How Charleston County Schools Recruit Great Teachers And Fund Student Success w/ Dr. Luke Clamp

A school district doesn’t just educate kids, it builds the future workforce, the local economy, and the fabric of a community. We’re joined by Dr. Luke Clamp, deputy superintendent of the Charleston County School District (CCSD), to share what’s driving momentum across Charleston County and why CCSD is leaning into big, measurable goals instead of small promises.

We talk teacher recruitment and retention, including the district’s high-energy hiring event that drew more than 1,000 candidates and a compensation strategy designed to keep great educators in classrooms. Then we get specific about Vision 2027: the commitment that every student will exit elementary school literate and reading on grade level. Dr. Clamp explains why CCSD insists on 100%, how the district supports students in poverty, multilingual learners, and students with IEPs, and how weighted student funding gives principals the flexibility to put resources where they matter most.

We also explore outcomes-based contracting for high-dosage tutoring, plus the real-world value of CCSD’s career and technical education (CTE) and Centers for Advanced Study (CAS), where students can earn certifications in fields like health science, welding, and engineering and still keep college options open. Finally, we tackle AI in education: the new policy guardrails, the focus on student data privacy and safety, and the parent reality check about screen time and the work kids produce.

If you care about strong public schools in Mount Pleasant and across Charleston County, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share with a parent or business leader, and leave a quick review so more people can find the show.

This is a grounded guide for founders, contractors, agency owners, manufacturers, and service leaders across Charleston and beyond who want a no-nonsense path to an exit. We share red flags that can sink deals, the role of local market knowledge, and how Viking’s success-based model aligns incentives. Join us, get practical next steps, and walk away knowing exactly how to make your future sale smoother.
www.vikingmergers.com

Presenting Sponsor: Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce

Studio Sponsor: Charleston Media Solutions

Episode Sponsor: Viking Mergers & Acquisitions

Expo Podcast Sponsor: ‪Pollen Social‬

Production Sponsor: RMBO.co

Design Sponsor: DK Design

Interested in Sponsorship? Click here.

Committee:
Kathleen Herrmann | Host | MPCC Past President | Mount Pleasant Towne Centre
Mike Compton | Co-host | Podcast Committee | RMBO.co
Rebecca Imholz | Co-host | MPCC Executive Director 
Amanda Bunting Comen | Co-host | MPCC Marketing & Communications
Benjamin Nesvold | Co-host | MPCC President | Edward Jones

Transcript

Welcome And Meet The Guest

SPEAKER_03 1:05

Hello, listeners. Welcome to the Building Business Podcast powered by the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce, brought to you by the Charleston Media Solutions. We're here in the studios with Mr. Miracle Matthew himself on the uh the ones and twos. Um my name's Mike Compton. I am the what am I now on here at the chamber? Just your podcast host. Just your Mount Pleasant Chamber podcast host. Volunteer. You know, volunteer.

SPEAKER_04 1:27

Former marketing chair.

SPEAKER_03 1:28

Former marketing chair, Catherine Lexus. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm sitting here with that familiar voice over there. Amanda, say hello.

SPEAKER_04 1:35

Hi, I'm Amanda Bunting Coman with Social ABCs on the Chamber's Marketing Committee.

SPEAKER_03 1:40

That's right, you're official.

SPEAKER_04 1:41

Expo.

SPEAKER_03 1:42

Oh, you're you're you're an employee now. Can we say that or no?

unknown 1:45

No.

SPEAKER_04 1:45

Cut that out later. It'll it'll be out probably.

SPEAKER_03 1:49

I'm excited about that. That just means you're you're just adding more value. Yeah. Yeah. Love it. All right. Uh well, we have a special guest today. Uh, Dr. Luke Clamp. Say hello, Doc.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Good morning.

SPEAKER_03 2:02

How are you today?

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Doing fantastic, Mike. Thank you for inviting me.

SPEAKER_03 2:05

It's awesome to have you. Tell me your position with CCSD.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Mike, I serve as deputy superintendent with the Charleston County School District.

SPEAKER_03 2:14

What's it like working underneath Anita? Or with, I should say. How about with Anita?

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Well, it's it's both and. Uh, she's a fantastic leader with incredible vision and energy. And uh, she's why we came to Charleston County, my wife and I, two years ago with our two sons, uh, to lead and serve in a place with such opportunity. Um, she models for us every day, love children and love people first, and make decisions that are going to create a way for kids. And uh even when it's a hard decision to make, make it because the kids matter and they don't get a second chance uh to have a uh an opportunity to learn. Um they get this chance and we want to take advantage of it. So I'm honored to work with her and honored to be here to share with you some uh exciting news about Charleston County School District.

SPEAKER_03 2:56

That's why we're here, Doc.

SPEAKER_04 2:57

Yeah, I was amazing because she was at our uh one of the chamber lunches. Sure. And she was on the Chamber podcast last year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Yes, well, I hope I don't embarrass the family. I'm sure she was a fantastic guest.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

Well, she's actually the the inspiration

Why Dr. Clamp Chose CCSD

SPEAKER_03 3:13

for doing this. I want to have a quarterly CCSD update with you or her or Andy or whoever wants to jump on to give our members and our listeners an update on the school system here because it's such a great school system. I want to kind of shout it from the rooftops, you know what I mean? So, Doc, you talk about the CCSD. Uh you you mentioned your origin. Where are you from?

SPEAKER_00 3:35

I'm from a small town in South Carolina, Williston, South Carolina. It's near Aiken County. Uh population 3,000. My mother was born and raised there. My father was born and raised about 10 miles away in another small town, Sally, South Carolina. So people ask me all the time, what country are you from? And I say, well, I'm from the country. And uh so Williston, South Carolina is a great place to grow up.

SPEAKER_03 3:55

Uh were you in the school system there?

SPEAKER_00 3:57

I attended school there. Um I studied uh collegiately of the field of education at Clemson University, which is where I met my wife, and she and I both began our teaching careers in Columbia, South Carolina, actually at uh in Irmo, South Carolina.

SPEAKER_03 4:09

She's an educator?

SPEAKER_00 4:10

She's an educator as well. Uh so she comes uh to Charleston with a incredible background in literacy and teaching multilingual learners. So every day she works at uh Jenny Moore Elementary School in Mount Pleasant, teaching kids to speak English and read.

unknown 4:23

All right.

SPEAKER_04 4:24

And their kids are in CCSD still.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

We do. So I as I tell uh members of our community all the time, my entire family wakes up every day and goes to work at Charleston County School District. So we have two sons, a ninth grader and a twelfth grader at Lucy Beckham High.

SPEAKER_03 4:35

Okay. Lucy Beckham. I sub there every now and again. Um what a great school. And what a great school system. So and I'd say it, I sub, I'm literally in the schools subbing, and it's so much fun. I'm having a blast doing it.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

Well, we appreciate you doing that, Mike. Please come and help us.

SPEAKER_03 4:50

Yeah, for sure, for sure. But um, but but that just leads me into like the school system that's so clean in these buildings. It's so nice, and everybody is in a great mood. The teachers are in a good mood, the principals like everybody around it just feels like they're on a mission to help. And it you can feel it, you know, just as a low-lead sub that nobody really gives about, you know, nobody really cares about the sub. But the everybody's super positive and and it's really refreshing to feel.

SPEAKER_04 5:17

Passionate about their jobs. It really is.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Yeah. Yeah. And what you're describing, Mike, really starts from the top. So the vision uh that Anita and our leadership team cast for our schools is number one, create a culture of love and belonging and really invest time in ensuring that every single person knows that they matter. And so I'm glad to hear that you say as a sub, I come in, I'm kind of a guest on assignment.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

But we want everyone to feel that way. And um, you know, especially the people in our community um who are still trying to decide where what schools they should attend. We want you to attend Charleston County schools. Come to our public schools. They're great places to learn, they're great places to work. And again, that vision starts at the top with our superintendent and the development of culture through amazing principals and staff.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

Well, so talk about recruitment and retention then.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Yeah, I tell you, it's a great season for that, Mike. Uh we just had an incredible event in March. I want to celebrate our Chief Human Resources Officer, Bill Brigman, and his team who created a recruitment event we hosted on Trident Technical College's

Teacher Recruiting Energy And Pay

SPEAKER_00 6:13

campus. Right. We welcomed over a thousand eager educators and support staff members who want to come work in Charleston. And I was there and to feel the energy in the room, I showed you a video earlier of it. It really didn't do it justice. There were lines wrapped around tables for people to meet, our principals and our staff.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

I believe it.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

And they're coming from all over the country. And, you know, in a season where there's so many places that are struggling to get quality applicants and quantities of applicants, people are eager to come to Charleston. And that again is a testament to our superintendent's vision for our system, but also the community opportunities both to live and work. And so we uh we actually uh gave some contracts out that day. Our IHR team, if a contract was signed, we rang a big bell so everyone could celebrate. And it was neat to see how even those that didn't have the bell rung for them were cheering for others who had gotten an opportunity to come work in CCSD. So we're excited about that. Uh the retention that's ongoing, we are having fewer and fewer vacancies each and every year, and that's a testament to our CFO Daniel Prentice's vision for our budget, where we are seeing uh the highest salaries ever in the history of Charleston County. We're doing so without raising taxes, and we're doing so within a really smart and refined strategic budget. We believe our salaries uh will be the highest in the country in public school settings, both next year and over the next three years. And so uh we're excited to uh to celebrate that while also holding ourselves accountable to recruiting and retaining the right educators.

SPEAKER_04 7:46

So once the word gets out, more people will come.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

They are, they're coming.

SPEAKER_03 7:50

They're coming.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

And um, and not only are they coming um as young educators, we are recruiting seasoned educators, 25-year veterans who have incredible talent and experience to give to our community.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

Why wouldn't you want to live in paradise here and and and teach and help grow the you know economy, grow the the community with with teaching? I uh it's a no-brainer to me. It really is. Uh so it's really it's comforting to see and hear that it it is growing in front of you right now. You're seeing the outcome right now, and and and our kids are gonna be the ones benefiting this whole time. Uh talk about our kids a little bit. Vision 2027. What's what can you explain that?

SPEAKER_00 8:25

It's such a bold vision, Mike, and it's the reason, one of the reasons that my wife and I were interested in in uh pursuing positions in Charleston County for a school district and a school board to cast a vision that every student will exit elementary school literate, reading on grade level is says so much about what we believe about our kids, but even more what we have the capacity to do. And so we own that vision very boldly and we're on our way. Again, that's two years away, so it might seem like it's not right around the corner. It really is.

SPEAKER_03 8:56

It is, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

But it it it requires strategic work inside of our school system, inside of our schools, really supportive resources around them, and engaging with every single stakeholder that your reading proficiency matters. Um, a quote from uh an author that uh I admire tremendously out of California says that literacy is freedom's gatekeeper.

Vision 2027 And 100% Literacy

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Sure. And we believe that. We believe that students who can read will be able to learn and grow. And so uh honored by honored by that vision and uh really uh celebrate it with our board and our our staff.

SPEAKER_03 9:32

Yeah. Um you said a hundred percent of fifth graders, fifth graders, hundred percent of fifth graders will leave, will graduate literate.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Well, we'll exit elementary school. So they'll go into middle school. Reading on grade level.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

That's amazing. Is that comparable to other counties, other states?

SPEAKER_00 9:54

What what's the is it a hundred percent there or are we Well, I I don't know that I would be qualified to speak on every system's goal and and belief systems, but I'll tell you that uh some would set a goal to improve every year, which we believe in continuous improvement as well. But if we don't say we believe a hundred percent, then what we actually are saying that it's okay for ten percent not to, or it's okay for twenty percent not to, and we don't believe that.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

We believe it's our responsibility for a hundred percent. That's really elevating the responsibility for every child to be at that measure.

SPEAKER_03 10:27

Talk about pupil impoverty real quick. Pupil in poverty.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Yes, sir. So in our school system, we are very strategic to understand and align resources to children whose financial situation needs support.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

And so not just pupils in poverty in our community, but also those whose first language is not English. Over the last five years, the number of multilingual learners, so those learners whose first language is not English has almost doubled. As a matter of fact, 46% growth in the last five years. We serve over 7,000 students in Charleston County School District whose first language is not English. And so that's our responsibility. They have uh moved here with their families and Charleston has become their home. And so our teachers in pre-kindergarten, all the way to twelfth grade, who have students whose first language is not English, are not only teaching them academic content, we're also teaching them to speak English. And that's a responsibility that we own very seriously and very uh very graciously, as well as supporting our students uh who have uh special education needs or support. So our students with an IEP, an individual individualized education plan. Those three categories of students historically have uh shown lagging achievement, and so we own that transparently. So, what are we gonna do? We're not just gonna talk about it, we're gonna do something about it. Right. So again, I spoke with you earlier about our budget. Our budget is positioned with a weighted student funding formula, which allows for direct resources to go to schools with principals having the autonomy to position those resources to support children in those three categories.

SPEAKER_03 12:01

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 12:01

And all that falls under Vision 2022.

SPEAKER_03 12:04

Well, that's it. It's all in alignment. Yes, yes, ma'am. Yeah. It's amazing that you give the principals that much you know, freedom, that much, you know, because they they know, right? They're the ones that would know what the students need, what the teachers need, because they're right there on the ground. Love that.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

Amanda, did you have a question? I I felt like I cut you off.

SPEAKER_04 12:21

Um, I was gonna talk about what are the some of those tools to get the vision 2027.

SPEAKER_03 12:28

Outcome-based procurement.

SPEAKER_04 12:30

Yes. Talk a little bit about those.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Yes, I'd love to. Um outcomes-based contracting is a procurement strategy that, again, I want to celebrate

Serving Poverty And Multilingual Learners

SPEAKER_00 12:38

the vision of our CFO, Daniel Prentice, brought to us uh that we would engage with contractors who are serious about outcomes as we are. And so, for example, we have a number of vendors in our community that can provide high dosage tutoring, whether it be in reading or math, to our students. And so the outcomes-based tutoring model, pardon me, the outcomes-based contracting model aligns a contract where it's designed both with the vendor and the customer, the school system, to see outcomes. Right. So that as they when they engage, we engage in the contract up front, there's obviously compensation to engage. But then the remaining compensation is only leveraged when outcomes have been realized. So we want to see this group of math students improve in their proficiency from point A to point B, pre-test to post-test. And as a vendor, they want the same thing. And so their compensation at the conclusion of that contract comes fully when those outcomes have been realized. So everybody's got skin in the game, Mike. And really searching for that um serious result so that we can, again, continuously improve. And so there were a number of vendors when we sent out the call for proposal for that. A number of vendors in our community, I want to celebrate those vendors that are as serious about outcomes as we are. And so we've already seen results in this uh in just the short term, and it's also become a model that we believe our state and even our nation will adopt as well.

SPEAKER_03 14:02

I gotta give a shout out to your CAS and the CTE system. I mean, the Dr. Ameek and am I saying that right?

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Uh well, Dr. Gordon is our CTE. Dr. Gordon, right. Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 14:12

And please, what are the acronyms? What do they mean for those?

SPEAKER_00 14:15

CAS is a center for advanced study, and CTE is career and technical education. So we have three regional centers, one in East Cooper, one in Cooper River, which is in North Charleston, and one in West Ashley, where students geographically in the high school setting can um take courses where they're approaching certifications and qualifications in career fields like health science, engineering, automotive technology, welding, cosmetology, culinary arts. It's it's tremendous.

SPEAKER_03 14:43

It's pretty awesome. Um and and it it really focuses on career ready individuals that maybe, you know, and and it doesn't necessarily have to dismiss any co college ready either, does it? I mean, it kind of goes together and benefits both tracks, don't you think?

SPEAKER_00 14:59

Yes, sir. I mean, for example, in health science, our students can exit with a certification uh as a certified nursing assistant, a CNA uh assessment,

Weighted Funding And Principal Autonomy

SPEAKER_00 15:09

and take that right into two and four-year college. They can actually go to work with that certification, which is what we're also interested in seeing. Like we want every senior, uh, and in a previous school that I worked and leaders I worked with, we'd say every school senior knows their E. Are you enrolled, are you employed, are you enlisted?

SPEAKER_02 15:26

Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

And so for every senior to graduate with that opportunity uh is important to us. And so, yeah, the career centers give you a way to approach a certification area, grant that certification that you can engage in a high-wage job while also considering to pursue that education a two or four-year degree. So it's a win-win for everybody.

SPEAKER_03 15:45

I feel like that too. And it's also a win-win for the business community as well. Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Yeah, I mean, our our partners, uh, I'll use our uh partners in the in the health field, for example, Roper and M USC. Sure. They're getting a chance to mold and educate the brightest and best of our community to work for them early on in a career, and their hope is you'll be a career employee for me for life. Boeing is the same way. Boeing has this amazing summer internship program where they recruit and interview seniors, or pardon me, rising juniors in our community around Dorchester, Berkeley, and Charleston County. Give them this immersive six to eight week experience, paid internship with the idea you'll come to work for Boeing and you'll work for us for a career. Yeah, absolutely. And uh we're excited to do that. It's happening.

SPEAKER_04 16:33

And I know some that have actually gotten hired by Boeing and didn't even have to go to college. They got hired right away.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

Well, and their their training is on the job. Yeah. And and of course, Boeing has such a sophisticated system of building an airplane. They're that that high quality training that they can receive on the job is uh something that that they couldn't replicate somewhere else.

SPEAKER_03 16:52

And it it's starting at the freshman level too, because I I was literally there and a kid asked me, I I think I was at Wando swimming

Outcomes Based Tutoring Contracts

SPEAKER_03 16:58

for an English class or whatever, and the kid asked me about that, and I'm like, yeah, let's just Google it real quick, and I found the information. Like, dude, you uh are you a junior? He's like, No, I'm a freshman. I'm like, oh well, okay. Well this is here for you, right? Yeah So it's just kudos to you guys. I mean developing the community in the uh the the Charleston and Mount Pleasant, you know ecosystem, really. It's all about keeping the kids here. Yes, sir for me, right? Having jobs that are that they can have and grow their family here in Charleston.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 17:24

That's the end that's the end goal for everybody here, right?

unknown 17:26

Right.

SPEAKER_03 17:27

Amanda, you have a senior right now. What and he's going to College of Charleston. Yeah. So do you want him to fly away from the nest and or come back home? Like, you know, we have to have opportunities.

SPEAKER_04 17:36

Yeah, he I want him to fly away, but I do want him to come back to the city. Exactly. But we want to have something, a job for him to come home to. My point. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:44

Yeah. I feel like that we're doing that here with Dr. Clamp and and Miss Huggins are they're doing that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:51

Can you talk a little bit about some of your I'm gonna bring up AI. AI and Charleston County School District. Yeah, that's big.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

It's a hot topic. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

It is a hot topic, Mike, and it's one that we own responsibly. Um, I want to celebrate again just amazing team members, Daniel Prentice and our IT staff, as well as members of our instructional team. We began this journey early this school year with first the opportunity to design policy. So policy in a school system provides guardrails and supports that allow for a school system to then go execute. So I really want to celebrate our board. We were one of the first school systems in South Carolina to initiate policy specifically associated to artificial intelligence, both what we'll do and how we'll support kids and students in using it. And so now we're into phase two work uh with a great partnership uh with an organization called AI for education, who have amazing leaders that have been working in the field nationally to develop a strategic plan to develop professional development deployment resources, as well as to audit and inventory tools currently being used in the system uh in artificial intelligence and then decide what tools we would like to provide access, maybe on a more grander level, other than a free version.

SPEAKER_03 19:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

What I'd hope listeners could hear about that, number one, is we own the responsibility

Career Pathways Through CTE Centers

SPEAKER_00 19:09

to know how to protect our students. So privacy and protection are going to be paramount, safety and security are gonna be paramount, while also training both staff and students to be comfortable with the technology that maybe they haven't fully realized yet. And tools like this, number one, are accelerating at such a rapid capacity. We could choose one tool today and it'd be improved and enhanced by tomorrow.

SPEAKER_03 19:30

Or just be gone. Yes, sir. Sora gone.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Yes, sir. It it certainly can be. So our students, what we believe uh is important is that they understand schools of analys skills of analysis and um you know really thoughtful use of the information that they've acquired. And so when you're thinking about AI, for example, many users are likely out with Claude or ChatGBT, for example. That engine is providing you the highest probability of whatever prompt you've given it. So we're beginning with training on teachers and students about you know how to develop a great prompt while also not divorcing yourself from the ability to think and be curious. So again, AI is not replacing teachers in the classroom. There's no replication to in-person instruction. It is paramount. And we just talked about recruitment of highly qualified teachers and retaining them. We're not replacing anybody. We're gonna treat uh this tool as a resource and train people how to be comfortable to use it while being safe while doing it so as well.

SPEAKER_04 20:24

And so parents shouldn't worry about their kids using it to do their homework or write a paper or any of those things.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

Well, I'm a parent, all right. So uh I brought both my sons in and asked them, you know, how do you use AI? What do you use what most frequently and then what are you asking it to do? Uh huh. So a ninth grade and a twelfth grade are using it for completely different uh uses. Okay. What parents should be curious about is both screen time and the information that students are producing. And so they should, we encourage parents all the time, don't assume no news is good news, and don't assume a quiet bedroom is a safe bedroom. 100% that they should be, and and my sons are the same way. If I'm gonna come and have conversations with you about both what you're doing and what you're looking at. And your home is your space to control. So parents have access to control the internet usage in their home, how often the modem is available for their students to engage in internet access and what tools they're using. So parents, I I would never tell a parent not to worry. I'm a parent, not worry. I would tell you to be thoughtful about the questions you're asking kids and being really thoughtful about the work they're producing. We want students to create high-quality work. We want that work to have an impact and a greater good, making a contribution to the world. And so using a tool to improve the efficiency of that work is important. Employers are going to expect that skill. Remember, we used to put on our resumes, Microsoft Office, hey, we can use that. Employees are telling us now that they're looking for still efficiency. Typewriting. Yeah, I've seen one of those once. Yeah. They want to know how savvy are you in using the technological skills and the technological tools that are available in the market.

SPEAKER_03 22:02

100%. 100%. So I was working on chat the other day, developing something, probably for the harbor. I don't know. And um, hey Grady, how are you? Good to see you. Thanks for coming early. We're almost done here, I promise. Uh, this is Dr. Luke, man. I'll introduce you guys later. But um I was working on chat, and my 10-year-old comes in to my office in my house, and he goes, Are you using AI? Yeah, I'm using some chat GPT. He goes, You're feeding the beast. Stop feeding the beast. Like, 10-year-old. I'm like, Yeah, okay. Duly noted, you know, and everything I showed him. So I was like, this was AI generated, this is what I did, this is what I did. He's like, I like the other ones better. I don't like the AI generated. I'm like, so there's hope, you know, there's kids or there's they're savvy.

SPEAKER_04 22:45

There's ways to integrate and like you said, use it as a resource and to make our lives better, not replace humans doing their jobs, but make them better.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

Well, and there's simple techniques that you can go into Chat GPD Claude, whatever engine you're losing and protect yourself and what you produce and what you put inside of it. So there's a easy toggle switch inside the settings that would protect the content that you supply the engine with which it's

AI Policy Safety And Parent Advice

SPEAKER_00 23:13

giving you some kind of output.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

So again, those those technique those techniques are something that we will be introducing to students and staff early on. Protect yourself while you're also verifying and validating the information that you've asked this engine to provide for you.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

Don't let it think for you first. The engine's not learning. It's giving you probabilities you think you create. And again it can make it better and more efficient.

SPEAKER_04 23:41

Well I'm glad that's the role that CCSD is taking because again not everyone understands it even there's some adults who still don't sure completely understand. And that makes it scary. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:49

And we're trying to not make it scary.

unknown 23:51

Right.

SPEAKER_03 23:52

Right?

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:53

Yeah. This is great. This is what podcasts are all about, Doc. Good work. Uh is there anything else that you can think of that you wanted to cover today that we did not cover weighted student funding, um how we measure our outcomes like is there anything else that you have planned for the summer well I give you I give you a few sound bites as we close.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

Number one, you've probably seen um in the community a really strong push and intentional encouragement for students and families to attend neighborhood schools stay local. You'll see raps on MARTA buses. You'll see billboards if you're in an area where your Facebook is open and that geographic area is a place we're targeting, you'll probably see that. And we do so very responsibly. We believe our public school system has so much to offer and we want to encourage our community try public, try local. We also recognize that we have choices. Choices matter and choices are important as well. You and I can go down Highway 17 and have a dozen choices of which to eat. Doesn't suggest that those choices shouldn't exist. It suggests that we should be really smart about how we communicate what those opportunities are and encourage parents to know don't just believe something you might see or hear. Go to the source. We are encouraging every parent if you've never visited your neighborhood school reach out to your principal. They'll host you in a tour, in a site visit. They want to do so. They want you to know something you might have seen or heard may not actually be the truth. So validate that source and validate that information. This summer we're really excited about professional development. The Charleston Educator Symposium is a three-day in-house professional learning opportunity for leaders and teachers. And that actually happens because of a tremendous communitywide event, our Black Tie Gala, where we've just celebrated 10 years of great educational leadership in Charleston County. We want to thank all the sponsors and the people that attended it was oversold Mike I think we had close to 900 I saw the people I was jealous. I'm like where was that honored every teacher of the year principals of the year a local car dealership gave away not one but two cars to our one of our teachers of the year. I love that Charleston events are now getting sold out and oversold yep oh yeah we just had one too didn't we uh oh for the American Market Association that's fantastic that's fantastic y'all invite us the proceeds from that event go right back into the school system so it's the community helping the community of course and uh when we all lock arms I mean I believe a school system is an economic engine for the community we've got great partnerships with our business community our faith-based community um our higher education community we are so fortunate geographically to have so much density in all of those areas in a in a localized place and so while many people want to come here on vacation we want to really invest in making sure that that area is a sp is a great place to live and work. So again we're excited about professional development this summer school year's coming to a close um we're into the fourth nine weeks the fourth quarter as that as we say so again we're encouraging students and teachers to finish strong push through and really you know celebrate the learning that they've accomplished this year and that we know we'll see in our standardized assessments at the end of the year.

SPEAKER_03 27:01

Man thank you for your time I know you've got about 300 incoming emails in this past half hour so we really appreciate that I only have one note for the Gala sub of the year.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

We need to make a sub of the year well you know what you I will tell you that this year we added staff member of the year support staff sure and it was actually the cafeteria manager Jamie at Lucy Beckham High School. Oh okay so excited for him he's a tremendous leader and um it's a great suggestion Mike we like that no problem see how we could probably introduce that sometime I'm here for you CCSD no problem Amanda say goodbye.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

Thanks for having us

Try Local Schools And Community Support

SPEAKER_03 27:38

until next time thanks doc thanks for your time too if you uh how do we get a hold of you? Is there a phone number that we can I don't want you to give up too much.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

It's Charleston County Schools dot gov.

SPEAKER_03 27:54

There it is.

SPEAKER_01 27:55

All right thanks listeners talk to you soon