001We thank you and praise you that we're able to come together in this country Lord to conduct the business of the school board. We pray for your presence here with us tonight. Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to celebrate the the art students and the other celebrations we'll have tonight that are the success of those who make up our district. I pray Lord you would inform us that you would give us wisdom and discernment as we deliberate the the business of the body tonight and all things Lord that you would be glorified. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Good evening. Welcome to the May 11th, 2026 Dorchester District 2 of Trustees meeting. At this time, I would ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda and meeting minutes. >> So moved. Motion made
002by Mr. Guthrie. Seconded by Ms. Powell. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, we will call for the vote. Is Maynor Lewis yes? Motion carries, seven in favor. Right. I think the next item on our agenda is what most of you must be here for this evening. So, we will move to our district highlights. Thank you. We've got Mr. Brian Bohannon coming up. Thank you, Dr. Wimberly, Superintendent Daughtry, board members. Uh another quick shout-out for the great student art that we recognized uh at 5:30 today. It's going to be displayed proudly in the building. Fantastic. All the board members got to put blue ribbons on pieces of art during Youth Art Month. That was great. Our district highlights, another great list of student highlights filled with student and staff achievements across our district. Um and we'll
003begin with the special presentation from Superintendent Daughtry. Thank you, Bert. Thank you, Brian, the rest of the board members, uh Dr. Wimberly and the rest of the board. Is Julie and Kim here this evening? Can you please come over here, Julie and Kim? So, Julie Wentzel and Kim Potts, um Julie is a bus driver here in DD2, and Kim Potts is a bus monitor. And so, I want to highlight these two ladies uh because when you think about adding value to a child's life, it doesn't matter what position you're in. Um you can have that impact. And uh so, I was able to get an email from a parent. And so, just to kind of show you a little bit what we're dealing with here. Um and it says right here, it says, "You can't
004tell me nothing about bus 23 because I know Miss Julie and Miss Kim got me." So, but but I I I just wanted to to highlight what they did because this is a message from a parent. It says, "I'm writing to respectfully bring to your attention a matter that I believe deserves careful consideration regarding the conduct of one of your drivers and assistant. I want to commend bus 23, Miss Julie and Miss Kim on this day that is set aside to recognize those that serves us in transportation department. Being the parents of a child with autism and having a bus team that is dedicated to welcoming welcoming him on and off the bus with cheer is a tremendous blessing and one of the pivotal reasons why he has excelled so much this year in school
005because he looks forward to his bus ride experience daily. Thank you. He knows they are cheering him on off on and off the bus. Her son um was so excited for his bus ride to see them that it took him some getting used to not expecting to see them on the weekends, too. They are invested not only just my child's safety and setting a template for his day, but all the other students' days as well. And you can feel it and hear it. They both are passionate and show up daily with the same smile and warmth that goes a long way with parents. Special needs workers' jobs are not easy, but we are very blessed appreciate for them and everything that they have been uh to our family this year. Transportation is more than just
006getting passengers from one place to another. It is a daily experience that shapes the trust, safety, and peace of mind for those who rely on it. I just wanted to pass this information off to the top because they are representative of your leadership. Though the bus may be shorter than some of the rest, the love that it holds definitely is long. So, give a congratulations to Julie Ford. >> [cheering] [applause] >> While they get a while they get a picture real quick, I will say briefly that Director of Transportation Steve Shope, ironically, is is stuck in terrible traffic right now. He wanted to be here. We got a message just before the meeting started, but I wanted to mention that he sends his appreciation. >> [applause] >> Thank you, ladies. Thank you, Mr. Doughty. For
007our next two highlights, I'd like to welcome Director of Secondary Schools Dr. Maurice Cannon. Thank you. Good evening, uh Board of Trustees, our Chairperson Wimberly, Superintendent Doughty, and members of our community. It is truly an honor to recognize one of our outstanding educators from Fort Dorchester High School, Mr. James Barton. Mr. Barton has recently been named the South Carolina Association of Student Councils High School Advisor of the Year, A distinction that reflects not only his leadership but his deep commitment to student voice, service, and civic engagement. Under his guidance, student leaders have been empowered to make meaningful contributions within their school and across the broader community. Mr. Barton exemplifies what it means to invest in students beyond the classroom, developing character, leadership capacity, and a sense of responsibility that will serve them well into the
008future. On behalf of Dorchester School District Two, we congratulate Mr. Barton on this well-deserved recognition and thank him for the lasting impact he continues to make on his students and our district. >> [applause] [applause] >> I just want to say a quick thank you to Mr. Barton as a parent who's blessed enough to have two students in your classes. I appreciate you and all your hard work and thank you so much. >> [applause] >> I now have the privilege to introduce Mr. Bill Marshall, president and Mr. Pat Apperson, education chair for the Society of the Cincinnati of the state of South Carolina, who join us this evening to recognize one of our outstanding educators. Gentlemen. >> [applause] >> Thank you, sir. Bill Marshall, president of the South Carolina Society of Cincinnati. I will save my
009speech about the Society of Cincinnati for a later date, but uh basically the society is made up of descendants of officers of the Continental Line who fought in the in the American Revolution. It was started by George Washington and Henry Knox. And uh one of our mandates is to remember that vast event called the American Revolution through education. And in that spirit, uh I guess about 4 and 1/2 years ago the South Carolina Society of Cincinnati uh created an education excellence award to that we give out once a year to a teacher in South Carolina and it's our privilege this evening to to be amongst y'all. I will pass it over to to Pat Apperson who is our education chairman for this presentation. Thank you so much for letting us be here. >> [applause] >>
010Thank you, Bill. And thank you, ladies and gentlemen. And it was wonderful to see how you started this evening with your meeting. So, we love the patriotic uh aspect to it. Thank you. As Bill said, the Society of the Cincinnati was founded by officers of the American Revolution and we're fortunate enough to be descendants of those officers that we commemorate that vast event. A few years ago the society realized that it needed to do more outreach and especially with a lot of the things going on in our society today, we needed to strengthen or help strengthen education in our school system. And that's what we've undertaken as Bill said about 4 years ago. We in the state society began a teacher of the year award and this is our fourth year for that. And we
011also run workshops across the state that we started 2 years ago. Our next one will be here in Dorchester County in July of 2027. We bring teachers from all around the state to learn more how they can give lessons about the American Revolution. And the recipient tonight, Brock Beaver, has been very active in our programs. He was attended our Master's Teacher Seminar in Washington, D.C. last year. And he is um been very active and was very helpful in our workshop in Camden this past year. So, this is part of our outreach, getting more out into the community, not being behind closed doors of a bunch of old men and things like that, but to get out and help promote social studies in the American school system. So, thank you very much. Brock, you want to
012come forward? >> [applause] [applause] >> Thank you, gentlemen. Our next highlight recognizes achievements through the South Carolina PTA. To present these recognitions, please welcome Dorchester-Colleton County PTA President Mary Kate Ward. >> [applause] >> All right. Good evening, everyone. Um I'm thrilled to share that a number of DD2 PTAs and individuals from those PTAs were recently recognized by the South Carolina as South Carolina PTA award winners. Thank you for recognizing these accomplishments this evening. First up, we have Fort Dorchester Elementary PTA. >> [applause] >> Okay. They um received the Community Collaboration Award and the PTA Belonging Award. Additionally, uh their teacher, Abby Marone, received the Exemplar an Exemplary Teacher Advocate Award and the and Zoe Camp, their student, received the Student Voice and Advocacy Award. Okay. >> [applause] >> That's me. Okay. All right. Next, we'd
013like to recognize River Oaks Middle School PTSA. >> [applause] >> Their PTA uh won a South Carolina PTA Membership Growth Award. >> [applause] [applause] >> The next PTA we'd like to recognize is Sand Hill Elementary School PTA. >> [applause] >> They received a Student Centric Budget Allocation Award and also Nicole Cruz was recognized as a for PTA Board Member Commitment. >> [applause] >> All right. William Reeves Elementary PTA. >> [applause] >> William Reeves PTA is being awarded the PTA Volunteer Excellence Award and they also were acknowledged for their student-centric budget allocation. >> [applause] >> And finally, we'd like to recognize Windsor Hill Arts Infused Elementary PTA. >> [applause] >> They are recognized for the SCPTA Southern Connections Award and their teacher, Sharon Will, was recognized for exemplary teacher advocate. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Ms.
014Ward. Our next highlight recognizes efforts across our district to support the American Cancer Society through Relay For Life. To share more, welcome Assistant Director of Elementary Schools, Ms. Jessica Farnsworth. >> [applause] >> All right. Good evening, Madam Chair, Board members, Superintendent D'Ardy, and members of the DD2 community. Tonight, I'm honored to celebrate what truly sets DD2 apart, our commitment to relationships and how they are the foundation of who we are and how we serve our students, staff, and community. That spirit of connection and care was recently reflected in our partnership with the American Cancer Society through the 2026 Low Country Relay For Life. The Relay For Life is more than a fundraiser. It's a movement of hope, remembrance, and action. The mission of the American Cancer Society is to improve lives of people with cancer
015and their families through advocacy, research, and patient support services. Funds raised through Relay events directly impact individuals and families in communities just like ours. Those donations help provide transportation for patients traveling to chemotherapy treatments, lodging for families during cancer care, access to 24/7 support resources, and funding for groundbreaking cancer research that continues to save lives every day. This year, DD2 showed up in an incredible way. We proudly had teams representing 12 schools and the district office that participated in the Low Country Relay For Life event on April 17th. Students, teachers, administrators, staff, and families came together to not only raise funds and awareness for those impacted by cancer, but also to give their time, talents, and resources through performances, activities, and ceremonies that reflected the compassion, service, and community spirit that defines DD2. Cancer touches
016us all in some way. Nearly every person in this room has been impacted by it through a family member, friend, colleague, or loved one. Events like Relay For Life allow us to not only honor our survivors, but also remember and celebrate those we have lost. So, we always have people come present us big checks. So, we decided we want to celebrate and present the American Cancer Society with a big-ish, biggest check. Um, so, tonight we want to sincerely thank every DD2 school, every team captain, every participant, every student, every donor who helped make this effort successful. We raised over $17,880. Your generosity reflects the compassion and spirit that define our district. Together, DD2 is proving that when a community unites around a purpose, we can make a real difference not only in our schools, but
017in the lives of people throughout the low country and beyond. So, first we're going to celebrate the school that raised the most funds in all of DD2. We hope that this will become an annual kind of friendly competition. And so, this school's being named as our first annual Relay For Life top school for 2026, and that is Austin-Bailey Elementary School. >> [cheering and applause] >> So, Austin-Bailey, come on up. And then, you guys can stay up here because we're going to bring up our um our friends from the Relay For Life, but we're going to get you guys up here first. If you want to come up here. We were having to check totals up until the moment we printed the certificate because it was back and forth, and there were several schools that were
018in a race. So, um this friendly competition is definitely going to be one that helps us raise funds. But, congratulations to Austin-Bailey Elementary School. >> [applause] >> Now, you guys can stay up here cuz we're going to bring up some more people. So, here tonight we're joined by Donna Hackela. She is the Relay For Life volunteer event chair and other members of the event leadership team. So, we'd like for them to come up, and we're going to present them with a check for $17,887. >> [applause and cheering] >> And then, we're going to bring up members from like our team captains from the following schools, Austin Bailey, Eagle Nest, Joe Pie, Knightsville, Oakbrook Elementary, Reeves Elementary, Oakbrook Middle School, Dubose Middle School, Rollings Middle School of the Arts, River Oaks Middle School, Ashley Ridge High
019School, Summerville High School, and any member of our members of our DO team that would like to join us. Let's get a big group picture of everybody that represented us for Relay for Life. Sorry, Ms. Passmore, you're going to have to try to squeeze everybody in there. All right, I'm going to jump in. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Ms. Farnsworth. We'll conclude tonight by recognizing the work of our community relations office. Each year, the South Carolina chapter of the National School Public Relations Association recognizes outstanding communications and public relations efforts from school districts and educational organizations across South Carolina through its annual Rewards for Excellence program. This year, DD2 received three state-level recognitions during the organization's award ceremony in Columbia. We received two publication and electronic media awards in the photography category. The first for
020this series of photos from Oakbrook Elementary's color run, and another for this four door Dorchester High School graduate who rained $25 onto stage at last year's graduation. An image that clearly displays what not to do as you cross the stage. Finally, the office received a golden achievement award for the Hey Team Dorchester, a culture-first digital engagement initiative. A social media effort centered around creating casual, personable, and authentic content that highlights the people and culture of DD2 through weekly digital storytelling. SCASPA's Rewards for Excellence program included 374 entries from across the state this year, evaluated by public relations professionals with extensive experience in educational and business communications. We're grateful for this recognition of work happening across the district and proud of the efforts of the Community Relations Office to help tell the story of Team Dorchester.
021And I'm going to get a picture. >> [applause] >> Brian is so awesome. He gave his own award, so I just want to say, "Thank you, Brian, on behalf of the board for your fantastic photography." >> [applause] >> This concludes tonight's District Highlights. >> [applause] >> All right. That was awesome. Next, we will continue our agenda with our public comments on agenda items. We have one this evening, Mr. Jason Brocker. Those were some wonderful words. Um, congratulations to everyone. Tonight, I'm here to speak about item 5A, policy committee first readings. Um, it is staff concerns, complaints, and grievances. Well, May is mental health awareness month, but also the annual teacher thank-a-thon, which is sponsored by Defense of Democracy. So, I want to remind everybody that I've actually been speaking up for teachers longer than about
022half the board has actually been sitting up there. But, tonight I want to talk about the policy that you have that proposes in policy GBK removing the sentence beginning with level one, the employee, supervisor, or administrator may request a fellow employee, department head, or supervisor, administrator, or other staff member to participate in a grievance as a conferee. While the updates to policy GBK-R include provisions for joint grievances, it more explicitly requires that they both sign and attest to similar grievances. This seems to be a bit more restrictive. Why is the district moving to ensure that when a teacher has a grievance or a concern about the working conditions, that they have to go it alone against the administration? When you remove the conferee, you aren't streamlining a process, you're encouraging isolation. You're ensuring that there
023are no witnesses. You're ensuring that the orderly and expeditious resolution Oh, wait a minute. You also strike that, too. Not orderly or expeditious. It's been my experience with the district's resolutions, silence isn't an accident. It's the feature. The policy revision mirrors a broader pattern that I've observed, preference for executive sessions over open dialogue. By requiring teachers to cite specific board policies or state laws just to have a grievance recognized, you're placing a legalistic burden on the very people we are supposed to be thanking this month. Again, we've thanked a lot of teachers today for a lot of work that they do. And a lot of the stuff that I've said up here sees past the bit of the the surface into reading between the lines. And so, I'd like you to really think about some
024of these policy changes that you're proposing. The last board meeting, I spoke about some policy changes that got pushed through, and it's perfectly fine. But true gratitude for our educators isn't found in a social media post or a commemorative week. It's found in the complete freedom from reprisal that this policy promises, but strategically undermines with these revisions. If we are truly to honor our teachers during this thank-a-thon, we must reject policies that isolate them. I support our teachers. I've been supporting our teachers for years. I support the defense of democracy in the teacher thank-a-thon. And I'd also like to personally thank teachers that if anyone wants a free ticket to come see Saving Abel headlining our show at the uh fairgrounds on May 30th, email me at [email protected], and I'll get you a free ticket.
025Front row VIP. Thank you, Mr. Brocker. All right. Next on our agenda this evening, we have our board committee reports. We will begin with our policy committee, Ms. Bates. Thank you, Madam Chair. We have several policies up for first reading today. Um they are as follows: GBK, staff concerns, complaints, and grievances. G Bay BKR, staff concerns, complaints, and grievances. GBI, staff participation in political activities. GC, professional staff. GCA, professional staff positions. GCQE, retirement of professional staff. GCQE, the rule, retirement of professional staff for um recommended for deletion. GDA, support staff positions. IHBGR, homeschooling. And that's all. Thank you, Ms. Bates. As these are coming out of policy, we do not need a second. So, at this time, I would ask if there are any questions or discussion. All right, hearing none, we will call for
026the vote. Motion carries, seven in favor. And then, all we have is an upcoming meeting on May 18th, so that's next week. Uh other than that, that's all I have for today. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, next we have our finance committee. Mr. Lee, anything to report for us this evening? The board presented our proposed budget for the next year to the county council this afternoon. Uh interesting conversation. Not a whole lot of questions. Uh you're welcome to go and take a look at that one. Uh but our next meeting will be next Monday, which is uh public comment on our budget. I encourage everyone take the time to uh watch that presentation or go back to the last finance committee, prepare yourself, and come with any questions or comments that you might have. Mr.
027Guthrie, anything you want to add? No, sir. All right, thank you. Next is our Facilities Committee, Mr. Farnsworth. Thank you, Madam Chair. Facilities will meet again next week, next Monday, May 18th. So, please be on the lookout for that. We plan to go over high level from all of our facility visits. So, we will pinpoint everything that we've looked at during those visits. And then we also have quite a few good updates for everybody tonight. We are rolling along with a lot of projects here in the district. So, look forward to that as well. Thank you. All right, thank you very much. Okay, and then we have our Governmental and Community Relations Committee, Mr. Lee. Yeah, we we have not met since the last time we presented an update, but a couple of conversations have
028taken place. There is a desire to get more than just a few legislators together from the various legislative bodies that have anything to do with school, school funding, and whatnot. So, we're going to work to do that. And then one thing just is of particular note, during the presentation of the budget to the County Council, one of the council members asked a a thoughtful question regarding, you know, some of the line items in the budget relating to behavioral supports and whatnot. And, you know, asking quite candidly, what can we do about it? I would love to see the community get behind answering that question. Because while we have challenges and things we have to deal with here in our district, it's not a school district problem. Okay? It's a community problem. It's a cultural problem.
029I'd love to love to see more people lend their voices to starting that conversation. Thank you, Mr. Lee. All right, next we have our Board Chair's reports. And it's Um is that time of year where we have a lot of events happening. Yes, we've had several great ones and I thank you all for your attendance. This week, we have the teacher signing day on Thursday evening. That is here and then this weekend on Saturday, we have the last dance for span. Um so that's just this week and there others listed on there that you can add to your calendar. Anyone have any questions or comments about upcoming events? All right. Well, I look forward to seeing you all at those fun things. Okay, so we will move on to our superintendent's report. Mr. Daugherty, what
030do you have for us? Yes, Madam Chair and the rest of the board. Our first item this evening is our multi-language learner update and Miss Susan Greensteiner will be coming up and kind of giving a report on um how we're addressing our our needs for our multi-language learners. So, thank you, Mrs. Greensteiner. Thank you. Good evening, Madam Chair, Dr. Wimberly, Superintendent Mr. Daugherty, esteemed school board members and members of the community. I appreciate the opportunity um for giving me the opportunity to present on our district multilingual learner program this evening. My name is Susan Greensteiner. I am the multilingual learner program coordinator. I'm going to go over a few overview slides and then I'll dive into a few more details. But please feel free to stop me at any point and ask any questions. This
031first slide is just an overview. Use it as a quick reference guide to refer back to and these are the details that I'll be going into further in the presentation. So, who we serve in our district? Thank you so much. We serve multilingual learners who by um sorry, when they came into our district, they either have a home or a native language that starts the process of an identification for multi-multilingual learner services. Based on their level of need, we have over 3,000 students. We have 1,500 roughly that are actively served, meaning we are providing direct direct instruction and they are actively tested yearly. Over 700 of those are monitored, meaning they have exited that those services, but we are still actively monitoring and supporting them, kind of um creating that safety net in case there
032are extra needs and we can support the schools, students, and their teachers. We have more than 650 that are fully exited, meaning they are fully multilingual learners. That's an exciting piece for us. And we even have over 100 pre-K students who may be identified once they reach kindergarten level. From our students, they actually represent over 60 languages. And some of the top languages there are Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Arabic, Russian, Korean, and we can blow that little speech bubble up if we need to read further. In terms of who we are, our program has over 37 or has 37 multilingual learner specialists. These are the teachers that are in the schools serving those students with those direct instruction pieces, but they also work with the records departments, they work with those intake of the records.
033They help with the testing process and they support the students and their administrative teams in helping make those decisions about the best need the best met the best ways to meet the needs of those students. We also have five interpreters that are assigned to the various schools based on need. And we need to serve all 25 schools. And then we In addition, we also serve any of the other locations or alternative programs where our multilingual learners might be such as RISE, virtual, and our NND site purpose. We have many facets of our program, but some of our primary responsibilities that I wanted to highlight for you this evening. >> [clears throat] >> I talked about that identification and placement. It begins with the home language survey. That's a universal screener that's given at registration or
034we collect records from the previous districts. So, we're we work closely with student testing coordinators, the systems operators or sysops at the schools, and those individuals who are working with records. Once we make those initial pieces Once we collect those initial pieces, if a student does need to go through screening, we our teachers complete this that screening. We keep track of the records. We are responsible to have compliant records for the state and the federal audits. And then we even work with the teachers work with me. They work with their admin. They work with schedulers to determine the correct placement and scheduling of services for those students. As a district and at the school level, we also are responsible for meaningful communication with the parents in the languages, especially for legal purposes, and this is
035a federal requirement. But on top of that, we do that because we also our schools um find it so important to make those meaningful connections with the parents and make those home-school connections. And we found a lot of growth in this area and we're really proud of this. Um but we do help support the schools in making those meaningful home-school connections. To do this, we do have those five interpreters that I talked about. They are Spanish language interpreters. And then for overflow needs or for languages else out outside of Spanish, we have Language Line. And then we also use Alta as our translation program for documents and legal documents such as like for hearings and things like that. Another piece that we are responsible for, our teachers work with the content teachers, the student testing
036coordinators again at the school level and we create individualized language acquisition plans or ILAPs. So, they are the legal student accommodation plans so that students can achieve those grade level content standards that I'll talk about in a second. To do this, they're collaborating with their classroom teachers. We're working to help make sure that everyone um gets the support they need if that's if that student needs extra support or sometimes we take those supports away because that student is needing to move to those higher levels. And then in addition, we have it's important that we communicate clearly with student testing coordinators so the students get the correct legal accommodations that they um have on those ILAPs in in the testing process. In addition to all of the other district tests and assessments that the that that
037all non-ML students take or sorry that that all students take, our students our ML students also take all of those other district um assessments, EOCs, things like that. But our ML students also take the annual English language proficiency proficiency assessment and that is for that um about those 1,500 students that are tested and served annually. This score does measure our school growth and that is reported on the report card on the state report card, and I'll talk about that in a little bit as well. But, this is another measure that we can use to monitor our student growth. So, to address instruction and to help our students meet those language goals, our English language development standards, they're housed under the WIDA company or the WIDA framework. It's the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment, and this
038is used throughout the country by several other states, and it's also our state um standard for English language development. It covers the language of the content area. So, we're really focused on listening, speaking, reading, and writing to help support the academic language development of the content area. So, the academic language of social studies, the academic academic language of English language arts, science, social studies, ELA, English language arts. To do this, we use three different service we use several different service models. Primarily, we are using pull-out or push-in support at the elementary level. We're using an ML class period in the middle school and high school level, and we're working toward collaborative teaching, so that might be collaborative planning in the in a PLC or in a planning period, and also the co-teaching supports. And this
039is a best practice. The state is encouraging us to do this because it's minimizing that isolation and that pull-out time, and it's encouraging more time within that content area where they are working with that academic language in context. So, it's making more meaningful time within that content area. >> [clears throat] >> All of these supports are meant to empower students, and at the same time, we're also empowering our educators. Our ML specialists do need to take additional certification to be an ML teacher. And so they are experts in their field and we recognize them as that. They are they work so hard. Um they are supporting professional development. So many of our professional development development pieces we create at the district level and then they are also helping to support those at the school level.
040They're also collaborating in their working with their content teachers in those PLCs to help support those instructional strategies to support the language in that content area. And by doing that we're building capacity. We're building school level leadership teams. We're building strong content teachers that are rising to that occasion as well. We also have the Elevation platform. Elevation is a program that allows us kind of a twofold purpose. One, it houses our data. So it helps communicate and streamlines some of those communication pieces that I talked about earlier. Our individualized language acquisition plans, those accommodation plans are housed within there. The content teachers can sign those, can access those, and then they're housed there. So the school testing coordinator can hit a button and be able to get those accommodation plans too. So it really is
041cleaning that up and and streamlining that piece and making sure that we are [clears throat] not spending a lot of time on the the um on handwriting our old forms, which is how what we used to have to do. But in addition, Elevation is a strong platform because it actually houses instructional strategies and modules for teachers to get professional development on how to deliver those instructional strategies to help get um be even more equipped to deliver that instruction for that that academic language in the content area. In fact, it's so robust that if the content teachers or any teachers, you all can do it, if you complete the modules, you can submit those to the State Department for ML endorsement. So, it's it's a high-level program. Just like we empower our teachers, we also focus
042on empowering our students because that's why we're all here. We're about helping our students grow. So, we're about making meaningful change for our students. One of the the ways of doing that, again like I mentioned earlier, we do take all of the other assessments as the other students. And so, just like all students are measured on the state report card, so are our MLs. But, in addition, as you can see in the far left there, the English language proficiency assessment growth piece is also an added piece for schools for their ML students. So, that's an additional piece on the school's report card for our students. Most students I'm sorry, the average ML student will take about 5 to 7 years to acquire the English language. But, our state actually gives about a 4 to 5-year
043growth period, and we're actually still doing really well compared to compared to that as I'll show you in a second. So, I'm very proud of the work that our teachers, our schools, our students, um everyone is is >> [clears throat] >> excuse me, and the support that you all give because I I think we're doing amazing things for our students. Down below, you'll see that some of the ways that we go about this is we do spend a a focal time on that accurate reporting and the data that we provide the state so that we do ensure that what we are submitting is correct. But, we also have the compliance with the South Carolina expectations. They talk about wanting collaborative co-teaching. We're trying to move in those directions. We try to support those ratios as
044best we can. And then the instructional alignment. It really comes down to that because when we recognize that the content standards and the language of the content standards are where our students are being measured on the state report card, not only for their content growth, but also their language growth. When we align that, we make the most and the most effective use of the resources we do have. So, we work closely with the curriculum and instruction team, the federal programs team. We work with the accountability teams. Um you you name it. If they're out there, we're working with them because we want our students to do the very best that we can that they can. In terms of impact and growth of the program, there it is. Consistently in over the past few years, our
045district, our Dorchester School District Two students have ranked in the top South Carolina districts for their for meeting that ML growth target. That's even sooner than the average ML student should be acquiring that growth. For districts that are um our ML size or larger. So, I'm really proud of our students and our schools and our teachers for all of their work hard work in that area. And that is coming about through that enhanced teaching capacity. We really work hard to get that tier one instruction piece. Um working with MTSS groups. We're doing it all so that we can build that capacity at that school level and that teacher level. And our schools um one of our one of my pride points is working closely with the Title Family Engagement Office, with schools, with their Title
046Facilitators, and enhancing that family engagement piece. It's it's been really exciting and looking for ways to build those home-school connections. And then moving forward, we are as we reflect on our program, which we do all the time, um we are continuing to just build that collaboration and those co-teach models so that we can build the capacity. We are working with schools, individual schools, and their teachers to build that school level capacity in those ML leadership teams. And continually continuing to hone our professional development. So, we have the standardized pieces to just get through the compliance pieces, but we're moving forward always to do what's really needed at that school level, really needed at that student level so we can make a true difference for our students, which is why we're all here. Thank you for
047your time this evening. And if you do have any questions, I'm happy to answer anything. I do, just to clarify, do services start in pre-K or kindergarten? They start in kindergarten per um federal and state guidelines. It's always a wish list for me because if we can start earlier, we can support, but we don't um we we would need Okay, wonderful. And then one more, does each school currently have their own ML teacher or we are some still doing half-day shared? Right now, they they all do have a teacher. Some are not a full a full-time and they might share with another school, but they are if that's the case, we are trying to do our best to meet the ratio um so that they're they're given what they need based on based on that
048the state recommended ratio. Mhm. So, the the ML teachers, if I'm following this, they are not necessarily language specific. They're trained in dealing with students that are multilingual. They're not necessarily Yes, I would say that we're literary literacy specialists because we're focusing on the speaking, reading, writing, and listening of English. Got you. Okay. And then we have five interpreters, but it's all Spanish. Five interpreters that are all Spanish. Um two are quite freq- quite fluent in Portuguese. Um and so we're trying to build that capacity up um and then yes, mhm. Okay. And but you have what? 3,000 students, 60 languages. Can help me synthesize all that? Well, we um the interpret the interpretation support is for the families. We do not provide that for the students. For the students, we're supporting them with learning
049the English language and bridging that content support with the language support up through those accommodations. So, the language support is for the families to meet those federal guidelines about the communication in a language the parents can understand. Um this may not be a question for you, but you know 3,000 that's roughly about 11% or so of of our students in our district require some sort of ML support. About 6% are in active support, the 1,500 that you mentioned and whatnot. Superintendent Daugherty, I don't know this might be for that and if we don't have it today, that's fine, but I mean in terms of our budget and everything else, what what does this look like? Well, I can tell you this, it's lot like everything else in public education, a lot of it's unfunded mandate.
050We don't get a lot of dollars. We get a lot from title three title three, correct me if No, not title three, title Title three is um has restrictions on it. It can pay for parent engagement. Um it can pay for professional development and it can do supplemental support. It is not allowed to be used for interpretation or translation because that is something that um or testing, things like that. So, if it is if it is something that we are required to do for all students, then that is something that has to come that is supposed to come through from our general budget per the federal guidelines. And that's something we kind of have to balance, you know, when look at the needs and and Susan does a wonderful job with her staff. Um when
051you think about, you know, push-in, pull-out, um all those services, making sure they have the accommodations when they have the testing, um making sure schedules are set up and you know, when we push something out from ParentSquare, we have to make sure it's in that native language also. So, you know, those are things that we're having to do and they have to help us a little bit with that, putting messages out. So, uh Susan is kind of that the ringmaster of bringing that all together and she does a phenomenal job um and spends a lot of time with new families coming in like with the enrollment process. We have a lot of those that come in and so she's working with new families to make sure to get those people on board, to get them
052the services. And so again, um it's a lot of time and effort, um but again, it doesn't come with a lot of extra federal dollars our way. Um but just again, what she does with a little um and I think Annie said it, you know, not every teacher is just home at one school. There might be some splits um to try to make that happen. And I know we have added teachers the last couple years um to help accommodate the needs. So, um just appreciate what uh what Susan has done. But kind of answer your question, Mr. Lee, there. Yeah, it does. Thank you. And then thank you for the update. There was a lot there that I I was not aware of, so. >> Thank you. Thank you. Like most everything else in the
053district, you guys seem to do more with less and still produce the results, so thank you. We try our best. Here is a little bit on the growth we're seeing in our multilingual learners. Like, is it growing substantially each year? Like, how like, you know, cuz obviously want to make sure we're providing adequate support if that's like something we're seeing a lot of growth in. Um over like maybe last like 5 years, is this like a substantial change? Is this something It has had a high upward trajectory, I'll say. Um we have stabled out a little bit um this year, But, we've also seen just a higher number of newcomers and diverse needs is the best way I'll say that. So, students that are coming in, um, and that's that's really where we're trying to
054help support schools, you know, with meeting those tier two or tier three needs as they come in and and really helping to answer some of those questions. So, and and just trying to do our best to support in those areas. And that's why working with all of the other departments has been integral, um, because we're all working in those same areas and just our ML students have that added piece of the language learning. It's always good for us to just keep an eye on that like with, you know, our budget cycle each year and where where we need to allocate supports in different areas. So, just was curious if that was something we were seeing a growing amount of need for, so. Yes, um, I do sub- um, we submit our allocation requests just like
055all the other departments and and we do that yearly. Thank you. Any other questions for Mrs. Grinstead? Thank you, Mrs. Grinstead. Great job. Thank you. Thank you for your time and all your support. Uh, next up on the superintendent's report is Mr. David Walker is going to talk a little bit about, um, our partnership with BASC. I know we've talked a lot about behavior and, uh, so I know David's kind of our expert in our, um, special education department with behavior and so he's going to talk a little bit a little bit about our partnership with BASC. Great. Good evening. Uh, thank you, Madam Chair, Board of Trustees, and Mr. Daughtry for having me this evening. I have the privilege of sharing some very, uh, good information about our partnership with BASC. Um, so BASC
056stands for the Behavior Alliance of South Carolina. They are an organization that's funded by the South Carolina Department of Education and they're affiliated with SC Teams. I'm sorry I didn't switch the slide there. Off to a bad start already. Um So, they're affiliated with SC SC teams. Their overall goal with BASK is to uh build capacity within the school buildings of our partner schools, and also uh they do that through coaching and training. At the tier one level. So, all the work that we do with BASK is at the MTSS tier one universal level. So, it affects all students. So, our partner schools are Eagles Nest Elementary, River Oaks, and Fort Dorchester High School. So, we've had the privilege uh Matt and I, who is uh the co uh district behavior coordinator with myself, has
057had the privilege to work with these schools. And each of these schools have adopted their current MTSS teams into the BASK uh support network, as as I would say. Um and additionally, these three schools were chosen. You may be thinking, why were they chosen? They are feeder schools that are in very close proximity to each other. So, over the next several year several years, uh like our BASK methodology, as you'll see uh coming up, there it's more than three years. So, we'll get to follow those students and see how well they adapt uh to this framework. So, our district goals uh when we entered into the partnership, what we really wanted to focus on was reducing exclusionary discipline and improving disproportionality. Uh goal two was uh build staff capacity in preventative and positive behavior supports.
058And goal three was establish a cohesive multi-tiered system uh for behavior. And we are uh very close to uh mastering all those three goals there. So, the BASK methodology that I referenced earlier is, you see here, our first year is foundational. That's the year that we're in currently. Our second year is our implementation year, which will be entering in next year, and the third year and beyond is sustainability. So, this year in foundational, what our big goal was was doing needs assessment to see at each of our partner schools, where were our biggest needs when it comes to behavior, and then kind of building a blueprint of how we address those needs. And you can see under foundational, it lists the work that's going to help us in that blueprint to address those needs. So,
059we spent several months with our teams uh collaborating in creating those foundational work pieces. Through our partnership with BASK, these are some resources that's been available to us. Um not only our partner schools, but also all the schools uh in our district. So, professional learning we do uh three in-person days uh directly with BASK. That includes Matt and myself, and also the school teams. They have online supplemental resources like online modules that we can complete throughout the year. We get ongoing coaching support, and then we also have virtual uh learning communities, which are referred to as ECHOES, that we do in between the three in-person learning days. So, just some highlights from the foundational year at each of our schools. So, for Eagle's Nest, they came out very strong in the beginning uh when we
060started with our self-assessment. That's the needs assessment that I referenced earlier. They had an impressive 84% staff completion rate, which we would like we would have loved to have seen 100%, but you know, that's that's that was near the top for the entire cohort uh that was across the state. Uh at Rollings, Ms. Tracy received special recognition on the BASK website uh during the national appreciation month for her leadership uh through this foundational work. and at Fort Dorchester High School Mr. Aldridge uh was showcasing a live spotlight of practice representing uh Dorchester District 2 in Cohort 2 uh with excellence. So, they kind of set the bar. Um and I'll I'll insert here if Marcy at Eagle's Nest ever listens to this, they were a very very close second. They did a fantastic job, too.
061I don't want to leave them out. So, uh the next three slides are going to be some artifacts or the work pieces that we've kind of done throughout the first year. Um so, the first piece is through is uh with Eagle's Nest and off to the side where it says compliments to Eagle's Nest, that is feedback that was given to us by our personal BAS representative that that oversees our work and gives us feedback to the DBCs that we can redeliver to the school teams or she does it directly to the school teams. So, as you can tell on each three, they've done a phenomenal job. Phenomenal job. Uh but what you're looking at here is a positive behavior flowchart and what that really is, that's to help ensure our adults that have interactions day-to-day
062uh will have consistent instructional and supportive ways to respond to the students. The next artifact you're seeing here is from River Oaks. This is uh the behavior levels and definitions. And this is framework that defines like the intensity and the impact uh so, staff can respond again consistently, supportively, and also be proactive across all settings. Last uh that's featured is Fort Dorchester High School. Theirs is their school-wide norms or their school-wide matrix. It's in it um what this tool is used for is it designs the setting and follow through so that the actions we value become the behavior that we consistently see and encourage. And then lastly, this is the final work that we have to do in the foundational year. So once we finalize all of these documents, they will go into a school
063manual. And that school manual becomes the single source of information for the staff there that they use specifically for their behavior norms and their procedures. And that is it for me. I guess I'm terminally curious tonight. >> [laughter] >> Um thinking about all the discussions we've been having about the alternative elementary school, additional behavior and supports and whatnot. How integrated aligned is this with what we're doing or is this something that we need to do now that we're moving forward? Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, so this as I mentioned earlier, this work is done at the tier one, so the universal tier. So right now it's just targeted at the three partner schools. We do have an opportunity this summer which we're discussing with others about expanding that work, but the
064the goal of this is to look at how do we reduce discipline across the board. So this work is touching on all students. Right now just in the three targeted, but the goal is that we spread this district and will reduce our discipline hopefully substantially. Well, to add your your question, Mr. Lee, is you know, when you look go back to I believe it's I want to say slide 36. You know, the implementation of school-wide practices, classroom practices, teaching behavior. I'll just give an example, if we're all third grade teachers up here and we all have different school wide procedures. That creates an issue. And so those are things we're trying to capture in tier one across all schools. So all teachers are speaking the same language. They have the same expectations. Sometimes it's easy
065the older you get up not in so much in your elementary. You start getting into your your middle schools and your high schools they become silo because they're in grades. That's all I teach. I don't teach across grade level. And so then we can have some of these same practices because what happens is one teacher may have a certain expectation or procedure and the one next door does not. And so I go into that classroom and I think this is the procedure and then I'm in trouble. And so trying to systematize this across all of our schools is something that that again we're going to try to do with tier one. And so I just give you an example with with River Oaks just knowing you know River Oaks was three years ago we had
066all kinds of issues trying to fill teaching spots. And so I think Miss Tracy did over 200 some interviews in one summer and still had 10 vacancies. I'm happy to report now she doesn't have any vacancies and people want to stay and retain. A lot of this has to do with some of this this school wide practices and everybody feels like they're a part of it and kids take ownership of it as well. So I just think this is a great tool that we're using and again if we can systematize it with all our buildings I think you'll see a lot of decrease in some of the numbers of of referrals and again that means kids are in classrooms and they're not out of class. And so that's going to help bottom line student achievement.
067So is there a certain way we're going to measure success? So across it depends on if we add schools. But initially in these three targeted schools I think the way we're going to look at it is through our discipline data. Yeah. Okay. And did you I know you said prepare for your two implementations. Is there a certain number of years Yeah, it is at least a three-year commitment. >> A three-year commitment. And we just completed year one. We just completed year one. Okay. Yeah. I've got one more question. So, I know we talked with Mr. Michelle last meeting about MTSS. We talked about Panorama. I know one side of the triangle is academics, the other is behaviors. So, is this part of that piece as well? Those interventions are in that Panorama? Yes, absolutely. Behavior
068interventions are a definite piece of Panorama. And we even worked as a team on the MTSS team with Mr. Michelle and that and that district team to make sure that we're adding appropriate and research-based interventions into Panorama if they weren't already there. So, schools will have access to that. Thank you. Any other questions for the board? Well, thank you David. I appreciate the information. Thank you. >> The next item on the agenda is you know, as an action item and approval of the facility name James H. Spann Education Center. As you know, we'll be doing the last dance for Spann this Saturday and this will be the last year that it actually be a K-5 school. And so, again, when we're looking at putting a name to it, it's still going to be the James
069H. Spann, but we're just calling the education center as it will be the home to the technology, special education, also with our adult education, food service, and also our alternative school. So, it also it'll be home to all of those those programs that we'll have. And so, we're just asking the board So, um they would support this name. and again we want to continue to honor James H. Spann um as a uh as a building and part of that name. Okay, board members at this time I would ask for a motion to update the name of James H. Spann Elementary School to James H. Spann Education Center. So moved. Motion made by Mr. Guthrie. Seconded by Ms. King. Any questions or discussion? So, did I understand that to be they'll be known as the technology
070pandas? Is that Is it not? I think it's the the dancing pandas. >> [laughter] >> Right. All right. Um okay, we will proceed with the vote. Yep, motion carries seven in favor. Okay, our next item on the agenda is tonight our facilities report. Uh Mr. Tony Souls, um capital projects facility Mr. Jeff Smith our director facilities maintenance uh have a nice presentation on some update on some some of our projects. So, I'll turn over to Tony. Good evening, Madam Chair members of the board, Mr. Daughtry. Uh tonight's report going to be very fast because it's a lot of stuff happening and we're at the same spot in several of the different locations. Uh elementary school the ponds, we're we're still waiting uh I will tell you that uh we drafted an MOU and we sent
071it to uh the folks at Coulter for them to look at so we could get a um an advanced beginning on what we had going on over there and we haven't had a response on that as as of last week when I talked to the folks over there. Uh Summerfield Elementary School, however, that's a different story. Uh we're about 95% complete over there. We had some the overhead inspection last week on the first floor. We have it today on the second floor. Both of those inspections were successful. Had a few minor details. We're going to wrap those up this week and be able to drop ceiling tile and then continue on with our trim out on the inside and do the some final inspections and final testing and be ready for our final inspection mid-July.
072>> [clears throat] >> Summerfield High School gym, we did receive our 50% construction documents and we reviewed those. We had a meeting last week where we discussed some internal things in the gym, how we wanted to that to look and the the construction documents will be completed by 6 1 and we hope to have a GMP on that sometime in the very near future. Uh Ashley Ridge High School, we got some great news today. We had the overhead inspection for the weight room and the band room on Friday. Both of those were very successful. They'll be dropping ceiling tile in this week and finishing the trim out uh over the next couple weeks and we have the notice this afternoon that they all the paperwork had been submitted to OSF for the final inspection. So,
073we are expecting a see a date from OSF, the Office of the State Fire Marshal there very soon. Uh Fort Walton Beach High School classroom, uh updated drawings they went out to the pre-qualified contractors for pricing last week and we hope to have the new numbers back on those very soon as well. Niceville Elementary School, the campus upgrades over there the schematic design is complete. Our design team is already working on design development. And uh we've had uh meetings uh almost every other week over there discussing things with the uh contractor and the design team and the folks at the school to make sure that we have everything covered for this very large uh addition and renovation project at Knights Ville. >> [clears throat] >> Uh Oakbrook middle and elementary additions uh for all intents
074and purposes we're finished. We're just waiting for uh the an answer back from the office of the state fire marshal and OSFM for some uh inspection dates over there. Uh the bus maintenance facility at Oakbrook they poured the slab last week. They began erection of the pre-engineered metal building today. So hopefully here in the next uh few weeks so those buildings they can put them up fairly quickly and we'll begin the trim out on the inside and hopefully we'll have that building completed by the end of the summer. That's all of the new construction stuff we have. Any questions for me about any of that? Awesome. Here's Jeff. Oops. Sorry. Uh just one slide today. Um good evening and uh this is actually a good month for us. This is our planning month cuz uh
075obviously it's like the calm before the storm. Once June 1st gets here it'll be 7 days a week 27 hours a day. So um I'm getting my sleep in now. I'll probably get 3 or 4 hours a week until then. Um but yeah like I said we've got a lot of HVAC projects going on this summer. Um all of our units are in so we did get that confirmation so we're just waiting to you know for the kids to get out of the school so we can start working on all those projects. Um we met with Greg Middle School last week and came up with a tentative plan of lay down area and things like that and they're going to be starting on June 1st for that project. The um ceiling grid project at Newington,
076we had a meeting with the the awarded vendor. So, that's all, you know, ready to go. We've had a few conversations back and forth about how we're going to proceed. But, uh we feel really good about everything this summer. Um just, you know, obviously, I think we've purchased more moving boxes this year than we did in the previous 4 years I've been here. So, like I said, I reiterate there are a lot of moving parts this summer. Um and uh hopefully nothing else gets added to that plate, but we will take it if we have to. Um that's really all I have unless anybody has any specific questions about anything coming up. And the other thing I just want to point out, you know, what Jeff is trying to do there, we look at Span.
077Um right now we've put some extra uh I would say some roll-off uh containers over there. So, you know, we can throw away anything, I wouldn't throw away, but anything that we're not going to make the move. And so, we're purging files and things for teachers. And so, um I know Jeff's been really working hard there and getting boxes for teachers to box things up. I think we'll probably have over what's close to 500, 600 boxes for teachers to use. Probably just Span. We've probably purchased about 3,000 so far. Yeah, so he and his team will be moving um those teachers to wherever they're going to be going. And so, we'll have that. So, I just want to say thank you to Jeff and his team. They've done a wonderful job in working with Tony
078over at Span and trying to make sure that the teachers will be able to get where they're where they're going. So, thank you. Okay. Thank you. Okay, the last item is our uh student enrollment recommendations. All right. Board members, we did receive that information in our packet. Is everyone okay to proceed in open session? Yes. All right. So, at this time I'd ask for a motion to approve the student enrollment request as presented. So moved. Motion made by Mr. Lee, seconded by Mr. Guthrie. Any questions or comments? All right. Hearing none, we will call for the vote. Motion carries, seven in favor. All right. Next item on our agenda this evening is our public comments, um and we do not have any. So, we will move to our final agenda item, which is executive session.
079Board members, at this time, I would ask for a motion to convene into executive session for the [clears throat] purpose of receipt of legal advice, as well as for personnel-related matters. Motion made by Ms. Powell, seconded by Mr. Farnsworth. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, we will call for the vote. Motion carries. We are in executive session, and we will return. >> Mhm. >> Board members at this time, I would ask for a motion to return to open session. So moved. Motion made by Mr. Guthrie, seconded by Ms. Powell. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, we will call for the vote. Voice vote, yes. All right, and Evan is a yes. Motion carries seven in favor. Okay, board members, at this time, do we have any action from our executive session? Mr. Attorney, motion that
080we accept the personnel recommendations provided by the superintendent. All right, thank you, Mr. Farnsworth. have a motion to accept the personnel recommendation as presented. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Ms. Bates. Any question or discussion? All right, hearing none, we will call for the vote. It's okay. No No rush. Ms. Bates. Voice vote, yes. Motion to adjourn. Evan is a yes. Oh, did my finally come up there? Sorry. Motion carries seven in favor. Board members, at this time I would ask for a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Motion made by Ms. Bates. Seconded by Mr. Lee. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, we will call for the vote. Voice vote, yes. Evan is a yes. And you left out Oh, Cynthia. What is that? A no? Motion carries six in favor, one
081opposed. We are adjourned.