Staff Writer

Wednesday evening the Fairfield County school board, despite opposition from the public and three board members, passed the revised district’s policy (IKE) pertaining to promotion, retention and acceleration of students.

Before a motion to accept the proposed changes was made, Annie McDaniel, the chairman of the ad hoc committee, which was formed to further study the policy, made a motion on behalf of the committee.

McDaniel’s motion was that the board send out a more extensive survey be offered to parents to get their feedback concerning the future use of the CRT (criterion reference test) as the district’s nine week test. She wanted parents to have a voice about the use of the test for grading purposes and thought the one the district had offered had not reached enough parents.

Her motion included that the policy change, which was to have its second and final reading that night, be temporarily delayed of that vote until the new survey information was gathered.

The president of the Fairfield Parent Association, Inc, Thomas Armstrong, earlier in the public comment part of the meeting had also asked that the vote be delayed.

Board member Rebecca McSwain noted that there were many problems with delaying the vote and asked that the motion be revised.

She suggested they continue with the new survey idea but not delay the vote on the policy revision because the time constraint would be a problem. She noted that delaying the vote would start the legal, public process again and the re-surveying would also take time.

McSwain said that if the revision was tabled then the old policy would have to stand and that policy included the end of quarter test (nine week) be used for 20% of a students grade.

The point McSwain was interjecting was that the policy revision they were voting on was to change that 20% to 10% for K-2nd grade, 15% for 3rd-8th grade, and 20% for 9th-12th grade.

McSwain’s motion was to vote on the policy plus do the survey. She explained that they could always come back and change the policy again at a later date.

Board Member, Henry Miller, who was also part of the ad hoc committee, agreed with the amended motion.

When the vote was taken, Board members Henry Miller, Rebecca McSwain, Bob Drake and Harold Heath voted to pass the revised policy IKE with the new parental feedback survey planned for the near future.

The no votes came from Annie McDaniel,Catherine Kennedy, and Ricky Johnson.

OTHER ISSUES

The policy IKA revisions pertaining to grading and assessment systems was made so that it will reflect the state’s uniform grading scale. This passed with six yes votes and with Kennedy abstaining.

That same night the board voted to adopt a consensus report on the yearly performance evaluation of Superintendent Samantha Ingram. It was reported that the majority of the board thought her performance this past year was exemplary but that some members thought she was only proficient or needed improvement in some areas that were evaluated.

Also passed were other items pertaining to the superintendent. One was to extend her contract one year and to make a plan for future roll-over contract options.

The second dealt with a prior commitment made by the board to Dr. Ingram to receive a yearly $15,000 tax shelter annuity for the next two school years.

The last item was to clarify that the superintendent’s unused vacation time would also be held to the same policy as other administrative employees.

EXECUTIVE SESSION

After the board returned from executive session to receive legal advice from their attorney, board secretary, Bob Drake, asked if anyone on the board wished to make a motion for the removal of any school board members.

The discussion turned to questions that school district attorney, David Duff, answered by stating that the removal of a board member was to be initiated by the board and not initiated by a citizen.

Some board members expressed a desire to get additional advice from the state’s attorney general to clarify how these matters were to be dealt with.

A motion was made to seek additional legal council on how things were to be handled when a citizen called for the removal of two board members. The motion was defeated.

Drake asked again if there were any motions and hearing none they proceeded with the meeting.

PUBLIC COMMENTS

SCE&G’s Human Resource Manager, Scott McFarland, spoke before the school board about the future of VC Summer Nuclear Power Plant and how the education of students in Fairfield county correlates with the job prospects of the future.

McFarland said that by 2016 the 800 job site will double its employees due to the new expansion of the power plant.

To put it in perspective he said today’s 9th graders will be graduating from college in 2016.

McFarland also reports that the pilot program that had hired two high school students at their facility has been a success.

Thomas Armstrong spoke next and urged the board members to “close the gap” so that we could “reunited our community.”

Vanessa Hollins, like Armstrong urged board members to attend the upcoming Fairfield Parent Association meeting scheduled to get some questions answered.

Hollins said that students need “positive reinforcement” instead of the “negative reinforcement” that the controversial test (CRT) is creating.

Dr. Janet Mason, a former Fairfield county teacher and administrator, was the last public speaker. She shared information she received from a Washington Post article written by Joe Liebermann about the schools in Washington DC. She said that the problems and solutions there was a good comparison to our school district.