001e e e and welcome to each of you to our February 24th 2025 board meeting um at this time I would ask for a motion to approve our consent agenda so moved motion made by Mr Guthrie do I have a second second second by Mr Lee any questions discussion okay hearing none we will call for the vote okay and the motion carries six in favor one absent okay at this time we will move into the next item on our agenda which are our district highlights and I believe we will welcome Mr bannan thank you Dr Robbins Dr Wimberly I'm looking back to our friends from the junior service League of Somerville thumbs down thumbs up she's here wonderful first up this evening I'd like to welcome Miss Morgan asbell president of the junior service League
002of Somerville for a special presentation um just want to say good evening and um thank you for letting us come tonight um my name is Morgan and I'm joined by several members of the junior service League um we're here to share a little bit about our fall fundraising events and then um present a donation to The District um so before we do that I just want to take a minute and tell you a littleit little bit about JSL in case anyone isn't familiar um we are a group of women um volun only who are really passionate about supporting our community um we've been volunteering um in Somerville for over 30 years I think this year is our 37th year um in existence and we um do Hands-On volunteer work and then we also raise money
003um we collectively volunteer about 4,000 hours at different nonprofit organizations annually and then we also fundrais for those organizations and District 2 and four um so in the fall we host four Signature Events scarecrows on the Square ghost walk um Christmas trees on the Square and pajamas with Santa which you probably have all been to at least one or all of those um and then the money we raise from these events goes into what we call our school supply fund and then we evenly distribute um that money that we raised between all the schools in dd2 and dd4 um so this year thanks to all the hard work um of the ladies behind me and many more um and the generosity of our community we raised a total of 22,000 $548 48 um so in
004a couple weeks our treasur is going to be mailing a check around to each school um an even amount of that money and we just want to thank you guys for participating in our events um supporting the junior service league and also giving us an opportunity to give back to our schools and we look forward to collaborating more with the district in the future thanks service [Applause] next up to highlight some student achievement I'd like to welcome to the podium Dr Michelle liner principal Somerville High School good evening superintendent Robins board chair Wimberly and esteemed board members it is my honor tonight to introduce the Somerville High School Naval Junior RC Oran teering team led by team Cadet Commander Adalie Johnson and under the direction of Chief Wilson entering teams participate in competitions where Cadets
005use a map and a compass to navigate through a course to find designated checkpoints in the fastest time possible they basically have to use their land navigate Land Navigation skills physical endurance and decisionmaking abilities across varied terrains while relying solely on their map Reading and Compass usage they compete against other Roc units in local Regional and National events on January 21st of this year our orientering team was informed that they won the area 7 Championship equivalent to an athletic team winning State our varsity girls won their section with the overall winners first place Isabella Aaron step forward step forward third place Yasmin [Applause] Hamilton and sixth place Noah Smith our JV girls won their section also with the overall winners sweeping the podium first place Delaney Wright second place Ava Enis Eva and third place
006char Jameson as you can see these six young ladies led the charge among the or teering team no offense to the boys they did good too honorable mentions against a very competitive men's field in Varsity and JV Christopher [Applause] Levine Garen delloo casy [Applause] Carroll and Zane Aaron I would also like to add that our Cadets play so high and represented Somerville well while competing in extremely difficult weather conditions this year snow and ice ran throughout the course temperatures were at freezing and did not rise Much Higher by the end of the race day these Cadet students have not only shown their physical endurance but also their mental fortitude in the most challenging of conditions I would also like to give special thanks to the naval science instructors our um lead Senior Chief Donald Chief
007McCollin who graciously Sapar owned the event and Chief willand Wilson who led the team so congratulations to everybody thank you [Applause] well and Adalie yes okay all right are we good yes I didn't announce I announced her at the beginning because that's where oh that's because she gave me a hard time that's what happens if you didn't give me a hard time no team Cadet Commander Adalie Johnson lead led the oran team so congratulations [Applause] thank you Dr liner and congratulations finally we'll welcome Miss Gia Mercer Brown our director of School counseling is here to present our 2025 District counselor of the Year good evening Dr robins and members of the Board of Trustees it is my honor to introduce this year's dd2 school counselor of the Year Amanda Davis of Fort Dorchester Elementary School
008with 17 years of experience as a dedicated school counselor including 11 years serving the students of Dorchester 2 Amanda is committed to serving the whole child and fostering Student Success she holds a bachelor's degree in elementary education from the College of Charleston and a m master's degree in School counseling from The Citadel equipping her with the knowledge and expertise to support the academic career and personal development of our students students as both a passionate advocate for her students and a parent of a dd2 student she understands firsthand the importance of creating a nurturing and supportive School environment her unwavering dedication to student well-being personal growth and academic achievement makes her cers have to make on their students lives is greater than ever before long gone are the days of guidance counselors that existed solely to
009work with students that were labeled as troubled kids or to tell you what colleges to apply to today's school counselors are reading School Improvement plans analyzing school report cards and examining achievement and behavior data to identify and Implement strategies to support individual student outcomes through collaboration with our stakeholders we provide support and opportunities for the children of dd2 to reach their Highest Potential as empathetic ambitious productive citizens and an Ever Changing Global society as your school counselor of the year I will continue to be a fierce advocate for our students while also representing our District's vision and Mission I am also grateful for this opportunity and I will continue to be a champion for our students thank you [Applause] all right next on our agenda this evening we have our public comments on agenda items
010and we do not have any so we will move into the next item on our agenda which is our board chairs report and this evening I have included our board meeting dates for the 2025 2026 six school year for us to approve so board members these were included in our packets and so I'm trust that you all had an opportunity to look them over um and at this time I would ask for a motion to approve these board meeting dates as presented so moved okay motion made by Mr guthe do I have a second seconded by Mr Farnsworth any question questions or discussion okay hearing none we will call for the vote okay and the motion carries six in favor one absent all right and the next item on our agenda are our board committee
011reports first up we have our policy meeting I mean I'm excuse me our policy committee Miss Bates yes thank you madam chair uh the policy committee met at 5 pm today prior to this board meeting so we'll have several policies up for first reading at the next board meeting and as a reminder those are the dates of the upcoming meetings as well and that is all I have for today okay thank you Miss Bates next is our finance committee Mr Guthrie yes the finance comme was able to meet this afternoon at 4 p.m. and we went over multi topics including full muscle checkin and a kind of multiple times but yeah but probably a full description of the um schedule upcoming for the the the budget process coming in the the superintendent report okay perfect
012thank you very much all right and then last but certainly not least our facilities committee Mr fernworth um yep thank you madam chair just want to make sure are we going to go back and talk about our annual convention I didn't want you to skip over that yes I was anticipating that we would do that at our next board meeting it is I apologize we were all excited I am so sorry my apologies it's not it's not on our agenda right it isn't listed on our agenda and that so I was planning to include that on our next meeting um just to give board members time to reflect on that if everyone is okay with that that yes since it was not included on the agend want make sure you weren't like so excited to
013hear about the facilities report no I appreciate you bringing that to my attention um but I again as I said I am certainly planning to have us all talk about the excellent conference but I was planning to do it at the next meeting if that's okay with everyone I promise I will not forget all good um facilities meetings so the facilities committee met um be prior to the last Schoolboard meeting uh February 10th um had a meaningful discussion uh and again just to to reiterate the the purpose of facilities committee meetings um really for the foreseeable future uh will be to talk about referendum projects because that's the bulk of our work uh going on on right now uh we do have and and a lot of this will be highlighted um later on in
014the meeting under the operations report um of course same you know we we have um projects up and down the board at at almost I would say the majority of our schools right now um so a lot of stuff happening in the facilities World um you can see our next committee meeting schedules um the one thing I did want to put in the back of board members Minds um more than likely coming out of the facilities committee um we will need some help from the board looking at the ponds property um so there there are still some land agreement issues uh primarily between uh other entities so not the school district but unfortunately we're we're kind of in the middle of of what's happening out there and so a lot of the discussion we've had
015a lot of further conversations and and so just again putting that in front of my fellow board members that we will probably um look for some sort of formal information uh letter something going to the those entities so we can hopefully get that out of gridlock so that's what I've got uh from facilities happy to answer any questions and um thank you all right thank you very much Mr Farnsworth appreciate that all right next item on our agenda is our superintendent report thank you madam chair you can see we have several items on the agenda tonight I wanted to start first with our partnership report um with tri count stem meran and we're very happy to have Michelle McDonald here that's going to talk to you a little bit about stem meran so thanks for
016being here tonight Michelle good evening and thank you so much for having me I appreciate your time I just wanted to take a chance really to build awareness about this amazing program like Dr Robin said I'm Michelle McDonald I'm deputy director of Dorchester economic development but I also have the pleasure of representing Dorchester County on this Tri count initiative so Tri county inmersion is a program that we host every year for Educators and counselors across the Tri County Area really to bridge the gap between industry and education so we are bringing in Educators June 9th through the 13th dates have already been set um to come in and work behind the scenes to learn how stems being used in the real world um during that time they're actually getting hands-on experience creating lesson plans creating
017projects and getting paid we pay them a training styp and while they're with us because we know we're taking time out of their Summers and really putting them to work so they're getting experience all across the all across the Tri County Area um and not only looking at those technical skills and stem careers but also the soft skills you know what is industry needing today what are they saying that our students are lacking and how do we Implement that back in the classroom it's so important um we are actually celebrating our eighth year this year so it's doing really well last year we doubled our participation this year we have an even more aggressive goal of bringing in 150 Educators and counselors however applications close on Friday so we want to make sure dd2 was
018well represented and we have most of our business and industry Partners um are are representing in Dorchester as well so make sure you get your applications in um things that you could do to help us out as well Administration have a host a represent representative um bring us out to be able to share about the program specifically and answer questions to your staff um go to the website www tricount sters.com you can get directly there to the application you can see you know past lesson plans and projects that have been created there's videos there's pictures to see all the experiences that past participants have done um it's really intricate that to close that this Gap that exists between education industry and this is the most impactful program to do it so I really appreciate your
019time I expect to see and where's Miss Davis I expect to see the counselor of the Year applying as well so thank you guys any questions from the board um I have a question but it's more for you could we um send out a message to our staff via parent square and let them know okay awesome yeah that's one of the things we talked about was um taking this QR codee and and this website link and send it out to our staff to try to increase numbers if you have a chance the QR code will actually take you directly to the application and my contact um is there as well yeah let's do that that would be awesome I appreciate you thank you all next up we have a just a quick goals update um
020for you all um just a reminder um if you will bring your binders in I will start putting these stop lights and these sheets in for each one of your goals this is a three-year goal cycle um so here's just a few updates um to share with you one of the things we talked about and I haven't put any of those in there as of yet um but we talked about um in our comprehensive financial planning increased Revenue through grants so far to date uh we have acquired $150,000 safety grant that we were just awarded about three weeks ago we did receive re notification that we are one of 32 school districts to receive the compensate alternate compensation model strategic compensation pilot um I tried to get four schools but they gave me one um
021for $218,000 so I I think that's a good thing for us to start on because that really kind of hits two things it's grant money for us and it also gives us an Avenue to look at alternative compensation models and then the third one I just got notification of um actually late last week was a family literacy grant that we can use in a fall of 25 for $30,000 so you'll see that g that list continue to grow and we'll keep you all updated on that but um we're trying to be a strategic strategic as we can to reach out and and gain some of that Revenue the um second um item or area was Safety and Security um so I know we've done a lot of talking about anti-bullying uh measures so there is
022I met with our team um today actually Vector Solutions which we own they have three different types of modules anti-bullying recognition and response for K12 employees and they also have a um training module for students as well so we're going to look through and see if that might be something that will work for us and provide that training similar to uh not a oneandone type thing but an annual train training requirement kind of like and I don't want to oversimplify this because it's an important area but bloodborne pathogens we have to do that every single year so we're talking about how can we Implement that in with our staff and how can we implement it in with our students to start every single school year just to make sure people accentuate the importance of that
023in our district and then the um second one underneath that is we have just about finished the review of our Progressive Progressive student discipline guidelines we'll Implement those in the fall 2025 question I was just going to remind you if you don't mind looking into possibly incorporating that dignity index as well as peer mediation into our strategy for antibullying and all that I think that would be awesome yeah absolutely um and then the last one just a quick update on our staff childcare initiative so we have the location identified we've put out a thought exchange um to Garner in interest and if all things go according to plan we'll be able to open this in the fall of 2025 to date I can give you some rough numbers we have over 91 teachers that have
024said that they would utilize the service and another 50 that said maybe so um we do have plenty of respondents uh for the service now the next thing is to meet with who will be that provider uh for the service where we would be the actual um we would lease out the space for our um our staff so we're making progress on that one feel pretty good where we are to date um I still have this the thought Exchange open I've gotten a few more responses back and I just want to remind you know um our board and and as well as our team that we look at a lot of different staff Recruitment and Retention um options and not every single one will touch every single employee we're trying to touch as many different
025employees in as many different ways similar to what we did with the stiens for our bus drivers and what we've done with the LEAP program and you know so we're we're trying to find as many creative ways as possible to try to meet the needs of our staff to recruit and retain them and let them know how much they mean to us so um again that's just a quick update you're you'll get a more thorough update here in the next probably four to six weeks but I wanted to touch on those things and I'm happy to answer any questions new guy here yes sir so um as I read these a lot of yellow lights here at the stop lights maybe you could kind of give us a little bit of you know what is
026that telling us in terms of caution or concerns you have in being able to meet the goals um and I'm grateful there's no red lights but so if you look in your goal binders I give you a description on what red Amber and green is green means we've finished the the project um Amber means that we are on track back but it's not completed yet red means it's not started or we're behind schedule so uh again this is just you know we've got 30 of them um so these are just a few to give you an an indicator where we are but that's what the stoplight means gives you a good indicator if you see yellow that doesn't mean it's a bad thing that just means it's not complete yet good question thank you for
027that um so looking at it and asking it differently through the lens of are there any of these that you have concerns about in being able to actually meet these goals the ones that we have on this slide here no absolutely not there may be a few others um but again as a as a reminder it's a three-year goal cycle some of these will well uh to maybe coin your term some of these are evergreen goals so there're there's never a finality to them you know they're year in and year out so for example if you look at um reading and math and and um digital literacy proficiencies those those are never just fully green we may green them annually and then go back to an Amber State and then at the end of that
028next year decide whether it's Amber or it's green so but those are our Evergreen goals that'll be that way not all these are you know one and done this a good question anything else thank you all right the next thing I have I'm going to turn it over to um k Katie Barker and Thad schmink to go over our kind of our midyear as we say pulse check on achievement as we get ready for this year's spring SC ready testing and if I could coin a phrase from an old Finance person I worked with this is a checkup not an autopsy I'll keep my ukian references uh to a minimum then um so the uh just want to yeah quick check up first of all good evening Madam chair members of the board um everybody
029at home uh we wanted to get a little check on our growth uh and how we use our map program um here we can see here one of the first things that we do is we want to take a look at our overall fall to winter observe growth um as you can see here in both Ela and math over the last um few years this is the average growth um on a RIT index for each particular student um and this is for our whole District as a whole um so so as you can see here at math um we're making some larger gains than we've made in the past um and the same thing with Ela so we that's a good direction to see those those charts going the when we break it down a
030little bit more by um grade level and of course um please keep in mind that the average expected growth for Middle School is a little different than Elementary so uh the we're actually writing our little targeted area of what the program is suggesting and we're just giving there there a few a little more insight as to what's happening at the elementary versus the middle level in both Ela and math um we're seeing a lot of great growth in elementary and math and uh and as well as in middle school and we are very excited about that because we have a very large uh Trend I know CO's a word we used a long time ago but it took a it's a long road to recovery on that but we are definitely making that as well
031but like any good um Ryman mathematician would say you got to go a little bit further into the data and we we don't like to just look at just overall things we like to dig deeper and one of the ways that we do this is we look at conditional growth and not to get too far into the mathematical term but if you're for the mathematicians at home um this is basically zc scores where we're basically there's mathematical way of taking all the different grade levels that have different expectations and getting them aligned using zc scores to make them all equal this will help us to know whether a student who grows two in second grade is equal to a student who grows two in sixth grade which by the way it's not right but this
032is a way of equalizing all that so we can look across our grade levels and we can look across well this this is our years and we can see that we truly are making gains in math the last uh the last two years big big growth happening there and in ela I know it seems a little uh we'd like to be on the other side of that uh of that middle line um but we're not we're not too far off and just so everybody knows that middle line is the expected growth so if you were doing what you were supposed to be doing according to map every year those bar graphs would be extremely small perhaps we wouldn't even be able to see them so we re we reversed a lot of negative growth from
033those first couple of years and we're very excited about the math growth growth that we're making and then again we want to keep digging and that's I think a big theme for tonight is that we start large and we keep digging down and we provide a lot of information for you know based on levels based on gr I didn't bring in all the different grades tonight but principles will'll go in here and we'll look not only at levels we're going to look at grades we're going to look at classrooms um and really really um you know drill down and uh this is a great report so this is an OnTrack report that's showing you here by grade level because again we don't want the performance of one or two grade levels to mask the poor
034performance of other grade levels but what you can see there in those purple lines are what the projections are for where they think our school should be if we were the average national school and when the bar graph exceeds goes goes to the right of that purple line that means that we are exceeding the national average of where they think that we should be and we can see there um especially in reading that we're exceeding all of the national norms and in math with perhaps the the exception of one or two supposed to be and I know that sixth grade uh is a little bit to the left of that purple line but we are used to that sixth grade being way to the left of that uh purple line so um we're excited that
035we are nearing that expectation just for clarity is the are you saying the purple line is the national average or is the expected for that grade level it's what the it's both so it's the expected National performance of if you were looking at other but not like the actual National because I know like maybe the national average RIT score might be below or above what is expected so in other words if all the other schools were growing nationally if our schools were growing nationally like all the other schools are then we would be equal to that purple line so when we exceed that purple line we are growing we're we're we're beating the curve we're we're of the curve understood okay so that's a very positive um feedback there but again we don't like to
036just compare ourselves nationally we like to compare ourselves to oursel we our biggest competitor and that's what this chart here shows the diamonds are what we should be doing based on our performance not just you know it's nice to look naturally and say hey that's great but how are we living up to our standards and we can see here in math so when when NWA the parent company for map growth gives us all these estimates um they're giving us based on those um those diamonds and any time again that bar exceeds that diamond then we're uh we're ahead of even what they're predicting for our own personal goals so here in math um we're definitely knocking out of the park and then when we get to language arts we see some slight dips there um
037we are aware of what's going on in sixth grade and some of that we believe is due to the fact that our Ela standards have changed and it's a lot of that is affecting that that fifth sixth grade and so we're we know that there's a little you know new materials new pacing guides new indicators new standards it takes a little bit of time for teachers to be able to adjust but overall um we're doing a very good job and remember this is our own personal goals set for ourselves as you could see in that previous slide for for for ELA we're still way above the norm for for the so but again we have a higher a little bit higher goal for ourselves and that's what we're what we're demonstrating here so even at
038our own personal goals we're knocking the large majority of them out of the park which is great and again I don't want to get too far into the we tonight um so but I just want to let everybody know that this is just the this is just skimming the top our our principles our teachers our coaches our school psychologists everybody has has access to many other reports inside of the map application inside the software they can break everything down to the student level we're assigning student level goals there's classrooms teachers can see oh well on this particular standard I'm in the 45th for the nation on this particular standard I'm on the 63rd for the nation it provides them a a a multitude of of data points and I just want to stress that because
039I know that sometimes you come in here and it's just all this surface stuff but it we really do to um dive in deep and I want to say too that I know that U Miss Barker will be talking in a moment about um so here's the data what are we doing but I want to steal a little bit of her show and say that I'm very excited that in our data team that um that Miss Barker and um Mr Canon have seen fit to get me into the schools a little bit more and we are really working a lot more with administrators with coaches with Title One facil anybody who's willing to listen to me and talk about data um uh I and we're getting in front of them and really helping to build
040that capacity to drill down we have a lot of great things going on there but we also have a lot of newcomers to the profession as well as to dd2 and we're trying to just make sure that they all get up to the standard there and so um one of the things I've been talk want to talk about tonight is I don't have a um UK and formula to completely compare map growth and SE ready but I know that sometimes the public is very curious so why map why do we use this well SC ready happens one time a year and um we want to be prepared for it we don't want to wait till the end to find out what's happening so we've got map um we we plug that in Fall usually August
041December and then again in April and it does guide a lot of our decisions so why why are we choosing map because map aligns and it aligns well um so if you I know it's a little complicated I wish it were a little bit easier but so map uses what they call quintiles so they break everything down into groups of five SC ready breaks it down into cor tiles which is four but if you can kind of see there that for like for example this is last year's spring map compared to last year's spring um SC ready and if you take those proportionalities and you show there they they're pretty spot on meaning yeah there's it's never going to be perfect but the how well map is predicting and mapping our um our our growth
042towards SC ready and having our kids prepared I I don't think there's a single Le assessment out there that will align perfectly and even if we had our own as C standard perfect alignment thing there it would be hard to then you still want to compare yourselves out to the nation so um we feel that NWA has a good product and they do a really good job and we're very happy and because as you know me I'm skeptical over everything so we like to make sure that everything is going on and um their praise isn't really uh undeserved there when we run our own internal course correlations you can see here on the left that the correlations are coming up as um 8583 for math over the last two years and for ELA 086 and
043087 and the little chart off to the side you can go online there's a there's a quite a few of these charts this was the most stringent chart that makes very strong correlation starting at the um 0. 91 um uh I think Dr rmly I think even pharmaceutical wise I think all you got to do is have a 085 to sell drugs so um uh we're we're in the we're in the pharmaceutical business um when it comes to NWA and so um once again going to quote uh uh uket here and say quote satus EST meaning what we're doing is good enough I think there for the that those stats are good enough to say that we have our faith in um and what map can provide for us all right any questions for me
044on the numbers I do have one question and I'm just curious your opinion or thoughts on this so we met with a district or watched a presentation over this weekend where we were and they were talking about using the matap for K through 2 grade and it correlating to se ready really well but finding that it doesn't correlate really well from third through 8th grade do you feel like you see that same Trend or not so much or well this like I said our our internal studies that's three through eight okay yeah the K12 I not really sure what they're comparing that to I don't know is that what they said or yeah don't really have a state assessment to compare oh yeah because it's not we don't do SE ready for okay yeah now
045they could be referencing what they just believe to be you know their Maps take on how well it aligns to just our I think that's kind the state standards and there are there are there's always adjustment taking place for example in the fall um NWA when a student takes that initial assessment or every time the re they revisit that assessment at the beginning of the year they will be fed so it's it's an Adaptive test so you're going to get like the first 15 20 Questions kind of helps to guide it and then it's going to kind of pursue you pursue your weaknesses and strengths until it gets a better feel for you right so what they're going to be doing now now they use the first 15 to 20 questions are nationally normed questions
046for that grade level starting in Fall of 2025 there'll be South Carolina based questions and then it will trigger the national algorithm if you will so NWA is always trying to adapt to keep it real again I will I just wasn't sure if you found like a like it did have a strong correlation or didn't I mean there are definitely um I know my ELA teachers are probably out there um upset about you know the main idea and central idea that that you know that's still a remnant of the old standards versus the new standards right yes and NWA is again working to correct that but um you know things take time unfortunately we're more reactive than proactive and um but we do feel as though again with with those correlations with those scores uh
047at least for our district it's working it's working well right I definitely love map I I use map testing at home even on my young one and so I go into the all the specifics and it shows me what skills I need remediation on all that so it's an excellent excellent tool so not negating that by any means but I was just curious thank you I appreciate you it's it's interesting and and could the argument be made to me looking at the two of those you've got map and then SC ready obviously SC ready is extremely important to the district because that's how we're graded as a district our report cards from the state of South Carolina but what's interesting about that when we talk about map and then the nationally normed information there that's
048to me that's almost the more important test yeah I mean this to me map is the more important test because it's the one that's providing our teachers with actionable data they are using this to create small groups we are using this for our mtss process um we are using this for example now um we we have to redesign some of our reports for example in our gifted and talented program we've been working with a lot of the GT teachers to make sure that those that those students are growing and now that we have these conditional growth that we can watch this kid from sixth 7th and eighth grade on an equalized scale um we can watch and see whether your you might you might be hitting exceed every single year on SE ready but with
049map we can see whether you're you're you're weakening or strengthening in your growth and in in your knowledge where SC ready is just sort of a one and done one and and uh yeah this the the data is I mean that's why it's it's written in the state statute that we have to provide one of these formative tests three times a year and NWA is definitely on the approved list for that a little bit pardon parcel but but a little bit out of scope of this will you talk about because I think what's increasingly frustrating to really everybody in in the educational field in South Carolina we are accused every single day of of being the last in the nation South Carolina public schools are horrible based on some random metric that somebody picks out
050of the sky that day um will you talk to that a little bit and and just how you Norm that to what what we're actually seeing I I will preface by saying I think South Carolina's standards are actually much much much higher than the entire nation which would then lead to the argument of somebody saying well you guys aren't as good well we're actually way better yeah well I could definitely stand this Podium a very long time and and make many solid arguments but the I think the the the the short one will be so when you look at map and the national norming that we know that once the student achieves a map nationally Norm scale or a percentile of about 65th 68th that we feel rather confident that the student will be meets
051or exceeds on South Carolina ready which means you don't have to be in the top half of the nation to be meets you have to be in the top 65th 68th in the nation to be meets so um again you know we could lower the bar and have everybody meets and and all Pat ourselves in the back and or we can raise the bar have a have a lofty goal to to try to obtain and um do what's best for kids and try to stretch them to that goal and I think that that's what what South Carolina does and not to get too far into the whole growth metric but with our with the new mat avt uh the state is definitely stretch you know this idea of the stretch goal with that AV and
052really helping to drive instruction and just the conversations that I've been having with principls and teachers I just had one today over some of your Elementary I mean it really um you know you saw a lot of ideas going off in Educators heads about the about a stretch goal and um yeah so love it thank you thank you go ahead yeah yeah just wanted to make sure all the question questions were over and I will not be upset that Thad stole a lot of my thunder so um good evening thank you for having me this evening to just follow up with now that we've SPO shared the data kind of how are we reacting to it so a lot of these bullets we have shared before so I'll just speak quickly about those um and
053certainly answer any questions you have we've shared previously that and Thad just me mentioned mentioned it that this year a new initiative was to have quarterly data meetings with each principal once a quarter so once we finished winter map Administration this quarter 3 data meeting really focused on for their school the data that Thad just shared but also and most importantly what is their action plan and responding to that and that um I think a year ago was something really digging into that growth part of map was not not something that we were doing a whole lot of so that has been huge to support teachers and students in the schools we also and Thad mentioned to this have because of the new growth measure from the state been able to really focus our professional
054development for administrators with how we're using those map reports we used to just look kind of at where are we where are we in comparison Across the Nation um did we grow but now really digging into that a little bit more to look to see um did we grow enough and if we didn't let's identify those students or those teachers so we can really pinpoint those and then as we've done that with administrators now we're seeing that trickle down to teachers Mr schm shared that he was at Somerville Elementary doing that with teachers we also have some PD coaches that are doing sessions similar to that digging into those map growth reports with the teachers in their School helping them design lessons and using that learning Continuum that Matt provides based on the specific needs
055for each student we also have increased and kind of up the ante for a lack of a better way to say it the student goal setting that our teachers are doing it used to be are we growing did you go go up a point and that's still a celebration we certainly are celebrating that with all students but did they meet their map growth goal and again that really brings us just to that mat that first level of growth but then helping teachers set that stretch goal or that avt goal and then making sure that that's communicated to students so that they know where they're shooting for each time that they take the map test we have a ton of school celebrations for incentives that are focusing really on that growth part um so it's exciting
056to see what schools are doing at their buildings um to really celebrate students and a lot of them are also then turning around and doing things with teachers if a percentage of your students are meeting that growth goal as well so also as always we work really hard to ensure that that is all communicated to parents whether it be through conferences phone calls other Communications especially if there's a concern if a student isn't growing at the rate that it seems that they should be based on their NWA growth Pro projection NWA map also giv gives us a projected proficiency that we can use for the end of the year to help us really Target where we think some of our our student scores will be so that that way we can really focus on maybe
057some students that need a little bit more support to fall into that meets or exceeds category and then something that I think is critical that Thad mentioned that I just want to remind everyone that you know we are currently in a year where we are not only ad in the middle of implementing new math St or new Ela standards also a completely new Ela curriculum K12 so as although you certainly saw some dips in some areas that we know we need to focus on um but also knowing that anytime something's completely new there we would anticipate usually a little dip so we are able to kind of plan for that and support in that area and a big part of that is using the data that we're getting from map now that it's midy year
058instead of having to wait till we get SC ready data at the end of the year and responding with support for the new Ela standards the new curriculum but also we are using this year as a bridge year for the new math standard so although it's not full implementation there is certainly um some impact there for math as well so that is all that is I have one slide so that is all here I am sure that um you have some questions that I am happy to answer for you um I have a question for the professional development you said you you know that you identify you look at the map Reports look for areas where either a teacher or class or grade level is not meeting a certain standard for that professional development what
059does that look like are they like going in and helping as apart from developing lessons are they actually in the classroom helping these teachers teach that standard certain showing them ways and skills to actually so it really depends on what the need is there that the report is telling us sometimes for example you might have the report might show you that um one teacher is not seeing growth in that highest quintile of students so that might be some coaching with a PD coach or an a principal or assistant principal really focusing on higher level thinking really Street deeper level questions things like that if it is if the growth you know really looking at that data and the the reports in map are showing that a lot of the students are struggling then that might
060be a co-teaching model where one of our PD coaches would go in and really work alongside some of those teachers so it really depends on what the data is telling us but yes all of the above I think just really based on what the needs are I hate to put you on the spot but it's okay uh my question I'm wondering do you feel like you have the adequate support to provide that professional development as well um currently like that we need to remediate these things and to come into the classroom and teach and sure I think that's a great question um and you're not putting me on the spot I think that we we just want to make sure we provide to you what you guys need to support your students as well I
061think that we have the staff to provide the support I think to be transparent there are times where it takes us a couple of weeks um to get maybe the specialist in that content area because you saw sixth grade ELA for example we that is not a one school we have we so and that's not something that we want to address with a quick that's not a quick 30 minute session with a group of teachers that we really you know build a plan to address that area so um do I feel like we are able to meet those needs yes do I feel like if we were had more staff or it you know there were some changes or something else there could we do it um at a deeper level in a more timely
062manner obviously yes awesome I just the reason I ask is obviously we're going through a budget cycle so I think you know where our budget priorities are kind of reflect where our priorities are as a district so I want to ensure that you know we're looking at those things can we move some stuff around to better provide the support that you guys need if we need it so thank you sure all right thank you so much good evening board chair Wimberly board members and Dr Robbins speaking of budgets now you have the finance people up here talk given our a good segue thank you um so this evening Finance team has prepared the um Financial reports as of January 31st of 2025 um first report we like to look at is our balance sheet report
063this is for our general fund um at the end of January or ask were $ 69.4 million um as well as our liabilities and fund balance and we are right on target with um where we were in comparison with last year so for this report I want to give it a green light I didn't know we were giving our reports green lights red lights and yellow but I'm going with green um so our revenues expenditures and changes in fund balance is the next report um I will say that the ideal percentage um for the January 31 2025 should have reflected the same number as 24 which should be 42% so the ideal percentage at this point of the year if we were evenly spread over 12 months we'd be at 42% so as we get
064closer to 0% that means we have received as much money as what we um had projected in our budget for revenues and expenditures um so we're right on target with where we should be um with our revenues our total revenues of $284 million that we projected for this year um we we don't get them evenly throughout the year so this reflects 50% but we are right on target as where we were last year in comparison same with expenditures um again we don't um have expenditures evenly over the year but U the main reason which I'll show you on on our cash flow statement is because um we acrew our salaries and benefits in July for our certified staff so we are right on target um with where we were last year so another green light
065for revenues expenditures and fund balance statement so for our cash flow statement the next statement um we are in the middle of our um spreadsheet for January of this year um again the spreadsheet is the cash flow analysis is great because it shows you where the other one the other reports were accumulative of every month from July 1 through January 31 this one shows you each month what the activ it is so this is where you can really see that we don't collect every month the same amount of money um so now we are coming up to where we're um we're only negative. n million in our change in fund balance for this year but it's coming up each month you can see where it goes up but just the the June column the one
066to the left of the total column is where you can see that the the um expenditures reflected are almost double because we like I just said we move the salaries and benefits for our teachers back to June that are paid in July because their contracts run from August through July so that's why that month looks um a little bit heavier for expenditures but if you can look at the end of the year on the total we are projecting our fund balance to be right at 20% Which is Right On Target um a little higher than the goal that the board anticipated but I love being at 20% where we were locked in for 15% for all those years as this helps us um tremendously with um Bond ratings and we have emergencies if there's ever
067a federal um hold on monies we have a little bit of cushion so another green light so if you have any questions on any of these reports before I go to one more thing okay super um the last thing that U Mr Guthrie um talked about a little while ago is in the finance committee meeting the um the calendar was presented so with one change on the budget calendar from the March 10th board Workshop um since this was really the meeting that we had this evening was the legislative update Outlook um just the beginning of the budget season we won't get better numbers until March 31st is what we would like to change March 10th to March 31st to have another to have our next board Workshop um so this would be our suggested calendar
068for this year right thank you very much so board members making that note that we are changing the date um from March 10th to March 31st um at this time I would ask for a motion to accept the budget calendar with that change so moves okay motion made by Mr Guthrie do I have a second seconded by Miss Bates any questions or discussion discuss no okay all right hearing none then we will call for the vote okay and the motion carries six in favor one absent thank you very much my operations friends are next thank you very much Adam chairman I just uh take it a moment I want to thank the team for all they're going through um while I approve the budget calendar and whatnot this is kind of equivalent to having your
069hands cuffed and say do you want your hands cuffed uh they're marching against a very difficult schedule to get information over which they have no control try and put this together and they've done a great job and I appreciate all that thank you very much Mr Lee I concur good evening Madam chair members of the board Dr Robins uh quick referendum update uh Sand Hill uh for all intents and purpos it's under it's under construction right now they've uh plowing in Sil fence starting tomorrow uh everything is on track there uh Elementary School at the ponds of course uh Mr farnworth mentioned that uh we do have the building permit and we are still continuing to have conversations trying to make an agreement with the land uh the roofing exterior wall renovation all of those
070projects are still in the design phase I spoke with the REI last week they should have us the contract documents within the next couple weeks for all four of those projects and in the pipeline we got the gym at somville high school asley rid editions we're meeting this week to discuss that uh the Somerville elementary school edition we've uh discussed that quite at length last week to make sure we had everything included in the floor plan we needed and uh someone asked me about tennis courts today and at Somerville so those are being designed by an engineer right now so all that's in the pipeline as well I didn't have time to add it to my list but it's there thank you any questions comments just piggybacking on Mr Farnsworth comment earlier so can you
071elaborate on the Contin continuing efforts for the land agreement for ponds I I'll take that one from me Mr Soul so um there there are continued conversations when we look at um the developer in the ponds and then the county um and there are some remnants dealing with the development agreement um and and so the development agreement has gone through several different phases over the years and then um I the latest one was what two or three years ago 23 23 2023 was was the latest uh development agreement approved by the county and the issue there um deals with the the land in theory would not be deeded to the school district until a potentially until a later date in their development plans so of course our intent is is we need that now there's
072there's really no reason not to do that um but again it's it's unfortunate between those other where so yeah that's that's where we got figure and again from our perspective um it it there's a little bit of a line right because how far do we go into County Council operations about zero because it's the same thing we don't want them involving themselves in our operations how far do we go in invol in ourselves in couter operations zero but at the same time there there is a um very defined need for the school district in the middle of all of it and so I think as a board and that's what I was saying earlier as a board we need to kind of identify to your question how do we move forward to help facilitate that
073so that's that's what we need to work through over the next couple weeks thank you Mr Lee I just and point of clarification just so you know what's happened as of recently now our team is working with the county team and with culture as well to try to do anything and everything we can you know to extend an olive branch but in recent weeks the County Council chair and our board chair has met to have dialogue then we met with culture as well uh as with the county to set and have discussions on where we were um um with the facilities committee so we are very engaged in it and um again we are just in the middle um to be able to force anybody's hand on some of these things and um it's it
074predates most of us and um but we're just trying to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollar to get this building built so we can occupy it in August and we keep impressing upon them how important that is uh good evening I'll just give an update on the uh other facilities projects so um obviously the bus maintenance facility for Oakbrook middle school that's still on the list um that's going to follow the Oakbrook middle and elementary Edition so um edcom will just kind of roll into that project as soon as they're finished with the uh middle and elementary school projects as uh you can see up on the um presentation the there is a groundbreaking ceremony for the middle and elementary school school tomorrow at noon and so those those products are ready to start
075turning dirt as soon as actually they've already started some demo so uh they had to make some make some room for us to actually have a ground baking ceremony um the Somerville High School foot softball field Press Box the bids are actually due on the 6th of March so we're eagerly awaiting those we actually met some folks at there today to show them the site some contractors that were requesting site views the tennis courts the like I said the design is expected mid-march The Flower Town in Newton hbac replacement uh we're expecting a lot of that to get done at Spring break the locker rooms oh I'm sorry the locker room replacement hbac at Som high school that's going to be right in the summertime probably May June timeline excuse me and the Oakbrook Middle
076School we should have quotes probably the next two weeks so we can get that one on the schedule for the summer um we're obviously about a month out now we're excited for spring break because we've probably got 30 projects overall that are going to start up during that week um it's a great time of the year for us to to get going and hopefully have some updates when we come back in the April board meeting to uh show you some photos of some stuff that got done and that's all I have for tonight hey uh could you give us a status update on I know we talked a few weeks ago but one of our board goals is to say and secure vules was that a spring break project as well so obviously we can't
077we don't think we can get them all done in one week we're planning on getting the flower toown and Oakbrook potentially Fort Dorchester Elementary as well okay uh just kind of see how fast it goes but we're definitely going to have them all done this summer okay but we definitely think we're going to have two done um spring break okay thanks all right thank you then the last item I have tonight um is the Personnel report and student enrollment recommendations and those documents were uploaded in your board packets all right board members as Dr Robin stated we did receive the Personnel report information in our board docs so is everyone okay with proceeding with that in Open Session okay then at this time I would ask for our motion to approve the Personnel recommendations as
078presented in our board packets I just had a quick question apologies I had on two of the student enrollment requests and and maybe it was just my packet it was the same school as listed as home school and requested school yeah yeah yeah okay so um I would recommend then that at that time you want to hold that one those two you can vote on the other ones good afternoon um if I'm remembering correctly this is all one family and the um is it okay to tell the schools if I remember incorrectly it is beachill Elementary is the home school I think that's this is the other one so there were two that were in our packet um looking at sers okay and it has the child at sers with requested school sers I would
079have to go back and look at that one all I could think of is that as a student who may be there already but I'm looking at Christie so while they're checking on that let's can we are we okay to proceed with the Personnel report to start with while they are checking on that all right I'll make a motion to accept the Personnel report as presented in our packet okay all right so motion made by Mr Farnsworth to approve the Personnel recommendations do I have a second okay seconded by Miss Bates um any questions or discussion again this is just the Personnel report all right hearing none let's call for the vote okay and the motion carries six in favor one absent for IND thank you it appears that they uh have been attending sers
080they are requesting to remain at sers but they have moved to the Flower Town Zone okay so home school is now flower toown requested school is sers thank you very much okay so with that in mind at this time are we okay to proceed with the student enrollment recommendations in Open Session yes okay um could I get a motion to approve these student enrollment recommendations okay motion made by Miss Bates do I have a second seconded by Miss King any questions or discussion okay hearing none we'll call for the vote okay and the motion carries six in favor one absent thank you madam chair that's all I have tonight okay thank you Dr Robbins and Team all right at this time we will move into the public comments on non-agenda items and and this evening
081we have one Mr Jason brocker I only get three minutes so that's you know respectful of everybody's time I'm just going to have to do this differently than any other time I've been at this Podium I'm going to read directly from my notes and not address you as human beings yet due to the repeated dehumanizing treatment you've shown me and my family I saw that anti-bullying measures made it on the agenda today but I didn't want to repeatedly hand you part of my 180 seconds to speak here are some facts we lost our son Julian 14 years old to suicide on May 23rd of last year say what you will about causation that's not even on the table right now the fact is that he was significantly bullied several times while in dd2 schools we
082did not receive what we have conveyed that is not adequate I wanted to come to the board meeting in June but I asked a board member to speak about mental health instead they did not I finally got to a place where I could show up and speak again in November I was sarily dismissed I came back in December I was again dismissed I've been told that the board would be happy to speak with me that is a Lie To be clear the issue is that you will only speak to me behind closed doors at the previous meeting I was held to unreasonable rules but kept my comments about agenda items and was interrupted my non-agenda item uh remarks were in response to those interruptions all of those are undeniable facts this District as many others
083has a severe reluctance to acknowledge its real problems children are subjected to bullying on a daily basis and the district's handling of the policy is not much more than lip service that's not even specific to my own situation as I know you've done it to others as well I've spoken about them here before I've been open and honest that we were advised to seek legal remediation but that several law firms have declined to represent us because the law is clearly in your favor and they can't make a single case of gross negligence clear and there's no provision for chronic negligence so facts knowing that I don't want to sue you I've been told I can't sue you you should feel that you're safe enough to talk to me but it's still legally inadvisable and I
084continue to be dismissed will you ever have the decency to acknowledge me or are you still hoping that I'll just go away and leave you alone to celebrate your accolades while people suffer daily by people i' mean not just the students yes that's what I'm talking about right now but it's everyone that's been minimized the teachers the admin the bus drivers it all feeds into each other the students are not being protected this board has refused to retreat me has refused to treat me with human decency so now I'll ask you about everything that I just said is it hyperbole or is this unabashed honesty I have sent these things to you I have all the emails it doesn't matter in court my son was bullied fact we reported it fact we do not feel
085that it was followed up on correctly fact we had been ghosted for a long time fact I have been at these board meetings respectfully fact speak up for Julian honoring julian.com call else all right board members this evening we do not have an executive session so at this time I would ask for a motion to adjourn so moved motion made by Miss Bates do I have a second second seconded by Mr Guthrie any discussion hearing none we will call for the vote motion carries six in favor one absent we are adjourned e