001[GAVEL] All right. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for your patience. All right, our next item on the agenda is public comment. I'd like to read a few housekeeping remarks related to public comment. The board appreciates and encourages public comment. Board members will listen to the comments and may ask or make clarifying questions or comments, but there will be no general discussion related to the public comments. Since there is no work session items on the agenda, we will only have this public comment period. For this board meeting. Public comments will be limited to two minutes with one point of adjustment that I will discuss momentarily. Additionally, tonight we welcome our families and guests who prefer to speak Spanish or Mandarin. We are pleased to offer Spanish and Mandarin interpretation services. Interpretation will be provided consecutively, meaning
002we will hear a sentence in one language and then the interpreters will repeat it in English. As a result, we will double the time limit for those speakers to four minutes. We kindly request that all speakers please speak clearly and at a moderate pace to allow the interpreters to accurately convey all information to the board and to our guests in the audience. When you are recognized, please come forward and state your name. And if you are speaking for an organization, please identify the name of the organization. All right. With that, we will start. We will recognize any teacher organizations, SIT or student groups, followed by anyone who has signed up in advance, and finally, any other persons wishing to make a comment. Do we have any teacher organizations, SIT or student groups who would like
003to speak? You ready? Yep. Well, since I see multiple speakers, are you each going to take two minutes back to back or is one person. I just don't believe we'll need that amount of time. I expect that we can keep it to two minutes. Okay. All right. Collective PTA statement. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Right, so two minutes. All right. Thank you. My name is Emily Kreutzer. I am president of Glenwood PTA. I'm proud that I remembered to introduce myself first tonight. I'm Meredith Neese. I'm representing Mary Hooser and myself as a president of the Estes Hills PTA. I'm Mary Beth Preyear. I am not the president of the PTA, but I'm standing in for her tonight for Tana Bayrope. And I'm Tiffany Engler, and I'm the president of the Ephesus PTA. We all love
004our school communities and of course, do not want them to close. We are speaking together tonight to show that we are also a larger community. We want our individual and school Voices heard. And we also want strong leadership and decision making from our board through this difficult process. To us, this means a few things. Please stay on the schedule recommended by the district. A careful but expeditious process will provide the stability our staff and teachers are asking for. We'll allow our communities to grieve and do the work to come together for the future. And we'll avoid deeper staffing cuts that could affect the quality of education district wide. Delaying this decision further divides our communities, impacts staff morale and threatens the core educational standards of our district. We know this is a financial decision. None
005of our schools are failing and each is so special for its own reason. Please use financially grounded data and criteria that align with the financial strain on the district. As a large community, this will help us to support the decision and move forward together in good faith. We trust Dr. Trice and we are thankful for his leadership. We are trusting the future of our children's education with you and we're thankful that you're taking that trust seriously. On our end, we are promising to build new welcoming communities for our children, staff, teachers and families. As our schools are reshaped through this process, no single school community will be the same. But with strong leadership from our board and our district, our children will all receive an excellent education in wonderful school communities with well-supported teachers and
006staff. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. I see Mr. Link is coming forward. Good evening. My name is Brian Link and I'm the president of the Chapel Hill Carrboro association of Educators. As it is now March, I would like to start by celebrating Women's History Month. And I hope this board will come forth with their usual proclamations. Right to honor all the amazing women right in our community, in our country and around the world who do so much for us in so many professions, especially education. I want to thank this board and the many female leaders on it and other local officials, many of whom who took a big step Tuesday towards serving us again or serving us for the first time. And thank you to our administration and the powerful women leaders there, my fellow
007educators, whom about 80% are women in this profession, and to our PTAs who, right, we would not be able to run without the power of women and the organizations that are led by them. And I want to say, as usual, women should lead the way because they made it very easy for me tonight. The speakers ahead in front of us, ditto. This is what we've been saying. Unity. There was engagement. There is collective efficacy. There is social justice action. And ultimately, with the healing, there will Be wellness. And so with my limited time left, I would just say the alternative is literally on slide 8 of the budget presentation, which we will hear at the very end of this evening, which is if you do not take this action, we are facing right immediate cuts,
008and you can see what that would look like. There are over 30 teachers who are going to have to be reduced just for reallocations from the reduction in population. And if we don't act now on the school choice with bold leadership, that number is going to be far greater and it's going to happen far sooner rather than with the planning and runway that our administration, headed by Dr. Trice, will allow for right proper consideration to be heard. So, with that, thank you to all the women and future women, strong girls in this audience. And I feel very confident that we are going to come to a collective decision that will bring joy ultimately to our community. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] Do we have any other teacher organizations, sit or student groups? Moving on, we'll go to
009our speakers who have signed up in advance. Thank you. (INAUDIBLE) Thank you. Good evening, Ni hao. Buenas noches. My name is Caroline Carter, and I've been a district employee for 15 years, all of which I have spent teaching in the dual language program at Glenwood. Hello, my name is Yi San. This is my fifth year working in the Glenwood dual language program. Before I share more about our program, I want to acknowledge that the most difficult part of hearing about the upcoming closure has been our concern for students across the district who are not experiencing uncertainty about their own elementary schools. So, we want you to know that we're in this together. So, from us Gators to you Roadrunners and Eagles and Lions and Seahawks, we support you guys. For those of you who may
010not know, Glenwood is a state square school where the squared M stands not only for math, but also for Mandarin. At Glenwood, families can choose between two program tracks, the world language track and the dual language track. Regardless of the track, all students at our school participate in the Mandarin program. In the dual language track, students receive instruction throughout the day in both Mandarin and English. In the world language tracks, students receive Mandarin instruction during their foreign language block. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Like the district, social justice action is one of my core values. It's why I choose to teach at Glenwood and why I send my own children there. Glenwood doesn't just offer textbook, Mandarin or surface level cultural lessons. There's a critical mass of Chinese, American and Chinese immigrant families that allows the entire school
011community to experience Chinese culture in a real lived immersive way. During my time at Glenwood, I've watched Asian children patiently work with non-native children to teach them how to correctly pronounce certain tones. I've listened to a student that speaks fluent Russian and Spanish at home speak beautiful Chinese at school. Sophia Gonzalez when you walk into the Glenwood cafeteria, there's no Asian side. Children of all races and backgrounds sit together at tables that they choose a lived example of integration, belonging and cross cultural friendship. And I have witnessed children from all walks of life learn, sing and perform Gong Shi Gongxi more times than I can imagine. These moments are not just snapshots in the day to day of a child's life. They are the foundational pieces that help to erode the ongoing negative impact of
012racism that still permeates our schools today and can help to close an ever widening achievement gap in this district. That's what makes this program so unique and valuable and is another reason why it's important for us to stay together. We expect that to this program, which includes our entire school community of students and staff, will remain intact and continue as a whole program rather than being dismantled. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Thank you for your time. [APPLAUSE] (INAUDIBLE) Hello, my name is Anna Delatorre. I'm a parent at Glenwood, part of our PTA and a parent of three children in the district. Want to just briefly say how much our program means to me and to our family and I think it's an amazing way for children to learn languages. My husband was born in the Philippines. He moved
013to the United States when he was 11. He was thrust into a school where he didn't speak English. All the other kids spoke English and he just had to figure it out. The way that our students get to learn where the Mandarin speaking students get to learn English right along with their friends. As their friends learn Mandarin, they can speak both languages together as they play on the playground at lunch. It's just such an amazing program. When I speak to friends in other states, they've never even heard of programs like this. It's just very special and it's amazing that our world language and dual language programs get to be together. So, I just wanted to speak for our school. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] This is Shrey. He's a second grader at FPG. I think FPG should
014learn together in one school because we are the only fully bilingual school in the district. Also, FPG keeps a special Spanish speaking community with people who want to be in community with them. We talk to each other in both languages so everyone is included. Your skin can be Any color and every culture is welcome at our school. Ms. Yelly, our culture teacher, teaches us about all of the cultures. Please keep us cool together because it makes me happy to be there with my friends. [APPLAUSE] Hola, mi nombre es. Hold on, hold on. You can lift the microphone up. There you go. So, I'm just gonna do Spanish and he's gonna do English. [SPANISH] [APPLAUSE] Hello, my name is Gabriel Benevente. Gabe, thank you for letting me read this tonight, and I hope it persuades you
015to make the right decision and not close FPG. One reason FPG should stay open is because we learn to be an ally. I learned this word in second grade to stand up for people who are different than me. We care about others and celebrate their uniqueness. The second reason FPGA should stay open is because bullying does not exist here. People from all cultures learn to appreciate one another. A friend moved here from Mexico last year and had a lot of friends on his first day. The third reason we must keep FPGA open is because it feels like home and a safe place for everyone. Families that speak Spanish at home can be a close part of the school community and we can learn the language that our families speak. My friend Manuel couldn't be here
016tonight, but here is a quote from him. I wouldn't be able to read and write at such a high level in the language my family speaks without. I wouldn't be able to read and write at such a high level in the language my family speaks without FPG. The final reason, or our final reason, we must keep this beautiful community at FPG open is because we learn to start with hello and not be afraid to share our voice and kindness with others. In conclusion, it is called La Familia for a reason. We may not be related by blood, but we are related by our hearts. [APPLAUSE] My name is Lucila Perez and I'm currently a sixth grader at McDougal Middle School. And this is the dual language program. Until last year, I attended FPG. That school
017is really special to me because it helped me build a strong foundation to grow from. It really helped that the whole school was bilingual and had such a strong sense of community. It felt like everyone understood each other. For example, you could ask any student what their class was doing for Hispanic Heritage Month and they would know because it was something the whole school celebrated together. At FPG, it felt like my culture was not only seen, but truly celebrated. Now at my new school, inside and outside of the dual language program classes. Sometimes people ask what is Hispanic Heritage Month? Or say things like who cares? But it does matter. Other cultures matter and learning about them is something FPG does really well. And FPG also helped me build my confidence because the teachers and
018principals always encouraged our ideas. I had opportunities to perform at the stage at UNC and speak at our fifth grade stepping up ceremony. Those experiences helped me become a leader and gave me the confidence to speak up when I see something isn't right. FPGB is a special school because of its strong community they create together. I truly hope my younger sisters get the chance and experience of it too. Thank you for your time. [APPLAUSE] My name is Rosa Maria Castillo (INAUDIBLE) and my daughter is in kindergarten at FPG. When we moved here two years ago, we hired an educational consultant. We chose Chapel Hill, we chose higher taxes. We chose FPG and it has been the best experience for our family in the 16 years as a physician in the U.S. this is the first
019time my family and I feel that we belong in a community that appreciates diversity, recognizes the importance of equity and inclusion. Let's remember you're in the business of education and not in the business of building maintenance. How come are you considering closing a school without a plan to preserve the value of the program beyond the closure of the building? If the problem is funding driven by low enrollment, how is it possible that you're considering closing the school that is fully enrolled and with a waiting list? Breaking the school apart will drive enrollment even lower because parents will take their kids somewhere else. Further education will suffer because the value of this school is in the bilingual community as a whole. If the problem is funding driven by low enrollment, how is it possible that you're
020considering closing a school that brings guaranteed and secure revenue? Keeping the school together will reduce costs. You have to consider economies of scale where you can leverage common staff and resources like a full bilingual library, bilingual psychologists, teachers, all together in one place. You say programs will continue, but what does that even mean? Where are you going to put 500 kids? This school is so successful because of the community it is. If you divide the school, you will destroy the community and increase costs for people that are religious. This is like closing a church and dividing up its parishioners in other churches. It will never be the same with everything happening in our country. Is this what you want your legacy to be? The headline will read people voted to rebuild the school. Instead, the
021board decides to close the most diverse and Spanish bilingual school affecting minorities and reducing enrollment Even more in the district. Help us trust you again. Confirm your commitment to keep our school open and together. Gracias. [APPLAUSE] Hello and thank you. I'm Amanda Brady from FPG. I'm speaking as a teacher and also a mother, but I'm also speaking on behalf for many teachers and parents who are not up here. I carry the weight of their words. Also, we were encouraged last meeting to hear the overall public-school support and we want every school to see the best outcome for FPD Bilingue. We would like to ask plainly that you please not break apart our school and our program. We ask that our fully integrated, cohesive full school dual language magnet program be maintained. If our building is
022closed and we are not moved together into another one, the result will be a community purposefully divided and dismantled. The decision was made over 13 years ago to form exactly what we have now, a full magnet dual language school. And I'm fortunate to have been a part of it from the beginning. It came to be for the very reasons that we see a successful program today for a true immersive cultural and language experience. Elevating and honoring a culture for the purposes of fully integrated curriculum. Our booth units or biliteracy unit frameworks the center learning standards and reading, writing, science and social studies around projects designed in both English and Spanish and those require PLC collaboration with the entire grade level team daily and also cross grade level language bridging. Also for the purpose of a
023bilingual staff at all levels, teachers, TAs, cafeteria specials, library front office clinic for student support services offered in both languages, mental health support, behavior support, health services, social worker services and ML staff for the purpose of intervention and EC to be given in both languages for school wide social emotional content in both languages and for school wide programs and events to be culturally responsive in nature and authentic and execution for cross grade level activities like our companero classes. Our full school dual language program that is well established and thriving will qualitatively suffer if we are separated from each other. We cannot divide our students. Our school has well established roots in this district and we are bringing people to the district. Breaking that up would be counterproductive to our program and also to the enrollment
024decline. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Let us unite in a spirit of goodwill towards one another. Let us lay aside our differences and unify ourselves as one district seeking to find the best possible solution. Change can be difficult and change can be joyful and it is necessary in the situation in which we find ourselves. Isn't there enough unrest in this world presently? How can we be peacekeepers locally? Let us combine energy and intellect and logic to move in a forward motion. Let us leave behind strife and confusion. They are watching us, the same children we are expecting to be kind and generous. Who and what can we become together? Thank you. [APPLAUSE] Hi, I'm Jennifer Allred and I'm standing on behalf of myself and all of Pre K teachers at Ephesus as you continue discussions
025regarding potential school closures. We respectfully ask you that you carefully take consideration of the approximately six 60 pre-K students currently served at Ephesus. Ephesus is a neighborhood school and many of our students walk or bike to school daily. As a Head Start Pre K program, we serve families with low incomes and transportation is a significant concern for many of our parents. Having a school within walking distance that serves low income families is critically important. Many of our parents are already making difficult decisions about how to keep utilities on and bills paid. Adding the burden of transportation to another school creates an additional challenge that is neither practical nor equitable. Parents need accessible schooling options that allow them to walk their children to school and still make it to work to support their families. While redistricting
026to another school may seem like an option, it raises serious concerns about accessibility. Currently, approximately 2/3 of Ephesus Pre K students live within the walking zone of Ephesus. Without guaranteed transportation, many families may not be able to attend another site consistently, if at all. Pre K is the foundation of the K12 educational journey and our team is committed to continuing the progress we're making with our youngest learners. Part of that is bridging the gap between pre-K to kindergarten. These are early years, they're critical. And Ethics serves a large population of children at this essential stage of development. Ephesus holds deep meaning for our community for many reasons, one of which is our strong pre-K program. If Ephesus were to close, many of our students would be placed at significant disadvantage if they must attend a
027different school. We respectfully ask that you thoughtfully include the impact on the pre-K population in your decision-making process for school closure. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Hello members of the board. My name is Juno and this is my classmate Charlotte. We are fourth graders in the Mandarin dual language program at Glenwood Elementary. Charlotte's family moved to Chapel Hill because of this Chinese immersion program. Learning Chinese every day is very important to both of our families. It is one of the main reasons we chose this district. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] We want to respectfully correct a misunderstanding we have heard in the conversations about school closures. When people say they will preserve dual language programs, it sometimes sounds like they mean they will only preserve one small part of these programs. But Glenwood's Chinese program is bigger than
028the 250 kids in the immersion program. Half of our school has half day Chinese immersion. But the entire school learns Chinese as a second language. And the whole school celebrates Chinese culture together like Lunar New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival and many other celebrations. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Even though some students with Chinese heritage choose the non-emergent classrooms, they still benefit from Chinese teachers, community members and celebrating their culture at school. That is what makes Glenwood special. It is not just a program, it is a whole school wide community. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] To preserve what has made our school successful. We ask that whatever this program continues, whether in its current building or housed in a new building, that it stays together as the full rich community is today. It brought families like ours to Chapel Hill and it can
029bring many more families to our district in the future. Thank you so much for listening. [APPLAUSE] Hello again. My name is Steve Eford. I'm the PE teacher at Ephesus Elementary School. As educators, we are leaders in our buildings and as board members, you are the leaders of the leaders. And I just want to remind you that your words have power and influence. And your words have power to do great things and to inform, but they also have the power to do harm. And Ms. Pieter Forner, two meetings in a row. You have addressed our neighborhood schools and you have said we also need to think about not only our neighborhood schools, but also those down the street and around the way. And how you have said that has implied to me that you don't think
030we are willing to do that or that you think we want to push others further to the fringes. And as an educator in that building for the last six years, I can say that we would happily accept as many students as possible that could fit inside of our hallways. We have students that go to amazing spring break trips with their families. We also have students that are worried on a Friday afternoon because they don't know where they're going to sleep that weekend. We are a Title 1 school. We have affordable housing within walking distance, and every single student who comes through our door is known and loved. That is evident in the relationships that are built in our building. And that is evident in the data which shows improvement from all student groups. These comments
031bother me and concern me because they're inaccurate. And they also concern me because I feel like they represent a broader misrepresentation of some of our schools and communities and maybe a misunderstanding of what we are all about. And I urge you as an entire board, please get to know us as schools, as communities, as people. I know that we are looking at numbers. This is dollars and cents. But please treat us as more than line items on a budget and more than data input into a rubric. And truly, with the time we have left, get to know us. In short order, a vote is coming up to eliminate two of us off the playing field. And I ask that in the time you have left, you please seek to get to know us better. Thank
032you. [APPLAUSE] Hi, I'm Mallory Turner Lauers. Thank you for your work on the criteria. I appreciate that the list has become more comprehensive, but there's still one major omission which is housing growth. Right now, it's not being explicitly considered and it needs to be. I know some people believe new housing won't come online fast enough or in large enough numbers to material materially affect enrollment, but I don't think that's correct. Yes, Chapel Hill was anti-growth for years, but that's not the current reality. The pipeline has changed. New housing is expected to come online at a much faster pace over the next three years than we've seen in a long time. And this is not just about one or two projects. In the 2024-25 annual report, community Home Trust noted that they'll be adding more than
033200 affordable for sale homes and rental apartments over the next three years, including homes and a number of new developments. Based on their past experience of selling and renting affordable housing in our community, they estimate that this new housing will bring 150 to 200 additional school age children to the district and as well as families of the district's teachers. That's significant on its own, but those units make up less than 10% of the total housing expected to come online. So, the other 90% we're talking about thousands of homes across multiple projects, including a mix of housing types and more family friendly options than we've seen in recent years. Even if only a modest share of those homes have children, that still means real enrollment impact. So, my request is simple to please add the criterion
034that such as expected housing growth, the board should not make a decision as serious as school closure while using incomplete assumptions about future growth. If there's uncertainty about the numbers, ask the local experts, ask the Town Planning Department, the Community Home Trust, or at the very least, ask Carolina Demography for updated projections that were supposed to include housing because the figures currently being used do not don't let perfect be the enemy of the good. We don't need a perfect prediction of exactly which homes will have exactly how many children. But we do need to acknowledge the reality. Ignoring expected housing growth entirely will produce projections that are far off. Thank you so much. Good evening and thank you for the work you're doing on these criteria. My name is Melissa Maris. One item on the
035list stood out to me as especially confusing building adjacency to middle or high schools. I urge the board to remove that criterion and replace it with something more meaningful, such as programmatic and academic impact. The reason is simple. Adjacency is not inherently a benefit for many families. Having elementary students in close proximity to older students raises concerns, not advantages, especially around traffic, age-appropriate campus dynamics and safety. So, if adjacency is being treated as a default positive, I think that is too simplistic. More importantly, I suspect adjacency is really being used as a proxy for something else. If the Board's actual goal, as the notes for this item said, is to consider whether a school's location supports academic acceleration, shared programming, or other educational opportunities, then the criteria should say that directly. A criterion called programmatic
036and academic impact would be much clearer, much more honest, and much more useful. It would also address another concern I have heard repeatedly in this process. Some board members have said programs will be protected. But which programs and protected in what way? Without explicit consideration of programmatic impact, there is a real risk that some programs will be included in that promise while others are not, or that programs may be harmed unintentionally simply because no one was required to evaluate them. I want to make a specific plug for programs that serve our most vulnerable or under-resourced children. So, my request is this. Please remove building adjacency to middle or high schools and replace it with programmatic and academic impact. So, the board is evaluating what actually matters instead of relying on a vague proxy. Thank you.
037Good evening. My name is Caitlin Saunders. I've spoken with several of you. Nice to see you face to face. I'm the mother of a kindergartener at Ephesus and a 4-year-old who will be hopefully joining Ephesus in the fall of 2027. I want to offer one specific example to follow up on Melissa's comments of why the criteria need to include programmatic and accurate impact. The Pre-K and Head Start program at Ephesus that you heard about earlier. Strong Pre K Programs are a key part of the enrollment pipeline into our K12 schools. At Ephesus, this issue is especially important because Ephesus has the district's largest Pre-K program and the only EC Pre-K teachers. My understanding is also that Ephesus was selected in part because other facilities were not adequate for Head Start compliance. That means this is
038not a program that can simply be moved around without serious practical consequences. So, when I hear statements that programs will be protected, I think a very important question remains unanswered. Does that promise explicitly include Pre K and Head Start? Because if the answer is yes, then that needs to be clearly evaluated and protected in the criteria. And if the answer is no, then the public deserves to know that too. This is why the board should adopt a criterion focused on programmatic and academic impact. Without that, essential programs can be overlooked, not because anyone intended harm, but because no one asked the right questions. So, my request is that you explicitly consider the impact on Pre K and Head Start and that you add programmatic and academic impact as a criterion before moving forward. Thank you.
039Good evening. I am Miriam Vberg and I am a parent of Ephesus. I want to speak tonight about something that remains absent from the criteria list, and that is walkability and walk zones. School closures conversations often get framed or on spreadsheets. Facilities utilization, maintenance costs, they matter. But walk zones matter too, because they're not just a convenience, they are an asset. Walk zones support student well-being, neighborhood cohesion, and family connection to schools. They reduce traffic at arrival and dismissal, something we all can appreciate. And they even when not every child in a walk zone walks every day, walk zones still reduce the number of students the district is required to transport, lowering both financial cost and operational strain. Put simply, a large walk zone is good for the district's bottom line. That is why I
040find it surprising that walkability has been left out of the criteria, especially considered considering it was discussed frequently and explicitly in the 2014 round of disclosure Discussions Round of Closure Discussions Excuse me. Families in the district care deeply about the community and connections created through a neighborhood school. For many of us, it's not secondary. It's a defining feature of a strong public school system. I would like to gently push back on the idea that walkability is incompatible with equity. Ephesus is already a naturally diverse community. Its walk zones include townhomes, apartments, and single family. So, this is not a question of choosing between walkability and diversity. We have already proven right here that they are indeed compatible. If walk zones are eliminated or reduced, there's real impact. It affects transportations, family routines, neighborhood life, and
041the overall appeal of the district. So my request tonight is that the board add walk zone impact to its criterion or at minimum, expand the transportation criteria to explicitly include walkability, such as transportation cost and walk zone impact, because it matters to families, changes the daily experience of our students, and affects the district's bottom line. Then it simply belongs in the criteria. Thank you. All right. Hello. Good evening. My name is Chris Esposito. I am the father of two current and one future student at Ephesus elementary. Thank you to the board, Dr. Trice, and especially to CHCCS staff for all of the effort that it's taken to get us to this point. I'm coming here to make two points which I hope that I can make succinctly. First, regardless of the specific criteria that you
042land on this evening, I encourage you to apply them evenly to all 11. I did say 11 elementary schools and do so transparently. I think that making your choice in this way is the only way to run a process that does not favor any one school. Some of those schools might fall out immediately, and that's fine. But going through the motions are a really important part of applying a standard transparent process. So, everyone in this room supports school. I would wager that somewhere around 100% of this room voted yes on the school bond in 2024. We believe that voting for the bond meant we would not close any schools. We were told that these funds would be used to improve our facilities or to build entirely new schools. You're saying now that there are too
043few elementary school students coming into the district, and the board cannot honor these commitments as they were stated. That may well be true, but we're in a new decision now, and this is a new conversation than the one from two years ago. So in this case, the most defensible process, the one that maximizes transparency, minimizes the opportunities for confusion or for tension between school communities, is one where you do apply all of the selected criteria to all of the schools simply to facilitate a clear conversation. I encourage you to do so. The second point is following up on some of the points about housing that people have made a moment ago in the last 15 years. We're a period during which an enormous influx of families came to the triangle. But not specifically, specifically to
044Chapel Hill. All right. Not specifically to Chapel Hill. A lot of that has to do with housing. Chapel Hill built very few homes to attract those people. But as you can see, just walking and driving around the town that Is completely different. Now, in a recent article that I helped contribute to, we tallied somewhere around 2,200 homes to come online in the next three years. That's more than the total number of units in Southern Village and Meadow Mont combined. Overall, that ends up translating to somewhere around 500 students, which is many millions of dollars for the school that needs to be tallied in really explicitly. Thank you. All right, good evening. What you all do is really, really hard, but also really important. So, I thank you for doing it. My oldest is a first
045grader at Sewell and I love our school. But I'm here tonight because I believe in public education and I want a thoughtful path forward for all students. Dr. Trice and others have described this moment as a crossroads. And so, my question for you is, where are we going? Closures may help the current budget, but we need a long-term vision for a functioning school district. Will it improve the education quality? Will it make it a better place to work? Will it draw in more families? We're in real danger of doing the exact opposite. Closures should be part of a comprehensive plan, but not the strategy. And it's troubling to close schools, disrupt communities, and lay off staff first and then build a vision. I hate the analogy, but if my business is not doing well and
046I cut staff and I close locations, that's not a long-term solution, It's a stopgap. And so, to remain viable, we have to evolve and rethink our value proposition. We have more than 30 local, charter and private schools that are attracting families for Montessori, nature based, project-based learning, et cetera. We should be working to meet this demand with the incredible assets and teachers that we have in this district. For context, we came from Durham where each school has a local base and a magnet program that draws more widely. So, a school like Sewell that offers Pre-K and is surrounded by protected forest could use its outdoor classrooms, gardens, critter corner, and offer something unique. Programs like these benefit current students and attract families that are currently choosing to go elsewhere. We've seen the successes and benefits
047that are provided by our language programs. That's just one example of what we could offer. And so, this is our chance to reshape the future of our schools. Excuse me. I urge the board to make closure decisions within a broader plan and to consider the future we want to build for our learners beyond just buildings. Thank you. Good evening, board members. Thank you for the opportunity to share. My name is Carrie Draper and I'm a teacher at Sewell Elementary. I'm here tonight to represent my school, community and the students that I teach. I asked my first graders this week what they love about Sewell and here are some of the answers that I got. I love every part of the day. I love it because you get to make friends when you don't have them.
048I like that we have a critter corner. I love feeding the goats at the end of the day. All of the schools up for closure have things that we love about them and make them unique. This is a financial decision that so many people have said and anecdotes we know won't determine who stays open and who closes. Having to close schools is not unique to just Chapel Hill. This is a reality that many districts face around the country. I ask that you look at how other states and districts have handled school closures successfully and use that as guidance in this process. I ask that you objectively use the criteria that you've selected here tonight. Let that be your driving force to make this decision and be aware of the voices that may not be the
049most vocal. While this is a financial decision to make, it is deeply emotional and personal. Change is necessary, but it is also difficult. Our schools are places where we spend a large portion of our time for both adults and children. It's where we form memories and relationships. Uncertainty is difficult. I ask that you give us plenty of time and are honest about the processes that will happen when schools close. Be upfront about redistricting, staff jobs and transfers and all the things in between. At the end of the day, as schools are consolidated, we will have to go to school and work with other school communities, some of whom are fighting for their school to stay open and are experiencing the same uncertainties. I ask that as a board, you set an example of integrity and
050unity that our families and staff can follow. I stand in support of Sewell and I thank you for your consideration. Hi all. I'm a parent of a first grader at Sewell and I really appreciate the opportunity for public comment. But it is important to recognize that being here speaking in front of you all requires folks to arrange childcare, miss bedtime, miss work, and some who come from immigrant backgrounds at this time fear speaking in public. So tonight, I'm here speaking for one member of the Sewell community who has voiced this concern. So, here is their comment. My children have been attending Sewell for the past four years. The environment where they can interact with nature and animals is truly special. It is also wonderful that the school is located next to the middle and high
051schools. The teachers and staff warmly welcome students from Asian countries like ours and that inclusive environment means so much to us. Everything about Sewell has been wonderful. Our children have grown into kind and hard-working students. They love their school, their teachers and their friends very much. We sincerely hope that this wonderful Sewell Elementary School will continue to be an irreplaceable place for many diverse children in the future. We believe that Sewell is also one of the important reasons why people from all over the world choose to come to Chapel Hill. Thank you. Okay. Good evening members of the board. My name is Tiffany Engler and I'm a road runner for life. I first want to thank you and the district staff for the adjustments made to the criteria since the previous version. One of the
052biggest concerns we continue to hear from families based on board comments in the past meetings is are schools named as candidates for closure to be exempt because of bond promises, program considerations, or recent sunk costs? If that perception is inaccurate, additional clarity around how these schools would truly be evaluated alongside those that have those intricacies within the criteria would be very helpful. It brings me back to the value of showing how all 11 elementary schools measure to achieve a full analysis. Additional comments on the criteria are show how hardship and equity impacts will be evaluated for students receiving Title 1 services, show how adjacency to middle or high schools align with our strategic plan and show how the actual outcome of staff positions eliminated after two closures and possible program movement should they be identified
053as part of a closure plan. Because if dismantling two communities through school closures are being presented as an alternative to immediate staffing reductions, this should be in the criteria. Thank you for your time and for your continued work on this issue. Good evening. My name is Darsh Kothari and I'm a parent of a second grader at Sewell Elementary. I appreciate the sensitivity the board and district have had around school closure. I recognize that this decision for closing schools is a difficult one, one that is rooted around financial health of the school district. I ask that the board reflect on the following comments as we move through this process to limit the amount of irreparable damage the decision will have on the district at large. Number one, uniqueness. We've heard from many schools about how what
054makes each school very unique. We're all unique in our own way and I think that it goes to show you how tight our community is. Second, what is the vision of the what is the vision of the district if we close schools? What's next? What is what's next on the docket? Show us what the next steps will be. Third, transparency. I think it's really important that we hear about all of the changes prior to public comment going forward. Having public comment before hearing about the criteria at the end of this meeting goes against what transparency might be. And last is unity. You can tell by the number of people here that they are all fighting for their school. There's already irreparable damage happening to this district because of the schools that have already been identified.
055I ask the board to start working on unity now, not after the schools are closed, because that's going to be important to building this community and keeping this community together. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you, board members and Dr. Trice. I've been to several of these meetings now, and I really appreciate all the time that you guys have put in. I think I'll echo a lot of the things that people have said here. We want this decision to not be reactive, but as productive as possible. And I think a lot of us would like to avoid having to do this anytime in the near future. So, it has to be financially impactful. And I think. I know there's hard decisions you guys have to make, but we have to make it count. And I really
056appreciate all your time, and I know we've talked about our schools, but I do love to hear more of the community building here. And I think if we follow the criteria that you guys have set, and the criteria speaks for itself, that in and of itself will start the healing. So, I appreciate your time. Thank you. Michael Fisher, still here. Thank you. Good evening, Nihao. Muy Buena's Noches. I think you can tell from my accent that I didn't benefit from a world Language program as a child. But I want to talk about my daughter who's a kindergartener at Glenwood, and my 4-year-old who asks every week when she can start at Glenwood. And I just wanted to just tell you that my daughter Ellie is thriving at Glenwood in the World Language program. So, she's
057not dual language, but she gets Mandarin every day, she gets specials every day. And she's thriving. She's getting incredible support with math that I wish I got when I was her age. And this is a kid who never wanted to put her shoes on. And all I have to do is tell her that she's going to be late for Glenwood Gators and she can't wait to go get her shoes on and get in the car. And this opportunity is unique in the district. I don't know of any other places that have both a dual language and a world language program combined with STEAM for all students. I feel incredibly blessed to have this opportunity and I definitely support any initiative to retain and enhance this kind of exceptional education that we have with our dual
058language and our world language and our multilingual magnet programs here in the district. And I don't have an answer for you. I just know that I don't want to tell my daughter that we can't go to Glenwood Gators anymore. I don't want to tell her that she can't learn Chinese with Mr. Ma, that she can't do STEAM in her specials anymore. So I'm just urging us to find a way to maintain all the aspects of the program, the inclusivity of what we have, do what we have to do to change buildings, systems, funding mechanisms, district maps, get those new families into affordable housing and get those additional voters for a future bond issue. Do what we got to do to fix the shortfall while retaining all these great services and programs at these institutions, not
059parceling them out, not piecemealing them, and not doing anything to disrupt the inclusivity and the wonderful opportunities that we have here. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Ben Miller. I'm the parent of a Sewell Elementary kindergartner, but I'm going to share the comment of another parent at our school who, like my friend Scott shared, was concerned about speaking in a public forum like this because of their family's status in this country. So, this is their statement. I understand the difficult situation CHCCS is facing due to declining enrollment. If school closures ultimately become necessary, I believe it is essential to clearly demonstrate how the district will guarantee the continued quality of education. One major reason many PTAs oppose the proposed changes is that CHCCS has not yet clearly explained how educational standards will be maintained.
060In the materials previously shared, the focus was on available capacity to absorb students from closed schools, but there was limited discussion of how instructional quality would be preserved or enhanced. Many families with school-age children choose to live in Chapel Hill specifically because of the district's reputation for academic excellence. If CHCCS can no longer guarantee a high standard of education, some families, particularly those with greater financial means, may choose to relocate or enroll their children in private schools. This could further accelerate enrollment decline and create a negative cycle that threatens the district's long-term stability. I sincerely appreciate the difficult decisions you are facing and thank you for your consideration. Good evening members of the board. My name is Tongdo Wu and I'm the parent of a student at Glenwood Elementary. Speaking from my own experience, my
061son Xavier. It's a very, very personal and specific experience. So, he can now crack jokes and express himself confidently and easily in both English and Chinese. Something that still amazes me. And because as a first-generation immigrant, I often fumble, as you can see right now, with my words when speaking publicly, our family has become deeply integrated as part of the Glenwood community. The teachers, staff, the students, and family support one another and create environment where children feel confident, safe and encouraged to grow. I respectfully ask the board that any decisions about school closure be made with transparency and clear, tangible criteria that the community can understand. If the changes must happen, please also consider ways to minimize disturbance to the entire school community, including teachers, staff, students and families who rely on the stability that
062schools provide. Thank you for your time and for listening. Hi, thank you so much for listening to all of our comments. I actually think we're taking a five-to-seven-year view. You might need to build an elementary school. And let me explain what I mean by that. So, I moved from the Rust Belt here to Chapel Hill because of the growth of the larger metro area, but there was no new housing. The only reason we got to live in Chapel Hill because we could afford it. And the sort of anti-development town council that was in place, we moved here, lost or changed their minds. And we're seeing one of the other parents mentioned 2200 new housing units. That's lowballing it. Just in the next two and a half years, from 2010 to 2021, we looked at net
063new housing, it was only 200 units. And the demographic study that was done did not take into effect at all the impacts of new housing. And just the other day in Estes Hills, the 700 Home Weaver Dairy Complex got approved 8 to 1 that there's never been more momentum in this community for housing to make it more equitable and fair for all and not just wealthier people that can afford to live here. So, I just think that before we close any schools, the new development impacts of a pro-housing town council and just talking to that council about hey, we need to get X number of new students, let's look at that new housing projects that we could do to bring all kids here that deserve a great education and not have to close any schools.
064But if one does have to close, just listening to the people in this room, if all of the programs can be preserved, because I hear from everyone wanting to preserve the programs. If you did Close one school. One of the board members mentioned the harmful past history of Glenwood being associated with segregation. And I think also the lack of a walk zone for Glenwood would make that one the logical school to close. If you kept all the programs, I think you could keep all the programs and close that one school. And then financially in five to seven years with all the massive new housing coming on board, I think that you might need to add it back just because of all kinds of things like Carolina north that it's going in, that's right next to
065Seawell. So, I don't think anybody's school really should be closed from a five to seven-year window. I understand the short term, you know, funding constraints that are, you know, you have to deal with. But one school might help with that. Thank you. Good evening for the members. Thank you. There you go. Yeah, I'm really appreciate and here talk about education. I'm a single mom. I've been to New Zealand and Canada and Europe and also Japan and from mother. What I really care about is education and I really care about is the communicate with China. Just like we do not cannot speak English just a little bit. I'm sorry, I'm yeah. A little bit excited. But what. What I want to say is when the child, they are young, they learn Chinese. When I do the
066TikTok in China, I do the video that is the most popular one because everybody in China they saw the video, they really, really love that. And they said, oh, America is learning from us the culture. They said, oh, why we do not celebrate for the Christmas? You know, in China our culture is sometimes close. For example, TikTok is separate. China and America is separate. We cannot see all over the culture. In China's TikTok. We can only see the culture from all over the world. But except China. So, what we know is we have a lot of misunderstood between others. So, we should have the really good consider about the education. Because education means develop. So we will have a lot of difficult things that means we need to close it. I don't think so. We
067need to face the problem and develop and to feel to deal with the difficult and we will get more developed. And that is why America is so famous all over the world. Because America learn all over the world's culture. And so, in the future when I see the, you know, festival program, I feel really happy because I saw so many American child that they can sing the song or the program in Chinese. Yeah, that's really make me feel happy because in the future. Thank you. Good Evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Lei. I'm a district parent. I have one question. As the board consider the study criteria and scope tonight. When the district says academic programs will be preserved, what does that mean in practice? Will the study look at
068whether the program can really continue for students in a stable way, with students able to continue year to year as a cohort, the right teachers in place, enough enrollment to sustain the program, and a clear understanding of how long recovery would take if the program is disrupted. I ask because keeping the name of the program is not the same as preserving the program for students. Thank you. [ FOREIGN LANGUAGE ] Thank you. Thank you. I'm Iris Vance, and I'm a mom at Glenwood. I want to share with the board that in our current political climate, this is the absolute wrong time to close Glenwood. As you've heard, Glenwood is home to a dual language Mandarin immersion program and serves a high number of children who were born outside the US or who come from immigrant
069families. My own children's friends have spoken about how meaningful it is to them to have teachers who can pronounce their names correctly and understand their cultural heritage. Taking that away, especially now, when our federal government is abusing its power and sending masked thugs to tear immigrant children from their families, sends a devastating message about whose belonging we value as a community. We should be linking arms to protect these children, not dismantling one of the places where they feel most safe and seen. The case for keeping Glenwood open is not only moral, it is academic. Educational research consistently shows that dual language programs shrink rather than widen gaps in educational attainment across socioeconomic lines. Glenwood is helping to level an increasingly lopsided playing field, and that is a broader social good we should be investing in,
070not eliminating. It is also important to look at the data before us. Glenwood has lower costs to make needed school improvements, is at full enrollment, and continues to draw families like my own to live in Chapel Hill specifically to attend there, helping to correct the declining enrollment that prompted the school closure considerations in the first place. And it has great test scores. That success reflects the extraordinary work of our teachers, the leadership of our principal, and the vibrant educational culture they have built together. I urge you to keep Glenwood open not only as a beacon of academic excellence, but as a beacon of community and welcoming at a time when those values matter more than ever. I think the same considerations apply for FPG, and I would encourage you to strike both schools from consideration
071for closure on moral grounds. Hi. Good evening. My name is Molly Chen. I'M a parent from Glenwood. So, this week I was actually talking to an old friend. I'm from San Jose, California. And she mentioned to me that our elementary school was closing along with five or six actually in our district in San Jose. And I was like, oh, we're kind of experiencing something like that here in Chapel Hill. And she's like, well, you know, declining enrollment, old buildings, like a lot of the same factors. And I know across the US we're dealing with a lot of the same things. But what really struck me about my conversation with my childhood friends was I was like, what happened to the Safeway next to, you know, shopping centers and different local businesses? And sadly, I think
072what is happening is that a lot of local businesses and a lot of local communities, playgrounds also close. Because naturally, that's a consequence of closing a place like an elementary school. I know these are really hard decisions. So that's not really what I'm up here arguing. But I do wonder, since there's been a lot of conversation about what's, you know, what's happening with the bond that we voted for, you know, why aren't we possibly considering putting a bond for to vote and avoiding the closures for now? Because I do wonder if, you know, I'm driving by Glenwood elementary and I not only see that Glenwood is closed, but I see the businesses around there closed and the gas stations closed. And, you know, it just becomes an empty space. I will say one of the
073elementaries that closed what took place in its substitute a golf course. And that's a very different feel from an elementary school. So, thank you for all of your work and thank you for all your time. Good evening. My name is Taylor Ratfield. I'm a parent of a third grader at Estes Hills and a rising kindergartner. So I just wanted to talk a little bit in my allotted time about uncertainty and the uncertainty that having these decisions made and then unmade and then made again and then discussed again over and over again, the impact that has to not just parents and all the parents in here, but also to staff, and not just parents and staff, but also to potential parents. If with all this uncertainty of your school might be closed, never mind your school
074is now safe. Oh, never mind your school might be closed again. It could lead staff to just leave because they don't know if they're going to have a job. It could leave parents to move districts where they will feel more stable. And I know it's making some families who might have students that they were planning to go to Chapel Hill schools, Carrboro schools, to not. So, I know this is a very hard decision, but a decision needs to be made. And stuck to that is really what I would like to get across. And it feels like we've made decisions in the past and have walked away from them. So, thank you. Hi, this is. This is Chonan. She asked me to speak or read her letter, so I'll do that. Good evening, members of the
075board. My family came to Chapel Hill from overseas last April, and my daughter began third grade at Glenwood elementary shortly after we arrived to East Carolina. So, my daughter will not continue studying here, even though my daughter will leave next year. I came tonight because this program matters for other children. During this past year, I have been deeply moved by the kindness and generosity I have experienced in this community. My daughter's teacher, Mr. Rogers, has always stays after school to play with her when I arrive late to pick her up. Yesterday, my daughter told me something that touched me deeply. She says Mr. Rogers must have wonderful parents because they raised him to be such a perfect teacher. This experience changed me. It changed how I understand community and American values. I began to realize
076that the influence of culture in the world does not come from power or force. It comes from kindness, generosity, responsibility, and caring for others. I believe education is one of the most powerful ways these values travel across cultures. Programs like Glenwood's Mandarin, dual language and world language programs are helping raise a generation of bilingual young people who can understand different cultures and connect communities. Programs like this build bridges between cultures. Children who grow up understanding different cultures are more likely to connect people, reduce misunderstandings, and help make the world better. Children are the bridges of the future. So please do not remove the soil that allows these seeds to grow. Please keep dual language and world language together at Glenwood and continue supporting this program so it can grow even stronger. Because programs like this
077do more than teach language. They teach understanding. They teach respect, and they teach children how to care about people who are different from themselves. And this is how communities grow stronger and how the world becomes a better place. So, I again respectfully ask the board to keep dual language and world language together at Glenwood so the these children can continue to grow into bridges between cultures. Thank you for listening. Ashley. Hey, good evening, y'. All. It's good to see you guys again, and thank you so much for the opportunity to speak tonight. So, I'm Ash Sherman. I'm the elementary level lead for the Chapel Hill Carrboro association of Educators, and I am just here tonight to reiterate the comment that I made at the last board meeting with several of my colleagues from other elementary
078schools, we recognize the financial realities of our district's enrollment trends and the need to close elementary schools. And we want to echo the comments of some other folks tonight by encouraging the board to make a transparent and timely decision and one that also protects as many staff positions as possible. We know that every success in our district can be credited to the amazing certified and classified staff members that serve our students every day. Closure will not just impact staff at the schools that close. Every single elementary school will be impacted through redistricting, enrollment shifts and position adjustments. Our CHCAE elementary team has been gathering some staff feedback over these last weeks as well as some questions to share with district leadership, and the preliminary data is indicating a lot of widespread confusion and worry about
079what closure means for people's jobs. We're really grateful to Dr. Trice for your commitment to giving staff as long of a Runway as possible to share that information quickly. And we also want to encourage leadership to incorporate building level voice and planning for these staffing adjustments. We believe that with continued transparency and stakeholder involvement, you can continue to communicate care and support to all of the staff members in our district. So, we really appreciate you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Liz Barber. I'm the mom of two kids at FPG and I have three things I'll try to keep it pretty quick. One is I'd like to thank you all for your willingness to make what's a hard decision nobody wants to be elected to then have to close a school, as you all
080said last time. But I appreciate your willingness to do it. I know it's going to be unpopular, but it's also necessary. It's necessary because we need to maintain the quality of our schools over the quantity of our schools. And while I've heard comments both here tonight and online leading up to this meeting about the growth that we've seen in the area, we have seen growth and it has not changed our trends. I understand that the growth is going to increase, but when we're Talking about filling 1500 seats, that's a whole lot of growth. So, it means not only rooftops, but filling those rooftops with a different demographic than historically, at least recently in recent years have been moving into district. We can't keep our schools open on a hope and a promise that does not
081pay the bills and we can't put hold on to some sort of wishful thinking and let our schools suffer and bleed out in the meantime, second, I hope that you all don't discount the really good hard work that you and your predecessors did around the bond. I recognize the bond decision and this decision are not one in the same. But when we're thinking about closing schools, it would be wild not to start with the list of schools that that we've already recognized have to be. The buildings have to be closed. So please don't take a step back. Please honor that work and stick to the schools that we recognize that the buildings no longer serve the students. Last, I want to talk to FPGB, which as I said, I have two kids there. You all
082have said that you're not going to close programs. That makes sense, right? The FPGB is a program. It is full, it is popular, it keeps kids in district and actually brings families to the district. But something that's unique about FPGB is it is a school and a program. So, I don't understand how you can at the same time say we're going to keep the program open but consider closing the school because they're one in the same. Thank you so much. Here. Hello, my name is Tracy and I don't know why when I log in it didn't ask me for my first name. So, my name is Tracy Yan. I'm speaking for Glenwood. I have a fifth grader, so she is graduating. We have been in the CHCCS district for over 10 years. So, I really
083appreciate the Mandarin dual language program in Glenwood so that my kids, they can learn Mandarin and English both. The kids in the Mandarin dual language program, they not only learn the language, they learn culture, they learn how to become global citizen. So, it is very unique resource for those kids. If I'm not heavily involved in the MDL program, but at least I have witnessed the fate of the program in the last 10 years. By average, as a parent of the MDL students, every three to four years the program has been threatened to be taken away. And as a MDL parent, I have to stand out and shout loudly for the kids like my kids and other children, similar children so that way can preserve this unique relearning resources for the kids. Okay, I don't know
084the reasons behind it, but I'm only saying the facts. I understand there are student's enrollment declining in our school district and some school buildings, they are very old and Glenwood is one of those buildings. But the MDL is always having a very long waiting list and many parents that really want to send their children to this program in Glenwood and MDL program. That's if the Glenwood and the MDL is going to get closed. How about those students? If they're in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade or fourth grade, are they going to quit learning? Is this at first, is this a good learning experience for those kids? Are we going to teach our kids like this? A first learning lesson like this for those kids? Thank you very much. All right. I've written I
085don't know how many different things, but I've landed on one. First, I want to say thank you all for being here. Seriously, I couldn't do. I thank you. I couldn't do your job. Being your position. To be sitting here and listening to story after story and people sharing their hearts and their minds, that's got to be hard. So, thank you for hearing us and listening. We appreciate that. Thank you to you all for being here. I see different colors here, but like we're all in the same boat and there's not, there's not going to be a win. Like anyone that closes, like, that's going to be really hard. Yeah. So sorry for anyone whose school does close. So, imagine this. You are a teacher that has one elementary, that has pre elementary school age children.
086The cost of housing is so high in Chapel Hill that like many other teacher and staff, you choose to buy a home. Buy a more affordable home in another nearby or not so nearby town. You do so knowing that you have a great job in a Chapel Hill Carrboro City school, elementary school. So, your kids will be able to go with you to the gold star standard of public schools in the state after a few years or heck, while under contract, I'm at home. You learn that one to two elementary schools will be chosen to close. Out of three, then five, then three to five. Will there be a spot for you? Can't see through tears. Will there be a. Will there be a good spot for you at one of the other elementary schools
087if yours closes? If you are a specialist teacher, is there even just one potential opening with even the next few years for you in the system? Did you make the wrong decision to move? Is your school going to close? Is it going to close in 2728, school year 28, 29? Should you bail now and find another job or start a new career? Should you just quit and go to grad school? How is your family going to make it if you lose your job? If your school closes and you can't get a position at another school? What does that mean for your kids? And on and on and on. Tears. Sleepless Nights, anxiety, silent screams inside your head. I ask you all just to think of this teacher, that the hundreds of teacher and staff that
088are going through this right now. And I'm crying because I know their stories and just ask you to think of that. Thank you again for being here. I know it's hard. Thank you. Alice. Good evening. Buenos Noches. Daja. How it was nice to see everybody. Thank you to the board for your attention, for your stamina. I've been really impressed by how many comments you've sat through and thank you for listening to mine. I'm the parent of a third-grade student at FPG, also a seventh grader and 11th grade alums. The added information I want to offer from my family is that we are one of the families that moved to this district where we could have lived in any other county for the dual language programs. We moved here not knowing if it would be a
089Mandarin or Spanish. We just wanted that opportunity for our children. It aligned with our values as the family. We loved that this district had that value. And what I ask is that while you're considering your decisions, you also plan publicly declare that you're going to maintain or even strengthen our dual language programs. We made our decision to move here when we had a four-year-old and a one-year-old. And so, there's families out there with four-year-olds and one-year olds that are probably trying to look at what's happening here and decide if they should make that bet to move to this district. We made a pretty big family sacrifice to move here. It was more expensive. Expensive. We had to go for a period of time between homes to make it work. And so, I ask that you
090all declare this as soon as possible so that families seeing headlines now aren't hesitating about whether they would move here. And that leads to an enrollment problem that's even worse. I could spend a lot of time reinforcing the amazing comments I've heard about the culture, the language, the beauty of being part of these schools. I feel so lucky to have had this experience and I'm so thankful also to the teachers of our entire district. You are what has made this a thriving place for our families and our students across all these schools. Thank you. Hi, I'm Molly Beek. I'm a second-grade teacher at Northside. I know that Northside is not on the list to close, but this is about all of our students. I want to thank you all and recognize you doing the hard
091work. And I just want to say, like, I feel like being here Tonight, the good news is that district wide, we clearly value inclusion. We clearly are valuing multiple language learners, we're clearly valuing cultures, we're clearly valuing just equity. So, I think that's the really good news here tonight. I know that we're concerned about closing schools, loss of jobs and disrupting our communities. But I just feel like we need to be careful about letting our fears move us away from keeping students at the center of our choices. It is so tempting to back into our corners and defend each of our little piece of turf. We all naturally want to preserve our programs and our school cultures. But I would ask all of us to resist the comfort of the status quo and step into
092the discomfort of change because we have students who need it. Now is the time for student centered decisions. And I understand that all of our stakeholders have the very best of intentions, but that does not mean that they know what is best for all of our students learning outcomes, particularly our economically disadvantaged, our language learning students who do not benefit from dual language programs, and our black and brown students. All of our students need us to be their champions. Not to keep them in class with their friends, but to include, but to improve their chances in this world by giving them more targeted education that will improve learning outcomes. If we can open our minds to new ideas, new practices and new programs, this could be a real opportunity. We should be thinking about how
093we can create better schools and programs based on our current student data. We have a chance as Chapel Hill Carrboro City schools to say yes. We are in the dead last stage state and student spending in a district that's going to lose employees and closed schools. And yet we are going to use this moment to improve student outcomes by looking critically at our system and making student centered decisions based on the data that we have. And I apologize, but I'm going to go over my time. Hold on, Molly. Sorry, we got to keep going. Thank you so much. You can email it to us if you'd like. Thank you. We got Chris coming up next. Thank you. Still here, William. Still here. William. Ray. First, I want to say thank you for all you guys
094do. It's really appreciate it. I know it's got to be really difficult. So, my name is Chris Calderella. My child is a kindergartner at Seabo elementary. And the education my child would receive here was a big deciding factor for my family moving here. So, where I live there are a lot of new developments and new townhomes perfect for young families that like me, probably have a hope of giving a Child a good education. And Seawell elementary is next to Seawell Middle School, which is next to Seawell High School. And there are many great programs. For instance, there's one program where the kids from the high school come and get teaching experience with the kindergarten class, you know, at a real school. So, while you can try to preserve programs, in many cases it may only
095be a name. So, closing Seawell elementary eliminates this program, no matter how hard you try to recreate it, because there's like a bond there between those students. And I mean, you can't recreate proximity. It's because all those schools are right next to each other. And I think this applies to closing any of the wonderful elementary schools that we are lucky to have here. Good evening, members of the board. Dr. Trice, district staff. My name is Will Ray. I'm a district parent of a second grader and a soon to be kindergartener at Estes Hills. I'm here because I believe in the strength of this district, but I'm also concerned about its long-term health. For that reason, I respectfully request this body to consider the following four short points as we move forward. First, to honor the
096completed process evaluation and maintain trust with this Wider community. In 2024, the board discussed closures as a part of the bond process and made unanimous decisions under formal agenda items with a thorough evaluation and public engagement. The backdrop now is the same as it was then. Budget challenges and critical facility needs. Process matters and good governance matters. The board made specific representations to voters about what the bond would fund. Those commitments should guide your next steps. Second, to move forward meeting the request of the district leadership and staff. Delays have real costs. Staff time, consultant fees, board time, inflation, lost construction windows. Every day spent revisiting decisions is a day not spent on moving forward with construction planning. District leadership has made clear that if we do not address facilities first, we accelerate staff cuts.
097Financial instability harms the entire district, not just elementary schools. Continued instability risks enrollment decline, which further worsens our financial picture. Third, to give district leadership the Runway to succeed. The district needs stability after significant transition. We have the right leadership in Dr. Trice and staff and continued reversals or uncertainty undermine his leadership credibility. He and the team deserve clear and consistent direction from this board to support early and long-term success. Supporting our district administrators and listening to their advice matters. Fourth, to prioritize sites that maximize flexibility and alignment with future growth and development. Alignment with town and county growth plans is essential. Anticipated residential development, UNC expansion, affordable housing expansion and infrastructure investments should inform where the district Anchors its elementary schools. Thank you. All right, dear member of boards and Dr. Trice, thank you
098so much for this opportunity to share our thoughts. I've been here for multiple times. I know this job is so difficult. I'm a parent of two students at Glenwood and also a professor at UNC Chapel Hill. Since I am in education for so many years, I'd like to share a concern I have about how schools are being selected for potential closure. It appears that the primary criterion is about facility. The facility's age, its operational cost, distance to middle or high schools. While that is clearly an important consideration, I also worry that this approach risks overlooking something that's even more critical. The academic quality, reputation and the unique culture of those buildings are hosting right now. Because of this criterion, our oldest and best schools are on the list to be closed. According to U.S. news
099and World Report, Glenwood ranks about 98 in North Carolina and Sioux ranked 55 in North Carolina. They're not struggling or underperforming schools. They are among elementary schools in the entire state. This makes them the most valuable asset for the school district. In particular, Glenwood elementary offers something truly special and difficult to replicate. Glenwood STEM program integrates science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics and Mandarin through hands on projects best learning students develop creative and analytical schools while gaining exposure to Mandarin character-based language that supports brand development and prepare students for global connected work. This program, it takes many years of careful leadership, teacher development and community trust to build. While constructing a new building is expensive, rebuilding this high-quality culture is even harder and sometimes impossible. Give you an analogy, this is like closing Harvard MIT for
100saving some money. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, that was the last comment for everyone who signed up. I'm going to ask this question. Because it is on my computer screen. Is there anyone else who did not sign up who would like to make a public comment? I would ask that you all please line up over there. This is the last call for that. Okay. Thank you all. Please make sure you state your name. Names. Thank you. So, this is David from the Glenwood Elementary School fifth grade and I will tell my perspective on the case first. I don't want the Glenwood Elementary School to be closed because I have a lot of friends there and another reason of mine so I don't happy for it to be closed is that that my little
101brother and sister are being there too. Thank you David. So, David didn't know basically nothing in English and he was accepted to the avid gifted kids. And I think this is because of the Excellence. This is a word that I haven't heard till now. I think this is excellent school. There is a quiet leadership, Mr. Bennett and all the staff. And I think what we see here, we see here how cohesive we are, either different communities. All of us came here to speak on behalf of our schools. I think this is a rarity. And I think that thing that the previous speakers, kids and parents that have just spoken, they spoke about this culture. And this culture is almost impossible to rebuild. I've been a CEO of a hospital, and my wife is here at
102Duke Hospital doing some cancer research in the radiation oncology department. And we chose Chapel Hill. We could live closer to the hospital, but we chose Chapel Hill because we wanted our kids to be successful, to have a well-being. I hear a lot about the well-being of the teachers. I see that many of the principals are not here. They're all hurt because this situation is very painful for them. They are creating something good and they are in part being almost laid over. So, I think this should be respected. And we really appreciate you listening from the heart because this is not an objective thing. It is a subject even matter. Thank you. I appreciate your time. David. David Sad. Can you please tell us your name? We have to. What's your name, sir? Is that my
103family name too? Well, what's your dad's name? David. I'm Yish F. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, my name is Eric Johnson. I'm a teacher assistant at Frank Porter Graham and I work the after-school program at Frank Porter Graham. My school day, my day starts at 7:20 and I get off work at 6. And I'm here now to talk to you. Mainly the last meeting and this meeting I noticed that especially the later it got that some members of the board might have been maybe looking at phones or maybe even taking notes on their computers. And I want to stress how important it is for you to have your eyes on someone when they're talking. Especially because a lot of the people are coming out of their way to give you, their time. And I'm not
104trying to call anybody out. Well, specifically I suppose. But I just want to. I just want to reiterate that it is noticed and I would appreciate it. Thank you. All right, thank you everyone. Seeing no other public comments, thank you. Also, you may send written comments to of the board. The email is available on the agenda and additional information regarding written comments is available on our website. Board members, the next item on our agenda is our consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? So, move Have a motion from Meredith. May I have a second? Second. A second from Barb. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Right. Consent agenda is approved. All right, the next item our agenda is discussion and action. It's recommendation for authorization of school closure
105study and defining the scope of the study. Board members, before we get started, I just wanted to say a few words to center our discussion. The topic of school closure has been challenging for the board, staff, community and our students. And there is something that I have noticed through this process. We have a community that is committed to public education and to the Chapel Hook harbor skidi schools' community. Our schools are full of phenomenal staff, talented students who are learning and doing great things, whether they are in a traditional school setting or participating in one of our many programs across the district. This decision to close schools is to address the reality of public education funding and the pressures that impact our financial decision. Knowing these things, we must maximize the district's financial position to
106enable us to achieve our long-term vision. To quote Dr. Trice on what this vision is, we are moving to position Chapel Hook Harbor City schools to become a smaller, more innovative and high-quality district. One that continues to reflect a community that deep diversity, deeply values and invests in public education. It is my hope that we Chapel Hill Carbon City schools can come out of this stronger and focused on how we can continue to deliver on this promise of high-quality education for all students while supporting our staff. All right, so board members and community, we've been discussing the school closure topic over a few board meetings. There is not a presentation with this agenda item. However, included in the abstract are two actions if the board is so inclined to take. The first one is to
107direct the administration to prepare a study regarding possible school closure and identify those schools. And second is to provide criteria or information topics that the board would like included in the study. Since we've got these two decision points tonight, I'm thinking the process for our decision discussion will start with the first decision item regarding the school closure study and see if board members have any questions or comments. After which I'll entertain a motion from board members regarding the school closure item. If we reach a decision regarding the school closure item, then we can move on to discussing the criteria and vote regarding a final list. So, board members, does any. Does anyone have any questions or comments regarding the school closure study? All right then board members, do I have any motions regarding the school
108closure study? Barb, go ahead. This is my motion is addresses the first resolution on the closure and so what I move Is that the board direct the staff to prepare a study regarding the possible closure of one or more of the following schools, Sewell, Glenwood and Ephesus, and to return the completed study to the board for review and consideration and at the appropriate time. Madam Chair, I'd like to speak in support of that motion. I second that. Okay, we have a motion from Barb and a second from George. Is there any discussion on the motion? Barb, do you want to go ahead? Well, first I wanted to just take this opportunity to thank everybody who's come to these meetings and written to us and called me and called us. And if anybody hasn't gotten back
109to you, I'm sorry. We have tried. So, this is super no fun, but I made the resolution that I made for the following reasons. So clearly closing one or more schools is a necessary component of. Right. Sizing our school portfolio, the elementary schools of which have been operating significantly under capacity for some time. As several speakers have noted, we previously made capital commitments to rebuild Frank, Porter, Graham and Estes Hills pursuant to a Proper publicly noticed 7 to nothing vote on August 15, 2024 indicating that those two schools should be included in the bond. That vote occurred after multiple board meetings and work sessions, community listening sessions, endless hours of staff time and a million-dollar county funded 2023 long range facilities optimization plan known as the Wolpert Report. It was voted on and presented to
110the county as part of the capital improvement plan. And a critical and to me dispositive reason that we opted to build those two to schools along with Carrboro elementary is that as Mr. Shiroki explained to us multiple times, the anticipated site of rebuilding for each meant that students could stay in their base elementary schools during the pendency of construction, which minimizes disruption and also cost. And so that for that reason those two schools should not be included in the closure study. To include them now in the consideration of closure along with complicating the rebuild logistics, introduces instability and uncertainty insofar as it would require retroactive reconsideration of the bond vote and capital plan. I think we as a board need to be data driven, but we also need to be decisive. Thank you. Any other
111discussion on the motion, Meredith? And then Ronnie, I just prepared a short story statement as well. Just wanted to kind of speak from my heart, but I don't want to leave anything out. So, I apologize in advance if this sounds a little stilted. This has been the most difficult month of my board service so far. I ran for the Board of Education because I believe Deeply in public schools and in this community. I wanted to serve and help strengthen our schools. In thinking through policy decisions, I've always tried to center students, students who are too often marginalized in our system, including students with disabilities, multilingual learners, and students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Over the past several weeks, I've spoken with families, staff, community members all across the district. I have listened to my colleagues, I've
112reviewed the many emails and public comments that we've received, and I've relied on the guidance of our district leadership. It is clear that this process has been very painful for many in our community. After weighing many factors and listening carefully to the concerns raised by multiple school communities, I believe that the most responsible next step is to focus our analysis in a narrower and more consistent way. For that reason, I plan to vote to direct school leadership to study the possible closure of three schools, Ephesus, Glenwood and Sewell. Equity has been central in my thinking. Declining enrollment and financial strain are real challenges, but their impacts are not evenly distributed. Closure decisions will affect some communities more than others. We must examine those impacts carefully and ensure that students who already face systemic barriers, such
113as our newcomer populations, are not disproportionately harmed. At the same time, equity requires clear and consistent criteria. During our bond discussions, we engaged in a robust process that considered filling facility condition, long range capital planning, and fiscal sustainability. I believe that those factors remain relevant here. If we move away from those principles without clear justification, we risk undermining both public trust and long-term stability. We also have to be honest about our current reality. None of us want to reduce staff positions. Our educators and school staff are the heart of our district, but we can no longer staff or maintain facilities as though we are still a district of 12,000 students. Enrollment has declined significantly and continuing to operate at that scale is not sustainable. If we do not right size our facilities and operations, we
114limit our ability to innovate, invest strategically and efficiently support the students we do have. I know that this process has been deeply hurtful. These schools are not just buildings. They are all communities with long histories and deep relationships. My hope is that once decisions are made, we can begin rebuilding trust and strengthening connections across our district so that we can emerge as Dr. Trice has so aptly put, as a smaller, stronger and more cohesive school system. And I hope that reassigned students, families and staff will be welcomed wholeheartedly into new school communities with care, intention and strong support. Thank you. Thank you, Barb and Meredith, for your comments. I just had a few thoughts. One is the capital Improvement plan also made commitments to Ephesus, Glenwood and Sewell. And if our objective is to maximize
115financial benefits, why would we, as a board limit the options that we can even consider that are available to us? I think we also have to be thoughtful about reversing our commitments to these schools. We talk about confusion, but I don't know why these schools are considered differently than other schools. So my recommendation would be to consider the five schools that were included, that were part of the bond discussion, as the schools that were most in need of facility renovation. Thank you, Ronnie. Any other discussions on the motion? Melinda? I'm going to echo a lot of what Ronnie said. Of course, as a lot of y' all know, I was actually not here for the original vote. But to me, the most equitable solution is to look at all five, because I think we're in
116a very different place now than we were in 2024, unfortunately. I recognize how painful this is for everyone, but I've read a lot of comments. I've been listening to what people have been saying, and I still strongly believe we need to be looking at all five. Thank you. Any other discussions on the motion at hand? So we have a motion, and it's been seconded, to direct the staff to do a school closure study which includes Ephesus, SE and Glenwood, and bring that those studies back to the board. All those in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. And those opposed? Nay. Nay. The motion carries. Four. Three. Thank you. Now we'll move on to the next item, which is the criteria or information on each school which will be included as a part of the
117study. So, board members for this one, I'll open it up. If anyone has any questions or comments regarding the list of criteria that we have in front of us and it's attached in the abstract, Go ahead. George, I've got a question on the. On the first one. Geographic conditions. Sure, go ahead. I've been suggesting that we take a geographic location into account. And is that subsumed in this, or does it need to be a separate. How so? Like the. The composition of the school? Well, I see my role, our role as board members, as the greater good of the whole district. Okay. And not particularly in any neighborhood or school or anything. And so as we're looking at schools in the map of Chapel Hill Carrboro, it seems like we would want to have schools
118dispersed throughout the community to leave future boards as maximum flexibility in planning. So I didn't know if that's part of number one or we can. I mean, that's something we can add that that's included. So. So I guess. I guess what you're saying is for. Because it's going to be a study for each school. And so, I guess it would be for each school. Just identify like if that school is closed, then what would the makeup of the. What would the impact on that part of the district? Okay. Yeah. Because I mean, if you just draw the line to the staff. Okay. Yeah. We have seven of our schools west of Martin Luther King and four east right now. Right? Yeah. So, I'm looking at staff. They're going to make a note of it. I
119guess it'll be under number one geographic that you want. Make sure there's information on that. Thank you. Okay. Board members, any other. I have a couple questions, but I want you guys to go first. Barb. Well, number seven is not applicable, so I would just move to strike that one. Okay. So, remove number seven. Number seven. So sorry. I will get to my agenda. Feasibility of students remaining enrolled on site during a rebuild. Maybe we should explain more. So, what we have, and Mr. Sharrock can answer this, but what we've heard now that we've identified the. These three schools, what we're. What we understand, and it was part of the bond process that you can't not rebuild. You cannot rebuild with the students on site. These schools, if you were to do anything with them,
120you'd have to remove the students and then do a rebuild. So, this is not applicable for these schools. So, board members, are you guys okay? Yes. Where? George, you can go down there. Oh, Meredith, then. Thanks. I just had a comment about number six. Okay. The building adjacency to middle or high schools. We kind of talked about this last meeting and I think it was Vicki that pointed out like it was a nice to have, not a mandatory to have. I just wanted to point out that like, I think there actually are good reasons to try to prioritize that. Maybe not as a. A primary consideration, but as a secondary one. But the reason in the notes that's there. I don't think that doesn't speak to why I think that should be considered. I mean,
121I think academic acceleration is certainly a nice to have, but I don't see that as a primary reason for prioritizing building adjacency to middle or high schools. I think it's more about whole picture, like big picture collaboration opportunities and if the district continues on in this trajectory to be able to consider innovative solutions like a K8 campus, you know, or just different types of situations. That I don't think is really covered by this academic acceleration comment. So, what you're saying is either you would like that removed or just generally talk about building adjacency. Yeah, and I mean, I think generally, I think that's what I'm suggesting. But I think also this brings about a larger point which is more like what are we considering to be a primary consideration versus a secondary consideration? You know,
122I think that we understand that this is primarily a financial consideration. So, we do have to look at hard numbers, but we also have to consider other impacts as well. And this, you know, this would fall under that category to me, for me. Correct. So, are board members okay with it being more a general discussion of building adjacency and I guess any advantages or not of that, but also, I guess including some academic information? I guess whatever this previous comment was, is that fine? Ronnie, go ahead. I think there's another step to this, which is how do we evaluate these criteria relative to each other? So, I would take it off or make any changes until we get to that point. Okay, so then we'll add more general and also leave the academic acceleration piece
123on there as well. Okay, George? Okay, I just wanted to get some clarification on points 9, 10, and 11. I wanted to understand a little bit more about what each of those meant. Campus openness and safety concern considerations, And also, alignment with town planning, and then more specifically site adequacy, because that's a little general. I don't know. I know we have board members suggesting it, but I don't know if anyone wants to comment. I can speak to site adequacy. I think I asked for that one, and that one was about understanding the space requirements for school buildings and what the various campus facility options were. So, are there some that are more limited than others that might make more natural considerations? Okay, thank you. All right, board members, any other comments specifically about the list?
124Go ahead. Well, I don't want to put you on the spot, Al, but I wanted to ask if you could speak a little bit about number 10, the alignment with town planning. You know, I've heard a lot of comments amongst the public talking about development, but I've also talked to a number of people who are pretty convinced that much of the development is not going to be homes that will accommodate families of young children. And so, I just wanted to see if you had any information on that that you could share. Yeah. When the administration has talked with town planning staffs in previous years and even this past year. But also, as the county has worked with demographers. Those demographers in their final reports work with the towns to look at proposed projects, to look
125at student yield generation calculations to be able to determine that and what's been approved thus far. Far it is yielding some children, but it's not enough to change the fact that we have a need to close two schools at this time. Back in December, at your board retreat, when Carolina Demography presented, they gave you kind of a primer of what the trend was continuing to look like, but told us that in the final report in April for the county commissioners that it would include those projects. So, staff's recommendation would be for alignment with town planning. The section that you have for anticipated increase or decrease in enrollment. My suggestion would be. My thought would already be that in discussing the trending and using basically it's going to be Carolina Demography's data; I'm going to copy
126and paste it into the report. You know, I'm not a demographer, but at the same time, I would. There would be sections where they spoke with the planning departments for Carrboro and Chapel Hill. And I would do my best to include the projects that have been approved over the past if it's 10 years, five years, one year, and to be able to show what Carolina Demography put into their calculations for the student yield so that it is informative. You know, I've always said as a whole, for the developments, be it the trend has changed here in the with the towns in recent years of very recent. You know, it takes time for that to pivot, obviously. And that's what they say. You know, as we did our community meetings back in the fall, that was
127even evident. But it is one where we do need to monitor that. But we do know that whatever trends there are, we're not going to proceed in the next probably three to five years. And that's what the demographers have always said. We're going to project 10 years. You really only trust us about three to four. And that's why they do this annually. And it would continue to be updated, but the trend is showing that even with any growth that we would have, that there would not be a need to add a school or to not close a school at this point. There's nothing to indicate that at this point. But again, I will reserve that for the study and what the data shows when I present it to you for any final deliberation. So, is
128it okay then if we consider that number 10 to be sort of folded in to the number 2? That would be my recommendation, because that's what we're going to include. The demographer is working directly with the talents. The town's going to provide them with information. They're going to create the student generation. And that will be comprised in that report, as the previous reports over the past years have included. So that would be my intention. If we find that that's not the case, I would then say come back to you to say we may need to modify this or for me to be authorized to add. For you to consider adding a section, because I do think it's germane and important to be able to show. Okay, thank you. So that's not necessarily a change. It's
129just folding number. Number 10 and two together. But it's not a change. Go ahead, Ricky. I wanted to jump back to number six for a second. I know that everyone was saying, or you were saying that we need to keep the comments about academics in there, and I agree with that. But I would say that I think to speak to what one of the teachers said when they presented a spokesperson or when they spoke on public comment, that it may be a little bit more transparent to use it as programmatic and academic impact so that it's not picturing it as if it's only about academic acceleration, that we're looking at all students and what the academic impact and pragmatic outcomes could be, because we need to make sure that we are listening to what the
130needs are for our whole student population. Okay. So, we're adding programmatic and academic outcomes. Impact. Impact. Sorry. Thank you. How do you measure that? Are you. I guess I'm just putting that to the board. Yeah. When I heard it, I wanted to ask the question, like they may have had some thinking around that, but. Well, I mean, actually the comment itself is. Proximity can make academic acceleration. So that statement in and of itself is subjective because it can and it can and it may not. So it's either we look at something that's going to have some subjectivity to it, or we look at it in a more factual, structured state and say that that particular comment in and of itself needs to come out because it too is subjective, which. Yeah, I think that makes
131sense. I was thinking about this criteria more as shared maintenance costs. Right. Like, and there could be some elements of shared learning across buildings, too. But, you know, I think it'll be real important to have real tight, like, what these mean, so that there may be some more thinking to do about that one. Yeah. If I could also add, you know, in my mind, when you've looked at other districts that have used this. You know a lot of lot of districts build schools where they have an elementary, a middle and a high school, many of which are small one, you know, three school counties if you want to call it that. But there are. It is from a maintenance efficiency. But the other thought is that as we've talked about programs within our schools where
132there's matriculation from elementary to middle, you know we did with FPG, we prioritized in relocating to Culbreth that there is the dual language program at the elementary but then it matriculates right into Culbreth Middle which then in turn goes to Carrboro High School. So, it was the idea of acknowledging. The idea was not to determine if there's academic success because I think we have to be careful with school the question of school closure with the district wide boundary changes. Because in the end once the decisions are made to which schools to close or not, when that decision is made, then you're going to have to look at all of the programs that our district has and we're going to. That's where we're going to hire a demographer to know this program has this many students
133on average, this program has this many. And if there's 23 programs we're going to want to try to where do we want to put those programs that best meets the needs of the district? So, we would look at that and that's where an adjacency might come into play. If it's a program where there's a relation between the elementary and the middle. You know we have that relation with three of our campuses. There's only one where we have elementary, middle and high. But it's really the elementary middle. That was the thought behind it. But as far as the academic piece, I don't know if that's going to be easy to measure for a closure decision. But I think what we get into the boundary process, something to that effect I think would be a value that
134you as a board would want to look at as you're trying to make the best decision since we do have an opportunity at the elementary level to really hit a reset that hasn't been done in over 12 years as far as balancing and ensuring where the needs are within our district because we know they have changed from when they were originally created 12 years ago. Thank you. Any other comments? Melinda? I've been hearing a lot about our pre-K programs, and it's not really reflected in any of our criteria. I wonder if we could add it into as part of number three. Okay, so number three, we're going to add information on pre-K programming and maybe impacts on it. So again, just for clarification, I feel that that would be something that would be part of
135the boundary process when we look at all of our elementary schools. But would it be just to state the facts of the schools that are under the study. These are the number of children that are enrolled. I mean just basic demographic information is what you would want versus because getting into scenarios, that's going to be the next phase. But if it's informational, I think that's very appropriate for you to make the best decision if that's what you're looking for. Yeah, just information about programming and students and classrooms and all that at schools. Go ahead, Meredith and Ronnie, along those same lines and don't get mad at me for adding additional work. But on number one, with the geographic conditions, would it be possible like I don't necessarily support like an extensive look at walking versus
136car riding versus bus riding, but could we incorporate that into one to the extent that we could see like how many people take the bus for any individual school, how many people walk, how many people actually walk, how many people, you know, how challenging would that be to get? Well, not at all. I think the number eight criteria. Transportation costs. Yeah. You know, when you're looking at the cost, the state cost per pupil, which is about just over $950 on average here in our district we would look at the number of students that currently ride or sign up to ride a bus, how many actually ride a bus, how many are in a walk zone, a non-transportation zone, how many from safe routes to schools that the town has counted. Meaning there might be 150
137kids that are eligible, but maybe only 50 walk on average at every day. We would use that to be able to then come up with a cost analysis to say here's the swag, if you want to call it. Here's the lowest, but then here's the highest. If everybody who is in a walk zone decided to put their child on the bus because of that, we would want to show that. So, we would incorporate as much of that information that we could so that you could again make that decision. Because there is a difference between how many are in the non-transportation zone versus how many actually walk from the, from the safe roster schools counts. But at the same time transportation will increase. Anytime you, if you have two schools and you close one, whoever's in
138the walk zone for the school that is Closed, they will be transported or their parents will be bringing. But they will not be walking. Right. So, we know that we will have that information to share with you to show that impact. And I think it could fit in number eight. Okay. Yeah, yeah, that's fine. I wasn't sure if we were trying to condense or if all of. Of these were. That's right. For transportation. It would be all modes of transportation that we would show you, not just yellow buses. Ronnie, I was going back to the pre-K adequacy conversation, and I guess I was thinking more about fit for space. Right. Like if we have a pre-K somewhere and we need. And we decide to close that school, and we move those students to another school,
139we need to make sure that there is appropriate space that's adequate for those students. So that's how I was thinking about the pre-K question. Yeah. I mean, realistically, I know that bathrooms were not added at one of our oldest schools for Title 1 programming or pre-K. But we can look at some of our. Obviously, our newer schools are going to be more adequate when it comes to that. But if we needed to just look, look at that. To say these are the programs that we have, these schools are the ones that are part of the study. Are there other schools where. If it's. I'll make this up. If there's only one school that a program could go to, then we would know that we would have to hard program pre-K into that school. So. So
140I agree. We could look at that from a facility perspective to ensure that there are alternative locations if the school in question was the one to be selected to be closed. Okay, thanks. Yep, go ahead, Vicki. I just want to make sure that I'm clear. Pre K is not being transported on buses or are. No, they're not being transported. Okay. Unless I think maybe if they're in the. Some of the system level classes, those are the only ones that are guaranteed transportation. That's correct. Students that are enrolled in as EC students are the ones that are transported by law. But no other. But no other. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry. Any EC student that's enrolled plus their sibling because obviously the bus is coming to the house. Okay, board members, any other thoughts on some of
141the criteria? I would just like a little more clarification on number nine. I've been looking at it and still not sure. Campus openness in the safety consideration. I think that was yours, Ronnie. I think that it's coming back to me now. So, the idea is, as we assess cost to maybe rolls up into the cost to rebuild. Okay, do we want to like pull that in? I don't know. Let me think about it. Or geography. I think it's more just what is. Maybe it is because it's probably like what is the cost to make sure, we've got the right safety components in the facility. I give caution to that. Yeah. And so, I think I'm comfortable that that should be. Well, I'm looking up at the cost criteria the 10-year outlook might not capture but.
142Sorry, my comment was going to just be we have schools that vary in campus style that are not part of the study. So I, I wouldn't want to make a judgment about one school that is different than other schools that are not part of the study. Study is using as a criteria. We obviously look at each of our schools individually and we address the innate if there are safety concerns or how students or parents approach the buildings from a sep tad and environmental by design standpoint we do our best to manage that because our campuses do vary with respect to just what is the replacement cost. You know we have not. I can give an estimate based upon what's the, what's the cost today for say a 90,000 square foot elementary school. But I think
143when you get into cost it's going to be okay. We're going to use today's dollars. Are we going to use when the next referendum comes around? I think we have those in the Wilbur report. Right like that. So I think like I'm okay with just taking that number nine off. Okay. Yeah. Everyone find removing nine okay? Yeah. So right now we're moving 7 and 9. We've done some clarification on number 1, 6, 11, 3 and 8 and did a combining of 2 and 10. Go ahead George. My question might be to Dr. Trice or Mr. Shrogie or Chair and if it's for later just say so. Obviously there are three schools that I'm sure are disappointed in some of the aspects of what they've heard tonight. And you know I think we one, I think
144we all would recognize that. But are there some things like deadlines and dates that you all could go over as to what will happen next? When are we going to look at this report and how are these school is going to be interacted with immediately and in the next few days or weeks so that they know who to talk to and what, what the topic is and where do we go and if I'm jumping ahead of where you were going to get to that just tell a little bit. But I Mean, we can address it. I don't know. Dr. Trice, do you want to take that? I know we've talked about it. Yeah, sure. So, I think on most of our calendars now we have three or four community wide sessions planned. We didn't want
145to get in front of the board, but, you know, we've identified three schools and I think we owe it to those schools to be in community with them. So, in my mind is that we would, you know, schedule sessions specifically with and for those schools where questions can be asked. We can provide as much information as we can. I don't have a timeline on that yet, but most immediately that's what comes to mind. Yeah. And I think with the ones that we already have scheduled, I don't want it to get lost. Obviously, we're talking about a study for three schools, but obviously the rippling effect of this and redistricting is going to impact the entire district. It'll have potential impacts at the middle and high school. We think about feeder patterns and things like that.
146So, I think that's important for just all community members to come out to those meetings and be engaged and just kind of understand kind of the big picture of redistricting as well. So. Thank you, George. All right. I'm going to get us back on track a little bit. So, it sounds like are we. Okay, where we are with this list right now? Board members. So, are you guys ready for the question? All right. Okay. Is there a motion to adopt the. This list of criteria as amended? So, moved. Got a motion from Melinda. A second. Second. And a second from Meredith. Sorry. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, so we have the criteria. I know there was some discussion. Ronnie, you asked the question. Somebody asked a question about how we're going
147to look at these criteria. Now, I don't know if you had any thoughts. Yeah, I mean, if you have some thoughts. I think the way we generally understand it, we're just. Right now, the study is going to be a report with information in it. And so, I think. I don't know, Ronnie, if you want to share some thoughts or. Yeah, so I was imagining a next step would be we would think about how we would weight the criteria. That gives us a filter to apply and help us make the decision about how we get to the final school or schools. I don't know how we would do that with just a narrative. Board members. Reza. Go ahead, George. I just, you know, to me weight is arbitrary and I don't think it's going to add
148any more Information than what we've got in front of us. So how do you compare the schools holistically when all is said and done? The criteria are. Unless we're closing schools because of finances. But we just said there are other criteria that matter. Right. And I use it as guidance, but I don't think saying 1's 30 and 1's 20 changes anything. So, you're saying kind of the finance is the baseline, and then you'd inform it with the other criteria. I would use the criteria. So, yeah, that's an important point. And as I think about it. But, yeah, I think that feels arbitrary because then it's everybody's criteria. We could get to board alignment if we said, like, finance is 75%, since that's our goal. And then we can assign some other weighting according to how
149relatively important these other measures feel. Well, I'm not, you know, I'm not wedded to it enough to say it's got to be this or that, but I don't see how that adds any relevance or useful new information. Anyone else? Melinda? My fear is we would spend a whole lot of time coming up with the weighted part, and it would distract from making the final decision. Thank you, Melinda. Anyone else? Go ahead, Vicki. I think if we go ahead and get all of the narrative information that gives us a big picture, and then as we as the collective start looking at all of it, then it will help us to narrow the scope. And maybe not so in an arbitrary way, because we'll then start to see. The intent would be that we will start to
150see a picture as it comes together. But I think we need all of the information just laid out factually so that it's not. Well, this is not as important. It's not as weighted as much. So, we don't need as much information on this particular criteria. I would like them to bring back as much due diligence, put as much due diligence in each of the criteria and bring us all the information. And then as a collective, we sit and go through it and see where we're going. As we've done tonight, we discussed the criteria and we came to some consensus as to what now feels a lot better for us that we started from a very large place and narrowed it. I hope we would be able to do that and come to the decision as
151to what we're going to be doing. That's the best-case scenario for the community at large. I think that would be the easiest way for me to wrap my head around it. I just Wonder how we bring the. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Risa. You didn't recognize. Go ahead, Ronnie. I was just wondering how we bring the community along if we don't tell them how we're going to use the criteria. And so, like, I, as a finance person, very much support the financial basis of it. But we just said there are 10 other eight other whatever criteria. Like, how are we going to think about those when we have information in front of us? And I think it's too late by then because then it feels really random to say, like, oh, this one looks really interesting.
152I think we should say, like, here, how we're going to think about these things relative to each other. And when we have the data, it's just easy to have that conversation. Anyone else? It doesn't seem like the board is. Wants to apply weights. I think it sounds like we're just going to get the three studies and review them and then we'll have a board discussion. Unless. All right, well, that is it for our discussion and action item. Thank you, Mr. Shoroki. Thank you, board. The next item on our agenda is the superintendent's report. It is the 202627 superintendent's proposed local operating budget request. Yep. It's. You okay? Oh. What is it? Oh, I'm so sorry. Thank. What? Well, you didn't vote on what? We did vote on it. We amended it. Do you need it?
153Do you need it restated the amendments? No, we heard them. I think their question was, do you want to vote to adopt it as amendment? I thought we did. We did. Melinda made the motion, Meredith seconded, and we voted 7 0. Sorry. Yeah, I was on top of it. I was typing everything. All right. There we go. Okay. That might have been my fault. I think I queued the minute I missed it. Sorry. It's okay. It's a lot. Jonathan, why don't we give community members a minute to rearrange? You guys are welcome to scoot in. It's okay. It's all right. You come closer. I know, right? Why don't you go ahead and get started? Thank you. You know I love talking numbers. I'm okay. Thank you. Oh. Good evening, Madam Chair. Thank you. Good evening,
154board members, Dr. Trice, members of the cabinet, members of the public. Tonight, I'm before you to present the superintendent's recommended local operating budget request. A lot of this presentation is going to feel very familiar because we've been talking about budget quite a bit in the last couple months. We've had to make certain assumptions Some of those are coming, becoming a little clearer, so we were able to work those into this request. Going to kind of take you through it and then talk a little bit again about our risk assessment moving into next year and just kind of give you a brief overview. And since we've been through a lot of this before, I'm going to try and move fairly quickly through the materials. So, we're going to start just with a quick. Review of the
155budget calendar. We've all seen this before, so we've kind of moved from our planning and drafting phase into the superintendent's budget request that's being presented tonight just for your awareness and the public's awareness. After tonight, there'll be two public work sessions where the board will take this superintendent's budget request and have opportunity to receive public input and add any changes that they would like to see made to the budget request so the board can make it its own. As a Board of Education approved request to the county commissioners. Our hope would be that we would have an intent to adopt that at the first meeting in April, then bringing it back to the Board of Education the second meeting in April for adoption. And from there we as a board and district administration will carry
156it to Hill Hillsboro to a joint meeting with the Board of County Commissioners in Orange County Schools to present it to the county as a whole. After that, again, the Board of County Commissioners will go through their budget process with public hearings and ultimately inform of us, inform us of our expected funding increase sometime in the middle of June. And from there we'll be able to adopt or develop a complete budget. The board can, can adopt hopefully in July this year. So just a quick review of continuation drivers. I know we've talked a lot about this over the last month. Again, student data. We all know that we are losing students and have been for the period of the last five to six years. This year we're projected to lose 277 students. As it pertains
157to county funding. Again, we've kind of gone through this. That reduction is important with the local budget because it sets the amount of percentage of county funding that we already receive in relation to Orange County schools. I believe Orange County schools is in a fairly similar situation this year with a reduction in students. So, I don't expect that there's going to be a very large change to the funding percentage. Then again, key continuation drivers. Here we are still in March without a state budget. You've heard me say that before. We're hoping maybe in April some action will be taken and some of this will become a little bit clearer. But at this point in time, we are building our budget for next year on an anticipated 4% increase for salaries across the board, projecting just
158a five-year regression analysis to the increase in the retirement and hospitalization rate. So, we're expecting the hospitals or the retirement rate to rise to 25.15%, up from 24.67. And then a similar increase in the employee health insurance from. 8,812 up from $8,500. That one will be interesting to watch. As we know, the state health plan has been under some pressure lately. I expect that one may increase more than what we're projecting as we move into the budget. So, this is kind of spells it out as far as all the increased costs that we're expecting next year. In total, in order to operate in the same manner that we are now, the district has a need of about $3.7 million. That's with a 4% increase. A lot of that's made up of base salaries, matching benefits.
159And then we did include about a little over $700,000 for inflationary factors on non-personnel costs. So, I want to talk a little bit about projected revenue changes. We do anticipate generating just under $600,000 in additional special district tax. We know historically that has risen about 2% a year. So, we're projecting that into the budget also. Ultimately, the county appropriation is determined by the Board of County Commissioners every year. We know historically it's been about 3%. So I'm going to take you through an exercise in a little bit looking at risk analysis. But for the purposes of that, we're going to estimate a 3% increase at this time. That'll generate just under $2 million of that need that we have. I want to talk a little bit also about state revenue changes. Dr. Trice has talked
160a lot about that over the last six months. Due to our decrease of 292 students, we're going to have a reduction in state funding at this time. We don't have planning allotments from the state for next year. So, we're making an estimate based on the best information that we have right now that we're receiving. We're projected to receive about $8,345 per student. We multiply that out and we're looking at a total funding decrease of about 2.445434 million. In order to combat that, we are also having a reduction in students. Right. So as such we go through an allotment process every year that's championed by Dr. Harris. We meet with every school. We have projected enrollments for next year. And at this point in the year, we're allotting positions to the schools based on the reduction
161in students that we're expecting next year. Year we did pick up a fairly large portion of that state reduction in staffing allocations. I've listed them out here. But we were able to allot nine less elementary teacher positions, six less elementary TAs, eight high school general education teacher positions, two high school ECTA's, and all of that totals about $1.93 million. So out of that 2.43, we were able to mitigate all but $500,000 of it through the allotment process. And that's maintaining the same allotment ratios that we used this current year still leaves us a half million-dollar gap. So, we need to go ahead and kind of reconcile all that out. You know, we have a 3.6 million or $3.7 million continuation need, take away the special district tax, add back in the state funding gap, and
162we're at about just under $3.6 million moving into next year. Need for next year. Now, I want to talk about scenarios. We looked at this at the last board meeting, still presenting you with the three different scenarios. The first one is if we receive a 3% increase from the county and we have a 4% increase in state-mandated salaries next year; we're looking at about a $1.6 million funding gap that will need to be filled. The second option, or the second scenario would be if the county this year moved to its proposed funding model that we covered recently. That would require an additional $3.3 million of cuts or realignments in order to balance the budget. And then the worst scenario or the most severe scenario would be if the state in fact came back and passed
1633% increases this year retroactively moving into next year, and then we'd have about a $5 million funding gap moving in. That coupled with the change in the county appropriation. So again, we don't really know exactly where we're going to land. We do know what it's going to cost to continue next year. But these, these are just some numbers that we need to keep in mind as we move through the budget process. So, I wanted to take a moment and then just remind everybody or kind of review our fund balance. You can see in 2021, we had a fund balance of about $16 million that has been, was drawn down over the course of several years into 2024, where the fund balance did not go negative, but we essentially depleted all of our fund balance in
1642025. The district operated with a fairly small surplus, which was good news for us that we knew that we had removed the structural deficits that existed in the budget. And we're projecting to add about $5 million to fund balance this year. So, all in all, that's very good news. Again, this is preliminary and unaudited, but I just want to remind everybody, everybody, that that structural surplus still exists in the budget. If we were able to maintain that and balance the budget through other means, I would expect that that graph would kind of mirror what you see on the left over the next two years, putting us in a fund balance replenishment at the end of 2027 in the neighborhood of $10 million and then 2028 in the neighborhood of $15 million. Back to where we
165started, which will be great news for the district and our needs for cash, cash flow and other things. And it also will present the district with an opportunity to think about a deeper pivot once we've replenished fund balance and we still have that budget available to reallocate. And that kind of moves me into what we're going to. We intend to present to the county commissioners in the absence of a expansion budget this year, unless the board directs us to develop an expansion budget. Superintendent and I spoke at length about this, recognizing the county is facing pretty austere budget environment this year. I think they're still projecting about a 25 or $21.5 million funding gap. So, we wanted to carry the continuation need to the county commissioners and then really kind of take talk to the
166county commissioners about Dr. Trice and the board's vision of how we're going to move the district forward over the next few years. And again, this is a superintendent's budget. Board is obviously allowed to modify it any way they want in an expansion budget if they so choose. But again, just kind of reviewing those strategic levers that we've talked about quite a bit. And we're really, again, focusing on the innovation and reinvestment portion of this. And I've talked at length how that was going to work over a implementation timeline. You know, we're kind of really assessing resource allocation right now. We've talked as board as a whole, is talking about facility optimization top of mind tonight. And then in 2028, we'd like to be in a position where we can really kind of begin phasing in
167Some of this realignment targeting, like completely phasing it in by 2030, giving us an opportunity to really evaluate the impact and adjust future funding based on that strategy. So, as I presented earlier this spring, the strategy right now, of course it's going to develop through, through stakeholder feedback over the course of the next six months. But right now, Dr. Trice has really tasked me to look at employee compensation along with sustainable resources for curriculum. So, we talked about this. It was really a plan to increase the local supplement for both certified and classified personnel by 1% a year starting in fiscal year two, 2028 through 2030. Between both of those, it's about $900,000 a year. So cumulatively, it would cost the district about $2.7 million to fully implement that in the year 2030. And then
168also a phase in of instructional curriculum investment fund phasing in a quarter million dollars in fiscal the year 28, another quarter million in 29 and a half million dollar phase, and then 2030 that would provide a, by the year 2030, a sustainable recurring curriculum reserve of a million dollars in local funding. So again, superintendent did not intend to include this in an expansion budget. We really wanted to go to the county commissioners and kind of show our strategic vision for the, the next few years and then just kind of an example of a phased, phased implementation and reinvestment strategy. Again, we're going to seek community and stakeholder input over the next six months. I'm sure this plan will continue to develop as we move forward and think about the future of the district. But at
169that point, that's pretty much the end of my presentation. Again, I'd be happy to answer any questions and then remind the board, board again that this is the superintendent's recommended budget. And you all, you know, we are essentially turning it over to you now. We invite you to make it your own from this point forward. Thank you, Mr. Scott. Board members, do you have any questions or comments? George, first of all, thank you. It's always well laid out and it just like it makes sense as we go and I really appreciate the time and effort. Also wanted to applaud you, Superintendent, for focusing on staff salaries and even in a time of declining enrollment and all the doom and gloom that we're facing, I just, I support that and thank you all for putting that
170out there as we're still paying attention to it. I think I can't prove it, but I think it's had a direct impact on our fill rate, employee fill rate for the past six several years. And it's going to continue because the state. There's no hope on the horizon from the state. So, I applaud you for, for doing that. One quick question. The state auditor seems to have just discovered lap salaries. And you did. I know you didn't mention it tonight and I know ours have tightened up over the years with the higher fill rates. Is there any in here? Are you like watching that? Or that will really affect us in a negative way if they do something, or is that all just talk at the state level? What's your sense of that? So, I
171think the state auditor discovered lapse hours at the state level, right? Yeah, the state level. But you know, they just, they're acting like they just found out about it. So, I'm not read in on that. I can tell you we have not a large amount of lap salary. Yeah. Because we have such a high fill rate. Any lap salaries that we do recover at this point, we'll target directly to fund balance replenishment. But. Okay. Would it be a significant deal for us? I don't believe so. I probably need to read up a little bit more about that, though. I don't think it would affect us, though. Thanks, board members. Any other questions? Comments? Go ahead, Meredith. I just have one minor question. Thanks very much for the presentation. At the beginning of the presentation, when
172you were talking about the projected raises, we were making some assumptions. Does that 4% raise projection include a potential retroactive raise? Right. So, the 4% calculation that we made, so right now we have a 3% reserve salary reserve sitting in the local budget because there is still, still a realistic possibility that the General assembly will make that, make that adjustment. Right. So, in order to, you know, kind of mitigate risk and do our due diligence, we. When we calculated salary increases for next year, we included the 3% reserve in the calculation. So, it does in fact include it. However, this year, if we have to pay it, you know, it's going to affect that $5 million. We're on target for. For. Right. It's going to reduce that by effectively $2 million. So it's included in
173the continuation cost, but it's not reflected in that fund balance analysis that I showed you. Okay, thank you. Any other comments or questions? All right, thank you, Mr. Scott. Thank you. And we haven't had this in a while, but our next item on the agenda is sharing. And we will start with our board committee's finance facility operations. Barb. We have not met since the last board meeting, but we are meeting next Tuesday at 5:30 thank you. Policy, Ronnie. I can't recall if we discussed it. I think we did at the prior meeting. But our approach, we are reviewing policies on a cycle and some of them have no recommended changes. Do you all remember this? Did we talk about this? Okay. So, we landed on an approach to bring those policies to the first meeting
174on discussion and action. So, for board awareness. But then, going forward, we'll put them on consent if there are no changes to the policy. So that's just for board awareness. Okay. And our next meeting is March 17th at 5:30pm okay? Thank you. Student success. Meredith. Thank you. Yes, we met. Was that last week or the week before last? We had presentations on the R3 spaces, which is the space that is formerly known as ISS but now focuses more on restorative work. And so it was great to get an update on that. And we also received an update on the digital learning plan. And that will come to the full board in a couple of months. And so we'll be able to all review it once they make the final changes on it and ask questions
175at that time. Our next meeting is on the 24th at 4. 5:30. Yeah, March 24th at 5:30. And it'll be a virtual meeting. Thank you. All right, thank you. Any board liaison updates from board members? Go ahead, Barb. Well, I went to the Morris Grove SIT meeting. I don't know. Does that count? Yeah, that's it. And they had me talk about the potential school closure and redistricting. And it was interesting to hear people, you know, who are not on the list be nonetheless very interested and eager to, you know, be welcoming for whatever happens. And I have one more thing to say. Yeah, go. You can. We've got other sharing. Yeah. Any other liaison updates? Go ahead, Vicky. The Orange Care Orange County Cares meeting was this morning, and we were looking at what things
176would look like in the next year or two as the Orange Cares Coalition has now become a year old where a lot of different organizations came together to make the new coalition. And was really exciting to be listening to community organizations talk about Orange County as a whole and how that can affect our whole community in the county, from our youth to our seniors and the people that are coming in. We were talking about trying to look at transportation as a barrier to try to prevent that and systems in place to get young people in spaces that really were needed so that when there are opportunities that are being presented, the transportation won't be the reason that they can't do it. So, it was a really good conversation, and they were Speaking about foster care
177and how foster care now students that were in foster care are now in a new health care program. So, if you know people who need to look into that, it's now run by Blue Cross. So please, please, please pay attention to it because that's a really big deal these days. Thank you. I attended the Carrboro High SIT meeting, and during the meeting, they were reviewing their goals and action steps related to their school improvement plan. The two main goals they were looking at was reducing instructional costs. I mean, instructional loss. And they were talking about a topic around absenteeism. But I think they were moving into some of the other bigger picture items impacting that and then also reducing opportunity gaps and focusing on performance goals for students within particular subgroups based on performance data.
178So that was a really good meeting to hear at the high school level. And then I did reference it at the last board meeting. But we did have our Orange County Schools collaborative meeting where we did talk. Let me go to the agenda. Let's see. We talked about budgets and funding and the outlook for the county and the school districts. We gave some general bond updates on the bond projects and the ILA. We did give an update on the school closure process and our demographics and the impact. There's an interest around collaboration on mental health resources. So, at, I think our next collab meeting, we're going to have some groups from Orange County to come in about those resources and I guess talk about how we can collaborate across all entities around mental health. We
179did start some of the preliminary discussions about our joint meeting. Let me see. I'm trying to get to that. But board members, I'll send out these notes. We're still. I think we're still finalizing. She. We should have that in a day or two. But we did talk about a lot of stuff in our short meeting. So. And I think our next meeting is next month. I don't have the date in front of me, but we'll meet again soon ahead of the joint meeting and then other sharing. Now, I just wanted to. I'm sure all of you hang on the CHTCS website and notice everything that changes. But we were supposed to have a board retreat and we postpone that because of the prioritization of the community engagement sessions. But we are looking forward to planning
180that. And I think there's a real hunger, not just in the people who spoke about this, but among us, to talk about kind of the future and strategy and innovation and all of that. But our superintendent has just made clear that we need to do that from a place of financial stability. So, one thing at a time. But people are thinking and being innovative and we all look forward to talking about that together. Thanks, Barb. Ronnie, thank you. I had a couple notes. Okay, go ahead. Which I just lost. Give me a minute to. If there's anybody else who wants to go after we open, I can run through mine real quick. I attended the Carrboro elementary in Scroggs African American History read. And I've got some of my swag on from one of those.
181I left my other ones. I wanted to bring it. But I wish I could attend more of these events. Unfortunately, I had other obligations. I even missed the Black History Month bowl. Looked really great. But I had a great time and hopefully I can attend more read ins next year. I will be participating in the board office hours on Friday the 13th from 5 to 6:30 at Carrboro in Motion. Oh, I'm sorry. At the Carrboro Motion community event at Carolina Department. So, want to chat with board member. I'll be there next Friday. Also, I want to say a big thank you to the community and the Public-School foundation for another successful. Love and roses for our wonderful staff. And I hope to see everyone on Saturday, March 14th at the Public-School Foundation 5K for Education.
182And I'll just say congratulations to all the primary winners on Thursday. And thank you to all the candidates for being willing to serve our community. Are you ready? Yes. Thank you. Thanks for the COVID All right, so I wanted to say first of all, congratulations to Culbreth Middle School. Their Avid team won first place at the Black History Knowledge Bowl. And when I tell you all, it was amazing. It was amazing. And I want to thank board member Vicki Feaster forinville who. The only board member was there anyway who showed up. And Dr. Trice. It meant a lot for them, the kids to see that representation. And we had representative Alan Boinsy and Commissioner Earl McKee and County Commissioner Chair Gene Hamilton. So, it was great to see those folks attend. And Colbreth won. They
183were amazing. But they edged out Smith by a hair. So. So, like this was really one of the best years. This is a 16-year anniversary. And it was clear the kids prepared. I was talking to one of the teachers and she said she'd see them at lunchtime with their. What do you call those index cards? Studying voluntarily, right? Like you know you're doing something if a kid is doing this voluntarily. So, I wanted to shout out Colbreth and their teacher for their amazing. And Smith and the other schools were great too. Just really fun to watch. I would encourage you all to come next year. It's really fantastic. Happy Women's History Month. Thank you to Brian Link for lifting that up. I think now more than ever it's important to recognize history and its importance
184in the context of what's happening today. And I would not be here without strong women who lifted me up and showed me the way to get here. So, I want to recognize Women's History Month. I think we're going to be planning a proclamation in the next meeting, but I wanted to say that here today at the as the month starts. And then lastly I'll say happy holy. It was March 3rd. It's a celebration of colors. It's a celebration of the eternal love of Radha and Krishna for those of you know. So, I think that's all I have. Any other sharing? Vicki, go ahead. Speaking of Smith, where we they had their HBCU door contest, which was absolutely phenomenal. They had 45 doors to be judged. We had a team of five judges, all from outside
185of the school. So, it was very fair. But at a time that we're talking about people understanding different cultures and diversity and people being concerned about erasure, these young people and these are educators in that space put so much time and energy. You could see the care it was absolutely phenomenal. And I know they took lots of pictures. And I suggested to them that they just start like a file that could be on their website at some point so people can actually go through and see the wonderful job that they did. I was so beyond proud of them. So, I just wanted to highlight that and uplift the fact that they did a marvelous, marvelous, wonderful. I can't say how proud I was. I was tickled pink about how wonderful they did. And I also
186wanted to say that on a personal family note, I was so excited at the McDougal Elementary School African American reading. I was able to read to an elementary I meant to a kindergarten class. Did not know which kindergarten class I was going to be in. But lo and behold, the kindergarten class that I read to was with a class that had my little cousin in it, which is the fifth generation of my family that has come through this district. So that was a very special moment. So, I was very excited about that to be able to read her class. And she just lit up like a Christmas tree when she saw me walk in. So, I thought that was very special. Thank you. Any other sharing? Go ahead, Melinda. And we just got an email
187about this. This is also Happy Square School Social Worker Week. As a fellow social worker. Thank you all for all that y' all do. All right, any other sharing with that, our meeting is adjourned.