MINUTES - UNION COUNTY BOARD OF SCHOOL TRUSTEES
November 26, 2012– 7:00 P.M.
ATTENDEES:
Dr. Wanda All, Ms. Kim Bailey-Vice Chair, Mr. Jantzen Childers, Ms. Jane Hammett, Mr.
Manning Jeter, Ms. Betty JoAnn McMorris-Chair, Ms. Jane Wilkes, and Ms. Kakie White.
ABSENT :
Mr. Buck Peay
Call to Order:
Ms. Betty JoAnn McMorris, Chair, called the meeting to order.
Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance:
The invocation was given by Ms. Betty JoAnn McMorris, who also led in the Pledge of
Allegiance.
Notice to Media:
In accordance with the S.C. Code of Laws, Section 30-4-80(d), as amended, the following have been notified of the time, date, place and agenda of this meeting: The Union Daily Times, Union
County News, WBCU Radio Station and The Spartanburg Herald-Journal.
Minutes
Ms. Betty JoAnn McMorris stated a motion is needed to approve the minutes of the November
12 th meeting. A motion to approve the minutes of the November 12, 2012, meeting was made by
Mr. Manning Jeter, seconded by Dr. Wanda All. The vote was (8-0) in favor of the motion.
Addendum
Ms. McMorris stated we have an addendum. Ms. Kim Bailey made a motion to approve the addendum, seconded by Ms. Jane Wilkes. The vote was (8-0) in favor of the motion.
Ms. Betty JoAnn McMorris introduced Ms. Anita Maness, principal at Monarch Elementary
School. Ms. Maness thanked the School Board members and Dr. Kristi Woodall for the opportunity for The Blue Steel band to perform. The Monarch PTO purchased the steel drums for the students. Before turning the program over to the band director, Ms. Maness thanked the parents and grandparents for bringing the children to the meeting. The students performed part of their Christmas musical for the board. Ms. McMorris thanked the students for the entertainment.
Public Comments
Ms. McMorris stated the next agenda item is public comments. She stated that a vote is needed to take the comments into executive session. The motion was made by Dr. Wanda All to enter into executive session, seconded by Ms. Kim Bailey. The vote was (7-1) in favor of the motion.
Ms. McMorris stated that since there is only one contractual issue to discuss in executive session, she asked the board to enter at that point rather than at the end of the meeting. Ms. Jane
Hammett made a motion to move the one contractual issue with the one that was just discussed.
Mr. Graham Williams, news editor for Union County News, stated, “I have a question. Does this regard personnel, contract or anything that is under the Freedom of Information Act?” Ms.
McMorris stated, “its personnel.” Mr. Williams said “hers is personnel?” Ms. McMorris stated,
“as far as I know.” Mr. Williams said, “as far as you know? What if it isn’t?” Ms. McMorris
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stated “we won’t know until we hear it.” Mr. Williams said, “I object. I don’t think it should be held in executive session.” Ms. McMorris stated, “it was voted to take into executive session.”
Mr. Williams said “I’m just saying I object. I think it should be in open session.” Dr. Wanda All stated, “Madam Chair, I think the comment that the Board has moved to take it into executive session and upon hearing if there is nothing that violates any personnel issues, we make everything public and open. This is for protection of our employees.” Mr. Graham Williams asked, “Any particular employees or employees as a whole?” Dr. All replied, “I am only going on here say and I have to protect the district and the employees.” Mr. Graham Williams interrupted Dr. All and stated, “Well I don’t think you should go into executive session. I think it should be in the open. It says public comments. She’s in public comments and you didn’t put executive session. This says public comments. This is a public issue.” Mr. Steve Ramsey, news reporter for WBCU Radio, stated, “He’s right.” Mr. Graham Williams asked, “Do you have a lawyer you can call to find out?” Ms. McMorris replied, “We have been advised to take it into executive session if it involves employees.” Mr. Manning Jeter said, “The media is correct.”
Mr. Steve Ramsey stated, “That’s not what it says on the agenda.” Mr. Graham Williams said,
“The agenda says public comments.” Steve Ramsey then stated, “Regarding inconsistent district policies.” Ms. McMorris stated, “That’s the protocol but we can vote to take it into executive session.” Mr. Steve Ramsey replied, “Not legally, you can’t. There are only three things that are covered by executive session: personnel, contractual and legal matters. None of these are listed on your agenda. I’m just telling you what’s on your agenda. Legal, contractual or personnel and this says she is going to speak to the Board regarding inconsistent district policies. It says nothing about personnel. It says nothing about contractual matters and it says nothing about legal matters.” Mr. Graham Williams stated, “You can discuss your contractual matter in executive session but you can’t discuss this in executive session.” Ms. McMorris stated, “We’re going to go into executive session to discuss this issue but we’re not going to let her speak.
We’re going to discuss the contractual issue.” Mr. Steve Ramsey asked, “Why not hold it until the end then, like it’s scheduled?” Mr. Graham Williams stated, “the executive session is scheduled at the end of the agenda; it’s the public comments.” Ms. McMorris interrupted and stated, “We voted to go into executive session. We can move it up. We don’t have to let her discuss now but we need to discuss it in executive session. We have reason to go into executive session.” Mr. Steve Ramsey said, “But it’s not covered by the law. That’s what we’re trying to say.” Mr. Graham Williams stated, “You’re violating the Freedom of Information Act.” Ms.
McMorris stated, “We can go into executive session to discuss an issue.” Mr. Steve Ramsey stated, “Only if it’s one of three categories by law. The Freedom of Information Act says personnel, legal or contractual and this is neither. That’s all we’re saying.” Dr. Wanda All stated, “Madam Chair, I would suggest you ask Miss Sherbert to give us a verbal decision as to what she is going to discuss.” Ms. McMorris said, “Miss Sherbert, we can’t have specific names or titles.” Miss Sherbert asked, “You can’t say someone’s title when you’re speaking?” Ms.
Morris replied, “Not in public.” Miss Sherbert stated, “That’s fine. I gave them copies.” Ms.
McMorris asked Miss Sherbert if she wanted to speak in public or private. Miss Sherbert said she would rather speak in public. She said, “I don’t know why I would do it in private.” Ms.
McMorris stated, “We can’t discuss any employees’ names, titles or students in public.” Miss
Sherbert replied, “There is no names mentioned in my.” Dr. Wanda All interrupted and stated,
“Madam Chair, I suggest that we table the public comments until we have legal representation present and we will proceed at that point and I make that motion.” Ms. McMorris stated, “A motion has been made and we need a second.” Ms. Kakie White seconded the motion. The vote to table the public comments was (6-2) in favor of the motion. Mr. Manning Jeter stated, “If we were in executive session, hold on, if we were in executive session, the vote that you had just made was 100% out of order, out of context, never should have taken place, and is against the law. Now you’ve broken the rules twice sitting here.” Ms. McMorris stated, “We’re not in
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executive session.” Mr. Jeter stated, “You voted to go into executive session. It was seconded and you all voted.” Ms. McMorris replied, “We’re never went into executive session. We were discussing everything openly. Miss Sherbert, it will be tabled until we can get with legal and see what the choices can be for your speaking in public.” Miss Sherbert asked, “This is a time sensitive situation and you are going to table it?” Ms. Morris replied yes. Miss Sherbert stated,
“See that. That’s how important students are in our district. Thank you all.” Ms. McMorris stated, “We voted to go into executive session. Did we finish the vote on that?” Miss Kim Petty said, “Yes you did.” Ms. McMorris stated that the Board will enter into executive session on a contractual issue. The Board entered into executive session at 7:16 P.M.
The Board reconvened into open session at 7:40 P.M. Ms. Betty JoAnn McMorris stated that while in executive session, no votes were taken. Ms. McMorris stated, “I would like to apologize to the media and to Miss Sherbert. I would like to also say that if your public comments involve only talking about policies and not specific incidents, you are welcome to speak openly in public comments. If you do, you cannot discuss any specific incident or give any job titles or anything of that nature in public.” Miss Sherbert stated, “May I request that in writing as a policy from our district because that is not what I was sent via mail from the school district. I would love a copy and I would be willing to come back next time since you have tabeled me until then.” Ms. McMorris explained to Miss Sherbert that if she would like to discuss it in executive session or if she has a specific incident, they will go into executive session to discuss with her. Miss Sherbert stated, “I will wait until the next time because my lawyer has advised me to wait until then as he would like to be present but I do want those policies in writing.” Ms. McMorris asked Miss Sherbert for a copy of what she would like to discuss. Miss
Sherbert stated, “Absolutely not.”
Superintendent
Dr. Woodall said, “We are very excited this week about our state championship game in
Columbia with the football team, cheerleaders, band and ROTC. We’ve passed out the tickets to you and I hope you will be able join us there. We’re also excited about our visit from the State
Superintendent on December 4 th
. He will be touring three of our schools. We only have an hour per site and that includes travel in between. He is going to visit Foster Park, Monarch, and Sims.
He wanted to meet with at least one reward school to talk with the principal, assistant principal or instructional coach and teachers to talk about the challenges they face and anything the State
Department can do to assist with those challenges. We are looking forward to his visit.”
Personnel
Mr. Jeff Stribble presented the personnel report to the Board. He explained that page one includes information items, page two contains two recommendations and the addendum contains one recommendation which requires Board action. Ms. Kim Bailey made a motion to approve the personnel report, seconded by Ms. Jane Wilkes. The vote was (8-0) in favor of the motion.
Mr. Stribble stated that the recommendations are Christy Latham, parent outreach tutor at
Lockhart School, Maurice Phillips, automotive technology teacher at the Career and Technology
Center, and Natasha Earls, receptionist at Sims Middle school.
Instruction
Ms. Cindy Langley provided a review of the 2012 annual district reports card to the Board. She introduced Mr. Floyd Lyles, principal at Union County High School, Ms. Anita Maness, principal at Monarch Elementary School, and Ms. Barbara Palmer, principal at Foster Park
Elementary School who shared highlights of their school’s report card with the Board.
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Ms. Cindy Langley presented one overnight field trip request and one out-of-state field trip request to the Board. Jonesville Elementary Middle School’s Junior Beta Club has requested to attend the Junior Beta Club Competitions in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina January 23-25, 2013.
Monarch Elementary School’s 5 th
grade class has requested to visit the Biltmore Estate in
Asheville, North Carolina on December 19, 2012. Dr. Wanda All made a motion to approve the field trip requests, seconded by Mr. Manning Jeter. The vote was (8-0) in favor of the motion.
Finance
Mr. Lynn Lawson introduced Mr. Chuck Talbert who presented the audit results to the Board.
Mr. Lynn Lawson presented an action item to the Board regarding reallocation of money through transfer. He discussed the need for technology at Union County High School. Mr. Lawson stated, “There is a short term band-aide solution for this campus which has the most and oldest machines. In the current year’s budget, you have allocated $400,000.00 as a building fund transfer pending the operating results for the end of the year. The option that I can present to you is if the Board chooses to do so, they can reallocate up to $50,000.00 of that $400,000.00 toward purchasing refurbished PCs for the high school campus. They have a lifetime warranty, they are a year or so old, have all the parts warranty and labor warranty.” Mr. Manning Jeter asked Mr.
Lawson if he got a price on new equipment. Mr. Lawson stated new equipment will add about
$25,000.00 toward the project. Mr. Jeter asked if the warranty would be better. Mr. Lawson stated it would be a shorter warranty. He stated the refurbished machines have a lifetime warranty unlimited and the new machines are four years. Mr. Tim Barnado said that we will have a warranty on the machines as long as we own them. Mr. Jeter asked if a machine crashes, will they bring a new machine. Mr. Barnado stated, “We will have a certain percentage of machines on site. We will also have a parts closet. If a machine crashes and we don’t have the parts on site, which shouldn’t happen, they will send another machine to replace it.” Ms. Jane
Hammett asked whether the machines are new or refurbished machines, will that meet the needs of the staff so they can do their jobs much more timely. Mr. Barnado replied yes and stated that it will meet the needs of the teacher machines. It will replace the teacher machines they primarily use. It will alleviate some of the stress on the VDI server which is taxed pretty high at this point. Mr. Lawson added that there will be an immediate fix for the machines that are powered by smart boards. They will have processor speed and memory to download materials and do what they need to do now but the machines aren’t capable of because they are old. They were expected to be replaced three or four years ago. Mr. Jeter asked if the replaced machines will be traded in. Mr. Lawson said we will use memory ram components in labs which are running VDI and upgrade their ram memory. We will be able to reuse parts. Mr. Barnado stated that we want to increase the memory of the machines we currently have. Ms. Jane Hammett asked, “Will that meet the needs of 100% the teaching staff at that campus to do their daily tasks, to assist them and do it more timely?” Mr. Lawson replied yes. Dr. Wanda All asked, “My questions is just for clarification on the funding, we have allocated to transfer $400,000.00 at the end of this fiscal year should our balance allow for a motion to be made, we can reallocate that transfer up to $50,000.00?” Mr. Lawson said that $50,000.00 is a number that is adequate to do the project. The Board has the prerogative to reallocate any number within that $400,000.00.
Ms. Jane Wilkes asked if the money had to be allocated for machines only. She stated that her concern is that it will take a long time to replace the machines and asked Mr. Barnado if he has the help he needs to replace them in a timely manner. Mr. Barnado said it will have to be done after hours so they won’t be in anyone’s way. He has a staff member unavailable at this point.
Ms. Jane Wilkes asked if money could be allocated for manpower for this project. Ms. Jane
Hammett asked the estimated time of the project. She also asked if this would meet the needs of the classroom teachers. Mr. Barnado stated this project will address the high ticket problems.
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Once those issues are resolved, they will have a clearer view of the other problems to address.
Replacing the PCs will resolve a lot of the problems teachers and staff are experiencing. Ms.
Hammett asked the estimated time frame. Mr. Barnado said he will have to discuss the time frame with Dr. Woodall. Dr. Woodall asked Mr. Barnado if it would be beneficial to him to outsource extra staff to come in so his staff doesn’t have to work all those outside hours or would it be a problem to bring in outside people who are not affiliated with our district. Mr. Barnado said it would definitely be helpful to everyone and the project could be done faster. Dr. Woodall asked if he had estimates on that kind of labor or if we requested it. Mr. Barnado said he will have to get it. Dr. Woodall asked Mr. Lawson if we could up our limit to a higher level to include that reasonable outsourcing addition. Mr. Lawson stated, “You can set a do not exceed on the allocation.” Mr. Jeter interrupted and stated, “Mr. Lyles is raising his hand in the back.”
Mr. Lyles responded by Ms. Hammett’s question by stating that it would definitely benefit them as well as speed up their progress every day. In reference to the Smart Boards, Mr. Lyles said they implemented 26 IPADS and flat screen TVs this past summer. He said that has helped tremendously. The computer problems that we are talking about will also speed up their progress. It will solve some of our problems. Dr. Woodall stated, “You could say not to exceed a hundred and the fifty would go to computers and then the outsourcing and labor.” Mr. Lawson said, “We know the price of the hardware and software licenses which is $50,000.00 and if you authorize reallocation to purchase and install that equipment, understanding that we are talking about $50,000.00 plus labor, I will come back to you with the actual numbers. That way if you are not comfortable with writing a check for $100,000.00 or $75,000.00 and you say just the hardware and labor required to install, I’ll come back to you with the exact number of $5000.00 of labor or $12000.00 of labor, whatever it ends up being.” Dr. Wanda All asked, “Is this a sole source provider? Is there a reason you are not bringing in other companies for competitive pricing.” Mr. Lawson stated that based on their pricing and what they are offering, Mr. Barnado has not been able to find anyone who can match it. Dr. Woodall stated that he put out an RFP.
Mr. Barnado said a lifetime warranty on a refurbished machine is not something a lot of companies care to stand behind. It is still Dell equipment which is still under state contract.
They offer a lot that no one else does. Mr. Lawson said we have some experience with this company and it’s been solid equipment. Dr. All asked if this will fix Union County High School, can we get a plan for next year’s budget planning to replace and systematically work on meeting the needs of our other campuses and district office. Mr. Lawson said this was a band-aide because of the urgency. The machines at Union County High School are the oldest machines in the district. We can use this model in the budget process for the other campuses. Dr. Woodall said the concerns at the high school were brought by Mr. Lyles and some of the Board members about the frustration. That’s why there is an urgency for a midyear switch. We thought this would alleviate some of their issues but we agree we need a long term replacement plan. Ms.
Jane Hammett made a motion that the Board approves the reallocation or transfer of the discussed funds in order to address the computer/technology issues at Union County High
School campus regarding computers and labor, seconded by Mr. Manning Jeter. The votes was
(8-0) in favor of the motion.
Adjourn
Dr. Wanda All made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Ms. Jane Wilkes. The vote was (8-0) in favor of the motion. The Board adjourned at 9:03 P.M.
Respectfully Submitted by
Kim Petty
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