TCPS Board Meeting: 4-22-25

001Heat. Heat. [Music] Do it. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Okay, good evening and welcome to the Tweed County Board of Education meeting. I want to thank each one of you in our in the in the in our in person as well as our online community and stakeholders for joining us this evening. It's my pleasure to call the Twist County Board of Education meeting to order. Today is Tuesday, April the 22nd, 2025, and the time is 6:02 p.m. Uh we tonight we have a young man that's going to uh lead us in from JS that's going to lead us in uh our pledge, a moment of silence, Mr. Xyron Bond. You will come on up. Let's all stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for

002which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please pause for a moment of silence. Thank you. Okay. All right. [Applause] Stay right there. Zyron, thank you for doing such an awesome job this evening. Mom, thank you so much for bringing him this evening as well. Zyron, I want to present you with your certificate, your pledge of allegiance certificate. Thank you for joining us. Okay, let's give him another round of applause. He was absolutely fabulous. Great [Music] job. Uh, is this a mistake on here? I have a first grade. Is that a mistake? He's first grade. Great job. Okay. At this time, the chair will entertain a motion to approve the agenda for uh today, Tuesday, April the 22nd, 2025. I move that motion. Okay. Second. Okay. The motion has

003been properly made by Miss Black here and second by Miss King. um to approve the agenda for today, Tuesday, April the 22nd, 2025. Is there any discussion? First of all, I want to say thank you, Mr. Karstan, board chair, vice chair Ross, Miss Blackshere, and Miss King. Um, my grandfather, Elmo Daniels, he was support staff in the Twitch County school system. He started out driving the buses and he later on went from driving the buses till he got piled on full time to work in the bus shop. My grandfather would get up every morning at 4:30 in the morning to make sure he was at the bus shop. And I asked him why did he do it? He said because somebody is dependent on us. And in that same point place now today that's um

004what we have our students are dependent on us and my constituents has a lot of questions and being in this community there's a lot of question that's going on with our constituents far as my constituents in district 4 get on the bus as early as 5:30 in the morning to come to school and so the question becomes that constituents in the community is asking are we giving them the best we can and as leaders and Mr. Butler Mr. Brother, just hold that for a minute. We're going to approve the agenda first and then we'll give you an opportunity to make that. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Um, the question is on the adoption of the of the motion to approve the agenda for Tuesday, uh, April the 22nd, 2025. All in favor, raise your hand. Okay,

005the motion passes unanimously. The minutes for Tuesday, April the 8th, 2025. Uh, the board work session has been distributed earlier. Are there any corrections to the minutes? If there are none, then the minutes are approved as distributed. Miss uh, Black Shear. Thank you. I will read to you the ethics statement. In accordance with uh Georgia's U miss commission regulation, it is the duty of every board member to avoid both conflict of interest or conflict of interest or scheduled on our proposed agenda. Does any board member have any known conflict of interest scheduled before us? We will continue with our meeting. All right. Thank you, Miss Black Shear. At this time uh tonight we have a public participation. I just want to read uh um statement before uh we get started. The Twe County Board of

006Education will hear comments from the public aligning with the guidelines of board policy. As a reminder, speakers must stop speaking promptly when their five minute time limit is up, adhering to principles of civility, respect, and proper decorum. Additionally, speakers must not speak on confidential student or personnel matters. Speakers will not be allowed to make unsubstantiated claims about an identified or an identifiable employee. Speakers should be courteous and professional. Further, while speakers may offer objective criticisms of school operations and programs, abusive language or personal attacks will not be permitted. The board does not allow abusive language, comments, applause, or shouts from the audience. Disruptive persons will be asked to leave the meeting room. While the board will thoughtfully consider all public comments, it will not engage in discussions during the hearing. At this time, is there

007anyone from the audience that would like to speak? Good evening. Please state your name. Good evening. My name is Jana Rogers. Jana Rogers. Welcome, Miss Rogers. Thank you. I thank you all for your time. Give me the time to speak on what I need to speak on tonight. Um, I just want to read. I didn't want to have to try to come off my head, so if it's repetitive, I do apologize beforehand. Um, my name is Jana Rogers. I'm the mother of Samriia Rogers. Um, she's a senior here at Twist County High School. Um, I do have some concerns that I would like to express in this meeting in reference to um, Samria being added to the honor graduates list. Um, on March 24th, 2025, I met with uh, Dr. Griffin Stewart, Miss Densen, Mr.

008Ingram, and Miss Griffin to discuss Samria's grades and her honor calculations. After reviewing all the information, I expressed concerns about her grade and work-based learning and how Miss Denon said she gave Samria 370s for missing assignments without flagging those grades missing. This resulted in her final grade for quarter 2 being 85. Um, Samir is adamant that she didn't receive this assignment to complete. Miss Densen insists that she did and accepted the assignment on March 27th of 2025 after our meeting. And she updated her grade on March 28th, but did but but she it did not reflect on quarter 2, which was what was used for the honors calculation. Uh, in my opinion, Miss Densen did not follow the correct policy and procedures for entering grades into Infinite Campus. she I feel that she should have

009flagged those grades as missing. Um I myself used to work in education as well. I was an educator as well and I'm very familiar with Infinite Campus and how it works on both sides as parent and educator and you are to flag those grades missing. Um I also have documentation that she said this assignment was due on October 25th of 2024. Another part of the assignment was due on November November 1st of 2024 and November 8th of 2024. Um I feel as though if she would have flagged those grades missing on October 25th, that would have given Samria and myself the correct notification to say, "Hey, I need to go see her. I have something that's that's due and it's imperative that I get this work done." I feel she said that she gave her

010the 70s because she wanted to help her. Well, I think she could have helped herself had she known she was missing the grade. She didn't allow her enough time to get to her to get the work submitted for quarter two. That resulted in her honor GPA being a 89.66. I'm going to continue to read my letter because I see my time is going down. Um, I said she didn't follow the correct policies and procedures for entering grades into Infinite Campus. She should have flagged the grade as missing to alert both Samira and myself for a missing assignment. This would have given Samria the opportunity to turn in the assignment and receive credit for the grade during quarter two. After speaking to Dr. Griffin Stewart on April 7th via phone, she advised me that the grades

011would not count towards the honors GPA because Miss Ninsson didn't update the grade until March 27th. Um, there was no resolve after that meeting, so I requested a meeting with Dr. Bullet. Um, I've met with Dr. B, Dr. Bullet on two different occasions. Um, in the first meeting on April 9th, he gave me an opportunity to express my concerns and looked over the documents about the calculations and ended the meeting saying that he would speak to Miss Densen and get back with me. Uh, we met again on April 14th and Dr. Bully explained that she would she would not be added because the grade was not updated until March 27th and that it would not count, which is unacceptable. Miss Densen needs to be held accountable for her actions for not flagging the grade missing

012and giving my daughter the grade she saw to be fair as she was helping her per her statement in our meeting. Her result her help resulted in my daughter's GPA falling to 89.66 therefore giving getting her off the honors list. Samria was working prior to the start of the year and therefore I feel that her grade should have reflect her job should reflect her grade. She did not come into the school year without a job. She started the year with a job. Even if she was missing this assignment, I feel that Miss Densen had plenty enough time to come and see Samira personally and say, "Hey, what's going on? I I'm not I don't have this grade." Her job should speak for itself. She started the year with a job. Therefore, she should have really

013had a 100 in the class. But all I'm asking is for right to be right and for wrong to be wrong. She needs to be held accountable for her actions. You want to hold the child accountable for her actions for not turning it in where the adult needs to learn how to work the system. Infinite Campus has that thing there that says flag and we need to use the technology as needed the way it was designed. And thank you all for your time. Thank you. And we'll take the matter under consideration. At this time, uh, are there any comments from the board? U, I think Chzn is you. Uh I was saying that um that the kids are getting on the bus early in the morning from my district which is district 4 and I'm

014just going around in the community trying to work the community. We're hearing a lot of different things that are going on in our community. And one of the things that I want to say to Dr. Bullard um that the community is we are all elected officials and so we speak for the community and our community are saying that for is the test grades. That's all we have to measure the student success by is the test grades and things that are going on in the community. This is not an indictment against anybody, but it's to say that all of us as leaders, we got it has to be improvement. The three things that the community is looking for most is results. They're looking for accountability and transparency. And that results meaning with the test, the accountability

015is what's going on and the transparency because something is broken. is not working because all the community the community on all sides are saying that we're paying for this. Are we getting a return on our investment? And that's a fair question. That's a fair assessment to me. But I came here because I want to be a part of the solution. And I'm not here to say anything bad. But I'm simply saying that we have to look in the mirror and say something is wrong. How do we make this thing better as a leadership, as a team? Because the gift of God would no longer get us by because we have to go in the community. We're in the community. All of us as boardman. We're on the we're in the community going in and out

016of the stores and we're hearing the different things that are going on. We have to deal with it and we're standing on it. Listen again. Um and you don't have to listen to me. I know I'm a new board member, but the truth is I know leadership. John Maxwell said leaders is hard. It's easy. Leadership is easy when there are no problems. And we see that we have issues here as a school system. But every day that I wake up and I'm working in the community doing everything that I can do and what the board members all of us are doing it it's because this community means it bothers us and that's what the community is asking for. They're asking what what is our plan to go because we cannot keep going at the trajectory

017that we're on. Something has to change and I understand that everything is not just on one person and it's just not on us. We understand that the students has to be held accountable as well as truency some other factors but we also know as with leaders as leaders excuses build a bridges to nowhere and people who specialize in accomplish it to nothing and so all of us including myself and everybody that's in leadership it's time now that we take a hard look in the mirror and say what can we do to make things better because while we're trying to figure it out and put things together is the students who are losing is our community we have to walk and look these people in the face every day when we walk out in the community

018this is important It is critical that we all take a step forward and not just say things are okay. No, we have to continue to work. And I want to be a part of the solution. I'm not saying this to isolate anyone, but I am saying the heavy is the head to wear the crown. That even includes me. We all have to take a look in the mirror and take a step forward because the community is looking at all of us. Again, the gift of G won't get us by. Thank you, Mr. Butler. Are there any other comments from the board? Comments from the superintendent? Good evening, Mr. Chair, vice chair, board members, all of those members that are joining us tonight. Sorry, Mr. Bassley. I'll start over. Good evening, board members, vice Mr. Chair,

019vice chair, board members, all of those community members that are with us in person and those that are joining us virtually. Uh, I do have a few announcements and I'll start with Mr. Howell. If you will please come forward and make an announcement in reference to our athletic program. Good evening, Vice Chair IH Chairman Rouse, Vice Chair uh Vice Chair Rouse, Chairman Kustafen, board members, visitors virtually and in person. Today, um just want to talk about um our state sexual track meet. But before we talk about that, we need to talk about our vision is generate excellence. One team, one goal. Our mission to inspire, challenge, prepare all students to preach globally. two goals that we'll be addressing in this um short presentation. Excellence ahead, academics, facilities, and opportunities, and doing things the Tweed Way.

020On April 17th, the Twe County Girls and Boys track team participated in the region track meet in Jeff, not Jeffersonville, Georgia, in our sport, Georgia at Hancock Central. And from that, we had um four young men qualify for the state sectionals. Cherion height in the 4 by 100 meter relay. De Montre Brown in the 4 by 100 meter relay and a long jump. Kobe Stevens in a 4x100 meter relay. Harold Crawford in the 4x100 meter relay and the 100 meter run and 200 meter run. And and they're coached by coach Robert Cummings. These young men did a great job. They participated again on May 3rd in Warren, Georgia. And that trap me will start at 10 o'clock in the morning. Any questions? Gibby Warren, Georgia. Thank you, Mr. How we are very, very proud of

021those young men for being successful in the region track meet for Georgia High School Association and moving on to the state sectional meets. and we we are very very hopeful that they are successful in the sectional sectional meets as well and move on to the state finals. I do want to also encourage all of our parents that the Georgia Milestones assessment have begun. They began today at the middle school 6th through 8th grade students took the ELA section one of the assessment. They will take section two and three tomorrow. And JEES will also begin. Third, fifth, and fourth graders will take their ELA section one. On Thursday, eighth graders will take social studies at the middle school, and the third through fifth graders will take ELA sections two and three. Next week will be the

022last week for middle school and elementary school. For Georgia Milestones, it'll start again on Tuesday. Tuesday is math for the middle school and for the elementary school and Wednesday is science only for fifth graders and only for eighth graders. We'll then have a week break and then go into the first week of May of when we'll start our our end of course test. The first week of May, starting Tuesday, May the 6th, the students who are in American lit will take their American lit end of course test for section one and section two and three will be taken the following day on May the 7th. They'll take algebra 1, section one and two on Thursday. And then they'll wrap up the following week on May the 13th and 14th where they'll take US history and

023biology. We'll put these this schedule on the website so that parents will be able to see it and follow it and ensure that your students get a good night's sleep. Make sure your students get a great breakfast. They've already been well prepared by their teachers. We're expecting great results and we want to make sure that the parents are in concert with us and making sure that their students do their very best. Mr. Chair, board members, that concludes my comments on tonight. Thank you, Dr. Bullet. At this time, we're moving to our business agenda and uh Dr. Bullet, you have the uh district request. Yes, sir. Protocol being established already. We do have field trip requests for the end of the year as well as for the summer for our athletic programs that we're asking the

024board members tonight for your approval. Starting with on we asked thank you for your pre-approval last week on the Marietta Georgia trip and dreddy indoor carding and games for the high school Beta Club. That was on April the 15th. And this coming Friday on the 25th of April, the FCCLA ask your permission to travel to Atlantis to the Cheesecake Factory to evaluate adequate during dining, the role of cultural diversity and food choices and dining places. On Friday the 25th, also the FFA ask your permission. on Friday and Saturday the 25th and 26th to travel to Mon, Georgia to participate in the FFA state competition. On Monday the 28th of April, the kindergarteners at JEES ask your permission to travel to the Twix County Middle School. And there they'll be meeting with the agricultural and animal

025science teacher and they'll actually be looking at animals and plants while they're there. On Tuesday the 29th of April, the prek at JEES ask your permission to travel to Greenacres Farm in Cochran, Georgia. And this is to uh give them opportunities to pick strawberries to practice social skills uh as well as look at different roles of farming. On Wednesday, April the 30th, the second graders ask your permission to travel to the Tweets County Middle High School. And again, they'll be learning all about pampering. They'll meet with the life sciences and personal care skills in the cosmetology department. On Friday the 2nd of May, the Twigs County Middle School National Honor Society ask your permission to travel to Warner Robbins to Riggsby's Entertainment Complex. And this is a good sportsmanship, leadership, and social trip for their

026end of the year activities. On Friday the 9th of May, the FCCLA would like your permission to travel to the Chick-fil-A headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. They'll learn about the Chick-fil-A management, culinary arts, and food safety. On Tuesday the 10th of June, the Twix County High School football team asked your permission to travel to Athens, Georgia to participate in the Kirby Smart 707 team camp. On Thursday the 12th of June, Tweaks County High School football team ask your permission to travel to Mon, Georgia for the Rutland High School 7 on seven team camp. On Friday and Saturday the 13th and 14th of June, the middle high school boys basketball team ask your permission to travel to Atlanta to a basketball camp for skills and team building. Monday and Tuesday the 16th and 17th, the boys basketball

027team ask your permission to travel to Milligville team basketball camp to build team building and skills. On Thursday the 19th of June, the high school basketball, excuse me, high school football team ask your permission to travel to East Lawrence for organized team activities for team building and skill building. On Tuesday and Wednesday, they'd like to the 24th and 25th of June, they'd like your permission to travel to Monteello, Georgia for the Jasper County Padded Camp. And on the 17th of July, the football team asked your permission to travel to East Dublin for the East Dublin Padded Camp. That concludes the district request for this upcoming summer for the athletic camps and for this month and next month. Thank you, Dr. Bullet. Um, I noticed a couple of requests that was not on the uh sheet

028that we received. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. The chair will now entertain a motion to approve the uh uh the field trips and uh requests and fundraiser requests. I'll make that motion. Second. Okay. The motion is proper been properly made by Mr. Rouse and second by Miss Blackshere. Are there any questions? Okay. The question is on the adoption to uh approve the superintendent's request for uh the field trips and uh fundraising. Uh is there any discussion? Okay. All in favor raise your hand. Okay. The motion passes unanimously. Thank you, sir. Uh, Mr. Austin. Good evening, board chair, Karen, Vice Chair Rouse, board members, Superintendent Dr. Bullard, constituents in person and virtually. I'm presenting information regarding Senate Bill 68. corrective action plan. We tabled this particular discussion to tonight's meeting and since we've had individual

029conversations um with the board and so we feel more informed and more transparent in this process. Um in this it does align with our vision of generate excellence one team one goal our mission to inspire challenge and prepare all students to compete globally and supports all five of our strategic plan goals on one learning wellness for all two excellence ahead three doing things the Twiest way four growing and sustaining our village and five a premier people first organization since this has been presented I will do a summary and and go into the portion of stating what the action is for tonight. Again, this was a corrective action plan regarding an FY fiscal year 22 finding. And the correct action plan states is a formal response to an audit finding that outlines the specific steps an

030organization would take to address and resolve identified financial compliance issues. This cap may include a clear explanation of the finding, root cause analysis, detailed corrective measures, assigned responsibilities, timelines for implementation, and a process for ongoing monitoring and evaluation. Just to read what the condition was on the next slide is that during fiscal year 2022 the school district not properly record revenue accounts receivable and unearned revenue related to grants and splass revenues. One of the key things that came from the last board meeting was the 120day timeline. We learned that the timeline started December the 6 once we received our committed letter from the audit and our audit was finalized on December 11th. So when we came to the board that 100 day the 120 day period was already on the clock and so I provided

031information from the state through emails and etc to you all as the board and to show when we was notified which was in uh February and March and that uh we had understanding once we completed our initial correct action plan in December that completed our obligation but the state informed us that we had another step which is why we brought it the past board meeting. Um, so we're here tonight to approve the corrective action plan that has been stated and presented. And just to recap on some of the steps that would take place is for us to have the independent audit, conduct some in year end processes with us as a business finance team. Uh, continue to look at our internal workflows ongoing training and focus efforts to strengthen internal controls. And what you all

032will be approving tonight board is the Senate Bill 68 corrective action plan for the FY22 audit. Are there any questions, comments, or concerns? Are there any questions? Okay, at this time I will entertain a motion to approve the uh Senate Bill 68 corrective action plan. I made the motion to approve the Senate Bill 68 correction plan. Second. Okay. The motion has been properly made and second properly made by Mr. Butler and second by Mr. Rouse. Is there any discussion? Okay. All in favor raise your hand. Okay. The motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Mr. Austin. Oh, mute still up. Yes, sir. Okay. Go ahead. All right. Uh budget overview number three, a protocol has been established. And in budget overview number three, um we'll talk about one thing in particular, but I want to look at

033where we are in the budget calendar. Um so this month we're looking at budget overview number three that's happening on tonight. Um we're from an administrative lens still looking at some things with the salary schedules and calendars. Uh so we'll bring that in May. FY26 budget overview will take place in May which will be more in depth and lead us to presenting a FY26 tendency budget for advertisement. And that process is once you all as the board see the proposed FY26 budget, we then have to recommend it for approval to advertise in our local Oregon or our local newspaper. Um, and that process will have a budget public hearing in June and then the approval will take place the fourth Tuesday in the month of June for the budget. So those are the key u

034approvals and steps that are left in this budget calendar. So in budget overview number three, we talked about in budget over number two um all the salaries and benefits and that's majority of our budget and we're scaffolding here. So now we're going to talk about the non-sary expenditures. So you can see that in this context. So what are we projecting? majority, well 46% of the non- salary expenditures are utilities and that's at about $1 million. Our contracted services is 34% 773,000 supplies and repairs at 260,000 dues, fees and other expenditures 80,000 technology 75 travel 39,000 giving us a total projection of 2.2 million. It is about 91,000 more than our initial projection. Um but as we went through and looked at some things, we did have some other uh priorities that we had to consider

035um as it relates to some of our contracted services. So utilities most of that and all these will give you an examples um because I presented you a lot of categories but then the question will be okay what's what's there? What's behind those numbers? And so utilities of course our gas, electric, water, postage, fuel and etc. Um our contracted services could include things like plumbers, electrician, HVAC work work, healthc care service providers, u related services for our PC students, education consultants, auditors, landscaping and etc. Supplies and repairs, uh transportation, maintenance and office supplies. Most of that comes from those those departments and that line item office supplies dues fees and other expenditures. This is typically for your conference registration fees, professional organizational dues, subscriptions and compliance and permit fees. Uh technology, student information system, administrative

036software, repairs, server maintenance, supplies, and then travel. Um these are all expenses related to travel for the employees and the board. uh hotel, lodging, meals, and fees associated with travel such as parking reimbursements. So, what what we what we have presented is a way for you to look at things that are not related to the salary for you to have enough line items to ask questions and provide feedback. Um, looking at the calendar, like we said before, we have two key meetings left that will be presenting the FY26 budget in its entirety. So budget overview number two and three are very important to pull this together and once we present that we'll be looking to go into the final approval steps. So your feedback um your comments your support your concerns are very important on

037tonight as we get ready to ramp up for May because May will be very busy as far as getting the final touches on everything. So um this is the budget that sets the tone for our fiscal integrity for the next three years. Any questions, comments, or concerns? I do have one. Yes, ma'am. Is this including uh I know we have have a lot of teachers that's retired, resigned, and just left. So, is this going to be including we're going to be replacing them or This particular presentation does not include any personnel. Okay. This is only um those items that we'll consider u non salary expenditures for the contracted services. Could you could you give us a I mean a print out of the contracted services that we Sure. actually are using. Yes, ma'am. Because that's

038the biggest item I know. Yes. Sorry. Now I want you to hear me. Yes, sir. Yeah. Is there any way that you can give us uh itemized sheet on the on the dues, the fees, and the travel expenses? Yes, sir. Uh and also maybe on the utilities, on the fuel, the gas, you know, I like to I just like to I think as a board we should know, well, we maybe could cut some things. Sometimes you have to learn, you have to trim the fat. I mean a lot of time we just used to eating what we do or doing what we do and take it for granted. But uh I think as as Mr. Butler said earlier, you got our citizen, we got people that looking at us. We sit here and we we

039had to raise the mill rate. We went with uh House Bill 581 that they didn't approve. they didn't want us to do. So, like you said, we is in the community, people looking at us. Uh, and it don't look good when you got staff gone all the time or not all the time, but you you know, we traveling a lot. Yes, sir. So, we might need to look what we need to do as far as that. That's why I would like to have that. Thank you. Yes, sir. Are any other comments? [Music] I just want to say Mr. Austin, I appreciate you how you took the time when we went over the uh House Bill 68. You did a great job explaining to us. I appreciate for the um clearing up all the errands for

040us. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. You're welcome. Thank you all for the questions on that as well. And uh Mr. Rouse uh asked some of the questions I had. So, okay. Um we go with that especially the uh expenditures on conferences and so on. Yes, sir. Are there any other questions? Thank you, Mr. Austin. Thank you all. You're welcome. Mr. reading uh attendance dashboard. It's an attendance update is what we're going to be talking about tonight. Good evening, board chair Cararfan, Vice Chair Rouse, board members, Superintendent Dr. M. Bullard, and our constituents in person and online. First, I want to begin today that um we've had a great day of testing today. We started at the middle school today and Mr. Ingram and his team did a great job beginning um there. Dr. Bullard's already

041informed you that tomorrow we start at the elementary school and Mr. Wiltshire and his team is prepared and ready to go tomorrow. Our GETS facility is also beginning testing this week and we are finishing up our GAA testing this week. So, it's a very busy week in testing, but tonight I'm going to be presenting to you an attendance update. It aligns with our vision, generating excellence, one team, one goal, and our mission to inspire, challenge, and prepare all students to compete globally. And it aligns with our strategic goals one and two, learning and wellness for all, excellence ahead, academics, facilities, and opportunities. The majority of the beginning of this I'm not going to reread. We already went over the CCPI scores. This today is aligning with our readiness scores talking about student attendance. We talked

042about how you could help um as a board, how the community could help and also how we are working. I'm also you've already had this in front of you for a week. You have the goals and action steps from the district from JES with two action steps aligning with one of their goals. The middle school has a goal and an action step that aligns with attendance. The high school has a goal and two action steps that align with attendance for improving that. Um, as we noted on our CCPI score that we felt like we needed to improve in that area. When I presented on the CCPI scores before, I introduced you to the attendance dashboard which is at the Georgia Insights whole child attendance dashboard. It's on the Georgia Insights website and that's the link

043to it. This is what it looks like. It's got a picture of the state of Georgia and as I told you before, I'm starting here at this Georgia Insights dashboard. It is a hot cold map. Blue meaning cold, that means attendance is good. Bright orange means hot attendance is a problem. And as you can see, Twigs County is bright orange right in the center with this. You're looking at the percentage of students who are chronically absent, which means they're missing more than 10% of enrolled days. A full school year, for example, is 180 days. So 10% of that would mean that a student is missing 18 or more days of school and they are considered chronically absent. So on this next slide, you see that we have Twigs County and Twigs County is at 33.2%.

044This was last year. This is what was on our CCPI score. 33.2% 2% of our students miss 10 days or more of their enrolled days. This is not acceptable to us then and it is not acceptable to us now because it has a negative impact in a direct negative impact on school performance. We've compared it to other districts surrounding us and we definitely see that we can do better. But we also began to ask why. Why do some districts have the scores that they have, the percentages that they have, such as Wilkinson County versus what we have in Twigs County? So, as we began to ask why, we did our research. We looked at the data. We looked at our procedures and we looked at our processes and our policies within the district. So, we

045had a team that was reviewing these. One of the steps, a major step that we did for us is Mr. Basley created this. He did an excellent job for our school district creating this uh these graphics for us. It's an attendance dashboard. This is our own dashboard and it happen it is current daily. So we're not looking at last year's. We're looking at in the moment. So this was done last week when I sent you the presentation. You can see that JES had an average daily attendance of 93.4%. You can see the other ones there as well. for time. I won't go over all of those. Um, as a district, we had 279, as you can see, 279 total students who have missed 10 days or more of school this school year. Out of 715

046students, that is 39% of our students missing 10 days or more of school. So, it's still a problem. We've reviewed everything we're looking at. We had that attendance meeting that I told you about to discuss procedures and processes. So, we looked at what are we currently doing as a district. We have letters that go home on a regular basis, some as early as 4 days after they've missed four days of school. We have rooc calls that go out automatically every day that a student is absent. So, the only way that we can ensure that this gets corrected is when a if a parent does not update their phone number in Infinite Campus or let the school know, then you're not getting the phone calls to know that your student is absent in case a student

047is skipping school or something like that. When parents sign in on the screen at the computer at the desk when you go to check your ch child out from school or if you're bringing them in late, there is a message that comes up that lets you know that a student has missed this many days of school. We build relationships with our students. We have multiple teachers building relationships with each student. We make home visits when we've had a student miss too many days of school and we cannot contact the parents because the phone numbers are not updated. we get with our SRO and we go to the home to find out what is going on with that child. We have our partnership with communities and schools who provides us with staff members who focus on

048our students, our um top 10% students who are missing school that that's what they focus on and they're making those contacts as well. On the opposite side of that, we do have incentives and rewards for those who have good attendance. We have the Cobra Care Center who's providing clean clothes, hygiene resources, even showering facilities if this is a barrier for a student attending school. So, we're trying to meet all of their needs on our side. So, what is the biggest difference? Because I'm sure the other districts are doing things as well. The biggest difference that we have found if we as we have looked into protocols and policies then is that we have been in uh collaboration with our attorney Andrew Davidson of Jones Court and we've also been in collaboration and consultation with the

049juvenile court judge Penny Snipes. The biggest difference between Twigs County and Wilkinson County is this, that they are bringing their students, their families before the juvenile justice system and having the parents answer for why their students are not in school. So, we've got to do something to be able to stop this pattern that we have. So, tonight, that's why I'm bringing this before you is giving you information on what we've been doing up to now. This entire school year we've been doing the research. The protocol that we're hoping to put into place is going to align with our Twigs County Board policy JB student attendance and be in compliance with the Georgia state law regarding compulsory education truency and parent guardian responsibilities. We are reviewing existing protocols and other districts such as Lawrence, Dublin City,

050Wilkinson. So, in the future, there'll be more information coming to you as we work to do what we can possibly do to resolve our problem because, as you just saw, every day counts. School success starts with attendance. We can't teach them or reach them if they're not in front of us. And that's what we want to change is what can we do. Um, there are still things that we are looking at doing within, but we also have to look outside of us to see what else we can do. And again, this is just an information item so that it's before you and start thinking about it because in the future there's going to be more things coming. Are there any questions? Thank you, Miss Rearon. Um my first question is um what do you think

051as a board what can we do to uh help with that? Um and my follow-up question to that is um if we're at 33% now, what does the goal look like for next year that we would say that we have we're making improvements? What will we have to measure that by and who will monitor that part of the process? Ma'am, as you see in the goals and the action steps that are in place, have each school um improving that by between 10 and 15%. That is what our goal is to do to improve not just student but teacher as well. improving attendance for our students and teachers and we have a whole team that's working on it. Each school has a leadership team that is working on it within their school and then at as

052the district level we have a team that we are working on it. Dr. Bullard, myself, our senior cabinet, we are working on it with the school leadership as well. How can you help as a board? As you've already said, you're out in the community as you're out in the community. Maybe you're out in the community and you see a student who's not in school. Why are you not in school, young man, young lady? Why are you not in school? Finding out why are they not in school? Encourage them to be in school. As you talking with as you're talking with other families, encouraging them to attend. If they're not attending, find out why they're not attending and help us to help them. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. I have a question for you. Um, what

053is the number of misses that a student misses in order for them to be contacted by the school? They're getting a ROOC call every day when they're when they're missing schools, when they're missing a day of school. But our teachers are notifying those students. It depends on the school. Each school has a different policy. That's what we have discovered in our research that sometimes it's four days, sometimes it's three days, sometimes it's 10 days depending on what they may or may not know about that student. Okay. That's also one of the things, Miss King, that we want to clean up to have a district-wide policy on that. That that's what we're looking into as this group is looking into it so that the district is consistent. Okay. because you do because I know some sometimes

054the parents will just write an excuse and that's unexcused in my opinion unless you have a doctor's excuse. Yes, ma'am. We try to we try to notice that as well. I think our schools are doing an excellent job into looking into the reasons behind absences and trying to build those relationships with the families. But we can always do more. Always. Thank you, Mr. Reid. Thank you, Mr. Bacon, fiveyear facility plan. Interesting. Good evening, Mr. Christophen, board chair, Mr. Rouse, vice chair, board members, superintendent, um, and our guests here this evening. I'm here to present to you our five-year facility plan extension resolution and and why uh we need a resolution. But first, I'd like to remind everybody we are a district creating uh with a vision generating excellence, one team, one go with the mission

055to inspire, challenge, and to prepare all of our students to compete globally. Strategic focus areas for the day are one and two, learning and wellness for all, excellence ahead, academics, facilities and opportunity. Um, every five years we are required by the state of Georgia to produce a facilities plan. That plan is based on our student projections um, historically and we have a state director that helps us with that. Every five years we go through that and then we have a committee that comes out um and reviews our facility plan and reviews our facilities. As part of that we asked for technical assistance. As you can may not remember, on June 14, 2024, I came before the board and I asked the board to approve a resolution um so that we would have technical assistance from

056the DOE um for our five-year plan. And at that meeting, I presented to you the next steps. So, the next steps that I gave you for um at June 14th meeting um were the following. one, meet with our state consultant and review the district's projection data. So that's where it's in red because that's where we we started and that's where we stopped because the state director, Mr. Schubert, asked us, hey, are you interested in a low wealth plan for your school district? Because if we are, um, then it would have to be in the next fiveyear plan. if we are in a low wealth. So, we're here to kind of talk about why we're making and asking you for an extension. So, what is a low wealth project? Well, a lowwealth project for schools, a

057construction project or a capital outlay project um or construction project for school districts that fall in the lowest 25% of tax collection. Okay. It is also for schools systems who have buildings that are 35 years or older. Okay. So, this allows us to compute. So, schools all over the state and school districts all over the state of Georgia, some that we know, um, Hancock County, a few other consolidated school buildings using the grant. Um so it's millions and millions of dollars that's available for us or for big capital projects. So we are he felt that and superintendent felt that let's explore that let's get the numbers. So once again, we fall two ways. The age of our buildings and our C tax collection percentage in the state. Possible benefits for a low wealth project for

058us. Cost avoidance. And I'm going to kind of put both of these together. Um cost avoidance. Our buildings are at they're 35 and JES is 39 years old and Twins County Middle uh high school is 35 years old. An average building roof commercial can last anywhere from 10 to 40 years. 25 years being the sweet spot. As you can see, we both have original roofs on both of our buildings. So cost avoidance right now uh the last architect estimate for us to replace the roof at the high school is $2.6 million and that was last year. So you know we have inflationary costs things like that. Um and at JES $1.12 million. So you can see right now we we have some deferred um maintenance on our buildings um that cost us. So when we

059talked in the last Mr. Austin mentioned on his list of contractor services, we have roof mitigation um leak mitigation that we spend roughly 45 to $60,000 a year in roof mitigation leak mitigation. We also in the need of serious upgrades in our building because they're end of life. So when you add something, those of you who have ever dealt with anything mechanical, things don't last forever. I had my truck for 20 years and she died on me last week. Things don't last forever. We're at that point where we're having to upgrade and worry about electricity and then also the way we use buildings and things now have changed. So, we need electrical upgrades and plumbing upgrades and and our facilities, some that we will be pursuing this summer. our student population decline. The footprint is

060large um for the current student body and to save on the cost of cleaning and staffing. So, we don't clean students in operation. We clean the building. So, when Mr. Basley was here, there was 1500 students in the building. The building is still the same size. We're still heating and cooling and spending and and and we have to staff based on the square footage. So the square footage hasn't changed. So but our student population has. So it's an opportunity for the district to look at those things. A new building or facility or upgrade will bring about efficiencies in maintenance operation and leading to cost savings. So our next steps would be board approval for the resolution of the five-year facility plan deadline extension. So we would need a year and then in that year we

061would get with our architects, our state folks, get you the real numbers, just get you the numbers so that you have them so that you can make a decision about what it is, what kind of grant, how do we go forward. One of the things that is also important is that Jeffersonville Elementary does not qualify for state capital outlay grants. So in the current configuration, we generate entitlement dollars every year. We probably have about 1.8 to two2.2 million dollars in capital outlay entitlement monies that we get from the state every year. But JES does not qualify. So none of that money could be used for a project at JES. um is to conduct the study and bring you back a report so you have the information about the feasibility of a lowwealth project for this

062district. And what you have on the next page is just the resolution asking for your permission um to extend that out for one year to gather the information. And it also in the same document u asks us to okay for you to okay for the DOE to provide us with the technical assistance um that we need to complete this process. Are there any questions? You said that JES does not qualify. Is that based on the age of the school? Yes sir. Okay. And yes, Twizz County Middle High School is closely is quickly approaching that as well. Okay. My question is what is the cost that this will have on the district? I couldn't hear you, ma'am. What is the price for the extension if we were to approve it? The the price? Yes. For the

063extension? Oh, there's no there's no cost. Are there any other questions? Thank you, Mr. Bacon. Let's see. Is a group of Okay. Good afternoon, Chair Carin, Vice Chair Rouse, board members, Superintendent Dr. Mac Bullard, all of our stakeholders listening in person and virtually. It brings me great pleasure to share our beacon assessment updates. But before I can share that information with you, we are a district with a vision and a mission. Our vision is generating excellence, one team, one goal. And our mission is to inspire, challenge, and prepare all students to compete globally. Our strategic goals aligned to this presentation are two number one learning and wellness for all number one number two excellence ahead academics facilities and opportunities. DRC Beacon is a three-year formative interim assessment administered in English language arts and mathematics in

064grades third through 8th that measure the measures the progress throughout the school year allowing educators to target instruction and make informed decisions. What's key about the DRC beacon that it is is matched or aligned to the Georgia standards of excellence. The DRC beacon is administered multiple times throughout the school year, providing teachers and support staff members and leaders with projected growth data and pinpointing skill areas needing more attention. It is administered on the same platform as the Georgia Milestone. The DRC beacon also includes the same universal tools and accommodations and utilizes instructionally sensitive items including technology enhanced items. What's most important about the DRC beacon is that it provides a report for teachers and leaders to project the to predict the performance of students on the Georgia milestones at the end of the year. We

065have administered the DRC Beacon twice to our third through um 8th grade students. The first administration was in September 2024 and the second administration was late January to middle February for our students and these are the results. What I will share with you today is just results at a glance but our principles will come forward and do a deeper drill down. So when you look at the chart and board members, I know you've had this presentation for a couple of days. When you look at this report, you will see that ELA, you will see a area for the fall and you will see ELA for the spring. You will see three areas, support needed, near target, and prepared. So if you look at our third grade students in the fall, we had three students where

066support needed. We um decreased that number to two. And we have near target students, 42 and 44 total. With our third grade math, we had seven students at support needed at the beginning of the year. We had zero students at support needed. All students moved to near target. When we look at our fourth grade students, we had 14 students in need of support needed. By the spring, we had eight. We move our near target to 40 and our prepared to one. When we look at our math, support needed was 31 in the beginning, 28. Support needed by the spring. When we look at our near target, we increased that to 23 by the spring. And then prepared, we didn't have any students in the prepared category. Our last area, our fifth grade students, and we

067see that in ELA, in the fall, we had 20 students as support needed. And by the spring, we had nine students as support needed. and we increased our near-target number to 40. Then when we look at mathematics at the beginning of the year we had 41 students in the support needed and then we have decreased that number to 30. We had eight students in near target and we increased that number to 20%. So that's an overall look for our elementary school. We're moving on to our sixth through 8th grade. When you look at the fall for our sixth grade ELA, you see we decreased the support needed to five. The near target number stayed the same 30 and we have four prepared. When we look at our sixth grade math, we decreased that number to

068um near target 13 and we had one student prepared. seventh grade the support needed in ELA was we decreased that number to seven by the spring the near target we um have 26 and the prepared students we increased that number from 3 to 10 our seventh grade students we see in the area of math it was 23 as support needed now we're 22 and near target 23 and we had a total of 45 students when we look at our eighth th grade. The last area we had um 19 with support needed in the fall, 16 with support needed near target. We increased it by one and then prepare we have four students. When we go to the eighth grade for math, we had 33 students at support needed and 27 at support needed now. So

069we decreased that number a little and then near target we increased by eight and prepared three. So what I did was give you the raw numbers. What the principles will do is come up and give you more of a drill down because they can paint a picture of what's going on at the school in the classroom with the teachers. So what they will do is share with you whether the strengths noted in the data from the fall to the winter in terms of ELA and what are the areas of concerns and what are we doing about it in um ELA and math from fall to winter. So, at this time, I'm going to yield to our principal at the elementary school, Mr. Mark Davis. And after Mr. Davis is done, Miss Jenkins will come forward

070for the middle school. Mr. Davis. Good evening, board members, and all people in our audience here. Uh, thank you for giving me a chance to share this data with you. As we look at this data, uh, one of the things I want to talk about is out of our third grade ELA, when we took it again in February, 33 students increase their score on an average of 30 points increase. Now guys, we only expect 29 to 30 for a entire year's worth of growth when you're talking about moving it to the next level. So we almost showed a year's worth of growth in 33 students out of those third grade students. One of the benefits of the beacon test is it gives us the projective score of where these students have the projection to score

071on those milestone tests. Just so you know, out of those third grade students, 26 of those have projections that could be proficient or higher. Now, understand those projections can go either way, but they do a window of if they continue the growth where they are and 26 of those will move into have the possibility to move into the prepared. Now, we begin our test tomorrow. I'm going into this very excited. You know, when I first looked at it and you didn't look at those students and the projection of where the growth was, it wasn't the best information. But when I dove into it further, 38 students increased their scores of 31 points or higher in fourth grade. And this is in this is by Janu I'm you know by January, late February. uh 40 students

072in fifth grade, which those are those three tested subjects, that's science, math, and reading. 40 of those students increase with an average score of 32 points. So, our kids were growing in the right area. But when we looked at it, not everybody was growing. So what I did is I went through every one of those scores, every single class, and I wrote an exclamation point on the top of any student who stayed stagnant or didn't grow. Those teachers had individual data meetings with those students. I label those kids that are in that group that could be proficient. and we completely changed our groupings for third, fourth, and fifth grade and and pinpointed our instruction to meet those areas of needs. Uh this is the first time my teachers dove into this data and they were

073very excited because it allowed them to see what kids needed what. We had kids grouped where there were so many different groups in the room where we were able to move those kids that needed the same thing. So the instruction was guided to meet them where they were. So we made those changes the week after we got the results for these beacon tests and we have implemented that and continued that from now until the beacon test. And one thing about these benchmark assessments is it gives us a true read. Are our kids growing? We knew they had to increase more than one grade level because that red area where those 41 students were that's two or more grade levels behind. So we have to increase more than one grade level each year. So what we

074have done is we divide divided those groups specialized that instruction. Uh we looked at blueprints. We looked at the milestone test because we're going to be held accountable for the questions on the milestone test. our teachers hit those key topics where the most questions are going to be, where the weak areas were. We use those blueprints to guide our instruction. Uh we went the state has achievement indicators, which is the mark where you want the kids to be. We made sure that the rigor of our classroom was still meeting those marks and added support underneath that. What we didn't want to do if there were kids that behind is lower the bar. So, we made sure those achievement indicators were right up there with the rigor that's going to be asked on that milestone test

075and what they're held accountable for. We use milestone practice problems. We started putting those in daily. Now, the milestone, this beacon is a great format because it uses the same platform as the milestone, but the questions in the milestone are totally different format than the kids. So what we have done is we started implementing in these groups milestonebased questions every day. We didn't want anything to shock these kids. We started doing a spiral vocabulary review and and you know we wanted to see the growth and this gave us a great idea. We were grow moving in the right direction but we still had some kids that needed to grow more and we still had some kids that were sitting stagnant. Now, as we talk about attendance, when we dove into the data, there was a

076huge correlation for those kids who did not grow and attendance. I would say that's probably one of the highest indicators if you were to look at those kids and their attendance. Attendance is a huge indicator there. And you know, we've we've done attendance incentives. We've taken them to big trips. We've tried to encourage kids to be there. uh one of the things that we found out when we talked with those kids who didn't grow their own drive and interest to do better. So I did individual talks with every third, fourth and fifth grade classroom. The teachers started having motivational talks with those students saying I need you to show up and show out. And we started having those more frequent especially those that weren't growing like they were supposed to. Uh we've had protective collaborative

077planning. We partner with Middle Georgia OSA and for ELA, the science of reading, the literacy models, which are for your K2 and K3 teachers. It teaches those beginning literacy skills, but my upper level teachers have engaged in that too because we had some students who were non-readers, you know, that came to us from other counties or maybe have been moved on. So, these teachers are learning skills how to help bridge those gaps. But we have totally changed our grouping and instruction to match this data. Data when when it's not used correctly is useless. We have looked in here and and the more data we have, the more adjustments we can make. And if you move to math, 37 of those students increased. 26 points was the average increase. Remember that 29 to 34 is what

078you expect them to grow in an entire year. Fourth grade, 27 students increased their score on an average of 19 points. That wasn't as high as we wanted and my math teachers actually focused with that. We partnered with Dersy and the math teacher and Derzy paired together, Dr. Derzy, and he really helped those math teachers try to find out why it wasn't as big of an increase as we wanted to see. 37 students in fifth grade increase with 37 points or higher. Our fifth grade students, those are our three tested subjects. That's where all these CC RPI scores, a big portion of that are our fifth grade students. And you know, moving those kids from red to yellow, yellow equals that.5 points. Moving them from yellow to green equals that one point. And we saw

079that those students when they're projected the projections for that uh for uh math or 30 students have projections in third grade to be proficient or higher. 24 in fourth grade to be on target or higher. 13 uh 16 students in fifth grade, but if you remember, fifth grade started with 41 in the red. So if you're getting 16 green and the other high percentage in yellow, 41 students of ours started two grade levels behind. Remember, they grew 37 points from the start of school on average until January or February when we took the test. So, our teachers have done the same thing with math that we did with ELA. We took those students and regrouped them. We actually said, "Here are kids that are missing the same thing." We actually moved the grouping and curtailed

080and pinpointed our instruction to match where those students uh where their needs were. We focused on those blueprints of the milestone standards. Again, we looked at the milestone test. That's what we're going to be rated on. We looked at those areas where there were where there were weaknesses, but they were a high number of questions on the milestone test to make sure they had those foundational skills. We used achievement indicators. Those achievement indicators from the state. We made sure we're not lowering the rigor. We're keeping the rigor and we're supporting the kids to match that rigor. We use milestone practice problems there. Again, daily my teachers put a milestone question up on the board. They walk the kids through it. They use those items on the computer screen, the tools. Uh we found out that

081if the kids use those items on the computer screen, they get additional points. So I went into every single classroom to make sure that they understand how to use those tools and that the kids utilize those tools to get every single point that we can. We've added spiral uh vocabulary review games with the kids. We incorporated a kings versus queens game challenge which is a competitiveness between the boys and the girls because it got motivation with the kids. The kids started getting very excited about the boys beating the girls and the girls beating the boys. You know there wasn't a lot of intrinsic motivation. Now today we did a boots on the ground pep rally. We told our kids the boots have been on the ground all year long. And I mean, we danced, we

082celebrated, and I told my kids, we're going to blow the top off this test if the growth has continued as it did from the beginning year till now. We I took these scores and we have a CCPI uh projection tool that was given to us when we went to CCRPI training. If the kids meet those projections, we will beat the content mastery score that was set before us by the state. We're just praying they move in the right direction. The projection is there. My teachers have been working really hard. We hope we have great scores and just thank you for all you do to support us. Do y'all have any questions? Yes, sir. You said you did the grouping. They they move them from different classrooms to Yes. Our third, fourth, and fifth grade rotate

083teachers. So, we have three math classes if they have three teachers. We have two math classes if they have two teachers in the grade level. So, what we were able to do is that allowed us to move those kids. uh they they went to the initial home room and then the first math class changed and I actually thought we would get ripples because changing kids away from their friends but it has been the most amazing thing because it matched the kids where they needed the academic support and it's actually been a been a great thing. I walked into a classroom to do my pep talk and I looked at that classroom and those class those students in that classroom all could score proficient or higher and and they were confident that they could because they

084were that group that had that range to move to that area. And just that confidence without those that were lacking the confidence bringing them down just made a confidence in that classroom that I was just super excited about. uh you know so I'm excited about the scores we start tomorrow we hit the ground running boots on the ground we are kicking and we are running and uh hopefully we'll be celebrating some good scores hope hopefully we will thank you Mr. Davis. Good afternoon, board chair. Miss Gustafen, Mr. Jenkins, vice chair, Mr. Rouse, Mr. Butler, Miss Blackshire, and beautiful. I just want to go ahead and go through our data. I want to paint a picture of what's happening when you get to the middle and high school. But I want to talk about middle school.

085When you get to the high to the middle school, you are building on knowledge that you should have mastered. So the learning and the growth will look different, but we're still charged to make sure students learn. I'm going to start at the with the eighth grade because we do have some strengths. When you look at our students, you're going to see that 23 of our students showed growth in ELA. Now, Dr. Griffin Stewart was accurate when she shared that we had students that were in the support needed and near target, but what was happening when we're diving deeper is that you get to see that those students still progressed. They progress within a band. If you think about the milestone, the milestone says that a student is developing and the score is 475 to 524.

086That student can score within that same band but still progress. So, it's important for us to note that as well. So, while we did have students that did not move outside of the band, there is progress in our ELA and our math for our students. So, it is important to note that for seventh grade, you're going to see that 31 of our students showed growth in ELA. They could still be operating within the same band, but those student grow. They grew. You're going to see that 21 of our students showed growth in math. And again, I want to keep reiterating this idea because we have a score that's going to come out soon according to how our students are performing. And we are still going to have to celebrate progression because we're progressing. We're progressing.

087It is going to be a huge leap from where we were, but it still may not guarantee that we move beyond our band. So, I want to be very clear about where we are and when we're looking at our students that we're charting also the movement from one band to another, but we're also clear about growth and what learning looks like. I also want to share with you that in our sixth grade that our strengths for ELA that 29 of those students grew and 24 of those students grew in math. We are progressing. It is a is a a slow hurdle, but we are definitely making moves there. I want to switch to our math concerns. When we look at sixth grade math and ELA concerns, we did have eight students that decreased. Now, as

088you progress, I want to keep reiterating that you're building on a foundation of knowledge. So, your ability to do multiplication quicker is going to make a difference when you're talking about calculating 10 problems versus when you were in the third grade or fifth grade when you were learning that new knowledge, you were comforted in it. We're layering when you get to Twigs Middle School. I also want to add to you that 33 of those 33% of those students that the data that Miss Rearen just shared with you are the students who are currently testing. So, those students missed a substantial amount of school, which means they didn't just miss school, but they missed knowledge. Eight of those students decreased in ELA while 18 of those students decreased in math. Now, when you talk about math,

089we have to keep in mind that the the speed of learning is important. You've got to master concepts when you get to the sixth grade, seventh grade, and eighth grade. In ELA, you had nine students that decreased. 19 students decreased in math. Why is there always going to be a challenge with math? Again, because it is a building block. I have to keep stressing that. So when we don't master a concept at the elementary level, it is going to eventually catch up with us. If we had to put it in different terms, if we don't retain a kid when they're in kindergarten and first grade, when they didn't master their numbers, there going to be some repercussions for that when they get to an area like the middle school where they've got to have that

090knowledge already nestled within them. In 8th grade, we have a decrease of 10 students in ELA, 10 students decrease in math. Let me also add when it comes to ELA that they're writing more. They also are challenged with having to read multiple passage. It's not like your initial journey where you just read one passage and you answer the who, what, when question. These questions are asking us to make predictions. These questions are asking us to make inferences. These questions are asking us to decode at the same time. And so, while we do owe our community an opportunity to make sure that students are learning, we've got to also be mindful that it is a layering process. when you get to the middle school, we've got to master the knowledge. We also want to share with

091you that when we look at our numbers, if you're in a bigger school and you have a thousand kids take the test and hundred of them don't fail fail the assessment, then you're still talking different numbers. When you're in Twigs, you have 43 kids take the test. We can't afford for one student to fail the test because our numbers could drop. Add on the fact that they didn't come to school. Add on the fact that a middle school mind starts to contend with behavior that they have um a willingness to not learn because my peers are not learning. Add on the fact that I'm a parent is probably not coming to see me as often they have in the past. So when we talk about the community connection like everybody has to be invested in

092the process. The middle school is when you need to start showing up a whole lot more. Add on the fact that there may be a lack of test um teaching and a lack of learning but we all have to be invested in the process. So your concerns are definitely our concerns, but we need to be transparent when we say how are we moving the students. If you'll look at the diagram there, that student who scored a 609 and that student who scored a 597 would also be in the same category. So the state is giving us an opportunity to progress and our mindset now is moving towards mastery, but we also celebrating our progression. We're celebrating progress at the middle high school. When I talk about what are we going to do, we're going to

093continue to talk to our parents because our parents don't understand what happens. Not all, some don't understand what happens when we take kids out of school in their math class every sixth period. Yes, the kid wants to go, but we're soliciting this idea that that knowledge that you need to gather there, you're not going to be obtained if you leave school. So, we're encouraging them, don't take the kid out this period. Don't take the kid out this period. Even if if it's a remediation computer class, they need to be there because the resource that we've invested in already is going to help them in that remediation class work on the skills that they don't have. When you talk about two grade levels behind at the elementary school, you got to keep in mind that when

094you get to the middle school, that looks completely different. Sometimes that's the ability to add and subtract. And then here we are asking you to do ratios. So what are we going to do? We're going to continue to to make sure that our parents are aware. We've hosted a parent engagement night. We are excited about the parents that came. They talked about the knowledge that they have. We're going to do more of that because as the data comes, the community is concerned about our growth, but we have to understand what's really happening when we talk about our growth, our success, and our failures. We're going to continue holding one-on-one discussions with kids. At this age, our kids know their numbers. They know when they're they're not behaving well in the classroom and they know when

095they're exceeding in the classroom because that too is happening in our building. We're going to talk about intentional games with those students who scored near target. Sometimes when you know all I need is 10 more points. That's going to give you a little bit momentum in making sure that you thrive and that you achieve. We're going to retach and regroup. We've started this process much like Mr. Davis just shared. We started it in March. Typically, most schools started in April, but we saw the data as well, and it was like a jump start. We need to do something now. Our teachers were instrumental in making sure that they handpicked which student was going here, there, and everywhere. And we are truly excited about their efforts. We've incorporated more studentled review. We all know that peer-on

096peer connections make a difference. Sometimes we've engaged that student and asked that student to be a leader for us today and teach this to the class. They know it. Help your peers know it. And of course, we celebrated with them through our involvement with parent engagement and communities in school, making sure that it's not necessarily preparing you for your success, but we want you to know that we notice your success. We focus on key literacy standards. We've partnered with Middle Georgia. We've used our resources. We've used all of the different great leaders that could come in our building like Dr. Dery and Dr. Holmes to help us fill in the gaps with our teacher pedagogy as well as our student knowledge. We've exposed and used the same language as expressed in the assessment, which is

097why the beacon assessment is so important. Our students get to see it and then our stu our teachers get to mimic what was displayed on that screen in terms of how they craft those questions in terms of how they expose that content to those students. We monitor quick and assess consistently. That's what we're doing in our classroom. So, when your student probably said, your child probably says, "I had a quiz today. I had a quiz today. I can't believe it." And everyone in my class had a quiz. You got to know right then and there what you know and what you don't know. So that is increasing our class. We also are changing our culture and climate when it comes to testing. What I mean by that is that if this is how the milestone

098says we have to be strict and scripted and doing this and making sure that students are not moving during testing time, we're doing that every time we take the beacon assessment and the I Ready assessment. So those testing jitters that students may contend with, they don't have to worry about that because we've been testing like this since the month of August. What I will say to you is that it is important for us to pray because that is going to help us along the way. I also ask our citizens to come into our building so that they can help their student learn as well. I've asked this over and over again. It's something about sitting in the classroom learning that and it's not even new way of math now because the students have been dealing

099with this math process step for the last five years but the parents don't know how to help them. So again we say come. We also ask that we continue with this journey of hiring great teachers, teachers that have knowledge like Mr. Christophen and not like Miss Jenkins when it comes to math because I'm going to need a little bit more help in terms of making sure those students know what I know when Mr. Kristophen would not have that challenge. And then I'm going to say allow me some time. I am not going to recreate this chapter, but I am gonna make progress. We have some incredible students in the world, not only in our classes, in our building and in the world. But we're also challenged with making sure that our students are great students,

100great citizens, and they will learn. They will learn. I'm not telling you that we're going to have the score that you desire tomorrow. But I will tell you, we're going to make progress. Any questions? Any questions? I want to just say thank you to Mr. Davis and Miss Jenkins for drilling down your beacon data. You both did an excellent job and thank you for serving as a first year principal at your both locations. We truly appreciate you. Board members, I want to thank you as well. I want to thank you for multiple things, but holding us accountable is one because I do believe accountability is very important. So, Mr. Butler, thank you for your comments because we definitely want to be accountable as teachers and leaders. Um, accountability from teaching and learning is continue to

101provide those resources for our teachers and allow them to have training and practice on the instructional resources that you all have graciously approved over the years. and then also continue to train our teachers. Teacher pedagogy is the key to helping our students move and not just teachers but students have to come and be motivated to learn. And so we know students are not perfect because we were all young one time. I know I was. But it is the teacher in front of the student that can encourage them to do their best. And so we're going to continue this journey on teaching and learning together. U Miss Jenkins shared some great points. I believe progress makes perfect in the future. We're going to continue to push our students and at this point during the Georgia milestones

102and the end of course test. Students are nervous and so are parents. So what we say to them as a body matters. So let's just encourage our students as well as our staff, our teachers to keep going and do their best to the very end. And so I want you to know that I have tried to be as transparent as possible during this school year. And I've showed you every piece of academic data we've had from our ready reading, our ready math, from our um maps um data that we started this year with our high school students and Beacon. And I'll continue to show you the data because I want you to know I want the community to be informed and it helps us to predict what will happen at the end of the year

103with the Georgia milestone. So our final data piece will be to show you what did our students do during the year. Are there any questions? I just have a comment. Um I want to say thank you to Miss Jenkins and Mr. Davis. I definitely agree um that it's going to take time, but we want to make sure our community is definitely hearing that that we're working. That's to echo the sentiment that I have that we are working. We are doing tireless. We're doing everything we can to make sure that our kids get the best because this is my community. This our community, all of our community. And it is important to us. That's all we're saying. That's all we're echoing. And we are going to work together. Everything that we can do as a board,

104we will do that for our kids, for our students. And and I do agree that it will take time, but we can get here. And these are challenges, but challenges are opportunity because at the end of the day, it's our students that's that at the end that that's hit that is affected. And so I definitely appreciate the presentation, but that's all I want the sentiment to be that we will try, we will work harder, and we will acknowledge where we at and we going to fight for it. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Mr. B. Any other comments? Thank you, Dr. Thank you. Well, at this time, we just want to thank each one of you for being here tonight. And um we're going to move into what we call executive session. In executive session, we

105discussed personnel matters, uh, future acquisitions of property, pending or potential litigation, school safety, and cyber security. So, at this time, uh, again, we want to thank each one of you for being here. Um, and we're going to move into executive session. Now, when I say that, that doesn't mean you got to go. We'll we'll try to get out as quickly as we can, but that's what happens next. Okay. So, thank you all for being here. And at this time, uh can I get a motion to to move into executive session? I made the motion to move into executive session. Second. Was that Miss King? Second. Okay. Um so, the motion to move into executive session has been properly made by Mr. Butler and second by Miss King. Is there any discussion? All in favor, raise

106your hand. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hat. Yeah. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Young. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey, [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] At this time the so move second who

107Rhonda. Rhonda. No, the motion. Who made the motion? Oh, I did. Did and second. Okay. The motion to uh return from executive session was properly made by Miss Rouse and second by excuse me, Miss King and second by Mr. Rouse. Is there any discussion? Okay. Okay. All in favor raise your hand. Okay. The motion passes unanimously. Okay. At this time we go we uh can I get a motion to approve the uh the resignations? Um I make the motion to approve the resignations. Okay. Can I get a second? Second. Okay. The motions have been properly made by Miss Blackshere and second by Miss King to approve the resignations uh 3 3431, 3449 and 2792. Is there any discussion? Okay. All in favor raise your hand. Okay. The motion passes unanimously. And now can I get

108a motion to adjurnn? So move. All right. A second. Okay. The motion to adjourn has been properly made by Miss Black here and second by Mr. Butler. This uh meeting is now adjourned. [Music]