` Lee County Board of Trustees Regular Board Meeting Lee County School District 310 Roland Street Bishopville, SC 29010 March 21, 2016 Meeting Minutes Meeting Called to Order By: Board Members Present: Board Members Absent: Public Speakers: Board Members Arriving Late: Media Present: Chairperson Sanya Moses Chairperson, Sanya Moses, Vice Chairperson, Queenie Boyd, Secretary, Valarie Haywood, Jessie Belvin, Sylvia Scott and Nathaniel Brunson None None None The Observer In accordance with SC Code of Laws of 1976, Section 4-30-80c, as amended, the media received proper notification of the date, place and agenda. ESTABLISHMENT OF QUORUM Chairperson Sanya Moses called the meeting to order at 6:37 pm. Chairperson Sanya Moses stated that a Quorum was established and the media received proper notification of the meeting. She stated that Ms. Atkinson from the Observer is here as well as our inhouse representative. Chairperson Sanya Moses asked everyone to share in a moment of silence.
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA Chairperson Sanya Moses stated that without objection the agenda would stand as approved. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES Chairperson Sanya Moses stated that without objections the Minutes of February 15, 2016 and February 26, 2016 would stand approved. South Carolina School Boards Association (SCSBA) Conference / Legislative Update Vice Chairperson Queenie Boyd stated that a lot is going on with the House and Senate. 1) K-12 Funding - A $7.5 billion state budget bill for 2016-17 is headed to the House floor for debate. The problem that s complicating the budget deliberations will be how the House decides to handle the bill passed by the Senate that would direct $400 million to be allocated from the state s general fund to pay for repairs and construction of roads and bridges. 2) There are also some issues with the current year s funding. 3) The House is discussing a bill that would have an earlier start date for all public schools. 4) The Tax Credit/Voucher Accountability This tuition tax credit program has passed the House and resides in the Senate at this time. 5) Vice Chairperson Queenie Boyd talked about the Two Days at the Capitol she and Mrs. Belvin attended. We met with Representative Grady Brown and Senator Gerald Malloy and discussed the K-12 funding, a 2% increase for teachers plus a step increase and asked them to make sure that new money is used and nothing is taken from EFA or EIA. 6) Vice Chairperson Queenie Boyd asked community members to contact their local legislators and express to them the importance of not taking any money from the K-12 funding for road repairs. Vice Chairperson Queenie Boyd thanked everyone for their support to the Lee County School District. OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT A. Good News 1. Science Fair Dr. Wanda Andrews stated that the district held its Science Fair on March 8, 2016 at Lee Central Middle School and the event was coordinate by Dr. Jewell Moses, Administrative Assistant at Lee Central Middle. 2. On March 1, 2016 the district launched our Recruit and Hire program. Dr. Andrews stated that applicants can apply on line for vacancies. The district administrators have been trained on this program. 3. The district held its Read Across America program on March 2 nd. The primary and elementary students really enjoyed this. Dr. Wanda Andrews stated that some of our community members help the district with this initiative. 4. Lee Central Middle School was awarded a National School Lunch Program grant to purchase equipment.
B. Superintendent s Report 1. Instructional Update Dr. Kuterah Donald gave the following updates on instruction. The district is planning to implement World Languages into the elementary schools. The district summer camp will begin on June 3 rd and will end on June 30 th. The camp will operate the same as last year. Registration information will go out in April. We will have a summer reading program for all grade levels. Information on this will go out in May. Testing Information: SER testing date is April 26-28, ACT (for 11 th graders) April 19 th, PASS in May and EOC May 2 nd. Chairperson Sanya Moses thanked Dr. Donald for her report. Dr. Wanda Andrews shared some comments about the school district finances/budget. She reminded everyone that Lee County School District is a part of the Abbeville Lawsuit. Twentytwo (22) years ago Lee County School District along with several other school districts recognized that districts like ours are under-funded and that there is no equity yet we are all held to the same standards. There are some very wealthy school districts and then there are some that are struggling with funding issues. Dr. Wanda Andrews stated that each year we create a budget that s really an estimate of what we know we are going to need. Then situations come up and we have to make changes as we move through the school year. For example: West Lee Elementary School had 30 plus kindergarten students for one teacher; therefore, we had to add another teacher. This might not sound like a major issue but as we continue to go through the school year and see how we are impacted after different situations arises. After this estimate is done, then you realize that there are no guarantees. Dr. Andrews also informed the group that there were building issues that impacted the budget before all the rain in October which added to this. Some of our buildings are very old and require a lot of upkeep. Dr. Wanda Andrews stated that, The largest portion of the district s budget is personnel and each person, even if you don t give a raise, will cost the district more the next year. Employee benefits increase each year, therefore; we are faced with some challenges. Dr. Andrews said, The vision of this Board is that we are truly a learning community where our students come first. And we have been able to maintain our class size target to protect the education of each student in our school. Our Board works very hard to make sure the students have what they need in spite of the financial challenges that we face. Everything that we have spent in the district is for the children. Dr. Andrews stated that she hopes everyone will think about the fine leadership that has been provided by the Lee County School Board of Trustees. 2. Finance Update Mrs. Robin Poston from Harper, Poston and Moree, PA, presented the Lee County School District audit for the year ending June 30, 2015. She stated that the Board is receiving an unmodified report. In the governmental wide statement we have 55.6 million in asset. Mrs. Poston also stated that during the year they had to implement a new accounting source GASB 68. The GASB 68 is the pension part of the district s liability and the pension liability re-statement for Lee County School was 21.7 million. Mrs. Poston said that, This basically depleted your net position that recognizes your financial statement as a liability for everyone who works in the district that are receiving retirement or will receive in
the future. This made a big change to your financial statements. The business activity fund (which is food service) had $727,000 of asset and $3,378.00 of liabilities. The government activities had 19.4 million in operating grants and 1.5 million in total revenue in the business type activity. The program expenditures were: 12.8 million in instruction, 12.5 million supporting services (which include employees benefits), and community services were low at $29,000. Intergovernmental expenditures were 4.1 million, interest expenditures were 1.7 million and food service expenditures 4.4 million. Mrs. Robin Poston told the Board that the district basically had a net program expenses of 11.9 million which meant that this had to be made up by the general revenue, which is your tax dollars. The business type activities had a $7,651.00 net program revenue. She stated that with the food service account since everyone receives free lunch, it covered the expenditures for that program. The district had a 2.1 million deficit in the governmental activities and along with the retroactive re-statement the district had a net ending of 4.8 million. Mrs. Poston said, Is this a bad number not necessarily, but it is not a great number. As long as you make the quarterly retirement payments that s basically all you are required to do as a district. However, we do have to disclose this in your audit report. The governmental funds which is the old accounting fund method had 29.1 million total revenue and of that 5.8 million were local sources, 15.6 million state, 3.4 million federal and the intergovernmental transfers of 4.2 million. Mrs. Poston said that the intergovernmental transfer is basically how they show governmental revenue and expenditures flowing from the debt service fund that the county has into the education facility cooperation money. There are two funds within the debt service and they basically balance each other out. The governmental expenditures were 32.6 million in 2015 as compared to the governmental expenditures for 2014 of 24.3 million. The large increase was due to salaries and support services. Mrs. Poston stated that health insurance is not going down and that s a big part of the support services increase. The capital outlay is 1.6 million and the debt service is 3.2 million as compared to 3.1in the prior year. The fund balance had a decrease in the governmental fund of 3.5 million for 2015 and 1.3 million in 2014. Mrs. Poston said, You can t continue to have deficits in the governmental fund and this needs to be address. One way to do this is to make sure we know what the budget covers and allocate the funds accordingly. Mrs. Robin Poston encourage the Board and Dr. Wanda Andrews to make sure the federal programs are paying what they were designed to pay and leaving the general fund to pay the remainder of the expenses. Mrs. Poston told the Board to continue to search for new grants. She also told the Board to make sure they are maintaining the 2015-16 budget and with the 2016-17 budget make sure it contains all the expenditures for the district. Mrs. Poston said, You can t do anything about what happened last year and it is unfortunate that it did. I just want you to know that the monies were spent on items that are allowable expenditures. Chairperson Sanya Moses thanked Mrs. Robin Poston for the audit report and reminded the Board that this is a yearly process and is a snapshot in time of where we are. Chairperson Moses stated that, We were without a finance director for a time and we are glad to have Mr. Lyde Graham on board and he has already corrected some financial issues. Chairperson Sanya Moses stated that, It is a critical time and we are about to go into our budget planning season. She encouraged the community members to talk with their local legislators and asked them to give the school district some autonomy limited or full. The school district budget is approved by the Lee County Council. Chairperson Moses also stated that Dr. Wanda Andrews and Mrs. Queenie Boyd talked about the increase for teachers and they deserves this. Our County Council needs to know this. We need this mandate fully funded.
Mr. Lyde Graham reminder every one of the bills that are in front of the General Assembly at this time. Mr. Graham stated that, As you are advocating for the funds please be reminded that we need the 2% increase to come from the EIA funds and not the EFA funds. Mr. Lyde Graham presented the finance report for board approval. A motion was made by Ms. Sylvia Scott with a second by Mrs. Jessie Belvin to approve the finance report as presented by the administration. The Board approved this motion. 3. Lee County Career and Technology Center Field Trip Request Dr. Wanda Andrews presented an overnight field trip request from the Lee County Career and Technology Center to the Greenville Convention Center for April 13-15, 2016. Seven students will go and observe competitions so they will be prepare for the 2017 competition. A motion was made by Mrs. Queenie Boyd with a second by Mr. Nathaniel Brunson to approve the overnight trip to Greenville Convention Center for April 13-15, 2016 as presented by the administration. This motion was approved by the Board. 4. Textbook Adoptions 2016-2017 Dr. Wanda Andrews presented the 2016-2017 Textbook Adoptions for Board approval. She explained that we will not be able to fund all the textbooks that are approved by the State Department of Education. A motion was made by Ms. Sylvia Scott to accept the list of textbooks as presented. This motion was seconded by Ms. Valarie Haywood and approved by the Board. 5. Calendar Updates Dr. Wanda Andrews thanked the administrators, principals and staff for a success Teacher Recruitment Fair which was held on Saturday, March 19 th. Dr. Andrews gave the following updates to the calendar. Contracts will be issued on March 23, 2016 Parent/teacher conferences will be conducted on March 24 th for all schools 4:00 7:00 p.m. Title I Computer classes will be offered daily 9:00 a.m. 3:30 p.m. at Lee Central High School. Spring Break is scheduled for March 26 April 3, 2016 The Lee County Career and Technology Center will have their annual plant sale on April 9, 2016. Dr. Andrews stated that schools will be in session on May 30 th (Memorial Day) for half day, dismissing at 11:30 am. Seniors will not be required to attend. This will be the last make-up day for this school year. Ms. Sylvia Scott had a question concerning the Recruit and Hire. She asked, Does this correlate with CERRA (Center for Educator, Recruitment, Retention and Advancement). Dr. Wanda Andrews stated that this is for our district. We can pull in all the applications from CERRA and send out emails to the applicants. Chairperson Sanya Moses thanked Dr. Wanda Andrews, Mrs. Robin Poston and Mr. Lyde Graham for their reports.
EXECUTIVE SESSION Chairperson Sanya Moses requested a motion on entering into Executive Session to discuss Personnel Matters, Student Matters, Financial Matters and Property Matters. Dr. Wanda Andrews informed Chairperson Sanya Moses that there are no Financial Matters for Executive Session. Motion: A motion was made by Ms. Sylvia Scott and properly seconded by Mrs. Jessie Belvin to enter into Executive Session to discuss Personnel Matters, Student Matters and Property Matters. The Board voted unanimously in favor of the motion. Chairperson Sanya Moses stated that the Board would now enter into Executive Session to discuss Personnel Matters, Student Matters (18 release requests) and Property Matters. Chairperson Sanya Moses welcomed everyone back to open session. Action Taken: Recommendations, to rehire 167 current Professional Staff for 2016-2017 school year and Eighteen (18) Student Releases for 2016-2017 school year Motion: A motion was made by Mrs. Queenie Boyd and seconded by Mr. Nathaniel Brunson to approve the recommendations to rehire 167 current professional staff for the 2016-17 school year and release of 18 students for the 2016-17 school year. This motion was approved by the Board. Action Taken: Six (6) Resignations Motion: A motion was made by Ms. Valarie Haywood to approve the six resignations. This motion was seconded by Ms. Sylvia Scott and approved by the Board. Chairperson Sanya Moses stated that the Board received information on Property Matters. No action was taken. ADJOURNMENT Chairperson Sanya Moses stated that the meeting was adjourned without objection. The meeting adjourned at 8:56 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Chairperson Date Secretary Date