January 22, 2024 - 6:00 PM - Board Meeting

00124 regular board meeting um and at this time I will call our meeting to order and I need an approval of our consent agenda do I have a motion okay motion by Miss Powell do I have a second seconded by Miss Crosby any discussion okay hearing none we will go ahead and call the vote for that so board members we will be voting electronically you can cast your vote once you see that appear okay all right so we will actually be all in favor okay seven any opposed no and so the motion carries um seven in favor so uh moving on we will now go into our district highlights and for that I will recognize Mrs Troy thank you so much good evening board chair Wimberly Dr Robbins and board members tonight we have the

002honor of recognizing the junior rooc cyber security students from Ashley Ridge High School for their incredible success on the state level can the students please join us up front in their [Applause] advisors the team plays first in the state in the Cyd Patriots competition in this competition students are given real time cyber security scenarios in which they work as a team to troubleshoot research and find cyber security weaknesses major Clark is the team's lead advisor and Colonel Wilkinson is the Junior TC senior instructor the team is coached by Cadet from The Citadel Citadel cyber cyber undergraduate program can the parents of these wonderful students if you're in the audience please stand and be [Applause] recognized thank you again congratulations to the Ashley Ridge junor Roc cyber security program for [Applause] so while they're leaving if

003I could get Matt kenri to come down here for a quick second so um most of you know some of you may you may not know but Mr kenri has been the public information officer for Dorchester 2 for the last couple years and you know all things aren't created equal and so when you're in a robust Community like ours in a um growing part of the state like we are in with nearly 27,000 students 26 to 28 locations when you consider alternative school our Cape programs and everything else um we get a lot of um a lot of recognition and and it's a tough task it's a very daunting task to try to stay on top of that and work with the media Outlets that that exist in the Low Country so um I share

004all that to say it's a job that I'm not envious of having to try to communicate with that many different personalities but I I just want to take this time to say thank thank you to Matt um he is moving on um he going to still be in the Low Country his wife still works for us he has another great opportunity I hope being with us for a couple years has prepared him for that opportunity I'm sure it has he's promis to stay in touch with us and maybe bring some donations from this new organization he's going to work for but I'd be very remiss if I didn't say um thank you to him publicly uh I know sometimes it's not the easiest work working with a superintendent when you're dealing with some of the

005challenges we have but you did it well um and gracefully and I do appreciate the work you put in and the care that you took to try to always send the best message on behalf of Team Dorchester so um thank you again and we wish you all the well in your future Matt [Applause] so I just like to say Matt when you came in to our district what a challenge you had I'm telling you we really put you through the ringer and I want to say thank you for all that you've done you've grown so much I see you in so much of a um um a a growing and a uh developing light and I'm so happy for your new Endeavor and um but thank you so much for all that you did for

006us we appreciate the time and effort you put in with us thank you yeah um thank you Miss Hughes I completely agree and also you have definitely left your mark on the district with your amazing work on our website and so that is that is something that we really appreciate all your hard work on that as well so thank you we will miss you but stay in touch yeah absolutely okay um next on our agenda we have public comments on agenda items and we have none this evening so we will head into the board chair's report um and the first item in that is our um scsba ethical principles poster so each year we receive a copy of this um poster and we sign it um as a commitment to the pledge we actually have

007not received our poster yet for this year so tonight I'm just going to read The Pledge and then once we have it we will all get together um and sign it as we've done in the past and then that's always been displayed um I actually have ours from last year which we've had hanging so um it's displayed each year so I will'll go ahead and read this we pledge our efforts to improve public education in our community and will solemn try to represent the interests of the entire District when making decisions and to rely on available facts and on our judgment rather than on individuals or special interest groups understand the proper role of the board to set policies governing the district and to hire the chief administrative officer to carry out these policies encourage

008an open exchange of ideas by all board members during the decision-making process seek regular Communications between the board and students staff and all segments of the community attend all board meetings to study issues facing the board and to enact policies and official actions only after full discussion of such meetings work with other board members in a conscientious and courteous manner befitting the public trust placed in the position of Schoolboard trustee communicate concerns and public reaction to board policies and school programs to the superintendent and other board members in a professional manner support employment of the person's best qualified for staff positions and to ensure a regular and impartial evaluation of all staff avoid conflicts of interest and to refrain from using our board positions for person personal or partisan gain encourage recognition of the achievements

009of students and staff and of the involvement of community residents support legislation and funding which will improve the educational opportunities and environment for students and staff take no individual action which would compromise the Integrity of the board or Administration and to respect the confidentiality of information that is privileged under the Freedom of Information Act study current educational issues and to participate in training programs such as those offered through the South Carolina School boards Association and make our District's educational setting the best possible to encourage all students to achieve and to love learning I know those are all principles that we all take very seriously so thank you than you for giving me time to just read those out all right any comments or discussion before I move on okay all right so the next item

010on our agenda or I'm sorry under the board chairs report are the um board chair appointments so um I believe this past um over the last two weeks I've had an opportunity to speak with all members of the of the board and um and discuss um where each person would feel that they would serve best and I also have talked to um my vice chair Mr Guthrie in making these decisions um so at this time I would like to ask Miss Bates if she would be our board secretary it would be my honor thank you okay thank you all right and then looking at our board committees um just a reminder that the board committees are um all Committees of the whole so even though we do have um board members assigned to those committees

011they are open to all members to attend um and that is encouraged when possible so starting with policy um I would like to ask Miss Bates if she would chair that committee that would also be my pleasure thank you okay thank you and then I would like to ask Miss Powell if she would be um on that committee as well okay great thank you all right and then looking at our finance committee um I would like to ask Mr Guthrie if he would please chair that committee yes I accept Okay thank you and I would like to ask Miss Crosby if she would be on that committee with Mr Guthrie okay thank you very much um and then for our facilities committee I would like to ask Mr Farnsworth if he would please chair that

012committee great thank you and then I would like to ask Miss Hughes if she would join him on that committee I sure will all right great thank you okay so um other committee appointments we have the um um skip um board and we usually have a board member who serves on that um and um I was going to see if Mrs Powell you would be interesting in serving in that role for us okay wonderful thank you then we have the Dorchester 2 Educational Foundation um Mr Farnsworth would you like to serve on that um Foundation board please okay great thank you um and then the coordinated District Health Advisory Board um and I would like to ask Mrs Bates if she would be willing to serve on that committee I would thank you okay great

013um also I think it's important um I know we have to have a representative for the scsba um for a legislative representative and I think it's also important that we have representatives from our boards who will serve in that capacity so I would like to ask um Mr Guthrie if he would serve in that capacity as a legisl representative yes um and Mrs Bates as well yes okay great thank you very much all right and then the final um appointment is one that comes from our entire board um and we need to make a recommendation um of a district employee um we need to make a recommendation to our delegation of a district employee to serve on the first steps board um and so at this time um I would like to present to you

014all um Miss Donna Alexander she is our Early Education coordinator um and she has previous experience with First Steps so do I have a motion regarding that I'll make that motion okay thank you Miss Hughes do I have a second right second by Miss Powell um and do we have any discussion okay hearing none um are we going to miss electronic voting is that yes it is electronic voting okay so we should be oh there it is so everyone can vote on your screen please so did it come up did it go through yet would what she okay it looks like that motion has passed unanimously okay so we will move on to um our next agenda item at this time which are board committee reports um and we have policy committee at first so

015I will turn that over to miss Bates hi thank you madam chair uh we have several policies up for second reading today I'm going to read those now that's policy BBB board membership elections policy ijob community resource persons slsp speakers is recommended for deletion and replacement with policy jobi OC School volunteers is being recommended for deletion and replacement with the igob policy Joc the rule that accompanies it uh School volunteers is being recommended for deletion and replacement with ijob OC the rule um a new policy job ijoc resource persons SL School volunteers that's the new policy JJ OJ the rule resource persons School volunteers is also the new one IAB report cards and progress reports Ike promotion retention and acceleration of students JB equal Educational Opportunity non-discrimination policy jka restraint seclusion and intentional physical contact

016and policy jib student dismissal precautions having the know on their second reading and needing no motion I call for the vote right come because it's coming out of committee right yes so that is coming out of committee so we would not need a second so um at this time we will vote to approve um are we doing this one electronically okay all right thank you everyone for your patience I think once we get this down it's going to be very efficient and very helpful for everyone so okay there it is so if everyone will please vote electronically at this time that would be great okay it looks like that motion has passed unanimously thank you all very much so next we will move to our finance committee report um and I do not know if

017we have a report this evening um anything from Mr farnworth from previously on the finance no okay all right and nothing from Mr Guth okay great thank you um and Facilities uh do we have anything from facilities okay all right no no reporting at this time okay great thank you so I will now turn to our superintendent report and Dr Robbins thank you madam chair members of the board good evening um we have several items um some of these will be really quick but U that we're going to cover with you tonight going touch on the state of the district 2024 um library book list course of action that was shared with us before December or in December Before Christmas our technology replacement plan we're in year two of that just uh I'm going to

018keep this as a constant dose on our board meetings but a growth analysis update and referendum status and then we'll have our monthly Finance report facilities report Personnel recommendations and student enrollment recommendations we will also have a safety update as well that we added on this weekend so the first thing just real quickly the state of the district 2024 just to make sure it stays on your radar that's going to be on February 2nd um at Rawlings middle School we're going to try something a little different since we don't have a really big venue necessarily uh where we can serve breakfast and then go into a presentation we we think this might work we're going to give it a shot it's a beautiful facility so we'll have breakfast beforehand um at 8 o'clock we're going

019to have student entertainment performers um and then there'll be presentations from there'll be a welcome from the from the board chair um I've asked the chamber to present again this year and then I'll go through uh my presentation which will include our growth Trend analysis it'll include our financial standing uh our achievement status as of this last current Academic Year and probably a couple other things similar to what we did last year so pending any questions just want to make sure that's on your radar okay so the next thing we have um and again you know we're school districts are battling this across the country country um and just trying to make sure that we really focus on facts over feelings on um how we address this in our own Community I I will just

020start off with a reminder that we do have board policy um that guides um the way we look at and how textbooks or excuse me how resource materials get into our libraries and then how they are challenged and so for me um and the guidance I always give our team is you follow policy and for you as the board you have the authority and the ability to modify policy if necessary but we can't work outside of those parameters um you know what I would share with you is we've got thousands upon thousands upon thousands of books in our libraries some of these uh books may have that we think are possibly inappropriate may have been in our libraries for years and so one of the questions I asked our academic mic team and so we

021in December I received the list I believe you all receiv received the list we're in January I've met with the academic team I haven't met with our media Specialists primarily at the middle school and the high school yet um but I did meet with the academic team to get a better understanding of what our process is in our district and again per policy our media specialist control the titles that end up in the libraries okay that's their respons posibility and then there is a process in which those get out of the libraries okay um the second thing is they do have periodic um reviews of texts and titles that are in their libraries that they Undertake and sometimes they'll pull those um out um sometimes and again they don't have to go through the book

022challenge process because they are the certified media specialist so they have the ability and the authority to maintain you know those books if somebody brings um a concern to them and they look at it and review it thoroughly and they think okay yeah I don't think that belongs in my library then they have the power to take that out and and they've done that with a couple of our titles um so we're just looking at trying to self- police uh and make sure that we stay within the confines of policy but also at the same time uh making sure that that we are looking at the appropriateness of some of the titles that are in our libraries and and working forward from that process I do have Miss Eep here um to help me answer

023any questions you may have tonight but I wanted to give you something visible to say all right we have a process in place we have policy that guides us and this is what we're working on so I'm happy to answer any questions so just just to go through what we're looking at here we received I believe superintendent Dr Robbinson then the board received a request to review a total of 673 library books from an individual in a community um do we know where that list came from was was it populated we we just received this list we get an email no the list was 673 and in it um it and my guess is it came out of our destiny system but all of the 673 only about a third of those books are actually

024in our libraries and they noted that in the spreadsheet so and noted what libraries those books uh where they lied now I'm not sure when they ran that report um through our destiny system to determine that because a couple of those books I will tell you have been removed from our libraries um that the media specialist on their own accord decided those books didn't need to be in there so that brings that list down to 200 if you look at the rating scale and right now the state of South Carolina really doesn't have a zero to five rating scale that they have you know set upon um through the sde but there is one that's a zero to five and if you look at that rating scale of the 200 plus books that they did

025Identify some of those books are zeros ones and twos so they're they're definitely appropriate for our libraries who who is that rating scale per it's um I think I put it in your board packet it's uh I'm not certain I'll answer it's um through book looks and so we done research on book looks and and figured out behind the scenes where that um scale comes from I think we probably need to do more of that research to understand before we as a district put forward that as a as a defacto rating system um so going back to the questions I do have it sounds like we have a continual process in place for our media Specialists to continue to look at these books if they are presented a book from a parent within the district

026they would look at those books and and take future action from your from the office of the superintendent from your staff or media specialist 673 library books the time expenditure and the resource expenditure what if you had to put a figure around that information what what would you tell me I'm sorry ask that again as far as your resource and time expenditure right looking at this specific list of books what what would you say your office and the district has to put in as far as resources well I mean I will say the first bit is not so resource intensive because we can do it electronically and we can search to see if those books are even on our shelves um it's once that we identify the books then it becomes pretty resource intensive for

027our media Specialists uh again that is part of their job I understand understand that but then they they have to go back and rescreen and look at each one of those titles if it's in their Library um to make sure it meets that litmus test of of appropriateness so that could depending on what school if you look at the spreadsheet I shared with you what school you're in that could be a lot so would you venture to say if we're talking seconds minutes hours we're in the hours category days days so we're in the days category of instruction time that could be presented to Children um okay so I just wanted to make sure of that information so Madam chair at this point I'd like to make a motion directing the superintendent and his staff

028to expend no further time and District resources regarding the emailed request to review a total of 673 library books okay at this time I have a motion um from Mr Farnsworth do I have a second oh I'd like to Second based on the fact that we have an established process already in place for those that have questions and want to challenge so I second that okay I have a motion and a second do I have any discussion so I I just want to be very clear on on the reason for the motion the behind the scenes um this is not arguing the validity of the books I'm not saying whether the books should be in the libraries whether they should not be in the libraries what I am saying is we have a very clear

029defined process it's in policy it's not even a process it is a policy that if somebody would like to challenge a book books dozens of books hundreds of books in our library we have a policy to do that and so if that concerned person wants to follow that policy I'm all about it what I'm not all about is someone who emails the superintendent and the school board and bypasses our policy and then we take weeks of instructional time away from our children I'm not okay with that Mr Farnsworth I totally 100% agree because where it needs to be addressed if there is a problem it needs to be addressed in our policy then we need to go back and revisit that policy and change that policy but as we know you cannot change a policy

030after the fact or Midstream so this 673 books would not even fit into that if we Chang that went in and change that policy right now our our job as board members are to set policy and our administrative staff is to follow those policies that we set forth so they're doing their job now if we want to revisit it then we send it to the policy committee and we re revisit that policy to change it up but at this point we have to follow policy uh I have a question so the motion was not to review 673 books which I from my understanding you said it wasn't 673 books it was narrowed down to 200 and something and then that that's even less per school because some of these schools only have like you may

03120 of these books I don't even know I'm just saying and then just for clarification the 0o to five rating system that was not something we adopted that was just something you were referencing correct like it wasn't our policy um and lastly just on the policy standpoint our policy is very clear that we will not have books in our library on the front end in the selection process that violate obscenity law and so the process on the front end that talks about the selection criteria is specifies not obscene in nature so I understand that aspect of it on the front end verse a if you have like a issue with a book personally or don't like it or whatever filing the report so I do think policy is very very clear um I'm not really

032sure this Motion makes much sense to me um just because a motion to not review the 673 book I don't even know if that was what we were doing so I just would like clarification on what we're voting on exactly like not even taking into account our policy says do not select obscene books in nature to begin with and are we just going to negate the fact that there are books that violate obscenity law in the thing like in the libraries like I just don't really understand what the what we're voting on no I think our po what our policy says is what we have in place is that we give our Librarians The Authority that is part of the process to review these books so if there isn't yeah if there is an issue

033there is a process that is followed by the community to make sure that this book is reviewed and it is reviewed at the librarian's level the LI that's part of our job he specified the policy right like I think he outlined what their what their rights are and what their duties and responsibilities are as library media Specialists if I'm not mistaken I feel like that's exactly what he described to us so so we'll we'll take a step and and I'll answer Miss bat's question thank you for the question um I I will repeat the motion just for those that that may not have understood it um my motion is directing the superintendent and staff to expend no further time and District resources regarding the emailed request to review a total of 673 library books and

034so my intention there um obviously just by virtue of this being on our board agenda tonight by superintendent Robins giving us this report District resources and time have already been spent we were just told we're looking at days if not weeks of District time to investigate um this challenge we have a challenge process books it is it will happen books will from time to time they will get through the cracks for whatever reason somebody may have a legitimate challenge to a book I think that's a very legitimate case and so when that happens we then have policy and we have a very defined process for someone to follow if they wanted to challenge said book and so when when I from a taxpayer when they send this this request and they state in their email

035you may consider asking me to submit book review requests but I do not intend to do that that tells me somebody's agenda is to bypass our policy so what I'm saying is we will follow our policy and if a board member has an issue with that I would also worry what other policies they're willing to buy by pass I would call for the vote Madam chair okay um at this time I have a motion and a second and a call for the vote are we voting elect you just have to vote on my call to the vote to make sure we're okay with ending discussion okay um so I have a motion to call for the vote um do I have a second for that I'll make the second okay I have a motion from

036Mr Farnsworth to call for the vote and a second from Miss Hughes um so is there any discussion on that the only discussion no that's not the debatable okay at this time I will call for the vote to call for the vote on the original motion all in favor of calling for the vote okay um so no okay can you please raise your hands if you are in favor of calling for the vote okay all in favor so it's unanimous um so that motion carries so now at this time we will vote on the original motion um and that that Mr farnworth made so all in favor of that so at this time we are voting on the original motion made by Mr Farnsworth and seconded by Miss Powell to um discontinue any um well

037would you like to repeat your motion Please Mr fernworth happy to and I apologize Miss SM that I did not send this to you beforehand U making a motion directing the superintendent and his staff to expend no further time and District resources regarding the emailed request to review a total of 673 library books okay all in favor please raise your hand okay three any opposed okay the motion does not carry we have three in favor and four poos okay so at this time we are still in our superintendent report um so Dr Robbins would you like to continue with that please yeah so um just and to close out the library book list discussion I've also received um emails from board members and and and citizens about Scholastic um we do have alternate Book Fairs

038that we utilize in our district Scholastics not the only book fair um but again it is one that we do utilize um and it's the media Specialists who will screen the books that Scholastic are putting on display so we do have control over that you know to some degree so to say we aren't going to use Scholastic there are alternate um options that we'll share with our um principles to look at but we are still using them to some degree and that's the process we're going to utilize to try to make sure that the titles that are for sale to our students are appr I would like a list that we are looking at other vendors for our Book Fairs I would look at a list yeah I I will I will definitely provide the

039board with I know there's um some other vendors that other um other buildings in our district are already using I'll absolutely share that with the board I was going to say that's not a new thing no it's not used alternative vendors and nobody's saying remove Scholastic so um this The Book Fairs even when I was teaching you know that was kind of a teacher if she didn't want to use book I mean um the books during the year whatever the Flyers they didn't have to um I do have a question about Scholastics right now because I have done some research on it and they've got very inappropriate materials even at my church they quit carrying Scholastics because there's very can you can you be very specific on the types of materials that you're concerned about

040title excuse me titles and authors of the specific information you were worried about excuse me I I'm not going to talk in generalities Miss Crosby if you have specific information from Scholastic I'm willing to listen but if not then I would like to move forward with the board I don't have time for it okay so let's continue um with our superintendent report and next it looks like we have the technology replacement thank you um let me just say this I don't believe anyone on this board wants to promote anything that would negatively affect our children my whole thing is let all that work that we put in in putting together the policy and the procedures we just want you to just use that and work it and if there's a book I would be the

041first one to say that book needs to go but let the process work thank you priv point of privilege Madam chair yes ma'am um I I don't I'm just GNA be real honest I don't think anybody here is asking you to negate policy obviously stand on policy policy is important I I I don't don't think you should ignore that by any means and I don't think you said you will and I think simply entertaining the idea of offering an alternative if somebody wants to utilize it go for it if not you're not saying get rid of Scholastic so I don't really know why this is such a contentious thing we're all here you know just trying to offer something that is a happy medium for everybody and um I think absolutely nobody wants you to

042not follow policy follow policy and let's just move forward thank you okay thank you ladies all right so um yeah the next item on the superintendent's report is our um technology replacement plan we're in year two um as you recall we pl passed our three-year plan last year we had flip-flopped and uh replaced the middle school high school uh devices in year one because they were dying so rapidly this year is our elementary school replacement because it's such a large large expenditure I need board approval for that that um I also went ahead and added year three in there so you could just be reminded of what our process was once we get through year three then we'll go back up and we'll start this uh again something that didn't exist in the district and

043we knew for sustainability we needed to have a recurring three-year process so happy to field any questions but I would ask for uh approval to purchase year two of our replacement plan okay do I have a motion Madam chair I make a motion to accept the technology replacement plan as presented okay I have a motion by Miss Bates do I have a second second second and by Mr Guthrie any discussion okay at this time we will call for the vote and this should be an electronic vote yeah go ahead that's fine just know that varies based on devices so good evening Madam chair board members um Dr Robin my apologies I just wanted to make sure that we had the proper Motion in place for utilizing these capital projects funds um when we originally presented

044um back in November this one piece was carved out for um the K through 5 Chrome books and so um we are bringing that back this evening to uh as Dr Robin said to get those um get those K through five Chromebooks and the amount would be $ 5,622 th000 that's to cover all um Chromebooks for K through five plus shelf stock plus shelf stock yes sir thank you okay so um at this time um I will um I think we would need to um call for let's see yeah let's call for a motion to vote um on the amount as presented by miss m do I have a motion so moved a second okay I have a motion by Miss Fates and a second by Miss Powell um any discussion okay hearing none we

045will call for the vote okay board members if you will vote electronically at this time please okay and the motion carries unanimously okay thank you madam chair the next item I have um is our growth analysis update um SL referendum status uh I'm a big fax over feelings individual um and I I really really believe it's important to keep this in the Forefront I do appreciate the County Council uh participating in our workshop with you all um I know it's no easy decision on your part but I do think that data speaks volumes and and as long as you have the numbers in front of you you can make an informed decision I'm going to cover three things tonight I've covered them in the past but I want to do it publicly and I'm probably

046going to do it at least once a month for the next several months enrollment Trends the housing market based off what we know and possible funding possibly funding mechanisms so next slide please again you've seen this slide I did update uh our numbers have grown by about 500 students 600 students since the beginning of the school year we're now up including prek to 26849 students in our district I include prek because they take up space in our buildings so I think that's very important um the thing that I would point out out to you is if you look at Beach Hill and look at San hill we know San Hill has been the largest Elementary in the district but if you look at beachill they are only 21 students behind Sand Hill now and um

047that wasn't in our original forecast why is that it's because we didn't when we did the demographic study we did not have the North Charleston numbers um like we have them now and so um the Watson Hill development is feeding into Beach Hill so uh one of the things that we have looked at and because it's a new development that I will propose to the board not tonight but we will move the Watson Hill development from the beach Hill East Edisto attendance Zone and send them to sers and Oakbrook because we have no choice um we have no space and those are um I guess I have the a different sheet but it's around 9900 homes in the be in that Watson Hill development on top of that Mr Farnsworth and I met with um

048a North Charleston um councilman and there is another subdivision or Development Across the road in Ashley River that's not even on the books yet that's 3,000 Acres so here we got 2,000 acres in the Ashley River um on the one side of the road and 3,000 more Acres that we knew nothing about so there is no plan from the North Charleston part of our our district for schools so we have got some very tough decisions to make in the future our district is very proud of the quality education we provide we provide it because the manner in which we provide it if we do not have a plan then it's going to go the wrong direction and I can't I'm not a negative person um and I don't say the world's falling down but I

049want you to see these numbers on what we're we're going to deal with in a handful of our schools so there's the slide for you it's in your board packets if you go to the next um slide this is from Miss GCE our um Director of Business Development in Dorchester County there are 9,793 homes in the town of Somerville there are 4,39 homes and then um the possible future development that we're not quite sure of so that's a total of 13,830 homes and there's a future development of another 2,923 homes for a total of 16,750 units so we can only move so fast rezoning is 12 months a wing or a trailer is 12 to 18 months and a building is 36 months if we have the funding in place so I'm just putting that

050on your radar Dr robins have you sent sent these updated numbers to County Council as well as a fiscal impact statement it's their numbers yeah okay they're their numbers so um they should be tracking it um I can't do a fiscal impact statement because I don't know what the request it has to be a a specified request but I I'm more than happy to try to do that if you go to the next slide funding mechanisms again we have three potential funding mechanisms you know we've been talking about a no tax rate increase referendum um that is a for sure thing that we can do if the voters would approve it um the penny sales tax we have to get legislative language that would allow us to do that and we're working on that I

051know a couple board members and myself are going to meet with one of our delegates to try to get the language so that we could even put a penny sales tax on the ballot as it stands today we couldn't and then the third one is impact fees I've heard about impact fees since I got here the problem is is if you go back to the previous Slide the 13,830 units to be built do not qualify for impact fees because they are in development agreements that have already been approved the only thing that we would potentially be able to receive impact fees from are the 2,923 units that are pro um future proposed developments so I just want you all to be aware of that so that's not a given impact fees are not a given

052and the amount of money for impact fees is minimal but when you put the three things together it definitely could help us build a sustainable plan for the future so um happy to answer questions when you were looking at um the lad of those three the penny sales tax impact fees just to clarify you're you're talking years out to be able to collect any sort of worthwhile money understandably on the penny sales tax I think you can Bond some of that out um but again I I don't know what that looks like the referen I think would be our quickest um means to potential funding has the district discussed what what are our plans for that referendum um is there a potential timeline for that referendum so um you know obviously we spoke that uh

053the possibility of a special election we would have to apply for that sometime in February um that would allow us to get shovel in ground if the voters approved it and possibly not next year but the following year be able to occupy um an elementary school if we wait till November on the normal ballot then that's really two years down the road before we could occupy a facility um we do have a and again just so the community knows I know obviously the board knows we hired two different professional organizations to help us in establishing a plan we hired a demographer to come in and look at what our forecasting looked like and we also hired an architect SL construction firm to develop a master facility plan for us to look at the cost of

054a new structure and then the additions and the renovations to other structures we have a generic um plan for every single building in the district but again that will take work from the board to say this is exactly what we want I will tell you that I've done all the ground workor um for the say yes to schools and the um Community um um advisory review team to work with us and I've I've met with the chamber I'm on the chamber board they've offered to write a letter of support because they know how dire this is for us and so again it's up to the board to make a decision on what you want the timeline to look like we'll make the rest of it work based on what this board decides to do but

055I wanted you to see what the funding stream opportunities were to know that the Penny sales tax it takes time to acrw I do think it's a good viable long-term um component to to buildings in our uh Community the impact fees I don't think is going to really have much of a quote unquote impact for us um and then the referendum if we can do it at no sales tax or no pardon me no tax rate increase is a good option but again it will be this body that kind of guides that direction for us I hope I answered your question yeah I I will certainly work with our chair um just again to clarify we work with some outside entities on the potential for a referendum I know when I was on the finance

056committee and we had kind of a timeline that we were looking at at the special election um to your point it sounds like if we're not able to do that then we're we're two years down the road so I I do have some timing concern why we wouldn't do that I guess my question is the those outside entities um they they were the ones they've done the research they felt a special election could potentially be beneficial for the district they did absolutely um they were um positive uh about the results they've seen uh with special elections you know the the thing that I always try to clarify to folks is you know a general um referendum election is a little different than a school referendum um ballot question because you're you're talking about 27,000 students

057and so when I look at it um I think we can demonstrate the need our district has not had a referendum for 12 years that's why we're able to do this at a no tax rate increase um process by the way we restructure our bonds and the increase in the assessments of our properties in our community so um I do think that if you look across the state and across the country special elections a lot of times are pretty successful for schools when you can demonstrate that um and you can you can sell no tax rate increase but again um we'll we'll do whatever our team will do whatever we need to do we have used our bond attorney and our financial advisor uh to try to guide us in some of this process and

058um some of the districts in the state of South Carolina have definitely done a two ballot question where one was a referendum and one was a penny sales tax on on the on the ballot so okay my question is it possible for us to utilize the penny and the referendum yeah yeah absolutely and so but the voters have to approve both right and so if they do approve both the one thing that is important is to know that the Penny doesn't generate Revenue right away I mean it does generate Revenue right away but not usable Revenue it has to acre um and most districts utilize they wait over a course of time as it builds then they can use their Penny Revenue to do some of the work versus selling bonds okay um so that

059is and pay off some of the bond debt so it would also help pay off some of the bond debt and take the burden off of local business owners and put that on people who like um consumer based right tax instead so there's a benefit to it um I I believe we had a really really beneficial meeting with County Council I think there was a lot of really good dialogue a lot of stuff back and forth um you know I I worry a little bit about the time frame of pushing it in a special election and do we have enough time to really get everything we need in place to promote this do we want to look at the penny and wait and do it all at once because that would help offset some of

060this burden on our local businesses as well as do you want to have two elections to pass something um when is it more likely going to be to pass you know there's different questions we I I think we definitely have to consider and the cost of a special election to open up early voting to run a special election that's a cost that our district would have to you know pay for ultimately to run this election to so it's all stuff to consider you know what I mean yeah very good points um so there are two things to just uh understand and that is the first you you do this with a two question ballot so they it's not two separate elections the second is well I meant like you couldn't do both questions in May

061yeah you unless we got the we could if we got the language right and the the legislative delegation would have to put something in place right okay yeah and then the second thing is is there's two different committees that you put together one of them to say yes to schools um a couple of you have been on the board long enough you're familiar with that they're your they're your pack and they generate the revenue and the fund raising to pay for the special election so no we don't actually pay for it matter of fact we can't do anything resource wise they'll the pack will do that too they'll generate revenues to do that as well but U and again it's totally whatever the board decides we'll you know I've told our team we'll respond and

062react the way we have to um I just want you to constantly see those numbers that those are kids you know those are those are children that uh our responsibility to do our very best for and we will but um there's some challenges with it what i' also like you to consider um I know that we're talking to the County Council in different the chamber Etc but I'd like us to actually get out there and talk to the people that have children grandchildren Etc we have to actually interact with the community and yes traditionally they have not come out but they're there is hope because it really will help to determine what type of educational system we have in place here in dd2 if you have 30 35 kids in a classroom that's not very

063productive and we have to really get those that care about children even if they don't have any we have those that really care about children we have to make sure that they're on board with us and they're also carrying that message whether they're going to a church a cagon out to to the sports club wherever they're going to have a discussion about this and I think that's very important for them to actually be actively engaged I could not agree more I I completely agree with Miss Powell I think you're right no matter what path forward we choose here we're going to need the support of the community for sure lots of good information thank you for keeping us updated Dr Robbins yes ma'am and that's all I have tonight um from my sector I'll turn

064it over to miss man for your fin Finance report good evening again um this evening we will have some items for um your approval for motions which we're going to do electronically it'll be fun and then for one um for report for information only so first um you see saw in your board packet where we have a resolution for the Geo Bond refunding so upon advisement of our financial advisor Brian nck from compass um Municipal investors and our bond Council Franny Heiser that y'all met um numerous times um from bur foran um we have the opportunity to issue bonds at a lower interest rate from the original issue date in 2014 after the referendum in 2012 we issued bonds um The District closed on an advanced refunding which was a taxable refunding in 2021 which

065reduced the interest rate from those original Bond issuance from 4.19 % to 1.88% that savings resulted in $9.8 million TD Bank then um proposed for the district to enter into a refunding which is at a tax exempt interest rate to a lower interest rate of 1.53% so this resolution will allow the issuance of those bonds and provide an additional $2.6 million in savings um due to the savings these bonds are scheduled to be paid off in 20 33 so if the board so approves we would like to ask for a resolution authorizing the issuance and sale of a not to exceed m345 671 General obligation refunding bond series 2024 okay um do I have a motion to approve the resolution as presented by miss m so Move Motion by Mr Guthrie do I have a

066second I'll second seconded by Miss Hughes any discussion okay hearing none at this time we will call for the electronic vote okay the motion carries thank you miss m continue okay we saved a lot of money and as Dr Robins pres uh was discussing earlier since we've been able to save some dollars lot lots of millions of dollars we've been able to pay off our bonds earlier and that provides us with our debt capacity where we're able to do this noow tax increase referendum um that we're discussing um the other resolution for your um consideration this evening is for our growth Board of Directors for the appointment of the directors um in 2004 a nonprofit corporation was formed known as the growth Corporation it stands for growth remedy opportunity without tax hike and that was

067formed because um the district had um was not successful in a referendum and we needed some more buildings for classrooms because we were growing at the time in 2004 so this Corporation was formed um at the time the state allowed for this type of uh nonprofit to enter into um to issue Bonds in the non in the nonprofit corporation's name however the district pays for these bonds through our debt service um capacity so this Corporation um helped with alternate funding and the um Corporation board of directors is responsible for overseeing those bonds until they are retired in December of 2030 um again the bonds are paid by the district um as most of you know um the board lost a valuable member from our community Miss Carolyn Howard she served in many capacities um longtime

068member of the community um she supported dd2 and students and staff for many many many years in her various roles um in the event of her passing we are presenting a slate of directors to um fill her position and as well as bring on another um board member um so I'd like to um read the names of the to um of the resolution to appoint directors to the board of directors of growth um be it resolved that the Board of Trustees of school district number two of Dorchester County directs the number of directors that shall constitute the board of directors for growth shall be six and the following individuals would hereby be appointed as the directors Fran Townsen Bo Blandon Harry Blake Allison Duke Pat Rainer and Brian Mitchum all of these folks have been

069involved with the district in some capacity for many years and they were familiar with this um growth board or or the growth Corporation so um we'd like to present those names to y'all this evening okay thank you Miss man um at this time do I have a motion to approve the growth Board of director appointments as presented to us I'll make that motion thank you Miss Hughes do I have a second second by Mr Farnsworth any discussion go ahead Miss how yes I just my question was what is the length of time these board members serve oh where's my friend Miss Graham I think they sered for three [Music] years three years the director the um it's three years three years yes ma'am it's three years at a time so we would come back before

070the board before the bonds expire one more time for the director appointments okay thank you okay any other questions or comments before we vote all right hearing none you will be voting electronically okay the motion is approved unanimously thank you very much thank you Miss man um the growth board meets annually um to oversee the bonds and get a an update from Dr Robins as to the state of the district and where those growth bonds stand so we'll be scheduling that and and having a meeting very soon last item up for um the finance department is we are presenting the um Financial reports as of the end of December of 2023 um in your packet you'll find the um the reports the first report is our balance sheet um as always we have the December

07130 2023 versus 2022 for comparison purposes um our assets at the end of December were um in the general fund 53,486 445 um you can see our cash and Investments um higher this year as opposed to last year as we had um a saving from last year um which that feeds into our fund balance which we'll talk about that in a second Which is higher this year than last year so our liabilities um plus our fund balance equal our um net assets um if you come down to the fund balance section you can see at the beginning of the year our fund balance was $ 64.9 million almost 65 million um it's good to have a higher fund balance because as you can see um over the course of the year until December 30th um

072we actually have been running revenues have uh our expenditures have exceeded our revenues by 19.4 million so that's why it's good for us to have a positive fund balance which that brings us down to at this time of year 177% in our fund balance um so if we didn't have a healthy fund balance um we would not be able to pay our bills which most of our bills are for salaries and benefits for our staff so I just wanted to point that out um the next report is the schedule revenues expenditures and changes in fund balance um as of the end of December um the ideal remaining percentage which is um in that column in the very middle the small column um we would be 50% so we should have received 50% of our revenues

073or expended 50% of our um expenditures but as we know revenues don't come in every single month the same and expenditures don't go out every single month the same that's why it's good to have this um cash flow analysis which will go over in just a second um just a couple items to point out on the revenue side um the very first line is our taxes from local sources so that's um our property taxes we don't usually receive those until January February and March after um we receive the property tax bill payments that are collected by the county and then come to the district so um we're remaining at 81% because we get a large chunk of that January February and March um the state sources um those pretty much come ready regularly except for

074um the tier three which looks like in um we're at 70% but we don't receive um funding every single month for that so again I we'll look at the cash flow um where you can see how those revenues come in so revenues at the end of December were 97.8 million and U we've expended 117 million which put us at a negative cash a negative fun fund balance as we talked about in just a second ago19 million but we're still good we still have money in the bank we're good we'll look at the cash flow statement next the cash flow analysis um as you can see we've been working from the left to the right um all the numbers that are in Blue on the right side are for months that haven't we haven't shown actuals

075those are our projections so July August September October November December are all actuals um again we were at um 17.1% for our um fund balance which I apologize I was I have on my report that that percentage of the fund balance which Mr Farnsworth asked me to include and I did but it's on my report not yours that'll be on yours next time um so as you can see in January the cash flows will start coming in for our property taxes and then that turns around for our fund balance it will be in the positive number again and as we project out we project that will be at 22.9% for our fund balance by the end of the year um at the very bottom section is our food service um our food service fund balance

076has grown I will point out that at the end of um December we were at $8 million for fund balance however we had two months of um invoices that were in review between sedexo and us um in the finance department so those were actually paid in January so that fund balance will come back into a normal alignment um in January you'll see that looking a little bit better um another thing that I was going to point out was that in December um the expenditures included the holiday bonus and the sign on bonuses of 3.2 million which weren't included in the original um budget however as we projected out and and pointed out there our fund balance will still be healthy at the end of the year so those were were the financial reports that we

077presented as information this evening if you have any questions for me all right thank you very much okay thank you so much Miss M good evening Madam chair members of the board Dr Robbins um run through the projects really quick uh you'll notice on the uh report that I included a the very bottom note on each one of the projects is how that project is funded uh we uh tin and I were talking last week and we thought it would be a good idea for you to be able to see where those funds are coming from that uh we're paying for each project um pretty much uh the HB upgrades at span and Knightsville they are in the planning process the the contract was awarded uh back in November uh the equipment is being purchased

078and they're actually going to start on some some of the lighting project uh in nightville I think uh probably around the middle of February we're going to get in there after school working the nights and put it all back together and have school it's going to be kind of a a process work with Miss seber and and um and and we're g to do that and we're going to get it done hopefully get it all wrapped up by the end of the summer for both of those schools uh the partial Roofing replacement a Greg and span we're uh preparing bid documents for several of these projects and this is one of them uh as as the fort norchester Media Center the only uh thing to talk about there is we are awaiting An approved mou

079before we can get started on that project over there uh the fencing is being installed I think they started last week they should be wrapping that up this week uh get some uh door access controls in and and I think we'll be about ready to to make the move uh running down the list the Community Learning Center Innovation we are preparing those bid documents as well putting an RFP out for that hopefully within the next five to 10 days uh the bus maintenance facility at Oakbrook um I'm working with Architecture Firm firm and we are working that Architecture Firm we're working with Mr Shope and his Transportation team we want to get them what they need to to be able to operate and and work on buses out of the out of the elements so

080we're we're working on that U and that was funded in the general fund uh the Oakbrook middle school edition is something we've talked about uh we they've got uh some mobiles out there and they they're not really mobiles they're what we found is they're built in place and we don't know when they were built in place all I can tell you it was a long time ago and it need they need to be gone and so we're working on a 10,000 squ foot addition to replace that space and and make things a little bit better at 10,000 more square feet of of student classroom out there uh the due diligence survey for the ponds we're still still putting out feelers trying to find some contacts who do we need to talk to within do and

081the developer and the county we're trying to figure out and get everybody at the table so we can find out what they want us to do as far as a a traffic mitigation plan for that property in there and that's about it in a nutshell unless you have any questions for me all good thank you very much thank you Mr Souls um before we move on board members I apologize we need to go back um and vote to accept the motion um pre presented the financials presented by miss m um as information so do I have a motion I'll make that motion okay thank you Miss Hughes do I have a second seconded by Miss Bates any discussion okay and hearing none then I will call for the vote do we know if that's electronic

082or no okay that's okay all right no problem so at this time um if you could just uh raise your hand okay all in favor is unanimous so that motion carries thank you very much uh why the Personnel Department's coming up um well two things first if you want that to be an action item then we'll switch that from an information item to an action item that's the way board docs operates if you're going to vote on an information item it's it's actually has to be an action item that would great thank you very much and the second thing I wanted to share though um the Personnel Department I met with them this morning uh to debrief the um the job fair this weekend I want to tell you our Personnel Department I was very

083impressed um they put a lot of effort into preparing for this our principles were there showcasing um their schools and I think they're going to share some information with you more than just voting on The Personnel report tonight um on some things that they felt like were very um positive in in the job fair that we held this weekend so I just want to personally thank them for their efforts I appreciated the conversation this morning and feel very confident in the work that they're doing good evening Madam chair board and Dr Robbins thank you and we just wanted to come out today or this evening and celebrate um this was the first Saturday recruitment Fair a big Saturday recruitment fair that we have done since preco probably since 2020 before 2020 um so a special

084thank you to all the school staff that came out on a Saturday the District staff our Personnel staff who helped us put it together we had um 86 candidates who came out which is a great turnout we were able to hire seven certified teachers on the spot and I probably have um at least 10 to 20 more to follow up with and I know classified is going to report some very similar numbers but um we went with a theme new year new career so um back to my Elementary Roots I love a good theme but it was a great day and a thank you to all of our school staff and District staff who came out and supported it on a Saturday um we advertised we had a feature on News 2 The Post and

085Courier our social media um on billboards radio so we were really thrilled with the 86 people that came out we all know the job market and hiring is a little more difficult these days but but um I think we definitely got it done on Saturday so that's a big celebration and I'll let Mr Matthews talk a little bit about classified thank you yes it really was an outstanding day been been going to these for years and this is one of our better ones that I can remember and uh just again like Tracy said thanks to all those who who came out and I want to thank my classified folks you know we haven't always done classified or included classified in recruitment fairs but uh we we do now and I want to thank all of

086all of our departments were represented is there here as well uh we had 30 outstanding candidates come out looking for classified support staff we know um we have a a very big support staff in our district in a great need for that and uh we're able to as of today we're in the process of hiring 11 new members uh just just as a result of Saturday from anything from Tas to full-time adult supports to secretaries to uh in our Department's custodial as well so we're excited about that and we we expect that number to grow as the week goes on from folks who came out on Saturday so uh a great day so we'll take any questions you have for personnel at this time any questions comments well thank you both for your dedication and

087hard work we appreciate you and your teams and we know that it's definitely not an easy time right now but we we really appreciate all you're doing so thank you thank you okay okay and then at this time board members if you're okay doing it in open go ahead and put it back on looks like a natural with a top pad on um okay if you are okay with doing it in open session we will um approve the recommendations and resignations as presented in your packets so moves okay I have a motion from Mr Guthrie do I have a second second by Miss Bates any discussion okay hearing none we will call for the electronic vote okay it looks like it is unanimous the motion carries thank you very much um and um more so

088um the next item for the superintendent report is uh the student enrollment recommendations that were in your packet we do have one that was in there that we didn't get on um at the last board meeting okay board members if you're okay with doing this in Open Session um I will ask for a motion to approve the student student enrollment recommendations um as presented in your packets so moved okay motion from Mr Guthrie do I have a second second by Miss Bates any discussion okay hearing none we will call for the vote this will be electronic as well okay motion carries unanimously thank you very much the next item I have um for tonight is a safety update and so I have Mr Gatt our director of safety as well as uh safety member from

089Fort doorchester high school and the fort doorchester High School principal so I'll turn it over to you Mr J all right um good evening Madam chair members of the board Dr Robbins appreciate you guys having me again um usually when I'm up here not something good happening uh so just kind of want to talk a little bit about some of our safety procedures that we have um in our schools and kind of how we handle some different incidents that might occur uh from time to time and I want to start by saying that it's you know my my uh LoveHate relationship with social media is certainly no secret um I consume all of it whether it's Facebook Snapchat Twitter Instagram uh Tik Tok man I love Tik toks um I'm all over it um I

090go to social social media for entertainment I do not go to social media as a source of information um especially if I'm looking for Reliable information uh love the First Amendment huge support of the Constitution fully support the fact that uh anybody can go on social media at any time and put anything they want on there um I think that it's very important to uh ask consumers of that information that we understand that it is just that anybody can put anything on there um and very quite often um I read things on there that are just fantastically false um not even wrong because wrong implies that you were trying to be right um occasionally I read things that are fantastically false in nearly every sense of the word in every sentence that they wrote um

091with that being said I kind of want to leave that where it is um and just hope that people use good judgment um and know that uh what they're reading is just that um it's somebody that uh came up with something that they wanted to put on the internet um so uh we do not make our Safety and Security decisions based off of things that are written on the internet um because if it's on the internet doesn't mean it's true we make our Safety and Security decisions based on facts Dr Robin says it all the time facts over feelings and sometimes you'll see videos uh on the internet that strike that feeling in you that make you want to react it it draws that in you whether it's you know something you saw you know

092a little kid or a baby or whatever it is these videos can can give you emotion um and they make you feel that they make you want to act on that it's important to remember that those videos are snapshot um that 18c video or 20 second video or 12 second video or however long that video is shows you nothing about what led up to that incident and shows you absolutely nothing about the response after that incident it shows you that one snapshot in time um and and context goes a long way to know exactly what happened um in that video and without that context it's hard to make an accurate judgment about what should have been done what could have been done what was successful and what was a failure um and that context matters

093the unfortunate part about working in a school system um and it's and fortunate as well is that we protect student privacy at every cost and sometimes that means that when we see something that's fantastically false on the internet we're going to protect those students privacy and we're not going to tell you all the things that led up to that we're not going to tell you what happened after that and what the response was and we're not going to tell you what punishments uh were issued in that uh because frankly it's none of your business uh it's it's between us and that student and we have policies and protocols and procedures in place to make sure that everybody is dealt with fairly and equitably and immediately or as immediately as possible so what I'm going to

094talk about today is some generalities I'm not going to discuss any specific incidents um obviously for student U privacy purposes but I want to talk generally about what happens when there's a fight in the schools uh it's unfortunate you know like I said I'm on Tik Tok I'm on Twitter you you put in the little search bar School fight on YouTube on any social media that you want to and it's going to pop up thousands and thousands of responses uh because it happens everywhere across the country we are not immune to it um and it's unfortunate and like Mr frell said you know last year they had a student getting a fight and they asked the kid why do you fight at school and their response was because it's the safest place to fight because

095they know that there's not going to be guns there's not going to be knives so they plan it um they plan to come do it at school they they text about it they snap about it they come up with meeting places on occasion um and and they engage in that activity and sometimes uh it's it's just not preventable by us because we don't have that information before beforehand I have actually been a witness to students get off of two buses beine straight directly for each other right in front of Administrators and the police and luckily we were able to break that up pretty quickly now with all that being said I also want to reiterate the fact that we're not having fight clubs in our schools it does happen on occasion but it's not allout

096brawls every single day in all of our schools our schools are safe all right we get information we have processes in place so in the event that we get information that um two students are having an argument they're in a fight they're they're threatening to fight each other one of is making threats toward the others if we can get that information beforehand and we have a stop it app now it's an anonymous reporting app I hate to see things on social media and it's like oh well my kid knew that was going to happen well there's an anonymous app that they all have why did that get on Facebook rather than come to us or why did that get on Twitter rather than come to us because when we know about it we have procedures

097in place we have counselors and administrators that meet with these students they put a plan in place they will move classes around if needed of course after talking to the um to the parents or the guardian um they issue cease and desist letters that the students sign and say hey we're not going to talk to each other anymore we're not going to text each other anymore and if somebody violates that and they bring that and the the victim brings that to the administrator then there are going to be consequences for the student that broke that cease and assist so anytime we have the opportunity to know about these things we have procedures in place uh furthermore we have a tremendous SRO team and school security team um in the few years I've been back you

098know we've talked about this that our our uh when I got here five years ago there were three people in the security department we now have 15 each high school has at least three some high school because it's a little bigger has four plus their sro's um Sumer high school has three the other two high schools have two so you're talking at a minimum five full-blown security Personnel on staff and I'm going to introduce you to one um in just a couple of minutes that can answer some questions for you so students get in a fight at a minimum the students are going to be suspended for five days I see all the time well nobody did anything at a minimum students are suspended for five days if the fight caused uh uh disturbance to

099the school they didn't stop when administrators got there they're recommended for an expulsion all right if they're recommended for expulsion they go to the expulsion officer the expulsion officer has after having the hearing because everybody's entitled to due process where they get to tell their side of the story The expulsion off officer has some options to expel them send them back on probation or send them to our Alternative School uh where they can work towards uh trying to get back um it is up to the police whether or not they are arrested right often times more often than not the police will actually arrest and charge those students when they can this is something that has become increasingly more difficult for our school resource officers um the solicitors and lawmakers are gradually pulling the ability

100for them to arrest um students uh from their hands uh they're they're they're really kind of handcuffing them um on on what they can and can't do and I know that pardon the pun there um there's even a bill on the floor right now in Colombia where it will take away the police ability to arrest anybody period until that incident goes in front of the board and then the board will make a decision on whether or not that student should be arrested so you're talking about a process that could take three four five days a week who knows how long it could look how long it could be depending on the system um and that's a real thing the lawmakers in our state are increasingly trying to cut down on the number of juveniles arrested

101and I understand where they're coming from because we want kids in school we want them to graduate but on the other hand we do not need them causing a disturbance and inhibiting the kids that want to be there from learning all right so so we Face some some challenges so when you hear oh well they didn't do this or they didn't do that well maybe they didn't get arrested because the police don't have the ability to arrest them due to the solicitor or due to the laws that are on on the books all right and I can guarantee you that if they were involved in an altercation they were at a minimum suspended for five days from school all right if not uh recommended for expulsion so I just wanted to kind of clear that

102up when students are in a fight and an administrator responds or the security team responds if they get there and everybody's up and moving and they they get them separated those kids are then checked out and their parents are called um we have an incredible nursing staff in our schools all right I've been with uh nurse Santa Maria when she is talking about the standards that she has for the nurses in her program and it's a high standard um I I I don't know if I could do it because she expects a lot out of her folks she's constantly giving them directives they know that students need to be checked out and they know when EMS needs to be called we're talking about medical professionals we're not talking about some administrator evaluating a student saying

103no we don't need to call EMS or no we don't need to do this we have certified medical professional nurses in our buildings that evaluate our students when something happens I also see sometimes where they say oh well uh the the they didn't call EMS and the parent came and got him and took him to the hospital that is a decision the parent makes that the parents often refuse transport they say no I'll be there in five minutes I'll come get my kid and take them to the hospital um that's not a decision that the nurse makes that's a decision that the parents often make saying hey nope don't transport them we can't afford that we're going to be there all right I'll be there in five minutes I'm GNA take them straight to the

104hospital um so the idea that somebody would be nonresponsive um um or severely injured and we would not call EMS um we have medical professionals on hand that will evaluate the students um and make the appropriate medical determination as well as Consulting with the parents to make sure that that determination uh meets the needs of the student um so I just kind of wanted to leave that with you we're going to talk about uh I've got uh principal Aldridge up here I've got Jodie um jod Williams is our lead security over at Fort Nester High School um he can talk a little bit about how we control things um how we operate how we monitor bathrooms how we monitor the cafeteria I think Mr Aldridge has some uh some percentages for you and some numbers

105for you um but just to give you an idea of the type of quality of people that we have working in our security team um jod was is a retired tactical paramedic now if you're talking about somebody that you want to respond when you've been injured in a catastrophic event that's the guy you want to respond all right he's a retired tactical paramedic paramedic he's been a firefighter um he worked for Homeland Security um a wealth of knowledge a wealth of experience he leads the security team over at Fort Dorchester um so I'll kind of turn it over to these guys I think Mr ald is going to go first I'm going talk about some things and then we'll answer any questions that you might have regarding this regarding that thank you madam chair board

106Dr Robbins um just wanted to come up as a representative from one of the schools and I let you know that we do uh take this very seriously um this is an educational institution but I think I've addressed this board before and shared with you that number one before we even worry about education is the safety of these students and uh we want to know that they're going to go home to their family safe every day and that they are safe in our care um this is not something we take lightly we talk often with our staff not just our security staff our school resource officers but all the staff that works in our school um is aware of this uh just thinking about this today um there is probably no place in our school

107where any child is more than about 20 yards away from an adult at any time and we tell students all the time in our school if there is a situation go to an adult find an adult that can help you um many times we're talking about this when it's too late maybe students have made a poor decision maybe there was an altercation and we talk about what they could have done differently and we talk about you know there was a a teacher right here there was another adult right here that that you could have gone to if you worried about somebody hurting you or if you felt like you yourself were angry and weren't certain you could control yourself there are places you can go and there's always adults we have over 200 people that

108work in our building and so with our 2300 students they can always get to an adult in that situation that can help them out um as Mr Gant mentioned we have the stop it app um another opportunity for students to reach out and let us know that comes directly to all our Administration all our security if a student parent ever has any concern they can put it on the app they can remain anonymous they don't even have to come in person to us if there's something going on uh but it's important to know that um we are there we're available for any student with any issue can come to us and let us know and and then certainly um in the followup as Mr Jia mentioned as well we take this very seriously there are

109serious consequences um you know it it hurts hurts my feelings frankly to hear that oh they didn't even do anything to that person um well that's not the case if you come in our school and you break our rules if you hurt someone else if you do something you're not supposed to do if you're vaping whatever that is there is a swift consequence and we pride ourselves on being consistent in monitoring ing that and handling that we do our best to root it out the idea that I would hide from anyone that there was a fight in our school or that maybe someone made the poor decision to bring drugs in our school or to vape I'm not hiding that because I want everybody to see that we don't tolerate that if I find it

110I didn't make that choice for that person but I'm going to make the consequence for that person and so you have to follow our rules or you have to pay those consequences and anytime somebody does something unsafe in our school we have consequen is to make sure that we can then continue to keep others safe as we go I know that Mr Williams is here I was going to ask him if he'd please talk to you a little bit about what his day looks like and how we monitor in our schools good evening so we have seven restrooms that are available to students they're all color coordinated each classroom is assigned a pass that is associated with the proximity to that colored restroom we do random sweeps throughout the day we are in the Halls

111all day long in that building every time we pass the restroom we usually step inside take a look step back out if there's a crowd of students in there we tend to stand there until they all vacate which doesn't take long when you stop and stay in the bathroom um we during the transition between classes we post up in the different restrooms just stand by until the end of transition and then go on about our sweeps that's typically the way we handle things we have um um teams that sweep the schools during the ilt we have people posted up at the entrances to restrooms and then we have people in the cafeteria posted up in there we move with the groups whenever we have on the radio someone calls and says we have a group

112of kids traveling the Halls they tell us where and then we will transition over there and we will actually walk behind the group of kids just to make sure they're not going to do anything that we don't want them to do that's pretty much the course of our day any questions um this one will be geared towards you so I know how about how many people do you have that are going through and like monitoring the bathrooms and about how like often are they going to each bathroom so there's three of us that are that are assigned to Fort doorchester high school every period we are walking the Halls so we go through the the Halls every period making laps depending on how busy we are in the day on where we're called to do

113other things at least twice a period we walk through the bathrooms so during passing time the bathrooms are monitored and then during each period each bathroom is visited approximately twice to see what's going on to make sure that nothing's happening nobody's congregating so that's that's great to know and then this one's actually for you Preston um you mentioned uh five days is the minimum so if and that's the first offense right so if there's a second offense it's not five days again is it that's correct so I'm just wanted to clarify yeah so it depends on the situation the totality of the circumstances um multiple offenses for fighting generally going to end up in a a recommendation for expulsion um I can't say that that's always the case because I don't know that for a

114fact right now but generally speaking a second offense is going to be a recommendation for expulsion um if they got off with the five days five days is usually reserved for um you know mutual combat they both you know made a plan hey we're going to meet here we're going to fight and then when admin got there you know they stopped and a large majority of the time um that's what happens when when admin get there you know they separate go they go their separate ways and you know they kind of tell us what happened because at that point we all kind of know kind of what happened um so it just kind of depends on the circumstances I don't want to say always and so I I think everything that you mentioned is great

115and it's so helpful for the public to understand that and know that and see that having two kids that are in high school at Fort you know I know Jody over there I see him all the time I know he works hard I know you work hard um what what do we what can we tell parents that feel like their children tell them that they don't feel comfortable going to the bathroom during the day um what I know you mentioned what we're doing sweep wise is there anything possibly that we're looking into to help continue the monitoring process to you know just show our parents that hey and the students as well that these these bathrooms are safe they can feel comfortable going inside yeah there there's actually a couple of things um number one

116we we trip and I both mentioned the stop it app the stop it app is on your phone nobody's even going to know that you're using the stop it app because it's it's just like you're using anything else on your phone if a child walks into a bathroom and they don't feel comfortable in there if they send that anonymous tip and say hey the bathroom on this hallway or the purple bathroom or whatever the the color code is that comes immediately I get all of them for the entire District um and the admin staff gets them and immediately they get that notification and they can respond to that bathroom right then and there and catch those people that are doing whatever it is in that bathroom that they shouldn't be doing um it also the

117stop it app also gives administrators the ability to ask the whoever's reporting anonymously they can ask followup questions um they say hey there's somebody vaping in the bathroom okay which stall were they in what were they wearing a hoodie are they tall are they short you know what what's the get some descriptors on that um so it could possibly lead to a secondary search if we needed to to um so so we're doing that um that's one of the biggest things and we are we are considering so at other high schools um they've considered and and actually done shutting down bathrooms um at certain times of not all the bathrooms obviously but stting shutting down certain bathrooms at certain times um they've done that uh I know over at Ashley Ridge last year um they

118had to post an admin up outside of one of the bathrooms that was a particular problem and said okay three people in nobody else goes in until one of those comes out and they had a line right there and they say all right one in one out kind of deal so um that's very labor intensive to do that um you know to stand there for 90 minutes and and have somebody dedicated to that um but that's that's an option so nothing's off the table we're looking at all of that um I think that's a discussion we need to further have as to to how to do that and what that looks like at each school it also the setup of each school is kind of different if there's if there's some of the bathrooms like

119some of our high school have actual doors on the outside you can shut and lock that door nobody can go in there um some of the schools like Fort Dorchester theirs are wide open you just go in one way to go to the girls and you go one way to go to the guys it's much harder to just shut that down without posting somebody there um we've talked about maybe putting the cattle gates up so nobody goes in there but again you know if we got the cattle gates up and somebody goes around it and goes in there now they're in there and we think there's nobody in there um so that's you know there's there's some things to work through but it's definitely on our radar and something that we're looking at definitely I

120appreciate that and then and so apart from the stop it app um if parents have concerns who do they reach out to or if students have concerns I know the stop it app you said is anonymous but if people still feel like for whatever reason they're not sure what you're doing they need clarification who do we point them to who should they talk to should they contact the principal should they contact the district who should they contact about that information yeah I always recommend so anybody can contact me I feel phone calls and emails any all all the time um and I have no problem doing that I actually appreciate when people reach out for information so that I can give them the accurate information uh but I always like to tell people to start

121with their building principle um the building principal knows their building they're going to know more specifics about the events that happened in a more timely manner sometimes by the time things get to me it's been a day or two um the building principal is always the best place to start I know that there sometimes is frustration when they reach out to a building principal and the building principal says well I can't tell you I can't tell you what I did with that student um so if you ask a more General general question said hey if somebody got in a fight in the classroom you know what would their punishment be and the building principal could say well that'd be five days but if you say hey little Timmy attacked so and so in the classroom

122you know what was his punishment they cannot give you that information um so I know parents get frustrated you just kind of have to know which questions you can ask and how to ask them so that the principal can give you the information that that they want to give you trust me we'd all love to just give everybody all that information um that's not that's not good for the for the children that we're trying to serve any other questions first of all thank you for the job that you all are doing ma' I'm sitting here almost ready to cry that we and little Somerville Dorchester County are asking what more can the schools do I want to know what more can parents do we don't teach them how to act like thugs in school it

123starts at home it starts in your neighborhood the fights actually begins at the bus stop and it carries into the building and I I have already dedicated almost 45 years to education and instead of it getting better we have the blame game teachers aren't let me show you how to fight let me show you how to do this let's let me show you how to talk down on that to that kid or whatever parents those of you that are doing a good job yes I'm on my soap box right now continue to do your job those of you that are not you are part a major part of the problem teachers cannot raise your children because if they allow ow me to raise your children I would raise them the way my mother raised me

124it wasn't what did the school do what did you do and that needs to be the conversation were your children doing what they were supposed to be doing were they in the right place or did they every period they had to go to the bathroom why there are some school can track how many times your child goes to the resta so you need to go up there and say what can I do to help my children don't go accusing or looking at what more you all going to do to be honest you almost make me tired we want to help you but we're not trying to raise your children we want to teach them we want to help them we want to be role models for them and I I know every so often I

125go off but right now I'm just listening to all the energy and effort and money that's going for these kinds of things if everybody was doing his or her job we wouldn't we love you but we wouldn't need all of that so the only thing I can tell you is this if you make the decision to have children make the decision that you going to do your part and I know some of Y all will be upset with me hey I'll pray for you you pray for me it's okay but the bottom line is simply this all those years I spent in the classroom we had this it wasn't as bad as as it is right now and it looks like every year it gets worse we're spending more money on okay how do we

126make this almost like a prison system you can't go here you can't go there we got to put these bars up or whatever we're in America why why when are you going to take responsibility instead of listening to say everything Lil Jane or L Johnny says happened and they had nothing to do with it they were part of the problem we have some wonderful children we want them all to be wonderful we want them all to be educated but partly their scores sometimes aren't as good as they could be because they're too busy creating a problem in the class classroom and I'm saying it because I've been there in the hallways I've been there on the courtyard I've been there but Johnny comes home and talk about oh they're picking on me we want to

127deal with them we'll deal with them but what did Johnny do first I'm through thank y'all again we appreciate everything that you're doing and if y'all ever I ever find out you're not doing the job hey you know I'mma visit you thank you I appreciate you guys as well thank you so much for all the information you gave um I know like oh go ahead I was going to say I know I've talked to you too about yeah and 75% of the kids are or I would be remiss as the proud principal of Fort Dorchester High School if I didn't clarify this point um you know I feel like we're at the intersection right now and listening to what Miss Powell just had to say uh what's been said tonight I know for some people

128their perception informs their reality and and where we are um but we've also heard the phrase facts over feelings tonight I can count on one hand without using all the fingers the number of fights that have happened in restrooms this year at Fort norchester high school so the reality is while some people may fear and worry about that the reality is less than five times has happened in the bathroom at Ford orchester High School this year also 76% of the students 76% of our 2300 students have absolutely zero discipline notes on file at our school this year and when I say discipline that's something as MCU as tardy to class a cell phone violation disrupting class it could include something as big as a fight or a vape or something more serious but all those

129things categorized together that we put on a disciplined Matrix and that we track in our software as discipline and fractions for students in our school 76% of our students 3/4 of the students in our building have exactly zero they come to school they do what they're supposed to do and it's a fabulous place to teach and learn and that's the facts about what's happening at Ford doorchester High School I'm good I appreciate you you guys so much thank you for coming and answering those questions and and just sharing about what you're doing to ensure our kids and that 75 plus percent is safe and protected as well too thank you as as they're going back to their chairs and I apologize guys I I have no questions um but I will say when I look

130at the caliber of not only Mr Gant Mr alridge Miss Matthews um Dr Lin Dr lainer I miss Dr liners y um and I think about the individuals in our schools having two kids in our schools it it does not cross my mind that my children are ever not safe in Dorchester District 2 my children School Board member are safe in Dorchester District too and so I think a lot of times the the problem is what happens our schools are a microcosm of society Society has vastly changed whether you want to believe that or not Society has changed and now inside of our schools we're having to deal with it and to miss Powell's Point earlier rather than looking at the causes of that we ask questions after the fact and we want to give

131inquisitions and it's not right because the people that are protecting our children every single day are administrators are unbelievable every single one in this room every single person in our schools every single day is unbelievable and so from me I can just give you a personal thanks and and thank you for what you do every single day it's noticed it's appreciated and um keep up the good work thank you okay and that concludes our superintendent report um at this time time we will move to our next agenda item which are public comments on non-agenda items and um we have two tonight the first one is Mrs Martha Sue hope thank you um I want to comment about the State Board of Education as you know they are currently considering a rule that would ban any

132Ed um any educational content that includes descriptions or visual depictions of sexual conduct um that uses language that is it uses language that is too broad and could block students from being taught human sexual ity based on the interest of a small group of very vocal people I support parents preference to opt out of any curriculum that they find offensive or inappropriate for their child but I do not support policy that denies access to other people's children human biology sex ad psychology liter and literature should all be offered to Dorchester District 2 students without sanitizing sexual content just to appease a certain population of parents I want the school board to know that I support keeping curriculum and policy decisions at the school district level and believe that the state department of educations attempt to

133impose Statewide directives on local school districts is an infringement on the authority of the highly qualified individuals leading Dorchester District Two schools and I want to thank you all and wish you a happy Schoolboard appreciation month thank you Miss hope our next commenter is Mrs Mary Rita Watson good evening I'm Mary Rita Watson I am a reed10 teacher at Oakbrook Elementary School fourth and fifth grade and I'm also the president of the Somerville Education Association hello Michelle Meyer I'm an interventionist with the office of special services and I'm the vice president of the Somerville educ ation Association and we are here tonight to um show our appreciation for all of you and everything that you do um I'm happy to say that we have a social committee now who was in charge of doing all

134that for you and I appreciate their work with this um you know they were like what do we get them and I said just do whatever I'm not going to micromanage your purchase and so they got you the succulent and so then it was my job to do this little thing about how you are related or relatable to a succulent so this was difficult what I did was I looked up uh I Googled fun facts about succulents and the first thing that came up is there are 10 facts fun facts about succulent so I was able to grab a couple things off there first one even though they live in a dry climate they somehow find a way to thrive Stay Green and grow beautiful flowers and so I feel like as board members you

135do have the ability to shine beautifully even in the environments that are not the best secondly succulents get their name from their thick sap filled leaves just like the thick leaves on a succulent sometimes being a board member requires a thick skin and I think that's something that all of you do have the third thing I saw was that succulents can be found in just about every color making them relatable to all those who view them and I do feel that board members work hard to find and make themselves relatable to all their stakeholders so we appreciate that you can also use cuting if you didn't know off of those once they grow bigger and you can just stick them in the dirt and they can grow and you'll have another one and I think

136there are a lot of ways that you as board members find to grow yourselves to make better um the public school system that we have here in dd2 and finally I found this one there were a couple that I left off the list because they it was too funny for me but you wouldn't have found it funny um but this one is um generally succulents are pest resistant and so you may just want to carry that around with you wherever you go whenever you're in a meeting and you should be good um but we do want to thank you we appreciate you we we like working with our school board most of you are really great about getting back to us whenever we have questions and and that is appreciated um just a couple other

137things um on Central Avenue this Friday at Lux we are going to be having a social um anyone is invited so um it is the sea or the sea is providing uh appetizers at no cost to you and um they have coffee and wine and other beverages as well we also are going to continue our Signing Day campaign it'll start in February we just need to educate people about those contracts and we're just going to try and get have some changes made and Dr Robins was uh we talked about that not long ago we are continuing to work with our local local associations um Charleston County Berkeley County colon and happy to say that Dorchester District 4 is now part of um of the of the group so that's awesome and finally would like to

138say that um we do appreciate I know my time's up um do appreciate um Mrs poell and and your comments about policy uh with books and I I do feel like you did negate the policy tonight because four of you voted to ignore the policy and just take the email and run with it and I just you know unless there are things I don't know um you can come talk to me and bring your succulent with you because sometimes I know I am the pest all right thank you very much thank you Miss [Applause] Watson okay at this time we have um we do not have any items for executive session so I will ask for a motion to Jour okay motion by Mr Farnsworth do I have a second second all right second by

139Miss Powell um any discussion hearing none we will call for the vote we voting electronic electronic vote on this come on Justin where is it is it is an electronic vote okay yes it is an electronic vote please cast your vote I I I out where am I where is it okay we are adjourned okay okay come on don't want to go home no