001Meeting to order. First item is to approve the agenda. May I get a motion to approve the agenda? So moved. I have a motion from Meredith. I second. Second from Vicki. All those in favor say aye? Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. And the next item on our agenda is to go into closed session for the purposes stated on the agenda. May I get a motion? Motion from Barb. Second. Second from Melinda. All those in favor say aye? Aye. Any opposed? Opposed. All right, we will try to return as close to 7 as possible. Thank you. [ CLOSED SESSION ] [ GAVEL ] All right, back to open session. Thank you everyone for your patience. The next item on our agenda is introduction of administrative appointments, and I see Mr. Jinks is standing. Thank you, Mr.
002Jinks. Thank you very much. At this time, we are pleased to introduce a recent appointment to an administrative leadership position here in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. So if you would please join me in a warm welcome for Alicia Curtis, Executive Director Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction for Secondary Education. Alicia? Good evening, Madam Chair, Dr. Trice, members of the board. I'm honored to be here tonight and excited for the opportunity to serve as the Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction for Secondary Education and Academic Programming. I step into this role as an instructional leader with 6 16 years of experience in curriculum, secondary teaching and learning, and building systems that advance both equity and excellence. Throughout my career, I've focused on aligning instruction to high standards while ensuring that every student has access to rigorous
003opportunities and the support they need to succeed. I'm proud of the work I've done alongside educators to build collaborative structures that elevate teacher and student voice, strengthen MTSS practices and create, create coherence across schools. I deeply believe that sustainable improvement happens when systems are aligned and when the people closest to students feel supported, valued, and empowered. Speaking of the people closest to students, I would be remiss if I did not mention my East team. Leaving them was not easy, and collectively the East community challenged me, inspired me, and reminded me every day why this work matters. I carry their voices and the lessons we learned together with me into this role. I also want to take a moment to recognize the people who support me personally. My husband Brooks is here, and I think my
004parents, sister, brother-in-law, and, or maybe some combination of them are watching online tonight as they are in the mountains. I'm incredibly grateful for their love and encouragement and for the many mentors, colleagues, and friends who believed in me when I doubted myself. I am both humbled by and thankful for that support. That sense of gratitude is what grounds me in this work. It is also what fuels my belief in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and in public education, especially when times feel challenging. I believe in the power of public schools to create opportunity, to build community, and to change lives. And I believe in the educators, students, and families in this district who show up every day committed to do that work. Thank you for the opportunity to serve. I'm looking forward to the road ahead.
005Thank you. Miss Curtis.Congratulations and welcome, Madam Chair. That concludes tonight's introduction. Back to you. Thank you. This evening, board members and community, we do have two proclamations to read, and so our first proclamation is for National School Social Work Week proclamation, but this is also for the full recognition of School Social Work Month. Board members, if you could each read two paragraphs, and you'll skip me and I'll come back. Okay, thank you. Proclaiming the celebration of National School Social Work Week, whereas the importance of school social work through the inclusion of school social work programs and services has been recognized in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, whereas school social workers are exceptionally skilled in providing services to students who face serious challenges to school success,
006including disability, poverty, discrimination, abuse, neglect, mental illness, homelessness, bullying, familial stressors, and other barriers to learning. Whereas school social workers are needed more now than at any time in recent memory as more students are struggling with mental and behavioral health disorders, with nearly 1 in 6 children from 2 to 8 years old, 17.4%, having a diagnosed mental, behavior, or developmental disorder. Whereas school social workers shine a light on the resolute spirit of social workers who transform lives while bringing hope, healing, and justice to the communities they serve, especially in times of profound change and challenges. Because social workers follow a code of ethics that calls on them stand for equity in every community, uphold human dignity, and fight injustice. Whereas school-based social work programs are critical to early identification and early interventions, and whereas school
007social workers are on the front lines defending vulnerable populations including immigrants, LGBTQIA2S+ individuals, and those facing discrimination and poverty while uplifting vital social safety net programs, and ensuring the rights of everyone. Considering school social workers assist those navigating trauma, grief, and systemic biases and help people recover from natural disasters, public health crises, and other issues while transforming their lives in encouraging ways. Whereas regular school attendance is essential to student learning and long-term success, and school social workers are instrumental in promoting attendance through prevention, intervention, and support for students and families experiencing challenges that impact school engagement. And whereas school social workers maintain knowledge of school culture and school climate, which are necessary for responsible school safety planning. Whereas school social workers play a critical role in supporting students and families experiencing housing instability By helping
008implement the protections of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act and ensuring that students experiencing homelessness have equitable access to education, stability, and essential services. Whereas school social workers serve as vital members of a school's education team, playing a central role in creating partnerships between the home, school, and community to ensure student academic successes. And whereas the celebration of School Social Work Week during the week beginning March 2nd and extending throughout the month highlights the vital role school social workers play in the lives of students in the state of North Carolina. Now therefore be it resolved that the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education, one, supports the designation of School Social Work Week and the recognition of our school, our social workers throughout the entire month. Two, honors and recognizes the contributions of school social workers
009to the success of students in schools across Chapel Hill-Carrboro. And three, encourages the people of Chapel Hill-Carrboro to observe the month along with the week, which appropriate, with appropriate ceremonies and activities that promotes awareness of the vital role of school social workers in schools and the community. Community as a whole in helping students prepare for their futures as productive citizens. And I understand we have some very special guests here, our school social workers. Can we get you guys to stand up and come forward and to the microphone and introduce yourself? Oh, there we go. Oh, didn't push it hard enough. Good evening, board members. Dr. Trice thank you all for the recognition. Our social workers work extremely hard to support students. They are out on the front lines. They are working with families by visiting
010the hotels from those who were displaced from Tropical Storm Chantelle. They we have an upcoming Southeast community meeting where we do have social workers who will be in attendance. They're working to support students who have chronic absenteeism concerns by putting together plans and supports for those students and families, and then working to make sure that our community resources are well known so that we can share those resources with families. So they do great work in supporting students and giving them access to their education and removing barriers that may cause them to not have access. So they work really diligently to make sure that we get our students in the building so that they can access learning. So we have a few of our wonderful social workers here tonight, and I want them to introduce themselves.
011Greetings all. My name is Bonita Joyce and I am at Mary Scruggs Elementary. Thank you all so much for having us here. Honoring us with this beautiful weekend month. Thank you. Hello, I'm Stephanie Masvikoen. I'm the social worker at Culbreath Middle School. This is my 13th year there. Thank you all. Good evening, I'm Kelly Hotchkiss and I'm the school social worker at Ephesus Elementary, and I feel like we all have such a great team and I just feel lucky to work with this great team of people. So thanks for having us. Hi, I'm Jen Williams-Stark. I'm the social worker at Northside Elementary. This is my third year, and yes, like Kelly said, just grateful to have such a great team. Thank you. Thank you so much, everyone. Thank you. And then board members, we have
012another proclamation. If everyone could just read one paragraph for Women's History Month. Thank you. Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future. Whereas Women's History Month provides an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the countless contributions of women who have helped shape our nation, our communities, and our future. Whereas the 2026 national theme, Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future, honors the leadership, innovation, and resilience of women who are working to create more equitable, sustainable, and thriving communities. Whereas women throughout history have been pioneers in education, science, environmental stewardship, public service, and social advocacy, advancing solutions that strengthen communities and protect the well-being of future generations. And whereas within Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, women serve as educators, administrators, staff members, board members, students, caregivers, and community leaders whose dedication, creativity, and leadership shape the academic
013success and well-being of our students every day. And whereas these women demonstrate a commitment to sustainability, not only in environmental stewardship but also in fostering inclusive learning environments, promoting equity and opportunity, and preparing students to be thoughtful leaders and responsible citizens. Whereas recognizing the achievements of women past and present inspires future generations of students, especially young women and girls, to pursue their passions, lead with purpose, and contribute meaningfully to the world around them. And whereas Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools is committed to honoring the diverse voices, perspectives, and leadership of women who continue to influence education, community, community development, and positive social change. Now, therefore be it resolved that the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education hereby proclaims the month of March 2026 as Women's History Month in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. And encourages students,
014educators, staff, and community members to recognize and celebrate the achievements of women who are leading the change and shaping a sustainable future for all. Adopted this 19th day of March, 2026. Thank you, everyone. So our next item on the agenda is public comment. I would like to read a few housekeeping remarks since we do have both, um, general public comment tonight and work session. So at this point of the, the meeting, we are going to have general public comment. So 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. Okay, and do we have interpretation services tonight? Okay, they're over there. Thank you. So tonight we welcome our families and
015guests who prefer to speak Spanish or Mandarin. We are pleased to offer interpretation services. Interpretation will be provided consecutively, meaning we will hear a sentence in one language and the interpreters will speak in English. As a result, we will double the time limit for those speakers. And also, I think if anyone who chooses to speak in English, but English may not be their native language, we will extend the time as well a little bit more just to be considerate of that. We do 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're recognized, please come forward, state your name, and if you're speaking for an organization, please identify the name of
016the organization. So we'll start to recognize any teacher organizations, school improvement teams, or student groups, followed by anyone who has signed up in advance, and then any other, any other persons wishing to make a comment. I think I did neglect it is 2 minutes if I didn't say And so do we have any teacher organizations, SIT, or student groups here? You guys can come forward. That's fine. It's close enough. We've got the PTA. Hello everyone, my name is Emily Kreutzer. I am the president of the PTA at Glenwood Elementary. And I'm Laurel Babwa Brennan. I'm here as a representative of the Seawalll PTA. And I'm Tiffany Englert, the PTA president at Ephesus Elementary. On behalf of the communities of all 3 schools being considered in the closure study, we respectfully come before the board with
017several important requests. First, we ask that the board provide a clear and transparent timeline that outlines when a final decision regarding a potential school closure will be made. We hope that the board can stick to the timeline proposed by district staff. Families, staff, and community members deserve the certainty that comes with knowing when and how this process will conclude. Second, we strongly urge that any closure decision be grounded in data-driven process that uses clearly defined weighted criteria. Basing the closure, closure decision on objective evidence and transparent methodology is necessary so all stakeholders can have confidence in the fairness and integrity of the outcome. Finally, we ask that the deadline for voluntary staff transfer requests that is currently May 31st be extended until June 11th so that it aligns with the closure decision timeline. Extending this
018deadline is a matter of fairness and respect for the people who serve our children every day. We thank you so much for your time. Thank you. All right, any other teacher organizations, school improvement teams, or student groups? And if you could state your name and which organization you represent. Good evening, Chair. My name is Ryan Haynes. I'm a senior at Carver High School, and I stand before you tonight as a former homebound student. For 4 years, while I was recovering from a catastrophic electrical injury, the greatest battle I faced was the unnecessary isolation and systematic rejection caused by a broken homebound system. Well, I was fighting to survive the injuries and health issues that followed my electrocution. It was the denial of being a student that created the deepest scars. I can find nothing in
019CHCCS or North Carolina policy, last revised in 2002, 5 years before Carrboro High School opened, that says homebound students should be excluded from their school. Yet homebound students are denied access to student activities and resources such as student government, extracurriculars, and even AP classes. When I became too sick to attend school, I did not just lose access to a classroom. I lost teachers, friends, peers, routines, encouragement, school spirit, and the kind of age-appropriate social development that can only happen with other young people. My academic and career pathways have been permanently derailed. At one of the most important stages of life, I was not simply educated differently. I was erased. Just yesterday, in front of my principal, I was told clearly that when I was on homebound, school mental health staff were not allowed to reach
020out to me. Whether by virtual appointments or even email, because I was no longer their responsibility. I was under the responsibility of my parents, but parents cannot provide what a student body uniquely delivers. The current homebound model sorry, I'm taking that out when the district has spent years ensuring inclusion, equity, and mental wellness for all students, not all students have been included. Now that I am back in school, I started the Home Unbound Club to fill the gap where the district has failed. With a coalition of 94 CHS students, we are determined to keep illness from meaning invisibility. We are creative with our methods but also offer tutoring and check-ins when students reintegrate after homebound. We would be honored if principals would share information about Home Unbound with these vulnerable students and their families, and
021if the district would share a flyer with homebound teachers. We hope to be the last who are forgotten. I'm asking this board to act, review the homebound system, Do not allow schools to relinquish relationships with their homebound students. Make sure homebound students are included in mental health outreach, AP classes, and student connection. All right, thank you so much. Thank you. If you do have a statement, you can always email it to the board. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right, next we'll go to individuals who may have signed up in advance. And so our first one, if you Tiger Zong. Okay, is Tiger still here? David Sims? Good evening. Am I let me see. Good evening. My name is David Sims, and I'm here as a Glenwood parent and also as a concerned member
022of the Chapel Hill community. My children are at Glenwood Elementary, and when they started in the language immersion program, we did not realize that was not just going to be students learning Chinese, that we would also be encountering students who were using that program to learn English. We learned very quickly, though, that a lot of the students in their classes, Chinese is the language spoken in their home. And for them, this is an important opportunity to work on their English and to also be in an environment where they could celebrate their culture and have it recognized and have resources that they could not have in other places. Teachers who know how to pronounce their names properly, teachers who can talk directly to a parent who may still be working on their English. Those are things
023that are really important. We're living in a time that, is frankly very difficult for a lot of people in immigrant communities, and I've heard some very specific and very troubling bile directed at the Chinese American community in particular over the past few years. Glenwood is an amazing community. It is a place that celebrates a diversity of cultures and gives many people a chance to come together, and it has provided a home and a refuge for a lot of people who are far away from their roots. And I think that Talking about closing Glenwood right now feels very troubling with everything else that's going on. Glenwood is a school with full enrollment. It's a school with great test scores. It's a school that's providing something very important. I've heard at these meetings you talk a great
024deal about the importance of diversity and inclusion, and I think that's great, but we would like to see that in action. And I do not think the closure of Glenwood serves that. Thank you. Thank you. So, there are two things I'd like to say the first one is of course, my speech. The second one is that my classmate Elena made a petition against closing Glenwood. Right now it has 274 signatures and counting, and this is the second day we've been working on it. Well, now I guess I'll move on to my speech. Glenwood is important to many students not only because it is one of the two schools in the district that has full enrollment, not 95%. It is also a school where no matter what your culture is, you are welcomed. World language takes
025Chinese once a week, and dual language takes Chinese classes almost every day, not counting the fact that our math and social studies are at least half taught in Chinese. Even if there is not Chinese in any class, the class is still helpful to people who speak almost entirely another language. Once in ELA, we were assigned to do an essay in groups, and a teacher helping translate for a student who speaks mostly Chinese told my group that the student's points were essential to that group's arguments. If you close Glenwood, you take a safe place away from kids who have done you no wrong. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Natalie Engler, and I'm an Ephesus 5th grader. Good evening. My name is Tobin Maris, and I am also an Ephesus 5th grader. We wrote a
026poem with our classmates' called Ephesus Is All of Us. Ephesus is a community. We stick together. Because it's not the place, it's the people. It's an opportunity when people can walk to school and feel joy. I made so many friends here. It made me change. It made me better. Ephesus was there for me when I was new. Ephesus is the place that feels like home. Ephesus is a really good place to belong. Ephesus is the most welcoming school ever. Ephesus means friends and support. Ephesus is a place to learn. Ephesus is a place to make new friends. We've been here for most of our life and we feel so welcome. We have amazing people Everyone is welcome here. Ephesus is our home away from home. A place where people can find others and fit in
027together like puzzle pieces. In Ephesus, we have a lot of amazing teachers and staff. Ephesus is the heart of our community. We may be little, but we make but we do big things. Thank you for our time. Thank you. Sherman. [SPEAKING CHINESE] Hello, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Nolan Lee, and I am here to share why I believe Glenwood Elementary School should remain open. Glenwood is more than just a school. It's a caring and supportive community where students feel safe, welcomed, and ready to learn. I came to Glenwood in 2024 from Charlotte in the middle of the school year. As I walked into the classroom, my teacher greeted me warmly, and when I sat down, the classmate next to me greeted me and soon became one of my best friends. Right away, I didn't
028feel like the new kid. I felt welcomed and belonged. That is what makes Glenwood special. It is a place where new students are welcomed and included, where teachers truly care, and where no one is left behind academically and socially and emotionally. If Glenwood closes, students will not just be moving to a new building, they will be losing a community. For many students, especially in 4th and 5th grade, changing schools can be difficult. It means leaving down leaving behind friendships, trusted teachers, and a place where they feel comfortable and confident. I respectfully ask you to think about this impact this choice will have on students and families. Glenwood is a community worth keeping. Once a Gator, always a Gator. Go Gators! Thank you for listening. Hello, my name is Sarah Abrahams. I am a Seawall PTA
029board member at large, a Chapel Hill High School graduate, GPAC and SNAC representative, and most importantly, a parent well, we recognize that the purpose of tonight's meeting is not to discuss closure. We, Seawalll community members, ask the board to consider the interaction between the proposed capital investment plan and the school closure study. If the district commits major capital funding to certain schools prior to full evaluation of schools for closure, it risks unintentionally predetermining which schools remain open later. This could result in Seawalll being penalized for fewer, fewer urgent facility needs, similar to what transpired with bond planning. We ask the board to ensure that capital investment decisions do not bias the closure study and that every school is evaluated fairly using the full set of criteria with weighting, scoring, or methodology that has been shared
030publicly. Without that, families cannot understand how conclusions will be reached or meaningfully engage with this process. We are also concerned that the current timeline allows only a very limited window between the release of the report and a final vote. For a decision of this magnitude, the board should ensure there is adequate time for public review, validation of data, and thoughtful consideration. As community members speak, we hope you recognize the unique and distinct assets that Seawalll offers to this district's portfolio. Thank you. Hi, my name is Mary. I am a Seawalll parent of a kindergartner. We want to highlight several facts about Seawalll that are directly relevant to the board's adopted closure criteria. First, capital maintenance. Seawalll has the lowest facility condition index among the schools under consideration. It is one of the most cost-effective sites
031to maintain over time. Closing Seawalll while keeping schools with the higher long-term maintenance needs would contradict the portfolio logic the district says it is using. Second, student enrollment and district reputation. Seawalll is the district's top-ranked elementary school according to both Niche and U.S. News. Its reputation is a real draw for families deciding where to live and where to enroll their children. Closing the district's highest-ranked elementary school would send a damaging message about Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School priorities. Third, equity. Seawall is highly diverse. About two-thirds of students are from minority backgrounds, and one-third qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Our students speak more than 20 languages, and our families come from 5 continents. Many families facing the greatest economic pressure face real barriers to participation in meetings like this. That should be understood as an equity
032issue. Finally, Seawalll hosts the LEAP program serving 4th and 5th grade students from across the district. Its value extends well beyond its attendance zone. For all of these reasons, Seawalll does not meet the case for closure. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Amanda Shea. Thank you for having us. I have 3 sons who've gone through Seawel, one who's currently attending, and one hopeful. Seawel is one of the district's most strategically valuable assets, with location-based, non-portable features that cannot be replicated or replaced at another site. Specifically, Seweall is adjacent to the protected Carolina North Forest. Seawel is the district's only elementary school immediately adjacent to protected forest, enabling curriculum-integrated outdoor learning without additional transportation costs. Access to nature excuse me access to nature at this caliber is an unparalleled benefit to the district portfolio that other public,
033private, and charter schools can't compete with. Seawalll is a nature-based campus with a rare design that provides outdoor transitions and aids students' emotion regulation while providing opportunities to explore nature. This is particularly beneficial for EC and neurodivergent learners, as these resets allow them to better access education throughout the day. The forest, the campus design, and the integrated outdoor learning environments cannot be duplicated at another site. Seawalll has outdoor learning resources like the garden and the Critter Corner, which are unique and utilized in many ways. This includes general education classroom and lunchtime visits, therapeutic visits, events, and after-school programs. These are district assets that already support cross-school partnerships and could be utilized further at no cost. For example, the East Chapel Hill High School's adapted curriculum class has visited the Critter Corner as part of their
034programming. Seawall's unique design, location, and resources make it perfect for a new kind of magnet one that integrates nature and intentional technology use. This would attract families who otherwise choose private, charter, or homeschool options. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. My name is Darsh Kothari, and I'm a parent of a second grader at Seawalll. I'm going to talk a little bit about the anticipated increase in enrollment. Seawalll is positioned to see the most increased enrollment for young from young families. Both Chapel Hill and Carrboro comprehensive plans identify Homestead Road near Seawall as a focus area for affordable to very affordable housing options for patients for families with median income. This growth is ongoing and based on the assumption that there would be a local elementary school option. At the same time, UNC Carolina North project is
035advancing with Phase 1 plan to include workforce and multifamily housing at a scale far beyond typical neighborhood-level development. Carolina North is expected to bring significant new housing within Seawall's catchment area beginning in 2027, the same time frame as a potential closure. Eliminating this location just as growth is arriving creates long-term planning risks that cannot easily be reversed. Seawall sits along the only completed section of the Bolling Creek Greenway. If the district values walkability, Seawalll represents the very best we can possibly do regarding safe routes to school as it connects many adjacent neighborhoods from affordable and missing middle homes. Seawalll has an incredible potential to be even more walkable with rezoning on the horizon. There are many adjacent neighborhoods with safe routes to school. Walkability is not just a convenience. It's a cost-saving and equity-supporting asset.
036Schools that reduce transportation demand lower long-term operational costs with increasing access for families. Housing investments, including affordable housing, were made with the expectation of a nearby school. For example, Summit at Homestead, a 117-unit townhome development, specifically highlights walkability to school and access to local schools in its planning materials. We ask that the final complete demographic projections be released and considered before any recommendation on school closure is made. Making permanent irreversible decisions based on incomplete projections creates unnecessary additional risk to the district. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Haley Turney. I'm a parent of a first-grade student at Seawalll. I'm also an EC teacher and the women's lacrosse coach at Carrboro High School. Seawalll is centrally located on a shared 90-acre pre-K-12 campus with the middle and high school, providing unique operational efficiencies
037and coordinated programming that benefit all students. This location is one of the district's most efficient and strategically valuable configurations, one that cannot be practically replicated anywhere else. Co-location provides operational logistics and strengthens emergency response. For example, during the Lawler fire in 2024, students quickly relocated to the middle school next door, leading to minimal disruption or lost instructional time. Daily interactions between schools foster mentorship for younger students and leadership opportunities for older students. Along these lines, I'd like to read a short statement written by two high school students who volunteer at Seawalll. Interacting with second grade teacher Ms. Backus, her instructional assistants, Ms. Thompson and Coach Don, and their students over the past two years has not only brightened our mornings but enriched our entire high school experience. What began as volunteer hours has become something
038much more meaningful to us because of the genuine connection, joy, and consistency it brings to us and the students at Seawall. However, this ability to spend 40 minutes with kids before our school day starts would not be possible without the close proximity of Chapel Hill High and Seawall Elementary. In order for future high schoolers and the elementary community to appreciate what has been brought What has brought so much joy to us, we can clearly see why it is imperative Seawall Elementary remains open. Silas Monday and Harper Ludwig, Chapel Hill High School. Good evening, I'm Chelsea Robinette, a teacher at Seawall. At the last meeting during public comments, someone said that building adjacency to middle and high school isn't an inherent benefit, and I wanted to speak about the benefits that I have experienced of being
039adjacent to the middle and high school. Some of the benefits that have occurred are that we've had Smith Middle School groups come and read with students. We've had Smith foreign language classes come and sing songs in French and Spanish, and So elementary siblings got to see their middle school siblings sing and point them out to their classmates. Eighth graders have done collaborative art projects with kindergartners where they took the monsters that kindergartners created and they made their own versions, sparking beautiful conversations between the two groups. First graders visited the Chapel Hill High School auditorium with the high school music teacher who had invited pianists to play different types of songs and rhythms. They got to dance along with the music and loved being in a special space for big kids learning about music. Many of
040them wanted to learn more about and talked about instruments they'd like to play. One super impactful example is the high school club Service for Everyone. It's when high school students spend their mornings in different classrooms. They also volunteer at school events like our big fall play day, dances, and field day. I've been so fortunate to have 4 consistent volunteers in my classroom 3 mornings a week. 2 of those 4 volunteers were students in my kindergarten student teaching class, and now they're seniors. I've gotten to see these students grow to be amazing people. They've made connections with my students over the past 2 years, allowing all students to have someone oh, sorry in the classroom to have special attention. They help them with reading and writing and having someone to tell their stories to, which a
041kindergartner loves. Those 4 amazing individuals came to our evening winter concert last year and brought a rose for all the students in my class. Kindergartners who were unable to attend the evening performance received their rose from the high schoolers the next day in class. Kids talked about the roses for months afterwards because they felt so special. I have been at Seawall for 13 years, which means the kids from my student teaching year who were in kindergarten are now seniors at Chapel Hill High. Because of this, I have gotten to see them grow up and do amazing things. These examples couldn't happen if we didn't have the adjacency to the middle and high school. I understand how fortunate we've been able to experience these things. Thank you for your time. Good evening, board members. My name
042is Elena Volpe, and I'm a senior at Chapel Hill High School and a Seawall alumnus who spent all 6 of my elementary school years there, as did my 2 older brothers and younger sister. Seawall Elementary School is where Service for Everyone, the club that I run at CHHS, experienced its renaissance. What started as 2 teenagers volunteering in a PE class has grown into a network of high schoolers who consistently choose helping out over sleeping in. Seeing the Banana Splits, who are the kindergartners I volunteer with 3 mornings a week, watching their faces light up when they see us is my favorite way to start my morning. Additionally, it reinforces the idea that the relationships we forge with these children are reciprocal. Outside of classroom hours, teachers, parents, and even students themselves ask us to come
043to school for events like Big Fall Play Day, the St. Patrick's Day dance and field day. With appreciation from every member of the Seahawk community, I get to witness the tangible impacts of our presence there. We serve as more than just bodies in the classroom too. Participating in one-on-one tutoring, small group work, and whole class activities gives us the chance to fortify the learning and character of our students. I spent hours at Seawall, ones I wouldn't go back to spend anyway. Closing this special elementary school wouldn't just be shuttering a building. It would be extinguishing a passion for service, a commitment to a community that shapes children in their most foundational years. I hope that my kindergartners will return to school to volunteer the way I did, their choice inspired by my own, a choice
044only possible if these doors remain open. Thank you. Hi, I'm Scott Babwa Brennan. I'm a parent of a first grader at Seawalll. We want to close tonight by returning to the importance of process and long-term planning to make decisions that do more than solve today's problem. We really appreciate the board bringing us into all to this discussion, and we ask that as we move through this process and get into findings, that analysis of criteria continue to be clear and transparent, preserving the community's trust in the board to solve the difficult problems that lay ahead. But we also ask you to make closure decisions in a way that preserves rather than forecloses future opportunities for students in this district. We ask that you think creatively about how to use Seawalll's unique assets to benefit students and
045craft a vision of a school and education that will draw families to public schools in our district. Seawalll's location, non-portable assets, and academic reputation are incredible assets to the district and to students, but they cannot be easily replicated elsewhere. Once Seawalll is closed, they are lost. Seawalll represents a rare combination of strong facilities, unparalleled strategic location, community diversity, and long-term growth potential. We ask that these factors be fully and transparently considered before any decision is made. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to speak again tonight. I'm the mom of two children at Glenwood, and tonight I'm going to share a very deeply personal story to highlight why Glenwood matters so much, not just to my family, but other families like mine at Glenwood. My husband is Chinese, and our children are half white and
046half Chinese. And from the moment my son was born, I knew he would encounter assumptions and hurtful words aimed toward him because of his skin color, his hair color, and the shape of his eyes. Since then, I've told myself, you better be ready. This is going to happen. When my son was in kindergarten, we were at a playground a day I probably wouldn't even remember, except another child asked my son, are you an American? I couldn't even believe it. I was like, not in Carrboro, but yes, in Carrboro. And I was thinking to myself, did I hear what I just thought I heard? Definitely I had. And I was scanning, taking inventory to see if my son had heard it. Luckily, he hadn't. Soon we headed home, and I remember feeling like I was in
047a fog or a daze or even hungover. I was just trying to process what I had heard. And so then I remember thinking to myself, you better get ready. That's not the last time something like that's going to happen to you. It's going to happen again. And about a year later, when my son was in first grade and 6 years old, again at a playground, any other day, a child asked my son, are you an American? But this time he definitely heard it. And you're probably wondering what he said. His response is important, but not because of the words themselves, but because what his words reveal. He looked at the child and he said, What's an American? I guess we hadn't covered that yet. And in that moment, I knew he had never been asked
048this at Glenwood. Think about that. By age 6, with an hour a week at community playgrounds, he had been asked it twice. 30 hours a week, he had never been asked this. And it's why it's so important to us. Thank you very much. I don't think we're related, but maybe, I don't know. Good evening, I'm Nancy Shen. I know that declining enrollment and school closure is a big topic tonight, and sadly, 2 months ago we unenrolled our 3rd grader from Chapel Hill Schools, and it was due to technology, specifically technology. I'm here today, today to share our experience and hope for change so maybe one day we can return. Our experience with technology can be summarized into 3 points. One, the gamified school apps caused my son to prioritize earning points, tokens, and badges over
049learning material. He fell behind academically, and so we started intensive tutoring at home similar to other families. Two, him and his friends were distracted on their Chromebooks. They played games and created collapsible tabs to hide it from teachers. These are third graders. And 3, which is what did us in: despite limited screen time at home, he developed digital addiction-like behaviors towards the school-based apps, including preoccupation, deception, and the desire to use the apps to escape bad feelings. If left unchecked, he could end up being part of the 25% of teenagers struggling with digital addiction today. What's interesting was during our search, we met other families with similar concerns, and some private schools in our area even shared that they have learned the hard way and have since scaled back on technology. I hope the board
050will take our experience into consideration, especially as the upcoming digital learning plan is being drafted. Thank you. Hello, Board of Education. My name is Bank Levin. I am a senior at Chapel Hill High School. I'm very happy to be here tonight. I know I only have 2 minutes, but what I'm talking about, I'm really passionate about, so I hope that's communicated in that time. The past year I have worked with my, my scout troop, my disc golf club, my fellow coaches, my athletic director, to build a disc golf course at my high school. Back in 2006, the Chapel Hill High School bought 18 disc golf baskets, and 7 of those baskets were placed randomly around the school in no safe, organized fairways, and players had no way of playing without interfering with other sports. So
051I took that upon myself through my Eagle Scout project to build a course in the woods around our wonderful campus. And since then, we've harnessed I have 20 active club members. I'm in track and after school every day. The 6 holes are right by the track. I see families playing, elementary school students, middle school students. It's exactly what all of these words are and what you're trying to embody in the Board of Education. It's engaging everyone. It's a community asset. In life, I have a vision, and that vision is to deliver an 18-hole disc golf course. I have the people, I have the support, and I've raised $3,000 to bring this to the finish line. But in that in the center of that triangle are two things, and that is a deadline and your approval.
052The reason why I'm seeking your approval now is because I was doing some personal research and I ran into a little bit of a crossroads as it relates to a land issue in that the first 6 holes are on the Board of Education ground, and then the future 12 holes that I want to make are on the state land, which is leased to the school. And I went to the GIS tax office, and they were like, it's the Board of Education's jurisdiction. And that's why I'm here tonight. And I just, I just want you to say yes because this is so important to me. And I, I have 2 months until I'm not a senior anymore, and I can't leave this school without a full 18-hole course that I can come back to when I'm
053older and know that all the kids that I've supported in teaching disc golf can leave this school with an awesome opportunity. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Hello, I am Jack Martin, and I address the board as a formerly homebound student as well, just like Ryan. And my concerns are similar. When I was first homebound this year, early this year, I was homebound for 6 months due to chronic illness, and I was bedridden, and that isolated me from my community. I was homebound, which is a program meant to help students who are ill learn. But as I was bedridden for 1, 2, and 3 months, I I couldn't get in contact with any of my friends. I couldn't access school mental health services. And even as I got better, near the third month, my
054contract for homebound hadn't run out. And so I was getting better each day, but I was just waiting at home, and I wasn't allowed to go into school. I wasn't allowed to see any of my friends. And that turned what was a physical issue into a mental issue. And it was just crippling loneliness. And this is a problem that can be solved easily. And just by essentially your word, homebound students can come in to the school at no cost to the district just to see their friends. And that is something that would make such a profound difference in their lives. This is why I'm asking for change. This could not come at a more relevant time when there's a need for school enrollment. A lot of parents who have children who may need to be
055homebound don't do it because of the restrictions in this program. When we honor the school social workers tonight, homebound students are excluded from all the things that are listed in your proclamation, despite disability being listed first among the barriers for learning. Thank you for your time. All right, thank you. Those were all our speakers who had signed up in advance. Does anyone wish to make a public comment for items not on work session at this time? If you might if you don't mind coming forward and lining up. Yeah, if we could. Yeah. We just have one additional speaker. Is that it? Okay, thank you. So good evening, my name is Ishay Falik. I'm a father of 3 kids in, Glenwood, so first grader to fifth grader. Last time I spoke about excellence, so this time
056I want to speak about choice. I think the United States is all about choice, and I think people make choice. They send their kids to these wonderful schools. I was really impressed with all the kids that were speaking here that are the production of this wonderful teaching, caring system. Now there's nothing that is more, I would say, weird to me to listen that there is a district. There is no district, there are people. And let's say that you were the board of the Louvre in Paris. They would tell you, you should do your thing, and one day they come up to you and say, hey guys, because we need some efficiency, then you have to take apart the Mona Lisa. That's it, that's what you need to do. And because of the laws, you know,
057there's a JD here, so the law of conservation of matter, so if you put the frame in this room and you put the canvas in this room and you take all the colors apart, so nothing is lost, but everything is lost. Those wonderful kids that you just saw here, This thing is lost. Now, you haven't seen my kid, my first-year-old. He went here and met Wai Wai. Wai Wai is a Chinese boy, my kid is a white boy, and they're friends. His father invited us to watch a movie together at Silver Spot, and I thought, this is a bridge. And your choice, if I may say, is to say We are not going to play that role. We're not going to break down the Mona Lisa because of some efficiency. So the ball is in
058your court. Good luck. Thank you. All right. Thank you, everyone. Or did you want to speak as well? Okay. If we have any other speakers, if you don't mind coming forward just so I can kind of keep track of everyone. Thank you. Hello, board members and community members. Thank you all for coming, and I hope everyone's having a great day. My name is Matthew Giordino. I am a Carborro High School teacher. That's my third year teaching here at Carborro and my ninth year in teaching. I'm originally from Illinois, and so I grew up in the system of education here. And this is my 5th district that I've either worked or lived in. And since joining here at Carboro, I have seen a huge difference in the strength of the community of, not only my school,
059but the students, in the environment. Never thought I would learn, like the first day I started working at Carboro, about field hockey from a parent. But I am serving as the faculty advisor in addition to teaching for the Home Unbound, which Ryan and Jack are a part of. And I've worked with Ryan the past 3 years now as her Homebound instructor as well. And this is just an amazing opportunity, for the students who aren't necessarily a typical part of the traditional school community that between different generations has changed drastically. From when I was in school to when some of my co-teachers, have been in school. And what I'm really asking the board and the community to think about is with all the changes that are going on with the potential closings for the school and
060the camaraderie, the community that is an astounding part of why I am proud to be a teacher here, in CHCCS, I'm just asking that Home and Bound have the opportunity to help the students connect, be it sometimes going into schools and being part of programs like the SGA, being involved with others and getting to connect and have that more traditional side, even if it's once a week or once a month. Again, there's a lot I could say, but thank you all very much for your time and your consideration. Thank you. Thank you. All right, thank you so much, everyone. The next item on the agenda is our consent agenda. Board members, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. All right, we have a motion from Meredith. May I get a second?
061I'll second it. A second from Melinda. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Great, thank you so much. All right, next up is our discussion and action, and it looks like we just have one item, and this is a request to approve policies as part of our review cycle process that do not require any policy updates. I don't know if we have anyone See Ms. Reeves coming up. Thank you. Good evening, members of the board, members of the public, and our superintendent. So during our February 17th Policy Committee meeting, our board attorney recommended that we bring this process before the full board for discussion. We have engaged in a policy review cycle of our policies in our manual. The there are instances where we analyze policies, but there are no actual revisions that
062are needed. We typically are looking at our policies that might be from the '90s or the early 2000s. And so the committee would like to recommend a process by which we look at the policies first, and then we bring them to the board on consent. That's what they're proposing. But again, As part of this process, the policies do not require any changes. Like I said, they will be formally noted as reviewed at the bottom of the policy and along with the date. Uh, so for example, tonight, policy 6520, use of equipment was reviewed by a content specialist and there were no revisions recommended. And so we would add those policies in bulk to bring them before you, on consent. So, at this time I can take any questions that you might have, any, or any
063of the members of our committee can answer any questions as you align on this process or think through anything else. Madam Chair, if I may, board members, to explain why this is different, the proposal that's different from a normal process, it would be to start noting on a policy that it was reviewed on a certain date. And the discussion was if, if in the policy manuals it's going to show a policy was reviewed, then, you know, we need to make sure that it was either that it was reviewed by the board or that the board has sort of taken action to delegate to someone else to do that, so that it was some sort of board action. Okay, thank you. Board members, do you have questions? George? When I was reading this, I just was
064a little confused, which I guess sort of my state at times. I'm going back to the example then of 21-22, board members' contact with the public. So there's a sentence in there that I've always found to be obtuse, and it's the one that says something about board members generally should inform the superintendent. I've always taken that as generally, like, if I feel like it, or if I think about it, or like that doesn't seem like policy. So in one like this, what are we exactly saying? Would this just be like not read by anybody and put on consent, and then if I happen to see it And then why would we not just send it to policy and read it and pass it on? I'm just confused. I'm not being critical. It's been sent to
065policy, right? Right. And the policy committee didn't recommend any changes. And so previously, I think it would have just not been brought to the board. But my thought Oh, okay. So it wouldn't come at all previously, is what you're saying? So now we're going to note on the policy that it was reviewed. During the 2016. I gotcha, okay. Yeah. Thank you. And if you saw changes that you'd like to make with the policy, then you would have to pull that particular policy. Right, which we can always do anyway. Yeah, okay. Go ahead, Barb. I support this, and I have a suggestion that's tangentially related to this, and I'm gonna shoehorn it into this agenda item. Oh. Go ahead. I'm waiting patiently. One thing that we did that I thought was really great is when the
066curriculum curriculum and instruction audit happened, there were a lot of suggestions for policy changes, and I think we did them correct, we did them in bulk. And, I was wondering if something similar could occur with the digital learning. And it could be that there's not enough policies to make it worth it, but I just yeah, that's a big effort right now. And I think we have technology kind of all over our policies, and so if we're going to be kind of thematic and strategic about how we review policies I just was requesting if policy could, could consider that. That makes sense. And I have shared with the Digital Learning Committee the relevant technology policies, and so that is underway. Yeah, but I do think the ask in front of the board is a little different
067than like what you're saying, Barb. This is just like when we have a group of policies that have no changes, then instead of just not bringing it, I think it's it's just a good process just to say it's been reviewed, no changes. Correct. Okay. I don't know if other policy members have anything else to add, but I think that's what we that's what we discussed. So, okay. All right. Yeah, so this is a discussion and action item, board members. So do I have a motion to, I guess are we we're approving these policies, but are we also approving this process too, Eva? Is, is it two parts? That was really, I think that, that was really the, the question was, do you approve of this process? Okay and then I suppose for policy, but then
068we also need sure, they'll just it'll just be on consent. Yeah, but we also need to approve these policies too. Okay, so maybe we do two quick motions one is, is there a motion to approve this policy review process, or review cycle process as proposed. Okay, we've got Barb and a second. A second. A second from Vicki. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And then the next motion is, approval of Policy 21-22-6520, 65-22, and 23-21. Do I have a motion to approve those policies? So moved. A motion from Meredith and a second. I'll second it. Okay, a second from Melinda. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Are you abstaining, George? Yeah. Okay, so George is abstaining. That one sentence? I don't, I don't, I don't have the energy to
069get into it at the moment, but, you know, I've made my statement. You can always request that it be brought back to policy for review. I don't have a problem with that. Okay, thank you, George. Okay, next item on our agenda, is the superintendent's report. And it looks like we've got the first item is feedback on the 2027-28 traditional calendar. And I see Dr. Stewart coming forward. Welcome, Dr. Stewart. Thank you, Madam Chair, board members, Superintendent Trice, community members, and colleagues. Uh, I'm before you tonight to seek, board feedback for, the 2027-2028 calendar cycle. Um, as the board will recall, the calendar committee a few years ago went to a process of ensuring that we had calendars prepared 2 years in advance for all stakeholders to allow parents, better opportunity to plan in the future.
070So we're coming before you tonight looking 2 years down the line, to get your feedback so we can take it back to calendar committee and then bring it back to the board for final approval. So our process, the district seeks to have a collaborative effort between stakeholders parents, faith-based community, the district, our our different committees across the district to ensure that we create a calendar that is both inclusive and representative of our community and our priorities. We begin this process in November of every year. We meet in a hybrid format where I am actually here with district representatives and we allow individuals to come in and meet with us. And we also have it in WebEx as well. Our calendar is, it follows the state law. So it's, we have 11 state laws that we
071must make sure our calendar adheres to. Uh, it's everything from when school starts. So school must start the Monday closest to August 26th of every year, and it must end no later than the Friday closest to June 11th every year. We cannot have school on Sundays. We cannot have school on Veterans Day. We must have at least 9 teacher workdays, at least 10 annual leave days, and the calendar must cover at least 9 months. Our CHCCS calendar is built upon hours, not upon days, which means we have to have at least 1,025 instructional hours. Now, our calendar always has more than that because we build in inclement weather days as well. So we strive to have at least 3 inclement weather days. This calendar draft that we're about to view actually has 174 days in
072it, which is, on par with what our calendars have looked like the last 5 years. Major topics and things that we've looked at that have bubbled up the last few years, and we bring them to committee every year and we bring before the board every a few years ago, the committee made the recommendation and the board approved it to extend the Thanksgiving holiday to a full week. Uh, and I'll discuss that more, shortly. Uh, spring break, where should we place it? Should it be the first week or the second week in April? Uh, also district PL days, what should we do with them? Where should they be placed? We wanted to make sure this year that we gave a lot of, focus on the high school and block scheduling, making sure that we did our
073very best to try to balance semesters over balancing quarters. So, our high school and our instructional people told us that that was the most important thing. So you will see that our quarters may not be equal, but our semesters are fairly close. And also, we also wanted to make sure that our elementary schools had a full 9 weeks in every quarter in order to teach their curriculum. We also have our observances here, and I'll go to that slide. So with our observances, what we have, we've notated them. Every observance that we've added to the calendar over the past 4 years is still, represented in this calendar cycle as well. If they occur on a weekend, we would note them. So the draft In looking at the draft and going month by month, and I'll try
074to go over this quickly. First, we should note that our semesters, the first semester had 88 days in it and the second semester had 86 days in it. So that was our attempt to balance them. Those observances are noted on days as well as weekend, weekdays as well as weekends. In August, we had 5 in-service days for staff. The first day of school was August 23rd. In September, Labor Day occurred on the 6th of September, and we had a district PL day on the 24th. We noted in October on the 2nd, Rosh Hashanah, on that Saturday, and we had an optional teacher workday added on the 11th for Yom Kippur. The quarter would end on the 22nd of October, and that would give us 42 days in the first quarter. Diwali would be observed on
075the 29th. This would be an optional teacher workday and would also give teachers the opportunity for conferences at the end of the first quarter. Hypothetically speaking, this was something that the committee wanted to hear the board's feedback on. If we were to move the September 24th teacher workday to November 1st, we would in essence give the students a mini winter break. And it would also give teachers the opportunity to undertake first quarter conferences because November 2nd is Election Day. And because our buildings are used, at least 10 of our buildings are used during elections, we go virtually that day. That's usually a telework day for the district. Veterans Day is on November 11th, and the Thanksgiving break would be the week of the 22nd through the 26th our committee always brings before the board the
076question of whether or not we want to keep a full week at Thanksgiving. And I will, show you shortly some attendance data, so you can make your decision on that as well and give us some feedback. Winter break, begins on December 20th and runs through January 2nd. The King holiday was noted on January 17th. The third quarter excuse me, the second quarter ends on the 21st, and there are 46 days in the second quarter. The Lunar New Year is observed on January the 26th. In the month of February, we had two teacher workdays on the 14th and 28th, and the observance of Edelfeier is noted on February the 26th, on that Saturday. In March, because this is an even year, we had to designate a primary election day on the 7th. Uh, the quarter would
077end on the 29th, which would give us 43 days in the third quarter with a teacher workday on the 30th for grades. Moving into April, we placed spring break, the 10th through the 14th, which also allowed us to capture the start of Passover. At that time. May, we always have to designate an even year even though it may not be used, and it may revert to a regular day of school, a possible runoff election day, on May 9th with Memorial Day on May 29th. The last day of school would be June 8th, giving us 43 days for the fourth quarter. Uh, June 9th would be a teacher work day And the dates between August 16th and June 9th would give us the required 215 workdays for teachers that is required by the state. So when
078looking at attendance data and bringing up Thanksgiving, whether we should do this, I wanted to try to bring before the board all of our data from the last 3 years. So if we look at the years '22 and '23, comparing apples to apples, because those years we actually had a 3-day break at Thanksgiving. You can see that what we did was we took the day before the break and the week prior to it, and you can see the attendance, drop there. When we moved to taking a full week at Thanksgiving, you can see that our attendance numbers actually moved up in 2024. Now at the bottom of this slide, and I apologize for this slide being very busy, but at the bottom of the slide you will see, this, this school year's Thanksgiving data. I
079wanted to note that all of our days were above 90%, but I also wanted to note that our community as well as our region was going through some fear and some angst because we had some governmental interference going on at that time. So while we were above 90%, we did have some student absences related to that. This is a slide from last year that I wanted to bring back before the board. We had over 1,300 parents that responded to our survey, in 2024, concerning the Thanksgiving week. And you can see that over 800 of them were in agreement to keep it at one week, 25% said, disagreed, and we had 8%, that had no opinion on it. And that is all we have for our calendar, and we're seeking feedback from the board at this
080time. Board members, do you have any questions or comments? Vicki, go ahead Dr. Stewart, on March 31st, 2028, you said that the 30th would be a workday. Yes, ma'am. What, what about the 31st? The 31st would be a day of school so, and one of our issues with we really wanted to capture, Passover, because we captured it in the '26-'27 calendar. So we did not want to drop anything off. Uh, one of the issues that we had here was extending, that, quarter all the way to the East the, spring break would have taken up a lot of time. It really would have imbalanced those quarters. So that's why we stopped there, to try to, achieve a little balance there. So we would be out on the Thursday and they would actually have school day on
081Friday. Yes, ma'am. Other questions? Go ahead, Barb. Thank you, Dr. Stewart. You always your committee does a great job. Were you asking for our feedback on September 24th, whether to move that teacher workday to November? Yes, ma'am. Okay. I mean, there may be something I'm missing, but I feel like we already have so many days that we miss in November. So I guess personally I would not be in favor of that unless, like I said, there's some really compelling reason. And the other point I wanted to raise was that the week of November, the optional are those first 3 days optional teacher workdays or not optional? November 22nd, 23rd, 24th? Yes. Yes, ma'am, they are optional teacher workdays. Okay. And are teachers able to do them remotely if they use them? Or I thought maybe
082this year there was some inconsistency among the schools about whether that was the case in I heard from various people that created some issues. So I don't know if we could just have the same policy on that everywhere. Yes, ma'am. So I guess what I'll be asking is, is the board's opinion on that and the superintendent's recommendation so that when I make sure that this calendar is published, so we have clarity across the board, they will be optional teacher workdays, but will they have a virtual option, I believe is what you're asking. Okay. Any other comments, thoughts? Going back to the September 24th date, I'm curious what were the staff's opinions on, on that. You know, school starts on the 23rd and I have some questions about that, but there's not another teacher work day
083until the 24th of September? Yes, ma'am. And so if it's not that date, then the next teacher work day would be the 11th of October? Yes, ma'am. So what were the staff's comments on that? So this was a this came from the committee. Okay. It was a hypothetical that the committee wanted to pose and put out. You'll note that the draft that we have has the workday in September. Yeah. So that was our original thinking and where we were wanting it to be, but I did want to be transparent. It did come up in our committee's discussion, and our committee was actually torn about it. So rather than make an absolute decision for the committee, I said that I would bring it before the board and get board feedback on it. Okay. And there's still
084a teacher workday on the 29th of October. Yes. So, so it could be we're creating an yeah, like you said, we're creating a very extra long break leading into a 1-week break in November, which then leads into a 2-week break in December. Yes, and there are 2 days on the 29th of October as well as the 2nd of November for us to be able to take care of our conferences. Yeah, okay. My inclination would be keeping it on September 24th, just because I and again, you know, my hope is at least we're spreading out the teacher workday so it gives opportunities for the staff to get professional development throughout, you know, kind of the, the year versus clustering it. Yes, ma'am. That's just my thought. And then my other question, so that language about when
085school can start, I always feel like we start the Monday right before the Labor Day holiday, but this time we're gonna be starting because of whatever, however the language is, the 23rd, which is we'll go to school for 2 weeks and then we'll have the holiday. Yes. So was there a reason to not start it on, start school on the 30th, or if starting on the 30th it would create issues with the staff workdays? Well, it would, it would. There's two reasons for it. It would shorten our student days and our instructional hours. We would have to take off that week's worth of instructional hours. The other thing is just looking at the letter of the law, it tells us that we must start school the Monday closest to the 26th of August. So that
086Monday is the 23rd, right? Yeah. So I think this is helpful that we're talking about it now because then for like people who are planning, it does theoretically shorten this kind of the summer timing for them. Yes, by a few days. Okay. Thank you. Go ahead, Barb. Um, this isn't exactly on your in your presentation, but I think, do we or could we have a kind of policy on whether or not we can use teacher workdays for inclement weather? Because I mean, we did this year, and I think, like, I support it, but I think some people were not expecting it. And so I just didn't know. Teacher workdays for inclement weather? Yes. Didn't we do that this year? So the inclement weather policy That one day. What we have to do, and that was
087the last thing I said with the calendar slide, we have to by law have 215 working days for staff. So between, August the 16th and June the 9th, that gives us exactly the 215 workdays. That's why during inclement weather days, doing things like that, we have to offer the option to our staff, a virtual, excuse me, an optional workday to our staff, if we give them that day off, we actually violate the law because we've reduced the amount of days that they work and it would be under the 215. I think the question that Barb was asking, it was when we had the inclement weather and we were supposed to have a teacher workday and we swapped it. And so it was, we did the, we did a Yes. In December. Yes. So in December
088we had inclement weather on a Monday and we were set to have a professional development day on Wednesday. That's right. And in order for us to maintain our hours, our banked hours for inclement weather, which we just used this week, we were able to take those days, take that day and move the teacher workday from the Wednesday to the Monday. Okay. Um, that's well within our parameters, well within the superintendent's purview to make that decision because it is a working day for staff either way, whether students are in the building or not, is still a working day for staff. And we adhere to the number of teacher workdays that were also required to provide to them as well. Yes, ma'am. Any other questions, comments, thoughts? I just, you know, I'll ask this question. I know
089with the long breaks like the November Thanksgiving break, how is, how does that work for things like community school offering childcare and things like that? So typically, when we are in school, that is when community schools, they follow the calendar. So if students are there, they operate. If students are not there, they usually do not operate on those days. Do they not still do teacher workday camps sometimes? I will have to check. I hear Ms. Reeves saying they do. Yeah. Thank you, Ms. Reeves. because I'm curious, and it's been a very long time, and I think my kids may have been out of that time when they did teacher workday and when we had the full week off for Thanksgiving. But I'd be curious during that week if, if the teacher workday can't operate for
090community school. So specifically that week in November, specifically that week, because not all working parents get the full week off, right? Like, I a lot of workplaces, they either give the Thanksgiving Day only and the Friday is a workday, or it's a float day, or they give only the Thursday and the Friday. So, so, you know, we, I mean, we still have a number of kids who, parents who said, you know, over 200 families who indicated that they didn't want that week. There might be reasons why. I didn't think to ask, you know, any additional data on those 200 families, if they were elementary age, you know, elementary and lower middle school, like 6th grade, where parents may not want to leave their 6th graders at home alone. Yes so things like that. So I
091can attempt to go back with Dr. Vilwoek and look into it because we have that information, it's cataloged. So we can go through. Thank you. Do we have any other questions, board members, or comments? Okay. And this will come back to us, Dr. Stewart, since this is just on superintendent update, correct? Yes, ma'am. So There's not a lot of here. I will make sure that I get the board this information, whether in a board report. If you request for it to come back on DNA, I'll do that. If you prefer it to come back on consent, I'll do that. Either way, I'm fine with it, ma'am. I don't know, board members, do you want to see it on discussion and action? Okay, let's bring it back on discussion and action. All right, all right, thank
092you. Oh, this is you again. Our next item on superintendent's update is, feedback on, the ROI and the subsequent 2026 custodial RFP. Yes, ma'am. So thank you once again. So it is the goal of the operations division to be both efficient and effective and to reduce costs across our division. So a few years ago, we started a process that we have remained true to and being able to, one, strategically hire, two, reduce costs and really take a look at our contracted services. So tonight we want to present to the board some of our findings and some of the successes that we've had and take a look at some things that we're mapping out for the future as well. So what have we accomplished thus far? Over the last 5 years, we have been able to
093reduce contracted services and transportation by nearly $600,000. We were able to go from 3 vendors down to 1 vendor with competitive pricing. Last year, we brought before the board a new contract, and that actually saved the district some additional funding. We've also been able to Uh, we were awarded grants from the Center for Safer Schools, over $1 million, which has helped us with our capital expenses. So those things in the fire safety and security line items that normally would go to safety are now deferred and they get to go in other places. So we've been able to work on fire alarm systems and those types of things with those monies. Uh, we were able to eliminate a landscaping contract that the district had, that was longstanding contract. Uh, and it was through strategic hiring as
094well as reorganization within our maintenance department, which really helped us to be able to grow the grounds department, reduce that and save, over $100,000. So the maintenance reorg only netted us $13,000, but what it allowed us to do was to be able to hire, to change our landscape and be able to bring in some new candidates that have actually saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars in the HVAC department. Excuse me. Also, we've been able to increase meeting space throughout the district, and Dr. Trice eloquently spoke last night to this. The fact that we have been able to bring district meetings in-house now saves the district a lot of money, including this space that we're in tonight. And one of the things that we are Happiest about is the fact that we, through sustainability and
095some of the things that we've done, we were able to save in one year nearly a half million dollars, in utility costs. So, putting vacancy sensors in buildings like Smith Middle School. So basically how they work is that when teachers walk in, usually you would turn a light switch on. Now it's a sensor. So you hit the sensor. As long as there's movement in the classroom, it notices that. And it stays on. When you leave after, I believe it times out after 15 minutes and it automatically shuts off. One of the issues that we had across the district a few years ago, was if you rode around at night that our schools looked like it was, at noon. Uh, so we wanted to figure out ways that, without badgering our employees, how could we take
096care of that through the operations division. And we've had some success there. So that brings us to some of the things that we're looking at now, and some of them are smaller, some of them are larger. And tonight I want to talk to you about our custodial contract and where we are. So looking at this, just a quick snapshot, we, the district is currently spending about $5 million a year in custodial, and that's in day and evening, and it's not sustainable for us at this time. So We know we have to make some changes, and we are set this year to go out to RFP. So honestly, and being fully transparent, once I receive the board's feedback tonight, I will finish the draft of the RFP, and I hope to place the RFP by next
097week for custodial services. So what do we look like currently versus what are we proposing? So currently, we have day and evening splits. They are totally separate. Uh, our elementary schools have 1.5 daytime custodians, that are on the district side. And then they have evening, evening contractors coming in at night. Our middle schools have 2 full-time custodians on the district side and evening contractors coming in at night. And our high schools have 3 custodians with evening assistance. What we are proposing is to move our part-time positions to the contract, and then our full-time FTEs that we have would all stay on the district side. And through separation, when individuals retired, when individuals left the district, we would then move those positions over to the contract. This is similar to what we've done through in the
098food service division and through that, and that RFP is actually up as well. As well. Uh, and we are interviewing for that next week. Thank you, Dr. Griffin, for being a part of that, sir but we are looking to save the district money in the long run. So tonight I would not be able to give you a total in savings, but in 12 months I would let you know how much the delta would be from the $5 million that we're currently spending. Uh, one of the things that we also want to do is strengthen the partnership between the operations division and our schools to assist them with custodians and how things are going. So what our proposal looks like, and drilling way down here, we understand that schools need the most support during lunchtime and
099during dismissal. Currently we have some flaws there. So what we would do is we would also have a contractor working 8 hours bridging the day and evening. Also giving support at lunch and at the end of the school day. Uh, that would allow us to have 2 full-time individuals on campus in our elementary schools, 3 individuals, in our middle schools, 3 individuals in our high school excuse me, 2 in the middle schools, 3 in the high schools. And we would also still have that evening assistance coming in as well. Advantages is it would unify our scope. It would give us the ability to bridge the gap in communication and work, there would be a budgetary savings here, and, it would allow our current employees, the opportunities to stay on as long as they would like.
100And that's all I have tonight. So any feedback from the board would be welcomed at this time. All right, board members, any comments or questions? Go ahead, Vicki. So that essentially would mean we'd have additional working class, typically local folk, who would then be contracted out to no longer be district benefiting employees. We know that that has happened historically already with our food services because they're no longer district employees, they're contracted out, and that's affecting working class in our community. So how are we as a district going to be trying to while we're in a budget issue, I understand that's also causing an additional budget issue within the community itself because it's our more vulnerable citizens that are in these jobs already, and then they're going to be losing benefits because typically as they're being
101contracted out, they're losing some of that state security benefits. So what are we doing to make sure that we're looking at contracted companies that are going to be helping to ensure that they have like some healthcare and things of that nature, or making sure we're doing no harm, I'm saying. So two points there. First, in this proposal, everyone that has benefits remains with their benefits. No one would lose those benefits. Secondly, we can write in our proposal for the vendors to offer benefits to those individuals that they're actually hiring our part-time individuals that we would give the opportunity to move over to the contract are not, individuals that currently have benefits through the district because of the hours that they work. So it's the full-time FTEs, those that would remain on our side as long
102as they want. No pressure to move. They have full benefits and everything on the side with the district. And just to clarify, so like, let's say one of them retires I think you said this then that position would go to the contract? Upon separation, that FTE would then move to the contract. Okay, thank you. Go ahead, Barb do you anticipate any like challenges or issues when you have contracted people and district people there together at the same time? I mean, would it sort of be like one team? Are they all going to wear the same? Yes. Look the same. You won't be able to look and tell who's? You won't be able to look and tell who works for who. And they would all, in the day, answer to the, whoever the school's designee is
103to, supervise, custodial. So it would, it would not be a any type of issues with directives or what they look like. Thank you. I just want to say thank you. I know over the years that, you know, I served as the committee chair for finance facility operations. I know that was I always asked all of you, Mr. Scott, you and Mr. Shiroki, about ways how we can save money and constantly like, what can we bring in? What can, what, you know, like, is it better for us to do the work? Is it better for us to contract the work? Right? Like just thinking about the different things. And this is like a great point, you know, of there are some things bringing it in-house makes sense. It's more efficient. It's cheaper for us to do
104it. And then for things like contracted services for custodial work, I mean, the chart, it's like, it looks like it's better, you know, to move it to contracted services. I get Vicki's point, but I think as long as we can preserve existing staff remaining as state employees, that's lovely. But I think that's one of those things that's not cut and dry with every decision, you know, because I always remind myself we're in the business of educating people. We are not in the business of being a custodial company or, you know, food service. So sometimes we have to remind ourselves it might actually be cheaper to let some of those companies do what they do best because they have, you know, they have a lot of efficiencies in operation. So, and I would also add that
105with these decisions, our contract is for 3 years, so we would reevaluate this in 3 years. And if it became more cost-effective for us, or if we just found out that this is not working for the district, we could always reverse course and look at something different. Any other comments or questions? Okay, well, thank you, Dr. Stewart. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Okay, our next items on the agenda are work session, and the first of our work session items is going to be, the fiscal year '26-'27 local operating budget request just as a reminder to the public who are remaining, these are work session topics, and so after each work session topic, there will be public comment. Looks like we've got Mr. Scott coming forward. Thank you so much. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good
106evening. Good evening, board members, Superintendent Trice, fellow colleagues on cabinet, and the public. Tonight is we're pleased to bring you The first of several budget hearings and work sessions. Just to give a little brief history, we've been in the budget development process now for several months. The superintendent brought his recommended budget forward at the first meeting in March, and, you know, we're going to go through the remainder of the budget timeline. And tonight and through these upcoming work sessions. Typically, what we're trying to do is find some alignment between the Board of Education and their final request that will carry to the Board of County Commissioners on April 30th, and the superintendent's recommended budget that we brought forth earlier in March. Again, there's two work sessions tonight, being the first of two. It gives the
107board an opportunity to review, or I will go through, the superintendent's recommended budget at a little bit higher level. It gives the board the opportunity to really kind of put their own stamp on the budget request before we bring it to the Board of County Commissioners. Typically, in the first of the two work sessions, if the board wanted to see anything else included or excluded from the budget request, it would give us the opportunity to go back and kind of compile that information and bring it back at the next meeting. Typically, we would like to reach some type of consensus with the board at that next meeting, kind of an intent to adopt, if you will. That gives us the ability to create and draft the final budget request in a document format that really
108tells the budget story that we're able to bring to its in its entirety to the Board of County Commissioners April 30th. Again, a lot of what I'm going to present tonight was presented in March, and we've gone over it several times. So in the interest of time, recognizing the late hour, I'm going to kind of move through it quickly. If anybody has any questions as we go through, please feel free to stop me and I'll dive in a little bit deeper. Okay, so again, I'm going to start with a continuation budget. As we go through this evening and the superintendent's recommended budget, we really only focused on continuation drivers, recognizing that the county You know, we have a pretty deep understanding of the situation the county's in this year with their $21.5 million gap. We
109want to be mindful of that with the superintendent's budget request. So I'm going to focus primarily on continuation tonight. We'll talk a little bit about visioning in the future and whether or not the board wants to include some of that in a limited expansion request to the county. Again, student data. We've been hearing for 6 months that student enrollment is on the decline. Just to remind the board and the community, all of our funding is based on or is based in arrears enrollment. So we have funding numbers that we'll be using for next year that were solidified on the 40th day this year. That's true for both the state and the county. It's kind of nice, it's something new that the state of North Carolina is doing, and it gives us a really accurate number
110to plan our budgets for next year. Unfortunately for us this year, that does represent a decrease of about 277 students, which is similar to the amount the superintendent's been talking about for the last several, several months. Again, we've talked a lot about this. We still, now in March, do not have a state budget. We have been hearing that the General Assembly may take this up in April, so a lot of this is based on assumptions. So we are assuming a 4% increase to salaries and wages, also projecting state retirement and health insurance, an increase of 6% in state retirement, health insurance premiums increasing by 3.7%, and also including an inflationary adjustment of 4%. Still don't really know where that's going to go for the year, but it looks like Inflation may be starting to creep
111up on us again, so that 4% may actually be closer to reality than we thought. Again, this kind of breaks it down. You can see the primary part of the continuation is base salaries and matching benefits. All in all, we're looking at a total continuation need, or total continuation cost rather, of just under $3.7 million. That again is to continue providing services in the exact same manner that the district is providing them today, recognizing that we would have 277 less students in residence with us. Talking a little bit about projected revenue changes, we calculated in the superintendent's budget request a 2% increase in the special district tax. We calculated that at $591,000. I did hear back from the tax office earlier this week that they are projecting a number that's within $1,000 of that. So
112we feel pretty comfortable with that. So that again assumes no change to the special district tax rate. County appropriation obviously is set by the county commissioners. And as we talked about, we'll carry this forward to the county commissioners as a request that they fully fund it. Recognizing that typically we get about a 3% increase from the county. If that was to continue this year, we can estimate about $1.94 million from the county. We have learned a little bit though since the superintendent presented his budget. As we were looking at reductions in state funding because of the reduction of ADM, we were using a average per pupil, our best estimate of that. And there's kind of different costs that make up that per pupil. And there's you hear me talk a lot about fixed and variable
113costs with schools. There's also fixed and variable costs within the state public school fund. So every school gets one principal and their teachers allocated based on, you know, the number of kids. So there are a lot of fixed costs in there too. So we kind of overshot that. That estimate. We were estimating about $2.4 million in reduction. It turns out once we went through all the different program report codes in the state public school fund with the planning allotment, we're really only looking at a reduction of $1.87 million. When we presented the superintendent's recommended budget, we had assumed that we were going to have about a half a million dollar gap between what we're expecting from the state and what we were able to salvage, reducing class reducing allotments based on student allotments. So pleased
114to report that that $500,000 gap has now been pretty much addressed, and we can take that uncertainty out of the budget request. So some good news, happy to share. Made us very happy to be able to share that with you all tonight. So, you know, now we're going to be able to apply those revenue changes We had that $3.6 million or $3.7 million need. We're taking away the special district tax of $600,000, and now we're just under $3.1 million of need. So then kind of going through the same exercise that we have for the last few months, assuming that we get a 3% increase from the county, that will leave us with about a $1.1 million $1.2 million gap, down from $1.6 million that we presented several weeks ago. Second scenario, we talked a lot
115about the changing in the per pupil formula by the county. It now appears that it'll most likely be phased in over the course of several years. Still going to be some discussion about that. You all have an opportunity to meet jointly with the board on April 30th to discuss that further. In the event that that became a reality this year, we would be faced with a $2.8 I want to say that says $2.8, I need to get my eyes checked but that's a $2.8 million gap. And then again, we talked about if that funding formula was to change, and also the General Assembly took action this year with salary increases, and we had to pay those retroactively at our 3% estimate, that would give us a gap of about $4.6 million. So it's kind of
116nice some of this is starting to come into a little bit more clarity. So that's kind of where we are now. Then again, I just want to talk about fund balance because I think it's really crucial that we all, you know, are in alignment with this. I know the superintendent and the board's desire is to try to replenish that fund balance back to a level that's sustainable as soon as possible. So I want to talk again about The efforts the district has made by the implementation in our three-tiered reduction in force, we are estimating that we will add additional money to fund balance this year. That's creating a structural surplus in our budget that should continue over time until we can get fund balance back to the 2021 levels, which more accurately represents, I think,
117what a fund balance of districts of this size should have. So I just wanted to again point that out. If we stay on track and we're able to preserve that money, as I mentioned during the superintendent's budget, I think that we're going to see a similar to a mirror image of the, the drop in fund balance over the next couple years. And by the end of 2029, we should see ourselves back at similar levels, you know, over a 3-year rebuild period. So again, that is the that was the entirety of the superintendent's budget recommendation. Again, recognizing that the county is having a very austere year this year, we want to be mindful of that. We did, however, kind of preview some of the superintendent's pivot for the reimagining and realignment reinvestment. Again, whether or not
118this is included in the board's request to the county commissioners, I think we'll use it to highlight with them our vision or our shared vision of where the district wants to go over the next 3 years. So I just wanted to walk through that very quickly so that you all are kind of, you know, able to consider that as potential for inclusion in the budget. So the first item was basically to raise certified and classified supplements 1% a year for the next 3 years to basically end up with a 3% increase over the course of 3 years. Between the certified and classified employees, we estimate that will take about $900,000 a year. So if the board was so inclined, they could perhaps include in the expansion best guess, maybe, you know, perhaps you'd want to
119ask the county to fund the first year or any combination of 1, 2, or 3 years, but it's something that you could consider that would put us down the road for the pivot, you know, a little bit earlier than we had anticipated. Beyond that, again, there was a desire to build a sustainable curriculum fund. We're looking at it from a reinvestment lever standpoint of reinvestment of $250,000 in the first 2 years and then $500,000 in the 3rd year that would allow the district to retain a $1 million curriculum sustainability fund. Again, I think this might be another place the board may want to consider potentially including in an expansion budget if they so desire. And this just kind of spells it out. So again, any combination of that, if the board so desired to include
120in expansion budget. And again, that's, you know, just one of many things that the board could decide to alter the budget. Could also decide to alter continuation drivers if you so see fit. You know, again, it was a superintendent's budget recommendation. At this point, it's become the board's. So I guess at this point, I'd be happy to take any questions you might have, any feedback that you'd like to give me, anything you'd like to see us bring back for potential inclusion in the budget request, or, you know, if the board is satisfied with the budget as it is, we can go ahead and start drafting that instead. So turn it back over to you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Scott. Board members, do you have any comments or questions? Go ahead, Dr. Griffin. Thank you,
121Jonathan. Thanks, two things, and I'm trying to pick my words so that I don't offend somebody needlessly. It's not you if the county commissioners change the funding model, it seems to me we stand to lose a lot of money in the next few years, and I don't know if people totally understand that. Secondly, it how can I put it? It seems like they had the county commissioners are having budget woes like every public agency in the state is, including us. And we seem to be asked if we would bear some of that burden. And I don't think we're in a position to bear that burden. That's their burden in the sense that they determine how they spend their $200 million every year. And I'm a little uncomfortable with us getting soft messages that because they
122have a tight budget year, it might impact us. I think we need to be real clear that we have these needs and here's what they are. And I'm just that's why I say I'm picking my words because I don't want to to be pointing fingers at anybody, but I don't want to go into budget negotiations with, we're here to help you. They need to be there to help us. We're the ones who are getting torn financially everywhere. Federal, state, local, now you name it. And I don't think this is a year to not say that up front. And my last, and this is a question to you, I always hear, and I've been working at this for over 4 years to understand it, that they have a cap on the amount of their budget they
123spend on public schools. The number's 48%. But I get my property tax bill every year and it says 36% of your property taxes spent on public education. It's right there in the top of the bill. And I always get confused. Can you go talk a little bit about the way they get there? Because we're really looking at 3 or 4 different funding streams that I think they say add up. And, or maybe you just want to leave it as, okay, George, you made your point and we'll move on, because it's not hardly a question. But without having it in front of me, I will wait a little bit. When the county looks at that 48%. They also include debt service payments, so any capital borrowings they have, including the bond issue, that becomes part of
124the 48% that they fund public education, right? So the more debt that they take on, the less money that could potentially be available for local current expense. So that would be my assumption without looking you know, add a tax statement. George, that was a question I asked during School Collab because I read the notes, right? And so that was the response. The county said when they do say the 48%, it's the entire mix of funding for schools, both the debt capital side, right, and also the operational. The reality is we've got a lot more debt for schools. That means that operational side could be smaller if they hold to the 48%. Right. So, so 25 to 30 years ago, and you can look this up, the commissioners every year had a fight with it, with
125themselves, about the percent of money they should spend on public education. Education. And one of the commissioners at that time took the 4-year average, and it averaged out to 48%. And I can hand you the written material if you need it. And that 48% became their figure. And I wonder if it's time we asked them to relook at that, that just because it's there and it also, you know, Rhys, I appreciate what you're saying, It's like if we support the bond, are we then saying, well, we then are supporting a reduction in our continuation? Because that sounds like that doesn't sound like a way to approach a budget negotiation to me. Go ahead, Barb. Just to get clarity, are you saying you think we should have an expansion budget? Is that what you're saying? No,
126I'm saying we, we should be clear with them that we don't accept a change in their funding formula without a clear explanation, because we're going to lose big-time money in the next few years if we switch this and to just kind of go along. And I don't think we should be we should be aware that everybody's having a tight budget, but I don't think that should mitigate our being clear and forceful that we're asking for full funding of our continuation budget, which we don't get and we have never gotten. And so that we automatically lose every year. And then this sounds to me like we're going down a couple other roads where we're going to lose a little here and a little there in addition to what we always don't get. And I think maybe
127I think it's time to start saying a little more clearly publicly and to them that, you know, we recognize you guys have a budget, but so do we. So I just want to I think I understand what you're saying now. I wasn't following you 100%. Well, I'm not sure I thought it out that well, but I think what you're saying is if the county is funding at 48% and they give us a 3% per pupil, but our both school districts' pupil populations are dropping over the next 10 years and the county budget is expanding 3%, then as a function of math, the percent money available to the yes, that will decrease over time. That formula will drive down the percentage of the county budget that's funding public education, at least from the local current expense
128side. Yes. And I want to add, it assumes that the per pupil amount is correct. I think that's the flaw that I want to point out. I think that's where fine, if they go to the per pupil amount, I think that's where we need to really hone in on and say, well, then your per pupil amount is too low then, because that's not the reality of what it takes to educate a student in our district, because we're already starting at some of the lowest per pupil in the country, right? So that's like that doesn't make great sense to like, okay, so now we're already starting at some of the lowest in the country, and then yeah, we're doing great, and I'm not knocking what the county does for us, but that's not the reality of
129what it truly costs to educate children at the high level that we should. So I think we're and how they got to the per pupil was this is the pot of money we're willing to spend on education, and now this is your per pupil amount. So now they're going to change the formula and go to a per pupil amount, I think we should probably show to them the real per pupil cost to educate children is X amount of dollars. So the federal gives us this, the state gives us this, now you need to give us this. And whatever that dollar amount is, how are you, county, going to close this gap? So if it's I'm going to throw out a wild number $25,000 a student, And the federal gives us X amount and the state
130gives us X amount, then we would be going to the county saying, now are you going to close the gap for the rest? And it would be on them to say yes, no, and for the voters to say yes, no, we support it. I think that's one way we can look at it too, George. I mean, you know, I mean, ultimately they're going to make the decision they're going to make as the as a taxing authority. But I think we, if they do shift, I think that's where we need to start educating the public, the real cost to educate children. Understood. I mean, I agree. I just, I think it's incumbent on us, Risa, to start these conversations and not wait and kind of say, oh, okay, here, here we are on April 30th. Yeah.
131And you're telling us this and, and, you know, alert our public and get them involved if necessary. Yeah, no, I so that their voices are heard. I agree. And I know that was the, the phased-in approach was something that I think both districts were like, you can't just, you know, pull everything from underneath us, you know, for next year. That's not, that's not going to help us. And so I feel like the phased-in approach was the compromise, but I agree with you. I, like, again, we, you know, I agree with you that maybe we shouldn't compromise that until we get them on board with, okay, since you're changing the per now it's to a per pupil standpoint, can we have a discussion on whether that per pupil amount is right? And really the phased-in approach
132would just be an increase of less than 3%, right? You could phase it in, so now our increase is half a percent, 1%, 2%. Yeah, something like that. Fortunately though, the county manager will present his budget prior to us going to the joint meeting, so we'll have some clarity around at least what the administration of the county is thinking. As you all are probably aware, the way the county budget process works is the manager presents his budget in its entirety, then it's incumbent on commissioners to propose budget amendments. So I think there'll be a lot of clarity and opportunity for the boards to kind of discuss this at that collaborative meeting. But we should have a real good idea going into it what their intention is, and that should be out in a couple weeks,
133I think. You know, as I'm thinking about it, I guess this would be a thought for Dr. Trice and team, you know, if they're going to change it to per pupil, and this may be something we need to collaborate with Orange County, like, what is that dollar amount? Like, to deliver the high-quality education that we want, or greater Orange County, so not just Chapel Hill-Carver City schools, but greater Orange County, what is that true cost? Knowing that we've got cost of living challenges and everything else, and then the real cost of attracting and retaining and keeping schools at 100% fill rates, like, what is that true cost to educate students? I mean, that might be helpful of like a range of what that looks like, you know. And I would add to that, I mean,
134a part of the budget proposal is a curriculum fund, right? That's right in the sense that you're making, part of educating a student is having, you know, funding for curriculum. And why should that be, you know, a separate pot of money that we're seeking to get so that we can just very basically provide a standard curriculum for our children? So, you know, I don't think that's out of bounds. And, you know, in speaking with my counterparts, any change in the model would be consequential whether it's next year or the year after. If it is the year after, we still have to use next year to plan for what the reduction might be. I mean, certainly a longer runway, but still very consequential for our district. Board members, I think we'll break this apart to the
135continuation expansion. Any other comments on the continuation part? Just, I mean, okay, New York, this, I like your idea. New York spends $33,000 per pupil. North Carolina, South Carolina $14,000, North Carolina $12,000. Just saying. I know we're not New York, but Pennsylvania $21,000. Yeah, and I'd be curious, like, student performance data, you know, all those things. I'd be wanting to compare similar communities to ours in terms of cost of living because that really does make a difference. Because obviously our taxes are different than, say, a more rural part of North Carolina. And so I would hope that our per-pupil cost would be different because we have to pay people more to work and live here. We did an exercise similar to this a few years ago. Yeah. And we determined, like, obviously Chapel Hill-Carrboro is
136head and shoulders above the remainder of North Carolina in per-pupil expenses. And I think we ended up somebody in the audience just said the national average, and I think we were very close to our per-pupil was pretty much right at the top of the bell curve of the national average, if I recall. And that's been 3 or 4 years ago. Yeah, I like that idea, George, and I think if we turn it and flip it that way and get them thinking that way, it might help them. I don't know. Melinda, do you want to? I would also say, I mean, it dovetails with our state superintendent. As you know, the state strategic plan is all about best in the nation, and you know, why shouldn't we pursue that as well as a, you know, strategy
137and idea in our district, especially as we think about our new strategic plan that we'll be developing or starting to develop next year. I mean, these are the type of aspirational points that we need to shoot toward. Yeah. Go ahead, Meredith. Yeah. I mean, I can't add too much to the discussion we've already had, but I think, like, to stress that it's really incumbent upon the county to step in because our state won't. And I think our county is very friendly to public education in general. We have folks who have shown have a demonstrated commitment to public education, which I appreciate. And I think like this change kind of flies in the face of that. So I would really almost say that it's the responsibility of our county to step in when our state won't.
138I just want to say something very quick about the increase in the supplement, which I think is so important right now with the changes to the state health plan, which essentially gave, you know, our staff, I mean, a decrease in salary because they're paying more in premiums. So I really hope we can do everything we can to keep that in there. I will say with the expansion portion of the budget, I want us to tell the story. I don't think we should look at it as an expansion necessarily. For me, and I think Mr. Scott, you know this, I mean, I've just been a long advocate. We have to address staff salaries and really moving that needle. So I'd like for us to tell the story of what that really means for us, the work
139that we've done around salaries and how that's increased where we're staffing at 90 plus percent, I mean 95, 96% and higher. I get it, it's not big dollars when you look at it from like maybe individual employees' paychecks, but it makes a difference greater when you, when maybe some staff are choosing long-term between do I work here and make X amount of money or do I work somewhere else and make this amount of money? And I do hope over time we can move the need of our staff regardless of whether they are certified or classified employee, they can live and work here eventually over time. I know it'll take a lot of time and a lot of investment in it, but I think if we tell, tell the story more than just numbers on the
140page on why we want to, you know, invest in our expansion. Also with the curriculum investment and expansion, that shouldn't be an expansion item. That should be part of base operations. but here we are. And so I think telling what that means and the why behind it, and if not, then this is what happens. It at least, because not all of our commissioners were former school board members. And so I think it's just important to help tie, like, if this doesn't get funded, then it's like, then how are we going to fund it? Like, because it has to, curriculum stuff has to be. Can't remember the last bucket on the expansion, but I just, I think telling the story really matters. And I would say I would, I would include expansion to just like highlight
141like we need money for these things. These are real things that if we can see fit to do it again, I agree we shouldn't feel like we have to like quote, do the county any favors by making cuts. I think we're making cuts because we need to make the be operationally responsive with our budget. But I think if, if they see we have a plan, I would hope that they would make a plan to invest more back into public education too. It's a it's there's a lot of data, cause and effect data, like if you don't invest in public education, there's, there's long-term social impacts beyond in the school. So that would be my thought as a board member, is we include it, we should include it every year in hopes that maybe the county
142will look at, will continue to look at the investment in public school as truly an investment in greater Orange County too. So including it, I'm assuming you mean include it in its entirety, as in the full implementation, 3%? And I think so, but I mean, I think they need I think that helps them see the big picture vision of what we want to get to, and we just need to keep putting it in front of them every year until it, it happens, because that hasn't changed. I mean, we've been talking about that full implementation of the classified staff salary and also the supplements rate. We've been talking about that since I've been on the board. So I think we just need to keep reminding them that that hasn't changed. And if anything, maybe those numbers
143are stale. We probably need to do more. Are we going to be putting together our legislative agenda this year? Because the reason I'm asking too is that the more I've listened to colleagues on the board I get more worked up about it because I'm sitting here knowing that we're either 48th or 49th or 50th or 51st in teacher salaries in the United States. And we are the 9th largest state in the union. We are huge. We have over 12 million people. We have 1.5 million school-age children in this state, and we are dead last in teacher salaries. So we're not even at a starting point. I saw a teacher the other day who used to teach here saying he moved to South Carolina and he makes $18,000 more a year for the same job in
144South Carolina, which is right next door to us. Their cost of living and their everything isn't any different than ours, but they value education more than we do. At the state level. And I don't think this is the time for us and I'm not Jonathan, it's not about you, you just happen to be at the podium. But we have got to get more vocal about this in a sort of organized way. And if that means with our commissioners and just say, this is our reality and what we're facing here, and the community can make up its mind, just, you know, do we support it or do we just tell the schools, do the best you can? Because we know times are tough. And, you know, I think we can't afford to just be compliant in
145any form, whether it's with our commissioners or our state legislators or whomever. We just can't. I think, George, that's why I asked about the legislative agenda. We can work on that. I think there's no necessarily a time limit to get it to our elected. So we can we can talk about that and bring it forward on one of our next board meetings. Yeah, I mean, yeah. Okay, then if I will, I guess I'm sensing some energy of including in the board request the full implementation of both of the pivots. I believe if my math is correct, that would be about an additional $3.7 million in expansion, which is, to be quite honest, one of the smaller expansion budgets we've brought in the last few years. So we can get started on that and then bring
146it back at the next work session, give you another opportunity to review it, and we can fine-tune it from there. Yeah, there's one point I do want to make about the special district tax. I had somebody ask about this. Whenever we submit our budget, we always there's always this document or letter that goes with it, basically, that we, the school district, authorize and request that that, you know, the county can increase our special district tax. That goes out with every single request. So as because it's in the county's discretion and decision whether they increase. Like, we, we tell them we want them to every year, as a way to fund our continuation expansion requests. But again, that is all under the purview of the county. Right. As I understand the statute, and Miss Dubison may
147correct me if I'm wrong, I believe you have to ask, otherwise they won't even do it. They're not allowed to raise it. So is that right, the special district? Right, unless we ask for it. Yeah, right. So that's why we do include that in every, every transmission. Yeah. Okay, go ahead, Meredith. Can I ask a question? Do, does anyone here know offhand, like, when the last time there was a rate increase in the special district tax? Well, we just Yeah, we just did it. Okay. Sure. Okay. Yeah. But obviously they what is it with the I'm not a tax person for the staff. Yeah, so there was a revaluation. Yeah. And as such, the rate was I don't know the rates off the top of my head, but it was reduced from, I think, somewhere
148around 20 cents per I can't recall. It might have been 18.3 cents reduced down with the reevaluation. And then Commissioner Fowler made a motion to increase it by and again, I don't know the exact amount, but the increase provided an additional $700,000 to $800,000 for us in the current fiscal year. That's why I should be a little more read in on it, but I can't remember. Probably did see an increase in your tax bill for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City residents. So, okay. All right, any other comments? Mr. Scott, do you have what you need? I have everything I need. Thank you. Okay. This is a work session item, so we will have public comment. Thank you, Mr. Scott. So got a small group. I'll just read this spiel really quick. Public comments for work session items
149again are for 2 minutes on the work session item. People need translation, please speak slowly. We might still have some translation happening. Any student organizations, SIT, teacher organizations? Okay. Did anyone sign up? Okay, I see a hand. You can come forward. Make sure you state your name. Thank you, and you have 2 minutes. So again, the name is Push your button. So again, thank you. The name is Ishaq Falik. Let me first congratulate you. That was the first time that I was hearing some rage, some awakening, because you're thinking out of the box when you say Is that enough? We should fight for education. Now, for the people up there, this is maybe a transparent investment, maybe even an invisible investment, because, you know, it takes like 18 years for a kid, you know, to
150finish, to graduate school. So you don't see the fruits. Now I am an ophthalmologist. And what I do, I reconstruct eyes with stem cells. So you'd say, this little amount of cells, why do we need them? Let's invest in the major population. They don't have young kids. Their kids are maybe not in, you know, elementary schools. But those stem cells, they maintain the integrity of the whole face of the eye. So otherwise, the person won't see. So I think the investment here is very important. Now, we had a case of the SMA kids, spinal muscular atrophy. They got the new drugs in the market, and at that time I was working for the Secretary of Health, and the cost was about $50 million for just a bunch of kids. But in the end, the decision
151makers decided to increase the whole additive to the health basket in $50 million to save those lives. So I think disintegrating schools here is a matter of life, and I think it's a matter of life to the whole population of the county, because you're you might be creating a sinkhole if you're not investing, if you're disintegrating schools that people choose to. You showed us the about 200 kids are going to come from outside the county for this school, then next year they won't be coming. So don't create this sinkhole, I urge you. Thank you. Thank you. Go ahead and please state your name. Hi, my name is Rachel Rossi. I appreciate George's comment because I think you should not stand on a footing that's already acquiescing. You know, you need to give them your perfect
152budget because if you give them their okay budget, they're still going to take from it, right? So I think it's always put the budget that you feel like makes this district whole. I think it's important, and I'm glad that was brought up. You know, many people choose to come to Chapel Hill and they're aware that we pay high taxes. And why do they want that? Because they want good schools. Schools. And they know the state, well, they're not doing their job. And I think it's incumbent on county commissioners to pick up the slack. And I think you guys realize that, that, you know, federal's not doing its job, state's not doing its job. We're the ones holding the buck, right? The local people. So I think, we just need to show up, parents included. I
153know PTA Council has put out Wear Red for Ed. And we will also be going to those commission meetings and making sure that they hear that and making sure that we show up for you guys too, because we want you to feel supported in that mission. So I appreciate George bringing up that point. But I think your perfect fantasy unicorn rainbow budget, put it out there because they're still going to take from it. But maybe something might be on the table that you weren't expecting them to let you keep. So that's what I would say. Thanks. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to make a comment on this first work session item? All right, thank you our next work session item is the introduction of our fiscal year '26 2026-2036 capital investment plan, and I see
154Mr. Shiroki has come forward. Thank you. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board, Dr. Trice, and guests. It's hard to believe, 26-36, a 10-year plan that we're already in the beyond the 30s, midway. Tonight, what I'm going to be presenting to you is the second part of the budget that you submit to the County Board of Commissioners on an annual basis. The first thing I just want to share with the CIP is to remind folks that though we submit a 10-year project plan based upon what we anticipate our needs are, the county commissioners only approve year by year. They appropriate year by year. So though they receive a 10-year plan, they're only going to be looking at the year 1 that I'll be presenting this evening. So I always use it as a point
155of clarification. Obviously, you as a board, if there's a priority that changes because of something unforeseen, we can always go back to the county board of commissioners to ask or request to modify that previously approved CIP as needed. So as always, when we work with the capital investment plan, the Division of Operations focuses on two key priorities with the strategic plan, and that is the culture of safety and wellness, as well as equitable and transparent fiscal stewardship operations. And I think that what you will see in this CIP, it's very topical in nature, but it identifies all of the large capital priority projects that we have, that have got been an assessment through, our senior staff and facilities who monitor and maintain them, as well as what we've done working with the county and even
156some consultants in the past to be able just to identify, life cycle costs and ensure that we do have noted the, the necessary replacements that are within the plan. So as always, the guiding principles, that the district follows, obviously is the replacement of schools, focusing on high-priority projects, meaning essential maintenance projects from HVAC, electrical, roofing, water, sewer, stormwater, all of those essential ingredients in maintaining a building. We also look at the facility work order history. You know, as I've said to you many times, when we say that our need is greater than our means, though we have a plan, we, we have to respond just in time, and We have to assess the facility work orders to see what our buildings are telling us and which ones are showing the greatest signs and needs of
157repair so that we can plan strategically and use those limited resources to the best of our ability to keep our schools open, safe, and operational. As far as equipment portfolio life cycles, you primarily will hear about HVAC, electrical service, roofing when it comes to that, but there's obviously all kinds of other components that fall into that, but those are the big ones that you generally encounter. Safety and security is obviously part of the capital investment plan. When there's any major infrastructure for any enhanced security improvements, cameras, video technologies, all of those things fall under capital, as well as our technology refresh plan for any of the technology equipment that's used by students and staff throughout the district, from desks to take-home laptops for staff and students. All of that money is generally through what we
158will say is our recurring capital in Article 46, which I will talk about later as well. And then we look at the incorporation of sustainability. Sustainability used to be a sidebar. It has really become part of anything and everything that we do when it comes to building code, when it comes to technologies. And for us, it's just maximizing it where it makes sense, where we see that if it's time-tested, it can give us a good return on investment with the initial upfront cost. We try to focus on that to the best of our ability. So the framework, obviously knowing that the County Board of Commissioners by statute are required to maintain, meaning construct, renovate, and provide essential maintenance to local school districts, that they have provided us with a framework in which they would like
159for us to consider the submission of our projects. And the first thing that they have right now is that they want it, within the principles, the consistent principles of the Wolpert Plan. Recently, I've talked to you about how that Wolpert Plan has already become dated. The essence of it is still good, but the individual projects, as our team looks at them, they have changed. The priorities have changed. So they're a good guiding north star for us, if you want to call it, but it's not the solve-all. But it has served its purpose. They also are stressing that we replace our older facilities with new facilities. And the primary driver for that is that the Board of County Commissioners were very purposeful in stating that they want us to improve the educational adequacy of our buildings.
160Most recently, when I talked with you about our first bond project, the replacement of Carrboro, the existing Carrboro is about 60,000 square feet. We're adding 30,000 square feet, but we are really not impacting the student capacity of that school. What that tells you is that the educational adequacy, the size of the classrooms, the size of the spaces for MTSS, dual language, or for multi-language learners, for EC all of those class sizes have changed since 1958 when the school was originally constructed. And all we're doing is catching up with modern standards. So that is a big eye-opener that the county commissioners also realized in working with the consultant, to be able to understand that though our newer schools have greater educational adequacy, our older schools are still lacking, and those schools have to find ways to
161accommodate those losses of space or the needs for the space that they do not have. And then last but not least, there is funding where they want us to address all high-priority maintenance projects. Though we only have 2, 3 schools that we can fund within the bond referendum, there are there is annual funding that the county has committed to in order for us to provide maintenance, essential maintenance, for our existing port portfolio that's not part of the referendum. So in doing so tonight, the, the CIP has been, structured to where there are primarily 3 buckets of money that are capitalized. And when I say capitalized, it means that most of the money is sold through financing, though some of it does come through, the tax assessments that our citizens have. But most of it is
162financed, and that refers to what Dr. Mr. Scott was referring to, I'll call it the debt service payment that the district and the county pays on an annual basis, which we would say would be our mortgage if we purchased or financed a home. Those are major projects where our school replacements, high priority needs are basically the high dollar for the most part, and that could be $50,000 or greater, but those are the general maintenance projects that we have. And then we have the other capital uses line, which is money that the county provides for things that are not part of essential maintenance but are necessary capital components that us as a school district have to invest in. And again, I'll provide some details. And then again, I've got this on here just as, again, that
163disclaimer that the Board of County Commissioners approves this on an annual basis, though the plan is 10. So our major projects, what the county has asked is that, those major projects will be funded through bond and supplemental paygo funds over the course of 10 10 years, that that money is to be dedicated to school replacements. But ultimately, in the end, if there's any additional money that was designated for school replacements where there were project savings, that money can be redirected to the high priority needs bucket for general maintenance. But the priority is you need to use that for replacement of schools before you start using it for essential maintenance in other buildings. Under high priority needs, that funding is a mixture of what's annual county debt financing That's where they're actually going out and selling
164limited obligation bonds for a portion of the money. So the bond, the referendum, those are general obligation bonds. They also have limited obligation bonds that the county has been using for many years. And you might remember when we had deferred maintenance monies, that's what they were using, limited obligation. You didn't have to go to the citizens to ask to sell limited obligation bonds, but you do have to go to the citizens for a Geo bond. There are some lottery proceeds that do come to our district, and part of that is what we're using tonight with proposing the 3 major maintenance projects that we have. And then they stipulate that in the end with these monies, any of those you can use for major projects, or you could use them for essential maintenance. So they're interchangeable,
165but they have to go with the monies have to be used for what they were originally designated for. K-4. So school replacements or major maintenance, but you do have the ability if there is any savings for that. And then obviously they're saying that all these projects still have to be consistent with the principles of the Wolpert Plan. The I'll say that, but I'll give you the greatest example. The Wolpert Plan may have focused on major infrastructure, but it did look at athletics. It didn't look at asphalt in parking lots. So if we had a tennis court that needed to be replaced, these monies would not be allowable because they were not within the principles of the Wolpert Plan. The Wolpert Plan did not look at student athletic facilities. So there is a fund that allows
166us, when needed, to use that money for it. But so they have kind of given us guardrails on which types of projects we could use for the monies that they are providing to us. And this is where athletic projects would be part of what's called other capital uses. This is recurring capital that the county provides. It's a mixture measure of the recurring capital and then the Article 46 sales tax. Historically, we have dedicated Article 46 for the technology portions and needs for our district, and then the annual recurring has been for things that are not aligned with the Wolpert Plan. So those could be component replacements, athletic facility upgrades, small-scale maintenance projects, leases, anything that doesn't fit within the Wolpert project. And we do look at those, even activity buses when we need to purchase
167those for our district. That's where the money ultimately comes from. So we assess that and we look at that on a year-by-year basis to, to ensure that we spend it the best way possible given our needs. So in the end, we are in the second year of the, of the 2024 bond referendum. So though the bond referendum, provided us with just under $175 million We have spent a portion of that towards the design of Carrboro Elementary. So this CIP proposes $169.4 million of remaining bond. And over the 10-year period, because if you had started with last year, it would be 11 years for paygo. The paygo is continuing beyond the 10-year continuum that the bond plan was set forth with. We have $59.7 million that is budgeted in the 10-year plan. And I will ultimately
168show you the portion of PAYGO that will be for next year only. Under high priority needs, that bucket is about $4.2 million. And then the other capital uses is $3.7 million. And these buckets have gone up just a small percentage as the county does with an escalation factor. So we have about $8 million to work with for next year. $3.7 is covered for all of the ancillary needs that we have, but the $4.2 is where we into some maintenance projects. So out of the $4.2 million, we have 3 projects, 2 very substantive ones and then a minor one, but that does fall within high priority maintenance. We are looking at roof replacements at East Chapel Hill High School, the second phase. We're currently in design and we'll be working this summer on the first phase.
169This will be for the following summer. And then Carrboro Elementary, there is a roof replacement that is been in design and will be conducted over the course of, I believe it's going to be 2 summers. And again, as we talked about in the bond referendum, these schools had very high FCI indexes, but these are schools that were not greater than 50 years of age. These were schools that were hitting 25, 30 years and need to have that major improvement done. And then we have a small one, but a necessary one, and it's with 2 of our portable units that are at Scruggs Elementary. The air conditioning needs to be replaced. Though we are lower in capacity at our elementary level, I will tell you that we do have some trailers that are at the elementary.
170Mainly they are at the middle and high schools where we have greater capacity needs. But these are assets, and if we don't maintain them and we let them go, then those assets lose value very quickly. Meaning if there's a roof leak, if the air goes down, the humidity levels increase, then you're dealing with remediation and maintenance issues. So this is kind of the cost of business and maintaining it. The other thing I always I've not ever had an opportunity to share with you, but, you know, every school district in the country probably, and I'll say every board, has an aspirational goal of not having trailers in their district, or cabins as we call them here in Chapel Hill. But they are essential because children are not born equal in a community to the class cap
171that you have at the elementary level. Right? You don't have 22 kids arriving at Scruggs or at another school. So trailers, though they're not ideal, they are essential when you have fluctuations where a school might have a little ripple where they have a second or a third section of something and it's only for 1 or 2 years. But it's not enough to make a capital investment and add an addition to. So though we don't like using our trailers or our cabins, we know that they are a critical part of what we do. Um, and I know that even as we get through the redistricting process and we try to balance our school schools. There will be times, I think, where those trailers will still be needed, or we'll have to relocate them because there will
172be bubbles or things that even we can't predict with changes. And, you know, I think I've mentioned in the past, as we're going through the boundary process, the fact that we have programs where students randomly are selected to attend certain schools' programs, that you can't predetermine where children are coming from. So it does create that imbalance when you're redistricting, because one year you might have a certain percentage of each school of children that go to a special program, but the next year those percentages could change based upon enrollment and desire to attend this program. So that's where, again, trailers become fairly essential. With the major projects, I want to jump right into the fact that we are entering into the second year for Carrboro Elementary, which is the construction phasing, which is just at 47.6%.
173$47 million. We also in the CIP in year 1 are asking for the design money for Estes Hills Elementary. The following year, we would be asking for the construction. What I will tell you is that when we're looking at that, it's a total of $53.9 million for next year. We have not received any indication that the county will need to change the timing or the sequencing based upon their debt and how they're being able to balance it. But obviously, that is subject to review by the Board of County Commissioners. But Dr. Trice, Mr. Scott, and I met with senior county staff last week, were able to discuss the timing. And at the time, for what we presented, they indicated that our plan, and on their end at least, was doable as far as the manager's
174recommendation. So we feel pretty good at this point with the timing of our projects. As far as the timeline for the remaining projects, I just wanted to share With Estes Hills, I mentioned that the construction would be the following year in FY '28. And then Frank Porter Graham remains in our CIP in year 5 and year 6, which is in FY '31-'32. Obviously, as we get through Estes Hills and as Orange County Schools is working their projects, if we have opportunities to work with the county to be able to accelerate FPG, we're gonna take advantage of that opportunity. Though I know I've said that I was very pleased that we got those projects, I'll say, in the third quartile of the bond sequencing, that we weren't last. Because we always know when you're last, that
175money can become very tight over time with inflationary factors and with just things that happen with projects. But we feel pretty confident at this stage with the three that you have approved thus far. So as Mr. Scott shared for timeline, We are following, for your ease, the same process, that the operating budget is. So this is, coming before you tonight as a work session item for, the public to weigh in, for you to discuss, and then ultimately we will follow the schedule. But again, this CIP would be reviewed and ultimately approved by the county commissioners on the 4th of June this year, as the county has presented its schedule. Uh, so with that, I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have specifically about any of the items that I've discussed. Thank you, Mr.
176Sciarrocchi. Board members, do you have any questions? Dr.Griffin? I want to push back a little bit on the cabins. Can you elaborate a little bit on that? Because I've been asked that a lot in the last week with the school closure discussions. How about let's get rid of those and then recalculate the seating, and then do we need to close schools? Because by design, they were inherently temporary when the idea of cabins first got going 20, 30 years ago. But maybe we've shifted that because having just gone into a cabin at a school that shall go nameless, there's a huge difference in a 60-year-old school. Yeah, so I think from a you have what I will call facilities facility capacity and you have program capacity. And I think that we as a board, as we're
177conducting our diligence for school closure, one of the items that ultimately we're going to come back to you is to be able to say if you want to maximize all of your classroom spaces that you're using and are available today, that would include the use of trailers. But ideally, most school districts, if you have that opportunity, I want to be able to show you that if you use all facilities Here's what your utilization rate will be. If you have a goal to remove students from trailers, I would be able to show you that this is what your program capacity would be lowered to for that. If you want to take Pre-K out of trailers or cabins, this is what it will lower to. So there's, there's a give and take there that ultimately you as
178a board will be able to review with some analysis before we get into, especially with redistricting. Where you'll be able to see that to make that conscientious decision. Because I think as Mr. Scott has shared, the budget is fluid. There's a lot of unknowns. And as things become more clearer, I think it will give you opportunities to provide input in that decision of what type of capacity maximization you're looking to take advantage of. We know that there was a time when our schools had 500 to 520 kids on average. In many of them, and they utilized the trailers, and we were able to do that. But at the same time, it was sacrificed with a lot of these spaces that I kind of talked about with Carrboro Elementary's replacement, that they had very limited use
179of those when their buildings were maxed out at that level. So it's going to be an instructional quality decision that district staff will be presenting to you for that. But we agree, if you don't need them in the trailers, and I will say at the elementary level, we have several trailers that are not occupied. We have to maintain them. We have minimum setbacks on heating and cooling, but they're not being used because they are in the buildings. The one exception that readily comes to my mind is the Title I programs at Ephesus Elementary. Those are in cabins, at least a few of them are. And then at McDougall Elementary, which is the one residential school that I talked about that's pretty full, they're utilizing their trailers for pre-K as well. But the secondary level, they
180are still being used, and I don't see relief for the secondary level at this time, just given the projections and the discussions we've had about that. So hopefully that helps. But the goal is that we would want to we do want to minimize the use of trailers if we have that opportunity. And I think we, we do have that opportunity for you to weigh at the elementary level specifically in the future. But if you take the trailers away, you are reducing your capacity. So, you know, that does have a direct impact, right? If you're taking away available classrooms, then it does adjust. That's what we've got to look at so that you can make the most informed decision for what's best. Well, and that may be part of the commissioner's discussion then too, because as
181you were talking, I was just, you know, making some notes to make sure that we clarify for our public that the county has the legal responsibility for capital needs, period. It's been it's 100 years old, the law. Looked it up while you were talking to make sure. It was 1933, and the School Machinery Act. And at that time, the counties were responsible for education, and the Depression had happened, and the state wanted to help counties, so they took the instruction instructional piece away from the county the teachers, the principals, the books but they said you will continue to pay for all the facilities. And we've been living with that model, and it's kind of archaic. But the county also might need to know we have 500 kids in cabins. That is not a state-of-the-art school
182facility by any stretch of the imagination. And I don't think we should not we should not miss an opportunity to also let the county know that, hey, we not only have old buildings, but we got them in cabins, or let's call them trailers, or modular units, or whatever. And yeah, it was at Ephesus where I was, and, and in a preschool class the other day, and they do great, and everybody loves them. Some teachers actually like it, they tell me, because it's nice and quiet out there and nobody bothers them. But there's still just you can feel the floors move and the wind blow through the windows. And yeah, you I mean, it's definitely the county commissioners opened the door when they have stipulated educational adequacy. And I think that, you know, through our core
183team, you know, our meetings with Orange County Schools in the county, we've talked about educational adequacy and we have talked about the fact that we're both undergoing program capacity analysis to be able to look at how are we really using our buildings where the rubber hits the pavement and not just using an aspirational facility capacity number. You know, that's what Dr. Dollar has, is that, that full number that he's using. So we're going to take his report, which is really his report's going to help us on 10-year projections for the district based upon a lot of factors that he's evaluating. But then we're going to have to take that and then go to the next granular level and start looking at again how we use those buildings. The one thing that I will share, more
184information than you need, but one of the primary reasons why Pre-K has been placed in trailers within our district is that when Pre-K was established, one, there was the rooms were not available that met the criteria that the Pre-K program requires. And there's two big ones: bathrooms and an exterior egress, meaning you have to have a door that goes directly outside. And that those are two primary requirements, and the trailers are able to fulfill that without having to build school additions at the time. So it was a decision that was made, but that's really the primary reason why they've been put there. But if we have opportunities to bring them back into the building, I believe that that's what I should be recommending that to you. And I think any district would want to do
185that because we want our children, especially if we go through a redistricting and people are going to the abrupt change the environments. We wanted them to at least get into the best environment that we can provide to them. And that's something that we could have looked at, we could have done differently, but we chose not to. We want to provide our kids with the best opportunities when we go through that extensive process. That's my belief. I just have a clarification just for my own understanding. So for a newish school like Scruggs that has modular units, we're talking about replacing HVAC. It's under capacity pretty substantially right now, according to the data that we have. So when you look at capacity data for Scruggs, whatever's published on like our, our public-facing data part of our website,
186the number that it shows for capacity includes whatever modular unit capacity that we have there. As a general rule, it does, because at that time, that capacity exists at the school if it had to be used. Okay, so like when the school was built, we would it would state a different capacity number. Yeah, you would have a school built, say, 450 students, but you have 2 trailers, so it goes up to say 490. Okay. Yep. Go ahead, Barb. So are they being used at Scruggs? They are not. Okay students are in the building, and generally most principals, unless they have a requirement such as pre-K that mandates it, Principals are bringing the kids in the building logically when they can. But again, it's, it's a unit that we have to maintain with minimum setback because
187it is an asset and that may need to be relocated to a middle school or a high school at a later date. I don't foresee that it would be used at Scruggs permanently. But ultimately, it's in a place, it's, it's there and we just need to maintain it. And that's just unfortunately, that's just the cost of business that we have. And that's no different than At Estes Hills right now, there's a lower section that the classes we've moved the classes so that they're closer together because they had the capacity. We're not using the space, but we're still operating it with heating and cooling. The water may be capped off, but we just have to maintain it so that that space could be repurposed and used when it's necessary. Any other questions? Comments? Okay, thank you.
188Thank you. All right, so this is also a work session item, so we will have public comment at this time. Do we have anyone who wishes to make a public comment? Double-checking. There we go. Thank you. I was going to say last call, but I was trying to make eye contact with everyone twice. Please state your name and you'll have 2 minutes. Okay. It's the round button. Okay, the big one. Okay, this is going to be very brief. Sarah Abraham, Seawall PTA board member, parent. I just wanted to follow up on that and also indicate that in addition to process operating with trailers. Seawall does have trailers for pre-K as well, and I know, Barb, I think you saw that yesterday when you were there. I just wanted to put that in there because I
189felt it was relevant. Thanks. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to make a public comment on this work session item? I almost thought you were you're raising your hand. Oh, you are. Make sure you state your name and you have 2 minutes. Good evening, my name is Amanda Stem and I'm with the Ephesus Elementary, PTA. And you know, I think our school Ephesus does house a pre-K program I think there's a lot of confusion around this discussion that you're having with the cabins and enrollment in the Wolpert Report and what it says about pre-K enrollment, and it doesn't add pre-K enrollment to capacity. And so I think I'm just really asking maybe, you know, for the district to push for a little bit more clarity from administration on definitions and what it means, because that's a
190really important asset to our school, and for future enrollment. So we really value that and we want to know what's going to happen to it so I just would like to request that consideration. Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comments on this work session item? All right, thank you everyone. Our last item on the agenda is sharing. Let's start with board committee updates. We'll start with FFO, Finance, Facility Operations. Barb, I don't know if you have any updates. I actually was not in attendance, so I was wondering if one of my colleagues would Okay. Thought I pushed it, sorry. We had the capital report. Meredith, you can help me out here if there was anything else. And Dr. Stewart always gives an update on facilities and things that have been projects that have been
191completed. That's always very helpful. Okay. Okay. Give you guys a moment. I think that sounds like that's everything. Okay. And let's see, we've got, Student Success. I don't know if you guys have met since we haven't met. Okay, I think we actually I actually reported out already at the last board meeting for the February 24th meeting. So our next meeting is going to be held this coming is on 3/24, 5:30. It will be virtual. Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. And policy I know Ronnie's not here. I don't know if, Vicki and Melinda I did want to add something to the Finance Facilities Committee because we did get a report on budget as it applies to personnel and which positions are state-funded and which ones are local-funded. And it was a complete eye-opener for us
192to see to see side by side where our local money is in terms of because we spend over 80% of our annual budget on staff salaries. And we asked Dr. Harris and the group to bring that to the full board because we thought it was that informative and important. So that'll be on tap at some point this spring. Okay. Yeah, it was focused on the allotment process, and which I think is something that's not widely understood. And so it but it's important to understand, especially because this is the time of year that allotments kind of start getting trickling out. And it was interesting to me to look at the distinction between the state allotments and the local allotments and kind of how with budget cuts and with our shrinking enrollment, those numbers go down. So
193thank you. That's really helpful. Look forward to seeing it at a future board meeting. I remember seeing some of those in the past, so I'd like to see how we're looking now. Any committee liaison updates from board members? Go ahead, Vicki, and then I have a couple real quick. From Orange County CARES, I learned that Orange County, in recognition of Women's History Month, through their Office of Civil Rights and Civil Life are going to be having a women's retreat on March 28th, and it's going to be at the Passmore Center from 10 to 2, and it's called a Color In, and it's to celebrate all women. Registration is recommended, but it's not necessarily required. People can register on the county website if they choose, but it is free and open to women of all ages.
194Thank you. Go ahead, Meredith. I attended the SNAC Leadership Committee meeting a couple weeks ago, and I just wanted to mention that the next SNAC meeting is on March 24th, and it's they're going to be hosting a mock IEP meeting, which I think could be helpful to families who are new to the process of of developing an IEP with their child's IEP team. Okay. Sorry, it's 6 to 7:30 at East Chapel Hill High School on March 24th. Thank you. And I just have a couple of updates, the Public School Foundation 5K for Education was held this past weekend. Wow, it's like a blur we had more than 2,000 runners walkers, volunteers, and supporters. Thank you to those board members who attended just a great way to yet again support public education in our community. Also,
195just wanted to share Public School Foundation. They're still collecting books for Books Over Break. You can donate new and gently used books for pre-K through 8th grade at collection points at any Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools here at the Lincoln Center or Golden Big Books in Carrboro. You can also go to the Public School Foundation website and you can also donate, money towards the purchase of highly interested titles, including graphic novels and Spanish language books. The goal is to, collect and distribute over 16,000 books this year. So please consider if your kiddo is aged out of some of those Diary of the Wimpy Kid and Captain Underpants, please feel free to share them and then we hosted board office hours this past Friday, so I was in attendance. We were at Carrboro in Motion, the Carrboro
196in Motion event at the Carolina Apartments. I was able to meet with, 6 community members on a variety of topics. Obviously, questions about, timeline, things around the school closure, but we did also discuss other topics of interest for community members. And I just want to thank the PTA Council for hosting and coordinating all of our board office hours. It's a great way to help support the board's efforts to engage with the community. So I just want to shout out and thank PTA Council. I know Andrea Tanner has been the one in attendance, and Julie and the rest of the PTA Council team for supporting that effort. And that's all the sharing I have. I don't know if any other board members have anything. Go ahead, Barb. So I wanted to just say the next Finance
197Facilities Operations meeting is April 14th at 5:30. It's virtual, I don't think. And thank you all for standing in for me. I think I came in last place in the 5K. It was great. I think I was like, oh my gosh, you guys dashed my kids' dreams 3 years ago. That was like their goal. Yeah, they, they weren't. They lost that. I will tell them I know the two people who were last now. And I was privileged to go to the school improvement team meetings at both Seawall and Culbreath. Seawall was talking about some of the equity work, relationship building, some new materials they've gotten, a recent field trip and dance. Culbreath, a huge variety of things, data on student achievement, discipline disproportionality, and then at the end it was like just a brainstorm, it
198was great. Was happy to participate in Career Day at Ephesus, which was amazing, and Principal Paulson invited me and Mayor Fushi to speak with some of the students who wanted to be engaged politically around ICE, and we heard some presentations about their own experiences with immigration that were just incredibly moving. Thank you so much, Barb. Any other sharing announcements? Go ahead, Meredith. I just wanted to thank Aisha Howard for hosting the Pre-K showcase last week where board members and administrators were able to go visit some of our Pre-K classrooms, and it was a lot of fun to get to see. I saw some kids at Ephesus and some kids at Estes Hills, and it was just really nice to see some of our youngest learners. Yes, shout out to McDougall Elementary. That was loads of
199fun. I colored lots of shamrocks and drew shamrocks with some of our little friends, and I stretched by sitting crisscross applesauce on the mats with them. So, yeah, thank you so much for the Pre-K team for putting that together. I really love that. Any other announcements, sharing? Go ahead, Vicki. You are so right I want to make sure that we take a quick moment to celebrate a principal who finished her doctoral program. We have Dr. Keisha Jones at McDougall Elementary School. Yay! Wonderful. All right, well, we're going to end on that wonderful note. Thank you so much, and our meeting's adjourned.