Rock Hill Schools September Work Session Notes

These are my notes from the September Rock Hill School Board Work Session held at Belleview Elementary School on Monday, September 12, 2011.

1. The board heard a presentation by Belleview's; Principal; teachers; parents and; students about the benefits of single gender schooling. Belleview has had two classes (one boys and one girls) in the 5th grade for two years (currently on the third year) and this year they've added classes for the 3rd grade. They presented graphs showing improved academic performance but admitted there were many possible factors for the improvement. However, the biggest indicator has been the increase in applications to join the classes. South Carolina leads the nation on the implementation of single gender education.
2. The board heard a request from the Sullivan Middle School Administration, Athletic Director, and parents on starting a middle school soccer program (for boys and girls). They would raise all the necessary funds (no district expense) and participate in a 7 school region (Fort Mill and Clover). The administration recommends the board approve this request at the business meeting.
3. The administration led a discussion on facilities planning to gauge the boards willingness to increase taxes. The administration will present more tax information to the board this week, but generally, the board felt any major projects should be timed when bonds are being retired so there would be little to no increase in taxes.
4. The administration reported there was an increase in funds at the end of the most recent school year because of the following; $1,500,000 because of additional tax revenue form tax penalties;  $600,000 due to operations cost reductions; $600,000 due to less unemployment costs; $500,000 due to energy reductions; $400,000 due to additional textbook money from the state and; $300,000 due to a reduction in salaries. After a discussion that the board would not consider furloughs and academic fees for next year, the board agreed to the following; $1,000,000 to cover a deficit in this years budget; $325,000 to hire 5 more teachers; $220,000 to refund academic fees already paid for this year and; $1,8000,000 to give employees either a step increase or a cost of living increase amounting to about 2%. There is some risk to creating a budget problem for next year since the economy is not recovering, however, the district's conservative practice of zero deficit budgeting usually results in a one to 4 million surplus at the end of the year.
5. The board reviewed the following policies; GBEA;GBED/GBED-R;GCO/GCO-R;JBCC;JBCC-R;JCA-R;BG;BG-R;BGC/BGD;BIA/BIB and;BD. Modifications to policy BG-R, if approved, would have the district send proposed policies out to employees and the community through email blasts or email newsletters as well as posting online (something the district was already looking into since attending a public relations workshop recently)
6. The board discussed the Fort Mill School District's resolution to support a referendum concerning partisan  elections and declined to change the previous position against partisan elections.
7. The meeting ended with a discussion on proper board member communication with the Superintendent, and for this board, became somewhat heated. If there was a resolution, I missed it, but it is important enough that I will have a follow-up post on this subject later in the week.

Mildred Douglas was unable to attend because of a family commitment.