Marlboro County Board of Education approved the resolution to authorize the issuance and sale of general obligation bonds at Monday’s meeting.
The $1,250,000 bond will have $620,000 used to pave the parking lot at Marlboro County High School and complete the football field.
The funds will also be used to make the district’s payment for the installment purchase revenue bonds and the equipment acquisition agreement.
Superintendent Dr. Gregory McCord said the funds will not be able to take care of all of the parking lot. 
“We will identify the area that we will get first,” he said.
District officials will ask for assistance from the S.C. Department of Transportation and other agencies.
A moment of silence was observed in memory of McColl Elementary Middle School employee Christie Hatcher Fields, who died over the weekend.

Updates
During the curriculum updates for 2021-22, board members learned AMI would be moving from the old Eastside School to the Adult Education building and share space. 
Will Jorgenson, director of Adult Education, said he was looking forward to the collaboration.
Kimberly Dease, director of AMI, said Adult Education officials had adjusted for them. She noted AMI had been in poor conditions for six years.
Students in Adult Education will come from 8 a.m.-noon. AMI students will be there from 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
The childcare program will move to Marlboro County High School, where it will be located on the B hall. It will be for children ages six weeks to five years old. Hours will be from 7 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
In other business, it was announced that all returning certified classroom teachers would receive a $2,500 retention bonus. Superintendent Dr. Gregory McCord said the United States Education Grant has been modified to assist with our efforts to retain high-quality staff. Marlboro County School District has been granted permission to give a $2,500 retention bonus to all returning certified classroom teachers, which will be paid out by September 30. Certain conditions will apply as it relates to certified classroom teachers only and those teachers “must remain in the district for the entire 2021-2022 school year.”
Board members also received their quarterly updates from the Eastside School Preservation Alumni Association.
E.L. Johnakin, who is the designated correspondent, wrote a letter to the board. In the letter, it was noted the ESPAA was aggressively engaged with ongoing predevelopment activities.
Johnakin talked about how they were committed to staying on task with the initiatives of physical building evaluations; potential use/reuse of available facilities; composite site analysis; and resource acquisition(s). 
The ESPAA requested to be on the agenda for the September meeting, which will be on Sept. 13.
Johnakin also said in the letter, that ESPAA appreciated the board’s continuing cooperation, especially regarding building access and related matters.

Public comment
During the public comments, Rippin McLeod Jr. shared his concerns about the district selling the dirt removed from the football field at a recent sale.
“That dirt belongs to the people of Marlboro County and we as the taxpayers have already paid for that dirt. That dirt should be given to the taxpayers and not sold.”
He noted that 63.8 percent of all tax revenues that are collected in the county go to the school district for bonds and operations.
“You get the fat of all the taxes,” he said.
He reminded board members that their focus should be on education and that they are one of the highest-paid boards in the state. 
“I expect for you to quit sitting there and letting your superintendent talk down to you like you are some children or something,” McLeod said.
He encouraged them to refund the money to those who had paid for dirt and to give it away.
“We give you enough money to run this district,” he said.

Other business
In other business, board members:
— authorized attorneys White and Story to resolve the LEAF/SWNOVIA litigations. This is regarding a claim against the district for GPS surveillance equipment for school buses. 
— learned about the district website being switched to a more modern, up-to-date website design/platform.
— learned the district had expended, as of June 30, $28,400,121.64 of a $34,818,102 budget, or 82 percent of the budget.