Dillon District Four Board Approves School Calendar Draft, Elects Officers

By Betsy Finklea
The Dillon District Four School Board held their March meeting tonight (Monday, March 17) approving a draft of the school calendar and electing board officers.
The meeting started with a finance report from Bryan Rivenbark, Chief Financial Officer for Dillon District Four. He said as of Feb. 28th, eight months into the budget year that 60 percent of the budget had been expended.
Mandy Hayes, Director of Student Services, discussed the instructional materials for math. She also noted that students will no longer take algebra one and then geometry. They will take geometry and then algebra one. The new math materials for all age levels were approved upon a motion by Board member Famon Whitfield and a second by Board Member Kenny Bethea.
Chris Ray, Director of Personnel, presented the draft of the 2025-2026 calendar. He said they worked in conjunction with Dillon District Three in developing the calendar. He said the calendar is similar, but they will reduce the fall intersession break to two days so they can have a full week off at Thanksgiving. The board approved the draft. The draft will be presented to the Dillon County Board of Education at tomorrow’s meeting (March 18).

Ray also presented Policy E to the board for their review.
Policy BEDH that deals with public participation at meetings was also amended. The amendment reduces the number of minutes that someone can speak from 7 minutes to 5 minutes. Ray said he checked with some other boards in the state, and this was the amount of time allowed in these districts. There was also an amendment to Policy BEDH-R, which updates the address on the administrative rule.
Ray also presented a policy on the Green Card Assistance Program. This deals with foreign teachers. He said the district pays the funds, but there is no way to ensure that they stay. This policy would sign the teachers to a two-year deal, provided the district wants them to stay the two years. These policy changes were approved.
Ray also presented the recycle list for old equipment. The recycle list was approved.
Jackie Hayes, Director of Operations, said that Dillon District Four now owns Dillon Elementary. It has been paid off. The total amount was $60 million. This is a savings of approximately $1 million. Hayes said this is something that they can be very proud of at no cost to the taxpayers.
Board elections were then held. Earl Gleason was elected chairman. Mandy Faircloth was elected vice-chairman, and Mike McRae, Sr., was elected Secretary.
The board then went into an executive session to discuss personnel.