001We apologize for our brief um time before starting but we are ready to start now. Father in the name of Jesus we love you and we praise you. We thank you, Father, that you have given us the right to come before you with any petitions that we have. You said in your word that we have not because we asked not. So, at this time, we want to say thank you for all that you've already done, all that you are doing. And we in particular bring before you the needs of our district. the needs, Father, that can be facilitated by those in leadership from the President of the United States, our governor, our senators, our county council members, our town council members in order that we may provide for our students, our teachers, our community an
002education that will allow us to be the very best that we can be. So we want to say thank you that you hear our prayers and you answer. We pray for every parent that you will encourage them. You will remind them that they have been blessed with beautiful children that needs their love, their protection and their guidance. We thank you that every teacher, every leader, and every place of authority will take this particular concern to heart and be everything that our young people need them to be. We thank you for the wisdom, the guidance, and direction that you've already provided to us because we ask it in your son Jesus' name. You said, "Ask and it shall be given." So, we're looking to see answers to those prayers. Thank you in the mighty name of
003Jesus. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good evening. Good evening and welcome to the April 28th, 2025 board meeting. At this time, I would ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda. So moved. Motion made by Mr. Guthrie. Do I have a second? Seconded by Miss Bates. Any discussion? Hearing none, we will call for the vote. Motion carries. Six in favor, one absent. All right. And the first or the excuse me, the next item on our agenda are district highlights. Mr. Brian Bohannan will begin those for us. Welcome to everyone who is here to celebrate. I know I love a full room. Dr. Wimberly, Mr. Dohy, board members.
004Tonight, I'm excited to share several highlights of both school and student achievement. Firstly, I'd like to welcome Dr. Annette Meltton, senior director for the Mid-Atlantic region at Cogna, who's here to speak about a remarkable milestone for Somerville High School. [Applause] Good evening. It is so great to be with you today. I would ask that Somerville High School's administrative team would come up as part of this uh presentation tonight. And as they're making their way, I represent Cogna. We are the world's largest school improvement organization and accredititor. We accredit, of course, in South Carolina, in all 50 states, and in 100 countries. And if you've been around as an educator as long as I have, you may remember us as the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Sachs. So, I see some head nods over here.
005I'm honored to join with you tonight to celebrate Summer High Summer Somerville High School's 100 years of accreditation. Let's just stop there and give them. So while certainly these folks were not engaged in those early days of accreditation, they bring forward that commitment to continue that legacy of work. As uh I shared earlier, I am Annette Melton. My team and I support schools and districts across the state of South Carolina with their accredititation, their STEM certifications, and their improvement initiatives. So about Somerville High School, I always do a little bit of um search for the history and found that in 1924, Somerville High School was the only school in this area and was in fact in this beautiful building where we are today. I understand also that in the early the late60s a new building
006was built at that time and now supports over 3,000 uh high schoolers in grades 9 10 11 and 12 over on Boonehill Road. So over the years, the high school has expanded its facilities, its supports, and its services to its students in the community. And we are proud to recognize and come together tonight to acknowledge their improvement efforts and sustaining accreditation for these 100 years. In addition, Doorchester 2 under the leadership of Superintendent Pi in 2007 embraced the district accredititation model and be earned Cognius system accreditation. This brought all Dorchester schools um Dorchester 2 schools under the umbrella of accreditation and further cemented the district's commitment to continuous improvement. Over the years, district leadership, school boards, and the staff have continued to build on this legacy. I'd like to think back to those early leaders
007100 years ago and the work they were doing to establish that commitment so that colleges and the military would recognize that Somerville High School stood for um providing the the highest level of achievement and um support for our schools. The last thing I would like to do is read some excerpts from our CEO and president Dr. Mark Elgart. He says, "Congratulations. Somerville High School has re has reached a significant milestone 100 years as an accredited institution. In today's world of overnight startups, reinvented industries and online commerce. Very few organizations can claim the distinction of 100 years of service and excellence. With a focus on school improvement, Somerville High School continues to demonstrate an unwavering commitment, striving to help all students reach their potential. On behalf of Cogna, we'd like for you to accept a banner
008and frame certificate commemorating this 100 years of accreditation. And lastly, from Dr. Trailgart, we wish you continued vitality and many more years of dedicated and meaningful service to your students. [Applause] Thank you. Awesome. Thank you for being here. Absolutely very much. Thank you, Dr. Melton. Next, we turn our attention to academic excellence. We are proud to recognize Nicholas Vureink, an outstanding eighth grade student from East Edestto Middle School for his exceptional performance in the 2025 math counts competition hosted at the Citadel. Nicholas placed third individually among a field of the region's brightest young mathematicians, earning a spot to compete at the state level where he finished in the top 16 statewide out of a field of more than 70 competitors. His success reflects not only talent but also the hard work and perseverance modeled throughout
009DD2. Congratulations, Nicholas. Come on. [Applause] And finally, we're thrilled to celebrate musical excellence across our district. Each year, thousands of student musicians audition to earn placement in South Carolina's prestigious all-state bands. And we're very proud to have our students recognized as being among the finest student musicians in the state, representing Ashley Ridge, Fort Dorchester, and Somerville High School, Austin Middle, Dubose Middle, East Edestto, Greg, and Raleigh. grades 11 12. We're going to do the clinic band 9 and 10. Then we're going to do the junior band. Middle schoolers, I will not let you miss your pictures. I promise. Starting with the senior all state band from Ashley Rich High School. We've got Brady Thomas, Stephanie Judy, Alyssa Cross. When I call your name, if you're in the room, please come to the front. Abigail Hegodus,
010Samuel Hamilton, Elijah Green, Steuart Hayes, Nicholas Hatmaker. from Fort Dorchester High School, Emily Kerry. And from Somerville High School, Liam Monk, Shila Pitman, Lily Basset, Wyatt Savage, Rosio Aoyo, Tegan Atkin, Hayden Folk, Victor Reyes Rodriguez, Mason Clifton, and Nicholas Bedard. The senior band [Applause] Senior band, don't run off. I'm going to take that big pile of certificates to the lobby when we're done, and we're going to make sure everybody gets sorted out. So, just hang out for a minute when we're all done. parents. Good. Let's say get it while you got it. Fantastic. Senior [Applause] band. Next, our clinic all state band representing grades nine and 10. from Ashley Ridge High School. Bryce Cool, Ava Bridgeman, Michael Wilbanks, Peter Durant, Philip Hill, Alisa Breescu from Fort Dorchester High School, Tegan Evans, and from Somerville High
011School, Samantha Sweeney, Devin Hawk, Luke Cullinin, Emily Murdoch, James Cole, and TJ Cook. The clinic band. [Applause] parents got it. Fantastic. Clinic [Applause] band. And finally, our junior all-state band from Austin Middle School, Matthew Ruffalo. From Dubose Middle School, Stanley Sock and Brett Uert. From East Edestto Middle School, Brody Muscone from Greg Middle School, Ethan Hill. And from Rawlings Middle School of the Arts, Caitlyn Renie, Parker Winkls, Talia Murstoy, Cole Gunderman, Elliot Evans, Lorenzo Montia, and Alex Swan. The junior band [Applause] You don't have to be in the back of the room to take a picture. Come on up. It's fine. It's fine. All right, we got a one more round of applause for all these musicians for Nicholas for Somerville High School's 100 years. [Applause] Parents, this is now an acceptable time to make
012a graceful and silent exit. If you're leaving, if you're not staying, I will meet you in the lobby with this big pile of certificates. Can't wait. I mean, I can say the dates. All right, thank you all. The next item on our agenda, it's our board committee reports, and we will begin with our policy committee, Miss Bates. Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, we have no policies for review today, but we did meet the policy committee met today at 5:00 p.m. So, we'll have some next time around. Um, and our next meeting will be May 19th at 400 pm and then June 9th at 4 pm. Other than that, that's all I have for tonight. All right. Thank you, Miss Bates. Next, we have our finance committee, Mr. Guthrie. Yeah, nothing to report tonight, but
013we're still active in the budget season and the superintendent's report. We'll have more on the finance report coming up. All right, great. Thank you very much. Um and then our next um item under our committee reports this evening is our skip update. Um Miss Powell, would you like to introduce our guests? Thank you. Yes. Years ago, we had a program called Skip and I knew of it but didn't know a lot about it. This evening we are going to reacquaint some of you, introduce to some of you who the skip um program would benefit. And so we have the director and the two preventive directors here and in whatever order you want to present, go ahead and do that. Thank you, Miss Powell. I appreciate that. And thank you, Madam Chair, superintendent. Thank you for
014allowing us to be here uh tonight. Um, this, like you said, this is Brooke Hume, our uh, prevention director, Sarah Larby, our associate director, and I'm the executive director of Dorchester Alcohol and Drug Commission and Dorchester Counseling Services. Um, I'm here just to briefly talk about the contract that I think y'all are currently reviewing. Uh, I'm really proud to say this is our going our 46th year of doing business with the school district and our alcohol and drug commission. Um, I'm work with 30 other alcohol and drug public alcohol and drug commissions statewide that serve the 46 counties. And I'm quite sure there's no special relationship between a school district and an alcohol and drug. I know all those folks. I work with them for many years and you all are exceptional and we're really
015value and appreciate the relationship that we have with you all. look forward to continuing working with you and when you uh have reviewed the contract um we'll be happy to get together any questions you may have and that's primarily my role and I've been here for all those 46 years and have watched the growth and serve with many schoolboard members and I'd be remiss if I didn't say thank you to Miss Powell for attending our representing you all on our skip advisory board uh that is extremely important and she has dedicated her time representing you Mr. Farnsworth has done that in the past and many others in the past. It's very important to have that link of a schoolboard member with the skip advisory board. And I've said over and over the real experts that
016know what's going on are the skip advisory board members. And they're mostly your folks. Very little of ours. Sarah Larby, uh, our associate director, chairs the meeting. Brooke attends it with a skip counselor and that's about it. The rest are your assistant principles, a principal's you, well, you know, you get the picture. It's mostly y'all. We assemble it once a month and it's a very valuable forum. So, thank you for letting us let us know if you have any questions of me of the contract. And at this point, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Laraby and and Miss Hume. Thank you. Good evening. Um, we truly value the partnership that we've built with the district, its schools, administrators, and educators. Your continued support and dedication to student well-being have been essential in helping
017us serve students and their families more effectively. It's through that collaboration that we have that we're able to address critical needs, promote healthier behaviors, and provide the necessary support for students to succeed both in and outside of the classroom. We applaud the district's commitment to fostering safe, supportive learning environments, and we're proud to contribute to those efforts by working closely with school staff, counselors, families across the community. Um, and I'm happy to share with you some details about our school intervention program. It is designed to help students and their families recognize and address underlying factors that contribute to high-risisk behaviors. Uh we support students in um the district facing disciplinary actions by addressing high-risk behaviors and helping them remain in school. We support students um who may be referred to the program for disciplinary reasons
018that might include the use of alcohol, tobacco, or other substances and behavioral issues such as fighting or disrespect. and I'm going to have Miss Hume share with you some numbers that we've collected about that. Thank you. Okay, so just to go over the statistics that are on the screen really quickly, uh they are our current number of skip students that we are seeing at Dorchester Alcohol and Drug Commission and Dorchester Counseling Services. based off of the substances that are on the screen is what they were referred for or have been diagnosed with that substance use as their primary use. So, just to make the numbers a little more clear, um the referral reason listed on the top left to me is going to be alcohol, marijuana, prescription medication, and then behavioral non-substance related. So, six
019alcohol, 44 marijuana, one prescription medication, and zero behavioral referrals as of April 25th of this year, this school year. So, like Sarah was mentioning, we like to get more behavioral referrals because you get those high-risisk kids before they ever get to substance use. Um, really getting in there prevention director being preventative of substance use and things like that. Um, really is what we like to see. So, we haven't seen many this year, but I'm sure we're all going to be on that page, too. So, um, and then just to break down the bottom half, a lot of these students that are coming in are actively using more than one substance and becoming dependent and overly dependent on more than one of them. So, for example, all of the students that have been referred and or
020getting services for alcohol use are also using marijuana as their secondary substance. And then for the bottom one, the 44 students who have been referred and or getting services for marijuana use also have a second three of them have a secondary substance of alcohol and six of them have a secondary and tertiary level of substance use. So they're using all three right there. So, and I put it down as nicotine because a lot of these students refer to the electronic vapes and everything like that as nicotine now rather than tobacco. Um, so just to clear that up, but a grand total right now, we have 51 students who have been referred or actively in services, I'm going to turn it back to Sarah and then I'll come back at the end. All right. So once
021um concerning behaviors have been identified, the school or the district hearing panel refers the student to skip. Um, and once that happens, the student, just kind of to review how it works for the students, um, they come in for an assessment at Dorchester Counseling Service as and if appropriate, the student is then enrolled in SKIP. And what SKIP is is it's a multiaceted program. It includes group therapy sessions to successfully complete program requirements, individual and family therapy if determined necessary by the counselor. We also offer thorough case management services to coordinate care and link families and schools to the progress being made. The goals for the program include supporting students in developing behaviors aligning with positive social and community standards while strengthening personal, interpersonal and family related skills. We want to foster sound judgment, personal
022responsibility and meaningful connections with positive role models. The students generally come in for that assessment and after that they are in six group weeks of group sessions. Um and if things are going well they complete with an exit appointment. We do drug screening along the way. Um also I want to mention um because there are often questions about that this um how costs are handled in terms of the skip program. Um our agency um does not have like a financial contract with the district. there's no um there's it's not covered by the district. We do charge for services, but I want to say about that we accept Medicaid and for Medicaid students there's no cost whatsoever. For those by their private insurance and then for those students that have no way to pay for services,
023we do a financial assessment and we charge based on need. So it's a sliding fee scale. Beyond that, um, we also have grant funding that comes to us through the state and sometimes federal means as well that we're able to apply towards services. So, it's a if there is a cost, it's a very reasonable cost for services. Um, and we really work with families if there's any difficulties with payment plans and so forth. Um, so we just want to say again how important it is to us and how much we truly appreciate the collaboration with the district and the families um and all the school personnel that help us um maintain all these services for students. Thank you. And I'm going to turn it over to Brooke for our prevention services. Okay. So I attend
024the skip advisory board meeting like we had mentioned but most often I'm found in the community whether it's in the schools I'm probably very well known within the DD2 middle and high schools which I love to be able to be in there and get these kids our youth the resources and the education materials they need. Um most often I am doing community based needs based on community needs assessments. I'm very big on nothing for them without them, especially for our youth. So, what they tell me they're concerned about, if they're open to talk to me about it or anything along those lines, I've taken it in very seriously and I bring them and meet them where they're at with the resources or even information they need. Um, I lead prevention efforts to reduce youth substance
025use, provide education and resources, hosting educational events and awareness campaigns, and also meeting with local coalitions. So, talking about educational events, I do a lot of parent nights at the schools in the district, which are sometimes very well attended, sometimes not so much, but you know what? If one person's in the audience, you guys are outstanding. Um, but it gets the message out there to the people that need it. and I go over the community concerns, the student concerns, what are we seeing in skip, what are the assistant principles talking about, what is Powell talking about, um things along those lines that really help parents understand what's out there nowadays. So, when it comes to the students themselves and what I do um in the schools, I typically give them pl classroom presentations on the
026risks and facts of alcohol, tobacco, and other substances. But most importantly, I focus on health and coping strategies because a lot of students know that peer pressure is still a thing and that it's probably going to continue to be that way. So, if they figure out a healthy coping strategy in lie of using and turning to substances or identifying those problem behaviors and at risk behaviors, we can really get in front of the problem. Um, I provide resources again for sessions for parents and health fairs. I've done even um job fairs at the local career technology school talking to students about what it's like to get into the workforce and what that appropriate preparedness looks like. Um yes, last thing, utilizing evidence-based programs to guide prevention strategies. I'm not really just showing up saying, "Okay,
027this is what we're going to do." I heavily research what works for youth these days, which I think is very important because I was once their age, we all were, and the times just keep getting crazier and crazier. So, making sure we can do the best to help them and provide them the resources that they need is a very big deal to me. So, that's kind of what my services look like for prevention. I'd love to do more parent nights informational stuff if that ever comes up for next year. You guys want to talk more about that. I'm absolutely always excited to do those. Um, last thing, and Sarah kind of touched on this already, but sometimes when I meet with students, they tell me that they need assistance. So, I tell them I'm again
028prevention director. I'm not on a treatment side, but I can refer them to our website where this information's at if that's something that they're at the point that they need. So, our adolescent services also provide early intervention and treatment for those engaging in high-risisk or um substance-seeking behaviors related issues, things like that. So, we always have an option to get someone in when they're a kid. We can make it figure it out. Um I hope that'd be weird. Um but so assessment, goal setting with youth and parent and guardian. Our adolescent counselors are amazing. very family oriented as well if that's what it needs to be. Um, we also have other group therapy opt options and referrals for inpatient care if that's where we're at. So, there's definitely a plethora of resources at our hand
029that we're here to provide for you and the district. So, that's it. That's all I've got. That's our contact information, mine and Sarah's, as well as our address, phone number, fax, website. Thank you. Uh before you leave, let me just say the first time I came to the skip meeting as a board member, I was totally floored at the information that was presented to us. And I just knew that our parents needed to be aware as to what's going on in the street and how easily these kids can get access to those substances that could become quite addictive later on. And I know the state department I mean um in the Colombia they were talking about some bill that they were trying to pass to regulate this these substances being so readily available. But then
030the last thing I heard was but we don't believe it's going to happen because we don't have the funding and I'm going like what we're talking about our children. And then the other thing is I was talking to your director. We were just standing there talking after a meeting and um just talking in general and there was a parent sitting there waiting on her child who was in therapy and she just jumped right in that conversation and she told how it almost enough to make me cry the fact that her child was probably saved alive and now willing to go to the skip program in order to get the help that she needs and she's a easier child to deal with going and getting these services. A lot of things that we don't aren't aware
031of that's out there for our children at a very young age have them addictive in a sense that they don't even know that they're addicted to certain things. And so we as adults whenever the opportunity is provided for these members of the skip program to come and present to us I want us to have an open door and parents I need you to show up come with your questions come with your children so that they are aware that you are concerned and you want to get the help for them. So um I know in the future we are going to have some uh sessions and we really appreciate you giving of your time and informing us. I try to keep informed but I did not know about some of those things that I saw when
032you did the presentation. So I want every one of us to be aware even if you don't have children there are children in your neighborhood. the things that you're purchasing for your children that's adding to them being able to hide what they're doing while they're at school. So, we need everybody's help and we say thank you. Thank you, Miss Powell. I would say that that conversation that we had uh in the lobby with that testimony from the family was very inspiring to me and to you. I know that for a fact. Thank you for mentioning that. That's part of why we keep doing what we're doing for those kind of results that we're seeking. Um I would like to make one last comment that that we keep calling about skip. It is called the school
033intervention program which I think most of you know that was established in 1979 statewide with input from the back then there were 38 local directors submitting input to the state office that wrote that. So, if you look at if you happen to see the list that Brooke was referring to, the design of this program was it's called the skip inter school intervention. It's supposed to be early intervention. So, I'd love for you to join us in the challenge to see what we could do next year to intervene earlier with the behaviors that would indicate the children and adolescence are having problems before it gets to be a drug situation or an alcohol situation. I think you would like to see that. We'd like to see that. And if we don't get them early in the
034school, we end up getting them from the Department of Juvenile Justice when they've already penetrated into the criminal justice system. So, anything we can do to work together to make that, but that was the original intent intent and design of the school intervention program was for early intervention. So, thank you for your support and for all of your support. Any questions of for any of us at this time? Yeah, real quickly. So, thanks for including the referral numbers. I don't think the previous uh years we had that in there, but um yeah, just a zero behavioral non-substances referrals and in past years has there been referrals for those types of uh situations? I don't have those numbers with me, but yes, it but it has consistently been going down and I think I don't know
035if that's because other things are being offered within the schools um through the department of mental health and some other things. Um, I guess the difference with our services is that we're able to see those students on a consistent basis individually and with families and we can do the coordinated care for case management um so that if they're seeing other providers in the community, we can help with that as well. So, um it is really helpful to get those early. Um you know, schools can make direct referrals. It doesn't have to come through the hearing board. So principles can make those referrals and then also guidance counselors if they hear of something going on in the family. It doesn't have to be a mandatory referral. It wouldn't be considered a skip referral at that point.
036It doesn't come in through that program, but we can see those students as well and love to see them early on. And they're building fabulous relationships with our counselors after they're finished. They want to come back for more and with their peers, building positive pro-social relationships with peers that can then support them. So, we we love to see them early. It's very helpful. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. And one last thing, we could go on and on. I'm sorry, but good question. Um, our most all of our counselors are also licensed to do alcohol and drug and mental health and we work closely with mental health. There's plenty of children to go around to have mental health type services. we are available for that resource and that's part of where the behavioral and we have
037had many many behavioral referrals in the past and it's not not an indictment or fault of anybody. There's just some opportunities we have there that with your support maybe we can dive more into that and end up with getting more behavioral intervening earlier but we have the skilled counselors that can handle that. Yeah, I was actually going to ask you that. So with like the direct referrals, well I was going to ask you a if that was a possibility so that you answered that and then with the direct referrals can they since it's not a mandated referral they're then look at the financial situation look at the cost and then determine like hey this is something that would benefit my child and absolutely gotten much more federal dollars over the last few years where money
038and payment should never be a barrier. We're doing everything we can to knock the barrier. transportation, uh, any barrier that's there. We've done a pretty good job over the last few years knocking those barriers out more than ever. Well, I appreciate that. That's good to know. Just I was going to add to that, too, that there have been a few situations where family circumstances kind of change at the last minute and and folks aren't able to pay, but the students done what they're supposed to do. We also have scholarships that our agency has put in place to help those students to complete because we don't want, you know, last minute family circumstances or whatever to hinder them. So, we're really coming at it from all angles. If that answers your question. No, that did. And
039I appreciate you guys. Thank you for all you do for our students and for supporting our community. It means a lot. Well, thank you all. It's always a pleasure to be here and thank you very much. Look forward to hearing if you have any questions on the contract. we can get that done. Thank you very much. Thank you again. We appreciate you being here and we look forward to a continued partnership with you. All right. Um our next committee report is our facilities committee, Mr. Farnsworth. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um you will see our upcoming meeting schedule May 12th and then June 9th for the next two board meetings. Uh we also have I wanted to mention for the board and anybody interested we have a workshop scheduled May 7th. Uh that's at 6 PM
040and we're going to talk about um referendum projects. So hopefully people will be able to join us there. And then the last thing I had, I was able to go to Sand Hill Elementary School last week and uh just want to report they are uh they're moving dirt, moving a lot of dirt. Uh they got the foundation um going out there and so very quickly we will have a new wing. We'll have a new addition at Sand Hill. So good stuff happening. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Mr. Farnsworth. All right, that concludes our board committee reports for this evening. Next item on our agenda are public comments on agenda items. This evening we have one Mr. Jason Brockert So, I've done this before a few times and you understand that I can take just about
041any agenda item and use some artistic license and bring it back to Julian. So, I'm not sure if we really have to continue doing this, but about your agenda, would you consider a single public comment section right after the awards, but before the bulk of the non-shared presentations? I say non-shared presentations because everything that we've seen here tonight is not available on board docs. I've said that before. So if I go down through the agenda and the agenda has headlines without substance, it is impossible for the public to comment on agenda items. So on the agenda is the approval of set agenda and in this approval includes minutes from the committee meetings and the previous board meeting. I'd like to know where we can find those meeting minutes. They used to be available back in
042the day. I can't find them anywhere on board docs. I'd personally be interested to see how my three minutes at this podium has come across in meeting minutes over the past few months, but I can't find that to read that anywhere. And I can speak about the superintendent's report at any given meeting and simply spout conjecture about what I think should be in it because it's not available on board docs, so I can't read it. and I have yet to actually hear about having an open conversation. At the town hall on Friday, I was told maybe we could talk. I haven't gotten any responses. So, here I am again using my 180 seconds to stand here and talk about your agenda. What is not on it? What I've been asking for months to be on
043it. We got just a little bit with the skip presentation. over 20 minutes worth of that, but I get three minutes, which is fine being the only speaker here tonight. So, I'd like you to consider changing some stuff up about how the agenda actually rolls. one comment section that we don't have to play the game as to whether or not I can take something on the agenda and bring it back to bullying, lack of response to bullying because I could do that with any one of the things that were on the agenda today. I've done that repeatedly in the past. So, I was given the stage at the Spectrum Center a little over two weeks ago in front of thousands of people. I got to tell Julian's story. I don't get anywhere near that respect
044here. So, yes, my words at this podium, my behavior are commensurate with the lack of respect that you have continually shown me and my family, and I will continue to do so until you speak to me. 3 minutes. Thank you, Mr. Brocker. Okay, the next item on our agenda is our board chairs report. So, this evening I have included some upcoming dates for everyone. I know that you all already have these on your calendar, but just to serve as a reminder, we have a lot of exciting things coming up. Um we have our district teacher of the year celebration Thursday May 8th um at the summer's corner pack. Then we have our district retirees celebration Thursday May 22nd also at the summer's corner pack. Um we have our high school graduations on May 31st. I
045know we're all looking forward to all of these great events. And then um as a um reminder, we have two additional town hall meetings scheduled. Um, one is July 17th and that one will be at Ashley Ridge High School and the other one is October 24th at Somerville High School. So, I know that um Wanda has sent these dates out for us, so we should all have access to them um on our calendars, but just wanted to make sure that everyone um is uh looking forward to the being there. Um, and I um I know we're all excited about it. All right. So, I believe that is all I have for you this evening. Anyone have any questions about those dates. All right. If not, then I will turn it over to Mr. Dhy for
046our superintendence report. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Wimberly. And this evening we have um Miss Katie Barker, who is our chief academic officer, is going to talk a little bit about our turnaround plans and this evening about we have two schools that'll be presenting on those. So, Miss Barker, good evening. First, I Oh, I am just here. A a little over two months ago, we were here for the board to approve the turnaround plans for River Oaks Middle School and Austin Bailey Elementary School. Part of that continuous improvement plan process is started with the school report card score for below average and then the state um next step is a turnaround plan and a part of that turnaround plan is every 30 days after that turnaround plan is submitted is a progress monitoring check. So,
047we are lucky to have the two principles of those two schools here tonight to share with us the progress that they are making on those plans. So, before I turn it over to them, I also want to say that it is both of their birthdays. So, they are spending both of their birthdays with us this evening. Want us to sing? Should we sing? So, I told them we were super excited to celebrate their birthday with them. So, first I'm just gonna ask Miss Tracy from River Oaks Middle School if she will come up and the floor is yours, ma'am. Yes. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Oh, what? Happy birthday, dear. Happy birthday to you. Thank you. I know. What are the odds that we both have the same birthday? Thank you for
048being here on your birthday. All right. Well, I'm very excited to be here today to share all the growth and progress that we've had at River Oaks um just over the course of really the whole school year, but especially since we've made a um concentrated effort with our continuous improvement plan. The first goal um looked at enhancing teacher and staff morale. And so you can see listed up there um a variety of things that we've done. The whole goal um was to create a a positive and supportive work environment for our staff. We want it to be a place where teachers want to work and our staff wants to stay. So some of those things that we've done that that quarterly pulse check you see that's been very beneficial. We sent it out at the
049end of each quarter and also it had this area where they could um submit any type of feedback that they wanted and then we took it and took the feedback we took it to heart and then we made improvements and we've seen a lot of um benefit from that. The efforts were designed to strengthen the morale, improve the communication and to foster a culture of respect and collaboration at River Oak. So I really um feel good. Then I have some pictures for you just to show you kind of the fruits of our labor when it comes to staff morale. The second goal that we looked at focused on our ML learners and making a concentrated effort to build capacity in our building for our teachers. Um put tool I always say put tools in their
050toolkit if you will to help them with our ML community. Um I'm not sure if you're aware but there's about a third of our population where English is their second language. over 230 children um out of our 740. Um English is their second language. So that's a large portion of our school. Um and when our teachers are going through their teacher prep programs, there's not a whole lot of training. Um and so we're working to build their capacity through professional development. Um the other um and one of those you'll see up there is the ML Monday. I'm very proud of the multilingual Monday PDS that we've put in. We actually had one today. um it's just a nice little you know hour of time to again fill that um toolkit. The other um part of
051this and this component of the improvement plan I'm very proud of is the ML tutoring that we've implemented on Wednesdays. So on Wednesdays we've targeted our level three and four ML students. They receive special invitations and they come and um they get tutoring. Um, a lot of it's it's like a 1:6 ratio and we spend some some one-on-one time with those kiddos to get them where they need to be. So, again, I hope we'll see the fruits of our labor when that report card comes out in the fall. The last one, um, it took me a little bit to kind of learn all the lingo, but it basically focuses on student growth. Um, and so when I explain it to my staff, we look at growing the students. So you'll have your kids that are
052exemplary that are met approaches or um need or does not meet, but we're looking at growing kids not only within those ranges and helping them move from one tier to the next, but also growing them within those ranges. So for this, we really focused on our professional learning communities. Our teachers meet consistently twice a week and during those times they do more than just plan. Yes, they plan, but they also look at analyzing data um and how they can use the tools that we've given them to um improve student achievement. Um we also wanted to make sure that we targeted our advanced learners. So, we've had some training for our gifted and talented teachers for what they can do to grow those students that are already excelling academically, but how do we continue to grow
053them um even more? And then um I will say that with our spring map data, it is very promising. I'm very proud of it. I cannot wait to meet with um Mr. Mr. Dhy up there and Miss Barker and and go over all of the great things that we've seen from fall to spring as far as growth is concerned um especially really in both areas in ELA and math. In math, we see a lot of growth as far as the academic achievement, but in ELA, we see a lot of growth as far as within those bands, going from this level and approaches to this level. So, they might not be quite met, but they've grown significantly within the band. And so, just for fun, because me talking up here is just a bunch of things,
054but the proof is in the pictures, right? So, um, one of the things I'm also very proud about my team, they do a great job of putting together family events for our school and we host at least one a month. And so, this is just a little sampling of some of the ones that we've done this school year. We've seen great um, a great increase in attendance with our families. Um, they really especially loved Family Game Night was a huge hit. Um, as well as literacy night is also a fan favorite. But what's good about this too is also getting the community in. So these weren't done just solely with River Oaks. We had other groups within our school district that came to help. For example, health and wellness, the foods and nutrition department came
055and and participated with us. So I think that's always nice. Um we implemented two um sort of a PBIS system. We kind of took a bunch of the best parts of all the systems and made our own, right? Um so we implemented Pawpoints this year um and it goes along with our rallies that we do um which is a part of Justin's Renaissance. So, our grade levels earn points and they earn points for academics, um, attendance and discipline. So, if you have all A's on your report card, you earn this many points for your grade level. If you have A's and B's, you earn this many points for your grade level. Same for attendance. If you have, you know, if you're present for the majority of this, you know, this percentage of the quarter, you
056get this many points. Same for discipline. So, that's where we kind of started with their points. And then during our rallies, our kids play games and have lots of fun and they earn points for their grade level. And what's great about a um ROM's rally is that we get about 150 kids a rally who get to participate in the activity. So that's pretty good. Um pretty much by the end of the year, every kid should have participated at least once. So um and then student recognition. We've really worked hard to recognize our students. We want them to want to come to school every day. And that kind of ties back to that first goal that we um looked at with um the the survey. I know it focuses on staff morale, but it's also student
057morale. A happy staff is a happy student. It's all cyclical. So, just making sure that everyone wants to be there every day. And then again, staff morale. So, I will say this isn't an isolation. Please know that we know that it is definitely going to be an ongoing process and the things that we've implemented this year we plan to continue and build upon as we um move forward into the next school year. Miss Trace, I just want to say a couple things. Uh you know, it's been what is this? Year two for you. So fully staffed this year. Yes. Um you and your staff have done an amazing job. I know you have a few assistant principles out there. Mr. Peters and Mr. Sharpie are out there. They have taken it upon themselves to make
058sure to transform that building. If you go and see on the campus, they've done painting on their own the signage around the building and they also have a great environment for students to learn. And so, we've been very very impressed when we come on our visits uh from district leadership to see the growth and the transformation that you and your team have done. So, as they say, attitude reflects leadership. And so, thank you for everything that you're doing over there and uh can't wait to see what happens. as you touched touched on a little bit about growth. Every student can grow. They may not hit achievement, but they can grow. And we're seeing that in the data that you're doing. And so, kudos to all of you. So, thank you for your hard work. Great.
059Thank you so much. [Applause] And now, Miss Bodison and Mr. Major. Mr. Major, it's not also also your birthday, is it? but from Austin Bailey Elementary. Good evening to uh Dr. Board Chair Dr. Wimberly, our board members, Superintendent Dhy, and other distinguished members of our community. Uh it is definitely a great joy and honor today to be able to talk about the continuous improvement plans that are in place at Alustin Bailey. We are continuing to work on four main goals to enhance student achievement as well as see student growth. We are definitely invested in seeing our students grow because we know what they have done in the past. This is the first time our school in its nine-year history has had a below average rating. The last few years, our school had an average to
060high average rating, almost making it to good. So, we do expect for our students, parents, and everyone on our team to continue working hard. And we are indeed proud of the teachers and staff that pour into the children each and every day. so so much that they do for the children, for the families of our community are definitely goals that we feel are going to make a difference for us as we look at moving our school forward. The first goal, which was by June of 2025, the overall proficiency of ABES teachers in regard to foundational reading skills will increase from a baseline of 24 point 21.4% 4% to 80% as measured by the letters post assessment for volume one. I cannot tell you how proud we are again of our K through3 teachers as well
061as administrators, ML teachers and other teachers involved in letters training. It has been a lot of work but they have done the work and they are learning so much about the science of reading that they can then take into their classrooms. The second goal, by the end of 2024 25 school year, multilingual students meeting progress towards proficiency targets will increase from 45.1% to 47.1% as measured by access for L's. In line with what Miss Tracy just shared, we have seen definitely an increase in the amount of ML students in our school. We've made some adjustments because of that that I will share a little bit later, but we are definitely looking at ways to meet the needs of our ML population as it has increased over the last two to three years. Goal three, by
062the end of the 2024 25 school year, the percentage of students with disabilities meeting their progress points in ELA and math will increase from 19.4% to 21.4% 4% is measured by SC ready. And again later in the presentation, Mr. Major is going to talk about not only what we're doing with our students with disabilities, but also he's going to talk about goal four, which deals with the number of students in grades three through five meeting their AVTs. Again, talking about growth, making sure that our students are growing. We had last year some situations with growth that we just were not happy about. We had students that could have grown more and we've been talking with them, meeting with them, conferencing with them, and teachers have been doing the same. Again, I can't say enough about
063the staff. The staff sees the data and they want to make sure that we address the data. Just to give you a brief a little bit more about letters. Again, our teachers that are K3 teachers, ML teachers, special education teachers, reading interventionist, reading coach, and of course administrators are involved in letters training. And what we've seen also is having PD that our district provides related to implementing UFly phonics and HMH reading materials also has been beneficial. Our district has PD coaches that have come to our school and work with our teachers and we've been so proud of the compliments they've given our teachers. They've said things like, "Wow, Miss Bodison, your teachers are so coachable. Miss Bodison, your teachers really want to know how they can meet the needs of the students by using HMH
064resources and you fly." So for that we are definitely definitely very grateful for the support from our PD coaches as well as district level leaders. In terms of our ML population again I just want to uh stress uh we have a dynamic ML teacher Miss Cisco. We've had so much support from our district level leader Mrs. Grensteiner as it relates to multilingual learners and our teachers have been involved in PD related to ways to support PD, excuse me, to support ML students. So, we're very happy about the work that's been done and the work that we will continue to do to support our ML population. At this time, assistant principal Major is going to come up and talk about all of the wonderful support we've had from district level leadership, our uh special ed po
065our special ed uh directors and uh also the interventionists and special education department that have been so very helpful to us. And then he's also going to talk about student growth, which is the reason that we are so so passionate because we know that our students can grow. we believe in them. So, we want to share that with you and then I'll come right back up. Thank you. Good evening everybody. Thank you, Miss Bod so much for that wonderful introduction. I'm going to go over one our next two goals. The first one is working with our students with disabilities. We understand that uh our students with disabilities might be starting the race at a different place, but they ought to be able to run it at their own pace. We want to make sure that
066those students are still making the growth targets that they are that are set for them by their special education teachers along with their families and everybody else as part of that IEP process. Uh to do that, we are looking at how we can provide our teachers support both in the classroom and outside of the classroom. Our uh students working with our students with disabilities, it starts in their general education classroom. The vast majority of our students with disabilities spend the majority of their time in a GenE Edge classroom. They're only pulled out for very small parts of the day. So we need to work at that tier one instruction with our general education teachers so they know how to support teach students through differentiated instruction through that small group instruction. So we provided professional development
067on that. Moving beyond that we work we have worked on our MTSS process for those of you in the district for a while you might have called it response to intervention. You might have called it student support team but now it's the multi-tiered system of support. That's what the state's been defining it for quite some time. Our district last year updated the flowchart and how we identify students for uh uh MTSS and our school adapted to it the uh year before last and I've been working very hard with our staff on how to implement that MTSS to identify students uh that are struggling and then be able to look at the data to make objective decisions so that we can provide both tier 2 and tier three interventions. And then finally we're trying to reduce
068the number of students that end up going through a special education evaluation. We want to capture as many students as we can in the general education classroom and provide them with instruction that will help close those skill gaps. That being said, before we move on from this, I do want to make sure I speak to the people at the heart of all of this, and that's our special education teachers. I want to name people like Miss Flood, Miss Gibbs, Miss Kirk, Miss Lom, Mallister, Miss Schiffers, Miss Lynn, and Miss Smith who work in our supplemental support, our core academic, and our supportive learning classrooms. We've got people like Miss Patterson, Miss Daily, and Miss Sanchamino, who just had a baby, our speech language pathologist. Congratulations, Miss Sanchamino. We've got Miss Lubkicker and Miss Collier, our
069PT and our OT. Miss Gomez, who works with our students who are hard of hearing. We have Miss Alpai, Miss Alvarado and Miss Morati, and Miss Ganis who work with our special needs preschool program. We've got district support from people like Miss Meyer, Miss Pew, Miss Zilcowski, Miss Michelle Jones, Dr. Williams Bush, and the rest of the district specials team. We appreciate all the support you provide. We've got people like our phenomenal school psychologist, Miss Tara Jones, and our other assistant principal, Miss Elizabeth Isaac, who wasn't able to be here, but she is a former special education teacher and has brought a vast amount of insight and knowledge to our special education team. And our special education team lead, Miss Allison Kincher. I want to say thank you to you for all of the support
070that you've given both to our special education teachers, their students, and their families, and all of the staff to help close this achievement gap so we can help these students make their growth goals. Moving on from that, I want to speak to student growth. is just looking zooming out from that subgroup looking just our students with disabilities to looking at all students. How can we help all students meet their added value targets? Now, I don't want to get into the weeds. If Mr. Schmink would here, he could speak to it much better than I can, but it used to be that we looked at median uh values, uh how much a student can grow at the 50th percentile. But if a student keeps growing at the 50th percentile, they're not actually growing. They're just staying
071at the same pace and rate with their uh with their peers. So, we need to be adding value to them year after year. A student at the 90th percentile needs to grow at a different point than the student that's achieving at the 20th percentile. So how can we help those students continue to grow? So to do that we're first how do we unpack the data? How do we look at how our students are doing? Because again it's all about making that objective decision not getting it. You know I tip to our teachers about often when you're in the classroom you're in the trenches and you can have a hard time having that perspective. You're right there with the students in that classroom. And so taking that step back and looking that 30,000 foot view so
072that you can uh look at that data that we can get from math from common assessments from ASWeb and really make those objective decisions on how to help our students uh make those growth targets on SC ready eventually. Uh to do that we participated in extended data debriefings every six weeks where we use programs like panorama and as web so that we can have that data that really speaks to what are our students doing what are the skill gaps and then how do we affect how do we affect change in classroom instruction. Uh and again as I spoke to earlier, we've been doing a lot of that through our MTSS process. Finally, I want to say thank you to the district PD coaches that have been provided to us. The district has done a phenomenal
073job in terms of supporting us with those professional development coaches. Uh thank you to Miss Schroeder, Mr. Miss Deetsz, Mr. Walker, Miss Anderson, Miss Bohannan, Miss Knox, Dr. Laughlin to other district members like Miss Ginstein, Miss Farnsworth, Miss Kelly, Mr. Maner, and Miss Wilkins. They've all come in provided professional development for our teachers uh for all of our staff and it's uh really helped us be able to try and close some of these achieving gaps. And we've seen a lot of that data reflected in our MAP growth goals. If you think about uh when you look at a MAP uh growth goal uh quadrant chart, you'll see that's broken into, you know, how high a student is growing versus not growing and how high they're achieving versus not achieving. And we're seeing a lot of
074our grade bands are in that high growth area, which directly speaks to this goal in our continuous improvement plan. So, thank you to uh chair member, board chair, Dr. Wimbley, the rest of the uh board, Dr. Doherty or Mr. Dohy, and everybody else at the district for all of your support. I appreciate it. Thank you, Miss Bod. I'm going to turn it back over to you. Thank you, Mr. Major. And again, thank you to everyone for the support. Um just in the last couple of uh months, we have continued our focus on making sure that our teachers have what they need. We know that a confident teacher is going to do a lot better in the classroom. So, uh we're blessed to have teachers, as I said earlier, teachers and staff that are very coachable
075and wanting to do wanting to learn um and wanting to grow. So, in the last few months, we thought you'd just like to see some of the professional development that we have done. Uh we love uh this quote by Dr. Brad Johnson that says, "Love what you teach, but love who you teach more." And so in in that vein, we do stress to the teachers that we want them to be confident and we want them to have the knowledge base to do the job that they do. And whether they're a first year teacher, a veteran teacher, they're they have to keep learning. And I I use myself as an example. I said, I'm learning right along with you. I am learning right along with you. I'm sitting through these professional development sessions right along with
076you. So, we do thank you for um this opportunity to share what we've been up to at Austin Bailey Elementary School, home of the Tiger Cubs. And we do thank you for your support. Uh and we thank team Dorchester for the support at all times. Thank you, Mrs. Bodis. I just want to say thank you to you and Mr. Major and your team and your teachers. It's definitely been a team effort. I know when you got that report card rating, you were not you were very upset, but you've been very open and want to get better and we can see that through your staff, through your attitude and your actions, through your leadership and so we're excited to see where your students are going and like Mr. Major said, we're going to see in those
077quadrants and NWA students are growing and that's a testament to your staff on the professional development. And I know when our district team goes over there, they've been very, very excited what they're seeing and trying to change that tier one instruction as you mentioned earlier. So, we thank you for doing that. Also want to thank you for promoting Austin Bailey Elementary School. There's probably not a better uh school in our district that promotes our school better on social media. So, and I know you're in charge of that. So, thank you for what you're doing. Um, we appreciate that. And also we were able to serve lunch over there uh at your school and your students were so kind, had great manners and uh they had great procedures in the cafeteria. Students were orderly and well
078behaved. So thank you for what you're doing over there. Uh to Miss um Tracy and Miss Bodison, I know that the school personnel understand the importance of our students basically stepping up their game. I'm interested in knowing and we may have to talk about this later but I'm interested in knowing what is the participation from the parents. How informed are they as to where we are and where we are trying to get to. I don't know if I can speak for Miss Tracy but I will tell you one of the best things that happened to me this year was when we had professional development on parent square because I can go in and I can look and see how my teachers are communicating with parents. I can actually meet with teachers and say, "Hey, we
079need some more curriculum information here about what's going on for the week." If I see something that needs to be clarified, I can go to that teacher and say, "Hey, I saw this, but I'm looking as a parent. How would I as a parent know that you meant for this to go to Schooly? Let's make sure it's clear." So, the teachers know that I check their parent square and they get to see what I'm posting and they get to see how I'm communicating with parents. And so I've done everything from videos to parents because they're working. Some of my parents are working two and three jobs. And so to reach them, they know that they can depend each week on getting a letter in parent square from me or a video. And sometimes my videos
080can be a little long, but I try to make sure that I'm sharing with them what's going on. And I want to be honest with parents. I want to share curriculum information. I want to share data with them. And I also want to share what went well the week before and what didn't go so well. I want to make sure that we're honest with them. So I I I can tell you that yes, we can have our SIC meetings. Yes, we can have our award ceremonies. Yes, we can have our reading things that we do. But in terms of reaching our parents, I would have to say the move to Parent Square and being able to send out a quick video, send out a message, you know, do shoutouts, do those kinds of things. That
081along with with Facebook and that along with just checking and making sure that teachers are actually communicating the curriculum or even having to guide teachers and say, "Okay, you got your data back. Let's make sure we're communicating with the parents. They're working. They may not be able to come." Um, and there's also a direct message. So, as principal in January, beginning of January, I could actually send a direct message to each parent of their child's MAP scores. I did that for third, fourth, and fifth grade. So, each parent got a direct message from me the beginning of January with their child's MAP report. So, when they came back to school, and that's how I explained it. when you come back to school. I wanted you to have this before your child came back to school.
082So, you can communicate lots of curriculum information and data privately to just that parent. And you can also communicate like a grade level's data as well. So, that's one way to try to reach parents that oftentimes are working two and three jobs and may not be able to physically come to an event that we're having at our school. And I I understand that. It's just a matter I just want to make sure that they're aware of the role that they play in helping their children or child reach certain goals that are being set for them. And I applaud you using that method so that it is a direct almost conversation face to face with you if they choose to basically tune into it. So can they can respond back too. So if they have a
083question about something I've pushed out and I and only I see that question. So I can say, "Oh, Miss Powell has a question about something that's coming up." I can just send it right back to just you. Okay. So it's private. Yeah. Sounds good. Yes. Thank you. So and and I will be very brief. Um but a few things I did want to highlight and and Miss Bodison and Miss Tracy, um thank you. I I I am excited to see the results. um because we can we can tell we can feel the emphasis um that that you guys are putting into it. I will tell you with the the district folks that I interact with um a good bit that have been to your schools working with you on your data, working with your teachers,
084um they have nothing but amazing amazing things to say about um all of your faculty and the work that they're putting in the the work that your teachers are putting in um to to turn their turn that around is is definitely noteworthy and and something that that we're very proud of. Um the other thing Austin Bailey I want to highlight you guys were just recognized as a capturing kids heart uh national showcase school. Um that's that's a huge deal and so you know there's there's yeah [Applause] um so that there's a lot of positive happening. So I want you guys to take that away um that we see you and uh we appreciate the the work. I I will and the question I have uh really for both of you is is there anything that
085we as a board anything that that district leadership can provide more of? Are there supports that you feel that you need um that we might be able to help you with? And if you can't think of it right now, don't hesitate to reach out later. Hi. No, I'll just say just keep coming to our schools and keep visiting. We like when you're there. Um we like to show what's going on and I think our teachers like to see you there. Um Oh, perfect. Thank you. Yeah. So, for me, I just just keep doing what you're doing, keep coming, keep visiting, keep seeing us, keep supporting us um as we as we kind of go through this journey. I'm very excited to see um what will happen in the fall. So, yeah, just come visit. Ditto.
086Thank you for your support, those of you that have visited and um looking forward to seeing others and thank you for your support. Okay, that moves us on to the 7B, the district childcare update. So, thank you to River Oaks and Austin Bailey Elementary. Thank you. Now you can go celebrate. Um this evening we're going to talk a little bit about the district childcare update just to give you a little bit of update there. I know when we first brought this to the board we were looking at having this as a pilot over at Flowertown Elementary School. Um designated some classrooms there. Um we also there was talk of doing a partnership with the YMCA um to expand our partnership there and help out with any costs uh effective with their what they do from
087their program. Um and then also this was also an initiative that kind of stem from uh the recruitment and retention committee. And so what we have been doing is we've been tasked to kind of look at this a little bit deeper um for timing um for next year and also looking at as for costs as well, those two-pronged approach. We looked at those two things um and tried to see if this is something we can do next year. And so we've kind of met as a district team. Uh, a lot of kudos goes out to Carrie Ball Hodgej and Tatty Thomas. Um, they were able to do some research and actually some visits. Um, we visited um Charleston Comm County Child Care um centers, also the Charleston Head Start, College of Charleston um early childhood
088development, the YMCA, University of Tennessee, and that's kind of Car's area where she's done a lot of work in early childhood. And so we were looking at types of care, the staff ratios, application process, facility requirements, and then looking at what action steps we're going to need. And so we formed that district office committee. We identified the pilot location, which is Flowertown. We talked a little bit about funding costs. Um, we were able to meet with Joe Debbney of the YMCA, discuss a partnership with with uh his group. And then we also sent a survey. they were sent survey sent out to DD2 faculty and staff for their interests and there were some interest there um to having a child care uh in DD2. So when we go back to reviewing the licensing requirements and
089talking about one of the challenges for us is time um time working with DSS getting people licensed um and looking at those c not so much that but those lensure pieces and making sure we have everybody has the right credentials we have the right lensures and also degrees in order to do that. We also look at the application process which will take some time timing as well. As far as the facility, we feel like the facility can kind of be brought up to speed in a fairly quick but also will be kind of would cost us some money as well. But then we would looked at that and so when we came down to this, you know, we're enthusiastic about the possibilities of the program, but we could not pull it off with the timing.
090Uh when we talk with the YMCA, they would not have enough people to be able to help us with this pilot program. um they're in the midst right now of doing a campaign of building another facility and we're looking in the future of being kind of a satellite um to partner with them. And so right now the timing with the DSS regulation requirements and also with the staffing requirements of working with the Y and then also looking at some of the funding as you know we'll be going over budget and some of the things we thought you know what the budget is how can we maybe afford maybe with some of the types of people to bring on as staffing if we could not use the YMCA. Um, so those are some things we looked
091at, but as of right now, we're looking at to maybe holding and not doing um the child care program for next year. Um, we're not giving up on that program. It's something we're going to continue to look for and work with the YMCA and partnerships, but we do know it's something that our employees want. However, the timing right now is probably not the best. Uh, we could not pull this off even if we tried with the DSS requirements and credentials there. And then also we're looking at trying to turn around and spending some money that we probably don't have at this point right now. And so basically it's more of a timing issue um that it is money but however money does factor into that. So at this time we're just looking at putting kind
092of pausing of doing the daycare for the 25 and 26 school year. If you have some questions, I know I can we have Carrie Ball Hodgej and also Tatty Thomas here that can maybe answer some more questions to get more details, but just want to give you an overview. Um, we've worked very hard on this and we're again we're going to meet with the YMCA again in in June to continue that discussion to see where they're at. Um, to see if this is even a possibility the year after. So again, just kind of putting a pin in it as we say or pausing it for the 2526 school year. But again, when we got that survey data, there is a need. There are people that would like to see this offered in DD2. But again,
093just kind of pausing it for next year. So, if you have any questions, we'll take questions uh that we may be able to answer. Um, not necessarily a question, but but I will say I I appreciate the effort and and the research that's gone into that. Um, I would much rather us do do this, right? um and and have a fully planned out, wellthoughtout program versus something potentially uh kind of halfbaked and and then run into major issues with that program um if if we were to just kind of slap something together. So, um again, just appreciate all the work that's gone into it and um thank you for uh for the work. Thank you. Well, I really want to thank Tatty and Carrie Ball Hodgej. they did a lot of the leg work and
094all the research and um able to bring that back and and as you said Mr. Farnsworth if we're going to do it we're going to do it right and do a good program and we just feel like the timing we could not pull that off. So thank you. We'll move on to our next item which is our finance report with Miss Minet. And so Miss Met. Um good evening board chair, board members, Mr. Dohy. We have a few finance things coming up your way this evening. Um first we'll start with our cash flow analysis. Um this is for the 2425 year and we are almost to the end of our fiscal year. We only have three months left to go. Um as you can see if you look under the March um we're presenting the
095March um completion through March 31st um we are at 28.72% of fund balance. Someone was asking me that earlier and as we go through the next couple of months we've received almost all of our revenues um for the county taxes. So we have to sustain our spending and and revenues until we get to the end of the year. Um, so the 28.72% looks really good, but if you look towards the end of the year, we will end at 20.86 and the board's um goal is to keep 18%. So, we'll still be right right on track. Um, but that's a good reason to have a fund balance and to not dip into your fund balance every year. So, we will be right on track at the end of the year. Um, also, um, if you'll notice
096for the bottom section for food service fund balance, we started the year with $5 million and we're projecting at the end of the year to be at 3.2 because we had worked on um, getting some extra equipment that we needed to get um, since we were um, we had over three months worth of fund balance. So, we were working on that. Um the next report is our balance sheet report again through March 31st. Um first column shows our March 31st, 2025. And then the right hand column is um our comparison with the 2024. We're almost exactly right on the money as of where we were last year um with our assets um our liabilities and our fund balance. Um the only change that you can see from the 24 year to the 25 year basically
097is that our fund balance um at the beginning of this year was higher than it was at the end of last year because we did have some savings. Um but at the end of the year, I mean at the end of March, pardon me, we're at 97.7 million for our assets. Um the next report is our revenues and expenditures and changes in fund balance. um for the month of March um through the end of March our total revenues were at 218 million and our expenditures were at 200.4 million. So our ideal percentage at the end of March um we will we should have 25% remaining in our expenditures and 25% or less um to be collected in our revenues. Um, so we've actually received more revenues than 25%. Again, we don't collect revenues equally all
098year, just the same as we don't collect the expenditure, we don't pay expenditures the same. Um the one thing to point out for expenditures because we are at 31% which is right on the money because um we pay our instructional folks through July and that gets um acrewed back into um June 30th. So we need that one extra month of instructional. So we're right on the money for the um expenditure column. So those are all that is all the information for the financials for through March 31st. Thank you Miss Manet. Any any questions from the board? Okay. So our next Okay. Yeah. And our next one, if you're looking here, is we're asking for approval, a motion to approve the award of the contract from the bid opening um for the door replacement of Austin
099Middle School. And so we're asking for uh board approval for that bid. All right. This go this was this information was loaded into your board packet and it's still confidential because we have not um awarded um the contract to the vendor. This was waiting for your board approval. So all this is still confidential until you um approve that. Yes. So board members as Miss Manet said this information was included in our board docs. Um so at this time I would ask for a motion to approve the bid for the door replacement at Austin Middle School. So moved. Okay. Motion made by Mr. Guthrie. Do I have a second? Seconded by Miss King. Any discussion or questions? Okay. And um also, I should have stated this earlier, but we do have Mr. Lee um joining us.
100He was able to phone in and join us for this um portion of the agenda. So, we do have him on the line. Um Jim, good evening, Mr. Lee. Oh, he is with us. All right. So, um Wanda, I'm gonna um he's going to be voting. So, if you wouldn't mind entering that um for me, please. All right. So, at this time, we have a motion and a second, and we have called for the vote. I apologize. Yes. Okay. The doors, the ex the door replacement. Yeah. replacement. Is that a motion to approve? Yes. Yes. How would you like to vote, Mr. Lee? Yay. All right. Yes. Mr. Lee voted yay. The motion carries. Seven in favor. Thank you very much. So, also Miss Manet and I were kind of tag teaming this. And so,
101the next thing um we're going to ask the board for as a motion to approve Dr. Wimberly and the rest of the board is to do a fiscal impact study on the consolidation of Dorchester School District 2 and Dorchester School District 4. Um this study was done in 2006 and so we have met um Dr. Wimberly, Mrs. bates. Uh we were able to meet with uh Dorchester District 4 and this is something they would like to enter in agreement with us to both pay for this study. And so I would like a motion um to approve us to enter into this uh impact study but not to exceed $10,000 to to pay for this study. So I'm asking for board approval for to do a fiscal impact study on consolidation of Dorchester school district 2
102and Dorchester school district 4. Also this study will include alternative funding um looking at industrial parks in which other districts have multiple school districts in like Spartanberg and how they share revenue and that's another thing that we've asked for that to be part of the study as well. And so again, asking for a motion to approve to go forward with this study. Yes. Not to exceed $10,000 for this. Yeah. DD4 will actually help pay for this study. So they will pay for half of it. Um and so that's why we're saying not to exceed $10,000 to pay for um the fiscal impact study on consolidation or our just our portion. Yes. Yes. We don't have a formal quote from them at this time, but when I spoke with Melanie Janette, um she didn't think it
103would. Are we I know we're not at the discussion phase yet because nobody's made a motion, but um I I don't know how I feel about even taking a vote on this without having like a definitive cost and what's going to be included in the study in writing. Personally, I would like to see like what the stud is going to entail. Is are they going to include the information regarding um like a shared tax revenue? Yes. like I I just that's not in front of me. So, I just don't want to vote on something that's not in front of me. And I agree with Miss Bates because the question I asked was if the study itself in general was 20,000, but we wanted to add the additional information. Yes. Then that may go up on
104our part, not necessarily on the errors unless they agreed. So when I spoke with Miss Janette um she said that it would be an update to the 2006 survey um study that was already that I mean is there any pressing reason why we would need to vote on this tonight? We couldn't put it off till next board meeting when we have like a definitive cost and a little bit more information on what the study is going to cover. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm I'm perfectly okay doing that. But I I will say maybe even one step further. I I think the frustrating part to me um I go back and and Mr. Lee has stated this before to the fact that we Dorchester DD2 nor DD4 have asked for consolidation. I've not asked for it. This
105board as a body has not asked for it. To my knowledge, DD4 as a board has not asked for it. The only reason this came up this legislation year is because our legislative delegation felt that they wanted to push forward an idea that neither of the school districts have been involved in and neither of the school districts are asking for. And so now we're in a place where we are being asked to pay for a study as a school district. And and from a high level, $10,000 in our budget is is not a lot of money. But it's it's kind of the the principle of it that if if this is something that the legislative delegation wants to push for, then they should do the study. Sure. I and they should pay for it. Now,
106now I think what you're going to say and and there are pieces of it. Now, I do see that I I will say there are pieces of the study when we start to look at like a revenue share, those types of pieces I think are are extremely important, right? But the but for us to pay for a study about legislation, I don't agree with that. Right. I don't this the um the conversation to do the study did not come from the legislative delegation. Um so um as Mr. Dohy mentioned, there was a study done previously in 2006. Um and so um Miss Hughes from DD4 is the one who, you know, learned about that and came to us, sat down. we had a meeting with her and presented the idea. I think the idea behind
107doing it is more just to give us um information and data that I think would be helpful in you know moving forward and looking for um a sustainable um you know way to address our funding challenges here. So really um you know yes the study would give us information on the fiscal impact of consolidation good or bad for both school districts but also I think the more important piece for us is looking at those alternative uh tax revenue sharing models and how we could benefit from that. So that was definitely a piece of it that we said would be very important for us if we were to agree to it that would need to be included. Yeah. And just to piggyback on what you said in our meeting with DD4 that this was something they
108very much wanted to do too and I think we all with with our funding issues and needing like a long-term sustainable funding solution. It's good to have all the information. So I do see the benefits to having the information. I just think it's important we know what information we're getting, what that cost is going to be and have a little bit more, you know, knowing what we're getting and and what we're signing up for. But I do think like it is beneficial for us just when we're looking at all options locally, legislatively, um to address the disparities of Act 388 and our district's funding. We do have that information. if if we're advocating, you know, to our delegation, to county council to try to get them involved in helping us find those solutions, this would
109be very important information to have to be able to share with them and say that is not going to be a, you know, a helpful solution and we have facts that show that it's not. And so here's why we would like for you to consider these other things. So, but I do agree. I I'm certainly do not think that it is something that we have to decide tonight that it is not you know time is not um an issue so it's certainly something that we can um get more information on or discuss further. We brought this because Dorchester 4 was going to bring this to their board and they wanted to know that you were in but I have no problem telling them that um we have not made a decision yet and it is
110something that you know we are looking for more information on before we um want to do that. I think we that we might not right and and again and I will tell you I for me a lot of it has to do with the optics of it because if we say we're doing a study on consolidation the optics of it could very well be oh well Dorchester District DD2 and DD4 are looking at consolidation I don't know that I'm necessarily pushing for that and so I think there's just a higher level we need to be careful of I'm I'm perfectly okay if we want to look at like a revenue share I don't know if that study is different costwise if you just do it from a revenue share study versus a consolidation study because
111I this again I will go back to this board is has not publicly declared we are looking at consolidation. DD4 has not said that. It's hard to say one thing or the other without any information. We have no data. We have no facts. I think that I mean DD4 is also asking for this study. I and I I think that we do need to have that information. I don't you know it's not gonna they're not going to just want to do a study on shared tax revenue. I think there is a benefit to us having all that information and it's not just us. And obviously everybody knows DD4 is not advocating for consolidation. However, we are both advocating for more information so we can be armed with the realities of our financial situations and what
112that would look like to our detriment or benefit for both parties. And I think whenever you're having your conversation with whomever, you just simply let them know we are gathering information and there's nothing wrong with doing that. I appreciate all the information. Let's not make a decision tonight. Let's just wait and not make hasty choices and decisions. Okay, sounds great. Thank you. All right, one more thing here in finance. Uh we'll talk about the approval of the budget presentation to county council and so I'll turn it over to Miss Beignet. Okay, we are going during our public input session, we went through the um presentation and after talking with several board members and um um again going through that presentation, we were just wanting to bring this to the board during this part of the
113meeting for y'all to vote on what will be presented and what will be asked for Dorchester County Council um as far as a millage increase because we will not meet again formally until then. and um now is the time for us to ask for that vote. So um go through this. Um I don't know if we wanted to go through this again, Miss Wim, Dr. Wimbley, or if just point to the slide that we were board members, do you have a preference? Um I know some of you were not able to attend the workshop earlier. So, would you like for Miss Met to do the complete um Okay. We haven't made any changes to um I'm good either way. I'm good. To the budget priorities or everything that we have discussed with y'all over the
114past several. Sounds like everyone is okay. If you just want to hit the highlights. Okay. Um so the main thing that we um changed was starting with this slide. So in the bottom section for the other salary cons salary consideration maybe I should go back let me go back to let's just start here. Um so when we're talking about our budget proposal with in numbers um the total proposed reductions of $5 million will help us in our expenditure side um to make up for the additional expenditures that we we have for next year. So um the 5.1 million will help us to pay for the total mandates. The teacher step is a mandate from the state but that means every teacher who is qualified to move to the next step after their year of service
115um will get a step. So the teachers get a step on this slide. You move to the this next slide um concerning classroom allocations content specialists and its initiatives that the board wanted the board wanted us to make sure that we um included those. Um, and so we're still we're still good with our revenues um and expenditure savings until we get to this slide. So our salary increase priorities, the first um line shown there is a step for our classified and certified staff that are not on the teacher scale. So those include our admin folks. Um and so we need $1.6 6 million which equates to um this the so the teachers will get a step and now everyone else will get a step. The next line item is where we need to ask for
116millillage. So $1,500 increase for all steps on the teacher salary scale. We need $1.3 million of the $3.4 million which equates to three mills that we would need to ask from the county. The next line item is a 1% increase for classified staff. So as we're trying to equate it to when the teachers are getting something, the the classified and non-teers also are getting something. Um so then that bottom section that's also in green is the additional $500 for step for the teacher. This will bring them to 51,000. So the next two lines um are are grayed out. We had we still wanted to show that it was an initiative of the board that we would really love to add another thousand dollars to the teacher scale to get them to 52,000 and then when
117the teachers get another thousand it would equate to almost a 2% increase for everyone else as as another cola. Um so that makes 16.5 mills that are that are top priority that we think um that we wanted to present as our budget needs. So this is the original slide that we had shown y'all before. However, after several conversations with board members and county council folks and legislators and um it seems like there is an appetite from county council that they would be very supportive to get our teachers to 51,000 and um a step as well as a step and a 1% increase for classified and non-teers which includes admin. So this is the slide where we are showing a millillage request to Dorchester County Council for the 7.6 mills. So we're going to ask them
118for 7.6 mills. I still want to ask them for 16, but this is what their appetite is. So we will we will take every single meal we can get um and be very appreciative because this will help our folks. Um, so this is the change from the last time that we met with y'all and wanted to know if you were good with specifically this going to county council as the presentation on May 12th. Was there anything else, Dr. Wimbley? I think that is everything, Miss Manet. Thank you. So board members, at this time I would ask for a motion to approve this budget presentation for county council. So moved. Okay. Motion made by Mr. Farnsworth, seconded by Mr. Guthrie. Any discussion or questions? He said that that's different than what was uploaded, which it is.
119Miss Bates has Mr. Lee on the phone. So, so that's what you're voting on that. Are you Are you good for me to put you on speaker phone or do you have a question? Do you have a question on speaker? Is you did you ever upload that version into I did not. We just did that this afternoon. Was done in the budget meeting, I guess, in the workshop. In the workshop. It just stops at the 7.6 mills, which is the only difference is in the packet six because that's what they're asking for, not the 12 16, not the 16. Is it 7.5 or 7.6? Slide 17. It should be 7.6. It says 7.5 on slide on that slide, but it should be 7.6. Yes, that's what's on our slide that we're voting on is 7.6.
120I see it does say 7.6. So, we're going to present everything as you see with a 7.6 Six ask to county council and you're voting to approve or not approve or abstain. Sorry. And we're just waiting on you. One second, please. I don't know. I could send him a picture of the slide. I didn't think about Oh, I don't have this. Do you need this one? Can you pull? Go ahead. Yay. Okay. I'm sorry. What was that, Jim? I vote yay. Okay. We have a yay. All right. And the motion carries. Seven in favor. Thank you, Miss Manet and team. The other thing and the other thing we have here on 7D is a personnel report. If you look in your packet there, you have several items in there for personnel recommendations as presented to
121the board. So, Dr. Weberly and the rest of the board. I need a motion to approve the personnel recommendations. So moved. Thank you, Mr. Doherty. Um board members, I'm assuming you are okay to proceed in open session then. And I have a motion made by um Mr. Guthrie. Do I have a second? All right. Seconded by Miss King. Any questions or discussion? That's all right. We're voting on the personnel report. Any questions or discussion? All right. Hearing none, we will call for the vote. No below. Motion carries. Six in favor, one absent. And then we have uh student enrollment recommendations. And so not sure if we need to go into executive session for those. Um I believe board members, if everyone is okay with it, we will proceed in open session with the ones um
122uploaded into our board docs under this superintendent report um letter E. Just to confirm that one is not included in the list. Correct. Okay. Correct. Yes. So I would ask for a motion to approve the student enrollment recommendations under letter E as included in your packets. Uh I'll make a motion. I have a question after we Motion made by Mr. Farnsworth. Do seconded by Miss Bates. Any questions, discussion? So, we've got some outof districts stuff on there. Out of district stuff on there. Do we do we make them pay because I think our policy has some tax last week. The last nine weeks if a student has moved, we typically will keep these students in our schools for the end of the year. That's kind of what our policy says at this point. Got it.
123Thank you. All right. Any other questions or discussion? Okay. Hearing none, we will call for the vote. Okay. Motion carries. Six in favor, one absent. All right, Mr. Dhy. Does that conclude your report for this evening? Yes, Dr. Wimberly. That's that's all I have tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Right. The next item on our agenda is our public comments and we do have one this evening. Um, Mr. Kevin Carroll, is that last name correct? Carol. All right, step up. Thank you for your patience. Good evening, Superintendent Dy and the board. I am Kevin Carroll. I live in Newington across from Flower Town in Newington schools. In the next few days, the Berlin GM Meers Parkway Extension will open, adding by SC DOT initial estimates 18 to 30,000 more cars to that area. There is a
124new intersection of the Parkway at Luden Drive. Luden Drive has been widened from two lanes to four in anticipation of that additional traffic. Luden Drive goes directly to the front door of Flowertown School at Kingch Child Circle. Flower Town and Newington schools directly abut 1,000 ft of frontage along Kingchow Circle. But at no point in that thousand ft is there a school safety zone sign, nor a speed limit sign, nor the traditional yellow flashing school zone lights that one sees everywhere at every school across the country. There is no safety traffic zone signage, but there should be. and I asked the school board and the school administration to do what is necessary to quickly place those school zone and speed limit signs along King Jou. In addition to the local Newington community traffic, there is
125anticipated cut through traffic from the Berlin G. The schools themselves add an additional 1,000 vehicle trips daily at the morning drop off and the afternoon pickup. Vehicles begin arriving for the afternoon pickup at 11:00 in the morning and they go in the back driveways and they often spill out onto King Charles blocking part of the roadway of both schools. All of this increased vehicle traffic requires a school safety zone designation for that area of King Charles Circle to provide adequate safety for the school children of Flowertown and Newington schools. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Carol. All right. And the next item on our agenda is our executive session. 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. Guthrie. Seconded
126by Miss Bates. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, I will call for the vote. Motion carries. Six in favor, one absent. We are in executive session and we will return. I ask for a motion to return to open session. So move. Oh, motion made by Miss Powell, seconded by Mr. Guthrie. Any discussion? Hearing none, we will call for the vote. Motion. Oh, excuse me. Motion carries. Six in favor, one absent. Okay, we are back in open session. At this time, I would ask for any motions pertaining to action from our executive session. Madam Chair, I make a motion we uphold the district decision in regards to the student enrollment recommendation in executive session. Thank you, Mr. Farnsworth. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Seconded by Miss King. Any discussion? All right. Hearing
127none, we will call for the vote. Motion carries. Six in favor, one absent. All right. And at this time, I would ask for a motion to adjurnn. Motion made by Miss Powell. Second. Seconded by Mr. Guthrie. Any discussion? Hearing none, we will call for the vote. Motion carries. Six in favor, one absent. We are adjourned.