001Good morning everybody. The Joint Board of County Commissioners Board of Education quarterly meeting is now in session. At this time we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who is joining us this morning. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us. The um first item on the agenda is agenda review and approval. Second by move has been moved by Commissioner Jacobs and seconded by U Miss Byer to approve the agenda. Uh is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed use the same sign. Right. The agenda passes unanimously. The next item on the agenda is approval of the minutes from February 18th, 2025. Move approval of the minutes. Been moved by Miss Byer and seconded by Miss Harold Goff to approve the minutes from
002February 18th, 2025. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed, please use the same sign. All right, the minutes from February 18th, 2025 pass unanimously. The next item on the agenda is facility conditions assessment capital improvement plan preview. And who will be starting us today? Miss Mitchell. Welcome. Good morning. Good morning to the board of education. Good morning board of county commissioners. Dr. Lewis. Happy to be here today. Today we would like to begin a conversation about the current and future state of our school facilities along with a long range plan. And I would like to focus our conversation today in four key areas. First, I would like to bring you up to date on some of the work that we've been up to at the district um related
003to a long range plan. I would also like to spend some time talking about the current state of our facilities and then I would like to spend some time talking about what are the components of the plan that we will be um developing as well as a timeline for that plan. Next slide. So when we talk about long range planning we we talk about a variety of things and these are three of the tools that we use in school facility planning. The first is a facilities master plan. A facil's master plan typically looks at school facilities um on an individual basis and looks at long range planning site by sight. Frequently that includes things like new buildings um adjacency changes and other components related to uh school design. Um we also typically look at facility
004condition assessments. Um, so this is a building bybuilding review of our facilities, analyzing the current health of our buildings as well as our school sites and our support facilities. And then the third element that we frequently use is something called a capital improvement plan. And that is typically a five or 10-year plan. that is an itemized, organized, um, financially, um, planned, uh, strategy that goes at a year-by-year approach towards improvements at our facilities. Um, today we'll be focusing on the FCA and the CIP for our future moving forward um, in our planning efforts. Next slide. So in a capital improvement plan at its very simplest, it's taking a look at what we have. So the current state of all facilities and the and the expression of those needs both financially as well as from a
005curriculum and instruction point of view and an aging facility point of view. It's pairing that with what we want. So we've taken a long hard look at the future of learning and we've met with our leaders in curriculum and instruction. We've met with over 3,000 individuals looking at uh students point of view, parents and families, our community partners as well as our teachers and staff to develop a plan for what the future of our learning spaces should look like. And when we blend those two and we prioritize based on need, we arrive at um the plan itself. And that's uh that is the direction we are currently headed. Next slide. So, just to bring you up to speed, since um late summer, early fall of 2024, the district has been been engaged in the development
006of the facilities condition assessment and learning environment guidelines. The facilities condition assessment um this was done by an outside firm. They will be presenting at our May 22nd board meeting to provide an update. That plan um really goes school by school, building by building, looking at approximately 15 categories um of how we evaluate a site anywhere from paving to exterior building envelopes to the learning environments themselves um to look at finishes to look at water penetration and all the variety of issues that we might be confronted with on our schools and on our support facilities. From that plan uh review, we develop a 10-year expenditure plan based on highest priorities first, typically failing systems or safety and security related items. Um so, and I'll be talking about um a very high level look at what
007that tenure need is in a moment. Um they also have generated for us technical construction specifications. So, as we look to the future of construction in the district, we have a plan that um is consistent across all of our facilities um in terms of parody for how we design um and what we include in our buildings. And we also have the learning environment guidelines that we've been working on. So, in the past, our district has only had um learning environment guidelines for elementary schools. Uh and now we have fully developed our middle school and high school learning environment guidelines. Next slide, please. When we think about learning environment guidelines, this is really our guide book for how we design schools. Um, it talks about square footages, adjacencies, how we organize uh our schools. Um, it
008it also sets a criteria so that every school as it's touched, we are bringing schools up to the same level of design and the same level of um functionality. In addition to that, the plan calls for our model schools. So, we have developed within the district a model elementary, model middle school, and model high school. Um, based on the size, um, we've developed plans for those a as well as, um, criteria for how they're organized and what an ideal school looks like in our district. Next slide. All right. So, let's take a look at the current state of Durham public schools in terms of facilities. Next slide. All right. So, our facilities at a glance. Um, the district has uh approximately 6.4 million square feet of district facilities. We have approximately 260 million square ft
009of land assets and we have a current need for aging facilities and infrastructure related to this facilities condition assessment roughly in the area of 900 million. And I believe we've landed somewhere at around 965 million. That number is a very rough number. It does not include all of the need. When we say $900 million, we talk about a like forlike replacement of aging facilities uh infrastructure and systems. So when we think about replacing, say for instance, an HVAC system and we think about our current sustainability needs um and performance needs, we would not be replacing it with something similar to say a 1970s um HVAC system. So there will be um upgrades in systems that happen that aren't represented here. In addition to that, that $900 million, $965 million does not include anything that's loose
010in our buildings. So when we talk about furniture replacement, we have buildings in our district with furniture that's over 75 years old, not designed for the way that students learn today, not mobile and flexible. Um none of that would be included in this number. So this is a very rough number about uh an expression of need that exists in our school district. Um along the bottom line, um just to talk about some things that have been coming up, um in our in our district, we have recently in the last 5 years completed 470,000 square ft of new construction for our scholars. Um putting approximately 3,300 scholars in new schools. Um we also currently have approximately 368,000 square feet under construction. Now, those two numbers together represent approximately 5.5% of our scholars in new schools. It's
011a wonderful accomplishment. Um and uh and we continue to push push forward with um great schools for all students. Next slide. Aging facilities. So, to tell you a little bit about the complexion of our schools, um this is a radial diagram starting at the top in 1910. um our earliest buildings going around to the 2020s in dark blue. Um you can see from the graph um we land somewhere around the 1960s um at our midway point. Um the average age of a building in our district is 59 years old. These are buildings that were built for a different kind of design, a different kind of learning, a different kind of flexibility um and a different kind of community than what um we hear from our curriculum and instruction needs today. Um so a lot of
012upgrades um want to occur in our in our facilities. Next slide. looking at this a little bit differently. Um this is showing uh every 10 years the amount of square footage that the district um has built or brought online. Um and what you see here is typically what we would see in a school district. There are two boom times. The red represents um our baby boomer time frame. And you can kind of see to the area to the left. We almost have a dividing line between when um construction has happened and when growth spurts have happened in the district. The green represents the 1990s. So this is our millennials, our Gen Y. This is our largest baby boom ever. Uh 32.5 million people at that point. Um but what you can see is because of
013this kind of equal distribution between the early years and the later years. We have about 3 million square feet of buildings that are over 59 years old, between 55 and 100 years old. Many of them not uh not touched in a comprehensive way. Um, next slide. What does that look like? What does 3 million square feet look like? Just to help you wrap your head around the size of that need, that's about the size of one World Trade Center in Manhattan. So, um, very, very large and deep set of needs for the district. Next slide. When we take a look at our bond history over the last 20 to 25 years, um there are a few um interesting things that um that one can take from this chart. Um for the first 20 years, um
014the uh allotment has been relatively small. Um really just keeping up with growth and minimal degree of um aging facility needs being met. Um in 2022 um the aotment for the district was significantly higher. However, we have also had significantly new needs related to new construction. So um we've also seen the construction climate continue to increase. So um dollars not going as far as they should and also continuing to be challenged by that aging facility need um across the district. Next slide. If we take a look at the complexion of the funding and the approach to the models that we used in 2016 and 2022, in 2016 um well in both of these graphs what you're seeing is in dark green that is new construction. So both 2016 and 2022 um we had two new
015schools come online for each of those bond cycles. The light green is significant modernization work that we've needed to do on schools and the blue area represents anything related to upgrading uh related to modernization and aging facilities. So you can see that in 2016 there was a substantially larger amount of money allocated to aging facilities and infrastructure. Um in that bond the goal was to touch approximately 52 schools. um in 2022 the um because of the significant need in replacing a high school um and because of the significant needs um for some of our other school facilities um you can see that there's a disproportionate amount of money that was allocated to aging facilities and infrastructure in the light blue area. So, um um really thinking about um the need and just reflecting on the
016diagram that I showed related to the 1990s um not meeting the need for replacement of systems. Um you know, at the 1990s, we're now looking at systems that are 30, 35 years old. Um much of our HVAC system, plumbing, roofing, all of those things start to age out um when we talk about a 35 year life cycle. Next slide. All right. Also related to our recent bond history. So in 2016 um the district's allocation was uh $90 million. That was a November bond. It was a presidential election and we had an 84.92 pass rate. Um it was bundled with city and county projects. Um and similarly in 2022 um we received 423.5 million. That was also a November midterm election, both optimal times to reach out for a bond in our community. Um, it was
017also bundled with city and county projects and had an 83.2 pass rate. We are incredibly fortunate as a community that our uh that all of our community members are so incredibly supportive of our schools and of our programs. Um, this is a very high pass rate for a district. Um, as we start to think towards our future need, um, one of the questions we need to ask is, is this a single bond? Do we have a need that is so great that we need to start planning for a multibond strategy or other strategies? Um, because the need is so great. Um, I've also mentioned on here transparency with community in our engagement um, out in the community. Um there was a significant desire to be included and to understand projects that are coming online um
018as we move through any bond or new construction uh projects. Next slide. So what's included in a capital improvement plan? What are some of the things we're thinking about? What are some of the challenges we're thinking about? Next slide. We have eight areas that we we'll be considering as part of our capital improvement plan. The first is unfulfilled projects from our past bond. Um we did not have enough bond monies to complete all of the work. Um so there will be an evaluation of that. Um aging facilities as I've mentioned um and those dollars. Um also growth and future demand. So we do have some growth. Um we also have goals of our strategic plan for growth. Um and we want to factor those into a long range plan. Um curriculum and instruction. So, as
019I mentioned, the learning environment guidelines, the change in how students are learning, um, and how teachers are teaching. We want to start to address that in our learning spaces, capacity. Um, we have schools in our district that are undersized. We have some that are oversized and taking a broad look at how we start to balance our schools so that we have similarly sized schools and similar experiences for all of our students. We also have closed schools in the district portfolio that need to be considered. Um there will also be unique priorities of the superintendent that must be considered and included. And then we also want to address our central services. Um many of our central service areas have not been touched in a very long time and fall very high on uh the needs list
020when we look across our district um facilities. Next slide. So at its core, when we think about the plan, we want to take a hard look at all of the assets in the portfolio um and not just um schools but the uh support facilities as well. We want to accurately assess our long range needs, right? If we our plan needs to be comprehensive and thoughtful um and address um every aspect of the challenges of the district. Um as a result of that, we're able to more accurately understand our financial need over time. Um, this will allow us to anticipate our bond needs over 10 years. And it will also help us to develop and facilitate an equity-minded approach for all of our schools when we're looking comprehensively across all schools in the district and applying
021the same lens for design and planning. Um, in that way, we are able to bring up all of our schools um together uh as we touch um each project. And then finally, and most importantly, we want to get it right and we want to get it right the first time. Um and through consideration of all of those aspects that I just mentioned, we'll be able to accomplish that. Next slide. All right. So, what are some of the challenge that challenges that we face related to the strategic plan? The first one, as I mentioned, is our 2022 bond. So, in that bond, we were allocated 423.5 million. The current budget for all of the projects that were listed in that bond is 624 million. um we have a deficit of 200 uh a little over $200
022million of projects that we're not able to realize um because of the um cost of construction um and because of um the demands uh of the projects in the bond. So next slide. So as a result of that we want to re-evaluate those components that have not been addressed. Um we want to fundamentally consider um if there have been any changes in those projects. Um if growth has occurred in any of those schools, if anything has happened in in the last 3 years that will affect the future 10 years. Um we want to make sure that we um touch them correctly. Um we also want to ensure par across the district. Um so in this bond currently we have um one project our high school project at Durham School of the Arts um that is
023taking a significant portion of the budget. This is very common for a high school a comprehensive high school is expensive and our district will continue to have needs for for high school replacement. So we need to make sure as part of that get it right the first time we are factoring in the timeline for when some of our big budget items need to occur. Next slide. Um, also in terms of par across our district, so I mentioned the learning environment guidelines. They set the standard for how our learning environments will be designed. Um, we uh in our recent construction, you're able to see here both escalation and change in design. Um we uh we also want to factor in as part of our future plan um similar similar design, similar goals and similar um construction
024methodologies for each of our projects so that we're able to bring parity across um how we spend money um across all of our schools. Next slide. All right. We also want to address growth. So, the current capacity that Durham public schools um can hold in terms of student population is 35,000 students. Um we currently have around 31,165 students. Um that's about 92% capacity. As a district, you never want to be at 100% capacity. It means we don't have room to grow, move, or change. Um so, we need to be thinking about the future. Um we do have some anticipated growth in the next 10 years um in our area. Um, and we're anticipating approximately 4,82 new students in the next 10 years, bringing us to an anticipated total somewhere around 39,000 students. That does factor
025in the loss of students to private schools and charter schools. So, that would be uh the allocation for uh public school students. Next slide. When we think about that in our long range plan, um, and as we continue to evaluate what those numbers are, um, just to give you an idea of the implication, if we had 4,800 two new students, we would need three new elementary schools, two new middle schools, and a new high school in our district. That requires time for land acquisition. Um, and it also requires a thoughtful plan for how and when we build those schools. to build those schools in today's dollars without any escalation, you're talking about approximately $482 million that would be needed if we built those today. So, this is in addition to the $965 million that I
026spoke about earlier, and it doesn't represent if these schools were built 5 years from now. It's if they were built today. Next slide. We also want to be thinking about um growth in terms of um other schools that exist in our area. So, we want to be um thinking about um our growth in terms of uh private schools and charter schools in our district. It's not it's actually not flat when we look at our growth projections because we do have um a group of students that end up at charter and private schools. And as part of our strategic plan, we will be analyzing um all the ways that we want to ensure that the students in our area um land at this at the school of choice um in Durham public schools. Next slide. Um
027similarly, when we think about growth, um this is our current student population. Um you can see here that um we have some loss at the middle school level and we will be uh evaluating whether we have um a grade configuration challenge in the district or curriculum and instruction or some area other area that we want to focus on in terms of our long range plan um and and growing our middle schools across the district. Next slide. All right. Um, as part of this plan, we also want to talk about right sizing our district. So, in 1992, um, when the city and county schools merged and became Durham public schools, there were a number of assets in the district that were small schools, um, schools that were designed for a different time, community schools, um, and
028and this is an example of some of those that sit within the district portfolio. Um, so what you're seeing here is the orange line represents our model school. This is our goal for all of our schools. This is between 700 and 800 students in an elementary school. Um, the blue lines represent the current student population at these schools. And the green represents the current capacity at these schools. So the bigger um consideration here is what these school how these schools can grow um if they can grow and if there's any need for consolidation and it's something that we want to um talk about in our communities and talk about from a uh an organizational strategy for the district. Um some of the challenges of these some of these school sites is that they are small
029school sites um often referred to as impacted sites. So, for example, these are schools that may not have um parking, adequate parking on site. They may not have the ability to drop off on site. Some of these schools have handicap parking out in the street. Um and many of them have challenges related to pvious and impervious area requirements in our area. So, the ability to add new buildings may be challenging on some of these sites. So we need to analyze them on a case-byase basis um to make sure that we're properly evaluating every asset in the district. Next slide. So when we talk about right sizing um and if that's a consideration for the district, if we were to consolidate schools, our replacement strategy for those would only be trade-up scenarios. So if we combine
030schools, it is to create a new school with modern amenities um and is state-of-the-art. um this would not be consolidation into other schools um in the district. Um also we know from a curriculum and instruction point of view there are certain synergies that are created by the size of a school. When you have a school with multiple same grade classrooms there are synergies for our teachers and for our students and for collaboration that doesn't exist in a very small school. There's also tremendous benefit to our community. So the ability for our community to get to know each other, share resources um and participate in the school um uh becomes greater as we provide more resources. Um similarly when we have larger sized schools, the resources that we can provide and have on staff full-time or
031on a very regular basis is very different than what we have in a small school. So there there's a tremendous amount of benefit um to it but it is also a subject matter that we want to um have on a case-byase basis. Next slide. Um as part of that we would be using some very objective approaches to analysis. One of those is using the learning environment guidelines. So in our model schools um the most recent school that we've brought online is Murray Massenberg Elementary School. Um, our model elementary school, as I mentioned, is 700 to 800 students. Our middle schools, um, are targeted at 800 to a,000 students. This is really the optimal size for collaboration and learning. And our most recent high school that we've brought online, Northern High School, 1850 students, so around
03218-,900 is our target for a high school. Um, our Durham School of the Arts is a little bit larger than that, but it does include a middle school. Um so um that's a bit of an outlier but uh just to mention by comparison. All right, next slide. Um there are also some closed schools that we have. So when we think to the future, when we think to if we do um have consolidation in our future and when we think to those um schools that uh may be preparing to close or already closed as a district, we want to start to have a more robust strategy um as we think about closing schools for how we will use them. And I know that some of this is currently um being discussed for Durham School of the
033Arts and for our old Lowe's site. Um, and this will continue to be an area of focus for the district. Um, we really don't want to have school sites sitting vacant with buildings that are aging over time. Next slide. And then um, regarding uh our approach to the to any future bond, we heard very strongly from our community that we should be touching every school. Any plan should touch every school. So, we want to make sure that we're balancing our aging facility needs with our new construction needs. Um, and we want to make sure that as we approach upgrades, we're being transparent with our community. So, um developing um a landing page on our website with a comprehensive school by school um analysis so that parents can easily access and see when schools are going
034to be touched and know where they stand in line um for their current for their current needs as well as their child's future needs. Um is something that we want to include in our plan. Um we don't want to neglect our existing schools. All right, next slide. And then uh the final challenge that I have here is related to getting our modernization and new constructions right the first time. So sizing schools appropriately. Um we ha we do have some current challenge. Um Lion's Farm um which was built a few years ago is already at maximum capacity which is a wonderful problem to have um to have uh schools where um students want to go. Um but we need to be planning for the future in any of our future construction projects. Be thinking about where
035new buildings happen and planning for um how we design for expansion and change. All right. And then when we do all of these things correctly, when we address all of the things in the capital improvement plan and get on a regular cycle for modernizations, it's going to help the district move from a place that's reactive to a place that's proactive. and that will save us money, time, and resources. Um, our maintenance teams are stretched very thin on a regular basis for HVAC systems, plumbing needs, um, and really putting band-aids on an awful lot of problems in our district. Next slide. So, in terms of our timeline and where we're going, um, in terms of our capital improvement plan, next slide. We have developed a fivephase approach. um starting with data analysis and then doing um
036two phases of comprehensive evaluations of our schools um with engagement um throughout that process. Um once we have developed plans for each of our schools, we will go through an estimating process to ultimately design and deliver the plan which will be sometime around the end of the year December early January. Next slide. Um we did an a bridged version of this schedule that we talked about with the board. um this abridged um version had um less um what do I want to say less collaboration and less community participation um and it was determined that uh community is a very important voice and um need to be included in community work sessions and need to be part of the process. So we will be following the other plan. Next slide. The folks that we would like
037to have as part of our task force um for making decisions and bringing those forward to the board um include a superintendent rep, uh cabinet member, board member, um someone from finance, one or two community members. We'd love to have someone from the city or the county um as part of these sessions for decision-m um the COO um and then members from our operations and planning team who have um intimate knowledge of our facilities. uh and then other experts that we can weave in and out of these conversations to make sure that we are continually hearing a broad spectrum of voices um when we look at um updates to our facilities. All right, next slide. And so what you're seeing here is the two phases of how we will approach collaboration. So the ask from
038our members is uh six collaborative sessions in each phase. Um synthes a synthesis session in each phase. Um that first phase really uh kind of an on the table off the table anything is under consideration and then a refinement phase where we actually get to individual plans. Um and then you're seeing two review sessions for estimating and then presentation. Next slide. And then finally um to leave you with this um just a snapshot very um broad snapshot of what we may considering be considering as we bundle projects um we think of them as kind of in three tiers. The first tier are those essential things related to life safety building envelope and building systems. These are things that are failing um that need to be addressed immediately. Um, in the capital, excuse me, in the
039facilities condition assessment, as I mentioned, there is a $965 million need. Approximately $550 million, I believe, is in the first few years. Um, so there's a front-end need that's quite considerable. Um, adding to that, as I mentioned, if we're factoring in growth, um, there's something like $480 million in today's dollars that we would be thinking about. Um so that number would uh grow likely and then tier three would be getting all of those systems on maintenance cycles and building in educational adequacy into our schools. So when we talk about touching a school, we don't want to go in and just touch um say mechanical systems um because you're touching ceilings and you're touching other aspects of a building. You're touching roofing um and phasing and construction when students are present is very difficult. So when
040we bundle projects, we want to b bundle multiple things at one time. So we would be factoring in those educational adequacy improvements as part of any aging and facility um project at a school. So that's likely somewhere in the $500 million range of need. So just to give you a point of reference as we start to embark on the capital improvement plan on where we might be um starting to land in terms of need. And with that, I'll take any questions. Thank you so much, Miss Mitchell. And I wanted to um apologize and retroactively introduce do a better job of introducing you for everybody here because we're excited to have you here um and discuss this fabulous presentation. So, um this is Miss Devon Mitchell for everybody here and she's the school planning program administrator.
041She's accompanied by Miha Lynch who behind her who's our senior executive director for operational services. Thank you both for being here. I'm sure everybody's eager to ask you questions and share some feedback. Um, and I'll um start with Chair Alam and then move to um, Commissioner Burton. Hi, Mitch Joel. So, great to meet you. Welcome to Durham County Public Schools. Thank you. Um, I just want to say I feel like since I've been on this board now four years, this has been the most in-depth CIP presentation uh that we've received uh, and the easiest for me to consume as a commissioner. um as someone who receives information. I'm a I'm a visual learner. So, I really appreciated the slides especially that was like comparing like the World Trade Center that to actually visualize that much
042square footage. So, I just wanted to appreciate and thank you for that. Um and I think it's really important to provide information in ways that's more consumable uh for the board, but also the public to receive. Um, I had questions about just like so with the bonds, I feel like the answer is yes, but I just want to confirm. When we put a bond on the ballot, do we include like a buffer for inflation? And so, as part of our estimating process, we factor in escalation. So, part of the plan is making sure that we determine what years things are happening so that we can factor in multi-year escalation. Um also our facilities condition assessment that was done it has a database so that if the construction climate were to change we can change the
043factor of escalation. Um, so yes, thank you. And then I had Oh, oh, oh, man. Her I would also like to add that um all capital projects uh that are bond financed go through a rigor of review also at the county with our financial advisors as well. We do put cost escalators in them and they happen at the district. We also pressure test them as well and it is an iterative process. Thank you. And thank you for your very generous comment. But I have some more questions. That's okay. Um, sure. What is the total now need for and I know this is like not something that we can like fund all at once, but just to get a grasp of what is the total need for DPS current capital improvement like including all of the
044broken HVAC systems that we have, the full new construction projects that we have down the pipeline. Do we have that? So the very loose number that I shared is somewhere around $2 billion and that is a loose number that will change as we develop the plan. So just very rough. And then my next couple of questions, they're mostly all together but just broken out. They're around sustainability. Um, so for the new schools, do we know what the current cost like per square foot is of a traditional school versus constructing a net zero school like on average like national averages? I wouldn't have a an average for net zero. What I can tell you is because net zero has some specific unique requirements, but the topic of cost has come up a lot over the last
04520 years for sustainability. Um, our partners out in construction and out in product development have generally raised the bar on the quality of products and testing that occurs in products. So, the ability to get products that are sustainably healthy with good controls, um the cost has has gone down over time because so many people want to meet those lead requirements and want to meet um chips requirements for all of our buildings. Net zero is has a very high bar. Um and that's a little bit different. Um so I I I can research that and give you a number, but I don't know it off the top of my head. Do you know by chance on net zero? No, I agree with all the challenges you've outlined, but it is a technology that is becoming more
046affordable. Um, but it's a great question to explore further. Yeah, it is. Apologies if you couldn't hear me. It's a great question to explore further. Um, that technology, as Devon said, has come down in cost over the years. The famous example is solar panels, which used to be, you know, premium and now they're openly available almost. Uh but that question of getting to net zero as a cost comparative per square foot is certainly a great exercise to consider. Yeah. Because I think it'd be good for us to know like what is that cost per square foot of a traditional school versus of a net zero school. And then also alongside that, the cost of maintenance uh per square foot annually for a traditional school versus a net zero school because I'm sure we know that
047a net zero school is going to have lower maintenance costs because we know net zero construction in general has lower maintenance costs. So if we could see that like it may be a larger amount that we have to put on a bond, but for the district long term, how much could we see? I see Commissioner Jacob's getting nervous. Maybe you want to turn your mic on, Commissioner Jacobs. I think that's a great idea. I'd also be wanting to know what is in between that because there there there also are ways to build energy efficiently that may not have all the bells and whistles, but may there are certain things that may be and when I'm saying what we can afford. Well, I'm saying like traditional for what DPS is now, which is that which is
048DPS is trying to move towards like more uh energy efficient leadcertified buildings that may not be net zero, but they're a far and away improvement from what we've built. Okay. Well, that helps. When you said traditional, I'm thinking I'm thinking sorry, I'm thinking traditional of today's sense. Okay, great. Um, but yeah, I think that would be so that way we could see how much DPS would save annually. Um, and I was trying to like Google it and like I came up with some numbers of like the energy cost of like traditional construction, but again this is all based off of Google that like uh for square footage for maintenance of a net zero like construction of a school it's like 50 cents per square foot versus traditional schools is like a dollar or a$130 per
049square foot which could and again if we verify these numbers could lead to like $4 million in savings a year in energy. usage and maintenance. So, finding out like that solidified number for Durham County specifically would be really helpful. Thank you. Thank you again for your presentation. Thank you, Chairum. I also wanted to take a minute to introduce uh Miss Lori Blake Reed who's also here um who's also senior executive director of operational services. Thank you so much for being here as well and present to answer questions. Thank you. Um moving along to Commissioner Burton. First of all, thank you for this wonderful presentation. Um, I watched it on the on when we came on Thursday, I watched the whole thing and it was really excellent. Just so you know, I retired from Durham public
050schools in June of 2024. Started my career in Durham public schools in August of 1994. So, I've been in a lot of the buildings. I was also president of DAE. So, I have like I think this institutional knowledge of where we were and a lot of the buildings that were built like when you showed the chart in the '9s, I worked in Hillindale when it was brand new, Southwest when it was 5 years old. So, thank you for all of that. Um, I just have a few comments as you plan the CIP task force. really make sure that we have like educators who are on the ground on that task force like you know certified classified other support staff because like schoolboard chair TAB we worked in the buildings our entire careers and we know
051what goes on in these buildings and how it should be designed and hearing some of the feedback from community members about Northern High School you know that there's some design um things that occurred that we're now seeing the fruits of and we want to make sure we hear from those voices. And the other thing I want to make sure as you do this planning to think about like those schools that are like CC Spalding are in Harris Burton etc. because during merger there was a big I guess advocacy to keep those schools open and as we know people become attached to their schools. So I know the demographics are changing you know the population over in those areas are older and you know we just have to rethink about what we want to do with
052those schools. So just keep those things in mind. Um the question I had was and another one more thing in your presentation that I really liked is about DPS being more proactive than reactive. Um I worked at Spring Valley. That's where I ended my career. And one of the things that I said was DPS should have thought about a middle school. You know, we kind of just think about things. Well, we need this one school right now instead of thinking, okay, this area is growing. We probably need to buy the land for a middle school. And then now the grow that area of Durham has just exploded and we don't have the land for a new middle school. So thank you for that. So the question I had was about Bethesda like what is the
053population shifts that we have to focus on Bethesda? Is it a lot of is that school overcrowded or Yeah. So currently at Bethesda, they they were part of the 2022 bond um and they were getting a lot of general improvements to the school and a few new classrooms. However, Bethesda is in an area of the district that is growing. Um there have been there has been talk about, you know, a need for a middle school in the area as well. And this is part of why when I was mentioning we want to go back and re-review those items that were in the 2022 bond because things do change over time and Bethesda may be a school that needs more classrooms than are currently anticipated. The demand has been has been high there. Yeah. And then
054just to address a couple of your other comments. Um love your comment on having teachers um in the task force. Um, we've got so many amazing uh comments and input in our focus groups and out in the community from our teachers that that were so invaluable to what we learned and to better understand where we want to go. Um, so I think that is wonderful and we'll make sure that happens. And then I also wanted to address your comment on Northern High School. So, um, we I believe all of us have been to Northern High School and have walked with the principal and received different comments. Um, as part of our evaluation process, we are in the process of establishing a post occupancy evaluation of all of our new schools or comprehensive modernizations. Um, where
055we are able to evaluate what's working and what's not working and have lessons learned so that when we do have something that uh is designed and maybe doesn't work as well as it should that we make sure that doesn't happen in the future. Um, so that's um certainly something as well as um we're also building policies and procedures. I've been working with uh Miss Reed on that um to help us in the early design process with our design teams that we are doing all of the all of the necessary checks and balances to make sure that the layout, the configuration that all of the necessary teams like safety and security have a chance to review the plan early on so that um so that we're making sure that we're building a A+ facility for all
056of our schools. Thank you so much because yeah, I know there was a lot of discussion around there was some things that were missing from Northern and we want to make sure like I'm thinking about Jordan High School. You know, that school was built in 1963 and there are people who remember when Gins was attached to Jordan. Yes, that's how long that school has been there. So, just thinking about those things logistically. So, thank you so much. Thank you so much, Commissioner Burton. Um, any other discussion or questions or comments from Yes, Commissioner Jacobs? Thank you so much. I want to echo what has already been said that um I've been in these meetings for 12 years and this is the best CIP presentation that we've had. So, thank you all so much. You're doing
057a great job. Um, this is really tough stuff. Um, and I think, um, I'm wondering how obviously you need to do a plan, an assessment, but also keeping in mind how how are we going to pay for all this? Um it would be really interesting to um when I looked at your the chart that you had in terms of um the bond funding, it would be interesting to see uh a timeline of state funding for capital needs. Um and I I was sitting here thinking I wish this could be presented and some the way that you have broken down the issues and somehow being able to talk to our the state legislature about this and certainly our delegation for them to become more educated so that they can also talk about these issues because fundamentally
058we need more funding from the to be able to meet a $2 billion capital needs. There's just no way we're going to be able to do that at the local level. You know, some of you may have already seen the manager's budget presentation, but um you know, this area was never meant to be something that local governments were supposed to take care of on their own and on the backs of you know, taxpayers um at the local level. it's just not possible. So, um I just I think unfortunately that's going to be one of our big challenges is is the funding and how how are we going to because at the end of the day, what is a bond? A bond is borrowing money that you then have to pay back and you only can
059borrow what you are financially capable of just like when you go for a loan to the bank. And so there's just going to be limits on what we can do. So I I just had to put that out there because I hope that will be part of the conversation as well and also educating our community about this um more broadly because we're going to need real advocacy um from them at the state level. Um I was wondering about benchmarking. Um, it was really interesting when you said that 5.5% of our students are in new schools. Now, do we do we do benchmarking with kind of the five top school districts that we tend to compare ourselves to, you know, populationwise with how we're doing compared to those with a lot of the a lot of
060the data points that you put pointed out. Yeah. So, I think that's a really interesting idea and we can certainly develop that. It would be fascinating to find out. So, I'll definitely definitely investigate that. Thank you. Thank you. And I'm also glad to see the projection about um increased enrollment um especially with the increased funding for vouchers. Um so, we're was that taken into consideration too for those? Yeah. Okay. Um, and I know at one point at one meeting we learned about some type of a dashboard tracker on the bond and on capital work being done. Is that just wondering your thoughts about is that still happening and will that be revised? Because I think another big issue is and we're trying to do that more at the county level like with our transportation money
061now we we're doing just launched a tracker so that residents can see where is the money going how quickly is it projects getting completed but I think the transparency and communication which I see right here in your presentation is so important too for everyone. We do have a dashboard on the website. Um it is a bit static um and really just talks very big picture of what projects were in the bond uh and where they sit currently and what the cost is. Um at moving forward um likely any future projects we want to touch as many schools as possible and we definitely heard from our community that they want to understand where their schools are in relationship to the process. So, I I would imagine a place where we're redesigning some of that dashboard so
062that you can really look on a school by school basis and find out what's going on locally for your for your school. I think that'd be great. Yeah. Yeah. Um really glad to see you talk about former school sites because there's a cost of um maintaining those as well. And you know, I hope that you all when you look at that and come up with policies or strategies that you're also bringing in things like, you know, we have a joint housing task force that's going to make recommendations. We have a new comprehensive land use plan that is prioritizing things like affordable housing, uh, transit oriented communities, walkable, bikable, high density, mixed use. Um, those, you know, I believe Durham Public Schools is probably the biggest land owner in Durham after Duke University. I don't know
063that. That would be my guess. So, you know, Durham Public Schools has a big role to play literally in shaping the future um of our community to meet a lot of our goals and has a lot of valuable assets. Um, and I wanted to put in a plug for I I totally want to agree with um Commissioner Burton about having teachers and workers on that task force. You often hear complaints, even with county projects, from staff afterwards, that things were not designed for the people who were actually working in the spaces. Um, I hear that over and over again. Um, but, um, to have a county, um, definitely have one of our county staff on there, especially because we are counties at the end of the day, we're the ones who are going to have
064to figure out how to fund this stuff. So yeah, but but anyway, uh and I appreciate you looking at, you know, some sensitive issues, which is some of our historic schools, but we're at a crisis point where we unsustainable and um it's really a crisis. The the conditions that our children are in, our teachers are in, it it's it's not they're not So, we we have to be creative and we have to put everything on the table. So, I'm glad that you're doing that. Thank you. Thank you. Manager Hager. Yes. Just a few comments. Thanks so much for the presentation and excellent work and partnership working with you. Um since all of you been here, just wanted to share some quick highlights on process. Um we um shared capital improvement plan updates with our board
065in the fall and have um a framework that was developed and um at that time the overall um request did have of course placeholders for Durham public schools. Now that was in the fall. the world has shifted um and quickly at that and so uh we will um be reconvening with all the departments that submitted request and entities agencies such as Durham Public Schools, Durham Technical Community College to revisit numbers. um with the process overall, there are a couple of steps that's important and it was alluded to um by Commissioner Jacobs as as far as cycles and timings of um how we fund it. Um but it's the first um looking at what the requests are and then prioritization and that happens both at the entity that's submitting it which will um is is your
066entity and then there's an overall prioritization because we fund all county departments dur schools etc. Then there's the the tough part, the cash flow projections. Okay. What can you really do? And I would like to elevate um all the work um Durham public schools did in the last bond program, we had a history of not spending our funds as quickly. That's why if you look at the history um there were smaller bond dollars um that were allocated in 2007. It took us almost 10 plus years to fund it the projects because of the timing of when the projects were um completed. If we look at where we are now, um strategies I know that the county did such as providing funding ahead of the bonds for um plan development. And so once the bond dollars
067hit, you were able you were turnkey shovel ready and able to quickly spend the fund. So we do not have that problem anymore. And that's been a collaborative effort between the county to make the funds available in Durham public schools and how you're managing your projects. Um after that step is of um of looking at cash flow is then pressure tested even further. Um our financial advisor um looks at it. We do additional modeling and then the um uh the larger conversations are with the local government commission and with rating agencies determining well can you afford it? What does this look like? What are your patterns looking like? All those other components and um that sort of shares process with the bond component. But we um from a general obligation bond perspective that is one
068strategy that is used. But in the last few years, we've also used limited obligation bonds to help bridge us when we're in between times when we don't do a bond refendum. There's a considerable amount of funds that the county supported through limited obligation bonds. As your partner, it is our desire to make sure we have the the the best um available schools for our students and the employees that work there. Um there are challenges when there's a a limited amount of dollars to support that. Um but as your partner, we will work through the process. We'll um have some more updates with our board about the overall CIP process and we'll share those with you and at the next joint meeting can share um greater clarity on the process overall. Thank you so much manager
069manager Hager. I think next up we have um Doc uh Vice Chair Le and Commissioner Valentine. Uh think um I'll echo the uh quality of the presentation. I really appreciate that. It's definitely um something I hadn't seen before. Um uh I just have one question is is is more specific about the uh projections for growth that you had for uh 2035. Um, I' I'd love to understand where those projections came from. How do we come to it? Um, um, DPS, at least as far as I'm I'm aware, from 2014, has has declined in enrollment. We did have a little bit of an uptick right before COVID and um, and COVID hit and it kind of continued to to decrease over time. back in uh 2014, you know, the 10-year projection was 40,000 kids back then.
070It was actually over 40,000 and we're nowhere near that. We're down at 30 31. So, we're a little bit less than we had in 2014 uh 2014 um given that. And so even with the population growth, you've talked about growth in certain areas, South Durham, South uh East Durham, um um even some other places. Uh where do we come to the to the um the numbers? What what do we have for numbers? There's like 30 39 39,000 or so forth. Given the trend that we've seen over the last what 10 11 years of even though the population grows, we have charter school growth, we have private school growth. How do we get to that number given the historical trends? I don't I can't I can't make those those numbers work in my head. You all
071are the pros. I know there's calculations in there. I was just curious about that. So, we we will continue to evaluate the numbers. I can tell you that um the initial numbers were based on forecasting of current residential um units that are coming on board over the next um seven years. um the types of units and the typical percentiles that we give to those different types of residential units and the number of students that would be in those units. Um but we will do another thorough evaluation of that as part of the CIP process. I can also tell you that when we think about flat growth um one of the factors is the large loss that we have to private schools and charter schools. When you factor that in, the school district is growing if
072we're losing such a significant population of students to private and charters. And it is worthwhile for the district to build into its plan um strategies for um bringing new students into the district from those student populations and to also better understand um what it is in the charter school system or private school system that is drawing families. um because when you factor in that that additional number, the district isn't flat. So um and we do have a higher percentage of students going to privates and charters than a typical school district. So, it is it should be something that's um included in uh items 5C of our strategic plan um where we look at population growth and we look at um new student populations and we should begin to have strategies for um addressing um any
073of those specific needs and developing our programs accordingly to um to ensure that we continue to offer uh schools that are the premier choice. Thank you, uh, Commissioner Valentine. Morning again, and thank you for having us this morning. Um, I'm a proud parent of a DSA graduate as well as a Northern High School graduate, and uh, you had mentioned, Miss Mitchellin, and thank you for your presentation, very clear, very concise, and uh, I'm sure our residents are appreciative of that fact. you had mentioned uh a 200 million plus deficit cost of construction and I'm increasingly concerned about cost overrun development generally. Um but I'm wondering what are what are our strategies to sort of contain uh these cost overruns? Certainly some of this is driven by market forces um supply chain issues particularly under our
074current environment but what what sort of strategies do we have in place or are we discussing to sort of keep these cost overruns under control. So a few comments related to that. Um so I've been with the district uh eight months. Um I come from uh architecture and construction trades. I've spent 25 years of my career in architecture and construction. Um I cannot vouch for the overage um specifically. I was not part of those decision-m the part of the decision-making process. But what I can tell you is that an important piece of this is adequately estimating the timeline and adequately estimating when a job will happen with appropriate escalation. Um those are those are keys to getting it right. um we should be much closer to a number that is realizable than maybe where we've
075ended in the past. Um the construction climate changes regularly, but we are able to forecast the construction climate over a period of years and I think in the future we can continue to analyze that and uh and do a better job of that as a district. I would also say that um we are putting policies and procedures in place to make sure that as we build schools that we have par across all schools and we don't have one school that has significantly greater expenses than another. For example, a school that's 50% glass and another school that's 20% glass. That's a premier exterior system on a building. Um, so putting all of those controls in place to make sure that when a when we are designing something, it's similar to other things in in our in
076our portfolio and that we are continuing to challenge our design teams to build within the uh price that they've been given. So um I I think that's a that's a big step towards dealing with cost overruns. We also um in the past have not necessarily given our design teams uh defined programs and defined programs is where we determine how much square footage is in a building or buildings. Um and you could easily come up with an additional 20,000 square feet without trying too hard in design. um and making sure that as we go through the design process and continuing to reinforce that our teams need to um meet the design guidelines is going to be another way that we're going to ensure that we don't have cost overruns. So, we certainly um have paid attention
077as as you have to um to the numbers and I think you know we're going to continue and I've been working with um both Mr. Lynch and Miss Reed to make sure that we get policies and procedures and protocols in place for design and construction in the future. um so that we get a much more accurate price and we don't end up with um some of the issues we've had. So, I'm sorry I can't speak to the past. I can only speak to what we can do in the future. Well, looks like the future's bright. We're glad to have you here in Durham County, Miss Mitchell. And let me just end by echoing uh my colleague, Commissioner Jacobs. We need help from our state partners in this work. And uh I think it's incumbent upon
078us, you know, to have conversations continuously with our state partners uh so that we can support you the way that uh you need to be supported. And so um like uh Commissioner Jacobs had mentioned, our system wasn't intended for um the county to pick up the costs that we're being asked to pick up in this current environment. Uh certainly we'll do the best that we can do uh in this constrained fiscal environment. Um but we are here to support and again thank you for having me this morning. Thank you so much. And then um I have board member board members Byer and Umstead and then um I also want to be mindful of time though because we have other important agenda items. So I want to um keep us moving after those comments if that's
079okay. Thank you so so much. I wanted to just start with uh gratitude for this progressive group of electeds and managers and superintendent that I trust will figure this out on behalf of this community. I wanted to apologize that we don't have enough microphones for you all over there. And that is frankly an infrastructure problem underneath our flooring and wiring. And I'm sorry that y'all are having to share and pass mics around. But it is indicative to me of some of the maintenance issues of having average age of buildings 60 years old that students are actively in, prek students through 12th graders and staff. And so I want to apologize for our folks emailing you about HVAC issues and and all the struggles that there are existing in those aging buildings. Um but I know
080and trust that we will creatively figure this out together. Yes, this is the state's responsibility and Governor Stein has in his budget proposal has put a statewide school bond but even that would be 35 million for about districts, right? So that doesn't even touch I mean and you're I manager Hager I I saw your budget staff behind you. They have been doing deep breathing. They are they know as as we all do that these numbers are enormous. They are enormous. There's a reason that Guilford's last bond for their school system, which is twice the size of ours, was $2 billion. Um, and and continuing to chip away on this work, I think, is going to be essential. We want to be manager on your timeline for 26 because you can just see that gap that
081went so long between between 2007 and 2016. How how much deferred work built in that. And um so I am so glad that we're going to do creative things like land banking. We're going to talk about going ahead to get ahead of the curve as those escalate together jointly. We're going to talk about maybe multi-use of our facilities where we could put a library and a school on the same site and other things that our incredible staff could dream up. Um, so I just look forward to to to getting this done together. I don't have questions for you all. I wanted to make sure you all meet and reintroduce yourselves to our interim chief operating officer behind me, Kenneth Barnes, and see if he wanted to say anything this morning as well. He does. He's
082he's he's so smart he doesn't even But these are the staff that are having to deal with the HVAC stuff, stuff breaking, uh water leaks, like all of it all the time while we're having them drive this work forward. So, I just wanted to to appreciate them and their leadership. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Ber. And yes, welcome, Mr. Barnes. Um board member Mstead. Yeah, thank everyone for all your comments and the presentation. Um, I really appreciate hearing you all uplift the statewide issues and challenges here and hope that in your county commission meetings and as you're talking with county commissioners across the state that can be uplifted. Um, we know that county commissioners have a lot of sway when it comes to our general assembly. So, continue to lift that up along with us
083to make sure that we're collectively talking about that together. And I I have a question. um as we're talking about cost and escalation and we're talking about delayed maintenance and we also are all living in this uncertainty of our current economic times and so wanting to know I guess from our staff as well as um the manager how we're just thinking about tariffs and likelihood of tariffs in construction and I know there was no perfect answer because we know this changes every day but just wondering how we're wrapping our minds around those costs and what that might look like for all kinds of things that we There are a couple of areas of concern. um the workforce and labor market. when you look at um the undocumented workers who served a major role in um
084components in the construction industry um as well as the tariffs. And so, um, as I said, we'll be looking at the capital improvement plan, uh, in more detail in a couple of months, but off the bat, we know we're going to have to increase. I could put 20% on top of what's there for just those two factors right there. We have a $2.1 billion um, CIP that includes Durham public schools from 2024 to 2033. that was updated about two years ago. Okay. And we refreshed it um and shared some information with the board back in October. From October to now, I need to add 20%. That's just me just sort of looking at market factors. And so, um we will have to work together to look at timing, scaling projects. some things just will we
085will not be able to do. Um but uh from a prioritization perspective, all of us as a community will will need to look at what is our reality and while we're in transition to hopefully a shift real soon. Um how do we meet the highest needs? So, uh, I don't have quite the silver bullet answer, but it is, um, some of what strategy that we're doing and and one of the reasons I made one particular recommendation in the budget the way that I did. Thank you so much. With that, any other discussion, comments? With that, I'll thank you all once again for being here today, for this wonderful presentation, and for answering all of these questions and responding to comments. Thank you. Um, and the next item on our agenda is the DPS budget request
086discussion. I'll note that this is on the agenda for 30 minutes. Um, so I'll try to keep us within that time this time because I do know it's 10:22 already. All right. And I think Mr. teachers coming around and Dr. Lewis will get us kicked off. Yep. Thank you so much. Good morning again to our board of county commissioners, manager Hager, to our DPS board of education, cabinet members, uh county staff, and uh members of the community that have joined us either in person or online. Uh before we get into our budget request discussion, I wanted to kind of level set and share and remind um folks of how we got to some of the items that we are requesting in this particular budget. Um as you know, I began in August um August 12th
087and wanted to engage this community in a major way in terms of just listening and learning. Um, a a hallmark of my pre-entry plan was a listening and learning tour. And I did that about eight different sessions and we asked um people that assembled at those sessions five questions and we gained a lot of information in those sessions. But not only that, just during the first several months uh of of my tenure, just again listening and learning. And so as a result of that, I shared a post-try plan several months ago with the board and with the community of um action steps of priorities that resulted in those first few months, those first 100 days uh of my tenure. If you go to the next slide and what culminated uh as a result of that
088is um about 13 immediate priorities. We only have 30 minutes. I'm not going to go into all of these priorities, but I do want to highlight a couple as relates to the budget development. Uh that of support for teachers and staff, uh improving our school facilities and safety, which we just uh spoke a moment about a moment ago about, uh fostering student well-being and school culture. And what we heard loud and clear during that time, which um was an area that we needed to address, simply put, fix transportation issues. And this is what we heard from from our community. but also as we're having these discussions um I want to um lift up and ensure to our community that we hear you, we heard you and as relates to that bullet, rebuilding trust within our
089community, that's one way that we go about rebuilding that trust is listening, collecting the feedback, and then taking action on it. So, it's my hope that this community and staff uh in within this district that share this information with us during the listening and learning sessions see that we heard them and we included this uh some of these items in our budget um request. Next slide. When we think about just supporting teachers and staff, simply put, teachers matter. Uh in fact, it's the most important school related factor in terms of improving student outcomes. uh when it comes to student performance in the areas of reading and math uh an effective teacher uh is estimated to have two to three times uh effect size in terms of improving student outcomes. And so with that, what we
090heard from this community is that we needed to support our teachers and staff. And one of those ways that we heard uh we need to support our staffs was through comp compensation and retention. So ensuring that as a school system that we're fiscally responsible so that we can direct our dollars to where they need to be and that's an investment uh in our staff. Also looking at uh ways to fill those hard to fill positions. And then what we talked about too is advocating at the local and the state level for for funding. Uh when I was young, I would go to my mom for for and ask for money. She didn't have it. I would go to my grandparents. And so yes, we're going we're coming to the county. You're our parents. And then
091we're going to our grandparents at the state uh to ask for um uh money as well. They have more money, right? Yeah. Grandma always had more money. She had a little white envelope and one of her mattress that she would go uh give me the money. Um but collectively uh as a community at Durham Public Schools, a community of Durham partners in our county, we uh effectively advocate at the state level for continued funding. So that's something we heard loud and clear. Next slide. Um again, you you've seen the the results of the presentation just a moment ago. We heard that we needed to improve our school facilities. Uh and some of that work has obviously just just begun. You you just heard that that presentation. And so as a school system, we must ensure
092that we are providing safe, modern, uh well-maintained facilities for our students and our staff. Uh and when it gets to a point where it's impacting student learning in a major way like it did uh you all received emails around Spring Valley when we have to release students early, that's a problem uh because it is impacting uh uh academics um physical health of our staff and our students. And so as we think about this long-term planning and this notion of this idea of um this this dashboards and and being um proactive as as opposed to reactive and we just based on my short time it seems like we've just been things break and we fix them. But how do we be proactive and uh so parents, community members, staff know that uh for example in 2028
093my school is going to get a new HVAC system. In 2030 my school is going to get a um a new roof. Uh and so as we think about you know not only from a capital improvement plan but also multi-year bonds and so that it may be in 2036 someone will see okay I will get a new school um here. So those are the things we have to think about from a long-term standpoint to ensure that we are being proactive as opposed to reactive. And then we also heard next slide we heard loud and clear just fix our transportation issues. And there are a number of things that we've been doing thanks to our our teams that have been working with our uh transportation staff uh to address some of the things we heard, but
094most importantly, how do we invest in them as well in terms of um incentives um uh and also bus driver supplements, which is something that you'll see in this budget request. So that was the first 100 days in the post-try plan that I shared the feedback there. In addition, during the budget season, um new to Durham public schools was two hearings, two public hearings this year. also new to Durham public schools. We um heard there was an opportunity for us to educate our our public around um Durham public schools finance, which is a lot different than your budgets at at home. And so we launched dollars and decisions, an opportunity to uh educate our public around Durham public schools finance as we are engaging in and beginning the the the budget process. And so with
095that, on the next slide, we also launched a community um online forum uh to get some additional feedback as we begin to put this into our budget request. And so we just asked one simple question as it relates to our budget development. What should be DPS's top priorities for the um school year? The next slide just shows a summary of what we heard in that online form. Many of you may have participated in that form, so thank you if you if you did. Um, and so the responses emphasizes several key priorities for the 2526 school year. And they include similar to what you uh what what I heard during the listening learning sessions during my first 100 days is in um increase teacher and staff salary so that we can attract and retain quality educators,
096ensuring reliable transportation for our students, and addressing staffing shortage and supportive roles. There's also a strong call for improving school infrastructure including HVAC systems and classroom resources. Respondents also highlighted uh the need for equitable funding uh better support for exceptional and special education and maintaining essential student services such as meals and mental health support. And so again, as we think about the data we collected during the first 100 days, the data we collected during this online forum, uh as we work to continue to build trust, I hope again people see that we hear you. This is what you told us and you will see this reflected in our budget. The next slide just shows a word cloud of what was important to the people again salaries, retention, um pay. And so that's what we heard.
097And so when we look at some of the top thoughts, I'll go through these next few slides uh really quickly. The next slide just kind of highlighted some of the thoughts. This is verbatim what we heard from the community. Paying teachers and support staff competitive wages. Uh supporting our staff with wages that they deserve to address teacher and staff retention. Next slide. Uh again, teacher and staff payraises, paying our um staff livable wages, and then keeping our promises to to pay staff. Uh one respondent, go back one slide. I'm sorry. One respond back one more. Thank you. One respondent stated, "Low staff pay equals high turnover equal equals less staff for our students." Next slide. again appropriate payment for teachers also bus drivers um stabilizing staff shortages specifically as it pertains to bus drivers and
098then lastly bus driver shortage teacher and staff pay and current school maintenance. And then lastly on the next slide I talked about uh investing in our existing facilities and having safe facilities with functioning HVAC systems uh mast's pay as well as adequate adequate staffing. And so this is just some of the comments and some of the feedback we heard not only in the um during the listening and learning sessions. There was a survey option there, but also specifically asking what should be our priorities as we as a school system uh develop this budget. And so with that, I will turn it over to our uh chief financial officer, Jeremy Teter, to share um the information that we proposed in our budget request. Jeremy, morning. Thank you, Dr. Lewis. Um, county commissioners, schoolboard members, uh, county
099manager Hager. Um, we do have a few, uh, slides just to just kind of refresh on some things that we've just worked through in the past few months in Durham Public Schools. And then also we have a link uh, to the budget book um that that uh, the board ultimately adopted us to move forward with at its meeting on April 24th. And so if we'll um, just progress to the next slide. Um, and just kind of a reminder of budget history. And I promise I'm not I think after the bond presentation and this I don't think I'm going to say anything that makes Mr. Lane's blood pressure go higher than what it already is. So I'm just I was so glad that came before me. Um and so the um just the reminder on the
100next slide um just so when I came on board um in early November um had to just sort of in a hurry assess uh where things were in Durham public schools and just a reminder of the over $30 million challenge that we had to unpack uh and work through. Um and so we were um very fortunate to sort of have some tools in our toolbox. Some of them were not comfortable, but um ultimately had to to make some decisions to account for the the the volume of positions um that were on the district's rosters um that were not in the budget um that was developed around this time last year. Um and just just at a high level, right? So just some critical uh budget lines for the district that weren't budgeted for to the
101degree that they should have been. Um and so just kind of wanted to refresh that history for you that things that we had to tend to to get correct in our base budget before we moved forward and developed a request for the following year. Um on the next slide um we just sort of talk about some of the short-term measures that we had to take um as as an administration. Uh so one we reduced the operating budgets from 100% to 85%. Um and so this affected all of us districtwide u in our day-to-day operations. And I'll just have to commend our staff and our schools um that they found a way to make it work, right? So, we know that that was challenging uh but they found a way to continue to conduct business um
102and and and start to think of ways to to get the job done. Um we had to leverage some one-time resources, right? So, we know the the Mackenzie Scott donation um that we received um we've had to call on those resources in the short term in order to help make things work in this current year. Um, and then we also put in place a hiring freeze for positions uh that were not required uh by state law. So, we think about uh we continued to fill bus drivers, we continued to fill exceptional children teachers um and any other position that we had in the district. Uh K3 teachers that are required uh for those statemandated class sizes, things of that nature were things that we continued to fill uh while we uh kind of pressed pause
103on hiring in the district and reassessed uh how we were going to move forward. Um on the next slide uh we talk about some of the long-term measures that we've discussed uh with with the board of education. And so one just looking at um how we've been allotting um teachers to our students. So the the the class sizes um in Durham public schools uh were allotted at sort of lower than normal ratios. Uh and so spending some time looking at that it's it's gone on for a few years and it was really easy to do that while the district had esser funding. Um, but we really had to to think long and hard about balancing our teacher to student ratios in tandem with our classroom vacancies. And so we really tried to strike a sweet
104spot with that uh to where we had ratios that were more in line with state funding uh for our classrooms u but at the same time trying to do that in a way um that that number did not exceed what we had vacant or vacant positions that we had budgeted for. So uh really trying to strike some kind of normal balance. Uh we did also take u a really hard look as as a working group um at our central office staffing and and classified uh positions that we have here in the in the central office. And we did ultimately move forward uh with eliminating 27 positions um in in our central office. Um and so a good number of those uh were were vacant and so we were able to move forward uh without disrupting
105um a lot of individuals and we are still going through our process here. um to make sure that we have opportunities for folks that were impacted or whose positions were impacted by those reductions. So, just wanted to lift up a couple of measures that we've taken to try to structure ourselves for the long term knowing that some of the things we did this year could only help us one time and we wanted to make sure that we had some sustainable solutions in place for the district. On the next slide, I believe we have the link. So, if we could click that 2526 budget request link, uh that should ceue up uh the budget book. Um hopefully it'll give it a minute to sort out what's going on. You know, it works on your computer and
106then you trust it to work somewhere else. Okay, good. I'm vindicated. All right. So, we um so just not going to go through every page of the book, but just u want to touch um just sort of on the front section of the budget book where we really touch on sort of the more narrative components. Um and I think right this also is linked into the materials that you have. Uh so if we can um so just some things that we're required by law to lift up in in our budget request to you all. Uh so on the uh next page in is a letter of transmitt uh from Dr. Lewis uh just sort of lifting up um his priorities, right? So thinking about compensation, transportation, safety, things of that nature um while also balancing
107our responsibilities. So um if you haven't already read it, it's there for your for your reading and and and enjoyment. And I know that we'll be interacting um a little more here u in the future. Um moving forward through the document, um if we could go up a couple of pages to the section that's the students we serve. um we provide uh some demographic data uh in the district right so just in terms of the the number of students that we're currently serving um and I know we talked about sort of those enrollment figures earlier um so we are currently uh supporting 31,188 students across 57 schools and Durham public schools um and then I'll just I'll give it a moment to catch up with where we are page six page six thank you Dr.
108Um so we're just required to sort of share uh the students that we're serving in the district. Uh and so we did um I think it's important to note that we did come in in terms of our enrollment this year. It was a little over a hundred students better than the state of North Carolina had projected um for u at this time last year. So, that's something obviously that we're monitoring very carefully. Um, and just to see what direction we go with that. Um, but just wanted to to lift that up. Um, that we are serving a few more students uh than we were in the last school year. Um, another uh area that we're required um to touch on um is just the general performance of the district. and and I know you've heard
109presentations from the superintendent previously, but we've got a couple of of exhibits um on the next couple of pages of the document uh where we lift up things that we're proud about with the academic success of the district. Um and so these these are things that we were really celebrating uh and excited about. And on the next page of the document is just sort of a higher level overview um of just how the district's performing in general. Um, and I know you'll have um, opportunities to ask the right folks questions about that later. Um, another supplement um, that's on the next page that I always like to include um, is just teacher supplements and how we're comparing and and this is pertinent um, to a request that's in in the book a little bit later.
110And so uh, most of my career I have enjoyed being in a district that's in that top 10. Um, and just a few years ago, I was in a district that was number 10 on that list, and we were looking up to Durham, um, as a district that we were competing with. Um, and at that time, the last budget book I made for that district, Durham was number five. Um, and so it's really kind of full circle, um, to be serving as the finance officer in Durham now, and you've made your way up to number three on that list in terms of the average teacher supplement. and and so we very much have a goal um to to climb higher on that list uh because while it's nice to be number three, we're immediately neighbored
111by number one and number two and that that makes that work even harder. And so um that's just I had a former board member one time just describe teacher supplements as an arms race for teachers and and it and it very much feels like that in this part of the state. Um and and we certainly have some folks also to the south of us who are trying to catch up. So it's really tight competition. And so we always keep that front and center and and I've always sort of advised boards that if we're not making progress, we're falling behind. Um so the next uh the next slide um we just sort of lift up our funding sources. And so just wanted to lift up that local and capital outlay categories there. Those those two large
112pieces of the pie. So 29% local and 23% capital outlayer because of you all and and and the the hard work that you all have done uh to figure out ways to fund Durham public schools. And it is certainly not lost on us that we are on a per pupil basis the second best funded school system in North Carolina. So uh I think thank you very much for that. And uh we're neighbored by number one. Uh and so we see just sort of that pattern there of of of just the competition in this area. Um so the next um we just lift up uh on the next page we sort of lift up where those dollars are spent right on the whole and so you can see that our personnel so instructional services a little
113over 364 million is is the largest share um of that budget um for the 2425 activity. So just wanted to stress um where that goes. Um capital outlay is right behind that. Um, so we're we're really just trying to keep things focused and really sort of dispel that central services is a huge component of our budget and and and even though we do have a large portion of our budget that is central services, it we're we're thinking about students and doing work that affects students every day. So just wanted to continue to lift that out there. Um, and then the next um slide is where we're really kind of getting to the meat of the superintendent's request. Um, and so at a high level overview, right, we have to contemplate our continuation budget. And I
114think as most folks in the room know, the general assembly is in its long session part of the cycle. So, they're at the beginning of the two-year budget that they're developing. It's my least favorite part of the cycle uh because we're having to sort of predict uh what they may do, right? And so, we'll have we have the governor's version of the budget that comes forward, the Senate's version, and the House's version. Um and we have to come up with sort of our best forecasts of what implications we might have for compensation for our employees and for the benefits uh that we contribute to like the state retirement system and the state health plan. Um for the purposes of us um computing this uh continuation um we we moved forward with assuming a 3% um
115increase for employees u from the state. Um, we feel we still feel good about our work on that because we have at this point we know what the governor's request is and we know what the senate's request is and we have landed in between those two and so we feel like we're in a safe spot u with the work that we've done and and we know that those negotiations sometime can can go on for quite some time and so we look forward to that settling um and and then we'll have a two-year state budget to work with and it'll make next year's work um even easier for us to to sort of forecast what we might be dealing with at this time next year. So, um, just wanted to lift that up. We also have
116to contemplate things like utilities, uh, cost of property insurance, workers comp, uh, liability insurance, things of that nature in this umbrella of things. Um, and then we do have some software, um, that has gotten more expensive like everything else around us. And so, um, in order for us to, uh, continue as is, right, seeking a little over $6.3 million, um, and then we also have to contemplate as a part of that, um, that, uh, about 21% of our student enrollment are in charter schools. Uh, and so any new money that we receive from the county, we have to share with our our charter students and it has to follow those students. So, we determine what we need and we net that up to make sure that we end up with what we need to operate
117and that we're able to satisfy what we're required to pass on to charter schools. Uh, and I hope uh that what our school planning folks are working on to bring some of those children back will come to fruition. That would be really great for Durham public schools. Um, in the next section, right, we talk about a a variety of expansion needs um or requests. And so just sort of high on that list um is the increasing the teacher local supplement. And so just trying to take steps uh in the right direction on that and and contemplating what would it cost um for us to move up to number two on that list and to continue to make progress. And so um it would the the $2.2 million figure that's reflected there would increase uh the
118monthly supplement for each teacher by $70 a month or $700 for a for a school year. um in order for us to sort try to move ahead number two on that list and then obviously we will keep our eye on that ball and continue to try to move up that list. Um another area sort of pertinent to compensation and in a space where we've needed attention at the top of the next page are our bus drivers. I don't really have to expand uh upon everything that you've heard and read related to transportation and Durham public schools. And so we're very committed to to moving forward with strategies to retain bus drivers, recruit bus drivers. Um, one one idea that floated up among our team was the notion of a supplement for our bus drivers. Um,
119they are hourly employees and so they're they're paid hours worked, hours paid. Uh, and so sometimes that can be unpredictable for them even when we have if we have inclement weather. So we think about uh in the month of January where we had three days of no school, our drivers didn't work um and it affected them in that pay cycle. And so we started thinking about what sort of things can we do to at least give them a little more predictability and something steady as a part of their compensation. And so lifting up a $200 per month uh supplement for our bus drivers uh with a cost of a little over 377,000. Uh so something um uh very important um to those folks as they're doing that work. Um the other area um that's on
120the next page that we lift up as sort of is our local M's pay initiative. Right? So, we know that in um in the current climate um in order for a teacher um to receive M's pay or or other um certified categories, uh they have to had started uh their coursework or completed their first course by August of 2013 in order to be contemplated for mast's pay from the state of North Carolina. That's been quite some time. Uh and so we do have um a healthy share of educators in North Carolina and in Durham um who did not complete their first course by that time frame. Um and so Durham um is is a district that contemplated starting with this current year of moving forward uh to offer that local mast's pay. Um the current
121model in Durham uh requires you to be a classroom teacher and then at least half of your day has to be working with teaching children. Uh so we're um as we were unpacking things uh that were coming up short um in in the current year budget, right, we came up short with the local masters pay. There were far more uh teachers um than the administration could have contemplated would have been eligible, which was a good problem uh if you think about it in some ways. So uh just wanted to lift up um that dollar value of a gap that we're trying to close there. Uh and then also we're lifting up our school social workers. Um they are a population of certified employees who are not naturally transferable to the classroom um and are doing
122important work. And so we wanted to lift up that population with hopes of expanding the local mast's pay uh to those employees. And we currently have 11 school social workers who have a master's degree for which they don't receive pay from the state for that. Um so anything that you can do to help us advocate the general assembly to bring back state funded masters pay would help us tremendously. Um so um anything that you can do as you as you have your relationships with the delegation to lift that up uh would be great. Um the next page uh we talk about some positions um that we had been funding with Mackenzie Scott uh funds uh for growing together uh right so just dual dual language teachers for the dual language program um and and prek
123teachers and instructional aids uh in our various monatory programs. So, just wanted to lift up um that one-time resource um for those will be suns setting and and wanted to continue those uh supporting those programs. Um a little farther down that same page, we lift up some resources uh that support social and emotional health uh that the district had previously been funding with ESSER dollars. I think it was a very common use across the state to do things to support social and emotional health with ESSER dollars. Uh and so we certainly weren't the only district that did that. Um and then there were three three particular resources um that our folks uh leveraged through that. So one was Rethink Ed, which is a curriculum that's used in our elementary schools uh to teach uh students
124about um character and social emotional behaviors. Um so that is something that our folks um who support that work would like to continue. Um and then on the next page, another one of those items um is a relationship that we have with the Center for Child and Family Health to help support and respond to trauma uh in our schools. Uh and so that um has been um a critical partnership for us uh that we would like to see continue. Um and then the third item under that umbrella of social emotional health uh is is Panorama which is a very common uh software that we see districts using across North Carolina as a means uh to assess um our student social and and emotional health. Uh the next category I think we lifted up um at
125our joint meeting um was was the notion of funding for our exceptional children and I know we had lots of conversation with our state delegation when they were here about that. Um and I think it was also lifted up in our board's legislative priorities that we are capped in how much support we can get um for funding for our exceptional children. Right? So the state caps us um at the 13% mark and Durham is well above that. And we are spending uh $10 million of local resources uh to support our exceptional children. And so we're just seeking a way. So we ran a model of if the state were to fund our full cap, how much more state money might we get? And then we contemplated trying to scaffold in some additional funding over the
126next few years. And so that's where we come up with that $1.1 million figure as a way to try to fold that in. But again, this is another area um where we could seek your help as we're advocating to legislators um that they might contemplate lifting that cap a little bit higher so we can receive additional state resources. um our our folks who work with that student, those students also share, right, that we because of our location in North Carolina and and the medical facilities um that are in our community, we do receive some of the more severe cases and families are moving to Durham because of the of the support structure that is here compared to other communities in North Carolina. And so, um we also sort of contemplate we have some really severe
127needs that come our way. Uh the other item that we lift up is is sort of a non-recurring item uh but just seeking $150,000 uh to refresh uh some band and art equipment throughout the district. Um and so just wanted to not not forget those folks sort of on that final page of the document. The last slide or the last page that I'll touch on is the next one. Um and that is just sort of our funding trend and a summary of what we're seeking. Uh and so on the next page uh we have a section here where we have the request to the county manager that we transmitted uh to the county u after the board took action on April 24th. uh where we're seeking uh for the current expense side of the coin
128uh seeking an increase all of these items we've discussed is 15978335 uh and then for capital outlay seeking continuity of the $8 million u that we received this year um for that for that side of the house. Um so we're um at that point happy to put a pin there and and start to entertain questions and see if Dr. Lewis had any other additional thoughts that he wanted to share? No, thank you so much, chairman. I hope uh folks saw that we did listen to the feedback we received and included this in our budget ask. You know, our our goal is to be the premier school system um not only in North Carolina but in in the country. We want when parents are having children and thinking about where will I send my child um
129it should be clear to Durham public schools and we know the impact of our charter schools are having on our scholars. I was at an event last night and um at a table with a young lady and we were talking about kids and um toward the end of the conversation at the end of the evening I asked well where she cuz she told me she had a I think a 8-year-old. I said, "Where did your child go to school?" And she said, "I was hoping you never you didn't ask me that." And you could imagine she followed up with a with a charter school. And I said, "Okay, we need to talk." And I asked questions as it relates to what, you know, what goes into the thinking of as a parent to enroll your
130child in a charter school when we have some innovative programs and rich offerings here. Um, and I shared with her that, you know, due to growing growing together, all of our elementary schools have global language. She didn't know that and she was amazed. And so when we think about where we are as a school system, we have some innovative programs, some dedicated staff um in this school system, but at the heart of it all is our amazing, inquisitive students. And so everything that's in this budget will directly or indirectly impact our scholars. And that's what we wanted to make sure we had a student centered budget to present to um this community. And the last thing I will say as it relates to the social and emotional learning uh that term has been weaponized uh
131across this country but this is the work that is needed when we think about safety. Safety from the standpoint of you know physical safety but also mental health and support for our scholars and and we think about some of the um things that are unquestionable that may happen in our schools and some of the things that have recently happening happened in our schools. Some of those skills that our students are learning through the social emotional learning is self-awareness, self-management, um uh responsible decision making, social awareness, those relationship skills that are designed to keep our students safe and to ensure that um they are their best selves. And so again, um I appreciate all of these, uh input that has gone into creating this budget, um and also the work that our staff is doing and
132also our partners um at the county for considering our request. Thank you so much, Mr. Teter and Dr. Lewis. Um we'll let um Chair Long kick us off and then uh Commissioner Burton next. Thank you so much, uh Dr. Teter. just want to repeat what I said last time of you know this presentation again Dr. Lewis you are building a dream team here um I'm really appreciative of the level of detail like one thing I noted was I don't think we've ever received like the level of detail of the cost of insurance increases um like being presented to us like that minute detail so I appreciate that and also very consumable uh to me as a commissioner and like making it more consumable to residents um to Dr. Lewis, I know you said you want
133to come to the parents. The parents are broke. Don't ask us for money. I'm joking. But no, we are facing a struggle. Manager Hager presented her budget. But um I to that point I wanted to know do we have like a breakdown of based on statutory responsibilities that the county holds, that the state holds of how much does Durham County right now go in above and beyond what it's statutoily responsible for? And then also how much of a deficit is the state in for their state statutory responsibility for funding to DPS? That would be my first question. If we can like if there's a way to calculate that and obviously you don't have to spit those numbers out, but like if you could calculate that and bring it back to us like via email would
134be great. Yeah. Um, I think that should be a shared exercise because I think for all of us like as commissioners and like schoolboard members, we go to our state associations and those are numbers we can take with us to the state association and work with other because I'm sure this is a red county and blue county issue. Um, and we can go to our county commission colleagues across the state to say like this is the burden that counties are facing. And then on that note, out of curiosity, like I know we can't fund it, but I think it's important to have like that broader picture for people to know how large of an uphill battle we're in and we face and that like this the need to go to the state and not just
135rely on local tax dollars to fill the hole of do we know how much that you know that premier school budget would be? one that pays our educators living wages, one that has enough money to keep up with the maintenance costs um without having the issues that we're seeing now. Like how much would that cost for Durham public schools annually? Because I think that's also important when we go to the legislature of like we're asking you to fill this gap of where we're at right now, but also this is where we need to be. Thank you, Chair Alam. Um Mr. Teter or Dr. Lewis, did either of you want to respond to that with some initial um thoughts on like how feasible it is to gather that information or what that I love the vision,
136but I don't know what that looks like in practice. I think just sort of my first pass at that is like I'm very used to um I'm very used to operating in communities that have not been funded well by the local side. Um and so right and so the conver the color of that conversation's always been very different of you to the point of right so there's provisions in general statute that kind of dictate how you mediate funding disputes right and and you know and so there's a formula that's in the statute that we apply in those cases um where we determine what what's an appropriate um what's an appropriate increase and right and and um you know they factor in things like inflation from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for elementary and secondary schools
137and and and just sort of the enrollment of districts and and and looking at those variables to come up with what's an appropriate increase. Uh and so I think right in some of those in some of those communities the local is coming up short and and and they've had to come up with additional dollars. um you know in in Durham right when you know you're number two per people in the state right it's hard to make the argument that Durham County hasn't been making an effort right particularly um and so I think um we'll we'll have to spend some time kind of wrapping our arms around how have you exceeded um the the norm right and what's rationally expected of so we we'll have to we're going to have to toss that around and I
138agree with the the county manager that that may be a joint project uh because there are other ways, right? There are other ways that you support us indirectly uh outside of this request just in in in thinking about things like the school resource officers um and um and then the debt service and and things of that nature. So, we'll have um I I see. So, we're that's a really great question that I think we'll enjoy putting an answer together for. Thank you, Mr. Ter. I think manager Hager wanted to. Yes, I was just going to say Commissioner Lum um we will work on that response. We're as you know doing some base um budget review for all of our um departments and um we'll start with the general statutes of what's required for all areas
139because we do fund at higher levels in many other areas within the county budget. And in these um challenging times um we want to make sure that we are covering the areas that we're required to do and then looking at um how do we make sure in those other priorities because they move needles that are important that we are resourced properly there. So we will work with Durham public schools on that exercise. I think that we have um in the county's um process already data that can help us get to some of this a little bit faster. Thank you so much, manager Baker. And sorry, if I could just add when you guys are doing that joint thing, it would also be interesting to see like okay, especially the premier budget of what the tax
140rate for a premier budget like that would be. Yeah. And I would just add, you know, in order to be the premier school district, we have to have the premier resources, uh, premier staff. And so when we think about, you know, what is what does that investment look like over time? We have we had a board member been asking for a multi-year budget, you know. So as we think about that, it also helps with retention when teachers can see in the next two or three years, this is where I will be in terms of supplementing and and and salary, but also from a facility standpoint that that we just heard in order to be proactive. and so we can have those discussions as it relates to what that will look like over multiple years. Thank
141you, Dr. Lewis. Um, Commissioner Burton. Yes. Thank you so much for your presentation. Uh, Mr. Teter. Um, one of the things that I want to say, um, and I have a couple of questions, is it's really important that we work together, um, as a commission, as a school board, um, to make sure that our schools are, um, the finances are right. Right. Because we don't want any more targets from the state. Um, I don't know if you all heard what happened in Winston Salem Foresight County Schools, um, where they have an $8 million budget deficit for this year and then they're projected to have a $16 million one for next year. So, it's going to be really important that we work together um to make sure the finances are in operational high operational mode. Um,
142I have a couple of questions. One of my questions and I asked this at the last meeting in February around M's pay. And the reason I'm asking this question because as a former educator in the building who had to have a master's to be certified. All right. This is regard not regardless of the 2013 law. In order to be a media coordinator in North Carolina K12, you had to have the M a Masters to be certified. All right? And I'm hearing about social workers. You they do not have to have a master's to be certified through DPI to have that M on their masters. And the reason I'm asking that question is because we want to make sure that we're getting the money that we're supposed to from the state to cover those salaries. and
143there's no, you know, discretion about making sure people are getting paid what they're supposed to be paid though. So that's my first question. Good question. Right. So your media coordinators and our school counselors both fall in that umbrella where there's a master's degree that's required for that particular license. And so the state is still honoring master's pay for those employees. So not for social workers. I guess that's right. because I think a social you can you can have a bachelor's in social work and earn the school social work license. So they so it's not required for them. Gotcha. Thank you for that clarification. Um and then the other question I had was what is the minimum salary that we pay classified staff? So I'm gonna have Miss Hager pull up the scale because I we've
144had fun recalibrating those scales. So it will be on our NC1 is going to be the lowest scale as Hager's going to pull up that hourly rate. While Miss While Miss Hager's working on that, did you have any other additional comments or question, Miss um Commissioner Burton? No, I think those were the two main things. It's one, you know, where our classified people are and how do we get them to the minimum um salary, things like that. So, I just was curious about that. Just while we're on that point and you're having our staff look for that number, do you all know your number? Because that's where a gap has grown in the past. Is it 19 something was last year? It was um like $19.70, but we can clarify what that number is. Thank
145you for that question and response. Uh Dr. Lewis. Oh, miss. And the minimum is $1804. And that's NC1. That's the classified salary schedule, NC1. Gotcha. And I know bus drivers get paid a little bit more than that, right? Starting. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, yes, Commissioner Jacobs. Uh, also I want to echo Commissioner Burton fantastic presentation. Thank you. Um yeah, I I just I I want to I don't know if people saw the budget slides or presentation yet, but um you know, the manager has proposed 10.35 million and that's already would include a 3.5 cent tax increase on top of the neutral tax rate. Um, and so I I just want to echo what Commissioner Alam said is that, you know, we're we're also in a year where we've done a revaluation
146of property values. So, our residents are already under stress um in many um different neighborhoods with that. So, um, you know, we're we're very mindful that of the limitations of what we can do and also in the face of decreasing sales tax revenue and growing population with having to keep up with services like EMS and ambulances and things like that. And you don't know the city's tax rate increase, right? And so, you know, there I think we're going to what I'm trying to say is we're going to have to be very creative and really think outside the box on how we can meet the needs that have been laid out in the budget because they're absolutely all legitimate needs. Um, and so the tough question is obviously the prioritizing, but then also thinking about, okay,
147what are some other ways that we can try to address these needs? And in the past, we've been very creative because uh $77.14 million worth of DPS needs are actually met outside of your budget. Um that that's around the you know, we we fund we do funding through SRO's, public health, nonprofits, Durham prek. So I want to emphasize the additional support that the county does also provide. Um, so I guess um, you know, one Commissioner Burn and I have already been kind of brainstorming, but you know, so one thing I hope that we'll look at, for instance, is around preK. We've had a partnership, right? And there's a request in here for the monastery prek. Is that something that we could look at? Um, we've had a we've had a history of trying to fund
148prek through the county. Um when I looked at your request related to social and emotional mental health you know we have we do our mental health funding through alliance is there um you know ways that we could look at that so I think and then um you know DPS foundation for some of the nonreoccurring expenses um are there ways you know we have sectors of our community who do have the means our um the business community if we had special funds for some of these needs, would we see the community step up if they were aware of them and to fund those directly? So, um I think that's I think that's the mindset that we all need to have is what are how can we work together to make sure that our needs are filled
149as a community. Um, I don't want to be a downer, but SNAP funding that is that is we are looking at we did a support letter last night that would directly impact Durham public schools the our CF program and our the ability for our children to have the food they need to learn um and thrive. So, um I I know this will be an ongoing uh discussion and collaboration um together. Um and I like what you said in terms of some of the data because we do have county assembly day coming up in June. Um, so we could definitely start thinking about how do we have more statewide um, conversations on this. Thank you, Commissioner Jacobs. Any other commissioners that had um, questions or uh, yes, Commissioner Burton? Yes. One thing that I meant to
150um lift up is, you know, when we talk about teacher pay and retaining, you know, staff, things like that in our buildings, um we have to be mindful of what's happening with at the state level with regards to so many of teachers are now coming in uncertified. And so we have to really think about, okay, in order to also keep them in the buildings, not only pay, but professional development. I know I'm not on the school board, but I remember what it was like to be on in the buildings with a lot of new people. Um and I think a lot of times in the community we think about okay if we pay pay and that's just one aspect of it but also thinking about how do we keep people with professional development and things
151like that because we now know that 41% of the new educators that are coming into our schools did not go through a traditional teaching program. And so that also leads to um turnover which affects us as a county because we got to you know have good people in the building. So I know the superintendent already knows that but just thought I'd look that up. Thank you. Um yes, Commissioner Jacobs. I forgot to mention a very positive thing that we're working on. Um board member Tab and I and Dr. King Depp Pitman um working together on a workg group around how do we expand the teach house model countywide. So, how do we look at other factors related to just pay that are part of the retention and recruitment? And that's that's a huge opportunity that
152we have around um housing and also building communities of support, professional development because the teach house model has been shown to be very effective at both recruitment and attention retention. And that that's again something we can do together as a community. Thank you both for lifting those up. I know that um board member Harold Goff had something she wanted to share as well. It's just a comment um an observation, a reflection. Um I just wanted to something that I'm hearing that I want to articulate um as like a theme. What I'm hearing over and over again as we're looking at all of these challenges is that this is an example um of how we are acknowledging the needs of the community regardless of our ability, knowledge, or capacity to address all of those needs. Um
153that's important. The acknowledgement, that's that's what I really appreciate about the presentations that have been presented, how well they've been presented, how how um we're working for clarity. Um, transparency is a buzz word in our community and I just wanted to lift up that transparency is not just about what we present, but that the community trusts what we're presenting. And so I see a lot of work going into that. And and that trust of what we're presenting, what we're giving the community, um, will grow over time if we're if we continue to be consistent in that way. And part of acknowledging needs that we don't yet know what the creative solutions are for yet is a commitment to work for those ideal um solutions. So when when when we acknowledge that there is need that
154there is something that the community has and then we work to show that uh we're working toward the ideal. We're working towards creating solutions and working to prepare for well well that's one thing but the other thing is we have to also work to prepare for harm work to prepare the community for things that may impact them in a harmful way. um we have to be ready for the protections um protections through care of the community through these decisions because of the uncertainty because of what we don't know. Um, but I'm encouraged and I just wanted to express that um, it's important that we continue to show those kinds of examples of how we're acknowledging what is very, very complex and that we um, are very transparent in how we're working for those ideals that
155we all stand for. That's all. Thank you. Thank you so much. Is there any other discussion on this agenda item before we move to the next? Okay, wonderful. Thank you so much. The next item on the agenda is the county budget discussion. Okay, I will um give some highlights of the presentation last night. I will not go through all of those slides. So there will be lots of skipping although I did modify um what was um sent over from the original presentation. So um look forward to sharing some of the uh updates shared with the board. Um the recommended budget was my first as county manager although you know I've been in this business a long time but it's something different when you it's your first on your own. And so, um, I I'd like
156to acknowledge the partnership I've had with, um, Durham Public Schools over the years. As, as you know, I've always been a champion for, um, the schools and, um, for our community as a long-term Durham resident. Um there is no greater advocate uh for um the public schools because you have the largest opportunity helping ensure that our resources and pipeline with our students um help bridge our future and so um it is always in the forefront and how we think about how we fund and support our future. Next slide please. Uh this is just a slide and um that shows the varied types of items we talk about from capital planning and bonds to schools to aging economic development, there are so many mandated services and um commitments the county commissioners have to deal with. And
157just like the school's often more competing priorities, u then there are dollars to support them. Next slide. Um, our budget was anchored with our ECO forward 2029 strategic plan and this was refreshed last year and served as a guiding principle and how we developed the budget and we'll not go into a lot of those points. Um, please look at our presentation and the budget document online for more details about our plan. Next slide. I included this slide because it is one that we've talked about um today from the standpoint of population trends and growth and where we've been and where we're headed. Um over the past decade, Durham County has experienced an 18% overall population growth. That's tremendous. Um North Carolina's population growth was about 9% in the same period. So, as we talk about
158aging facilities, um trying to make sure we meet the needs of a a community that's changing and so there are complexities along with that as well. But the pressures on our social services system, our public health, EMS, our sheriff, public schools, all of those different competing priorities are areas that we attempt to address in this budget. but a a great visual of where we're headed because in some regions of the state, their picture looks a lot different. Next slide, please. When looking at the priorities for the budget, um there were several that I will elevate. Um one was to maintain the county's fiscal stability, making sure that we struck the right balance of fund balance sheets, and we'll talk about that a little bit more later. making sure we ex maximize existing revenue and recommended
159a responsible tax rate, especially in light of this current climate that we're in. Providing adequate support for our growing population and safety areas. for an example, it's been over seven years since we've added a new um shift or a new um placeholder of of workers for the EMS um division. And so the population has grown quite significantly since then. So we we needed to make sure in in that perspective we had the right level adding adequate support funding for Durham public schools, supporting talent retention with our county employees. Um looking at a lot of realignment of existing positions and ensuring for adequate um services for current levels. Um the last step with making sure we plan for capital projects. Next slide. When looking at the budget, um natural growth is an area that is always
160um important. We tried to limit um the property tax rate increase by looking at where the natural growth um levels would be. So we grew approximately $18 million for the general fund and capital financing fund continuing a trend of annual strong natural growth of the property tax rate of the property tax. However, when you look at other major revenues, the growth is significantly lower with a number of those key revenues decreasing year overyear. General fund sales tax growth decreases over a million dollar while several other revenue sources are also seeing a reduction. These key revenue sources and their natural growth support many builtin cost. Without higher annual natural growth than revenue sources, the county must raise the property tax rate to collect more revenue or slow expenditure growth or a combination of both options. And
161that is what you will see in this budget. Next slide, please. In January 2025, um the county saw new valuations for all real property and our tax administrator is here and I told him when I got my valuation bill I was going to call him. I'm sure many of you were excited to see the new valuation. Um but it also caused many to be concerned about what does that mean once I get my tax bill a little bit later. the um Durham is truly a popular place to live and we experienced a overall 60% increase in the total valuation across all of the areas. This valuation increase is offset by a corresponding revenue neutral property tax rate. Um and with that that rate decreased from 79.87 87 cents to 51.92 cents. That's a 27.95 cent
162decrease. This revenue neutral rate is in accordance with state law, but the county also has the um ability to raise taxes above that revenue neutral rate. nearly half of our taxpayers um will receive a higher tax bill because their property value increase. So that's um outside of the um 3.5 cent tax rate increase. Next slide, please. Where possible, I tried to limit property tax rate increases and their impact on residents. And we did this by maximizing efficiencies and limiting the expansion of services to areas that provide the highest rate of investment. But when slowing growth in our revenue sources competes with higher service demands or other costs, these options to fill those gaps are limited to property tax increases. And so with that, I did propose a 3.5 cent property tax rate increase. This will
163add an additional $30 million in new revenue to support education, meet the increased service demands in key mandated areas, address talent retention, and provide for aging facilities, capital projects, and ongoing debt service needs. Next slide. when um we budgeted property tax revenue in two areas. One to support the general fund and the other to support the capital financing fund. Um that pays for capital projects and debt service. And I know I'm probably going into more details, but we like to make sure everyone sort of understand how this all fits together. Um, if you note the middle column, it shows the revenue neutral rate related to the reevaluation process and the recommended tax rate to the right, which shows a 3.5 cents total tax rate increase. And so, um, with this, this gives you the picture
164of of what's recommended. Um we uh truly don't want to put increased um tax pressures on our residents but felt it most important to meet those priority needs of the community. Next slide. The effect of slower tax growth and sales taxes can be clearly shown in this slide. For three years, sales tax revenue grew by over 11 million with fiscal year 23 24 seeing close to a $22 million new growth. That growth in revenue and a host of other kinds of issues helped us to ensure that we paid for a lot of county needs prior to needing a tax rate increase. So because those dollars were there, we were able to cover a host of needs that were priorities from schools to social services and other areas. Remember sales tax revenue is the county's second
165largest revenue source. Um we anticipate um that these patterns that we're seeing now with the decline uh and it's an adjustment um to some degree um will may continue and so um we we will watch it carefully for the current year um and help us uh it will also be watched as we navigate the future. Next slide. It's also important to know for context other revenues that we um are using to support the organization. We are projecting increases in investment revenue as well as Medicaid hold harmless, decreased revenue projections in the EMS patient fees, as well as a slight decrease in the register of D's fees due to um higher interest rates, lower home buying, and limited housing inventory. The allocation of fund balance will need to be reduced to align with the projected revenue
166and expenditure trends. and to ensure our reserves are maintained at levels that keep the county in a sound fiscal position. These decreasing revenue factors contributed to the limited growth of expenditure budget. And so again, for context, we're used to having almost a plus 5 million or plus 7 million in this area. So when you're seeing that it's a decrease overall that again puts more pressure on the taxpayer. Next slide. When the general fund is where the vast majority of activity and spending occurs, there are a number of other funds that serve specific county um purposes. We have a spectral tax district funds, a debt service fund, and our sewer with utility fund. And all of these um total about a um billion dollars. So, and um the overall budget is 7.7 7.4% higher than the
167last year's budget. And in the general fund, it's about 5.6% higher than the previous year. Next slide, please. We'll quickly highlight um the allocations in major categories. There is a 10.3 million additional appropriation recommended for Durham public schools funds to cover the employee benefits cost. There are um many um things that we could talk about with insurance expenses. Um the employee compensation increase is at $5.3 million. Dollars to address increased service demands at $2.1 million. um many of those areas um expanded for our public safety to meet um service demands and um improve response time and then inflationary costs for services rendered including information technology. Next slide. Uh we talked about um I talked about sort of making sure that we contain growth. Um we um in this budget made sure that we realigned positions
168where appropriate. Um many positions were either realigned, some um eliminated. And so in the budget, I recommended 45 new positions. However, they were offset by realigning vacant positions in areas that were not um in mandated or compliance related um areas. The net impact of the growth was 11.2 positions. Next slide. Durham public schools funding. Um the county's commitment to the schools, as I shared earlier, is unwavering. Um, the budget recommended a $10.3 million allocation for the current expense budget, bringing the total amount to $224 million. That's a 4% increase. Um, this brings the per pupil student funding to $5,496. Um DPS continues to be one of the highest largest expenditure for Durham County government which you will find is similar to other jurisdictions across the state. Um we fund in additional to this appropriation about
169$77 million um in the budget indirectly for support to DPS through a number of different departments that are listed as well as debt service payments being amongst the highest component. Next slide. Um this slide shows the funding allocated to Durham public schools over uh since um 201617. With this appropriation, Durham Public Schools annual county funding will have increased by $35 million over the last two years and nearly 70 million over the last five years. Next slide. Um this slide I added this was not in the presentation last night but just wanted to show you how the math works. Um when we uh made the historic allocation last year we did that um by using some dollars that were um soft funds using our American Rescue Plan funds. And so last year this time we said
170we knew going into this year's budget that would be a number we would um have to um restore. And so if you look at the 2425 budget column, you'll see that um the total budget for not including debt service was $215 million of which $6.7 million was funded through ARPA dollars. In this year's budget, um it's recommended, which is the far right column, that we restore um the capital outlay budget to $6 million. We also, as shared earlier, we add an additional $10.3 million to the current expense budget. There are still additional dollars from ARPA that support our um preK classes and that's what those dollars were for bringing the amount to $223 million. I will note that um we acknowledged that there are areas that um we know are of concern and deferred maintenance,
171repairs and renovations is a high priority and um this is a step that we did a couple of years ago. We added $10 million to um the capital improvement plan, which is a one-time funding allocation to assist Durham public schools with pressing needs that cannot be met through current bond funding, lottery funds, or the ARPA funding allocated in fiscal year 242 um five. This uh approach again we used previously um and it's available uh beyond the current year because oftent times it's not tapped into until um a future fiscal year. And so um four four years ago when we did this this allocation was most important to do some of the um design work for buildings that were improved in the capital improvement plan. Maria Bassenberg is a great example. So all that design work
172happened two years almost before the bond happened and once the bond hit you were already ready for construction. And so that seamlessness helped us to get across the approval threshold with the local government iss um commission as well as rating agencies because in the past we did not spend our dollars at the rate that it needed to be. So this is for two parts. planning for future bonds, but also we know there are some pressing items that um you've mentioned that need to um have some gap funding. Um if you go to the next slide, please. Next slide. Okay, this just highlights Durham public schools. They had a modest request of 1.8% and that shows the Durham Tech I'm sorry I am sorry I need to stick to my script at Durham um Durham Technical
173Community College. I know they're partners with you as well as the county and uh we're excited about the investments and um just wanted to show that as well. And then the the last couple of slides just some reminders or next steps in the process. We will have a public hearing on May 27th. Um Budget work sessions um will begin on the 20 um the 20th and the 22nd. And um we will have additional ones on May 29th, June 3rd, and if needed June 5th. Um the adopted budget is planned for June 9th. Next slide. In an effort to engage the public, particularly our youth, we held a contest this year where we asked young residents to design the budget document cover. Um the the the ask was to show their favorite things about Durham. I'm
174delighted to announce um that our render was Zora Williams. She's 12 and attends Roger Her Middle School. Um, Zora is an artist. She loves to paint and bring her ideas to uh to life. Her submission includes many of the favorite places that are my fond memories in Durham. Um, I said it last night and I'll say it again. Zora, thank you for your beautiful submission. And we'll have a special recognition for Zora at the June 9th board meeting. I'm hopeful that um many of you can join us as we honor her work. And next slide. And so for our documents and links to the presentation, please see our website at decco.gov and I will entertain any questions. Thank you. Thank you so much, manager Hager. Um any discussion? I'm looking for to board members first.
175Okay. Um, Miss Armstead. Um, thank you, manager Higer, for this presentation. I did watch last night, but I appreciate some of the additional details that are included here that help us think about um what we need to be doing and preparing on our end and some advocacy. I'm sure they'll come you all's way. Uh I also just want to acknowledge and celebrate uh where our board and our these this board and your board relationship has come over the last couple of years. When I first joined the board um we were kind of oh at the beginning of that and not getting our full ask and so to be able to be in a position where you know that strategic growth of the ask that we're getting from the county. I just want to acknowledge and
176thank you all for that hard work. I know it takes a lot of combing through your budget and navigating um where to allocate your resources to make sure you can support the public school system. Um I'm also reminded though that we've been told several times that this can't continue because it's not sustainable um with the county commissioners around our ask. And so wondering I know you all talked about sales uh tax growth slowing and I know we don't have any crystal balls but is that something that we think is a multi-year is that something that and because I'm thinking about our all planning and preparation too. Um yeah do y'all have any insights or thoughts around that process? I will say that um going into this budget year, we we saw patterns of sales taxes
177um slowing. As a matter of fact, when we started the year, we had a position freeze. So, it is not by chance that at the end of as we worked towards developing next year's budget, we we tactically had positions available that we could realign. Um if you look at the pattern of dollars through the infrastructure act that happened a couple of years ago, we we knew with you know your ESR dollars, your ARPA dollars, all the um economic um incentives that happen. It this so some of this is an adjustment that was expected. Um right now we're in a unique shifting landscape and so with that um we we will watch we imagine that there is some reset with sales taxes and we're hopeful that it will start adjusting up again. Um but um but
178we're just watchful and very cautious. Um where I will say I am most concerned are in areas right now that discussions are happening around many of our entitlement programs. Okay. Um whether it's Medicaid or SNAP or dollars for other priority areas that the country in the past has held as priorities. And so um we just don't have a net large enough to cover those gaps. So sales taxes are concern. Um what's happening in the national landscape and shifts and priorities and how will we move forward is something that as a community we will have to navigate. I sorry I just I appreciate that and I did watch the I think resolutions or letters that you all approved around SNAP I think around Medicaid expansion head start as well and I think our superintendent has sent
179some communication to our um to representative Fushi about this but I wonder if our board also should take up some collective resolutions um and if there any other I'm sure there'll be more as things come down if we can be tag teaming and having the county and the school board and I'm sure the city would like to also get on board. I'm not sure. I don't know. But I imagine that the city would also like to have some resolutions as well because this is something that impacts our total community as well as has a lot of implications on our budget as well. So, if y'all could share that, we could think about taking that up. I could add and just Oh, I'm sorry, Dr. Lewis. I'm sorry. If I could just add to that and
180and um encourage people to reach out to our House of Representatives. as today there are some markups on some bills that would have some impacts on down to school districts as well as think as it relates to uh the reconciliation bill that will shift a large amount of um Medicaid costs to states that will also impact us from a special education standpoint. We're already not adequately funded through special education. So, I would encourage you to, you know, contact your House of Representative and your family and friends in other parts of North Carolina. have them contact their house of representatives as well and ask them to um you know vote no on that. And then in addition uh there's a um in the ways um ways and means committee there's a request to remove um request
181them to remove the p the private school voucher tax credit that will impact us in a major way. And so what this does is give individuals that want to donate to this 100% tax credit and so ask them to vote no on that as well. Thank you so much Dr. Lewis. Then, um, Commissioner B, no, uh, Commissioner Jacobs, I just wanted to follow up on what, um, board member Umstead was referring to the sales tax. Just to put it in context, that's a national trend. So, it's not like Durham is an outlier. Um, you know, we saw a big boost after COVID. We had a lot of money coming into people's pocketbooks um with uh you know different types of COVID relief funding for families um which has gone away. We've seen the impact of
182inflation uh and now of course people are not spending because you know they may be worried about the global economic changes. Um but I also want to highlight what we've seen here locally is just again a national trend which is the office space that is empty um in many places um people working from home and what happens is when people are working from home they're not going out to eat for lunch um they're not spending in our local businesses and that's why here in Durham you know we are working on strategies to increase our local sales tax revenue. That's why things like the Durham Next um and looking at, you know, investing in our sports facilities, a new convention center, all of those things are really important for us being proactive around sales tax revenue
183because we're going to have to come up with new ways to have people from out of town visiting, coming to festivals so they can support and provide funding for our local needs and find other ways to support our local, you know, restaurants, hotels, small businesses. So, I just want to put it out there that we are working on this issue and being we have to be proactive. Thank you so much for providing that additional information, Commissioner Jacobs. Um, uh, board member TA, Mr. Tab, and then Miss Byer. Thank you very much. Um, thank you, County Manager Hager. Thank you very much for your presentation. Um, just wanted to uplift a few things. Um, one, as we're living in this world of change, um, and we're getting um, things from the Department of Education as we
184have to shift in Durham public schools um, and we may have to come back and ask um, as things change with how things are coming down to us. Um, I do want to encourage us to continue to work together and still be mindful as things are changing how we can continue to work together to make sure these changes continue to happen for our students and that they they don't get left behind in in the process. Um, do you want to speak about any any of that? I I will say the part of the the challenge um that we face is that the landscape is shifting everywhere and it's not just Durham public schools, it's also public health where we're mandated to do types of services and um DSS to the extent that we can be
185fiscally responsible and assist the county will try. Um, our reserves are about four months cash. Okay. So, that does not offer a lot for one-time emergencies and that's not a strategy longer term. And so I I I do feel in this environment we will all have to collectively revisit what's in the base operations, what we can afford, and what's the highest priority in light of the strategies we're trying to accomplish. And that is one of the reasons we're doing a very rigorous base budget review next year um starting some this year so that we can redefine where we can afford to invest if shifts happen. I'm optimistic that um some things will not come to fruition in case there are scenarios. We we just need to start planning now. Thank you so very much for
186for that. Um, so we I know I stand ready to continue to work with you, uh, work with you all on how to manage all of this because we are living in some very I call perilous times. And, um, I know safety and security is another issue that is going to be coming before us. Um, as we continue to look at things that are happening in the city, they're happening within our schools. And so, there's some shifting that we know that I know that I think we're going to have to do. and I just wanted you to at least be aware of it that it's in your mindset. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Tab, Miss Byer. So, manager Hager, I just wanted to congratulate you on your first official budget. I also was watching
187last night and cheering you on. It is evident that you do support education and the shared values of Durham and your budget reflects a a strong start to that. But I want us just to be clear as a group as we continue on here and we've got new leadership um in the county manager's role, new leadership with the superintendent and I wanted to be clear on the gaps and I don't want to get anything wrong when I'm talking to constituents. So you Dr. Lewis was at 15.9 and yours was 10.3. So we've got a 5.6 million gap there. I'm looking. I'm looking. And then our a capital ask was eight and y'all are putting in six that are not within that 10.3. Right. And then there's I'm coming to the 10. I'm coming to the
18810. Promise. Promise. So between the eight and the six there's a $2 million gap. It the way I'm thinking about it. And then but you're recommending the 10. And I heard you talking about that as a multi-year funding stream. And I I love today that you talked about it for making sure that we get our project shovel ready because that is how we've moved bond work quickly and and stayed efficient. So I just wanted to clarify the gaps that we're talking about so that we're all in shared understanding of that and I don't want to get anything wrong. So please Yeah, you explained it perfectly. Okay. Um and I will talk further about the $10 million. So the $10 million is to address the pentup demands that you determine should be prioritized first. So if
189it's determined that Durham public schools needs the full amount in the current in fiscal year um 25 26 it is available based on the past dollars that were available through the bond funds or lottery or other sources were used first and it was used a little bit later. So um that does um offer additional clarity. So although we didn't fund totally the the the eight million that was desired, there's the access to the 10 to address many of the areas that um are are pressing. That's super super helpful. I really appreciate that clarity for all of us um going forward and um look forward to to this as a as a super strong start and and I know our board will continue to have conversations on if this is your final offer, which sometimes it
190is and sometimes it is and in Durham. Um what difficult decisions we will have to make and we look forward to to continuing um those conversations. But thank you so much for this strong budget. Thank you. Any other um Commissioner Burton? It came to me what I wanted to ask um and this is for um Dr. Lewis and going back to this Medicaid discussion because we wrote a letter, you know, about saving Medicaid, things like that, but a lot of the public doesn't know that DPS receives reimbursements from Medicaid for our kids when they get special services. So, um, how much does DPS receive um, in Medicaid reimbursements? because our children they need you know OT services, PT services, speech language services. So yes, Mr. Teter. Yeah, Mr. Ter is going to answer that question.
191But what I do know is we have a shortage of mics and Medicaid funding. Um that will impact our budget, our general budget in a major way if we're not getting those reimbursements from the federal government, from Medicaid. We will have to look elsewhere to get those funds similar to what we do what we're doing now to account for the gap in sped funding AC funding. Hey there. Um so the um so the most recent um settlement that we got u was a little over $4 million for those services for the year. Thank you. Other um Commissioner Jacobs. Yeah. I also wanted to highlight I I know board member Byer was highlighting that you know there is a gap between um what the school board asked for and what was recommended in the budget. If
192you county manager could also illuminate what was asked for from county departments that did not get funded. So there the original budget request um from departments and other entities DPS, Dorm Technical Community College, etc. was um $55 million above the projected revenues. So that was our starting point, a huge gap and many of those departments have been experiencing higher um service demands and so we we are resetting what the new normal of services are based on what we can afford. So um thank you for reminding me to speak to that. Thank you. There are no other comments or questions from board members. Yes, Miss I'm just thinking about the letters and resolutions around SNAP and Medicaid and wondering if we can get those numbers too to include in that and get it done pretty quickly
193so our maybe communications folks can jointly send this off and maybe we have a press release. I think the more that the community understands the actual implications on the day-to-day, the better. And I've seen their other school districts where um superintendents and county manage folks have like laid it out in our community, this will mean this this this and I think that really makes it real for folks to do more advocacy. So, I just thinking more about this idea of how can we get that collectively and some talking points together. Well, even a press conference. Yes. Because this is happening this is happening this week. Yes. Absolutely. Okay. So, we might have to do that really quickly, but I think we can do it. Thank you. Yes. Um, okay. Well, I'm grateful to be in
194partnership with you all and to have such progressive governance here in Durham. Um, what stands out to me today is that a lot of people are working really hard to meet the really, really extensive needs of our community of Durham. That's not limited to our school system, but our school system certainly has really extensive needs um that are frankly not being met. So, I look forward to continuing to work together with you all with our state partners and with our community at large um to meet the needs of our children and our families here. Um with that, uh we can move on to our next agenda item. Still trying to be mindful of time as I know our day is nearly halfway over now. Um our next item is assessment of DPS and countyou. And
195I'll say um this it's been a while since we have had a um thorough review of the memorandum of understanding between the um county commissioners and the board of education. The last one that's um been approved I believe anybody who's been here longer than me please correct me. last one been approved is um back in 2017 and then some work was done to revise it back in 2021. Um so the but that has not been put before both bodies and approved. Um, so I think the um idea today being short of on time, I'd like us to consider um revisiting the revisions that were proposed back in 2021 maybe as leadership from both boards so chair and vice chair of both these boards can take this work it bring it back to both bodies again
196for review and discussion perhaps at our next meeting so that we can have an up-to-dateou between both bodies. Does that sound okay to everybody? And are there any um and I would just add with staff leadership as well? Yes, thank you. Of course. Yes. Yes, Miss Byer. Yeah. In the attachments, can you just remind me where the markup version came from? Whose markups those are? I don't have This is one that has um Chair Howard and Chair Umstead as signitories at the time. Wondering whose edits those were. Yeah, Dr. Giovanni, did you want to uh Yes. It was Drew Cummings, the previous chief of staff for the for Durham County. He and I were tasked with working with I believe um at the time Vice Chair Javannia Lewis and I'm not sure who the person
197was on the county, but we Carter, thank you. Um Commissioner Carter and so we had gone back and forth, but um that's what those comments came from. Thank you. Thank you. So, I think we'll look at the 2017 version, the 2021 version, and consider our current needs and circumstances today, work in partnership with administration and staff. Does anybody um have anything else to share about that? Any other discussion or feel not comfortable with that plan? Okay, with that, I'd like to move on to the next agenda item. Um, and I'm so sorry to keep you all waiting for so long. Thank you for being here today. Next agenda item is DPS preK um, Durham PreK update. I'm looking around. I don't see our staff here on this. Oh, wait. Oh, darn. After waiting so long
198that she left. Um, well, I I just want to raise an issue related to this. I actually asked for this to be on the agenda because um during the last budget a year ago, there was discussion about the need for there to be anou and data sharing uh between uh Durham PreK, Dur DPS preK and Durham PreK. Um there were a number of issues that there needed to be collaboration around data sharing and I just want to make sure before we adopt this budget that we have made progress on this because it's been a whole year. Um I know I personally felt very strongly that we needed something written and and that's again a year ago. So I really want to make sure and Debb you look like you want to make give us an
199update. Um happy to. Yeah. So that that's mainly what I want to raise this issue. I for you know this needs to happen be we need to get something in writing for everyone before we adopt the budget this year. Thank you Commissioner Jacobs. Dr. Pitman. Thank you. I'm pleased to announce we have a signed MOA effective Friday, May 9th and a data sharing agreement that is in u that has been executed and we're ready to go. We've been working with Linda Chappelle's office. Thank you to her leadership and we are ready for this year's data. Thank you so much. Is there any other discussion about that or do we have any other follow-up items related to that? Okay, wonderful. Um, the next item on our agenda is uh public comments. Before we begin, quick review
200of the rules. Please state your name. Speaking for an organization, please state your name and the name of your organization. Speakers are asked to present their comments in 3 minutes. When the yellow light comes on, you have one minute to start winding up your remarks. When the red light comes on, it will beep, which indicates your time is up. Complaints about named staff, students, or parents should not be voiced in open session. However, we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public education, safety of students, or to the operation of the school system. Finally, we will all listen carefully and consider the comments, but we do not engage in a discussion with our speakers. Our first and only name on this list, welcome, Miss Javana Lewis. Thank you. I was ready to
201say good morning. I think it's good afternoon. I'm Javann Lewis. I represent Empower Parents and Community and I'm also representing the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People. Um, thank you all for your service and this hard work in talking about the budget and the needs in our schools um and the commitment to it. We wanted to be here to just share some of the community voices and as it pertains to the budget when you begin your budget season and public comments. Every parent wants academic success for their children and DPS has to prioritize this goal for black students. We closed the AC academic achievement gap and increased student outcomes with differentiated teaching, fair discipline practices, M's level and national board certified teachers and supporting the child holistically through community school models. Align with
202our most vulnerable students is the need for support in our exceptional children's program. For my current work with Epic and volunteering with DCABP, I continue to advocate to center student voices. In this budget cycle, black educators and community leaders have agreed that it is important for DPS to censor our students in everything, but specifically in these budget requests. With over 130 signatures and the support of this effort, we ask that DPS to prioritize academic growth for black students, increasing the sense of belonging for middle school students and integration of social emotional learning and mental health concerns that have continued beyond COVID 19 pandemic. We also acknowledge that teachers working conditions are students learning conditions and there are many needs with DPS budget requests and accounting managers recommendations don't match. We know that it's important that
203important programs get cut. We want to lift up these need to keep these programs that support our students holistically. As Dr. Lewis and his staff has engaged the community and proposed the budget they have proposed. I want to be clear and sharing with our county commissioners that 6.1 6.1 million of that budget is directly what the black community has asked for has engaged and asked for that came out of your community conversations and engagement and from the work we've done with our black community. Our prioritizations does not discount or dis devalue the needs of maintenance, bus driver retention or charter school expansion. We are saying that there are many needs and as you do your due diligence in determining what the county can support, what the board has shown in financial fidiciary responsibilities and the
204entire county budget, we implore you that DPS students have to be centered. Commissioner Jacobs has requested for collaboration and I also echo e echo board member Harold Golf's trust and transparency in these collaborations. You have to collaborate with more than the usual suspects and listen to what the community wants and who is already providing the services. We support the superintendent's recommendations and affirming that we need to include black community and their voices pass a budget that reflects inclusivity, restoration, academic excellence, and justice for all. Thank you for your service. Thank you so much, Miss Lewis. With that, we have no other items on the agenda. Is there anything else that we've not discussed? Any other comments? All right. Um, with that, thank you all so much for joining us here today and for those online
205for joining us. Great to see everybody. And the meeting's adjourned.