During their meeting Tuesday, the Anderson School District One Board heard from two people with concerns about citizen input on instructional resources and library materials and heard an update on the 2023-24 budget.
The State AAA Champion Wren Basketball team was recognized along with their coach Fran Campbell who was named the AAA Coach of the Year.
Anderson School District’s One and Two Career and Technology Center students were also recognized for recent State Championships in Culinary Arts and Graphic Communications competitions. Media Broadcasting students and the ACTC Pulse Radio station were also recognized for winning a National Championship.
Assistant Superintendent of Administration/Instruction Dr. Jeff Wilson commended the staff. ACTC Director Hollie Harrell, who was also recently named the State Career and Technology Center Director of the Year, said, “We are part of a great school district.” We work together, with the teachers. We appreciate your support.”
Wilson announced that Palmetto Middle School was recently named a Performance Learning Community (PLC) National Model school. Wilson said the designation is the result of “teachers working together to help students learn”.
During public comments, Kasey DiPasquale expressed several concerns about changes to four AD1 policies regarding public concerns and complaints about instructional resources and input on library materials selection and adoption.
Amendments to the policies were up for final reading at the meeting.
DiPasquale questioned public input being made more restrictive and how committee members that would provide oversight on the issues would be appointed.
She asked that second reading on the amendments be postponed.
District One parent Katie Leventis, representing “a group of concerned parents” also spoke to the Board. Leventis expressed concerns about the selection of books and inappropriate materials in school libraries and parental input. She also expressed concern about the source of wording in some of the AR KEC-R policy regarding Public Concerns and Complaints about Instructional Resources.
Approximately 50 people were in attendance and most expressed support for the comments made, however there were some who appeared to be there for other reasons but were not on the agenda and did not express any opinions during or after the meeting.
During the financial report, Financial Director Travis Thomas said the Local Option Sales Tax brought in $2,846,000 to Anderson County in March. District One received $946,000. Of that $757,000 went toward Capital improvements and $189,000 went toward property tax relief. The LOST fund balance is currently $11.9 million.
The current building program has a fund balance of $4.4 million. There is still some work to be done on the Palmetto High Baseball Field to finish out the building program.
The 2022-23 Building Program, which is just beginning, has a fund balance of $22 million. One of the first projects, at Powdersville Middle School, is just beginning.
Dr. Wilson reported on Star testing. He said seventy-one percent of District One students scored above the expected typical growth. On IReady he said “All of our schools are at or above the National average on growth and achievement.
Wilson said one factor in the high results is parent and home environment. Another is the PLC, “teachers working together to improve learning”.
Assistant Superintendent of Personnel Becky Brady reported that the Student Nutrition program will offer a summer feeding program with breakfast and lunch offered at Wren Elementary School and lunch only at Palmetto Elementary and Mineral Spring Park. Any student can participate.
Following the reports, the Board was to vote on second reading of four amended policies. They included KEC- Public Concerns and Complaints about Instructional Resources; AR KEC-R – Public Concerns and Complaints about Instruction Resources; KEC-E – Concerns and Complaints Form and IJL – Library Materials Selection and Adoption.
After a lenghthy explanation about the reason for updating the policies and including some “legal” language provided by the SC School Board Association, Superintendent Robbie Binnicker recommended the Board “take a step back” and take another look at the policies before final approval.
Binnicker explained that the policies had not been updated in a long time and were out of date. He said during the process of updating language, what the District sees and what the public sees in certain wording may be different.
“We are inside the system,” he said. “When we say something, we assume everybody understands. There was never a thought from anybody on the staff or board to reduce input or support. We want the opposite. The language is not clear.”
He also addressed the selection of content for libraries. “Our libraries have hundreds of books. We have fourteen incredibly trained librarians. We very rarely have someone say we have a bad book.” He did say it could happen occasionally and that the District works with the parent or citizen who has a concern. “During my eleven years in Anderson District One “I have worked through the process with every parent,” he said.
“Zero people have challenged a book to the District committee. We have great parents. Our process has worked really well. We know there are times when we will disagree. That is why we have to have a policy or process in place.”
Binnicker said there was some language some Board members were not sure about and some Board members had calls from parents with concerns. “We need to look at this and make sure it says what we need it to say. We can take some time to try to get this language right.” Binnicker said while there may not be one hundred percent agreement, “We need to make sure there is not misunderstanding of what the policy says.”
Boardmember Melissa Hood then made a motion to suspend the vote on the policy changes until the May meeting. Boardmember Brenda Ellison seconded the motion, stating they want to address the concerns before voting.
With a 5-0 vote, the Board unanimously agreed to postpone second reading on the four policies. Board members Wendy Burgess and David Merritt were not present.
The Board unanimously approved a change to the District One Organizational Chart, adding a Director of Digital Learning and Director of Planning and Development. There are already persons doing the work covered by the titles, Binnicker said.
First reading was held on two policies, GBED – Staff Conduct and AR IKADD-R Content and Credit Recoverty (Administrative Rule).
The board then went into executive session to discuss a personnel issue.
Upon returning to open session, the Board approved several personnel recommendations.
Following the meeting the Board held a budget worksession.
District One is currently operating with a tax millage rate of 150.5 mills, the lowest in Anderson County. The current budget is $96,654,017 and the District has a fund balance of $24,905,657. During a previous work session, the draft budget showed a $5.1 million deficit.
Thomas, Brady and Binnicker presented information on the 2023-24 budget.
After citing a nationwide teacher shortage, competition from private businesses, the need to keep teacher salaries competitive, and other changes, the draft budget reflected anticipated revenues of $105,669,364 and expenditures of $108,759,469, resulting in a deficit of $3,090,105.
Four options were presented to balance the budget, including a one time use of the fund balance.
Options included amending budgeted supplies for the ESSER fund $1 million; reducing additional expenditures $540,105; reducing the general fund technology $600,000 and using $950,000 from the Fund Balance.
Binnicker said the District tries not to go to the fund balance to balance the budget, but with 25.8 percent of budget in reserve, “We feel this is one of those years.” He also said “We expect to underspend in every account and hope at the end of the year we wont take this money out of the fund balance. We will continue to look at the budget. There are some things that might happen with Anderson County.”
The District is waiting to hear from Anderson County on the millage rate in regards to tax values from property reassesment in 2022.
Additional details on the budget will be covered in a separate story.
