The Colleton County School District Board met September 17, 2024. The meeting was called to order by Chairperson Sharon Witkin and she then called for Invocation and Pledge. The CCSD Mission statement was to be given by CES Flag Team who unfortunately was unable to attend. The mission statement was given by board member Mr. Darryl Irwin. All board members recited the Civility Pledge. Chairperson Witkin noted 5 board members present and 2 were not.
Attending by phone Allison Hanna attorney for CCSD.
The first order of business was the approval of the agenda. A motion was made, seconded, and passed unanimously for approval. A call was then made for the approval of minutes of the August 20th Regular Board Meeting, the September 3rd Special Board Meeting, and the September 10th Committee of the Whole Meeting. A motion was made seconded and passed unanimously. Next on the Chairperson’s report was the Lowcountry SCSBA Region Advocacy Meeting where it was reported that attendees were able to share with other members during strategy sessions. Witkin also shared that September 20th the School Board would make visits to schools and facility buildings of Colleton County School District.
Next was the Chairperson’s report regarding County Council School Operations MIL Request. Chairperson Witkin’s report stated:
“[About] The recent Colleton County School District millage increase that was requested to Colleton County Council. There’s a lot of information, and so I wanted to share our story as to what we what we did, why we did it, and the results of that request. The Colleton County School District began preparing our budget last spring, and we met various times throughout the spring in preparation for that budget, we learned that we would have some increases to that budget. We also met with Colleton County Council and provided them some updates about what was going on in our school district, and we met with them in March, April, finally, in May, as we began to learn more about what was going on in the state legislature, specifically, House Bill 1631 was about to pass, and eventually was approved by the Senate and that increased our teacher’s salaries to $47,000 across the state. This was a mandate that was passed by the state legislature and put into effect July, 1 of the summer. It also increased the step increases for our teacher’s salaries. Those individuals up to year 28 would see an increase in salary, and all of our certified staff, according to this legislation, would receive an increase in pay determined by our state. What they did was look at the years of experience as well as the level of education, for each cell, to determine what the salary increase would be. The state mandated and told us how we would increase the salaries, and they provided 75% of the funding for the salary increases. They asked that 25% be created from local revenue. So, as we began preparing and finalizing our budget, we did go to Colleton County Council on May the seventh, and presented to them what our needs would be. Following that, there were some questions by the council that the school district provided answers. On June the 18th, a resolution for 2.5 Mills was passed with the first reading from Colleton County Council. Still again, there were additional questions that the County Council had, we met on July 15th in a joint meeting, the meeting minutes can be provided on the county’s website as well as the YouTube channel of the Colleton County School District for reference. On August the 27th the increase of millage was met with opposition in a public hearing, and ultimately the resolution failed. I just want to share some information about that millage and what that would go to. The value of a mill we were told in Colleton County, is 23,220, $3,000 the 2.5 Mills was determined by Colleton County Council. We went to them with our needs for the Colleton County School District. The mandate from the state was approximately $1.7 million. The 2.5 Mills was determined by County Council, and that again, had affirmative first reading, but that 2.5 mills would have given a local revenue increase of approximately half a million dollars. I’d like to note that funding for school operations does not come for residential property taxes, but from business industry, vehicle and non-residential properties in Colleton County. I just want to state that we will continue to fight for our children and acknowledge that the greatest asset that we have in our district is our staff always. This is not a discussion topic. I just want to share this information to you all, but I also want to be able to say that this board and any staff member is happy to let you know why we think this would have been a good thing for Colleton County. I would be remiss if I didn’t ask the staff involved, as well as the board members that went before Colleton County Council if they have anything to add to what I just provided board members.”
Superintendent Jessica Williams then spoke on the subject thanking Chairperson Witkin for her comments and stating:
“I just want to say, in light of the fact that our request failed, we will continue to work towards gaining support from our community officials and from our community members to just build that faith that our school district is doing what they need to do and doing more in order to make our students successful. So, I just wanted to let everyone know that we do appreciate the efforts of our teachers. They work very hard each and every day to educate the students of this community, and we will continue working to gain that support of our community officials and our community members. There’s some things that we’re planning to do. Some of those things include starting a parent forum, which we will have our first meeting on this coming Monday evening, just to talk to our parents about how you can you get more involved in your child’s education, and what can you do to help us to just market our district more and talk about the great things that we have. We have great things going on at all of our schools and our mission is to make sure that we get those great things out [there] so that people are aware of, the arts initiative that we have in three of our elementary schools, the stem labs that we have in three of our elementary schools, and lots of other extracurricular activities and different things that our students can take advantage of. So, we will just continue working and continue doing our best for our students and our community. Thank you.”
Following these comments were student recognitions given by Superintendent Williams.
Bells Elementary
Aniyla Stephens—3rd grade
Black Street Early Childhood Center
Jackson Sheahan—PreK
Cottageville Elementary School
Mina Cruz—5th grade
Hendersonville Elementary School
Freddy Rodriguez-Gervacio—5th grade
Northside Elementary School
Harley Thomas—4th grade
Witkin then called for public input of which there was none. She then asked if there was any unfinished business of which there was also none.
Under new business the Delegate for the South Carolina School Board Association was to be determined. The School Board will identify one individual who will be present for the delegate meeting December 6th-7th. A request was then made for any nominations. School Board member Darryl Irwin was nominated to be the Delegate. An official motion was made for Mr. Irwin to be said Delegate which was seconded, and unanimously carried.
Another point of interest in the Superintendent’s report addressed the inclement weather make-up days. The 2 days missed due to Tropical Storm Debby, August 8th and 9th will need to be made up. The make-up days will be October 9, 2024 and January 7, 2025. Mrs. Williams also had also requested in order for seamlessness that October 8th be a full day of instruction and October 9th be a full day of instruction. Williams then asked the school board vote to approve her recommendations regarding make-up days. The question was asked by a school board member for clarity, that there were three inclement weather days built into the calendar and now with the vote the calendar will still have March 7th if needed for another inclement weather day which was confirmed by Superintendent Williams. A motion was made to accept Superintendent Williams recommendation regarding make-up days, which was seconded. Chairperson Witkin did request that district activities including extra curriculars be taken into consideration with this calendar change and request. The motion then carried unanimously.
After other reports the Board entered into executive session. Upon return from executive session the meeting was adjourned.
