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Board of Education Monthly Meeting (Monday, June 9 2025)

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all right Broadcasting you still eat that out man my wife thing not a great quote for my cause 20 students purpose Foundation inspiration here ultimately I would like like that I said you for discussion take agenda item also um not God indivisible with liberty person matters and personal report as presented by Dr Bethany gray will return as soon as we can vote vote I I I I didn't hear to say you that's the most for to approve it to go into executive session yes thanks the book carries all right we'll back as soon as we can I'm getting there and he was second need a motion to come out of Exile session so move to Madam chair that motion should be returned to open session second give me a second motion by Miss been that we come out of executive session second hi Miss Mitchell need for discussion all in favor say I I opposed the motion passes any action items recommendations come from executive session yes Madam chair I'm going to make a motion that we receive the Personnel report that was presented and executive session with the recommendation of Dr whack and Dr Bethany Gray second I'll second that Madam chair motion by Miss Riley that we accept the recommendation questions from executive session presented by uh Dr Bethany gray of personal Rapport and contractor second by Dr maliha all in favor post motion passes we have um several public comments and individuals who come to our meeting the first person who signed in is m m tignor however I need to read directors that pertain to I'm speaking right into the microphone so someone will need to turn it up I don't have control of the sound out there the microphone is actually on my mail so is way for them to increase increase the volume can can you raise your voice some because I can't hear you I'm not saying either can you read it because the volume is high as possible public participation rules for speaking the Json County Board of Trustees welcome the public to our meetings we encourage the expression of opinions regarding matters being considered by the board of education matters which are concerned to residents of Jasper County please remember that your comments should be directed to this board and should not be directed to others in the audience the board appreciates your interest in Jasper County Public School each person will be allowed 3 minutes for comments the public hearing portion of the board meeting will not exceed 30 minutes the following guidelines will be followed you must be a resident of Jasper County or have a child in the Jasper County Public School schools refrain from commenting on any student or employee present your comments without using offensive language or making comments in a disrespectful matter comply with the 3 minute time limit thank you please um there is nothing in the law or anyone here that prevents you from saying anything you wish to say what you say will become public information which is subjected to the Freedom of Information Act for your laws if you choose to call out specific employees names we suggest that you don't it is my duty to inform you that you will also be subjected to defamation laws according to the statement school policy allows 3 met for comments board members and the superintendent are not required to respond to your comments unless they choose to to the audience there will be no public outbursts of any kind please remember that this is a meeting of a government body and any person causing disruptions will be subjected to applicable laws that allow the removal of any disruptive person from a public meeting first person to speak is Margaret ignar good evening good evening board and our distinguished board chair thank you for requests coming from Miss Gerald for me speak briefly about some of the resources and support that are available through the South Carolina Consortium for gifted education for which I'm a board member and also the State Department of Education region 3 Region 4 which is a support system gifted education my purpose here is to increase awareness of resources and support available through these 2 entities so that the district can take full advantage of these opportunities while the state is still providing funds for advanced Learners the South Carolina Consortium for gifted education and the South Carolina Department of Education they partnered to provide professional learning opportunity for educators parents and supporters of gifted education both public traditional and public charter schools we provide regret graduate courses for GT endorsement we provide well the state department provides funding for 7 GT regions Jasper County is in Region 4 which includes Hampton Colleton Buford Bamberg Barnwell and I hope I didn't miss 1 and Jasper okay these resources are available to these counties but you must participate in the activities upon requests recently we have sponsored a virtual seminar empowering parents to understand gifted children unmade just on May 30th we had a free Workshop Workshop featuring Dr the Richard cart right on Socratic inquiry 2 free books were given to all uh participants currently we have a free summer professional book study with Andy McNair designing depth in the classroom participants in the districts only have to pay for their for the district May pay for their book but we still have space available for the summer book study and we will encourage you to encourage your teachers to attend or participate what I'm requesting is collaboration with the South Carolina Consortium for gifted education and the South Carolina Department of Education Region 4 to sure that inflammation is being disseminated and to intentionally take advantage of opportunities that are available to the people students parents teachers community members and County thank you very much thank you thank you Mr teknor Dr W is there any way for us the resources are available to families out there for them to contact Miss tigner they want to participate in the activities that are available for them and their children during the summer please thank you Miss Morgan you're next good evening you doing good I came because I was informed on Wednesday that my daughter not wearing the pants that she has been wearing since ninth grade this is the form that we got by the food by y'all board member I have email both my board member and I have got a response so I'm bringing it to the table the paper says no leggings and no jeggings are considered liens and these are considered young to take in that's what y'all say that is not allowed miss the principal at the high school approved when my daughter was in ninth grade up until Wednesday with these pants to be worn now she's saying that she cannot wear these I would like to know from the board is these approved or not these are for your pants not leggings or jackets the uniform policy is on the website the principal has a uniform policy if you have the uniform policies on the district's website Dr whack and the principal communicate with you as to what the concerns are now we do have uniform closets in every school right and that has what the students needs and they will provide support says or Jags that's all it says here okay once again building lab administrator in the superintendent will address your concerns okay thank you that's the day-to-day operation the board does not do day-to-day operation so I have to talk to the superintendent and your building level principal okay thank you you're welcome Shalonda tumor followup good evening everybody good evening so this is a follow-up on the concern I raised last month regarding what appears to be unfair hiring practices within the district to date I have not received an explanation I would like to know specifically where the district's hiring policies and procedures are documented how often they are reviewed and updated and whose responsible for ensuring they'll follow consistently and across both ends of the county it appears Hardeeville follows and anything goes in Richland transparency in this matter is essential for building trust within our community additionally I must bring attention to another concern regarding the recent athletic banquet there were several students on the track team who earned All Region as well as all state the honors were not recognized on that night at the banquet it appears you're going to recognize it tonight however this should have been done amongst their peers at the banquet however um where am I now there is Talk Amongst parents staff and community members that this was due to a lack of funding however funding seems to be available in other areas especially when it comes to Personnel compensation if that's the case it is extremely disappointing the student athletes put in the time effort and dedication to not only represent our school but to win at the regional and Lower State levels they absolutely deserve recognition including their letterman jackets and addition to those kids who won the state champion and track they should also be receiving their state rings this is a momentous achieve achievement and to let it pass without acknowledgement and proper reward is unacceptable we as parents deserve an explanation and more importantly our students deserve the respect and recognition they have earned I look forward to your prompt response and hope to see appropriate action taken to address both of these matters I still have a few minutes left I will open the floor up for any questions you may have at this time thank you for your presentation Miss um to and for your questions and for your concerns question I do have a concern though I am going I'm not finished yet miss I am going to direct Dr whack to address the concerns with regards to HR that you have apparently concerned about that was not responded to you you are entitled to a response okay thank you and um I as you can see the students are getting their Awards and that and that is something that this board requested happening it hasn't happened in quite a while and they need to they they earn whatever they earned they've earned and will receive whatever they were earned again day-to-day operations superintendent all right thank you thank you very much after the fact Miss Mitchell um the athletic banquet that the athletic banquet that the students were not recognized um you say they didn't get any recognition at all not the students who were all region um in all state only recognized um I think it was like 1 or 2 students out of each group and those students were all region and we have not had all region as well as state levels in a very long time and we also had a track student last year year that was not recognized now thank you and that's something that we have to be very cognizant of these students they need all the recognition they can get they need all the encouragement that they can get they need to know that we um behind them in every way and so as Mr Gerald said Dr whack and the athlete department will address this okay and um and I'm sure if they don't see you again yes ma'am because we are looking forward to our letterman jackets and our state championship rings and as for the hiring practices um Dr Black please get with her on that so she can understand it oh I understand it clearly I just want procedures are okay so she can know the procedure for that and then help me know the procedure also thank you Miss Mitchell okay Mr tumor Mr Fredericton good evening I emailed this board on May 12th 2025 about a hiring concern but almost hesitated because I did not want to risk being blackballed or blacklisted from future employment here however it seems that this may already be the case according to the South Carolina human Affairs commission blacklisting is illegal blacklisting refers to the practice of preventing individuals from a containing employment or receiving opportunities based on real or perceived grievances often without their knowledge an employer might want to Blacklist an employee or former employee for a variety of reasons including personal differences whistleblowing retaliation or political disagreements I never received any response or even acknowledgement that my email was received and I hope it wasn't the case that you did receive it yet someone told you oh that's not true because that's not true and that you just accepted that story at face value because it's time out for us to just accepting these stories at face value when people say oh that's not true for all of our constituents and stakeholders we are tired of being disregarded nevertheless in case you did not receive it the gist of my email is as follows regarding recent hiring practices within Jasper County School District particularly related to a coaching position at rsae while I do not question the final hiring decision every qualified candidate should be given a fair opportunity to apply and or interview Insurance transparency and equity in the selection process this was not the case this particular position at rsae unlike other openings in athletics at RSA and Hardeeville 15 positions to be exact was never publicly advertised on the district website raising concerns about fairness and accessibility in the hiring process the perception of favoritism in such decisions does not go unnoticed by the community and as an update to the now recently another position at rsae has been posted on the website yet again the position in question never was posted my desire to return to the district was not simply an interesting coaching I believe in serving my community Martin Luther King said anyone can be great because all can serve after having already given 25 years to this District I was reminded that the reason I came back home in the first place about 27 years ago was to serve my community my community the potential opportunity to coach would have just potentially provided a supplement to the more than 000 salary cut I would have had to take in order to return to this District so I'm just asking I want to know what is the hiring policy again where can it be found in writing and how are you all going to make sure that it is followed across the district and not just in Hardeeville thank you for your call at Mr tumon we have a Human Resources Director who works directly under Dr whack really cannot discuss Personnel issues or concerns publicly but you need to have a response to your request okay Dr whack and Miss Dr Bethany Gray um will address that with you what I wanted to tell you exactly where on our website to find hiring open hiring Equal Opportunity Employment and affirmative action policy his policy GBA in the school board's policy Manny okay just click the G section so you don't have to go through the whole thing and then you'll find the other it becomes very lengthy okay well please respond to me in writing where I can find this and I'll be in response for in all matters pertaining to anything that is said to not always come from the superintendent and cannot come from the board thank you you're very welcome I think Mr tumor was the last person for public comments 1 more I haven't got 2 more candle in Oregon Miss kidner Kimberly Kane the stigma Kane Miss to Mr Garson here you go come right up good evening good evening everyone hope everyone's doing well first and foremost congrats to the uh spring Sports for the very successful year especially the soccer programs uh hardly wearing risen as a former soccer alumni of Jasper County I was very proud to see teams in action for the Lord State semi-finals and then being able to support Hardeeville in their state championship run so congrats to the boys and the coaches and the staff and everyone support um but I'm here tonight to just kind of touch base upon I sent an email earlier hopefully you guys got around to it but I'm just going to touch a little bit on what I said uh regarding the process that has taken place with the budget that is being brought up for the third reading and approval tonight for the fiscal year 2526 as I said in my email earlier section 6180 of the Cyclone of law says that um there is a process that should be followed which includes a public hearing this is the first time that a public hearing has been made available since any of the readings have taken place um if you go look online or find anywhere to find the budgets you are unable to find any documentation if you look online to find the video uh for the first reading that is not available online if you look for any of the packets or anything that you have in front of you right now as board members that is open to the public that is not available able to access anywhere so you are entering a third reading without having any public hearing without the public having any way of being able to see what you are seeing what you are voting upon um and not really having a public hearing so a few concerns I want to bring to your attention from the little bit I could gather with limited information uh from the first reading the second reading the public Workshop uh and I'm up to tonight I hope it gets answered later um there was a comment made last second hearing that the Kate position was going to be changed to an AP position starting in January as there is no need for a k director my question would be would that funding then be cut in half uh on what the k director salary is and then go to the appropriate school or is it going to be 2 separate entities I don't know what the salary is because again I don't have access to the information there is no access anywhere for the numbers uh but also just overall um with other budget issues where we're seeing uh an instruction budgets being shifted around has there been an increase in ml support services for ML staff currently each school only has 3 your district is 60% ml Or Hispanic families at primary language is Spanish I don't think I've heard anything about an increase in Staffing or support for the ml Department which is heavily struggling uh on the last day report cards Jasper County was 1 of the lowest in the State uh in regards of the percentage of students that were qualified to be our services based on what the state data reports it was I think in the low I think you guys were we were the worst I'm apologize for the county so it's not just y'all it's us um and so I want to see if there's any support um for that or being increased also with the classified positions every school should have at least 1 or 2 bilingual people that can support I don't think that's the case I know many times when I visit the school grounds uh I've stepped in and helped just as a volunteer because there's such a need for that but what is being done because right now as a bilingual person I can probably make more working part-time at Parker's or at B&T or at Walmart then I would working full-time for the school district as a bilingual person and classified or certified I appreciate you all what you're doing in elevating salaries across the board we and I appreciate I think madame share acknowledge that our salaries for teachers are still not where we want it to be but I do appreciate the efforts being made towards that but I do ask in the spirit transparency 5 of you ran this past November in the election and 5 of you stated that you want to be more transparent uh can we see that in it's great to have a desire it's useless if there's no action to follow said desire so I'm asking that we be more transparent before you approve the budget tonight please give the public access to see the numbers to see the data we know that uh finances have been an issue in this County whether you were here or not that's irrelevant that's behind us but as we move forward for a better Jasper County School District for all not just the staff the students but also the community let's be more transparent in doing the little things that will make things better and easier for all of us so um again Kudos great job everyone for a great year we survived it um so thank you all for your time if you have any questions or comments I'm here for you thank you uh know Mr Garson thank you for your concerns and questions yes um all of our budgets are supposed to be on the budget page on the district's website if you cannot locate information please contact Dr W make a specific request yes and I need to be fair I'm sorry I did to be fair and he and we did discuss it our schedules Conflict for me to be able to make it but I did reach out to him and he responded very quickly and and to deal with the matter so I do want to give him props on that I apologize so the line items kind of budgets that we get that we're looking at actually have the account numbers on them so we cannot put that online for to look at because you know you got the account numbers for anything you can find someone who can hack into the accounting system period so you're you're wanting an overload view of items per se and the amounts beside each item and the total able for each school department and so on in the district yes but even that has not been made available to the public so even information you have in front of you tonight or what's presented there is public information that can be accessed we will not be approving the budget tonight okay okay thank you just so I don't want to cut you off but the concern I'm hearing is you're about to approve something that I know nothing about and the board has already determined that we can't approve budget okay so that's the alleviation of that concern yes thank you so maybe what we need um as I go through the pages on the district's website I am finding having challenges locating information it needs to stay up there for a while and if it's going to be put in a folder the folder needs to be linked to the main page of that department first so people can find the information that they need Dr whack as our superintendent can you please uh ensure that those transparency budgets and budget reports so forth are in a location where the public can get to it Expedition without having to go through 6 links before they get to the information that they want if it's frustrating me and this is what I do Technologies what I did I know that it's going to be hard for other people you shouldn't have to spend 2 hours just trying to find a piece of information um and our that's our means of communicating with every person in Jasper County is the website because even if we have a board meeting every 2 weeks everybody who lives here he's not going to be able to come to this meeting therefore our main source of communication is our web page and there if we're not speaking to it then we are failing our city so we need to address it thank you for thank you thank you all you're welcome all right so I think we have concluded about the comments we had a lots of participation today thank you for coming out and making your voices heard consent agenda approval of minutes there was a concern about minutes Miss Mitchell um we have the minutes but April 14th and 28th but there's no business to make and it's not on the consent agenda listed so we can approve the consent agenda as listed and then the next agenda we should have those minutes there I have no idea but we're just approving the consent agenda section and it has a 2 minutes there not these 2 dates okay so all we're approving tonight is April 4th searching on April 28th and your request no trying to prove before no ma'am your request needs to go to Dr whack for the 1 that you think is missing to be placed on the consent agenda for the next time that meat and I'm sure that it'll be there because I'd like to know why behind with it no no we're more than that okay all right so motion for us to prove the consent agenda Madam chair I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda motion made by DR balliet that we approve the consent agenda second the chair second that approval of consent agenda environments Poland and discussion all in favor say I I opposed Nay from Miss Mitchell is that you the eyes have it Miss Mitchell stayed in there we're at iTunes that says reports and information students Spotlight spring Varsity Sport 16 high school principals you are up next is what it says on the agenda good evening good evening um of course I'm Adrian Mabank from ridland secondary Academy of Excellence and I'm going to bring up coach Alexander to highlight and Spotlight our track team I don't think coach Smiley is here nor are any of our soccer team members today okay good evening everyone um first of all I would like to thank Miss Bank um our acting add Mr Burgess Corey Burgess for um supporting us throughout the year and um doing everything that we asked them to do when they call when I called needed anything they took care of it so I do want to give thanks them also I do want to give thanks to my kids I mean they they did everything I asked them to and um I do have a lot on here um so if I'm missing anyone I do apologize um we set a goal at the beginning of the year we said we wanted to be region champs for the boys we did that we set another goal we want to be lower state champs we did that now out of that we had 33 all regions selection 7 All State selections 5 state champions for all state was recognized for All State and 2 events so with that being said I'll call their names if they're here I don't know if everybody's here but some small chicks All Region All State Marcus Hunter All Region All State Alexander Garvin All Region All State Deshawn Albany All Region All State janil Logan All Region JB and Harris all region Frederick tumor All Region Ahmad Garin All Region Jarvis Riley All Region javar Henderson All Region Jaden Nunes All Region Kayon Mulligan All Region Cordell m plane All Region All State and 2 events dardo Henry All Region tesar Smith All Region Xavier Plaines All Region Winston Smith All Region Maris Hamilton Caleb Daniels feeling hugging Marcel Roberson All Region Aldrich beaten All Region Alexander Mitchell All Region Bernard Warren All Region Brandon Smith All Region Jaden Exley All Region All State Jasmine Ferguson All Region All State and 2 events galatea Brown All Region bana Wallace All Region Bali dig All Region Aaliyah Hayward All Region Aaliyah Crawford Comm job all regions Somaya Ferguson All Region Alexis Brown jasia Riley Chenise Harris All Region jira Simmons Kayla Rogers Jane Reed Destiny smart All Region Allen Harris All Region and on top of that sumaj hicks Marcus Hunter Alexander Garvin Deshawn Albany they are your state champions in the 4 by 1 and also Jaden Exley who is not here she's the state champion in the long jump thank you so much come on and Alex that was the only 2 I think that appear tonight that's it hey good afternoon good evening Miss Riley Hardeeville Junior Senior High School today we have our softball team with us our girls soccer team and our boys soccer team girls softball team uh region runner up hosted the uh State home playoff game for the first time in school history uh girls soccer team was region champs for the first time in school history boys soccer team co- region Champs Lower State Champs and state runner-up and then um coach Charlie Morrison Ford is here with our 200 M meter lower state champion and so I will ask the coaches to come into that order Mr Jarrett for softball followed by coach Ford followed by Miss p and then concluding with Miss Mr Wright thank you hey uh just and Jared uh softball coach at Hardeeville my first year teaching at Hardeeville and uh in general um I I became uh it became clear to me early on that I I wanted to take over a program and uh I fell in love with our our girls in our school and their excitement for a new sport that they had not had a lot of exposure to I've coached my kids in baseball and softball coming up so we were able to really instill some fundamentals and have some success in our first year so uh most importantly we had no seniors and 2 Juniors so everybody plans to come back and we have sixth graders excited to join thank you we feel that varsity and JV teams this year and won 3 games so uh keep supporting us and we'll make you proud I promise thank you um good evening I'm coach Chuck um track codes for boys and girls at heartville on dreams and High um he with me today I have our uh low estate 200 meter uh Champion mamari Brown um Mr Kamari also our region um other other participants that's not here um Kyle Jameson who was all regional Allstate in 400 meter dash um and Connie Connie Mitchell um who's also our region All State and both um 100 200 thank you good evening everyone I am coach pi and I coach Varsity soccer girls team the season I must confess was rather trying 1 from having train training with 4 players to playing games with ex exactly 11 players and no substitutes and then in the season with 15 players however despite this we made history by being the first female soccer varsity team at heartville junior high school to become a regional Champs wow the regional Champs here tonight are Brianna Pino Ayanna Gant Manuela Gutierrez Scarlet Ramos and Katherine Guzman and the other players on this team Jamie escoll our only goal play bowling Elizabeth pointed that I even Jacqueline Jasmine chai Maria thank you just to add uh or 2 seniors Brianna Pino will be moving on to college where she has a scholarship to play soccer Manuela she will be moving on to play club soccer as well wow good night everyone good evening my name is Coach Wright and um the coach for Hardeeville Junior High School and first of all I just want to thank you for recognizing my team uh we have some awesome players here we started the season with a goal and throughout the season there were some point where we believe that these go weren't achievable but through hard work dedication these young men they rise up we end up being the Region 4 Champions the Lower State Champions wow all right and stayed run-up champions I'm really really proud of these young men basically coming from these young men set a legacy here in audible yes they let us understand that through hard work and belief we can achieve anything yes and I'm super proud of every 1 of them we have all right so for All Region I'm not sure if uh I don't think they're here but I'm still going to call the names we have um a friend to local we have sahul Ramos who is here with us tonight so Jason Edgar for all states for all states we have Jason Ephraim but I don't think any of them are here evening and I'm just going to call the other players who are here we have our amazing goalkeeper who save a lot of goals for us we have Jayden Cruise well I just want to say something quick about Jaden he wasn't he wasn't um the main goalkeeper but our main goal keeper got hurt in a game he was hospitalized for 2 nights and uh Jaden decided that he's going to step up and through training on hard work you step up on a date of an amazing job and we just want to thank Jaden for a step up stepping up to be our goalkeeper a part of a team we have a way along with the brother I also want to call up Jose and the 1 we also have Eddie who's a member of both the JV and the varsity team I am proud of these young men I strongly believe that trophies are not the real trophies I believe that the real trophies or their determination I believe that the real trophies are their heart these young men shows us resilience and I'm really proud of everyone of them thank you very much much for recognizing us tonight young men and young women were very proud of the work that you've done took me back a few years I come from the place where soccer was invented and they made me play too great job and keep up with your academics too have a great evening Madam chair yes ma'am um could I make a requests I guess from Dr wacka maybe the school principals or whatever um because we as board members don't get to attend some of these events right I don't know when they're being held exactly so can we please get um scheduled of each Sports um so that we'll have it and we'll be able to attend if we like to the other thing Dr what that I would like to request of the principals and the coaches that they not bias when they're actually having the awards benefits at the school I would like to pretend that too oh we don't know and we need to have access to that information we we want to support them not just up here but when they're out there in the schools having their I may not be able to go to everything allergies are acting up because I can't do outdoors but I want to be there when they're they're being recognized for the work that they've done they're in school all day and then at the end of the day they're playing games and they're traveling all over the place that takes a lot of dedication and they need to know that we're all behind them as much as possible and for that to happen we need notification all right end of the year assessment Dr I can say your last name physique yes um good evening this section is not quite an the year report it is the information that's available from Spring um as you know a lot of the end of the year data is not yet available correct so it will be coming particularly Ela and science um SC ready scores will not be be available until July due to standard settings so um the information that you all received was um the growth that the district has experienced from the initial I already um diagnostic to the spring which is the final mastic that students take grade 3 through 8 so the information that was shared with you highlights those um areas of growth and I do have a couple of pieces of information to share from the high schools we were literally testing until Friday um when the window closed so um I can say looking at the district data for Algebra 1 we have 39% of our students who took the assessment that scored C or higher um for ELA that's 62% as of now um biology 34% and for US History it's 28% but that's the only other data that I was able to um that I'm able to share right now so when you're saying percentages those are the increases that we're seeing um that's the percentage right now that scored C or higher on that particular assessment I just want everyone to be clear on what that means the greatest increase um was in English too compared to last year that was the greatest increase to yes ma'am yes um the increase of what it was last year first intention what what it was um it was um 46.8 last year and right now it's at 62% fee or higher any other question for Dr I I do have 1 um it was nice to see the growth from the fall through the spring and and some of those areas I mean we're doubling and tripling the percent of our kids that are on or above grade level long way to go I'm not going to dismiss that uh my question though in some of the grade levels and tests a lot of kids did not take the test it it seemed like um only it you know and some of them it was 50 or 60 kids that did not take the test can you explain that um that could happen for a variety of reasons if it is potentially an elementary school maybe the student was here in the fall in the spring the fall when we originally tested but they had transferred out and they wouldn't have taken it the second time um they could have been absent it's a variety of of reasons why they could not have taken the assessment um the 1 that we stress the most to make sure um that students take it is the third grade because this year that information was used for third grade retention however every assessment principles are encouraged to get at least 90 5% of participation which is the expectations for State assessments to make sure that your report card is not reduced by a level due to your participation rate so you know um with the number of students that we have it might have just been that they were absent or they transferred out or it doesn't you can't really say exactly why they didn't take the test now at the middle school the numbers will be larger because technically the in the middle and high school is 1 um so you're going to see 9th 10th 11th grade students that might show in the count but they don't actually take the assessment because it only goes to um 8th grade and it's important for everyone to understand and differentiate between what assessments is grade levels taking so a generalized statement is not made when the public views those results that are online and watch your video this is important for them to understand that it does affect every single child in the high school yeah and I tried to sort it for the grade levels specifically that took it so that the 50 year or however many students that didn't take it it it's just kind of hard to say exactly why Madam chair yes ma'am um I guess my question is I could see some increase from the fall to Spring what are we doing for the summer to make sure what they have gained they will not lose that's the doctor what question that's the doctor what question great question uh we have opened up summer school for for all grade levels uh so we've offered uh summer school I think it's from kindergarten through 12th grade for those that uh are available to come uh of course third grade is what is mandated by the state of South Carolina but but we have uh provided funding for that so our students will have summer school beginning this coming Wednesday until July 3rd um and I also noticed that um the the math I guess the Math teachers um some of the the the scores of well the increases were a lot higher with some of the math that I saw um maybe I something wrong but I saw over there was some increases more in the math I wanted to know what the Math teachers were doing to have that increase well we do uh particularly at the elementary and the secondary level uh we have dominantly revealed that most more of the secondary level this year but uh we've spent a lot of energy uh in that balanced uh and I'm not 1 about that might be better uh I now just do that um is uh Evans have done a really great job of bringing that and and and you any good teacher it's about any understanding having an effective practices uh that that show that children can grow and our people have done a really good job of that as well as if I'm going to classrooms they model instruction procedures uh We've created common assessments uh there's just a lot that have been done this year and I do want to commend him while he's here along with his evidence because they put a lot of work into that because across who went in I mean she taught multiple classes at a time so uh we want to just commend all 3 of them uh for the work they've done particularly in in that so having heard that explanation for the increase in the math scores are we going to do in the exact same thing with language arts and reading comprehension because that's a huge challenge if they can't read they can't do anything with anywhere else yes so we have plans in place to do the same level of rigor with language arts okay excellent yes ma'am summer school Dr W um I do have a certified staff teaching Center School yes ma'am all certified now we do have some classified staff that's there to also support but all of our teachers are are certified I mean working on the intercession for share tools we we will have a decision next year and they'll be working on that they have us about our certified staff we need to try to stick to the agenda uh and and that's that's not really it no now some don't let me answer that right assessment yeah it's not I don't want to tell you what the isn't the item is assessment and not some school but it's a necessary thing for us to address as a board to Dr whack okay Mr you're very welcome Miss Mitchell thank you Dr nazik Penny sales tax update Matt Davis Pope Flynn is here from our bond attorney group with an update with an update good good evening Matt Davis with Pope Flynn uh Bond lawyer for the school district it's nice to see all of you again I was asked to give an update on how excess revenues from the 2001 referendum Penny sales tax tax collections can be used um I thought I would give a recap and then I'm available for questions okay uh the school district issued approximately 45 million dollars in Bonds in the 2000s between 2 2003 and 2008 I think uh pursuant to a bond referendum that was approved by voters in the school district in 2001 uh these bonds have now been paid off and the penny sales tax that helped pay them was so robust that money is left over it's a question now is how can the school districts spend that money pursuant to the authorizing statute that money can be spent on 2001 referendum approved projects that were not completed the 2001 referendum projects included the elementary middle school and high school projects and Ridgeland and Hardeeville uh athletic facilities in Hardeeville and Rich Richland which included football baseball softball track tennis facilities and then also Performing Arts facilities in Hardeeville and Ridgeland uh from from what I understand I think there's approximately 20 million dollars in correct access money uh a significant amount of that money I think is being spent on the the Richland athletic facilities um so there there will be money left over um in addition to what I just you the school district could if you want to try to go to the state legislature to have um the rules solution done so that the school district could spend that money not just on the 2001 reference random approved projects but you could spend that money perhaps on other uh General obligation bonds issued by the school district it's not it's not a sure thing but if you want it to take that up um perhaps your local uh legislative could help and um it could be could be passed by the entire State Legislature delegation we can address that concerns through our delegation yes ma'am members at the state level yeah um and as it pertains to the 2001 referendum which bill 2K 12 campuses is important for people to understand that potholes that are on the campuses right now part of the original projects was the roads that were built so all of that can be paid for repair replacing them if necessary uh to the to the extent it was not completed and it's included in the 2001 referendum yes yes okay that was the question that I have with regards to that specific Penny sales tax update what do we do with the funds that are left over because there will be some money left over right and for for a long time the the economy was quite bad in 2007 2008 the penny was not particularly performing um things have been good in the county recently and there's more money was expected yes Miss Balden do you have a question so I just want to make sure that I heard you say 20 million dollars uh that number came from Mr Skinner to Mr Zimmerman that that is a 20 25 M 25 million is in the bank for the 2001 referendum that is that is what I okay 25 million in addition to the money that was used to pay off the bonds this is this is free and clear money clearer and clearer okay bonds paid off we got 25 million we can do whatever with the referendum projects that are remaining them to 2001 as we like with that 25 million correct because we did not build a Performing Arts facility anywhere in the I just want to make sure that I'm clearly understanding what was in the original the board we can lift the projects that we want to do with 25 million dollars remaining from the old 2001 bond that has nothing to do with the 02422 bonds or whatever the last Bond we did this is all money we have to spend for what we didn't do right and these are these are these are separate bonds of money I just I want to make sure because that's going to come back that the wish list that we wished for the Performing Art we wish for the football field in Hardeeville that we have 25 million in a pot that we could do that with because we said that we were going to do that in that original 2001 referendum so it's actually not a wish list it was part of well for the wish list at that time a referendum it was a wish list at that time so I'm just let me say it my way so I can Spanish I can explain it that we have 25 million y'all hear that 25 million to complete our 2001 correct referendum projects correct okay all right so we're not going to have that discussion for you again cuz I only know what it is Mr Zimmerman reminds me some of that 25 million is being used currently on the athletic facilities original yes what is the bottom line I want to know the money that we have for the wish list you know because we keep going back and going around this circle right so if we can identify what we have remaining then we can hire people to do the things that we say we're going to do sure and not keep saying we don't have it so I want to know what is that amount of money that's left so we can spend it on the 2001 projects that theoretically that so so we have 14 roughly million dollars that we can finish the Hardeeville field so we can satisfy Hardeeville okay all right I just want us to be on the same page as a board you know because we sort of sometimes times here 1 thing and I'm saying this over and over because Hardeeville keeps coming up as a we want to finish the field we want to move the field we want to do this so we have 15 million dollars roughly that we can spend can I okay I'm just I just need the bottom line right I might be confused so I want us all to be on the same page as I understand it there's approximately 25 million dollars that the County Treasurer is holding in the 2001 Bond referendum we just took 10 million at 20 205 million total for for everything yeah I believe I believe I believe Mr Zimmer and said 11 is being spent 14 11 is being spent on Ridgeland okay so I think 14 is left over okay all right all right for for whatever it it it's the heart of a campus for their to be satisfied it it is up to you all to decide well we just need to satisfy the referendum we're not asking you to make the call I just want to make sure that I'm understanding that you're saying that the 2001 list that we roughly have 14 million dollars that we can finish whatever we said we were going to do in 2001 I I agree with that okay thank you madam chair yes ma'am I guess my question would be there was a list and it's not just 2 athletic fields there's other things on that list that probably was not done so I don't think we are putting 14 million all at Hardeeville for just the Athletics facility no no no no no no no no no no I think we need to measure we're not saying that football field is no it's not going to come anywhere near that to do the work that has to be done what he is saying is that what that's what's left over what what I 1 thing is we have 14 million dollars and period that you saying 14 million going to hard it or no no I'm saying we have 14 million for the 2001 and I'm a state that so nobody can take it for what I'm saying because I'm say what I'm saying 2001 projects there's roughly 14 million dollars left and we can prioritize our projects as to what we want to spend that 14 million dollars for and it be a football field of helicopter rant from Hardeeville whatever we prioritize well it it has to be within the yeah that's what whatever's on that list and you have that list uh I do can we get that list and we make that list public uh is it you make a public sure yeah I think that list needs to be public because we keep getting bits and pieces even as a board member sometimes I'm not certain what is on the list because I wasn't here in 2001 sure so I need to know what's on that list I have a copy of the 2001 School Board resolution where the projects were approved and I can share that with Dr whack and share it with you thank you and we need to put that on the website also so that all of these questions a lot of people have left and you know if you tell them people go watch the video but the reality is information is power and if it's not on the website we're not communicating with our constitu us knowing it is not adequate they need to have access to the information yes I was here when it was passed yes I was here when the list went out yes I was here when they built the campuses but that's a long time ago now we're dealing with reality we're having to go back to those campuses and fix what needs to be fixed they need to see legally what can we do because it's in the reference thank you so very much Mr Davis and your right is in the referendum and I were going to ask it at least also but yeah it's just not something that's private it's public knowledge you need to look yes we good yeah okay we're done thanks um we will not be having the third and final readers of the budget tonight because the budget is not completed uh there are things that needs to be done do you have an update on our audit is the State person who is assisting when the audit update here to address the board yes good evening I want to uh introduce you to uh Miss Dana Norris who's with us but we are the state department um not from the state department but by way of the state department who's here to assist us with the audit and um I will let her speak to you on that Mr ladies and gentlemen Norris and it's good to be here tonight thank you for having me um I am right now A sitting CFO at Lancaster County School District and they are not going to release me until June 30 so actually I'm having some leg surgery so I will present the final budget read to our board on June 24th and so um but uh I love to work and so and I still have a lot of gas and tank so we have been working on some of your stuff I have an associate with me um not here tonight who is the director of Finance at the Fort Mill School District so both of us come from larger districts right now she's retiring June 30th um and she is an eye vision expert she's probably 1 of the best eye visions technicians in the state so heed my previous districts yes ma'am we go on from high Vision can you explain what that is yes we're not be used the acronyms and it's important that they understand what applications we should be using great great point so I vision is the um accounting and I think you all use it for human resources Tyler um technician Tyler Tech I don't know what Tyler Tech uh their company's been around for a long time and it's a fantastic system I've been in uh 2 previous smaller districts claron and 1 long long time ago Lexington 4 and then spark 7 so all 3 of my previous districts have been on Tyler Tech or infinite Visions so that's our accounting software fixed assets or Capital assets HR um and I'm not sure what all else y'all use it for but those are the main ones that I work with so it's a very good system um right now I'm on uh CSI or Harris smart Fusion uh which is very user friendly but um once you learn I visioned it's it's almost like driving a Ferrari but you better know how to drive it right um so so I'm very familiar with it and the reason I am here is you can tell that I'm not a spring chicken right that's fair statement all right I'm proud of that I earned all these wrinkles um but I need a little bit more flexibility in my schedule so uh when I got to Lancaster uh 2 and a half years ago I was recruited to go there um they were on fiscal watch they had some of the similar problems that you have here but we have 4 high schools 20 schools all together in about you know 16,000 students enrollment so a lot of challenges um so we the next year we were continuing on fiscal watch I got there right when they were finishing the audit so I actually challenged the state department so um the 2 subsequent years years just so you know there's hope we had 2 perfect Audits and we use the same Auditors green finny collie that you use they are the toughest in the state they're probably the best in the state right so um we had 2 perfect audits 0 findings came off of fiscal watch obviously and we earned for 2 years in a row a perfect um risk assessment score from South Carolina Department of Education you can't get lower than 10 it's golf score the lower the better um unlike my golf score but so um because the state knows me and they um they knew that I was probably getting ready to do some back to get into Consulting um so that I can have more flexibility uh they approached me about possibly coming here and I couldn't come here in March because I love my superintendent and I love my board have a great relationship with both and I said I can't leave my superintendent my board in a Lurch because I got to get the budget done and we still have to implement position control which was a huge undertaking and they said okay if you can go help in July we'll wait and so that's why I'm here now there's hope I know we're behind in our audits but um we're going to work very hard and very very diligently to support you all Dr whack Mr Z and um we're going to help work on your budget because we're going to get much like Lancaster We're going to get your budget in iVision down to the detail level account level from the 300 objects on down uh and your position the best way to get an accurate budget is to go in I Vision in our accounting system and get all of the position in their linked to the new salary schedules somebody's been working on I Visions before get a lot of head nodding and then you can forecast now it's a lot of steps it's steps and um I think Mr Z tried to do that but they were getting an error message but as it turns out um Liz Robinson who's my associate that will be working with me she and I have done a lot of um but workshops with infinite visions and they have a national Guru her name is Deanna Booher she's the best there is she works for them and she um we have a very good relationship with her so she helped us get this error message fixed and now we're rolling we're already doing work on your budget on the position level so um Mr Z and his team are going to get us an accurate roster by location because we got to have good day to going in to get good data out and then we can present to you um a clean budget down to the position level and forecasted benefits because you know Health uh the employer side of the health insurance is going up this year um so um and we're going to link all those to the new salary schedules once we review those and make sure that's where everybody wants to land all right so what I'm hearing please correct me if I'm wrong is that the system that we're currently using for accounting in the district is not the most updated system that we can just sync everything in a salary schedule will match with that until system and it will come through that clarifier question because you have the most intelligence system that's available in my opinion so why when we pull our budgets we're getting them in Excel spreadsheet when they're working on the budgets they're they're working on it and sales spreadsheet the software that I am aware of you could do all of that into the software and it spews out what you need to present the budget presentation to the board I am currently you are correct so we're at down to the position correct you are correct and that's what we're working on getting into Infinite Visions the budget the budget prep module yes and then and then we'll manually um when Mr Z gives us the detail you know by account number and you know we can just really we can upload that to that same budget module and then you all will have a budget report and you can do a 5-year comparison so side by side you can go all the way back well how how long have y'all been on our Vision 3 years so you can go back as far as you've been on eye visions and compare year by year account by account because that's what you have to have set up in your in your system in your budget when we go live yes exactly I want you all to prove it that can never change until the next year or if you know come back and ask for more for you so schedule update in the system well we have modified the teacher salary schedule um and 1 of the main points on that is when you and I and I applaud y'all for being very aggressive and taking care of teachers and that's you know at the end of the day every 1 of us all of us are here for the students or we shouldn't care about being here right so I applaud you for that but you have to give a a reasonable step every year so you can't pay a baby I call them baby zero teacher the same thing is a 5 year teacher correct you're not going to keep that 5 year teacher I got news for you and we want to make sure and I called them for stepping back from this okay we want to make sure that we have the appropriate steps because a teacher has to get a step everybody else does not teacher has to get a step because their certificates change so we and we also want to get all of this into the infinite vision's budget prep module that's what I want to know we can forecast everything to the position level think about this your salaries and free range are 85% generally of your general fund budget correct so if you if you if you don't have control over that that's the biggest in internal control you can ever have in this District right it's just 85 that's the bulk of your budget so we got to get it down to the what I would call nitty-gritty my grandmother would say the nitty-gritty let's get to the nitty-gritty got to get it down to that and then add the other expenditures which is easy that part's easy position stuff is important right so when we do that and we can come back to you and say like when my board I've already presented I can tell them exactly what a teacher step costs I can tell them what the thousand dollars per sale cost the district so I can tell them every increase out of our 2.9% total budget increase what makes up every dime of that and I can show it to them that's important so you will have to know that and we you can't we need to run these new scenarios and see what that means to the district and then you all can say yeah we can afford this but if you're coming out of the gate using fund balance as a prompt you get you got to rethink it so we got a lot of work to do but we're in the game and we're ready to do it and we're ready to work side by side with you thank you anything else anyone on the board have a question for us to be sure just so I'm understanding this um we were talking about the audit going on oh we weren't we haven't even talked about that yet no it didn't seem like we're talking about the third reading for our budget so when you're saying July is that the third reading of the budget or I didn't say July I don't want to call say in July she didn't give a where'd you get July oh I'm working I'm working for you right now sir we don't wait till July my superintendent said you better tell them to strap themselves in because it's going to be moving fast yeah we won't wait till July we can't wait till July otherwise you'd have to do a continuing resolution you don't want to do that you don't want to do that you can't do that that why that's the reason why but if I misled you I apologize I don't got to clear on exactly what part of this you were playing so okay and do you want to talk about the audit yes okay so as I said I use the same Auditors you do mine are in my lead is David Phillips he's 1 of the partners I think you all use Emily and I cannot pronounce her last name sews back or something I'm attempt it all sharp sharp people if they have a heart for this and they want you they want you in real time they want you caught up because you know State requirement is you have to submit an audit by December 1st every year correct um and so we want to you know we we want to put our finger on that that hole there and not have more spring up right so we're going to have to do a lot of things simultaneously we're going to have to jump on we got to go all the back to to June 30th 2022 and work forward that means we've got to have zero variances on our bank balances we've got to have a lot of things in place which is a lot of Ledger work that's why you won't see me here every day because I can do Ledger work at home okay um so I don't have to travel back and forth to get on I visions and I get up at 4:00 every morning so we we going to get cracking so we got to get 23 audit done that's first and foremost because really truly and Dr whack and I had this conversation you I keep hearing we've got a strong fund balance and you may but let me tell you what fund balance is not fund balance is not cash reserved it is not fun balance is revenue minus expenditures so you have to get there's a lot of entries once you submit the trial balance to the Auditors which you all did a month ago or so ago so there's a lot of things that have have to be tested and journal entries that have to be processed maybe transfers and things of that nature so we're just really getting started on that right but we got to go first to the bank reconciliations because you can't close those bank statements till you have a zero very between your bank statement and your Ledger right so that's going to take a little bit of digging and you know I understand you don't if I turn over and all kinds of things going on I get it right um but that's what we've got to do first and at the same time we got to make sure we have all those internal controls in place so that we don't get behind the 8-ball in the current situation but until all of those journal entries are made in June 30th we really don't know what your fund balance is fund balance is revenue minus expenditures now that can impact your cash reserves but that that's your fund balance Revenue minus expenditures my board members can rattle that off because they heard it so much it's not your cash accounts it doesn't Revenue minus expenditures so fast forward we don't know what June 23rd fund balance is so we can't know what the the beginning balance is if anything are in 24 23 24 and we sure can't know that for 2425 so you're a little bit stuck Flying Blind here right so we got to hit it and we got to hit it hard but we got to do 1 step at a time we can't be working on 24 right now we can't be working on 25 right now because you got to finish 23 because those ending balances have to be your beginning balances in and you don't even really have to be in to know that right so so there's a lot I'm not going to lie to you I'm not going to mislead you there is a Monumental amount of work to be done to get your audits up to date but we're going to do it yes ma'am so so I I don't know maybe this is for Miss Dizzy I was on an impression that we had completed at least 1 of those passed through audits which ones 20 23 did does not complete so I was under the name and no I I was told they were told that it was done okay let me let me explain what I mean when I say complete okay once the financial statements are prepared and I don't know do y'all do an act for or just financial statements Financial statements we do an act for in Lancaster which is a lot of mdna and a lot of other work but but let's say in your case once those financials are complete the auditor send you the financials and you look at them and make sure you look on your system yep that's the balance in I have yes that's the expense line here yes that so you go through all a lot of different things validating and I have found errors before know that you don't have the right C you missed a fifty dollar you know I want to the penny so once do you agree and they've made all their you know auditor entries and your entries and everything sinks then they to financials and those financials have to be uploaded to Lars on the state system so it has to be uploaded for large check for errors then it has to be uploaded to the federal Clearing House you have to go in and certify it then you have to do your Insight report your administrative cost and your data ction form that's what it means to have a completed audit now sending a trial balance to the Auditors is a big step but that's that's what typically what we do we send our because we have a 60-day recruit period so from immune to August we're still a crew in revenue and expenses and stuff but so once we do that and we finish all of our adjustments and submit the trial balance typically in October first of October we we didn't submit our audit to the state and all those things I just mentioned until Thanksgiving our goal was to get it done before Thanksgiving some of that's depending on the auditor schedule but squeaky wheel gets the grease they call me squeaky so we're going you know that's our goal to have it not I'm rolling in on 2 wheels on December 1st that's the deadline so we still are in the we haven't even really started on 23 yet um trial balance has been submitted so let me clarify that but the audit is no it's not done okay correct so who is our audit company now green finny collie okay so the other company that came mainly Garvin Manley Garvin is not the audit company no ma'am so they were helping you get your trial balance prepared to go to take the auditor yeah okay they were trying to help get that yeah but they they're not your Auditors they couldn't work on your trial balance and do your audit that's a conflict I just want to make sure I'm understanding greenfinity is still out already and manly Garvin was just working consultant from the state department correct that's correct okay all right and I am an IND dependent well I'm an employee right now Lancaster County School District so let me clarify in case any of my board members are watching still their employee but come June 3rd I will be an independent contractor and I'm assuming you all have seen in my contract that was approved by the state do you all approve contracts and perhaps maybe it's because the state approved it I'm not sure state approved it but I don't work for the state I work for the school district on behalf of the state that I'm I'm on your team but the state has asked me to come and help you does that make sense I'm on your team you're the support person they said and we don't know what that looks like next your next fiscal year we don't know what that looks like we don't but just know that I will be here Lord willing I will be here you are asking some great questions what else I love Adventure questions talk finances all day long I'm not sure y'all want to hear it I understand and my concern as board chair and this whole board's concern is misinterpreted misguided unfactual information is out there as truth and this is why we're asking you for details so this is all being videotaped sure and so when people call me and they do and I've got 2 point now where I don't take calls after certain time and I I tell them to watch the videos and because the explanations are there when we ask questions about the audit clarification is important because people thought the 23 articles complete okay I'm not sure what is has been put out in the they're put out here I'm not sure but I'll tell you 1 thing that you will get from me and you can call my board when you call my board chair he's Melvin Strobel you will get 100% transparency because this is tax your money yes it is your tax payers taxpayer money and there there should be no um question about transparency our books should be open to the public so so that's what you'll get from me I take this very seriously I love to have fun and I work like crazy and not many people can keep up with me not even my little Young Bucks that I got 20 staff members at Lancaster they can't keep up with me but we take it very very seriously and it has to be transparent The public's not going to trust you if it's not transparent exactly their money thank you anything else questions thank you very much it's been a pleasure to meet with you and I look forward to working here thank you thank you hey Mrs and I think we have been over the last couple of years so are you coming to present the capital projects updates yeah there was a request uh about capital projects updates about where we are at capital projects projects that have been completed um I'm not sure how much detail you want on that you know contracts we talked about the uh gridland project which was being done through the penny tax um which was going on right now uh that project we had a couple other projects that were going to be funding through at a liquidation funding but the changes that the capital uh in DC have put those on hold uh though and the reason why they were in late liquidation was the delivery time um there was a 90-day lead time on the AC units which pushed it beyond the December deadline so what you had to do was request a late Liquidation on it to be able to keep the funding same thing with the uh door replacement project the uh Fire Marshal came through and we have several doors that do not meet code anymore as far as fire restrictions are concerned well the lead time on the doors turned out to be 120 days so that pushed that beyond the December deadline so we put all those things in late liquidation uh got first initial that it everything was fine and then about 8:00 1 night I got an email saying that um your project your late liquidation projects were put on hold so since that time we've had the right explanations on why and this type and we're waiting in the AC units seem to be the 1 that will continue to be funded because those are the air handlers that bring fresh air and take stale air out of the building which you you need to have or else you know in the summertime you have purchasing people because it's not blowing me out of the building um that's on those projects we have um several rooftop units as we go out through the year that we have to maintain to make sure they continue to run and things of that nature so we've had a few units that we've used Capital Project funding and uh some other uh general fund money in the uh maintenance account uh so my question to you and Dr whack therefore Mr Zimmerman is can you provide the board with the list of capital projects that we are currently doing over the last 48 months I know what's happening in Washington and we're going to address that when we get to our current Bond referendum and why we need to do what we want to do there however it's important that people know what we're doing with the money that we have and what's happening with the projects and that also should be on the website as the list of projects that we're doing and if there's no link for capital projects it should be somewhere under Finance we need to create a link put the list and update as we go along so that when 1 Project is completed it is no longer on the list or you can put finished on it communication is key if we're not telling our story and we're not telling people what we're doing with the money that trusted us with then you get multiple versions of What the board is or is not doing and we just can't keep doing that so can we please get that list okay of those objects those specific projects yeah I take this list and I'll put it up for you thank you very much okay that that's where we are on that but I was just giving you the recap of it now oh I understand I understand definitely correct Mr Z all of the the capital projects that are on the list have been board approved correct that you're yes ma'am all the ones I'm talking about okay because I'm just going back when you talk about AC units I just remember we spent Millions replacing the AC units so now we're replacing them and that hadn't been how long that hadn't been a long time yeah that before my time I remember exactly when it was but yeah 18 years right since I've been on this board so I'm just kind of trying to figure out how often we got to buy a new AC and then you look at the the root cause of what it was some of we have been lightning strikes and what we're working on now is the grounding on it and yeah and through the insurance to make sure the grounding is properly done you had a lot of roof work done and he roof where you move ground rod sometimes and they make sure all our grounding stuff is back in place what the meetings we had um 2 weeks ago that I had with the vendors was that 1 of the things we want to check is grounding to make sure that the grounding is there we were looking at the possibility of bringing in someone to to do a study to make sure these units are ground properly because we have a number of VC boards that get hit and those are model day-to-day repair things that we have to do and some of that leads down to compressor problems so you get down into those big units and that kind of stuff that's where you get into the big funding on those type things but yeah we are looking at the insurance possibility on some of them and things of that nature but but like I say day to day stuff like VC units know I don't bring that back to the board for approval because that's a small yeah you know item but larger items yes we did yeah I think would be a board approved so that list should be readily available but I I would like in a Madam chair if the last time we replaced those AC's I do not believe it's been 5 years you know so that is a concern that we're now having to replace units that have don't have a 5 year life you know I mean that's that's major even bigger concern is the grounding because if they get struck and the building is grounded the way it should be then everybody in the building is in trouble yeah so that's why that's why we want to take that approach and make sure we are things are secure as far as where it comes down to protection yes and then going from there miss question no I just want to ask we didn't replace every unit before right I wasn't here so I don't know I go back and research to see which units were placed and which 1 were not placed but I don't remember but I don't think we replaced every yeah but if there's anything that's under warranty you know we'll check it but you know normally you get hit by lightning that ain't going to cover that 1 that was my next question about the warranty it may not depends so back to the projects again so some of I was just saying that we remember what was approved some of us was saying they do not remember what was approved so we need that list it is important for that information to be available online under our capital projects we spent a boatload of money fixing the roof and replacing the big units on the top and on the first floor classrooms have smaller units and so we need to make sure that for transparency stake I got to whack that that information is accessible so that everyone is speaking the same language God forbid Mr Zimmerman something happens to you and all that we need to make sure sure that it's accessible and that it's available because we spent a lot of money on those roofs and I know we went down to the first floor and that was all approved by the board so we need to okay so I will update so we will have a list for us yeah I won't go through the rest of this list I just go ahead and make that work and make it available to you yes and then you can see it from there I'm not sure that that answered the question about the contracts and everything that go along with it yes sir okay thank you very much other than that that's it any questions Madam chair on the air conditioning units we don't have a maintenance agreement with with a company yes we do have the maintenance agreement with them and then we are working on meeting and working on all all of that right now to go through cuz that's 1 of the things I brought up with the guys when I met with them I'm like this is too frequent what is the problem you know what's the problem why are we having this why is taking so long to get these things fixed why do we have to do this why do we have to do that and so that now 1 of the type of the units back in we had to find somebody who could actually with like and certified okay that took the company a little while and right now SSC is the company that has that responsibility ability to make sure that those units are there so they have to reach out to third party people to bring them in so when we sat down and go through that that's what we're trying to make sure all the processes being followed if it's a warranty let's get warranty done if it's not let's find out if there's something that's not going to be covered by Insurance let's find out why it's not covered by insurance well to me 1 thing you do if you when you look you know picking out a maintenance company to maintain your air conditioning you make sure that they were could maintain anything you had on campus if they don't if they don't have the the people involved but how can they maintain something if they're not able to work on right so need to do it maybe a little better than the company we hire for the school district okay that that's in this next RFP we going to put out the debt you have to have someone to cover whatever devices we have okay all right thank you thank you Mr Man Dr whack superintendent's update Madam chair board members um before you just to ask uh a waiver of March the 5th excuse my typo I sent it to miss um write the wrong way it should have just been March 5th was the 1 de we had in March uh by the grace of God we had all of our e-learning days and all of that covered a lot of that stuff that we had in January February so we had that 1 day it was a bad wind day I think it was and so we had to have that 1 day waived the board can wave uh up to I think 3 or 4 days but we only need this 1 day because we were uh we had all of our makeup days that we utilize as well as is our e-learning days that we utilize and so this was the 1-day extra that simply needs to be waived I said Dr worthy asking us to make a motion to waive the March 5th that weather dates yes ma'am I I have a motion so move Madam chair that this board wave March 5th 2025 as a representative bad weather bad weather it was a bad weather bad weather forgiveness safe second second second I didn't hear Mitchell okay for me for discussion all in favor say I I proposed the motion passes thank you madam chair uh enrollment I was asked just to give a brief uh overview of our our current enrollment and demographics or at least what we ended the year on uh we ended the year with uh 2,927 students uh each School are originally Elementary School ended with 79 96 students Hartville Elementary 722 students Ridgeland uh secondary Academy of Excellence 712 students and Hartville Junior Senior High School ended with 697 students our uh demographics are such we have 53% Hispanic 36% African-American 9% white and 2% other and those are our current current uh demographics uh within our schools actually we have 119 1,119 African-American students 1,566 Hispanic students 350 white students and 52 students were designated as other yes we have 100 1 I'm sorry 1,119 African-American students 1,566 Hispanic students 350 white students and 52 students who identify as other okay um any questions about that population that is something that is presented in our meeting earlier without um by the teachers you know they really need to look into that literally doing this service right thank you next yes um next up is we did a survey about uh expanding or changing the school hours um and so overwhelmingly uh the Community parents teachers who all responded we had 478 responses 81% were in favor of the shift and and basically the shift will be really not as expansive as we initially want mainly because of our bja situation uh we need to make sure of course we we have buses available for when our kids get back from BJs time up just by about 15 minutes the start time will be 8:15 and they will dismiss about 15 minutes earlier instead of 3:45 they'll dismiss at 3:30 uh they dismissed currently at 3:00 at BJ Ace and with 29 drivers pushing up on 30 we feel like we have have uh done a good job of recruiting with bus drivers so that we can get our kids from Ace back you know that traffic's a bare particularly at that time they um specifically going to Hardeeville and even if you're coming that back road uh it can have its own challenges I know what I'm trying to go to a BJs meeting it sometimes the challenge just getting down that road and and getting there on time but uh so we're going to make just a a subtle shift just about a 15-minute shift uh in the start uh time with our uh students and so just wanted to um make you aware that that it will it did get the overwhelming support uh if the parents did not want it we would not have uh considered my concern was for the students again Who coming from Ace there's nothing more disturbing for a parent who has kids who are attending school in either of our oral campuses they're sitting in the parking lot for 2 hours waiting for the kids to get to them from Ace because of traffic well I've been there done that for all year so I know it's a problem I don't know the issue I can admit was you know some parents have to bring their elementary kids to school pretty early and and there were some challenges or some concerns about putting off of course at 7:15 in the morning and some and you know and and and I I did respond to many parents a lot of middle high schools across the state or that way my children were that way uh you drop them off at the middle school you know they're they're standing outside that's just that's how was when I was in Middle School but um our principals have done a good job particularly on cold days really rainy days to try to make sure it was not as much of a problem before this year because we had estro funds and with Esser funds we were able to have early morning uh opportunities for the children uh and and we did not have that funding this year so I and once it ended and a lot of times our high school principal uh would be there alone or 1 other person with her and you've got to come in through the scanners and all that good stuff so uh start backing it up a little bit earlier actually gets our teachers here a little bit earlier which allows us to bring the kids in a little bit earlier more so at the high school end Elementary in has been fine with the high school and we just wanted to make sure we could accommodate those parents who sometimes literally brought who made 2 trips to the school and so we feel like that'll help help that situation any questions or comments about that so do you want us to vote on this change in time is that a request we can I mean it it's a it's a subtle 15-minute change um it's going to be policy then we do need to I'm fine with that can I have a motion to trust to change the secondary school Day hours 8:15 a.m. from 8:59 to 3:30 p.m. based on majority parents and support staff and I to complete that survey motion Madam chair I make the motion that we accept the superintendent's recommendation to change the secondary school Day hours uh to uh uh 15 mm start time and a 330 p.m. and motion by Dr B 3:30 p.m. second by Miss Mitchell is there a need for discussion all in favor say I I opposed the eyes have it there's no opposition student release request forms yes in your packet you have uh 2 requests uh 2 or 4 2 children that are second and seventh grade they're and of course Works in Buford and then the other student is a sixth grader whose parent also works in Buford and they're just requesting the release so that their children can be there with them motion for us to release our students so they can go to you for Candy School District is that the request that is the request I'm sorry Buford County School District Madam Madam chair I would like to make a motion that we honor the press for the student to go to Griffith County School District with their parents second motion by is Riley that the question for their students to attend school and the county we accepted by the school board and seconded by Miss Bolton need for discussion all in favor let's say hi hi opposed motion passes no opposition um the Hardeeville field update is is pretty simple we're still in the contractual phases of that as um many of you on all of you should be aware of uh our hope is as we move forward here in the next month so that once um any questions and all clarifications can be made hopefully uh by this summer we can move forward in starting uh the Hardeeville uh field updates I will also say that the renderings that have been presented to this for during this moment has been shared with the contractor that we're looking at so we're not necessarily trying to reinvent the wheel uh and and we have also the kind of giving him more of a cap about where we wanted to to spend those funny especially now seeing that there there's other options or that could be done with with pieces of that money so uh particularly the performance art side of that uh it's it's clearly in the plan and sometimes I think we can give Hardeeville what they're looking for that's going to be promising and positive and probably be able to do do what we said back and although I wasn't here back in 2001 what what we promised and so um that's that's a goal and the hope uh I've even contacted some other superintendents that I know that have done some field houses some field work uh and trying to keep it as economical and fiscal fiscal economical as possible but understanding that that field has some water issues that we definitely have to resolve outside of that I think that we'll be able to give Hardeeville a beautiful uh situation uh and probably be able to stretch this money as far as far as we can I think the more more the community can see of what's been done with that funding will I think excite them for what's coming with the current funding that you need us to no no you are y'all just wanted an update I just wanted to update you there next up will be the faculty and staff updates also in your packet you have just a copy of the board um dates for the new school year uh I also based on some of our past planning added uh the workshop committee meeting dates on there and it does have uh just a little asterisk just letting you know that that will be done based on on your needs as a board uh and those meetings could either be in person or thank you and here we go with celebrating our faculty and staff and once this is complete that ends the superintendent report thank you all so much is none other than business she teaches our Spanish she said they cannot import our he's always the first 1 to just volunteer her time our teacher we had our first Saturday of having she was the first 1 to stop and she did she celebrated with us and had a conversation with those parents and we are just doing amazing things we also want to celebrate our staff that is none other than this is bad that she holds down she is doing a phenomenal job I want to thank you help but she also comes in and helps me have 3 and kind of leaner helps with catering events and special events of the product on behalf of the whole department thank you very much in your eyes University school year anything else how can I help you wants to see again all on you don't understand um board do we have a decision to make this evening we've discussed our referendum projects at a we have the list we did the referendum all of the projects that we're going to do with the referendum money that we just got approved we need to approve for those projects to go forward um in the following way we did the 2001 referendum all of the projects went up at the same time and they did not go up piece by piece because of the material cost and so forth so the next time we meet to address the 25 um the referendum that we just passed we need to make a decision as to which projects will go first or it will build them the same way we built them blasting we do know that because the audits they're doing different things with the bonus surrounding and so forth that we need to have place so that when that's over we go forward for the next time we will make a decision on that as to whether or not we're going to do these Creeks first and 3 years later Hardeeville taking into consideration what we were told excuse me about the cost of materials the last time we did this the cost of materials went up as we did our projects but because we're building on at 1 time there are a piece we're done with didn't affect us so that's something that we will address next time that we meet we will solidify what will happen with our projects in the recent referendum that we passed also passed in the recent referendum that we would lend support to Buford Jasper Ace because we still have students going there all of that needs to be ironed out before we can move forward so we have a a levels we do have it no well we'll have it again we'll make sure everybody gets the list again when we meet the next time so it's all fresh in our minds and we can go forward so that whoever gets the bits and whatever that needs to be done that it is completed the work needs to be completed yeah um and I understand Madam chair join the list but I thought that we were going to wait until our audits finalized because of the fact that borrowing money is too expensive this is not about starting the building so we can prioritize them but we can't give timelines we can have correct okay all we're doing is approving they have to go forward and so the public knows that we approved her for all right we'll discuss it in our next meeting so I don't know why third grade promotion retention is under my name I don't do retention but it's it's a reminder for parents that the law was passed if the students are not reading in grade level they will be retained and their parents will be notified by the district as to what support be offered to them during the summer months please keep up with your emails and your voicemail notifications so you can know I know this is a a concern for most parents know 1 likes any of their children to be retained but it's no longer optional it's state law they have to be upgraded okay we do ma'am yes I got the way um her parents notified about this law yes okay we brought it up before we discussed it before but because we're close to closing at the school year 500 us to address it requires that you make correct uh that so we have to follow those uh you know because it took a minute to plan for third grade summer school so we've been we've been working on this hold on yeah and uh a policy committee we actually met and we talked extensively about this law that is a state law regarding um that the state department has said that that we cannot help them if they don't score a certain score on the testing and we as a policy committee wanted to come back to this board and have that uh law put in our policy so that that would be on our website and uh we will we will certainly bring that information back at the next meeting uh for the port this board to uh consider voting on it because it's not anything we can do but we want it that to be in our promotion um uh policy as far as students so we just have a link that will take those parents directly to that state law thank you that's how we are updating section of the policy any other the questions um Dr whack given that there is a a good chance uh some of our third grade students will be retained um have you and a principal's thought of options um or done any planning for availability of rooms and teachers for the additional students in third grade from the great number so uh the good part about being able to certify particularly to say South Carolina is you're a 26 TV so basically we want to shift those students to teach them uh back in of all those suggestions that the state is giving us is potentially a 3.5 uh year which is the child by mid year on that shows that they've grown that we could promote them integrate 4 now I'm going to be frank with you most of the challenges that children are having getting getting the third grade is in the reading level uh and so if that reading level is under leave your second grade or less and see this is this is and then I'm going to get him a Native American this is the problem the third grade retention because the issues that third graders have are things that need to be rectified in grade 1 not in grade 3 Although our teachers and levers train they can do push-ins they can do small group they can even try new reading recovery strategies all that stuff works but you got to be consistent with if you're not consistent with then that third grader will be in the third grade again and have not kicked up the records and skills to get okay great that's that 1 but you know what that's educational pedagogy that's just the if we if we have kids in kindergarten it needs the beginning kindergarten so to make sure that they're leaving on grade level because they're not leaving on grade level that's what creates the problem absolutely and now we have a lot of say it's no longer optional and parents need to to know that doctor work how are the principles can you let us know the next time we meet how the principles are addressing the grace below third grade from this point on so we don't have the scenario again board members we have our monthly attendance on the back of this agenda and Elementary open house dates are on the agenda as well as the first day of school we have come to the end of this agenda for this board meeting so the meeting is adjourned thank you everyone for coming drive safely and enjoy your yes get

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Board of Education Monthly Meeting (Monday, June 9 2025)

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