CCBoE 10.28.2025 Working Meeting Notes

Call To Order

Invocation by Harvest Pointe Fellowship Senior Pastor Chris Norris

Pledge of Allegiance: Evans Elementary School 4-H Presidents

Approval of Agenda: Yay 4, No 1 (Katie Allen)

Special Recognitions

1. State Superintendent Woods Student Advisory Council 2025-2026

   1. Vithyash Ayyappan, Evans High School

   2. Iris Holberton, Columbia Virtual Academy

2. Columbia County Retired Educators Association:

   1. Appreciation Day, 1st Sunday of November (November 2, 2025)

3. Employee Recognition

   1. Lilly Gibson: 50 years with Columbia County School District

Board Comments: All board members expressed pride in 4H presidents and thanked them for their leadership. Congratulated new advisory council members and encouraged them to speak up in advocacy for their fellow students. Thanked Ms. Gibson for her dedication the past 50 years. All expressed appreciation to retired educators.

Approval of Consent Items: Yay 5, No 0

1. Minutes of 10/14/2025 Regular Session Meeting

2. September Financials

3. Fundraisers

4. Employee Travel

5. Secondary Employment

Board Policies

1. Board Policy IB, Instructional Program and Objectives

2. Board Policy IF, Instructional Resources

3. Board Policy JR, Student Records

Flynt: There were some changes in the wording at the state level so changing these policies to mirror state guidance. We can discuss these now, leave them out on the desk and then can vote at your next meeting.

Allen: For IF, is there flexibility on the wording that was provided for this policy?

Flynt: Yes, as a board you can do that. Typically we use their wording. There was one section that was a bit confusing so we already changed that a bit. Mr. Van Meter helped with that wording.

Allen: I would like to have a more in-depth discussion because it looks like whereas before we had 4 paragraphs of very specific instruction on student data and PII. It looks like that was replaced with a just sort of blanket paragraph.

Flynt: I’ll just speak to some of that and then Mr. Van Meter can talk to that. What we have done in the last couple of years is to be careful to remove some of the requirements that are in the law out of the policy because we don’t have to restate the law. We have to follow the law but it doesn’t have to be in the policy.

Van Meter: (He was hard to hear) He made it more generic to give more flexibility.

Allen: She read an article on Common sense Media where 3/4 of apps used a legal loophole to use student data although they aren’t supposed to.

Van Meter: We do use a vetting process called Trusted Acts, and they set those protection policies. So when there is an app, it goes through not only us, but goes through a 3rd party as well.

Flynt: We’ll lay these out at the table for public comment and will vote next meeting.

(Karin’s Note: The changes are available at the school district in the lobby. When they did this last year, you could see the changes online and post feedback. I don’t see that this time but you can look here.)

Discussion Topics and Presentations:

1. Inspire School Spotlight, Associate Superintendent Dr. Kristen Carroll and Principal of Riverside Middle School Eli Putnam

2. Discovery Center of the CSRA Update, Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Brian Campbell, Director of Discovery Center Experience Tim Behling, and Manager of Education Tiffany Palmer

   1. Statewide Students FY25: 112,757

   2. CSRA Total Students FY25: 13,027

   3. District Impact

      1. CCSD Student Total: 10, 537

      2. JA Biztown: 4411

      3. JA Finance Park: 6126

Allen: Since this is operated by a not-profit, is it funded through business donations? volunteers?

Flynt: CCBOE funded the building and then its funded by business partnerships

Dekle: How do you get volunteers? Do you have enough?

JA Staff: We operate 18 store fronts and we like to have at least 1 volunteer at each store front. The number of volunteers has been lower this year.

• If you want to volunteer send an email to tpalmer@georgia.ja.org

Staff Reports

1. Academic Curriculum for Excellence Update, Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Brian Campbell and Harlem High School Teacher Laura Griffin.

   1. Moved all of the ACE Case K-12 Resources to Canvas.

      1. Demonstration on how it is used

      2. Laura Griffin experience

Superintendent Reports:

1. 2025 ACT Results came in.

   1. District

      1. 2024: 22.2

      2. 2025: 22.9

   2. State

      1. 2024: 21.2

      2. 2025: 21.4

   3. National

      1. 2024: 19.4

      2. 2025: 19.4

   4. #5 in Georgia for districts with 200+ test takers

2. 2025 Advanced Placement

   1. Total AP Exams

      1. 2021: 3298

      2. 2022: 3292

      3. 2023: 3649

      4. 2024: 4555

      5. 2025: 4581

   2. Percent Scoring 3 or Higher

      1. 2021: 55%

      2. 2022: 57%

      3. 2023: 63%

      4. 2024: 73%

      5. 2025: 78%

Executive Session:

1. Sworn Affidavit: Yay 5, No 0

2. Personnel Sheet: Yay 5, No 0

3. Adjourn: Yay 5, No 0

Regular Meeting: November 18, 2025