#DPSCommunity | DPS Board of Education Monthly Meeting | 5/28/26

001Good evening, everyone. Oh, let's try this again. We've got a room full today. Good evening, everyone. >> Good evening. >> There we go. The Durham Public Schools Board of Education monthly meeting is now in session. At this time, we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who's joining us in person and virtually. The purpose of this meeting is to inform our students, parents, and constituents about the work aligned with our mission to embrace, educate, and empower every student to innovate, to serve, and to lead. The interpreters for tonight are Karen Reyes and Yvette Perez. This meeting is interpreted live into Spanish with a delay of a few seconds. We kindly ask that if you are speaking that you pace yourself, pause between ideas, and speak clearly so everyone can follow along. Thank you all

002for taking the time to join us this evening. Our first um item on the agenda is a moment of silence. Thank you. The next item on our agenda is celebrations. I'm going to turn it over to our chief communications officer, Machina Cooper. Thank you. Good evening, Chair Umstead, members of the board, Superintendent Lewis, colleagues, and members of the Durm community. Welcome to our May celebrations. The excellence that exists in Durham public schools is on full display tonight and that is evident in the very full slate of celebrations that we have this evening. We will begin with our state champion scholar athletes followed by our governor school presentation. We will then announce our teachers and employees of the month. Following that, we will recognize our Sparky's award recipients. We will then acknowledge members of our parent

003ambassador program and conclude with a district purple star designation. Please welcome Ovester Grays, athletic director at Hillside High School to acknowledge our Hornet athletes. Thank you. Thank you, Superintendent Lewis, school board, and all the members and staff. Um, thank you for having us and recognizing us. Tonight I have with us um two of our young men who most recently uh won state championships in the 7A North Carolina High School Athletic Association championships. Um so without further ado, I'll tell you a little bit about them. Number one is um David Jackson. David, come up. Delvin is a s a senior at Hillside High School, an outstanding one of our best scholars in our school. He's in the process of deciding where to go to college. Um, but he was a member of our 4x 4x2 state

004championship, 7A state champion. >> All right. Boy, next we have um help me with this one because I always do. Amal, right? Amal Melderson. Amal is a junior. Also an outstanding honor student at Hillside High School, which was the second leg of our state championship this year. Um there were two more members. Did it come in? No. He reminded me he was the third leg, not the second leg of the stage. So anyway, the other two were Tyler an Tala Adams and Tyler Wilson uh who also won the individual 400 state championship. So the four young men brought home five state championships in the 7A state championships. and thanks for having us. We really appreciate it. Both these young men were with their family and their moms and parents. I would be remiss if I

005did not acknowledge the Jordan High School men's tennis team who clinched the 8A state championship title earlier this year, earlier this month actually. and Sebastian Maer and James Barrow who were crowned 8A double state champions. Additionally, Jordan men's track and field team also received 8A state championship honors this year. Last, but certainly not least, Simone Arrington, who graduated just yesterday from JD Clement Early College, was a member of the Southern Women's Track Team, and she won the 7A 300 meter hurdles for the second consecutive year. A hearty congratulations to these wonderful and outstanding scholar athletes. At this time, please welcome Laura Parrot, director of advanced academics for our Governor School presentation. a large group. This is always one of the most exciting nights, so forgive us as we continue to scoot in and we ask

006our parents to come in along the wall a little bit. All right. Good evening, chairman, members of the board, Dr. Lewis, members of the Durham public school community. As I said earlier, I truly look forward to this meeting every year because it's our opportunity to recognize our outstanding students who have been selected for Governor's School. Each summer, selected students are invited to attend Governor's School to help build a learning community during a 4-week residential session. During the weeks of June 21st through July the 18th, students from all over North Carolina, about 800 will be on site at either Meredith College or Greensboro College for four incredible weeks immersed in integrated academic disciplines, the arts, and unique courses of self and global reflection. Based on the enrollment of DPS's current 10th and 11th graders, we were

007able to submit 27 academic applications and up to 32 arts. Tonight, I am thrilled to share that 23 of our outstanding students were selected for the 2026 summer session of the North Carolina Governor's School. We have quite a number of them with us tonight. Unfortunately, at this time of year, there are a lot of orchestra concerts and dance concerts and this banquet and that. So, we know that not everybody could be here. So, we are grateful for those who could, for the great number of parents that are supporting, for our high school AIG specialists, and for our principles who were able to be here. So, at this time, I'd like to recognize those students. Um, Dr. Pitman is assistant superintendent of special life services will help us as we call each name. This year we

008grouped them by areas of discipline so that they had the opportunity to meet one another from the different schools so that they could uh recognize one another. So we'll start with coral music. Benjamin Davis, Miles Hagen, Joe. It's okay. So, while they're having their picture made, I will tell you there are about 2,000 applicants that come in from across the state of North Carolina. Like I said, about 800 selected. So, it really is a great honor. All right, that was Benjamin Davis. Benjamin, thank you so much. Miles Hagens, Early College High School. Joel Kongu, Coral Music, Derm School of the Arts. Great. Annabelle Sanderland, Coral Music, Riverside High School. For English, we have several students, but with us tonight, Epin Olua Famu from Early College High School. for instrumental music. Jim Lee, Durm School of

009the Arts, clarinet. Next is Ashton Jampus, instrumental music saxophone, Durham School of the Arts. Right. Uh for mathematics, we have three students who will be representing us. Oliver Ambersfield from Riverside High School, Soka Rusette, Riverside High School mathematics, and Kora Wheelen K's mathematics, also from Riverside High School. Great. in the area of social science. Jake Brennan, Riverside High School, Matias Mata, Northern High School, Social Science from Southern School of Energy and Sustainability. Nicole Brooks, theater and Fiona Davis, visual art, Durm I mean Dawson, I'm so sorry. Fiona Dawson, sorry. Visual art, Durm School of the Arts. That's all. We have about nine students who were not able to be here tonight. We certainly celebrate each and every one of them as well. So, thank you so much. Congratulations. This evening, we are proud to honor

010our April and May teachers and employees of the month. Yes, this also marks our final teacher and employee of the month celebration for the 2025 2026 school year. making tonight's recognition especially meaningful as we close out another successful year of learning service and dedication across Durm public schools. Our teacher of the month recognition is sponsored by North Carolina Central University Tennis Program and the TOSAI chapter of Omega Sci-Fi Fraternity Incorporated and DCL Consulting LLC. Our employee of the month recognition is generously sponsored by the Office of Human Resources. The theme for April was restoration, honoring those who bring joy, energy, and optimism, as well as offering light in challenging times. The April teacher of the month is Shirley Mazinet, Spanish teacher at Eno Valley Elementary School. Miss Mezanet um is an international educator from Colombia

011and is completing her fourth year at Eno Valley. She creates an engaging and welcoming environment for her classroom where students are excited to learn and grow. Building strong relationships while fostering academic success through meaningful language instruction, which is critical. This year, Miss Mazinet organized Eno Valley's first annual Spanish spelling bee, encouraging students to strengthen their vocabulary, reading, and language skills through healthy competition. She coordinated volunteers, secured awards, and partnered with the local grocery store to provide refreshments, creating a memorable experience for students and families. As the schoolwide Spanish specialists teacher, Miss Mazinet leads the Spanish curriculum and helps students build their confidence in speaking, writing, and presenting in Spanish. Beyond the classroom, she works with the global awareness committee to celebrate the diverse cultures represented throughout the school's community. Her commitment to student engagement, cultural

012awareness, and educational excellence makes her highly deserving of this recognition. Congratulations, Coach Lawson has a special presentation. Good evening. On behalf of DCL Consulting, we would like to present Miss Mason Neck with a uh small token. Uh we had an opportunity for the Tallai chapter of Omega Sci-Fi to surprise her in the classroom last week. And so this is uh kind of a finishing touch. So congratulations on your excellence. >> Yeah. Our April employee of the month is Maria Eugenia Whitik, school counselor at Southwest Elementary School. Miss Whitik has a remarkable ability to restore joy, energy, and optimism to everyone around her, her students, staff, teachers, and the broader school community. She serves as a steady source of positivity, constantly focusing on the good and helping others do the same. Miss Whitick's warmth, encouragement, and

013uplifting spirit truly light up every room she enters. She creates an environment where individuals feel valued, supported, and inspired, fostering meaningful relationships built on trust and compassion. Students and staff alike know they can rely on her for guidance, encouragement, and a listening ear. Through both her actions and attitude, Miss Whitick brings hope, renewed energy, and a strong sense of connection to the Southwest school community. Her dedication to supporting the emotional well-being of others leaves a lasting and meaningful impact on all those fortunate enough to work alongside her. Congratulations, Miss Whitick. And now for our May Teacher and Employee of the Month. Our theme this month is celebrating others, honoring those who celebrate every win, big or small, and never miss an opportunity to uplift others. Our May Teacher of the Month is Tisia Fletcher. Miss

014Fletcher is a math teacher from the school for create school of creative studies and Miss Fletcher embodies this month's theme of celebrating others through the way she uplifts, encourages, and celebrates her students each day. Her recent carnival themed pre-calculus presentations provided students with an engaging opportunity to apply mathematical concepts to realworld experiences through physics, engineering, motion, and design. Miss Fletcher cultivated a learning environment where students felt confident, supported, and excited to showcase their knowledge and creativity and celebrated students throughout the entire process. Miss Fletcher consistently demonstrates leadership, perseverance, and dedication while fostering positive classroom culture where all students feel valued, respected, and seen. Her passion for teaching and commitment to student growth make a lasting impact both inside and outside of the classroom. Congratulations, Miss Fletcher. So this was a twofur uh for the months

015of April and May. Um the Omega Sci-Fi chapter of Tall Sai at North Carolina Central University also did the surprise classroom visit for Miss Fletcher. And on behalf of DCL Consulting LLC, we'd like to present you with a small token in recognition of your excellence. And we'd also like to give kudos to the principles that have been able to nominate these excellent teachers and employees. So kudos to Principal Clay and Principal Robinson or Spain Thompson. Yes, Robinson. Yes. Thank you for your nominations as well. So congratulations Our May employee of the month is Katina Graham, instructional assistant from Oakrove Elementary School. Miss Graham is someone who is always looking for ways to lift the spirits of everyone around her. Not only does she organize staff celebrations, bonding events, and more, but she also is the

016creative force behind all of those things. From staff cookoffs during teacher work days to thoughtful principal and assistant principal appreciation celebrations, Miss Graham finds meaningful ways to celebrate others without expecting recognition or praise in return. She often stops by the administrative offices at the school with an idea to recognize someone and then rallies the entire school community together to make that celebration a success. Her enthusiasm, creativity, and dedication to help foster a positive and connected school culture is seen and it's felt by all. Miss Graham goes above and beyond to celebrate students, too. Each year, she helps organize the EOG pep rally, creating excitement and motivation while encouraging students and staff to celebrate the progress that they've made over the course of the year, which in turn results in a positive environment going into testing.

017Congratulations, Miss Graham, and thank you for all you do. Earlier this month, Durham Public Schools held the very first ever Sparky Awards honoring employees from across the district. We are pleased to present our employees of the year this evening. We have several who are joining us tonight and there are a few who are unable to make it but we certainly want to recognize their wonderful achievement as well. As I call your name, please come forward to be recognized. Kenya Hill Rogers her middle school teacher of the year. Jessica an Lions Farm Elementary beginning teacher of the year Thomas Hopkins Merrick Moore Elementary instructional assistant of the year Paula Januzi Godfrey Glenn Elementary Media Coordinator of the here. Elizabeth Ggomore, Ignite Online Academy, EC Educator of Excellence, Selita Price, Southern School of Energy and Sustainability Spark

018Light Award recipient, Candace Clark, Oakrove Elementary Assistant Principal of the Year. We would also like to congratulate Jana Murray, school social worker of the year. Ellis Jordan, bus driver of the year, Brent Mangum, operations services employee of the year, Karen Rankin, school counselor of the year for their outstanding achievement. Karen Rankkins, there you are. Thank you. Thank you all for being here and congratulations on a job well done. We so appreciate the work that you do in Durham public schools for our students each and every day. Thank you. Where are we? Please welcome Maria Bush Guy, director of marketing to recognize members of the DPS parent ambassador program. Good evening, Chair UMstead, board members, and Superintendent Lewis. Tonight, we are proud to recognize and celebrate an extraordinary group of leaders, our parent ambassadors who are

019graduating from their two-year term with us. Uh, parents and families are an essential part of growing and strengthening the Durham public schools community. They are the champions of our schools, our programs, our staff, and our students. And they often tell the story of Durham public schools in ways that only lived experience can. Over the past two years, our parent ambassadors have embraced that responsibility with passion and purpose. These parents have served not only as volunteers, but also as advocates and trusted voices for Durham public schools. They have engaged current and prospective families in meaningful conversations, excuse me, about our district, their schools, and the opportunities and benefits of a DPS education. They have represented Durham public schools through district-wide initiatives, community conversations, and personal networks, helping others to better understand who we are and what

020we offer. Their commitment extends beyond advocacy alone. They are also serving as members of the superintendent's parent advisory council. And these ambassadors have engaged in direct dialogue with district leadership, offering thoughtful input and feedback on district-wide initiatives and policies. In doing so, they have helped ensure that family perspectives and community insight remain part of important conversations shaping our schools. Tonight, we celebrate not only the completion of their two-year term as parent ambassadors, but also the impact of their leadership and the example they have set. We are especially proud that several of our graduating ambassadors will continue their service as members of the parent ambassador leadership team, helping to guide and shape the future of this program and the next generation of ambassadors. To our graduating and parent ambassadors, thank you for your leadership, your advocacy,

021and your belief in Durham public schools. Thank you for speaking with pride about our schools and for helping others see the value and promise of a DPS education. Ambassadors, please come forward when I call your name to take a photo with Dr. Lewis and be recognized by board members. Leadonna Allison Hilly Jones. Yes. I have I have >> Brenda Okay. Nikki Nicole Miles Don modest, Mary Sanford and Kim Thompson. Please join me in celebrating and congratulating our graduating parent ambassadors. Thank you. >> Thank you. And at this time for our final presentation, please welcome Howard Latimore, state level military consultant in the office of career and technical education for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. >> Good evening. As stated, I'm Mr. Latimore, state um military consultant, and I bring greetings on behalf of

022state uh state superintendent Mo Green. I'm honored to stand for you this evening to share one of the pillars in the state superintendent in the state strategic plan to celebrate the good in public education and that's what we're doing this evening. The purple star designation was uh developed in 2019 2020 and it was designed to award schools that practice military friendly things at their school and this year Durham public schools has been doing this. Last year they had one school, Southern School of Engineering Sustainability. And with the trio of Rosa Garmin, Celita Price, and Dr. Boyu, they said, "We'll be back next year." And if we don't have all of our schools, we going to have we're going to be very, very close. So, let's celebrate the good. They went from one school to 37

023schools this year. But this accomplishment respect this this uh shows leadership though. It shows and it reflects leadership. So Dr. Lewis, thank you. The trio team, thank you. Principles, thank you. And the school points of contacts, thank you for what you've done this year. And to find out more about the purple star designation, go to the NCDPI purple star uh website. Today, we are proud to celebrate Durham public schools campuses that earned the 2026 purple star designation. Okay. Each school that received the Purple Star distinction received a banner like so. At this time, we would like to recognize our elementary schools that received the 2026 Purple Star distinction. As I call your name, just wave to the audience. CC Spalding Elementary, Club Boulevard, Eastway, EK Poe, Eno Valley, Fville, Fville Street, Forest View, George Watts,

024Glenn, Hillindale, Holt, Hope Valley, Little River, Mangum, Merrick Moore, Murray Massenberg, Oak Grove, Hartwood, Pearson Town, RN Harris, Sandy Ridge, Spring Valley, and Wy Smith. Congratulations to our elementary school leaders, counselors, and staff for this outstanding accomplishment. We'd like to ask our elementary school principles to please meet us outside for a photo um from Mr. Cunningham. And good luck tonight. All right. I'd like to call the best secondary. Can you please come up? Yep. Right. It's also an honor to recognize our secondary schools that earned the 2026 Purple Star designation. When I call your name, please take a bow. Brogden Middle School, City of Medicine Academy, Durm Early College of Health Sciences, Durham School of the Arts, Durham Performance Learning Center, Durm School of Technology, George L. Carrington Middle School, Josephine Dobs Clint Early College

025High School, Lake View School, Lucas Middle, Neil Middle, Northern High School, Rogers Her Middle School, and the world famous Southern School of Energy and Sustainability. This recognition reflects the intentional work taking place across Durham public schools ensuring that military connected students feel welcome, supported, and empowered to succeed. Thank you once again. And on behalf of the Department of Public Instructions, uh Dr. Lewis and and uh Doug uh Durham public schools leadership your commitment to support military connected students families continue to make a meaningful impact on DPS. And at this time I like to ask um Dr. Lewis to please come and and the board chair to please come forward. I would like to present this uh certificate here uh uh to the board chair and and Dr. Lewis Thank you, Mr. Latimore. And this concludes

026our celebrations this evening. Thank you, Miss Cooper, and to all of the folks that we got to celebrate this evening. It was great to see such a variety of Durham public schools excellence in our boardroom. The next item on our agenda is the superintendence update. I'm going to pass it over to Dr. Lewis. Some uh good evening board chair, board members. Uh thank you all so much. It's a lot to celebrate here in um in Durham public schools and just overall a lot of great things that are going on in our uh public schools. And so we'll continue to do our part by sharing all the great things that are going on uh in our school system. Uh we'll go ahead and get started. Next slide. All right. All right. We know that there has

027been a tremendous amount of uh interest from both our board uh and our school community regarding the capital improvement plan. Uh this report was originally scheduled um for uh to be presented at our May work session and again this evening, but unfortunately uh the staff member that's leading this very important work had a family emergency and was unable to uh attend and I often say family always comes first. Uh however, we will move forward with the report during our June 9th work session. Uh that presentation will provide the board and the community an overview of the current status of our 2022 bond projects including completed work uh projects currently underway um and an update on budget and spending activity. This presentation will also outline the development of our 2026 capital improvement plan, including facility assessments

028uh and um uh community engagement efforts and the process that we go about prioritizing projects as we prepare for future bond planning. Additionally, uh staff will also discuss the district's long-term facility and capital needs, including aging infrastructure, um enrollment trends, modernization priorities and efforts to prepare future shovel ready pro uh projects that position the district for continued growth and uh investment. Uh in addition, we will be seeking support to move forward with a plan to rightsize uh the district. And what's on the slide? Um DPS proudly celebrates the educators who make a difference in the lives of our scholars every single day. Uh we held special observances during teacher appreciation week which was highlighted by the announcement of our 2026 teacher of the year at our Sparkies. Throughout the week, schools and community partners found

029meaningful ways to recognize and thank our educators for their dedication, passion, and commitment to student success. and I cannot thank our educators enough for the work that they do day in and day out. You are truly valued and certainly appreciated. Next slide. Lot going on in May. So, so bear with me here. May is uh mental health awareness month as we recognize mental health awareness. I want to thank our school counselor, social worker, school psychologist, and our student support services leadership team for their critical uh role and support that they provide to our scholars and families each day. Seeking support is a sign of strength and together we must continue to foster a culture of care, resilience and connection across DPS. Next slide. May also marks speech language hearing month, an opportunity to recognize the

030dedicated speech language path pathologists and aiology professionals who support our students each day. Their work helps strengthen um help students strengthen their communication skills, build confidence and fully engage in learning, making a lasting difference in our classrooms uh across the district. We certainly thank you for the role that you play uh in our scholars journey and you do make a difference. I am a product of a uh speech pathologist. I um stuttered severely and um would attend speech classes with with uh with Miss Hill. So uh they do make a difference. So, thank you to all of our speech language pathologists. Next slide. This month, Durham Public Schools is proud to recognize the culture, contributions, and history of um Americans of Asian, Native Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander descent who teach, study, and work in

031our schools and offices. They bring unique perspectives, traditions, and experiences that enrich our classrooms and help build a more inclusive community for all. Next slide. Having observed Memorial Day this week and just a few moments ago you um learned about our Purple Star designation honoring our commitment to military families. I want to take another moment to thank those who um have served in the armed forces past and present to honor their service. We serve more than 1100 military connected students across the district and we understand that transitions, deployments and new beginnings uh can bring both challenges and strength strengths. Uh that's why we work closely with military partners, veteran organizations, and community groups to ensure students feel supported, connected, and ready to succeed. Next slide. Jewish American Heritage Month celebrates the contributions of American culture,

032science, arts, military, and civil rights, serving as a time to educate the public and combat anti-semitism, which is not tolerated in this community. At Durham Public Schools, we recognize the many ways Jewish Americans have helped shape our communities, our country, and our shared history. We also celebrate the students, staff, and families in our own schools who bring their traditions, perspectives, and experiences to our classrooms each day. Next slide. May 1st was National School Principal Day. Leading a school is both both hard work and hard work. We recognize the tremendous impact our principles make each and every day through their leadership, service, and commitment to students, staff, and families. So, on behalf of DPS, thank you for all that you do to support our school communities. Next slide. May 1st, we also celebrated school lunch hero

033day to recognize the service and leadership of our school nutrition professionals to ensure that every child is fueled for learning. We thank them for their work that they do daily, excuse me, to support our scholars. And a huge shout out, I may have shared this in this space before, but a huge shout out again to Merrick Moore Elementary School who recently earned a perfect 100 score on their inspection. Next slide. May 6 was National School Nurses Day. We are grateful for the team of DPS and health department nurses who provide care for our students. From allergies to stomach aches to emergency care to passing out band-aids, their skill and expertise is needed and appreciated in supporting our school community. So to all of our school nurses, thank you. Next slide. DPS graduation season is here

034and a hearty congratulations goes out to our Project Search graduates who held our first graduation earlier this month. This partnership with our uh exceptional children's department, Duke Regional Hospital, and community partner spans 15 years and enables students with disabilities to earn on the job vocational training credentials uh that can be used for post-secary employment. These students have a bright future ahead of them and we wish them well on their journey. Next slide. Speaking of graduations, our cooperative innovative high school seniors crossed the stage just yesterday. Uh, congratulations to our class of 2026 scholars from JD Clement Early College, City of Medicine Academy, Durham School of Technology, and the Durham Early College of Health Sciences. We look forward to celebrating more DPS graduates in the coming days. Next slide. In this season of celebration, I hope

035each of you have had the opportunity to see our scholars securing dollars on our social media focused on celebrating the scholarship dollars earned by the class of 2026. I'm so impressed by the work of our scholars and excited to see how their education in Durham public schools has prepared them for life beyond DPS. Next slide. Earlier this month, many of our scholars participated in the Special Olympic Spring Games at the Durham County Stadium. And let me tell you, our scholars really shine bright in these competitions. Uh this annual event allows our scholars to compete and grow. and we are certainly grateful for their ongoing partnership, this ongoing partnership that we have. Next slide. Huge congratulations to the DPS Sustainable Schools Coalition for earning first place in the National Great School Electrification Challenge, competing against 19

036teams from across the country. DPS climate advocates with more than 1,000 points after a year of organizing community outreach and student led action focused on creating cleaner, healthier, and more energyefficient schools. Congratulations on this prestigious honor. Next slide. Last week, we honored um transportation employees. You know, this is really good. Uh they participated in the introductory Spanish cohort class with Durham Tech. Uh these individuals committed themselves. They raised their hand. They volunteered and committed to learning conversational Spanish to support communications with families and students, particularly students who ride their school buses. Uh we celebrated them. We celebrate their hard work and their efforts to engage our school community. So kudos and congratulations to these pioneers. Next slide. DBS principles James Boyce of Forest View Elementary School, uh Shandra Clay of the School of Creative Studies,

037and Dr. Jacqueline Thiel of Eastway Elementary School recently graduated from the Distinguished Leadership and Practice or DLP program through the North Carolina Principles and Assistant Principles Association. The DLP program is a prestigious leadership development experience that strengthens transformational school leadership across North Carolina. Through collaboration, reflection, and professional growth, participants deepen their leadership practices to better serve students, staff, and school communities. Congratulations to these principles. Next slide. Thanks to the leadership of our board vice chair, Milisent Rogers and the participation of our legislative steering committee, uh we recently hosted a legislative roundt. We also um extend our appreciation to Senators Sophia Chitlick and Natalie Murdoch for attending and taking the time to listen to and discuss our legislative priorities which are fully fund public K12 instruction to reach adequacy in North Carolina. Uh support every learner

038and invest in educator invest in educators demand real accountability and protect public education. Stay tuned to our website. You'll see these posted on our website soon and social media. Uh this is where you can take a take an active part and uh to like reshare um on your platforms as well as we continue to advocate for public education. Next slide. Congratulations to Rachel Owens, science teacher at Northern High School on being named the 2026 Conservation Teacher of the Year by Durham County Soil and Water Conservation District. She will now go on to represent Durham County in the state competition. We're proud to celebrate her dedication to education and conservation leadership in our community. Congratulations, Miss Owens. Next slide. Please join us in congratulating Jordan High School's director of bands, Cameron Garris, on being named the

0392026 Central District Band Masters Association Band Director of the Year. This prestigious honor is voted on by band directors representing counties across central North Carolina and recognizes exceptional achievement in music education, leadership, and service. Um, I'm talk about the Sparkers here in just a minute, but he also brought his jazz ensemble to play at the Sparkus, and they did a phenomenal job. So, congratulations, Mr. Garris. Next slide. Kudos to DPS director of athletics, health and physical education and driver education. David Hackne, DPS board of education member, Wendell Tab, Wallace Cherry, transportation specialist, and Robert Duncan, Riverside High School athletic director, for their recognition by the national sority of Fi Delta Kappa Kappa Fi Delta Kappa Incorporated, Beta Zeta chapter at its male educators recognition gayla for their commitment to and excellence in education. Um, this

040they received this honor most recently, I think it was this past weekend. So, congratulations to these honores and certainly our very own Mr. window tab. Next slide. As I mentioned, Sparky's was a huge success. This was our first Oscar style award program which was held on May 7th at the Durham Convention Center recognizes employees across the district for their exceptional talents and leadership. Um, you heard from some of those individuals tonight or they were recognized early. We named the teacher of the year, assistant principal of the year, beginning teacher of the year, instructional assistant of the year, media coordinator of the year, EC educator of excellence, school social worker of the year, school counselor of the year, bus driver of the year, operations service employee of the year, and the sparklight award. We shared that

041night with more than 300 colleagues, our partner sponsors, our MC Tony the Voice Cunningham, our and our mistress of ceremonies, Quailin Murphy from WTVD ABC11. This event would not have been possible without the support of our sponsors. Presenting sponsor, the DPS Foundation, gold sponsor, Mark Jacobson Toyota, silver sponsor, ABC11, bronze sponsor, Dur I'm sorry, Duke Community Affairs, and our donation sponsors, Duke Durham Magazine, uh, Durham Toffee Company, The Mad Popper, Nothing Bunt Cakes, Rudet in DPS, and Y'all needed cookies. So, thank you to everyone that helped support that amazing occasion. And a huge shout out and thank you to our office of public affairs for their work behind the scenes and making this happen. Next slide. And then lastly, I want to end um on this. You've um heard in this room's uh advocacy around

042uh many of our um um global teachers. And so I wanted to share several important um legal issues regarding foreign national employees. Um, first of all, immigration law is complex and uh, as you would imagine, constantly changing and there are many ways in which a school system or any other public employer may be exposed to liability. Um, as it's important to also know that as we discuss this matter, I want to emphasize that personnel matters involving individual employees are confidential by law and policy. because of those protections, um there are limits to what can be publicly discussed regarding specific employees uh and uh uh other employment situations. Also want to note that Durham Public Schools has been working closely with our legal council to carefully review immigration and employment related considerations uh that are connected

043to visa sponsorship and employment authorization. These reviews are important to ensure that uh the district remains compliant with all applicable laws, regulations and procedures. It is also important to understand that preliminary conversations whether they're reviews or procedural discussions regarding sponsorship sponsorship do not constitute a commitment or a guarantee that the district will move forward with sponsorship. uh any decisions related to employment sponsorship must be uh must follow rather established legal operational and organizational processes. Next slide. Um and as part of this process, the district must ensure compliance with all applicable federal immigration laws and regulations. And that includes requirements related to employee work authorization, recruitment practices, employer responsibilities and liabilities, restrictions within uh federal visa programs, and the financial obligations associated with sponsorship. Our legal council has advised that while school districts may choose to

044pursue sponsorship in certain circumstances, districts are not legally required to sponsor employees for visas or permanent residency. Uh it's important to recognize that H1B sponsorship carry significant federal requirements and responsibilities for the employer. These include mandatory employer paid cost, extensive recruitment and compliance obligations, and additional restrictions that may apply to employees currently participating in the J1 visa programs. And so given the complexity of these legal and um operational requirements, the district must approach these matters carefully, consistently, and in consultation with legal counsel to ensure compliance and responsible stewardship of district resources. Next slide. In addition to federal requirements, the district must also be mindful of its contractual and partnership obligations with organizations that support the placement um of international uh educators in our schools and for us as global and participate. Um the the district

045must avoid actions that could unintentionally breach uh existing agreements, contracts or create conflicts with those partnerships. uh these agreements prohibit DPS from sponsoring international teachers u for other work visas for a period of two years following the expiration of their J1 visas. Now at the same time I want to emphasize that Durham public schools deeply values and appreciates the many contributions of our international teachers. Uh these educators play an important and vital role in supporting our scholars, enriching our school communities, and bringing diverse perspectives and experiences into our classrooms. And so as a district consider considers these matters, our decisions must remain grounded in legal compliance, operational responsibility and alignment with the broader priorities and obligations of the district. Our goal is to approach these uh issues thoughtfully, consistently and with respect to all employees

046and while ensuring that the district fulfills its legal and organizational responsibilities. And next slide. I think that is yeah that is all I have for this evening. >> Thank you Dr. Lewis for those updates. Next item on our agenda is agenda review and approval. We um did hear from Dr. Lewis that one of our items will need to be removed from the agenda. >> Madam Chair, I would u move that we amend the agenda to move item 4B, the CIPM bond update to the June 9th work session. Second been moved that we uh move item 4B to the June 9th work session. Is there any discussion? Moved and seconded. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Use the same sign. It passes unanimously. I'll now take a motion to approve the

047agenda as amended. >> Move to approve the agenda as amended. >> Second. >> It's been moved by Miss Harold Goff and seconded by Mr. have that we approve the agenda as amended. Any other um other discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose use the same song. It passes unanimously. The next item on our agenda is our board of education um regular monthly meeting minutes from April 23rd, 2026. I did have um one edit I want to make to those minutes. There was a miss a typo for Lions Farm Elementary. Miss Smith, we can get that corrected. >> Spelling. >> Move approval of the the minutes as amended. >> Second. >> It's been moved by Vice Sher Rogers and seconded by Miss Byer that we approve the minutes. Is there any

048other discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Any oppose? Use the same sign. It passes unanimously. The next item on our agenda is general public comment. Um I'm going to give some instructions. If you're in the hallway and you're speaking for general public comment, please come on in so we can have this move quickly. A quick review of the rules. First, state your name. And if you're speaking for an organization, state your name and the name of the organization. Second, speakers are going to be asked to present your comments um within three minutes this evening. When the yellow light comes on, you'll have 30 seconds left to start winding up your remarks. When the red light comes on, it will beep and that indicates that your time is up. Complaints about named staff,

049students, or parents should not be voiced in open session. However, we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public's education, safety of students, and to the operation of the school system. Finally, board members will listen carefully but and consider your comments, but we will not engage in the discussion with speakers. All right, I'm gonna call three folks at a time, and everybody else feel free to take a seat if you'd like. Miss Brick House, you are first followed by Shannon Sutter and Megan Lewis. >> Good evening board members and Dr. Lewis. My name is Caroline Brick House and I seed my time to Shannon Sutarth. My name is Shannon Sutter. I seed my time to Megan Lewis. >> Good evening. My name is Megan Lewis. I've been with DPS for 11 years

050now. I'm a national board certified fifth grade teacher at Lions Farm Elementary. I'm a former teacher of the year and a uh DPS teacher of the year semi-finalist. And currently I uh teach fifth grade and I have my daughters at Lions Farm with me in second grade and in preK. I've worked at Lions Farm since the moment we opened. And uh recently I actually promised Mr. Hopkins six more years at Lion's Farm at least to get my youngest all the way through fifth grade. Um, unfortunately though, those plans are now in jeopardy because my hardship transfer request for my rising kindergartener has been put on hold due to the overcrowding at Lion's Farm because there is a policy in place to not approve transfer requests to overcrowded schools. So, her enrollment is dependent upon how

051many other students enroll and I won't find out more information until later this summer. I know I haven't been denied, so this is not a formal appeal. I am just here to advocate in advance for the three of us who are being impacted by this interpretation of board policy 4132. These are the other two right here. Um so I'm asking the board to please consider updating this policy to ensure that all employees have the option to bring their children to the schools that they work at even in cases of overcrowding like at Lions Farm. I think this should be a baseline expectation for any public school employee. We do not get a lot of job perks. Fewer and fewer every year it seems. But I think one of them should be not having to worry

052about how to get our kindergarters to school on one side of town and ourselves to work on the other side of town to schools that start at the exact same time. I know Lions Farm is overcrowded. I was here in February making, you know, speaking to that effect. Um I feel it intensely. I'm there every single day. I know. I know we have state cast class caps to um that we have to follow. I know that we've had to be really creative with how we utilize our staffing and our space. Trust me, nobody knows better than the three of us how um how overcrowded Lions Farm is. But we've been making it work. We always make it work. If three new kindergarteners moved in across the street from our school the day before school started,

053we would make it work for them. And so I think we can make it work for us. I'm so proud to work at Lion's Farm and so proud to work for DPS. I don't want to leave the school. I don't want to leave the district. Neither do my colleagues. But I'm really afraid that DPS is going to lose us to neighboring districts that will grant us this request even at their crowded schools. We feel like right now our hands are tied. We don't have contingency plans because we never considered this to be a possible outcome. We thought that our families would be able to join us at the school because that's been the case for all of our colleagues and all of ourselves because we all have older children who have had their transfers approved.

054It's the end of May. I literally administered a reading EOG to a bunch of fifth graders this morning. I have two next week. I'm planning fifth grade graduation. I'm packing up my classroom. I have a lot of stresses. Um, so the fact that my daughter's transfer application not being approved is sort of the thing that's put me over the edge this week, um, is so unexpected. I thought it would be kind of easy peasy. It's almost like laughable how shocked I was, but also I'm devastated because I don't want to leave DPS. I've been here for over a decade. I want to continue my work at Lions Farm, but I can't do it if my kids can't come to school with me. So, I hope the board will reconsider this policy. I thank you for

055your time and you can also refer to the email that I sent yesterday afternoon for more information and to get in contact with me. >> Thank you. And to all the little legacy keepers that are with y'all. All right, the next folks we have are Kelly McAllister, Samantha Deliver, and then Katie McDonald. And I apologize if I pronounced you all's names incorrectly. Um, good evening um, members of the board and superintendent Lewis. My name is Kelly Mallister and I am the program manager for Vision to Learn in the Research Triangle and I am excited to introduce Vision toLearn to the Durham public school community. Founded in Los Angeles, California in 2012, um, Vision to Learn now operates in 15 states and Washington DC. We launched in North Carolina in 2018 with the Charlotte program and

056expanded to the research triangle in 2025. To date, we provided over 38,000 pairs of glasses to students across North Carolina. We estimate that approximately 7,800 Durham public school students need access to vision care but lack access to the services. We serve title one schools and schools with greater than 50% free and reduced price lunch rates, removing barriers to care by bringing services directly to schools during the school day at no cost to students, families, or the district. If we begin services in September, we estimate providing providing 1,915 pairs of glasses to students in Durham public schools during the 2026 2027 school year. Vision to Learn provides vision screenings, eye exams, and glasses, all at no cost to students, families, or the district, thanks to the support of a funer dedicated to Durham public school students.

057Vision screenings are conducted by a certified vision screener using a spot vision screener, um, which helps maximize instructional time during the school day. We also partner closely with school nurses to expand our reach and support efficient service delivery through nurse referrals and additional screening data. Eye exams are provided by a licensed optometrist on our mobile clinic where students also select glasses frames and then glasses are delivered directly to the students by a licensed fencing optitian. We also provide free 12month replacements for lost or broken glasses. Vision to Learn is an evidence-based program evaluated by studies from UCLA and John's Hopkins. These studies showed improved math and reading scores um and improved classroom behavior for students who received glasses from Vision to Learn. In addition, students um showed four to six months of learning gains um

058there four to six months of learning gains for students who fell in the bottom quartile academically and those with learning differences and disabilities. We've already heard from several DE Durham public school uh schools who are excited about vision to learn services for their students and we're continuing to work closely with district level staff to identify priority schools and overall readiness as the memorandum of understanding process continues. Vision to learn is excited for the opportunity to partner with Durham public schools um to provide students with no cost vision care and glasses. Thank you. >> Thank you. Samantha Delver, followed by Katie McDonald. Good evening, chair, board members, and superintendent. My name is Samantha Delver, and I am a fifth grade teacher at Lion's Farm, a 17-year veteran educator, and the current Lion's Farm teacher of the

059year. Tonight, I'm speaking as both a teacher and a parent. My daughter was recently not approved to attend a kindergarten at Lion's Farm next school year. As a result, my family may be placed in the difficult position of having my third grader attend Lion's Farm while my kindergartner attends a year-round school in a different calendar. This creates significant challenges with transportation, child care, and managing two completely different school schedules. As an educator, I am committed to serving DPS students. But as a parent, I also need to ensure stability for my own children. Unfortunately, if my children cannot attend the same school, I may be forced to consider transferring to another school or even another school district to keep my family on one schedule. That is not a decision I want to make. I love Lion's

060Farm and I'm proud to work for Durham Public Schools. Supporting employee supporting employee families helps retain dedicated educators and strengthen our school communities. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> After Katie McDonald, we'll have Kayla Kuran and Jessica. >> Hello, my name is Katie McDonald and I am seating my time to a Lion's Farm teacher named Kayla. Hello, my name is Kayla Curran. I am the music educator at Lions Farm Elementary, a districtapp appointed lead teacher in DPS, currently working on my national board certification, and a taxpayer in Durham. I'm here to discuss the immediate issue of overcrowding at our school. It has been brought to our attention that the office of student assignment has indicated that three of our outstanding employees will not be allowed to transfer their youngest children from our prek

061program into our kindergarten program. These students are already attending Lions Farm and are thriving in their program. These employees already have children attending Lions Farm that I have been teaching for the past four years. Forcing these employees to split up their children to different schools will cause us to lose exceptional leaders in education. When we asked you to alleviate our overcrowding issue, we were not asking you to displace three of our phenomenal employees. We were asking you as the district to look at the big picture and evenly distribute the students throughout all of DPS. We were asking you to assess all data across the entirety of the population in DPS. displacing students of staff members. That includes two of our most recent teacher teacher of the year award recipients and a highly respected and valued

062instructional assistant for our neurode divergent students will cause half of our fifth grade team to make hard decisions that would be to the detriment of our student population. I have been working with these three parents since we opened our doors and they are truly some of the best people I've had the pleasure of working with and our students are lucky to have them as a guiding light in our in their young lives. If this plan goes into effect, this will greatly impact the future of our school. We will no longer be able to retain the amazing educators that have been teaching at Lions Farm since the opening of our school. Please reconsider your approach to addressing this issue. Thank you. >> Good evening, Superintendent Lewis and board members. My name is Jessica Anne and I'm

063a fifth grade teacher at Lions Farm Elementary. This year and evening, I was deeply honored to receive the beginning teacher of the year of Durban Public Schools. I share that not as an individual accomplishment, but as a reflection of the incredible veteran educators who poured into me and helped me grow. I would not have earned that recognition without the love, support, and mentorship of Megan Lewis and Samantha Delver, two teachers I've spent my entire teaching career alongside and who make up half of my grade level team. I would not be here without the meaningful conversations, wisdom, and encouragement from Miss Blount during spontaneous moments in the hallway or at bus duty. It is no secret that the first years of teaching are incredibly difficult. Like many beginning teachers, there were moments when I questioned whether

064I could continue. These women helped keep me afloat. They modeled what it means to be an excellent educator, compassionate colleague, and unwavering advocate for children. The denial of transfer requests of their children would not only mean losing incredible talent from our school community by putting these educators between a rock and a hard place, it would mean severing a vital artery for beginning teachers at our school. We know that it takes a village to support a student. Well, it also takes a village to support a beginning teacher. These people are my village. I will not make it through my third year without my team. And I'm standing here today because these educators made me a better teacher and because their impact extends far beyond their own classrooms. Please reconsider updating your policy to keep my team

065here. Thank you. And that concludes our public comment for the evening. Thank you all for coming. The next items on our agenda is our consent agenda. We have numerous items here um A through Y. Wow, almost went through the whole alphabet here uh with different contracts and things that the board hasn't had an opportunity to review in advance. >> Move approval of the consent agenda. Second >> been moved by Vice Sher Rogers and seconded by Miss Byer that we approve the consent agenda items A through Y. I wouldn't bore you and read them out loud, but >> when I refreshed mine goes A through Z. I'm double checking that we got every letter of the alphabet. Um >> okay, I apologize. I'm looking at the paper agenda. >> Is that A through Z? >> I

066apologize. I'm looking at the printed um agenda. So A through Z. alphabet. >> The whole alphabet all 32 26. Sorry, I'm looking at something that said 32. That was Sorry. Uhuh. I am well aware. 26. There's a lot of jokes flying around over here. Anyway, uh 26 letters of the alphabet. I apologize. I was looking at something that said 32. I might need to go to Lion's Farm and get some education in one of those classes. All right. So, we have these items. They have been um moved by Vice Chair Rogers and they've been seconded by Miss Byer. Is there any other discussion of Emily? Excuse me, Miss Chavez. >> Okay. I just wanted to So, just to make sure, international teacher recruitment, that's the one that was added. Oh, it was on diligent. Oh,

067okay. Okay. Only thing is that I didn't review that again because I was reading board talks and I had some questions, but I think um I'll follow up individually more. I read it last week, but not this week. Okay. Thanks. >> All right. Is there any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed, please use the same sign. It passes unanimously. The next item on our agenda is um administration update. We have a budget update from Mr. Teter. >> Uh good evening, board chair uh Umstead, um board members, Dr. Lewis. Uh we've got a presentation attached to this one. Uh the information uh will look relatively familiar to the board uh because it's largely in alignment with what we recently were requested to share with our county commissioners last week um

068regarding the status of of state budget and and and potential impacts um for for Durham public schools. Um so when we um last presented uh at the joint meeting that we had uh with the school board and the county commissioners uh on May the 12th uh we were only hearing rumblings of what may come forward in a budget framework and we made a presentation that morning on May 12th. Later that same day in the afternoon, there was a surprise press conference um with the speaker of the house and this the senate proemp uh to share that they had ironed out um some framework uh for the upcoming state budget that were major hurdles that they needed to clear uh were items that were sticking points between the two chambers of the general assembly that they

069needed to feel good about before they could flesh out the entire budget. And so um nonetheless it was still limited information. So on the on the next slide um we um sort of lift up the the notion of compensation for for state employees. Um if we can thank you. Uh and so they talked about a couple of items um that have come forward. Uh their intent for for raises for our certified folks who are required to have a license um and and in terms of raises for our employees um who are classified in nature. And so the operative word average um so uh lifting up an average 8% raise uh for certified employees and then also they have floated a one-time bonus um for so less than 16 years of experience they would have a

070$500 bonus um and greater than or 16 years or greater $1,000 bonus for certified employees um in North Carolina. Um, and again, we'll we'll talk a little bit more about why the 8% is an average in a minute, and that's been a real topic of conversation in the news lately. Uh, classified employees, 3% uh, recommended um, for our um, employees that are classified in nature. And this is, um, different than some other proposals. You've heard some higher numbers out there for um, highway patrol or detention uh, employees, right? So much higher percentages in those categories, but 3% for um sort of your typical state employee in North Carolina, including our classified employees. Uh they did lift up a bonus framework for those employees as well, and it was based um on annual salary rather than

071years of service, per se. Uh so folks that were earning less than 65,000 per year would get a bonus of 1,750. a salary greater than 65,000 would get a bonus of a thousand. Um there are usually other stipulations that come along with these and so they'll be fleshing those out u most likely as they go through building the budget document. Um they usually tell us when we they usually give us a deadline by which we have to pay those um and if there are any other parameters like the need to prorrate, did an employee have to be employed by a certain point in time in order to be eligible. So we will I wait with keen interest to see the budget document and what kind of instructions we get on on how that's to be

072administered. Um and we'll talk about kind of some other questions that we have a little bit later where that's concerned. Um on the next slide um is is a draft of the of the salary schedule for teachers um that that came from fiscal research um at the general assembly. will note um my finance officer colleagues caught an error in fiscal research um salary schedule and so um on step 24 their schedule lifted up um that it would be a 9 and a half% increase um and it's really 5 and a half% and so I think they've since we had to publish these materials I think they they have corrected their documents um at the general assembly but just wanted to point that out that they were really kind of rushing through putting this framework out

073for everyone to consume Um but you can see on this schedule it's um if we can get that slide up on the next slide please. Um wide range um so you know so for our uh beginning teachers 17.1% increase in value 5 a.5% or so for our more veteran educators in North Carolina. um that that has really kind of garnered the bulk of the conversation and concern and I think a a number of us would have just preferred to have seen that average of 8% just do an 8% across the board and and then take care of everyone um sort of in a in a similar manner and and not differentiate. And the last several years the the teacher pay structure in North Carolina um has not really skewed in a way that benefited our

074our seasoned educators. And so um this is just a continuation of that pattern. Um with that said uh this had the potential for serious budget implications. Uh so we um a lot a lot of school systems right and in fact not all um really try to concentrate their most um beginning teachers or are their lowest paid teachers in local funds. Um, and so you'll see in a lot of school systems, um, that the average teacher paid from local funds is a beginning teacher in those first three years of experience. Um, and a number of us, you know, prepared for, you know, things that range anywhere from 3% to 5% um, where certified raises were concerned potentially with this upcoming budget. And so for districts that have a large concentration of beginning teachers and local funds

075at 17% hits really hard and they are scrambling to figure out what they're going to do. Um I think it's pure luck for Durham. Um right, you know, we we planned on five um for our budgeting purposes without really knowing what the state may or may not do. Uh I was feeling comfortable with the average of eight just based on constructs of other things. this draft schedule came out a couple of days after they had that press conference. Um, and we we all panicked a bit and and had to do we all had to do sort of our own math across the state because we all have different years of service among our teachers and and none of us look exactly the same in North Carolina. And so um in Durham, our average locally funded

076teacher um has six years of experience. And so that was a 9.4% um rate of pay. And we'll touch on this a little further along, but that worked out for us. Um, and so we're um fortunate um that we're in a system that attracts good teachers and teachers with experience. Um so much so that our locally funded teacher is an average of step six versus a zero, one, two, or three that you might see in some other communities. Um so on the next slide, we lift up a chart where we kind of talk about that math and we do the comparisons. Um, and so we we had talked about this all through sort of the budget development cycle. Um, just planning for a 5% increase for our employees, not having any kind of information from

077the state. Um, so we talked about that 8% and that 3%. Um, retirement rate, um, we're right in line with what's being proposed by the state in terms of what we forecasted. Uh, health insurance, that's an annual number that we contribute per employee who's on the state health plan. Um, so we went on the high end at 9100. It's looking like it's going to be 8,925. So we came in close uh with what the state health plan contributions is going to be. U and so we had to do some interesting math really to sort of weigh out uh the local impact um of of what the state raises would look like if they went into effect as they are um in in that framework that was announced. Um and so given that we're very heavy

078um on our uh classified employees and local funds and they're on the lower edge of the recommended state raises, the construct of the average teacher um in our local funds in Durham works out to a weighted average of 4.28%. Um that we're looking at across our locally funded employees. And so that um just gave us just a little bit of breathing room right from the work that we did forecasting that 5% across the board. A little bit of breathing room as well sort of with that health insurance forecast and in the work that we did. Uh so this is um been a roller coaster this cycle um sort of keeping up u with what the state might do. Um on the next slide we lift up what some of our >> pause there for a

079minute. I just could you go back to the other slide. I just want to highlight, I know you kind of glossed over it, but uh kudos to our our team. You see how accurately um for the most part that we kind of uh projected what what what's going to happen and absolutely nailed the um retirement rate. So that's kudos to you and your team, Jeremy. >> Yeah, [clears throat] we we've we've unfortunately it's a new skill we've developed over the last three or four years of having to predict what folks are going to do instead of actually doing. So yeah, it's been an it's been an acquired skill. Um so thank you. Um unanswered questions, right? We still have um a lot of uh questions that are important um that that bear weight on this

080budget. So one just sort of knowing um the the the bonus uh that they announced in the framework. Um and we've had some past state bonuses that have occurred in lie of raises or in an effort to supplement raises that were one-time. um [clears throat] on occasion they have not been concerned with the funding source of the employee. They created an aotment for us to take care of our employees within their specified guidelines at the state. Um and we proceed. Um when we were meeting with the commissioners last week, we did have a commissioner that was texting a member of the delegation trying to get some insight for us and trying to help us get some answers for our questions. And um it sounds like they based on that communication they're leaning towards the state

081picking up the tab for the bonus um regardless uh of the funding source for the employees. So hopefully it works out that way. Um we're watching that carefully. Um M's pay uh still an unanswered question um and something that they are evidently still trying to sort out. Um we we felt pretty sure during the press release they had not come to a conclusion uh because they would have included that in things they led with because that has been a contentious point between the Senate and the House. Um the governor and the house want the state to resume the old master's pay model for teachers. Uh the Senate uh had not been on board with that. If that is something that comes through um that that does uh free up $1.7 million in local Durham resources.

082were one of two districts in the state that would benefit um from that transition. Uh we certainly hope it happens and and um I think right very much our thinking is that we can we would redirect those resources to take care of some unmet uh needs uh that currently exist in the construct of our of our local requests whether that's classified pay some technology needs things things of that nature um where that 1.7 million could could redirect if it becomes freed up for us uh would not require too much work uh for the transition Right. So, at this time last year, the board uh approved the the stipulation that employees had to add the master's degree to their license even though the state wasn't paying for it. So, it's there. Our folks don't have extra

083hoops to jump through. Um and then we've just got some work to do in finance um to sort of recode where that local masters pay would come from and and shifting how we have things set up. So, would be a smooth transition for us and and a welcome one. Um obviously right lot lot lots of constitutional amendments proposed coming forward that that limit uh communities and the state's ability to raise taxes. Um so we're um we know that in the just to to get our continuation request this year um a vital tool u for the county was to increase or recommend an increase to the property tax rate by two cents. Who who knows what the next budget cycle would look like if that's not a resource. Um, I think it's important to note too

084that they're also supporting the expansion of EMS services in Durham County um, as a result of of raising the property tax rate and and we're a growing county and and we have all kinds of needs uh, that need to be met due to our growth and um, so it's an interesting wrinkle forthcoming potentially um, where where that's concerned and um, I'm concerned about the income tax cap just having seen how that went in other states in the past. it didn't go well. So, um many other things coming um that that don't necessarily affect finances that that affect us. But, um so we we're going to keep you informed um as we learn more information. Uh the only the only thing I don't have on this slide um that I have learned since we prepared the

085materials is that there is the potential um for a full budget document to roll out um in a couple of weeks. So somewhere between June 15th and June 17th, we're hearing through sources. We'll see if it happens. Um the governor put some additional pressure on them yesterday um to to pull things together and and try to get this in place before the fiscal year flips. Um on the next slide, um we lift up um this is sort of a new thing that we're wrestling with and and credit to the News and Observer for covering this about a week or so ago. Uh so the as the board is aware um you know the the state um unveiled uh opportunity scholarships or private school vouchers um that have been in motion for the past couple of

086years. Uh and so there was an understanding um that the state would examine how much were we spending on those opportunity scholarships, how much money would have followed those students if they had stayed in public schools. look at that difference and reinvest that difference back into public schools. And so over the past two years, uh, that's got a value of $35.8 million that they should be reinvesting in public schools. Has not occurred yet. Um, and u they're they're getting some push back and feedback um from folks that that are watching this, including DPI, um, to make sure um to make sure that that happens. And that that would certainly benefit us um for for those resources to come back into the state public education budget overall and it would be redistributed you know to to

087the 115 uh local school systems in order for us to leverage. Um before we I think next slide we call for questions but just just want to share um you know that between now and the end of the year uh we have two more meetings um with the board um in the month of June. Uh and so we're um sort of working very quickly to to unpack any information we get and to lay things out um in a format that the board can consume. And our plan for the the June work session um is to to hand off a lot of material to you uh to look at um and and for you to u conceptualize what decisions we might make at the second June meeting um and and that way you can ask us

088lots of questions and and um we're trying to build it based on what we have in in terms of the information we have now and and just um just want to prepare you for this is fluid and and we're sort of at the mercy of the of the budget authors at the general assembly right now. Uh and so we're going to kind of be nimble and work with you through that. Uh but we we want to get a lot of information in your hands um in terms of revised sort of budget workp papers and and and put options in front of you so you can kind of start to grapple with what decisions administration might ask you to authorize um as we work towards uh the close of the year and and opening the new

089year. Uh and we've uh also been tasked with some uh questions. Um, I think county commissioners recently um had another session and they have some new questions that the county managers asked us to pull some information for and so we got that request yesterday morning. Uh, and so we'll um we're working to answer those questions and we'll make sure that you get uh copies of those um before we hand those over to the commissioner. So, um they're just trying to understand a little more about our budget um in general and uh what options we have on on this side. So, uh, with that, I'll, um, turn the time back over for questions or comments. >> Thank you, Mr. T. Before we, uh, entertain questions, I just wanted to kind of just kind of double click

090on what you mentioned that um, on the previous slide, particularly as it relates to, um, vouchers and what public schools would have received $141.8 8 million, you know, and I think that's um you know, we had those discussions about our legislative uh priorities where we were we're calling for a moratorum on the voucher program until there's some level of accountability um um put in place, $141.8 million. To put that in perspective, that would equate to about $1,575 teachers that we could have public schools could have benefited from from that $1.8 million. So again, the more that we are able to um advocate as a race to our legislative priorities, the more it helps us uh in local school systems like ours. So thank you for highlighting that. >> Thank you, Mr. Teter. Um pulling out

091your crystal ball and showing us as much as you can about what we think is to come. Uh board members, colleagues, any questions, comments? buyer, I think. Yes. >> Yeah. I I just wanted to to appreciate the work of the finance department in so um thoughtfully um preparing our budget and and leaving us with um good answers as we sit here and our staff sits here waiting on answers they deserve that are nearly a year overdue. Um, and I was really appreciative to to attend the public hearing on the county's budget and appreciate our folks over there advocating um on behalf especially of classified staff. I think it's a issue that we all um continue to to support the need to to move folks up. Um, and we the budget proposal over there doesn't fund

092that. Um, June 8th, I believe, is when the county will be making their local decision. So, we'll also have that piece of information. Um, Mr. Teter, I don't remember the state doing a a percentage raise and a one-time bonus in any time in recent history. So, I'm I'm a little dubious of that actually coming to pass. I don't know if you had thoughts on whether that that could stick or not. Um >> I same experience. Uh I it's for in my career so far it's been one or the other. Um and um and in those bonus years have often been insulting and and and sometimes we've also seen those years where they would throw in some bonus leave right on on top of that and sometimes it had cash value, sometimes it didn't. Uh so

093yeah, I'm curious to see I it may uh I think it was um particularly where the where our certified employees are concerned. I think that bonus structure was a very kind of weak attempt to address sort of the dis the disparity in how they dispersed the increases throughout the teacher salary schedule by giving that slightly higher bonus to more veteran teachers. And so, um, so I'm not I'm not sure what they'll do, but I I agree it would be the a first for me if they both came through. The other thing that I think was important to note is that all state employees are overdue raises, but the the framework that has been presented, which is not a budget, is much more generous to state highway patrol and some other categories of employees. Um and

094and again following their trend of being negligent to to public schools and public educators. Um so I appreciate our community that is continuing to watch and advocate both at the local and state level. Um and appreciate y'all helping lead us forward through really difficult decisions to come. Um any other questions or comments from colleagues? I know you kind of laid out a timeline of bringing us some information um at the June work session. Do you have any sense on when the general assembly might be thinking about budget again your crystal ball? the the best I'm hearing is, you know, and this has been a a few days since I've heard this, but middle of June potentially um where we'll see some action come through. Um but, uh we'll see. It's been quiet um right, they

095we've gotten the details that we've gotten and then they've gotten really quiet. So, um so I'm I'm not taking any bets on it, but um but potentially um middle of June we'll see some action. >> Okay. And then if um I'm just thinking timeline wise like there's some ways that I think that what we have budgeted for has given us some c cushion depending on what they do we might need to be re revisiting this budget looking at July and August. Is that correct? >> That would be fair. Right. And so we've um you know so there's um you know we know that we've got um you know just a little bit a little bit of breathing room to work with and the opportunity to attain some more. Uh, and so it's um though I

096wouldn't prefer it, it's in the best interest of our employees that if we do need to come back and do some do some additional things in in July and August, we would um for sure. So >> I appreciate that. Um, it's unfortunate that folks overdue for this budget information for school systems, for state governments, we're all folks who are trying to plan and don't have the information that they need. Um, any other questions for colleagues? from colleagues, Mr. Ter, I think that'll close out. Thank you. The next item on our agenda agenda is policy 8600 um which is coming from the policy committee uh budget transparency is for first reading. I'm sorry I'm I'm skipping over thing. I apologize. strategic plan. This we the next item on our agenda is our four operation services strategic

097plan priority five update. >> All right. Um good evening. Uh my name is Anthony White and I am the executive director of auxiliary services for DPS. This evening we will be presenting um an update on priority five of the DPS strategic plan. And joining me tonight are Clifton Williams, the executive director of maintenance and building services and also Mr. Paul Majumpdy who is the executive director of information technology. Um Devin Mitchell, our interim senior executive director of construction construction and capital planning was also a part of this work, but she's not here with us this evening. But I definitely wanted to give her her shout out for her work on this. Next slide. So during tonight's presentation, we will review the four goals connected to priority 5. We will begin by highlighting some of the

098strategies and initiatives currently underway to support progress towards these goals. At the end of the presentation, we will also share data data slides that demonstrate our current progress related to each goal. Next slide, please. As we move through the strategy slides, we will focus on four key areas. What we are doing, what is working, areas where improvement is still needed, and our next steps moving forward. Next slide, please. In addition, each slide includes a self assessment of our current reality using a fivelevel scale. Um a level one indicates work has not yet started while a level five reflects practices are sustained and impactful across the district. You can find those ratings at the bottom of each slide and later in the presentation we will provide a summary slide that captures the overall ratings across um

099each department. Next slide please. So first um let's talk about strategic marketing. So, we focused on highlighting the work happening across several operational departments, particularly in child nutrition and in transportation. Um, with child nutrition, we've worked to ensure that our menus are both studentfriendly and inviting while also maintaining a strong focus on nutritional quality. Our team continues to collaborate um with a registered dietitian to ensure that meals meet health and nutrition standards for our students. Um, one of the areas where we know that we can continue to improve is how we communicate the variety of meal options available for our students and families. Um, as we move into next school year, we will place an increased focus on better highlighting local vegan and halal meal options um, within our menus and communication materials. In transportation,

100we've continued to strengthen our recruitment and marketing efforts in partnership with the Office of Public Affairs. Um, this work has included the development of a transportation orientation video that's available on the DPS website along with an internal training and safety video used to support our staff's development. We've also expanded our recruitment outreach through the DPS website, Indeed, social media platforms, and reoccurring job fairs. Um, at this point we are conducting job fairs each month and over the past year we've hosted um, excuse me, over the p over the past year we've hosted u monthly um, hiring events to to strengthen our staffing ahead of the 26 27 school year. Again, we want to make sure that we are getting ahead of the game um before we get to the summertime to make sure that we're

101better prepared for next year. uh six since September 24, our transportation department has hired uh 50 employees with four with 40 of them still being active with us in our department. And many of these hires have come from our employee um referrals. Um which really speaks to um how our staff are feeling about their the work that they are doing here in DPS. Um, as we continue this work, one of our areas of focus is increasing the number of Spanish- speaking um, employees within within our transportation workforce. And currently, we have a little less than 20 Hispanic staff members in the department. And we recognize the importance of um, continuing to build a workforce that's reflective of our students and families in our community. Um and again to support this effort, we continue um targeted

102recruitment strategies, exploring opportunities to highlight testimonials from current employees and share their experiences and the positive impact of working in DPS. Next slide, please. As we look at the work happening within the transportation department, one of our ongoing priorities is continuing to review and analyze our bus routes to improve efficiency and optimize service delivery. A goal remains um to ensure that all students arrive to and from school safely and on time each day. Compared to the 2425 school year um when the district at times had to operate on the 4 day a week transportation schedule due to staffing shortages, we're in a significantly stronger position this year and our ability to um provide more reliable and consistent transportation services for our community. Um while we have made substantial progress, we also recognize that there are

103still some areas u where improvement is needed, particularly related to on-time arrival rates in our tier 2 and tier three routes. Um later in this presentation, we will share data that provides a clear picture of where we are in those areas. While we've made sub substantial progress, we also recognize that there's some um some areas that we need to improve. Um last well a few months ago we did a a presentation on express stops and um we are actively working to implement those and we believe that we will be able to um really increase our efficiency and our productivity in the transportation department um with this initiative. Next slide please. Um this next slide is about school safety. And so one of the major initiatives that we implemented this year has been the establishment of

104the superintendent's health and safety leadership team which includes representatives and um from multiple different departments and schoolbased leaders across DPS. Um through this work, teams have collaborated to identify concerns, problem solve across departments, and proactively strengthen safety practices districtwide. Another important component of this work has been the implementation of the vulnerability assessments across DPS schools and facilities. These assessments allow us to work directly with district and school leaders to identify potential safety concerns and proactively address areas where additional support and safety measures may be needed. We're currently in the early stages of implementation and look forward to expanding this work during the upcoming school year. In addition, the safety and security department successfully completed lockdown drills at all DPS sites through the school year with a 100% compliance rate. And we also saw a significant

105improvement in drill performance throughout the year with repeat drills due to procedural concerns or safety violations decreasing by one-third compared to the first semester. Um this indicates stronger preparedness and execution during initial drills across schools. As we continue this work um of strengthening our emergency preparedness, one of the adjustments we plan to implement during the next school year is conducting unannounced lockdown drills. In real emergency situations, events are unpredictable and we want to ensure that staff and students are prepared to respond effectively regardless of the time or circumstance. Next slide, please. All right. When we look at our school nutrition department, one of the biggest successes for Durm Public Schools has been our continued ability to provide free breakfast and lunch for all of our students. And participation rates have continued to increase and we're

106proud to share that DPS will be um able to provide free breakfast and lunch for the next five school years. Um this is a significant accomplishment for our district and the families that we serve. In addition to expanding access to meals, we continue to focus on maintaining strong nutrition standards and reviewing our menus to ensure that we're providing healthy, high-quality meal options for our students. Um, in addition, our school nutrition staff u receives annual allergy awareness training prior to the start of each school year. And this training helps to ensure student health needs remain a priority as menus are developed and prepared across the district. A another area of focus is strengthening our partnerships with with our local vendors to provide fresh fruits and vegetables in our schools. And we've continued working towards making our

107meal offerings more culturally conscious, relevant so our students can see the foods and menu options that best that better reflect the diverse communities we serve across DPS. Next slide, please. All right. Um I know Dr. Lewis spoke to this earlier um but I got to highlight it. I want to highlight it again. Um in the area of professional learning, this year we launched a pilot program in collaboration with um Durm Techch um and the MSAP grant to provide targeted professional development opportunities within our transportation department. Our initial cohort um included 19 transportation staff members who participated in Spanish language courses um through Derm Techch. And through this process, Derm Techch staff worked um closely with us to tailor the curriculum to better meet day-to-day communication needs for our um transportation employees. And um I know

108Dr. Lewis shared the um picture from our celebration. Want to thank all the staff that helped us out with that um that took place last Thursday. It was great. Um and we enjoyed really um celebrating the effort of our staff members. Again, um they volunteered for this. They wanted it and they were able to advocate for it. and we're happy that we were able to um provide this professional learning for our staff. Um at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Clifton Williams who will continue our presentation about professional learning. >> All right, good evening everybody. Um like you said, my name is Clifton Williams. I'm the executive director of facilities. Um I did want to take some time before I got into this just to continue to highlight my team. um

109our grounds technicians, our maintenance technicians, our painters, our custodians, our lead custodians. Um they're just really out there doing the best that they can with the tools we have available to us. They work hard every day. Um obviously went through a very hot heat spell last week. Um luckily we're going to get some a little bit cooler weather next week. But um I just wanted to highlight them about the work that they do do every day and um you know pass on my appreciation publicly to them as well. So um I will continue to pass and it flows right into this. Um so we completed um the supervisors for my team completed uh leadership essentials training with our develop our professional development team. The training focused on building team morale, conducting constructive conversations and al

110also effectively addressing uh staff performance and attendance um as well as their behavior. Um, this is kind of like a refresher training that was purposeful in the fact that all of our supervisors need to have continuous conversations about how to improve their conversations with staff, how to improve our performance, and just how to continue to um improve morale. Um, I would also say that some of our opportunities for improvement under like where we need to improve are just expanding our partnerships with our current CTE department. um a lot a um advertising and accepting students for internships within the summer or within the school year to give them opportunities and handle hands-on learning about um with the skilled trades. And then also we just want to strengthen our um strengthen our our partnership with Durham Technical

111College so that we can continue to recruit and fill vacancies with the trades that they uh that they have available as well. Um next slide please. Next slide. There we go. Next slide, please. Wrong way. We're going the wrong way. You can come back up if you want. [laughter] Uh, next slide. Next slide. And there we go. Um, so datadriven decision-m just talk talks about how it's really a collaborative approach between my team and the capital construction team to utilize the work order system and our facility condition assessment system. Um, this facility condition assessment that was completed to prioritize the next um projects that will be completed. Um overall we want to continue to focus on utilizing the funding that we do have available whether it's lottery or whether it's bonds to to focus on

112uh utilizing the tenure capital improvement plan so that we could know what will be prioritized. Um, I did want to highlight a couple things that currently we have a immediate need of need over the next one to five years of about $600 million which would help improve our mechanical systems and building envelopes and then over about close to nearly a billion dollars in needs over the next 10 years. Um, but overall the next steps for us for in terms of data decision making is just to continue use the facility condition assessment to prioritize the needs of the district and ultimately outlay outlay that over the 10ear capital improvement plan. U based on the funding sources and the priorities that have been outlined um across the district. Uh next slide please. Uh capital improvements. So I'll

113talk about some of the current capital improvements that we're doing right now. Um currently we do have ARPA funding that we're utilizing to help um support boiler replacements and current um districtwide HVAC HVAC repairs. Um the 2026 capital improvement plan has been finalized and ultimately that will outline the projects that will be in the cap potential 2028 bond. Um you know touching on the ARPA projects. The ARPA the ARPA projects are districtwide repairs on our boilers chillers. I'm going to go on and touch in touch on some of the projects that we're currently doing including PMS and preventive maintenance assessments on the boilers and the chillers. Um, also talking about, you know, our filter change up program and then also some some of the schools that will be highlighted for uh, bo um, boiler replacements.

114Um, the 2022 bond projects are both under construction. I'll highlight that DSA is um, up for substantial completion in Q3 or Q4 of 2027 and then ultimately it'll be move in ready of 2028. Um and then the Glenn um elementary school renovation is also going to be um online and completed for the fall of 2026 of the next school year. Um so ultimately, you know, we want to continue to improve on utilizing our legs, our learning environment guidelines to help prioritize how spaces and the environment and educational environment will be prioritized. and then just really continue to focus on the cons consistent and sustained investment from the county whether it's through bonds or lottery funding that we will have utilize to continue to pri prioritize the projects that have been identified in the facility condition

115assessment. Um next slide please. Um specialized spaces um essentially you know we want to continue to focus on evaluating spaces in terms of um classrooms that may need to be modified. we do uh utilize a facility modification form across the district in the event that there is a school that would like to change the way that a a space is being used and ultimately we're going to continue to lean on the um learning environment guidelines to plan and outfit how schools will be utilized in terms of the way spaces will be changed and or modified. Um and then we do have some uh playground improvement projects that are going to be currently underway and we'll continue to fund those. Um next slide please. sustainability. So, currently all of our high schools have received um LED

116upgrades. Um it's important to to note that those are the highest consumption of our energy usage. So, upgrading to LED lighting will help improve energy efficiency across the district. Um we are currently, as I talked about, utilizing ARPA funding to replace HVAC systems and upgrade and make repairs. um that's going to increase indoor air quality and also decrease um energy usage by utilizing in more energy efficient equipment. Um want to highlight we are expecting 13 uh new EV buses to be received by uh this year 20 of the fall or winter of this year. Um so we currently talk want to talk about the HVAC projects. Almost half of the district has been touched by the ARPA funding or some type of lot for lottery funding to help support new boilers and ch new boilers

117and chillers. And you know for sustainability want to continue to focus on utilizing the funding that is available as well as you know highlighting that in the um the possible 2028 bond it will have the um roll out of additional solar um panels and solar usage as well. Um next slide please. And I'm going to pass it off to um Director Majumbi. Evening board members, Dr. Lewis. Uh, this slide highlights our ongoing business operation assessments work. Um, focused on improving how the district system support financial, human, technological, and capital resources. Um, the goal is not just modernization, but creating a more connected, efficient, and sustainable operational environment across the district. Um what we're currently doing as we can see right there we've been our biggest project has been migrating from our legacy S400 system. Um

118and in between there we had Silogist to the current link v6 platform. Um I think AS400 has been with us Mr. Tito for over 30 years. Yeah exactly has been in the system for over 30 years. Um and one of the challenges that creates is you have all this legacy data and you just keep on building on that legacy data. Uh I would love to give kudos to the finance department and the HR department. The folks who are working on this project back there. They are Mr. T and Dr. Smootz can really tell you it's nerve-wracking. It's trying to undo all the bad data and make it make sense integrated across the systems. But so far um payroll was successfully migrated. Uh the payroll system is fully now in link v6 that finance operation is

119running on. The HR migration is currently ongoing. Um and we're working with Dr. mod's team to make sure that's fully complicated. Um but yeah, these upgrades are really helping us move away from legacy systems and reduce operational risk. We're also working on our communication infrastructure. Um the phone systems have been working again on the legacy PRI lines that you already see the copper lines. Um we've been we're trying to migrate those onto the seat trunks which are more current. Um that type of migration will definitely improve flexibility, scalability, and position us for long-term sustainability. It will also enable us work again with um Mr. Clifton Ton's department because most times you've heard of principles have always asked you know can't I use my Cisco phone right here to you know work with the intercom but

120because we have the legacy systems those two systems don't talk together so with this uh with these upgrades we hope that now you can pick up your phone and integrate it with their intercom system and have more integrated system to talk through. Um, and yeah, again, like we said, this it's going to modernize the phone system and it'll also help us strengthen our 911 compliances where we can really drill down to the room you're in. You know, not only the the school and the building and the wing, but really narrow it down. So, some of these upgrades will help us do that. Um, and again, a key another key focus has been improving collaboration between the departments. again are migrating the payroll system just showed us that um there's been very very strong collaboration between

121finance HR and IT department um operational improvements are more successful when departments definitely work from shared processes what's working definitely like we said uh the power of migration has significantly improved stimuliability and reporting Mr. Ta can definitely um nod to that. Um we have now we have now better operational contra and visibility into the different processes. Uh there's like anything can say there been stronger collaboration between the departments. Um there's cross functional planning which has helped reduce silos and improved decision making. Um definitely we've seen cost savings as we were starting these projects. It remember member Mr. TA did highlight where the cost savings were going to come for us to move to a new current system. Um and there's been sanization and centralization efforts are reducing helping reduce complexity across those systems but also

122we've seen better alignment uh to district operations uh across the board where we need improvement for sure um training and change management I think we saw I think when we're moving across link in December um I can see Miss B nodding her head um definitely we it's been one of those big challenges um that we need to work on um ensuring that staff feel confident and supported during those system transitions. That's something definitely we need to improve on. Uh we also we also realize that we need stronger training programs. Uh ongoing user support and clearer communication throughout implementation as we're migrating from these legacy systems. Um we've also identified system integration gaps. Um some departments still operate with disconnected workflows and systems. Um that's why we find that some siloed information doesn't flow through to

123this side so we can have that complete reporting. That's another area of improvement that we've seen. um edging infrastructure for sure. Uh we need a more strategic life cycle replacement having a system for 30 years. I think that's that's not the best way to uh for life cycle replacement plans. Uh but also data governance. Um there's a growing need for stronger data governance practices. Um and consistent reporting standards across in the district that we've seen. Uh next steps uh we will definitely like said we are completing the HR migration. Uh that way all the data has moved over to link. We shall expand user training and user support um and again establish a recurring assessment cycle to make sure that we're on top of our um infrastructure and identify any risks that come with that.

124Next slide. Right. So, for the next couple slides, I'm just going to kind of recap kind of where we scored, where we felt like we scored ourselves. Um, overall, we do think that we have we have some good positive energy going in a lot of these groups, highlighting some threes and some fours, um, being that they're consistently implemented. Um, and if you go to the next slide, please. I think that some of it'll show that some of our biggest areas for improvement are obviously in the capital uh capital improvements and then also the specialized spaces just you know utilizing the facility condition assessment and the um uh 10ear capital improvement plan to prioritize those needs um as we continue to um utilize the funding that we have available um to upgrade our building systems and

125um make sure our district is operating as effectively and efficiently as possible. Uh next slide please. All right. So, priority goal 5A, um, it says by 2028, DPS will provide healthy and safe tech technologically current and environmentally conscious facilities for 100% of our DPS properties. Next slide, please. So yeah, we you know we feel confident that every but we know that every school every school is being touched through the the preventive maintenance that's the assessment of the chillers and the boilers um just to ensure that they are operating efficiently and if there's any proactive repairs that can be made so that in the event that once we get to the heating and or cooling season we can be ready for those events. Um every school is is receiving quarterly filter changes on their air handlers

126and their equipment. um that's going to help with indoor air quality. It's going to help improve the efficiency of the of the um pieces of equipment and also extend their life. Um that regular maintenance and that preventive maintenance and that proactive approach is, you know, you can't put a dollar on it. It's it's going to help improve the the quality of our of our um of our equipment. Um, and then, you know, just want to continue to highlight our custodial staff, all of our staff that our custo all of our staff and all the custodians, you know, utilize cleaning and sanit sanitizing chemicals to help make sure our our schools are clean and that they are um clean every day and that they're safe for our students as well. Next slide, please. So, I'm now

127going to present on goal 5B, which states that by 2028, 90% of DPS um students who ride district buses will arrive to and from school on time. Next slide, please. All right. So, this year, the transportation leadership team worked very closely with our GPS vendor to develop geo fencing around all of district schools. And the purpose of this work was to improve our ability to accurately attract bus arrival and dismissal times across the district. Um through this process, we've been able to take a much deeper and more precise look at our transportation data. And the data presented this year may look a little different from what has been presented in previous years. But um wanted to highlight that there was a great deal of work that went into refining these systems. And I want to

128highlight our transportation leadership team um led by Mr. Joe Harris. Um there were a lot of different people um who had a hand in this. Tammy Phillips, Leandis McDonald, I can go on, but I just wanted to make sure I highlight um them for their work because this definitely not something that um I was able to do in isolation. Um so through this work, we able to identify trends and plan strategically um for improvement. Um in this chart shown here, um the schools are organized into transportation tiers. Tier one includes our elementary schools. Tier two includes our middle schools and Durm School of the Arts. And tier three includes our high schools. Um, one important thing that I want to clarify is that on time is defined um as 10 minutes before the school's first

129bail. And this data set, this allows um that 10 minutes um before the um bail time, allow students enough time to enter the enter the building, eat breakfast if needed, u visit lockers or the main office, and arrive to class on time. And that was the metric that's used here. As you can see, tier one schools are consistently meeting the district target of 90% on time. Um and just also want to say that this was a 4-day data set um um that I that I utilized for this. um I could pick any four days and the data was is is pretty consistent. Um so I just want to highlight that this is uh just a 4-day data set. Um again the tier one schools are arriving consistently at 90%. Um we do see a noticeable

130decline between t between t tier one and tier two and again from tier two to tier three. And as I analyzed the tier 2 data, one of the trends that came clear was that mo the majority of the late arrivals were connected to DSA. And because of that, I believe that the implementation of the express stop model that we um were able are able to pilot next school year will significantly improve tier 2 arrival rates. And um I think that by proxy, this will also increase tier three times. Um I'm looking forward to doing some data analysis to show some comparison data um uh after the plan is implemented and operationalized um next school year. Next slide, please. All right. Now, let's take a look at goal 5C. And goal 5C states that by 2028,

131DPS will increase um K12 student enrollment to achieve 100% utilization of seat capacity at all school levels. Um, next slide, please. All right, so this slide highlights um DPS um student enrollment data over the past several years. In green, you'll see enrollment projections outlined in the DPS strategic plan, which um established a district goal of increasing student enrollment to 35,000 students by the 2728 school year. In blue, you'll see our actual enrollment numbers during those same years. As a chart reflects, the district experienced a slight increase of enrollment between 23 24 and 2425. However, during the current school year, we did experience a decline in student enrollment compared to our projected target. And this data is important as we continue to evaluate district-wide operational planning, resource allocation, transportation services, staffing, and long-term strategic priorities connected

132to student growth and retention. Next slide, please. Back to Mr. Maji. Um, this slide highlights represents a goal 5D and our commitment to fully integrate um, payroll, HR, IT, and finance system by 2028. I'm glad to announce that we are ahead of that schedule uh, by two years. We should be fully integrated at least by the end of 2026 hopefully. Yes. Next slide. Again, this a more visual representation um of the work that we've been doing um migrating from the legacy systems, our previous AS400 um and the HRMS systems which have served the district for 30 years. Um and of course they did create some operational limitations along the way. uh systems were siloed, integration was limited um and reporting capability capabilities required significant manual effort. U maintaining also all the infrastructure also increased operational

133risk and reduced scalability. Um as you can see what was included in there is the payroll system or the next 400 purchasing accounts payable and our HRMS. Uh we've managed to migrate the data uh data has been migrated securely and validated through the process. Um there was business continuity uh which was maintained during the implementation. Um staff did receive some crash course training uh to make sure that we have that business continuity but there'll be repeated trainings to make sure that the systems are used efficiently um without disruption and again um as you've seen fully out there on link v6 we have all the systems in there uh there's improved efficiency there's better data accuracy uh increased visibility uh integration across all the systems um because data now flows all the way from HR through

134finance through IT systems There's more scalability and definitely um more security and compliance. Next slide, please. Thank you all so much for a really detailed and rich presentation on um priority five. Colleagues, we have questions. I'll start with Miss Rogers and then I'll go to Mr. Tab. >> I don't really have any questions tonight. I I do want to say thank you to each of you for showing up here. Thank you, Dr. Lewis. It's clear that some work has been happening um in improving the infrastructure and systems throughout Durham public schools to support student learning, to support communication from schools. Um these are departments that have traditionally been working in silos and it's clear that y'all are now working as a team even though there's been turnover. Um I'm very impressed. I'm very impressed at

135your response times on the HVAC systems. When principles are calling, y'all are responding and getting people out right away. Working with Office of Public Affairs to get that communication out to families, it's extremely helpful. Um, thank you for putting in the hard work on this, >> Mr. T. >> Thank you very much. Uh again, uh ditto to what uh Vice Chair Rogers has said. Um do want to um raise a question about um school safety and um and security. Um I know you did mention that you're all about 100% compliance in what >> not lockown drills and emergency preparedness um drills that we have. >> Yeah. I I just want the public to hear that again. Yes, sir. 100%. Um but this is my this is my question. when we are doing um drills and

136especially fire drills and we're dealing with safety kids are leaving the building and I know that when I was teaching that we had teachers had to do certain things we had to do rolls uh take role and all that stuff right now with this concern about kids re-entering the building is there any stipulations or what teachers should have to do when they return now because I know that students get a chance to sometimes times if we don't do a good roll check then that gives them opportunities to go to their cars to do other things and I'm thinking about how weapons can different things can actually get back into the building because we did a we did a s a safety measure that is required. Um, so you and with our drills, one of the

137things I would say that our safety and security department um is really big on under the leadership of um Mr. Mcloy Bayham um moving forward is making sure that we're tightening up and communicating about the procedures around drills. Um we we've made it a a big step in being more visible in schools and and uh we again even in safety and security wanting to increase our response times and ability to be there if something is going on. Um and also just being able to be um honest and transparent about things that we are seeing. Um I will speak as a former principal as well because I think that's also important. Um at the beginning of the year we go through these drills um with our teachers, our staff, students about what the expectations are and

138um it's up to our school leaders also our s in partnership with the safety and security department to make sure that students and staff are aware how we monitor our students making sure that our roles are correct in our search folders in every single classroom and making sure that that data is um up to date. Um, I will say that now that we have a full staff in our safety and security department, um, we've been doing a lot of checks on things that like that we traditionally have maybe maybe have slid past us, but we've going back and doing double checks and making sure that every all of our compliance um, systems are in place. So, again, in our training session to begin the year, that's something that we definitely can highlight um, and make

139sure that our school leaders are aware of for student safety. I would definitely really appreciate that if that's part of the auditing and the accountability of what is required once students return to the building. Yes, sir. I appreciate that. Thank you, Isa. >> Miss Carton, >> thanks so much to all of you for being here this evening. Um, this is a great presentation. and I really appreciate the update on what you're doing and all the different strategy work and then also the report back on like where we are with our goals that we set for ourselves. Um, so thank you for that. And my one question is about transportation. Um, and it's related to kind of I'm looking at the presentation about the strategies here. And so we have where we need to improve and

140then you showed us the metrics later that kind of confirm this, which is the on-time arrival rates for tier two and tier three. And then in the next steps, um, which I think is like what you're doing to improve it, it's the you name the express stop implementation. And it sounds like you're going to be looking at the data and um to determine whether that addresses that those issues. Are there other things that you're looking at like what else do you think is needed to address those issues as you're examining the problem and trying to make sure that more than the tier three really concerns me with the 50 something%? >> Yes, >> that's a great question. Um was sitting down with Mr. Harris this morning actually we were talking through um some of the

141things that we've been doing. Um one of the another aside from the um express stops this year is the last year that we will have legacy um transportation and legacy sibling transportation in our growing together plan. And what that does um what that has done for us is they send our buses outside of their regions to drop off pickup students. And since this is the last year of it, our routing is going to be more regionalized, which is going to allow for more ontime arrival at schools. So again, this is a system change as we've moved into growing together, which will also um pay us some dividends with ontime arrivals. Um, also our team has been working tirelessly on our routing. Um, um, meet with the routing techs. Um, we are ahead of schedule with

142trying to make sure that we are getting our routing our routing together and also making sure that we're pairing our routes um, more succinctly so our buses can be more efficient and getting to their tier one, two, and three schools. And I think with the routing, the legacy and legacy sibling falling off this year, those two things are going to add a little bit more to um the overall product that we're able to produce out of the transportation department. >> Um thank you so much. Um that's great to hear. And um I guess I'm wondering too, are there additional things that you do or you could need from the board if those things don't work um or if they don't completely solve this problem? Um and do you have ideas for what those are now

143or moving forward? Might there be a case that we need more bus drivers or more buses for example or more express stops or what comes to your mind? >> Yes. So, one, I think I think one of the things that I I'm very appreciative of with this team that we have in the operations department led by Mr. Barnes is that we're always trying to think next step and think ahead. Um, that's really um helped us a lot in our planning. Of course, we always need more bus drivers and as I said earlier, we've been very conscious about the recruitment efforts. We've had one every single month and um really trying to make sure we're getting people and getting people through the training program. Um we're going to continue these efforts um throughout the summer and

144hopefully we'll be able to increase our drivers um as compared to last school year. Um as far as support from the board um and I I appreciate that. But what I will say is just um as we are continuing to come back and provide data and update you on different things um just being able to work collaboratively with us asking those those those tough questions um and allowing us to go back and do the work to try to do what's best for our students. I think that's just the main thing and we appreciate that. >> Thank you Mr. Barnes. Yeah, just let me add that uh [clears throat] we're not allowing um one person to be the Donald to say in the routes anymore. I walked into Mr. Harris's office today and they were sitting

145there looking at it and I looked at the board myself and I was like that was not good right there. And so uh they we're looking at more training for our um text and what really looks like a good route to Mr. Harris has to be what looks like a good route to all of our T operators and so that we're not just allowing them to look at one person all three are looking at and Mr. Harris is putting his final eyes along with Mr. White on all the routes this year and making sure that we are not crossing paths with buses and we uh regionalize. I also wanted to add that um the on-time arrival will look different if we use the final bail time for that. But we want transportation to have an

146effect on student achievement. And so that's why we're using the 10 minutes that we want everybody to be at school to get a good breakfast to be able to eat, not to rush to get to class on time. So, you know, I think I talked to Miss Ber about if we use, you know, 7:45 that 90 plus percent for tier one would be even higher. You know, if we use um middle school start time, those numbers would be better. So, tier three would not be as bad for high schools if we use the actual start time of school. But that's not our goal in transportation. We want to have an effect on student achievement. And so, that's why we want them there at least uh 10 minutes early. Thank you, Mr. Barnes. I'm gonna go

147to Miss Herok, then I'll go to Miss Brier. >> I I just wanted to thank you, Mr. Barnes, for that comment around um wanting to like centering student achievement and how we're looking at this data. That was actually one of the things that I wanted to just bring up is I first of all, I'm I'm still very appreciative of how this data is presented. And it just dawned on me today that one of the things that I I want us to always keep forward is also we have the the the what the what we need the why. The these are the objectives and this is why we're doing it. And so you lifted that up in that comment that you um brought up. So something that I was thinking about just in the moment. Um,

148and I don't my comment's going to go away from the the transportation data. So, is that all right? Okay. I wanted to also lift up the um the student enrollment data and I know this is such a complex um issue. all of you know the other data kind of mentioned you gave this wonderful analysis on um what you think that data is saying about what we need to do next or what's been going on but I'm noticing that you know and no no judgment but where the analysis about what this student enrollment data could mean for what we do or what's you know what what things we're looking at just um if you if you want to take some time to mention that as well to talk about that or I can be happy with

149just understanding that that's really complex and that there are lots of different things that we need to be thinking about as a district to talk to talk about um how we get back on track for enrollment. >> Yeah, I think we've talked about that a little bit in the past uh about you know birth rates are down uh right now across the district. Uh we'll still continue to have more charter schools moving to the area, but we're hoping that, you know, when we get our students to school on time, uh when we giving them a free breakfast and free lunch at every single one of our schools, that um when we get u upgrade our HVAC systems uh in our in our schools, that all of that is going to have an impact on our

150community. Uh one thing that uh Mr. Williams did not mention is that we're not just replacing our HDAC systems, we're putting um more efficient systems in our schools. Um we could go back with the same systems that we have now um and it will be a little bit cheaper for us. Um but they're not going to be as efficient. They're not going to last as long. And so we're making a conscious effort to uh put more efficient units in our schools. um that's going to last us longer and that's going to allow us not to have to go to uh 58 schools to do repairs. Okay, we're putting new systems in some of our schools. So hopefully we won't have to put our hands on those schools um come next fall and next winter so

151we can concentrate on some of our older schools um as an and as we continue to talk about right in our schools and then that's also going to have an effect on us as well. >> Thank you for that. So, I just want to thank you all for your leadership, Mr. Barnes, you and your whole team. Um, and I wanted to thank you for shouting out how you all are a team, how we have so many um, IT techs, payroll folks, um, skilled trades folks, child nutrition workers that are actually doing the work of priority five and doing it without being in the front spotlight, but often behind the scenes. And you know, some of the groundskeepers were the ones that first brought to my attention eight or nine years ago that we weren't keeping

152up with the county in our pay that um we needed to do better and we need to fight for for everybody in in this district. And I think that's so important to continue to do that. I do sit with the the sad reality that what I'd hoped for was a 2026 bond because we know all of us sitting here that we have a billion dollars worth of needs just to do mostly maintenance stuff. A billion dollars worth of needs. Aging infrastructure average age of our schools is pro, it used to be 59 years, but I'm guessing we're probably at 61 now, right? We keep moving. Um, and we see that with the systems breaking around children. So, I want to be clear as y'all move forward and continue. I'll be yelling at the county commissioners

153from the other side, but um, if they can do limited obligation funding now, this year, or next year, there are projects that are shovel ready and can be shovel ready. There's extensive work that needs to keep moving. I feel so bad for our skilled trade folks to keep bandating stuff together with children and and young learners in spaces where we know they deserve healthy air, they deserve um up-to-date playgrounds. Um and so this isn't an area where we can continue to tell people to do more with less. Um, and so I wondered, and I love the notion of looking towards our CTE pathways and alignment of careers for our students. I wondered if even in the skilled trades whether we're experiencing vacancies um or we are able to fill those positions. You all know how

154that's going. >> I mean, I can tell you that we do have some vacancies. Um, certainly some electricians and some um carpenters. I think we may have one HVAC technician that's vacant. Um, but alongside that, you know, certainly we have some people that are out on leaves and all those type of things that, you know, kind of help the snowball roll a little bit. Um, so yeah, I mean, we certainly have vacancies that need to be filled and utilizing the C our current CTE department and Durham Tech, you know, as partners is how we want to continue to move forward. >> Thank you so much. I I do wonder as as y'all get creative in the future if we can move if explore moving some of those positions to county funded positions where we could

155essentially pay them 25% more that way. Um, but I know y'all will get creative in figuring out how to make sure that our students get what they need and and it's just so appreciative of y'all's leadership. It's Dr. Lewis and I kind of cringed over here when you talked to Mr. White about the 4-day transportation week that was not that long ago and a place that we can never go back to. So so appreciative of Bill's um visionary leadership. >> M we would not be back on 4 day transportation for Durham public schools. I assure you. >> Sounds like you also still got openings for people who want to come be bus drivers, electricians, all those things. Um really great to see that happening. We always have openings on our operations, but uh we are

156beginning to advertise for those openings other places than just the Durham public schools website. And so we're able to get a different group, but uh we're really serious about working with our schools on our CTE department uh and even with our EC programs uh with some of our uh students that we can bring that are here and we can keep them here. And uh the training that Mr. Williams did with his staff this year is talking about the family that we need in operations um in in maintenance and so we don't continue to lose people. We want to keep those people here um and hopefully they can bring other maintenance people to DPS like the bus additional bus drivers for us. >> All right. Um there's a lot I appreciate about you all's presentation. I'll

157just highlight a few but a lot of comments have already been said. Um so thinking about having um community eligibility provision being renewed for the next five years as free lunch and free breakfast for every student in Durham public schools which is incredible. We know at a time where there's increasing costs um around groceries and housing that is a benefit to families. So that's something that's really incredible. And then I love like you talked about Mr. Barnes and professional learning opportunities that we're offering for staff and I've seen we've had bus drivers who've moved into different roles and we've seen maintenance folks move into different roles. So, we're glad that we're seeing folks being able to um move into management and different leadership roles within the district. One your version of growing your own. Um

158and I was really also excited to see there's a lot in here, but I'm highlighting just a few things. The regularly scheduled maintenance that we're doing with our school buildings. I think that's vital and important. Um we know we got lots of emails just over the last couple weeks about HVAC systems. So, having some things that are upgraded in those systems mean they'll work better. I do have a question around athletic facilities though. Is that included as a part of that regular maintenance? We've also received some communications around facilities that could use some upgrades and some safety concerns that come along with some of those facilities. >> Uh Mr. Hackne, director of athletics and I went to some of our high schools last week to look at some of our facilities. Um also talked to

159Dr. Lewis about how we currently fund um middle schools and high schools. And so we're looking at possibly doing um things a little different for them. I don't know what the funding all of it's about money and so we got to look at uh how the funding is going to take place. I know we had a couple of schools in particular that we are going to address um um this summer before the 26 27 school year arrives. But uh Mr. Hack and I are trying to put together plans to see what it's going to cost to um support our u secondary schools a little better with athletics. >> Appreciate that. I mean part of we had our state championships, you know, athletes here today and we need to make sure they have really great tracks

160and facilities um to participate in athletics on. I think we also need to take maybe the commissioners on a little field trip to a school and see the fields and the athletic fields. I think that's an important also thing for them to see what we need to be funding um within our school system. We've done that before with the school buildings, but I don't think they've had a chance in the same way to look at some of the athletic facilities. And I think that's an important um thing part of our our work that we do in the school system and we want to make sure everyone can have that visibility. The other question I had was around the on-time arrivals. I appreciate y'all illuminating what the 10% might look different and I see the data

161set this year for those four days. Are we continuing to track for longer? The goal um or the metric is around 90% and it's kind of larger bigger picture. So yeah. So your question is around like how how frequently are we pulling this data? >> Yes. >> So um every day at 10 a.m. um the data from the previous day is um dropped into my inbox. Um so I'm able to look at the data on a daily basis. Um if there is uh if we get communication about some trends about certain buses or certain schools, we're able to get some real time data and it's I don't have to go searching for it. It's already in my inbox. I can go back and take a look at that data and then again using our software

162that we have with our GPS be able to address some of the concerns that we have and think about how we can strategically make things better. Um so this is ongoing work. Um we don't have a chart for every single day but the data is reviewed um each day. >> I appreciate that and even the fact that we're here having this conversation about this data. I think about a year ago we were like we don't know how we're going to get the data. So the fact that we can have this conversation today is great progress. I would love to see towards the end of the year a larger bigger data set of like this many times this year we were on time, this percentage of times we were not and then that using that metric

163to track again for next year as you implement some of the changes. Um and then I'm sure there trends around when you see more buses on time and more buses are late depending on Fridays, holidays, all those different things that might come up to you have more bus drivers out. kind of zooming out to see more of that data would be really would be interesting for me. Um, and I think for us to keep tracking to make sure we're on track with the goal >> Yes, ma'am. >> metric there. >> Um, and then my last thought was around student enrollment. um and do we need to go back in and look at and revise this goal just based on where we are generally speaking and some of the new information that we have that's kind

164of directed at board and staff but also like we have to put some real effort behind this goal to make sure that we're increasing enrollment which connects back to your kind of strategic marketing goal um and how do we do some really intentional things and work um so I don't know if there's something that we can uplift now around what we're doing to increase enrollment and what that might look like for the next year also realize that's a cross departmental goal across the district. >> Well, I'll I can kind of speak a little bit um and by all means, Dr. Lewis, Mr. Barnes, feel free to chime in. Um when we start talking about increasing um enrollment, I think it's it's not just one person's job. And I think that's the main thing I want

165to highlight. It takes all of us. um when you when we at the grocery store, when we in Walmart or Target and we are having conversations and people asking questions about schools, just making sure that we're reminding people that all the schools in Durham public schools are great schools for our students. Um I know I have these conversations all the time. Um and sometimes people don't understand. I think people's perceptions about what's going on um is not reality. So um as we are continuing, you know, we had a long segment of celebrations. These are the great stories that are happening. I know our um social media um team and the office of public affairs do a great job of highlighting all the great things that are going on, but I think the main thing is

166us being able to really talk about the the great work that's happening because nothing beats a great conversation about some great things that are happening in Durham public schools and I know that that's happening um with our staff and I just challenge everybody who's a supporter of Durham public schools to do the same. I'll just add to kind of e echo that um you know we think about marketing um everyone is a marketer. every single person, every single organization that partners with Dorm Public Schools um you know internally externally are marketers and sometimes it's the things um we say some of the things we do our behaviors uh that um makes a parent decide whether you're doing public school current parent to say okay I'm going to leave or whether you were one that was

167looking to come and based on some of the things you're seeing from the outside I don't think I want to be a part of that right and so I think we have to take a um a look internally to see, you know, every single experience with a parent is a an opportunity, a customer service experience because um families have options and they are deciding to take advantage of those options as it relates to um you know, current DPS parents deciding to to to leave. And so we had a really good conversation um with our parent ambassadors that are are really um they were designed to assist us in in in in that effort. Um, we did a SWAT analysis with them to talk about how we how can we continue to leverage them as it

168relates to parents communicating with parents. As as a Dor public school system, we can communicate until we're blew in the face, but it's a parent experience with another parent, a conversation about my experience um will continue to help, you know, in that regard. Uh in addition to that um I I think we're looking even though our office of public affairs is a um and and it just solely as I I'll want to reiterate that it does not just rest with office office of public affairs uh everyone has a hand in in marketing um but that powerful team of four actually started a um I choose DPS campaign and it started because from the parent ambassadors where we had some parent parents that were charter school parents that came to Dorham public schools and they were

169telling their stories. we wanted to capture those on on video. And so the more that we share our experiences, our stories, the better. And the more that we are responsive to parents concerns, students concerns, because like I said, people will get get tired of either not getting a response, people will get tired of not feeling that their issue is resolved and and they'll leave. And so, um, that it goes back to good customer service, too, and and and a well-rounded experience, uh, for our families as as well. So, um, more to come on on that and we're also, um, looking at a potential platform that will help us with some data in that regard, customer service data. >> Really appreciate both of those answers. And y'all are right, we're all the marketeteers of the school

170system and it it is a lot of those conversations dayto day. Um, I would hope I would love to see us add some more data driven decision- making and conver and strategic conversations onto that. What areas of the county are we losing students the most? Where are they going? What does our targeted conversation look like? Do I need to go to a certain uh restaurant on a certain side of town so I can make sure I can talk to families, right? How are we being really strategic about those efforts? You know, and I think about churches, um all the different places that folks are gathering, how are we knowing where our students are ending up and so that we're being really intentional about some of that work. So, love to see us continue to incorporate

171that as we think about increasing enrollment moving forward. Um it's almost like competition like a business at this point because there's so many so many options that families have. We want to show them the things that are available here. That is all my questions. Any other comments or questions from colleagues? >> Thank you all. >> Thank you. >> Yes. So the next item on our agenda is a policy committee update. We have uh two items. One is a policy committee update is for information only. Um and Miss Carter Uton who's the chair of that committee has an update that she would like to share. >> Thank you. Um I just wanted to add a verbal update because that um the update for information only that's on the agenda is um only part of the story.

172So we met on the 21st and that update that's on the agenda describes what happened that day. we had to recess that meeting um to jump over to a budget meeting with our partners at the county. Um so we we cut that one short which means we then reconvened on Tuesday and due to the posting time of our agenda wasn't able to put up a um written update. So just wanted to share a couple words about what we did on Tuesday. Um so we spent the bulk of the Tuesday um May 26th meeting working through changes to policy 4326. That's rules for use of seclusion and restraint in schools. Um that included some updates and improvements I think to annual reporting of data back to the board and improvements related to verbal and written notification

173for caregivers and parents among other things. So now this policy is going to come back to this board on June 9th um for uh second read at the June 9th work work session. Um, we spent so much time on that policy that we did not have an opportunity to discuss two other policies uh that are important and were on the agenda. That's policy 1750 um 7220, the grievance procedure for employees and also policy 3400 evaluation of student progress. Um that's an NCSBA revision. So this was the last policy committee meeting of the year. So we ended up sending both of these the June 9 work work session for first reading also. So we will have some fun policy work to do at that meeting. Finally, we've been trying to set aside some time during our

174meetings to just reflect on how things have been going this year. This was the first year of the policy committee. Um so I think we've learned some things about what's been working well and what um has been challenging this year. Um, and I'm I'd like to take an opportunity to talk about those still. So, we decided that we wanted to also do that at the June 9 work session session. Um, but in the meantime, I'm working on a brief um survey for all board members and um staff that were involved too just to provide some basic feedback if you're interested in that way and I can compile it so we have something to reflect on and also, you know, we can share feedback during the meeting. but just want to put together a good set

175of recommendations for um the next person that's going to be leading this committee. Thank you for the time. That's my update. Thank you, Miss Carter. And if you could um also provide that so we can make sure we add it to the minutes, that'd be great. Um the next item on our agenda is a policy 8600 budget transparency first reading. Are you leading that M card or is that coming from staff but at transparency? Yes, Mr. Ters from the precies. Wonderful. Good evening again. Um so uh we we were glad um as administration to be able to get this um particular policy to first read. Um this this is one of two in particular that were um the fruits of the meet and confer process and um I think we've u met with policy committee

176on two occasions since uh the meet and confer meetings uh wrapped up in February um and worked carefully um with the board members on that committee worked carefully with um representation from DAE uh as well as legal counsel to make that policy honor um the spirit of of what um our educator association was trying to accomplish regarding uh financial and budget transparency in the district. And so we're um after a couple of rounds of editing, happy to have it at a point where we're where we have it in front of the board or the full board u for contemplation. Um and certainly we have a goal um for this to be in in effect uh for the start of the new fiscal year that starts on July 1st and and that has also another factor

177in terms of our timing in in getting that in place and and we'll just share um you know I've appreciated the the the care and concern um from from multiple board members about the finance department's ability to to comply with this policy um in in a way that would not overt tax the finance department, but still honor the spirit, right, of what our community wants and what our educator association wants with transparency. And so we've um we feel good about how it's written. Uh and we've already um spent some time, you know, tweaking some of our existing um protocols and structures to make sure that we can easily pivot into that for the new year um in in the way that we organize our documents and and to and so we'll much like we do

178um for our annual audit um in terms of how we organize our work and you know we're we're building our work around this now too and it's um I I see positive benefits um for my team and and and the accountability, you know, that that we're held to um in the standard that we follow. So, I think it's mutually beneficial for the finance department at DPS and the community um the way that this is structured. Uh and so um don't want to belabor it too much, but um happy to answer any questions or address kind of any concerns for the full board u where the policyy's concerned. Miss Byer. >> So, I would um appreciate all the work that's gone into this and um from lots of folks and the improvements that it um has

179finally getting close to being ready. I know it will be much appreciated throughout the community and a model for the state. I had a few tiny things for for discussion. Um, one thing, Mr. Malone, the fir this verb tenses in the first sentence are kind of bothering me that we're fostering trust eradicates suspicion and promotes equity. So, if we can pick a tense there, I think that would be improved. And I don't have one to suggest. I just think that if we foster trust and eradicate and promote maybe is that does that bothering anybody else? I mean, it's Yeah. Yeah, it helps me to get to where we're finally looking at a clean one rather than a track changes to find things like that. Um, that was one. Let's see. Um, BA quarterly reporting. In

180the last sentence there, it says that, you know, that the district will publish each quarterly report 30 days after. To me, it we're trying to get the spirit of within 30 days rather than specifically 30 days. Does that help to kind of Do you see what I'm saying? Rod Rod's looking at and like that very last sentence in for a Yeah, sorry. Roman numerals throw me just like uh [laughter] chairs. No, just kidding. Yeah, I did. I did go to jail >> uh for graduate school. Yep. Um yeah, within within 30. Yeah. Oh, microphone. Sorry. Sorry. >> You like >> Say it again. Yes, I personally would prefer within 30 days if that works for Jeremy's team. >> And I agree. I think that that was the spirit um was to have it within 30.

181>> And then somewhere in here, I I wrote down B, but I don't know which B. Uh somewhere in here, we talk about the report a lot. We talk this report, the report, but then there's lots of documents. And so, I'm not sure if we need to define or be more clear about what we're saying. It's almost sounding like it's one the report, but actually it's lots of stuff that we're going to throw on the website, I think. So, I don't know if that more precision in that language would be helpful to clarify just a just to see that through. So it does say this report the report in multiple places. Would you like to so I would suggest um that it go from the report or this report to reporting. If you replace that

182with reporting for the most part when you're actively doing carrying out the verb of reporting you are taking the actions that are designated in that portion of the policy. or whomever. >> Yeah. Whatever whatever consistently works I think >> as as y'all make a suggestion or Mr. Weber does that was just one other thing that and it's it's throughout in several places. Yeah. >> And so in 4B it would be reporting authority. The district finance department will disseminate, communicate and ensure accessibility of the reporting. >> Yeah, that and even C's titled dissemination of the report. So I just Yeah. >> Um dissemination of reporting. >> Yeah. >> Right. Um the district shall ensure that all stakeholders are able to access the reporting. Quarterly reporting shall be posted on the district's website. It's the responsibility of

183the district to provide materials in English and Spanish. Um, I'm looking real quick. >> Could could we maybe get past this to staff for direction and they can decide reporting or information or what >> um language might be and they can bring that edited language back for second reading. So all these edits would need to be updated for second reading. You have something else, Miss Brier? >> I think that's all I found so far. Um, I just would like the chance for Mr. Teter to say one more time. Does this produce additional work for the staff and your team or is this work you were all like every bullet point? Is it producin scope of normal business? Have we taken out the stuff that is extraneous work? >> Thank you. Thank you for asking that.

184And so it does um I think it broadly falls in two buckets, right? So it's it's stuff um that we were already doing internally um just from from our good practices in budget building and monitoring progression of the fiscal year. Uh and we're conveying that um in a format that's more consumable for folks that work outside of our space. Um and then and two um some of this is reporting that we are already doing to comply uh with some general statutes that we will now do more regularly. Um and we will now include some more information um that we were previously omitting to comply with the minimum standard that was in the statute. for example, the uh compensation information um previously limited to central office that will now be expanded to all position type in

185the district. And and that's a great example. It's one where the information was there and we didn't include it um in in the report this year because we didn't have to. And so um so we're just um in some respects is saving us some work um and and in other respects, right? We're just doing a little more editing to make things consumable. >> Super helpful. The um I found another one while I was listening to you and and so uh for a um the second sentence it ends um like Reporting on the indicators outlined in section three, ensuring that information is presented in a manner that is clear, easily accessible, and to all stakeholders. It that the way that sentence ends, Mr. Malone, doesn't make any sense. I'm not sure what it's trying to say.

186And and I don't know how we guarantee that something is accessible to all state. I don't know what but doesn't overpromise, but it grammatically doesn't make sense. And and I think that might be a casualty of track change to clean version because I think the intent um I think the intent of the committee in the work through the committee was we said we can't control disseminating it to everyone but we can certainly make it available where folks can find it. Yeah. >> And maybe the accessibility is to all stakeholders or something and take the hand out. I don't know. Anyway, >> other comments, questions, Miss um Travis, I had one comment and then I was going to make a motion. Um I just want to say I'm fine with the um these um changes except

187for in the first sentence I think it reads as transparency is eradicates and promotes. So I don't think the tenses are inconsistent. So for what that's worth, um, and I wanted to make a motion to approve budget transparency policy 68600 on first read. Um, with the minor change with minor changes to include um, saying in 4A within 30 days in um uh throughout changing report to reporting as appropriate. >> I I think we had given a little more latitude on some of those. So maybe if we just say with the changes that we've asked for staff to make and then go from there. >> Oh, okay. I thought that Okay. I thought the wording was more precise for some, but that's fine with the changes we discussed. >> Second. It's been moved by Miss Chavez

188and seconded by Miss Herald Goff that we approve um policy 8600 budget transparency um for the first read. Is there any other discussion? Um I did want to uplift a couple things from this policy and thank you all for all the work you've done on it. Um and I think some of the changes that Miss Byer has brought up will help make some of this language a little clearer. I think one of the things that we have committed to which I think is great um is around language accessibility and I'm appreciative that we have that in this policy. Um I want to uplift that we don't have the same language in our other policies um a lot of those which are also student code of conduct employee code of conduct um and so I would

189want to make sure that for other languages if folks also want to request those materials that's available to them. It feels important that we have that consistently across all policies. Any other discussion? Uh, Miss Carter, I appreciate all of the uh suggestions that have been made this evening. Think they are great. And um I um I just want to say I'm excited about this policy and because it is a collaborative effort. um that came out of a process that's unique and I think um it's pretty special to have our educators working alongside our administrators and teaming up to create something that um will now um help us to share more information more broadly with the public about our finances, which hopefully will build better advocates. And um yeah, the more information that people have, the

190more they can take with them as they're working to spread the word about what our schools need um and how we can get those resources. So excited about this and um and where we are with it. Look forward to seeing the next version. And that's it. Any other discussion? Uh, Miss Byer, >> sorry. Just to clarify, did the motion say where it is going to? >> I do not think it did. >> No, I was No. Um, I was thinking that it would be it would be coming back for a second read at the >> Could you articulate that as part of the motion? That would help me. >> I'm happy to do that. I move that I modify my motion to um move that we approve 8600 um budget transparency for first read and

191have it return to us at the June 9th work session. >> Um second read >> just to I'm going be annoying. >> I want to make sure we have action at our board meeting. So we actually need to go to the June 20 what is it? 28th board meeting 25th 20 I'm sorry to our June work sess our June board meeting >> um okay >> we can get it for action on that so we can have all those second reads on that action >> okay that um so then to our said all right let me start over >> I'm sorry miss Chavez >> um let me ask does it have to come to it can't come to the work session for action or we could wave the work session policy >> so that you could

192approve it at the work session. >> You all want to do that? >> I'm not interested in doing that. It doesn't seem >> I mean I guess in my in my mind >> it's exciting but it also starts July 1st for the next fiscal year. So I don't see it as pressing um and I mean yeah >> and it's just that we're trying to really move into a work sessions our work and then most of our action is happening at a board meeting. So that's some of the conversation that is in kind of how our policy is set up in there. So not a trying to wait to not do something, but just wanting to make sure that we're kind of following in that same structure. Miss Carter Autton. >> Um I think that's fine

193with me and I'm glad that we're following our work session policy uh so closely and I just wanted to check in to make sure that gives uh Mr. Teter and his team enough time to implement and that won't cause any challenges. But if so, then that sounds great. >> Okay, >> Mr. Teter's giving us a thumbs up. >> Okay, then I move um to approve policy 8600, budget transparency for first read and send it to our June 25th uh monthly meeting. >> Second read. >> Second. >> It's been moved by Miss Chavez and seconded by Miss Har. Is there any other discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed, please use the same sign. It passes unanimously. The next item on our agenda is we have two items for information only. Grants,

194gifts, and donations as well as information about overnight and international field trips. With that, that brings us to a close session. >> Move that we go into close session for the reasons stated on the agenda. >> Second. Second. It's been moved by Miss Byer and seconded by Vice Vice Chair Rogers that we go into close session for the reasons stated on the agenda. Is there any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. >> I. Any opposed, please use the same sign. It passes unanimously. With that, we will move into close session. We will discontinue the live stream. Thank you all for joining us this evening.