving three million dollars accumulations and fund 100 to a contribution to account line and also amending the budget creating and operating transference and creating and other expensive account line and the same amount of three
042million dollars let's be resolved upon Recreation of the superintendent that the board approved the budget amendment shown in the above amount of three million dollars for capital projects to support urgent food site repairs and corrective maintenance measures sorry uh yeah so I 100 support this transfer um we've talked in our Retreats and CSE meetings about um the need to be um proactive with our preventative maintenance it's going to help our facilities condition assessments so I'm glad to see some action on this I appreciate staff's work on it and I support it wholeheartedly so yes it's a large sum but it's a lot less than what we would have the taxpayers pay if we didn't take care of this okay um I also supported actually I don't think three million getting our inventory real estate is
043does the principal have the ability or flexibility to work with the district to utilize those signs so for example if there are four custodians assigned to a building only two of those are filled are there opportunities to use those funds for those other two positions to address some of our ongoing um operations and maintenance needs we normally ask principles to effective position to either work with maintenance to get a temporary person to fill the position or um someone will contract to support the the needs of that school as far as moving the funds to maintenance of a building we don't allow the principles to do it we do it more account in the central office that the people that know that business recommend that transfer and not rely on principles I guess I was thinking
044the first part of what you said is there the ability to bring in some contract assistance to be able to help in filling that Gap a temporary person in position um temporary agencies and they've been very helpful with us finding positions and if necessary to even contract um positions out to come all right okay okay thank you they don't know what they can do because they don't know what they have spent but because you guys are providing that kind of real-time information we don't have to take this from anywhere else in the budget and you also can't do this without talking to site leaders and unit leaders to know how many months has something been vacant when do you think you're going to fill it thank you for next month if we could please each
045board member would get a copy of how many vacancies we have in each department across our district I'd like to see that I'm looking at the uh uh forms thank you Mr for giving us vacancies just here but this is just in leadership so if we could get that information how many vacancies we have in each department across the district for our budget meeting I'd appreciate it yes.com the different funding sources so that the public can get a great understanding as to what funds can be used as foreign thank you anyone else all right it is removed and seconded all in favor right I like that nine zero thank you very much free staff requests Department office equipment Furniture account the K-12 computer equipment account is used to furnished Etc and the chart below you
046see that we're transferring two million dollars from furniture to another computer equipment count and amount of two million dollars thus bear resolved upon recommendation of the superintendent that the board approved the transfer of funds to K-12 computer equipment account from K-12 classroom office equipment Furniture account for the purchase purchases of items five thousand dollars whole or less per unit costs okay yes and Mr Johnson seconds uh any comments questions wonderful um it's been moved executive all in favor thank you sir continue yes the next two items are related to replace the HVAC at cultural Middle School the first to transfer money from an account in E3 contingencies to the HVAC replacement account for culture Middle School in an amount of two million nine hundred and seven thousand three hundred and seventy six dollars replacement account
047um yes I'm just confused um those E3 contingencies to an E3 specific account right I understood that and then the next is from before so is it a total of 5.8 million okay that's what I needed all right this is a really really really big Bill and it was splitting the bill between two accounts I love it all right uh it's been moved and seconded all in favor thank you and the second part of the transfer is E4 to transfer 2.9 Million dollars from E4 HVAC renovation replacement on multiple locations to a creative account for E4 cultural Middle School HPA replacement in the amount of 2907 upon recommendation of the superintendent that the board proof funds to account any comment all right let's move to the second all in favor nice here thank you for
048the next item is Elementary School re-roof the purchasing department received two business will received from [Music] to re-roof elementary school as outlined in bed c23-03 and all related documents staff recommends that this bid be awarded to the Lord's responsive and responsible bidder source would be an E3 thus be resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the awarded bid c23-03 Elementary School America company in the amount of one million 741 476 dollars discussion [Music] all in favor that's good okay the next item is High School s located [Music] resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approved the award dollars and I'm sorry because I can't imagine of how many faces did you all right all right it has been moved in segmented all in favor uh we have eight
049and one is absent just eight zero zero okay okay next item is contract CPI charging station for electric buses [Music] stations with Express plus system and one Standalone DC fast charger from chargeport Incorporated charges were determined to be the best overall value for the district the total cost of the 13 charging stations is 82 643 dollars yes I'm sorry upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approved the purchase of the 12 dual Port easy charging stations with Express plus system and one Standalone DC fast charger from carport Incorporated used a lot to utilized contracts total cost of 822 643 any comments discussion yes Mr Johnson 's awesome I kind of wanted to know if uh [Laughter] exactly um I do have a question we've got we're getting 13 charging stations oh my gosh
050these are the ones that were purchasing from the grant okay the additional ones that will be purchased from the Transportation budget but along with the buses came an allocation of funding for charging station all right thank you all right anyone else all right it's removed executive all in favor right eight zero the next item for our pc23-09 high school artificial turf fields the purchasing department received five requests for proposals in response to RPC 23-09 High School artificial turf fields the intent of the solicitation was to established a contract with one or more vendors conversions for five schools New Hampstead High School Johnson High School each high school and it's outlined in RFP c23-09 and all related documents athletic [Music] Fields be award to Advanced Sports Group for the turf conversions [Music] and sports turf for
051the turf conversions Mr and um I'm just going to quote I'm going to quote Dr Howard Hall in more recently Reverend Smith Miss Miller that was that was uh you don't have to answer that right now thank you um islands is the fields and Islands in Savannah are those practice seals are they will Savannah is brand new and I was the practice field so it's the practice fields asking is the turf going to be laid on those practice fields because they already have stadiums correct yeah okay so this is for the practice fields and those two schools and it's for the competition facilities okay thank you the Reuben all right uh Dr Freeman um this seems like a lot of money spent but it's money spent up front on massive amounts of cost saving on
052Turf replacement every couple of years and the management and upkeep of that Turf and safety so please please please remember that this has cost savings embedded in the initial expense American football player let me tell you holes on practice sales injuries ants it's been awful so to have this happening now it's just really a time to celebrate and I agree with Mr Green Academy the other issues are we were spending a lot of money um renting other resources so now we're going to have in-house capabilities we now don't have to reschedule things when it's slightly drizzling um and deal with degradation from overuse so there's lots of positives for this um and I noticed we also um had a maintenance contract uh for the turf as well so we're trying to take care of our
053existing facilities trying to improve an upgrade Uh current facilities to lower cost down the road model for some comments this has been a long time coming and certainly we're waiting to identify the funding I think along will talk a little bit in the team we spent a lot of time researching um Mr Cashman I did bring this forward quite some time ago we researched a little bit of the school districts looked at the benefits of moving to the term so thank you for your patience as we worked through that process it is going to be a much needed and a better solution for our students in Jesus Mr Casper mentioned in your concern agenda you provided and approved for us to be able to maintain an upkeep Mr Johnson oh I know I've gotten a
054lot of questions also out on um about the New Hampshire High Schools I'm really glad to see that on there um for those of you who missed the town hall that I did at Pooler Elementary that was one of the topics that had come up as well as the one that I did at Bloomingdale Elementary today and like some of my colleagues said I'm looking forward to everyone in a matter of years we have gone to having Alice is a stadium there's a practice field that looks like a college Stadium over at Jenkins we have Savannah high and we're continuing that process so we understand what the needs are we have to make sure we have the available funding and timing but we recognize what those needs were in the district and we wanted to
055get out of the business of running and owning and making sure that the district had all of their needs not just some academics but Athletics so again thank you for your support when we work through these processes and bring these initiatives forward to you okay anyone else all right all right it is removed it is seconded Olive has been discussed all in favor [Music] prior to this meeting the purchasing department received five proposals to the sponsor RFP 23-19 District popular Fleet Management Services spoke one and District print center Management Services LLC Tyler Texas code New York USA Incorporated Pennsylvania Corporation Norwalk Connecticut one staff recommends the work of a contractor USA Incorporated dollars [Music] general fund is the funding source for The copier release Management Services [Music] Management Services so two additional one-year terms very
056none all favor um rip 26 22.05 construction manager at risk tomorrow [Music] for the project upon recommendation of the superintendent change order number one and the amount of 18 million seven hundred and seventy one thousand fourteen dollars for early sight work foundations and still purchased bed package for the construction of the one of the first high school replacement to J.E Dunn Construction Company Incorporated account session Minnesota [Laughter] anyone else okay uh it's moved and seconded all in favor zero nice this is a done deal yes sir and the final item is the Georgia Power contract renovation and replacement for cultural Middle School the which is the contract for these two transfers that the board approved earlier result upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approved the contract the Georgia power for HVAC renovation
057for Coastal Middle School pricing of five million 800 14 751 dollars uh uh moved by Mr Johnson seconded by Dr Hall uh discussion hey it's been removed and seconded all in favor nine zero okay all right good next we have appearances but first we have to have our safety briefing good evening please remember that the most useful comments are those that are related to the Minor's policy for which the board has jurisdiction excuse me speakers have a minimum of three minutes in which to speak and the direction of the board chairman that time may be lessened due to the number of speakers signed up and the agenda of the meeting Seaboard policy bcbi public participation and board meetings all comments shall be made in a professional manner that is not disruptive to the meaning yes
058should avoid name calling towards staff board members and should avoid using profanity please follow the instructions of the board chair who provides over the meeting the board chair reserves the right to call to any halt or anyone Outdoors correction who vows the rules of the public appearance for the board further established rules Upon Us according to OCC correction official code of Georgia 20-2-58 c 3 through board it actually I'm Dr Sharon Sanders I'd like to greet the board president thank you board members thank you um all the officers and certainly our community members I'm with Savannah Dream Center Incorporated Savannah Dream Center Incorporated has a mantra which is to transform lives through education so who am I because I am new to this Savannah area I grew up here was educated here in public schools
059was educated at Savannah State University left the area to go on to Alabama a m got a masters there and then relocated to New York and then on to Chicago um who am I and what have I done in Education so much in education I probably spent the last 25 years working as a college professor working uh as a director of student Recruitment and onboarding for a large community college in Illinois and why am I starting Savannah Dream Center the organization is actually six years old um I founded it on one of my trips back to Savannah I recently relocated retired and decided to come back here and do the work so the work of education is never complete Savannah Dream Center provides uh College Prep we provide a number of hybrid Workshop experiences for
060students our focus is on middle school and high school students and we're doing character development and a number of other providing those resources that they need um I am trying to connect with the Savannah School District because I believe in starting at the top and just really making sure that we're all on board my goal is really to partner and to make sure that we are connected to the students within Savannah Chatham so I am certainly happy to be here thank you for giving me a few minutes and since I have a little time left I'm just going to say we're here to serve my request is that we partner collaborate um be able to connect to those counselors who are in the area so that we can make sure that students get what they
061need it is always my heart and the Heart of Savannah dreams that are incorporated as founder and chief academic officer it is also always a heart of the organization to make sure that we're serving students so students first their success is important to me I've watched thousands of students uh through mentoring and coaching I've seen many of them go on to receive Advanced degrees and they're doing all of this because we gave them a sound Educational Foundation and so that is my goal that is my heart and I'm done are there any questions for me thank you very much thank you hey next we have uh Mrs Emily Brown Ruth is Miss Emily Brown Ruth here okay all right all right next uh Miss Stephanie Morgan hello um good afternoon thank you and Mr Moss
062University board members for allowing me to speak um I am actually here on behalf of new Hampton High School's school council um I am um I'm sorry my name is Stephanie um I am a mother of five um I have one in Hampton High School for enhance a K-8 and one that will be next year in the Pre-K um I am here because we are requesting um for y'all to prioritize a fence around our school we need a perimeter offense and at the least we need Gates on both sides of our of our school in closing both of our parking lots our student parking lot and our teacher parking lot um from what I've heard our school council hasn't really asked for much over the years but this has been a concern and expressed multiple
063times and multiple years by our principal um our school council decided that it was time that we brought this issue to your attention um offense sorry about that um What offense and Gates will do is it protects our children our teachers as well as our teachers and students vehicles um you'll kind of touch some of the student parking I can answer questions about that because I just did that because I have a new driver um thank you very much thank you and if you want to leave that with the officer leave your comments with the officer yes please yeah yeah thank you all right uh next we have Miss Beth madrone good afternoon A literacy task force recommendation document was created and shared at a March school board retreat after a thorough review of this
064task force document I've uncovered an alleged violation within this document of the divisive Concepts board policy adopted earlier this year in response to Governor Kim's law being such divisive comments Concepts per board policy quote unquote espousing personal political beliefs is a violation of the divisive Concepts policy and is defined as an individual while performing official duties as part of his or her employment or engagement with the school or local school system intentionally encouraging or attempting to persuade or indoctrinate a student's School Community member or other school Personnel to agree with or advocate for such individuals personal beliefs concerning divisive Concepts the select policy violation is located in recommendation number two on page three of the literacy task force PowerPoint which Begins by stating the intended objective of conducting a robust teacher training program for 6th
065through 12th grade 12th grade English language arts teachers coaches and support staff which is a quality recommendation in and of itself shockingly however the only strategy listed to accomplish this robust teacher training is to solicit the support of deepcenter.org a self-acclaimed activist organization versus hiring a legitimate and accredited English language arts teacher training program from Deep centers and website I quote it's true deep hasn't always done policy reform work if you knew us from back in the day maybe you remember deep as the folks placing cool writing workshops in schools deep again actively investing our time and energy into the push for policy reform in 2018 unquote her director of Deep's Center thank you public policy and Communications Coco Pappy Who develops Deep's public policy and advocacy positions as well as working as the organization's
066lobbyists since 2018 deep Center has morphed into a left of center activists incubation organization that uses programs and workshops in Savannah Georgia to support race and gender-centric social policies such as social justice Equity dismantling systemic racism gender affirming care Criminal Justice Reform abortion access and intersectionality essentially the literacy task force is recommending using public tax dollars under the guise of funding teacher training to pay deep to indoctrine our school children and use their writings as proxies to groom them as activists I'm asking parents to reach out to me immediately for help with filing a complaint against the school system for this alleged violation of the school board divisive Concepts policy relating to past and potential future thank you thank you thank you okay Mr Rick Rooney foreign sport members I'd like to affirm your decision
067to implement the science of reading with strong phonics based education to reinforce this decision and perhaps help with your next step in implementation I'd like to give you a short case study of reading education in Bethlehem Pennsylvania 2015 44 of Bethlehem third graders were not reading at grade level the district's academic officer decided to investigate what to do to improve those results Silva and his team looked into the research regarding how children learn to read as a result they discontinued the balanced literacy whole language program the school system had been using for years they replaced them with a science of reading program with heavy focus on Phonics you started with extensive training and school principals followed by kindergarten teachers next they train first and second grade teachers after year one the percent of kindergartners who
068met the reading readiness Benchmark for first grade Rose from 50 to 80 percent when teachers saw the results of teaching phonics many of them said they realized they never learned how to teach reading many felt guilty for not having taught the students how to read over the past years in response to this teacher guilt the district adopted the slogan when we know better we do better fast forward to 2022. Bethlehem third grade reading proficiency was 84 percent up from 44 in 2015. they had several schools that were at 100 percent and the district now sees 100 as an achievable goal for the whole system was quoted as saying that for years Bethlehem had excused the lack of reading ability of a high percentage of US children by saying the kids were poor they were minorities
069they were raised in poverty they had four pounds for poor family structures Etc what they discovered was that the children weren't learning because they weren't being taught correctly now they are and the results are extremely impressive I commend our District staff for recognizing the need to change how we teach our children to read and I recommend the district initiate contact with Mr Silva who has since been promoted to superintendent of schools in Bethlehem to learn everything we can from your experience and I'd be happy to share references for this case study if you'd like thank you very much thank you thank you Mrs Cheryl gay so um I've heard board members often say that um no parents are following complaints about issues they have including the books or anything and you know what y'all are
070100 right they don't and there's a lot of reasons one of them might be ignorance complacency and just busy parents they're just overwhelmed you know working raising their kids but I think there's another reason that's um contributing to that in the past few years we've all witnessed parents who confront the school boards be silenced harassed and even falsely arrested I think we all probably saw that Loudoun County school board meeting where Scott Smith was wrestles To The Ground by police and arrested and that image was used by the media to portray the appearance movement is extremely violent and as a result of that the National School Board Association Smith's letter I succeeding wrote a letter signing Smith's arrest is justification for debating protesting parents be treated as domestic terrorists and that letters for mayor Garland
071to direct the FBI to investigate disgruntled parents also [Music] and Scott Smith that parent was arrested he was eventually Vindicated um by Grand Jury um but he had to go through a lot of trauma embarrassment and financial costs to get to that point of education and most people don't have the um the finances to do it so just because they're silent does not mean consent or agreement and I'm going to shift here just really briefly um is a very very small school system the high school 292nd to 258th please prioritize skills and credentials and experience thank you thank you thank you all right uh we have one one more Sheila Rogers there's still Rogers here okay um I will entertain an emotion to the church no we adjourn after we have foreign yes second all
072in favor yes okay now I'll take a motion to move into executive session to discuss Personnel uh or legal student matters security and legal matters all right thank you very much everyone that came out take care