Transcript for:
MARCH 2025 LEX RICH 5 BOARD MEETING

all opposed and the motion carries 6 Z and and because we ran over we're going right into it it is um 61 and I'd like to call the March 10th meeting to order can I get a motion to approve the agenda I'll move that we approve the agenda can I get a second all in favor all opposed and the motion carries six to zero may I get a motion to enter into executive session I move that we enter executive session to consider the following selected employment items exhibit a action and selected employment items exhibit B information only may I get a second all in favor all opposed and the motion carries 6 to0 and we will adjourn till 700 p.m. for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening it is 700 p.m. so I'm going to call the public March 10th Schoolboard meeting to order um thank you all for being with us this evening the board is already 2 hours in since we had a Workshop that started at um 5:00 p.m. so glad to have you all here with us for this portion of our meeting at this time I'm going to turn it over to Dr Heron for the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance thank you Lord As We Gather here today in service to our students teachers and community may we approach our work with wisdom integrity and compassion May our decisions be guided by a commitment to fairness understanding and the greater good let us listen with open minds speak with respect and act with the best interest in all our hearts May our efforts help create a future where every child has the opportunity to learn grow and th Thrive we ask this in your name Amen to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with li jce for all Miss Taylor if we could have you for the school board Spotlight and I ask my board members to join me up front thank you gentlemen all right Madam chair members of the board Dr Ross good evening so glad to be able to share this great celebration with you tonight South Carolina's Wrestling Championships were held just a few weeks ago and School District 5 had great results here in the middle um is Preston White he competed for chapen high school and won the state championship for the 120 pound division this was uh Preston's third state championship and concluded an undefeated season in fact um with Chap and high school Preston has a 138 win eight loss High School record which is remarkable congratulations so uh want to congratulate him on an outstanding [Applause] season and then all the way down on the end there is Caleb mcneel he a senior from Dutch Fork High School he won the 175 pound Division and what's interesting about Caleb is he suffered an injury earlier this season and was able to work hard and recover and still be successful in addition Caleb has been a captain and team leader for the past three years and this is the first state wrestling title for Dutch Fork High School since 2017 so Caleb we're so proud of you too and congratulations [Applause] and of course we know that these students could not be successful without great coaches so we are happy to recognize chaen high school wrestling coach Mason Marshall as the 2025 Region 4 5A wrestling Coach of the [Applause] Year this is coach Marshall's first season at chapen high school but his seventh season overall coaching wrestling he came to us from bwood high school so um coach Marshall is also in his first year teaching business education at chapen middle school so congratulations coach and thank you for your hard work as well so I'll invite you now to go up and do do the handshake thing for wait for Mom and Dad to y'all good okay one more okay all right thank you all right great job guys thank you at this time Dr Ross I'll turn it over to you for the superintendent report thank you madam chair members of the board and our community we so proud of our resting programs and um want to Welcome to the executive staff table Dr Gerald Gary former of Dutch Fork High School miss an opportunity to get recognized so we appreciate Reed stepping in to come in and take his first championship pin so we're we're very proud of that but again thank you so much for joining our executive team and uh also I I guess we have to thank Miss Tucker uh for the chaping recognition because when she became CFO it was a vacancy Dr Turner for a new teacher at chapen middle school and that's how we got coach Marshall so uh Take a Bow you get a pen for for that that recognition as well but um again we ask three critical questions each and every day why are we here uh how do we accomplish that why and then what are our outcomes our vision is that we love and grow our students our mission is that we're focused on the social emotional development uh and growth of our students and then our our outcomes are our strategic plan these are our 24 strategies that are chasing full performance goals all towards the objectives that we want to make sure every student feels loved in our schools and every student has demonstrated academic growth in our schools our feedback from the state is uh in our measurable assessment outcomes uh that sees us uh growing in areas and the areas that we're not growing in uh surrounding our our continuous improvement process to ensure that uh we can meet the the Strategic plan of the state by 2030 that 75% of students will be at or above grade level in measures as we look at our measures Again by State uh requirements we are to look at do uh three uh Summit of Assessments throughout the year and so those are in the fall the winter and the spring you see the fall we see the winter data and now students are in the window of the spring uh as we continue to look through this we're not only looking at the performance of our uh areas of growth for secondary but also because of act 114 the performance of our third graders uh we're also looking at the largest indicator performance for high schools which is the graduation rate and so you can see as we track this weekly uh our goal is to identify the the uh obstacles that stand in the way of each and every student uh until we meet our goal where um nine out of 10 students are graduating on time within four years of entering the eighth gr the ninth grade as we do this our general budget is uh in line to uh support these aims and initiatives and so I want to uh just go over the general budget timeline U this is already begun but uh as we look at our general budget we're looking at three areas that we want to ensure uh are in position that's the revenue for the general operating fund where 64% of our funds are coming from the state so being informed of how the state uh will uh provide its its allocations is important our local uh and that's what's our operation millage and then the grants that we receive we're looking at our expenses and so looking at priorities of the administration the board our uh Community um advisories our our faculty advisories will give us an idea of of the expenses that we will incur this year and then also the fund balance Reserve uh and so this is the equation that we manage through uh we have a discussion on a reserve policy uh today and so as we look through for uh March at our next meeting we will review our strategic plan uh amendments the administration looks at the uh the data for uh that we have done in terms of our continuous Improvement we look at our measurables and then we will present at the uh March 24th meeting uh through Dr Harris's office we'll be looking in accountability at the Strategic plan amendments that will be presented those amendments are to be adopted will be discussed in March and adopted in April we also bring to you the pre-approvals for reappointments in March uh in April we would like to have another uh budget discussion uh this is where we take all the priorities from the surveys that you've done for the uh information that we receive and then put numbers behind those uh so what does this mean and give you some options so that we can make inform decisions and by policy uh have the first reading of the budget prepared for in May uh we have two meetings in June which will give us the opportunity uh to ensure that we had the second final reading uh before the fiscal year ends uh so uh strategic plan and our amendments in March adopt those in April along with the prioritization of the budget along with our capital budget U to be completed and uh be in positioned for first read by by the first meeting in May as we look at resoning we are hard at work in this process again this is a huge task for the school district to for moving from our current elementary zones into our new Elementary zones which will be in effect for July 1 2026 our goal is restructuring especially the middle levels uh that is an area that we feel that in School District 5 we can Shore up as our Middle School experience our intermediate experience moving from the multiple transitions to fewer transitions uh with all elementary schools going to prek to 5 all middle schools now five middle schools no more intermediates going sixth seventh and eth and then our Traditional High School structure uh to get there I think it's important for us as we plan not to put the cart in front of a horse so I wanted to share uh the process it takes to get from this proc this structure to this structure and in doing so we start with student enrollment uh in Dr Harris's U Department we are uh of accountability we've done a best case scenario of enrollment projections based on Trends uh he he and his team have put together uh and finalizing uh student enrollment projections um that look at those those trends of of where we would be in your new Zone plus looking at the trends from past Choice decisions of parents from that we will tackle the structure the structure of uh the grades the movement of in the attendance feeders and that will determine the programs that we put at the different schools from there we will look at Staffing and what uh staff will be needed to uh to ensure those programs work to equipping those uh programs and and the staff uh being involved in the equipment that's needed and then finally occupancy so this is the process that we're working through just to give you an idea of um how that will uh how we will handle this in our planning process uh here are the dates for uh each of uh the meetings that we're having to discuss these uh we call it our director's cut all of directors uh from each of the Departments within the the school district the administrative departments from operations student services and planning academics finance and Human Resources all of those depart the directors come together and we tackle uh these uh five items tomorrow will be the first directors cut as we ensure that we're meeting the needs for structure when you move from an intermediate to a middle school or you moving fifth grade into an elementary school uh that structure may bring some programmatic and some instructional uh needs uh and we want to make sure that everybody is hands on deck in ensuring that we have we've uh accomplished the structure correctly once the structure is in place on March 25th will come back and we'll talk about programs and this is huge art programs music programs special education programs Ohi and and health issues we want to make sure all those programs are in place academic programs um and so once we have the programs listed and and they're in their right structures then we will staff them based on Staffing modeling we'll handle that on April the 8th um once the staff is in place the staff drives what they need uh equipment and supplies and so uh on April the 22nd uh we will handle ensuring that the equipment and supplies are in place and then the occupancy plan how do we move everyone there so this is a our very aggressive uh structure so that gets us to May that we're in position to have these questions answered why is May important well may is when we ask the teachers to weigh in on where they would like to be when all of this is positioned and so we are working to make sure that we get to this this point in May that's all of the meetings that lead up to it so the administration is hard at work on putting all of the details in place so that may 25 um after the contracts are signed we're loading the preferences of the current staff on where they want to be uh once that is in place uh we will take those survey results in June uh to do some uh predictions of where we will have our students and staff July August and September is finalizing those plans in October uh we will communicate out to the staff what we are what we have as a result uh November the principes get their staff to um as they're give us feedback in December we finalize that and in January all staff are notifi of where they're going to be uh so this is a very aggressive plan but we feel like we can execute it and so a lot of our attention and efforts are going to be on this budget and Staffing uh calendar as we have if preferences changes between now and and then between May and January um Human Resources is align this process with our regular uh transfer portal process and so uh if their preferences have changed for any reasons there's another opportunity to provide your preference with the regular internal transfer windows so um for families and communities to know that all teachers to be new to their site will be oriented by this time next year uh they will be U assigned in January and have their orientations at their new sites that U as we provide their preferences in March of next year and then by May of next year All Families would have had their opportunity uh to have orientations and uh that way before the summer ends we are prepared for the transition and the rezoning uh to take effect uh in in the start of school for the 2026 school year we do that we want to uh talk a little bit about classroom supports uh as our administrator priority uh it was mentioned about the um taking the opportunity to look at uh task force of um school districts that are showing promise especially with poverty and and we have um given the diverse needs that we have in our district a a great number of of small teams of professional learning communities and school districts are looking at districts like cars I want to point um attention to Anderson one I'll give them a shout out at our meeting about their growth um their poverty level is is identical or not identical but in line with ours and they're having uh great success and outcomes and if you look at um what do they credit for their rise and success their ability to turn those red bars into blue bars students not on grade level to students that are on grade level it is the ability for were the greatest ideas within the school to be shared amongst all teachers in the school um they call these professional learning communities uh they are the first um District certified professional Le Learning Community District in the state um we are a professional Learning Community District as well and ask Mr MC you know to put it in a nutshell what are learn professional Learning Community is trying to do and these are the four questions that they are accomplishing they immediately know what they want students to know and be able to do they know how they will if students learned it the information or not they know they know how they were respond when students they that don't know the information but most importantly for students who do they know how to extend those students uh we have set in School District 5 a districtwide expectation that all teachers need to know their standards and how to communicate I can statements to students and parents in a way that allows students to be able to know the next steps in learning and uh plc's that are high performing are able to do that uh one of our dist schools in our district we like to just highlight um Spring Hill and their professional learning communities has been reviewed has been highlighted by a lot of outside groups um and they're so aligned to the four questions that teachers grade other classrooms assessments and they can do that because of that alignment alone the four questions and so uh as we look in classroom supports we're going to look at ways that we can support all schools and all teachers in doing this so our goal is to move from this Mass education system to individualized Learning System uh the reality as I've shared with the board last summer is it's becoming incredibly tough uh to to make these transitions this is a real classroom from last year I'm using last year's data um but it doesn't change from our current reality this is a real eighth grade class uh that is median poverty in our district so it's not our worst case not our best case with 21 students in there and eight different uh reading uh grade levels to serve this becomes very challenging and you can see the the distribution of students along the the curve there's not a majority of students in any one of the Bands we asked our teachers we spent a year with our teacher advisory asking them how can we support you with these realities in the classroom they told us three things acknowledge what we're going through acknowledge the contributions that we made you know if I go back uh this is the end of the year and two students are at a second grade reading level but they all grew so they come in at a first grade level they grow to a second grade level that teacher has accomplished a lot but that's those students won't show up in any achievement does the teachers say acknowledge those contributions they also say we need quality time to reflect and plan on practice I also say that we uh appreciate any supports that you can give us uh with these realities and so um I wanted to uh present an opportunity for support uh for our our our school district and for our teachers um I believed as I always belied that a um The Faculty needs a faculty The Faculty needs a faculty and it uh may be tough to give 1,400 teachers an instructional assistant um but imagine that every teacher had somebody an instructional assistant to develop tests based on State Standards to provide feedback to students based on individual performance to generate worksheets for individual students or write lesson plans and assessments to produce informational text in multiple languages and multiple reading levels to produce uh presentations based on I can statements to make recommendations for IEP accommodations well districts are using now generative AI to do this and I wanted to speak to the the board about an opportunity we have uh where we may not be able to give every faculty member a faculty member but we can give them a powerful tool y AI uh it is upon us is being used um very heavily uh just saw this chart um that was uh presented to us and it said it took three and a half years for Netflix to reach a million users it took chat GPT five days students are using it teachers are using it parents are using it and uh this is uh something that I think that we want to use in a safe and ethical way uh to support our teachers so what is classroom support which generative AI look like I want us to go back to this example I gave you reading levels this is achievement this is the reality that we're facing not only just third grades but all of our grades these are the classrooms that we see uh in 1964 to I think 1979 in our school district we had individually guided education this was brought to my attention we got the documents and we started to look over IG e was is a very Innovative instructional model uh in School District 5 and in this model uh the teachers had a support of a unit leader who would help develop the the lesson and each teacher received an instructional assistant the instructional assistant would look at the needs of the kids in the Red Band and move them to a teacher that would work with kids in the Red Band identify the students in the orange band and move them to a teacher that worked on the orange so forth and so on and students moved around based on their performances and their needs uh and that was done by the instructional assistant there was so much movement in this model that the buildings were built with no walls uh so jaap and Elementary Lake U leap Park U Harbison West all of those uh uh schools were built to allow this model to happen that was something very unique to us we' U now can we do that today no but what we have found is that the instructional assistant in a lot of districts and a safer use of this is with a program called uh Magic School AI uh so we are going to Clinic uh with ay County um and Miss MCO is leading a a group that will um first they were going to travel to ory county but they said what it's digital so they just work with them online U but there is a lot of work that Ori county has done with aligning um the use of generative AI uh to the district Vision uh and so she wasn't supposed to be on schedule today but I ask uh Miss Jenny Garris our director of Technology if she would just come for uh we already have or are using um The Magic School AI within our district um we are seeking the ability to use a site license that would give full access to it uh but when people hear AI they think about ethical use data security and so I wanted uh Miss Garis to just kind of speak to what we have seen of this particular vendor thank you um you we speak basically uh mainly about the data privacy and security piece Dr Ross um so last spring we became aware of Magic School Ai and through instruction and Technology um collaboratively we put this product through what we have our district vetting process and it's a pretty thorough process um we have a whole lot of different uh viewpoints that go into it but from the technology side one of the pieces we look at is data privacy data security obviously so um I've got some things here I'm going to read through some bullet points that as we went through this vetting process um it became clear that this product was designed for K12 which many AI products aren't necessarily designed for K12 so this really spoke to what we were looking for in something that understands what uh security and data privacy concerns we have when it comes to children so there are several things I want to highlight from this and one um they do not collect any person personable identifiable information pii we always say um and they they say in they're very clearly stated in their terms of service their privacy policies which are all reviewed very thoroughly um they don't collect it um this includes names addresses student IDs any other details that could identify a student they actually go one step further if that type of information is submitted so let's say a staff member submits that kind of information uploads it they actually monitor that and if they see that that kind of information has been shared into their product they um will remove it immediately to and then delete it to maintain that privacy so that's very impressive and not something we see very often in products that we're vetting um also their data security measures so we always look at companies and their breach protocols what they do from their security standpoint um again they hit all of the marks that we put out for them um they do all processing within the United States so data that does go in there even if it's not pii just as its information doesn't leave the United States that's very important they don't sell any of our data um there is a magic student component um if we use that there are no advertisements or marketing that's put out there to students that's very important as well we also looked they share their incident protocols so if they have a breach incident what do they do um that was clearly defined in there and they also are compliant with furpa and CA uh you've probably heard furpa before family educational rights and Privacy Act um CA is the children's online privacy protection act um and it really targets and talks about children under the age of 13 so um it really puts the onus on the product makers to create a product that helps protect kids and so when they comply with those laws that also tells us they've met uh the standard and so as we went through Magic School AI from that vetting standpoint not only did they meet our standards but they really exceeded so as we talked and I spoke with Dr Ross it's a product that I feel very comfortable that is made for k12 and I think that's really important for us to think about when as he said AI is out there our students are using it our teach teachers are using it this product really puts the guard rails and safety measures in place that I think are are super important and I just wanted to I thought I was bringing back something Innovative and M Masco and as gar said very nicely we're already in it we got we we're using this uh and U but we're using the free version and so a lot of the things that are created can't be saved and stored and it doesn't give us access to the full Suite so we want to um let Mr Masco lead uh the the suite of uh the team that's going down to review uh their implementation Miss Garis will look at it on the operational side and then um uh look to include this resource uh as an instructional support uh within the the budget thank you m Garis and our our goal is as we I'm sorry can I ask a quick question about that um to I I think it would be helpful um is there any way that you to the extent practical that you could obtain examples of what this can do for example you know looking back at that classroom slide of all the desks and the reading levels and it talks about you don't have to change it but it talks about the um the different individual individualized learning plans that it can create worksheets for each individual student it would be help to be able to see that visualize what that would look like for a fourth grade student versus you know somebody else in the same class at the eighth grade level so that we could tangibly see that difference I think it would help in a lot of people's minds to be able to kind of make it real versus just yeah and there is many of our teachers are using the free version right now it just like anything the paid version gives you many many more tools so um honestly anyone can go right now and look at the Magic School AI website and you can create a free account and you can use and see some of those tools and I can tell you many of our teachers have already done that we vetted this last spring so it became on our approved vetted resources list and so even though at the time the district hadn't purchased it that also told our teachers this is an approved site and I and I know there was some you know training done informal training probably more more than anything and you know spreads among teachers one teacher uses something and they really like it and they start talking so but anybody can go look at it um it's not closed because there is a free version can I ask a question is this subject specific no sir and even it can be when we buy a district license it can be used by support staff it can be used by administrators um there are many things in here I see um instructional assistance could also do you know we used to traditionally think the instructional assistants or our clerical staff made copies and with this they could really help the teacher by using this tool as well to create leveled text as Mr Scully used as an example if the teacher gave the assistant a a text the the instructional assistant could go and use this tool because there it can change a text into a certain grade level it can include certain vocabulary words and so training instructional uh support staff to help I think is another key component here yeah sounds really good and I I like Mr scully's suggestion the practicality the usage maybe if Miss mcco goes down and visits ory county if there's a one of their or two of their teachers say I'd love to sit down with your classroom teachers and show them how this is a helpful tool and not where they have to go back and reexamine data and go through all that process po so thank you um so um did the are the children using their computers like in other words if if a teacher uses this to create a test did the students take their test in this same tool or would they still take their test with pencil and paper they could do it however the teacher wants it to there isn't a place in the tool where they would actually take the test but the teacher might create it and so they could take the digital test and maybe put it in Google classroom or whatever they're using to to typically do that or they could print it out if they do paper pencil so it's really the tool generator not necessarily a platform it's not a learning management system where the kids are logging in and the teachers are posting assignments in it it's not that it's it's really to create the content and the assignments one other question is um I actually use AI a lot and I found sometimes it it learn because it's learns right sometimes it learns things that aren't true yes is that any concern with this oh absolutely I think with any AI That's something and that's part of professional development and Dr Ross mentioned ethical use and moral you know the moral value I guess of it that that's something that are adults and our students need to be very aware of that it could spit out a so-called historical document that may not be correct and so I think as we talk about AI That's a really key component for our students going into the future because this is just going to continue to develop but our teachers too so it's would never replace a teacher because once it creates you know the teacher could have a test and maybe they have a student that has accommodations you know instead of four answers they only get two answers and that kind of thing it could help with a lot of those tasks to be efficient but to your point the content is really important adults still have to know their content and know that it's accurate and it's reaching the goals and meeting the standards this does align with state standards as well you can enter your standards and Tina I don't want to get too far you can step in but it does align with State Standards so there's some pieces of that that I think again is a huge help for teachers and keeps them focused on what they're teaching Mr MC is there anything want that Jenny did a great job but you're right whenever um we come back after we we're meeting with ory county next week and I do hope to have some practical examples like you were talking about Mr Scully to actually see what's going on in the schools because they have been going and doing individual trainings at each school this first year for them has been on a voluntary basis you know which teachers want to use it those are the ones that they're spending the most time with helping them and so it's has been on a voluntary basis and then of course once somebody sees that something works then the word spreads and another teacher wants it that type thing um but I do want some hard examples of how the differentiation is taking place because that is the one thing when I was on the phone with ory county that they talked about how powerful that's been for teachers and and the work that it saved them because of what they've used with magic school and so that that's one of the requests that I have for them is to bring some samples and show that so I will have that and can bring it back we we thank you for um just kind of engaging in this conversation with us as uh we we move forward one of the things that we're U looking for is that first bullet there is to ensure that uh teachers and the staff and Community understand that AI does not replace the teacher uh this is a tool uh to to help us differentiate sorry um Miss MCO so will this be voluntary for our teachers as well yeah so the first year um will be voluntary we we'll be incorporating professional development we're revamping some things with our lead D5 to allow for some um a lot more choice in the sessions that they're going to be going to that will be align to plc's and they'll be able to go to sessions and hopefully what will happen is if I'm on a four member PLC team then all four of us are going to go to lots of different sessions and then that afternoon we're going to be able to come back and share what we find and and we'll share the information and it'll begin to spread that way but it will not be something that's mandated the first year for sure and then um I know we're not obviously not it's a tool we're not replacing teachers but um will it be targeted more for teachers who don't have teacher Assistance or will teachers that already have assistance at the younger level still be able to use it it'll be for all teachers I I guess maybe I could use myself as an example um they gave me the gave me a 30-day free trial and so I thought I'm going to try this thing out and I'm going to do some things with it well I needed to draw I needed to write a video script um and I only had a little bit of time to do it so I sat down with it and it wrote a two and a half minute video script for me in a matter of about a minute and a half it spit it out and it took me about 10 minutes to edit and correct it and I had the video script ready to go something that I was dreading cuz I thought it was going to take me about an hour hour and a half to write took me about 2 and 1 half minutes and then about 10 minutes to edit it so I do think that it has lots of potential for all of our staff members of course we want to Target the differentiation and help with with teachers with all of the various levels that they have in their classes but all of our staff members will benefit from this greatly in the midd million dollar question how much does it cost so I'll answer that we will um we are now but on our our initial estimate is about $90,000 a year this is a uh but it'll be a recurring cost and uh what I've Justified to give 1,400 teachers an instructional assistant um this tuck would be a little bit more than that of course but uh so that's my justification but that's a great question now that is initial quote we would like the opportunity to just go back and see if there any other plugins after visiting ay uh but that was the initial quote for full access and that way when I've created something I can save it I can keep it I can share it and it becomes work product of the district and this is a new budget line item not replacing something that's already there okay and is that a the cost is it a blanket cost for the the that's the cost of the subscription districtwide or is there a per user charge it's based on the number of students in the district is the way that they they give the rate the quote okay but we don't have to apply licenses so it wouldn't be something if we went over we would then get incur greater cost it's for the year for the Enterprise okay and that's why you say it'd be available to all teachers because regardless of the number of teachers that use it the cost Remains the Same yeah all staff everybody and it will be available to students as well so this would be a it's a student and staff platform everything sounds exciting I would just say continue to lean on that first bullet put strong guard rails just to protect our our teachers so we don't turn into the grocery stores that went to self checkout and we're you know one teacher for four classrooms we just want to save those jobs well and Dr Ross if I can add one of the things in the the technology world and we talk about these things free is never free so even though there a free version of this we get a lot more for a paid version but one of the things we have a data privacy agreement directly with us between us and the company because we're doing the paid version um and so they sign a lot they do a lot more with us when you're paying and I think that payment is worth Peace of Mind well you know what they say when it's free it's not free you are the problem that's correct um so we we thinking we're going to continue the conversation we did not want to come back from our meeting with uh ory county and just you not have any um for knowledge of this and so we look forward to continuing this discussion um as we talk with our administrators um Mr SP that was the number one point is that they were all go on the Tool uh but the lead is the the teacher and um making sure that with any generative AI uh it is as good is what it's learning and so having the safeguards of of that that teacher is super important it's all to as we move from a mass education system to an individualized education system and our parents are very clear uh there were a myriad of different things that they wanted from School District 5 it was no one thing but what everybody said is whatever you do it needs to be for my child that speaks differentiation and a tool that will help us differentiate in this world uh is is something that we we want to make a priority so uh we look forward to bringing in more information on on this matter uh and so at this time speaking of our children our students we're going to turn it over to Dr Mike Harris the chief of student services and planning for our student service and planning report thank you uh Dr Ross members of the board uh our general Community tonight we wanted to bring to you again an idea uh an activity an event that quite frankly is taking our district once again by storm uh it is uh one that has generated a lot of interest and we've asked uh m k Brown who's our director of student services to come tonight and to share with you about this idea she is the author she is the Creator and the quite frankly the playmaker of this activity and this event so we're going to ask her at this time to come forward and to share with you once again the idea that's taken District Five by star I don't know if I can follow that up yeah know it good evening Madam chair members of the board Dr Ross uh despite my first message about March being warmer weather please do not look outside it will dispute everything that I'm getting ready to talk about but as we do know typically as we're getting ready to see later in the week March will start um a time of season for students that can be a little bit more challenging uh it is warmer weather we have spring Sports we have a little bit of senioritis coming up and we're rounding the corner to to fourth quarter rounding the corner to fourth quarter and we have a little bit of a long stretch before spring break so you have all of that going on in the world of students and we also want to continue to finish strong with what we are doing across the board with attendance um this is our second year doing attendance teams with the support and help of our attendants um support Miss Allen and Miss Reed um all of our school sites conduct attendance team meetings once a month if not twice a month um in these attendance meetings they are um comprised of assistant principes school counselors our school nurse social workers and our attendant support ladies that come to uh meet and talk about not only schoolwide incentives or schoolwide campaigns that talk about what are we doing for the students that are continuously showing up but also taking a minute to look at the data to look at what barriers or extenda circumstances students may have that that team can sit there and talk and navigate through how we can support each and every family to produce good attendance um in the classroom it really helps that initiative when you hear statistics like the number one indicator um for a high school dropout is looking at student attendance or if you look at on the other end a student in kindergarten who is chronically absent has a 177% chance of reading on grade level by the time they are in third grade so frency is a term we're very familiar with that's when a student is missing all day and all day absences but the new term in the attendance world is called chronic absenteeism chronic absenteeism charts when a student misses 50% or more of the school day so if they're coming in late or if they're leaving early or 10% of their enrollment period And so when you look at what students are walking through and continuing our initiative with attendance teams um what we did last year is we started a March Madness attendance campaign across the district and with all of those efforts we ended the Year by being the first district we ranked first in the Midlands as the district with the lowest chronic absenteeism rate so we wanted to take that and continue that on and so during this month of March we're starting our second districtwide uh March Madness attendance campaign and that started last week and we will measure um chronic absenteeism rates for each school every Friday we were were able to pull that up get live data and the school that they're competing against that has the lowest chronic absenteeism rate will advance to the next round until they get to the championship round at the end of the month but regardless of the progression of each school we are asking schools to participate in things each week during the month of March so week one we gave every student in the district attendance pledge cards and they had to identify who their um attendance accountability buddy will be um or if they were in the secondary schools they had to identify who their administrator was their school counil was things that they already know but we want to make sure they can easily identify that areas of support as they're heading into this this season week two which is what we're in the middle of right now we're having a districtwide spirit week and so you will see um students and faculty dressed and members in our district office dressed for our school spirit week um our district Spirit Week uh that is taking place this week next week elementary schools will receive a read aloud about attend attendance and the value of it it's a little character in the book who doesn't want to go to school and it talks about meeting friends and learning new things so elementary schools will receive that book and secondary schools will receive a book um about quotes and statistics to just Inspire them as they move into the fourth quarter and then of course as we get into the championship we those remaining schools will get little attendance rally towels and uh and then it'll take us into the final round where the remaining the the principles that remain for the championship will meet in a gym again and it will determine who wants the winner is announced who what basketball They will receive they all the principals signed the basketball um last week and who will get on the ladder to cut the net down with all safety measures in place for that activity um what we're asking of for families and schools are three things one just to continue the conversations of good attendance and finishing the year strong we started out strong we want to finish the year strong secondly we want to continue to promote regular attendance guidelines and procedures if you're child is sick we do not want you to feel pressured to come to school we are not putting new um expectations on students we just want every student to follow the same attendance expectations and guidelines and three to have fun with this challenge we are getting ready to walk into final exams and SAT and ACT and and all of that kind of testing and so we want them to have fun as they're preparing for their final Showcase of all that they have learned while they are having fun I will tell you at the end of week one we had 17 schools decrease their chronic as anism rate last week three of the school four of the schools remain the same and the final three because we offer we include the academy for success in that count uh the three that um shifted a little bit shifted within less than a 1 Point per one percentage point and so our schools are doing wonderful work as we start this campaign um districtwide right now we are about 133% of a chronic AMS anism rate to put that in perspective last year um we were at 177% the state averages around 20% and the national average is around 25 26% so as of last week we were at 13.1% as a district so I have to commend our attendance support our attendance teams for the work that they are doing so I look forward to tracking our attendance during the month of March see who our Champions will be and um and celebrate the work that all of our schools are doing thank you do we have any questions Mr SK who's the defending champ who are we chasing you are chasing Lake Murray Elementary School they have about a 4% last year they had about a 4 9% chronic absenteeism rate okay all right everybody you heard it that's that's the H that's it we got to go get them Miss hudle what is um maybe the top one to three reasons that you see causes I know it's it's different with every child but I'm kind of curious what are the big causes one of the main things that we are seeing especially one target area is our Young Learners and the the big shift with our kindergarten and first grade students is building those healthy attendance habits uh you know setting the routines of put the book bag set the clothes down attendance is a priority every single day um one of the things that we're having with conversations with families is turning those days into hours and into minutes that when students are leaving early or coming in late this is the amount of instruction that they are they are missing so one of the things we want to have continue to um really support our Young Learners and um and then I think also too it's a matter of making sure that they are supported academically when students are missing as I told a student earlier to when you're missing school you're missing instruction and when you're missing instruction it's hard to be successful in the classroom and so if we can get them in in in the classroom then we can get them that quality instruction and so I think for the high the older students is really getting them to see the value of connecting attending school and learning um and the academic success in the classroom and then for our Young Learners is establishing those good habits all right thank you all right thank you thank you m brown for that again and we wanted to just talk just very briefly about uh by way less of a uh update in terms of our oh here we go let of an update and more of a thank you uh we have not one of but the finest Safety Office safety team in all of state of South Carolina and I would venture to say even abroad uh we have four safety officers who are former um uh Law Enforcement Officers either from lexon County and or richen County and as you may be aware if not certainly be reminded that we do have safety officer who is responsible for the chapen area one who's responsible for the Dutch folk area one for the hermo and then we also have in the second year a lead safety officer who happens to be standing behind me right now uh officer Ross wise uh they the four of them uh have um take our safety and our security measures um and they lead our district throughout every day from north to south east to west this is what they are doing to ensure that safety for all our students and our staff are volunteers and persons who are on our campuses or are indeed safe and one of the things that has helped us and why we wanted to say thank you is what you see there in the picture above and it's in reference to new vehicles that have we've been able to secure they've been able to get around instead of doubling up in one vehicle uh we've had vehicles that were using cords and bungee cords to keep the doors from opening while they were riding down the road we've had water jug and uh jumper cables and you name it just to kind of make sure that we're are responding to incidents that occur here in the district but this has certainly helped us so we wanted to say say thank you for that uh and that all four of those are on are are active and duly active and uh just wanted to Simply say thank you for that I think I basic the punchline I wanted to share with you on tonight is is that rather than an update Channel all the different various and sunry things that we're doing by way of we wanted to invite you all seven of you if you are certainly available on March the 20 March the 26th at the district office boardroom about 8:00 a.m. wanted to invite you to what is now refer what is referred to as our superintendent's emergency responders advisory uh group and what that is is an opportunity where we could bring all of our various uh law enforcement slay LA lexon County Richland County County EMS uh Emergency Management our National Weather Service um a highway patrol um do different and various organizations come together and we brainstorm we work together we Roundtable um for an hour hour and a half or so based on various topics and we want to invite you to that so that we can try to uh share with you and include you in some of those conversations and certainly if you have specific questions about something that would be an opportune time in which to address those uh so that's going to be on March Wednesday March 26 uh at our district office board R and again we just simply want to say thank you for what you do to support this safety team uh we have one of our person at lead who is here tonight and just want to Simply share that with you on tonight and certainly there's specific question that are pressing right now we're trying to respond to those but more specifically we wanted to kind of share with you again that district office meeting on the 26th of March do we have any safety related questions all right thank you thank you we I want to thank you Dr Harris uh and uh student services and planning for for that update I try to wear my neon B tie uh in rep recognition of our um of our March Madness campaign so again it's a good fun but it's a great way to teach about attendance and the importance of it in instructional time Madam shair that is our D5 story and we stand for any questions do we have any questions Mr bham Dr Ross do we have a um lead I've had questions from the community on a high school um attendance zone map is that like 2026 what we be looking at so the only 1% of the high school um rezoning as far asor was reson so those are pretty standard but Dr Harris if you want to speak to that I mean that's that's essentially the response to the question the very minimal amount of high school students will be adjusted or reson if if at all okay so whatever the current lines are generally speaking they're going to stay mostly intact that's correct the if you look at the elementary school uh Zone and then follow the chart up that will will do that but one of the things uh Dr Harris has made available and it's on our website any parent and we can get that link out again uh that wants to know where they would be based on residents uh now again we have choice but based on residents uh you can put your um your address into the system and it will show you where you are now and we'll also show you where you are on uh when the rezoning happens so you can see uh how that uh how that impacts you um yeah I had two questions also related to the resoning one is um you mentioned the um enrollment and I was wondering are we um using a company like MCM McMillan pass and are we um kind of doing that our own based on the existing um enrollment and then the other question and I hate to even bring this up but stuff happens what if a building's not ready in time I'll handle the second one first if the building's not ready we are working on contingencies and one of the contingencies is you'll see the the item that we're going to bring before you is the hero project first by completing hero essentially you get a swing building of the old building if one is not done on time that gives us some options um specifically in the dut Fork area U but um so we're working on on on that contingency our goal is to complete heral high school and we would have um uh I don't know the exact square footage that would be available but you would have that whole uh old East Wing in the event that we don't make it um so those are the contingencies that we're looking at right now in terms of the uh first question that was I'm sorry um for the enrollment statistics enrollment statistics that's all of the offices of Dr Harris but I'll let him tell how they came up with those sure it's really based based on uh what the students that we have currently and it's really a rollup like what we've typically done in previous years it's a rollup from one year to the next year and it is inclusive of those students who are currently choiced um to whatever the the school in which they've Cho into so that's basically a rollup from one year to the next all right thank you Dr Ross and um staff can I get a motion to approve the minutes from the February 24th meeting make a motion to approve the minutes of the February 24 2025 board meeting do I have a second second all in favor um one question I I did not um look at these until like right before um we got here but I'm wondering if the the motion on the minutes if you go to item one um I moved to amend the agenda last time to add that security thing in executive session and I just wanted to make sure that that was right okay okay I apologize I just remember looking at it and thinking the and the ends but I got it it's right okay all right um all those in favor oppos the motion carries um 6 to zero that takes us to um public participation um the board welcomes and encourages public participation we respectfully ask that you adhere to the procedures provided in board policy bde public participation at meetings your comments should be limited to 3 minutes and must remain on either the topic noted on your signning form or a listed agenda item questions asked during public participation will be handled in accordance with board policy BD BH M thank you madam chair we have one participant tonight Monica Conlin is here to speak about facility use for Community Sports practice particularly chape and flight basketball my name's Monica Conlin um I'm the mom of two kids in District Five schools spe uh specifically in the chapen area recently I found myself in that uh fun season of Life uh where I'm the team manager for two Middle School travel basketball teams my husband would be here today but he's on coaching Duty so I'm joined by Matt Longman he is our girls high school coach um it's a lot of fun but it's come with our uh challenges with our biggest challenge yet being finding available and affordable practice facilities in our community um just to give you some background shape and flights nonprofit uh we uh we're a nonprofit Youth Travel organization travel basketball is a great opportunity for these kids to hone their skills get tons of playing time and then bring those skills back to their schools to play for their school team during the regular season um our coaches are all volunteers who get zero reimbursement for their coaching time just a few years ago flight was just one girls basketball team this year we're up to six we have a high school girls team an eighth grade boys team a seventh grade boys team a sixth grade boys team eighth grade girls and seventh grade girls we would like to add an elementary school boys team next year ideally um teams should have a two-hour practice twice a week our boys teams were able to secure gym time at Crooked Creek Park which is the only public facility in chapen unfortunately with only two courts Crooked Creek was only able to to accommodate one practice a week for the boys they pay $40 and no practices for the girls our high school girls practice at a church gym in herma who graciously rented their gym out to us two days a week for $150 for the entire season so that was amazing our Middle School girls team travels 30 miles to a church in Newberry to practice once a week for $25 an hour we have a second weekly practice scheduled at CIS that gym rental is $100 an hour $200 a practice um in our district use of an elementary school gym is $75 an hour intermediate or middle school gyms are $100 an hour and it's $200 an hour to rent a high school gym even for sports practice I'm sure you can imagine how hard that is to pass along to families in our community we do our best to raise money and get sponsorships but it's a pretty difficult um uh thing to amount rates for the use of skill gyms in our district are set by a rate sheet last approved by the board in 2019 at the time I don't believe that there were any travel teams in shapen needing practice facilities so regular practice probably wasn't even a consideration at the time um we've talked to principles we've talked to District employees and they are all very kind and very helpful but they are all unable to negotiate rates so I know that a relationship between our district and Community Sports is achievable I happen to have a sister and brother-in-law with kids in Lex inton one schools and Lexington has no less than five travel basketball and volleyball organizations most of the team in every single grade level shoot my niece's teams practice at Lexington High School and Beachwood Middle School my nephew practices at Lakeside Middle School all zero charge we're growing rapidly as are the needs of our kids we have great gyms we would like to come to some sort of way that we can work together to make those accessible to the families in our community that go to our schools thank you thank thank you that moves us to our action agenda starting with action as necessary on issues discussed in executive session Madam chair I move that we the board approv selected employment items as shown in exhibit a do have a second second all in favor all opposed the motion carries 6 to Z as Miss um Tucker comes on down do I have a motion yeah I move that the board approve the second and final reading of proposed revisions to board policy dka payroll procedures and schedules as shown in Exhibit C second have any session questions all right all those in favor all oppos and the motion carries 6 to zero I move that the board approve the second and final reading of proposed revisions to board policy dkc expense authorization reimbursement as shown in exhibit D second I have any questions or discussion all those in favor I'll oppos and the motion carries 6 to zero I move that the board approved the first reading of bond resolution as shown in exhibit e and FY 2026 capital projects funded through 8% Bond issuance as shown in exhibit F second you have any questions or discussion I'll oh go ahead um one question I have and I I don't know if this made it to you because I I emailed it I don't know if it was probably Friday but anyway um it's kind of it's not directly related to this year's Capital of projects but I know um some we've got several years I think and and I understand we can't always spend the money right away because it's you know takes time but I was just kind of curious do we know how much if you go back three four five years how well first of all how far back do we still have an open budget if you will monies left that haven't been spent or moved elsewhere I Believe Miss huddle that looking at it today I think 201920 is the last capital budget that has and I want to say it's like $2,500 um that's actually something that um our one of our accountants and I have been looking at trying to go back through those prior years and I know previously you had asked for kind of a rolling capital budget like looking at a 5-year plan and our intent is to go back and look at those last couple of years and really clean up the ones prior to the last two years um clean up those projects if there's things that are hold out that need to be finished wrap those up and then really in the next year start that rolling fiveyear Capital plan so you can see those projects as they move through the process and you can see the progress on those projects and then the amount of money spent and then essentially we come back to the board and say these projects are finished this is the money that's left left over I think in this Capital plan um we work really hard to try to get back to not doing very specific like projects but having buckets of money to use that $15 million to do the repairs the maintenance and knowing that that's on a rolling cycle knowing that every year we need to be painting X number of square feet of our buildings every year we need to be replacing this much Furniture in classrooms every year we need to be redoing these playgrounds and really get that back into a cycle so we're on that repair in replacement and maintenance with this annual $15 million issuance and I think this was kind of the the second year of really that intent um Allan and I work really closely trying to get the budget aligned with those and having the same buckets that are in the MPS report so it lines up with what we're doing from the bond referendum from our annual maintenance so we'll have those same things moving forward and be able to present that Five-Year Plan so you can see you know this year has this many hvac's next year we plan on these and so you can see that progression Mr bam and this is a specific um question on furniture I did email um a request and I think they're working on it getting like our requisitions on student and teacher furniture and the bids that were submitted in going to the schools and talking with administrators I've seen you know a need for new student desks new teacher desk and I've heard numbers and they're High and um I was just wondering that 750 is you know do we have kind of a waiting list of you know requests for furniture because one school needs 24 and that adds up quick so Mr bam we actually received a request today um so we don't put out bids for student Furniture we use a state solicitation the state redid this their solicitation in December of 2024 there were 224 approved vendors that are on that list so we can utilize any of those schools can go out and purchase kind of one off equipment um but again with this capital budget I went out and met with all the principles and that was what I heard every from every class or every principal we need classroom furniture we need um Furniture in in the lunchrooms um right now the the kind of top of that list is looking at replacing the schools that will be changing so CIS Crossroads that are moving to middle schools so those need to move from an elementary school model to a middle school model so they've got to have bigger desk they've got to have different lunchroom Furniture so that's kind of at the top of the list but we need to get into replacement and as we look at doing that we also want to move to District standard so you know every elementary school has two different options there's tables there's chairs there's desks and we're not having something different in every school so as we see our population fluctuate we're able to move and not continue to sleep buy but we also get buying discounts if we're buying you know for the entire district and doing that out to different schools versus each School ordering individually so I I heard the same need across meeting with principles and that's something that we're definitely looking at anybody else all right we have um motion oh I'm sorry sorry Miss heiser's here I apologize for interrupting but um just for clarification is this the first and only reading of this resolution so is your action final tonight on the bond resolution or will there be another meeting where y'all will vote again I thought it was two readings all right thank you first yes appreciate it and we have our first sergeant here if there's any questions for him first sergeant of the National Guard uh but we stand for any questions I just want to showcase his uniform first reading all right all right we have a motion on the Flor for the first reading all in favor all opposed and the motion carries 6 to zero that carries us on to our discussion agenda Miss Tucker is still stuck with us at the podium Miss can I clarify on the last one because we had um the last item had both the first reading of the capital projects and the bond issuance so they were lumped together in one agenda item but I just want to make sure that that y'all were clear on that he read them together okay okay perfect I just want to make sure thank you all right so fund balance discussion so we started talking about our fund balance um I want to say a few board meetings ago where I came and talked to you guys about let's see here we go about the different thresholds that we see um as far as our reserves so we have our legal threshold that we are required to have at least a minimum of 8.33% which is one month of operating um is our Reserve our current board policy states that we have 15 to 18% or approximately two months of a of a um Reserve threshold we also have the gfoa which is the government Finance Officers Association recommendation their recommendation ranges from 16.66% of a reserve threshold given the uncertainty and Dr Ross said that's the word of the night given the uncertainty of what is going on not just with our state funding which I think that's the the reason we brought this to the board previously the uncertainty of State funding with the funding formula changes uncertainty of enrollment um what that looks like I think the next morning was when the federal government came out and said federal funds are now in question and so we don't know what that's going to look like from a federal funding perspective given the uncertainty and also as we move into to our bond resolution and borrowing $240 million over the next 3 years um we want to make sure that we're putting the district in a strong financial position to not only Garner the best credit rating from the bond perspective but also given that uncertainty if something happens that gives us the time to make smart decisions for the district but also to make the best decisions for our students our staff our programs and so that's why tonight we wanted to bring for discussion our current policy versus our recommended policy um this chart shows our current practice with our fund balance and we know that the in July it's the highest it usually is as we have come off um bringing in our taxes um and we move into that fall where our revenues are we're not bringing in those revenues until we start seeing tax revenues come in in in December January um but we're having our expenditures essentially outpace our Revenue um Dr Ross and I had calls with our bond rating agency this past week and the highest mark on their scorecard essentially for our ratings is a strong fund balance that's 20% on Moody's scorecard for a credit rating and so putting us in a position to get the best rating for our bonds as we move forward but also just in this time of uncertainty we wanted to bring this to you for discussion um I think we're in a strong position right now with 15 to 18% but just moving it even slightly towards that three-month Mark um I think puts us in even a better position as we move into this uncertainty um when we start looking at federal funds and what exposure we have if we were to lose a title funds or a magnet grants you know what does that do for our district and if we've seen other districts in the state get a letter from the federal government saying your Grant funds are over starting tomorrow and so what kind of position does that put us in if we were to get one of those letters we don't want to have to start making rational rash decisions the next morning we want to be able to take the time and make smart decisions and make the best decisions for our staff and our students and so I just wanted to start having this conversation with the board to say in this time of uncertainty we want to put ourselves in the best financial position to make those decisions but also to get the best credit rating and so wanted to bring this to you for discussion do you have any questions Mr saterfield uh I really don't have I do have some information to kind of Shar and it's probably something you know or and the superintendent already knows just for the rest of the board when I was reading this I decided I would check other districts see what other districts were doing and um there's they're doing just different things um uh I think Lexington 2 and um I like Lexington one they just put a minimum of 1666 1666 they don't have a Max I think um which is right lays right in the middle of where we are uh election two I think was two months they write out two months live um Fort Mill same thing two months um but um I think this is a thank you for bringing this up actually because in these uncertain times right now uh there's all kind of funding questions that a lot of people have and I know that you all are wrestling with this too because um from what I understand the state department hears about these things about the same time we hear about these things so um I don't know exactly what the answer is but it's I think it's certainly worth discussing we certainly want to have a good rating with regards to borrowing and uh the other thing is um you know I'm a retired person so I kind of watch the stock market a little bit because that's part of my income and uh it's not doing too well right now and so uh there there are some concerns out there with volatility and what's going on with the economy so but I I think it's worthwhile for us to have this discussion anybody else Miss hudle um is October the always or generally the lowest month October November is typically the lowest because we've started to see our expenses ramp up but we don't start typically seeing our revenues come in from taxes usually December is usually the first month where they start trickling in the those people that pay their tax bills kind of right off the bat so October November is historically the lowest and I will say in and um just to follow up on what Mr SFI said um we have looked at the districts around us um if you look at all the districts in lexton and Richland and their acers from 2023 24 um we are one of the lower um fund balance percentages um based on where they ended their fiscal year um if you look at policy most of them are around two to three months I think Lexington says three months and then anything over that Surplus moves into their capital budget that's what's in their policy but we are in line with what the other districts are doing um but we are at the lower end if you look at in our um kind of where we where we landed at the end of last fiscal year yeah M Tucker um I I just want to clarify so you as CFO you're recommending that we increase our fund balance correct I I wanted to have this discussion and I do think like I said I think we're in a good position with the 15 to 18% I think moving a little closer towards that three months I think about it from a personal perspective I want to have three months of my household expenses and that's kind of just a comfortable spot ideally you'd love six months but um you know having three months that gives you you know 90 days to make decisions if we were to lose a Federal grant tomorrow we're still able to carry those um those costs for three months to make the best decisions we have a $240 million general fund budget that's essentially a million dollars a day so it's when you start thinking about how long could this carry us if we were to lose a title fund or if we were to lose our magnet Grant you know what does that restructuring look like that gives us time to make those decisions so I think you know having that two to three months really closer to the three just puts us in a better position right and I and I completely agree with you both uh from a fiscal responsibility standpoint it just it it's more responsible and makes more sense and I guess what I if I'm going to nitpick a couple of things I so in your uh memorandum in the second to last paragraph it officially I mean you state directly having three months of operating revenues would allow blah blah blah having three months of operating revenues would allow but then in the changes to the policy I don't see much of a difference in in the proposed change meaning U the last bullet in the middle of a page saying maintenance of the old policy of a approximately 2 months operating expenses now it's proposed to say maintenance of between 2 to 3 months I guess my my first point on that is that's not a doesn't sound like to be a very meaningful difference in the and I know it is a little bit but I I think if we have a range there from two to three months we're always going to be pressured to keep it closer to the two months and if it's if the policy existing today already says approximately two months it's we're never really going to get much more beyond that I mean so my recommendation and I'm fully on board I would say just like you did in your memorandum just state three months and call it a day so let's raise it to three months and that that keeps us there and it keeps us firmly and solidly in the range of uh of the Moody and S&P rating to to achieve a higher rating and we're never going to be kind of pulled politically one way or the other so that would be my recommendation to you is let's just call it three months I will say there are two policies and our our our policies our um budget policy references the approximately two months or the two to three months and then there's a reserve fund policy that actually gives that percent range so right now it's 15 to 18% and my recommendation was to take it for to 17 to 20 um we never want to ideally would love to say just 25 but we also don't want to set a policy where if there are if there is uncertainty that we fall much below it so we don't want to set a policy and not be able to essentially be there and so I think kind of pushing that range up closer to the three months would be my recommendation because I don't want to set something that again given the uncertainty that we're not able to what's the percentage at three months what would that um three months would be 25% that's 25 okay so and you're recommending from from 15 to 18 to 70 to 20 so we're just kind of Shifting that that bar closer to the three months okay Dr Ross and I just wanted to kind of echo not to put you on the island where this is coming from uh three three months is 24.99% of 25% um when we talked to Moody's and S uh S&P um last week if you set that policy and miss it uh then then we have really missed our f balance policy so being and and Jay Glover our financial advisor uh suggest that we we set it in a Range that we can hit and then have options I think one of the things that we were looking for is fund balance U looking at the acers for the districts around us and I think the the average was around 23% somewhere in there we're at 17 so by going from 17 to a range of we'll still be lower than our our neighbors uh but we'll be in a safer range and kind of looking at those numbers we we and we have to understand our 177% that's July that's full pool for us that's not that's not August and October so by by giving us up moving us up uh we will find ourselves still sliding down and that's why it's going to be really hard to maintain 25% so that range there as full pool where we're in in July and so July 30th that's pretty much our heaviest fund balance time so there's this perception that that's stagnant that is not stagnant it's constantly moving so if we shift up that July number we feel that when we fall um as we do throughout the year we will we will still be lower than our surrounding districts in fund balance percentage by the AER but we'll still be able to make the pivots if any uncertainty hits us but I just wanted to share where this was coming from Miss hle um yeah I wanted to just um kind of make the point that you do need that flexibility because it's going to vary and you don't want to be out of the policy the other reason you need the flexibility is as much as possible you don't want your millage rates to go up and down so even when you're setting your budget um the only other point I'd like to make is I I agree that you know we like to look at at neighboring districts but we also be need to be careful about ratcheting up too much I mean I know a few years years ago the state legislature was actually looking across the whole state at um Schoolboard fund balances because they were so High um so I just think we need to have a happy medium between what we need for our rating agencies and our own security but we don't want it to be so high that we get negative attention Miss hudle I will say that the state we actually report our fund balance to Department of Education we started the beginning of this year um theyve been collecting that from each School District on a month L basis we report it to them it is not shared with them from them publicly right now this actually came up in scasa this last week because right now they're only asking for a dollar amount and without putting that into perspective of a total operating budget it's it doesn't really mean a lot so we've asked them to add that and they want to share it with um RFA and essentially share that out at the end of this fiscal year when they have a full Year's worth of data so that will be become part of the transparency on the state department of education site to look at that and so we are really being cognizant of being mindful where we are in not just relationship to the Midlands but with other districts our size and that have the same exposure with federal grants and those kind of things so we are looking at that anybody else all right T you just want to keep on keep on rolling so that moves us into um internal auditor yes ma'am is I okay um hey were we doing both of those at the same time yes okay I just have one other it's just a question to look at one of the terminologies that I think it's been used before with the reserve funds is encumbered or unencumbered and I don't think that words in there right now I don't it just says percent so anyway I just throw that out there to think about for the next reading all right thank you Miss hle so that brings us to the statement of work for our internal auditor I know the um the board has asked about this previously and in relation to policy board policy diie which is our fiscal accounting and audits policy um this position was recommended a few years back I know the the district tried to post this position on two separate occasions did not have qualified candidates couldn't get anybody in and so after some discussion with the oig after I started um looking at what our options are speaking with Brian Lin the oig he said they've had a lot of a lot of hard uh a lot of trouble trying to hire internal Auditors at the state and so I asked if this was something that we could essentially put out a solicitation for a consultant to do this for us um and he said that still Falls in line with what our policy was with the intent of the oig investigation was to add this to our to our district policy and so there is a state procurement that allows for essentially the solicitation of internal external internal auditing Services um you provide a statement of work with a deliverable and it it goes out to bid somebody comes in a consultant comes in and says I can do your statement of work based on the dollar amount and the timeline that you've given and so I have a draft statement of work for you all to look over try to to tailor this directly to the policy diie which looks at finance and human resources and the separation of duties and the internal controls between those two departments um I think that this would be a great position for somebody that has no association with the district that could be a true external internal auditor looking at our internal controls looking at our policies and procedures um not just given the we need to do more with less right now but also with the bond referendum with the amount of things that are going on just making sure that we are being transparent efficient effective with the amount of money that the taxpayers have usted us with and so I've outlined some roles and responsibilities that this position would report directly to the board um would essentially be looking at those two roles um with some different tasks outlined here but just wanted to bring this for discussion and open to any suggestions on the statement of work but I do think that this is something that we need I think that this is a position that could provide a lot of value to the district um not just from an internal controls perspective but helping us find those efficiencies helping us find ways to do more with less and making sure that we are being very um transparent but also that we are being very efficient and effective with with the taxpayer dollars that we've been entrusted with so questions comments feedback Miss um I thought it looked really good the only um I guess question I had is and I'm going by memory there was something in there that's on um I think it was with the HR practices had the word like legal in it legal like following I can't remember the exact word but the only concern I had was that would a financial auditor really know what that is you know what I'm saying Miss hle thank you for that question and it says under subtask 2.1 assess uh the HR policies ensuring that they meet all legal requirements and they are Equitable in align with best practices for the school districts um I think that may have came out of the um the job description but I don't see this position necessarily as truly a financial auditor um there are um internal Auditors that have internal auditing experience that can do kind of more of a forensic audit um and not just look at finances because we have an external auditor that looks at our finances I would see this position or this person or Consulting Group looking truly at our our policies our procedures and making sure that we are doing things you know by the book following our own policies making sure that we are following those legal requirements that you know our payroll is meeting the the legal requirements from the state that is those kind of things and so I really see this as more of not a financial audit because we were getting those from the feds and from the state and and so um in fact we have a um a federal audit coming through soon um so I think we're getting that but I see this more as that that internal controls so the the listed position listed it as class 37 salary and then the um the November 2023 all was $140,000 what would be the potential salary of this I mean obviously 140,000 can't be the salary because you have to figure infringe so how does that compare to the class 37 and would you say we would need to offer it at the same salary class as before so this wouldn't be a position this would be essentially uh a posted for an external consultant we would say this is our budget for this can you do what's in the statement of work for this dollar amount thank you for that clarification so anybody else all right thank you Miss Tucker and that brings us um to our final item on the agenda for the night and it's just um the discussion of the board Workshop so for those of you who aren't aware um the board met at 5:00 p.m. prior to the start of this meeting um just to discuss um the legislative agenda and School Board policy priorities as well as our budget um funding priorities we came out of that conversation with um several policies that we hope to look at um over the next few months I won't read all of them um but things around um student safety school safety um construction related policies looking at our measurable goals um board con um conduct facility usage individualized um instruction for some of the policies and for some of our budget um priorities teacher pay raises um was something that's important across the board looking at lowering class sizes in additional instructional support Personnel additional behavioral personnel and additional special education person now as well as items like School updates and refreshing and calming and sensory rooms so looks like the district um has a job ahead of them as they look at how to build in board priorities um in conjunction with the priorities from the administration from parents and teachers who are also providing feedback on items that they feel um we need to be focused on as we look at budgeting um for this next year overall I thought we had a good discussion and kind of gave us a good opportunity to just kind of see what's important to our fellow board members it's always like to say this is not a dictatorship so if somebody else wants to share something for the workshop that they thought I left out I'm open to that I don't have anything to share but I was going to ask uh regarding the uh policy priorities I don't I don't know if Mr satterfield's comments fell into this or not but can we add a review of the facilities external facilities it's on my agenda I mean it's on my it's on my list I do have it on my list we've gotten um if you couldn't hear down there because I could barely hear Kevin right here he was just asking about the review of the facility um policy and it was already on my list we've gotten a lot of just kind of questions about those kinds of things over the past couple of months and we want to look at how we can better serve our community anybody else all right I'll entertain a motion move to a chairman okay I get a second second all all in favor I'll oppos and the motion carries 60 thank you y'all have a good night