001Call to order the Kataba County Board of Education uh regular meeting for May 19th, 2025. If you'll please stand, we will have a moment of silence followed by the presentation of colors. We got to go on two different overnight field trips. We went to South Carolina. We put some boards up outside on one of the lakes there doing some recreation and team building. Um I think one of the posters out there the captain says if your friend jumped off a bridge would you? The answer is no. But they would off into. All right. So, we had a a little there. Got to do some fun with that. Did some fun along the way. A lot of other activities out there within the community as we work to develop our role. They convinced me. And also
002the funds that we get from the board and you all We actually went back down. We got to go to the state while we were down there. And some other recreation there may not may or may not have been another challenge at the beach there. Um may or may not jellyfish were incident, but one of my may or may not have carrying jellyfish around catch them on those things. But Right. On the way back, we stopped at Golden, North Carolina. Just so happened they were having air show that day. So we stopped there. We got to see the United States Air Force Thunderbirds flying around. Get to do that and talk to some of the fine men and women that are serving down there. Ask them about their jobs and share with you so far.
003Not yet. All right. So, let's see. Hernandez and she's been doing a fantastic job out there. All we've been doing that is part of American So Junior right now has been a great job. He's been our champion for community service this year. Had a very successful book. I'm looking forward to the second semester, but I can't away from it. She feel like sir and fin has a passion for uniforms and those types of things. So, he's really working on that next year and working through that really well. Next on the agenda is the approval of minutes from the regular meeting on April 28th and also the uh meeting the dual meeting with the commissioners on May 1st of 2025. Mr. Chairman, I make the motion to approve the minutes from April 28th and the May
0041st meeting as presented. I second. I have a motion in a second. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of approving the minutes from April 28, 2025 and May 1st, 2025 to raise a hand. And that is unanimous. Next on the agenda is adjustment approval of the agenda. Uh here that we're going to remove new business number 10 from the agenda for tonight. Are there any other adjustments that need to be made? If there are none, I need a motion for approval. I make that motion. I second. Hearing a motion and a second. I seek to approve the agenda with the removal of new business number 10. All those approved shall raise a hand. That is unanimous. Next is a superintendent report uh by Dr. Stove. Chairman Smire, members of the
005board, uh probably don't need to tell everyone this is the last week of school and uh what a great week. We've had a great year in Kataba County. Thank you all for your leadership, our staff and our schools. I see our principles here. I see some teachers here. Uh we got some students here tonight. What a wonderful year in Kataba County schools because of the people who are in it. So, thank you all. Um that being said, we're going to honor some of our students tonight. If you'd like me to meet out front or if you could meet me out front, we'll shake hands and see some incredible artwork and some incredible art teachers. All right. Like every good school system, we'll go in alphabetical order. We'll start with Banoke Elementary School. Banoke was our
006our winner is Add Addison Welner, fourth grade. Her art teacher is Miss Michaela Win. And I see principal Jordan Goodson here tonight. Thank you all for coming. Uh Addison, come on up. Let's give her a big round of [Applause] applause. Miss and Miss Swin, too, please. Also want to thank our families for joining tonight. I see brother and mom and dad. Thank you all for coming. You want me to do it? You want explain to you all what this is. This is our second time doing a presentation. Um, so you know, all great ideas are stolen. So we we were down at Maiden High School. We saw a principal's uh award uh started at some point at Maiden High School 10 years ago. Miss Pacar, thank you. And uh you know, we've always been looking
007for something to uh make this look more uh studentfriendly, right? And what a great way to show our artwork off. So what we're going to do is these uh paintings and drawings and all the artwork will be upgrading our boardroom and uh what a great reminder of why we do what we do. So, thank you all. That kind of explains what that is. Moving on to Bandy's High School. We have two winners from Bandes High School. The first one is Kiara Taylor, 11th grade. Our art teacher is Miss Jessica Van Esseline and principal Dr. Chad Mayor. Let's give her a big round of applause. And next from Bandy's High School uh is Paulina Bara Vincens. Is it Vincent? Vincent. Okay, great. Paul Paulina um thank you for your artwork and her teacher again is Miss
008Jessica Van Esseline of course with Mr. Chad Mayor Dr. Chad Mayor. Let's give her a big round of applause. All right. And last but not least, uh, from Maiden High School is Enya Compost, uh, 10th grade art teachers, Miss Sher Pes, and our principal is Mr. Brian Hefner. I see back there. Thank y'all. say real quick, I want to thank our our uh teachers and students. Um, and if you don't mind, can I get my picture with y'all real quick? Our students and your artwork. I was up here doing this. Uh, I'm that's that's on me. Uh, so students, will you come back up here? Can I get my picture with y'all so I'm famous one day? Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Can we do it with the picture? Not very efficient. family. Thank you
009all. Next item on the agenda is public comment which be will be led by Clayton Willis. The Kataba County Board of Education appreciates and welcomes all public comments. Members of the public who have signed up to speak may address board members on a topic of concern during the public comment section of regular meeting. Each speaker will be allowed a maximum of three minutes to address Kataba County Board of Education members. A time clock will be displayed to assist each speaker with their three-minut time limit. Speakers should direct comments to board members rather than to the audience. Comments by members of the public should be respectful without slander toward any other member of public community member or any member of the Kataba County Board of Education. Any displays of approval or disapproval are out of order
010unless otherwise directed by the board chair. At this time, we have one person signed up to speak and that's Miss Sandy Jarvis. Thank you very much. One of the North Carolina Moms for Liberty legislative agendas is to remove obscene and explicit materials from public schools. This session, we partnered with legislators and participated in writing the bill HB636, promoting wholesome content for students. And I'm glad to say this bill did survive crossover and is now in the Senate. I'm here today to provide the board a list of 20 books that are available to students at inappropriate age levels. I understand there's a process for the discussion of appropriateness of books in the Kataba County school system. However, when a book is promoted by the publisher for a certain age range and listed in your school system
011library catalog for a particular age, then the school board should be able to act on this information. For example, Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rattle I understand was challenged and retained through the book challenge process. However, the publisher lists the age range for this book as 14 plus and the library search dialog for the school system lists grades 9 through 12 twice under the additional information. This book is located at Jacobs Ford Middle, Riverbend Middle, and Mil Creek Middle School. Therefore, I'm ch I'm asking the school board to take action and move these books to a more appropriate age appropriate media centers. Why is the book Shiver at Jacobs Ford Middle School? This is listed for grades 9 through 12 and contains scenes of beastiality. The book Speak is at Jacobs Ford Middle and Riverbend
012Middle. It has scenes of rape, high school, relationships, emotional, mental issues, and is recommended for ages 14 to 18. The book Lexicon by Max Barry is at St. Stevens High School. It has very explicit sex scenes and is advertised for adult audiences. Why does an elementary school child need to read about middle school crushes and be exposed to issues about sexual identity? The book drama is at Mountain View, Star Town, Tuttle, and Kataba elementary schools. Even the book reviewers don't know what age level is appropriate. In the library search catalog, it's listed as grades 3 through 6, 5 to 8, 5 to 9, and 6 to 8. If the adults are confused, then the children are going to be confused. Maybe in this instance, a more conservative approach is warranted and move these books to
013the middle school. Lastly, there are books listed in the catalog that are listed as professional. A boy named it intended for ages 14 plus is in three elementary schools and stamped for grades 9 through 12 is in a middle school. I appreciate Dr. Settle Mr. Settle Meyer clarifying the professional status for me in a discussion we had recently. My question is are these books on the shelf? Can a child look at the book while in the library? If so, they need to be secured in a different location. I appreciate your time in this manner. I do not want to um I do want to say that Moms for Liberty is not or banning books. We are for age appropriate content, the truth, science, and limiting impressionable children's exposure to pornography and inappropriate content that may
014affect their emotional well-being, family relationships, or forever star their being. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jarvis. May I put a list of 20 books? Next on tonight's agenda are consent items uh presented by Mr. I'm sorry Dr. Stover. Yes sir. Thank you. U in front of you you do have our consent items. We are looking for approval for those this evening. I'll make a motion we approve the consent items. I second. I have a motion in a second. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll ask for a show of hands and approval for consent items and that is unanimous. Next on the agenda is approval of 2025 2026 career technical education comprehensive local needs assessment budget uh by Dr. Jeff Eisenhower. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, uh what you
015should have received in your packet is a copy of the budget for the 2526 school year for the CTE program that is part of the comprehensive local needs assessment. It's done on a bianual basis. So we are in the midyear of this and then uh so every two years we have to do the full needs assessment. This year we just do the budget budgetary piece. So what I've given you is a copy of the listing of PRC uh 013 funding source which deals with months of employment. And just to give you just a little bit of information regarding that um total months of uh employment received this year was uh 744 months of employment. We have to take those months and then break that down across the entire CTE program. Uh we are actually down
01615 months of employment from what we were we received last year. We received a cut. So through attrition and uh some movement of some personnel around we were able to make that up uh this year and we have actually a surplus. We're uh we are use going to use 726 in this budget which leaves us 18 unused. We'll keep eight of those in case there's any uh reversion of months. Uh 10 of those 18 though, we're going to look at uh the employment of a health science person that we could use in the district maybe to move from a couple of schools to do the nursing fundamentals piece. That's our heaviest area of need uh is in the health sciences. So we want to make sure that we we're trying to add some adjunct positions
017there using those extra months. So what we've done in this budget is to list you the names of personnel um assigned to those positions right now as it stands today. So barring that there are no resignations or any other thing like that. Those are the people that are assigned to those positions. There are still some open spots spots there to be assigned on the PRC014 funing. That's the state funding we received. That allocation has already been given to us and to the finance department. That's a total of [Music] $257,49. We have broken that down in a budget for you and submitted that to the finance department as well um for the system. And then I'll at the end here I'll answer any questions you have on the budget. on the back side of that page
018pages here if I can find it is the PR C017 budget and that's the federal funding that we receive and the federal funding um deals with program improvement. So what we do with that is break that down. This money has not been finalized by the state uh for us. So we took what we are advised to do as I listed on the top of the page there is we take 95% of the previous year's funding and that's how we do our budget. So if that 95% changes when they do finalize this number uh then we will adjust that. Uh it's very likely that we will adjust that in uh line item 5120-411 which is supplies and materials. That's one of the most uh flexible areas of funding that we have. And so generally when there's
019a change in those numbers that's where that goes back to. Uh CTE is very specific in what they want us to address for program improvement. And you can see in the items below uh in 461, 462 and 541 where we have listed items uh for the various high schools for program improvement there. I hope I did okay in explaining all that. So if you want me to address any of these specific items listed here, I'll be happy to do that as well. Are there any questions regarding PRC 13, 14, or 17 from a funding perspective for next year? If no one has any questions, uh, I need a motion to approve the, uh, career technical education comprehensive local needs assessment budget for 2526. Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the 2526 career technical ed
020local needs assessment budget as Dr. Eisenhower has presented it to us. And I'll second. Hearing a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll ask for approval by raise of hand. That is unanimous. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Next is the approval of repres representatives for career technical education business advisory council for Kataba County Schools. Again, presented by Dr. Jeff Eisenhower. So, Mr. Chairman, thank you again. We if you remember at a work session we came to you earlier uh in the year and talked about um both the Newton Conover City School System and the Kataba County uh schools career and technical educ education programs wrote in the last comprehensive plan to merge both of our advisory boards into one. So Dr. over actually attended one of our joint meetings that we
021had. And what we did was we brought members from both boards together and asked who wanted to continue to participate because one of the things we did not want to do was alienate any members from either of those boards, business leaders in the community, [Music] uh, with the merger of these two boards. So, at that time, I said we would bring back the four names for your approval. Uh, Newton's got four members that uh have already been approved. So, our recommendation uh for the four um members starting off are listed here, which is um Eddie Chapman who is uh part of the Conover Fire Department, Dr. Robin Ross will be a two-year term. She's with K64. Uh Shawn Brown, who is the mayor of Claremont and also the vice president of cargo transporters. And then
022Katie Fulbright, who is uh with Kataba Valley Health Systems, Kataba Valley Medical Center. These folks actually um when they got together from both units are the ones that determined the number of years that they wanted to serve. We we're pleased that Taba Valley since the health care piece is one of our greatest needs from a a job standpoint and employment standpoint that she's on there with representing as a four-year term. Uh there are other and on the other side you got Abernathy Laurels represented there on the new Conover side. So there are other members not listed here that are not approved but we do I want to tell you we do invite those members to those meetings every time. the president of the Chamber of Commerce, the director of the Western Pemont Council of Government.
023They are not voting members or acting members there, but we do invite them because of their position with economic development. And there are a couple other folks that come as well. These are subject to open meetings laws. So, we would ask you if you are interested in coming to any of these meetings that we have, you are certainly more than welcome. We value anybody's input from a community perspective to advise both districts on their movements with the CTE program. I don't know if Dr. So wants to add anything to this. I know he was there present, but uh we believe this is a good thing. We've tried to get Hickory City to join us with this since all three school districts CT programs are after the same uh thing which is to connect young people
024to the workforce and the prosperity. So we ask tonight for your approval of these individuals to serve as representatives for the business advisory council on the Kataba County site. I entertain any questions at this time. Eisenhower, was there a reason Hickory City didn't participate or they're just not at that point? Well, we we we believe they didn't because at that time they you had a transition of a new superintendent, Dr. Griffin. And so the three CTE directors meet monthly with uh K64 and we have discussions on issues and agenda items that we're looking at and things that we participate in. But we believe simply at the she just was not ready as, you know, in that position. But we still collaborate, but not just from not but not from an advisory board standpoint, but we're
025still going to continue to ask them if they'd like to participate. If there are no further questions, I would need a motion to approve the representative for career technical education business advisory council for Kataba County Schools. I'll make the motion. Second. Hearing a motion in a second. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. Uh I look for a raise of hand for approval for representative for career technical education visit advisory kapa county schools. That's unanimous. Uh all right. Next on the agenda is approval of quote to purchase a tractor or educational program agricultural program at Bandes High School. Again presented by Dr. Jeff Eisenhower. So thank you Mr. Chairman. I probably uh without a doubt have the best job in County schools because there are days I get to go sit on tractors and drive
026them around and test them out and see how they do and get quotes. And so uh so we are seeking approval um of this purchase request for um a tractor that will go to Bandy's High School. Uh the track the current tractor at Bandy's High School is starting to get some age on it. It's a smaller tractor. So, with some of the work that has to be done around there, uh particularly when it comes to bush hoging with the hills and undulations, uh actually I've taken my own tractor out there to do some bush hoging because I just don't trust the smaller tractor with some of the things they've done. They've done some landscaping out there recently. So, the smaller tractor will still remain, but we're starting to to get to the point where we've
027got some repair issues with it, and it's just a little smaller than what they need for their use out there. This tractor uh that we're looking at here for purchase mirror is the same type of tractor that we purchased about two years ago for Fred T. Ford High School. And we have three quotes here. The lowest coming from James Rivers equipment. This is a 44 horsepower tractor. I've given you all the quotes here. Uh from the three to look at, there's some equivalency to these. There are a few different minor differences. Some might be with design. For example, some had uh diesel tanks underneath uh where you step up on that tractor. So we we try to look at all of those factors when we're doing this. So we have purchased this similar tractor before
028it is the lowest bid. It's the John Deere 40 44M compact tractor. So so far the one that we had purchased before has been good. So we ask for your approval of this purchase. I asked Dr. Mayor if he was going to stick around. He didn't. He might not get that. Oh, there he is. So yeah. So but um So, if we will entertain any questions on this if you so approve. So, what are you going to do with the old tractor? You said you're going to keep it, but it's going to we're going to keep it there just because of the work that goes on around the farm. They've expanded some things there with the farm, new fencing. Uh, so they still do a lot of work with that tractor there. The other thing
029that we are requiring as part of our safety plan, Mr. Chairman, I'm glad you asked this question. Is that all students will be required and any adults uh that use this tractor uh to have tractor certification for safety purposes. So, and that's across the entire district, the entire CTE program. I have a question. Yes. Um I was wanting to find out um does this have like some type of like I guess a warranty or some type of service agreement or anything like that or is that just a purchase of the tractor itself? Uh there is a service agreement that comes with it. I want to say that's a three-year agreement but that's typically what they come with is a standard three-year agreement with them. But I don't know if that's listed on the quote here.
030But that is tip that is typical. We also try um Miss Tig, we also try to purchase our first our first uh attempt at any purchases to try to buy from companies or individuals uh organizations within the boundaries of Kataba County. We like to keep our tax dollars here if we can do that. So yeah now James Rivers and that's one of the other things that's another positive about looking at this is uh James Rivers has dealership just right over here on 321. All three of these dealers are located right here within um probably a mile of where we're at here. So that's what we did. One is just right down the street here. All good companies, all good to work with. We are trying to get the lowest bid, too. we do something to
031showcase this tractor next year at the A Day if we decide to purchase this. I'm sure it will be front and center. Chairman, uh, all right. If there's no further questions, uh, I look for a a motion to approve the purchase of a tractor for agricultural program at Bandy's High School. I make the motion to purchase the tractor. Second. Got a motion to second. Is there any further discussion hearing? None. I look for uh approval by raise of hand. And that's unanimous. Thank you, Dr. Eisenhower. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. We appreciate you supporting tech. Yes, sir. Uh, next on the agenda is approval of 2025 2026 alternate school accountability model for Kataba Rosenwald Education Center presented by Mr. Lee Miller. Thank you, Chairman Cineer, board members. Good evening. I have three
032items for you tonight. The first is seeking your approval of the alternate school accountability model for Kataba Rosenwald. We're asking the board to approve option B. This is the option that we have operated under for the last several years with Cabar Rosenwald. And option B sends test scores back from those students to their base school. Um, and then Patab Rosenald receives a school grade, an alternate school grade, um, in correlation to the largest number of students they have from whatever school. Uh, so it could be St. Stevens, Bucker Hill, whatever, they would receive the same score as that school with an alternate designation. They also receive a rating of um it's a 202060 model. And they receive a rating of progressing, maintaining, or declining based on their own achievement. And that's 20% persistence, the number
033of kids that remain enrolled, 20% achievement, and 60% student growth. All this is under the option B that we're asking you to approve tonight. Any questions? Is this something that comes up every year we do this? Yes, sir. Okay. Mr. Chairman, I make the motion that we approve the 2526 alternate school accountability model for Katava Rosenwall as it's been presented using model B. I'll second. Hearing a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Right. I look for a sign to raise hand for approval. That is unanimous. Right. Thank you. The second item is really just for your awareness. I'd ask I was asked to research some bullying programs. There were four that I identified. We can always go back and expand that list if we need to. But the four that I identified
034second step oasis kiva and Rachel's challenge. Um I've presented this information to the board. Uh you have that in your packet. I'm not going to read everything to you unless you just want me to. I doubt that you do. I will hit some of the highlights from each of those programs. We've had access to second step for a number of years at Kataba County. We have one more year of access to second step uh and then that uh subscription will run out. Oasis is a program that really was founded through Clemson University and a um professor there. It's a K12 program. Kaiba is a program. Uh when I did my research, it kept popping up and I met with representatives this morning and I hate it was so late, but it was the first time
035that they can meet. They're actually in Finland and so we met early this morning. It was afternoon their time. Uh and their program is K through 9th grade and Rachel's Challenge, which we're familiar with in Kataba County if you've been around for a while, as a K12 program. Uh but I did meet with the OAS representatives and the KYA representatives um about their different programs. There's the chart there that you can see some information is broken down uh as far as the training that's required and the approximate cost. I can tell you uh that the OAS program is expensive. Uh it's probably the most comprehensive program of the four, but it is expensive. You can see there it's about $110,000 for the training that it would take for our entire district and then it's $550
036a year for each school after that initial year. And there's a survey that you take as you start the program and then every year you would continue to take that same survey the same time of year to measure your progress. Uh, and I did get a number today from Fiva and that number is about uh in pins they gave me the number in euros so I did some conversion. Thank goodness for Google and it's about $95,000 a year and that is each year. Uh Rachel's challenge is about $5 per student and they like to claim that they offer a lot of different sponsorships and grants for districts that they partner with. Oh, no, no, no. I'm not If we scroll through, thank you. Uh, second step overview. Again, I want to read uh each slide
037to you. Um, this is a sequence manner allowing students to practice and build confidence in handling bullying uh scenarios. And I think you'll find that with each program, they really work to identify exactly what is bullying and how you can as a bystander stop bullying or what you should do if you're the victim, how you should react. So all those programs really share that same type of approach to bullying. Uh some of it is just again more comprehensive than others and this the training in each program varies quite a bit as well. Um with second step is typically done through modules that the staff will complete. The principal or school leader leader whoever is assigned to this would try to lead that and get a lab lead as we like to say and then the
038staff would complete the modules and then they would go through that sequentially with their students. Um the next program I'll mention is the OS program. Again, the most comprehensive of the four and they identify different types of bullying, uh, physical, verbal, relational, and cyber bullying and teach about appropriate responses for bystanders, victims, and adults, and promote skills for resolving conflicts and preventing bullying situations. Um, this the lessons can be done weekly or bi-weekly depending on what the school would prefer. and they discuss bullying, peer relations, and pro-social behavior. And the survey, which I mentioned earlier, really drives what you do with this program. Uh that's something they continue to mention in our meeting, is how important the survey is to what you do and the decisions you make about how you move forward within the
039program. uh it would require some extensive training. We would send someone from each school to be a school leader. That is, I believe, um a three-day training and then they come back and they train their school team. And that's u typically a one or two day training. And then the school team uh trains everyone on the staff. Everyone from teachers to classified staff, our child nutrition staff, bus drivers, everyone in the school would receive training uh under this program. The good news is I mentioned the price earlier. It is an expensive startup, but after that first year and the initial training, then it's $550 a year for the whole school system would be $550 or per school. Per school per I kind of mentioned the implementation steps of the OS program um and the training
040that's involved and how it starts with a lead trainer from each school. Then they train the leadership team from the school that you would create. And then that team trains the entire staff and you will start to roll it out with students. Great question, M. Yes, Mr. Go forth. Great question. They assign each team a U OAS mentor that checks in with them regularly and their progress and provides guidance throughout that process. Hope that answers. The next program Kaiba is the one I met with those folks today out of Finland. Uh just to be honest with you, I think the barrier between uh the United States and Finland and the fact that I asked this question, they are in other countries, but there is they are not working with any districts in the United States,
041which is a little intriguing, but it's also a little worrisome in the fact that it is not uh really active here and it is expensive. Like I said, it's going to be probably the neighborhood of about $90,000 if my euro to dollars translation is correct. And that's annually. And I I just don't know that we we have those funds, but if the board wants to to look further than that, we certainly can. Uh the training is a oneweek training. It can be virtual, but they recommend sending someone to Finland for that. I would volunteer if you want to send me. Uh we send somebody there or they send somebody here? No, we would send someone there. Oh, there you go. Okay. Now, we have volunteers on the board, too. Um it would, like I said,
042it would be a week training for that person. They would come back and then they would start training team members here, leaders here that would then uh train folks within their school. Um, they have lessons that can be divided up kind of like the West program. You divide it up. You can do one or two a month. You can even do weekly lessons. But you receive all of their materials are part of that price that I mentioned. And they also have a survey as well that you would conduct annually to determine your progress. And then the last program that I'll mention is I ask a quick question just just fix on the what is it Oasis Oasis uh each year the schools will pay the 550 I mean is that for a certain amount of
043years we can do that or is that it's my understanding that once you've received the training right then you're okay from there that 110 that I've listed thousand that I've listed as that startup cost you would be good as long as you continued it and you kept the training up within your district and you didn't have a lapse, I think you would be fine. And then it's 550 a year per school. Thank you. Thank you. Like I was saying about KA, they have a a survey as well that they feel is very important to measure your progress annually and help you determine next next action steps. And then the last program, Rachel's challenge, which I so we in 2012, I went back with the help of Maria Ballard. I was I knew we we did
044this, but I could not remember the year. I asked Maria to help me and I I had narrowed it down somewhere between 2010 and 12 and it was 2012 when we actually started this program in Kataba County. It was actually born out of the tragedy at Kiva. Rachel Scott was a victim at Coline. Her family, her dad in particular, started this program after that tragedy uh in her honor memory. And it's a program that uh from what I can remember, it's fairly simple, straightforward, and it's something that's sequential and your staff and your students kind of learn this together as you go. And it's really about creating the culture within your schools of we are one, we are together, you create clubs that want to promote kindness and collaboration. Uh there are five challenges around
045empathy and self-confidence, decision making and resilience that are at the core of Rachel's challenge. Um, and I can remember, and I've actually have seen these banners still in some of our schools where kids would sign and they accepted Rachel's challenge to be kind and and those things that I mentioned earlier. Miss Davis, I want to say three, but don't I'll ask Marie to help me dig through that. I was curious also, Mr. Miller, why did we stop? I I don't know, Dr. to be honest with you. I think uh at the time our district leadership changed in that time frame and I think you know sometimes things just fade out. I don't think there was ever really a conscious decision. Hey, let's not do this anymore. It just faded away. Unfort I think that's why
046you still see the banners in some schools. Some are still practicing. I think I have a question. Yes, ma'am. Um I was wanting to know if there was a way um depending on which one that we actually um may decide to go with um if there's a way to like get some type of demo or um way of like looking up the curriculum or whatever you know like some type of um information as far as I asked um if they would send us some of their curriculum and they will not because the copyright right? They feel they're afraid we'll copy it and then do our own thing. Um Kaiva, same response I asked them, but they they did say that they would present to the board. I'm sure that would have to be virtually of
047course. Um so that's not a real easy answer, unfortunately. Miss D. Now Rachel's challenge, uh second steps, we had that curriculum already. You're welcome to to see that anytime. uh restless challenge. I don't know. Honestly, from what I remember about it, there wasn't a ton of materials that came with it. It's basically just giving you these ideas and startup steps to create these clubs. Uh and this discussion about kindness and uh inclusion and things like that, making sure that kids aren't left out. Mr. Miller, are are we looking to move from second step? Uh that would be a decision I guess of the board because again we do have second step for one more year after the current um and we typically we have not done a lot with the bullying module of second step
048but it is there and it is available to us. Do we have any feedback on how it's working or what the staff reaction or student reaction is? Uh, honestly, Dr. No, I don't I can't say that we Dr. Barnett. Um, Mr. Miller has been working on this for a good while because I had spoken with Tim and um Clayton about it um because of conversations with teachers and with parents who had actually requested that we look into something for spec that was specific to bullying. So I had um talked to Mr. Miller and he said that with our second steps there are things woven into the second steps that does discuss bullying but it's not specific to that and that was something that was brought to me from multiple parents and from teachers and I'm
049trying to um bring these things forward so that we can look at these things and see if the board you know would be willing to look at some of these things that they're that um teachers and parents are asking for. And I don't when we spoke about it before um it wasn't that we wanted to replace anything. It was bringing something else to it. But again you had talked about you weren't sure how that would work as far as bringing this program in with what we already had in place. I think second step is is the module I spoke of. I wouldn't call it a comprehensive program like the other three are. Um, so I think the board would just have to consider does it want to adopt a comprehensive program or stay more with
050just kind of the module within secondstep program and that'd be something the board would would need to decide. I think uh I will say this and I thought the the folks at Oasis brought up a great point because they asked would we be wanting to do this as a entire district at the same time or do some pilot schools and then try to spread. I said I really don't know the answer to that. And they said well from our experience it's not going to be successful until your folks are ready for it. So I thought and that's true with any initiative really. So I think if we decide to adopt a comprehensive program I think that's great but I think we need to lay some groundwork for it to be successful as we would move
051forward with it. I have a question another one. Um, I was wondering as far as like the second step, has do we know if because we've had that um for a while and I was wondering has there been like any additional updates to that curriculum at all since we've implemented that? To my knowledge, M I think it's updated. They update their program yearly. Not not an overhaul, but they update bits and pieces of it yearly because everything now we pretty much accept access it online. But I can't I can't speak to when it's been a complete overhaul. Obviously, there hasn't been, but they they do make adjustments. If I could just add one thing, I think uh whatever the the board would like to look at, we do have second steps through the, you know,
0522526 paid for, but it is a good time to review things that you might want to do in the future. I agree with Mr. Miller on laying the groundwork, but I would also add to that is is we talk about this all the time. if we add something, we need to take something away. Um that way it's done right and we have time to carry it out or teachers can't do it all right. So if if we continue to study it, bring bring you guys different things um and then we're intentional in a we have a year to roll it out or something like that, I think that would definitely be um a smart move uh to make it last. And the other thing too is if you want to look at something that involves,
053you know, hundred some thousand dollars, we'll need to budget for that, you know, in the future. Uh because that is a pretty large item to to budget for. Oh, yeah. And the last part, I'm sorry, Mr. Anything that we do with surveys, no problem. We just have to have parent permission first, you know, because of the parent bill of rights. So, we just make sure that we have that sent out and people know what's in it. We were doing a survey in Second Steps before. Um but that was kind of met with some resistance even through parent permission and so we we stopped and so um we we don't survey the kids because we didn't want to you know hurt families or teachers who are trying to do it. So um again anytime you survey
054students we just need to get permission. We need to make very transparent to the parents of what what their par what their child could be asked. Are you saying that the current second steps program that you have in place right now would need to be replaced with this one or could this one be woven into is the is the specific bullying program going to be woven into what we already have in place if you went with a comprehensive program or if we went if if we went with the second step that we already have paid for already for another year would it would just be added and woven into what we already have or do we still have to take away like he's saying take away not if it's a module if we if we
055do a five to six weekek module with kids that wouldn't that that's just part of this program so we do it all year that's just one of the modules the other programs that um have been presented tonight are all year all inclusive so that's why you would have to take away one or the other that's what you were talking about taking one you would put the bullying module in but you would take one of the other modules out. I think with second step because it is just a module we'd be okay just to add that into it. Uh but with the other programs like Dr. Stover mentioned I think you would have to look at what are you going to take off the plate because we're adding such a a large comprehensive program to the
056Gotcha. Okay. Uh do we track bullying incidents? Do you know what's our most common like cyber bullying or you have that data? If not handy, I don't have it. Uh Mr. Ramsey and I were just talking about this today, not necessarily bullying, but about our disciplinary records and we've got some clean up on Nine to do because with the new infinite campus uh system, teachers can go in and they just they just click office referral. Okay. And when an administrator goes in to take care of that, they must then read the referral and click or determine is it verbal bullying? Is it just aggressive behavior? Is it just misbehavior? And so we've got some schools have to go back and administrators have to go in and make a classification of what that behavior where it
057falls and not just an office referral. So, we've got a plan for that and once that's completed, we will have data on bullying and really all discipline. But I would I would venture to say just in my experience, most bullying that we see is verbal. Yes, sir. Thank you for that. You're welcome. I I am happy to continue to look at programs if the board wants me to do that. So, just let me know how I can help. Thank you for your presentation on those items. Are there any further questions for Mr. Miller at this time? Uh hearing none, let's go ahead and move to approval of the three-year contract between Kataba County Council on Adolescence and Kataba County Board of Education. Thank you. Uh we are seeking the board's approval for the contract agreement
058with the council on adolescence. The council provides puberty and reproductive health and safety education classes for our sixth through 9th grade students. Uh their content is aligned with our state helpful living standards and meets the requirement of state legislation to teach reproductive health. The agreement is for three years. It's the same as our previous agreement uh that we have in place for three years. And the cost is $37,50 annually. Uh and those funds would come from curriculum instruction budget. Any questions I can help with? How many years have we been using the Council on Adolescence for this? Mr. Settlemire, I was trying to look that up as well and I I don't know. I I do know it's been at least 10. And what we do, we require parent permission for a child to be
059involved in the program. If we do not get a permission slip back, the child does not participate. You have to have a signed parent permission form to be involved in the program. You can see there, it's a 4-day program for grades seven, eight, nine, a three-day program for our sixth graders. Um, any questions? So, what happens to the kids that don't participate? Is that by school basis or? Yes. Okay. This is typically done in science classes at the middle school level. And that's that's often times where we'll have some parents opt out and they're just assigned to a different class during that that time period. I pulled principles because I was interested in how many parents opt I should say opt in because again you have to have assigned permission slip and uh it was
060three to five students per grade level per school. They said they typically have opt in or not opt in to the program. Any other questions? Hearing no further questions, uh look for a motion for approval of the 2025 to 2028 contract between Kataba County Council on Adolescence and Kataba County Board of Education. a second. Hearing a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor shall raise a hand. That is unanimous. Thank you. Uh, next on the agenda is approval of a 2025 2026 proposed student transfer spaces for Kataba County Schools presented by Mr. Dan Moore. Thank you, Chairman Smire, members of the board. Dr. Stove, before you, you have our proposed student transfer spaces for the 2526 school year. Uh, at the elementary level, most of those are
061going to be in the upper grade. Um, we try our best to accommodate any requests that we have as long as that child is in good standing. And I'll seek your approval of these proposed transfer place spaces, but also seek your your grace in that this es and flows as the summer goes. People come in, people leave, and what we like to do is reach out to our principles to make sure that we are or can accommodate or if in fact they've received an influx of students at one grade level and can't accept. So, it's a conversation that really starts about mid June all the way up until about the week before school starts because kindergarten is the most difficult be able to predict. So, again, we try to accommodate as many requests as we
062can. That will begin June 2nd. I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have as well. Mr. Chairman, I move that we accept the transfer spaces that have been presented to us tonight. I'll second. Hearing a motion, a second. Is there any further discussion hearing? None. All those in favor show a raise of hand. That's unanimous. Next on the agenda is approval of construction change directive number one for Ball Creek Elementary preschool project. Yes, sir. This is an omission an error. We should have had this as part of the actual bid process, but this is to add a 20-year no dollar limit warranty for this roof system as part of this PK project. Uh it's in the amount of $1,57. We have $10,000 in contingency for this project. So, it would leave $8,943 in
063contingency funds for the remainder. So, this is just something that we should have had in the original bid and it was omitted and we want to clean it up and make sure that that 20-year warranty is applied to this project. Are there any questions for Mr. Moore on this? Hearing none. I seek a motion for approval of construction chain directive number one for Balls Creek Elementary preschool project. I'll make the motion. A second. Hearing a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none to show in favor of hands. That is unanimous. Thank you. Next is the approval of individual project proposal agreement between Kataba County Board of Education and design consultant REI Engineers Incorporated for partial roof replacement at Maiden High School. Yes sir. This is for uh REI to begin the
064process of creating construction doc documents and managing the construction project to mitigate most of the issues that we face made in high school with the improper installation of that metal roof. Um this is the firm that you also approve to serve in this capacity. Total amount is $143,334. Uh roughly $85,000 for contract documents, 58,334 construction administration. And I would seek your approval of this agreement at this time. There any questions for Mr. Moore on this? If not, I seek a motion for approval of individual project proposal agreement between Kataba County Board of Education and Design Consultants, REI Engineers Incorporated from partial roof replacement at Maiden High School. I make a motion for the individual project proposal agreement. I'll second hearing a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none and show of
065approval, raise a hand. That is unanimous. Thank you. Thank to number 11, review of board goals and action steps for county boards of education presented by me. Uh so last year the other board we approved these goals uh start working on and most of them are still in progress. Um, so if you had time to read over these, there's something that uh really passionate about in here, please let me know. Did do we still have the the sheet that Mr. Mr. Taylor had that had assigned people to this or the original sheet that Mr. Taylor assigned was just for us to work on getting the plan together. Okay. Not actually being in charge of that. Right. I I can't say that most of these are still in progress, Mr. Settlemire. In fact, none of them
066have been implemented that I'm aware of. maybe a few where we've asked for the staff, professional staff to let us know about staff development and some other things. But that was my request in bringing this asking it to be put on the agenda tonight because we haven't done anything towards our goals. Oh, we did do a a video one of the welcome. I think maybe the way to go is for us to I mean we've had this for several weeks or a week at least to look at it whenever we got our material that we need to just go ahead and jump in and start to work on those that can be done and set some priorities on where to begin and just start working it. I definitely would agree that we do need a
067a a board of operations uh handbook. Uh handbook should have been done many many moons ago, but we can we could definitely do that and that should take care of a lot of these things that are in here already. What I believe that would set up training hours. Uh it would discuss the videos before each working session. We could possibly have training for the Robert's rules of order notes on the meeting agenda for items of the strategic plan. How would we how would we make that look? That's something we could look at during our monthly meeting to see what would planning and goals number five you could incorporate that as part of each meeting. But um I think the the issue is to identify what is meeting the strategic plan goals. What are you doing
068that what's the board doing, Dr. Stove? I But you can do it. I think it's how the business that we're conducting each month is related to our strategic plan in the big picture. Yeah. And it it may be Mr. settleer that you'll want to start with some of these and assign us to get get it rolling for the rest of the board. Believe you're right. I think I'll set up a sheet sort of like Mr. Taylor did and some of the different sections in here. And uh I know one that was assigned under me before when Mr. Taylor was here was u getting the the policies searchable and you're still pretty close on that, right? Are very very close. There's there's about I'd say five to eight I we refer to them as beasts and
069they require some some extra thought. Um fact example is dual employment uh those biggies that personnel but yeah we should be we're on right on target with that. Okay. So, uh, if it pleases the rest of the board, I would I would take till June 9th and I can have everybody a section in here that to work on and and look at and have that updated by our June 9th meeting. Is that satisfactory? Okay. Thank you. Next on the agenda is information on letter from United States Department of Education presented by Dr. Stove. Thank you, Chairman Stomire. Um, so a question came up about, uh, what has Kataba County Schools done in response to, uh, President's Trump executive order through our state, uh, law or pardon me, federal law, uh, under Title 9 and, um,
070uh, ensuring that we don't have unfair hiring practices uh, or discriminate uh, against any race, religion, etc. And so um our state had already verified that we are not doing that. But I also uh signed the letter from um that that I acknowledge that Katab County Schools is not um discriminating in any hiring practices. Um and uh we meet all of the uh things noted in the letter I put in your packet for you. So uh we were able to do that pretty quick. We've never had those. never uh we've always followed the law and um so that was kind of one of those easier things to work through. Um thankful to say. Is there any questions about that tonight? Have we ever had to sign this before? First time. So we've not had any
071problem with title six before this or been asked to? Nope. We've never had to. up um federal and then our state said that we were complying and then we had to say that we're complying so we continue to get our federal funds and we are in compliance. Looks more of a political move than anything that actually happening in our system that it's more of a again a political stance rather than anything that's changing anything for students or the community. I can attest that none of these things in this letter are happening in our school system. Thank goodness. Yeah, like to say that Wake County schools um ended up having to um I guess they lost money. I I forget how much money it was, but they ended up losing money. I think some school systems
072had some practices that uh may or may not have been defined. I I don't know. I'm not there. I shouldn't talk for them, but to your point though, as far as Kataba County Schools is going, I can very clearly state that we are in compliance. Yes. And I know that uh Dr. Green, the state superintendent, also sent out a letter and Yes. followed up with it. What What was the basis of that or what was his recommendations there? Go ahead. Okay. Um well, and I I'll thank Crystal for this. Um she um what I didn't realize was he actually took up for the state prior to say we follow the laws. And I'll let her explain further because I want to be careful. But basically these can these laws can be interpreted differently and so
073that's what the extent of that is. Anything you want to add? Yeah. Um basically um what I'm going to give you a little backstory. Um the state of New York challenged this very request by the Trump administration. And this was a request that was sent out to all school districts from the Department of Education to certify um this to their to their state superintendent. And um the state of New York challenged the Trump administration and basically said, "We've already certified that we comply with the law. We don't know what your terms in this certification request. We don't know what they mean. and we're not going to we're going to we're we're not we don't have to sign something again saying that we are going to comply with the law. We've already done that. And so
074other state superintendent uh of course reviewed the requirement for this uh certification that's every superintendent submit to their state superintendent. Right? This was that that was the requirement. um and were not g the superintendents were not given an option. Um they had to review everything and determine Dr. Stove did that and and signed it. What was what was um flagged by Superintendent Green is that number one um and I'm just reading from the letter and if the board would like a a a me to forward this I I will. From Dr. Mo Green. Yes. Um, North Carolina DPI and all North Carolina leas have already certified that they do and will comply with title six of the civil rights acts of 1964 and its implementing regulations and applicable laws. So that was again what you
075mentioned. Um he also pointed out that the request by the um US Department of Education for certification makes broad statements about diversity, equity, and inclusion without defining what those specific practices might vi which what what of those specific practices might violate title six and other laws. Um and so in he concludes with in conformity with the request North Carolina DPI asked the LEAs to complete the certification by April 16th and and and he acknowledged uh Superintendent Green acknowledged that the superintendents had done that. Um however he said it's our understanding and we have communicated the same to North Carolina ELAs that the asurances are limited to the department's current legal authority meaning the US department's current US department of education's current legal authority. In other words, Mo Green was clarifying that we are complying with
076the law of the United States and uh we're that the US Department of Education does not necessarily mean that we have to com that the board's the superintendent have to comply with their interpretation because what he's saying is it's not defined. Um, therefore, we are providing the certification attached with the following clarification. And here's the quote. To the best of of their knowledge, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and all local education agencies in North Carolina assure the US Department of Education that they comply with Title Six. This assurance by NCDPI on behalf of itself and all local education agencies in North Carolina is limited to those legal obligations authorized by law. So they qualified this certification even though this actual certification was not changed. So um and um there's of course the signature
077said we remain committed but that um that is what superintendent of Mo Green the superintendent of North Carolina actually qualified the certification. will this require that we do differently at this time? Nothing. I I appreciate you sharing this with us. You know, we read so much about this. We hear about it. Didn't hear a word from from our administration about if it had been received or what. So, I appreciate you sharing it with us. I mean, I I have copies of it. I've read it, but I was just surprised it was never shared with the board what your interpretation was of what you've um certified us to be and do. Yeah, I'm I'm sorry I didn't bring that forward to you. I've just we've been following these practices as long as I've been here. So,
078for us, it was just certifying what we're already doing and we're following the law. So, so basically they ask you just to sign a letter saying that you're already doing these these things that we because we are we are following the law and all the hiring practices and uh following title six title nine. Thank you for your presentation. Is there any any further discussion on this hearing? None. Uh move to number 13 discussion on the statewide bond proposal presented by Dr. Stover. Yes, this was uh brought up as far as whether our board wanted to uh support um uh Governor Stein's mention of the um u I think it was gosh I had the other day anyhow I think it was $4 billion state bond that he's going to be encouraging our legislators to look
079at and um certainly I know Mr. Settlemire did some um looking into it as well. I don't know if anyone else did Dr. Barnett, if you had a chance to I went through the the state budget and I didn't see it in the budget announcement, but I found paper clippings of what you know some of the things were. I know Mr. Settlemire found that Kataba County could stand to get maybe $46 million out of the four billion if the state bond was put on a ballot and passed. And so the question was is is this something we want our board to support with our local uh with our elected officials in Raleigh? We you say that you mean drafting a letter and sending it to them saying, "Hey, we support." Yeah, it could be a
080letter. I could uh put together I could put anything together for you all. We all obviously know that we're in a position of needing um facility dollars as we grow. Uh and as we've said, um we can use any penny. And in fact, as our legislative team met with our commission or our commissioners, sorry, our elected officials in January, this is one of the things we asked them to consider when they were going into legislative session. Not only just a whether it was a state bond referendum, but also uh earmarking funds for our growth in Kataba County for such things as core capacity needs at all of our schools. So, um that we have talked about that verbally. So, anything on top of that that you all would like to do, I'd be happy to
081to be um a a letter writer, messenger, however you would like to do that. I had talked to Mr. Settlemire and had asked you and Mr. Settlemire to put this on the agenda tonight. Uh and when I talked to Mr. salemire. I explained to him that I would really like to see us uh write a letter, draft a resolution or something to our local uh officials asking them to encourage or in their own chambers to put a a capital bill project, a bond referendum in their own um in their own budgets. I thought it's a great time. We know by based on the McKisik study how much we need over the next 10 years to carry out the plan we want to and that the governor has said he's in favor of it. If we
082could get both the House and the Senate to put a bond referendum in their budgets, we'd be more likely to get one. Uh if it's in just the governor's budget, we're likely not to get it. Uh or it would have to be dropped to get to be agreed upon. But if both chambers of our general assembly and the governor had it in their budget, it would be much more likely that we would get that referendum. And that was my suggestion and not not a particular amount, but just that that there be a referendum is what I was suggesting. And and to that end, I would make a motion that we ask Dr. Stober to either draft a letter or a resolution, whatever the board prefers. Um, just asking our encouraging our local representatives to include
083a bond referendum in their own budget as they submit it. And that work's going on right now. So, you've heard a motion to have Dr. Stove draft a letter requesting um of our local state representatives asked them for a statewide bond to help build and u renovate schools. There a second? I've had a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor show a raise of hand. That isation. Would it be okay uh if I drafted it, sent it to you all? You all kind of gave any input you might want and that way we can get it moving and um or would you like me to bring it back to the next meeting? Uh I would say we draft either Yeah. draft the letter, let us look at
084it and we can put this on the June 9th agenda. Okay. For approval or So I'll have it ready by June 9th. Can I can I um bring up something? We had um whenever we went through um the training through um I guess the financial I guess whenever we went um I forgot it was through the UNCC Greensboro. Wasn't there something else besides the um there was something that they mentioned in that training that might be an option besides the bond but I was trying to remember what it was and I can go back and look it up but I just couldn't remember what that was. Do you remember if I talking about a special tax? I believe so or something. I don't know if it was that. I don't know. I need to go
085back and look. Yeah, it's a taxi. We did hear about that in the training we went to with the county commissioners, but it's something that has to be requested by the commissioners themselves. Could probably ask them for that if we or at least maybe talk to them about that if we wanted something like that. I mean, I guess I don't know. I was I was trying to remember what it was and I know it was another option besides bond. Yeah, it was a special tax and uh we could talk about that at a further time. I think thank you. Uh that's all we have. Our next will be in close session. Uh and we will take a we we'll reconvene in close session at um 7:45. Uh, can I get a motion to go into
086close session? I make a motion to go into I don't think there's any student. Yes, student confidentiality. Sorry. I'll make that motion. I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion hearing? None. Shall raise the hand. Go into close session at 7:45. Got you.