April 27, 2026 - Board Meeting

001here. Dear Lord, as we enter into this graduation and celebration season, we ask that you give added blessings to all our students, teachers, administrators, and staff. Um, and then also that you give this board the strength, wisdom, courage, guidance to make the best decisions that's in the truly best interest of all our 26,000 plus students. In your name we pray. Amen. All right, good evening and welcome to the April 27th, 2026 Dorchester District 2 Board of Trustees meeting. Just a couple um updates for everyone before we get started this evening. Um we do have Mr. Lee calling into this meeting, so he is joining us via the the Um and then also our board docs um system is down. Apparently, it is down nationwide, so it is not just an issue here. So, we are

002going old school. We all have paper and um we're going to be voting via our hands or mouths, whichever you prefer. Um, so just bear with us as we work through everything. We're going to get this meeting done as efficiently as always, but um we may just have to um do things a little differently, but that is not an issue. So, um we will begin this evening with um I will ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda and the meeting minutes. So moved. All right, motion made by Mr. Bates, Mrs. Bates, and seconded by Mr. Guthrie. Um, any questions or discussion? All right. Um, all in favor? Um. Mr. Lee? Okay. Um, so the Thank you. Motion carries seven in favor. All right. Next on our agenda for this evening are district highlights.

003So, Mr. Bohannon will bring us those. Thank you, Dr. Wimberly, members of the board, Superintendent Daughtry. Our first highlight celebrates an educator whose leadership is helping prepare the next generation of healthcare professionals. The mission of HOSA Future Health Professionals is to enhance the delivery of compassionate, quality healthcare by providing students with opportunities to develop knowledge, skills, and leadership in the field of health science education. At this year's South Carolina HOSA State Leadership Conference, one of our own received the organization's highest recognition for an advisor. Ms. Corey Knight of Fort Dorchester High School was named the South Carolina Outstanding HOSA Advisor of the Year, an honor recognizing exceptional dedication, leadership, and commitment to students. This recognition reflects the impact Ms. Knight has made through mentorship, program growth, and the opportunities she creates for students to explore

004careers in healthcare and leadership. Please join me in congratulating Ms. Corey Knight on the outstanding, well-deserved honor. Is Ms. Knight in the room? Accepting on Ms. Knight's behalf, Principal Fort Dorchester High School, Mr. Tripp Aldridge. Nice. Our next highlight recognizes schools that are leading the way in helping students navigate the digital world safely, responsibly, and with purpose. To present this highlight, please welcome Chief Technology Officer Dr. Estee Sanga. Dr. Wimberly, Mr. Daughtry, and uh board members. Uh thank you for giving us opportunity to make this uh announcement and also to recognize some of our schools who have done very well in this regard. Uh DD2 has adopted as a primary method and means of uh providing learning for our students, technology. But, the problem with technology is that it comes with its challenges. Globally we've

005identified ways in which students can misrepresent, misuse technology. And so, DD2 deliberately has been working with national organizations to make sure that our students do and they use technology as intended for them in schools. And so, three of our schools have been identified by national organization as some of the best schools doing just that. To do that, we have Jenna Bohannon who has led the way for us for these schools to be able to achieve this great achievement. That's why I introduce her to so she will talk to you about these schools, identify them, and recognize them. Thank you for the opportunity to recognize three of our schools, Knights Elementary, William Breeds Elementary, and Newington Elementary for earning the designation as Common Sense Education Schools. This national recognition highlights each school's commitment to teaching students

006how to use technology safely, responsibly, and effectively. Through research-based digital citizenship instruction, students are learning to think critically, protect their privacy, balance online and offline activities, and navigate challenges such as cyberbullying and misinformation. Knights Elementary is celebrating their second recognition from Common Sense. This year, their digital citizenship work has extended beyond the classroom through parent workshops and family engagement opportunities, helping families support safe and responsible technology use at home. The recognition of Common Sense School reflects a strong school-wide commitment to preparing students for success in a digital world. Please join me in congratulating these schools on this outstanding achievement. >> [applause] [applause] >> Thank you, Dr. Sanga, Ms. Bohannon. >> [snorts] >> Our next highlight celebrates a nationally recognized model of middle school excellence. One that reflects strong leadership, academic growth, and a deep commitment

007to students. To present this highlight, please welcome Director of Secondary Education, Dr. Maurice Cannon. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the Board of Trustees, Superintendent Daugherty. This evening, I am pleased to recognize Oak Brook Middle School for earning the National Schools to Watch designation. This distinction is awarded to the National Forum by the National Forum to celebrate middle grades reform, and is one of the highest national recognitions a middle school can achieve. Schools that earn this designation demonstrates excellence across four critical categories: academic excellence, developmental responsiveness to young adolescents, social equity, and strong organizational systems that support continuous improvement. Oak Brook Middle School's selection reflects a sustained commitment by its educators, administrators, and staff to meeting the needs of every student while maintaining high expectations for learning and growth. We congratulate Oak Brook Middle School

008on this national recognition and thank their team for representing Dorchester School District 2 with distinction. Congratulations. Please join us, Oakbrook. >> [applause] [applause] >> Thank you, Dr. Cannon. As our district's military community liaison, last month I had the good fortune to represent the district at a luncheon where we received the Pro Patria Award from the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Organization. This award is the highest honor that may be presented by an employer by the South Carolina ESGR Committee. It recognizes organizations that demonstrate extraordinary support of national defense by adopting policies and practices that make it easier for employees to serve in the National Guard and Reserve. This recognition builds upon the Patriot Award presented to the board last year, a prerequisite for today's honor, and a reflection of the continued commitment the

009district has shown to those who wear the uniform. Because of this state-level recognition, the district will now be eligible for consideration for national honors later in the fall. If the entire board would come down for a picture with this beautiful plaque we were presented, we'll make sure it's displayed somewhere prominently in the building. If y'all could join us real quick, perfect. >> [applause] >> This concludes tonight's district highlights. All right, thank you very much for those wonderful district highlights. Next on our agenda this evening, we have public comments on agenda items. We have one, Mr. Jason Brokert. >> Sometimes I really do wish that I had more than 3 minutes. But, in my 3 minutes I'd like to talk about the alternative educational program and the updates to that policy. Um the interesting thing about

010that, as I read through it a few days ago before BoardDocs crashed, and on the surface it sounds good, like we're trying to give parents and students a little bit more control over how things happen. But, when you really read down into what is the motivation behind the addition to that policy, it paints a really dark story. Now, if you think about it, somebody a student gets sent to the alternative education program. My son almost did. And it's for behavioral issues, and that's where everybody goes to. It's it's like rehabilitation. Well, anyway, we talked about that a lot at this podium. And when that program is completed, then that student is considered to be rehabilitated, ready to go back to their original school. But, the new addition says that if they don't want to go

011back to their original school, then they can try to opt out of that. On the surface that sounds like a good giving parents and students a choice, but why would someone choose to stay in that program? Smaller class sizes, more security, they actually take bullying seriously there. So, it makes me think if somebody didn't want to go back to the regular school, it's because it's worse than the alternative education program. I really wish I had more than 3 minutes to talk about that because I see the looks on your faces and it doesn't seem like y'all agree with me, which is fine. You don't need to agree with me. I have a little over a minute left. So, the other thing I'd like to talk about is it's almost May and that is Mental Health

012Awareness Month. And I dare say that I've said more at this podium about Mental Health Awareness than what we're going to hear tonight. I'd also like to let everybody know that we have a Mental Health Awareness event at the Fairgrounds on May 30th. That'll be fully announced and tickets will be on sale this Friday. So, I don't know what Dorchester Two would like to do for Mental Health Awareness Month, but if you'd like to come see what we're doing and participate with us, that would be fantastic. I've been trying to make that happen for a while now. Thing is, I see through a lot of this stuff. And I've come here to chew bubble gum and spread love above all. And I'm all out of bubble gum. All right. Thank you, Mr. Brackett. Next on

013our agenda this evening, we have our committee reports and we will begin with our policy committee. Thank you, Madam Chair. We have several policies up for second reading today as well as the policy committee did meet prior to here, so we'll have some for first reading next meeting. But for today, we have GBEBA Staff Dress Code, GCK Professional Staff Assignments, GCQC, GCQD Resignation of Instructional Staff Administrative Staff. GCR non-school employment of professional staff. GCRD tutoring for pay. GD support classified staff. And IHBCD alternative education program. All right, thank you Ms. Bates. These are coming out of committee, so we do not need a second. So, at this time I would ask if there are any questions or discussion. Okay. All right, so hearing none we will proceed with the vote. All in favor. Mr. Lee.

014I. All right, motion carries seven in favor. All right. Um is that Oh, sorry. And that's all I have for today. Thank you. >> Okay, perfect. All right, thank you Ms. Bates. Next we have our finance committee report. Um Mr. Guthery, would you like to Yeah, I'll take over. Yeah, the that for us this evening. Thank you. >> finance committee was able to meet earlier this today and we discussed the upcoming budget schedule and we got a couple things that we're going to approve here tonight [clears throat] for the different bids. And that's about it. Um and then we have upcoming meeting May 18th for it's going to be the public hearing for the uh finance. So, the public is invited, so um please show up. All right. Perfect, thank you. And yes, we will

015have more to come later in the meeting from the finance. Um so, great. Thank you for that update. Next we have our facilities committee report. Um Mr. Farnsworth? Thank you, Madam Chair. Facilities met last week. Um a lot of projects going on. We have a lot of facilities updates getting ready going into the summer time. Um, I I will say it is the summer of moving if it sounds like a lot of different uh, facility shifts and new wings and renovations and new builds. So, a lot of fun stuff going on. So, please I would encourage anybody to go back in and watch that meeting um, if anybody is interested in what's happening in facilities. Uh, we do have our our next meeting will be May 18th. So, that's going to be at 3:00 p.m.

016Um, that one is of note uh, because we are going to go uh, very kind of high level but but really with a fine tooth comb. I guess those two things can happen simultaneously. Um, from our facilities walk-throughs this year and and really doing a recap of all that. So, that'll be May 18th. So, we look forward to that. And uh, that's all I had. Ms. Powell, anything from your side? All right, great. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. And then finally we have our governmental and community relations committee report. Ms. Bates, do you have anything to update us on that this evening? Um, nothing new at this time. We met with some county council officials to go over preliminary budget ideas and where we were at. Um, apart from that that was Ashley, myself

017and Jim. Um, we still have one or two that we need to get in touch with but apart from that we don't have anything new. All right, great. Thank you for the update. Next on our agenda this evening is our board chair's report. Um, and I have um, if you will look um, in our packet here we do have a list of upcoming events and I will just go ahead and remind you um, tomorrow evening at 6:30 we have our star performer celebration at the PAC and I believe the reception for that begins at 5:30 and so I am looking forward to seeing you all at that. And then um, there is a complete list of all the final uh the celebrations for the kind of ending of the school year. It's hard to believe

018that is upon us. So, just make sure that you have all of those exciting things because those are really great things on your calendar. Let me know if you have any questions or Wanda, I know she would be able to help you as well. So, and that is really all I have this evening. So, we will move to our next item on our agenda, which is our superintendent's report and I looks like Mr. Doherty has a lot of great stuff to bring us. Yes, uh Dr. Wimberly and the rest of the board, we have several items and tonight, our first item is about our MTSS update, which is our multi-tiered system of supports. And this evening, we have Mr. Matt Moshelle that's kind of going to discuss our MTSS um program. So, our coordinator, Mr.

019Matt Moshelle, please come on up. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening, everyone. Thank you. Mr. Doherty, Madam Chair, Board of Trustees. I'm going to say good evening and thank you for the opportunity to provide an update on our district's multi-tiered system of supports. Tonight, I'd like to share the work that's taking place to build a stronger, more consistent system of supports for all students. This is a roadmap that reflects a focus on implementation, sustainability, and expansion of our existing MTSS framework. Our goal is to ensure every student receives the support and the and all the support that they need. The work is guided by our newly established MTSS district leadership team. Our team includes leaders from across all departments and levels from curriculum instruction, special services, title, fine and performing arts, professional development,

020and student services. The strength of this team is that the MTSS is not owned by just one department. It's shared district-wide responsibility for all of the MTSS teams and the students that participate in our district systems. Our district team, also known as the MTSS MTSS DLT, uses the mission and the vision provided for a foundation of all of our MTSS work. Our vision is for every school and student to have access to a systematic tools, capacity needed for every and capacity to ensure every learner and our district can succeed. Um for the sake of the time, I won't read through the entire mission and vision, but I will bring your attention to that last note. It's a little hard to read, but it says, "Our whole child system of support strengthens collaboration, builds capacity, and

021promotes coherence across all schools." That ultimately show sums up our true vision for our MTSS district team. Our team knows that strong outcomes require strong systems. This graphic highlights the new district infrastructure we have built to support MTSS implementation. To [clears throat] keep school teams connected to the district DLT, the MTSS cadre has been created. The MTSS cadre includes a variety of members from each school site from MTSS teams who meet regularly to discuss MTSS at the cadre. This connection allows for ongoing collaboration between district leaders and school teams, provides guidance on procedures and protocols within MTSS, it provides professional learning opportunities, as well it continues a continuous feedback loop between the school sites, MTSS cadre, and the district DLT team. Some of the things that we've been working on, one tool that we've developed

022this year is the district resource map for MTSS tiered supports. This here is a snippet that's been provided to each of our schools. It's much larger than this, and I know it's kind of hard to read from up there. But, there's been one sheet for each area of the MTSS framework for all of our schools, whether it's elementary, middle, and high school. This resource helps schools clearly identify which support exists for tier one, tier two, and tier three across [clears throat] departments and all grade levels. It brings clarity to curriculum interventions, progress monitoring, procedure and protocols, and professional development that's available. This is all aligned with the MTSS infrastructure. Most importantly, it helps students respond to student needs more efficiently by knowing where supports exist and how to access it. Again, there's a tiered map

023for elementary, middle, and high school. Matt, I just have one question. I'm sorry to interrupt you, but when you're when you're looking at go back to that last slide, if you go back there, you can see that's a kind of a menu, correct? >> Yes, sir. And those are interventions, right? So, if I'm a teacher, if my child in my classroom does not get it at tier one, I can use some of those interventions, and then I also I can use those tier two interventions, right? And so, when I use an intervention, we typically use it for what? Four days a week, four weeks, and if that child does not get that is not making progress, then we decide to go to a different intervention, is that correct? That is correct. And I like how

024you said that this really is a menu and an inventory of tiered supports that we have within our district. So, just like Mr. Dodridge was saying, if you have a student who's working through tier one interventions that we offer within our district, whether they're related to academics, behavior, attendance, they would move into tier two after a system a series of time for each one of those tiers. If a student is not responding to the intervention of tier two, we might move them into tier three. A lot of times when students start to respond to different tiers, they move between tier three back to tier two, and ultimately the goal is to have them in tier one cuz those are the supports for every student universally across our district. And so, just to give the board

025a little bit of perspective, you know, we're hoping 80% of our children are getting the tier one instruction in tier one. And so, those students that get that, but if they don't, 15% is the national average that say should go to tier two. And then the ones that need severe interventions, then will be in a pull-out will be that 5%. Correct? >> That is correct, sir. And that's all outlined within this district resource map tool. Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify that for for the board. Thank you. Absolutely. Yeah, it's a really great resource. A lot of the schools are enjoying them. It really serves our MTSS teams well. For example, I was sitting in an MTSS team meeting recently and the school principal, she had brought this map up and when they

026were having their meetings and they were discussing different students, pinpoint different interventions between different tiers that might be appropriate based on what they know about that student. And Matt, clarify this for me, but we're using the program Panorama to collect all of these interventions and resources, correct? >> That is correct. And actually, that's probably going to be a really good segue into my next slide cuz it revolves around Panorama and the system that we're creating, which we're very excited to have. This is really going to strengthen our MTSS process by um refining our documentation process, um giving us access to different interventions, as well as keeping our families connected to what we're doing through this process. And so so so every school's using Panorama, correct, Matt? Every school is slowly being on-boarded into Panorama this

027year. Yes, sir. And so what's great about that So how does that help if I'm a a child in an elementary then I'm moving schools, does this follow me? So I know if I'm going in there and I'm a teacher at school B, the student's coming from school A in our district for transiency, that allows me to pick up on what strategies you're using. Is that correct? >> That is correct, and that is why our schools are super excited about Panorama because it really does connect um our students with our teachers if they are moving about the district, um specifically with our intervention programs. As you said, a lot of times students start intervention if they started something in tier two, the Panorama system helps everyone stay connected and know where they're at specifically within

028that intervention. It also follows our statewide guidance and how we should be documenting interventions and progress monitoring students, which is really exciting for um the teachers as well as our building leaders because it is a tool that is really just making things clear and concise and bringing a lot of clarification to the MTSS process. Thank you. I know you've done a great job of really trying to get the MTSS framework within the district, especially using Panorama, so we're unified in having that system in place. I've heard great things about that from a lot of our administrators cuz we're able to track that, so kudos to you, Mr. Michelle. So, thank you. No problem. And like we shared earlier, our team has been working very hard to get this off the ground and make sure everyone

029is familiar with that, um which is really exciting. And this really does kind of go into this MTSS procedures flowchart that I have a visual here for you and it really describes that process that we are going to pilot next year. It really brings Panorama to the forefront so that we all have a clear and concise process how to use the system in conjunction with the district resource map that I had just shared with you. I do have a quick question. Yes, ma'am. If a student leaves our district and say moved to Berkeley County and they had the same tool then and they're using the program here, then they'll be able to pick it up in Berkeley County and vice versa? Yes, ma'am. That is my understanding. That's good. Thank you. And a lot of

030our school school districts in the tri-county area, they are using Panorama as well, which is really helpful. Yes, ma'am. But again, so back to our MTSS procedure flowchart here, this is a big accomplishment for us. We're really excited to get this off the ground next year. We're still going through getting feedback from schools as well as department leaders, but some of our MTSS leaders within the buildings, they've had a chance to preview this and they're excited about that consistency that can be used in between schools. But again, this tool it outlines a clear systematic procedure for identifying student needs and implementing interventions and monitoring progress and making more data-informed decisions using Panorama within this process. And you can see also to in there like what Mr. Giorgio was saying, you can see it even outlines

031that specific weeks. You can see for tier two, it's 4 6 to 8 weeks, but when you get more intensive, that progress monitoring is a little bit more concise. The final slide here highlights both what we've accomplished and where we're headed next. Um you can see in the on the left here we have our launched and continuing initiatives. First and foremost, we established a monthly district leadership team meeting that is aligned with our 3-year strategic plan that we developed for MTSS implementation across the district. We also implemented a new self-assessment for schools on their MTSS process so that they can look back on how they've been implementing MTSS and creating goals for future implementation. We also created a um MTSS self-assessment clarity guide where schools can look at their results from the self-assessment survey and

032find how it aligns with the statewide framework, but also create action steps on what they should do next to refine um some of the items and indicators discovered within the self-assessment survey. Again, professional learning opportunities have been introduced. We partnered with the Academic Alliance of South Carolina um and working with our professional development department to offer opportunities for MTSS teams to visit some of their professional developments in alignment with the South Carolina Gathering Grow for MTSS, the South Carolina Behavioral and Wellness Initiative BASK, among other um professional development opportunities. As a district, we explicitly defined our tiers of support, what those look like in Dorchester School District 2, what they look like um defined, but also how do they look in classrooms. And we've launched an MTSS Schoology collaboration page that connects the MTSS cadre

033with other cadre members so that they can share resources amongst each other as well as the district team can share teacher facing documents with them as well. Looking forward of where we're headed, we want to expand the district MTSS resource map that we were talking about. We really focused on four areas this year, interventions, curriculum, procedures and protocols, progress monitoring and professional development. We want to move into instructional strategies for each one of those for behavior academics and attendance. Also, we want to create a district MTSS manual. A lot of these things that we're sharing with you today are teacher facing documents. We want to align a manual with the statewide framework and have more tools like this all in one stop for schools to help them facilitate their MTSS implementation. We really want to

034refine the four-step problem-solving protocol within MTSS in alignment with Panorama. And we also want to refine the referral process for MTSS so it aligns with the Panorama integration as well. And as well as monitor and evaluate the Panorama system, the usage, and student interventions within that. To close, we were thinking about some glows and grows. One of our glows is we were asked by the South Carolina Department of MT the MTSS Department to share some of the things that we've created this year, specifically the resource map and our MTSS cadre infrastructure with other MTSS teams within the state. So that was sort of our glow moment this year. And then for growing, we really want to refine that three-year plan. We've been updating that all year. We created something in the beginning, but I feel

035like we're always putting updates and how we want to refine um that plan as we move forward. But again, thank you so much for your support. Um And man, I've got one more question. I'm sorry I'm putting you on the spot here. This is kind of for the board as well. Um so when you talk about MTSS, that tiered support is for both academics and behavior, correct? And attendance, yes, sir. >> And attendance. And so that's something that the board needs to be aware of. It's just not academics. And And to give Matt a lot of um kudos and the the curriculum and instruction team, they have put a lot of time in this. So this really helps our teachers. And so when they feel helpless and think, "What strategy or intervention do I need

036to use?" They have We have a systematic approach and they can use that because here is the child. If the child's deficient in this skill, we can go to this intervention. If it's something it's it's a cognitive thing, then maybe that child may be referred to special services for testing. So we This is a great approach to go through um to make sure our students are getting the right skills. And it's very prescriptive. Um so it's based on the child and their skills, working with the teachers, working with the principal, and then also we're kind of working with the district as well because they they give you some strategies to help because a lot of times these teachers are going to have What do I need? I don't have time to find out this is

037Oh, I have this. Here's my approach. Here's where I get the resources. And I can then be able to use those resources in the classroom. And so it's for that specific child. So that helps a lot with differentiation. And so I just want to say thank you for for y'all of you putting this together. This is a huge lift and it's a great tool um for our teachers to use. So So thank you. And I don't know if the board's got any questions or thoughts, but thank you. I just had a thank you for such a diverse but detailed tool for everybody to use and follow through with. It's It's amazing and I wish I had this a few years ago. Yeah, definitely a huge thank you Mr. Marshall and then your team, you and

038your team have have obviously put a whole lot [clears throat] of work into it and and just I mean the importance of this, I don't know if really hopefully everybody understands the importance to get those individualized supports for that growth for the student is is huge. I did have a couple quick questions. I'm looking at high-level kind of metrics um in in you know, different areas you're looking at to to put these individualized supports in for students students. What are you kind of looking at as far as metrics um across the board? And then in addition from a board level, is there anything when we look at maybe funding gaps or resources that we can help provide to your team to further this this work? Is there anything that you need from us? Okay. That's

039great. That's a really great question and that's where Panorama's really kind of facilitate you know, where we are with metrics because we really are creating a baseline right now with Panorama and what some of those expectations are for our district and being able to see that holistic view of all 26 of our schools. So that'll be really helpful because we do have a base we are creating that baseline right now through Panorama. When it comes to special needs I feel that that's something that is tied along with our three-year plan. I know that the support of bringing the Panorama system to help facilitate what the work that we're doing with MTSS. I know that was a big lift from the board and we all very much appreciate that. The schools do, the MTSS team too,

040our DLT does as well. But I think again it's comes down to like as we go, those professional development learning opportunities. And then also too, you know, expanding upon possible different intervention programs. We've had a lot of success with some of our academic interventions like Read 180, Math 180 as well as some other programs that are being implemented within our schools. But really learning into possible supports with you know, behavior, attendance and whatnot. Finding out what those are and that could be something that could be possibly brought to the table. Progress monitoring measures. But again, I feel like that ties into that three-year plan. You know, as we learn what our school teams need is when we can really find out what we need and then come to you all to ask to help support

041those schools and their requests. So, I have a question. So, how long have we been using this system? That's a great question. So, for MTSS it's really kind of our been around for a while. You probably know it as like RTI, Response to Intervention probably from about 10 years ago. But Response to Intervention really just focused on academic interventions. That's what Mr. Doughty was talking about. But over time we've learned that we need more supports with behavior, attendance, student wellness, whatnot. And that's where the idea of a multi-tiered system of supports, MTSS, really expanded upon what RTI is and that's kind of like where we are now. So, if you think about it, our district we've always been working with Response to Intervention. I've been in the district for 18 years now. I was on

042the RTI team at my school that I worked at. So, we've all been doing it. But it's really expanding this idea of MTSS to hit those three areas but also it's more than but it's about that curriculum intervention. It's that infrastructure, the professional development, the procedures and the protocols. All of those things together really is it's everything in our district working together. So, to answer your question yes, we've been doing this for a while but we're really refining it with state guidance and then also to with uh support from our DLT team. Did I answer your question? Yes, no, absolutely. That's great. I guess it just seems like it's evolved in your it's almost like looking at all these different pieces that affect how a student performs academically. So, yes, no, that makes complete sense.

043So, is this something that all school districts across the state are using? Yes. >> Yes. Yes, MTSS this is across the state, this is across the nation. Um yes. But our program is kind of specific to us. I mean, our team is able to sort of put our stamp on it or >> We are. >> Yes, and that's and I like how you said that. We are. We are putting our own stamp on it. Of course, we're using the statewide guidance on how to implement MTSS but for example, like our DLT team, we're working to put our own personal stamp on that specifically with Panorama. That is a tool that we are going to use. We're putting our personal stamp on that by creating that procedure and that protocol so that all the schools are

044consistent across. We talked about defining what tiers of intervention are. Mr. Dodridge talked about tier one, tier two, tier three. He said 80%, 15%, and 5%. Those are standard nationwide thresholds. However, as a district, our team, we're defining what each one of those tiers are look specifically to DD2 to give them guidance. So, we might not necessarily change those numbers, but we'll say, "Hey, listen. Our tier two in DD2, we're going to make sure that that small group is happening." When we move to tier three, those are going to be more personalized interventions. This is what they'll look like in DD2. These are the programs that will help implement that. Great. Now, that's wonderful. And then, lastly, so are we able to see how many what percentage of our teachers are are taking advantage of

045this system? Do we know? That's a great question. So, um like we had shared before, Panorama has been been slowly implemented in our school. It's it's a it's a big change for our teachers. Um but they all have access and we can we can see and we've actually had growth. So, we partner with Panorama. We have monthly meetings and they have shared that each month we have grown to where we're having a higher usage rate. So, that is something that we do monitor. Um but the teachers that are getting in there, um they they love it and they like it because it's it's a one-stop shop to pull anything they need regards to attendance, academics, and behavior. >> Oh, that's awesome. >> that usage is is going up and it it really is like I

046don't to use this to sort of like to kind of help you see it. It's almost like an iPhone. You know, when you look at it, it's very easy to navigate, right? You can rather than maybe something that you're not really as comfortable like an operating system. Very easy to navigate, so teachers really like it. Yeah, great. Well, thank you and your team for all you're doing. I would love to have an update later on like, you know, in the fall or something just to keep us updated on how it's going, how the usage is looking, and you know, any what what you're seeing as far as um effects on students, you know, the positive outcomes that we're seeing and stuff. So, yeah, definitely keep us updated. Absolutely. We'll be happy for you. Well, I

047do have a question. Um do you have Is there a plan in place for you, your group, as well as the teachers to visit other sites in state as well as nationwide? Um I participated with Read 180 when it first came here, so I love the program. The kids just have to understand the value. And um I think we'll see even more improvements. So, when I hear about this particular program, it makes me interested in making sure that our teachers have the opportunity to go visit other sites because sometimes there are little valuable points that you can pick up whenever you're able to interact with other professionals. So, do we have that? Has anyone gone to visit other sites or So, that that's great. So, um to go visit other sites, we have not had

048that opportunity. However, I feel like that's something for an area of growth. Um our school teams though are connected with other school teams via the South Carolina Gather and Grow MTSS initiative. Um that is an open platform for us to get professional development um as well as connect with other uh school-based teams. So, that is one avenue um that's already open and available. But, I too understand what you're saying, you know, in order for something to be implemented effectively, you know, visually visiting and seeing and working hands-on with other people really helps things make sense. So, I think that in collaboration with our professional development department, that might be something um to help facilitate some of our MTSS leads in buildings to go do something like that because we have offered to bring them to

049professional development options through Columbia, but I think that that's something to add to the 3-year plan about getting outside of our district and visiting other teams and seeing what they do. Okay. Well, as soon as somebody out there in the world decide they want to give us a million or two dollars just for that, we'll keep you in mind. Thank you. And Mr. Moschella, aren't you presenting at the on the national stage? Aren't you doing something this summer, I believe? Not this summer. I did last summer. >> summer. So, you did So, last year you did that. Last year you presented. Am I right? >> That is true, yes. >> On on MTSS. That's what I thought. So, again, when we talk a lot of things here at the board means a lot of times

050we talk about, you know, projects and things, but this is student achievement and this this stuff is really awesome what we're doing and I applaud what we're doing in our academics cuz this is why we're here for student achievement and for student growth. And so, I just want to say thank you. Thank you. Good job. Okay, there's no other questions. We'll bring up our counseling update and mental health awareness month. Ms. Gale you Mercer Brown, our director of counseling services. And you know, Gale is part of the MTSS process as well. And I know that her and her team have put a lot of things in Panorama as well. But tonight she's going to talk about school-based mental and behavioral health update. So, Good evening, Dr. Wimberly, Mr. Daughtry, and members of the board. It's

051my pleasure to come before you to provide an update regarding school-based mental and behavioral health. As Mr. Moschella stated, MTSS in our district is definitely growing and we are looking at how we can impact the overall student success from an academic and interpersonal social level. So, with that being said, I would like to let the board know that it is definitely a team effort and that school-based teams including administration, teachers, school counselors, psychologists, school social workers, as well as outside community mental health have been working very collaboratively to look at how we can structure the three tiers and provide students with level of support based on their unique needs. With that being said, I would like to highlight some um particular compliance areas that we as a district have um implemented um and have implemented

052for several years, but just to give you an update with them. Um Aaron's Law being the first one with that particular um regulation, we are required to provide age and developmentally appropriate lessons on personal body safety to our students in elementary, middle, and high. Um we also provide professional development to our teachers in regards to recognizing signs of abuse and neglect, as well as um fulfilling their mandated reporting requirements based on our district procedures. We also provide instruction in Gavin's Law, which um is also presented in an age developmentally appropriate way for students to make sure that we are emphasizing their safety as well as violence prevention in regards to that um legislation. And staff are also provided professional development within that area. And then the last compliance area that I would like to highlight

053is section 59-1-375 regarding um instruction and awareness for suicide prevention. So, um schools that provide IDs are instructed to put the information about student um excuse me, suicide hotline as well as mobile crisis on those IDs and all schools do not provide those IDs to students, so we do have that information readily available under the counseling tab of the district website under community resources. So, we want to make sure that we are compliant in those areas. The next thing that I would like to highlight is that May is Mental Health Awareness Month. So, schools within the district will be doing different things to address that and bringing that to the forefront for our students and families, but just to highlight some of the things that we're doing in our district. Um, to go back to

054Mr. Moschella's point, looking at it from a tiered um, perspective, our school counselors primarily provide instruction um, in the tier one um, in that they go into classrooms to provide instruction that at that is age and developmentally appropriate even beyond the Erin's and Gavin's Law requirement. But, they also conduct tier two, which is small groups based on the level of needs and many of those students are identified in MTSS meetings and they are then developed and assigned with parent consent um, to small groups to work on from anywhere between four to eight weeks. In some situations, um, students have to um, be categorized in the tier three level and those situations we have to do a lot of consultation from a school counseling standpoint because those are more personalized um, strategic um, intensive supports that

055go beyond a school counselor's scope of practice. We also would like to highlight our school social workers who primarily provide tier two and tier three supports for our schools and on average our school social workers see anywhere on average of about 360 plus students per month. Um, when we look at it um, from this year's data. We also work very collaboratively with Charleston Dorchester Office of Mental Health. They primarily provide tier two and tier three supports to our schools as well, averaging about 750 students that they're seeing per month. We have more um, OMH clinicians in our schools, so they are able to provide more services, but we definitely see that there is a need. So, we have even had to expand our partnerships to include more third-party mental health providers. So, we do have

056Stepping Stones Counseling Services in our schools, and they mainly provide tier three supports. We have two of those clinicians and between those two, they see about 32 students per month um, on a reoccurring basis multiple times throughout the process of that month. Um, we would also like to highlight that we have expanded our partnership with many of our MUSC school-based behavioral health um, programs to include things like art therapy, pet therapy. We have even um, had a school receive a grant recently to have um, therapy services within their building to provide supports. And I just want to just put it from a big picture standpoint of how many students our school-based mental health staff are working with from a tier two and a tier three perspective. You're looking at about 1,300 students per month. And

057again, that's dealing with a tier two and tier three, and we still see that there are definitely other areas that we can grow. And um we do have one of our partners here tonight that's going to highlight many of the things that we have seen as needs in our district and they have definitely provided support to us um from a perspective that definitely expands our reach and wrap-around services that we're providing to our students. So, I do want to turn it over to Aaron. Um she is our MUSC point of contact and she will highlight many of those programs from a tier two and tier three perspective that we have expanded or implemented this year. Thank you, Galia, and thank you to the board for your time to speak to these wonderful services and the

058work that has been happening in your schools. I just wanted to say this should have been at the highlight beginning of the portion of the presentation because I just want to highlight all the great work that's being done. Uh we are partnering with DD2. We are the Boeing Center for Children's Wellness, so you may have heard of us before. In general, we're mostly known for the school-based wellness initiative that happens in your schools. 100% of your schools participate. Just wanted to shout that out. Great work. And we have expanded that to support school-based behavioral health. So, I'm going to share some information specifically from MUSC, but in general, we want try to work to coordinate all the services available to schools through the MTSS framework as Mr. Michelle brought up. He was able to share

059most of the presentation for me, so I don't have to say too much. Uh a couple things I wanted to just mention we're going to do in this quick 5 minutes that I'm with you is to talk about what we set out to do, the services we implemented, utilization data, a quick snapshot of MTSS, but again, Mr. Michelle has already shared most of that, and then spotlight some interventions and highlights, as well as discuss potential recommendations for next steps. That uh million dollars that you mentioned, I can think of ways to use that. So, what we set out to do together in 2023, we partnered even more in depthly with DD2 to discuss school-centered wellness prevention and treatment across all schools. We wanted to build behavioral health capacity aligned with the MTSS framework and increase

060access for evidence-based services, specifically focused on telemental health because that was the program within MUSC happening at that time, but many other pieces too, including screening and care coordination. This is the lovely triangle or the MTSS framework. Superintendent Daughtry, I feel like you could have spoken this already with the tier one, 80% of students receive core instruction and they respond. Our programs that we mentioned within MUSC, we have the Boeing Center for Children's Wellness, again, 100% participation. We also supported with NeuroFlow to provide universal screening or general well-being survey within the high schools in DD2, and then the Handle With Care program, which is a notification system between law enforcement, first responders to let schools know when a child needs to be handled with a little bit more care the next day. It is a

061confidential notification system. And that provides trauma-informed training for staff, so that is our tier one that we were able to work with Ms. Mercer Brown in getting implemented in the schools. And then from there, some students need a little bit more, right? That 15% or tier two, and some of those interventions that we were able to help coordinate include monitoring or brief interventions through a NeuroFlow app, mindfulness and wellness-focused small groups, art and movement therapy, as well as that Project Bark or Pet Therapy in partnership with the Charleston Animal Society that I'm going to show some pictures of in just a minute. It was precious. And then a few students, that 5% might need even more, and again, we're layering on top. So, we have tier one that's available, layered tier two. Students don't just

062not receive tier two or tier one anymore. They just receive layered on top services at the tier three level. A few students might need a little bit more like tele-mental health therapy, trauma-focused therapy, or intensive care coordination in partnership, of course, always with the office of mental health, which has been the long-standing partner with your district and the districts around the state. A little bit on the utilization data of Neuroflow. So, you heard me mention that and you're probably like, what is that? It's an app that lets us do some general well-being services for students. So, in your high school specifically, because it's an app, it goes 14 and up. So, we start at age 14 and it allows students to access this app if they'd like to. Parents can opt out, first of all,

063so that's given to parents. If they don't want their child to participate, they do not have to. But, if they do, they receive the opportunity of an email and then it gives them a quick well-being survey of five questions. Have you been sleeping well recently? Have you felt happy? Have you felt active? And then based off of that, we get some data. And that data tells the school, so the school MTSS team is using this along with their Panorama data for academics, attendance, and behavior to make decisions for referrals if needed. And we found exactly what you would expect to find with those national trends, right? So, about 80% of students fell within the normal or no risk category, 15% were in the at-risk and maybe needed a little bit more support. were in the

064high risk and needed even more additional research services. So, we help with the MTSS team to coordinate those referrals, not with just MUSC, but the other partners that are supporting the district already. Some utilization data for tier three services. So, you'll see starting in October 2025 when this initiative began or the MOA was signed with MUSC, we had a couple students that were receiving services and then that has expanded to almost tripled by March 2026. Not only has it expanded with tele-mental health, but the National Crime Victims Center that provides trauma-focused therapy or individual therapy has been able to support your schools as well as the TOP program, which is a grant-based virtual telemental health trauma-informed therapy or individual therapy. So, it's seeing how not only it started, but it has continued to grow and

065expand within other MUSC services is just kudos to your district and the MTSS team. A quick snapshot of the self-assessment that Matt mentioned. Uh your schools are rating themselves based on a scale of 1 to 4, and you can see right here the categories for MTSS fall into leadership, building capacity, communication, collaboration, that database problem-solving, three-tiered MTSS model, and data evaluation. And we can see where school schools score themselves. So, it is a self-assessment, so take it with a grain of salt, right? How we all see ourselves, first of all. But in general, we rate ourselves successful. The Boeing Center for Children's Wellness would say we're successful if the MTSS team is functioning. So, that's why we look at this data. I wanted to just spotlight a few things that happened in coordination with the

066district leadership team. The telemental health pod was one that was exciting. So, if you think of a pod or a privacy place, we find barriers in schools, and our goal is to remove them through grants or partnerships, and one of the things is space, right? Schools want to help, and they want to provide telemental health or mental health services, but they don't have a room specifically available or private space during the school day where a child might access those services. So, we were able to work with Panera through their chipping campaign and provide a pod or a privacy space built right into Ashley Ridge in the front office, so it's monitored. There's a person available to see what's going on if needed, but it does provide a private spot for children to go in and

067receive telemental health services. It's phenomenal. I think that all schools should do this. It's a great barrier removal option. And then also the Charleston Animal Society was able to provide a tier two or small group intervention. That is one area where we often see within the MTSS structure where we need more supports. Tier one is available for all. Tier three is a billable service, so insurance can help support that, but tier two often is not supported by insurance, so we have to go out and find private funders or partners that can support that. So with the Charleston Animal Society, they were able to bring animals in to Rise Academy and River Oaks. It was extremely well received. Students were able to work with the pets and to learn about how to practice empathy and compassion.

068One of my favorite quotes from this Project Bark Impact Report that they put out was a student saying, you know, we don't know where each other comes from, right? We don't know what we're coming to school with. It's the same with animals. So we don't know where they're coming from. We don't know their background, but if we can lead with empathy and compassion, it usually works out. A couple recommendations because I have to offer those. If you want to expand, we think tele-mental health would be a great opportunity. It's really embedded in the high schools, but thinking about little school potential and even expanding from there. We can start at the age of five if you'd like for some children, not all, but for some children it works. And then designating a behavioral health point

069person. Ms. Mercer Brown is helping us with that specifically with Handle With Care so that we can have that handoff between identification, our services that are needed, or at least somebody to just look out for the kiddo the next day a little bit more. And then strengthening MTSS capacity specifically at the high school level. If you look back at that self-assessment, the high schools were the ones that wrote it rated themselves the hardest. So if we can help support that and Mr. Michelle, that's our goal. So if you want to get in touch with us, if you've seen the trend online about this is who's answering your emails, this is our team and we were all students one day before, so we will all be students again, and we want to continue to support the

070students of DD2. Please reach out, and thank you so much for your time. If you have any questions, ask Galia. I'm just kidding, I'm here. Any questions I can answer for you? I just want to say thank you, Erin, and thank you, Galia. This is This is fantastic. The The opportunities and services our our our students have the opportunity to to have access to, so thank you. Thank you for saying yes. I'm so thankful that this is a thing year-round, but especially leading up to the month of May. So, again, thank you so much for that. Thank you. I'm going to say thank you, but also ask a few questions just for clarification, cuz I do know parents sometimes have these questions. So, as far as the Neuroflow screening in the high schools, I know

071it is parents can opt out of it, but how are they notified prior to those services occurring? Um are they notified via Parent Square ahead of time so that they can opt out? Yes, so at least 2 weeks before it's sent out through Parent Square and PowerSchool, and there's also printout versions sent home as well. We want to make sure that we're sending it out through all modalities. And yes, you can opt out by scanning a QR code or by calling the school just in case you don't have technology available. And it is just an app, and it's a well-being survey of a quick five questions, so most parents are comfortable with it, but if you're not, of course, that's your right to say no. >> some that are very They don't want to be

072surveyed at all, so I just wanted to make sure that they were given the opportunity and I clarify that for people who have that question. And then, similar question as far as the telemental health goes, is that something that parents need to opt in for their children to utilize the telemental health? Like, are they just going to this booth without parental consent knowledge? Just again for >> 1,000% Yes, parents have to opt in to that. They have to speak to the parent, receive the parent consent, and of course, the student as well. Okay, awesome. And I just wanted to expand any tier two and tier three that's managed by school-based mental health, we definitely consult with parents and get consent. That is something that's our expectation. Awesome. And I do I do truly really appreciate

073that. I do see the need. Um and I wish stuff like this was available when I was in high school and when I was a young kid. So, I do appreciate you guys offering those services to students and it's good to know for those parents out there who want to know that there are options. They can be involved. They are given given consent for this. So, just to make sure that's clarified for anyone who would wonder. So, I appreciate you. Thank you. Um so, do you have a quick question? First of all, thank you. Um thank you for the partnership and um really and and I don't want it to be a a pointed question, but I'll ask. Um I'm curious and then this is probably for Miss Mercer Brown. Maybe if you want to

074deflect Mr. Dory, that's fine. Um but it goes back to Mr. Moschell's point earlier about professional development. And and would you say as a district we do we'll say a great job of of getting the word out to our educators for the entire scope of wrap-around services that we can provide as a district? Cuz I I think the challenge, right? And and I ask that because the challenge is we have so many services. We have arms that that apologies. That that most folks in the community have no idea that that we can have access to these types of resources. Um do you think we do a good job at it? How do we get better at that for both our educators as well as our community? In our partnership with MUSC, we definitely have asked

075for informational flyers that we um have been um placing in a folder, adding to our resource map, so those schools have access to that information. When we have MTSS meetings and student services meetings, we have those discussions. We In our conversations, we definitely have discussed identifying the appropriate resource based on students' needs. So, many of those services that Erin mentioned are for a targeted group. So, identifying what those targets are in many situations are discussed during the MTSS meeting. And like you said, there's so many of them. Sometimes it's just good to come to the MTSS meeting to be more of a collaborative unit to identify what those appropriate resources are and then do the appropriate referral. To go back to the point about what resources may we need in some of the programs that

076we have within USC, there is a wait because of the level of requests or referrals that are being submitted and making sure that we're considering all variables and putting the student in the correct queue. In some situations, it may be several months before they can even be seen because there is a backlog with the intake process. So, we're trying to be strategic in how we're identifying students and place them in the appropriate categories. And as a district leadership team, we're identifying those tier two and tier three interventions more intentionally for our schools to identify them appropriately when the need arises. I had a question to you. So, once you get to tier two and three, you said, I mean, parents are notified and they're involved at that point. So, I'm I'm thinking those um So,

077we're um I guess if that if it's coming from the school level, you know, teachers, counselors, who people at the on the school level putting students into that tier two and three that I can understand how that process works. What if we have parents who have these concerns about their children and they're not sure how to get started or where to go or feel like, you know, they haven't been reached out to by someone at the school. Does that make sense what I'm saying? What options do they have? What's their best course of action to get something started? So, many and all of the tier two and tier three that we mentioned, um parents can consult with the school. So, in some situations Well, excuse me, I should say in many situations there is a

078parent referral process to add to the student component. So, MUSC has a referral system to where parents and even outside entities can do referrals to some of their programs as well as school counselors led tier two, they can contact the school and in many situations some of those students are identified based on parents expressing a need. So, it's not limited just to the MTSS numbers providing a referral. Parents are also a valuable option to um submit >> see that happening already. We have parents reaching out. They know I just want to make sure our parents are educated and informed on that. Where do they go when they're, you know, looking for help or to get their children um I definitely feel that it's a collaborative effort in schools reach out to parents to see how

079we can provide the appropriate service. In some situations, family counseling may be a viable option and we need to make sure that the schedule permits for all parties. Um and then also identifying that appropriate resource. So, it may not be Tops, it may be Cope, or it may be Tele-Mental Health. And we have even found that MUSC is reaching out more to us to see about Tele-Mental Health because a student was seen by one of their providers. Um so, we have looked at several ways that can it can expand beyond just the staff that we have in our buildings. Great. Thank you. My other question then was, do they have to have insurance or if they don't have insurance, what happens? Aaron will explain on that. So, it depends on the program that you're asking

080about, but if you're specifically talking about the Tele-Mental Health one, the one that's being used most in schools is Yes. So, yes, so they do bill insurance just like any private provider or community provider like Office of Mental Health would do, but there is a sliding scale option for students that are uninsured and don't have that ability. The best thing I think we have right now is the Tele-Mental Health Outreach program. It's grant based, so it's 100% free. So, if we find a student that doesn't have insurance and that they need services, we will often put them into that queue instead so that they can receive free services. Um there are options. It is not ideal, of course, but they do bill for insurance. And the Office of Mental Health also provides a sliding scale.

081Stepping Stones is another agency that we use as a third-party provider and they work with our families and our school social workers is another agency that we have. And so, we consider the billing or billable pieces well whenever we are identifying appropriate resources for our families. But, thank you so much cuz I know some parents would hesitate just by knowing that, oh, I have to pay something out of pocket like that. So, thank you for all the work that you all have done and continue to do and I applaud you. Sorry, Chad. I have one more question. Um could we potentially or do we have something like I um I'm guessing would fit under the families tab on our district office or district website that could point families to resources or next step or what

082to do like whether it's like partnerships and mental health services. So, like if they don't know where to begin, they are identifying something at home that might not necessarily be translating in school, there's somewhere that they can begin the steps of reaching out and they it's just on our website under families or something like that. Could that be something if we don't have look into because I do know a lot of parents just don't know where to begin and what's out there and maybe that could start the investigative process of what services they would qualify for if there's outside organizations that offer counseling or something that might not be through the school but we could help align them with those resources. We can definitely look into how we can make the connections with the existing

083community resources under the counseling tab and even expand it. So, that's definitely something that we can explore further. >> I just think it's something like you're saying, we're seeing a lot more of and a lot more need of. So, I think it would be good and just make it easier for families to find and access. So, I appreciate you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, my last question, I promise. So, with the summer coming, you know, I get real concerned about kids being out and they aren't necessarily in school. So, do they have a avenue by which they can reach out to you all during the summer? It depends on the service that is being provided. Um many of them are carried over into the summer, but there are some that are not, but we

084will consider the level of need of the student and the family. And in some situations, we may have to explore another service provider during that period of time and individualize our approach to best practices to make sure those students and families get the resources that they need. Okay. Thank you. Uh um yes, so tele-mental health does go through the summer. So, we can offer that as long as there's internet connection at home or you can go to a community spot like a library and access there, too. So, it doesn't stop over the summer. Um also, I just wanted to mention I think it's phenomenal that you're thinking of the kiddos in the summer. That's so important. And students can be referred to MUSC services through their primary care provider, their pediatrician. But, we do want

085all most services to happen at the school. If If it's in the summer, of course not. But, in general, students spend most of their time at the school and it removes barriers like transportation and things like that so that they really get the services where they need it. Well, during the summer, I just want them to know there's still help available if they run into some kind of situation. Okay, thank you. Thank you, ladies. Um our next item on the agenda is uh our in our superintendent's report is 7C, our elementary alternative program information. Um this is brought back to you to this evening and Mrs. Barker, um our assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction, is going to discuss uh our elementary alternative program update. And then tonight, this would be an action item on our

086agenda. So, I'll turn it over to Mrs. Barker. Thank you. Good evening, board members. Thank you for having me tonight to provide some more information about where we are in planning for the elementary alternative program. Um some of this will be a review from what we shared a few weeks ago and with some added information. And I'm happy to answer any questions at the end. So, along with everything else that we've talked to you tonight, um aligned with MTSS, um this elementary alternative program really sinks perfectly into those students, elementary students that have tier three needs behaviorally. And the program will not only meet those behavioral needs, but also continue to meet their academic and social emotional needs as well. So, some data um about why and is what are the current needs in our

087district specifically. So, in the middle of last week, we updated these um numbers. And you will see this is focusing on students with 10 or more referrals. Simply because that is on the very high end of number of referrals. Certainly, our intent with the elementary alternative program would be to intervene before a student um reached that high number of referrals, but you can see by grade level here that we have certainly a high enough number of students in our district to support the need for the elementary alternative program. So, across the district as of last week, over 100 students that have 10 or more referrals. So, within that this focuses on the needs for those specific students that are struggling behaviorally in a classroom, um and how it impacts each of those students. It's not

088just their behavior and the referrals and processing them and all of that, but really for those specific students, we know, obviously, that it impacts their learning because they're not present to learn. They're not engaging in the classroom like they should be. They're being removed for discipline, um but also there's a lot of other negative impacts for those students that are struggling behaviorally. Their confidence overall in school, weakened relationships with peers, um a likelihood for that discipline to continue to escalate, and then the emotional behavioral cycle for those students as those needs those true behavioral and emotional needs aren't met. And also, this is some research that just shows the impact of all students in the classroom. So, this is research speak, um but I kind of underlined the most important important parts here, and it

089estimates in an elementary school classroom that for each behavior incident, minor, whatever it is, it there are 71 seconds of lost instructional time. So, if you think about what that looks in a looks like in an elementary classroom, that's roughly 6 and 1/2 minutes of lost instructional time each hour. So, if you total all of that up by the end of the year, that's 10 to 20 hours of lost instructional time in a classroom. Or lost 10 to 20 days of lost instruction in a classroom. So, the elementary alternative program, our intent is to meet the needs of those students that show a need for some more support behaviorally and emotionally, but also um the impact that it would have for the other students in their class. So, we talked before about our target population

090would serve kindergarten through fifth grade students. Our intent is to focus on those students that have those extreme and severe behaviors, and also those repeated behavior incidents. So, um students might be referred through a hearing officer for some of those extreme behavior cases, but also through the district MTSS team. So, that slide that Mr. Moshell showed where they move through tier one and tier two, um when schools are working through behavioral MTSS cycle and a student isn't showing progress with tier two supports, um then that's where the elementary alternative program would really step in and meet those behavioral needs um through a tier three support for students. Mrs. Barker, I have a question real quick. I sorry to interrupt you, but you know, you look at the data about kindergarten and we don't really have

091an option if a if a child does do some misbehaviors, really expelling a child at a kindergarten level, that would really hurt that that child's education throughout his whole career. And so, you can't put a kindergarten on virtual. You know, we do have virtual as an option, but as you can see, the biggest behaviors we have in kindergarten. And why is that, uh Mrs. Barker? Struggled to adjust to a classroom. Um students um don't if they're not coming from a daycare or something where they are used to that school setting, it is at Walk in any kindergarten classroom for the first two to three weeks. I mean, you have to say the same thing every 15 seconds. Mr. Farrell went to meet with with an elementary school with me on the first day of school.

092He was like, "You have to teach them how to carry a lunch tray?" I'm like, "We have to teach them everything." Um so, it just takes a lot of our kindergarten students a lot longer to learn the expectations in a classroom. Um but after that standard time has passed, um that's where those kindergarteners really aren't They They have a different need than what the rest of the students in the classroom have. So, um and I'll share that we have visited several different models across the state and kindergarten at all programs shows the highest need. So, we are not alone there. Um the good news is is that when those intense needs are met, they also see a very high success rate with um those students not needing continued long-term support. But what we see is

093that when those students don't have a tier three need met in a in the school because those smaller groups into more intense resources aren't available, that behavior continues to escalate. Thank you. Absolutely. Um so we shared previously the staffing requests. Um we will staff the building with one administrator, three teachers, and three teaching assistants. So we will have a kindergarten and first grade class, second and third, and fourth and fifth. I will say to go back to what Mr. Doughty said about kindergarten is that um we also realize that numbers, if we have a very small second and third grade class, we might sometimes or we have no second graders and a just a couple third graders, we might be able to flex some of that to meet a higher group of kindergarteners needs in

094the at the beginning of the year. So we realize that there will be some flexibility there, really allowing us to respond to the needs of students. Um so three classes, one school counselor. Social worker isn't a request in the budget, but they going back to what Ms. Marsha Brown were sharing, this program will receive social work support from what we have within our district because that will be a level of support that we want students to have. And then a registered behavior technician would support the program as well. And that's where we'll see a lot of the the specific behavior support um with the whole program, but also with specific students. And one thing to add on that, if you go back to that slide, we will have a partner, whether it's MUSC, to have

095a mental health component on that, and that will not cost the district anything, but that component will work with the child and also work with the family. Um I think that's a a important um piece of this is that component will work with the family and the parents on, you know, how do you cope with this type behavior? How do you handle this at home? So, giving them some tools and some strategies that they can use while they're at home. Again, we only see these children, you know, about 6 to 7 hours a day. You know, these children are at home almost, you know, 16 hours a day. So, you know, we want to be be able to give some tools in the toolbox for parents to be able to help as well. And so,

096that's one thing that we've talked to several providers that if this does come come to fruition, this will be also have access to it down there as well. Absolutely. Thank you. Um so, here where that what Mr. Roddy was sharing syncs is that every student um at the elementary alternative program will have specific supports based on the needs that the student has. So, daily behavior instructions, so not just this is how we track behavior, but true instruction that teaches those skills that the student is lacking. Um school-wide, there would be a student-level system um similar to RISE, kind of based on the level of support that the student needs. They would be paid placed on a level system and then that would drive the individual counseling, small group counseling, whole group group counseling, the level

097of support that the student needed. We also um to build some culture and some sense of belonging with students are um planning to have a house system. So, that will allow students to really number one, it's a lot of character building, but also builds a sense of community um from one student to another. And then each student, of course, would had have an individual behavior intervention plan based on the needs from their school as well as an assessment that we would do with students upon um coming to the alternative program. And this is new information. We have kind of been working through a timeline and we just kind of wanted to provide some information about if approved, what our next steps are. So right now you can see we're really building and starting to finalize

098some of that infrastructure and preparation. We went through span last week, kind of looked at where classrooms are going to be, where programs will be held. So really planning for this so that the building will support what the program will need. May is where we are hoping to start hiring. Clearly this is a very specific program with very specific needs and we want to hire very intentionally for those staff members and um finalizing the curriculum needs. We will what's happening in our Dorchester two elementary classrooms will carry over academic part, but we also need to look at behavior curriculum, a lot of those things. We've We have some ideas, but we really are looking to finalize some of that. And then of course, as we've said throughout tonight, professional development for those staff members that

099will be in that program and really planning for that. And then as summer goes through, really flushing out a lot of those things that happen at our schools where you're revisiting your mission vision and mission, but this is completely new. So that will be a big charge for the team and the school-based team. And then finalize preparation and get ready for the start of school in July and then launch in August is our hope. And just of course, with anything, we'll continue to collect data, look at that data, see where we're doing great things or where maybe we have some gaps and just continuing to improve as we go on. The last piece of information I have tonight is how are we going to measure success? That's always the most important thing, right? And I

100think for us looking at this, we really look at it through two lenses. To go back to the why at the beginning is um each student. So, we'll measure each student's progress through um their behavior checklist. Are they moving through the level systems at the alternative program? Also, teacher, RBT, school counselor, all of the observations of those students, and are we seeing those benchmarks being met that the students are ready to transition back to their um base school. And each student may have a very different data collection tool based on their needs. So, really individualizing that. We also have started talking about as we um will transition students back to their base school when they have met their goals, they've been on um their highest level long enough to be transitioned back to their base

101school. Working with the school base the base school to defining success cuz that can look different for every student. So, that that way we will have how we're going to measure success at the base school, but also when a student is struggling, how we will step in and support. So, that hopefully we don't see some of those old behaviors or new ones creep in. But also with an understanding that all kids are kids, and they're allowed to mess up once in a while. And just because you have, you know, a rotten day doesn't mean, you know, we need to come in with sirens on. And really working together as a team to support that transition and continued support at the base school. And then, of course, we want to see school wide, district wide, we

102want to see that discipline referral data, especially for those high-flying students that really need a high level of support go down um than we're seeing right now. I think that's the last one for me. Any questions I can answer or any more information that you would like? Um for the span like renovations might be for you, are we planning it with room to expand? Like so I know right now the program has I don't remember what it was off hand. >> Three classrooms. Like is is it being created maybe with five or like is there going to be room to expand? I guess I'm just trying to understand >> a great question. We we do have some extra classrooms that we could use. Yes, absolutely. >> make sure like if it's successful or we see

103a need and we do have it like in our budget next year to maybe add an allocation there and it and we're seeing improvement with the students. Maybe that's something we have room for. Okay. Thank you. >> Great question. Thank you Mrs. Barker for the information. Any other um questions from the board? If not, this is an action item this evening for the board. So All right. Board members, at this time I would ask for a motion to approve the creation of an elementary alternative program. So moved. All right. Motion made by Ms. Bates. Seconded by Mr. Farnsworth. Any questions or discussion? Um so just quickly I I don't want to say thank you uh to Ms. Barker and your team. That that is a heavy heavy lift. I know as a district we've talked

104about this uh for years and to be able to get to this point um is significant and so I just wanted to be uh uh say thank you. It it's one of those where um it's it's unfortunate that in in today's world we have to have this type of programming. Um but from our perspective, at least for my perspective, it is uh it's a no-brainer to have this um in our district. So again, just thank you for all the other work on that. All right. Any other board members? Okay. Um Oh, yes, absolutely, Mr. Lee. So would this approval provisional pending approval of the budget that contains the funding for this program? So, he wants to know if this approval is provisional pending approval of the budget. >> Um right now, currently, this is in

105our budget to be paid for. Um it does not require any more mills in our budget at this current time. So, are you referring to this board approving our final budget or um approval of um an increase in millage from County Council, Mr. Lee? Or both? The final budget The final budget as approved after we present to County Council. Right. So, if this is If this is already in the budget, uh it is not dependent on any additional funding in time. Yes. Uh Perfect. Yeah. Yeah, there's no further extra funding. This is within our budget. Great question. Okay. All right, thank you. Any other any other questions or comments? All right, then we will proceed with the vote. All in favor? Okay. Mr. Lee? >> I. I. Okay. Um and the motion carries. It is

106unanimous. Thank you very much. Thank you to the board. And our next item is the addition of a director of student concerns position to the organizational chart. Now, when we look at the district office positions, um currently when we're looking at um reallocating dollars in this office, um we are currently going to um get rid of a few positions in the office. Um we're downsizing the district office, but we'd like to reallocate those funds for this position. Um this position will then take over and help with attendance that we feel like is very um very important. Um we'll help monitor student attendance, um work with schools collaboratively and also law enforcement when students are not coming to school. And so and also this is a director student concerns. We'll have student concerns with where parents,

107also attendance and also transfer requests that come into the building currently. Um, Mrs. Bohannon is one of our secretaries that does a lot of this and this requires a lot of an attention with a lot of our parents and a lot of collaboration there. And so we're just reallocating some of those funds of the 1.5 positions that we have kind of cut here at the district office. We're reallocating that those dollars for this position. And so just asking for you look in your board packet, there is a job description there as you can see. And again, just asking for board approval for this position tonight. All right, board members. At this time I would ask for a motion to approve the addition of the director of student concerns position to the organizational chart. So moved.

108Motion made by Ms. Bates. Seconded by Ms. King. Any questions or discussion? All right, hearing none, we will call for the vote. All in favor? Aye. All right, seven in favor, motion carries. Okay, our next item is bring up Ms. Minier and I know Lisa and uh and Tina have been working hard on the budget and I know we've went through that and so tonight's presentation will be the proposed budget presentation that we will take down to County Council um later. And so I will turn it over to Ms. Minier. Thank you. Good evening, Madam Chair, board members, Mr. Doughty. Um as Mr. Doughty said, this will be our um budget presentation for County Council. So when we get to the end of this, after you um have reviewed and if you have any um

109edits or suggestions, then um the county has asked for our board to approve what we bring to them. And then I will consent the information to the county so they can have it ready for us when we present on May 11th at 4:00. We'll be in the County Council Chambers in Summerville. So, the first thing that we wanted to start off with and um let me just say that this budget has been prepared by many, many, many stakeholders. Um it started months ago at the um beginning of the year, even in the fall of last year. Um principals have been involved and we've talked about allocation meetings. Um we've had cabinet members, directors, everyone has been involved in this. Um so, what has come out of the budget process for this year is to first

110of all talk about our budget priorities. Um so, in order to strengthen student achievement while maintaining um responsible financial management, the very first thing, as you've heard from the presenters this evening, is that additional student behavior supports are really needed in our district right now. Um so, in order to do that, um that's included in the budget to help reduce disruptions and provide targeted interventions for students who need it the most and maintaining safe and focused environment for those students. Um the next item that we have for a priority is for teacher quality recruitment and retention. Um the most important factor affecting student achievement and outcomes is the teacher, their first level meeting with all of these students. Um and so, um the next item is the administrator quality recruitment and retention. So, to have

111strong school leadership is essential to sustaining improvement and school performance of all students. And then lastly is our classified staff, quality recruitment and retention. Um to have a competitive compensation necessary to maintain operational efficiency and to support again student learning environments. Cuz that's why we're all here is for the students. Children first, that's our our core value number one. Um one thing that we wanted to present was our source of funds. So these three buckets of money is from our general fund, special revenue fund and education improvement act funds from the state. These are all used for um classrooms, for teacher salaries, benefits. Um these are for all of our operations. And so we get um most of our money right now in our general fund from the state. And um right now 26% comes

112from our local our local dollars. Um two other buckets of funds that we get, these are for funding our capital projects. Um when we need to make um construction improvements to to buildings, um for all the referendum dollars, all the projects that y'all have approved in the referendum monies that the taxpayers approved. Um those are for capital projects and those are not for teacher salaries and benefits. >> So Ms. Manierre, so when we had like our finance meeting earlier today, we talked about several projects that we were were going to be bringing tonight for board approval. So those dollars, we cannot use those for operations, for teacher raises whatsoever. You're correct. It's for capital projects. Okay. Thank you. Um so currently our um general fund budget for 2026, our revenues are broken into various categories

113and as um we just said our most of our money comes from the state, so state sources is 72%. Our local taxes is 26%. We have a little bit more other local and we'll show you on a slide later in this presentation um where some of these um funds are captured in the dollars that are associated with it. And here's the slide right here. Uh-huh. So, our projected general fund revenues for um next year in that middle column, the FY27 proposed revenues, as compared to our budget revenues for this current year, um the top line is our local property taxes. Um next year's revenues from property taxes that we received the projections from the county auditor are 91.8 million dollars. So, that's a bit of an increase since the last time that we met. Um

114our county auditor was able to look at the assessments and work on some he took a deeper dive and he and he noticed that there were some additional revenues that he could report to us. This is not including any um millage increase um at all. This is current properties right now with their assessments. Um so, state revenue in lieu of taxes, um and other state aid classroom monies, the EIA monies, um retiree insurance revenues, um school bus driver salaries and benefits, those all come from the state. And again, we have other local and indirect cost and a small amount of federal impact aid. So, for next year, our proposed revenues will see an increase of 10 million dollars um to bring our proposed revenues to 310 million 135,000 275 dollars. Um this is a chart

115that shows our operating millage increase history. Um we thought this was important to share. Um so, the third column reflects our millage rate increase limitation that we're allowed to ask for um from the county. Since we don't have fiscal autonomy, we bring our budget request for additional millage if we if we so desire to ask for a millage increase, but it's based on a formula of our consumer price index increase and the population growth in our Dorchester two area. So again, that middle column reflects the millage that we could have asked for each year back to 2020. And you can see that we did not receive any millage. The actual increase happened in 25-26. We received 7.6 mills and we did that by looking back three years back to the 2022 year for the 7.6

116mills. So the amount of mills that we lost are shown in that second from the right column and we're able to to look back for three years. So the three-year look back reflects 44.59 mills that we could have asked for based on the state the state law that allows us to ask for those increases. Now for this current year for the 26-27 budget year, we got we received our letter that indicated that we could ask for 10 mills. So we could ask for a total of 54.6 mills. Right now our value of operating mills is $465,000 per mill. So the total dollar amount that would be available is $25.4 million. Um it's interesting Um it's interesting to see we included on the left that the value of a debt mill is $929,000 and the difference

117between that is because the 4% properties, so primary residence most families don't pay any operating taxes towards teacher salaries and benefits. Um that's the difference of our operating mill versus our debt mill. Um for our expenditures for our general fund budget for this current year Um you can see that the largest part of the pie is 59% going towards direct instruction. Then we have instructional supports such as guidance counselors and social workers, um, 9%. Um, school management, those are our principals, assistant principals, and all the folks who support those principals at 7%. Transportation and safety, um, 7.9%, facilities custodial 11.9. Business services, technology services, um, services, district leadership, and transfers from other programs to make up our 100% of expenditures by function category, that's, um, issued by the state by the categories. And this is

118a by object group, salaries and benefits is 86% of our budget. So, when we're talking about tightening our belts and we're able to, um, show some reductions, we've done it in the salaries and benefits category, and we have a small other, um, object group of 13% that makes up our budget. So, the starting teacher salaries for this current year as compared to some of our neighboring districts, um, Charleston is at 64.7, um, for a beginning teacher salary, $64,700, pardon me. Um, Beaufort is at 60,000, Berkeley's 56,700, um, we are at 51,500, and then Dorchester 4 is at 49,200. Um, it's interesting to see, um, Lisa prepared another, um, another graph for us that shows the, the value of a mill, we used we talked about ours is 465,000 versus Charleston's is 3.2. It kind of

119shows a a graph in the same format as our salaries, and so if you have a higher mill, um, you're able to pay more in your salaries. Um, here's the starting teacher's salary history since 2018. Um, we were at $36,000 for a starting teacher um, with the bachelor's degree. And through funding over the years, um, we've been able to get that up to current year of 51,500, which in total is 43%. Um, that's that's great. We've been able to do a lot of a lot of increases with that. Um, one of our proposals in the um, budget line item is a $1,000 increase and then we're asking for another 1,500. So, the bottom line of the $2,500 increase would bring our teachers to $54,000. So, another 4.85% for a beginning teacher increase for next year.

120So, going through the proposed reductions and allocation additions, um, y'all have seen all of these slides before. Um, there's has been no change on here. Um, we're still continuing to right-size >> Yeah, and I think Tina drilled the point out. I think if you look at the top there, you look at look at the reduction elementary positions. Um, 28 positions this year. Last year, I believe we did 53. That was the majority of our high school positions. Um, and so you can see some in middle school, high school and obviously we talked a little bit about district office positions. So, we reduced those. Um, again, trying to reallocate resources and again, um, to people and making sure people have the majority of those dollars. But, if you can see that, then bringing back um, those

121FTEs in special services what we'll need. So, really it's only in you know, we're reducing by 8.5 8.3. Correct, Tina, on that? Net, yes. Net 8.3 reduction. So, $1.6 million of reductions that we're able to build back into um, our budget. And last year we did 53. So, close to 61 positions in 2 years. Yes, sir. Um so, here are the mandates and required increases on the first section of the $2.9 million. Um district priorities that we talked about, and I wanted to put some numbers to those um district priorities when we get to the next slide. So, the priorities are for a step I'm sorry, the mandate is for the teacher step that is in state law. Um that would be $2.2 million. Then the next step for classified and certified, as the teachers

122get a step, we want it to be able to reward the classified step. It's not a mandate for them to um to get a to receive an increase, but they're very important part of our district as well. Um and the board has been very gracious to allow us to always keep those two components together with um honoring the classified as well as the certified folks. Um so, that next line on is another $1,000 above the teacher step to bring the teacher scale to 52 five, which equates to approximately a 1% increase for classified and certified. They're not on the teacher scale. And then, as y'all just approved, the um elementary alternative program, which as Mr. Doughty pointed out, we don't need additional funding for that. It's above the line, as we say. Um so, that

123with the additional revenues we see will be able to pay for that um program. So, after these two slides, everything right here is within our current budget that we're able to pay for. And so, so the next slides, go ahead, Tina. Um so, the director of student concerns with the with the savings that we were able to gather from the district office personnel that were um reducing and putting towards this, and then an adjustment to the school-based leadership in district office administrator salaries to define scales. Um we've been trying to work on correcting that where where folks can be placed on a scale with a formula to indicate their number of years of experience and their um if they have an advanced degree and so that everyone can be on a defined scale. So, the

124total of that um is nine additional um FTEs and $7.2 million. So, these are the slides that I'll show you our other other priorities and the green columns over to the right reflect the number of mills um required for that for that particular line item and then all the way to the right is accumulative number of mills. So, for another um $1,500 to bring this beginning teacher salary again to 54,000, that's $3.7 million. And then the 1% um classified and certified staff not on the teacher scale to equate with that additional bump. And then as we were talking about behavior supports, um there are some special ed classes, um the low incident programs that we're having a hard time finding teachers for those classes. And so we've um tried to develop a um a stipend

125for those folks. Um and hopefully we can we can entice some folks to come into this some teachers to come into this classrooms. And then lastly, the other student behavior support priorities are to increase our virtual and lieu of suspension option, to add social workers, um board certified behavior analysts, and registered behavior technicians. So, the total of our expenditure requests, the um net expenditure changes equals 14.7 million dollars, which would equate to 10.3 mills. So, to go back to our district priorities, I just wanted to point out that of these requests for the additional student behavior supports, it equates to $2.3 million of these requests for teachers, um 8.5 million in increases directly for teachers. The administrators is 1.3 and 1.9 for classified staff. So, this is a summary that shows our projected revenues as

126um we received from the from the county and from the state. Um and the yellow line is the additional funding needed for our expenditure requests for a proposed summary I'm sorry for a total of 314 million 803,520 dollars for our proposed budget for next year. Um in our expenditures that are shown below are all of those various line items just shown on one slide, so you can see the total revenues versus expenditures and the equivalent mils of 10 mils. Um we just wanted to show what a millage increase um would be since the value of our mill is $465,000 now. The cost for um a millage increase on a property that's valued at $500,000 as their assessed value for commercial property. Again, no residential homes are included in this. Um five mils would be $150

127for a whole year. Um we started at 14 mils is what we originally started with our budget requests. It would be $420. And the 10 mils would be $300 for a whole year. Um and that's less than a dollar a day, so it's less than a cup of coffee a day for the $300. We also thought it was important to to show other budget requests that came from departments, from schools, from principals of necessary items that are needed, but as we're trying to be intentional, as Dr. Wimberly had pointed out when we were finance committee, we're really trying to be intentional of what we wanted to make as our utmost priorities to bring um before the board and bring before county council. So, the the items that didn't make it total to $3.9 million. dollars.

128Um so, we are at the end of April. We're at this board workshop earlier and then at the board meeting now to discuss this presentation to county council, get your feedback on it, and see what you would like us to do for moving forward to present to county council. Any questions? Comments? All right. Board members, at this time I would ask for a motion to approve the proposed budget presentation for Dorchester County Council. So moved. All right. Motion made by Mr. Lee and seconded by Mr. Guthrie. Any questions or discussion? All right. Then hearing none, we will proceed with the vote. All in favor? I. Thank you. All right. Motion carries seven in favor. All right. Thank you. We'll take off the word proposed and we will gather this presentation to send to county council.

129Thank you. All right. More finance. Um this >> [laughter] >> this report uh the finance team has prepared the March year-to-date information. Um, this is our cash flow statement, which shows the monthly activity. Um, we're all that we have 3 months left in our fiscal year. Hard to believe. Um, so through the month of March, um, we have for for the month of March, pardon me, our total revenues were 19.3 million, our expenditures were 25.2, which um, again, our our expenditures nor revenues are equal during the whole month. I mean, during the whole year. So, we received additional funding, you can see back in January where we had, um, a monthly gain of $46 million. So, that helps us get through the rest of the year. Um, so I wanted to point out that our

130total for the year in that green box, right now that is showing, um, that it looks like we would have a year-end amount that reflects a negative on this report. Um, part of that is from $1.1 million that we weren't are not going to be able to receive from the state in our state aid to classrooms because we actually lost students from the 135th day of last year to the 45th day of this year. But as we got to the 135th day of this year, between the students coming and going, we netted three to the positive. So, we're hoping that that, um, number will not be affected at all and we'll we won't lose any more money. It just honestly depends on other districts in the state and how their, um, students came in and

131went as well. But we're going to cross our fingers that that is not going to be reduced any further. And, um, after review of what looked like a possible overages for our facilities, I've already talked to Jeff Smith and it is not, um, an overage for Jeff. So, he had he had prepared some open purchase orders at the beginning of the year for some various vendors that we've used to do different projects and we're able to use those projects pay for those projects out of capital out of the 8% monies. So, we no longer need those encumbrances on the general fund side, so we'll be okay. We'll be okay in general fund. So, our next report is our general fund balance sheet March 31, 2026 year-to-date as compared to March 31 from 2025. Our total

132assets are 93.5 million as compared to last year at 97. Um, there's a a difference of um 9.5 million dollars that you can see due from um federal and state agencies. That was mainly from um money that we get from the state for grant reimbursements. We spend money from the grants and then they reimburse us. And also, um we did a transfer to general fund to reimburse for referendum projects that were paid and we were able to use the referendum dollars, so we transferred it to our general fund. So, you'll see that in um April um next month's meeting. Um our liabilities and fund balance are right in line with last year and and so was our fund balance. Oh, I think I missed Let me go back. Pardon me. Um the revenue expenditures and

133changes in fund balance, um the ideal remaining percentage that you could see that small percentage number in the very middle indicates that that would be the remaining amount of revenue to be received of our budgeted revenues um if we were to get money equally all through the year, which we know we don't. Um [snorts] so, the taxes to in order for us to get to our full budget amount means we should be expecting to receive 13% more. Um usually we get a a a big payment in June. Um, and a lot of that is our fee in lieu of tax payments. They usually come in and they're paid in June. Um, other local sources looks there's a negative 48% there. That looks a little odd, but it's because we received more money in local sources,

134which is um, we received some um, insurance um, funding this this year that we had not um, included in our budget, so that's a positive as well. So, our total revenues through the end of March of '26 was 229 million, um, which reflects 24% to to be um, collected still. And then for our expenditures, um, year to date is 210.9 million and 30% more for our expenditures. And all of those numbers are put into words here with some graphs. Um, that indicates the um, year-to-date numbers as of over the last 3 years. And again, we're right in target um, through March for our revenues. Pardon me, the next slide is your um, expenditures. And then just in graph form is our um, fund balance. So, we'll adjust that number on the green bar and it'll

135go up a little bit higher because we won't need to show report on those encumbrances anymore for the facilities. So, those are all the items that we had for um, our March 2026 reports. Thank you, Tina. Any questions from the board? Okay, we'll move on to our next item, um, is item 7G, the approval of contract for the Ashworth High School track replacement. So, Ms. Minier, if uh, you would like to I guess I could tell you a little bit about that. This is a bid. It's found in your board packet. It's the replacement of the current track at Ashley Ridge High School. That was the original track that was done. The surface underneath is cracked and and the rubber surface also needs replaced. And so this would be taken paid for out of 8%

136funds. And so asking for a board approval for I believe it's 1.9 9 million dollars to do a track. And so any questions from Miss from Miss Minier? Okay board members, at this time I'd ask for a motion to approve the contract for the Ashley Ridge High School track replacement as included in our packet. Motion made by Mr. Farnsworth. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Lee. Any questions or discussion? All right, hearing none we will proceed with the vote. All in favor? Aye. Okay, motion carries seven in favor. Okay, thank you and I appreciate the board acting on that. We have not been able to run track out there at Ashley Ridge. So we'll be excited to get that done in the fall so they'll be able to use that in the

137spring. So thank you. Also here on item 7H approval of contract for district wide weight equipment flooring and supplies. Miss Minier, did you want to talk a little bit about that one? Yes sir. So this is actually for a term contract for these three vendors to be used over the next five years. They all submitted best value bids. For the services and as Mr. Farrell was explaining in our finance committee that we are going to have a base a base Kenny, what is the word I'm looking for? Base equipment. Okay. [laughter] The base equipment of what we're going to provide for all three high schools so they'll be uniform in the weight equipment that they receive. And they're able to use these other vendors if they wanted to supplement what the district is going to

138supply them as their base. Um we are trying to work with a vendor to see if one of them can give us the lowest price for all three schools to be purchased at one time and they would store some of those weights until the the various classrooms that are being built would come online. Um but again, this is to allow the schools to be able to purchase additional items. And if we needed flooring in the future, um then we would be able to utilize this bid bid as well. And um any um once the determination is for which weight equipment from the various vendors would we would like to purchase we will bring that to the back to the board. This is just for the term contract. It's not for an actual project or or

139an amount this time. Not this time. Thank you, Ms. Menye. Um board members, at this time I would ask for a motion to approve the contract for the district-wide weight equipment, flooring, and supplies as presented in our packet. Motion made by Ms. Powell. Second. Seconded by Mr. Guthrie. Any questions or discussion? All right. We will proceed with the vote. All in favor? Aye. Okay. Motion carries seven in favor. And our next item is seven I and that is approval of contract for Newington Elementary ceiling ceiling grid replacement. Um that is a $2.8 million project and that will be paid out of the referendum. So we're asking for approval to bring a bid in your packet for board approval this evening. Ms. Menye, anything else that I'm missing on that one? You said everything perfectly. Okay.

140Okay, at this time I would ask for a motion to approve the contract for Newington Elementary ceiling grid replacement. So moved. Motion made by Ms. Bates. Seconded by Ms. King. Any questions or discussion? All right, we will proceed with the vote. All in favor? I. Motion carries seven in favor. Thank you all very much. That was a lot of finances, so thank you. Thank you. And now moving on to our personnel report, so just I'll turn that over to Dr. Wimberly for our personnel report and for uh board approval that's in your packet. Yes. All right. Um this board members, this was all this information was included in our packet. Is everyone okay with proceeding in open session? Yes. All right, so first I would ask for a motion to approve the personnel recommendations as

141presented in our package. So moved. Okay, motion made by Ms. Bates. Seconded by Ms. Powell. Any questions or discussion? All right, we will proceed with the vote. All in favor? I. Okay, motion carries seven in favor. All right, next I would ask for a motion to accept the superintendent's recommendation that the contracts of seven induction contract employees not be renewed for the 2026-2027 school year pursuant to section 59-26-40 of the South Carolina Code of Laws. So moved. All right, motion made by Ms. Bates. Seconded by Ms. Farnsworth. Any questions or discussion? All right, we will proceed with the vote. All in favor? I. Motion carries seven in favor. And then finally, I would ask for a motion to conditionally accept the superintendent's recommendation that the contracts of three annual contract employees not be renewed for

142the 2026-2027 school year subject to the employees appeal rights pursuant to section 59-26-40 of the South Carolina Code of Laws. So moved. Motion made by Ms. Blake, seconded by Ms. King. Any questions or discussion? All right, we will proceed with the vote. All in favor? I. Motion carries, seven in favor. Okay, and finally, I would ask for a motion to approve the student enrollment recommendations for the 2025-2026 remainder of the school year as included in our packets. So moved. >> Motion made by Ms. King. >> Second. Seconded by Ms. Bates. Any questions or discussion? All right, hearing none, we will proceed with the vote. All in favor? I. Motion carries, seven in favor. Okay, that's all I have this evening on the superintendent's report, so I know that was a lot, so thank you. Great

143information. Okay, board members, good news. We're nearing the end of our meeting. We do not have any public comments and we do not have an executive session. So, at this time, I would ask for a motion to adjourn. Motion made by Ms. Powell, oh, and motion made by Ms. Powell, seconded by Mr. Lee. Any questions or discussion? >> [laughter] >> All in favor? Yes, and the motion carries, seven in favor. We are adjourned. Thank you all for your time. >> Mhm.