Regular Meeting - December 7, 2022

001thank you foreign good afternoon and welcome to this regular board meeting of Snapchat on board of public education this is Wednesday December the 7th 2022. I would remind you that this is indeed a in-famous day in the history of the United States because it is Pearl Harbor day and uh I think we should always make certain that we remember those who lost their lives for us so that we could have the freedom to be here today but it's my pleasure to welcome you to our meeting the meeting will be streamed uh on our website uh we were having or not us but Comcast was having problems this morning in the whole Savannah area and so right now we are up but in case it changes I will let you know that also um board secretary

002if this meeting has been advertised in accordance with all the standard rules and she assures me that it has um if you will join with me as we uh welcome one of our school choirs who will be singing the National Anthem and then we will have our Pledge of Allegiance we have I think 40 steers so we're going to fill out the Horseshoe today hmm all right good afternoon everyone my name is Andrea Burkett and I am the director for elementary curriculum and instruction and it is my pleasure to introduce this is Rebecca Flaherty and a marsh Point Mariners chorus as you can see we have a large group made up of 45 third fourth and fifth grade students who are here today to sing the national anthem for you prior to coming to public

003education Mrs Clarity Saint Opera throughout the world and has since brought her talents here's the San Antonio County Public School System where she worked at A.D Williams and now has the pleasure to work at Marsh point Allegiance [Music] with his heart around [Music] here [Music] I was still there [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you y'all just stayed here long enough and they can't see me and I don't have to do anything foreign [Applause] [Music] you've heard the motion is there a second second time is signs uh all in favor of the motion will prove me again raise your hand please one two three four five six seven eight motion passes eight zero zero uh and do we have any changes we have several announcements today on Thursday excuse me on Thursday December 8th

004there will be an audit committee meeting of that meeting is in this room at 8 00 a.m tomorrow uh there's a Capital Improvements meeting on Wednesday December the 14th 2012 at nine in the same room and then there's uh the day of the January board meeting because of holidays Etc will be on Wednesday January the 11th Whitney complex in this room and I understand our new person that's sitting back there just with banging breath but uh we look forward to seeing you that board meeting um you probably are aware that for three of us this is our last board meeting and I'm going to introduce the other two and have them say just a few remarks uh the first one is the board secretary Miss Mary Davis who's been with us [Applause] first time speaking

005into the mic I just want to say thank you to this wonderful board awesome superintendent and previous boards and superintendents thank you for this opportunity thank you Mr Mayor next is uh Miss Heinz and for the last four years I've had the well I've served eight years in the last four years to talk about how old she was and the fact that she was the veteran board member uh but she's uh she's been with us for uh longer than anyone else since I've been involved with the board and it's my pleasure to say that she's become a good friend and uh I look forward to uh serving with her as we go out and just raise Cain in the communities well thanks [Applause] [Music] thank you so very much first I'd like to say uh

006uh I am retiring as your school board representative on December the 31st District 5 school board representative my major roles have been making board policy hiring School superintendents for our school system and overseeing school school budgets very important some decisions made by my colleagues and me were not always acceptable by the public but our major objective was and still is and I'm going I want to make this a quote to do what is best for all students here in Savannah Chatham County Public School System unquote for the past three years we have worked diligently to keep students and staff safe from covid-19 virus and other infections as school board members it takes ability dedication and time working together with others in order to be successful at this job thank you Dr Buck and board members

007for your support as we have worked together as team members making positive positive decisions that have made our students successful in many ways thank you superintendent and the vet for your strong leadership and vision as we all work together for the good of our students here in Chatham County Public School System along with your dedicated administrative staff teachers and Workforce uh constituents for allowing me to serve you for 16 long years and finally thanks to my husband Frank Hines family members and friends who worked with me tirelessly on all my campaigns and running for district 5 school board representative may God bless each of you and merry Christmas thank you and lastly it's uh it's been my pleasure and my privilege to have the honor of the Hound of working for our students over the

008last few years um it has been a remarkable experience for me I've spent my life as an educator most of you know about 40 years at Armstrong State University before I retired and ran for office a school board president um I was just telling the reporter from WTOC a minute ago you know the first year Ms Hines and I were on the board but we had to make a decision uh about whether we should have cell phones in schools um and there was a lot of pushback for the board members because we didn't think they were needed in schools we also chose to implement a uniform policy and there were a lot of parents in those days especially students that were not very happy about having to wear uniforms today we finished that conversation with

009a reporter from Toc talking about the solar Farms on the grounds of all of our new schools and the electric buses that are coming to join our uh Florida buses here in the district in between we've had a worldwide pandemic we've had shootings in schools unfortunately around the country and we've seen the problems about mental health and health of our students grow immensely because of problems within our society I want to just very briefly say thank you to all of our employees whether you are a teacher or whether you're in nutrition driving a bus custodial staff technology staff whoever you are I love and respect that the fact that I've had the opportunity to be a part of you for the last few years and in saying that I know of your dedication when parents

010give us their students because we have them for most of the day every day they're putting their trust into the fact that each of us whether we work in whatever job in the district are going to do the right things for their students that becomes extremely important in crisis situations like Savannah High last week in saying how much I appreciate that I would also have to say the staff the cabinet all the people that are all over the county doing the work to assist our sins or just Heroes every one of you and it has been my privilege and honor to be a part of the day-to-day work process with our superintendent Dr Ann levette um you know when you're uh in a position of leadership whether that be mine or hers not everybody's happy

011with you and not everybody likes what you do but you do the best you can when you get up every morning and and have your own private time with God to say what I'm going to do today is what I think is best for the students with the information that I have it's been my privilege uh she and I've had a lot of early morning talks about six o'clock in the morning when I was walking and she was walking but thank you all for the privilege of being a part of you thank all of you on the board you know from most of you four years ago we talked about the team of ten and the district was facing some little frightening things at the time you know almost no time we had righty that

012that ship again and we're going forward it is a pleasure to be with y'all January the whatever that date is I'm going to be in front of my computer and I'm going to be texting board members but thank you very much for the privilege foreign oh my goodness we're going to ask Mrs Hines to come forward Ms Hazard has been our absolute pleasure to work with you we appreciate your dedication and so we want to today provide a moment of um in recognition of your service so we have prepared a report of Mrs Ari G Hines board member serviced by the numbers she has served for 16 years that's 192 months 5844 days 140 256 hours 8 million 360 minutes thank you for your service [Applause] back to book if you come forward please come

013on down in recognition of your service as board chair we wish to acknowledge Dr Bart's Services Board chair and these numbers do not reflect every everything serves by the Numbers 14 years 144 months 383 days 192 hours 6 million three hundred eleven thousand five hundred and twenty minutes thank you so much for your service [Applause] Security numbers foreign Davis Brown Friday of this week we will have the opportunity to celebrate her she is a member of the staff she's not an elected official but she is very very in tuned with both the staff knees and these officials so Friday in our own style the staff will celebrate Mrs Mary Brown Davis with a dessert reception and to a Bull Street office our board members of course and staff are invited to participate and we are

014looking forward to sharing that time with her thank you for this privilege dude [Applause] has asked to speak and then we're moving on the program I promise as I sit here in this horseshoe for my fourth year there are two board members that are missing here Dr Buck and Miss Hines I learned a lot from you you modeled how to govern in all that you do during small group meetings and a quorum of nine you are the two to keep everyone in line Dr book is time conscious with minimal delay but miss hands lets it be known when she has something else to say during the executive session they sit at both ends of the table while one is watching the clock the other is cool calm and stable when the means get heated and

015the gavel is pounding is much more resounding but when the meeting is adjourned regardless of hat stream they model the essence of what it's like to be a team Mary you are awesome you document every vote you are most important 33.33 years of copious notes thank you out for your service thank you for your time thank you for your labor doing your Youth and doing your Prime thank you for your dedication but let's make this clear ly you volunteer or work the book doesn't stop here [Applause] um one other two other announcements uh Georgia School Board Association of semi-annual meeting in Atlanta last week of the board and Dr ringman has a pro team were able to um accept this award for the board on behalf of all the board this was the Leading Edge

016award which is given to a school board um that is innovative has Innovative practices and we were honored because of our little Aiken academy uh where we are taking through taking three euros and giving them a full school day so that they can learn to read quickly and we're proud of that award likewise uh Georgia school board gives through a good number of requirements and criteria a certificate of recognition for um a quality School Board um there are two three different levels and of that and I believe that we've won that uh most every year for the last 10 years but anyway this is um another thing that makes us feel proud is the team that we have become uh it's hard to be serious [Music] and then the last announcement and then we'll move

017forward to hear from the superintendent and let you from the public speak uh the purpose of the Savannah County Public School System Audi committee is to provide on behalf of the Board of Education oversight of the district's financial reporting and accounting practices review of the adequacy of internal accounting and control systems and review of the systems and processes that help us meet those Boards of the boards goals part of this process involves an Engaged Community who agrees to serve as members of the board's owning committee and the hard work of committee members provides input on the valuable components in our process for continuous Improvement uh the person being recognized today for her time and dedication and she will be formally recognized at the audit meeting tomorrow the board would like to express appreciation gratitude to

018uh Denise M Cooper Esquire committee chair from 201 December 2014 to December 2022. thank you to Mrs Cooper for her dedication to us and I hope that you uh if you know her we'll join in congratulating her when you see her foreign who have passed away during the last month and today uh we only have two members Craig Hanson elementary teacher at Isle of Hope School and Shannon Floyd Butler a title one math teacher in academic Affairs would you join me me as we pay respect to these folks thank you superintendent um report now welcome thank you thank you members of the board it is my pleasure to introduce you to um a good news our future student of the month is a seventh grader at Mercer Middle School and she was nominated by Dr

019Kristen Panton the principal principal Penn shares that this student has exhibited Mercer Raider Pride by being prepared respectful and involved disciplined and engaged daily this shows scholar currently is participating in grade level acceleration programs so that she can earn high school credits next year while in the eighth grade our student of the month is also a junior Police Academy participant and part of the Raider Pride Club today's lottery credits her strong work ethic to her family who have instilled positive morals and values in her she credits her mother and grandparents for educating and empowering and encouraging her to strive for academic excellence our Stellar student scholar understands the power of self-advocacy and executive functioning skills not only as a role model but also as a peer she is described as the epitome of a solution

020to the problem while maintaining peace and patience we are proud of her and so we wish to at this point Thank Our Community Partners um she will be taking home multiple Awards including a gift card from a Members First Credit Union as well as horn law voucher from Chicken Salad Chick as well as merchandise from that provider she'll also receive a dozen cupcakes from J Sweet Streets she and the students of her English language arts class will receive printed copies of her favorite book Wonder by RJ Palacio from our sponsor a long-term sponsor e-shaper book sellers she will also take home a portrait by upscale photography provided by Savannah Chatham County Public Schools please join me as we introduce to you the young person who is a student of the month for November Mrs zarya

021hope Robinson [Applause] okay congratulations [Applause] her crystal is here with her uh Dr Panton thank you for joining us this afternoon we are looking forward to learning more about Miss Robinson's um her academic Journey she is obviously already started and we are looking forward to her earning her high school credits next year she's getting ready for that and then we look forward to seeing her continue on on that journey of Excellence thank again [Applause] speak to our Leading Edge award this is our second award we won the award um during the first round of the very first round and we're excited that our board members were able to accept that award on Friday December 2nd we are excited to continue the work in terms of looking at improving and increasing access to early childhood education

022particularly this time we were awarded for the Little Acorn Academy at Gould elementary school so congratulations the Georgia Department of Education has chosen the Savannah Chatham County public school system to be one of 12 counties to to Pilot a new teacher teacher evaluation program beginning next school year the pilot program will feature our comprehensive educator evaluation system that promotes teacher collaboration and shared ownership for professional growth recognition of effective practices and clear Pathways for career advancement we're proud to be one of just 12 districts in the state asked to Pilot on this program and you probably heard Mrs uh Goldman talk about that opportunity for us to be involved in this and so we're happy to be selected seven s kind of Public School staff members have been awarded grants from the McDonald's golden grants

023committee the golden France awards are intended to make a community of impact by fueling the imagination education and growth of students by supporting individuals Educators programs and organizations serving students in grades K through 12. congratulations to the following Educators Melanie west of Hubert Middle School Sandra wolf of Bloomingdale Elementary School Sarah Williams of marsh Point Elementary Jessica Prosper of Coastal Middle School Kathy Smith Brock Elementary School Melissa green Bryant of New Hampstead K-8 and Don Parish of New Hampshire Cade we're happy to see them exploration fair you saw some of those images rolling through um before we started the meeting today it was held last month at the Savannah Mall for two days fourth and fifth grade students had a chance to learn about high school career Pathways and the role business and industry plays

024in creating future opportunities high school students shared information about their experiences and provided exciting activities and games to show what kind of skills and studies a student might pursue in high school from welding and nutrition culinary arts to Automotive photography medicine cosmetology the students had a wonderful time exploring options for future careers our adaptive students hit the track at the Savannah at the school of liberal studies at Savannah High just before the Thanksgiving break on a Turkey Trot Fun Run and walk our students practice life skills by registering for the event and learning race strategies during physical education everyone received a medal for participating and first second and third place winners were given a Thanksgiving turkey for their families for the holidays on Wednesday November 30th Mercer Middle School students who participated in the youth

025advocacy for resilience to disasters that after school program participated in their action plan to advocate for Community change these students worked on environmental impact approaches to create awareness about about flooding in West Savannah the program is conducted by Georgia Tech with our research Partners Savannah State University the students had an unforgettable experience as they learned to put their ideas in action and hopefully provide some suggestions to our leaders about reducing or eliminating the flooding problem that we have in various parts of the city Savannah Schools was also pleased to join Chatham narcotics Coastal Georgia indicators Coalition the front porch and J.C Lewis Primary Health Care to welcome the rally cares educational program to our area on November 28th the prescription abuse leadership initiative is an alliance of local state and National organizations committed to finding

026solutions to end the substance misuse and opioid crisis the rally cares trailer is outfitted to look like a teenagers or young adult's bedroom but it is filled with hidden warning signs of substance misuse after a well-attended press event at the front porch our partner the trailer moved to the J.C Lewis Primary Health Care Center for Community Access we'd like to take just a few minutes to thank our ongoing Partners including JC Lewis the front porch Savannah Police Department and all of those Partners who are engaged in trying to reduce this and eliminate this problem to helping us with educating parents on things to look for in their children's bedrooms congratulations to new hamsters Paul Seeley he is the winner of the 42nd Mike fennekero Memorial outstanding football player award it is given to the top

027high school player in Savannah head coaches from the teams in Savannah County voted for the award along with the local media we'd like to congratulate all of the nominees from Savannah Chatham County Public Schools including Demetrius Holloway Hezekiah Manning Michael Michael ordonzas uh Troy Smith I'm Marion Scott Khalil polite and Eric Williams this week and next our talented coral and band students will be performing on the steps at 208 Bull Street in fact they started uh Monday from 11 o'clock until one o'clock each day please watch for media coverage and if you're downtown around 11 o'clock in the morning uh join us standing outside weather permitting of course and enjoy the Sounds of the Season you will find the schedule posted and already some photos from Monday Tuesday and today on our website at sccpss.com

028and at this point I want to ask for um Mrs Whalen and there are stars to provide a summary of our professionals Senate meeting and then I will ask when they are done and if we can hear a special report from Chief Enoch um held December's events at Jenkins High School at a theme of the professional Senate meeting was centered around professional learning we did review board policy CK with the professional senate members the policy it was centered around the outdated language of the Border policy dealing with preparation implementation of professional learning in Savannah Georgia County Public School Systems um the members did indicate that the new policy did support the district's mission um 60 of the senate members agreed that the new policy did help the staff and that is um teachers and support

029staff Additionally the language could be improved by clarifying how learning needs are identified and who is accountable for implementing the changes within schools so we moved on from the policy review to talk about how professional learning rolls out in Savannah Chatham County uh we asked the three questions for Senate members to reflect on what should professional learning look like for teachers and support staff what types of professional learning do teachers and support staff need and want how do we schedule professional learning opportunities while protecting planning time the following suggestions were provided to utilize vector and other virtual opportunities for teachers to complete on their own time rather than taking up their planning time better coordination between the district departments and the schools more frequent e-learning days for staff to participate in trainings allowing for individual

030choice and specific groups of teachers rather than a one-size-fits-all more opportunities to meet with teachers from other schools teachers outside the school system and with community members training on behavior management strategies such as PBIS and mindset and additionally our assistant assistants would like to be included in professional development they are such a vital part of our classrooms and there's very little opportunity for them to have professional development good afternoon everyone school year 2023 2024 academic calendar Mr Kirk hediger Chief public affairs administrative Service Officer introduced a draft of the 2023-2024 academic calendar to send me members for feedback concerning Good Friday pre-planning days and election day senate members agree that Good Friday should be a holiday for all an election day should be an e-learning day security was a concern for schools that are poll

031sites on election days most senate members agreed on the following dates being adjusted on the proposed calendar July 27 2023 pre-planning Day added October 6 2023 and e-learning day October 9 2023 holiday or planning Day November 7 2023 a e-learning day and March 29 2024 a holiday for all will be held in December in a future meeting dates will be set after the December board meeting thank you thank you both for your report finally I offer a special thank you again to our staff our students families campus police transportation academic Affairs Communications our elected officials including our board members District staffed and First Responders for their support and guidance during the safety threat event last Wednesday to the thousands of community members who offered us their support in their in our and their accolades we

032remain grateful while law enforcement officials deemed the call a hoax and they found no evidence no evidence that any staff member or student was involved in executing the hopes those directly involved experience the real challenges of the situation while the call was a hoax the event was real I commend the team for doing an excellent job under very difficult circumstances we know that our staff our students and our district families may be understandably concerned about school safety please know that our top priority is the safety and well-being of our students and our staff we take any and all reports of potential threats seriously and we are making every effort to maintain an environment where students and Staff feel safe we continue to encourage our students our district families and our school Community to report anything

033that could constitute a threat to school safety note that we regularly review our district and individual School response plans in the event of any incident that can impact our students and staff physical and emotional well-being we remain open to recommendations on how to improve but the team did a great job that team did a great job without the teamwork without the practice I'm not sure how everything would have rolled out last week it is because of our commitment to the Christ training your support of that training effort and the diligence of our teachers to remain professional to remain calm when there was obviously an opportunity to behave otherwise we credit that work to the safety of our students and our staff on last week and of course if we had not maintained and developed strong

034relationships with our law enforcement Partners more than 20 agencies we would not have had the help on the ground should that have not been hopes we remain closely connected with law enforcement and as always we will work closely with them in these kinds of situations so again I thank the staff the families from all over the district the counselors the social workers the staff members who continue to be on the ground not only in at Savannah High Savannah or in college but any other place where our assistance is needed no one has to tell us to call them in they are available all the time and whenever we call them day night weekends because the work is invisible people do not always have an appreciation for it you can't find a better set of committed

035professionals the teachers in that building the administrators or on point the central office staff the staff from other schools who came were on point the mission was to ensure that the students and staff are safe and we thank them we can't thank them enough for everything they did special kudos to our Communications team let me tell you a little secret when we send out messages we dial those numbers we can tell you if you have a number in the system and we dialed you we can tell you what time it came whether you answered and what time you dialed again so please know that all of those numbers all of those things are done so that we can ensure that those messages are sent but we try to always communicate facts can't control social media

036but we can control the deployment of facts so we appreciate your support thank you for your special messages of support and I certainly want to offer again thank you to all the professionals who are on the ground uh Chief will provide a brief summary and that will end my report president thank you for the opportunity um I just want to give you a brief review of what happened on November 30th on that particular day the Board of Education Police Department received a call that a gunman was at the Savannah High School in Pennsylvania Avenue the school district's training safety protocols agency Partnerships and commitment to safety resulted in an immediate response to the proceed threat the threat was determined to be a false claim there were no weapons on campus no injuries from Intruder and

037no one was found to be armed the situation was taken seriously in all safety precautions were implemented at the initial wave of the first respondent into school Savannah High School Administration School staff and multiple District departments Provide support and responded appropriately from their respective functional areas multiple partner agencies from our community were on site within minutes to identify and to eliminate the threat we are aware of a trend across the state that follows this hopes profile which is designed to create major disruptions in addition to tying up local law enforcement resources these hopes can create fear and Trauma for students and staff we applaud the work of our school guidance counselors our school social workers who are always ready to assist students faculty staff and families when needed you know our commitment to the safety

038of every student and every staff member in our school will never waver we spend countless hours training investing in School Technology implementing response protocols every school is trained to effectively lock down secure the campus and ensure that students and staff are safe you know our sworn officers are trying to respond immediately and meet that threat head on we're so thankful for the resources available and supported by efforts and will continue our mission to ensure all students are afforded State secure learning environment you know this event had many teachable moments and while it was a very scary moment for everyone involved we responded to the force for the good of every student and every staff member we will reinforce the many things we did right and improve in the areas where we see opportunities for growth

039I want to thank everyone and every individual who played a role in seeing that every person was safe and free from danger that's my review man superintendent again thank this board for your continued support and working towards ensuring that we have a safe School District thank you thank you Gene for what you did [Applause] moving on now to appearances good evening please uh remember the most useful comments are those that are related to the matters of policy for which the board has jurisdiction speakers have a maximum excuse me a maximum of three minutes and wish to speak as a discretion of the board chair that a 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

040be made in a professional manner that is not disruptive to the meeting gets to avoid name calling towards staff board members and should avoid profanity please follow the instructions of the board chair who presides over the meetings the board chair reserves the right to call anyone out of order who violate the rules of public appearance the board further established rules of conduct in accordance and accordance with ocga 20-2-58c3 through board policy bcbi public participation in policy BC board meeting decorum and board meetings we appreciate your interest in the work of our school system definitely printed copies of their notes or supportive material for the board to review thank you thank you sir I have several citizens who have signed up to speak uh the first one today is Mr Peter robine who's the founder of

041teach our Christian Heritage and he's going to speak to us in that subject is he not here okay concerned citizen oh um I'm sorry Mr Robin come forward I'm sorry you're having it good afternoon good afternoon last month I exposed that Dr Lavette enrolled the Savannah Chatham school system for a year one payment of 14 000 to be a demonstration school and a five-year program promoted by the Superintendent's Association called learning 2025 with the goal of this holistically redesigning Savannah Chatham County into an equity-based school system she did this without board approval through open records I've since confirmed that she received a welcome back letter for the current school year and has received an invoice for another payment of 11 000 more for the second year as a demo School in this equity-based program the

042move to equity-based is very misunderstood by the school board and others by Equity is meant as equal outcomes for all versus equality which means equal opportunity for all equal opportunity equality is guaranteed by our constitution at Equity is not equity and equality are two totally different concepts Equity can't be guaranteed it can only be manipulated take for example the sports analogy to understand the difference equality or equal opportunity means that all are allowed to try out for the center position on a basketball team at a high school those who exhibit the highest skill level will be chosen to play that position in contrast Equity means that players will be randomly chosen to play center on the basketball team and those who are too short to dunk a ball as a center will be allowed to

043stand on ladders to dunk the ball the advantage that the taller player has will be taken away and Equity will allow for everyone to dunk every ball they receive by lowering the bar for Success no Spectators will attend because no challenge exists the quality of the game has been destroyed this is exactly what superintendent wants to do with the name of equity lower the bar for success for every everything so everyone can be labeled as a success Equity breeds mediocrity for example two months ago I spoke on how Savannah Chatham is attempting to lower the bar for Proficiency in Reading to include developing readers who still need to support support to read and are not yet proficient in Reading it's at the end of Chatham County follows suit with other learning 2025 demonstration schools across

044the country over the next several years AP courses will be pulled opportunities for gifted and talented qualifications will be lowered and valedictory and the salutatorian will be meaningless as everyone will have an equal outcome the quality of our graduates will continue to decline but will be manipulated to look good on paper the word Equity per learning 2025 assumes there is systemic racism and discrimination in a chosen school system in Chatham County that's what it says for example one of the upcoming educational opportunities offered to superintendent Lavette for learning 2025 is on equity and one of the cover topics is called white supremacy culture and white fragility Equity as a spouse by learning 2025 creates a narrative that students of color are victims of systemic racism according to trade tribbian shortest consultant and co-editor of the

045book reach 40 black men speak on living leading and succeeding quote defining someone by their deficits or challenges is the definition of stigmatizing them he continues to say that narrative is a form of cultural grooming thus The Narrative of equity is a form of cultural grooming a perfect example of this narrative and a recent comment from Miss Grabowski school school board district one rep at the October being quote if you were a child who does not have food security if you're a child who does Savannah Savannah Schools are quote always going to struggle until the intervention is outside of the school and throughout the community to fix systemic problems that affect education treaty and shorter States quote it is more accurate to introduce a young person by their aspiration and contributions before mentioning their challenges

046than it is to sum them up as an at-risk youth it assumes kids have value before the non-profit shows up believing in our children's capacity to learn is the first step to allowing each child to see himself as a learner with aspirations and contributions that are possible to attain I implore the school board and the administrators to change their stigmatized Narrative of how they view our children of Chatham County and cancel their participation as a about school and learning 2025 I'm also leaving you a copy of the day from a famous Civil Rights leader Bob Woodson's it's red white and black which pushes Back Against The victimhood Narrative offering arguments against racial Grievances and support of founding principles such as resilience and self-determination these principles are critical for the empowerment and positive formation of young

047minds particularly those in the African-American Community who are frequently subjected to the condescending victimhood narrative thank you very much thank you very much ma'am foreign but this gross over pain I'm just going to start with this because at least return us to every meeting when it comes time to negotiate salaries there's no one on this side of the table representing the taxpayers it's like robbing a bank without the police there it's gross overpayment is really bad for everybody my great friends here have done a lot of hard work all I do is show up the Declaration of Independence says that we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal this is the basic underpinning of the American way of life of Freedom knowing that we are endowed by our creator with

048certain unalienable rights and abilities we are created equal but at that point it becomes up to the individual is behold to the individual to do whatever they can with their god-given talents and to work as hard as they choose and if somebody wants to live on a bridge but someone wants to you know dream The Impossible Dream and do that and do that that is what makes America different than every other country but if you don't teach that how do I know that because since 2011 I've done my presentations in terms of freedom in it pick your own question when I started this observing a little whole bunch out of town South Carolina called the 535 get five chances after three questions right we need to get two out of five wrong but you get

049a three right you get five bucks on the spot and a little poor town a lot of blacks kids came up they won that five bucks and they couldn't get three questions right anyway but if the questions you were like remember the first time I spoke to your doctor and remember that the first question that when I came in in August of 2021 the first day of my month after respectfully introduced myself what is the date on the Declaration of Independence and all I saw was Max and eyeballs [Music] you don't talk yeah is it outrageous lack of accountability with this interaction but the reason I asked that question because I doubt you know with a PhD and we know that most by far the vast majority of students who graduate from this sham of

050a school system don't know the basics about the freedom that's been given to them by their forebears earned by the people who went to battle over a million men and women mostly men have died in battle to give us the American way of life that we enjoy but we don't teach them not what you don't teach that and the school s why why is that I know because for decades I've watched since I was a kid the Socialist Democrats have taken over the education industry in this country that's why it's about bringing communism into this country it's been going along for decades that's why so you eradicate not only the story but the information but the understanding you can't just know facts you've got to understand you gotta develop our understanding over the Declaration of

051Independence means the constitution of the Bill of Rights you've got to understand this what makes this country different in terms of a person's ability to live in a free country what makes it different here than any Russian World Christianity that's why because our brilliant and I mean brilliant finding fathers devised a government they gave us a government chair are we not keeping time today sir you've paid for three minutes I said you've had your three minutes I'm sorry [Music] foreign [Music] showing some test results I saw a report circulating about test results I wanted to find out the source myself so I was able to track down the Georgia Department of Education end of year assessment reports I focused on grade three and I did a comparison between 2022 and 2021 and the reason why

052I focused on reading was as most know in the room is crucial for at grade three because from K to three they're learning how to read and then at that point forward their uh reading to learn there's also I saw were devastating dismal about half of the enrolled students and if I have the statistics correct about 36 500. only 50 percent have any reading proficiency at all there were no increases in proficiency according to that report and thinking how can this be how can improvements be made and knowing that school board members the only real power you have is your vote and the main job of school board members is to hold the superintendent accountable I looked into the extended contract August 2022 that showed a extension of Dr Webb's contract with a nine percent

053increase of a base pay of 299 000 along with extremely generous sick vacation community business expense and then what I thought was kind of the cherry on the cake was a 10 or in other words thirty thousand dollars uh contribution to a tax annuity I'm okay with work salaries but I would say in a couple weeks you're going to have a new board president and I asked that uh that leadership helps use the board to come up with better proficiency results that are tied to the superintendents annual performance evaluation school board members we elected to you to hold her accountable for these results please bring a laser focus to the basics such as math language arts and reading proficiency thank you ma'am next for three minutes is Mr Carlton's Carlton Carter um an hour across

054the board another thing that I brought to the point was nothing to be enough about the terrible management of course my mission is to direct us and I mention that one particular supervisor and she was the reason why I left transportation also the directors I feel like are time service which if you know what a time their time or staying until somebody forces them to leave they're not there the other drivers should have to do it so there's no incentive there's no incentive across the board also I feel like Transportation Journeys a new face they'll be in charge of somebody who's actually been there and done it because most effective supervisor we had with this Carolina she started as a bus driver worked their way up and she proved to the point that she was

055somebody who knew where we came from so everybody had the most respect for her picking up the kids one of the last statements I will leave you with is anybody can drive a bus but not everybody can be a bus driver thank you thank you sir I have a Miss Cheryl gay welcome Miss gay can y'all hear me hear me if I can give it a second chance alive my legacy would not be to endorse and condone exposing children to have seen in photography material followers things that cause sin will inevitably occur but most of the one through whom they occur it would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he'd be thrown to the Sea for him to cause one of these little ones to stumble so Millstone

056uh looked it up average about 3 000 pounds so for a little perspective with that in mind it would be better better for him if a 3 000 pound Stone were put around his neck and he'd be thrown into the sea if the better option is having a 3 000 pound Stone dragging you to the Bottom of the Sea what's the worst option [Music] what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your soul thank you man our last speaker our last speaker is Ms Gibbs welcome Miss Gibbs I'm addressing Dr Buck's letter dated November 2nd 2022. unfortunately this letter is a sad piece of sophistry it's full of lofty sounding statements and phrases like intellectual Freedom parent choice Democratic process and fair procedures all of it meant to deceive and derail

057from the focus the focus from the topic at hand which is exposing children to pornography please note that Dr Buck never argues that exposure to pornography is good for children or even harmless why because he can't the Damage Done by exposing children to pornography is too widely recognized as a society we protect children from pornography in every other venue movies internet content adult bookstores we never consider this protection to be censorship or Banning pornography readily available to adults it is not considered to be banned simply because we do not allow children access Society considers this Dr Buck to be protection the argument about incidental objectionable material applies to evaluation of adult reading that has pornographic content that standard does not apply to children intellectual Freedom does not include giving pornography to children if you Dr

058Buck or superintendent love it gave any one of these books to a child on the street you could be arrested under state law the fact that schools aren't mentioned in the legislation protecting children with an oversight of an earlier era when it could not be imagined that our schools would ever become the suppliers of pornography and the Board of Education and superintendent Levitt are responsible for keeping graphic sexual content and books depicting racial hatred out of the schools not parents that you have transferred your responsibility to each and every parent is a dereliction of Duty on your part at a ridiculous burden on the parents imagine having three children a job a home a mortgage a rent and you are now responsible for keeping the school from exposing your child to pornography that you make

059it sound as if you are doing the parents a favor is nothing short of outrageous just because the library media technology Specialists and other groups have let children down doesn't mean that you should follow suit there's a trust of a child is a precious gift that must be protected and human civilization the treatment of children is the final frontier of morality Children of the innocent canaries in the cultural coal mine that our society has been become a society that not only neglects to care for but also actively exploits its most vulnerable members proves itself morally bankrupt to the very core unlike you and your Associates Dr Buck we regard children as our most valued commodity and we intend to protect them thank you [Applause] moving on to uh Board of Ed matters oh what happened

060I'm sorry uh Ms Baker I didn't know I had another speaker okay um this is all the king that's on the list uh moving on Board of Education matters foreign [Music] uh 7.1 is the first one on your agenda lineup for board matters this is a policy review first reader um one of the reasons that this came about is as we went through and recognized that there was a need to update policy bcbi per the recent action of the legislative session in 2022 which updated code section 20-258 C3 we recognize that the language under BC could be rolled into bcbi so for cleanup matters we are recommending the deletion of this policy because you will hear the language repeated in the next policy that is on your docket for review any comments concerns from board

061members questions you're ignoring moving on this is the first reading is remoted yes sir thank you item 7.02 on your agenda this is policy bcbi and again this came about as a requirement of the new state code that was changed under the legislative session 2022 and section C3 of the state code language I just cited indicates the boards of Education are to adopt a rules of conduct for visitors to public meetings which we've done we've gone through and looked at some language that was presented from attorneys through gsba and also other districts across the state and presented this for the board's consideration what this is done is effectively created a regulation to the bcbi policy which actually holds those rules of conduct key thing in here is the narrative that the legislative body saw last

062year as a need to provide the Board of Education the onus and the ability to set those rules of conduct which also could result in the removal from a meeting the key narrative is a language that's created in here is actions that create disruptions to the orderly process of the meeting in fact we do note as early as this morning and talking with Council uh that some of the languages we reference referenced in the policy side uh about language towards staff Etc that we could tweak that slightly to be more toward defamatory language that would disrupt the orderly process of the meeting so your first reader will bring this back in January for your final review a very minor one in the policy sorry I didn't Market um the second paragraph of the policy mentions

063that the um board chair the discretion to limit the length of time for individual comments and a number of individuals speaking on an issue and I realize the regulation is a separate document but the first language the first sentence and the regulation doesn't reflect that board chair discretion per meeting so it might be helpful to mirror a similar statement in the regulation for verification happy to take a look at that uh one of the effort to overcome that in the regulation was to say that the chair May establish a different time of approval of the board thank you yes sir moving on 7.03 on your agenda is also a four-year review on our policy action here first reader you'll recall that we just went over the weapons on school grounds for visitors at a previous

064meeting we've subsequently gone through and followed the edition of joining policy which is gamb and this is the possession of weapons for employees key change here is you'll note that in alignment with the drill that we just did in the previous policy read we have clearly set aside a section that states where weapons are prohibited and reference the legal basis for that questions concerns suggestions moving on thank you item 7.04 this is a four-year policy review this is idfa which is gender equity and sports part of the review and the timing of this has come through has been timely uh in the fact that in the 2022 legislative session George uh Georgia Governor Brian Kemp did sign the protect our students act part of this act did speak to a student participation in athletics and

065we recognize that that is something that we needed to address and be in line with current state code we feel that we have done that and provided a quality language and here we also recognize there were some outdated titles that needed to be cleaned up booster club support was in this policy it didn't seem to fit yeah so um good catch on that and uh while it does seem a little bit out of the ordinary that is actually referenced specifically in the state code language where you do need to account for how you manage donations the key things that is being done in a fair process so what we've done is we cross-reference already existing process for donations so that it doesn't get missed there or no um well we thought we achieved that with

066that line in this particular policy if you think it should be more straightforward and reference the exact policy uh we could do that well I guess I'm thinking if someone's looking for something a policy related to donations and they see the title gender equity and sports that's probably not what they're gonna look for that information that's all um yeah okay oh okay I just was going to contribute Point by saying perhaps uh where we look at student accounts in audit that might be that might be the appropriate place for language foreign that you you seek in that particular area uh as we stated obviously there is current policy that exists on the receipt of donations for the district but we do want to make sure that it is clear in the proper context of this

067policy area which I think is what you're saying so we'll look at it that way any other companies or questions sometimes a lot of this comes from the state and it's not particularly clear as it comes under the Gold Room so about another hour moving on please uh moving forward to the next item that is on your agenda for review this is policy iag which is item 7.06 on your agenda and we will note that in this particular code section we had brought it back at a previous meeting there are a few questions about some of the language in there and how clear it was as far as student Readiness and promotional retention I just went back and we cleaned that up a little bit one of the things you'll note is on the policy

068side there are no changes at all however we have bundled it with a review of the regulation side because we found that through our work in being very true the four-year policy review component that some policies over the years are not dated at the same time that a regulation was reviewed this goes many years back so we're cleaning that up where we can so what you see on this particular agenda is they're bundled together nicely we're calling it a four-year review no changes on the policy side but on the right regulation side we wanted to make it very clear and it really comes to the overarching language that you see about student Readiness for promotion to the next grade level wherein school principals will use multiple components for that consideration however there are certain that

069are actually required so what we did is we went through there we left the overarching language we struck anything that was not required in the specific grade bands and specifically to see this undergrades one through five and also six through eight anything outside of that though we also did add that language in there that the district will use other components such as mandated State assessments or formative local Assessments in math and reading to determine student readiness so this is uh the regulation part any uh questions concerns yes Miss Johnson um I appreciate that explanation at the end that you did say that other things um may be considered um like some of my fellow board members words may have meaning maybe to not it might not be used um so my question is why are

070we taking out stable choirs assessments as something that we are going to be using so we do not actually use state required assessments when it relates to these query levels it's not a requirement of promotion so this helps makes that make that clear May is exactly you can look at those when talking about student Readiness but it is not a requirement for a promotion in those grades it is only at grades 9 through 12 specific courses that those State assessments account for 20 of the student's final grade in those four courses that have been identified by the state okay back to Greenland and that hinges because we don't get that data until late in the calendar correct which would create a problem with promoting students so it again state does not make a requirement again

071but yes oftentimes we may not have the data in time for it to have impact any other questions concerns okay an action item of the Board of Education this is the recommended academic calendar year adoption to our quality board of education for your consideration today as we have agreed that we would bring forward the 2023-2024 academic calendar and in addition to that the 2024-2025 calendar the proposed calendar is a great part use the same framework as the current 2022-23 academic calendar calendar was reviewed to ensure a sufficient time for student academic preparedness on state assessment assessments while balancing time for staff Planning and Development activities periodic breaks aligned to the observance of federal holidays or major community events calendar presented both calendars include a Thursday school start date as the first Thursday in August 180

072instructional days 10 staff planning days for pre-planning days two post planning days and it will be completed prior to the Memorial Day holiday we also have included staff planning days that are plotted quarterly strategically used e-learning days including plotting them on election days as a matter of safety includes one week of Thanksgiving break for students and School staff two week winter break for students and School staff one week spring break also for students and School staff and accounts for St Patrick's Day major breaks are scheduled at the conclusion of winter assessments and in advance of spring assessments to allow time for students to get additional learning in advance of those assessments the draft 2324 calendar was presented for review and awareness during the November 2 board meeting it was also posted to secpss.com and it

073was reviewed and we have used feedback from the superintendent's professional Senate in addition to 2024-2025 academic calendar was developed using the same framework both calendars are now presented for the board's review and adoption thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approved the proposed academic calendar for school year 2023 2024 and be it further resolved that upon recommendation of the superintendent that the board approved the proposed academic calendar for school year 2024 2025 heard the resolution um Dr Greenman moves Mrs Johnson seconds yes thank you thank you for bringing all the parties together I'm glad we've heard two months in a row that the faculty Senate has had time to faculty at that time to look at this um give their opinions many of these I think first choices made

074in and when it wasn't their first choice it was definitely their second choice thank you for going back and having those e-learning days on um election days um I I can't thank you safety side um public spaces and I know that Chiefs will do a good job of making sure that the staff that are in those will be done e-learning dates are a lot easier to uh to manage and keep safe um thank you to the district for bringing me two dollars to vote on and um I will say that next year let's just bring the following year and now we can do one a year and we stay two years ahead and I think that keeps everybody happy thank you Mr Johnson uh yes I would also like to thank staff for everything that

075they did to put this together um I know just from working on the calendar committee and being and sharing that coming back when we had it um how difficult it is to do this knowing when testing is and when we when we use the Civic Center for graduations and everything of how to move all the pieces and so get enough people their wish list on the calendar um makes so mad and makes them not bad but please remember this is not a vacation calendar it's an academic calendar um we do this so we can get this kids and enough time to learn what they have to learn uh the only question I have about this um is we still have one here does any makeup days but with technology why do we still have to

076make a base so there is a concern that if you have a traumatic weather event that it's an outage of say five days or more wherein families are disrupted and required to move out they're required mandatorily to leave and it may get to points where they don't have access so they don't have online capability and then there is the subsequent side of the district to review and assess damage on the ground here which is going to take days and the connectivity when you come back so we recognize that while we're moving strongly into the realm of being able to leverage technology and provide 247 online learning opportunities for students we can't fully move away from possibly having a makeup day in our toolkit that we might need one of the reasons there's an asterisk there

077is it does Clearly say they are identified in the event the district may need them it's not guaranteed or required but it is May and I will say that we've had experience just recently obviously this very school year tropical storm that blew through was not a required mandatory evacuation we were able to shift immediately to Virtual learning platform and not miss any time and not have to make up any days so we're getting very well versed in how to do that but we do feel strongly that it is important to keep that in our toolkit in the event that is a major catastrophe thank you oh I'm sorry um your calendar yeah so um one of the things we found is the the calendar itself is uh as Mr Johnson has clearly indicated it's an

078academic calendar we have found that it's important for us to put staff planning days on there because that requires outages for uh parents to plan for and things like that we have created another disclaimer on the calendar that says that this is an academic calendar and it's not a work calendar so I'm using that kind of as an example to answer the question that if we were to start plotting other major events on the academic academic calendar that are subject to change it creates a problem where someone we've found oftentimes folks will get a calendar when it's adopted they'll print it out they'll put it on the refrigerator and then they'll forget about it and then if we have a change or some kind of date that is flexible and not tied to the adoption

079of the start of school and the end of school when the breaks are then they're looking at an outdated document so we've always announced the graduation dates separately and done a pretty strong job involved in communicating that especially communicating that to the target audience for schools do a very good job of making sure families know when their graduation dates are and we promote that market that extensively on our website social media as well okay thank you got a quick question I think we may have discussed this before we used to have our spring break a little bit earlier more where it coincided with St Patrick's Day and if I remember correctly we shifted it later because it coincided better with testing it also gave us a break and a month where we traditionally not had

080break is that correct yeah that's that's accurate the other thing that we found was the spring break time for post-secondary is also something that plays a bit of a role in this impact uh for families uh so it you're never going to find that magic time that aligns with everyone but it was important that you'll note March has a few uh it has that uh that break in there where we're ending the one of the quarters and then you get into the St Patrick's Day holiday and again it's Unique for us our local unique to our community wherein we really have always had that day off we need to have it off other Marcus don't so it's not a problem for them but because that does create a break if you have spring break right

081after that it creates a quite an extensive outage in the month of March so we've gotten away from that anybody else hearing none we've had the motion we've discussed all in favor of the motion raise your hands please one two three four five six seven eight motion passes eight zero zero make certain our record shows that Mr customer is not here for the formal meeting moving forward please thank you sir the final item in your board matters run down item 7.08 is another action item of the Board of Education today the legislative priorities for the board have been previously circulated and feedback received and incorporated into this document the board's 2023 legislative priorities continue to focus on early childhood education student wellness and resource allocations priorities are now being presented for formal adoption and subsequent

082circulation among the Chatham County delegation priorities will also be featured during the board's legislative breakfast that is currently scheduled for December 12 2022. now therefore be it resolved that the board does here by adopt the 2023 legislative priorities for use as a framework to advance the needs of the Savannah Chatham County public school system to further ensure a high quality education is provided to every student we serve all right the resolution is in motion motion emotions made by Mrs globalski Mrs Hall seconds Mrs Grabowski anything together so I look forward to having a discussion with our legislative delegation I'm really pleased I think I sent an email to say that of the expansion of East Boston so the categories and of course our continued focus on Early Education very happy about that okay yes uh

083Dr Buck I see a couple of things down here they're still trying to pass there and love to say that they were they were on here when we came on board we don't want to move things too fast [Music] hearing none oh I'm sorry yes all of these are top priorities but what really stands out most importantly is early childhood education if we look at those numbers students enrolling in school between ages of 6 and 16. but then you look at our third grade reading scores when some students enroll at the age of six that gives them two years to read on grade level by the time during third grade so this is due to my heart and we're just looking forward to some change that's a very good point all in favor of the

084motion raise your hands please one two three four five six seven eight moving on please two that's your turn right well I will now turn the meat back to you aboard the store chair onto your consent agenda uh we've got a good number of items on the consent agenda I always like to say the consent things that are put on consent we have seen and investigated asked questions ahead of time and so the recommending practice in school boards Across the Nation that you use consent agendas to pass those in a sort of a lump group if you will and so I need a motion to approve the consensus much easier uh all in favor of gonna approvement raise your hands please one two three four five six seven all opposed one the motion passes seven

085one with no extensions moving on to um uh the graduation rate is that what we're is that before you must have we got a report on graduation the next report on your agenda for the Das and this is the four-year cohort graduation [Music] graduation rate welcome Mrs good afternoon foreign [Music] state and local accountability measures also please keep in mind that our students do not always have access to in-person labs they required remote learning and then it was inconsistent student and staff attendance and of course parents hesitation to send students to school so our priority and our Focus rightly so during that time was to ensure that our students and our staff were safe and were healthy and as such 2022 school year cohort graduation rate is our new Baseline again it wasn't our graduation

086rate was affected by increases in our cohort withdrawals we had to remove students for a lack of attendance from role and there were many students that departed and did not share where they were actually going and so we did not know their status at the time of their exit many we were unable to verify that status after their exit and as we predicted last year when we shared the graduation rate we knew that locating students who had withdrawn would be a challenge for many of our schools that was out of state and out of country and also we found it very challenging to contact parents and make home visits to document their enrollment status foreign despite the challenges the staff and students at each high school work hard to help students to graduate the current

087sccpss graduation rate is 87.6 this is a 2.5 decrease from the previous year so as we move forward as we're currently planning and implementing strategies I can tell you that every principal counselor teacher and support staff are committed to meeting our graduation performance targets foreign now while we saw some slight declines we also have some celebrations for the eighth consecutive year the district exceeded the state average graduation rate the district has exceeded the State graduation rate and this additionally Savannah Early College Wilbert Tompkins maintained their 100 graduation rate and five schools exceeded the district Target of 90 percent we all know we're not satisfied but the district and School staff are committed to continuous Improvement the following strategies are being used to help increase the graduation rate our system-wide academic records management protocol known as

088swarm and students are very familiar with this process we use we use this process to meet individual School needs with a focus on monitoring graduation data and we meet with students on the monthly cycle secondary this grant provided funding for one District counselor at both schools the counselor Works to support students who are at risk or off track for graduation schools also received for ongoing professional learning support for the graduation teams and support from District level staff as well at every level teams are engaged in continuous improvement work to support the needs of our students and to make sure our students are successful and meet the graduation goals thank you now do you have any questions um thank you certainly sad to say we went down from last year but we'll know the challenges that

089we're facing and we're still beating average um this may be more of a board accountability comment but I know that we're using this is our new Baseline increasing each year as part of our metrics and our goals um and we all have that hope and uh more work hard towards that and if we find ourselves on that trajectory I hope that we can reevaluate um those goals for the next five years to be able to continue to encourage us to to reach high anymore thank you ma'am anybody else with comments questions thank you very much appreciate it thank you well I know I I didn't notice Mrs ball Oliver that you allowed him to make the announcement that it drops Jackson bring to you the financial statements for the period ending or first oops trying

090to get you my notes Here foreign at the end of October but most of the big collections happened during the month of November so we October so the next report we should be on track as far as expenditures we're at 19.9 church for the month of October which is pretty much where we were last year um for the salaries of the support salaries between 4.5 which is should be expected between 20 and 33 percent actual expenditures that arrive at 23.5 of the budget which is reasonable for this time of the year pretty much out of that first quarter so we're pretty much on target uh all the cash Investments we want to concentrate on a different fund for this report but we just want to talk about the cash balances which are stable for this

091time of year before the second installment that we normally get in December uh property tax revenues historical entire years we were critically low at this point we had issue one-year bad issue a test anticipation note as a few years we had asked Adam County revenue office go ahead and release some tax collections payments earlier than the end of the month but we haven't had to do that in the last four years it's still pretty healthy um we don't have the the final fund balance for FY 22 uh we are still in the audit process the Auditors are hoping to finish up this month if not that's going to be in in January or are there any questions about fund 100 or any other fund we are still in the process of cleaning up some of

092the federal grants um uh thank you for your reports Jackson um couple things I want to thank you and your staff and also my fellow board members um for helping out with the budget so we wouldn't have to do that we would do another team again and get a healthy fund balance um that is one thing that it's actually a waste of taxpayers money uh by having to pay interest online alone so I just wanted to thank you Mr staff for um moving that boat so we could have that healthy fund balance so we could have enough um cash on hand to be able to pay our debts Brown thank you um thanks for your report and I know you're you and your team are enjoying units I'm enjoying you this [Music] um I think

093we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel from our previous system um I look at extreme numbers so I'm looking at page six and it's more of a budgeting process thinking process and it is um anything else uh live 23 salary support we re-budgeted it would have been 850 000. we reduced it by 672 000. and projected between 185 and then we're at 403. so I'm just kind of wondering that why did we revise and then double what we spent in that area like what was askew in our budgeting process that were off like that we initially start out with projections during the month of April May I call them projections but for the most part we start out leaving the budget as it was then in July August once we get a

094feel for a for that year for the most part we would go in and make an adjustment and reduce the budget down to a particular dollar amount to match what the federal government is telling us we're going to get that's the second step the third step is at some point during the year they do spend a lot of their expenditures during the summer for this particular Grant then at some point we will go back and revise the budget to make it match the expenditure to Adventures so there's this time of three set three-step process to get there for this particular Grant and a couple more where we have the strangers during summer so we guess what they think what we think they're going to give us because we don't know exactly and so this estimate

095of 185 was based on what we thought we may get yes and but we ended up getting much more so no what we thought we were going to get was the original amount of 858 that's what we started with that's what we had last year then we they revised we submitted a budget thinking we were going to spend 185 000 on support sellers but we actually have spent years right so we've spent more than we thought we were going to have I was just wondering language foreign to pay any other questions moving on Mr Jackson do you have the next item or no that's normally he's not support and Miss Bozeman I'm going to say that since we had an hour on this this morning uh 30 minutes on it yeah it'd be very abbreviated

096I hope all right so this is on the go five uh fiscal responsibility and resource foreign [Music] okay for some reason this make me cyan foreign [Music] uh we're really not concerned about that because basically we're getting about three million dollars more than what we had uh anticipated and so uh typically like this budget here when we started out our program that bill occur was similar to that so really uh the revenues is going to catch up with our expenditures so we don't we feel pretty confident that uh we'll have enough funding to be able to do everything we want to do don't expect any seven projects [Music] additional information about [Music] as well and then the uh we have some a lot of additions in in construction Savannah Arts Academy is going very well

097for scholar station uh still in design review Pulaski Ka but all of these schools have become online in August of 2024. and then we just have a lot of major Renovations that we're doing throughout the district uh this is E4 Esports program is designed to basically to go back and take a look at some of our schools that was an E1 and some of the students need to and do a lot of uh uh renovation major Renovations in these schools making sure that we are going to invest reinvesting back into our communities and and so this shows you the number of products that we have that we are uh being very responsive to what the community has told us that was going to do and so there's a lot of projects that's online that we're

098doing uh book that concludes my presentation questions I just have one question on here you do not have where the um okay thank you any other I'll miss out I'm sorry yes one question I I know and I see from when we get a little further down to the Bloomingdale um replacement I know that um we're being very proactive including our lmwe partners in these all these projects why don't we listen anymore is there particular reason that we're not showing the Partnerships um with the and all no we could we can go back and start doing that use normally we want to make sure that the efficacy CMR uh you know they may not have picked their teams but once they pick their teams oh okay all right yeah I think it gives us a

099good Public Service when that's invisible thank you yeah so we're very proud of that's on Bloomingdale Brownstone and another uh contractor that used to work for Pat Mathis envelope is actually on that particular contract so we have two lmws on that particular project thank you any other questions thank you Miss Posner oh moving forward on the budget amendment Mr Jackson yes sir this is budget moment Revenue Amendment for each plus three the individual Finance requester board to approve the proposed adjustments foreign above [Music] for his resolution is an emotion to affect because Johnson anything besides anything other board members here not all in favor of a motion raise your hands please one two three four five six seven eight motion passes eight zero zero moving on to budget transfer the budget transfer is for XBox

100Four Safety and Security the campus police department's request board approval to transfer funds from each class for Safety and Security to various safety security accounts that are in the table below as we point out initially when we do adoptions for each class projects we replace a lot of funds into one account and we later come back and divide it up into accounts where we will actually spend the money so that's what we're doing here we're removing the funds from the first initial budget account to various accounts and the amount of six million dollars the spirit resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approved the transfer funds from E4 safety security to various e-force Safety and Security project accounts for the purchase of Food Safety and Security equipment over the next five years

101Mr Johnson moves is there a second Dr bringman seconds anything Mr Johnson oh yeah just real quick I'm gonna support this this um I think what happened a week or today just shows how much we need to support um our entire Campus Police Department anybody else on board any questions concerns all in favor of the resolution raise your hands please one two three four five six seven eight motion passes eight zero zero foreign [Music] dollars [Music] moves is there some seconds is how anything yes I'm happy to see this yes board members questions you're going all in favor of resolution raise your hands please one two three four five six seven eight Ocean passes eight zero zero moving on to CMR Services the next item is for rnp c23-085 Cinema Services elementary school replacement proposals

102were received from J.E Dunn Construction Company McKnight Construction Company Polk construction company and TQ Constructors Incorporated manager [Music] administrators reviews were conducted on all four vendors responses for being responsible and responsive after the community's evaluation of the rnp responses it is recommended that rfpc 23.05 Clayton project be awarded to TQ Constructors Incorporated within initials stated cost limitation not to exceed 40 million dollars the award Recreation is based upon the availability of funds upon recommendation of the superintendent that the board approved the award of RPC 2305 share our services for Bloomingdale Elementary School replacement project two TQ Constructors Incorporated with an initial State cost limitation not to exceed 40 million dollars [Music] will this school have uh Pre-K enrollment um oh do they have it now because we're trying to get at all the living people

103educated so I was just asking because it's out there uh Miss Heinz I'll verify that I believe they do okay thank you um okay excuse me um the uh TQ construction they can work for the district before okay okay sorry okay thank you I know but I'm just doing this oh okay oh I'm sorry there you go okay any other comments questions all in favor raise your hands one two three four five six seven eight moving on I'm gonna pass is eight zero zero you should 2.06 . yeah anybody got a copy from Mr Jackson put everything out of my folder except my boundaries except for this one now Professional Services for Bloomingdale Elementary School on February 2nd the board approved req rfq22-04 architectural and Engineering Services foreign documents foreign instead of saying the um

104proposed vendors it says the awarded vendors that sounds like yeah that is means they're all qualified as awarded yes I see okay thanks any other comments questions here none out in favor of motion raise your hands please one two three four five six seven eight emotion passes eight zero zero moving on to this next area last month we uh move we've tabled a construction change of order of motion number 59. we're going to discuss at this point removing that from the table if I get our motion to that effect we will then yes all any comments from board members takes only a simple majority to remove from the table any any comments okay I just want to thank the district for uh having small group meetings with us discussing the change order um and for

105us to take a moment to table at last we need to bring into this meeting so that we didn't have a rush decision any other comments okay you don't have questions all in favor of the motion to remove it from the table raise your hands please one two three four five six seven I'll pose one motion passes seven one zero moving home to the motion I'm gonna ask for a motion to amend the original motion to approve the change order 59 and Miss Hall is Raising her hand to make that motion is their second by Miss times I have a speaker in the audience who wishes to speak on the motion and we will let's have him come straight before we discuss and vote welcome us lesson I'm sure all of you had it so

106I was just here today to see if there was any questions prior to the vote I believe uh did everyone have received that last evening yes ma'am the chair will allow what a question can I clarify that the request in your letter was for an additional meeting with the architect Mr staff to specifically discuss the change order yes correct correct thank you any other comments or questions do you have anything else you'd like to say Mr assessor okay thank you thank you questions or concerns from the board about the motion hearing none we have a motion on the floor all in favor of moving to a um approved the construction change order number 59 is recommended by the superintendent and has presented it to me raise your hands please one two three four five six

107seven all opposed one motion passes seven one zero the last item is 10 10 Environmental Protection Agency the Environmental Protection Agency clean bus clean School Bus program provides five billion dollars over the next five years to replace existing school buses with zero emission and low emission buses the program is funded by the bipartisan infrastructure of the law this program will replace up to 25 digital school buses with low and zero emissions school buses the Savannah County Public School apply for and was awarded funding to purchase 25 left to school buses to replace 25 buses [Music] and five hundred thousand for eligible charging infrastructure to qualify for this grant the program must be closed out by October 31st 2024. school buses and charging infrastructure I heard the resolution I'm just gonna already call your name needless

108to say when we had our last meeting and we had the electric school that's here and recognized the reception of this grant award it is fantastic news I'm thrilled to see us moving this direction and I think it's pretty safe to say at this point this technology is here to stay thank you anybody else hearing now in favor raise your hands one two three four five six seven all opposed one so she passes seven one zero behind so you have a motion to return second all in favor of that motion say aye