June 25, 2024 the Colleton County School District held their Regular Board Meeting. Chairperson Sharon Witkin called the meeting to order and gave the welcome. The invocation was given immediately followed by The Pledge of Allegiance. Chairperson then recognized young ladies from the GearUp program at Colleton County Middle School headed by Ms. Sonya Stephens. Participants in the program recited the CCSD Mission Statement: Colleton County School District will prepare every student to graduate with a 21st century education to be globally competitive for their chose college and/or career path. They also served as greeters at the meeting. The girls involved in the program also gave a report on their activities in the program and upcoming activities as well. GearUp is a discretionary grant program designed to increase the number of low income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in post-secondary education. It provides 6-7 year grants and partnerships to provide services at high poverty middle and high schools. GearUp grants serve an entire cohort of students beginning no later than 7th grade and follow the cohort through high school. GearUp funds are also used to provide college scholarship to low income students
In first week of the program they talked about college and career paths and TCL education talent search with Ms. Kathrine Warren talked about the talent search. The program participants also visited Cypress Creek. In the second week the girls learned about finance and budget entrepreneurship and also engaged in Social environment learning with Sip and Paint activity (Hi-C and water for the sipping part). Chef Craig Ferguson from Daniel Island visited and he and the participants made a pasta dish. Next in the third week Chris Williams from Columbia came for StemU and they worked on robots and measurements. Vorhees University partnered with Colleton to develop stem labs for CCMS. Looking ahead to week four, the young ladies will welcome back Chef Craig Ferguson for more cooking classes and they will visit Whirlin’ Waters Adventure Waterpark.
Chairperson Witkin then called for approval of the agenda. A motion was made to amend the Agenda to add Board member Simmons presence electronically. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously. Witkin then noted that 6 board members were physically present, one member was present electronically, and one member was not present. Approval of the minutes for two previous meetings and there was a motion for approval, a second, and the motion passed unanimously.
Mrs. Jessica Williams took the floor and gave student recognitions. The focus was on the Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) class at CCHS. Mrs. Williams was proud to announce that 12 out of 12 students passed their certifications and are officially CNA’s. A student from last semester who missed the recognition was also included. Those students are:
Allison Alexander
Tamyra Boyd
Destiny Brown
Taylor Brown
Courtney Crosby
Griffin Donnelly
Monica Guzman-Rodriguez
Kadence Koger
Iannayshqa Perez
Kaylee Reid
Raven Singleton
Deja Washington
Katelyn McCloud
Instructors Julie Mandell and Amy Delong were also commended for the success of the program.
Mrs. Williams also recognized 3 retirees from CCSD. The retirees are:
Mr. Johnny Frank
Mr. Kenneth Frier
Mr. Bob Jordan
The floor was then opened for public input. The instructions for those to participate in public input were given by Board member Daryl Erwin. Ms. Samantha Crow, program manager for teach kind science, resident of Walterboro, and former professor of biology took the podium to argue against animal dissection as part of the science curriculum and to encourage the school board to create policy regarding this issue. Some of her arguments against the practice were that it was outdated, cruel, and studies show that students who participated in digital dissection and dissected models rather than animal cadavers did just as well or better grade wise than those students who participated in animal dissection in 95% of studies. As a former Professor of Biology, she advocated leaving the practice of animal cadaver dissection behind in favor of a more humane and academically sound practice. Ms. Crow’s policy suggestions included all materials for dissection be non-animal. The nonprofit she works for, Teach Kind Science, will donate materials and professional development training to facilitate switch to Humane Science methods should the School Board take up the issue.
Various policy, curriculum based, and finance items were discussed before going into Executive session. After returning from executive session the meeting was adjourned.
