New Sumter school board meeting format changes begin Monday

At the request of new Superintendent Gerald Gary, Sumter school board recently agreed by a unanimous vote to make board meeting calendar adjustments for efficiency purposes, and those changes will begin with Monday's meeting.

The meeting format changes for the new fiscal year, which begins now and runs through June 2027, include maintaining the first regularly scheduled monthly board meeting generally held on the second Monday but reserving the second scheduled monthly board meeting on the fourth Monday solely for committee meetings.

Therefore, going forward at least for the next year, the trustees will just have one regular monthly board meeting. Historically, the full board has had only one monthly meeting during the holiday months - April, November and December - and also in July because of the summer break on the school calendar.

In one other meeting format modification that will be noticeable Monday, the full board's executive session behind closed doors will move to the start of the meeting at 6 p.m. and the open session for the public will begin about 7 p.m.

Public participation will remain as an agenda item at the first regularly scheduled meeting as has traditionally been the case. The public's opportunity to speak via public participation will basically begin after the full board takes required action items from the executive session.

So, the time slot for any member of the public wanting to make a comment to the board and completing a necessary form to speak will shift to between 6:30 to just before the 7 p.m. start time for the open session, according to a district spokeswoman.

Gary said his purpose for the changes, which were discussed in May, was during an average month there are so many board-related meetings it is difficult for district office staff just to get their necessary work done to assist schools properly in their various functional areas. Instead, he found that staff was spending too much time just planning for the board meetings.

"The purpose of the proposed adjustments is to make sure we are intentional about our meetings, and we think the modifications will fit the job we are trying to do," he said.

Gary told The Sumter Item recently that if the full board does not get everything done in the hour-long executive session, the board will vote to return to executive session when the regular meeting has ended.

When he discussed the proposed modifications to the full board, Gary added that if ever a special-called meeting of the board was necessary that would still occur.

On Monday, items before the board after public participation include a bus transportation update, code of conduct updates, a district project manager update and financial reports, according to the agenda that was posted Friday by a district staff member.

Monday's meeting will be at the district office, 1345 Wilson Hall Road.

For those not physically attending, the district continues to broadcast meetings live on YouTube.

Anyone wanting to attend the meeting virtually can do so via YouTube Sumter School District Board Meeting and the district's Facebook page, @SumterSCSchools.