001e e e all right good evening and welcome to the January 27th regularly scheduled board meeting um at this time I would ask Mr Brian Bohanan to step up um he will be sharing our vision and Mission with us this evening thank you Mr banan now we're on perfect good evening everyone I would love it if you would join me in our vision and mission statement 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 our mission leading the way every student every day through relationships relevance and rigor thank you thank you Mr bannan and everyone else appreciate
002you joining in all right um at this time I would ask for a motion to approve our consent agenda so moved motion made by Mr Beth do I have a second 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 all right the next item on our agenda this evening are district highlights and I will again welcome Mr bannan Madam chair Dr Robbins board members always thrilling to be up here to talk about the great things going on in our districts last time you remember we had 34 of our young art students come out and receive recognitions for the Coastal Carolina fair and today we've got we're going to recognize some of those teachers Dorchester School District is
003are proud to be an award-winning leader in arts education thanks to the dedication of our exceptional teachers tonight we celebrate seven of our schools for receiving a total of $882,000 in arts curricular Innovation grants through the distinguished arts program funded by the South Carolina Department of Education these grants support highquality Arts instruction in dance music theater and visual arts and align with the teacher strategic Arts plans to enrich student learning experience a number of these teachers are in attendance this evening and when called if they and any of their co- teers and proud administrators would like to please come up and join them and get a photo op that'd be great we have certificates on hand for the grant managers of each location and we'd love to start with Dr Eugene sire Elementary and Abby
004Clark and Colleen Smith for [Applause] from Span Elementary recognizing Kelly broen and Barbara basset [Applause] from Joseph rpai elementary Katie Wilson and Lisa Alvarez represented here tonight by assistant principal Melanie shabal you can I've got their certificates over here come over here we knew they weren't going to be here sorry there's Katie and Lisa no it's just we're too good because we separate the people that aren't going to be here no but you can deliver for us from nightville elementary Allison pole and April cross I've got Allison Allison I've got to put your new name on this I'm going to get you a new certificate it's got your old name [Applause] from Ford Dorchester High School Kevin morisy and Stephanie Shank [Applause] from Ashley Ridge High School Jean Mitchum and Allison Brower [Applause] and finally
005from Austin Middle School Adam Weiner and Natalie schwager [Applause] keep it going one more round of applause for all these amazing teachers [Applause] all right um the next item on our agenda this evening our public comments on agenda items and we have one um Miss Laura cogin hi everybody um I know this that we have Town Hall a little bit more there we go we have Town Hall listed and wanted to First say thank you for considering that parents have been asking for it and I'm glad to see that it's making it onto the agenda um with that I know I personally won't be able to attend so I wanted to speak briefly on communication that's convenience transparency and accessibility for parents um communication but via smartphones is huge we pretty much expect everyone has
006one and you probably have an endless number of apps yourself for parents I personally work about 55 hours a week on a slow week so the fact that I have five apps that I use for my three kids is a little bit cumbersome so I ask that the board go ahead and begin considering what those apps are capable of and exercise these abilities more thoroughly to reduce the number of apps this is going to save you guys time and save teach time which is huge and saves us all time and money when I have to clock out to read several emails it takes time and money from me personally and I do want to be in connection and have the information for the school board information I'm noticing via board docs we always have the
007minutes but I'm noticing um the agenda rather we notice noticing that we have a lack of minutes so we can go back and we can look at how someone voted but there's not de details so I my only choice would be to sit and watch the videos sometimes I just need a little piece of information just a little followup so I would appreciate if the board could begin posting those minutes again and also communicate to parents how to find that information um the Busa Class Dojo parents Square Power School Blackboard it's giving your teachers a lot of things to do it gives your administrators things to do and it's asking for items to be missed especially even at the elementary school level where I'm already checking a Communications folder but I still need that app
008um so additional you know addition and then there's also phone calls and emails um I again appreciate the communication options and just do want to mention policy jic FFA and um um the continuation of parents wanting more communication about bullying options for bullying so that we can prevent issues that have happened before as Julian brocker thank you for your time okay thank you miss cogins all right the next item on our agenda is our board chairs report and um this evening I again have um the dates listed here for our upcoming events um and I want to primarily focus on our town hall because we did have to reschedule that due to the um winter weather um and the fact that the county was still in a state of emergency on that Friday that it
009was scheduled for so we weren't able to have it so um we have rescheduled that town hall for this coming Wednesday um that's 2 days from now at 5:30 it will be here at the district office um it will be in the room where we have our um committee meetings so um does anybody have any questions about that um and then again these dates are up here again just for everyone's um just for another reminder um we were able to schedule our winner board advance for February 10th as we have discussed and so more information will be coming on that okay and that is all for this evening as far as my report so we will quickly move into our board committee reports um and our first up is our policy committee Miss Bates yes
010thank you madam chair um nothing new today with the weather mixup and not being able to review some policies we did not have a meeting today but we are moving forward with our monthly meetings for as you can see there February 24th April 28th May 19th and June 9th they're at 5:00 p.m. um other days they're at 4 p.m. depending on if we were working on budget items or various conflicts that already existed so those AR thir June and that's all I have all right thank you Miss Bates um next we have our finance committee Mr Guthrie do you have anything for us this evening nothing to report right tonight but uh looking forward to getting the budget season started and Mr really had anything or that you want to add or I'm looking forward
011to it as well I've been uh ingesting through a fire hose as much as I can in the brief amount of time that I've been here and there's there's a lot to digest so looking forward to it okay all right thank you both we appreciate that and then finally last but not least certainly our facilities committee Mr Farnsworth any update this evening yep thank you madam chair um certainly a lot of um good good things happening on the facilities front so later this evening we'll have a report uh both on the referendum as well as standard facilities operations um but I do want to highlight our meetings that will be coming up so we've got those scheduled um again as we get into referendum projects uh these meetings will be crucial uh both for um
012public interaction um just information going back and forth as we go into referendum projects so happy to answer any questions but other than that nothing else from my side Miss Powell anything on your side all good thank you okay thank you very much we appreciate you getting those dates out for us okay next up on our agenda is our superintendent report turn it over to Dr Robbins thank you madam chair members of the board um this Indiana native is thaing out from last week I say that tongue and cheek but um no it safety is always our first um priority and because of the weather obviously we had to utilize some e-learning days I appreciate the community support and understanding um we always try to make decisions based on safety and it was just the
013best course of action for us um tonight we have um a variety of items for you all I'm just go through the list here real quick before I turn it over to the team but our school Improvement plan presentation uh will be from the two schools uh that have to provide an extra Improvement plan based on their school report card our monthly Finance report uh our under our Student Services report we're going to provide you with a um pretty descriptive look at our disciplinary metrics that we've observed over the last course of last school year and first semester of this year and how rise has had an impact on that and then obviously our operations report you're going to hear about um both our Capital Improvements plan projects but also our referendum projects things are
014really slowly starting to pick up speed I'm just going to kind of touch again as a reminder you know the um state of the district is Thursday and after the state of the district we will have our first groundbreaking ceremony for the 10 classroom Edition at San Hill Elementary School so we've got the shovels the hard hats and if you can be there that would be great we've got some photo ops um ready to go so that will be our first of a few here in the future and then our Personnel report so with that being said I'm going to turn it over to our chief academic officer Katie Barker and her team to present on our school Improvement plan requirements good evening thank you for having me back um I am here as Dr
015Robbins mentioned because of we have two schools that fall into what statute 59-1 18-16 25 I had to ask Miss Graham what that little symbol meant to verify that it meant statute um the so what that means is that the State Department of Education determines that any schools that get a school report card rating of below average or unsatisfactory um fall into an underperforming category and it requires an additional plan so that is why we are here tonight is for your approval of those plans for those two schools alustin Bailey Elementary School and River Oaks excuse me and then just so you're aware of kind of what that process is it is an addition if an amendment if you will um to their current School renewal plan so it should already be in alignment with
016what they're working on in their schools and it just goes a little bit deeper it is it has continuous 30 day every 30 days there's progress monitoring built into a turnaround plan um they have to really dig into those specific areas from their school report card that were the lowest scoring so that they can make sure that they are targeting those specific areas so if you had a chance to look over those plans that were in your packet you'll see that um it targets specific areas of the school Improvement plan and specific groups of students so it is goes a little bit deeper than our typical School renewal plan and if you'll remember that when we work on school renewal plans every year we don't have the school report card data like we do now
017so this is goes in alignment with that current School renewal plan so I am happy the two principles of those schools are also here and we are happy to answer any questions um regarding the turnaround plans for Austin Bailey Elementary or for River Oaks um or any further discussion or anything you need from us before we um ask for approval of those plans um so a couple questions and and maybe some comments there the the first one so when we look at I guess what I'm what I'm trying to understand more this year was the first year for a new set of metrics from the state yes would we agree that that these particular ratings have something to do with those metrics potentially great question and 100% yes if you um look at both of
018these school report cards the areas that they are targeting align with that student progress measure which is exactly what you were talking about is that the metric changed so overall student progress changed and that these two schools had a lower score in that area so they're targeting that specific area but then also um of course if that student progress indicator changed for all students then it also changed for specific subgroups of students So based on each school's specific subgroup data they're targeting for example um our ml students the progress in those ml students was an area of Need for both of those schools but yes I would absolutely agree that a big change um was an alignment how we're kind of at this point um was an alignment with the change and how we're reading
019that metric would it so then would it also be safe to say so when historically I think when we looked um at these achievement metrics they were somewhat on a bell curve across the state and so had always been very very blessed and through hard work of of our schools our district as a whole on that bell curve did very very very well would you say moving forward the bell curve is now I guess the the word I'm looking for has it has it shifted down to more of the school level where potentially or I should say the district level potentially we would have schools within our district underperforming based on the bell curve coming down to the district level versus the state well that makes does that make sense very statistical question for my
020elementary brain but I would think that yes I think for example alustin Bailey and River Oaks um the student progress indicator the ml progress indicator but also in relation to as a district if we look at those indicators we have as a district have been lower scor in score we were scored lower in those areas as well however I will say I think we you know once you know how it's going to be measured then you adjust to that at and we have been very intentional with making decisions um that we're hoping to see positive impacts there so that hopefully we this was just a blip you know now that we know um and we will move forward and see some more progress in those areas love it and then the last question I had
021looking um specifically I was I was looking at the plan for alustin Bailey and I noticed um a lot of the the goals and the metrics in there dealt with um letters training um how does that fit in because I I think that's something the entire district has to do not just Austin Bailey absolutely so the a turnaround plan the every turnaround plan the state requires um what they call a resource Equity goal so it's just how are we showing that we are meeting a need for groups of students in that school um based on resources so a big need at all of our elementary schools is that foundational skill literacy need so we are meeting that at at Austin Bailey and at other schools as well through a focus on letters training so that
022is addressing that resource Equity making sure that teachers are equipped with the skills that they need to close that gap for students is there and I guess just to dig into that a little bit more is there anything more in detail because again when when you look at letters training that that's something that's being mandated by the state we would have had to do that no matter what sure so we so we do letters training is required but if the if you kind of dig into the action steps there some additional things that Altin Bailey is doing in partnership with letters so how they're rolling it out to the plc's those guiding questions that they're working on with those teachers to take it that step further so they're kind of above that basic completing letters
023to ensure that they're they are using that skill and then it's rolling over into the classroom got it that makes sense thank you absolutely um I have a few questions so for these line items different there's different costs associated with different things um who determined let's say elevation was the platform that they were going to use and that that was the most cost effective and just effective overall program to utilize for this so elevation specifically um was a state adopted program originally that then the state um discontinued funding with so it is a program that there is a ton of research on that our teachers were using and when we looked at resources that one is ml specific we looked at um ones that were had were current obviously also supported the needs of the
024students and the teachers based on whichever kind of category it fell into um but that's how those decisions were made elevation was one specifically that was originally funded by the state and then we um continue to support that as a district okay and then as far as some of the like line item cost I'll see stuff like create uh a leadership committee oh wait not that one um host family engagement opportunities and then there was like another one that said trying to remember what it said it was essentially create oh committees at school level focus on VAR aspects of the school climate including staff morale teacher recognition and student incentives what determined the price point for each of these categories like how does I don't know am I allowed to like specifically say the Clause
025I don't know yeah like so what cost $5,000 to create committees at a school level to focus on aspects of school climate Etc sure so some of those things that one for example might be something that aligns with funds that they have set aside in their Title One budgets for example so it's not necessarily that anyone told them or we told them you know how are you going this is how much money you have to spend on each of these areas but it would align with funds that they had available and some of them I'm sure you saw our state and District provided versus school so some of that like one specifically um and the family ones specifically are usually funded with Title One money so it would be money that they had set aside
026in their title budgets how can we decipher I mean how much of this is additional money that we're putting into the school to further this um plan and how much of it is current funds that they're already receiving is there a way to decipher those two so this the turnaround plan does not come with any additional funds so it is using the funds which again if go going back to their school this is kind of an addendum to their school renewal plan so overall their their major need should have been identified and those funds are set aside as part of that school renewal plan process and then this just comes in and makes sure that now that we have more information those specific areas align with that I will say just from conversations that some
027of them now that we're at this point it might be that instead of focusing on this large group of students we're going to focus on a smaller group of students based on the data that we have now that perhaps we did have when we were writing School renewal plans no that definitely makes sense and that clears it up for me so I appreciate it thank you absolutely if I might ask a couple of questions uh unfortunately all the pre-read stuff didn't appear in mine so I'm coming in from a standing start and I'm just looking at this so just to confirm my understanding that for uh River Oaks the $94,800 this is an additional funding so it is either school budget some of it are things that we cover at general f like I think
028exact path and study island for example is a strategy that's already funded from the district level so it's not school specific um funding some of it is District or state funding but it is not a spec it's not additional funds that they get because of this it was already in their budget Yeah so basically out of hide taking it out of hide from other accounts I get that okay um and then one question in terms of some of the the goals and I look at the the goals and their stated increases and and maybe I don't understand this I'll tell you tell you this right up front but uh for example you know uh raising a a goal from 22.2 to 24.2% okay why not hire so I think always we would we and it's
029funny because we actually had a conversation with a princ about a goal that I think let's say went from 58% % to 80% um and the 2% increase is in alignment with most of our school renewal plans because it's over 5 years so over the course of increasing 2% a year per five years would be a 10% increase but a part of this turnaround plan specifically and I'll just point it out since you said you were um catching up if you look closer to the end under phase four you'll see a 30-day review process so the these plans have to be reviewed every 30 days so we won't necessarily have end ofe testing data there but as we they you'll see above that there are those kind of built-in metrics throughout to see if we're
030seeing progress that we would expect to see on end ofe testing and then once those goals are met then we update we're required to update them in the turnaround plan immediately so that that way we're always moving that bar closer to that standard to get out of that below average or under we are not in under unsatisfactory but get above that below average category okay and I may not be asking this clearly enough so bear with me but my question is is is Raising it 2% is that a stretch is that good is that a layup and using a basketball metaphor you know why not higher because as I look at the opposite the inverse of this goal you know I'm seeing numbers around 80% that aren't at the level they're not meeting so what
031are we doing maybe this is a good number again I don't understand the internals underneath it but you know is 2% a stretch uh is that how do they settle on those percentages is are they constrained because I don't have enough resources there are enough hours in the day to do this that the state is changing the moving the goalposts on me you know what are those kinds of things well I think there's a lot of those struggles I do we do feel like 2% is a stretch and um especially if we're increasing 2% especially when you look at um this because what that looks for that goal specifically is like the Stu the students that are getting those ml Services that's an increase to their services so it impacts time out of class it
032impacts a lot of you know down the road increasing um Services resources all of those things not necessarily that that's budget bound but because of those things we do feel like 2% is a is a reasonable Within Reach but a stretch goal if that makes sense for a between because this plan follows them from once it's approved until the end of this school year thank you absolutely but I'll always say We'll always take more than 2% always so my question is actually similar I don't know if maybe I misunderstood but so but raising it the the 2% or the I mean the making the changes that are part of these performance goals does if that happens does that guarantee that we're moving out of the below a average range or not necessarily so to not
033we have no re like if you remember when Mr schmink was here and that that progress indicator is the one that's almost impossible for us to factor in so normally the old way that's what we would do is we would go back and say how many students do we need to move from this category to this category on SC ready in order to get our schools out of that below average indicator above below average in that indicator and that's not something can predict now um so we don't we can't predict that the way that we historically would so that's when we went back to that 2% feeling like that that is a goal that we can focus on and really move a specific group of students from now until the end of the year I'm
034not sure I answer all parts of that no that makes sense I I understand what you're talking about because I remember that conversation so that but that 2% was based on a specific population of students that we so yes if for example one of the indicators that both schools have a goal written for was um the ml Pro student progress so our ml students and meeting that progress so that even so they know who those students are now so the students that will count in that indicator now they are already aware of that so the um things that are student specific and you'll see that a lot of the things that are in the plans are also teacher specific and really focusing on some more training and professional development for teachers but the things that
035are student specific they are able to Target those resources to those specific students and that's what so these resources will go specifically towards students this year that that focuses onic stud and the teachers that are serving those students but the benefit of the teacher piece is that that will positively affect everyone in the entire School ABS absolutely right yes ma'am and then one other question in regards to the team um that's that will come back in do the the check-ins and the you know um the progress checks progress checks yes who does who makes up the teams so the school level team and then members of our curriculum and instruction Department work so for example Elementary and secondary um and then the state also says that they have what they call school Improvement managers that
036work with each district that they um after plans are submitted that they will those will be assigned to the district so we may have some State Department support there as as well we don't they haven't talked much about what that part of the process will look like yet um but that is a possibility as well but it's a partnership at between the school level team and a district team okay okay great thank you yeah anybody else have questions I think we're good thank you Miss Barker absolutely oh and I guess so um yes I apologize okay all right so um board members at this time do I have a motion to approve the school Improvement plans for Austin baile Elementary and River Oaks Middle as presented okay motion made by Miss Bates second seconded by
037Mr Guthrie at this time is there any discussion regarding that motion or any questions as far as the I guess the followup and accountability because now that it has to come to the board um how what's the followup to us as far as getting this back out to the district I guess is the question we are happy to provide an update at board meetings during our academic update at as we go through those progress checks okay or if anything so the 30 days and I heard 30 days so I know within the district they're going to do every 30 days they have to do progress checks I just didn't know because I looked at the statute earlier and I'm looking over at chrisy I I don't know that there's anything in statute do we necessarily
038have to votee on anything again okay so can they make adjustments to the plan and then we would not vote on it or sorry I'm just trying to understand well that's all right you're I just don't know that I know the answer to that the only thing that I that we have been told is that the original plans have to be um approved by the board so I don't know if adjustments after the like if there is a 30-day one of those progress checks every 30 days indicates a need for a change or even let's say we do intoe testing and scores go up significantly and the goals been met even if the progress check may not have shown that um and they have to update the plan if that the the update has to
039come back before board that hasn't been in any communication from the state department can you can somebody please look into that because I think it would only make sense that if we're voting to approve a plan that would be the plan until we vote to approve a different plan sure and so I just don't understand what would be the point of voting for it to begin with if we're not going to have oversight in any way shape or form I'm happy to reach out for an answer to that question and then last question I promise um communication wise because again I think the statute requires that we have to communicate this data to those populations to those School population sure so um the if a school is falls in the unsatisfactory range then there's a
040public there has to be a public meeting with those School families the community we are in the below average range so we are not at that point yet they're also down the road if you do not show Improvement there are there are other things written about that where you have to move to that public hear I don't want to call it hearing that sounds scary but a public meeting where you invite you know the school F the school community in but we are not at that point yet because we are in the below average range got it thank you okay yeah madam chairman given that they're going to be looking at this plan assuming we approve what's before us here every 30 days uh might I recommend that maybe the superintendent can just informationally brief
041us and say going according to plan or if there are exceptions or issues inform us of those specific issues just so that we're dealing with exceptions so um I think what would be good is we we meet once a week and once a month and those 30-day checkups definitely will come back and have a presentation so you know what we have found at those checkup points um to keep you all in the loop and communicate that well I could do that as well but it might be nice since we've mentioned it publicly now that you know the community be interested in hearing it so I'll do both so yeah all right excellent any other questions or discussion okay hearing none then we will call for the vote and the motion carries six in favor one
042absent okay thanks Madam chair uh next I have up tonight is our monthly Finance report I'll ask Miss manier to come up and present please good evening Madam shair board members and Dr Robbins um the finance team has prepared the um financial statement report for you through December 31st of 2024 hello is that better yeah it's hard to hear out here too I don't know if it's the the vents or I'm sorry um I'll start again Madam chair board members Dr Robbins um this evening the finance team has prepared financial statements reports for you through December 31st of 2024 um first we'll go over our balance sheet um so our assets at the end of December um were 62.1 million um um we had additional cash and Investments this year as a result of our
043savings from last year as you can see in our in those two categories versus last year our liabilities are right on track with where they typically are for our it's mainly for payroll um withholdings that we pay once a month to um to the feds um and for our um Insurance withholdings those are right on track and then the bottom section is our fund balance our total fund balance at the end of December is 53.4 million and the total of our fund balance and liabilities equals our total assets um again at 62.1 million um I did want to point out that our total fund balance at the end of December brings us down to a um undesignated amount um in our fund balance percentage of 16.6% which that is the lowest that we typically go
044to um because we haven't received any of our property tax revenues yet because tax bills went out in October I think they went out just a tad bit later this year um because of reassessment and so we should start getting our property taxes in January and February March so this is the lowest point that our fund balance will look um and this is really a good place to be because um that is the two-month Mark and the government Finance Officers Association as um our auditor was telling us last month that is their minimum that they request for us to have it's it's good to keep that um as a minimum for your fund balance so we're doing well and we did not have to go out for any tax anticipation notes waiting for the property
045tax revenues to come in so we'll look at our schedule of revenues expenditures and changes in fund balance again as of uh December 31st we were talking about our tax revenues um they come in about the oh sorry yeah know that they come in about the same time every year um so we're almost right on track with where we were last year and we'll see an increase next year oh I'm sorry next month um our state aid classrooms is additional this year because of the funding formula and has come in higher than last year if you look at our total revenues at the end of December we're at 11.8 million which is 61% um and we're at a very close percentage as we were last year even they we were at 63% but as you
046can tell our revenues grew for this year and our um expenditures grew for this year but we're still within the same percentages so we're we're right on track our expenditures through the end of December were 128. 6 million so if we can look at our cash flow statement next this is the one with the pretty colors that Dr Robbins made for us and it's very informative I I love this um cash flow analysis so working from left to right we are right in the middle um with our December actual numbers each month shows you our our actual activity for that month um the amount that's to the right showing our year-to dat totals is the total of those amounts um the January through June numbers that are shown in blue are our projections because over
047time we receive revenues in different amounts at different months it's not we don't receive our revenues evenly each individual month so we have uh projected out how much we are to receive for the rest of the year um I did notate that we did receive a little less money um from the from the state their allocation based on our 45th day numbers um we were reduced a little bit by state money we have an opportunity to true that up at the 135th day and hopefully um we have seen some students um reenroll or come backs our our enrollment has increased since the 45th day which was in October so that'll be helpful but even if we weren't to receive all of that state aid um you can see at the end um that very final
048number over on the far far rate of the 3.9 we have projected to use 4.6 of fund balance this year but even with um the state revenue allocations decreasing a slight bit we will still come in less than what we had received is what our project I mean than what we have predicted so our projections are still looking good so so we feel good about where we are right now financially um at the end of the year under the total column even with using that 4.6 million of fund balance or will be at 3.9 million of fund balance we'll be at 19.51% of our fund balance and the board's goal was to be at at least 18% for our cash reserves so we'll be right on target with what y'all had um one of your
049board goals so those are all the numbers in a nutshell if anybody had any specific questions make a quick comment um the cash flow I think paints a good picture so you can see where we're forecasting out um and as we enter budget season um Mr Lee Mr gri that that's a number we'll look at you know to make some decisions moving forward so this will be a good um a good slide for you all to reference back um and again we like to do this with forecast and then actuals because we did have fewer students than we forecasted and they took us down funding wise a little bit but then at the 135 day Mark uh we're starting to see some of those students that went to the you know the new you know
050Prep Academy and some of these other locations actually reenroll and so they'll TR us back up you know at that 135 day Mark so okay thank you madam chair I make a motion we accept the financial reports as presented for information only second okay I have a motion to accept the finance Financial reports presented for information made by Mr Farnsworth and a second made by Mr Guthrie any questions or comments okay and I do not believe this is listed as an action item so we will take a hand vote for that all in favor any opposed okay and the motion carries six in favor one absent thank you madam chair next up uh under our students Services report we have a a discipline summary um going to present Mr dhy and um is he is
051he here oh there you are I'm sorry I didn't see you usually sitting over here thank you sir uh Madam chair and rest of the board members Dr Robbins uh this evening we have toan um Sanders and also U Matt lree who is the assistant here at our rise and they're going to kind of go over our rise report and then we'll go over some more discipline data but uh we wanted them to be able to come and share out U some of the successes and some of the numbers so I'll turn it over to toan and Matt hey guys Miss Miss Sanders getting over an illness I think she partied too hard in the snow so I'm willing to be the spokesperson uh but we do want to um we have some numbers here
052looking at last year which was when rise the rise model was established uh rise served a total of students uh seven of those students were repeat offenders meaning they went back to their home school and then came back to rise during that school year uh at each level 204 of those were high school 120 at the middle school level uh then when you look at the the first semester of this school year uh we have served 210 students four of those are repeat offenders or repeat have come back to us twice uh 157 at the high school level and 73 at the middle school level um when looking at the uh top and fractions that that place those students at Rise um the top three were THC uh Vapes fighting and threats we also had
053uh probation violations disrespect and phone violations happy to answer any questions you guys have I I just want to say um thank you having seen rise come online in the past couple years compared to what we had previously um what you guys in touring a couple of our high schools recently that the over overarching um discussion was the benefit that we're seeing just of the ability for for our kiddos to have that light at the end of the tunnel um because a lot of folks and and you know I don't know who all remembers the history there but when someone historically when someone was sent to Gans they they were out there they went out whether that was for two weeks whether that was for a year but they were out at Gans with no
054chance of coming back and and so with rise we now give them the ability um based on a points and a merit system to get back to their home school and and that's been a game Cher um for those kids for the parents uh to be able to see that hey if I do the right thing I can uh I can get back uh to my home school so I just want to again say thank you for everything you guys are doing um really amazing amazing stuff and thank you guys for supporting the program it's it's been very beneficial and it's awesome to see the kids grow behav behaviorally and academically so thank you um I just want to say thank you to the rise faculty staff and all of those that work over there
055um my concern is with the repeat offenders how many times do they get to repeat and be offensive and still return do we have a plan or anything to address that in case we have three four five six in the same group of students do we have a plan in place for that and the reason I'm asking I don't want anything to basically destroy what we're trying to do and unfortunately we do have a few students who really have may not have gotten the message yet and so I would like us to have at least be thinking of a plan in case they don't make it at rise they need to know um they don't have many options after that because we're giving them the best of what we have and we don't want them
056to make it bad for anyone else so um if you haven't been thinking about a plan I'd like us to work together to have a plan for them it may be Virtual School something else I don't know but um we can't let a few students spoil the image of what is being done for those students that are making progress yeah that's an excellent question and um you know it's a case by case with why those kids come back um you know we do have a a a great staff and we have the ability with some of the staff we have to be intensive with certain students and uh you know we do we do have a discipline Matrix and referrals that we process as well so if students aren't living up to our expectations they
057run the risk of going to a hearing officer at rise which is is last thing we want but as you said it's something we will do to maintain the the growth for all the other students so great question okay so I actually I had the same question I think you pretty much answered it so there is no set amount of time somebody can repeat offend it's just a on a Case by case based on the offense the severity I I'm I maybe wrong about the stter Robin I think that's really more up to the decision that the hearing officer makes okay it yeah and I think you just answered your own question it's it is it's based on a Litany of things of the type of infraction the number of infractions they've had rise is
058utilized as a last chance effort before expulsion it's in it's in essence in L of expulsion it does not have to be offered to every single child so um I agree with Miss pal on you know what does that mean in terms of number of repeat offenders but the number of repeat offenders we've had has been a signif ific anly low and and the expulsion examiners and the hearing officers will look at why are you repeating you know and so that that's the things that even and toana was with uh me when we went and visited ory county and took a look at those things so um I say um that's an awesome number to only have four repeat offenders um but to have a plan is very important as well but it is a
059kind of a gray area with that okay I had one more question but I'll also add that a lot of our repeat offenders are back with us for a different offense so we're we are addressing those behaviors okay and then what I wanted to ask also is and maybe you guys know maybe you don't is are we Turning Away students that are being referred because rise is full like what does that look like how many students are being turned away and how do you prioritize then which students are able to go so like let's say it was a THC vape or not saying that's less or a phone violation obviously if it's a continual disrespect of putting the phones away vers fighting and threatening somebody how do you make room for those students or are
060those students automatically put up for expulsion if you don't have room or how does that work sorry that was complicated you're fine we have not turned away any students this school year um I will say um we're sitting at about 124 students we've had a healthy balance of students coming in and going out as a right now um as we are getting full or get to that point we'll discuss that and but we have not gotten to that point what is the capacity do you have a set number um we're sitting at about we have 14 teachers uh around we're trying to keep our classrooms at about 15 students in each class so I would say we're around 160 okay but we have not set a cap this school year and I also just wanted
061to thank you for all you do I think it's awesome so I didn't want to just ask questions but I really do appreciate all you're doing for these students it's awesome thank you particularly for the uh repeat offenders what's the parental involvement in the process so parents have to come in they participate in orientation with our students um they meet with me we discuss their tier assignment and then I will say our staff has been very good about students that we feel are getting to that point where they might end up going up for another herin of implementing interventions and having those meetings to make sure that we're trying our best to keep those students in school but you're doing everything you can to involve the parents in the process yes sir very good thank
062you and I do have another question to follow up to that um when we first visited the school that um we basically studied in order to come up with Rise um they had a program where the faculty staff someone from the rise would visit a followup at their home school to see how things were going and part of that is I know the students that come to rise they feel like that's family and because they have a smaller setting and they can get to know you you get to know them Etc and so sometime having someone follow up and making sure that they're continuing with the expectation that you had it rise that they're doing that at that other school sometimes that'll make a difference and they'll listen kids have various reason as to why
063they decide they want to follow the rules maybe Dr Robbins may say one thing and they go like yeah right and then chairman um who are you anyway Wimberly you know she and her soft tones and all of that may really reach that student but then she may go over and follow up with that student and encourage him that this is where he needs to be at his home school and that is the purpose is not to stay at rise because you love it right the purpose is to get you ready to go back and do what you need to do do so that you can graduate absolutely and so um just want to make sure that we are continuing to do some followup and I know we don't have all it's not as though
064we have all these Educators just sitting around with nothing to do so they'll just run over their eyes I know every school need each person each adult in that building but at some point if you could just make those surprise visits go and sit and talk with the teachers and also the students I think that would be great absolutely um we do re-entry visits um we haven't done as many as we would like to do this school year but that is something that we're working on but um we definitely stay in contact with our students and their parents um and collaborate with our base schools okay all right and I just want to encourage you know um members of our community um the parents even Educators at your other school if you can come to
065the graduations I have not made as many as I want to make but it really makes them feel good to see an audience out there other than just their parents so we are community and as a community we want to encourage as many young people as we can so all of our senior people that would be a great place for you to spend a Friday a a Friday morning and if you need more information just call up to the district office and we'll tell you when and where you can show up and clap and show your excitement about our students doing what they need to do every Friday at 11:00 a thank you thank you all so much and then the next piece of uh data we'll share with you is very encouraging when we
066look at our discipline update from all three levels Elementary Middle School and High School um what you see in front of you is you can see um from every Elementary green means they've went down red means we've added a few referrals um from last semester of last year to this semester you can see the top and fractions to the right um and you can see those and so it's pretty impressive to see a lot of those are have decreased in green and and one of the things we attribute that to is student engagement um one thing our team um the district level team for curriculum instruction Dr Wilson and our team has has gone out there and looked you can see a lot of student engag when we go to classroom visits um students are
067engaged and when students are engaged um you're going to see less discipline and so when you see this um you can see a lot that uh most are in green those are in red we do have several programs extra programs that you will see in some of our buildings um that do have a little bit of rise in some of their um um referrals for example Somerville has four extra programs that they have including special education um and so those four programs you could see it a little bit of increase in some of uh um of discipline referrals but again this just shows you what our teachers are doing in the classroom what we're seeing when we do our district visits um they're doing a great job of keeping kids engaged and so we'll go
068on to uh middle school again for the elementary again bus violations again are the highest referred offense at the elementary level uh we had of the 3,488 discipline referrals 25% of them are bus referrals and this is something something that we are going to look at giving training to our bus drivers this summer uh when you think of Ruby Payne training um you think of socio economics and I'll give you the example uh many of our students come already kind of amped up when they come in give you an example of a pop can if I if I shook a pop can and threw it to one of you and you open it up right away it's going to blow up all over you well the best part of our students day is coming to
069school and some of those students some don't May might have breakfast may not see their parent may not have their homework done many of their amped up before they even get and our bus drivers are the first people that they see um when they get on the bus and so we know we have some work to do there uh with Mr schope um so we know we can do some things there to hopefully decrease those referrals but overall a significant decrease in major discipline referrals uh from 23 24 semester 1 to 2425 semester 1 also all our elementary schools are implementing capturing kids Hearts when you're talking about relationships based and positive behavior um this is a great program getting to know our students teachers out in the hallway um greeting students when they come
070in their classrooms and so this has had a huge impact on the culture and climate of our buildings in the elementary and so again kudos to our elementary teachers and administrators I just want to say thank you so much for making sure that our bus drivers know just how important they are because they could have left home in a good mood feeling wonderful and the bus driver says that one little thing that really messes up their day or that bus driver say that one thing that makes their day the best day they've ever had so the first person I students see even if they're having a bad day need to make sure they do the best to have a good day in front of that student so thank you for you know putting some attention
071on that yeah absolutely and you know they're part of that Cog and that wheel just like our cafeteria staff everybody that comes in contact with our students you're exactly right Miss pal um looking at our middle schools you can see there big difference again drop in behaviors and referrals again uh we dropped 980 referrals from last semester of last year to this semester again you can see to the right uh we are seeing most of where our behaviors are at and so again um that's Kudos again to our teachers for student engagement and also our administrators as well getting into the classroom so again very positive can I pause you real quick yes just go back to Elementary a little bit um is there any way I'm assuming that the staff and the principales decipher
072if these are like repeat offenders because obviously with the high school and Rise we know they're going to rise they're coming back they're repeat offender like how many of these incidences are the same students and also is there a difference between like it says inappropriate behavior so is bullying and all that under that category that that would be a great question we just pulled this data we're able to get that out of Educator's handbook but we can get that information for you I was curious what you know was inappropriate behavior and just generally speaking is this like 20 kids committing 381 infractions or is it 100 Kids you know I think that makes a difference and to understand what we're doing and or how we can help those 20 kids if that's really what it
073is you know and some of that inappropriate behavior could be you know throwing paper those types of things uh bullying is separated out from that so bullying is not included inappropriate I just didn't say that see that specifically referenced which obviously I do know Bullying happens so that's why um I was wondering where that would be categorized if it's not on here yeah I I could you I just did the TP the top two so there's more infractions but these were just the top two infractions throughout the whole year through each building so and that's what we're able to to Garner from there from that report thank you um but again uh going back to Middle Schools again they are down major referrals again 12% of them are coming from the bus again this is
074something that we're seeing a trend and again uh a need for some training for some of our bus drivers overall a more than 20% decrease in major discipline referrals from 23 24 um semester 1 to 2425 semester 1 and again one thing that we're using for um our climate culture is that Jon's Renaissance is being instituted at middle schools and this deals with climate culture each of our building we're focusing on positive behaviors it also talks about staff staffy and at it also rewards staff for doing great things in the classrooms as well just kind of like capturing kids Hearts so again those are positive behaviors and expectations so uh kudos to our teachers in the middle schools and then when you look at the discipline update from the high schools um you can see
075the difference there again they are in red um a couple things that come to mind when you look at tardies um cutting class especially tardies those are things that are kind of out of our control when they come to school um you know I know our principles are doing the best they can in communicating with those parents there's not a lot of teeth that we have when students continue to come late um last thing we want to do is kick them out of school for coming late we wanton them at school and so uh that is a lot out of our uh our building principles in our teachers hands when coming to tardies uh the big increase for four doorchester when you look at500 70 you're thinking what is a big increase there they had
0761,899 tardies this year so they have that has been a big concern for them when you look at that we're thinking of students in seats the one thing to kind of overcome that as uh seat time recovery so when you're looking at that that is a huge number that we looked at and we're like where's the discrepancy and so you look at that also there's an increase too obviously with the new phone policy that we have to Institute and also the board last year talked about dress code and we talked about you know we talking about hoodies you're talking about midre and that was a big concern last year I know the board wanted us to tighten that up we've tightened that up so there's some referrals there that is increased but it's not in
077our top two um so you can kind of see there and again we're up at the high schools uh 2063 and so again the 1,900 of those are from Fort Dorchester High School for tardies I just go ahe want to say I I would expect honestly and and this goes across the board for me I don't know for y'all but I don't necessarily want to see these numbers go down just for the sake of going down and with them going up in the high school that tells me enforcement's happening so to me it's not all about are we going up or down or up or down I would expect to see a lot more dress code and I would expect to see obviously I know Fort my kids go to Fort and I know that
078they are mean business the phone violations like they are not playing so the fact that there's so many I know it's because Mr Aldridge and his team are like doubling down and they are doing their job and so I just want to highlight like from the outside perspective it's red but to me that says like we made a lot of changes with discipline we made a lot of changes with dress code we made a lot of changes with the phone policy and I know like with the tardies I see them there every time I popped in that school they are they mean business and so to me it's not so much that as much as I know the culture and climate at that school has always been to enforce discipline but this year especially I
079am seeing Like A Renewed effort to really make sure these kids are being held accountable and the culture and climate of our schools are moving in the right direction and we're regaining some of that control back um and so kudos to yall because those Ren numbers tell me you're doing your job well that's a kudos to our Administration our teachers they're they're all enforcing that because it takes takes a team team to enforce that and they all have to be doing that so um they're doing a good job so the big thing discipline on update for high schools you can see that again when comparing first semester of 2324 to this first semester 2425 there definitely was an increase of phone violations uh referrals in addition as I stated earlier the update to the policy
080jica in April 24 there's been an increase in dress code violations so again um our principles are trying to uh again make sure we're enforcing that policy I could piggy back on Miss bates's point so are we getting better at tracking and enforcing tardiness or is this a genuine increase I mean it's pretty substantial increase in tardiness and where it's a concern to me is is there sufficient consequence because people who are tardy are causing disruption then when they finally show up and does this make it more difficult for the teachers and the administrators to try and get the school you know going on time time interrupting process and normal flow yeah I would agree with you absolutely it does cause a lot of disruption for our teachers and also our administrators the big thing
081is we don't have teeth you know when you're thinking about educational neglect when you're talking about parents we can't turn anything in nothing will be done with that so when you look at the teeth of that we also can use ISS we use after school detentions for those when students come in late make up that time on their time um so again trying to put some of those I know that's what they're doing but that's a great question question is that so I would be interested to know is that tardy in the morning or is that tardy to class the these are tardies in the morning the the 1,800 tardies in the morning for the first semester yes wow so they're late getting to school I mean that's yes is the principal excuse the infrastructure
082they have difficulty in traffic getting to school on time or is it something else right right what is I'm sorry I'm I'm sorry I miss misspoke it is tardy to every period any period I'm sorry because that's a different thing because once they're there so then I would like to understand once they're there why are they tardy to class once they're at the school if if that I mean tardy then do you see what I'm saying the morning piece is M definitely much more outside of our control but once you're in the building where are you if you're not in class right and I think that where it comes down to cutting class I think when you look at tardies you're thinking f 5 to 10 minutes when it goes past that then they're thinking
083that's cutting class then that's seat time recovery that they have to go to but talking about enforcement that's being our our our administrators and teachers being vigilant being outside in the class or out in the hallways making sure students are in classes um when you tour buildings with with some of our high schools making sure I know they'll do sweeps they make sure that you know kids if they're out in the hallway at a certain time they'll do hallway sweeps they've done those before kids are in trouble they do tardies and so um I know they're working very hard to make sure um we're getting kids in class because we want kids to learn and when kids are in class we don't have issues um and disruptions well you know before I got on the
084board I used to sub at sville high and I visited the high schools since being on the board and I'm surprised to see so I would like to see ring out the phone violations and the tardies I want to know specifically which one's the number for the tardies because when those students heard that down tick of time they let nothing interfere with them getting where they needed to go I thought they would run me over because I was standing close to the wall because they actually focus on getting where they needed to be and very few children that I see just dragging their way through the hallways now I haven't been over there this year so maybe something has changed I don't know but I know it used to work and have an admin out
085in the hallway their presence does make a difference and every admin when I was over there would be out in that hallway and um Kenny couldn't do nothing but lose weight cuz guess what he would be point a point B Etc and I have not been with Miss leiner as much but I know she is small in stature but she is right on it so um I'd like to see that broken down CU I honestly believe our children work hard to get the class so if it's been a change then I'm wondering what has happened right not a problem we can find out do some more digging on that yeah also it was kind of along the same line as the elementary school student my concern is like we have the data with rise is
086how many of these 18 36 or whatever amount of infractions how many students are causing them at each level so if we have 30 students that are continually causing an issue what are we doing about those 30 students or is it you know really a thousand students causing 1800 infections you know so I think that makes a difference a big difference yeah and I can tell you this those are repeat offenders usually they go to a hearing um you know I'm the appeal officer and so I will see some of those and so they do go to a hearing those that are have their constant breaking their infractions they do go to a hearing do they ever just get sent back to the school or if it's like let's say you do continually have a
087lot of infractions is it rise or Expos or are these kids often sent back then some will go to Rise um some are sent back on probation some are expelled depending on uh the severity of the consequence or the event that they've done so yeah I think it' definitely be helpful to get a breakdown if possible um if this is how many students are making up the offenses if that makes sense so if we have 1836 for offenses and it was a thousand students that would be great and then a just a little side note to what you said I every time I go to Fort just I have to give them a shout out I do not not see an administrator in that hallway like they are all Hands-On deck and they rock it
088out so I honestly would be at a a loss of what that would be so well and I can just speak for you like Somerville in ashy Ridge they're out in the hallways all the time I'll give you this Somerville is out they have a lot of art our principals will be on cart so they have their computer with them they'll be out there they're issuing tardies they're talking with students telling students to get to classes they're out outside of restrooms making sure students are not being disruptive in restrooms so we have a really good high school staffs that do a great job of trying to enforce the rules so you know I I would Echo what you're saying about four also at asool for sure but I'm just there a lot right your kids
089go there yes but I I would say this I would Echo that for for all all three high schools okay my last Point um I don't see and I know you said you weren't including them but I would like to see some imp information regarding the types of bullying behaviors and um how many incident how many repeat offenders with that and um because I think that's a very serious situation we need to look into y not just here in District 2 but I've been reading all across South Carolina and we just have to do something absolutely we can bring some some of that to the board as well thank you um and just give you a little bit of update what all our schools are doing PB PBIS is implemented at every level um the
090one thing that we're really working on to to clean up some of our discipline to make sure we're consistent across all levels is we're trying to develop a discipline Matrix and that will be developed at each level that aligns with our board policy and so uh Mr Canon who is our director of secondary schools um and also Carrie ball who is our director of our elementary schools and they are working with our principles and so right before Christmas we have worked at after every admin meeting and what does that Matrix look like it'll say first offense is this second offense is this and the one thing we want to be is make sure we're consistent and we're transparent many districts surrounding already have their matrixes out there if you look and you know I was
091looking at our um parent student handbook we do have a matrix for um technology and so we went incorporate our technology violations also with our discipline as well that happens in our school tools and so our principles are working together to come up with these matrices so it will look very it'll look uniform across the district and so um they've been working tiously to get that done and so um we'll hopefully have that finished in the next couple months and be able to bring that to the board and also share with all of you and um and have that for next year so that's one of the things we're looking at at doing so um the other thing we have um we have behavioral therapists 13 of them in the district working at all levels
092um that helps work with students that have behaviors gives them some coping skills how to cope and gives them some skills and how to um behave in classes and if they get to that point where they are um getting to a point where they feel like they're going to explode they have some coping skills and mechanisms they can do Panorama is a platform to track Behavior interventions and discipline data um when we're very good about tracking students that are not performing at grade level academically but we're not very good at tracking behavior and interventions um throughout the district and so one first especially for behavior and so when you're looking at mtss um a multi-tiered um support system is training with emphasis on Behavior we're very good at academics but the other side of the
093ntss system is behavior and so we're very blessed to have the 13 BCA Bas and working at all levels um we have school counselors provided uh they targeted support at all levels um we have mental health and social workers at all levels um that support students and families to get the families engaged and then also all levels have an online platform for additional support microburst Jon's Renaissance in second step and then we've also provided deescalation strategy provided to teachers staff working with students with exceptional needs and behaviors and then we've got checkin checkout mentors use as an intervention support at all levels and then we also uh Dr Gadson provided uh Dr Giovani who came and spoke to the district and we've done book talks with our Administration to come up with interventions to help
094with students with behaviors and so you can see the things that we're trying to do to address Behavior I know we always talk about academics but we need to also talk about behavior that gets lost um and so this is going to help give some of our teachers and our administrators some tools in their toolbox um to help students with behaviors Dr Robbins this is more a question for you or just kind of for you to come to later because I don't think you'll have the answer today but obviously one of our goals that we set was an anti-bulling conflict resolution course it says measures on there but I believe we were looking at offering classes could we get an update at the next board meeting on where we are with that initiative is there
095any other questions I could if yeah so if I can ask a favor and and of course when we talk about discipline and none of us uh like looking at that side of the house but if we're going to have the column showing discipline I think all of our schools do um positive referrals as well can we also add the column or the difference however you want to show that of the positive referrals that we're doing in our schools absolutely we can talk about what those positive uh strategies are and what we're doing in each school that will be not a problem at all any other questions I could ask for the board okay thank you very much thanks Chad uh Mr foresight are you going to present um the monthly safety report good evening
096Dr Robbins board members um I'm filling in for director Gatt today to go over the uh safety logs U do we have a list of them up here they're in their packet they're in packet okay um first of all before going into the numbers that we've done in the actual schools during the daytime so I just wanted to go over our success in using the Open Gate Systems uh first of all we're using the open gate uh magnetometers at every sporting event as you know in the district um they've been a tremendous success not only in deterrence uh but overall um we're also using them as our official counter uh when people come into the school so that we can give that information to the fire marshal directly um he can come in he can
097get access and if he has any questions on the number of uh people that have enter the event we can give it to them directly um in fact if you were to leave here right now and go to uh Somerville High School where they have the wrestling match against AR or Fort door or uh Ashley Ridge basketball game um you would see the magnetometers in in full use um we've also implemented them at uh every dd2 in-house event at the Performing Arts Center uh that's something that we started over the last two months so anybody that comes into the Performing Arts Center in our facility goes through the magnetometers um we also have it in place that if private vendors want to use them as well they can also use them and we would be
098there to staff them um we've implemented them at all Middle School sports as as well um we're trying our best to get security at each of those events um but uh we have trained the Middle School administrators how to use those systems um we still are in the process of teaching them how to use them and getting to all of the events that we can do them so um they they've been a tremendous success um as far as the numbers go um the log for November trying to find the exact numbers here for Somerville High School uh for November we had 2294 scans for students during the day time at Ashley Ridge High School we had 159 scans for students during the daytime and Fort Dorchester High School we had 1, and 40 scans during
099the daytime for the month of uh December at Fort doorchester high school we had 700 students scanned um 821 students scanned at Somerville high school and 119 students scanned at Ashley Ridge High School now the reason some of those numbers are small is obviously we had Christmas break which was two weeks during that time um we also had Thanksgiving break and during the month of November and December we had testing and uh exams that we had to work with the principals and we just were not able to get enough students through them um but we have implemented a plan going forward uh with the schools and with the administrators um that we're going we're going to actually send out out directive tomorrow um where we will be we will have more uh students going through
100and we'll have more implementation of the open Gates dur the daytime sorry have questions um do we have the log for Chester I do not have the Chester log I can get it um and bring it to you but I do not have it and you might have said this but I think I misheard you I wasn't sure if you were talking about just extracurricular or Middle School in general but do we have a timeline to roll out using them in the middle schools so we're already using them in the middle schools for extracurricular event sport but like in the during the day kind of like we are with the high school during the daytime so we do not have Security in the middle schools right now to to staff them so it would be
101um up to the administrators at this time to staff them on top of their other duties yeah that that's been one of the hurdles at the high schools we have security Personnel that can staff them at the middle schools we don't we have an SRO and to take our administrators away to do that we're still trying to figure out a plan are we going to hire you know some PRN folks to do it for us you know it just takes it's very laborious for sure to be able to run those things so we don't have a real good measure in place yet for that we have gone over and offered training and offered ourselves during the daytime to help it's just the middle the high school keep us pretty busy thank you um oh uh
102lastly can we get a log or report or something on the amount of times I guess people are using the anonymous Reporting System um I just I'm curious like the usage and absolutely if we're seeing it being used and absolutely we monitor that every day and we can we have those numbers okay thank you I appreciate you yes ma'am hey Jason if you give that to me just send me those numbers I'll include it my soup update to the board yes sir I'll send it to you thanks Mr Smith Mr Souls y'all know you're up next why aren't you down there waiting come on my blood pressure is up a little bit taking a little break good evening Madam chair members of the board Dr Robbins got your referendum 20124 referendum project update uh San
103Hill Elementary Wing the big news there is is the groundbreaking ceremony Dr Robins already mentioned that Thursday 11:00 you'll already be there hope to see everybody there uh Elementary School the ponds uh we've got a GMP meeting guaranteed maximum price meeting with the CM uh on the 29th and who construction is to see him at risk on that job uh so we'll this will be the second round of of looking at their pricing and seeing what we can do to scrub it and save a few more dollars the big news at the ponds Elementary is we found out this morning that we have uh gotten approval for the coastal zone consistency and and that that's a major hurdle uh that uh clears the way for land disturbance permits and everything we got to get from
104the county to uh to get started and and start moving some ground uh the roofing exterior wall Renovations those projects are still with the design team uh being designed uh in the pipeline the Somerville high school gym we have a a a concept now we've got the architect uh which is McMillan pasman Smith married up with Thompson Turner Construction that's a great team that's going to be a great project and the design design development is in progress and we have a meeting probably I think we got it Friday might next Friday next Friday uh with with the team there at the school to get their input so so we have all the stakeholders in in on the conversation Ashley Ridge High School we met with those folks out there uh Miss Matthews and her folks
105we met with them uh week before last to nail down or or tighten up the design on what we're talking about there we've got Harper construction as a see them at risk married up with little Diversified architectural consultants and that design development is in progress as well at Somerville high school or Somerville ele School addition uh we've got uh contract construction and selected a SE at risk they're working with Greenberg Pharaoh as a design firm and that development is in process and we've got some concepts for each of these and we're we're on a daily basis we are tweaking and and talking in with design firms with the schools and and making sure that we meet our needs and and and meet the letter of the referendum questions as well uh one thing we are
106uh at the ponds I I know everybody wants to you know talk about the ponds but uh we are in constant conversations with with everybody at the ponds all the time so we we've got some Wheels moving I and uh great news going to come out of that here shortly that's it for the referendum stuff any questions for me but Jeff show Jeff all right um so just some quick updates on some of the normal facilities products do 8% Tiff and a little bit of referendum stuff in here as well the smaller items um track at Fort norchester high school they're scheduled to start striping Thursday obviously last week weather didn't look permit striping but um they have turned over the track for use for practice so they are able to use it right now
107but the striping will actually take place Thursday in Friday tentatively um the bus maintenance facility at Oakbrook that's still with OSF uh we expect that to come along as soon as they finish like the middle school and elementary school edition so it'll kind of it'll kind of just be a flow from the Middle School to the elementary school to the bus um facility the Oakbrook Middle School addition so the building permits received and we're tentatively planning to start demo on the existing trailers uh the first week of February the elementary school we have a couple things to finalize for our um permitting but that'll follow kind of like a you know edcon will start the middle school and after they get the foundation done there and all the site work they'll kind of move into
108the elementary school um building as well so it'll kind of be a continuous project of that campus the uh softball field Press Box for sumerville High School uh that actually that actually got put out last week so we are expecting I believe the it's the 16th is when the uh bids are due so once we get that in we'll um you know evaluate those bids and make a decision on that the tennis courts are under design and uh we still feel like feel very confident that they'll be able to be awarded and bid and constructed before the season starts in August the new and flowertown HVAC we've already got a PO issue some of that work is going to start over spring break and we see no reason why that won't be completed this summer
109the locker rooms and gym at Sommerville High School they've had a lot of issues over the years with their um fresh air units and the just the the AC units in general that that cool that space um we had an issue last year where you know that went down over July 4th week we ended up having to replace all their um pads and helmets so we're expected to have that done this summer it's going to be really tight but I think we have about a 18 we lead time on the equipment um but the PO has been issued so we feel like it'll be in before we get to that July 4th week um this summer uh Oakbrook Middle School we're still waiting on quotes but we expect to get this school done this summer
110as well um those are all split split systems so they're a little bit more difficult to install but uh we still feel like we can get it done this summer we were going to do both schools but we're going to just tackle the middle school first and then next summer we'll do the elementary school and we still have some upcoming projects which are those HVAC conversions and uh a few schools that we're going to do complete HVAC Replacements on um obviously Somerville Elementary is not technically the whole campus because we're going to be tearing down that Wing in the back and uh let's see what else do we have the facilities Department in our office we've got several of the referendum projects that are um for the schools such as nightville which is like a
111full abatement um and flooring replacement those are all um actively being um scoped out and and getting quotes and bids so those will all we'll probably have two or three of those start this summer as well that's all I've got unless there's any questions right all right Madame chair the final thing I have um under my report is Personnel recommendations and all those were in your packets thank you Dr Robbins yes board members um the Personnel report was included in our um packet so if everyone is okay with doing that in Open Session okay we will proceed um I will ask for a motion to approve the Personnel recommendations and resignations as presented in our packet thank you Miss Bates do I have a second everybody's like you thank you Mr GTH um at this
112time any questions or comments just one comment as I'm looking through the resignations and retirements and whatnot very few transferring to another school district um but a lot of them saying personal relocation or whatever so as I'm looking at that you know are we really having a problem with other school districts or do we just live in a very mobile society and we're dealing with those consequences yeah um a couple years ago I made note that we noticed a trend where we're it's just it's a change in this generation I'll give you a real quick example um I had a teacher who was a beginning teacher of the year in my previous School District she was born and raised in that school district and I got her um resignation and I'm like I went out
113to see her and I'm like what is something happened some way we can support you she just said I'm young I want to take advant of moving and traveling I can always come back home when I want to and so again much different than our generation where you came you stayed and you didn't leave so we're really seeing a lot more of that across the country okay any other questions comments okay hearing none we will call for the vote okay and the motion carries six in favor one absent that's all I have tonight Madam chair thanks thank you Dr Robbins and Team all right our next item on the agenda is our public comments and this evening we have one public comment um Miss Kiana Mullins more [Laughter] cakes this looks like a good public
114[Laughter] comment all right good evening everyone um my name is Kiana Mullins I am a sixth grade teacher here in Dorchester 2 and I am a parent of students in Dorchester 2 and I'm also the vice president of the Somerville Education Association um so on behalf of the association um the Somerville Education Association Along With My President Michelle Meyer um we would like to thank our school board it is School Board appreciation month so we would like to thank you all um for your dedication and your leadership and supporting our students teachers and our community we appreciate your willingness to listen to our ideas to collaborate with us and make thoughtful decisions that have a lasting impact um your hard work does not go unnoticed and we are grateful for all that you do and
115for your dedication so on behalf of the Somerville Education Association and the South Carolina Education Association we would like to say thank you for all you do and so we have for you um Nothing But Cakes and um thank you cards again for everything that you do so we appreciate you thank you that's right thank you so much and are these your children they sat through our entire board meeting that's very impressive that thank you very much that's true dedication all right board members at this time I would ask for a motion to convene into executive session for legal advice regarding potential litigation so moved motion made by Mr Guthrie do I have a second seconded by Miss Powell any questions or comments Madam chair if you don't mind and just a point um because
116I see Chief Wright is here and and we did not get a chance I apologize because I know it's not really the chance but um I wanted to acknowledge uh his his presence our chief of police is with us tonight um Chief thank you for being here and and thank you for the part parnership with our school district um very very much appreciated so thank [Applause] you okay um and at this time I will call for the vote and the motion carries six in favor one absent we are an executive session and we will return e e e board members at this time I would ask for a motion to return to open session so moved motion made by Mr Guthrie seconded by Miss Powell any questions comments okay hearing none we'll call for the
117vote okay and the motion carries six in favor one absent we are back in Open session at this time we have no action required from our executive session so I would ask for a motion to adjourn motion made by Mr Lee I apologize motion made by Mr Lee do I have a second second second it by Mr Guthrie any questions or comments all right hearing none we will call for the vote oh Cynthia what are you doing okay and the motion carries five in favor one absent and one exstension we are adjourned