►
Description
Charleston County School District's Superintendent of Schools Don Kennedy held a press conference at Pinehurst Elementary on the first day of the 2022-23 school year.
A
And
thank
you
all
very
much
for
joining
us
on
our
first
date
celebration.
It's
very
exciting.
I
left
the
house
this
morning
a
little
after
six.
I
saw
all
these
school
buses
on
the
road.
I
was
very
excited.
I've
been
to
many
schools
this
morning
already.
I
got
here
there's
a
lot
of
excitement
here
with
mr
blaji.
Excuse
me,
who
is
the
first
year
principal
here
at
pinehurst?
He
has
almost
700
students
and,
as
I
saw
them
in
the
hallway,
they
look
very
excited
and
eager.
A
But
would
you
say
that's
the
case,
mr
pelagi?
Yes,
sir,
and
I
have
five
children
myself
and
I
fondly
remember
when
they
had
their
first
day
of
schools
each
year
and
how
excited
they
were,
how
excited
I
was
for
for
that
first
day,
how
all
the
smiles
that
they
had
the
the
new
friends
that
they
were
meeting
new
teachers
that
they
were
meeting
and
their
hope
that
they
had
for
the
school
year
and
their
superintendent
of
charleston
county
school
district
also
have
that
same
type
of
hope
for
our
students.
A
For
the
last
seven
and
a
half
months,
I've
been
working
with
the
school
board,
with
senior
staff,
with
principals,
with
teachers
to
refine
this
vision
of
reading
reading
by
all
students
reading
on
grade
level
by
grade
five
by
the
year
2027
and
over
the
next
few
weeks,
I
will
continue
to
work
or
we
will
continue
to
work
with
the
board,
as
the
board
goes
out
into
the
community
to
talk
about
this
vision
of
reading.
Now
I've
been
asked
a
number
of
times.
Why
am
I
so
focused
on
reading
and
that's
pretty
simple?
A
A
In
addition
to
the
reading
goal,
we
will
add
two
other
goals:
a
goal
for
eighth
grade
advanced
math,
because
that
is
a
predictor
of
success
in
high
school
for
our
middle
school
kids
moving
into
high
school
and
we
also
add
a
goal
for
college
and
career
readiness.
Currently
only
about
67
of
our
graduates
are
college
and
career
ready.
A
Now,
this
past
june,
I
attended
all
11
of
our
traditional
high
school
graduation
ceremonies
and,
as
I
stood
on
the
stage
at
each
graduation
and
shook
hands,
I
always
ask
the
question
in
this
group
of
students
that
are
graduating
moving
into
adulthood.
Are
they
ready
and
in
many
cases
the
answer
is
yes,
it
was
yes,
but
in
too
many
cases
the
answer
was
no.
So
we
have
this
focus
on
high
school.
A
Also,
and
if
we
get
this
right,
all
of
our
students
will
be
able
to
be
very
successful
not
only
in
school
but
in
life
in
general,
they'll
be
able
to
go
into
college
they'll,
be
able
to
go
into
the
military
they'll,
be
able
to
go
into
these
high-paying
jobs
and
then
for
generations
to
come
for
their
families.
They
will
be.
They
will
benefit
greatly.
Two
evenings
ago,
I
did
a
face:
a
live.
Facebook
live
with
a
group
of
family
members
and
community
members
from
the
hispanic
community.
A
Now
I
talked
to
them
about
the
importance
of
establishing
a
partnership
with
their
community
with
the
superintendent
and
the
school
district
to
make
sure
that
we
have
strong
ways
to
be
able
to
work
together.
I
encourage
them
to
make
sure
that
they
understand
they
need
to
work
with
their
students.
They
need
to
ask
questions
of
the
schools,
they
need
to
ask
questions
of
me
and
I
will
continue
that
work
with
them.
A
So
it
is
important
that
we
change
that
and
it's
it's
only
through
the
systemic
change
that
we'll
do
in
the
district
and
form
this
partnership
with
the
communities
who
are
impacted
that
we'll
be
able
to
improve
outcomes
for
all
of
our
students
and
so
for
the
parents
and
the
communities.
I
really
need
your
help
and
therefore
encourage
you
to
get
involved
together.
We
can
and
we
must
make
a
difference.
So
thank
you
all
very
much
for
joining
us
here
today,
as
we
usher
in
this
new
school
year.
B
A
Sir,
so
I'm
gonna
get
to
that
question
in
a
second,
but
I
made
a
mistake
because
I'm
gonna
have
someone
answer
that
question
for
you,
but
I
need
to
introduce
my
staff
so
on.
The
right
here
is,
mr
dennis
mohammed
he's
the
director
of
the
family
and
community
engagement,
dr
anthony
dixon,
who's,
the
chief
of
schools,
anita,
miss
anita
huggins,
who
is
the
deputy
superintendent,
mr
jeff
ferrari?
Who
is
the
chief
operating
officer?
A
He
will
answer
your
question
in
a
minute
on
the
buses
miss
shawna
williams,
who
is
the
chief
financial
officer
mr
bill
briggman?
Is
the
chief
hr
officer
and
miss
mercedes
pinkney
reese?
Who
is
the
general
counsel
and
miss
michelle
simmons?
Who
was
this
chief
chief
academic
officer
and
of
course,
we
already
introduced
the
principal
mr
bellagi
and
then
miss
selena
anthony?
Who
is
the
director
of
title
one
bilingual
bilingual
coordinator,
all
right
so.
C
So
to
answer
your
question,
sir:
did
you
come
forward
so
until
I
know
exactly
what
happened,
I
won't
speculate
on
exactly
what
happened
at
bill
hall,
because
we
can
have
traffic
issues.
We
can
have
mechanical
issues.
We
can
have
driver
issues
up
until
a
week
ago
we
were
100
staffed
with
bus
drivers.
We
are
short
small
number
as
of
right.
Now
again,
I
don't
know
if
that
had
anything
to
do
with
this
incident.
The
first
week,
just
like
the
students
are
coming
to
school.
C
A
So
I
want
people
to
understand
that
my
number
one
goal
in
my
role
here
and
where
how
long
that
tenure
is,
is
to
make
sure
that
we
put
the
structures
in
place
to
put
the
district
on
the
path
that
we
have
all
students
able
to
read
again
reading
is
fundamental.
If
we
don't
get
that
done,
then
we're
not
going
to
have
success
with
our
students
and
our
families
here
in
charleston
county.
So
my
number
one
goal
is
is
just
that.
F
A
G
A
And
stronger,
so,
as
I
indicated
in
my
opening
remarks,
I
have
five
children.
I've
lived
in
a
lot
of
places,
I'm
interacting
with
a
lot
of
people
from
a
lot
of
different
cultures,
and
one
thing
that
I've
learned
from
that
is
that
all
parents,
all
parents,
regardless
of
their
cultural
background,
want
the
same
for
their
children.
A
D
A
So
within
the
the
teaching
incentive
programs
that
we're
talking,
I'm
talking
about
they're
right
now
only
for
the
acceleration
schools
and
so
all
teachers
in
those
acceleration
schools
will
have
an
opportunity,
not
all
teachers
in
acceleration
schools
for
the
meeting
street
pieces
on
seven
schools
there
and
then,
in
addition
to
teachers,
there's
a
component
of
one
of
the
programs
where
everybody
in
the
school,
not
just
teachers,
100
of
the
staff.
We
have
an
opportunity
if
there's
growth
student
growth
to
participate
in
in
financial
rewards.
A
So
I
mentioned
also
in
my
opening
remarks
that
over
the
next
few
weeks
that
I
and
the
staff
will
be
working
with
with
the
board
as
they
go
out
into
the
community
and
really
solidify
these
goals.
So
I
proposed
monday
of
last
week
at
the
school
board
meeting
those
three
goals,
and
so
the
next
steps
then
get
buy-in
from
the
from
the
community
through
the
through
the
school
board
and
then
once
we
have
that
we
have
a
timeline.
A
A
Yeah,
so
we
do
have
literacy,
coaches
and
we
have
a
number
of
literally
literal
literacy
specialists
in
the
central
office
and
we're
looking
at
looking
at
how
we
better
deploy
them
out
to
the
schools.
But
so
yes,
we
have
coaches,
we
have
specialists,
we
have
a
new
reading
curriculum
that
was
powered
that
last
year.
That's
given
real
promise
and
we're
expanding
that
to.
G
Curriculum
right
between
the
districts,
the
schools,
the
community
and
I
believe
that
you
know
many
steps
is
going
to
follow.
I
was
glad
to
hear
that
you
said
if
you
hit
anything,
call
me
personally.
Why
do
you
need
that?
Why
you
put
yourself
in
a
position
that
we
can
call
you
directly?
This
is
big
for
us.
A
It's
based
on
my
some
of
my
experience
when
I
was
with
the
bridgeport
school
district
in
bridgeport
connecticut,
that
was
tightly
linked
to
both
the
african-american
community
and
the
hispanic
community
in
in
building
a
new
school
getting
there
advocating
for
a
new
school.
So
I
worked
with
them
on
a
daily
basis,
and
so
I
have
experience
in
that
and
from
from
that
experience
indicated
indicated
to
me,
at
least
for
me,
that
was
most
effective
way
to
to
have
to
engage
on
a
personal.
E
B
A
As
you
know,
as
I
assume
you
know,
that
we
gave
a
two
thousand
dollar
raise
of
teachers
last
year,
bill
briggman,
our
hr
person
is
looking
at
how
we
can
continue
to
support
teachers
and
from
a
financial
standpoint.
So
that's
a
big
issue
here
in
charleston
county
for
teachers,
and
so
we
will
be
paying
attention
to.
E
A
Teachers,
so
I'm
going
to
ask
bill
brigmon
to
come
up
in
a
second
and
address
some
of
my
recruitment
efforts,
but
when
I
was
running
the
leading
the
cultural
competency
work
of
the
district
a
couple
years
ago,
coming
out
of
that
that
committee,
that
group
was
the
recommendation
of
several
programs
couple
programs
that
we
would
implement,
try
to
implement
for
to
recruit
more
minority
teachers,
and
we
are
having
success
with
that.
I'll
ask
bill
to
come
up
and
talk
about
that.
H
H
One
that
I
really
highlight
is
our
men
of
charleston
teach,
which
is
a
very
specific
recruitment
program
for
alternative
route
certification.
We
have
12
male
teachers
right
now
and
cohorts
of
five
in
four
of
our
schools.
That
number
doesn't
quite
add
up.
The
goal
was
to
have
20.
we're
still
recruiting
in
that
area,
but
that's
one
of
the
highlights.
Our
goal
is
to
have
60
male
teachers
of
color
in
our
elementary
schools
within
the
next
three
years.
We
also
are
one
of
the
only
districts
in
the
state
that
has
our
own
alternative
route
certification
program.
H
F
A
It
must
have
been
tuesday
with
this.
Well,
the
last
time
we
had
our
cabinet
meeting,
which
we
meet
once
once
a
week
and
the
the
level
of
discussion
and
engagement
around
student
outcomes
was
was
phenomenal
and
the
school
board
is
taking
on
this
change
of
how
the
how
the
governance
structure
switches
from
how
we
do
school
governance
now
to
student
outcome
governance.
It's
transforming
how
I
think
about
how
my
staff
think
think
about
how
we
do
our
daily
work,
and
so
the
highlight
this
week
was
the
last
meeting
I
had
when
that
was.
G
We
cannot
say
thank
you
enough,
but
for
us
in
the
grassroots
saying
the
same
thing,
the
communication
between
you
and
the
community
and
the
base
is
going
to
be
important
in
order
to
know
the
truth.
What
is
happening
in
the
community?
We
know
that
you
think,
if
your
mind
is
gradual.
We
know
that
radical
level,
but
definitely
we
asked
to
have
more
accessibility
to
anybody
that
we
need
to
talk
to
and
that's
just
a
request.
When
it
comes
to
a
question,
I
will
ask
what
else?
What
is
the
future
for
the
community
as
a
whole.
A
When
I
look
out,
it's
2035
that
this
system
will
be
completely
transformed
and
all
of
our
kids
are
graduating
ready
for
the
world
ready
to
take
on
all
the
cultural
challenges
that
they
have
to
go
to
go
through
when
they
leave
our
high
school.
So
I
think
it's
doable,
I'm
excited
about
it.
I'm
very
optimistic.
I've
always
been
an
optimistic
person,
and
so
my
optimism
of
working
with
with
your
group
is
is
high.
Thank
you.