Beaufort Co. school board meets Thursday to discuss COVID, budget. How to weigh in
Beaufort County’s Board of Education will meet Thursday night to discuss the school district’s budget and hear a COVID-19 update on Monday’s return to school from Superintendent Frank Rodriguez.
Members of the public can attend the meeting in person on a first-come, first-served basis once board members and district senior staff are admitted.
The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at the district office, 2900 Mink Point Boulevard, in Burton. The meeting will have a 30-person capacity, including board members and staff, around 20 of which attended Tuesday’s meeting.
Masks will be required, and attendees will have their temperatures checked.
The board will accept public comment near the beginning of the meeting, which will also be streamed on the County Channel.
The school board has asked remote public commenters to email their name, phone number and topic to board assistant Robyn Cushingberry at robyn.cushingberry@beaufort.k12.sc.us in the hour before the meeting. Commenters will be called to deliver their comment.
In-person commenters will need to get a public comment card from Cushingberry and give it to her prior to the start of the meeting.
The comment period near the beginning of the meeting is limited to 30 minutes, and each comment has a 3-minute time limit. There will not be a second public comment period.
This will mark the board’s first meeting with a public comment since students returned to school on Monday, marking the district’s first day of full-time, in-person instruction since March.
Of the district’s 21,000-plus students, 65.3% are attending classes in person rather than virtually, a percentage that will increase to 70.4% at the start of the spring semester in February.
Over winter break, the district logged 117 new COVID-19 cases among students and staff, a 48.5% increase in the total number of cases reported since Sept. 28.
As of Wednesday, the district has reported 377 cases since Sept. 28.
The district has about 24,000 students and staff combined. About 1.57% of the district’s total student and staff population have contracted the virus since Sept. 28, compared to 5.2% of the county’s total population since March.
“In schools we have not been seeing the spread,” Superintendent Frank Rodriguez said Monday. “As long as it remains low within our schools, we want to provide as much face-to-face instruction as we can, because we know that’s what’s best for our students.”
New members, officers
The school board rang in the new year on Tuesday by swearing in new members and electing two new board officers.
New board representatives Angela Middleton and Ingrid Boatright were sworn in, along with returning representatives Earl Campbell and Christina Gwozdz.
Middleton represents District 6, which includes Okatie and Sun City and was formerly represented by John Dowling.
She’s a former Beaufort County teacher who also held an assistant principal position in Berkeley County and a principalship in Jacksonville, Fla. Currently, she’s a loan specialist for the U.S. Small Business Administration.
“I understand how teachers feel, I understand how it is to operate in the classroom,” she said. “I think that level of compassion and understanding will help me in this position.”
Boatright represents District 11, which includes the southern tip of Hilton Head and was formerly represented by JoAnn Orischak.
She is completing a master’s degree in health informatics and has been a member or officer in several Hilton Head Island High School parent groups. Since 2014, she has served as on the board of directors for the Boys and Girls Club of Hilton Head.
She said Tuesday that her long-term goals are whole-child education, improving technology and addressing diversity and inclusion. She said she also intends to communicate with principals across the Hilton Head cluster and be a constant presence at school improvement council meetings and online for her community.
Middleton and Boatright will serve until 2024, as will incumbents Campbell and Gwozdz, who won re-election.
The board also elected two new officers Tuesday night. Gwozdz was re-elected as chair over Rachel Wisnefski.
Mel Campbell was elected vice-chair over David Striebinger, replacing Cathy Robine; Striebinger was unopposed for secretary, replacing William Smith.
Board officers will serve one-year terms.
Campbell said Tuesday that he looked forward to improving teacher retention and student achievement.
“I’m looking to help lead the district into a charge that began before COVID took over,” he said, “and I hope we complete that charge.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2021 at 2:27 PM.