001as as Kil Hughes and Barbara Crosby lead the board bless them to enjoy the rest of their lives and thank you for their service and everything they they've accomplished on this board in your name we pray Amen on this Veterans Day alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liy and justice for all you to war your uniform welcome to the November 11th Veterans Day 20124 board meeting um and just um before we move into the board meeting I would like to say I know several of us up here had the absolute pleasure of attending Veterans Day Celebrations at many of our schools and they were wonderful and we just appreciate so much all that our school do the staff in
002our schools our students and our families do to support this very important day and to honor the people who've served so um at this time turn it over to Miss Hughes to please read our vision and our mission I think I'd like to do something just a little bit different but if you can if you can see the screen I know some of you are pretty far back and you can't see the screen but if we could all just repeat this together um beginning with our M our vision um if we could just repeat it and then we'll move on into our mission okay our vision is Dorchester School District 2 desires to be recognized as a worldclass school district expecting each student to achieve at his or her optimal level in all areas and
003providing all members of our district family with an environment that permits them to do their personal best okay moving on to our mission leading the way every student every day through relationships relevance and rigor thank you very much thank you Miss Hughes all right at this time I would ask for a motion to approve our consent agenda so Move Motion made by Mr Guthrie do I have a second seconded by Miss Hughes any discussion or questions okay hearing none we will call for the vote okay and the motion carries seven in favor all right and our next item on our agenda tonight are our district highlights Miss Troy will will step up to the podium to bring us those this evening thank you good evening board chair Dr wimbley superintendent Dr Robbins and our esteem
004board members I am going to turn the podium over at this time to Ralph Hayes and then I will return to close it out thank you Miss Troy um Madame chair Wimberly superintendent Robbins and members of the board um I am so humbled to be here tonight to um have the Somerville Italian fees come and recognize us and give their annual donation back from the festival that was held last month we have been so blown away with the growth of this event and we're so thankful for their board and their leadership who really have established the Italian Feast as one of the Marquee events in Dorchester County each year and we're so thankful that it allows us a platform to showcase the many talents that we have within dd2 um Jason Walsh does a phenomenal
005job with us of getting our students to perform throughout the day to provide entertainment Emily detis with the culinary kids and getting them out there to have real world experience selling items to raise money for their organization and just as somebody who gets to be there and see the behind the scenes of this group of individuals um I I just I hope that I am making the impact that you guys are making for the rest of my life because it really is something that um that I want to strive to do so I'd love to introduce Mr Jay Lombardo and the Italian Feast team if they want to say a quick word and make their presentation well thank you very much for uh allowing us to be part of the Dorchester District 2 uh Community
006First of all I want to say one thing though um I got to say to Ralph happy birthday Ralph and also um uh to all those that have been um I call it an honor to serve our country so I want to thank uh each and everyone that has served um our country especially as we recognize U Veterans Day today so Italian Feast 12th year we are uh happy to be part of the uh Somerville area uh we started giving some donations to the um uh dd2 Educational Foundation about five years ago uh we had a goal of $1,000 in that 5year period we ran into a little thing called covid so we were a little short I think we were at $91,500 um towards that 100,000 hour goal but I think we're going to
007do a little bit different this year uh two years ago we started something called the 5K meatball run and our uh race director Conor Moody came up with an idea idea to create somebody called Luigi so Luigi's right here she may or may not put it on but I'd like to bring up the rest of the board and we're going to give um uh Ralph and U the district a donation tonight [Applause] I just want to say as well this reveal is a big secret they we interviewed with the news earlier today and they wouldn't tell me what the donation amount is so we're really anxious to see this so thank you Jay well every year we like to give a little B to, [Applause] real quick too if everyone would just just allow us
008to more because they have given over $100,000 we had this award ality [Applause] for so run one of DD 2's finest Traditions is the celebration of academic achievement and the annual academic Awards program held at all three of our high schools since 1995 we celebrated the achievement of 1769 students from Ashley Ridge Fort Dorchester and Somerville High School who had an academic average of 88 or above honores received a bronze medal and an academic letter their first year the second award is a silver medal and star to place on their letter and a third award is a gold medal and a star one senior from each of our high schools had the opportunity to win a $11,000 scholarship by writing an essay about their academic accomplishments and what the scholarship would mean to them our
009scholarship committee selected the winners and three students were recognized at their schools programs as the fifth lowest um funded School District in the state of South Carolina this special program would not be possible but but for the support of our generous sponsors at this time I'd like to introduce Dr Courtney Howard from the College of Charleston our Platinum sponsor to say a few [Applause] words good evening I am Courtney Howard vice president for diversity equity and inclusion at the College of Charleston we are excited to be longstanding supporters of the Dorchester District 2 academic Awards program it was with great honor that we were able to be the Platinum sponsor this year partnering with dd2 is important to us and simply makes sense Dorchester county is in the top 10 counties in terms of admission
010applications we receive from students in South Carolina over the last four years we have received approximately 1300 applications from dd2 seniors over 200 have entered as firste students including over 25 who participated in our summerbridge program for underrepresented students for this year's incoming first year class Ashley Ridge sent us 19 students making it one of our top feeder high schools in South Carolina this year alone we have received over 200 applications from your seniors 25 of whom have applied to our Honors College and we expect these numbers to continue to grow each year we participate in college application day at Somerville Fort Dorchester and Ashley Ridge High Schools and this allows us to support students in their college application process whether they apply to the College of Charleston or not in our 4-year honors comprehensive
011experience we currently have seven firste students from dd2 four who graduated from Ashley Ridge two from Fort Dorchester and one from Somerville in our new 2-year honors Scholars cohort program we have another six students from dd2 one from Ashley Ridge Two from Fort Dorchester and three from Somerville the Charleston fellows program is a top Scholars Program within our Honors College and two of our current Charleston fellows are from dd2 one from Ashley Ridge and one from Somerville I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that we have many College of Charleston employees including myself whose children attend dd2 schools or whose spouses are Partners work for the district so the connections between our institutions run long and deep and we're excited to strengthen this through this year's Platinum sponsorship thank you for this [Applause]
012opportunity please join me in congratul ulating our scholarships winners please come forward to be recognized and photographed with the board Dr Robbins and Dr Howard Carter Hatcher of Ashley rid High [Applause] School harrisa Moran ver of Fort Dorchester High School and Chandler war of Somerville High School again [Applause] congratulations thank you dd2 is proud to recognize San Hill Elementary School as a National Blue Ribbon School it is one of four South Carolina schools and the only public school to earn this prestigious National designation this year the school is the school is one of the top performing Elementary School in dd2 academically earning an overall rating of excellent on the 2223 South Carolina state report card under the leadership and principal of Franca Gerald currently the school has 1,167 students 156 staff members and is led
013by principal Vincent Joy the United States Department of Education recognized San Hill Elementary School and 355 other schools as National Blue rimon schools at an award ceremony last week in Washington DC San Hill was recognized for their overall academic performance and has demonstrated what is possible to make an enduring positive difference in student lives San Hill Elementry is the seventh Dorchester District to school to be named a National Blue Ribbon school again congratulations s Hill Elementary School Dr Joy Dr Joy please come forward here right okay so we will go on to the next one we are so excited to announce that we have four visual art Educators who have won Statewide awards from the South Carolina art Educators Association these teachers were nominated by their peers and were selected by a committee of our
014Educators from across the state they operate with a level of care and professionalism that exemplifies students first with Grace and excellent please come forward to be recognized as your name is called Stephanie shank Fort Dorchester High School Stephanie is being recognized as our educator of the Year this award represents all grade tiers and is chosen as the overall South Carolina visual art educator which demonstrates excellent in the C in the classroom advocacy for students Visual Arts as a professional artist and service to the State art to the State art community Megan Slappy Newington Elementary School Megan is the young professional of the Year this award represents an individual regardless of grade level with within their first 5 years of teaching that demonstrates excellence in the classroom service to the art community and art advocacy to
015the state level Kelly brasen Span Elementary School Kelly is receiving this award for youth art month this award is presented to an individual that has demonstrated outstanding advocacy and service to represent students and the importance of our education within youth art month and finally April cross Knightsville Elementary [Applause] School April is receiving the elementary educator of the Year this is presented to a teacher nominated by their peers that represents the highest achievement in excellence in teaching professionalism advocacy and service to our elementary Visual Arts students once again please join me in celebrating their amazing [Applause] accomplishment thank you and that incl concludes our highlights for this evening all right moving on to our next agenda item we have public comments on agenda items and this evening we have one Mr brocker I'm going to start
016without my normal cordial introduction I'm going to ask that the eight human beings that are sitting behind a desk on a stage right now consider whether or not to remove my timer tonight I have two sets of notes written up one of them fits in the other I can talk more about what I need to talk about I'll give you 10 seconds okay so that was a portion of my 180 seconds that I have you proved my first point that you can have good people I'm making an assumption good people with good intentions looking at a rule that's in front of them that they don't agree with now maybe you do or don't want to give me more than my three minutes and that's fine I have a little less than two and a half
017minutes left I want to talk to you about your board goals for 2025 to 2028 because I've been at this Podium over two dozen times I've spoken about things from how we need to see each other's point about covid masks or whether or not we should cancel school or whether or not parents are getting upset about whether or not their schedule has been altered because of the buses I've gotten up here dozens of times and cordially spoken within my time limits I feel like several of you know why I'm here tonight and would gladly say that I should have more than another minute and 20 seconds but these are the policies that are set and these are the policies that we follow so right now I want to talk about the anti-bullying policy I want
018to talk about the lack of following that policy I want to talk about the thousands of different versions I've gone through in my head that end with only two answers why did my family not get the help we asked for lack of resources or lack of authority I have never met a teacher that has not wanted to help a child I know you have a policy that says bullying will not be tolerated that policy is not being followed there are more students that are at risk inside the walls of your school not outside the walls of your school not worried about Shoring up the borders but talking about the mental health of the students in our district the mental health of the staff in our district to repeatedly say and I've talked about this before
019I've got a different perspective today to repeatedly say that to hold the banner of we do so much with so little is acknowledging the stress and saying that we are so arrogant that we have it anyway my son would be here today if he all had done something something different thank you Mr brockard and while we do have a policy regarding our time limits I feel certain that any board member up here would be willing to have a conversation with you outside of this board meeting feel free to reach out to us please all right now we will move on to our next agenda item which are is our board chair's report and to to start that out this evening we have very special recognition of two of our outgoing board members I will begin
020the celebration um by saying that we are thrilled to celebrate and express our heartfelt gratitude to two caring individuals who have dedicated their time energy and commitment to our community our school district and the children that we serve it is with great honor that we recognize Barbara Crosby and Gail Hughes for their long and distinguished service on our school board Miss Crosby has been a strong presence in our district for many years before that she was a dedicated teacher for over 30 years her passion for education and advocacy for our students has impacted not only our schools but also the wider Community Miss Crosby has exemplified what it means to be a public service servant through her many years of teaching and her service on the board her efforts have paved the way for countless
021opportunities for students inspiring them to dream big and reach their full potential we applaud her lifelong commitment to education and children Miss Hughes has been a steadfast leader and an unwavering advocate for our schools and our students with her many years of service she has brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to our board her commitment to education collaboration and innovation has driven our district forward always with the best interests of our children at heart Miss Hughes has been a voice for our school district and others across the state and a leader in so many ways her many years of service and Leadership on this board as well as on the scsba board will leave a lasting Legacy together with their fellow board members Miss Crosby and Miss Hughes have faced challenges celebrated successes and
022worked tirelessly to ensure that our schools remain a place of learning growth and opportunity for all students their contributions have shaped the very fabric of our educational community and their departure from the board will be felt deeply as we thank them for their service let us also carry forward their legacy of dedication compassion and commitment to Excellence may we continue to work together to honor their contributions and to ensure that our schools Thrive for generations to come please join me in a round of applause for Miss Crosby and Miss Hughes thank you for your service your passion and your belief in our children and our community we are grateful for everything you have done sorry [Applause] now at this time I would like to ask Miss Crosby if she would like to share a few
023words with us I wrote it down because I didn't know if I'd get through this or not tonight is a a bit Bittersweet and I want to thank all of you that have worked with me me and supported me as I served on the dd2 school board for the past 16 years as a retired teacher of 30 years I felt the need to keep on serving children in a way that can make a difference with my sole purpose to stand up for what I believe the best for our children sometimes that was a hard fight but I never gave up fighting for them I give credit to Charlie stym former princ in the district for searching me out to initially run for Schoolboard even when he did not even know me personally at the time
024only my reputation as a leader in Berkeley County School District I am proud to say that Charlie and Shirley are my dear friends and I greatly appreciate them sharing their expertise as Educators with me Gail Charlie and I began became known as the ABC team we ran on accountability Back to Basics and communication I still believe in those values education has changed so much over the past 50 years that I have been involved some for the good and some not so good I graduation rate when I started was like 62% and now it's like 89 almost 90% we now have six single member districts metal detectors Chester our drug dog resource officers in every school every child and teacher has a laptop computer plus more technology than I can even name and many state championships
025and sports I have survived four election Cycles which consist of walking 4,000 houses in 100 degree heat every time and the ones this year didn't have to do anything not fair I'm just kidding um because it's a cause I believed in we also survived the pandemic we've survived two referendums and proudly oversaw seven new schools with the eighth one about to break ground also the academic center giving all second graders the opportunity to learn to swim tonight is I leave the tonight as I leave the board my Earnest prayer is that the board will work closely with our superintendent Dr Robbins to always put the needs of our children first he has proven his leadership and education into his country as lieutenant colonel in the Navy I ask that you please give him the respect
026and support he deserves he knows these kids are our future and he knows how to get them there I will miss you and I will miss serving the children [Applause] thank you thank you Miss Crosby now I'd like to ask Miss fugh Hughes to please share a few words with us as well we should have done this at the end of the meeting this is not fair to the two of us have to sit up here after going through this but um let me Begin by saying God is good he has blessed me with a loving supporting family and extended family through all of the ups and downs late nights long trips that have always been they've always been there to encourage me to reach for the stars having confidence in me to keep me
027focused on whatever situation was before me God has blessed me me with unbelievable friendships that will be my cherished friends for the rest of my life he has blessed me with so many passionate and caring mentors that has walked with me every step of this journey they have been there to help guide and direct me setting the example of what a true leader should be and I will be forever grateful last but not least God blessed me with an incredible District to serve I am who I am today because of every one of you so from the bottom of my heart I say thank you before I close if you would allow me I'd like to tell you a short story some of you have heard this story some of you have not but it
028seems very fitting a story about a little girl in our school district Dorchester School District 2 who was the youngest of five children born to a rather impoverished two parent household the mother had been a homemaker until the military father was forced to take an early retirement because of a physical disability while the older siblings became disinterested much in Ed education because of the family Dynamics the youngest decided to get involved in everything she was allowed to join the Girl Scouts but only after selling Pepsi bottles to pay for participation you see money was very limited with five five five children all of school age when she wanted to join clubs at school she did the same thing she found away she somehow raised the money to try out for basketball for her school and
029as you can imagine the memory of the perseverance was baffling during tryouts she was asked to make a jump shot at half court it is said that she never thought for a moment that it wasn't possible she made the shot the coaches stood in a M and ask her to try a second time some remember her assuming the same stance and position she had for the first successful shot and guess what she made the second shot surely she wouldn't make another one thought the coaches so she was asked to try for the third time she assumed the same stance and position as she had for the previous two shots and again it was all Nets needless to say she made the team that little girl had the courage the passion and the confidence to succeed
030because of people like you in dd2 was it Miss Knight in second grade Miss Richburg in fourth grade Mr daser in seventh grade or Miss linning in eth Miss Wilder or M Miss fugan in ninth grade or could it possibly have even been Miss Edwards in the 11th grade you're looking at that little girl I can tell you first first hand that each of them played a valuable role in this little girl's successes they found a diamond in the rough and each put their special polish and gave it an extra little rub to make her what she is today as board members superintendents administrators and their support staffs teachers custodial staff bus drivers maintenance professionals I challenge each of you look for that diamond in the rough add your polish and give it that extra
031little rub to shine it up one day you may be part of someone's success story board members keep fighting the good fight educational professionals keep doing what you're doing loving and nurturing our children and keep raising the bar our children our community our state and even our world are depending on you I love you all I love this community and I love Dorchester District too and I will always be your biggest cheerleader thank [Applause] you if you will join us down at the um table we have some presents for you and you're welcome to invite anyone to come down with us if you have guests here [Music] so as they make their way down um I wanted to just say a couple words you know I'm obviously only in my third year here in Dorchester
032County but this is my 17th year as a school superintendent I've had the opportunity to work with a bunch of board members in multiple communities and the one thing I know to be true when I went through the process um to interview to be Mr Pi's replacement is these two ladies absolutely love this school district and so they raised the bar high for what it means uh to be a board member uh and to perform and participate and be very functionally involved in what's going on in our large and growing community so um I would be very very remiss if I didn't say thank you Barbara thank you Gail um I'm going to miss you but I know you won't be far away um you guys have been an amazing support for me and um
033my family and and I I can say on behalf of my family you made our transition a smooth one and we are very blessed and grateful for your leadership and for all you have done so thank you [Applause] very or [Applause] think Grand thank you very much for s begin for for okay um next under our board chairs report we have the selection of our delegates for the scsba um delegate assembly 2024 delegate assembly so um just as a reminder board members the um scsba legislative conference is the first weekend in December let's see that's December 7th and 8th um the deadline to register for that conference is November 15th so um if you have not already done so please let Wanda know um if you plan to attend and she will get you registered
034and um at this time we need to um vote to approve our um certification of delegates for um the official voting at that conference um so at this time do I have a motion so mov okay um I have a motion from Mr Guthrie to um approve the official voting delegates certification form do I have a second okay second to by Miss Bates um are there any questions or discussion who is who are the who are those people um okay if it so pleases the board I believe that our delegates will be uh myself um and Mrs Bates and I our alternates will be Mr Farnsworth and Mrs Powell um do when do we have to have the delegates back by do we know that um to the deadline is tomorrow for the delegates for
035this yes for the certification of the delegates correct got so yeah well I was going to ask because we have two new board members coming on so I didn't know interest um I have actually um and one of our new board members is sitting here in the audience um Mrs Bethany King we are looking forward to working with you um I have a reached out to Mrs King as well as um Mr gimle our other board member about attending the conference um and so they are aware and I have invited them and they do know the um deadline so they are included in that um I wasn't sure about I don't know if they will be able to be delegates since this is we have to vote on this tonight but they both are um
036invited to the conference yeah so would you are you good to proceeded with that that would you absolutely sure oh okay okay so M Farnsworth you will be our only alternate that's a lot of pressure are you up for that okay so um I have a motion and a second the um delegates will be Miss Bates myself and Miss fernworth will be our alternate all right any other questions or discussion okay hearing n we will call for the vote okay and the motion carries seven in favor thank you all right and the final item under the board chairs report for this evening are our 2025 to 2028 board goal gos um board members I believe you should have all received that information in your packet um and so if it's so pleases you I would
037ask for a motion Madam chair I make a motion to approve the 2025 to 2028 board goals as presented okay thank you Miss Bates do I have a second okay seconded by Mr Farnsworth any questions or discussion all right hearing none we will call for the vote oh and actually um I believe we will have to do a hand vote for that so all in F oh just kidding please vote on your screen all right and the motion carries seven in favor thank you all very much yes of course SE all right thank you Dr Robbins and also thank you to all the board members for your work um on those board goals I appreciate it and I know we all know how important it is and um just thank you for that for your
038time okay um our next item on the agenda are board committee reports and we will begin with our policy committee Miss Bates yes thank you madam chair uh we have several policies today for second reading as well as one for first reading um for second reading we have JJ instructional resources and materials jjl library and instructional materials selection and adoption J jle library media center materials concerns questionnaire J jle E2 citizens Review Committee information form kec concerns and complaints about instructional resources kcr concerns and complaints about instructional resources and kec E-1 citizens request for review of Education materials so I will turn those over to you first um so we can vote on those all right thank you Mrs bat so um we have a motion coming out of committee so we do not need
039a second um at this time are there any questions or discussion okay um so hearing none we will call for the vote for the policies for second reading okay and the motion carries seven in favor all right and then the one for first reading is J IC j-r possession use of personal electronic devices or District owned devices okay thank you Miss Spates again this is a motion coming out of committee so we do not need a second um are there any questions or discussion I will just elaborate a little bit since this is for first reading um right now we are updating this policy to come into alignment with the state regulation uh we did set our policy at the beginning of the school year it was kind of like our district policy what we
040thought would um work for us but the state's regulation requires we ban cell phones from Bell to Bell or the use of cell phones from Bell to Bell which is defined as the start of the school day to the end of the school day so per state law we are required to update our policy to be in compliance with that regulation so that is what we are doing okay thank you Miss Pates mrnorth yeah super co question do we know so we're looking to do that when we come back after the break okay is there is there any opportunity to look at doing that for the next school year so from my understanding it had to be implemented by January 205 was what the regulation required um so that's why we kind of decided after
041Christmas break that way we could push out some communication it's not going to be a huge change and I don't want to speak out of turn but we are looking at may be going to is it okay if I elaborate on it a little bit um putting the devices in the backpacks and leaving them secure in the backpacks from the time you enter the school until the end of the day after the Bell um we have decided after communicating with our principles through a policy committee meeting it would have been difficult to have the students constantly take them out of their backpack put them in the pouches when there's absolutely no time that's acceptable to use them per the regulation any longer um so we thought that might create more of an issue with them
042constantly going back and forth so now the expectation after Christmas break not until then is going to be once you get to school that back uh that phone is off and in your backpack and we will not see it until after the school bell and after school I'm I'm going to take a quick moment and I am going to put uh the state that put this regulation into place um on blast I I will say for all intensive purposes what we did as as a district was working we we've spoken with our high school principls we've spoken with superintendent Robbins everybody in the district um we we had a pretty good experience with uh the policy we put in place for this year um we went as far we reached out to superintendent Weaver I
043know Dr Robbins served on the committee uh to help even drive some of these regulations um but yet here we are again um that the state has done a 180 and we have to uh Oblige by so I'm just putting out there in the public um it it's unfortunate that this is what you see coming from the state of South Carolina when we had something that was working we had a great model that could have been used um but instead we're being forced to uh kind of put a square peg in a round hole but I just want to say I do appreciate the policy committee and and the district working through that thank you I agree I mean I know that we're nobody likes a change like this mid year um and and so
044um again as Miss Bates and Mr Farnsworth have said our our hands really are tied this is coming from the state and so we we do not have a choice we are obligated to follow the Proviso any other discussion I would just suggest that parents have that conversation with their children sending us your suggestions won't change anything because we have to comply by law with what the state says so we're asking parents to please help us help your children not go on the other side of the law thank you okay so um at this time if there's no further discussion we will call for the vote and I believe we will be voting with this by hand so all in favor please um signify by raising okay and the motion carries seven in favor all
045right thank you Mrs Bates all right next um under our board committee reports we have the finance committee Mr Guthrie anything for us no dates tonight dates tonight okay thank you very much and then facilities committee Mr Farnsworth um first and foremost I want to say thank you to miss Hughes we've been able to work together on facilities this year and and really start kind of our referendum project so um thank you for helping getting getting that stuff off the ground uh we will continue to do good work there um very quickly and and just for the the rest of the board members please look out I spoke with Mr Souls um just before the meeting um we we will have kind of standing monthly meetings U moving forward when we start looking into the
046referendum projects um so this month's a little weird just because the holiday stuff um but we're still going to push to get one in um if not later this month when we can than the very 1 of December um so we'll make sure and put that out uh to the the full board and anybody who would like to attend um can attend that so that's that's on the docket thank you okay thank you Mr barnsworth all right and that concludes our board committee reports so at this time we will move to our attendance report I will turn it over to Dr Robbins thank you madam chair members of the board um I'm just going to go ahead and say it again I can't say to thank you to miss Crosby and Miss hes again I
047heartfelt really appreciate both of you um so tonight the first thing that I have um for the board's consideration is um the second look at the 2025 26 school calendar and there was really U no changes after the last meeting with the exception of and we're making sure that we have our state recognized holidays um on the calendar um and it's real similar uh to the calendar that we had this year you know overwhelming feedback from our teachers um and our staff that the fall break was um very uh a very good thing for them in October and they really appreciated that time so U we're going to work on a few things still moving forward after this calendar you know we are obviously researching the four-day school week we're also going to look at
048ways that we can finish um Before Memorial Day part of that just depends on how you know Memorial Day falls in the school calendar but we know that if we can be finished and done at Memorial Day and not have to come back after that that's a good thing so um those are some challenges and um tasks that we have moving forward but I have your um 25 26 school calendar just a one-year calendar I'm here for your consideration tonight Madam chair I make a motion to accept the 2025 2026 school calendar as presented sorry I have a u motion from Mr Farnsworth do I have a second second all right seconded by Mr Guthrie at this time any questions or discussion okay hearing none then we will call for the vote okay and the
049motion carries six in favor one exstension uh I would just like to say before I move on Madam chair thank you to the Miss Troy and the calendar committee it's a cross-section of people um that spend their time meeting and and trying to come up with um good ideas and solutions for us so thank you and if you would share that with the committee Miss Troy I would appreciate it the next thing I have tonight is a teacher advisory Council update and I'm going to invite Sarah nezbit to the podium um Sarah as you all know is our district teacher of the year uh and I've gotten to know Sarah um have a great working relationship with her and her team um and the Sea so um she's here to share with a little bit
050of the work that they're doing what they don't know is when they become teachers of the Year there comes extra responsibility and extra work that goes along with it but they do it with such servants heart uh Hearts it's just really impressive so Sarah floor's yours thank you thank you Dr Robins thank you foror um first of all I'm honored to be here I appreciate the time I appreciate the opportunity to report um on some of the great things that teacher Forum has been doing and also the teacher advisory Council um so first and foremost I know um Dr Robbins had given you all a copy of our newsletter so our teacher Forum newsletter is something that we had the opportunity to put together during our full staff development day thank you Dr Robbins um
051for the teacher Forum that we were able to come together to collaborate um and to work on priorities that are affecting um teachers and what types of passion projects we can do um and just what we can do to help um speak well for dd2 um as a teacher Forum so some of the main highlights that we're um that we've been going through from our passion projects um one of them is our Hospitality Group so we're going to be very focused on helping to plan the teacher of the year gala this year um working with the Communications Department um we have a social media passion project so if you're not already following teacher Forum um we have we are on Facebook and also Instagram um in addition to that um like I said Dr Robbins
052also provided us um in the district provided us with an opportunity to come together at Camp St Christopher um this past summer and as a new obviously to the role of teacher of the year um that time together where I got to meet other Forum members where we got to collaborate where we got to plan um was absolutely necessary and very very much appreciated um I even said to um shenique and Shannon the previous two district teachers of the year how did you ever do this without this time before going into school um just even sitting down with our calendars and trying to plan through um the different events that we have going on um and also just as a time for us to kind of recharge um it was very very needed and we
053are very thankful for that um other things that the teacher Forum has going right now um our fundraiser for the fall is uh world's finest chocolate um so from a general fund perspective um I still have six boxes if any just just just reach out to me just let me know um but we've been able to raise um almost $1,400 for Teacher Forum general fund that's a lot of chocolate that's 68 boxes of chocolate so thank you to all of the teacher um for representatives from the other from the schools who are all selling them to the adults within their schools not the students but the staff The Faculty um and it's been able to we've been able to raise a good bit of money through through teach for Teacher Forum in that way um
054and on we also have a fundraiser that will be happening in the spring and that money will be going towards our scholarship fund um so not only are we going to be providing students um that are interested in entering into the education field with scholarships um but also and actually scholarship deadline is this Friday teachers um but we're going to be also providing two um teacher scholarships for continu education um in taking graduate courses so we've got some good things going on um in addition to that um from an advisory Council perspective um I would love I would like to commend Dr Robbins in transparency um for a district as large as we are um I love and we welcome the opportunity to be able to meet with Dr Robbins for schools to be able
055to submit questions um potential issues some larger scale some smaller scale again it's it's a very broad spectrum of of questions that we get ranging from elementary to Middle to High um but just having that transparency um I think is a very very important part and very um we're very thankful for that that Dr Robbins will take the time he researches things before the meeting um and so that all schools have that opportunity to reach out to their teachers to ask for any teacher within the district to be able to provide questions um to Dr Robbins and again that transparency I think is is unprecedent in in a district this large so we appreciate that and of course having those advisory notes in livetime always posted on the website um usually Dr robins comes to
056the meetings with all the questions relatively answered and that that helps to save our time from a teacher perspective and we we truly appreciate that um and again having the sea um present at those meetings and involved um has been also just wonderful in terms of forging that relationship and also just getting a seat of the table and making sure that we can address and and we can all work together um in promoting dd2 and our goal overall goals so um those are some of the main highlights that I had um let me see oh sorry and I would be remiss if I did not also um thank the dd2 Education Foundation we have been um working with them and they are such an amazing partner they do so much uh for us as teachers
057um I will say just on a personal note I just had the opportunity um I was just in Myrtle Beach from Wednesday through Friday at the South Carolina State teacher Forum um where I got to hear the national teacher of the year speak and also the South Carolina teacher of the year speak and I got to collaborate with teachers from all of the districts around the district teachers of the Year from all over the state and um a resounding text message that I would send to my teacher friends was wow I really value dd2 um just from the things that I hear from around the state um and our Education Foundation a lot of districts gave me the wait how do how do we get an education foundation so um we had there was a
058lot of Pride at that conference um and I thank you and I'm so incredibly thankful to represent um db2 teachers this year it's it's it's fun it's fun it's I'm very very proud um I am also very proud in my role as the Somerville High School teacher of the year and in that role um again to celebrate our two um amazing board members who have served Dorchester School District to um for a number of years with such Pride um and we support and we are so thankful of your dedication to not only the students the Educators but to the community at large um and we thank you from Somerville High School um Miss Miss Crosby uh we have some beautiful flowers from Miss Crosby and Miss Hughes we knew that from a flowers perspective um
059it may be a little bit more um a little bit more accurate to to provide you with a gift basket so we thank you so much from Somerville High School um we thank you for the years of service and all that you've done for our community and for our students [Applause] okay want thank you so much Miss nesb excuse me oh I just have one thing to say please do not give Ralph's name out to any of the other people in the oh no I'm I'm very protective all right I I did not I did not in fact I may or may not have texted Ralph that night and said you can't go anywhere but I am going to give you all of the props for all of the praise that dd2 and the Education
060Foundation receives oh no no one's getting his contact thank you so much Miss nesbet we are incredibly honored to have you represent dd2 um across the entire State and we appreciate all that you do and please also pass on our thanks to the entire teacher forum and teacher advisory Council for all that they do as well yes okay next up um short turnaround so um tonight what I thought we would do for our safety update um Mr Gatt Mr frell and I attended the Raptor safe schools conference and so we wanted to provide you um with just some overview of some things that were either one really substantiated what we're doing or two kind of opened our eyes to some things and before I turn it over to Mr frah I just um I think
061I've shared with maybe one or two of you this story already but um some things that we take away from conferences like this you know we feel like we're done a great job of trying to really work at our safety protocols um and I set in a breakout session called ESP special special and I'm like that sounds interesting I'm going to go to that breakout session and so I sat down and they started the session with a picture and it said New Town Connecticut and I'm like okay that's Sandy Hook so it's it'll be interesting where they're going to go with this presentation and so the presenter um popped up three pictures or picture of three U little girls in there and she said those are my children and um pretty soon she started talking
062about one in past tense so again I got a kind of feeling of where she was going to go with the story well the one she was speaking about in past tense was a nonverbal autistic child and so the whole premise of that breakout session was sometimes we put our best efforts into safety protocols with just your average student or your average employee and we really don't focus enough on the students that have like this in this case nonverbal Autistic or a teacher that could maybe just have a physical impairment at that given time and to make sure that we have protocols in place and so one of the things that her nonprofit they do this free of charge is they help you um develop isps and the ISP is an individual EV individualized safety
063plan for a student based on what their disability and their need is and so I talked to her a little bit afterwards and I said you know we get wrapped up in IEPs and 504s and bips and fbas and I said I just get a little worried that we would have one more acronym that we would lose in Translation and she said what really happens is those students have a safety plan in their IEP but it's just a little segment and so their whole focus is to have a separate safety plan for that child to meet that child's needs um so anyhow I sent that message to Dr Gadson um I sent a message to um Miss boffman who is our director of our sspl and I said I want to sit down and have
064a conversation so for me my takeaway and there were several other things that I want to share tonight was that right there is that you know you know even the least of we need to make sure that we have a good plan um in case something bad occurs and so we're going to sit back and we're going to collect and try to make sure that we're you know filling the gaps of where they exist so it was just a story that had a lot of impact on me and looking at 26 to 27,000 kids that have all kinds of different needs in our our school district well good good evening um it was a pleasure to go to this conference and uh when you go to a Security National Security and safety conference for schools
065you know there was Secret Service FBI District Leadership School leadership um industry leaders um and the one thing that my big takeaway and it's it's reassuring and how hard we work in this District how hard you work and how Dr Robbins and Mr GI is when session after session we'd come back and we' debrief and we' reaffirm we're on the right track we're doing the right thing you know from like I said from Secret Service to FBI how we handle it you know being out in front with a with a weapons detection dog our weapon detection um devices at each of our schools so for me personally when you go in there you're looking for that oh when am I going to find something new but then when they reaffirmed that hey we're doing what
066you're doing and you're on the right track for me that was a huge huge piece um and as we networked and as we talked you know people you know how they use their weapon detection how they use their procedures and stuff like that we know we got a little bit of piece here we have some uh tabletops that we're going to work through our principles and Leadership teams you know more effective communication in time of Crisis we got to practice that a little bit more um as as we identified things but truly the two days was full of of truly networking and finding out reaffirming that we are on the right track and with our systems our camera systems and what the future holds with our camera systems with AI and the things that can
067integrate with that um like I said it was really a good time and as far as to reaffirm that we are on the right track and we're doing the right things you know the one other thing I would add is we had opportunities to just discuss you know our own district and um so one of the big goals that we had was to go ahead and expand the use of our metal detectors into our middle schools and you know that's all part of the the project moving forward and so just the implementation of that but also the messaging of how they're being used and um so again you we still have a long way to go there's no doubt about it but I think the value um is that we constantly learn from our shortcomings
068and and try to grow from them and and continue to make our campuses as safe as possible so being proactive and talking about it out loud is never fun um but it's something that we obviously have to do in today's um environment that we're in so we're happy to answer any of your questions if you have any all right thank you thanks Mr frell um next up tonight uh members of the board we have a purple star update from Miss Troy who is our chief community relations uh a military community relations officer good evening again um I want to start off with our numbers this year for our total military connected students this year we have a total of 1,681 military connected students that's actually down from last year about 176 students last year we
069had 1857 students um as of August 5th all of our military Liaisons at the schools have been trained we brought someone in from the military child education coalition to train them also um on our interstate compact we brought in the commissioner from the South Carolina Department of Education purple star program Dr prer to go over um and train on our Interstate Compact and that's just the compact that we have with all of the other states as we transition students in and out to make sure that um everything in terms of especially when you start dealing with middle school and high school that transcripts and students are losing credits as they as their parents um PCS or have a permanent change of station from Base to Base also um we have I'll begin individual School visits
070to coincide with our impact a as I'll get into the impact a so it'll be a twof for our um visit for impact a which is separate from our military Liaisons but I get a chance to sit down with each other liaison at the schools to kind of if they need some assistance and kind of see where they are in in this quarter as well and also this is November is the month of the military family so we' like to recognize our families during this month moving on to the impact Aid season I wanted to kind of talk about the impact day because we begin our impact day season October 21st and what the impact a grant does is it provides reimbursement to school districts who have students whose parents work on federal property because
071those are tax exempt properties so that's a way of providing reimbursement for that and as I said we began our um impact AAS in October 21st and if you have students in the school district um I hope that you've already completed your impact aid form and sent it forward and if not you can pick up one from your school starting next week which we give them approximately a month to get the information together and then I'll go out to the schools individually sit with the impact aid person to make sure that as they're turning in the information all of the information is completed and turned in um last year we did have an audit I think most of the schools in the state of soft Carolina was had an audit last year and you just
072kind of for me I think better if I go to each school as they turn it in so that way if they're missing something they can go ahead get that corrected and I can come back out and get that uh the second they also have a second opportunity so we'll start next week we'll finish next week but there still may be some students that they have not received forms from and so they can use the rest of that time to get the forms from the students and I will go back out the week of December 9th to um collect the forms again and sit down with them and then the following week is when I'll actually start um the preparation and putting information together for our January submission date for our impact Aid and finally
073I wanted to uh um recognize all of our veterans and in doing so just bring up a great opportunity for the veterans that are in our schools that are in our community this week November 14th through the 16th THS Friday and Saturday um there is a veterans opportunity out at the um exchange center and what they will provide veterans is one-on-one assistance so if veterans need some assistance with completing a VA claim um if they need some assistance with um Health Care IDs um any any of those types of things they will actually sit down with the veterans and work with them I do have some information about it I will leave it out front and for those who may be watching um live stream it is on our um purple star web page if
074you want to get this information and I will subject to any questions that completes my update um do you have the numbers from last year regarding the reimbursement that was given for impact to Aid the what our total reimbursement was I can get that number from Finance yes you're talking about the dollar amount correct yes I can get that from Finance if you could and send that to the board I would appreciate it thank you we do any other questions okay thank you Mr Sal good evening Madam chair members of the board Dr Robbins uh our report in two weeks not a lot of movement but there are some things on here that we need to update and let you know about uh the paving is complete at Fort norchester high school track that's in
075the dwell period now we got to wait for 28 days from the 5th which put us the first week of December before they could start putting the tracks service down the uh construction documents for the bus maintenance facility at Oakbrook those have been uploaded to OSF and a waiting review from those folks and uh that was uploaded on the 4th of this month hey Mr Souls do we do does Dr Wimberly and I now have to go in and sign those in the portal no sir not for these projects that was just for the uh property acquisition okay if we have any more property Acquisitions I'll I'll be getting with you and Dr Wimberly okay and we can get those done a little more quickly than we did the last one it was a the
076last one was a learning curve because we never we didn't know it was just one of those things that the state had started on on the acquisition process but for the project stuff I can handle that in a portal myself so right so um and moving on to the referendum projects uh for San Hill wing all the permits have been approved the the from DEC and or Dees and uh the building permit the CM at risk has been selected and the preconstruction services are in progress right now we met with a contractor today to get that ball rolling so we should have a a GMP uh hopefully hopefully before long we're going to try to expedite that to get uh I impressed upon them the importance of having that Wing completed August of 25 and
077that that's good that's a tall order that I put on that contractor and they understand the importance of it as a matter of fact we're meeting out there tomorrow to get the lay of the land uh the elementary school at the ponds uh we've got all the construction documents uh they're ready for review uh they were they should be uploaded to the portal by before Thanksgiving I hope um that's another compressed time frame thing that we're trying to get done uh permitting is in progress progress that's the uh we've got the building permit but the land disturbance permits water sewer all the other Dees ocrm DS Dees stuff we have to go through that uh the CM at risk has been selected for that and they are in the preconstruction process as well so we're
078expecting a GMP on that one hopefully sometime this month probably early December before we get that but uh in U in a nutshell that is the quick update for all of the projects going on everything else is uh still ongoing but uh it's everything's making progress any questions for me um yeah Tony at Sand Hill yes sir um as far as um and I know we do amazingly well with this but can you just talk a little bit about maybe some of the precautions to separate the construction versus School operations we talked about that great length today that's going to be it's going to be one of those things where we're doing construction in close proximity we we're we're building an addition on the playground so we're going to have to cordin off a portion
079of that playground we're also going to have to allow points of eress out of that Wing in close proximity to the construction progress so we're going to have to put Protections in place uh and some of those may be hard barriers some of it may just be fencing but we're I'm thinking we'll probably use use like a double barrier which would be uh a snow fence and then 15 ft or so in have actual chain link temporary construction fencing so it would be uh and then then we're going to talk to Mr Joy he's going to be very heavily involved in this process because it it's it's a big huge activity ongoing on his campus and to to impress the supervision of the students while while they're in that area we you know it's it's
080going to be it's going to be tight it's going to be tough uh and and and then too we have put on them let's get this thing knocked out in eight months so that's uh it's it's a tall order I'm I'm I'm hopeful that we can get it done I'm have some positive feelings that we can get it done we we've done we' worked on press schedules before so yeah we we have no problem I think we'll be done um on time under budget all all that sort of stuff stuff um and and it may be worthwhile just throwing this out there I'm sure you guys have already thought about this um but Mr Joy maybe his PTA um his school possibly doing like an e a meeting at some point an evening meeting just
081talking to their community and their parents just letting them know hey here's what's about to happen and maybe head off any questions as as we get into that um process yes sir any other question I had a question actually that kind of makes me think about it like in leading up to all these projects that we're starting I mean obviously we've had ongoing projects but we're about to take on a lot more is there a certain process um like as far as um meeting with the um I guess the stakeholders the people in the buildings the relevant people to kind of get their input and just discuss their involvement throughout the process I mean is there a certain way we handle that or do we have a protocol or is it just depend on the
082project it depends on the project Mo most of the projects uh I know at o Brook Middle School we've we've met multiple times with Miss Lewis and her staff because that's that's putting a portion of her Fine Arts out there so we we got some great input from those folks Miss botin she's been wonderful to work with on how what how do we program this space we're going to put you know 10,000 square feet out there what do you need in your school exactly I mean we don't just go out there and say oh I think we're just going to build 10 classrooms because if when you look at the lower grade levels you got to have restrooms and all those things we can't just build classrooms and say okay now we can put first
083graders in a classroom with no restroom in the it's there's a lot of lot of a lot that's happening ahead of kind of getting there a lot a lot of the planning process I mean we've been working on the Oakbrook projects for uh the better part of a year now just getting all those all the input and everything now I'm I'm meeting with uh the contractor out there on Wednesday to uh go over how they're going to get uh pieces and parts and where their lay down area is how they're going to get concrete trucks in how they're going to get truck loads of block in the the the mechanics of it how we're going to get all that done while school's going on yeah on an active playground situation so so there's so so
084my first phone call we're meeting with Miss Lewis and Miss Bo there this week hopefully they have some time for us or someone from the school to to let them know you know here here's our plan let me know if we need to do something differently to to to make room or or is is this door is this the door everybody comes out of for PE it do they go this way to the playground can we use this area over here so it's it's yes they are the folks in the buildings are very much involved great in our processes because yeah thank you ating all that if it if it weren't for that process we would have to use helicopters get Building Material in everywhere and and we wouldn't want to do that yeah I
085know that's very important thank you ma'am anything else all right thank you madam chair the next thing I have in the superintendent's report are student enrollment recommendations okay thank you Dr Robbins um board members I believe we will hold this um and we will need an executive session to discuss this have I apologize okay okay I apologize so um at this time board members there are two different um reports included in your packets so um if everyone is okay with it I would ask for us to approve in Open Session um the student role enrollment requests and then we will hold off um on the appeal to discuss in executive session so I will accept a motion if so pleases the board okay motion made by Mr Farnsworth second seconded by Mr Guthrie any questions
086or discussion okay hearing none I will call for the vote okay and the vote carries motion carries seven in favor thank you madam chair the next thing I have is the Personnel report for tonight and um before um you take action on that again I want to send a a serious um shout out to the Personnel Department because as they go in uh as they go out they're bringing them in and their recruiting fairs have been pretty uh impressive and we've done a really good job Staffing in some very challenging times and that's all because they're working um hand over fist to make sure that we're staff so again thanks Scott to you and your team okay board members um you should have include in have received all of the Personnel report information in your
087packets ahead of time is everyone okay with proceeding with that in Open Session okay do I have a motion okay motion made by Miss Crosby to approve the personal recommendations as presented in our packet do I have a second a second seconded by Mr Guthrie any questions or discussion okay hearing none we will call for the vote okay motion carries seven in favor okay all right and that concludes our superintendent report for this evening next item on our agenda are public comments and we do not have any this evening um so our next item is our executive session and so at this time I would ask for a motion to convene into executive session for student enrollment recommendation so moved motion made by Mr guthy seconded by Miss Bates any discussion or questions okay hearing
088none we will call for the vote okay and the motion carries seven in favor we are in executive session and we will return e e e might ask for a motion to return to open session okay motion made by Miss Crosby seconded by Mr Farnsworth um any discussion or questions okay hearing none we'll call for the vote can you can can you can you mark barbar's yes please okay and the motion carries seven in favor we are in Open Session okay at this time do I have any action out of executive session yes Madam chair I make a motion that we uh uphold the decision of the hearing officers in the case that we heard in executive session okay I have a motion from Miss Hughes do I have a second second okay thank you
089Mr Guthrie I have a second from Mr Guthrie any questions or discussion um Madam chair if you'll allow me and and I just want to give some context because I am planning to abstain from the boote tonight um but I do want to put it out and and of course uh I'm sure nobody is watching this but hopefully they will go back and watch it U because I want to highlight uh really the the unfortunate power and downfall of social media and and I will tell you as board members our duty um anytime especially when these types of issues come up and and we have appeals we have issues that come before the board um as board members if we are privy to any information if we are given any information outside of what we
090presented in that appeal um it's incumbent upon us because of the potential bias of that information it could potentially bias my decision um that is a game Cher and so therefore um I'm not comfortable taking a vote I was unfortunately tagged in in a lot of social media posts regarding this specific issue uh as well as several individual messages were sent to me uh which I did not reply to but they were sent to me um so for those reasons I just want to make sure and and make that very clear of why I'm abstaining from the the vote tonight thank you okay thank you Mr barnsworth any other discussion or questions okay hearing none I'll call for the vote okay and the motion carries five in favor two extensions okay at this time that
091concludes our meeting and I'll ask for a motion to adjourn I'd like to make a motion to adjourn my final meeting okay I have a motion to adjourn from Miss Hughes do I have a second and it is seconded by Miss Crosby all right any discussion or questions okay if we if we vote no the meeting continues and they you'll be you could be board members forever yes all right okay is that is that an exension okay and the motion carries six in favor one exension got that one we are adjourned