001I all right good evening and welcome and again thank you for your patience um at this time I will call the February 26 2024 regular board meeting to order and I will need an approval of the consent agenda so moved all right thank you I have a motion from Mr Guthrie a second by Miss Crosby any discussion okay hearing none I will call for the vote there it goes okay and the motion is approved um six in favor and one absent all right and at this time we will move into to our district highlights thank you Miss Troy good evening board chair Dr wimbley superintendent Dr Robbins and board members at this time I will turn the podium over to the following individuals to present the board highlights Melinda Anderson and Lisa cth followed by
002Mr Maurice Canon Mr Brion packet and finally Mr Steve lad thank you good evening Miss Wimberly D Robbins and board members we're very excited to be here tonight to recognize our District spelling be winners so if we could have our District spelling be winners to come [Applause] forward these students have already accomplished so much they won their school their classroom spelling B their school spelling B and the District spelling B these six students um will be representing Dorchester 2 at the Spellbound spelling be on Thursday March 21st at Ash uh West Ashley high school so we're very excited for all of them to represent us um on that night we know they're going to do really really well um I'd like to call their names out just so we can um have them fully recognized
003our spelling be Champion was Daniel Fox a sixth grader at Greg Middle School [Applause] and um not with us tonight is Halen kpe a seventh grader at deos middle school and then also with us up here tonight is Eli roten fifth grader at Somerville Elementary School Briana Brown a sixth grader at River Oaks Middle School Hunter young a sixth grader at deos middle school and Lydia Stager a fifth grader at Alon Bailey Middle Elementary School excuse me so once again we just want to let you guys know how um proud of you that we are and I know you guys have been studying hard already in preparation for the March spelling be and um we just can't wait to see how well you do there congratulations congratulations [Applause] guys they hold on a second they
004can't get off that easy what would did I hear the winning word what was the winning work all good that's how that's how difficult that word was I get it congratulations good evening my name is Maurice Cannon and I have the privilege of um presenting to us this evening our national board certified teachers national board certification is the most respected professional certification available in education and provides numerous benefits to teachers students and schools this Advanced certification stimulates teachers to evaluate reflect and grow as professional Educators it was designed to develop retain and recognize accomplished teachers and to generate ongoing improvements in schools Nationwide national board certification is a voluntary Advanced teaching credential that goes beyond State lure we also have maintenance of certification this requires national board certified teachers to document professional accomplishments every five
005years in order to keep board certification current and valid ensuring their continual Improvement of Knowledge and Skills at this time it is my privilege to present our Dorchester School District 2's national board certified recognitions these Educators join the 90 national board certified teachers currently in dd2 please come forward as your name is called newly certified Rachel [Applause] Ashby confirmation maintenance Leslie Gil of Somerville high school and and Rachel is a teacher at Fort Dorchester Elementary we also have Angelina Melle Knightsville Elementary and we also have Cara Nelson Windsor Hill Arts infus Elementary we have Benjamin green Somerville High School Stephanie Henderson at Ashley Ridge High School Deborah melanowski Greg Middle School Susan Mulin Ashley Ridge High School Crystal tacket William Reeves Elementary and Kelly wanes Beach Hill Elementary thank you [Applause] good evening Madam chair
006Dr Robbins members of the board uh I am Brion p excuse me and the proud principal of Rise Academy here to recognize probably the hardest working individual that I've ever come in contact with um this person despises recognition is probably I'm sorry mcot but I'm going to need you to come up front even though I know you don't want to um but you know when we say hardworking individuals this person is truly like a nuclear reactor and she is the Hub of everything that goes on at Rise Academy she has experience at the middle school level and the high school level what makes her the ideal candidate for the position of counselor at Rise Academy because she has to be an expert at both levels from middle and high school our job is to ensure
007our students are College and Career ready and Miss Scott does anything and everything to ensure that that takes place on a daily basis the term office hours does not apply here miss Scott I wrote down some things because they told me I needed to um she like me is a product of dd2 schools although I graduated before her I thought it was because I was Advanced but truth be told and based on looks it's because I'm just a little bit older she despises the recognition she's responsible for all scheduling that takes place she serves all 10 schools just like us she communicates between rise Academy teachers all 10 base schools all district interventionists and keeps everyone on their toes she is the glue that holds our school and our program together she is not only
008the mediator she is the counselor the nurturer and she is so often the mother and the father to all of our students she is our students biggest Advocate and always puts their well-being before her own she is the trusted adult to so many of our students she works tirelessly to ensure that dd2 faculty and staff have all the information they need to ensure students have a smooth transition to and from Rise Academy she is the hardest working person I have ever worked with and I have worked with some hardworking people she makes everyone around her better she challenges me as a leader and I respect that and it only makes me better as a principal and as a person and for that I am not only grateful but I am proud to get to work
009with you each and every day so for that and recognition this is just an amazing award and honor and I am so proud to be able to recognize you as your principal as the 23 24 school year District counselor of the Year [Applause] congratulations I can't believe told him I can't believe she worked harder than I did he worked with me but he just laughed at that um first of all thanks for you guys to give us some time to board and Dr Robins about uh talk a little bit about Middle School athletics uh we had nine middle schools involved in our program this year seven of them were from dd2 and two were from District 4 dd4 uh we in four Sports we had 487 student athletes compete this year from the nine middle
010schools uh happy to say there were no unsportsman likee conducts no objections of player coach or fans so that is uh fantastic to be honest with you uh administrators and coaches at all these schools worked tirelessly and did a remarkable job uh they really did uh next year we're adding three Sports uh on the girls side we're going to add flag football which will be a high school sport in a couple years uh we started boys volleyball last year on a varsity level at the high school so we're going to add it at Middle School to help out a little bit with that and we're adding football so uh with that being said we estimate we'll have over we'll touch a thousand over thousand student athletes this year this coming year here in Middle School
011athletics which is fantastic uh now for the reason we're here um I started this thing this year this is the first time we've ever done it and it's called the superintendance cup and what the superintendance cup is is the school that does the best overall in all sports also discipline uh referrals discipline referrals is uh you get points obviously for having the least discipline referrals so um this year um for our first one Dr Robbins he wanted a cup so by God we got a cup um so uh the winner this year and I know we've got a lot of athletes and coaches and administrators from this school uh this will be a traveling trophy it will go around I said that to Mr ruford he didn't like it it was going to travel I
012said well you going to have to win every year and it won't travel so uh at this time I'd like for Brian ruford the principal of East Edo Middle School coaches and athletes come on up here and receive your first superintendent's [Applause] cup they used running the pitcher [Applause] see man all right that was awesome let's see next on the agenda we have public comments on agenda items and we have none this evening so we will go into our board chairs report and the first item up is the scsba annual convention report um and we did have several board members attend that um convention and conference this year and so at this time if anyone would would like to um give a brief report on that event that would be great if anyone has anything
013they would like to share who attended Mr Guthrie super valuable conference is really good opportunity to see what other boards and other districts are doing and really really good speakers as well I I really like the speaker about the different demographics um that are coming in the future so we have plan ahead and be ready for those and then they had a a speaker about Ai and how that's going to affect everything and if it's going to still have schools and everything but the answer is yes we're still going to have schools so that was that was pretty cool and then another really good ones on referendums so that was really timely to kind of see what other districts are have done with their referendums um so really overall really good networking opportunities for other
014school districts to to kind of see what their ideas are so it's really valuable to be able to get outside of our own district and and really get some good ideas to bring back to us great thank you very much anyone else sure um I also enjoy the the guy on generational board strategies he was there last year um but it was a little bit different a little more information um one of the things I always think is neat walking away from that is that we have four of the six Generations represented on our board that are alive today which I think is really cool and he kind of talked about how that has challenges being a multigen generational board but also how it can be our strength and so I really love that perspective
015um the South Carolina teacher of the year gave a little speech that was just very insightful and heartfelt about teacher Recruitment and Retention and just her heart and experience traveling the state and talking to teachers so I really enjoyed her message and then the referendum one gave us some really good info on just the logistics who does what as well as um just basically how they use their Pio department and the different um committees when with the referendum so I feel like that was just helpful information considering what we're about to do too so great thank you very much oh great okay hey Miss Hughes are you there miss Hugh I here we were talking about uh gasba conference a couple weeks ago anything to add um no as always though I think it was
016just a great conference um you know there's there's lots of um things that we can learn from our peers and I think um we're always very successful especially at this gaspa conference um because there's a lot of like districts in our state and um I think that you know we learn a lot from just having conversations with our years great thank you very much Miss Hughes um okay um I agree I think um there's always good information and good sessions but one of the things that really makes it information that is very useful is that it's often time talking to other districts who may have similarities and differences but um they are you know the conference um speakers and often lead the sessions and they're providing information on real things that they have gone through
017and so that's always very helpful um we also had some excellent keynote speakers as mentioned um the generational one that Miss Bates was talking about has great information that is very applicable and I think we all would agree that it's nice when you walk away with things that you can actually apply and use in your your own district and I think we found that very useful so um it was a great conference we all were very grateful for the opportunity to attend and to learn and I think that's that's one thing I see happening with this board that I really appreciate is that everyone is you know working hard to um learn as much as they can so that you know we can best represent collaborate work together so um thank you for that opportunity
018all right and now moving on we actually have on the agenda item um our next item under the board chairs report is a potential referendum resolution um we did receive some information um today from the um Dorchester County election commission um in regards to the date for that potential resolution um and um as noted we had a work work shop at 4 p.m. in regards to this um resolution as well and so we were able to discuss um that information as well as just overall um information regarding um a referendum so um at this time I think in lie of the information that we received um which is um some new information that has been brought to we may want to wait and discuss this at another time um at an at a future board
019meeting Madam chair I make a motion to table this resolution to the next board meeting um okay so at this time we have a motion to table the referendum resolution discussion until the next board meeting I'll second all right a motion has been made by Miss Bates and a second by Mr Guthrie is there any discussion yes um I am in support of the resolution and the referendum however in light of the information that was brought to us and the possibility for potential other dates that are better for the election commission and give us a little bit more more time I do think it would be appropriate to possibly discuss delaying it uh into a July date or whatever the board decides to agree on at a later date so um definitely not saying I'm
020against the referendum just saying that I do think it would be responsible to delay it okay thank you Miss Bates yeah thank you madam chair and and so the only concern and and just so the board of course understands if we do proceed to table this resolution tonight um because the original intent that we had voted on on our last board I meean the intent was was to move forward with this resolution on May 14th so if we if we are not able to uh proceed with that resolution I if we table this motion tonight I just want to be very clear to the board that we will no longer proceed with a May referendum and and again I I would speak to the fact you know when we've spoken with Dr Robbins when we've
021spoken with his team and we've spoken with our bond attorneys when when we've looked at the resolution and and please please no I I fully understand the election commission's concerns I I would say the election commission has their job to do as a school board and as a school district we have our job to do and so when we look at the time frame um it it doesn't seem like that big of a deal it just seems like oh we're moving it from you know may to July that doesn't seem like that big of a deal but when you start to get into the money's aspect when you start to get into um the timing the procurement you know we we heard earlier it's going to take two years to get some of the major
022supply chain items that we need for these schools so just by moving to July again that sounds like a two-month difference that potentially means we have a school that's now built and out of the ground and sitting idle um for quite some time you're you're talking potentially months and and I just don't know how responsible that is so again so I I fully understand the election commission concern I I think they have a job to do I also think we have a job to do Dr Robbins am I not clear that when we just met at 4 you said that if we tabled it and possibly did it in July we could stay with the same timeline yeah so I I you know I I want to be cognizant of my place in this conversation
023I make that very clear to all of you okay my job is to operationalize with our team whatever plan you guys come forward with um one of the things it it it gets tight um if we go in July but we feel like um and I have Mr Soul sitting out there so I'm not the expert in everything here but with the supply chain issues it becomes tight but we do think it's possibly accomplishable um it does make the window of opportunity much much narrower uh and again I will share just publicly like I shared with you all this is so much different than if we were building a new Somerville Elementary School and we were going to move into it after school had already started this is a this will be a a reconsolidated
024rezoned school and so we obviously we can't do that and to Mr farnsworth's point if we don't hit that timeline then it could set um but we just don't know um you know we don't have Crystal Ball to know what the supply chain um issues are going to be like in the future and what the labor force is going to be like but we what we will tell you is some of those things that we can be working on in preparation we are doing um to try to um expedite the process whenever the board would choose and the community if they would support this would choose as well M yes Miss Hughes go ahead um I I agree with um Mr Horn's words and and everything that he's pointed out but I'd also like to
025point one other thing out um I don't know how many uh or how much research has been done in other districts that are surrounding us and the referendums that are going to be on the ballot coming up um for all those other districts but something we need to take note of if we don't get this referendum and get it and get passed by the public in May then we are going to be fighting for even our um construction companies to um to be able to get us in there to because because of all the building that's going to be going on all the new construction that's going to be happening which is another reason why cost is going to be driven out of the roof because the construction companies are going to be in high
026demand at that time so if we get it we get it off the ground sooner we get out there and we get our construction companies chosen we're ahead of the game we're ahead of all the other districts that are out there thus saving us money and saving us time okay thank you Miss Hughes well I I was on the fence rather we go in July I had a problem with that because of vacation um and folks being out of town but then miss the way Miss Hughes brought it home is there are other companies that will be bidding for the contractors and we need to be ahead of the game so um I'm okay with the May I'd like to add too you know the supply chain oh I'm sorry were you through no I'm
027I'm good the supply chain you know will be exhausted also with a lot of people doing these referendums so if you know the first if we can get our foot in the door first you know maybe we can get our supplies because right now like Mr Souls told us before it takes two years to get an air conditioning unit almost is that correct Mr Souls what you said yeah so um it it's just something that we need to move forward on as quickly as possible and like Mr forworth said you know you we have a job to do as well as the um Election Commission so I I I think we need to move on forward with it and get it going okay so at this time I have a motion in a second to
028table the referendum resolution and I'm going to go ahead and call for the vote on whether not we are tbling it that is the question are we just going to table it till the next meeting and again I just want to be very clear so by if we table this for tonight the May referendum is is completely off the table that that so basically we're voting on a July referendum by tbling this resolution right yes if we table it our time frame we miss for May uh the only reason I proposed tbling it is because in the workshop it was discussed that a July referendum would allow us to stay on the T same time frame while being respectful of the election commission's concerns and I thought it would be a compromise and a happy
029medium as well as give us more time to advertise and have our time to promote the referendum so you want and I and I don't want to overstep but just to be very very clear so for members voting yay on this motion if you vote yay to the motion to table this there will no longer be a May referendum the referendum potentially would be July if you vote no to table this motion there very well could be another motion to to pass the resolution for May Oh I thought Ved already Yes we okay okay did you get that Miss Graham no so she's voting Miss Hughes is voting no are you able to vote for her okay that's fine okay I see oh you are what' he say he's Lo she's not up there though
030but she's not up there no she's not okay yay okay so just it doesn't pass there it goes okay now I've got it I'm sorry I apologize okay so at this time the motion fails we have um two in favor and I'm sorry five against so the motion does not pass Madam chair I'd like to make a motion um in accordance with the latest version of the resolution I'm looking at so this is version six of the document in our packet I'd like to make a motion ordering a referendum in school district number two of Dorchester County South Carolina to submit the question of what whether the school district shall issue not exceeding $200 million General obligation bonds at one time or from time to time providing for the form of ballot to be used
031providing for notice of the referendum and providing for all other things necessary to submit the afor said question this document lays out a May 14th referendum date yeah second okay sorry thank you very much okay so at this time we have a motion by Mr farnworth and a second by Miss Hughes regarding the May 14th May 14th referendum resolution as well as the question that is included in your packet so I have a motion and a second do I have any discussion um I just want to say because it was the will of the board to move forward with me I absolutely will support the will of the board and as I support the question um I just wanted that to be noted on record yeah and and I just want be very clear I
032I am very very very cognizant of the election commission's concerns um it it is not lost on me that there are concerns that that is a heavy lift for them of course that is um you know prime time there's a lot of Elections going on again I go back to the fact that that the election commission has their job to do we have our job to do as as a school district I feel it's incumbent on us um to proceed with with these types of issues uh without haste we we've waited a long time we we've needed these monies for a long time and then the last piece and again I apologize for for getting on the Soap Box the last piece I I would just say for me personally to Dr Robbins um also
033very cognizant of the heavy lift uh this puts on you as as well as everybody in the district you know when when we look to do this in May um that's that's a quick turnaround and so you know the the expectation is a very quick ramp up period um you know I will certainly absolutely 100% vote Yes for this referendum it it is beyond needed for our students for our teachers for our community and so I know that's a lot of work for the district to get the information out as well as stand up some committees yes for schools there will be a lot of work and so again I just want to say that I appreciate that upfront and and look forward to that work I agree Miss Crosby um just just for the
034public knowledge um the referendum is means there will be no tax increase and there will be no um millage increase so it's not going to cost you anything except to vote for what you want yes or no okay thank you m Crosby okay I thought I was done miss m i it something has happened Miss Crosby and I are like agreeing on a lot of stuff tonight Hallelujah I so she has spot on and again I would be a remiss if we did from the onset and and I want the community to hear it I want everybody here to hear this and and I'm putting this out for information we are looking at this as a no millage increase to provide Capital funding to our school district much much much much much needed Capital funding
035of $200 million with no millage increase to our community we haven't done a bond referendum in 20 since 2012 we have been very very very fiscally responsible with our money we're now able to look at some Bond res at some debt restructuring that allows us the opportunity this is an opportunity not many districts in the state of South Carolina have this opportunity but because of what we've done and miss m and Dr robins and the entire team we're now a position to be able to offer this opportunity to the community to bring in capital funds people complain every day we don't have enough space we don't have enough classroom space we're we're you know filling out the the doors we're filing out the doors this is an opportunity for the public to say we support
036public education at a no millage increase no millage increase doesn't happen very often and so again I'm going to I'm going to be on the bandwagon I will be 100% voting yes for this Reverend and I just want to say I am definitely voting for the May because I don't want us to basically waste money in pay for overage when we could have gotten it less um if we had voted earlier to go ahead and get it started so um I'm all about more time because the more time we have the more we can get that message out but I do believe that the committee that Dr Robins is forming will basically be able to carry out the job that needs to be done so um if it's going to benefit the district I'm all
037for it and I believe this will and I hate to like chime in because I just I feel like it got lost in here I was never voting no to the referendum I was debating the date so let me just make that very clear thank you absolutely thank you all right so at this time we have a motion and a second let's call for the vote all in favor okay and the motion carries seven in favor zero against unanimous all right now we will move into our committee reports we'll turn to our policy committee Miss Bates our chair yes thank you madam chair um currently right now I'm trying to see if there's anything in our packet but okay um the dates are on the website I don't know them offand for our policy committee
038meetings we did meet today at 5:00 pm that is live streamed if you'd like to go back and watch it we don't have any policies for first reading today but we will at the next board meeting and that's all I have okay thank you Miss Bates our finance committee Mr Guth do you have anything for us this evening nothing tonight all right thank you and our facilities committee Mr Farnsworth um thank you madam chair we do have our facilities walkthroughs starting this week and so board members you should have calendar invites thank you Wanda for for sending those out I know that's a heavy lift so we appreciate that um so starting this week and then those go I think through March obviously we will be going through all of our facilities um so please
039as you can board members um please plan to attend those if any of those times change from day to day if we get finish it at school early or or something goes after uh we will make sure probably through Miss Thomas to to get that out to the board as quickly as we can so folks can meet us at the facilities so thank you okay thank you Mr barnsworth next on the agenda is our superintendent report so I will let Dr Robbins take over thank you uh madam chair members of the board good evening I know we've had a a Long Afternoon um I wanted to just start off by saying um you know I had a chance to go to cosba which is the new National um basically school boards association meeting with several
040of our board members and um was very proud um as they were presenters um they represented our um district and our community really well I really appreciated the time and effort they put into um safety their safety presentation about Chester um and you know unfortunately laying the foundation of why we got to where we were was some unpleasant things for the attendees to see but it's really common in um communities and it showed a very proactive and collaborative attempt to address a need in our community and our school district so just so you know um they did a wonderful job um and it was I'm always reminded that a presentation goes over well when there's a question answer session and you have a lot of questions if you get no questions as a presenter you're
041like well that probably didn't go over so well but the questions that they fielded at the end were almost as long as the presentation itself so I think that is representative of a wonderful presentation so the three of you thanks for your time and effort to put that together and I thought you represented us amazingly uh with that being said the first on the superintendent's report tonight is our finance report and I'll turn it over to our CFO Miss Manet um good evening Madam chair board members and Dr Robbins um this evening we are presenting the January 31 2024 Financial reports U we always compare with the January 31 of the prior year um just to tell you for our January of the current year our total assets were $63 m332 I know that looks
042a little a little bit different than the prior year um just to point out that our cash balance investment amounts are lower um and that's reflected in our net change in fund balance that you could also see further down the report and that's because we received our um property tax collections from Dorchester County that they collect for us we received that last year in January and this year we received it in February so we have a little timing issue with that so it looks like we're um lower on our monies than we were last year at this time but timing difference um our total liabilities at um the end of January were 8.1 million um total fund balance was 54.9 which left us with a balancing amount of the 63 million of liabilities and fund
043balance that match our assets um on the um general fund schedule of revenues expenditures and changes in fund balance you can see that first line there for our taxes um the county collected the money again um I'm sorry can we go back to that prior one that's okay it's the it's the report on the right um again we we see that we had received $27 million from the collections that the county collects for us this isn't money that the county gives us this is money that they collect for us um so they um have given us$ 27.3 million year to dat through January and they had sent us 49 million as of last last year at the same time so just a little bit of a timing difference I just wanted to point that out
044to you um we're still in good shape for overall as we do our projections which if you will go to the next slide thank you Miss Graham um you can see in our cash flow statement we are in the middle of the page in January column um if we go down to if we look at the February column that's where you can see where we got the big um$ 31.5 million from the county for those property taxes um if you go all the way over to our projections on on the total it looks like right now we can see that we will receive actually $3 million more than what was originally projected from the county when they gave us our original projections back in the spring of last year when we were working on the
045um the budget um our interest income looks like it will be $2 million over from what was originally anticipated some of our state monies are over you can see in the state aid to classrooms and act 388 um tier three monies however our second portion of the state a to classrooms versus the state um uh special Revenue fund portion that's a transfer is actually less than what they had originally projected but all of that being said we um anticipate you can see um that last number in green over there is 266 368 708 Which is higher than what we had originally anticipated for our revenues um so even with our expenditures we had it looks like we will be only $1 million um in expenditures over revenues where we had originally anticipated $4.4 million in
046expenditures over revenues so with our additional um property tax revenues coming in and our interest income we look like we're going to be better than we anticipated so yay and the year's not over yet um the last section down on the bottom is our food service fund balance um through January our food service ended up almost the same place where we began our um fund balance for this year it looks larger for the month of January because again for timing differences we had received some um some Billings from sedexo that we just had to make sure all of our numbers were were in the right place teased crossed eyes dotted so we were holding some of those ex um invoices until the month of January so those were paid out so we're doing well for
047our our food service account um I was going to share that I will be attending the um the state um School business officials Conference next week and the state um Department of Education will be there to present some figures hopefully some um projections for what we may receive from the state there are a couple of different numbers floating around um right now the the governor's proposed budget had um discussed increasing the teacher salaries to 4 5,000 um as a starting salary the um budget has gone now to the house Ways and Means Committee and they have um discussed moving it to 47,000 so we're curious to see how much money the state will be sending to the districts for us to be able to increase to that amount um but if it is the new
048state minimum salary schedule we will be required to go to those numbers so looking forward to getting some information next week about that and that's all I had a you you had any questions for me does anyone have any questions okay do I have a motion to approve the finance report as information so moved okay motion by Miss Bates is there a second second by Mr Guth any discussion okay all in [Music] favor okay all right sorry so all in favor please signify by raising your hand okay so the motion carries six in favor one absent thank you thank you thanks Miss man um next up I have Mr Souls um from facilities good evening Madam chair members of the board Dr Robin just a few highlights tonight to touch on the uh lighting upgrade
049over it span nville that is already underway we've been able to change out couple of wings of lights over there the HVAC equipment for that project is already a lot of it's already ordered and uh some of it starting to come in on during the march time frame uh one thing I need to touch on the media center at fordor Chester High School uh we have the contractor selected he's been on the hook now for about six weeks and uh as soon as we get anou approved we can put him to work in the media center there at the high school U we reached out to the vendor uh for the uh mobiles at San Hill Elementary and those should be delivered sometime around the spring break time frame uh Community Learning Center renovation uh
050the proposals were open opened on front Thursday we evaluated those on Friday and the intent to award went out today um the only other thing I had to add was the uh the Green Wave Boulevard sidewalk I want to talk about that just for a few minutes that's kind of new uh to everybody probably we had a meeting with do uh about the Burling G Myers extension going in and where it connects to Green W Boulevard so we've got some concerns we got some concerns for not only our student pedestrian traffic but all pedestrian traffic on Green wve Boulevard because now that will be a thoroughfare all the way from 17A to Burling G and so we're there's no sidewalks on that road anywhere um we talked at length with uh uh mayor Touchberry and
051some folks from the county folks from do um I went out and I talked to an engineer we have a concept of how to put that sidewalk in and uh we're going to go ahead and I want everybody to see that concept before uh we get too far down the road uh I just got it today so I'll be disseminating that information uh I want everybody to look at it it's it's the county it's a County Road the county has the rideway the town would do the permitting and it's kind of it's uh it's it's pretty uh pretty involved everybody's going to be involved in it to some degree but I think the the main thing there to remember is it's for a safety uh Miss Grace has reached out to Cog and we're we're
052trying to figure out the best possible way to get a sidewalk from 17A to Berlin G Meyers so that's that's where we are right now um the cost on that would would be incur we would have to bear the cost of that uh as we have found uh since we are the primary uh creator of foot traffic in that area it's it's our responsibility to take care of our kids so um that's going to be coming down the pipe and when it comes it's going to come pretty hard and pretty fast so we want to get uh get things spun up as quickly as possible and get taken care of and like like I discussed in the in the workshop just food for thought uh lead times uh in talking to uh utility folks uh
053Transformers are two years out some of the larger HVAC equipment a year and a half two years out we just received we ordered a chiller for Somerville High School about 14 months ago it's in the crane yard now we're going to install that over spring break so that that's that's a that's pretty common place for for large equipment these days is is uh uh you know 12 to 12 months to two years so and sometimes if you know some of the specialized equipment I know switch gear switch gear has been hard to find for about three years now we had that uh problem with Fort norchester High School several years ago we were able to get that stuff from all around the country and kind of piece me something together that was safe and work
054so but it's a it's it's very very hard to find that kind of that kind of equipment right now so and the only the only other thing I have to say is uh invite y'all out to all the school visits we've got scheduled between now and April 4th any questions yeah no thanks Mr Souls I just you know they're working over time with what little they have I appreciate his team um and you'll see when you do these site visits the things that they've tried to prepare for so I appreciate that that Tony um the next thing I have on um the agenda tonight is um we're going to have a dose of an academic report every single um board meeting tonight is more about Communications from our edtech department um I think it's important
055that we do our best to disseminate some of this information to our families when it comes to the things that are taking place in the classroom we feel like we have a new solution that will allow us to consolidate many different solutions that we've been using and be more efficient with that so I have Dr s and Miss BOS we coming down uh their team has worked really hard um to try to put a a good thing together for our community so Dr sangal turn it over to you and Shelly thank you um Madame chair Dr rans uh school board members uh it's a privilege really to come and share with you some of uh what we've been doing in the bu back end uh to try to improve One Security and also Communications because
056to be able to get good security you have to be able to communicate right to get the the message out to people and so um one of the things we're going to show you or share with you is uh a product that we identified uh that is going to really be a good communication tool within schools among teachers among administrators and then all to the families so we'll share that with you so you see what we're trying to do at that end uh secondly we're also going to share with you um the effort that we're making for teachers in the classroom to be able to make calls and receive calls to be able to communicate by replacing what we have right now which is analog system that they only have to press a button to
057where we actually have font systems within the classrooms those are two major projects that we have taken and we just want to update you on th uh on those today with me or tonight with me is of course you know Miss Shelly uh she is the assistant director of of course for our Systems Technology responsible for I check this this evening just before we came in here 73.3 million devices in our school district which she manages and make sure that each one of them is working properly every day and then um we have uh Brian Allison who is our network engineer one of our network engineer that will talk about the phones um he is the one who is trying to not trying he's designing redesigning our data center and has done a great job
058at that um but again um i' would let them speak for those two things uh to you and update you in what's going on shy so do you have the PowerPoint that's in there or just the um that just that video which is fine I think I I can go with the flow whatever you'd like to I had that awesome video in there sh we're definitely showing the awesome video okay if if nothing else so my part in this is to really talk about the mass communication system and some changes that are coming our way so you can go ahead and move along to the next slide great so two topics today first one mass communication system when we talk about that we're talking about phone calls um emails texts all of those Communications that
059go home from the district as well as the school leadership as well and some changes are coming for that if we take a look at the next slide I do want you to know that of course the education technology Services team is not the only one who helps to make these decisions there are definitely lots of other people that are involved and Department So speaking with public information talking with school leadership District leadership safety all of these people are involved we're not just making that decision but we do help to make sure that the choice if it does involve technology is secure and it's safe and it's the right choice for our district and taking a look at our goal you're you're she's making sure I memorize this so our goal is to identify and
060select a platform where all district and school interactions are carried out in a single userfriendly and a secure platform so it was really important to us to find that you might be wondering have some questions why are we switching what's wrong with what we have um hopefully I predicted all 23 of your questions in the video that you're about to see and if I did a good job hopefully you won't have any when it's once it's done okay thank you Dorchester 2 is always looking for ways to continuously improve today we will take a look at current communication platforms used throughout the district and ways we can consolidate similar products within a central unified system it's important to note that final site connect our main application used for district and school messaging is being phased
061out and will no longer be available next school year as a result we knew this would be the perfect time not only research and select a new messaging application but make it our goal to identify application that would unify all district and school interactions on a single secure platform that makes communication easier for all stakeholders currently there are a variety of communication applications being used by district and school leadership teachers parents and students ultimately families can become overwhelmed with the various applications being used to to send Communications especially if they have multiple children at different schools and with multiple teachers and in effort to consolidate a duplication of programs we identify the need for one unified platform that includes three main areas Mass notifications for district and school leadership classroom Communications for teachers and staff
062and additional school and community servic feedback from our district families indicates the unified platform we choose must allow parents to choose to receive messages via phone text email and we using a mobile app or web platform feedback from our technology engineers indicated the program we select must follow all safety and security policies and it must seamlessly integrate with pow school to allow for an easy flow of data and single sign on as well as other features like automated attendance and lunch notifications district and school leadership noted the platform must provide a dashboard to allow leaders to manage and monitor Communications as well as measure parent engagement and participation in in addition the program we select must allow for the ease of sharing everyday activities via post pictures and files it must also allow for two-way
063translated Communications and don't forget scheduling appointments and conferences after several months of reviewing various communication platforms we believe we've identified the application that meets the unique needs of dd2 let's take a look at parents Square our new schoolto home communication platform thanks for visiting parents Square our goal is to help you streamline your communication and parent engagement efforts across your schools Parent Square unifies communication for all stakeholders and is 100% parent Centric that means that everyone is using the same platform including teachers principes staff admin even the superintendent here we're logged in as a principal at Lincoln Elementary School as an admin in parents Square I know exactly what's going on at my school and have full access and insight into all school to home communication I can also send out messages to the entire
064school or I can send to specific grade levels classrooms or groups we integrate and sync on a nightly basis with your student information system to ensure accurate reach at all times and minimal effort for all users to to get started there are three main ways to communicate in parent Square alerts and notifications posts and private chats let's start by sending out an emergency alert from the app traditional onewe alerts and emergency notifications Deliver Us phone calls emails text or app notifications you can also send alerts from the web portal the second way to communicate in parent square is via a post sending posts are for day-to-day communication used by teach teachers for their classroom communication and administrators for school or districtwide communication a teacher has access to send messages to their classroom grade level and
065select groups only and roles can be restricted even further posts include plenty of different features such as photos and files links and item requests if you're sharing an event you can quickly add it to your event calendar which syns with your existing calendars you can also request RSVPs ask for a few volunteers you can also send forms electronically through parent Square paper permission slips often end up lost at the bottom of students backpacks ensure your important forms are delivered directly to parents by adding a digital form with optional electronic signature to your post you can also send out newsletters with our newsletter template option we build everything in house so the look and feel will remain the same whether you use one or all of our add-ons a post will reach parents via email text
066or app notification depending on their preference the third main way to communicate in parent square is via private chats one to one or one to many parents can also initiate these private chats if they want to reach their child's teacher and all communication is done via the private portal or app now that everyone at your school or district is using the same communication platform we can gather statistics for you and help measure not only reach and delivery but also parent engagement and usage also admin can assign different roles with restricted access so you know with confidence that your staff are communicating with the right group class and grade level at all times a district account will have super user access available to communicate districtwide alerts and announcements as well as insight and access to all
067site communication including private chats as you can see there's no need to go outside of parent Square for any of your communication and parent engagement needs parent Square offers us all of our district and school interactions on a simple secure platform now that parent square has been selected let's take a look at the implementation timeline beginning in February we'll begin to communicate to our stakeholders and begin data integration March and April will provide training to school leadership and staff beginning in April we'll setle the launch date to transition from connect to pant square and throughout the summer we'll continue to Monitor and provide support as needed thank you for joining us today and allowing us to share the upcoming improvements to our communication systems Dorchester 2 is always looking for ways to continuously so good
068that's right I don't have a cool video so um we um we're going to replace all the analog intercom systems in the schools these things have been around since the schools have been built um we can't get parts for them anymore it's a huge safety issue so we're leveraging the Cisco phone system that the district's already invested in uh putting a phone in every classroom yeah um each school is going to have its own extension or classroom will have its own extension there's a button on the phone that's basically going to take the place of the button that used to be on the wall in the classroom they push it it can ring one or a hundred phones whatever the school wants um for their security reasons um the teachers can also call parents from
069the phones uh let's see Yeah we actually started this install last week vill got finished on Friday we started Greg today and if all goes well we'll be done the end of March hopefully um these five schools are already done um that's okay so that's a technology person talking okay and and really I mean that's that's what we do right you know sit at the back he loves and by the way we live here he's going back to the school to make sure that the you know installations today are going well um to be honest this challenges as we look at those these kinds of approaches that we we're working on we do not just work on our own it's a vision it's Dr Robins has given us a task to look at how we
070can improve security how we can improve Communications and we have this digital ecosystem that we'll be working on and this is really a piece of that whole puzzle and so as we continue to build that system in our school district we're hoping that we'll be able to address all the issues and concerns and be able to help our students and staff succeed thank you does anybody have any questions yep apologies to to be that guy I do have a few so and and I'm just trying to understand maybe the scope a little bit of what we're at so what we're replacing so program so we've got like Dojo Power School schoology so will all of that feed through this no schoy is not going away schoy is a learning management system that's different that's why
071I teaching learning text Place uh but things like Dojo yes we'll probably replace that and we'll work with teachers who are already doing that to show them how this application actually covers and does all of those functions so they'll still I mean in theory so again a schooly being an LMS so they'll still have to look in multiple places they'll have to look in schooly there could be information here correct that's correct that's correct because again uh when you think about schoy it's purely academic right it's looking at student learning student teaching and everything that has to do with teaching takes place in school schy whereas this is Communications how you communicate with the parents on a daily basis uh two different applications for what they do so what the jumping off of what he
072said the power school though I did see it says it's integrated so would you essentially log in power school or would you log into the app to like view stuff that you normally view to power school I know it doesn't replace power school it says it's integrated with it correct yes and so would you like log into this thing and then view your grades and all that that way or school still separate yeah Power School is still separate and power school is if you will the guard of all our data that's all where everything sits every application that we have has to go to Power School to you know to get that information that does not change this is an add-on where we communicate with parents with our students athletes with their coaches and all
073that everything takes place in terms of communications that's all this does um transportation information can will that be through here or that's still separate yeah no I think we can do the transportation um again this is the messaging and the communication piece and so all those separate things I'm certain that the transportation message as well right yeah and the reason for the questions I'm as a parent if we're going to say we're consolidating then let's consolidate a lot of communications because I we have to go to a lot of different places to get information um and and I'm going to be that guy and I'm going to ask it in public what what's the cost of this program $2 no just joking you remember what uh Chad are you there do you remember the I
074mean I don't want to oh yeah here's the finance person why am I talking to he sorry he said 130,000 per year okay but remember we're replacing Blackboard also so we are replacing one that we already paid and toing right so there's some savings I think potentially and then this I just want to again understand the cost of it do we know what that differences and and you know one thing that I think Chad Chad Chad is who always talks about this one of the issue one of the functions that actually is really good here is that all Communications done through uh parent square is archived so if ever we have a problem somebody has sent a child or or something has happen within the system we can always get that right now we do
075not have a platform where we can figure out what's going on who sent what message um because sometimes it may it by email but in this case everything is encompassed in one application one platform got it thank you so I have a couple questions too so what about Athletics would that be a part of this or would that still be like will coaches have access to it yes yes okay that's correct yes um and then like volunteer organizations like ptas and that such yes they will as well okay great thank you thank you thank you very much Madam chair the next thing I have on tonight's agenda is our Personnel report and our student um enrollment recommendations okay board members in your packet we did receive the information for the um recommendations and resignations so
076if everyone is okay with doing that in Open Session I will entertain a motion make that okay thank you Miss Crosby motion motion by Miss Crosby seconded by Mr Guthrie any discussion okay at this time I'll call for the vote Yes it looks like it is digital yeah no it's okay kind of it's not on mine yet either okay it looks like the motion carries six in favor and one absent all right and additionally for the Stu student enrollment recommendations if everyone is okay with doing that in Open Session um as presented in your packets I will again take a motion so moved okay motion to accept that by Mr Guthrie second to by Miss Bates any discussion okay hearing now again we will call for the vote okay and the motion carries six in
077favor and one absent thank you okay thank you Dr Robbins and now we have moved into our public comment on non-agenda items and at this time this evening we have one public comment Miss Britney Mahoney please come forward hold on I'm short thank you so much for letting me speak tonight so I'm actually here on behalf of a father of a 13-year-old boy um at Oak Brook Middle School he works nights so he was not able to be here so I'm speaking on his behalf um you should have his email and contact information already sent to you guys so you have what so he is he is real um so this parent came to me um regarding the Scholastic Book Fair his son uh was looking for a short chapter series or whatever to read
078and he stumbled Upon A series that sort of shocked him that was not really what he was looking for um so telling his father the father called the principal the principal didn't call him back sent an email didn't hear back and then the assistant principal uh called him back and basically just said it was no big deal well upon my research um you guys decide if it's a big deal so volume one contains the fword that rhymes with duck 16 times the DW that rhymes with sick eight times volume two contains the FW six times um the dword four times volume three contains the F-word 15 times and the DW two times I think we can all agree here there's no noun adjective or verb that makes those words at all educational or okay so
079I I don't know what your what Your definition is that's inappropriate in any level um and if you think otherwise then I have the excerpts you can read it to your kids tonight um so his question is who oversees these books at the Scholastic Book Fair and who chooses them and um I do know that Miss Bates did talk about the Scholastic Book Fair and having other options when will these other options come about because there needs to be oversight that there's a book books that contain such things and also so you know that I'm not lying I have the series right here um and Madame chair with permission I'd like to give them to you you guys can read them look through them but I think there needs to be some more options because
080that's not appropriate in a book fair for a 13-year-old boy to stumble upon thank you okay thank you Miss Mahoney all right so um at this time I need a motion to convene into executive session for a contractual matter related to the Dorchester County North Charleston Fort Dorchester High School library still moved motion by Miss Bates second seconded by Miss Powell any discussion all in favor I think we have to do an electronic vote again [Music] please okay and the motion carries six in favor and one absent so we are in executive session we will return to open session motion to convene reconvene into Open session so moved motion made by Mr Guthrie seconded by Miss Crosby any discussion okay all in favor I think we have electronic [Music] voting okay and the motion passes
081six in favor and one absent all right you don't have six yeah five I miss you said no I'm changing it okay I don't go down in history motion passes six in favor all right we are we are back in Open session all right and do I have a motion any other motions Madam chair I make a motion to accept theou with the changes as presented in executive session okay thank you Miss still I have a second seconded by Mr fars worth any discussion okay all in favor um it will be it's okay okay and it looks like the motion passes six in favor and one absent do I have a motion to adjourn so moved motion made by Miss Crosby seconded by Miss Bates all in favor you have to vote electronically all right
082and the motion carries six in favor and one absent we are adjourned praise the Lord