The Anderson School District One Board of Trustees heard a special report on the AdvancED Accreditation during their March meeting, which was held on Wednesday afternnoon, March 23 at the District Office. Due to the meeting being held on print day for The Journal, no one was available to attend. The following report is from the official minutes of the meeting:
Michael Lodico, Chairman of the AdvancED Accreditation External Review Team thanked the team for their work in the district over the four days of the accreditation process. He applauded their thoughtful review of the district’s systems, processes, and adherance to AdvancED Quality Assurance Standards.
Dr. Lodico complimented the district on the review conducted prior to the external visit. He commended the team for closely scrutinizing the provided evidence.
He reviewed the accreditation process which is an international protocol and set of standards for educational improvement.
The team identified powerful practices (exemplary practices), opportunities for improvement and improvement priorities.
During the review, the AdvancED team interviewed 224 individual stakeholders and conducted 62 classroom observations.
Dr. Lodico highlighted two areas of “well-managed learning environment” and “digital learning environment” as exceptionally high scores.
In the domain of Teaching & Learning, he noted the following powerful practices:
• Communication from district and school leaders to internal and external stakeholders is exceptional and has established a rich culture of trust.
• The district’s deployment and integration of the ASD1 Digital Innovation indicates a strong commitment to instructional practices including active engagement, depth of understanding and the application of knowledge and skills for all students.
He noted improvement priorities as follows:
• Articulate to internal stakeholders the district’s formalized processes to monitor and evaluate key components of the instructional program.
• Align student assessment, grading and reporting policies, practices and procedures across the district.
• Investigate measures of 21st century learning that evaluate individual student and group progress towards mastery of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate.
Dr. Lodico reviewed the Domain of Leadership Capacity. He gave the team’s powerful practice in this domain as:
• The district benefits from well-informed, cohesive and caring leadership by the Board of Trustees.
He then reviewed the Domain of Resource Utilization.
He gave one Improvement Priority as develop a medium- to long-range facilities plan based on district growth projections. He also gave an opportunity for improvement as follows: formulate a plan to ensure that qualified personnel and infrastructure are available to support ASD1 Digital Innovation.
The conclusion of the committee results in an Index of Educational Quality (IEQ) of 290.65 compared to a network average of 278.34.
Dr. Locido congratulated the district on several high scoring areas during classroom observations including very well-managed learning environments as well as exceptional use of digital learning resources. He made special note that the team was very impressed with the thorough and conscientious use of available financial resources and the leadership capacity of the district. The committee recommended that the district earn the distinction of accreditation of AdvancED.
During the Financial Report Havird reviewed the activity funds for each of the 14 schools. They continue to be in good shape financially and spending their local accounts appropriately. He reviewed 27 CD investment of $4,392,000 with interest of $101,209,000.
Havird reviewed the major district accounts as follows:
Investment Account: $3,715.00
Operating Account: $5,058,285.00
Food Service Account: $454,637.00
Building Fund Account: $2,843,276.00
S.C. Governmental Inv. Pool: $14,877,616.00
Financial Director Travis Thomas updated the board on the revenue from the local option sales tax. Total sales tax allocated to district one for the month of November was $539,595. 20% ($107,919) of this is used for property tax relief leaving the district $431,676 for capital improvement projects. Current ending penny sales tax fund balance was $2,294,880. (This information is published in detail at the district website.)
Thomas reviewed the revenue accounts and expenditure accounts with the board. Revenue collected is 71% of total budget with expenditures at 56% of budget – both at acceptable levels.
Thomas reviewed some preliminary budget projections for 2016-17 Ways and Means base student cost projected currently at $2,350.00 per student. By statute, the base student cost should be $2,933.00.
There is also some additional funds proposed for teacher and bus driver salaries, school buses and technology technical assistance to aid in preparations for online testing.
Jane Harrison, Assistant Superintendent of Instruction presented the instructional report.
She reported that Kristy Smith’s Jet Toy team at Cedar Grove will again compete in the international competition. Travis Guthrie’s PMS Vex Robotics Team won the state robotics competition and will travel to Kentucky to compete in the national competition.
Harrison reviewed the penny sales tax expenditures in the school libraries.
Examples of capital improvements include furniture, computers, interactive TV, clear touch interactive board, research tools, touch screen computers, iPad stands and keyboards, books, 3-D printers and software.
Jen Chesney, Librarian at Powdersville High School and her daughter, Lucy Chesney, presented a sign thanking the district and board members for the ability to purchase new and upgraded equipment and resources.
Assistant Superintendent of Administration Robbie Binnicker provided the Student Nutritional Services report.
Average daily participation of meals was 528 more this month than a year ago this time. Profits for the month of February were up approximately $68,000.00 from 2014-2015.
Binnicker said the district is pleased with quality produce commodities offered through the Department of Defense and will allocate more commodity dollars to this program for 2016-2017.
