December 9, 2024 - 6:00 PM - Board Meeting

001um just a renewed sense of purpose and strength and ensure that we just honor you in everything we do and we just thank you in Jesus name amen good evening and welcome to this large crowd for our December 9th 2024 board meeting um at this time we will begin our board meeting with an administration of the oath of office of our one of our newest members Mr Jim Lee if his his family and friends people with him would like to join him please come up to the front and meet him congratulations mrly and officially welcome okay Mr fernworth thank you Dr Wimberly I have the uh honor of reading our vision and mission for Dorchester District 2 I would ask I know we have uh quite a few Educators with us tonight in the audience

002I would ask our Educators as well as our board um to please help me recite our vision and Mission so we'll start with our vision uh you'll see it up there on the screen I'm sure everybody has it uh in your hearts and you know it but it is on the screen for you Dorchester School District 2 desires to be recognized as a worldclass school district expecting each student to achieve at his or her optimal level in all areas and providing all members of our district family with an environment that permits them to do their personal best and then moving into our mission Dorchester District 2 is leading the way every student every day through relationships relevance and Rec here thank you thank you Mr fernworth and Team all right at this time I will

003ask for a motion to approve our consent agenda so moved motion made by Mr Guthrie do I have a second seconded by Miss Bates is there any discussion or questions okay hearing none I will call for the vote we have a slight delay technical issues please hold and the motion carries six in favor one absent okay and next on our agenda we have our district highlights and we will welcome Miss Jennifer Passmore to the podium to present those for us good evening board chair Dr Wimberly superintendent Dr Robbins and board members it is my privilege to introduce the first three District highlight presenters Somerville High School principal Dr lainer will present the NJ Roc distinguished unit with honors designation Dr lainer and District athletic director Tyrone Drakeford will present our swimming state champions and Ashley

004Edwards from The Village at Somerville and Joseph Pi Elementary principal Dr Johnson will present the pi reading buddies please welcome Dr Michelle leviner programs in each area competing units are ranked according to degree of excellence attained in administration academic performance military proficiency and host School support this award also designates Somerville as a naval honor school which authoriz Somerville to nominate three eligible cadets for admission to the US Naval Academy under the honor School category three to the US Military Academy and three to the US Air Force we are extremely proud of our NJ RC [Applause] program representing Roc tonight is lead Naval instructor if you'll just step forward when I say your name lead Naval instructor Senior Chief Craig Donald Naval science instructor Chief Roy McCullum and Naval science instructor Chief Brian [Applause] Wilson commanding

005officer Cadet Caroline sha I hope I said it right executive officer Cadet Noel Keller CMC Cadet Christopher admin officer Cadet Aubrey Goran Supply officer Cadet Andrea sandal Company B Cadet Adalie Johnson and Company C Cadet Haley Mullis [Applause] to [Applause] and next for the state recognition for swim actually the introduction is going to be made by our athletic deck director Mr Corey magwood good evening superintendent Robbins board chair Wimberly and esteemed school board members it is my honor to introduce tonight Somerville varsity swim athlete Ivan Wilson who won state in the 50- yard freestyle Ivan is a 2-year Varsity Letterman for summer high school and previous co- Captain Ivan is currently a student at palmal Scarlet Academy but it but he is part of the Green Wave Swim as PSA does not have a competitive

006swim team his achievements include being a seven time state record holder earning a title of champion [Applause] all right good evening board chair superintendent Dr Roberts and board members on behalf of ashler Ridge High School principal Brook Matthews athletic director Lewis and head swim coach Victoria Meritt it is my great honor to introduce their 2024 swimming champion this past season Grace Mara distinguished herself as a stu as a standout athlete she was selected to both All Region and all state swim teams at the region meet at the region meet Grace claim the region meet Grace claimed first place in all her events she went on to finish third in the fifth yard freestyle at the state meet and earned the title of state champion in the 100 yard breast Str additionally she holds the school

007record in the 100 yard breast stroke Grace has given her verbal commitment to Queens University in Charlotte North Carolina where she will continue both her education and her swimming career please join me in giving a warm Round of Applause as we welcome Miss Grace marer to the front extremely excited about the pi book buddies program um that is taking place in our school obviously we know that reading is um a huge Initiative for elementary school students because reading is the foundation for all learning and so we had the privilege to partner with our school Improvement Council this year um to really beef up our test scores and we strategically focus on our third grade students um who are going to be taking the SC ready for the first time um in partnering with them we

008looked at our literacy plan where we set a smart goal to to determine um what we were going to the percentage of students that we wanted to reduce um that we scoring does not meet um we were able to reduce that by 5% this year based on our partnership um with the Village retirement community um with me today is Miss Edwards and she is um a resident sales director for the village and she's going to talk to you a little bit about our partnership with the retirement community yes hi um and I serve as the chairperson on the school Improvement committee so it was a great honor to kind of be a part of this program but what was the neatest part is that not only did it enrich the lives of the children but

009it enriched the lives of the residents that we have in our community so we had about 10 volunteers from the village of Somerville um that went and spent every other Friday for about 30 minutes with the children I got to be one of the mentors or readers as well so it was great I had two kids in my group that were just delightful um but the neatest part was that they got to actually come and visit the community so not only were they improving their reading scores but they were also learning about what retirement living looks like and that it wasn't scary that it was actually really really fun and really cool my favorite part was one of the kids was walking through the dining room and goes oh my gosh my mom would never

010let me be in here because of all the nice things in there but it was it was such a pleasure to pair up with the the school and I can't say enough good things about this lady right here cuz she is phenomenal and one of the best principles that I've ever had the pleasure of working with and being a previous um teacher this again kind of just filled my bucket on so many levels so I hope moving forward that we can continue that partnership and that more schools will take it on because like I said it didn't just enrich the children's lives it enriched the senior lives too so thank you oh yeah of course um Dr Robbins and Dr Johnson before you get too far can I just use a a point of personal

011privilege super quick because you're up here um a that's unbelievable but b i I am curious because as I dig into our school report cards so not only is Joe pie an excellent rated school um your specific Ela your mathematics are through the roof congratulations but you don't get away that easily because you got to tell us what the secret sauce is I have amazing teachers um I have had the privilege of working with many teachers since I've been at Pi um we just got back to good teaching and what it looks like in the classroom not a lot of fluff we were able to work with um some of the professional development coaches in the district last year strategically we made a year year-long plan um especially with our gifted and talented coordinator and

012we also work with um one of the math coaches as well and I cannot say enough about the time that they took to work with my teachers to help them remember what good teaching looks like it wasn't a lot of bells and whistles and fluff it was good teaching so I'm blessed to be a principal of really amazing people can I go one step more and I would say um you're right that's the secret sauce but you were the secret sauce for that school and what you're doing over there is unbelievable so I just want to highlight that very publicly so that everybody here tonight in front of superintendent Robin sees that and understands that for me as a board member um we see you and we appreciate you it's my honor to highlight Knightsville

013Elementary school as they have been recognized as a common sense school for dig digital citizenship by Common Sense the national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping kids and families thrive in a world of media and Technology Knightsville Elementary School has demonstrated its commitment to taking a whole Community approach to Preparing its students to think critically and use technology responsibly to learn create and participate while preparing them for the perils that exist in the online realm such as plagiarism loss of privacy and cyber bullying with the right support kids can take ownership of their digital lives engage with real issues and change their communities for the better the recognition acknowledges Knightsville elementaries to creating a culture of digital citizenship nightville Elementary is the first school in dd2 to receive this recognition congratulations principal C Jenna bohannan and

014the Knightsville Elementary School family [Applause] at this time please welcome Jason Walsh director of fine and Performing Arts for the district holiday cards presentation good evening Dr rmly uh Dr Robbins and School Board it's my great pleasure sure absolutely so the F first one is middle and so each year Dorchester School District 2 invites students submit artwork in in October to represent our district on our holiday card this is shared with our partners and the surrounding Community this tradition allows students to Showcase their creativity while spreading holiday cheer for the 2024 season three exceptional works are selected um coincidentally they're all from Somerville high school and they're all students in the same class with Miss Stephanie nuner at Somerville High School these talented students work will be featured on the district's holiday card symbolizing the

015spirit of our community and the dedication of our students their designs will bring joy and warmth to all to receive them the holiday season our first card is from Miss Raleigh Winkles if you want to come on down it is made as you can see the original artwork right there it's made by colored pin and it is titled snowy cabin let go to her yeah yeah thank you I'll get him to her this second AR artist represented tonight is Miss alila rice she's also Sommer high school she's in 11th grade and the title of her peace is the graceful fields of Eternity [Applause] and our last example is by an artist named Miss Alyssa Drake rush and this is entitled winter celebration it is created with wder color paint please come on down as she

016takes her place for her picture we could give them one more round of applause for their great [Applause] AR thank you before yall sneak out I just want to tell you those are absolutely stunning and congratulations and congratulations to your art teacher cuz clearly she's doing a phenomenal job okay the next item on our agenda this evening are our public comments on agenda items and we have one Mr Jason brocker so I took a quick look at the uh policy a r j c i j-r parenthesis one red lines through it that make it more restrictive so when we're talking about personal electronic devices um in the policy amendments there's no description for how the devices are needed to be stored just in accordance with superintendent inst structions that needs to be defined um and

017I'm sure that all of our high schools are going to enjoy the logistics of collecting a thousand devices every single day storing them and then redistributing them if we have C repository locations so details and especially in middle and high school as my children have been in middle and high school uh it's very common for a teacher to have information up on the Smartboard or whatever that has a QR code and they say hey scan the QR code fill out a form do a thing because it's easy it's convenient like there are lots of reasons why these little supercomputers that we carry around are actually beneficial in the classroom we already have policies that tell you not to use them inappropriately or at the wrong time so why do we have to go and further

018restrict everybody's ability to use information appropriately it would be good to reevaluate the ability to do some things with your personal devices like report bullying when it happens we had a talk about that a couple of years ago I don't remember anything ever happening about that um speaking of bullying you've heard my story a few times so I'll tell you a story about another family uh somebody that I've spoken with in the last few weeks whose children were unfortunately affected by the rezoning of the district and so they got pulled out of their school where they had their friends and they got put into another school that's fine but then the bullying started and then the parents started talking to the teachers and that didn't work and then the parents started talking to the administration

019and that didn't work and then their child started getting anxiety attacks and had to go to the doctor and seek mental health therapy medical therapy and then when that child was recommended they be put on full Homebound and not have to go deal with the bullies that the school's not dealing with the district denied and then it was appealed and denied for a medical doctor to ask for a thing and then for the district to go through a policy and say it doesn't fit X Y or Z for the policy does not seem right to me back to devices we have all of this information our fingertips we already have told our children our students there are policies about using them incorrectly why restrict it further why make logistical headaches for everybody to have to

020deal with and why not make things more available three minutes thank you thank you Mr rocker okay um and next on our agenda this evening we have the board chairs report so first up uh we have the scsba legislative advocacy conference which was this past weekend um and we had several board members attend so I welcome any board member that would like to share something about the conference or their experience um I will just say that um it's always a good opportunity to get together with other board members from across the state um one thing that I think was um very interesting at this conference was a conversation came up about act 388 and um it was amazing how many other school districts how many other board members jumped into agree with kind of our

021position on that and the um challenges it presents for us so I think there are a lot of school districts across the state who are facing similar challenges and we had some very good conversations with other um board members from across the state um some conversations with legislators who were there about that as well I don't know that they had any answers for us I don't think we felt that but it's always good to raise the awareness and continue the conversation and um each time you're in front of them just to kind of point out um the situation that we are in so I think um my takeaway from the conference that was one of the biggest things and just a good conversation about how we can possibly work with some of those other districts

022to continue to Advocate not necessarily I think we all said not for the repeal of act 388 but just for ways that we can look at making up the difference for those districts across the state that are so substantially affected um by it so if anyone else would like to yeah just to piggyback off what you said I think another part of that is there was a brief discussion I had with the president as far as possibly utilizing South Carolina School Board Association and them getting on board with helping us to get those districts together as one unified voice to communicate how that disproportionately affects so I think there's opportunity to utilize those relationships for power um to really show and share how we're negatively impacted about that funding so just in terms of uh

023reaction and whatnot aside from beginning the fire hosing of trying to absorb all the information about the board new new jargon and whatnot it was interesting it was kind of old home week I got to reconnect with some folks from across the state that I've known for years uh but it was interesting to see the similar in certain challenges that we have and not getting into debate over act 388 but it does point out the need to really encourage our legislature to start thinking a little bit more holistically about how we fund public education here in South Carolina so it took a lot away from that some good insights made some contacts and learned a whole lot about uh the scsba uh as well and appreciate the opportunity to go okay thank you and then

024looking ahead we do have the cspa annual conference that will be held February 20th through the 23rd and that um at that conference we will also have our new board member training um and we also have board chair and vice chair training as well so um I know that they have an early bird registration for that so if you plan to attend I would go ahead and reach out to um Wanda I know she's absent tonight but you can definitely get with her this week and just let her know um she's already starting to um make those reservations for us so if you know already that you can make it I would definitely go ahead and let her know same for the kaspa um National Conference this year that will be March 21st through the

02523rd and I did read that the early bird registration for that closes on December 20th so I also encourage all of us if we know that you're able to go let's go ahead and get registered before that date so that we can make sure we get that early bird um charged and again just re reach out to Wanda and if you have any questions about that you're welcome to um let me know I can be glad to help you in any way I can as far as coordinating anything any other any questions for now or okay all right great well that concludes my report for this evening um so now we will move into our board committee reports um and first up we have our policy committee and Miss Bates yes thank you madam chair

026um we do have our jic j-r possession use of personal electronic devices or District owned devices up for second reading um before I send that to the full board for that second reading I did just want to clarify that we are updating this policy in accordance with state law the Proviso was passed P the State Board did come out with their policy regarding this uh it was very very specific that cell phones cannot be utilized from Bell to Bell so that is from the time that the bell rings and school starts till the time the bell rings and school ends so while we had our own policy that we felt was working well the state did come up with a regulation there is a law in place so we are bound by law to update

027this policy in accordance with the law further as far as safety that is a huge concern for our students obviously the stop it Anonymous reporting app that was previously utilized on cell phones won't be able to be utilized but we did ask Dr Robbins and our technology department to ensure that that app is loaded on all of our students devices so that students if they need to report an issue anonymously they will have access to that app the same they did on their phone on all of their District own devices so I just wanted to clarify those things to ensure that everybody knows that safety is a priority and obviously we have an obligation as elected members of this board to uphold state law so with that being said I turn it over to miss

028Wimberly for second reading okay and thank you so much we have a motion coming out of committee so we will not need a second at this time do we have any discussion or questions yeah and and I would just add quickly um at the conference this weekend um superintendent Weaver was there and so she actually um gave some commentary in regards to the cell phone policy specifically and so I just want to highlight uh really for the community for parents again we we've already had these discussions because we've had this policy in place but what we're really tackling as a state um is twofold we are uh recapturing instructional time that's that's first and foremost we have to get the instructional time back um from the phones uh because if you don't if you didn't

029realize it in high school if they have access to their phone they're on their phone the entire class so we have to recapture that we have to have a policy that that is across the board for the district and then um Second and and I would say right up there with the instructional time is is that Safety and Security um it's it's unfortunate but in today's world we talk talk about bullying we talk about mental health and so there are um issues that arise when they have these phones during the day great example is uh there there are literally fights that are being staged in our schools so that our kids can videotape these fights post them online um and it's all fake and it's all just for likes on Instagram and and that's very

030unfortunate so as adults we have to be able to take of a hard path and um really put that Safety and Security back in in the Forefront so um again this is from the state um really and so folks understand where the change previously we were allowing um the phones to be put away just during class time so they could get their phones during like I or during a break or or different times during the day moving forward the state policy and the policy we we're looking to adopt is that the phone will will be out of sight and turned off um more than likely I think we've talked about in a backpack um for the entire day so from the moment that Bell Rings to the moment that bell rings at the end of

031the day um their their phones will be put away and turned off so I appreciate the uh the opportunity to chat a little bit there he also just reminded me of something so um just a little Clarity to we did leave it kind of ambiguous as far as what the storage looks like um obviously this is is the first time we've implemented something like this this school year and so we want to not tie our hands in policy to re-evaluate the the means in which we store the devices so we want to make sure that we leave enough room open to Pivot if we need to change the way we store those devices and then I also just wanted because you reminded me to highlight we are seeing a lot of positive feedback from this

032students are talking with each other they're not rushing through their schoolwork or their school workk to get on their phones um we're just seeing a lot more focus in the classroom and less issues so uh I just wanted to highlight some of the positives of it although this is state law and we're updating it to be in accordance with state law we are seeing a lot of benefits out of this policy okay um if at this time there is no other discussion or questions we will call for the vote for all right thank you for your patience just give us one more second here we are just exping a few technical difficulties this evening it's because the new board members down here on this is not the new board member's fault okay definitely not no

033all right we should be good now board members okay and the motion carries six in favor one absent anything else Miss Bates no ma'am that's all I have for today thank you thank you very much okay and next we have our um facilities committee and we will turn to Mr Farnsworth for that um thank you madam chair and and I'll be brief because the majority of of our information will be covered um both in Dr Robins report and and the facilities report uh but I do want to say uh the facilities meeting facilities committee did meet uh prior to our board meeting tonight um the intent is that the second board meeting of the month the facilities uh committee will meet prior to that meeting and and really the the Genesis or or the discussion

034for those meetings moving forward we we'll of course talk about everything facilities but but the majority of the conversation which uh was was the majority of the conversation today will deal with referendum projects so as we uh move into our referendum project really in Earnest um and start selecting vendors and start actually um applying tax dollars uh we will um make sure to highlight all those pieces really have a I would say a somewhat granular conversation in those meetings when it comes to uh the referendum projects so very very productive meeting and um again we'll hear more about facilities uh here in just a little bit thank you thank you Mr fernworth it's exciting to have so many new projects to talk about okay and next on our agenda we have our finance committee and

035Mr Guthrie do you have a report for us this evening I to report all right great well thank you very much so that will complete the committee portion of our agenda and at this time we will turn to Dr Robbins for his superintendent report thank you madam chair um we have several items as you can see on this first slide tonight that we're going to cover under the superintendent's report but the first thing we're going to cover is our academic report again we're trying to do this at least once a month so I would invite the academic team to come forward and they're going to talk you through um several items and um write down questions if you have them um because they're here happy to answer any questions so turn it over to you

036our chief academic officer Katie Barker good evening thank you for having us tonight first we have some local AB one actually or two local AB local board approved courses that Mr Canon is going to speak to you about good evening we do have one request for a local board approved um course that was shared with you in your packets this course is coming through our Fine Arts or from our Fine Arts departments and it is a request for musical theater at the level of honors for a three and a fourth a third and fourth level course and at this time I ask if you have any questions um about this course that we are requesting I would like to entertain those questions excuse me sorry okay um board members at this time I would ask

037for a motion to approve the local board course Musical theater 3H and 4 as presented and included in our packet so moved okay motion made by Mr Guthrie seconded by Mr Farnsworth do we have any discussion or any questions for me or for Mr Canon okay hearing none then we will call for the vote okay and the motion carries six in favor one absent thank you so much okay the the next thing we have is our mathematics standards and I'm going to tee this up for Miss Barker but this is going to be something that you might want to reflect back on and take a look at because it's a it's a I wouldn't say significant but it's a change in terms of our math sequencing that what we have experienced over the last however

038many years in education so she's going to walk you um through the standards um the indicators the updates in both the elementary middle and high school and the process so thank you Dr Robbins so as Dr Robin said we are here to just kind of go over the updated standards the last update to MTH standards were in 2015 so it's been a good long while and as he said there are some pretty significant changes at some levels so we just want to make sure that you are kind of aware of everything so this is just a quick overview of the changes the standards will be fully implemented starting next year so the changes really is that it one of the major changes is that it reduced the number of overall standards but to really focus

039on going deeper into the standards and the learning at each level the indicator and insights provide additional instructional considerations for teachers a nice change with the math standards is that they are were developed and look very similar to the ELA standards that we adopted last year so that will be easier for teachers it also provided some things that we've never had at the secondary level before for example um there are advanced level standards now specifically for middle school students so we'll talk a little bit about that when we get to the middle school standards but that is a major change from previous adoption of standards and then that last bullet is going to be a biggie as Dr Robins said um the courses at the secondary level level will be there will are major changes

040coming there so we're going to spend some time really talking about that since that will be a major change so updates in elementary school because we do not test we don't have State Testing in kindergarten first and second grade we began full implementation of the new standards this year so that way those kindergarten first and second grade students as they are moving up they have already had exposure to those different stand standards as they're moving into those tested grades we found success with that in the past with Ela standards the previous year so our kindergarten first and second grade students are already in those new MTH standards this year also our third fourth and fifth grade students and you'll see when we get to middle school is that we we're calling this year for those

041students a bridge year and when you look at the standards if we didn't start to implement some of those skills this year then as the standards changed moving into the next year there would be gaps for a lot of those students depending on what grade they were in so our team our PD coaches our curriculum and instruction team along with a group of teachers at each level really looked at what those skills were and then tied them into current pacing so teachers do have some experience implementing those standards this year South Carolina ready the math assessment that third through 8th grade take that will not take place until next year so we're really focusing this year with the the bridge year getting them ready for testing at the end of next year I talked a

042little bit about the math curriculum team but we have already started targeting um teachers from all 15 elementary schools that are really driving the curriculum writing for that so that started last year and then they will continue that implementation and work on PL the instructional planning guides and pacing guides as we move into this summer spring getting us ready for next year and then that last bullet is starting now in kindergarten as early as kindergarten the math strands are consistent all the way up so you'll see them listed there data propability and statistical reasoning for kindergarteners but it's there and it's definitely developmental developmentally appropriate measurement geometry and spatial reasoning numerical reasoning and patterns algebra and functional reasoning so those those are the strands that will they'll start in kindergarten and then we'll carry all

043the way up and then for middle school again you'll see that that middle schools are just going to continue to build on those same strands in middle school that they will start in elementary school and then woven throughout the four strands at all levels is really focusing at all levels is really focusing on problem solving I said it was a reduction in the number of Standards but it really is a focus to go deeper into the content so that we're building mathematical thinkers as opposed to covering 142 standards in the year um also Middle School is also following that bridge year model this year um so that students have all those prerequisite skills this mainly at the middle school level impacted those data standards there was a lot of bridge needed for those skills and

044then as I mentioned earlier um a recommendation from the South Carolina Department of educ is that sixth grade um Advanced students GT students no longer previously what we have done is we've included higher grade level skills but now they are really focusing on depth and complexity with their grade level skills instead of accelerating into the next grade level which we're excited about because I think that that will really build us compacted standards for our GT students and that will cover starting in seventh grade seventh and eighth grade skills for those gate students that that is the appropriate placement for so the state is providing that historically we've tried to align that um on our own as a district so we're excited about that that change at the state level and then the big change um

045which will affect all middle and high school students is that now the the course was previously known as geometry now will be called geometry and statistics and it will be the course that is Tak prior to Algebra 1 that will affect all of our students as they're entering those High School level courses so the next slide will kind of show you what that pathway will look for all middle school students so a core student they will go math 6 math 7 math 8 and then start with geometry and statistics in ninth grade a gate pathway we'll do gate math 6 then gate math 7 with the compacted seventh and eighth grade standard ards in seventh grade and then depending on how the student does in that course they will either go into gate math 8

046and then take geometry with Statistics in high school in ninth grade or if they meet the criteria then they will take the geometry with Statistics course the high school course in 8th grade to get that High School Credit so you'll see a change there I know a lot of you have um children that have gone through seventh and eighth grade here and have they're historically students have taken a high school been there has been an opportunity when we were here talking about changes to the ELA standards there were a lot of changes at the elementary level and now the major changes for math are really in the secondary level so the course progression which I'll show you a slide for in a moment has has changed for a lot of the High School courses um

047geometry with Statistics is important which makes sense if we really think about what that is because it develops that mathematical knowledge through the visual representation that then students will need as they move into geometry so changing that core sequence really supports students as they move into Algebra 1 with probability I think is what it's called now so the courses that because of the cor sequency changing we will no longer be offering after this year our transition to algebra algebra 3 and probability and statistics probability and statistics as I mentioned is kind of broken out and put into all of those other math courses so the content is still there it's just not isolated in one course any longer and the new courses that we will be teaching next year based on the sequencing is reasoning

048and Mathematics applications and modeling and statistical modeling as you'll see at the bottom in dd2 we have previously offered discrete math we are not currently but it is also a course that we will reinstate for next year based on core sequencing from the updated math standards thank you so here is just that all of those words in a nice picture that's easy to digest so you'll see that geometry with Statistics is the first High School course for Math and then students will move to Algebra 1 and then after that course students can either move to applications and modeling and reasoning and Mathematics which are mainly targeted for students that aren't planning to transition to a four-year college but that will still get those math credits that they need for graduation if a student is planning

049to attend a four-year college or is just interested in continuing um that math pathway they'll move to Algebra 2 with probability and then we'll have choices from those higher level math courses after that um and the ones the discret math statistical modeling kind of that longer list students can take in any order there isn't a prescribed order after they get through Algebra 2 with probability so along with new standards also comes textbook adoption so we just kind of wanted to give you a quick overview of what that process looks like um right now we are Statewide in the public review period so that public review period open November 18th and that runs through January 3rd so that is an opportunity for Statewide the public to give feedback to any of the the textbooks the companies

050the Publishers that the state has identified as text books that teach the standards to the depth and the level that they want them to be taught so that is open right now and that is kind of where we are from the state and then once the State closes that review period they will make any changes if necessary based on feedback from the public review and then we will move in they will share what is definitely on the adoption list and then we have in Dorchester 2 have followed the same practice the same process for many years we those instructional materials are shared with all schools every grade level every course whatever is up for adoption those materials will be shared with the schools I will say in the digital age we live in now it

051used to be you know boxes and boxes of materials that showed up and now it's usually a link with just all of the resources that are available so um but when I say showed up sometimes it's just an email instead of a big box but that is where we kind of start oh sorry will you go back one more thank you and then after that is when our teachers really start digging into those materials to see what is going to be the best for their classroom use we do provide what we call kind of a look for document which is really aligned with the state standards um and that is ensuring that those textbooks align with um the depth and complexity that the state is requiring it asks them to consider our district math model

052and the different phases of our math model and how different Tech textbooks or materials that come with those textbooks might align for example um our elementary math model has math tasks so if some of the textbook options provided math tasks that aligns well um with our math model so they at the school level really work through those they'll dig into them they'll pull a lesson out and teach that they they really are intentional at the school level about looking through all of those materials and then they wrap that up each School submits the name or a vote if you will um from the one that they feel like based on all feedback from the school level which is the publisher and the product that they feel like based on the state adopted options are best

053for our district and their school so that's all teacher feedback that's all teacher driven and then we at the district level compile all of that and then the the publisher or the product from the publisher that has the most votes we will then make bring that to you because um based on our policy the district um the district policy the board will approve whatever not you will approve we bring it to for approval um so that is kind of the LA last process and that um is usually wrapped up in the spring so that it is approved by the board prior to um the window opening for materials to be ordered from the state so that is the textbook adoption process and then these are just I think it's we think it's always important you

054know this is a new standards new materials is is a big change so we just always like to um also be cognizant that with change comes a lot of support and making sure that we are providing support from the state level from the district level from the school level for all of our teachers and administrators that are walking through this process together so that comes um with resource development and also a lot of professional development so this is just a kind of list of all of that that we are have been working through or have plans to work through we are excited if you'll see in blue towards the bottom that um the state takes their show on the road and offers professional learning opportunities and we were asked to host one of those professional

055learning opportunities which we're always happy to host but the nice thing with that is that you get some extra seats so we can get extra staff members in there um so we have um math leaders from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade that will be there to represent us and really they will then turn around and drive the professional learning in Dorchester too as we move through the process um and then I already said that those instructional materials hopefully if everything goes as planned will be um in classrooms at the beginning of the school year next year and I think that's all there is just a QR code to the State Department math standards page if you would like more information than I just shared but we are also our entire team which I'm

056just the mouthpiece this team really is the rock stars in the room um but we are happy to answer any questions that you may have well if you don't have questions I'm GNA make a look at her she's so excited um I I just want to make a comment our academic Department um is doing amazing things and um there's been a lot of change coming down from the state and how we respond to it but their skill sets and their work ethic is nothing short than amazing and so you know the information they're providing you there's been a lot of time work and effort and energy put into that and I just want to say thank you I so much enjoy whenever I get to see them in action um they are definitely where the

057rubber meets the road so thank you thank you for that we definely do have a question sorry sorry that's okay no um I was just curious just for my own no opinion I'm um the not offering the courses the High School courses in seventh grade is that a recommendation of the state or is that a recommendation from y'all yes ma'am it is a recommendation from the state the the standards that are now going to be covered in that seventh and eighth grade compacted um course those really are the stand the skills that students need to move to that High School level credit High School Credit level and be successful if they don't get all of that seventh and eighth grade compacted standards then they haven't necessarily have all the pre-requisite learning to be successful with

058that first High School course right no totally understandable thank you yeah absolutely great question and we do we are I will just say um you know a huge kudos to our middle school teams they are working and counselors they are working really hard now even though we aren't at that process yet as we're you know working on schedules for next year to really ensure that students and parents and families understand that because that is a change from what we have done historically but also um you know really understanding the why and not just that we're not offering it because the state says but really we think it's a it will set them up for Success down the road um in a in a in a way that they will be more prepared yeah Ellen mentioned

059kind of these standards at the when she came and talked to us how they were updating the MTH standards and it's funny because I looked at Ashley and I was like do you know if we're doing anything to make sure that like we're starting it now so that going into next year so I loved like how your explanation about the Gap year and all of that so like you guys are on top of it I appreciate that thank you so much thank you if I could so would it be reasonable to assume that in addition to all the other efforts we're trying to do to raise our our preparedness and our students that are meeting at the right level that moving in this direction would also support that as well and can we expect that

060you know we can see over overall are math scores across the district going up in all of our schools absolutely we definitely think that and I also think um you know raising test scores but also the way the standards are written now really is to even push the depth of the learning in all courses so even those higher level courses is really the the standards are written for depth and complexity so really as they're getting deeper into the learning um and I think also just to add on to that is that I think also there's there's a lot of other just professional learning that needs to happen there resources and things like that so I think we're at a perfect place to just bring all of those things together as we are already going through

061a standards change thank you absolutely I do think I have one more you get me for one more slide I think okay just a gr this one is should be quick um just a graduation update now that we have worked through some things with the Coliseum and North Charleston and um we we think we're ready to go to print so for lack of a better way to say it with graduation times Fort Dorchester High School will be at 9:00 which is the same time the first graduation has historically been the second graduation which this year is Ashley Ridge will be at 2 um and the last graduation which this year is Somerville high school will be at seven if you'll see that that one got pushed back 30 minutes the last graduation time from what

062we have historically had and that was um a working with the Coliseum and our team and North Charleston Police due to concerns with traffic and just all of the other events that happen in that area just a need to push that back have their kind of request was to have five hours between each graduation in order to get everybody in and then get everybody out in a timely manner and then on that note that last bullet um is that because of that because of the needs to control traffic a little bit more they um the coliseum in North Charleston are requesting um that every student we will follow a three parking pass per family rule so all families will receive three parking passes so that is a change from what we have historically done um

063it we did we did advocate for three parking passes instead of two so we were happy with that but and we are um now that that has been finalized going to start communicating that heavily with families because they'll have to plan for that as as they work through that but that is just update now that all of that has been finalized that we just wanted to make sure you guys were aware of it's really kind of hard to believe that it's been 9 months since our special election and it may not seem like things have been going on but there's been a lot of work taking place um and so what we want to do the first thing I have for you all is notice intent to award for the three projects listed which is

064the Somerville Elementary Edition the Somerville high school edition and the Ashley Ridge High School Edition uh so I would U uh so I would uh make a recommendation we approve make a recommendation we approve those three contracts okay thank you Dr Robbins those three contracts okay thank you Dr Robbins board members at this time do I have a motion to approve the architect bid as and so I have a couple different people here but I have Mr Jay Lombardo who is chairing our citizens advisory review team um I know they've met a few times and and are getting organized and I see other members of the team here so thanks for being here Mr Lombardo board member uh thank you very much for the opportunity Dr or Dr wimley and Dr Robbins um everything that

065I'm going to kind of give you a little bit of a brief here has to do with uh what the citizens uh advisory review team is about this is all on the web page dd2 w.org click on the referendum Tab and then it'll take you down to where we're at but these are primarily our guidelines the card is an independent group of volunteers who bring a wide variety of professional experience to their task the group is organized as an extra layer of transparency for the community and will and perform the following task and these are our guidelines monitor all referendum building projects and schedules inform the public concerning the district's expenditure of bond proceed proceeds review expenditures to ensure that they are expended only for the purpose set forth by the bond measure and no

066bond proceed proceeds are used for any teacher or administrative salaries or operating expenses quarterly reports from the cart will be presented to the dd2 board and posted at the dd2 website minutes and uh presentations will also be posted once approved by the committee all cart meetings are open to the public and comments will be allowed when properly coordinated so we have uh had three meetings already uh we've had one in September October and recently in December uh the minutes are available at the dd2 org um uh under the referendum tab over the last few uh meetings the six member team has devised our procedure how we want to look at this we want to look at this at the basically a 20,000 ft level looking at the projects working with the facility uh committee and

067also the managers uh we created what is called a master project list stoplight chart and which is up on being shown right now and what we have is basically um green means everything's good yellow we got to take a look at it and red we're going to start digging deep into the uh process our primary um goal is to make sure that we're on schedule our finances are proper delivery and finally the operational status we have been really concentrating on what I'm going to kind of call low hanging fruit which is Safety and Security of our students such as making sure the radios are all working cameras in the necessary locations entrance vules that don't have clear um security areas portable weapons detection systems both permanent and mobile are operational And discussing project delays that

068will impact critical Community issues our next cart meeting will be Tuesday February 18th generally we would try to meet once a month but since uh January is going to start with some serious uh construction and some projects uh we won't be able to get a update until after that so we're meeting on Tuesday February 18th and we'll be available to brief the board the next uh board meeting in February if you have any questions I got two questions is the cart meeting that contentious that they have to twist your arm or something I actually attended the first one I appreciate what uh these volunteers have stepped up to do um just as a general question overall I know it's it's early even though we're nine months down from the referendum itself being passed um get

069a lot of green things there's a lot of white things right things haven't started yet that's correct are there any concerns about the things that haven't started yet that you know may not be rising to the level of the actual project construction but you know what's happening behind the scenes I and I know you guys are trying to stay at the 20,000 foot level but sometimes what what's not there is what concerns me more than what is there so well there's two areas that we had looked at that we were a little asking the question first of all is obviously the uh start of the U uh ponds Elementary um we had a a lengthy briefing on uh some of the issues concerning water and sewage and permits although we don't really have too much

070that we can say other than hey you know what what can we do to help out uh it's in the hands of uh of of the state and Community the Arby uh track um we're concerned with as as as with everybody uh when we when are we going to get to that point where we're ready to uh uh start um but overall wise like I said we're not going to get into the to the nitty-gritty that's what you got people hired for but we want to know know where we're at primarily schedule finance and when is it going to come operational that's our big uh Focus any other questions thank you thank you very much thank you Mr lamardo and it was a burn bone spur thank you very much so Mr Souls is going

071to speak specifically to uh the referendum projects that are already underway good evening Madam chair members of the board Dr Robbins uh currently we've got uh two of the major construction projects that are uh in the design and and early stages of it uh San Hill Elementary we've actually got the building permits land disturbance permits water sewer everything is ready there we're working with the uh construction manager at risk on this one with and the preconstruction services they're working on our GMP on that as well as the elementary school at the ponds we're working to CM on that to get our GMP and that's the guaranteed maximum price I just want to for those that don't understand my my uh Little Words for everything but uh the GMP is the is the most important thing

072we have to get because that is the driver behind everything we want to make sure that our GMP is within budget so we can get things started or or look at things where we can actually save money U so those two schools are are are underway in in those areas uh we have several projects that are in the design phases and those are the Windsor Hill uh Knightsville and Oak Brooks uh Roofing and exterior wall Renovations those are in the design phase right now with our our Roofing consultants and exterior envelope Consultants uh and looking down the road with the vote you just made selecting The Architects that's that's a very important piece to get the next three projects up and going uh with we're going to pair the Architects with the CM at risk

073that you voted on last month we're going to pair those together with with with specific projects and then probably around the first of the year when we get that uh the dust settles out from all this and we get a few other little housekeeping details done we're going to start a kickoff meeting for the Ashley Ridge project the Somerville high school project and the Somerville Elementary project so those are in the pipeline and that's the next thing to go and Mr Lee asked about all the white on on the on the master project list and I I'll tell you this we want to get the most complex projects up and going so some some of the other ones uh other projects are are are are short-term projects that won't take as much I almost say

074it's take as much work but won't take as much design time and it won't take as much uh effort to get those through the pipe and get them going so we want to get these complex projects up and and running and then we'll start pecking away at the short short shorter type projects but from from that's all we've got going right now which that's all we got going we got a lot of stuff going on but uh it's uh it's a it's a it's pretty pretty uh daunting task but but we've got it under control yeah I like I like how Mr Souls just says that's all we got going on that's that's all it's it's easy stuff couple new schools couple new additions no big deal um I I did have a quick question

075and um hoping you can give I guess really the board and and the community so as we get into these projects as we get into referendum projects and and major construction projects from a high level can you tell us kind of the process um regarding change orders and then kind of underlying that so when whenever or if there were to be like some ve type stuffs some value engineering changes what what does that process look like who's at that table so when that happens that's great a great question because there's the with the CM at risk process process for for for the larger projects we shouldn't have any value engineering all that stuff is done up front in the precon preconstruction services piece of it so we go through and and we we talked we

076beat to death the HVAC system for the ponds Elementary we beat that to death we know it's going to cost a little bit more but we know if we get the HVAC system that we want we won't have any moisture issues in the school so those are the kind of things that we we mold and and massage through the whole preconstruction services for each one of these five projects or four projects in the referendum but each one of those projects are being massaged in the preconstruction services so there there there is no value engineering that that that's that's even off the table so I get to your point so once that essentially that once that price is set so that GMP price is set there there's really no change orders that's it once that price

077is set we have a we have a set amount contingency in each one of those projects that will would would cover an unforeseen circumstance that contingency is just for that so but our our our main job for the contingency is to protect it at all cost if there's a workaround if there's a way to get things done without having to tap that money that money will come back to the district or it will come back back for for as a savings for us so uh we had a meeting the other day of last month with one of the uh contractors and I and they had on their agenda the word change orders and I said well you can just strike that off there we don't talk about that this is a CM at risk project

078and we will not have any change orders uh we know it can be done we've done it in the past and and I feel confident that we can continue to do that so but now there may be other projects that we don't do see at risk for and there may be changeovers uh when we we start doing some of these renovation projects uh when you start peeling an onion you never know what you're going to get so we we we have to and that's where that's where we're very protective of our contingency money on on these projects that we can protect because we know we might have to use $20 over here to to remove something that we don't need but but the process for the change order getting approved is it would go through

079a ton of conversation to try to alleviate not from having a change order and then when it comes down to the part or we we we know we have to do something to change it then that would come through me uh and then go to Dr Robins for approval y Tony I I might add um the the value in this for us is they may uh the bids may be a little higher for our GMP um when you do a see them at risk but the value for us is we know what the price is going to be and we do build in a little bit of contingency for that unforeseen um thing maybe it's soil remediation or you know we've had other issues like that but for new builds it's just a safe it's

080a safer route to go but when we do Renovations sometimes the the designs don't they don't have everything in the drawings and the plans and you have an unforeseen you have a change order but you know it's worth a little bit more on the front end knowing what your your price Point's going to be um on the back end and I'll just add to that the beauty of having that contingency and protecting it is when you get closer to the end of the project you may see we had had a VCT program for the flooring well we get close to the end and we know we get beyond beyond the dangers of anything that we unforeseen we might be able to upgrade the VCT to Texas granite or some other type flooring and and just

081use that money for for for improving on what we already have anything else from me is there a certain percentage of of the cost of the project the cons the cons oh my gosh you know what I'm saying thank you thank you I cannot talk right now is like do we like set aside a certain percentage of the cost of that project like what it was like is it like 5% you know like what's our contingency the contingency depends on the project that okay that's what I'm saying is it like a percentage of the project or is it like I just I don't know so it depends it depends on the scope of really depends on the scope of the project because like like for for a a full School build yeah you would probably

082have more contingency than you would Wing so so it depends on the scope and and and really the amount that that uh of risk that you have right so so we try to try to keep those numbers as low but we also in the back of our mind know that we we have to have it right definitely no I understand thank you all right so so would it be correct then to say if you're using this process that then the the planning stages are critical the planning stages if it seems like we're dragging our feet we probably are yeah because you need to get it right we want to have as many conversations and we want to have as much FaceTime with these construction managers at risk as we possibly can and they they really

083want us in the involved in the in the in that process they want to have us involved in those conversations because at the end of the day they have to provide us a product that we approve of so we are going to massage it and continue to massage it right up until they say listen right now we are at a point where you're getting what you want plus a few Frills here and there but if we add any more it's going to affect the GMP so we want to keep that GMP at a manageable level that that we know is within within construction cost uh guidelines or sense good just one more point just a finer point on that so within your process you're monitoring the use of cont y targeting staying under the GMP

084in order to try and get the project done yes sir um you're monitoring those indicators that tell me just throwing numbers at a wall here we anticipated 5% contingency we burned through half of that and where we are in the project we're confident that GMP is not at risk right second point to that question so when the uh the CM at risk comes to you and says I I think we're going to burn through that and we're going to hit the cap of the GMP you have a process in place for managing any potential change at that point is that correct we do it's called a guaranteed maximum price and and they are the CM at risk yeah so they when they when they jump off the truck with tools in hand they know that

085that's the that's the bottom line if that if they exceed that they have to take get out of hide yeah very very familiar with the process um and then there's the real world that I live in yes sir where I deal with billion dollar projects that are supposedly capped and very often those construction managers at risk can find a way to say well yes it was capped except this was something that no one contemplated and all I'm saying is is when that situation arises you have a process to manage that other than just saying no so there is in the cont in the AIA contract there are methods to talk about that stuff very good that's all I'm asking thank you that's good thanks Tony thank you next thing I have tonight is our finance

086report so I'll ask miss manier our CFO to come up please good evening Madam chair board members and Dr Robbins um this evening our team has um prepared for the October 31 2024 reports um we'll look at our balance sheet first and we have um comparable with column with 2023 as well um our assets are a little bit over where we were last year of $5 million and that is as you can see down below with our fund balance we we ended up the year with $5 million surplus in fund balance so um it flows through that the assets equal our liabilities plus fund balance um and that's where you see the change so at the end of October um our assets plus liabilities and fund balance were at 63.8 million um for our schedule

087of revenues expenditures and changes in fund balance um we were right on target um with last year um we're at $ 64.9 million for our revenues and our expenditures were at 80.4 at the end of October um what's what's comparable is if you um were to look at our ideal remaining percentages for this year as compared to last year and our change in fund balance was almost right on um you will notice that the numbers were a little bit bigger because we had an increase in teacher salaries this year and staff got step increases um our benefits were higher as well um but for the overall percentage we are right on target um as you can see on the next form with our uh cash flows even though we are right on target with where

088we were you can tell that our our revenues don't come in every month um exactly the same amount every single month um as we were discussing earlier that's why it's um it's good to have a healthy fund balance because as you can see down on the bottom with our monthly deficit and gain our change in fund balance at the beginning of the year we were at 25% fund balance and then we went to 21.8 then down to we're at 16 four right now um our Target that we like to stay at is at 18% so we are lower than that but we won't end with the 16.4 um as you can see in November we're estimated to receive um money for our act three act 388 tier 3 money and our property tax relief which

089we don't get every single month so as our revenues come in differently each month and our expenditures do as well um it's not a steady 112th 112th 112th every single month so we wanted to just point out those numbers um for our new board members um the first four columns that where we have gone through July August September and October you can see that those are in um black font because those are actuals and all of the Blues moving um towards the right side are just our projections for the year so this is our cash flow that we're projecting for the full year and then on the um last three columns are our actuals totals and then are projected over and under for the year um also wanted to mention that we have completed our

090um 2324 audit the Auditors completed that report and we did submit it to the state um we had a scheduling conflict unfortunately for timing for them to present tonight so they asked if they could come and report in January so um they will be here in our January the second meeting in January they'll be here to present um our audit so those are the only things that I had if anyone has any questions all right thank you very much operations Mr frell Mr Gatt the L good it's a little easier to read all right good evening uh thank you for having me today um quick update on officer Gamba and um Chester uh Chester's doing great he's still out and about we utilize him every single day um hopefully you're getting the logs and you

091see that in your packet um he does a great deal of training uh during during the school day as well um I always enjoy going over and watching them do training anytime they can because um he has the these little swatches that that are supposed to um simulate the smell of the gunpowder and gun residue so he'll hide them around the building and uh I like to watch Chester try to find those because you know he gets awful excited about that little ball that he gets um so hopefully you see what's going on with officer Gamba um and Chester they're also at most of our sporting events uh to work those as well um as well as many of our other extracurricular activities um our open gate logs uh as you can see the numbers

092are going up um every month they're going to be down a little bit in November and December just because they are shorter months um due to the vacation time the holiday time uh but they're they're up from August when we first really started um trying to push them uh as much as we can so I'm excited to see what we do with those um starting in January when we're in school you know continuously uh for the full month but the goal is 2,000 uh students a month regardless of um whether or not we you know have vacation time and all of that so we're trying to keep up with that and really push uh to make sure that we're scanning as many students um as we can um do you guys have any questions about

093the weapon detection one um as far as the scanning are are you working with the schools like obviously we can see the differentiated scans like I know you said 2,000 that's total correct do you have per School per School per school okay so oh that clarifies that clarifies my question then thank you yeah 2,000 per school um we also have the units in now for our middle schools um so we've done some training with our Middle School staffs uh we're still not quite ready to put them out there full speed yet because we're working on some some Personnel situations um at our high schools our security team pretty much runs those exclusively uh we'll have admin there just in case they do find something uh to to deal with the discipline part of it but

094running the weapons detection systems is a it's a three-man operation for everyone that we we want to use so you know if we're running two systems that's you know a minimum of of six people uh so that we can you know if we if they do go off we can have one person pull them aside to figure out why it went off and we still have two people uh working the unit so at our middle schools we are using them at our extracurricular activities my security team is trying to help with that uh but as you can imagine especially at this time of year with all of the sports events all of the the shows that are going on the performances uh the recital it gets to be a lot so um the the security

095team gets stretched a little thin so we are working with the administrators to get them trained up um on how to do that and use those as well so they have been fully trained we're still working on the the plan to get those implemented to the same level that we do at the high schools uh we would eventually like to see the same um random scans students coming in off of buses students coming out of cars or even pulling random classrooms throughout the day we're just not quite there yet and then last Could you um this is a small ask could you have this calculate the totals at each School uh like it just shows kind of the amount each day or whatever day you did it just so we can kind of see where

096you are in line with those 2000 yeah I I'll make sure we send that I thought I was including that but maybe when I'm copying and send I could have missed it where is it go over to um right next to the name on the month should I see it thank you thank you it is coming over yeah far left I was looking at the bottom all right I had a question too about with um using the we the detection systems in the Middle School will we be kind of sending something out to parents before we start doing that regularly just letting them know um that it's coming or just explaining why we are doing it or I don't know I just yeah we're talking about even doing a video kind of similar to what

097and showing what we do at the high schools and that we can pump that out and say hey this is what we're doing and that's part another part of the reason we haven't started doing it yet because we want to educate you know before we just throw it in there yeah um everybody's kind of used to doing at the sports events and after school stuff and I feel like a lot of if especially if they have kids in the high schools or connection they know but you might have some especially with sixth graders or just who are new to all of that and might it's important for them to understand they're not being searched you know sometimes when a kid comes home you know they say hey I was searched and they're not they're not

098lying or blowing out of proportion in their mind that's that's what happened they were searched but really I just want to show that they they come out of the classroom they walk through the scanner they go back in the classroom it's a f- minute process and they're they're not missing time and they're not being physically searched so um I definitely want to get that video out before we start doing full time thank you sure anybody else all right thank you thank you sir yes so the next thing you have tonight we heard a lot about projects those were specific to our referendum but with 3 million square feet of space in our district we have a lot of work that takes place in our facilities department so Jeff Smith our director of facilities is going

099to take you through some of our current projects next slide good evening um they let me up here finally so uh let's get some coffee out it might be a long night uh we've got about 540 working open work orders in the district and I want to go through every single one of them if we're okay with that no um I'll be very brief because I know it's getting late in the night but um just a couple updates so we had some hbac upgrades at nightville and span those are basically wrapped up we're just waiting for a final inspection from OS uh from OSF and the third party inspector that'll happen uh this week we have the two roof replacement projects one at Greg middle school and one at span those projects are complete we're

100just waiting on Final punch list items to be corrected I think they've got a couple gutters to replace at span but otherwise they're pretty much done um the fort norchester high school track replacement uh they are still on schedule to be substantially complete complete on January 6th so that should be open for the season uh we don't foresee any issues they're on site installing as we speak um let's see the fort norchester high school media center that's like I said done we're just waiting on a certificate of occupany from OSF but it's all been submitted so all the paperwork's in uh place the Oakbrook middle and the Oakbrook Elementary Edition you can see on there we've listed the CM firm as edcon they are the ones that were awarded that those two projects and it

101was kind of strategic you know say campus you don't want them to to have two contractors working on top of each other so it'll probably be more of a phased approach they'll start the middle school first and move into the elementary school and uh the plans I mean the all the permits and uh I think per building permits from OSF and the permits from the county and the local legislature are already in place for the middle school so we're basically just getting a plan together for demoing those trailers getting the site package going and you know getting construction underway way um with that they'll also be doing the I don't think it's on there it might be on the next page but it's the uh bused that's at the oat Brook Transportation location that's going

102to be part of that package deal as well um the softball field for Press Box for Sommerville high school we we have an OSF approved design so that's going to be going out for bid probably not till January because of the things be on our plate but it's going to go out for bid and we'll get um competitive bid process on that and hopefully have funds to award that uh hoping that we'll be a to make it in time for the season but we're going to have some tendencies in place should that not happen and let's see the last L uh project that's current is the tennis courts at Somerville high school so we have design in progress on that and then so we're hoping that that will be done prior to the start of

103tennis season this year and I just put a little on the at the very end here just to kind of update you all on products that we have coming up for the actually it's technically year one of our three-year uh Capital Improvement plan as you can see it's it's really HVAC heavy um we'll be replacing the entire HVAC systems at flowertown and Newton uh Oakbrook Middle School Somerville Elementary School and Greg middle school if you not there's a Aster so Greg split over two years just the way the funding works and uh the controls are just basically through CMI is what we'll probably be converting to since that's who we use for everybody else but converting their controls over to a hardwire control system versus a wireless control system um I don't have anything else

104at this time unless you have anything you wanted to ask question wise all right thank you Mark White our sedexo representative so Mark floor is yours good evening Dr Robbins Madam chair and the board just wanted to share some facts with you about the department of nutrition uh as of October we served 11,700 lunches and that is up approximately 480 from this time last year and that's primarily in the secondary schools where we had the lowest participation in 2024 we've added to build your own salad bar sub lines walking tacos and a whole muscle chicken breast sandwich to the menu that is getting some great reviews sedexo operates also a seamless summer program and this year we included the athletic department that went over very successfully and we plan to include them going forward each

105summer um sedexo has also rolled out a staff lunch bar and and it is started in November and we're going to continue to roll that through the district until we get that perfected at each grade level uh with the help of Dr Robins orchestration this year Thanksgiving was prepared by sedexo and served by the District administration and some of the board members and this was a huge success it was a lot of fun a lot of Engagement and we are exploring trying to do something even more frequently like we're thinking about doing maybe a spring cookout this year or something in the district so we'll be inviting this Administration to help us serve that as well um we are also uh pursuing a dinner program that's offered to the Department of Social Services um this

106appeals to students with extreme needs and this also has application in any afterschool program that's organized and structured by the school so this could also help support the a letic departments to ban and other extracurricular programs that go on after school we are currently rolling out a new and improved share table and we're starting at elementary school and we will take this all the way through up through high school where it's going to have some unique challenges with high school but we are working with and talking with the culinary Department to see if we can do something with the unwanted products that we have there to make that program as successful as it can be be our sedexo operations Department consists of seven managers um myself being one of them a mark the resident district

107manager we also have a register dietician an HR Manager a chef manager an operations manager three supervisors and a newly on boarded project manager for social media maintenance and we have of all our operations managers five of them hold uh undergraduate degrees and three of us hold uh also culinary degrees so we have a very capable Department there um in addition to the feeding of the lunch programs we have student advisories and nutrition programs that uh we are bringing up to speed this year as well sedexo hires and trains over 200 staff at the school levels uh site levels 25 uh managers assistant managers we also provide the district with 35 Plus Food Service monitors to help facilitate the duty-free lunches for our teachers here uh in our office we also have two District positions

108under the finance liaison that help assist with our accounting and program compliance and this is located in our office as well and the last thing I wanted to share with you is our uh district manager Larry Wilson is retiring this year and we have a replacement um James Ashbrook and he'll be coming around next week to meet everybody and introduce him but Larry will finish out December and then he will be on his way to a merry retirement I thank you all for your time if anybody has any questions I'm happy to answer any questions you might have I don't have any questions but I just want to say thank you I know like I myself personally and a lot of board members have asked a a lot a lot a lot of y'all and

109I know that and we have challenged you and pushed you and the stuff that you guys have come up with the challenges that you've faced and were willing to work with us on and you know from coming Ashley and I went and tried the chicken sandwich it was delicious I know that I was like that was something I was always like talking about and the walking tacos I hear nothing but good things about and the fries and all the stuff you're doing like from your team and your marketing director to just trying new things and being willing to listen I really really appreciate it and I just feel like publicly I need to say like from the time that I've been elected to the board to now like every single challenge I have thrown at

110you guys you just took like with the sweetest heart and tackled it head on and were just like not no like I'm gonna make it happen not like let me see if I can make it happen we'll figure it out and we're going to miss Larry immensely he's been phenomenal um and so goodbye to him tell him we all appreciate all he's done so much and just thank you for your hard work and being willing to hear hard things have tough conversations and come out just doing awesome things for our staff for our students and improving the program overall so we do appreciate it well thank you and thank you for helping us grow and we're really very pleased to see that more kids are coming to lunch now thank you Madam chair next thing

111I have is our student enrollment recommendations there were um four of them that were uploaded to your packet I believe um for your review okay thank you Dr Robbins board members is everyone okay with proceeding with approving those student enrollment recommendations in Open Session okay then at this time I would ask for a motion okay motion made by Mr Farnsworth do I have a second second seconded by Miss Bates any questions or discussion okay hearing none we will call for the vote now watching he's getting it now he's okay and the motion carries six in favor one absent thank you and then the final thing I have in my report tonight is our monthly Personnel recommendations and those have been uploaded uh into your board packet as well okay thank you Dr Robbins again board

112members if you are okay with proceeding in open session we will go ahead and um vote to approve the um recommendations minus the two separate employee ones that were included in those we will be having an executive session to discuss those so at this time if everyone is okay we'll ask for a motion motion made by Mr Guthrie yes a mooved do I have a second second Thank You seconded by Miss King any questions or discussion okay okay hearing none we will call for the vote okay and the motion carries six in favor one absent and does that conclude your report for this evening yes ma'am that's all I have tonight thank you all right thank you so much lots of great information next item our on our agenda are public comments and this evening

113we do have one public comment from Mrs Martha Sue hope I believe is that correct yes Hope okay thank you these are just two requests that I have um and I've spoken with some of you about these things but um the first request is that I would like the agenda for the board meeting to be dropped on Friday at the end of the day instead of waiting until Monday because for old people like me it's difficult for me to do you know to read through it and go through and find all of the links and and do all that work on Monday afternoon before the meeting so so I'm asking for Friday agenda releases that's one thing and then the other thing is for people like me I always come and sit up front because

114I don't hear that well so because I sit up front I can't see who's talking because everybody's fa face is behind their computer so so I'm asking I've spoken with people about this if there's a way to put a platform behind there to boost your seats up so that you can be above your computer when you're speaking now it works better if you're on if you watch online if you live stream then the projection comes down there but then you're not here so that's just two recommendations that I would like to make to help the board function more efficiently or more friendly to the citizens of Somerville thank you thank you Miss hope okay and um at this time I would ask for a motion to convene into executive session for personnel matters so moved

115okay motion made by Mr Guthrie second seconded by Mr Lee any questions or discussion okay hearing none we will call for the vote okay and the motion carries six in favor one absent we are in executive session and we will return e e e session motion made by Mr Guthrie seconded by Miss Bates any questions or discussion okay hearing none we will call for the vote okay and the motion carries six in favor one absent we are returned to open session all right at this time board members do I have a motion coming out of executive session Madam chair I make a motion to accept the Personnel recommendations as presented okay thank you Miss Bates the two motion made by Miss Bates to accept the two Personnel recommendations as presented in executive session do I

116I have a second second seconded by Miss King any questions or discussion you're in the minutes okay hearing none we will call for the vote okay and the motion carries in favor one absent at this time board members I would ask for a motion to adjourn motion made by Miss Bates second seconded by Miss King any questions or discussion hearing none we will call for the vote and the motion carries six in favor one absent we are adjourned