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Horry County School District work session, Sep 8, 2026

1 h 07 min · 0 public speakers

This board doesn’t post agenda times. Click a board member to jump to where they first speak; we list only members whose voice our check named. Video length 1 h 07 min.

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What happened

What happened at this meeting

Horry County board told enrollment is down against forecast 41:22

  • Board members also gave reports on a Curriculum Committee meeting and the SCSBA School Law Conference. 4:21
  • The board heard a presentation from the district's safety and security director, who described school safety as a layered approach that includes AI-driven weapons screening. 17:02
  • The superintendent said enrollment was down against the forecast, and a staff member reported that 2,268 new students enrolled and 2,355 students withdrew in the first 10 days. 41:22
  • Wendy Hodges moved to reappoint two people to the SACCSTE Advisory Board, and the chair said that one passed. 1:04:06

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Item by item (10)
  1. Opening, agenda and minutes 1:06
    • Janet Graham gave the invocation, and the board recited the Pledge of Allegiance. ~1:43
    • The board took voice votes on approval of the agenda and the minutes for the 24th, 26th and 31st. 3:33
  2. Curriculum Committee report 4:21
    • Debbie Edmonds said spring data showed 79.1% of students districtwide were reading at or above grade level. 4:21
    • Debbie Edmonds said 2026 SCReady results in ELA improved at every grade level from grades 3 through 8 with an average increase of 3.3 percentage points, and mathematics showed an overall average increase of 1.6 percentage points. 4:21
    • One board member said mathematics remains a key area for continued focus. 4:21
  3. School law conference update 7:17
    • Tracy Winters said the executive focus for 2026 will be to dismantle the U.S. Department of Ed and transfer it back to the states. 11:14
    • Janet Graham said a session on AI stood out and that presenters said organizations need a person totally responsible for AI. 12:20
    • James Edwards said the overall theme was governance, including being proactive rather than reactive and using data and evidence to inform board oversight. 13:39
  4. Treatment of stakeholders report 15:29
    • A staff member presented Operational Expectation 3, treatment of stakeholders, and described formal processes to protect confidential student and employee information. 15:37
    • The staff member said most of the district's parent, student, teacher and other cabinets will begin in October. 16:12
  5. Literacy day and school safety presentation 16:57
    • The safety and security director said the district must move 48,000+ students into schools in 40 minutes every morning and can now lock down schools in less than 10 seconds. 19:32
    • The director described a Horry County Schools CCU Protective Intelligence Project and said the alert rate on screening had been cut in half in the last year. 19:32
    • James Edwards asked about accidental alerts, and the staff member said there had been some inadvertent alerts but within the normal range for the first 90 days. 39:57
  6. Enrollment update 41:22
    • The superintendent said enrollment was down against the forecast and about 15 staff members were shifted to other positions. 41:22
    • A staff member said 908 withdrawn students moved out of Horry County, 1,182 went to a charter, private, virtual or homeschool or adult education, and 265 had not responded. 44:54
    • Neil James asked how enrollment compared with projections a consultant gave in 2023, and a staff member said the consultant appears to have been correct. 53:01
  7. Executive session 59:32
    • Melanie Wellons moved to go into executive session for potential sale of property information. 59:41
    • After the session, Melanie Wellons said no decisions were made and no votes were taken. 1:02:16
    • The chair said the board was adjourned to executive session. 59:49
  8. National competition funding request 1:02:29
    • A staff member said the district was moving forward with a request from the principal at Loris High School for national competition funding. 1:02:45
    • James Edwards moved to move forward with the request. 1:03:06
  9. Advisory board appointments 1:03:30
    • Wendy Hodges moved to reappoint two people to the SACCSTE Advisory Board. 1:04:06
    • The chair said the reappointment motion passed. 1:04:29
  10. Consent agenda 1:04:29
    • The board took a voice vote on a motion to approve the consent agenda. 1:04:45

Written by software from the meeting's transcript and checked sentence by sentence against it.

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Video: posted by the district as “Board Work Session 09-08-2026”