001okay good evening and welcome to the February 12th um doorchester District 2 Board of Trustees meeting um at this time I will need an approval of the consent agenda so moved okay do I have a second okay I've got um a motion by Mr Guthrie a second by Miss Powell any discussion all right um hearing none then we will call for the vote it should be electronic yes it is an electronic vote yeah there it is okay the motion passes we have um five in favor and two absent okay um and then then moving on we will head straight into our district highlights um this evening we were not able to have the District spelling be finalist present so we will look forward to recognizing them at another meeting um but we will move directly
002into the next highlight um and I believe we have Miss Troy here for that thank you good evening board chair Dr rimbley Dr Robbins and board members at this time I will turn the mic over to Mr Tyrone drer followed by trip Aldridge for the highlights this evening thank you good evening all as we all know in sports timing is everything got to be at the right place at the right time and I have the pleasure of introducing one of our esteemed coaches in dd2 this young man his team finished 26- one overall they had an undefeated region play and they CT the season off by becoming Class 5A state champions this coach also was the region 7 Class 5A coach of the year South Carolina Class 5A coach of the year and the national
003Federation of High School South Carolina Coach of the Year please let's give a warm welcome for our very own Ashley Ridge High School Board soccer coach coach Nate [Applause] Harris got [Applause] good evening everyone I'd like to call Mr Justin Gadson to come up to the front please my name is trip Aldridge I'm the proud principal of Fort Dorchester High School and tonight I want to talk to you about Mr gadston he has been awarded the South Carolina Council on the Holocaust teacher Fellowship um the purpose of that Fellowship is to develop a cohort of South Carolina teachers dedicated to developing their own Professional Knowledge and expertise to assist in the advancement of teaching of the Holocaust in the state Mr Gaston was selected from a competitive application process as one of nine fellows in
004the second cohort established by the council um these efforts have three key or the people in this Fellowship have three key goals uh to develop a stronger historical understanding of the Holocaust and its background including an exploration of more nuanced topics and themes to understand the appropriate methodology for approaching the teaching of the Holocaust and demonstrate this methodology and to effectively evaluate quality resources available for teaching the holocost and to collaborate to create resources including lessons and units that teachers throughout South Carolina can use in their classroom Mr gadon comes to us at Fort Dorchester from pal meow Scholars Academy where he established courses and created curriculum for AP European History and the Holocaust and genocide studies class he was a member of the social studies curriculum team it was sponsor for the mock trial
005team National History Day project teams and the national and international trips his students took Justin shows a deep commitment to educating students about the Holocaust as he was also named an Alfred learner fellow and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum teacher fellow prior to this prestigious appointment with the South Carolina Council on the Holocaust ladies and gentlemen this is Justin [Applause] gadon and that completes our highlights for this evening wow I think that is a perfect example of why this district is so phenomenal excellent um coaches and teachers who go above and beyond on so thank you for that presentation um all right so now we will move to our public comments on agenda items and we have none this evening so we will go right into our board chairs report um and the first thing
006on that uh under that is our Schoolboard meeting dates uh for this coming year so board members you should have received those dates in your pack ET um and at this time I would um take a motion to approve those if you would so like to do that so moved all right I have a motion from Mr Guthrie do I have a second second seconded by Miss Bates is there any discussion or questions okay hearing none we will call for the vote okay and the motion passes uh five in favor and two absent all right next um we have the board goals update I will let Dr Robins speak about that so we will start um we've been making great progress on our our three-year goal plan uh and just as a reminder to the
007board if we do accomplish all of these things we'll go back and add to it which I think is a good thing I want to start off with um the student growth and achievement category we really can't Mark those complete until the end of the three-year goal cycle but I thought it was important for you all uh to see where increases are being made so we made yellow check marks uh to say hey we've achieved that goal and then as long as we continue to rise in those categories will change that check mark to Green so I do believe Mr Guthrie or Mr Farnsworth you had the longest arms if you could go down and um we'll put those goals up and we'll adjust this slide once that happens um so you want to you
008guys want so um we did increase our graduation rates at all three high schools this year uh Fort Dorchester High School made the leap um to number number one and they're all real competitive and all three high schools did a great job the other thing uh we saw was uh increase in the number of students receiving achievement level or four or higher on the career Readiness test so we will go ahead and Mark those yellow very proud of our safety and um no it's the actually it's it's the bottom one yeah in the Safety and Security category uh We've made some great progress you obviously that's been a real strong Focus for us um Mr Gatt and his safety team have created a biannual um school safety audit checklist they've gone through all facilities um
009with that checklist already for the first time and then uh later this spring they'll go through I believe Mr Gatt and you'll do the the second one towards the end of the school year the second um safety audit uh walkthroughs in the student um in the student you can actually make that one green Mr Guthrie because he created it it's and in it's in use in the student growth and planning category we did complete the attendance Zone z um resoning for the 2425 school year so that's a green one and we completed the three-year Capital Improvements plan with timelines just as a reminder that one will be adjusted every single year as well and then in the financial planning category um we maintained an 18% cash balance we'll make that one yellow because that one
010is sorry Tina that's when we'll look at it every year and then the last are you out of green you have one more green oh that's okay this next one is green we did complete complete the um the salary study and we're using that in this upcoming budget cycle there you go wow we've been busy thank you Mr Guthrie and thank you Dr Robbins okay um next we will have a legislative update and I'm going to turn it over to miss Bates for that that thank you madam chair um first I just wanted to touch base uh Ashley and I had met locally with um both Chris Murphy and Shan Bennett in regards to a possible Penny sales tax legislation locally for that um currently as it stands we're not allowed to ask for a
011penny for schools that would require local legislation in order to do that um I know we've discussed openly in some of our meetings about potentially looking into a three prong approach and that would be a no tax referendum impact fees along with the penny however the penny would is off the table unless local legis legislation happens so um currently we're waiting to hear back from both uh well mostly Sean Bennett in regards to this uh just some legislation that has to do with education there's a lot most of it sitting either in the house or Senate like one or other committee uh I'll just touch base on a couple that I've looked at recently we have open enrollment which is H 3843 it requires all South Carolina School boards to adopt an enrollment policy using
012a template developed by the state department of Ed um that has passed in the house and it's in the Senate education committee there's uh Senate Bill 124 non-certified teacher pilot program that allows a ratio of up to 10% non-certified teachers if the school district meets certain criteria um that has passed in the Senate and is in the house education and Public Works committee we have pace which is also known as providing academic choice and education s285 that's passed the Senate and is in committee um in the house Ways and Means Committee and then the last one I'll just touch base on there's tons I could is H 3309 that's our seizure safe school um act and it requires schools to have a seizure action plan that's passed in the house and is in the Senate
013education committee so um those of you who follow legislation AR interested in what's going on the session that's just a few of the bills that pertain to education just kind of want to put them out there so people know what's going on and that's all I have today all right great thank you Miss Bates okay next up we have our board committee reports and I am um first up as our policy committee and I'm actually going to turn it back over to miss dates for that currently we have no policies up for review however we did schedule out our policy committee dates um as a reminder Miss poell is also serving on that committee as Vice chair uh we don't have the dates to put up here but we will post them online I'm sure
014but just so you guys have those it will be Monday February 26th at 5:00 p.m. Monday March 11th at 400 p.m. Monday April 22nd at 400 p.m. and Monday May 13th at 4 p.m. and that's all I have out of policy thank you okay thank you Miss Bates next we have our finance committee report and I will Mr Guthrie take that yes so the finance committee was able to meet earlier this afternoon at 5 o'clock and we went over multitude of different items and some of them need your approval um so we'll go ahead and go over the first one it's going to be the minority business Enterprise report um so you can see that up on the the screen and it's also in your board packet and we need to go ahead and approve
015that so I'll make a motion from committee to approve the minority business report as presented okay coming from committee we do not need a second do we have any discussion in regards to the minority business report that was in your packets okay then at this time I will call for a vote okay looks like the motion to approve that passes with five in favor and two absent all right now second action item is for approval we have the uh enterprise resource planning software um and this was uh given by the evaluation committee where they were able to evaluate the final U scoring and solicit it for the enterprise resource planning software so basically just makes it easier for our finance and procurement uh folks in in business office to kind of do their jobs and
016and uh go ahead and recommend this um software and then uh go ahead and make a motion to um for the software expenditure recommendation okay again coming out of committee it does not need a second um do I have any questions question or discussions in regard to that okay then I will call for the vote all in favor of approving the enterprise resource planning software as presented from the finance committee okay that motion also carries six in favor and one absent all right and then final action item is we have our Dorchester School District 2 budget calendar for year fiscal year 2425 and it's also in your board packets and we just need to go ahead and approve that as well so we'll go ahead and make a motion to approve that calendar all right
017coming out of committee we do not need a second any discussion or questions okay hearing none the oh okay yep so um board members if you will please vote to approve the uh budget cycle calendar all right motion carries six in favor one absent right I think that's that's it unless any else had any questions about the budget finance committee um any other questions comments all right great thank you Mr Guthrie I appreciate it um and next we will have our facilities committee report and for that we will turn to Mr Farnsworth thank you madam chair so from the facilities committee and and I'm looking down at Miss Hughes we had emailed back and forth a couple times um we we are looking this year to bring back our facility walkthroughs um it's been a
018couple years probably since the board has has done those um so we are going to bring those back so in your packet you will see those U meeting dates and so of course those um times are open to anybody on the board of course the facilities committee um and then if there historically what we've done if there's any changes to those times if we finish it a school early or um something like that we'll make sure that the group knows about it so I just wanted to put those dates out there and if there are any questions happy to uh answer any questions and uh go from there okay any questions from Mr Farnsworth all right great thank you for those dates we appreciate it very much all right and I think that concludes our
019committee reports for this evening so now we will go to our superintendent report and I will let Dr Robbins take it thank you madam chair members of the board good evening grave this nice beautiful South Carolina weather hopefully you got here safely um so I've got really basically four items tonight uh referendum course of action options for you to look at safety update student enrollment recommendations and our Personnel report um we are it's going to take a little bit of time just to let you know to get through the referendum coas and I want to take it as slow as we need to um to answer any of your questions a lot of this information you've already seen several times and now we're just trying to tie this together so we can establish a plan
020moving forward so next slide Christie actually you can uh the before we go from this Slide the one thing I want to pull uh point out here is this is a no millage or tax rate um referendum um course of action synopsis so one of the few community ities in South Carolina that's able to look at a no tax rate increase referendum um based on the fact that we have had a referendum in our community for 12 years and we've had the opportunity to pay down debt and we've grown in size tremendously so next slide actually go to the next slide so here's the agenda um I'm going to read through a problem statement the planning considerations we've utilized factors to be considered enrollment projections uh we brought in a professional demographer this fall to
021help us with those enrollment projections the Housing Development forecast what we know and what we um believe are is in the future as well financing considerations timeline and then of course an action analysis and a decision by the board um hopefully tonight so the big thing the goal of this is we want to make sure that we're considering Su a sustainable long-term term plan for our facilities so that we don't have to consistently come back to the community and have knee-jerk reactions based on the growth of our uh community and the age of some of our facilities um and we've had to kick that can down the road a little bit uh for several reasons sorry Dr Robbins I'm sorry to interrupt you um I just wanted to let everyone know that okay um Miss
022Crosby was not able to be here this evening but she did ask for us toy TR to call her in for this if possible so miss Bates is trying to get her on the line so I just wanted to but you can can yeah you can sorry I should have said that before you started I apologize so can go ahead and continue um problem statement I really working with our team the demographer um our construction folks really broke this down to really two specific challenges you already heard me talk about it the first one um many people have heard us talk about that is the overcrowding in several of our schools in Dorchester County um you know we've seen a increase in the housing U Market in certain areas and we just are we do
023not have facilities in those locations um the second critical challenge that we have is we do have several buildings that are quite old and we only have so much Capital to try to manage uh the repair and the maintenance of those buildings neither of those can be fully addressed with the capital projects money that we receive from the State and locally without making a a bigger decision like a referendum so planning considerations again near capacity or over capacity in several areas housing market issues aging facilities um schools that do not possess the ability for future programming like our related arts our special ed programs that we had to uh rezone for this past year and our growing All Day 4k programs I give the example that in some of our elementaries that are over capacity
024by 20% uh if we want to reduce the class size and hire a teacher we can't do it because we have no more classes to split the class out so that's that's a challenge for us and again as I've already shared um Dorchester School District 2 has not requested a capital projects referendum for 12 years and through Bond refinancing early payments we're in a position again where we can ask for a no tax rate no mil rate increase to the voters of our community considerations you know uh I use this term a lot it's not a warm and fuzzy term but it's facts over feelings what are the facts telling us we need to do for our students today and tomorrow and not of of our students from yesterday so I won't go through this
025again this is going to be posted online but again the immediate needs our capacity issues and we have been working through um um a master project list we are considering tonight whether um it's worthy to seek a special election in May for this or whether we can kick that can down the road a little further and we can do it um in November next slide so what I wanted to share with you and this came out of um several conversations I've had when we look at the facts of what we're dealing with we know that in the um Ashley River area beachill sandill where they're at 125% capacity we're going to need to build an elementary school we can only rezone so much and in my two years down here I've learned that the river
026is a detriment to be able to move from one side of our school district to the other um because there is no way to cross that uh River unless you go up and come back down so it's a it's a logistical kind of nightmare for us if you look at the the um timelines I used this off of a school district to pass the referendum in November and they will start a project um in June here is the timelines on the current construction of an elementary school if we went in May then there is a possibility that design and permitting could be completed by October in um in October we could then start the bidding process and the actual construction so shovel in ground moving dirt and we would end that process in July of
02726 and we could occupy it in August of 26 if we wait till November based on current labor Trends uh we would not be able to start the design permitting process until December um really that would end maybe April because we do have some plans that we've used in pass projects here in the community um a little quicker but the bidding and construction would then start in April and would not finish until January of 2027 uh owner occupancy in February 2027 the challenge I'll share with the board is is this new Elementary School the first of maybe two new elementary schools based on the Watson Hill development we would not be able to move into those facilities in February of 2027 because it's not simply replacing a facility so we will have to go through
028the rezoning process similar to what we did with East Edisto Middle School we will have to identify the teachers that then would be placed at those facilities and where those attendance zones would be before we could move in and we would not be able to do that in the middle of a a school year so that is the challenge that um a May and a November ref referendum puts us in and again I appreciate um a couple board members that said look at the Timeline because it used to be much more compressed timeline and I know Tony Souls is sitting out there and he can U validate what I'm saying and he helped me find this information but the labor shortages uh across the country and the logistic supply chain are slowing up projects by
029six to 12 months um the increase in cost if we move from a May to a November election based on the chart that's in your packet and your slide deck really has started to stabilized so it in my opinion that piece of this is insignificant there's not as much cost escalation um the forecast has been about 14% um in the last several years but if you look at 2022 and 20123 it started to level off a little bit whether that you know the inflation drives that back up I'm I'm not certain but those two are really important planning considerations that I want to share with you and I'm happy to take time and pause and try to answer questions um have Tony help me answer any construction questions for you I got a I I
030I don't know if it's a question or a comment but I know um that in one of the meetings that we had about this it was brought up that the last major construction that we had when we did ring Middle School of the Arts and we moved them they were able to move in the first of the year but that is a totally different situation am I correct that is a totally different situation with um moving them in because they were a designated school so we move the entire school as opposed to the redistricting or redrawing the lines um so we would be disrupting several schools by mov moving students out of those schools and also one other thing not only does that delay us um from the May to the November time frame but
031because it's happening because we can't move the entire school that delays us an additional six months which is a total of of close to a year that we're going to be delayed so we're going to have a school sitting there that we're not going to be able to use right right basic yeah and you're exactly right on that um you know we built in my last District three element schools that we moved in in January but they were replacement schools so they just mooved from one building to the next this is a rezone these are rezone schools due to our growth so that we really have to start at the beginning of a school year to occupy them so I have a question so these this timeline is specifically just for building one school right
032right but the referendum would Encompass a lot more than just that right like because so what about the additions I mean would we be able to have additions finished more quickly so that we could go ahead and start yeah you know alleviating some of the overcrowding yeah very you it's a very good question and again Tony you might as well just come on up here instead of hiding back there um because I'm gonna call on you um yes and if you all remember I have said mobiles 6 to 12 months um additions 12 12 to 18 months and then a new structure 36 months you can mark off part of the 36 months because we've already started the design process with with designs we already have in place um the additions the brick and mortar
033additions we do have some structures that we have used that would really speed up the design process itself but really the slow the slower part of this is the permitting portion of that and then the actual um bidding and construction you want to answer that a little better that's correct we have uh we've got the the addition at uh Eagles Nest Elementary I'm I'm sure those of you on board back then uh that school is built exactly like sandill so we've got those plans in pocket and I have already asked The Architects to start dusting them off and getting them ready for when we have the the means to do that and uh excuse me and same situation at a couple of other schools and the new elementary school as well but the problem with
034the new elementary school is that's going to be the whole Gambit of Permitting you're going to the core of engineers that that's going to have to go that far into the wetlands the wetlands determination a lot of that stuff is accomplished during the uh due diligence survey and then one last piece of that due diligence survey in the ponds is going to be the transportation part I think we've got that kind of boxed in now we're just waiting for some for some written uh agreements with from some folks and then we can get together on that and get that completed but the the actual permitting phase I'm sorry for storm water and and all the other permits that we we're going to need that's that takes a while and that can take that can run
035concurrently with the design phase but you really can't get those permits until you have that design nailed down you can start the preliminary stuff but to to get everything ready to hit shovel hit the ground it takes a good six to eight months as we learned a few years back and that and that project uh like I said that project it went off almost entirely too smooth because it kind of creates the hopes now we can do that again well I hope we can't I I really do but uh it's uh the challenges were there and uh but uh I think the sooner the sooner thank you I think the sooner we attack it I think uh the better off we're going to be uh if we if we continue to kick that can down
036the road the can gets turns into a from a soup can to a garbage can and it's a heck of a lot harder to kick so the one piece and I think more to your point um of of that question is what we do have is the ability to tap into our 8% Authority um which is monies that we could use to construct the wings at the wings specifically at um San Hill Elementary School um we have Tiff money where we could do the same thing at Oak Oakbrook Elementary Oakbrook middle school as well to pull some of that burden off and so the referendum isn't a necessity but it's a stock gap for us where we could do some of those things just remembering that that 8% Authority is also what we use for
037our Perpetual maintenance plan and um some of the other facility up upkeep needs as well so we do have that we could look into as well to get started based on what the board decides you know is the course of action you're most comfortable with and I'll talk about that here in a second you might as well just stay there might ask Tina to get up there with you um any other questions on that slide it's a lot slower than it used to be unfortunately um so next slide um the next slide I wanted to share um with you basically how we are able to do the no tax rate um increase and so again if you look at our debt capacity um we have the ability to maintain our millage what we call millage
038stabilization and um issue Bond anticipation notes to not raise taxes out until 2034 when we have debt fall off and you'll see in this next slide where you'll see we're paying for interest we're paying for interest um and we're able to issue this $200 million worth of bonds and then it becomes a principal interest payback and again the middle AG stays the same and I tried to put arrows in there for you so you can see where we're paying interest and then where it drops off debt um debt is retired and then we're able to pay um premium and or principal and interest and if you go to the next slide specifically for the $200 million this is the uh amortization schedule that shows you how that would work and where you know in 2020
039um 34 we would be fully interest principal payment bound one other piece to add to this is um this is based on a very conservative uh millage growth index and and um our financial adviser used 3% but we know in the last several several years that growth index has been much higher but we asked him to be very conservative with it and so um that interest is based on an assumed 5% coupon structure you know and again it it could be more or I'm sorry less questions on the financial part of that okay again this is one you've seen time and time again 36 months 20 we're in the first 12 um you can see where our our pinch points are so beachill Elementary School is at 125% capacity um s Hills at 125% capacity
040uh next year uh flower toown is almost at capacity and the following year they're over capacity and Reeves next year is at capacity and the following Your overc Capacity the saving Gres for Reeves right now is we do still have the trailers um that we're able to utilize when you look at the middle schools we did just open East Edisto middle school but because the incredible growth and that Corridor with homecoming Watson Hill and um several other other subdivisions that's what's causing the growth at Beach Hill Elementary School and it will also put East ow Middle School over capacity the yuby track which was just approved for 1,700 homes which starts construction this summer has a direct impact on deo's middle school and Reeves Elementary School and so that's 170 homes per year for the
041next 10year buildout so these numbers were based prior to that um development being approved so it could be even worse okay next slide again just trying to show you a graphic uh again we've talked about this if you look at the pink in the upper left that's the Sand Hill attendant Zone it's the largest because when Sand Hill was uh constructed there was not a lot of development out there in the purple as Beach Hill the same thing but if you look at the green areas those are the housing developments if you go over to your right you'll see that we have over 10,000 houses on the books for the next 10 years in the county over 4,000 in the town of Somerville and almost 3,000 future developments for a total of 177,000 homes today
042over the next 10 years that are on the books to be um built in our community just to give you a point of reference National Standard is 0.5 to 1.5 students per house now some of these homes are probably empty nester homes um some may be um Apartments where you know you don't have necessarily school age children um but but again it's quite a few so the next slide shows you just a breakdown of where those are being built and the schools they will impact okay next slide now we've talked about and Miss Bates mentioned the three uh pronged funding process you know our biggest opportunity obviously is a referendum that's one bucket um that would allow us to do to build new structures additions and really some really expensive U Perpetual maintenance needs we
043have like um roofs you know we have I can't even tell you how many millions of square feet of roofs do you know off the top of your head over three and a half million square feet so um it would help us that's that's a very expend expensive Venture um the next one is the penny sales tax which again requires local legislation that that we don't have in place place and the third one which a lot of communities that are growing have leveraged is the um the use of impact fees as a school district we don't have that Authority um and I will also say that impact fees if approved in our community um do not apply to homes that have already been agreed upon in development agreements so it would only be development agreements
044moving forward there was a resolution at the county where they approved the study of it um I've sent a request to the town of Somerville and to North Charleston as well requesting impact fees I do believe Miss GCE sent them our demographic study and um was it our um facility study as well Rhonda that you sent them just the demographic study because we're responsible for doing the study to demonstrate why that need is there so we have already done our part we'd already purchased those services and and hopefully they'll utilize that okay next slide this is just a timeline for you I broke this down for you in four phases we really started the first phase prior to my arrival here but picked it up uh again once I got here um prioritizing projects you
045know we did the master facility plan um so we could get a wraparound on what our needs are going to be from a contractor and we've had multi-jurisdictional meetings with the county we've had two of them now that I think have gone well we completed the demographic study the facility study we have a three-year Capital Improvements plan in place uh we've done a u financial analysis with our financial advisor we had follow-up meetings um we have developed referendum teams uh already they're in place whether you all decide May or November those teams have been in place I've invited several several people in the community to participate I've had the opportunity to speak at um several different um jurisdictions on the what our needs are and why they're there um as you all know I'm a
046member of the chamber in The Economic Development Council so I've shared these same things with them we're in February and so we have developed a potential ballot question for you with our bond attorney um and we're still refining obviously the mar um the major Master project list and then the last thing uh based on what you all decide then we'll go out for an RFP for services for uh Contract Services that's May or November so we're we're sitting right where we need to be to go either direction for you questions comments concerns do you have the cost of what it is to run a special election it's um we called and checked in on that was it 150 yeah it's $150,000 um but as a reminder the school district does doesn't pay for that that's
047what your referendum teams do they fund raise for it um and they they're the ones that all um fund that we have to be neutral parties uh all we can do is educate our community on why the need is there yeah I think that's actually a conflict of interest if we do get involved in that and and and that includes spending our money for any of that kind of stuff we remember a few years back we had some of our neighboring districts that got into some issues with that but um so yeah so I think that's strictly off limits yeah yeah regardless of what you choose May or November um we'll have we'll have Council come in and train us on the dos and the don'ts um so that we do this the right way
048uh hopefully we are painting a good enough picture on what our needs are and 12 years of no referendum I think our community and our District's been very financially prudent um and how you spend money so kudos to you all because again I only know of BU for that's has been able to run a no tax rate increase referendum in our state I do want to back up just a little bit um and ask you question about the impact fees I know um you spoke about local legislation and I know that local legislation has that's it's supposedly against the law at this point um so but I also know that one of our other districts in the state of South Carolina took it to the Supreme Court and they did get a favorable response from
049the Supreme Court Now isn't that an option for us as well to piggyback since they they're in basically the same kind of a situation we're in isn't that an option for us as well to um move towards impact fees using that method as opposed to something we know that's not going to happen so um what they did was uh and again the legislation is school districts can't oppose the impact fees the the local government body has to and so that is what we're piggybacking off of um so again the county has passed a resolution for the study um which they need as as part of that you know the demographic study was the biggest thing on why would we impose you know impact fees we'll do that with the other two taxing entities in our
050school district which again is North Charleston the town of Somerville and once that's passed then yeah they can impose them and then 100% of that impact fee money will come to the district based on the legis or based on the rule or the regulation okay and that's based on what came down from the Circuit Court as to how it should be handled yes ma'am okay yes the only tricky part what I would add on there because you're you're absolutely correct the tricky part is is it's similar to your penny sales tax that you have to acrw x amount of money before yeah we could use it so for instance East Edisto um so for little bit of a history lesson for folks who don't know um we had actually gone through with impact fees 2011
051it's it's been a while um and as soon as we put our impact fee into place uh the school district was sued um by the Home Builders Association and so we still acred monies that went into escrow that those Monies I think we ended up with 22 23 million that's actually how we paid for a lot of East edistone Middle School because we finally got it out of litigation and we were able to settle that lawsuit um but it does take a long time so that one was in place for 10 years we got 22 million now now granted this would be very different because the study that Dr Robbins is talking about would would basically determine how much of an impact we would have to charge um ours was only 2500 as many of
052you remember chances are you you probably need something closer to 7500 10,000 I think York in Fort Mill that you're talking about theirs was like 14 or 15,000 per home and so the study kind of helps determine that but it takes a while it it takes years to get enough in that pool to do anything with it yeah and and you're right Justin but I think this impact fees being there or being in place and I think is something we should pursue because that is just another way that we can get it to get some funds in to try to help to offset some of this that we don't have because we know that even if we get the referendum and it passes um whenever we decide to do it we've still all we have
053on the books is what is on the books but we all know there's lots that's out there that's not on the books yeah so and and children are coming from even those ones that are not on the books so um you know we have to look at all areas that we can get some money to try to put it make a big pot so that we can try to service the needs I think that's also part of the goal why I think it's important to like find out if the penny is an option not only for the the reason to have like the continual money that falls on the consumer but also that would allow us to pay off the debt and possibly decrease millage taking that burden off of home um business owners in
054the future rather than just a standalone referendum and impact fees like that's part of why I'm concerned about the May election without knowing for sure where we are or where we stand with the penny because I do think the penny does offer us an option that would allow us to possibly decrease millage and in addition to that take that burden off of our local business owners I agree with you Kelly the only the only issue that I have is I think that we need to pursue the penny as a school district that needs to be something that we pursue because we need the whole Penny we need all of it to go into our I mean I think that that's understood in the conversations Ashley and I have had with our our legislative delegation they
055understand that and I think that that's like part of what so crucial is that I think that is a more responsible way to move forward and I do understand we do have needs now that we need to address now but I think Dr Robbins also mentioned some of that Tiff money can go towards you know some of those needs I I I don't know the perfect answer but I am always reluctant if we don't know have all the cards on the table so to speak I we have to look at the whole ball of wax I it's definitely not a one siiz fits all and one one thing is not going to fix it but that's why we've got to look at everything and pursue all of it I think so when we did our
056last referendum I know Miss Hughes was on the board I think you are the only one miss Crosby is not here um so so that was in 2012 correct and when was that was that in November was that during a general election that was U during a general election um at that point that was when we were able to get everything together though we didn't have we were not ready we were trying to pursue an um a special election but we could not physically get everything together at that point because we decided late into it was like March April before we even decided and by the time we got everything together we were looking at like August or September which made absolutely no sense because then we were just a few months down the road
057to do the November it wasn't going to keep us in the timeline to save us from in this situation like we've got now having a school there sitting there empty for a year or six months or whatever it wasn't going to save us any timeline so um that was the reason why we decided with it being in the in the situation that it was with the time that we just as well go ahead and wait for the extra couple of months and put it on the November that's part of the reason why I do have a little bit of concern also with May is we're already halfway into February and do we really like honestly have the time to adequately promote that um how we need to uh again I still don't love the idea
058when we're not looking at or have the answer to what all our options are like you know I I do think the penny is still kind of sitting there as an option so you know I I don't know well and just to piggyback that on that you really the penny sales tax you you don't know because that that's a referendum as well and so that has to be a question of Voters none of us would know the answer then it be an option of having two different questions two different elections is that what you're saying no no in November so if if our local legislative delegation says no well if they were no no they have to pass the legislation it still has to go on the ballot to be approved I agree and so
059at the end of the day if we move this to November you're going to have two different tax questions on the November ballot and and again I'm not saying that's right wrong or different I'm just saying that's that's the facts I I could see both I I don't you know I guess we're we're starting to get a discussion of of when we want to do this I I will say because we looked back at the 2012 referendum and and I actually thought we had stood up the yes for schools campaign and all that stuff much much earlier than we did um but come to find out it was like August so they didn't stand up any of the yes for schools the promotional the educational piece of it until August for the November election so
060you're really not that far even though it seems like it's very close if you look at May you're not that far off from what they did back in 2012 if if we wanted to go the May route now I turned it off okay okay so because I don't know any better I'm asking the question is May the only early month that we can utilize or can we do june would it make could I don't know is that a option it it is obviously an option the challenge I think you run into is that's primary month um in our community and so now I'm not a politician I'm an educator but you you do have to look at that and it could become an issue for those people who are running and you don't want it
061to beue you know um that would cause any issues with them in their campaigns that's just my opinion okay and so the other piece of that miss poell is so when we talked about this when I was still on the finance committee specifically May because students are still in class at that time and so education in theory would still be kind of top of mind um but yeah I mean you can do a special election whatever you want you got to figure out how to pay for it now that you brought that up the fact that the kids are still in school so that is going to be Forefront as far as you know thinking about okay where are we going to put these kids so I can understand now why we would want may
062as opposed to June people are on vacation doing all these other things so okay it's great dialogue I'm just I I want you all to talk and before we get to this next slide and I'm going to walk you through it um okay are there any other there are I do want to go back and make sure we clarify so I I think we have but I there were a couple districts that I found that they did not have the legislation for the penny so they did a two ballot question and the community I just moved from we had a two ballot a two question ballot as well which incurred the penny sales tax because we did have the legislation plus the referendum so it you know technically one could pass and one can fail
063um they both pass they could both fail you know that those are always possibilities but yeah that's the way that works once there's local legislation for it then it goes on the ballot and it's a two question measure hopefully that helps a little okay next slide um so what I have done here and again this is at the pleasure of the board I wanted I want this to be something that you all feel comfortable of expressing how you feel and then we come to a consensus as a team so what I've done here is I've created three courses of action for you I'll be honest I think the third course of action is you know it's not even really a course of action we can consider but I needed you to have three I'm going
064to walk you through each one and then what you're going to do is you're going to rank them one through three okay one meaning it's it's the best option um for that specific consideration to three it's the worst option okay um and then I can pause after each one you just go ahead and mark them down and then what I'm going to ask you to do is give those to Dr Wimberly and what we'll do is we'll tally them and then we'll have conversation on what you all um think after that okay the first one is immediate um um Capital Improvements plan safety and building code needs and again coa1 would be to pursue the referendum in May course of action two is November course of action three is to utilize our 8% Authority um
065and CIF to maintain current structures je so I'm a little confused so I I mean for for this one it seems to me that course of action one or two would address that you can put you can put two ones tie okay well that's what I did I just Mak absolutely either one would alleviate that the second one is and if I go too fast give me a thumbs up or down I don't want to rush anybody um the second one is new buildings to address current building capacity and growth and this is a Time constrained one so you won't be able to tie on this one Okay the third one is completion of a Master Pro project list development and refinement and so um that one is one where I will tell you without
066guiding you too much um that's a Time s a bound one too so the more time we have the more opportunity we have to develop and refine the project list the less time we have the harder it is to develop and refine it for the fourth one is the cost of a special election in May um I think that's pretty self-explanatory there would be no special election uh for coa2 or coa3 the fifth one is cost of construction May versus November that's why I shared the cost escalation analysis and the labor force um issues that we're facing right now that are getting worse as time goes on number six is transportation assets so what I mean by that are routes drivers and buses so will COA one two or three allow us to be efficient
067with our routes or are they going to require us to expand our routes hence rezoning and so stretch our transportation ride times does that make sense no so so again when you look at each COA when we look at Transportation assets we are limited by um the number of drivers and buses we have and the routes that we use and so when we rezone to create space in buildings what it does is it extends the the ride time for some of our students so for example if you did coa3 I'm only going to use that one um we would have to do tremendous rezoning which means kids are have to drive farther to get to schools because they don't have capacity in schools that are Clos and the final one is very subjective um because
068I wanted you to feel like you could represent each part of the community that you live in and that's the feedback that you've gotten since we've been talking about this uh for really close to a year where do you think people stand in your circles okay so if you're done if you want to pass your um that's okay that's all right all right no judgment um and then what we're going to do is we'll go through we'll continue with the soup update soup report um and then we'll come back to this after we tally the numbers together is everybody good with that okay all right it well if you don't feel comfortable with it I mean it's not engra Stone here so just just to make sure I understand so we're just tallying that for
069the board's information yes yes yes yes absolutely okay oh yeah yeah no no that's just for you all okay so I'm not goingon to put grades out all right next up we have the finance report no we know I forgot to take that slide out I apologize um we have our Personnel report that uh was in your packets and also student enrollment recommendations you want me to again apologies I I just want to make sure I understand so the board resolution do we do we know what that is going to look like yet no you're not going to do the you'll have to you'll have depending on what the outcome of this is you you're have to have a special meeting for a resolution and uh um no if if it ended up that we
070wanted to move in the May direction right if you don't then there's no rush absolutely yes yes yeah I mean we tried we can't yeah you can we I meantion yeah that's a good idea I appreciate everybody's patience in this it's this is a big decision for them and so so I really wanted um this to be very objective you know so they felt like they could make an informed decision so I appreciate your patience tonight e okay just for y'all's information um I tallied each column course of action three is not even in the running um but so for course of action one the total is 49 and for course of action two it's 53 and obviously based on the way we did this the lower number is better because that was given ranks
071of one which I'm assuming everyone meant that's number one choice correct that's what I thought okay so those are the results does anyone have any questions about that does that make sense what I'm saying any questions go do you want to look at this too you're welcome to oh um so again course of action 1 49 course of action 2 53 course of action 3 I did not even it was going to be clearly much higher so the lower number represents the one that got more number ones I I mean my assumption is I I think I don't want to say I think all of us because I I would never speak for anybody else up here but my assumption is when you look to me it it's a question of urgency right and so
072that's that's really what it boils down to is the number of homes that are getting built today versus how quickly we can put up schools how quickly we can get funding for those schools all that sort of stuff so it's a it it's a question of urgency but I also and and I will just tell you on mine it was it was dead even I had them both one and two they were dead even so I'm okay either way may or November what I did relay to Dr Robbins um in our conversations on on this if we're going to move towards November I'm okay with that but I think we need to um do some pretty deep leg work on our 8% money and what we're able to do kind of in the meantime so
073if that's the case if we're going to move if we're going to go to November for whatever reason I just want to make sure that we have a shortterm plan in place so I think based on your COA decision Matrix the low number was coa1 which is May so um again you went through the you went through the work of doing that but yall still need to vote um on that so and the 8% is not part of that plan yeah um the 8% is always a part of our well I'm saying like it's not no no no no so even though you went through the leg work of this and even though coa1 won you really still as a board need to no coa1 one yeah you still need to vote on it Miss
074Wimberly I have Miss Crosby on the line okay do we have any other questions for Dr Robbins at this time I don't have any questions I just want to State this decision Matrix for me doesn't Encompass everything I would like to consider so it's inauthentic for me to do this decision Matrix and R rank these things when it doesn't take into account other things that I would like to take into account so for me um I'm going to a take this into consideration because I think these things are important but also the other concerns I have and and weigh the benefits and negatives to both any else Madam chair I'd like to make a motion motion that we um start the process for um the bond referendum to appear on a special election held in
075May right thank you Miss Hughes I have a motion for a no tax increase Bond referendum for May from Miss Hughes and a second from Miss Crosby is there any discussion or questions at this time I just I I good go back to the urgency this one and I know everybody's looking at this and they're like what what are you guys doing um it it's trickier than you would think for this decision uh May versus November from an again I just from an urgency perspective for us as a board to be able to say to the community we hear the concerns it's not even though we hear them we see them if you look back um beachill and sandill are in dire need of help not two years three years down the road like now
076and so this potentially enables us to get help quickly more quickly I should say so from that standpoint I think it's a good plan to look at may do I have some concerns about May um I do but at the same time I also appreciate I think the district's look when we and and again from a finance committee speaking with our bond councils speaking with a lot of different folks our financial advisor and they're under the impression that that a May special election they feel that it would work um I'm I'm comforted by that but that one's not as easy as it should be okay yeah sorry I'm reluctant to just look at urgency I mean there's no doubt without a question that obviously we need facilities we need additions we need Renovations I just
077think it's pertinent we take into account all things I think when you look at the benefits of the negatives versus November and may I'm concerned about that um and so I just again want to just go on record and say that so well originally I was in fav of basically going with November but as I heard more of the urgency and what we need to go ahead and get started the costs that could escalate and because I'm not an expert on this I'm going to go with the expert advice that we have gotten from those that do this and um it's going to be okay I mean I think we've all o gotten advice to state that a November election would be better because notoriously we've never passed a referendum in a special election they've
078always passed during general elections so I mean I think it to say that the professional advice is one way or the other I think we've gotten professional advice saying both things um and I still stand behind that I think we're rushing at doing in May and that's okay to do that what I'm saying is this you have your level of how you understand the experts I have my level as to how I explain um understand it and so I'm going based on some people may not like that okay Lord I need help because I I'm kind of out of my feeling this sorry I apologize Miss pal I wasn't saying that by any means I I I wasn't yeah Kelly you know how you and I are we not anything personally but the bottom line
079is simply this I do know it's very difficult even for a month for a teacher to be in a classroom trying to do experiments Etc and there are 35 bodies in that room how do you do an experiment that way so if we can get it done correctly with the May referendum I'm all for it because I want us to have these kids in a setting where they actually can get the help that they need and you can't do that if you don't have space even to bring in people to help them so do so Dr Robin going back to CU if we look at the May special election obviously there's a lot that has to get stood up pretty quickly do you feel that you've got a solid plan there to make that happen
080you know and I don't want anything I say to be intended to sway anybody either direction I plan for the worst expect the best and so um I will tell you that we have already issued the letters with the requests for our um citizens action review team with our says to schools teams uh I've presented to the chamber I'm on the chamber board but to the executive board they're willing to write us a letter of support either way so I feel like that's powerful having the chamber behind us uh to support this um working with the Economic Development Council on some ways that we may be able to do some things at a little less cost um to the district so um is it going to be rough and tough Absol absolutely uh I got
081Mr dhy who's our Deputy superintendent who's been through a referendum we both have um and he's been through a successful one and a failed one and so we know that we have to prepare uh for some tough times ahead but I do feel like we've got the tenants in place regardless if you choose May or November we're we're ready and situated to go and to respond well I just put confidence in our citizens if we give them them the information whatever means I understand that we as a board can only do so much but with whatever we can do legally to give them the information to understand the urgency Because unless you actually are in these buildings you think everything's okay it looks okay from the outside but you don't see the crowdedness that's inside
082so I think as long as we have ground our foundational work is being done I believe a May would be okay for me I would like to follow what you said g based on what we've heard in the past based on the urgency that something needs to be done now it needs to be done now to get the framework and get everything going we've been through this before Gail so we know what we're talking about and I wish that each other people would listen because it's important to get the groundw the the permit the I mean everything that has to be done takes forever we need to get that done as soon as possible so I'm all for the May referendum okay any other questions or comments for wait a promise very quick comment the
083the only other we talked about pros and cons and I will tell you one of my concerns for November potentially if if you are looking at the penny sales tax um if you're looking at another ballot question that deals with taxation I think it could get it could potentially be confusing to voters going into that voting booth not I'm not saying that voters are not educated they should be when they go to their to hit their ballot but the chances of confusion I think are greater when you have different questions about different things on the ballot especially when it comes to taxes so that that I'm just telling you that would be a concern of mine for November versus in May it's a very very direct single question um yes or no so I'm just
084throwing that out there as well Madam chair I call the question okay at this time board members if you will please cast your vote don't forget that you have to vote on her calling the question no yeah um did you get my vote we we certainly can I question I think we were ready to vote anyway at this time did you get my vote no we haven't voted yet hold on Madam chair I withdraw my motion thank you okay at this time we are voting on a motion um to have a no tax increase referendum for school funding special election in May yeah go ahead go ahead I vote in favor of doing the referendum in May mine hasn't come up yet either okay all in favor please signify by a raised hand okay um
085so we have five in favor any opposed and two opposed okay motion carries all right next up we have um we're continuing with our super attendance report do we have a safety update yes yes ma'am Mr G um has a quick report for you again we're going to try to keep this as a constant dose on our board meetings um so people understand this is very important to us Mr G to for e okay any questions for Mr Gant all right thank you very much we appreciate the update um okay next um on our agenda we have student enrollment recommendations um and board members uh that was included in your packet so um at this time I will accept a motion in regards to those recommendations okay um I've got a a motion from Mr
086Farnsworth second from Miss Bates any dis question questions okay um all right then at this time we will vote on that motion okay all right yep it looks like we're having some technology issues so um all in favor of approving the student enrollment recommendations as presented is it coming up okay go ahead and vote electronically if you're able to oh yep yep very slow it's slow it's very slow yes I'm waiting on the votes to come in are you a yay yes okay and it looks like the motion carries um six in favor and one absent okay and then next we have our Personnel recommendation recommendations and resignations is everyone okay with doing that in Open session all right and again that was also included in your packet so um do I have a motion
087at this time so moved all right a motion to accept the Personnel recommendations and resignations um by Miss Bates do I have a second seconded by Miss Powell any discussion or questions all right at this time we will call for the vote hopefully it's not working okay so all in favor signify by raising your hand all right and we've got six in favor and one Not absent so that motion carries as well all right that brings us to the end of our superintendent report for the evening and so now we move into the public comments time on our agenda um and just for your information for our policy we we have uh three minutes per person at the end of each board meeting will be devoted to input from citizens on items within the scope
088of the board's duties speakers are required to complete a signning card five minutes prior to the beginning of the board meeting speakers will be recognized by the chairman to speak for no longer than three minutes per speaker the board has set aside 20 total minutes for public comment the total length of time allowed for public comic may be expanded at the discretion of the board chair chair chairman woman as the circumstances warrant and so the I believe this evening we have 12 uh cards and so if the board is okay with it I will allow for some additional time so that we can hear from all of our speakers all right um and um just also so you know please feel free to come when I call your name but if someone has spoken ahead
089of you and you feel like you are just saying the same thing then you are welcome to yield your time if you so choose CH to do that so all right um we will begin and also just as a reminder the board um is not for our policy we do not comment um during board meetings on public comments All right so our first speaker is misss Cassidy CAC good evening Madam chair Dr Robbins and the D2 board my name is Cassie CAC and I am an eighth grade student at East Sesto middle at the beginning of each Academic Year students are given a student handbook to bring home the handbook consists of District policy and requires both the student and parent to sign it agreeing to follow the outline policy my question is why do
090I a student have to sign an agreement stating that I will follow policy if the leadership of this District being the school board is clearly unwilling to follow District policy I spoke at the April 24th meeting regarding policy JL the policy I am yet again speaking about not even a year later this policy was discussed at length and voted into place by the trustees four of whom failed to recognize said policy at the last board meeting if our school board members are unwilling to follow policy that they voted into place then why would any of the students be bound by policy you all are supposed to lead to be people that students and parents can trust and at the basic level you all should be able to follow rules you have put into place policy
091igl requires anyone challenging reading material to be a parent or Guardian that has already been decided so now we expect that you'll follow the policy and stop wasting the precious time of our Librarians who are expected to go through books from a random Community member who used book looks a website founded by moms for Liberty in 2022 in order to challenge books without taking the time to read them and emailed the superintendent in the board disregarding the process as a student who follows District policy I expect all board members to do the same thank you for your time right thank you m CAC um next we have Paul um Bowers hi my name is Paul Bowers I'm a proud 2007 graduate of Somerville high school and a service communications director for the ACLU of South
092Carolina because of our organization's commitment to the First Amendment and to the freedom to read we get updates from across the state about book bands and challenges we've seen a marked increase since 2020 in Mass book band requests that were copied and pasted by members of pro censorship organizations hundreds if not thousands of books have now been challenged across at least 12 counties in the state it brings me no pleasure to report that the request you received last year from one individual seeking the removal of 160 books is the largest sing single District book challenge we've seen in this decade I come to you tonight asking you to take a worthy stand on behalf of your students and on behalf of District employees you can stop the Inquisition before it begins you have a strong
093clear policy governing book challenges board policy igl and I encourage you all to adhere to it among other things it requires a parent to fill out a form indicating that they have actually read the challenged materials and engaged with their themes Beyond a few out of context quotes now I'm going to speak to you personally I am here in no small part because of what teachers and staff in Dorchester 2 have done for me just today I was emailing with my former vice principal uh Ann saaki who was an administrator in this building Rawlings Middle School of the Arts back in the day and uh she sent you this comment which I wanted to repeat School boards are increasingly becoming more political and put in situations that have nothing to do with policymaking please protect
094everyone's right to choose what they want to read do not fall into a trap of being the censorship police we at the ACLU of South Carolina oppose the censorship of books in general but on a personal front I want to speak in defense of Kurt vat's book slaughterhouse 5 this is one of the books on your chopping block as a young Christian conservative at Somerville High School I was assigned this book by my 10th grade English teacher Miss abrahamson it was incendiary and challenging it made me laugh on unexpectedly it did not change my worldview but forced me to critically engage with my own beliefs on politics war and God reading this book drove me deeper into my faith and not away from it I received this text message the other day from Miss abrahamson
095who's happily retired uh she said we English teachers have been teaching banned books for Generations yet only a few have been challenged or banned from libraries permanently the book banners come and go they get agitated they burn or steal or otherwise remove books and then they are defe defeated and in most cases forgotten the people you will have to answer to when this is all said and done are first the educators of this district and second the children they teach don't be afraid of one squeaky wheel think instead about the future and how you'll be remembered by your teachers and by your students thank you thank you Mr Bowers okay next we have Josh malcin good evening my name is joshh melin I'm a lawyer with and Senior advocacy strategist for the ACLU of South
096Carolina I appreciate you all heeding the call to public service and the opportunity to address you I like many of you likely don't enjoy listening to lawyers talk so I will try to keep this brief the freedom of speech is the First Amendment to the United States Constitution it is a sweeping right however throughout history courts have placed some guardrails on the First Amendment rights today obscene speech is not permissible as policy igl acknowledges however obscenity is a legal term if it were allowed to be applied subjectively to any idea someone disagreed with the freedom of speech would in practice cease to exist I'm here to talk briefly about the definition of obscenity the Supreme Court last defined obscenity in 1973 case Miller California there the Court held that speech n needed to satisfy three
097prongs in order to be considered obscene the three-part test asked whether the average person applying contemporary Community standards would find the work as a whole to be puant or appeal to sexual interests also needs to describe sexual conduct in a patently offensive way and finally it needs to lack serious literary artistic political or scientific value this is a high threshold that demonstrates our country's commitment to the freedom of speech and South Carolina the law most on point is South Carolina code section 1615 385 or the disseminating harmful material to miners law section 385 largely incorporates Miller into South Carolina law with a few important exceptions first it asserts that material harmful to miners cannot consist entirely of words there must be a visual graphic or audio component second being a school is an affirmative defense
098this is America we have the right to dislike ideas and we have the right to keep our children from ideas we don't like what an individual cannot do in a democracy is impose their thoughts about the value of a book they may not like on a diverse District of students and parents it's important that the adults in the room set a good example for students We should strive to model civil discourse in the face of disagreement and tolerance of differing opinions again I thank you for your time okay thank you Mr malcol all right next up we have Jim Lee thank you for this opportunity to speak this evening I am Jim Lee I am a Community member I'm a concerned citizen and I am a grandparent of children here in dd2 schools to be
099clear I'm strongly in favor of good policy to guide dd2 schools in ensuring that all materials used within our school system to educate our students are age appropriate edifying and consistent with Community standards of decency I disagree that the current dd2 policy igl regards anyone other than a parent or a guardian of a child currently enrolled in dd2 as an illegit legitimate stakeholder in the E efficacy and quality of dd2 schools and thus prohibited from having a voice in this critically important Community Asset that said regardless The Source or method used to alert the dd2 superintendent and the Board of Trustees of potential violations of obscenity laws or of a potential failure of school district resources to properly execute their responsibilities and duties to ensure that all materials in our dd2 school system and our
100libraries are age appropriate edifying compliant with current obscenity laws including but not limited to title 16 crimes and offenses chapter 15 offenses against morality and decency article three regarding obscenity and harmful materials to minors I encourage you all to go read it I'd love to see you sit down and read it to your children children and to your church and to other adults with minor AED children it would make the hair on your head stand up I wish I had more but I have what I have I believe it's imperative for the good of our children and our schools that such concerns be honestly and objectively evaluated and appropriate action taken perhaps you may want to look at the policy and how it's operationalized but that's a matter of mechanics not the issue at hand
101I thank the dd2 school board for their decision to focus on the real issue at hand which is that all materials used within our school system to educate our children are age appropriate edifying compliant with the laws governing obscenity and consistent with our community's standards of decency thank you okay thank you Mr Lee okay next we have Mandy Livingston good evening I'm Mandy Livingston a former dd2 teacher parent to five children in our schools and happily married to a dd2 educator our last board meeting saw yet another discussion about books with the majority of the board voting not to follow the igl library policy that was voted on last year that was a punch in the gut to the Educators at our schools to see the school board ignore their policies and procedures teachers are
102required to follow District state and federal policies every day students are required to follow school and classroom policies in order to promote a safe educational environment when the board votes to not follow District policies it sends a message that undermines those in our classrooms our board has set the example and Lead the Way and those of you that voted against following policy last meeting failed our students the staff the teachers in our district when I taught Middle School English just a few years ago one of the state's standards was to teach students how to determine if a website or resource was reputable we taught them how to evaluate sources for perspectives validity and bias that's right from the state standards the website book look that was the source of this latest list is hardly reputable
103validity it's basically Anonymous I had to do research to find out that the site was created by someone that has no Library training and no educational background the site reeks of bias and narrow perspectives and you can tell by those who regularly promote it in developing book looks how many of these books were actually read in context from cover to cover for the objectionable materials without context one could declare the Bible objectionable due to the graphic violence and sexual situations that are presed in our Bible stories and that would be just as ridiculous as removing an Frank's diary dear Martin Lord of the Flies the juneth story tequilla Mockingbird and a biography on Justice Ginsburg and many others that were on that list I can't begin to trust a list that is afraid of those
104stories being told our district has trained educated professionals who went to school to evaluate books so instead of giving credence to a list of books from a dubious website and overburdening our Librarians with additional work let's follow board policy and encourage our stakeholders to follow it as well our educational professionals deserve that show of respect otherwise you risk running off even more deduc dedicated Educators in this District can't afford to lose more of us as president Dwight D Eisen Eisenhower said don't join the book burners don't be afraid to go into your library and read every book thank you Miss Livingston next up we have Brandon fish good evening my name is Brandon fish and I'm the director of community relations for the Charleston Jewish Federation um I regret that I'm speaking before you this
105evening in a time when anti-Semitism is at an all-time high along with other forms of hate and I think that too often in our society combating that hate falls to the communities uh that are impacted and because of that our organization the Charleston Jewish Federation spends a lot of time on the education pillar of combating hate uh and that includes our remember program to uh educate people on the Holocaust we have uh Holocaust speakers Bureau that sends survivors into schools but many survivors are passing away and more important than ever are these stories that are told through books um I understand uh from a list that I was given that hundreds of books are being challenged here in Dorchester District 2 including several Holocaust related books like the Diary of an Frank Mouse the fixer
106and others um acknowledging history is ugly and the point is that the lessons lie in this ugliness uh part of the ugliness um when we bring ourselves to look at the history of the Holocaust is book Banning um you know I I'm feeling emotional about this because there's a Survivor that's lying in a bed in the hospital right now she's one of four or five remaining survivors in our area um but you know these stories are incredibly impactful and they've stood the test of time so please don't allow history to become unavailable to our students whether that's Jewish history black history lgbtq history the Holocaust is taught because we understand that those who don't learn and understand history are doomed to repeat it uh it occurs to me that one of the Great things about
107libraries is that they Empower us uh with the ability to take books home and learn from them but they also uh give us the option to leave books on the Shelf if we don't want to read them and uh I would encourage all of the people who are offended by books related to the Holocaust to leave the books on the shelf and I would encourage you all to do the same thank you thank you Mr Fish next we have have Joe Callie good evening thank you for allowing me to speak uh my name is Joe Calli I'm a 40-year taxpaying citizen of Somerville and Dorchester County um um I'm here to support the concerned citizens for education and the removal of the 155 inappropriate obscene books that were identified in dd2 school libraries for the
108record concerned citizens for education is not promoting the Banning of books what we are against is the dd2 school libraries providing age inappropriate and obscene books to the students that are in many cases under the age of 18 these books should not be in the public school system system I purchased one of the books titled I'll give you the the Sun and was rated a three out of out of a one 125 rating system I have with me a list of the quotes from I'll give you the Sun that if I read them out loud I would be gaveled down and asked to leave the room I would doubt that dd2 teachers or the superintendant would even venture to read those quotes to the students due to the obscene and inappropriate uh content as citizens
109of this County we want dd2 to be a world-class learning institution concerned citizens for Education believes removal of the books in question will be a giant step in that direction once again this is not about book Banning but using Common Sense When selecting age appropriate reading material thank you thank you Mr Callie all right next we have laala sorry um Solomon okay I'm sorry I just couldn't read that your handwriting I apologize Solomon please come forward yes my name is is laala Sullivan um and I do want to take the time to thank each and every one of you for giving us this opportunity and I'm just coming to to you as a little old Mimi tonight and I know there are a lot of mimes and grandparents here um with us here tonight and
110just going to speak to you one uh concern and I'm also coming to you as a former um substitute teacher throughout um Dorchester 2 district and nurse substituted for about 11 different schools in my time back in the olden days but um and I'm coming tonight as an advocate for my grandchildren for my children and for your grandchildren and your children I'm coming just to speak simply just to one issue um here um to the issue that concerns me is as you have heard already tonight is the inappropriate and explicit material that is currently in place and used as teaching material and reading books in our uh libraries and I'm just advocating for our children um and asking you to do what's right to remove this explicit material from our schools um you just need
111to um ask you to be our voices to this uh we some of us already have emailed the educational South Carolina educational board here in South Carolina too this issue just please be our voices and do what's right um to me I'm just going to end with this and just say it's just I don't know how we've got to where we've got to today with this issue and with many issues that're coming up of a concern um to us we need to ask ourselves how do we get here because I'm telling you I'm here tonight because I don't want my grandchild to come up to me or another child and say I'm confused I don't know what's right I don't know what's wrong why didn't you fight for me please explain for me what's going
112on so that's one person that you might have to um speak to one day all of us look into their faces and and try to answer that because we don't even know and there's one other person that we're going to have to answer to and that's our living Heavenly Father in heaven he loves children just like you do you wouldn't be on that board and I wouldn't be up here speaking if we didn't love and care for our children but one day we're going to have to face him and say and answer how did we let it get as it is thank you thank you Miss Solomon okay next we have Dorothy Nome good evening Madam uh chairman Mr superintendent and distinguished board members my name is Dorothy Nome I've had the privilege of teaching
113for 35 years in nasso County New York as a public school teacher I've taught uh Sunday school and church school as well and I want to tell you that we as teachers spend more time molding the minds of our young people than even parents do so we have a profound obligation to protect our children one of the things that I will tell you having been from New York one of the first pieces of advice I got was move to Dorchester too because that's a district of Excellence my grandson uh went to Rawlings uh School of the Arts and just graduated from Somerville high so I will tell you that I know that all of you work so hard to teach our children with Excellence they are our Legacy our children and grandchildren it is our
114duty as parents grandparents teachers and those who will affect future generations to know how responsible we are and for most of these issues it's it's Common Sense we don't allow children to drink to drive to take medications without supervision we don't allow them to own weapons or bring those things to school why because they are children I have been a long believer in Freedom I have taught American history and world history and I know profoundly that our founding fathers found those freedoms to be so precious but along with the rights of Freedom comes responsibility many of the materials that are in question have been read on television Senator Kennedy read some in Congress and they had to be bleep bleep bleep bleep bleep and he made the profound point of saying well if these materials
115that I'm reading to you because they are so explicit I'm Sorry Miss Nome your time's up okay thank you for your comment all righty okay next we have Linda ener good evening board it's nice to see you all again I'd like to thank you for being on the board because that's probably not a lot of fun and it's a lot of work and I appreciate you doing it I may not always agree with your opinions and you probably don't always agree with mine either tonight I want to talk a little bit about semantics semantics and the meaning of words and those things are changing right now I probably wouldn't recognize words in the Webster dictionary if I had one here one of the things that's changing is is talking about banning books there's a difference
116between choosing books and banning books I'm I'm a connected with a group called concerned citizens for education and we're not in favor of banning books in any way Banning books means you can't buy them anywhere you can't get that book at the library you can't buy it on Amazon whatever choosing books on the other hand means that out of the billions of books that are created every year you have the option you have the option because I know there's Librarians in here of choosing certain books and so we're asking you to choose books that are not sexually explicit choose books that are historical I love some of the books that they talk about that people think they may want to get rid of we don't want to get rid of those books we want to
117get rid of the sexually explicit ones so just keep that in mind we don't want to ban books we just want you to choose books that are really good educationally thank you thank you Miss ener okay next we have Evelyn ball okay thank you very much all right um we have Michael Peterson so my name is Michael Peterson I've lived here in Dorchester counter 48 years um 40 years with the military Vietnam veteran and I have nine kids grandchildren in the dd2 school um I'm amazed that we are at this point where we are as adults having this discussion as a young man I'm in my 70s but when I grew up my teachers my parents and Educators protected us from things that were inappropriate when I was young I do not remember having these
118kind of issues and we have in fact pretty good generation that has grown up I think um this idea of procreation is a special god-given right that we should protect and it's a sacred thing just like in school when we go to school all of you know that there are levels of grades that we go through with these children and they learn at the level that they can that they can comprehend and that they can manage in their life there are those who today who are corrupt procreation they will corrupt it in every way that they can then the evil of it is here the evil of it is here it is our responsibility to protect our young children I think I look at law there are those who day today will talk about the
119law I'm a law guy I believe in that kind of thing to govern our system Society but I also believe that there are moral laws that we need to live by moral laws and moral decisions that we need to make if we look through our history of our country of Nations thousands of years Every Nation fell because of immorality corrupting things that are precious corrupting things that are good so I would implore all of you uh we're not Banning books it's not about banning books it's being responsible in the kinds of information that our kids can comprehend and understand today so I implore you that we do this and that we love our country and we preserve the Liberties that we have thank you thank you Mr Peterson okay and next we have Jay mace
120is there a possibility I could give uh pan some of these hello good evening I'm Jay mace I'm an evangelist I'm a parent Mr mace I'm sorry to interrupt you could you speak into the microphone we can't hear you I'm Jay Ma I'm an evangelist I'm a parent I'm a retired military veteran I will be using a little bit of the scriptures because it's very important for us to understand that if we have no moral standard then anything goes so let me start by saying this right here uh if we have the scriptures is absolute it's absolute if we have no right or wrong then as I said before anything is stand anything can happen you got Rize hatred the list is endless the scripture says righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach
121a disgrace to any people and it's the scripture plainly says we should train up a child in the way that they should go and when they are old they will not depart from it also it says but whosoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me it were better for him that a millstone was tied around their neck and they was drown in the middle of the sea and that no one who practices deception shall dwell in my house according to Psalms 101 and in Matthew it says also to take heed that you despise not one of these little ones in 2021 the South car Department of Education gave the general public the opportunity to of reviewing the textbooks that were proposed to be used in our school from K4 to K12
122we parents grandparents have been reviewing these ever since not only were the books an eyeopener to the majority of us but it has gone further downhill since the ultimate responsibility that almighty God has given to parents has been fought by people who refuse to accept the biblical View and has continually infringed upon the god-given rights of parents by forcing teachers administrators principles to indoctrinate our little angels with inappropriate reading materials if I was to start reading some of these books the first thing you would do is tell me we don't want want that in here the council culture the radical transgender pro-abortion critical race theories as well as atheist Marxist ideologies are poisoning the minds with unimaginable only a few years ago of our children and they're using our tax dollars as well I got
123much more but my time is out okay thank you Mr ma okay that concludes our public comments um so at this time we do not have an executive session so I will ask for a motion to adjourn so moved uh before you do that may I make a statement to the board sure okay we're not allowed am I okay we are not allowed to comment on public comments but I'm sitting here very moved on one hand because the public has basically come out in support of us as a board and I'm appreciative of that I also want to say this I don't want the public to believe that we as a board are divided because we're not we agreed basically on the issue that is BAS is pervasive in our community right now which has
124to do with book banding Etc we're in agreement as to what's acceptable in our library we have a policy and every member on this board is in agreement with that policy so I don't want I don't want anyone speaking to the board I don't want anyone in our community to feel as though some of us are for it and some of us are against it I think what happened previously board members we heard things differently and when I heard what I heard I initially felt well what happened so I went and spoke to various board members individually and got Clarity and then as I sat and listened I said we're saying the same thing but it hit the Public's ears differently so the only thing I want to reassure us as board members so that
125the public know knows that we are on one Accord we will follow our policy that was established we want our children to understand that okay y'all GNA make me break what I'm not do what I'm not supposed to do which is address you I I don't want you to applaud but because from the beginning that night we had already determined what the policy was and we were following it but we just heard it differently so I don't want you to be nervous upset board members and anyone else about what that policy stands for we're going to follow it we all want to follow it and so we say to the public that supports us so beautifully please continue to have faith in us to do what is best for our children we love them as
126much as you do and that may seem like it's a lot but we really do and we're concerned about what goes out into our public and we want this public to continue to have the respect for dd2 and to spread it abroad all over the nation in the world that we are the best and we will work to strive to the be the to be the best every day that we're doing what we're doing so we say for thank you it's a pleasure to work with you and I'm getting emotional so I'm going to just stop but thank you I'm proud to stand with you and work with you thank you Miss Powell right at this time do I have a motion to adjourn so moved oh motion motion made by Miss Powell seconded by
127Miss Bates any discussion all in favor all right we are adjourned