001Heavenly Father, I thank you for the opportunity to serve our schools and community. We come before you with humble hearts, asking for your guidance in our leadership and decisions tonight. Grant us wisdom, unity, and clarity as we work together for the good of every student, teacher, and family in our district. May our choices honor you and reflect justice, compassion, and integrity. We ask for your favor and blessings over our schools that they would be places of safety, growth, and opportunity for all. In your holy name we pray. Amen. Please join me for the flag. United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. All right. Good evening and welcome to the May 12th, 2025 board meeting. Um, at this time I would ask for a
002motion to approve the consent agenda. So moved. Motion made by Mr. Guthrie. Do I have a second? Seconded by Mr. Lee. Any discussion or questions? All right. Hearing none, we will call for the vote. and the motion carries. Seven in favor. All right. The next item on our agenda this evening are district highlights. Welcome Mr. Bhannan. Good evening, Dr. Wimberly, Mr. Dhy, board members. Tonight, we're proud to recognize three outstanding achievements that reflect the excellence, service, and positive culture within Dorchester School District 2. First, we're going to celebrate Eagle Nest Elementary School for receiving the 2025 SIC award of merit for their report to parents presented by the South Carolina School Improvement Council. This recognition highlights their 2324 report as a model of transparency and clear communication between school families and community. Do we have
003our representatives from Eagle Nest in the room? Come on. [Applause] Next, we recognize the Ashley Ridge High School Air Force JOTC program for earning the highest honor awarded by headquarters AFJOTC, the distinguished unit with merit. This distinction follows a rigorous inspection process during which our cadets earned a remarkable score of 95.5 out of 100 with zero deficiencies. The success of this unit is the result of a tremendous leadership and student commitment. They've got over 3,300 community service hours, more than 3,400 extracurricular training hours across 14 competitive and interest teams. 34.7% of these cadetses are at the bronze level or higher on the AFJOTC fitness assessment and 51% of 10th and 12th graders cadets are in the Kittyhawk National Honor Society representing a core of 169 cadets. We are pleased to welcome the following students to
004the stage. Grace Cook, Kota Daniel, Jaden Esther, Olivia Fort. Everybody come on. I'm just going to call all these names. Everybody come on. We're going to take a big picture. Move. Move at once. Move together. Wonderful. Tyler Hayes, Amir Huger, Carlos Infante, Micaia Kirkman, Courtney Lambertson, Ununice Lim, Axana Minut, Mariah Stipula, Angel Tra, and James Dini. [Applause] Dress right dress. [Applause] Finally, we're proud to honor 10 of our schools for national recognition from capturing kids' hearts. Seven schools, wait, 11 schools, seven schools have been named national showcase schools. A distinction awarded to campuses that demonstrate exemplary implementation of capturing kids arts practices, leading to measurable improvements in connectedness, attendance, discipline, and academic performance. Additionally, four schools have been named rising star schools, reflecting significant growth in their practices. We're going to bring our capturing kids
005hearts school faculties up one at a time, grab a photo op, and move to the next. Our capturing kids hearts national showcase schools are Austin Bailey Elementary. [Applause] Go team. I like your blue boots. [Applause] Next we have Fort Dorchester Elementary School. [Applause] represented here tonight by outgoing principal Annette Pletcher. [Applause] Next we have Knightsville Elementary School. [Applause] They'll be followed by Oakbrook Elementary School. [Applause] They'll be followed by Sand Hill Elementary School. [Applause] They'll be followed by Somerville Elementary School. [Applause] And our final National Showcase School, Windsor Hill Arts Infused Elementary. Moving on, our rising star schools, Beach Hill Elementary, [Applause] Next we have Joseph R. Pie Elementary School. [Applause] They're followed by Span Elementary School. [Applause] And finally, William M. Reeves Elementary School. As Dr. Wimberly and Mr. Dhy return to their places,
006how about one more round of applause for these schools and students [Applause] All right. Next item on our agenda this evening um is our board committee reports. And first up we have our policy committee, Miss Bates. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh we have four policies that are listed for first reading. However, I am going to make the recommendation to remove GCCAA, the sick leave bank, and return it back to committee for further review. Um we recently had some legislation that was signed into law last week that might impact that policy. Uh what was that called? Hold on, I can pull it up. I forget what it was called. Let's see. Do you have that, Miss Graham? What was that called? The Educators Assistance Act. So, that was recently signed into law by the governor
007last week and it could impact this policy. So, um right now we have DGD credit card use, DHA Contracting Authority, DJ Purchasing, and that one that I'm asking to be removed is GCCA sick leave bank. Um, so guessing I have to make a motion to remove that, right? So, Madam Chair, I would like to make a motion to send or to remove GCCA sick leave bank from the proposed policies for first reading and send that back to committee for further consideration. So we have a motion from Miss Bates to remove um policy GCC AAA from which is sickly bank from the um list of proposed policies for first reading. And I believe since that's technically not coming out of committee the removal. So I'm going to ask for a second. So moved. Okay. Seconded by
008um Mr. Lee. Is there any questions um or discussion? All right. Then hearing none, we will call for the vote, which is at this time just to remove policy GCCA sickly bank from the list of recommended policies. Is it boys vote? Because I don't know if it was actually this one is not. This is it will be electronic vote. Okay. And then I move to bring forward the remaining three policies to the board for recommendation for first reading. Okay. So first off that motion does carry. So that policy is officially removed. All right. And so now coming out of committee we have um policies DJ, DGD and DHA for first reading. So that is coming from committee. So we do not need a second for that at this time. Do we have any discussion? Okay,
009then hearing none, we will call for the vote. Um, this may need to be a voice vote or nope, we got it. Okay, perfect. Great. Electronically [Music] again. Okay. And the motion carries. Um, seven in favor. And then, Madam Chair, the only other things are we have a May 19th 4pm policy meeting and a June 9th 4pm policy meeting on the calendar for our remaining policy meetings for this year. Okay, great. Thank you very much, Mrs. Bates. All right, next we have our finance committee, Mr. Guthrie. Yeah, so we're really in the thick of the the budget season. We just got done with a presentation of county council today and very receptive. I'd like to thank them for uh cooperating and definitely productive relationships. And that's all the report and I don't know if Mr.
010Lee has anything. Now I just point out to folks to be aware that next Monday uh we'll be having a public hearing on the budget and I encourage folks to attend. All right. Great. Thank you Mr. Guthrie and Mr. Lee. Okay. Next we have our facilities committee. Mr. Farnsworth. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I wasn't sure. I know we had spoken just before the meeting if we're going to put our information up on the Yerby track or not. If not, no, no big deal. We could do that. Uh, sorry. I know Mr. Graham asked me earlier and I said, "No, we don't need anything." Wanda, could you please put pull up uh the Yerby tracks from the facilities uh meeting that we had earlier this evening? If we can, if it's easy to pull that
011up just to show kind of the general public um where we're at with that. I So, while she's getting that pulled up, um the facilities committee did meet earlier this evening. Um productive meeting facilities is uh is going they are going going as always. A lot of referendum projects um in flight. Uh Sand Hill sounds like it is moving right along. Um, so a lot of good stuff happening on the facilities front. The one that we did want to bring up um is here almost. There we go. So, one of the pieces from our referendum uh is talking about the Yerby tract. And so we wanted to bring that back just just to the board and the to the community um to I would say maybe let folks know of some potential concerns with timing
012on that tract. Um you know we wish everything and every project would go through smoothly and on time and be able to just get shovels into the ground and build a school. Um unfortunately that is not always the case and so uh we are just keeping up to date with this track. Um I think on the flip side on the positive what what I heard in the facilities meeting um was that our team has uh some potential other options that they're looking at as far as land and moving forward with some other potential schools. Um so we don't want anybody to think that that the district is just throwing our hands up. We are not. Um, we are definitely always looking at at future options. Um, so I appreciate you bringing that up. Turn it
013over to Miss Powell. Anything from your side on facilities, Miss Powell? Beautiful. Any questions for the facilities committee? If not, our next meeting is June 9th at 5:00 PM. We'll see everybody there. Thanks. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Farnsworth. All right. The next item on our agenda is our public comments on agenda items. and we do not have any this evening. So then we will move to the board chair's report. So I have some information regarding accessing our meeting minutes. I know we have had some people reaching out about where to find those and so I just want to give a couple points of clarification regarding that. Um the the meeting minutes are uploaded into board docs. Um, however, one important piece to note is that the if you are looking for meeting minutes from a
014certain date of a board meeting, um you're going to have to actually look for those minutes at the board meeting following the one you want the um the minutes for. So, and the reason for that, let me explain a little more is that so like when we approve our consent agenda like tonight we approved our consent agenda that includes approving our meeting minutes from the previous meeting. So, our our pre our last meeting was oh gosh, does anybody remember? Thank you. April 28th. So, tonight when we approved our consent agenda May 12th, we approved the meeting minutes from April 28th. So, if you are searching for meeting minutes from April 28th, it seems like you would go to April 28th board meeting. Correct? No, do not. You would actually go to the May 12th board
015meeting because those are not officially a meeting minutes until the board has voted to approve them. So, once you find the correct meeting that you need to be in, then you will go down to um if you and you can see this on the um slide up here. So, if you look over on your left, it's highlighted. you will see approval of consent agenda. So again, that is the step when we approve those meeting minutes and we are actually going to update that just to make it a little bit clearer for people to be able to find it and access it. We're going to update what it says. Um it will say approval of consent agenda and meeting minutes um for the future. So it will be easier to find that. So you will click
016on that and then over to the right you'll see the little um you know document sign. So then that will show you um that there's something uploaded in there and then you will be able to go down and on see on you can see right there someone showing us on the right go down to there and it will show you um the the minutes from the board meeting. So they will be there. Um does that make sense? Is there anything else I need to add? Any board members have questions or want to add anything else regarding that? No. Okay. Yes. You have comment Mr. Farnsworth. No, you're like, what else could you possibly Go ahead, please. We want to make sure that people are able to easily access them. So, and and I would also
017point out um because some folks forget that it was not that long ago we actually we did not stream our meetings. Um again, not that long ago. So, obviously our meetings are uploaded typically I think within a day or two. So, our full meetings, uh, everything we do are available online, uh, for anybody to watch every single minute of a meeting that they would like to, every single exciting minute. Yes. All right. Wonderful. So, um, I think that concludes the board chair's report for this evening. And so, the next item on our agenda is our superintendent report. So, I will turn it over to Mr. Door. Thank you, Dr. Wimberly, and the rest of the board. Uh this evening our first item is 7A. It's project atom update and we have Mrs. Amanda Santa Maria
018who's in charge of our nursing and services and this will be the last time you will call her Mrs. Santa Maria. Um so uh next board meeting will be Mrs. Sims. So congratulations to uh Amanda. Good evening. Um so I have with me tonight Nikki Johnson who is our nurse educator. She works on my team and she's really the unsung hero of this project within Dorchester District 2 as well as Tara Lawson, the project coordinator from MUSC. Um, some of you may remember uh we rolled this out as a district initiative back in 2023 at the start of the program here in DD2 and made it a district goal that by the end of this school year, all of our schools would be Project Datam certified. So, I'm going to turn it over to Tara
019to tell you a little bit more about the project as well as our status here in DD2. Good evening. My name is Tara Lawson. I am the program coordinator for pediatric cardiology at MUSC and project. And so I work statewide with school districts and schools to certify their schools as hearts safe, meaning that their schools not only have an AED on campus, but they have a cardiac emergency response plan in place and they also have yearly drills for a cardiac emergency on campus. I would love to tell you that we never have cardiac arrests on campuses of schools, but we have had eight in South Carolina this year. Um, statistically speaking, one in 63 schools will have a cardiac arrest every year on campuses. And as of April 25th of this year, all Dorchester District
0202 schools are hearts safe designated, meaning Nikki has worked with their emergency response teams to formulate a plan, to map out that plan, to walk through the steps of how to respond to a cardiac emergency. And then we have run a drill with every one of those schools. And so I'm here just to applaud your district for taking the initiative to realize that emergencies happen and preparedness is the only way to have better outcomes. We know we can have a 70% chance of a better outcome if we have a prepared plan and we've run a drill. And so as of this year, you're the second district in South Carolina that is fully certified their schools as hearts safe. So, thanks for your dedication to the program. [Applause] And they're just some photos here of our
021um emergency response teams at each school at the completion of their drill. If anyone has any questions for us, otherwise that's it for our project atom update. Again, I just like to thank Mrs. Santa Maria, thank you and MUSC as a partner because this is a heavy lift to get all of our schools involved in doing another drill. And again, we appreciate all the efforts um to do this. So, thank you so much. Thank you. Um, our next presentation is reality town update and Miss Agelia Mercer Brown, our director of guidance, uh, will be presenting on reality town throughout the district. Good evening, Mr. Dohy and members of the board of trustees. Tonight is my pleasure to provide an overview of the reality town program in our district, which is an initiative that we have
022implemented within all of our middle schools. As I state as I stated, the reality town program is an interactive initiative that we have that provides hands-on experiences for all of our eighth graders. It provides them the opportunity to see how their current educational goals and performance in their courses are impacting their future success in regards to post-secary planning. Students have the opportunity to be assigned careers based on their academic performance. And from there we look at their um GPA after first semester and assign them career assignments that are attached to their career interest that they have expressed in their IGP. So when we look at the IGP, which is the individualized graduation plan, every student in grades 8 through 12 are giving that um opportunity to meet with their counselor annually to review their academic
023progress to talk about the high school programs that are offered at their school as well as discuss post-secary options that are available. So our middle school counselors take it a step further to go in and conduct classroom lessons. At that time they look at how they can help students overall with their academic performance and their um initiative in their courses regarding how they are submitting assignments, their productivity and using critical thinking to make responsible decisions. Um those meetings occur sometime as early as October and end during the latter part of January. At that point, we look at all of the students career clusters and we look at their performance in their core academic areas and look to see how can we identify that connection and assign those um careers to students based on the 16
024career clusters that are provided. So from there we look at what are the specific student learning outcomes we want them to achieve. Okay. So, we want them to first app um apply the principles of debt management and saving. We want them to make financial decisions that reflect a balance between immediate expenses that need to be taken care of and then ones that can be saved or um purchased at a later date. We want them to understand the family financial responsibilities that are attached to being a financially responsible individual in budgeting how they are spending in regards to housing, transportation, um, and even child care. Uh, we want them to practice goal setting and long-term planning. After the simulation, students meet with their teacher or their school counselor to do debriefing sessions. So that's when we
025take a deep dive into what are your personal goals um how did the sim um simulation impact you and from there how will that alter your decision making regarding postsecary as well as um your career goals. So we want them ultimately to demonstrate adaptability um in being able to make those decisions far as what is a need versus a want. And some of them definitely experience some challenges in that regard and they have to be very flexible um and rethink some of their decisions because it might cause them to have that aha moment to say I really need to appreciate my parents and what they do or my guardian which is ultimately that last learning outcome we want them to achieve and that we want them to foster empathy and respect for the adult responsibilities
026that are in the world today. As a result, there are five key takeaways that we want to see when we are conducting those debriefing um sessions. We want them to identify the academic performance now that can directly impact their future success. We want them to see how financial literacy can be a life um skill. We want them to again have those conversations to talk about what career planning can do now for them later. um and start looking at those soft skills and how they can be a essential component of the adult um learning experience and look at how we can make those real world and real life situations come to life for them through that um simulation. As a result, I do want to share some of the reflections that students have shared during those
027sessions. One student said, "Now I get why my grades matter. what I do now actually affects what kind of job and life I will have later. One student um shared, "Budgeting isn't just a something adults do. Reality Town taught me how to manage money and choose between what I want and what I actually need." Other students shared, "This made me think about my future career and how much education I'll need to get there. It's not just about picking a job. It's about preparing for it. Another student um stated that I had to make a lot of decisions fast. It helped me learn how to manage my time and solve problems like an adult. And the final one I would like to share is a student stated, "I never thought that I would use math and
028writing skills like this. Reality Town showed me how school stuff actually connects to real life." So when we do real world simulations, we want to definitely make an impact on student learning outcomes. So as I stated, reality town is actually a strategic um instructional initiative that we have within the curriculum and instruction department. It is only one of many things that we implement to help our students make meaningful connections to the um world of work with what they're doing in the classroom. Um so we hope that students boost their engagement and motivation for long-term um academic success. And we have seen that there has been a decline in the cumulative number of failing grades that students have received since our inception of the program in 2021. We also have seen that when you compare quarters
029um across the span of time that we have implemented the simulation that there is a decline in the number of um failing grades that um have been um received by students. And again, we can't say that this is the sole um attribute to the reason that we're seeing this, but we are acknowledging that this is one component that is assisting with those processes because students are making those connections. And um we also have seen that regarding eighth grade in particular, we have seen a reduction um with the number of eighth graders that need summer remediation. Again, this is just one initiative and the many things that we have implemented in regards to like content recovery. There are different things that we've done at the district and school level to contribute. This is just one thing
030that we have seen to enhance students motivation in what they do on a day-to-day basis in their academic environment. I also want to highlight that volunteers are a very crucial component for the simulation. Um without them it would not be possible. We roughly have anywhere between 60 to 75 volunteers that come in and dedicate their time each for each event that we have and we host these events at each middle school in our district. Um, so that adds up whenever we look at it from a big picture. And with these volunteers, they just help make it as impactful as possible because they bring in personal lived experiences with the students so they can further identify those connections. Um, and this year alone, we've had 217 individuals that have expressed interest and have come out to
031um, volunteer within the program. and it just further reiterates that the community is supporting this initiative and sees the value that it can bring to our students in a day-to-day basis. I also want to highlight the community and business partners um which are also a key component um in that they provide a certain level of expertise that um many individuals wouldn't necessarily get to see if they were not serving in that capacity. Um, we have local businesses such as banks and branch um, owners that come in and provide um, guidance from a budgeting um, perspective. We also have individuals that come in and provide financial counseling. We've had local um businesses such as Dominion Energy come in and they just at a certain level I always share when individuals come in that the one experience
032that always sticks with me is that um it was a student and they made a purchase um to take a vacation and they did not pay their their utility bill prior to doing that and they went to Dominion Energy um or the representative from there at that table and they had to have a real life conversation about how you need to prioritize and budget accordingly. So they add just a certain level um that helps students see that these are the types of conversations that they have to um have moving forward. So in summary, um I would just like to say that um the reality town program provides a very impactful opportunity for students um to see how making those real world connections now um can help them lay the foundation moving forward and also take
033the opportunity to thank each and every um individual. many of our board members have um definitely participated in the event and without them it would not be the success that it is today. Um so thank you for your time and attention and giving me the opportunity to do this and I open the floor to any questions or feedback you would like to um provide. Well, this is one of the best activity that you can participate in as far as the district level. All the years I've done it, I've had the best of time. The kids are so funny. They have four children and they want to get like a two-seater. It's like, where are the kids going to sit? Well, they hadn't thought about that. Or they don't have a babysitter for their four children,
034but yet they believe it's okay. Mama will take care of them. And so I one of the things I think I may have mentioned to you I would love for the parents to do a tag along with them in the evening one of these in the evenings. I think it would be an eyeopener for them to understand they have to start now helping their kids to understand mommy is not always going to buy those things for you. One day you will be the mama or the daddy and need to do it. And I'll close with this. The last one we had and don't become alarmed, but it was one of those take your chances type of deal and a young man was from the high school and he decided and so it was kind of
035like you had to take a gamble. You had to pull a card like you were at a gambling place. Now they still have to just my luck. I love that. So I would say to them now if you don't have enough money you shouldn't be over here. Well, the young man from the high school, his whole thing, come on, you can make it. Just try, just keep trying. He had those folks coming back three and four times spending their money and they would get upset because they would lose. Well, they needed to know that you don't take chances like that when you don't have the extra money. So, I think the high schoolers that came along, they had as much fun and they learned a lot of things themselves. So, anytime you have it, count
036on me if I'm in town cuz I love it. And then y'all served some great lunches. Thank you. Yeah, I just want to echo Miss Pal's sentiments. I think most of our seasoned board members have served in some capacity. I recommend if you guys haven't done it, like highly, highly recommend do it. I always giggle. This is my third year doing it and I always giggle when the first group comes in and they go right to entertainment and I'm like, "Oh man, you didn't pay your mortgage. You didn't go to utilities. You don't have child care." And so it's fun because you really get to engage with the kids. And I think, you know, coming from being a substitute teacher like Miss Pal, that's something as board members we we miss actually the having the
037conversations and as a teacher engaging with the students. So that's really a fun aspect. And then from a personal perspective, just having my students kind of the first year you brought it back, they're sophomores now, but my first year participating they were eighth graders and did it. And so from a parent perspective, having those conversations and seeing how it sparks dialogue at home around, okay, well, you have to think about how many kids you have and how your grades correlate to, you know, your education, your job. And I love that you guys incorporate their grades in IGP in what they're making annually or monthly for their salary because, you know, I had several kids that were like, "Man, I need to make more money. I wish I made more money." And you know, I'm just
038like, well, you know, you have time. That's the good news is you have time to turn it around now. So again, kudos to y'all. This is an excellent program and I highly highly highly recommend community members, board members volunteering because it's it's a lot of fun. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Gail and Mercer Brown. Great program and thank you to all our volunteers. So we'll move on to our next um 7C 202526 staff days. We have already approved the 2526 calendar. Uh but these are staff days that uh we actually put into the calendar. And so tonight is this is for information. We'll have uh Mrs. Barker talk to you a little bit about the staff days. Good evening. Thank you for having me tonight. I am just going to go over our staff days.
039Previously the calendar has been approved but then the next step is all of those 10 days outside of the school days where students are there. What will those look like? So, this first slide kind of puts in assigns all of those dates. Um, I will say that the Educator Assistance Act, as Miss Bates Bates mentioned, that when it was signed into law at the end of last week, um, did change some of the numbers at the top, but we already are kind of above what the state the state's minimum requirements there. So, we are in good shape. just July 30th will be the first day back after um the last several years with having convocation, the first day we've heard from schools that they really like to have that first day in their buildings, especially
040to welcome their new staff members. Um so that will be a day where they will be on the school property. You'll see for those first um four days, the 30th, the afternoon of the 31st, and then August 4th and 5th, they are noted as school staff development slashteer workday. We give discretion to the schools how they want to structure those days based on what initiatives and what things they're doing on their school campus. And if you see the asterisk at the bottom, it just has to balance out to two full teacher work days for teachers to be in their classrooms working and then 1.5 our school-based staff development and then the other day which is in those first five days is is district time. So um July 31st will be convocation and then August 1st
041will be a full day district plan staff development. So, we've been before you talking a lot about new standards in math, things like that. So, that will be a lot of that day will be content specific and um giving teachers time to learn the new programs that they'll be using in their classrooms. So, after you get through those first five days, we then have an additional five days scattered throughout the year. So, October 10th would be a district staff development day. January 5th, which is our first day back after break, which would be a teacher work day. We've heard, Miss King is nodding, we've heard from teachers loud and clear that a first day after a break um is so critical for them to really have time in their classroom and to prepare um wrap
042up grades if that based on where the end of the quarter falls. So January 5th would be a teacher work day. March 16th would be a school-based staff development day. So the school would plan that day. And then April 6th, again after that spring break would be a teacher work day. And then the last day for staff would be a teacher work day. So that is all of those 10 days for staff. And then we've had some discussions previously especially with no longer continuing PLC Wednesdays for the elementary level um and how to use utilize some of our early release days. So we have this year had 10 elementary early release days. So in order to support our final year of letters um while also giving teachers time for planning PLC meetings all of those
043things that they need time for. We are increasing to 13 instead of the current 10 early release days. And then if you just see the asterisk at the bottom, that will let you know kind of what all of those days will be dedicated for. Um, we will have our schools that are finishing up letters this next year will have up to eight half days or one full day, which we're going to try to use one of that those full days so that they can have more early release days back. But then no more than eight of the 12 will be designated for letters or staff development. The rest would be for their PLC and planning time. And then the next, this is middle and rise schedules. We have historically had four early release days for
044middle schools, which is in line in alignment with what our high schools have done. We heard over and over and over again um Mr. Canon, Mr. Doherty and I during our middle school um data meetings from principles. Now that they are fully utilizing the district common assessments and really meeting on a regular basis to dig into that data and go through those debriefings, they need a little bit more time in order to do that. So, one of our solutions in order to do that with our current calendar is to add those two additional early release days that would be specific for data debriefings, data meetings um to then give them time in their PLC's back so that they can work on those decision making um the decision- making for students. So, middle school would increase
045to six instead of four. So an additional two and then middle high schools would continue to have the four early release days which they use for collaborative planning and functioning PLC's and just like we have done in the past two of those would be school-based where the school plans what that time will look like and then two of them would be districtbased so we can pull them together for content PD um supporting any content needs that they had in those areas and then the bottom three the bottom dates are the last several years we have had district half days outside of those early release days. Historically that has been the Friday before winter break and the last day of school. So when you look at the calendar for this year um no dates have been
046released that we're aware of yet for Flowertown Festival, but the Cooper River Bridge is March 28th. Um, everyone knows how busy town is and how hard it is to get in and out of a school on the day the Friday of Flower Town Festival. So, if history repeats itself, and that is the Flower Town Festival weekend, having a half day on March 27th, which is the Friday prior to spring break, would let us dismiss schools before traffic gets too bad and our buses are impacted. So that is also something that we heard from several schools that are impact on the side of being impacted by that the need to dismiss early if we do have school on that day. Okay. And then these are just um nothing new here for the most part just the
047dates that we will put on the calendar throughout the year. So we did one day for facts and fees this year. It was successful for the most part. Everything happens virtually now. So, we felt we would like we could continue that. A sixth grade meet the teacher night on July 31st. Middle schools also um the Saturday before school starts usually are open so that students can walk their schedule, get back in the building. It's not a formal meet the teacher, but that families can get in um the Saturday before school starts, which we've done for years. Um elementary school meet the teacher, which includes kindergarten, would be on Monday, August 4th. Um, also on August 4th would be our during the school during the day would be 9th grade orientation at our high schools. Seventh
048and eighth grade open house since they don't do meet the meet the teacher would be August 12th. High school openhouse would be August 19th. We did hear a lot from parents and some schools about the need to have a second semester openhouse because classes change. So that lets parents and students and families come in um to meet those second semester teachers. So, that's what that second semester openhouse date is. And then next year, it's hard to believe we would talk about graduation for next year, but graduation would be May 23rd with um Somerville having the 9:00 spot, Fort Dorchester at 2, and Ashley Ridge at 7. Any questions about school days before I go over Bell schedule? That was that was the lightning round. You did a great job, Mrs. Barker. One thing I would
049like to point out for graduation, the availability for the Charleston Coliseum, we had to do it over Memorial Day weekend and so it was not available any other time and so that's why it's on that Saturday of uh Memorial Day weekend. So just want to point that out. It's based on availability. So um I appreciate Mrs. Barker and her team putting all this together. So any questions uh from the board? I did have one question or actually two. Um when do we add the weather days? Oh weather days. They are that was approved when you voted on the calendar and I actually have I thought that might be a question. So if you see on this slide the ones that are underlined those are the weather makeup days that were approved. I will say okay
050um that this calendar was approved before we were kind of in it and but maybe as we are because we're currently planning for the next calendar committee looking at balancing those makeup days so that they're not all in second semester and it's hard instructionally for students um but also then it's like you lose everything at the end. So we have made a note to talk about that with the calendar. Yeah, that was something I heard too is about them all being in the second semester. And then that brings me to the other question I had or just comment. I remember with this school year we talked about and this is just more of a comment not about the calendar. Giving devices out at facts and fees this year instead of waiting to have like a
051device day. Remember that because we ended up not having the devices with the weather day before school started. So we were talking about giving the devices out earlier. So, I just wanted to kind of bring that back to your top of mind right now. So, yes, we can definitely look at that. We can capture a lot more students maybe through facts and fees and that's less we have to give out during the school day. So, that's definitely something in case we ever run into that same scenario, which hopefully we wouldn't, but yeah, hopefully not. So, no, that's something definitely we can look at. Yeah. And and correct if correct me if I'm wrong. Think the challenge potentially is the use of the devices because if you don't have really any training, if you have kindergarteners,
052first graders, second graders that don't know how to use their device, it doesn't really do a whole lot of good. Well, I think everybody for the most part would if they've been in this our school system other than kindergarteners and kindergarteners aren't required. They don't have compulsory attendance requirements in the state of South Carolina. though. Yeah, I think some of that would be a challenge, but I think that would be something we would look on. Maybe not even at the facts and fees, but maybe something closer to the school date and maybe we would maybe then do a deployment there if parents would like to come by earlier to get their devices and maybe even have some trainings if that's something we need to do. But you bring up a great point, Mr. Farnsworth. I
053mean, especially some of the kindergarters would not know how to use that, especially if they're new to the district. Um, but again, I think that's something we can do to help us get more devices out. Um, we can definitely look at some more days. Um, not just fax and fees, but maybe during some of those times because I know our administrators will be working. Our technology department will be working. So, that might be something we can we can look into doing. I can't remember when we handed them out this year, but I just remember talking about it and saying, "Hey, let's come up with a game plan for next year to just give them out earlier than what we did." So, just So, I did I did have a quick question. Um I know in
054the past we had a lot of really positive feedback for learning by design. Um have we talked about that? We yes we have our our proposal and we've already spoken um and met with Miss Hayes, our staff development expert um and started planning for to bring that back um next year for on one of our district staff development days. Yes, sir. Yes. and it supports um learning by design for those of you that may not know is kind of like a mini district conference. So um it there is some choice involved there. So staff members can participate in training that they are interested in that may be specific to the something they need or something they would like to try in their class. And we can balance it with anything that might be required as
055well. And it um it we same thing, we kind of got away from it after COVID. Um but same thing, we see a huge need and we're excited about about planning that again. Thank you. I just any other questions. Okay, we'll move on our next item. Um talking about uh bell schedules. And so as you can see in front of you, the 2526 bell schedules and Mrs. Barker will be here to talk to you a little bit about that. Um and so Mrs. Barker, thank you. Um so we are if you'll see the top our current bell schedules, elementary um middle and high with Rawlings following the high school schedule. We are not proposing any changes to our current bell schedules for elementary, middle or high or Rawlings. We are proposing a change at Rise
056Academy. Rise currently follows a completely different bell schedule that students are on campus from 8 to 1. Um, but we have worked with transportation and Miss Sanders, the principal at RISE. Um, and feel like transportation will work at the middle school and it will get all of those students back onto a full day schedule instead of a shorter day that they have had this year. So, um, we would like to propose the change for Rise Academy only, moving to 8:30 to 305 for the bell schedule. So, in your board packet, you'll see those proposed changes there for Rise. And so, we're just asking for um your approval this evening. All right, board members, at this time, I'd ask for a motion to approve the bell schedule as presented. So, moved. All right. Motion made by
057Mrs. Do I have a second? All right. Seconded by Miss King. Is there any discussion or questions at this time? All right. Hearing none. We will call for the vote. Bates. Yes. Sorry. I Yeah, Miss Bates made it. Miss King seconded. All right, motion carries. Seven in favor. And we move to 7E, the personnel report. In your packet, you will see one recommendation for employee recommendations. So, the board needs to go in exec session to talk about that. All right, board members, is everyone okay with proceeding with that recommendation in open session or is anyone Yes. Yes. Okay. Then at this time I would ask for a motion to approve the recommendation as presented in our packet. So moved. All right. Motion made by Mr. Farnsworth, seconded by Mr. Guthrie. Any questions or discussion? Hearing
058none. We will call for the vote. Motion carries. Seven in favor. And this moves us on to student enrollment recommendations. And so again, I'm not sure if we need to go into um executive session. All right, board members. The information was included in our packet. Is everyone okay with proceeding in open session? All right. Then at this time, I would ask for a motion to approve the student enrollment recommendations as presented. So moved. Motion made by Miss Bates. Do I have a second? Seconded by Mr. Farnsworth. Any questions or discussion? Okay. Hearing none, we'll call for the vote. Motion carries. Seven in favor. Okay. Then then we're moving on to uh eight public comment. All right. Thank you, Mr. Dry and team for we appreciate your report this evening. Next item on our agenda is
059public comments and we do not have any this evening. The next item on our agenda is our executive session. So at this time board members I would ask for a motion to convene into executive session for student discipline appeals. Okay. Thank you very much. Motion made by Miss Powell. Second. Seconded by Miss Bates. Any questions or discussion? Okay. Hearing now we'll call for the vote. motion carries. Seven in favor. We are in executive session and we will return. You might have join. Okay, you're we're live. All right, board members. At this time, I would ask for a motion to return to open session. So moved. Second. All right. Motion made by Mr. Guthrie, seconded by Miss Bates. Any discussion? Hearing none, we will call for the vote. Is it? No, that's not bad. All right,
060motion carries. Seven in favor. We are back in open session. All right, board members. At this time, I would ask for any motion um from action that we would like to take from um our executive session. Madam Chair, I make a motion that we uphold the district decision in regards to the appeal for student A. All right. Have a motion from Mr. Farnsworth to uphold the district decision the appeal in regards to student A. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Guthrie. Any discussion or questions? No. No. You can make a statement. Yes. You make a statement. Yes. Okay. I basically disagree with that. the upholding of that particular decision. All right. Any other discussion or questions? I respect each and every member. Uh it was a very difficult situation. Um, my concern
061is about precedent and I think that the decision um by the district is the correct one. I support that. All right. Any other discussion? And and just very quickly, I will echo what Mr. Lee said. it to me um of course anytime an appeal comes to the board those tend to be very kind of unfortunate compelling decisions um but when when I look at precedent and and what we've done for past cases as well as what we are potentially saying for future cases in this particular um situation I I would have some major concern um about that precedent if we were to overturn what the district has brought to us so far. I echo those sentiments. All right. Any there's nothing further than is at this time I will call for the vote. Okay. And
062at this time, the motion carries. Five in favor, two opposed. All right. Board members, do we have another motion? Madame Chair, I make a motion to uphold the district's recommendation uh as it pertains to student B. Okay. So, we have a motion from Miss Bates to uphold the district's recommendation as it pertains to student B. Do I have a second? All right. Seconded by Miss King. Any discussion or questions? All right. Hearing none, we will call for the vote. All right. And the motion carries. Seven in favor. All right. Board members, at this time I would ask for a motion to adjurnn. Motion made by Mr. Lee, seconded by Miss Powell. Any discussion? hearing. None. We will call for the vote. Motion carries. Seven in favor. We are adjourned.