001bow your heads in prayer. Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you for this opportunity that you've given us and allowed us to serve our community, our parents, our students, our educators. As board members, we invite your presence and wisdom as we make decisions regarding the needs and concerns of our district and those we serve. Thank you for all those in places of leadership nationally, state side, and districtwide. We also thank you for special protection of our military forces, national, state, and local law enforcement officers and other agencies tasked with keeping us safe. In the mighty name of Jesus, we say amen and thank you. Let's stand for the pledge. Good evening and I apologize for our late start. We had two meetings prior to this so we are running a little bit behind.
002Thank you for your patience and welcome to the April 13th Dorchester District 2 Board of Trustees meeting. At this time, I would ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda and meeting minutes. >> So moved. >> Motion made by Mr. Guthrie, >> seconded by Miss Powell. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, we will call for the vote. And at this time, I would also like to mention, I apologize, um that we have Miss Bates, who is um she has called in, so she is here on the phone, so we will be casting her votes, um as well. Okay. All right. And the motion carries. Six in favor, one absent. All right. Next item on our agenda this evening is our district highlights. And we've got Mr. Brian Bohannan here to bring us those. >>
003Thank you, Dr. Wimberly, Mr. Dhy. Board members, tonight's history highlights celebrate student creativity, statewide and national recognition in the arts, and athletic excellence across DD2. We'll begin with one of the nation's most lawstanding and impactful student arts programs. The National PTA Reflections Program is the largest and longestr running arts education initiative of its kind in the country. Since 1969, it has encouraged students to explore their creativity and express themselves through original works of art. Each year, students bring a unifying theme to life through dance choreography, film production, literature, music, composition, photography, and visual arts. On March 12th, we recognized all of our district reflection winners at the Summer's Corner Performing Arts Center. And tonight, we're celebrating our state level winners from the district. I'm going to invite our students forward by category. Okay, talking to
004the students now. I'm going to say the category. If that's your category and your name's up on the screen, you're going to come up while I talk about what the category is. You're going to shake hands with Dr. Wimberly and Mr. Dohy. Miss Passmore is going to take your picture. That's Miss Passmore back there. Your moms are going to stand up and parents, they're going to take your picture and then we'll clap again and you'll sit down. Ready? Fantastic. We're going to start with dance choreography. You may begin moving. Dance choreography is the art of creating movement where students use performance, music, and expression to bring their artistic vision to life. Representing Newington Elementary School, Fort Dorchester Elementary School, William Reeves, Rawlings, and River Oaks. [applause] I will also add really quickly that I have
005certificates for all these students, but to speed things along, we're going to meet in the lobby after district highlights. Have them organized by school. You're going to get out of here real soon. Next up, we have in film production, please come forward. Film production allows students to tell stories through video where they take on the roles of both writer, director, and editor to create an original piece. And students representing Oprah Elementary School, Rawlings Middle School of the Arts, River Oaks Middle School, and Somerville High School. [applause] Don't run off yet. Parent got it. Everybody got it? Perfect. Yes. Oh, no. We have one more for dance choreography. Who missed a photo op? Come get a photo op. Dance choreography. One more for dance choreography. Thank you so much. [applause] Fantastic. [applause] Moving on to our
006awardees in literature. Literature is the art of writing where students express their ideas, creativity, and voice through stories, poetry, and reflection. Come on down. Literature awardees representing William M. Reeves, Flower Town, Oak Brook Middle, Deose Middle, and Somerville High School in the back. Okay, our next category, music composition. Music composition gives students the opportunity to create original pieces of music using sound, rhythm, and emotion to express their ideas. Students [applause] representing Oakri Elementary School, Newington Elementary, Windsor Hill, Rawlings Middle School, the Arts, and Somerville High School in music composition. Mom got it. Perfect. [applause] Our next category is photography. Come on down. Photography students. Photography captures a moment in time, allowing students to tell a story or convey an idea through the use of light, perspective, and composition. And we have students representing again Newington
007Elementary and William Reeves and River Oaks and Rawlings Middle School, Asher Ridge High School, and Fort Dorchester High School. Fantastic. And finally, visual arts. If we have any of our visual arts winners, come on down. Visual arts bring creativity to life through a wide range of mediums from drawing and painting to sculpture and digital design. And we had visual art winners in Oakrook Elementary and Flowertown and Newington and Oper Middle School, Asher Ridge High School, Somerville High, and Beach Hill Elementary. Come on down. [applause] One more round of applause for all of our Reflection State winners. So, our next one is also reflections themed. This is pretty cool. Each year, the reflections program invite students across the country to submit ideas for a future national theme. A theme will then inspire students artists nationwide. This
008year, that honor belongs to a student right here in DD2. Hadia Kenzigova, a student at Beach Hill Elementary School, was selected as the National Reflections theme search contest winner. Unbelievable. For her theme, Dreams Build Tomorrow. When asked about her inspiration, Hadia shared that she was thinking about how many young people carry big dreams and ideas that might not always be spoken out loud, but have the power to grow into something meaningful. She wanted a theme that reminds students that those dreams matter and that even at a young age, their ideas can shape the future. This theme will now be used by students across the country as part of the 2027 2028 national PTA reflections program. And Miss Harris at Beach Hill told me we we did the research. We couldn't find another instance of a
009student in South Carolina setting the theme, much less the low country or DD2 or anything. So, an incredible an incredible thing. We will be trading in on your name for years to come. I would like to transition now to some student athletes. And to do that, I'd like to welcome our district athletic director, Mr. Tyrone Drake. Good evening, Madam Chair. Superintendent DH and board. Thank you for allowing me to speak before you guys. Um, we have some all state performers who were selected by the South Carolina Athletic Coaches Association and the 5A class reps and also the the media to decide who is going to be all state performers for their for their sport. So, we'll start since we have Somerville up here. We'll start with Somerville football. We have JT Williams. Please come forward.
010[applause] We have Jordan. We have Jordan Raven who also was was performing for the North South All-Star game. And we have Javin Williams. And next for Somerville, you guys can stay up there because because we gonna bring them all up at once for the Yes. Next for Somerville, we we have the boys volleyball which which is Carrick Puit. [applause] We have the girls volleyball which is Tahana Mosa [applause] cross country which is Taylor Black Welder and David Greer. >> [applause] >> Boys wrestling, Eli Presley, DJ Ford, and Ridge Rollers. And last for Somerville, we have the girls all state performer Crystalin Dandridge. [applause] All right, guys. Thank you. [applause] And now for Ashley Ridge High School. For football, we have Ryan Campbell, who also participated in North South All-Star game, and Malachi Mitchell for football,
011who also participated in North South Allar Game. [applause] And we have Grace Marca, who is swimming all state. [applause] And that concludes our all state performance for our fall and winter season. Thank you. >> You're good, Ty. Appreciate you. >> Back to me. All right. We're going to conclude tonight by returning to the arts recognizing student musicians who achieve one of the highest honors in our state. Each year, student musicians from across South Carolina audition for a placement in the All-State Band, a highly competitive process that identifies the top performers in the state. At this year's All State Band Clinic was held on March 13th through 15th at Ferman University. Go Paladins my where selected students rehearsed and performed alongside their peers from across South Carolina. And DD2 is proud to have students represented from
012three schools which we'll bring up one at a time. First are Rawlings Middle School of the Arts All State Band Students. [applause] We got their names on the next slide. take somebody else's. [applause] Next, we'd like to welcome our All State band students from Ashley Ridge High School. >> Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Again, if you didn't get your certificate, wait for me in the lobby. I will come to see you. Wait for it. Wait for it. All right. [applause] And then we have students from Somerville High School. And I don't think any of them are here. Any Somerville High you. Hey, we've got one. Come on up. [applause] I apologize. I will explain. We got an email from Mr. Gil wreath that most of these being the best musicians in the school are involved in
013the school musical and Somerville High School is doing Fiddler on the Roof this year and so they're in dress rehearsals right now and they RSVPd before they knew the schedule. So we're going to make sure these are presented at their annual band awards night and they will get a free plug to go see Fiddler on the Roof this week at Summerville High School. If you don't have a certificate, I will meet you in the lobby. This concludes district highlights. Thank you. All right, lots of great students and highlights this evening. Lots of people to celebrate. So, we'll give them just another second to exit so we can continue with the business portion of the meeting. All right. Next up, um, on our agenda this evening, we have public comments on agenda items. Um, and first
014we have Mr. Ben Huff. Good evening, board members. I'm here to speak on agenda item 4 C regarding school facilities, especially the tennis courts at Somerville High School. After five years of advocating for new courts, I truly appreciate that this project is finally moving forward and going out to bid. However, there is a major concern among parents and players that the courts may not be ready for the girls season, which begins in early August. I was told funding and plans are in place for the end of 2025. So, my question is simple. Why can't the courts be completed before August 1st? The girls team should not have to endure another season on courts that with cracks, bubbles, uneven surfaces, and standing water. These drainage issues have been known for over 20 years. Continue to delay
015a solution is unacceptable. I'm also here on behalf of team parents to request that the court design be made available for public review before a contractor is selected. This is important because we've seen how easily mistakes can happen. The current courts were built facing the wrong direction, forcing players to look directly into the afternoon sun. They were also constructed in an area with poor drainage, essentially a swamp. So, these are costly, long-term mistakes that should not be repeated. If the design is not being shared, I would ask why. The board has consistently said it values parents involvement and community feedback, but we cannot provide meaningful input if we are not allowed to see the plans. Once construction is complete, feedback comes too late and any mistakes become permanent and expensive. Speaking of expensive, I and
016fellow parents recommended the courts be built in a new location four years ago. However, board decided to resurface the courts and now money will likely have to be spent for a third resurfacing in six years if the new courts are not ready by August 1st. The district has stated its commitment to community engagement. We are simply asking to be included in that process. We know this board cares about our student athletes. We are asking what we are asking is for a straightforward, clear communication, transparency in the design process, and a timeline that ensures these courts are ready for the upcoming season. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Mr. Hob. All right. Next we have Mr. Jason Brockert. Hello again. Instead of my usual points about how your agenda is devoid of enough information
017to the public to comment, sounds kind of familiar. Um I'm going to be talking about something on your agenda that currently contradicts federal guidance. According to the recently updated guidance from the National Department of Education, having board sponsored opening prayer is no longer acceptable. Feel free to correct me on that interpretation, though we seem incapable of conversation. The mandate directs institutions to allow completely voluntary religious expression for individuals, but it explicitly reads that religion may not be endorsed by the school or its acting officials. I bring this up because of the pendulum swing of the word indoctrination. A few years ago at a different podium, it was a politicized buzzword for the phantom of teachers being groomers. Another buzzword that was applied incorrectly then, currently applies to a lot of political figures and business folks.
018But I digress. Stopping a mandatory meeting of district supervision to force a captive audience into prayer is actual institutional coercion. Regardless of how many times you've stood here and prayed for the wisdom to do the right thing, I've pointed out numerous examples of your malicious institutional silence. That includes my own First Amendment violations right here at this podium on January 12th. To this day, we still haven't had a conversation about how you reverse course on what I thought was a productive conversation on May 16th of last year. Again, praying for the wisdom to do the right thing. I'm still talking about prayer, what you've prayed to be able to do. And that's a long time to ask for a conversation that you've refused to have. April 25th of last year, you had a chance to
019respond to me publicly at your own town hall, though many of you conveniently don't recall that interaction. I know you know how to hide behind active litigation shields. You know, I don't know if I actually sent it in the RFP. I don't have enough time to actually talk about this. I'm still limited three minutes. We can't have a conversation. But you've got until October to figure out how you're going to reconcile the National Department of Education religious expression versus having mandated religion in your schools. And if you don't know what guidance I'm referring to, it was released the exact same day as I filed litigation against the school. And I don't have a team of lawyers to recommend that I do or don't say anything up here. But anyway, I let you all know on
020Julian's what would have been Julian's 16th birthday. And thanks for your legal team reminding me that I never got to teach him how to drive. You're going to see a lot more of that booth. Good night. >> Thank you, Mr. Rocker. >> All right. Next on our agenda, we have our board committee reports. And first up, we have our policy committee. Um, and we're going to turn it over to Miss King for that. Um before I do read the ones that we are going to ask to go forward, hold on one second. I'd like to ask um if we could um go ahead and take IHBGR, the homeschooling one back to committee. Are there any objections to us taking it back to committee? Just a little um snippet. This is because admin would like to
021revisit it. >> Okay, wonderful. >> Objections. >> Okay, moving forward, we have GB EBA staff dress code. GCK, professional staff assignments. GC QC resignation of instructional staff administrative staff. GCR, non-school employment of professional staff. GCRD, tutoring for pay. GD support classified staff. IHBCD alternative educational program. All right, great. Thank you, Miss King. So, at this time, these are coming out of committee, so we do not need a second. Do I have any questions or discussion? All right, hearing none, we will call for the vote. All right. Motion carries. Six in favor, one absent. All right. And next we have our finance committee, Mr. Lee. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, prior to tonight's meeting, there were actually two meetings. One was a a board workshop in which we received a briefing presentation from our county auditor
022uh talking a bit about uh taxing taxing authorities and the way things are taxed uh here in Dorchester County and their impact on DD2. Most of the conversation um for those of you that are financial wons or nerds, it was great. There was a lot of good stuff there that should be great fodder for conversations around tax policy with you and your friends. Uh but it also on surfaces, I think very nicely, uh the challenges we're up against as a district given where we are here in the Low Country. And so if you did not get a chance to attend or see that, it was streamed. So I encourage you to do so. and uh have conversations with your friends. Uh second meeting was actually a presentation on where we are thus far with the
023proposed budget for the next school year. Uh again reinforcing uh we came out of the gate behind even after trying to look at our budget, tighten, reallocate, look again at things that we're doing before we even get to talking about what are the things we need as a district. We're already a couple of million dollars behind. And then when you look at the district needs, which again that meeting was also streamed, so I encourage you to go take a look at that. Um, we have some significant operational funding challenges and you're going to hear more about those in the coming uh weeks as we move towards the presentation of the budget to county council in miday. I appreciate the work that the district has done. you guys continue to respond to questions and um look
024at things a new and uh keep us all thinking. Uh we've got some some difficult decisions to make, but uh we will do what we need to do in order to ensure that we maintain our focus on our number one goal and that's student outcomes. Everything else is secondary. That said, a lot of those secondary things are some pretty significant challenges. Teacher recruitment, retention, administrative recruitment and retention, staff recruitment and retention, dealing with the realities of where we are, where we live, the things that we have to deal with trying to educate our students. If you did not again uh attend the meeting at 5:00, I encourage you to go look at that. that was also screened. There's also information that's publicly available regarding where we are in looking at the budget. Um, last comment
025I would like to make is that uh back to the first meeting, as I've said before, the way South Carolina taxes overall is inane. Uh, the way we tax in Dorchester County relative to our neighboring counties is a bit inane. Uh but we're going to have to have some serious adult conversations because as I've mentioned before, we have to get to a point where we can sustain sustainably support our district. You look at the price of gas, you look at inflation, and you look at the continued unmanaged growth that we have in DD2. Our challenges are not going to go away when we finally come and pass a budget in June. So, I encourage folks uh get involved, ask questions, uh learn. If you have questions, we'd we'd love to answer them. >> Thank you,
026Madam Chair. >> Great. Thank you very much. It's really Okay. Next, we have our facilities committee. Um Mr. Farnsworth is not here tonight. Miss Powell, do you have anything you would like to um share with us? I know we have a facilities report coming up as part of the superintendent report, but Yeah, things are moving along quite well. In fact, I see that um Simville Elementary is ahead of schedule and so I appreciate the presentation that was made to the public where they can go online on parent um the parent square parent >> square. Thank you. And see what we have been doing with the dollars that you basically approve us to use. So, um, we are making progress and we look forward to opening up that new portion of Sunville Elementary very soon. Thank
027you. >> Thank you, Miss Powell. And thank you for mentioning that. We did have a released a great update on our referendum project. So, if you have not seen that, I encourage everyone to take a look at it. It's very exciting things happening, lots of work going on. So, um, okay. Um and then last but not least, our governmental and community relations committee. Uh Mr. Lee, do you have a report for us on that? >> Yeah, nothing specific to report tonight. We're we're working on trying to coordinate a couple of uh relationship meetings with particularly governmental entities as we plow through the the budget cycle here uh as well as uh forward into the the coming school year. >> Okay, great. Thank you very much. All right, that concludes our board committee reports. Next, we
028have the board chair's report, which just includes um again an updated version of the upcoming events that we have between now and the end of the school year. We've got lots of stuff going on. Um and fortunately, these are all very exciting and positive things that I am looking forward to attending. So, I hope that I will see my fellow board members there. Um, anyone have any questions about these events or All right, great. We'll make sure that you um add them to your calendar because I guarantee you will not be disappointed. Lots of good stuff. [laughter] All right. Um, next we have our superintendence report. So, Mr. Dhy, it's all you. >> Yes, madam chair and the rest of the board members. Uh the first item we have on superintendent report is item 7A
029and that is our 2627 staff days for school calendar and I'll invite our um assistant superintendent Katie Barker will go over that. Um just to make a note uh this 2627 calendar has already been set. These are just days for staff development that we're putting in there, teacher work days. And so um I know Katie is going to discuss uh how this transpired and how we came up with that. So I'll turn over Mrs. Barker. >> Thank you, Mr. Dhy. Good evening, board members. Um, first before I begin, I want to say um a huge thank you to some teacher forum members. We involved teacher forum members in our staff calendar development this year. So, Stephanie Sadderfield re represented our elementary teachers. Amber Anise from River Oaks was um the representative for our middle school
030teachers. and then Sarah Nesbbit for high school. So we wanted to really focus on every level so that that way we are taking into consideration the needs of each teacher group when we were developing this calendar. So I'm here talking about it but it really was their work and talking with their colleagues and teachers from teacher forum as well as in their schools that really um developed this calendar. So a huge thank you to them. So before we begin and we started the calendar development with this same reminder is that if you've been in the district for a long time um than how we used to schedule our staff calendar is a little bit different than how we are required to do so now because of the educator assistance act. So this is just some
031of that language from the educators assistance act so that we are crystal clear about what the what the requirements are for those days. So to keep it brief um four days of the 10 days that we have on a staff calendar that teachers and staff work outside of students being present. There are 10 days. Four of those are set aside specifically for professional development and that can address state standards, teaching and learning, all of those things. But it is specifically tied to professional development. So developing teaching skills, all of those things um that we know our staff members need. two days. This is a change in the law from how we have historically done it for years since I was in the classroom. Two staff days, at least two staff days are set aside. Um,
032and I want to be very clear, this is the language from the law that that time must be self-directed and free from assigned meetings or trainings in order to evaluate student academic data and plan um, and prepare. And that is prior to the start of the school year. So, two full days must be self-directed. teachers have their own time to set up their classrooms, whatever they feel like is most important to prepare for students to arrive. So, um you may have historically called we have called those kind of teacher work days is kind of the language that we would have used, but sometimes there may be a meeting for team leaders on that teacher workday or you might have had to go pick up your um device student devices or things like that. So the
033language here is very clear that that time must be free for teachers to use exactly how they see fit. So no meetings of any kind during that time. So we'll um talk a little bit more about how we're carrying that over from the law into practice. And then those remaining four days are set aside for teacher planning, academic plans, and parent conferences. So, we were very intentional um starting with the needs of our teachers, but then to meet the requirements of the Educators Assistance Act when we were developing this calendar. So, here's what those 10 days look like. Um the first day of school for staff is July 29th and that will start in the morning with a schoolbased professional development day and then the second part of that day will be a staff workday
034and that is that free teachers use that time. We had some lots of conversation about a half day here and I'll get to kind of why we made that decision um a little bit further down the calendar. So, um, that gives schools and principles that welcome back, especially for those staff members that are new hires, um, helps them set the tone, talk about vision, all of those data, all of those goals for the year. And then staff will have the second part of that day to prepare for students. July 30th will be a full day of that staff workday time. So, no meetings, unencumbered, anything like that for all um, teachers and staff. July 31st will be a district professional development day. So a full day where the district will roll out um professional development
035that will support teaching and learning for the upcoming year. Then on the following Monday, April a April August 3rd, um we will have our second half day of school-based professional development. And then the second of those half days of those two days, that is staff workday time. If you'll see on July 30th and August 3rd, there's both staff workday time. Those are also going to be our middle school and elementary school meet the teacher days. So, we were very intentional to give teachers time in their classroom to prepare for those days leading up to um the start of school. And then the last of those five days before students return on August 4th will be um a half-day school-based professional development day and then a half-day teacher planning day. So teachers will still be planning
036and preparing for students, but it will be really focused on those instructional plans for that day right before students return. Okay. And then the last five days of the staff calendar are kind of sprinkled throughout the year. So October 12th will be a parent conference day. You can't hear it, but I'm pretty sure every elementary teacher across the district that's watching online, a cheer just went up across the world because um elementary teachers have been really really asking for a full day parent conference day. We lost that when I was in the classroom. That I think was the last time we were able to do that full day um of parent conferences. and it's such a need at all of our levels, but we have some of our um grade levels in elementary school are
037required to have um a parent conference day for Read to Succeed and things like that. So, setting aside time a full day for parents um to come in for those conferences is huge. Also beneficial for our middle school and high school students as well. We know there's a need for that as well. Um January 4th will be a full day teacher planning day. We've heard from our high school teachers that that we come back from break, they really need because remember for most of our high school teachers, they get a full new load of students in classes at the beginning of second semester. So that lets them prepare for that day. February 12th will be our second district-based professional development day. And then March 15th is kind of falls at that end of third quarter
038which when we started planning with from this is the kind of where we were in the in the schedule of the year. And that's kind of where we decided to split that day again because teachers really felt like at the end of the third quarter um they needed time to get grades done. They needed time to meet with parents if necessary. So breaking that day in and doing a half-day professional development day and a half-day teacher planning day to kind of match what we did at the beginning gives them the best of both worlds there so that they have some of that time built in on a teacher planning day. And then our last day of school is teacher planning as well. So this is just kind of I said making it very we felt
039like the committee felt like it was very clear um in the communication part of it explaining what can and can't happen or what those days are for. So these are the definitions that we use. Staff workday or those self-directed times with no assigned meetings. Teacher planning day could be individual teacher planning time. The teacher planning one-on-one for what's going to happen in our classroom. It could also be vertical planning with the grade level above or below. It could be team planning with your whole team. It could be um upgrading grades based on the law that aligns with what that those teacher planning days are for or PLC time um that might be content specific for parent conferences. Obviously, this is a day that's dedicated for parent teacher conferences. And then if a teacher um is
040not engaged in parent conferences, then they would go fall back to that teacher planning time. So that that way if they finished early um we know that teachers will also meet with parents outside of that teacher parent work conference day if necessary. So that will balance those two times so that they still get that planning time that they need. and then professional development day and again this is a lot of the language from the law just that what can be focused on during that time. I will say it is the intent of the educators assistance act to if you use these days how they're intended then that way the requirements of teacher reertification will be met within the school year so that teachers aren't being asked to um meet training requirements and reertification hours outside
041of what's required of them in a regular school year. which is why we want to be very intentional about how we're using this time. Just some other um updates. Elementary early release day, elementary teachers that have been in the district for two or more years will finish letters training this year. So um that is another celebration that you just can't hear went up outside. Um we will still have some teachers that have recently joined the district that they hadn't completed completed it previously. We'll be working on it. Um but because of that we felt like cutting back to 10 early release days um since we won't have to dedicate so many of those to letters training still met the need for planning that we see at elementary at the elementary level and we're going to
042limit that two of those early release days now that we're done with letters can be used for school-based staff development um instead of almost all of them where we've kind of been the last couple year was couple years with letters. middle school and high schools will continue with the same number that they have used for the last year. And then just other important dates which we know these are always the ones that people want to go ahead and get on the calendar is facts and fees will fall that Thursday before um faculties come back to school. Meet the teacher. Sixth grade will be that Thursday, July 30th. And then elementary will be Monday, August 3rd. And then open house nights will be um in those first couple weeks once students are back on campus. So
043um it it seems like a couple of slides, but there was a lot of really great discussion from the committee here. Um so I really I I'm super proud of this work because I feel like we were able to get so much input. I will say that after the committee developed this calendar, we shared it with schools um and they had asked them to share it with their faculties and then got feedback and the only we for the most part the feedback was we love it. Thank you for the um you know the the planning time at the end of the quarter things like that. So we got a lot of really positive feedback that matched the same conversations that we had when the committee was discussing it. We did get um a question about
044in the future maybe looking at um combining sixth grade meet the teacher and seventh and eighth grade openhouse. So that is something that we are going to send that's the the committee met to review feedback and we kind of felt like that was too big of a decision that engaged too many people that needed to be a part of that. So that is going to be on our middle school scheduling committee meeting to discuss with all administrators, counselors, schedulers, kind of all of that team and we'll readress that maybe for the following year if necessary if the feedback from that whole team feels like that that's something we need to address. But overall um we're super excited about the calendar and I am happy to answer any questions that you may have. >> I just
045want to say thank you Mrs. Barker and your team. I know doing the collaboration with the teacher forum which is our our teachers of the year get together. So I appreciate you sharing that feedback and getting feedback back and I know we took it out to buildings as well. Um but again I think you can see there was a lot of planning. There's not a lot of overlap and I think when you look at the meet the teacher night and the open houses um you know if you have a child that's at all three levels in our district you're going to be able to attend meet the teacher night you can go to open houses so they're not on the same evening. So, I think that's really important. I think going back to the sixth
046grade, seventh, eighth grade, having those open houses in one night, that's a a lot to take on with some of our parking lots, if you've seen any of our parking. So, I think that's a big piece of of why we did it. And also, that transition year for that sixth grade is so important. It's the first year they come in um get to know their teacher, uh they're have multiple teachers, not just at the elementary level, they're just used to having one. Now, they're going to have four core teachers. And so, uh pretty important. >> I will I'm sorry, Miss M. Jordy, I was just going to add I think you're you're exactly right in that when we kind of discussed sixth grade meet the teacher and seventh and eighth grade open house, the conversation
047was that the the the why between those two events is different. Um, so we just didn't feel like we felt like there needed to be some more discussion because absolutely, not just logistically can we have that many people park on one campus, but we want to make sure our six our rising sixth grade students are able to travel in the hallways when it's a little bit less crowded, know how to manage from one class to the next, which is different than the seventh and eighth grade openhouse, which is really about how we're grading and makeup practices and things like that. So >> yeah, um I agree. >> Come on. Um it is intimidating for the sixth graders, some of them to come over and then to be have those upper classman's also present might make
048it a little bit more scary to them. The other thing I was looking at the calendar, not that I'm saying I I love what you've done with it, um possibly for not this upcoming year, but the next consider giving them an additional um parent conference that second semester because sometimes that's when the grades slip and parents aren't really they're sometime caught off guard. I don't know why, but we want them to have that opportunity to meet with us so that they'll get a better sense of where their child is and there's that possibility of them being retained if things don't change. So, giving them I see you have it in October and that's good, but I also like the idea of them coming close to the end of the year and giving them some heads
049up because the calls don't always make it or you know the notes you send home. So having them there in person might be a good thing. >> It's a great recommendation and we actually could at least for this current year put that as one of the early release days that might be in at the end of that second beginning of third quarter time. Um because right now there's no necessary designation for how those days are used outside of teacher planning. So that could certainly be a recommendation >> and you are right in that read to succeed requires a second and third grade a second and third quarter parent conference if a student is not meeting grade level expectations and read >> right sometime they're doing well at the beginning and then at the end they
050start to slip um and um oh my thought left me >> so maybe it'll come back >> next thank you >> thank you all right board members any other questions questions. If not, at this time, I would ask for a motion to approve the staff days for the 2026 2027 school calendar as presented. >> So moved. >> Motion made by Mr. Guthrie. Do we have a second? Seconded by Miss King. Any questions or discussion? All right. Hearing none, we will call for the vote. Motion carries. Six in favor, one absent. >> Okay. Thank you, board. Thank you again, uh, Mrs. Barker. Now, we'll turn it over to our budget season. And again, uh, we kind of had our budget workshop, uh, earlier the board meeting. And so our next item will be our fiscal year
05127 projected expenditure and revenues presentation by Miss Manet. And so thank you to you and Lisa and the team for all their efforts of putting in a great presentation. It's very thorough and uh we we can continue uh to make the funnel smaller and small smaller to channel our dollars to make them uh to make them uh you know go as far as they can. So thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Dhy. Um Madame Chair, board members um As Mr. Dhy said, we had our public input session right before this meeting and we had to go a little quickly through the numbers, but you've seen most of them. Um, so we'll just hit some of the top hit some of the highlights. Um, again, just the budget priorities are so important to us. Um, the
052main thing is to strengthen student achievement and also to maintain financial stewardship. Um the biggest areas that we wanted to focus on were additional student behavior supports this year and also teacher administrator and classified staff quality recruitment and retention where um as uh the county auditor came and presented to us before the public input meeting. Um we are very far behind in funding that we receive in DD2 versus Berkeley school district and Charleston school district. So, we'll try to try to overcome those um obstacles and we're doing the best that we can. I'm so happy that he said we do so much more with less, but still it would be nice to have more. Um some of our budget challenges as we've discussed um inflation would there's always rising costs in operations, staffing, um services
053that require adjustments to maintain our current level of service. Um we don't definitely don't want to slip um with what we're doing now, but we need additional dollars to keep up with where we're where we are now because of rising prices. Um limitations on local revenue generation um as was stated, we do not have fiscal autonomy. So we can't just um adjust our millage rates and again [snorts] it's a difficult decision for the for our school board if they did have fiscal autonomy. um just knowing how um the property um the the assessed property in our school district um if we were to raise taxes who it affects is small businesses and we have so many more homes in our school district. Another area on this slide is the um unpredictable and insufficient state revenues
054that creates a challenge for us um for long-term planning for sure. Um as we were saying, we can't just take our past five years average of um state revenues because we didn't know that they were going to have a funding formula change two years ago. So, I'm not sure what's going to happen in the future. So, we're really doing the best um projecting calculated guesses that we can. Um our state budget process, we're um in between the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate budget deliberations that are happening now. Um we got news that um last week when the Senate finished their um deliberating, they came in with less dollars than the House Ways and Means, which um we were hoping the Senate was going to give us a little more. So now it has to
055go to conference committee for them to determine I'm sorry, after it goes through the um the budget deliberations on the Senate um floor debate for them to concur on what they're going to do somewhere in the middle. Hopefully it's on the high end. Um we discussed our sources of funds. Uh general fund is where we um have our operational monies. Special revenue funds are additional federal dollars. Um we receive money through IDEIDA title one. Um they must be maintained separately from the general fund. EIA funds are specific state funding. um our EIA state aided classrooms and adult education funding is in those bucket of funds. We also have 8% funding for capital projects that comes from our debt service funds and it can be only used for capital projects as well as our referendum funding
056um only for um capital projects and not for teacher salaries and benefits. We cannot shuffle any salaries and benefits over there. um our general fund um budget for revenues um just the top line item shows that from local taxes we received 26% in this current year and our state revenues are at 82%. Um this slide is an update from where we were the last time that we presented the budget in that we received some updates from the county auditor on our local property taxes. Um we um received an increase of $3.3 million. Um some of that is from the increase in some assessments and also there's a projection for another fee in lie of tax um to be added for this coming year not the Google one yet um so this is part of the
05790 that JJ was talking about um we also just to point out the other areas for the increases the state revenue in l of taxes tier three that is the act 388 money that we received from the state um I will point out that that penny sales tax when it was enacted. Um, so for last year, our taxes that we could have gotten in the oldfashioned traditional method would have been 78 million. So the tier three money that we received for that was 37 million from the state. So the sales tax did not pay for what we would have originally received. So we are a deficit of $40 million just for last year. Um the other areas that were um increased from the state um small state aided classrooms on the general fund side and
058then the EIA side um they talked about increasing the career and technology education EIA. So that was $2.7 million but what they did was they lowered our state aid to classrooms EIA portion. So those dollars, the 2.7 million are really the same dollars. They are used to pay for the CTE salaries and benefits of teachers and for some program expenditures. Um they just took it out of the state aid to classrooms formula. Again, we could not have even projected that for happening this year for for projections. Um we received a small amount for retiree insurance revenue increase, school bus driver salary and benefits. Um we've reduced our local um our local revenue line item because we no longer received ESSER indirect costs. Um we finished that at the first quarter of this year. Um a
059small increase of other state revenue and transfers. And then we did decrease our federal impact aid just a little bit because we are finding that we don't have as many military families that are um that are eligible for us to u receive federal dollars from in the general fund. Um this next slide shows our operating millage increase history. Um in 20 from the 2021 year down to the 2425 year we did not receive any millillage increases last year. However, we did you we were able to utilize 7.6 mills of the look back which shows in that middle column where it says look back used of 7.6. We went back as far as we could to utilize some of the millillage that we could. Um, so you're able to to um to claim three years of
060look back. So we were at 44.59 mills for look back. And then the new column of 2026 indicates that we are able to get 10.1 mills for this current year because our consumer price index and population growth for our specific county went up by 5.4%. So between the look back and the uh current year millage we could ask for 54.66 mills. That's how many are available to us under the state law. Not that we're going to ask for that. Um our general fund budget expenditures for current year. Um the first um five column first five areas the instruction instruction support school management transportation safety and facilities and custodial. those those categories really see students every single day. Um I thought we should probably add in technology services as well because they handle the student devices
061that all the students and the teachers receive as well. So um that's 96% of our of our budget goes for directly impacting students and staff. um expenditure by object group 86% of our budget is for salaries and benefits and we have a small portion of 13% um that covers transportation costs security and SRO contracts um some technology renewals to cover software expenditures um so mainly salaries and benefits um the FY 26 starting teacher salary for this current year um you can see on the far left is Charleston County School District, they were at 64,000. Um, Berkeley is 56.7, Dorchester 2 was 50.5, 51.5, pardon me, and Doorchester for it was at 492. Um, this is in numbers. Um, you can see from 2018 down to 2026, the increase that we've been able to to give
062to teachers. Um it's been great. Um we're happy that we're at 515 based on our school district. Our proposal that we've included without a millillage increase for next school year is 525 to increase by a th00and. We'd also like to give another $1,000 which you'll see um would be would require millage increase. So, proposed reductions and allocation additions. Um, we have we are continuing to rightsize the district and um thank you to Miss Barker and her staff. Um, Scott for working through all of the allocation meetings, Mr. Dhy, Kenneth, Kenny, everybody who was involved in those. Um, we really started this process January going through all of this. Um so elementary positions that we're able to right size would be 28 less and middle school five less high school three um district office positions 1.5
063those are from general fund but we have two other positions that are coming out of special revenue funds that can be reduced as well. Um we had a proposal to reduce the signon bonuses um to help with the stipened to offset stipen changes and admin salary adjustments. Um uh we we understand that school districts are not really giving sign on bonuses anymore. So this is not unheard of that we that were the only ones in Low Country um doing this. Um so we also are adding back some areas that we found that we needed some growth. Um the allocations that were added after the start of the FY26 school year that were um added was because of enrollment changes for certain categories and certain um schools where there was just some growth where we needed
064to add. And then the special services FTEES due to enrollment of that special of of that special category we would need to add for next year. Um mandates and required increases. Um we are required we are mandated by state law to increase teacher step so it at a cost of 2.2 million. Um we are required to increase um the above the minimum salary schedule for bus drivers by 2%. So that would cost 200,000. Then also projected increased to SRO contracts for the town and the county and contracted safety for events and crossing guards with those groups too who are going up um will cost us $500,000. So that's a required increase as well. So district priorities um a step for classified and certified staff since the teachers are mandated. also wanted to um reward the
065step increase for other other um staff that are not on the teacher scale. And then um the $1,000 increase on all steps of the teacher scale and a 1% increase for all classified and certified staff not on the teacher scale. Um we had a discussion at the last meeting about establishing the elementary alternative program. Um and then to also um hire a director of student concerns. These are to help with the uh student behavior supports that we had discussed. And then adjusting schoolbased leadership and district office administrator salaries to new defined scales that are that make more sense now we're able to place people and be able to explain to them where they are placed. And also just to note on this line item um we're having a struggle with um administrators, principles um they're
066being courted as Mr. Mr. Dhy told us in last meeting by other school districts to leave and um good principles are hard to come by and so we would love to to be able to retain our teachers well also our teachers um but we've been giving the teachers we've been focusing a lot on the teachers and our school administrators have kind of fallen behind um so we wanted to try to write this a little bit through this line item um so those items in green indicate where we would need um to have an increase of required millillage. Thank you, Wanda. I thought that this was working. So, thank you. I was trying to get to the next one. Yes, thank you right there. Um so, other salary considerations that we're bringing before the board is
067an additional thousand dollars to all steps of the teacher salary scale. um additional 1% increase for classified and certified staff not on the scale. That indicates that we're trying to make sure that our teachers are taken care of as well as our certified and classified staff who are not on the teacher scale. And then special education stipens for low incident programs. Um this is to help those teachers because that is a really hard job in special ed. Um, and then the next section is for other student behavior supports um that we've been trying to focus um to help the other students in the class who are probably being affected by some of those behaviors that are um just a lot more um behaviors that we haven't seen in the past. And so we really like
068to help those students more by adding um the virtual in lie of suspension um additional social workers, board certified behavior analysts, registered behavior technicians, school counseling coordinator, and then a multilingual instructional coach. So here's a summary of our 27 expenditure requests that we just went over all of those sections. And so um a total net expenditure change of 13.7. And here is the summary of those budget needs. The top section shows our uh revenue summary. Total projected revenue, including the increases, is at $37,131,664. To to um achieve all of those requests that we just talked about of the 13 million, we would need 6.6 six million more which is reflected in the yellow highlight in order to get us to um all of those requested increase um all of those in requested items. And then
069the bottom portion shows where we started with our budget expenditures from FY26 of the 300 million and then um reducing for the proposed reductions and allocation additions. Then the adding in the statemandated expenditures and then the district priorities that we were just um looking at and the other salary considerations to bring us down to 13,730691 for those additions which would require 14.74 mills. um in the case that we don't receive all the revenues to um go with all of our proposed expenditures and the board would pro we would need to meet with you to discuss rep prioritizing those items. Um a millage increase example um right now our value of a mill that we received from the auditor is $450,353. So, based on the projections for next year, the cost of a $500,000 commercial property
070um assessed value, if we were to ask for five mills, it would bring us $2.2 million and it would cost that property $150,000. So, if it were a million dollar property, then we would multiply that times two. So, um it would be $300. So, if we were to ask for the 14 mills on a $500,000 property, it would be $420 addition to their tax bill for 12 months. We also, as we've spoken about, um had some other proposed budget requests that we were able to identify some other funding sources that we were able to use. So, we did not include that in the operational general fund budget. We're able to take some money from the IDA, allocate these monies to Medicaid 8% funding, title 4, and other 8% funding for 1.1 million. And then we
071have a couple of slides where we weren't even able to include some of these budget requests um for additional ABA therapists, um additional registered behavior technicians, um high school evening school stipens, um fine arts choir, registration and travel, um increasing the mentor stipens. Um all of these items um were a request of 33 positions and $3.6 million. So on our calendar, um today was our public input and board workshop and then where the arrow is pointing in the next time we meet, we'll be um at a board workshop to discuss the presentation to county council, which we will be presenting to them on May 11th. Um Wanda sent out calendar invite for all of you to attend. It's at four o'clock in Dorchester County Chamber um on Main Street. Um we may have some other
072meetings that we need to talk about before we actually get to that meeting too, Mr. Lee. So, that was um a quick rundown since we had already gone through that. But if you have any questions and also wanted to be sure to not um forget that uh Lisa Sizzler and Kenneth Wilson and Scott Matthews have been working so hard on trying to work on these scales to come up with some um logical ways to be able to put our school-based leaders or principles on on scales where they can understand where they're being placed based on their um education and their um their years of experience because we don't pay um on a scale that's similar to Charleston County where they give every year of experience is what step you are on the scale. So um
073thank you guys for that and thank you Lisa for preparing this um presentation for us. So any questions? >> So going back to the uh alternative elementary just want to make sure I'm connecting all the the costs. So, there's an $800,000 line item in there to establish the program. And then there are an additional $1.4 million for uh if I'm connecting the dots correctly, and I may not be um for the uh >> bless you, >> special educ I'm sorry, the uh other student behavior supports. So, if you kind of connect those two dots for me and see where I >> Yes. and and basically Mr. Lee is bless you. Um so what we're trying to do there if if we could have an RBT in every building that would be great when we're looking
074at the RBTs when you're looking at that that funding piece there and that is if we could go back to that slide Wanda if you don't mind um so we can have some some dialogue on that uh that would be on Yep. There you go. Thank you. So, when we're looking at this, um, you're looking at additional social workers, additional board, uh, BCBAS, uh, three there, seven RBTs, um, and then you're looking at, uh, school counseling coordinator. All those kind of go together, and those would help us have kind of a an attack on behavior. So, you're going to have to be able to attack in the buildings with those positions. And then you're going to be able to have that tier three. This would help a tier two intervention which keeps that student at
075school. But the tier three is more of that explosive behavior that would need that child would need to be pulled out and then put at an alternative school. So if we were if we needed something on a wish list here when you're looking at these definitely the alternative school would be our our number one choice. Um, and these are things something we would like to have and we think is important, but if we did not get those, we would much rather have that alternative school um, that would be separated from our building. So, I hope that makes sense. This is more of a tier 2 intervention. The other one is more of a tier three pull out. this would actually be part of in the school setting um and be able to service those children
076>> that support more of the tier one and two interventions. >> Yes. >> And the alternative elementary school would be the tier three. >> That is correct, sir. >> Thank you for connecting the dots. Thank you. >> Yes. You're very welcome. Thank you. Great question. Great question. >> And any other questions that we you may have for the board may have on any of that. >> Okay. Thank you. Great job, Tina and team. Thank you. Great job. Uh, our next item on the agenda is our facilities report and Mr. Tony Souls is going to talk to you a little bit about um some of our projects here. So Tony, >> good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board, Mr. Dy. Uh, going through the list of referendum projects, uh, elementary school ponds. Uh I know
077there's a lot of chatter online and but uh where we're still engaged with the developer uh on on a on a constant basis. And now when I say that I mean it's it's at least every three days I have a conversation with them and we're working on another angle uh to get some to to be able to get on the property. Uh Summerrville Elementary School. Uh if you've uh had the opportunity to take a peek back around the corner, it's going very well. The brick facade's about 50% complete. The roofing membrane is on. The the air conditioners are set in the curbs. Uh we're uh technically we're dried in. We're a temporary dry in with plastic in the windows right now. We're we're using the uh permanent power that we put on there back during
078spring break to run those air conditioners up this week. We're going to start them up to dehumidify the building so we can get the finishes done. They're already painting the walls. We're just trying to dry the floors out so we can get the tile down. So, we're we're it's a rapid pace. The ceiling grid is going in and everything is coming together back there beautifully. Uh Summerville High School gym, we do have the 50% design documents and and we're reviewing those uh the 100% construction documents. Those are scheduled to be delivered to us uh by June of this year to be submitted to OSF. Out at Ashley Ridge, things are going well. The band room, you see the picture there. It's uh it's it's catching up to Somerville Elementary. It's a little bit smaller scale,
079but there there's a lot of interior work that has to be done there. The brick is done on both the the weight room and the band room. There's both of them are scheduled to be completed right there around the end of May, first part of June. Fort Doorchester High School classroom edition. We did complete the permitting. Uh we we got the cost back from our pre-qualified contractors. It was over budget. We took the design back to the designers and they have it now. They're making some changes to make it a little bit more affordable. We're just waiting to get that back so we can get that back to the pre-qualified folks to to get some pricing back on that at Nightsville Elementary School. Exciting stuff happening over there. They do have the complete schematic design.
080We have a meeting schedule for Wednesday over at ele Knightsville and we're going to go through that schematic design and we're going to formulate any questions or concerns that we have with the schematic design. And when we get that done, uh uh HW or FW design, they're going to we're going to come back with them probably next week or the week after after contract construction has had a chance to look at the schematic design and we're going to talk to them and with our concerns, put all that together and they're well on their way to design documents uh being completed. uh other CIP construction, Oak Brook Middle and Oak Brook Elementary. Those the middle school has been done. We've been waiting on some paperwork back from LLR. We got that figured out and the elementary
081school is so close to being completed. We figured, you know what? Instead of disrupting school for for no real cause, let's just put this off until the first week of June, inspect them both on the same day, and we'll get this thing done and over with. Uh the bus maintenance facility in Oakbrook, uh the underlab utilities are being roughed in. I went out there today and they've got everything roughed in underground. They're going to get uh some concrete on the ground out there this week. Uh the the pre-engineered metal building is on site and so as soon as they get the concrete done, the building will soon follow. That's all I have from the construction side of the house. Any questions about that? >> I do have a question for you, Tony. This goes back
082to our ponds. I know that tonight we have [laughter] >> Sorry, Mr. Le probably beat you to it. Uh I know tonight we have a GMP guaranteed maximum pricing for this evening. Yes. >> Uh for the board to vote on and uh so how how good is that document that uh the board will be voting on that guaranteed maximum price? >> So contractually I don't know the exact date, but I believe it's September. It's good through September of this year. Uh and and in looking at that, I I believe that we can probably work with Hood if if we go beyond September, we we shouldn't miss it by too much. So I don't I don't foresee any grand scale price increases. What we did was when with with the pre-purchase stuff, uh we did that
083to miss any huge price increases. And I think we've we've caught that and and curbed head headed a lot of that stuff off by doing that. >> And when you're talking about uh pre-ordering, you're talking about steel controls HVAC that we ordered before the first of the year that we're storing, correct? >> Yes, sir. Yes, sir. >> And I know you're in regular communication and whatnot. So, bottom line is it's good through September. uh our contractor has been working with us in good faith trying to help us navigate >> the stormy seas >> but it's September is the only guarantee after that we could be facing something else have to come back >> it is possible >> okay thank you >> thank you Tony >> and now we'll have uh Jeff come up and talk
084about some of our other projects >> uh good evening just wanted to update on a few things we got done over spring break Um, we were able to do some based on our facility walks, we uh did some repainting at Windsor Hill, so that got done over spring break. Uh, pictures on your right, you'll see it. We redid the multi-purpose room, cafeteria, and their four group restrooms. So, that got done over spring break. Um, on the left, you'll see the chiller. Those are chiller pipes for the gym at Somerville High School. We've been fighting a leak in the roof. Thought it was a roof leak. Did some investigating, pulled some insulation back from the existing chiller pipes. The pipe was all corroded. Apparently, for the first 10 or 15 years of that chiller being installed
085in the early late 90s, they didn't treat the water. So, the pipes were basically corroded. So, we pulled it out of the building. So, now it's on the roof. So, it won't if it does leak again in the future for some reason, it won't leak in the building. It'll be on the roof. Um, little update. We had a pre-bid meeting for the track at Ashley Ridge. Um that's just a rough overview picture, but um we are currently working on uh the geotech and the survey for that property. And uh I think that bid actually closes the 16th maybe. Uh it's really soon. And so we'll hopefully better get that started and with the goal of being done before season starts this this fall. The uh Sand Hill mobiles that actually just got awarded uh so
086we're going to be moving those trailers from Greg over to Sand Hill this summer. Um once they get there, we'll have to do a little renovation on them because currently they don't have restrooms. But at least we can start June 1st getting them moved over there and getting them put in place because that'll have to go through the entire process through OSF for inspection. But u we feel pretty good about it and uh hopefully have them up and running first day of school if they're needed. Um we already have the furniture staged at Sand Hill, so we're ready to move into them as soon as we get them there. Um we met the week of spring break for the Newington ceiling project. I think we had probably 40 people show up to the bid. Uh
087it is going to be a very tight timeline. I think we have from like June 1st till July 17th because we want to obviously be ready to clean up before teachers get back. And uh that project is going to be phased uh phase one is about two-fifths of the building. So four pods and a little area in between. And then hopefully you know whoever wins this this bid will actually have phase two as well uh next summer. So, we're hoping to get all that awarded or at least uh figured out this week and then bring it to you all. I think on the 24th board meeting, the the next meeting I think is when we'll be bringing it. Uh let's see here. Um Summerville High School tennis courts. Just to provide an update on that.
088So, one thing I wanted to make very clear is that we are definitely going to do this the right way and we're not going to rush to getting these things built in a in a really big rush. We're taking our time in designing it properly. Um, we are intending to use a subsurface post-tension concrete. It's not typically used because it's very costly, but it will last 50 60 years. So, you'll get a lot more in the long run. And so, we've already got that project under design. Um the latest thing we have done is we have issued a PO for the geotech survey and we're going to be also um having to do a little more structural engineering for that project because it is hosting concrete which requires engineering but we still are hopeful that
089my my goal has always been that we'll be ready for spring. There's a possibility we're ready for August but I wouldn't you know promise that. I'm just we're working diligently towards it and we have met with coaches and athletic director over summer high school to show them the concept and gotten feedback from them. >> The flower. >> So Jeff, real quick on that on that on those tennis courts. So you did meet with the Somerville High School coaches and the athletic director. >> Yes. >> So do we figure out we have a design where you know the sun is not an issue where we feel like >> we got a north to south orientation. uh we took some comments that they had based on uh basically pathways between the courts and what worked best for
090coaching and uh they seemed really happy with it. So, you know, obviously we're going to finalize that design and then, you know, move forward with the with the project and putting it out for bid. >> Well, thank you for taking time to to vet that out to them. Thank you. >> Yep. Um we did a smoke test of the Flowertown and Newington commas building. Fingers crossed we haven't had any issues that have been reported since we got back from spring break. We did find a few things wrong. Um the biggest one was that there's a for whatever reason there's a water fountain in a music room on the carpet and so that was that had a lot of issues. So we got that resolved we think and uh we'll just keep monitoring it but we
091think we've corrected all the issues right now with the with the sewer smell we were having there and uh we've also changed the units out too. So hopefully we've narrowed this problem down. The pictures you see there, um, obviously the one on the left is when we demoed the floor fort. That happened over spring break. And as of today, the floor is installed. They're just working on sanding the floor and then they'll start painting it. So, we were expecting to be done first week of May. I think we'll probably be done in about two weeks. So, probably before we even get to May. So, that'll be done earlier than we thought. The um roofing projects are underway. We've been um obviously right now we're going through some testing. So, a little bit of growing pains
092with the contractors on site at Austin Middle and Beach Hill, but um working through those issues and hopefully have those products done before we get through the end of summer. And let's see, Eagles Nest, River Oaks, and Joe Pie, so in Fortn Elementary. So, next round of referendum roofing exterior envelope projects, they've all been approved for um design. So, we'll hopefully have those designs back midsummer in end of summer and we can start award, you know, bidding those products out and getting those going as these other products finish up. I think last slide is just that yes, this is the uh Fortn High School press box, but the um Somerville High School Press Box is also complete. They've been using them. They have sound power ran, everything's hooked up. So, I think we're 100% on
093the press boxes unless they want to do some wrapping of the outsides or whatnot. I'm not sure. But um those products are completed. The um Oakbrook Elementary School, we did a cafeteria lighting project over spring break. And the nice thing is we're trying to get a few products in before June because the Dominion is giving us about a 40% rebate on all labor and material costs. So it it it benefits us a lot to go and try to get as many as we can done now. I wish we had the opportunity to do a lot more, but um hopefully maybe next year they'll give us some more substantial rebates. I think after June it drops down to like 15%. So still good but you know it was good to get some done right now. And
094other things to report Windsor Hill their playground is completed. And the other thing that we're working on is obviously with the Nightsville project coming up we are having to relocate their main uh IT room to another part of the building. So that's in progress. We have to get that done before we can even think about demoing the section of the building that is closest to Orangeburg Road. But that's all I've got for this month. >> Jeeoff, I just want to say thank you. I know you have a lot on your plate with everything that's going on. We had the Watergate earlier and everything that we had of that, but all the facilities and the 8% projects, um the referendum projects, um the tiff projects, you and Tony have great done a great job of trying
095to keep that separated. Um I I do have a question for you. Maybe it's for both for you and Tony. So with the ponds elementary school, we do not have that land and that has to be conveyed to us. Correct. Once what phase is complete >> is that to be completed at the completion of phase 10. Once phase 10 is the the final plat has been recorded. >> There is a 30-day wait before it can be conveyed. >> And that and they are they're working on phase 10 now. So, uh, I think in in speaking with the folks at Coulter, they said that they they wanted that done by the end of the year, calendar year. >> And so, when we're looking at phase 10, that is the uh the area that's right off Lots
096Drive there. That was next to the school site. Correct. >> And the the phase 10 town homes and the Pottery Circle town homes. >> Okay. So, they're both together. Okay. >> I'm pretty sure. Okay. >> Perfect. So, I appreciate your your help and trying to to get that moving along as well. So, you guys have been you've done a great job. You and Mr. Frell and Jeff and Tina and the meetings they have on Monday trying to keep all these projects straight is uh they've done a great job. So, thank you. Any questions for the board? >> Thank you. Our next item uh is for some action items is one we just talked about the approval of the GMP. And I'll turn it over to uh uh Dr. Wimberly for uh those action items. >>
097All right, board members. I'd ask for a motion to approve the GMP contract for the Oakbrook bus maintenance facility. Motion made by Mr. Lee, seconded by Miss King. Any questions or discussion? All right. Hearing none, we will call for the vote. Motion carries. Six in favor, one absent. All right. Next, I would ask for a motion to approve the term contract for asphalt and paving services bid. Motion made by Miss Powell. >> Second. Seconded by Mr. Guthrie. Any questions or discussion? >> Just to confirm, this is basically a framework agreement. We're not actually awarding any specific projects at this point. >> Correct. All right. Any further questions? Hearing none, we'll call for the vote. Motion carries. Six in favor, one absent. All right. And next I would ask for a motion to approve the project
098costs and GMP contract for the Ponds Elementary School. >> So moved. >> Motion made by Mr. Guthrie, seconded by Mr. Lee. Any questions or discussion? >> So GMP being set at 51,700,000 and change. Where is that relative to what we originally planned? Because I know this is more uh and this would only be effective through September. And if I understood correctly, there's the possibility they may not be done with phase 10 until December. And then 30 days after that to convey the property, we're into January of next year. So we have a risk exposure of about seven months beyond where six months anyway beyond where this would take us. Am I is my understanding correct? >> Yes, you're you are correct. And that's cost escalation. You know, we were just talking today a little bit
099about the the price per square foot. You know, I think uh when they did uh I want to say East Edison. Correct me if I'm wrong, Tony. I don't if you can come up here, but I think it was 220 um dollars per square foot, I believe East Edestto was. And so we are close to uh the 400 500 per square foot. So um Tony, can you talk speaking a little bit about that that GMP and what that that could look like where we where we've been and kind of where we we're going? >> So where where we were in 22 just just in just it was it was like post like precoid is when we got the GMP for that and somehow they pulled it off. But that was $260 a square foot. which
100was absolutely amazing at the time that we did that. Uh all the projects that we have going now, the Oakbrook projects, Somerville Elementary, and Ashley Ridge, when we take all those GMPS and divide all those by the square foot, we end up with $431 a square foot. The GMP that you're looking at there for the ponds is $458 a square foot. So I that I don't foresee escalation being any more than that >> for the remainder of the calendar year. >> Hope that answers your question, Mr. Great question. That's just that's just my opin that's just my opinion and and I I mean but when you start looking at how things happen at the postcoavid thing is just it blows everybody away in the construction industry how concrete uh PVC pipe >> is has taken
101a huge steel is is almost doubled I mean it's just unbelievable the cost escalations that has happened over the past four or five years. Yeah, I respect all that. My concern is more, you know, had we gotten the property conveyed when we originally expected we would get it when we went for the referendum in the first place. You know, what were we looking at in terms of expected estimate to to build this school versus now where 517 I guess is the max. You know, how much more have we been hurt by that? >> Um, I have a question. So maybe I'm naive because I don't know that much about this, but >> it's their fault. So why is it that >> this way? >> We have been ready, >> but they apparently weren't ready. Maybe
102maybe I'm misunderstanding, but the bottom line is why should we have to bear the burden of that increase? At least they should offer to pay a portion of it. Well, to to to be to be be brutally honest, the developer has done absolutely nothing wrong. They are following the letter of the law of the development agreement. The development agreement says when phase 10 is complete, upon the completion of phase 10, the land will be conveyed 30 days after that. >> So, we've been working on this project since when? >> Uh 23 We we we passed the we passed the uh referendum in 24 and this time in 24 is uh about this time of the year is when we had the referendum. It was May the 13th I believe. >> So they didn't have a
103time limit on when they should be already started that. So we didn't >> some type of >> I think I think what the thought process was was growth was at such a rapid rate that they would probably be done with phase 10 by the time we got the uh I mean I can't I I can't speak directly to that because I mean I wasn't involved in the conversations prior to that but I think that was the thought process of of of previous administrations and uh that's just where we landed on our kind of on one foot and we're trying to balance ourselves to land on two. >> Yeah. If if I could, you know, those are all symptoms in my view. The root cause is back to part of the conversation we had during uh
104the discussion with Mr. Mazerby. Okay. Okay. And it's having everybody at the table at the right time and understanding what they were signing up for because you're right. According to the letter to the law, the developer has not violated anything. The question is who wrote the development agreement and were we at the table? And so we went for [clears throat] a referendum without anything in hand. We didn't have property at that point. We had a promise. And so now we're dealing with that. and the consequences are manifesting themselves in terms of cost to us. We've done everything we can to to deal with the growth for now and we'll continue to try and do that up to a point. Um but now we need to build a school and we're already off by a year.
105We would hope to open in the fall of 27. That's not going to happen current course and speed. So, you know, it comes down to are the right people having the right conversations and are all the right people at the table uh when those discussions are had. Um, >> yeah, >> I I know that the original development agreement, it was it was written and the language in that said that uh the developer would convey the property when the school district had buildable plans. We've been at that point now for year and a half. Thank you, Tony. I appreciate all your work. Thank you so much. >> All right, board members, any other questions? If not, we will proceed with the vote. >> student enrollment. >> No, it's this is on the ponds. We are we
106are we are voting on the approval of the project the ponds project costs and GMP contract. >> Okay. And the motion carries. Six in favor, one absent. All right. And then one more. Board members, we did receive the student enrollment recommendations in our packet. Is everyone okay to proceed with that in open session? >> Yes. All right. So, at this time, I would ask for a motion to approve the student enrollment requests as presented. >> So, moved. >> Made by Mr. Guthrie, seconded by Miss King. Any questions or discussion? hearing. Now, we will call for the vote. Motion carries. Six in favor, one absent. >> Right. >> Okay. That concludes the superintendent report. Thank you, Dr. Wimble and the board. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Dhy and team. All right, next item on our agenda
107is our public comments and we do not have any on non-aggenda items this evening. So we will move to our executive session. Board members, at this time I would ask for a motion to convene into executive session for personnel related matters as well as the purpose of discussing a contractual matter related to the proposed purchase of land off Delmare Highway. >> So moved. >> Motion made by Mr. Guthrie. Seconded by Mr. Lee. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, we will call for the vote. Motion carries. Six in favor, one absent. We are in executive session and we will return. Members, at this time I would ask for a motion to return to open session. So moved. >> Motion made by Mr. Guthrie, seconded by Miss Powell. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, we will call
108for the vote. Motion carries. Six in favor, one absent. We are back in open session. Okay, board members. Any motions? >> Yes. I'd like to make a motion to approve the personnel recommendations made in executive session. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Guthrie. Motion to approve the personnel recommendations as presented. Do I have a second? Seconded by Mr. Lee. Any questions or discussion? Okay. Hearing none, we will call for the vote. Motion carries. Six in favor, one absent. And finally, board members, at this time, I would ask for a motion to adjurnn. Motion made by Miss King, seconded by Miss Powell. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, we will call for the vote. Motion carries. Six in favor, one absent. We are adjourned.