#DPSCommunity | DPS Board of Education Monthly Work Session | 10/6/22

001you can do this by ensuring all district and school level Administration and staff have comprehensive training in building and lgbtq and gender inclusive climate and supporting lgbtq and gender diverse students you can do this by clearly committing to having representation of diverse genders and families through curriculum grades pre-k through 12. you can do this by empowering lgbtq and Ally staff to be the leaders in building more safe and affirming schools you can provide all School staff with a DPS gender support plan for the individual students who need one you can and should take all of these steps with an intersectional lens but before you build this lgbtq and gender inclusive home with all of your students and staff you need a solid foundation a procedural board policy on gender and lgbtq support guidelines should be

002this Foundation it would Clearly say to our community that you as a board affirm lgbtq and gender diverse children staff and families and commit to protecting them and providing them an environment in which they can be who they are and thrive thank you next we have Kristen Henry hi thanks for having me my name is Kristen Henry my pronouns are they them um I'm a non-binary parent of two wonderful trans and non-binary children that are ages 7 and 10. I am here to urge you to implement the strong policies and trainings that were just spoken about my children used to go to a DPS school and I just moved them this year to a charter school because they weren't being supported um it was a wonderful school but for the sake of time I'm just

003going to talk about the challenges my non-binary seven-year-old was having nearly daily experiences of unintentional harassment their classmates would tell them what gender they were they would the kids would argue amongst themselves as to whether my child was a girl or a boy and say no he's a girl or he's a boy or she's a girl and would just completely ignore my child and saying I'm just Hazel you know I use they them pronouns instead of he or she um no matter what the teacher would do here or there to try to correct it just didn't hold because it wasn't in all School situation um and I know from my own experience that I can have a profound impact I know that it can cause lifelong depression and anxiety so I put my Children's Mental

004Health First even though I am an avid supporter of public schools I've gone to the marches I was the PTA secretary for multiple years it it's heartbreaking um so now my kids are actually doing pretty good as far as gender goes in the school that they're in if somebody messes up my kids they them pronouns somebody else will correct them or they'll correct themselves and they just move on with the day they just are kids again I know this can be done and I want to see this for all kids in Durham thank you for your work thank you I'm also a grad student so I apologize I have to go write some papers I understand thank you so much next we have Emma cell good hand okay hi my name is Emma my pronouns

005are she her I first want to thank you for allowing me to be here and having this on the agenda I am a former DPS student and teacher and now a Durham Community member and lgbtq and gender inclusion curriculum for all grades matters deeply to me I want to share with you all part of an email a student wrote to me a year ago several years after I taught them Dear Miss SG you changed my life I'll start with that I don't know if you even still use this email but I needed to let you know I remember at the end of the year we wrote letters to our eighth grade selves and I made sure to remind myself to email you I don't think I ever followed through on that that's on me my

006bad you introduced me to the lgbtq community at such a young age saved me from years of pain and self-loathing I'm sure you probably hear that a lot but the fact that you presented it to me in a way that made me understand that there was nothing wrong with being in this community was probably the difference between life and death for me shortly after going to middle school I became certain of my identity as a trans male I am absolutely sure that there is no way I would have come to terms with this had you not been my teacher I've socially transitioned and go buy a new name at school I know you may think you had no direct involvement in this but I do think it is thanks to you I guess what I'm

007trying to say is thank you thank you for teaching me thank you for reading the books you read me while I was young thank you for showing me that there were people out there that were like me and that it was okay for me to be who I am you don't have to email me back I just wanted to get this off my conscience my younger self was getting pretty angry that I hadn't emailed you yet I was a teacher for a much shorter time than I was a student at DPS but went to the principal's office many more times as a teacher for getting in trouble for having conversations around lgbtq and gender inclusion luckily I had I did go to the principal's office as a DPS student but less times luckily I had

008the privilege of having someone on the admin team have my back um but I was told not to say lgbtq I was told to watch what books I read and step back um I was told by teachers one year that merely having a quote on the bulletin welcoming kids by Harvey Milk that said hope will never be silent was um not okay um and but instead I had parents come back and thank me for having that quote displayed silence does send a message not including students and ensuring representation of all students is taking a stand gender support guidelines on the website is not enough teachers admins schools communities staff still fear having these really crucial conversations we need policy and guidance from pre-k on thank you all so much thank you next up is Freddie

009Perkins this will have to do good afternoon everyone my name is Freddie Perkins my pronouns are he him I come to you today as a product of the DPS school system I come to you today as the Youth Center Director at the lgbtq center of Durham I also come to you as a creative arts clinician that has worked in the DPS school system for about five years it is so vital that we as a community rally behind the students that we say we support and that we want to see do well I think many of us who come from subjugated and marginalized backgrounds know firsthand the power that Community has on our mental health I think we know firsthand what it means to feel like we don't belong and feel like we don't fit into

010a space and so all we have is the communities that we build and considering that students spend more time in schools than they do in their own homes I think it's vital that we as a school system continue that through line of community that we want to see for our students I think it's important that we show our queer kids and our lgbtq youth that they are seeing I think it's important that they are represented in the curriculum I think it's important that they are represented in policy I think we so long have just looked at them unintentionally as something to tolerate and I think we are past the point of Toleration I think we're at the point where they need to be centered in the same the way that we Center our youth that

011are in more dominant groups I think it is our mission and our duty to continue to build those communities and build to build those systems to ensure that our kids grow up knowing that just existing is enough and being who they are is enough I know for me growing up as a queer kid in the DPS school system I didn't have teachers to speak to about what was going on luckily I had friends and I had communities within the school system but I think it would mean so much more to these students to see teachers be able to support them to see Administration be able to support them and to see that they are loved for who they are so I urge you to really consider incorporating the voices of the kids who can't be

012here to speak for themselves when you think about policy and when you think about curriculum and how you want to be seen as a school system because I know DPS is great because I lived it and I wouldn't be where I am today without DPS so I hope that you work to continue that Trend so other kids have that opportunity as well thank you thank you so much uh next up is uh mercolo roditi oh I'm so sorry Nicolo Rodi like I'm back in school again I was so sorry um and that's such a joke um hi everyone my name is Nicola Road Duty and I am a masculine person of trans experience I am non-binary just that right there and seeing how the eyes were let's sit with that sit with that everyone already

013established a gender Norm by just seeing the way I see and I could feel microaggressions and it's just the way of like I see rooms I see eyes lit up and those things I've had to analyze since I was a sixth grader these are things that I had to analyze in adults for a really really long time and I had no language around I'm also an immigrant and so English is my second language and so I talk about all of this because I used to be a violence prevention educator and right now I'm an associate director at the lgbtq youth center of Durham and violence prevention what we say is mutual care is violence prevention and in sixth grade I had no care and it's embedded in language Justice it's embedded in intention it's embedded

014in social emotional learning practices that teachers need to have in order to care and that's embedded into all the other things that you all talk about and it in fact it impacts those students who are that intersectional that need you all to understand how this is embedded in every single other way if someone was trained to understand to look at how queer folks have symptoms of depression and also seeing that I may also struggle with language and being able to express what I even need those two things was where I needed but then you go into high school I left the public school system I actually told my parents to change me to Charter School it was Charlotte Mecklenburg school systems and when I went to high school and I came back to Public Schools

015I was really nervous but what I had was a completely different experience it was led by Black and Hispanic Administration and there was so many queer black and brown students and everyone was really accepted and when I sit and hear all these stories I think about culture there is no way that we can shift culture back to where we are without the practice and intention and guidelines are not enough there needs to be accessibility into understanding first education how do you provide those trainings how do you then shift and have accountability I looked online and saw that even in Albemarle County Albemarle County charlotteville Virginia had a thing called the point team not a point person where multiple people in a school are trained Health custodians staff lunch people principals Vice principals assistant teachers School

016teachers training them to have the resources for questions around a policy that needs to be codified so they learn what are the things that they need to enforce and also a guide and resource for people who have questions because people will have questions and when you do that you are carrying in so many different ways can I have a little more time it's a KBC now you can finish your thought okay cool um basically just if you think about it from a more social emotional learning perspective you don't have to vacuum us as just this is queer issues these are queer issues but everyone deserves to have people to care for them and so really think about it that way thank you thank you so much [Applause] next up is uh make Amado hi everyone

017um my name is Mick Amato I'm new to um DPS I work at DSA I'm an EC teacher um as an educator I have seen the transformative qualities of supportive inclusive and affirming educational spaces that raise the critical consciousness of everyone in the room and the school community at large um I believe that in order for any of us to learn that we have to first feel safe to ask questions explore ideas question norms and persevere in solving difficult problems together so as a queer educator and as a queer person I believe that it's critical for young people to learn in institutions that aren't entrenched in oppressive ideologies and assumed heteronormativity uh so I guess I just wanted to briefly speak to the importance of queer visibility in our curriculum and the excitement I see

018in my students faces when I'm teaching are Raisin in the Sun and they learn that learning Hansberry wrote about um queer identity at some point in her life um when we're conscious about not erasing queerness from curriculum not only do we allow queer students to see themselves and the works that we're studying but we also affirm that queer and trans intellectuals mathematicians writers board members actresses have always existed and have always been contributing to our world and often their relationship to their queerness is actually what made them such prolific thinkers so when students teachers and families work in Partnership to ensure that those identities are reflected in curriculum learning can really be transformative thanks thank you next up we have Alex Adrian hi I am Alex Adrian they them or he him pronouns I'm employed

019at the lgbtq center of Durham I run a program there supporting transgender and gender diverse parents um parents of students who are trans and I am before you today however as a community member and I'm not representing the center I want to thank you for your time and consideration you have given to the safety and rights of our lgbtq community members who are students and employees of the district it is clear that the board members and administrations over the last decade have had an eye on the treatment of our lgbtq folks here at DPS now this board has the opportunity to address policy and procedure in a way that gives a foundation to the work that has thus far been inconsistent across the facilities and staff the rights of queer students for an educa education

020free of discrimination and harm is not in question however the current devices culture and lack of board policy with clear procedure and consequence leaves the pradistics employees at a disadvantage My Hope Is that teachers and staff should be empowered to support their students identities in every area of their education this fall the campaign for southern equality released the supportive schools for lgbtq plus students a guide for better policies and practices on page 11 in a final word to school administrators caught up in culture wars they shared this and in North Carolina where several school districts have faced parent opposition to teachers who are openly lgbtq Plus some of these districts took a firm stand that we have worked hard to create a diverse faculty We Stand by our lgbtq staff and we are firmly committed

021to complying with all state and federal non-discrimination laws The Faculty there felt supported and the opposition which had been organized by state and National anti-lgbtq organizations faded away as those organizations focused on other districts on the other hand some districts responded by asking teachers to accommodate that bias by taking down rainbow flags and safe School stickers or reframing from talking about their same-sex spouses at work these districts found that they simultaneously created an environment that encouraged further anti-lgbtq classic activism open themselves up to a number of discrimination complaints by their targeted faculty members and created lasting damage to the morale of the entire staff and faculty as difficult as it may be for a school administrator in the South to take a decisive stand in support of the safety inequality of LGBT bus staff and

022students in the long run it is easier than the Alternatives and more importantly creates the best possible working and learning environment for students staff and faculty please do your best work build a strong expectation board policy outlining the necessary procedures to affirm the rights and safety of lgbtq plus people in DP yes thank you thank you next we have Amy clecker I'm sorry clickler yeah yeah oh thank you I'm trying thank you for having us to share some comments tonight my name is Amy cleckler um I use she her pronouns I'm a member of the lgbtq plus community and a parent of two little boys who go to Club elementary school and I'm also on the PTA executive board there I'm a therapist who has long worked with people who struggle with all kinds of

023identity issues I also work with transgender clients of all ages who have always been transgender for as long as they can remember they knew this about themselves on a deep level that many did not have words for but on top of all the other challenges of growing up these folks learned early on that sharing their questions about their gender identity could be met with silence cruel words and even violence for those who fear that talking about gender will upset or it mislead our kids remember that we talk to kids about gender all the time we talk about our kids in terms of their sex and gender before they're even born but we talk about it in an obsessively binary way that functions to include anyone who doesn't feel 100 at home in their body this

024would also benefit children and families of the children who don't identify as transgender we are all in this together and it can only benefit our school system to be as inclusive as possible when my older son was in first grade at Club Boulevard he brought up the topic of gender identity in the course of some regular old conversation we were having in the car I was glad he asked and in a brief age-appropriate way I explained how some people can change and affirm their correct gender when they get older and he was quiet he was thoughtful for a few seconds and then he said can we have dinner at McDonald's and that's maybe how we should all be responding to this right he accepted that and he took that in and he considered it and

025then he moved on to thinking about other things that are important to him in January of this year a young trans person with whom I'd worked for a long time took his own life he had survived many years of bullying that led to depression and isolation the little support he was able to find outside of his school environment was outside of his school environment and right before he died a customer at his job had referred to him as an it oh but this one very cruel comment was devastating to him he had experienced years of such comments in school growing up I often wonder how our community can do better it very much starts with this board's decision to codify kindness and acceptance in the same ways we do for differences in other things like

026race sex physical ability Etc and we need more than language that's buried somewhere on the website we need clear and enforceable policy district-wide that encourages all students and staff to treat each other with basic respect about gender this has to be clear and forcible and district-wide in order to be effective one last thought this is not a new issue this is not a new example of how we're all different I'll just finish this thought if that's okay I see this is a great opportunity for DPS to protect those who are already questioning as much as any other students they deserve to feel affirmed and who they just are thank you for your time I look forward to seeing how this board continues to support all DPS students and families in the years to come thank

027you next we have Whit Williams Black hi my name is Whit Williams whack please call me by my name um I Heard for about nine months there have been a group of parents coming up here telling you how important it is for you to take into consideration so movement and action on protecting all of our babies including the queer ones um I'm going to tell you a quick story about my mama I'm from Birmingham Alabama where my mother year after year put her life in danger and skipped county lines to put my self and my brothers into some of the best schools in in Birmingham it wasn't until I got accepted into the Alabama School of Fine Arts as a theater major for my seventh grade year that she no longer had to fear driving

028us across town dropping us off at school and then driving back across town to get to work on time um because of her work I graduated from the Alabama School of Fine Arts with a theater major then went on to Hollins University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in gender and women's studies where I found myself as a young black queer thin feminist womanist all the things it was from there I fell in love with a Durham public school graduate who I could not get enough of we graduated school moved to Harlem where I created curriculum around race class sex gender sex sexuality health healthy relationships comprehensive sex ed and a bunch of other taboo topics uh we got married at 22 and 24 bought a home off of Holloway Street here in Durham and

029just two years ago a young kid from Alabama who I knew very well needed a safe home he had been bullied and called out and questioned about who he was and he needed a place so from both students and his own father um needed a safe place to live I thought I don't have to drive across county lines I can send them to the high school that's right up the street there should be no issue he will do whatever he wants there have a great life and we'll provide a safe home for him it wasn't until I started learning about Annie Atwater and my kid came home and told me about the way he'd been treated in locker rooms comments he had heard from teachers and staff that he said he wasn't quite sure if

030the neighborhood school was safe and that I should choose a different County this was a 15 year old at the time who knew the danger that I should put myself in so that he could be safe from eight to five I moved to North Carolina because I thought that the children that we were once uh one day have would have a different experience an education system if Ann Atwater was here she would not take silence on issues around race if Paul Murray was here they would not let you all be silent around these issues they would not let your inaction stand and so I'm here to be an accountability partner for you while I was both a black queer parent young parent who will give you more children and I will expect to the utmost

031degree that you take care of all of those babies thank you thank you next up we have Kate uh Kate ellender good evening board members my name is Kate elander I'm here to share gratitude that the topic of support for lgbtq students and families continues to be considered heavily by the board I'm a parent of a kindergartner at a DPS Elementary School an mibps grad I'm speaking on behalf of me and my husband who's at home with our kiddo at age three and for a year and a half our son assigned male at Birth would correct anyone who called him a boy and share that he was a girl or both a boy and a girl we weren't sure how to best support this gender exploration but we knew it was important to follow his

032lead um be supportive and learn as much as we could about gender identity development what we learned is that from a very young age children begin noticing gender differences begin developing a strong sense of their own gender identity and that sometimes it doesn't always correlate with their sex assigned at Birth we also learned that major long-term harm can be caused by not being supportive of the way your child expresses their gender we began if we began to worry a lot about how he would be accepted in elementary school and we knew that we would have little control over that we applied for a spot in a charter that has a clear gender identity inclusion policy and knew that as people who graduated from and are very committed to the public school system that we put

033agonized open the decision if he got in we're also worried that if we did not decide to send him to that Charter that if we did decide to send him to that Charter as a mixed-race child he would be in classrooms where a majority of his classmates did not look like him we felt a little bit stuck um trying to figure out what was more important an environment that was more supportive of his gender identity or one that was more reflective of his racial identity we wished that we could feel confident that our Public School System would definitely provide an environment that welcomed and affirmed all parts of him sometime this spring he abruptly stopped saying he was a girl or both and now identifies as a boy we learned that it is more common

034than we realized for children to explore their gender and for it to be fluid we remain deeply committed to being supported to being supportive as he and his peers grow in their understanding of all parts of their identity we are grateful to know that our sons DPS kindergarten teacher and principal are supportive but have shared our personal experience here today because we feel concerned for the kids who are in classrooms with cheap with teachers and administration that are not supportive or that don't know how to be supportive a gender inclusion policy that is enforceable and provides training and support to create consistent approaches in every school across the district is one step we can take to supporting mental health and safety for gender diverse children and children with diverse family structures as well as promoting

035understanding and acceptance from their peers and the adults that they interact with every day at school I'm super grateful for all of the work that you all are doing to affirm rdps students I know you're working so hard so thank you thank you so much babylander our next speaker is Elise Alissa Platt I'm supposed to oh okay hi my name is Alyssa Platt my pronouns are she her hers I want to keep this very short because I don't think my voice is the most important one to be heard this evening um I'm a mother of three two of whom attend Club Boulevard Elementary um and we've been very lucky at Club to have a very supportive principal who who last year I was thrilled to see like helped enact a gender inclusive curriculum is very

036like limited curriculum read a book to the kids ask the kids questions let the kids ask questions the curriculum was derailed halfway through by the complaints of one family and um this to me highlights the fact that inclusive curriculum inclusive policies training and support should never be specific to one school families shouldn't have to switch schools to find this shouldn't be dependent on any one principal on anyone's staff as a parent I want a more inclusive curriculum I want to see representation not just one book a year I want to see it throughout the curriculum I want to know that there are policies and training in place to make a safer environment for LGBT kids staff and teachers um and I look forward to to hearing about the policy all right thank you [Applause] Alyssa

037[Applause] next we have Carolyn Allen my name is Carolyn Allen my pronouns are she her I'm the parent of four DPS students and the magnet coordinator at Sandy Ridge Elementary I'm here speaking on behalf of myself and my family tonight I've been a part of DPS for four for 11 years I started watching these board meetings at the beginning of the pandemic and have been hooked ever since I've been proud of the way our board has led with wisdom and intention and always with our best interest at heart I'm here tonight asking you to implement a DPS gender and lgbtq supports policy and to provide adequate and comprehensive training for all staff the existing guidelines for gender support are a good start but they simply Aren't Enough our students deserve to know that school is

038a safe place to grow and learn and be themselves All Families deserve to know that they will be treated with respect and dignity and DPS these things shouldn't just be recommended they should be required in all schools support for our gender non-conforming and trans students isn't consistently offered across the district for example there is one non-gendered bathroom at Northern High School it is Tiny located in student services reserved for staff and is frequently occupied students wishing to use it have to obtain a special pass many of our schools don't even have a designated non-gendered bathroom for students bathroom access should be a given for all students and staff last year there was an update to PowerSchool that allows entry of a student's preferred name however I know students at Riverside who had a hard time

039at the start of this school year getting this information entered because there wasn't a data manager at that time and there are other places that student names appear canvas and DPS email accounts are two that have to be changed separately from PowerSchool and the folks I've encountered have had to figure all this out on their own because there isn't a document or staff training that I'm aware of that consolidates all of this into one place for families or staff to reference when needing to make these changes thank you for listening and thank you for the steps you've already taken on behalf of our students staff and families I implore you to continue the work you have started and make DPS a safer place for all of our community thank you the next speaker is Mike

040Clark foreign my pronouns are he him I'm a Southwest Elementary parent thanks for prioritizing ongoing conversations about lgbtq plus and gender inclusion by including this issue on our agenda tonight uh I'm commenting today because as a DPS parent and member of the DPS Community I've seen signs of positive impact resulting from the support guidelines established by this board and I've seen firsthand how supported kids grow more self-confident when they feel that it might be safe to bring their whole selves to school and it's a great start but it's not enough supporting our students with a foundation that scales as they mature means promoting developmentally appropriate conversations about all kinds of diversity racial cultural gender family structure ability and practicing them in the classroom pre-k through 12. it's a journey our principals need the backing of

041District policy to guide and provide cover for their decisions our teachers need inclusive curriculum materials district-wide our Administration and teachers need training um echoing what the the last speaker said our technology systems need the flexibility to accommodate gender transition um and as advances are made they must be communicated across the district enlisting our principles as change agents and we must include teachers and administrators uh in this in the solutions tell our families that DPS is there to include and promote their children and whatever it means for them to feel that they're authentic selves are welcome at school thanks thank you our next speaker is Maximilian Matthews uh good evening my name is Max Amelia Matthews uh I go by uh they've been pronouns uh I'd identify as queer I am a Durham native I attended

042Parkwood Elementary Lowes Grove middle and Hillside High School um when I was 12 years old I decided to end my life I was a student at Lowe's Grove middle at the time and the things that we're fighting for today would have been pivotal when I made that decision to end my life when I was a student at Lowe's Grove and you wouldn't have known it uh when I was a student I was popular I was voted most talkative I was Voting Mr Lowes Grove I was on the track team I was all these things but on the inside my mental health was terrible it was awful and so I really want to urge the board to consider the things that we are fighting for today I'm here uh to support a rainbow Collective for change

043we're asking for a board approved and enforce gender our lgbtq plus supports policy uh district-wide comprehensive ongoing training we're also asking for intersectional gender and lgbtq plus inclusive curriculum materials and the standardized gender support plan and I would also urge you all to consider the uh Trevor projects uh data on lgbtq plus youth they have a national survey on LG lgbtq plus youth mental health that I urge you all to review uh just a couple of the statistics um that I'd like to share with you all I'm at least one lgbtq plus child between the ages of 13 and 24 attempt suicide every 30 every 45 seconds in America more than half of transgender and non-binary youth considered suicide in the past year 60 of lgbtq plus youth who wanted mental health care in the

044past year were not able to get it and I have also seen this firsthand as I um have been on the board for uh inside out which is a lgbtq plus youth LED organization here in Durham and also safe schools in C so I've seen these issues replicate the same issues that I was dealing with as a child are still present today uh and so I urge you all to um consider the issues that um we're fighting for today thank you thank you next speaker is blue Miller hey y'all thank you for your time my name is blue Miller I use they them and he him pronouns I am a queer non-binary transmasculine person I'm here to remind the DPS board that lives are at stake in your decision to support queer and trans students

045with um gender inclusive curriculum and training for our teachers and staff I want to preface this with a Content warning of suicide data indicate that 82 percent of transgender individuals have considered killing themselves and 40 percent have attempted suicide um I want to thank the person before us that shared their story I want to make clear that transness is not killing people transphobia and ignorance are I know from personal experience that journeying into one's true gender identity is one of the most beautiful and liberating things that one can experience that in itself is not making our students and our young people try to take their own lives it is from being an unsupportive households and unsupportive school systems the idea that our students may be coming home to households that are homophobic and transphobic reminds

046us the danger and how imperative it is that we have gender inclusive and affirming and queer affirming teacher and staff and I believe that a lot of teacher and staff want to do their best to support students but often don't know how when I was working in a Durham public school I I'm a former educator and was working in Durham public schools for several years I was just coming into my queer and trans identities just as I was entering the school I just started using bathem pronouns and My Chosen name I was okay with explaining my identities to a lot of the staff and teachers who didn't know what that meant but I what makes me different from the students is that I have a thick queer Community I'm an adult who gets to choose

047where I put myself I choose a home that I come home to and I come home to all Queer people and so I felt okay that I could you know consistently do that lift explain my identity and educate the other teachers and staff so that the students didn't have to but nonetheless I was still done named which is when your legal name is used instead of your chosen name and misgendered to think that a lot of these students are going through this without coming home to a queer community and coming home to a safe household just points to how how imperative it is that we make our schools an inclusive place and I see all these affirming nods it's just really nice to know that you all are probably going to make the decision to

048include it um but it is just really important that even even if teachers and staff want to do their best to support our students if they don't have the infrastructure the proper training that is mandatory to have intersectional queer and gender inclusive curriculum and education that celebrates queerness year round we're at risk of of losing more brilliant young students thank you thank you [Applause] I have two sign-in sheets and so I'm going to go in order uh for the second sign-in sheet we have Tal matalon paralon hey Al um my name is talmatalon I use she her pronouns um I have worked at all levels in DPS elementary middle and high school and at every level I have known students who are lgbtqia and gender non-conforming I am also currently the parent of an amazing

049non-binary kindergartner at an elementary school here in East Durham and I'm happy to say that school has been very supportive of our family has been very supportive of our child um both Administration and teachers have done everything that they can to make our child feel welcome I also know that they don't know a lot and they tell us that they don't know a lot and they tell us that they would like to have more training other than that we also need a very clear policy that protects our children we need to make it clear that comments from other students or staff about students or staff's identity cannot be tolerated I have worked in a school where a teacher told students to stop doing some something because it made them look gay um I have worked

050in a school where teachers were worried about exposing the fact that they were queer and would choose who would would and wouldn't know that they have a same-sex partner um I have and still do work in schools where gender-based slurs are a common thing and I need to make it very clear that it they are not acceptable acceptable and I need the policy to back it up my Administration needs the policy to back it up my child School administration needs the policy to back their efforts up so I'm here to request both a strong policy protecting our kids and the training that all of us need to be able to support those kids thank you so much thank you our next speaker is James Hubbard hopefully I don't take up too much time from you

051guys today thank you for letting me speak I'll try to be brief um my pronouns are he him and his uh I'm a Durham resident now I relocated my family from Washington DC to be a part of your favorite fruit themed company building that site over there sorry about the housing um I'm the father of the most miraculous brilliant intelligent athletic beautiful human being whoever walked the face of the Earth Liam is seven he's non-binary he's a student at Club Boulevard found out that he got the lottery I wept cried and I cried and I cried and I cried because I knew he had a chance um I want to talk to y'all I'm not about the issues because there's so many people who are more qualified than me to speak to them I already

052misgendered my child in this speech okay um I'm here to talk about death because my oldest child took her life in August and I was at that beautiful glistening temporary building we have when I found out the police called me and said are you James hope when I found out I lost my child I was a little bit and I'll always be a little bit 55 of transgender youth have attempted to take their own life and you will never be the same your kids who are their friends will never be the same can do something about it can make policies that allow them to be who they are it's not an option it's not up for discussion teeth on the right side of this to the wrong side of us there's no lukewarm for this

053particular issue you can't wait and see I have to take decisive action just as committed as my company is to this community I need all of you guys to be that committed we are hiring here I'm not here to speak on bad for my company but I can't speak on behalf of myself we are invested I'm invested but you have to protect these children thanks our next speaker is Brian Callaway now getting any board um say uh I do miss the days where we had the opportunity to sign up for agenda items because there's some tough transitions you know to mix in general comments um you know the obviously there's a lot of uh pain and and hurt and real um life and death death issues that are um before you on on some of

054these items um uh the the item I uh wanted to to speak on actually um uh I'm here by invitation of the chief of staff uh from the August meetings uh where you uh reviewed some some new uh purchasing policies uh and the chief of staff invited the public uh mentioning that this was a living document and uh that she invited some feedback so I'm here to share some of that feedback uh with uh with her on the board uh you know they're the there's a very large Bond referendum coming up and uh so it was a bit surprising to see a couple substantial changes to the purchasing policies made uh the most significant of which was a uh a shockingly high new threshold for construction projects uh board approval was required for for um

05590 000 and up contracts and that was now changed to half a million uh a few nearby districts were cited as something similar Wake County has a hundred thousand dollar line um so the fact that we're five times that is is a little surprising they spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year on construction projects and um they've got a well-oiled machine over there uh when that when that policy was at 90 000 there you know I used to work here um I used to be an electrical contractor after leaving here so I've I've been in on both sides of the table and uh there were there were a shocking number of 89 000 contracts when the policy was ninety thousand dollar threshold so I'm wondering especially in light of a new Bond that's on

056the table how many 499 000 contracts might slide under your radar um and number two uh there's no public uh announcements no public requirements for those contracts under five hundred thousand dollars somebody can literally just take a phone call from one contractor single contractor and then give them a 499 000 contract and it's a done deal uh so I I do um I did sense that you all had some hesitation because you're going to be reviewing that policy again in June um I would I would ask that you perhaps bump some of those up before this Bond referendum because uh it's a heavy ask for the community thanks thank you very much um our next speaker is uh and forgive me if uh if I mispronounce but I see Nick Topham or Nate Wilson ornaki

057I'm so sorry I'm trying to okay hi hi apologies how do you pronounce your uh hey you had it I had it made okay I was like the tea I just wanted to make sure it was here my penmanship leaves much to be desired it's all are welcome thank you uh hi my name is Nate Topham my pronouns are he him I'm a parent of two students at club meet I'm so sorry would you would you can we restart and and would you get closer to the mic yeah sure thank you is this better yes okay my name is Nate Topham my pronouns are he him I'm a parent at Club Boulevard Elementary uh of two students in second and fourth grade my partner and I moved to our home a decade ago in part

058because of the work being put in by the leadership of the school to Foster an environment where all students felt safe and welcome as you've heard that progress is often fragile and it's inconsistent our schools undergoing a change in administration and that's really brought home the fact that these policies can change and change in a heartbeat and it's critically important to protect and build on the efforts of not just the former leader of our school but leaders across the district to have a welcoming and supportive atmosphere that's LED so many families to seek out schools like Club by formalizing and enforcing a standardized gender policy to support gender expansive students and fully representing the lgbtq plus community in Durham public in the Durham Public Schools curriculum the board can take a positive step towards the

059goal of no family worrying if their school will affirm or support their loved one no family should have to change schools because of the preferences of individual administrators regarding gender policy I believe in our Public Schools I believe in our community's Collective ability to make all DPS schools safe welcoming and inclusive for all students staff and their families no no child should have to be fearful to present their full and true selves and no one no adult working with our children should be worried about forming authentic relationships with those students thank you thank you Nate our next speaker is Emily Rood do I press something here okay sure all right good evening my name is Emily Rhodey and my pronouns are she her thank you for having this discussion tonight I'm a former public school

060teacher and the mother of a kindergarten student at Club Boulevard Elementary my partner and I accepted a lottery placement for our child at Club knowing of the hard work the staff and students have done to create an inclusive and supportive learning and working environment for all including gender expansive and lgbtq community members our daughter is five and every day we learn more about who she is as she learns more about who she is I want to know that she is safe and valued and seen no matter what every person deserves that um as a public educator I saw students come into my classroom who did not feel safe in other classrooms and have reached out to me over the years to say thank you for being you know supportive of their identity and I think

061that's really important that every student every staff member comes into their place of learning where they're required to be as a student or their place of work and they are willing to and able to share their authentic selves with each other by formalizing and enforcing a standardized gender policy to support gender expansive and lgbtq students and staff and by fully enacting gender and lgbtq training and curriculum in Durham Public Schools no family will have to worry if their school will affirm and support their loved one no family will have to consider changing schools or even leaving the district because of the preferences of individual administrators regarding gender policy so many of us do not even have that option we must go beyond what DPS what the DPS office of equity Affairs States is quote our

062shared work to acknowledge the dignity and worth of all students and employees we are asking you to do more than just acknowledge this we are asking you to ensure it Durham is a place of leaders and Visionaries we teach our children to dream big and to do the right thing this is your chance to show our kids and the world what that truly means thank you all for hopefully supporting this thank you our next speaker is Jenny Jones cauldron good evening Jenny Jones cauldron my pronouns are she her I am the mother of three Delightful Children one of whom is non-binary a lot of parents have talked to you and other community members have talked to you about what that experience is like in the public school system and I want to focus specifically on

063what it's like for me as a parent to navigate the system specifically of trying to get a gender support plan in place for my child before the school year started as a former educator in DPS I am pretty familiar with peps and IEPs and 504 plans and I've if it's a plan I've worked on it from both sides of the table um and yet getting a gender support plan was more difficult than any of those there are whole organizations in place to help parents navigate the IEP system we don't have that for gender support plans yet throughout the experience I was met with a lot of people who didn't know they had to ask somebody else who maybe didn't get back to them in a timely fashion that person had to then talk to somebody

064else and there was a lot of back and forth and nobody really knowing what we were supposed to do especially for a child who lived at the intersection of multiple oppressed identities with my child having an IEP as well and I can only imagine the parents that I worked with as a teacher parents who had educational trauma parents who had language barriers and what that process would have looked like to them trying to navigate it not knowing any of the things that I know about how the school system operates and I know who to contact they don't know those things and they would still have to try to navigate that and even more so for students who don't have supportive families trying to navigate that alone I don't know how they would do it because

065I was at the end of my rope um and so I urge you to yes adopt a policy but also make sure that it's clear to staff and there's training in place so that everybody knows how to implement it so that our students are actually getting what they need thank you thank you very much our next speaker is Molly Pearl's theme pearlstein my name is Molly perlstein my pronouns are she her I am a Durham resident I am a former DPS student I'm speaking today as a nurse at Duke on a pediatric medical surgical unit we are not a psychiatric unit that we have 20 beds currently four of those beds are filled by patients who are having suicidal ideation and three of those patients identify as trans or queer so this is not something

066that we can just push off for another year it's something we need to address now thank you uh in our last speaker for tonight unless there's somebody else in the audience who there's one more okay so our next to last speaker we have Mr Kevin Primus foreign members of the board thank you so much for um opening up public comments that I didn't come to the same reason that many people did tonight but I am very supportive of complete support of everything that was said in support of the lgbtq plus communities and um policies that will be implemented um one thing that I I would say that I I'm learning I try to listen as actively as possible um and um one thing that I could say is a maybe a bridge to what I

067want to talk about is truth and transparency um this morning I don't expect that everyone got a chance to to see this but I sent an email to Dr bibanga and the board the board of County Commissioners to support transparency with the implementation another theme that's come up a lot tonight of our school resource officer program and I'm supportive of law enforcement I have very close friends in law enforcement um I do believe there's a place for law enforcement in our schools but I don't feel that the implement temptation is being evaluated at the school level and I don't think it's possible for Dr Bubinga to be at every school seeing how it's being implemented I don't think it's possible for the school board to be at every school but we do have school Improvement

068teams and so I laid out um a a structure that hopefully could be discussed with the board of County Commissioners because they are partially funding our school resource officer program that can utilize our our school Improvement teams to look at how this program is being implemented I don't bring this up in a vacuum at Riverside High School where I'm not a current I'm not a current School Improvement team member I'm a former member I don't represent them I'm not an attorney I don't give legal advice but we were invited to make comments on the memorandum of understanding and we have had several challenges with our sros I'm not um I'm not saying that they're all bad I'm saying that we haven't even had a consistent SRO um for many many months I don't know um

069I understand that there's challenges in recruiting but I was at the schools the school safety Summit with Dr benga I thought you did an amazing job of coming up to the microphone and explaining after the sheriff said that we need sros and other elementary schools I was taken aback by his statement without communicating with the board or the superintendent about that when we don't even have enough sros for our high schools and we've had really bad placement and I put that in the email of a particular officer who never should have been placed according to the mou so there's several things in mou that are not being implemented and the I think that I would love you to I would love for you to consider with the board of County Commissioners implementing an evaluation process

070that would require transparency on the part of the sheriff's department to say are you meeting the standards that you said you would in our membrane of understanding there are many many things that are not being checked on and can't be checked on at your level but a school Improvement team could so thank you very much for all the work that you're doing we do ask you to bring that evaluation level I mean to the school level thank you so much thank you very much and we have one more speaker and I don't have the name but if you would state your name oh yeah hi my name is Devin McNally she her pronouns I am a proud queer person and I am an extremely proud sorry and an extremely proud DPS educator I just wanted

071to ask if you would come closer so we can hear you yes you want to hear you sorry or speak louder but we don't want to miss anything you said are you um first I want to thank all of you for bringing this issue to the Forefront um I've been an educator for 12 years I've been in DPS for over four um when I was first hired in DPS at our new teacher orientation we were told that if you cannot welcome and support lgbtq plus students Durham was not the place for you and after working in three other districts three other schools I finally felt like I was home I felt like I was finally somewhere where I could be supported in supporting my students however that hopefulness was dashed very quickly in the first

072DPS school I worked in we had staff members that made out loud outright homophobic and transphobic comments to our sixth through 8th graders in some of their most formative years or their most vulnerable in finding themselves um me and another staff member at our school we had students who came to us and asked to start the school's first GSA gender sexuality Alliance and me and that co-worker were scared we wanted to support our students but we were prepared for fight we were prepared for pushback from our administration because we didn't feel like they would support us that didn't happen and we were able to start that GSA we both subsequently left that school at the end of that year and I don't know what happened after that every year at the beginning of the year

073I ask my students for their pronouns and the fact that some of my students get to me in eighth grade and have never been asked their pronouns by a teacher and have never felt affirmed by a teacher in their identity is heartbreaking um for them to feel supported is important but I still have students who come to my classroom and say Mrs McNally I want to use these pronouns in your room but I'm not going to use them across the school I'm not going to use them with other teachers because they don't feel like those other teachers are going to be supportive of them I am extremely thankful that I now work in a DPS school that was founded on the tenants of being safe space for all students and welcoming for all students I

074implore you to please enact a clear visible easily accessible policy to support our students and to support our teachers and provide Educators with the training that they need to be the welcoming safe spaces that our students deserve with clear guidelines and zero tolerance policies for hate and discrimination and judgment thank you thank you Miss McNally um one more okay please state your name hello everyone my name is Annika green it's spelled a-n-i-c-a green spelled like the color my pronouns are they them um I am an educator in various settings I recently left my position at the Museum of Life and Science I'm just clarifying because I happen to wear this shirt today um but I I am actually not an Alum of Durham Public Schools I was the biggest fight of my life with my

075parents that I wanted to attend during Public Schools they would not let me because they did not feel safe with my brother and the heavy SRO present so I thought it was timely that gentleman brought it up but um while I'm not a DPS Alum I am 27 years old which is an age where many of my peers are starting to outgrow some of their adolescent shyness and things and step into like that fully mature adulthood however the friends that I see struggling with this are my friends who are DPS alums who struggle with substance abuse who struggle with anxiety who suffered very literal physical bullying and revenge porn because of their sexualities and because of their genders and I'm here to speak on their behalf today because while the suicide numbers are clear and

076that is a statistic that is inarguable there are so many small paper cuts along the way and people that slip through the cracks for these more ineffable kind of effervescent reasons or these these reasons that are harder to pin down um that are victims of the same thing that are not able to realize their potential but are not able to ever grow and become what they were while I didn't go to DPS I was um in middle school when our teacher came out as transfer the first time and it literally made local news because it was so scandalous I was also in middle school when we had a teacher who came to our school because they were fired from their school for being openly homosexual or gay um so that's just to say that I

077do know how rampant the homophobia can be in North Carolina schools and because I'm here to say that you know while we are here to talk about children and what they need we also as Educators deserve a school setting where we are not facing discrimination and where you know educators are also supported to give their best instruction because they know that they are not going to be penalized for their identity especially in the wake of don't say gay and that whole Nationwide movement you know I go to work um I work at a private school but every day you know I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop and apparent to take an issue with my existence and it's terrifying so I think that in order to support the learning of students and also

078support your staff who you know need supportive Administration to be able to function and actually deliver the best instruction and on behalf of my friends who I watch struggle every day I hope that you guys take Serious steps to put these policies in place thank you foreign thank you very much I believe that concludes our public comments and we want to thank everyone for engaging us for sharing um and at this moment we're going to move on to our topic of discussion our Board of Education item 6A which is lgbtq plus guidelines and next steps discussion what's up follow our own advice this is a board-led discussion um we have brief staff that we were going to have this discussion um but coming into tonight um the the previous board had some discussions last spring

079around the guidelines that are there are current um statement around support for lgbtq community and we wanted to take some time to do the work Live In Living Color here and uh see where our board is see where our Administration is on what our next steps are going to be around this top with that I'll seed back to the chair and we'll have a conversation thank you so much board member Sears for that introduction and so we are having a discussion um I I will um be mindful of looking at each of you and seeing if there's any cues for who wants to start us off our chair Bettina um first thank you to all of the families and students and Alum and community members who came today to share um your advocacy and support

080it is always helpful to hear and Grant our decisions in the lives of the folks who are in our school buildings and the families that are also working inside of our schools and our Educators who are working inside of our school so thank you all for that I had a question before I started does the administration have anything to share as we're going into this item or is this just going to be a board discussion I just want to make sure if there was anything the administration wanted to share there was an opportunity thank you madam chair uh I think this is pretty much Adam that's the board I wanted to discuss but uh Administration is paused for whatever questions or clarifications will be ready to be able to answer to those as well um

081I mean there's I I think there are feels like there's some really from listening and I'll just ask for what I think might be some really good next steps for us I I think we need to have and some of these I think ideas came up earlier in May when we had this discussion but having a kind of task force of Educators family students put together to really help us on the a lot of the public comment uncovered a lot of opportunities and areas we need to be strategic about support but I think having this group to be the sounding board and developing and supporting um what happens next seems really important so it's rooted and grounded in the experiences of um folks who who are experiencing this discrimination I think there are some things

082that and then I would like to see us have a plan moving forward so does that start with making sure all of our staff are trained and then to start with moving to the next thing and the next thing it feels like we don't have a clear plan about how we're gonna stop um some of the things we're hearing about and I really want to see that be really clear and for us to take some really clear like homophobic stars are not okay period like we're not going to ever have that in our classrooms and we're not gonna have that between our staff and I wondered if it's some of our policies we need to go in and make sure that's really clear and that might be listed in a lot of different places right

083like in some of your discipline policy or some of this other places how do we make sure all throughout it is clear about what's acceptable and what's not acceptable and I think I know we had a conversation earlier around guidelines versus policies and I think we might need to do some more thinking or digging around being clear on that thank you remember Sears yeah thank you um so I'm very eager to see where we go as a board in this conversation but I I do just want to start with where I am and and that is that I I need to do more learning in this space um as as a community member as someone that's been listening um for the last uh six months I mean listening your whole life but um engaging with

084community over the last six months um this is a space where I would like some more training um personally so that I can best represent our community and uh I've received significant feedback from the community that we have some growing to do as a district in this space not not only the comments that were made tonight but with our own learning levels so um one proposal that I would like to put forward is that we we start with some foundation work as one of our commenters said and perhaps get our board and Senior Administration on the same page around things like where where where is the current language what what is best practice uh today things that can help inform a policy if we go in that that direction um so just as a starting

085place I think a training by a nationally recognized entity um may be a good place to start board member Natalie Byers so yeah I want to start with just such profound appreciation for uh the folks that shared their stories and their personal experiences with us today and over the past months and months and months I don't think anyone should have to be vulnerable just to be themselves um and I regret that we haven't done more sooner because I feel the urgency that each of you spoke about for your friends your children your students your loved ones um so yes and yes to anything that you all have said and with a sense of urgency um we have language that's written we tried to be inclusive with language and some policy I think it probably needs

086Standalone policy like our race Equity policy so that it is comprehensive in the way that it needs to be I've always liked the Orange County language and and going from there but whatever is National Best practice that's what I wanted to be doing in Durham as quickly as we can while acknowledging that we are the second largest employer in this community and we have a lot of folks to bring along with us because I do believe they want to do well by children and keep Children and Families safe um so I want us to look at what curricular materials we have and how we can strengthen that I want our children to see themselves in our media centers in our classrooms um I want us to have more expertise in-house because um I think we

087need some urgent focus and and some Personnel to help us with that I love the idea of National Training that we do perhaps with our senior leadership and then perhaps that our principals can do all of this is while we're doing school at the same time and trying to catch up from the pandemic so I think if anyone can do it Durham can and I look for ways that we can also repair the harm that has happened within our community within our districts within our schools and and build children and strong families um so I look forward to it to hearing what you all think and and I appreciate folks that have been incredibly vulnerable today thank you yes board member Lewis thank you um this is an incredibly important conversation I just want to

088um thank all those who came out and gave feedback in public comment to hear the experiences lots of good experiences in DPS and some things to be worked on as well um I want every child every parent every family to live out loud and be their best selves and what we can do to create that Safety and Security so this conversation is truly important while we tackle so many issues for our students to reach their full potential with um the comments that I've heard so far as far as next steps I am um one thankful for the work that we did also prior with the guidelines that were brought forth I was looking through the guidelines as a comments were going forward or being made and whenever somebody says something I was like oh wait

089a minute is that it there where are we with this those are some of the things that I listed here um I am and I said this before I think um I can't remember which board meeting now but it all runs together I would really be supportive of a task force of parents Educators and students to um have some conversations have a more additional input of experiences and needs to help give us Direction and guidance recommendations as we've done with other task force or subcommittees that have been formed help to inform our work I also would like to get more clarity around the policy versus the guidelines it felt like there were things that kept us from having a policy legality wise I don't understand all what that was so I would like to get

090more clarity around that I think that there's a lot to be ironed out with the guidelines that we do have because this is new territory so to have a training is going to be important um and what stands out most for me as I remember starting this work years ago and and talking about the needs of our lgtpq families and students is the need for really making sure we're looking at that intersectionality of identity in our students of color as it relates to lgbtq plus so as we're looking to have a national trainer training uh as Mr Sears suggested for himself and even for us as a community as a I mean a board I'm sorry the community as a board of colleagues um just and haven't spoken with um board member Chavez as well

091that we um are very intentional about who the trainer is um to be able to address those concerns and then the last thing I'll say is that someone did mention gender sexual I don't know sorry gender support plan and I didn't see that in our guidelines um so I think it is important to also make sure that parents and we can provide that support through our student support services and maybe it's somewhere that I didn't see it but that's just one of the things that also stood out for me thank you board member Chavez um well I want to I want to say thank you to a number of people thank you to those who came to speak um it takes a lot to share um stories especially those that are very personal um and

092thank you to the administration and all of the Educators who have been advocating for changes around this area I'm so excited to have this conversation as someone who's been in education for a very long time um because I think there's a there's been a way that you know that we've uh this conversation has been not welcomed in um in the past and I'm so uh proud to be part of uh you know our community where we are um where we're actively advocating for our lgbtq plus students um for me this is a um an issue that affects students academic well-being um uh many many people in our comments mentioned mental health but that's certainly on my mind um in in think in preparing for this conversation I was reviewing the glsen uh School climate survey

093that comes out um every few years um the last one is from 2019 and um I'm always particularly interested in those statistics in in that um in that report because they highlight not only the experiences of lgbtq plus students um generally but also across different identities and they focus on race and students with special needs and um and just different experiences that students are having in schools for me this is a racial Equity issue um in addition not um apart from I don't see it as opposed in any way to racial Equity uh because four out of five of our students in Durham public schools are um our students of color four out of five I am assuming that four out of five of our lgbtq plus students are also students of color um and

094and so our students are are experiencing um just multiple um multiple identities um many of which are multiple which of which are often marginalized um I think that what I want to say um I Heard tonight desire for policy and desire for training um and um and I see this as whatever we decide to do next is an opportunity to support our Educators in having clear um a clear way to go forward and support and and just open up more inclusive conversations around gender and sexuality and I'm aware that many of us in our teacher education programs or School administration programs many of us did not have the opportunity including myself when I did my mat my master of arts in teaching in 2004. it wasn't part of the curriculum to learn how to serve

095lgbtq plus students and so it's something that we've had to learn about um later so I appreciate what you said board member um Sears about you know wanting that training now and and benefiting from it um so I think that um I'm definitely in favor I mean I I would like to see us do a training um at the top at the board and um Administration level um and I've uh speaking to other board members I think it would be very valuable and necessary to have someone who could speak about lgbtq plus issues as well as race and race Equity as well as obviously K-12 educational settings and um and really bringing that expertise I like what you said about best practices I you know I would like to um you know bring in someone

096who's knowledgeable about best practices for school districts um in this area um and I know that a lot of research was done to um establish the gender guidelines as they you know as they've been developed I've said um to you know folks anybody who I talk to about this I want to do whatever is best for our students and whatever is enforceable whatever it sets a clear path forward for us that um that and supports our Educators and administrators in supporting lgbtq plus students um or students from queer families and um and so I I my questions are um I just wanted to review the um I guess review the difference between the guidelines and policy I know that was a conversation that was you know that you all had right before I came on

097the board and um and I also had a question about just how the guidelines have been um sort of disseminated since they were um you know kind of a new uh piece that we were making uh Salient to our um District so how were they I guess how have they been shared thus far um and I know that we have a lot of competing um you know components to uh our professional development and everything that we're doing so um but that was a question that I had um those are two questions thank you so much for board member Chavez um we do have um as we go along with the conversation and the Nuance of of the different things we have heard from the community especially along policy around a gender support plan and also

098um you know just culture change so we we've heard different things we need to address the harm um we want a gender support plan um policy to be there and also training sorry that so and and things in between all of this but I do want to give an opportunity an opportunity to um our admins to just let us know where we're at I know that a lot of these conversations there's there's a thread we've been kind of weaving a thread and um in talking about how Durham Public Schools which serves so many diverse families so many beautiful families of all you know um differences of all diversity of all um Grandeur LSA uh how we are working with specifically our student supports Services Department also our Equity work that Dr Kelvin Bullock started off

099you know um some years a few years ago so I just wanted to see if there's like an invitation for our Administration also uh Miss Tanya Giovanni you have Dr soon to be Dr Tanya javani you have also been working on our guidelines and so I want to invite our Administration to just give us a little bit of the summary for those who are listening about what we have in place and as you as we continue to talk as board members we do know that there are specific things that we want to um discuss and and see where we go from there thank you board members um by adores I'm gonna ask um Daniel Giovanni just to give us a little bit of History how we arrive to the guideline I know working with our

100families we started with uh double nine then we go to the guideline where there were some other folks that really wanted us to go with policy instead of guidelines uh how we're able to pull stuff from our Orange County Schools um than to make them guidelines so Tanya is going to pretty much briefly I'll speak for a good three minutes then after that I'm gonna ask that Bullock to come up to give us a little bit overview of what we've been able to do in the office or for Equity as far as training is concerned so in public good three minutes here and three minutes there just to give board uh just a little bit overview what we've been able to accomplish then you will be able to continue with your conversation thank you Dr

101amanga board members as he indicated just a brief history I think I've shared this with you a little bit before but Durham did lead back in 2015-16 worked with Mr kinsu with Darrington Smith to craft initial guidelines around gender identity and and then in 2018 Dr Deb Pittman brought them back before the board to take a look at them I don't believe there were any significant changes made at that time and then in January of this year we were getting the equity department at that time was with um and reported to me and we were getting quite a few situations and concerns from families and so we needed to move expeditiously and so we started with the guidelines that had been approved um by Darrington Smith worked with [Music] um I'm drawing a blanket I

102can't believe it it's one of my favorite people the um a former principal that was a member of the lgbtq community and I'm just drawing a blank on the name thank you yes man I love you I'm sorry um so we worked with him uh Dr Bullock and myself to tweak these guidelines and to try to address some of the concerns that we were seeing fairly quickly and so we then finalized those sent them off to Darrington Smith again because this law I mean you there are people that are kind of specialists in this and no one's a specialist in all off so send it to the specialist at thereing Smith got some feedback and have kind of been gathering information through that because we knew that we were going to have to kind of

103revisit it and then we're waiting to get guidance from the board um in response to that um the feedback that we had gotten from there in midsmith and there's you know obviously always things that you can tweak and as things change we wanted to be able to be agile in addressing any of the concerns that we are having so thank you foreign Bullock I'd like to well first of all I'd like to express my appreciation to the Durham community and people that have come out and shared their experiences this evening we're good John we don't oh get close oh there we go there we go um but yeah I'd like to also express my appreciation to people who have come out and shared this evening and just thinking about going back to earlier this year

104when the guidelines were revised our first step was to start to host trainings on those guidelines so we hosted several virtual trainings and made sure that principals were aware that those trainings were being offered that um we were asking that they come that they attend not only did we host the virtual trainings but also during District leadership meetings we were also facilitating these conversations around the updated guidelines again to ensure that people were aware that the guidelines had been updated that there were expectations about um practices that we should be utilizing that are embedded within the guidelines in terms of affirming pronouns and things of that nature and so that's where we were in the spring and as late as yesterday we were also address seeing issues of intersectionality in conversations with our principals as

105we're about to roll out our district-wide Equity training for the year and there is a a component on intersectionality and looking at the responses we've received from some of our students through you know different surveys that we have had to make sure that we're you know speaking to the different experiences that our students have so that's kind of where we are now and also working with community members on what our next steps are and trying to make sure that as we're developing these trainings as we're hosting whatever conversations we're having that we're centering the voices of those who are directly impacted by The Experience so that that's another lens that we we've been aiming to bring to this work just a quick comment Dr Bullock I'm glad that you are always saying uh the professional

106development department development as well because you have all this under your umbrella thank you Dr mubenga we have a board member Millicent Rogers thank you everybody thank you for your comments and your vulnerability um thank you for the other to the other board members for sharing your thoughts and and where we are on the process I'm very appreciative of the guidelines and the work that this board did in the spring in regards to lgbtq supports um I also support us looking into a task force and what that looks like and making sure that we are moving towards implementation in a way that centers families that have these experiences I am concerned that we need to act now though particularly around the gender support plan and having a generic one that's blank and ready to go

107and accessible for all um Educators whether a student or a parent requests the gender support plan it would say back in the spring that we do offer the gender support plans we should not be hesitant when we're doing that I'd like us to see to make clear that the board is supportive of Educators providing curriculum that allows students to be reflected um and their experiences regardless inclusive of all their identities right now like we can't wait for that um and I know that in our guidelines we talk about making sure um that we're not using gender identities to separate students and I want to make sure that we get that across the board and that we're modeling it in our district-wide programs I love we are Kings and we are Queens I'd love to see

108we are royalty right um because then we're modeling for principals and Educators that we expect and bus drivers that we expect um inclusive terms to be used while we are doing this task force while we are getting training while we are doing all these things because we're not going to get it right and we're going to learn we're going to grow we're going to do better and we need such a task force to help us do that um but I think we need to stop the lack of respect right now as it comes to the adults that are involved in the conversations we need to make sure that our zero tolerance for bullying policy is implemented right now those are the things that we need to keep pushing and those things can't wait because it's

109our duty to keep all students safe and these are our students and they are crying for us to do something thank you so much for all the comments and so I wonder because there's it's a multi-pronged approach and we talked about how the work that we're doing in DPS is work to ensure that every child has access to a sound basic education which is right and to create an environment of safety and that is also something that doesn't come from one or or a second thing it's actually multi-pronged approach and we have been hearing tonight um some of the requests requests for training the guidelines and so when it comes to the policy I wonder if we can kind of we've made General comments can we go through each specific thing policy wise um and

110then we can also go into the gender support plan um as a as a and then the training um wondering if there's any comments around policy and where that would live and I'm wondering so we do have um Carolyn and just want to invite you you know to just um be a part of the conversation as well with us because when it comes to our conversation last time there was definitely um some Nuance to what a guideline is and whether it's enforceable and um you know what we discussed last time is that the guideline is enforceable um but the the difference between the policy and and you know the different ways that um the guideline can be attached to a policy and then we can talk about maybe which policy sure so when we're talking

111about policies those things that are adopted by the board and so are written and are more formal and as much as for them to be modified and changes it requires a formal a formal Board of approval guidelines are not items that require board approval and can be changed by Administration so to the extent that policies have more longevity built into them because of the need for them to be reviewed and adopted and revised formally through board action they have um they have more gravitas in that sense regardless of whether it's a board policy or guidelines both can be enforceable um I think the the main distinction is really how they might be able how they might be revised changed modified removed um from one to the other just a follow-up question that can they can

112they also both be um raised through a grievance process is it does that fall under the enforceable so you know if they're very formal grievance process my recollection is that you have to indicate which policy be it a state policy or a local policy you are aggrieved of um Can a guideline be a grievance also I believe the the language and I would have to check this but I believe the language is board policy War regulations so if there's a final administrative decision it's very clear that policies are covered under that so for the grievance policy I think that's actually absolutely right um for that there's not a not any question about the policies um I don't again I don't have your policy up right in front of me some policies tend to also include

113regulations um in terms of that of final administrative decision that's a violation of as you said state state policy federal law rule regulation I it may be at the board level that your policy that your policy and grievance doesn't include that language but I'm not exactly sure yeah I'd have to check which I can do right now and let you know thank you very helpful any comments around um the policy and where it might as we discuss policies and the guidelines as it exists now um they're not attached to any particular policy and so I'm wondering if there's any comments around uh where the board would like to see movement as it relates to the guidelines can you repeat the three pieces you outlined for a site policy training I will take Liberty to just

114let the audience know that you know these three uh topics we talked about and you can tell me if there's four um I know there's things in between but I do know that um policy um where our guidelines can be attached to a policy and so they would have the process the other one would be a gender support plan Standalone gender support plan that is available to all schools all districts just standardized standard support plan um for any family who comes to their school administration and identifies a need for a gender support plan and the third one would be training for our our DPS and that the training piece is also something else to determine like who gets the training um yeah those are the three things okay thank you I my own comments on

115the policy piece would be you know I heard multiple references to a task force being formed and that policy would come out of the work of a task force informed by training certainly doesn't have to be that way but I will also acknowledge that this board has not done a task force and that's a significant Commerce to me it's a significant conversation about how do you build a task force to be inclusive of the community and there is history on how we've done that in the past um and it it can be challenging and that's not for me to try to throw a wrench into the machine that is being built here um because I might actually suggest that we do something that's a quick and light version of a task force as opposed to

116for instance the budget advisory committee every board member appointed one person and that's sort of a very slow um process so for whatever that's worth Mr board member Rogers so I did support the test Force idea I am concerned in spaces like um with issues around lgbtq plus issues how we make sure folks are at the table I know that there are folks that don't want to come to the table that don't want to be outed and it's not fair to keep them so maybe focus groups where we're going out into the community and having conversations and hearing best practices hearing um the difficulties that folks are experiencing at different levels whatever the case may be and then go into our training with that so that it sits with us and the type of administration

117for us to work from and board member Chavez I I have one I have a follow-up so there are there are two comments at the time the guidelines were developed there wasn't clear guidance um from the Supreme Court there now has been guidance from the Supreme Court that Title IX addresses issues of gender um identity and your policy 1710 on discrimination clearly would Encompass that also in the guidelines that were passed it references back so instead of your grievance policy references back to your non-discrimination policy so that if there was concerns or a complaint that needed to be brought it would be brought pursuant to that policy which clearly applies to Title IX which protects students who are lgbtq Plus uh board member buyer okay well remember Travis and then board member buyer and then

118uh our chair Bettina I'm said um that's helpful to help have the clarification about um policy versus guidelines I think that I don't know if a task force is is necessary or I would like us to clarify what we feel that that would accomplish um if we're I think that um I I think I see a need to develop policy that could and it seems to me that it would live under you know the 400 section we have other areas that are relevant to students of um who are experiencing particular uh identities or circumstances um so I'm wondering if if we wanted to go in that direction if a small group could develop that um such as a two or three board members Miss Giovanni and Dr Bullock um and in concert with that I

119think the training is essential you mentioned um board member uh culture change culture change and that shift um and you know the reality is that's I I think it's it's needed because not everyone does understand um the experiences of queer and trans students and um and so I think training would be an opportunity to really give our um our Educators and administration just more space as well as starting with us more space to really think about um what uh what our accountability is to lgbtq students so that's what I'm wondering right now in terms of the gender support plans I think um you know there's some I know there are models you know their models already out there and I think that might become part of policy um you know but we need uh some

120way to you know to sort of disseminate information about them as well I know that well it sounds like that's been done partly through the the trainings that um the that Dr Bullock's office has done um the last thing I want to say was um the training um you have to come back to me I think thank you um I wanted to make sure I don't miss any video I will say that um this is a very nuanced conversation and oh yes our chair patina has comments Natalie yeah and uh Board number to list as well so how about we do uh board member buyer and then uh our chair Bettina and then Umstead and then we go to uh board member Louis thank you so much I um I feel like we need to

121Turbo Charge this I don't know what that is I love involving the community but I also feel like we don't want to wait for the perfect policy we need something stronger than guidelines in place and we need to be leading from the top with what we do so whether that's training ourselves and our top leadership and then our principals and then our counselors and like that piece seems really urgent to me um and gender support plans and curricular materials seem really urgent to me um we can go looking for the perfect policy or we can improve and then continue task forcing our way forward that's how I think kind of we we approach it with the urgency that is brought here and the intersectionality without looking for perfect policy but I very much want policy

122not just guidelines I really want it codified by this board um and I want folks to know that we take it that seriously just as we take our race Equity policy that seriously it's policy so there that's that's how I'm feeling thanks but do you think um yes to training gender support plan I'm glad that training has already happened to make sure folks are aware and I hope we keep that as a part of the regular like trainings that we do every year so that families know and principals know I think one um public comment brought up like a one place to go where like here's all the information that I need like I think we need to build that out probably with our Equity policy the guidelines the template of the plan I have

123questions who do I talk to like here are the people that help can help guide you through this process um I think I'm I so I served on the racial and educational Equity task force policy and I do think that having a task force allows for lots of different voices to be at the table when you create policy and it allowed for us to bring so many Rich perspectives from community members from Educators from students from teachers um thank you Dr Bullock for leading Us in that process and I think we will miss an opportunity if we just as board members write the policy and not have it actually rooted in the experiences of our students so I understand the urgency of like wanting to do it now but I do think a task force

124is is necessary um to figure and I I think it's not just of thinking about guidelines or policy it's also about all the other things that need to be happening because it feels like there's a gap between our intentions and what we're saying in the board meeting and what people are experiencing in their school every day and I think the task force is there to help surface that and make sure the policy of the guidelines the trainings implementations are closing that Gap so I just want to I understand the urgency but I also want to like policy has teeth we want to get it right we want to do a really good job um I also I don't again don't understand I think still the difference between guideline and policy because we did get a

125memo that was around wanting to have guidelines instead of policy so I think we might just need to unpack that conversation a little bit more we don't have to do that today we can bring that back at a different time because we did have guidance around using guidelines versus policies Orange County is a regulation it's enlisted as a regulation regulation guidelines policy I don't know we might need some more training and support on figuring that part out because it it still feels just a little unclear to me um and again I don't think we can bring that back at a different time to figure that out or maybe something that the task force wrestles with and we also put us through training now when we go ahead and update to make sure it's really clear

126to folks these things are not okay because we're creating inclusive School environments in our school remember Lewis yes uh thank you um I Echo some of those similar um comments and that's what exactly what I was thinking about the race Equity policy I was going to ask Dr Bullock how many people served um on that policy development and how long did it take if my memory serves me correctly I think we invited about 31 community members to participate and I think we had about 24 or 25 who consistently served over a year to develop the racial and educational Equity policy okay and then um and adhere the urgency and one thing that I appreciate about our district is the multi-layered whole child approach that we already take so that in in this time and space

127I want to make sure we do this right I do think again we value our community voice as a community input and we can work through pulling a task force together as such as we did the raise Equity policy and I'm I am reassured by uh attorney merchinson in that we have Title One protection I mean Title IX Protections in place already in the guidelines there are that are to be followed and are in place as well I think that we want to have a good policy and um the the task force can even do the focus groups is what I'm thinking about having Roundtable discussions just to get a broader perspective um so it just feels like there are Protections in place there is social emotional um uh strategies guidelines curriculum in every school

128that's there to be supportive of our students especially in light of and recovering from covet and learning loss um there are things in place right now that I think we can can be very intentional and diligent in the way that we can pull the task force together to continue this work and seeing what a policy um with these with more Community input um and with the and my question around the gender uh the gender support plan Who currently um implements those is it who's record who is we don't have it at all I thought we did have it we do who like would it go to the principal the counselor so typically when we have developed gender support plans um historically it has been a collaborative group of parents and school administrator and supportive Personnel

129at the school I.E counselors who have participated in putting that together as a group okay and I think I might have seen that in the guidelines those people outline but it didn't just specifically say a gender support plan so that might be there that is great I I do think the language and the guidelines is maybe a support team in um developing a plan for the child okay and I just again thinking and coming from a mental health background and dealing with identity development this is not something that I think should be rushed in regards to dealing with students um and and pulling plans together with people who aren't prepared who haven't had the training and the background to do it sensitively as needed so again while we have a team that comes together I

130know their sensitivities around that I would like to see just our a more formal process and even expectations around what that training looks like who's on that team how's that team pull together and it may not all be from the same school there may be um Champions through the district who gets pulled into those conversations so I think that's part of the conversation to be discussed or we're all kind of giving input now but that would be again let's make sure we're doing this right and um that that would be where I stand as far as again there's this Title IX protections there's the as I'm looking at the policy the guidelines that follow a lot of our different policies already so um I'm always supported pulling together task force that we did like the

131racial Equity policy as well remember Rogers I am really really concerned I appreciate the work that was done with the recycling task force but I'm truly concerned about how we we make such a task force a safe space for people who already feel vulnerable and I'm really concerned about the fact that we mentioned or it was established at gender support plans were available and then we're kind of backing off oh maybe we're not going to use the gender support plan yet until we get the training what does that do about the support plans that are active right now and the people who have been already been asking for such support plans and have been getting pushback right now um I do think I don't disagree with the task force I said that earlier I don't

132disagree with it but there are things we need to do now including the gender support plan including making so affirming for principals and Educators that they should be um creating space for everybody to live in their true identities and that they should be providing there should be curriculum that reflects that especially if Educators and families have been asking for that in those spaces there should it should be there because we've already said that that's what our expectation is and as we move towards policy that's where we go with it with the task force and also obviously the training I just a real quick point of clarification Ms Rogers when I talked about the um gender support plan I was not saying wait for training what I'm asking for is guidelines around the same way we

133have steps for IEP in the process that it takes to get an IEP done we need to have the same steps and process those guidelines clearly laid out so I'm saying look just jump the gun and say come and talk to me let's do a gender support plan no let's make sure we have our processes in place and the right people in place as well that's why I said we can lean on our student support services for those who may already have training as well so I just want to clarify that point um as far as the G the the plan it is it is an urgent matter to be taken care of but we want to make sure we're doing it right we had um did I miss anybody I will yes board member

134buyer I love all the ideas that are tossed about here today and I also want to be clear like we could write a policy that is one paragraph long and says this board affirms safe inclusive spaces but if we could say whatever we need it to say from this board level have it passed this month it would not be the ultimate policy but it would be a a huge step forward for this board and for this District and Dr Bullock we hired you before we had a race Equity policy right I mean we got to do all of this work simultaneously and and keep pushing it forward so I'm looking for ways that that we can reflect the listening that we have done to some really vulnerable members of our community accelerate the urgency of

135the work and and no it's not going to be perfect and our communities never asked us to be perfect they've asked us to walk side by side with them um so I don't want and the task force thing I think was my idea previously so I don't want us to like gum it up going for Perfection but I want us as a board to be real clear you know keep these children safe and we when we and that to me is policy language and that to me is is so important um and I don't think we've done it yet Carolyn and I and it's not you or therington Smith I think it's we keep getting gummed up in this guidelines policy regulation whatever we needed to say it loud and clear and this board does

136say it loud and clear I believe and so I that's why yes thank you um I believe our our attorney Murchison has well in listening to this conversation I hear I'm hearing a sense of urgency on certain issues and I'm also hearing a desire to bring in our Community Partners at the same time which can be um sometimes I don't want to say mutually exclusive but it adds with one another I just want to remind you that you have the current guidelines in place that um because their guidelines can be changed quickly so if there's things of urgency that you feel you want to address and provide feedback to the community and let them know that they've been heard you can also you can also make changes or have Administration address some of those most

137urgent needs through that if there is a desire by the majority of the board to be more thoughtful um in terms of developing the policy which is a longer term document foreign ERS and then our chair patina or the other way around my comment is brief but it speaks to that I mean when you when you're on our guidelines and you search for the word plan it's it's in the student transition sections right that's the sentence that's most the school shall ensure the creation of a support team and age-appropriate plan that assists in the student in accessing districts etcetera resources um it sounds like there's momentum for changing that to a gender support plan caps capital on each word with a hyperlink to the document um I'm just throwing that out there as a way

138to respond to the urgency I personally do not have enough background to affirm the document the process but I trust my colleagues and and are experts in the administration as to what that document links to being best practice or well researched Etc I'm gonna propose some steps moving forward I think I agree with what Matt suggested of putting that in here in the link I do think there's a because I do think a lot of our policies talk about creating inclusive School environment non-discrimination that like all of that is in there so we can have a review of what we currently have and if there are places that we need to be explicit about gender identity sexual orientation that would get clear about those places and I'm thinking about non-discrimination and bullying specifically are coming

139to mind but there might be other places in our policy where we need to add that language to be explicit and I I'm I'm gonna keep coming back to a task force I think Miss Rogers you make a good point but I think that's part of our job to talk to the folks who don't feel as comfortable coming to the table to make sure that perspective is coming and the task force job to make sure they are whether that's holding focused groups or working with different folks that they're bringing a lot of different perspectives to the table and maybe I'm also you know recognizing my limitations and coming to a policy around lgbtq I ate that's not my experience so I can talk about you know being a woman and being cisgender but I don't

140have the other experience and I think we might limit ourselves if we were to create a policy without making sure those folks are at the table writing and working on the policy right the people who are closest to the pain making sure they're working on that solution so I think the The Today part can be how do we review what we currently have to make sure it's explicit and clear about where our expectations are our board has passed the resolution um on Pride week or pride month excuse me earlier I think the board has been clear that we want inclusive School environments for all so how can we edit what we have now make sure the plan and the template is there and it's clear where families go when they have concerns and issues um

141whether that be around discrimination but also to create a plan and then the last part is that task force for the longer term thinking about how do we um make sure folks are involved with developing policy implementation training supporting that longer term plan sorry I can review my three steps if y'all need me to okay but that's that's what I would propose to move forward thank you so much I think you know the important thing uh tonight is that we want to come up with clear next steps clear next steps um and so I I think our chair tinom said for Outlet outlining um things I I do want to say you know we we have on our website uh gender support guidelines for DPS staff and community and it mentions board policies around harassment

142and bullying 17 10 40 21 72 30 but I want to caution everyone what we are hearing from our community is not just in reference to discrimination harassment and bullying that's that's like actually where we don't want to be right and so we're trying to work towards a culture that does welcome all our families um and it's not just addressing specific things of harassment or bullying we want to make sure that there's sufficient um uh things in our policy and so this this document does go into bathroom use it goes into so many different things privacy it talks about field trips it mentions all these different sections I think one of the the things that we need to talk about is also knowing that we mentioned Title IX Title IX uh as a federal law

143it is also open to interpretation and I know that our attorney um can speak best about this but administrations have determined what you know what that means or what it covers and in past years Title IX did not include um gender and sexuality it included everything else but it left out these things that this Administration decided that they do um see Title IX as referring to that and so because there's such flux in terms of federal policy and interpretation of that this Administration uh Federal Administration affirms it but at the local level I do think that we can and I'm going to go to uh board member Chavez listing the 4 000 section um as a place that addresses so many of our student needs but we know that this is not just students it's

144also faculty it's our staff and so we need to have that discussion of of the policy itself and um and also when it comes to Community input we have a whole volume of Community Voices uh coming to us and I think all the emails those are public record you know so many emails that we have gotten over the years we've also gotten examples from neighboring districts around how they're handling this so we definitely have a lot of Engagement around this and I think one of the ways to really um have this discussion is about what next step are we all leaning towards and so we we have this on the precies for discussion um and not in action but it's also you know our right as board members if there is something that we all

145align in in terms of what we want to do engage the community around around the guidelines and and go from make these guidelines a policy in in the 4000 section that's that's a possibility that we could do and we can definitely um talk about ways that the guideline as it is what is it what does it address and what does it not address I think that that is definitely something to continue to rely on the community in the most affected to tell us what is not currently here um that should be here and I think when it comes to um the training it is a conversation and I know that our superintendent and his administrators all the administration they are having trainings they are doing the trainings and we can always talk about how to

146make trainings better but that is also a separate conversation and so the question is um what are we most comfortable with um or what are we ready to do as it relates to having a guideline we have resolutions more than one but we don't have an existing policy that owns this completely Beyond just harassment and discrimination which again let's not wait to get there this is more about how do we ensure that our families have what they need our staff have what they need per buyer so just as a note on the urgency notion so if I all our policies are searchable and if I go type in lgbtq I get nothing in the search box if I type in gay I get nothing and I have to type in gender so the terms that

147we have in there that are covering right now are gender identity and gender expression thank you or something like we have gender kind of things in there we don't have anything for a student or a family looking for like not in policy it's it's there as the gender term and so I have some I just continue to have this sense of of wanting to get something there that that is policy and and um it's not there it's guidelines on our website in the in a place under equity and so I say that to say do I know what the perfect language is of course not but do I believe this board is unanimous in in wanting to respond to the Urgent needs of our community that we continue to hear and and you know some

148of y'all joined us recently and some of us have been hearing from these families for months and months and months and yes we've made some progress well I didn't know we had so much progress still to make in Durham and so that's why you hear frustration from me about I was gonna say I do hear the urgency I think that's why I tried to kind of lay out what I thought might be next steps in that way because I do think looking at our current policies and seeing where we need to add additional language to make sure it's clear like feels like some I don't want to talk about what Mr Giovanni's workload might be like but it feels like something that we could do in the next month or two right like that feels

149like a clear next step and then the longer part about really developing again about like the deeper work I think does I just truly believe we need Folks at the table who have the lived experience to work on that um so that's why I would suggest the looking at our current policy to figure out where the gaps are now to make sure we add them and then do that longer work to me addresses the urgency remember Chavez so one one piece um that I think that I would like to ask the administration to add to the current guidelines is something around curriculum and encouraging inclusive gender and sexual lgbtq plus affirming curriculum and I think it seems that that um needs to be explicit for four Educators that that is something that we support in

150DPS and and you know we want to we see that as one important part of creating inclusive supportive environments so that's what I would ask for in addition to what you all named around the gender support plans and and doing a link there um I think I think that would be really helpful uh guidance beyond that um I think I'm I'm hearing the you know the reasons for a task force and I appreciate um the way you put it um uh chair Umstead about having people with lived experience as a part of that group I think I think that's important um and you know part of me feels and why I said I think a task force might not be necessary as part of me feels like there's so much much research already available we've

151heard so many stories um that you know the the needs are there you know they've been coming um to the board uh prior to my arrival and since so um you know with that said I support the development of a task force in terms of a timeline I think that I'm wondering if we could do a training aboard and upper Administration training in December that would give us some time to find someone um with uh the expertise that we're seeking to um who would have an eye on on a national context as well because I think this is an area where we can be a a leader um in our state and Beyond and um and then beyond that perhaps perhaps a task force could start in January um you know um I I hear

152that you know from Doc what Dr Bullock said it took a year to develop the equity policy and that's a pro I mean involving multiple stakeholders is a process that um takes time and and listening um I also think that that process helps to um build a sense of uh real understanding about issues that could be very valuable because a lot of this is you know it policy is important and also um having a chance to change hearts and minds and really wrap our um our full selves around these issues is important and so so that's what I would propose and then we would be looking at a policy I would imagine in about a year um and so you know I think that's how long it would take um and then we could carefully

153consider it through that task force where policy belongs as you pointed out um uh chairs that um it's not you know it's not only a student issue but you know we could we could see where it makes sense so that's what I would offer anybody else um I I will say I I have had you know conversations I'm so appreciative of my colleagues um and we have definitely talked I mean my my sense is that this is definitely um something that needs to be addressed not just for students as we mentioned but for staff and also for the community who holds us accountable you know the community members who continue to look to us to make sure that our families all our families are affirmed and in that sense of all you know the intersectionality

154which was mentioned you know comes it comes into into mine I think the equity policy is the most intersectional policy that we have that addresses the needs of of the areas where we need to be very mindful not to create harm and disparities in our Equity policy it has brought forth wonderful initiatives we are Kings we are Queens there's definitely training it has you know galvanized so much in terms of like Equity Champions you know so we think about the fact that we have an equity policy that addresses that I do see a way for us to continue to support the work the equity work that is happening in the district and how this can really um you know be connected to this Equity work that we have because initiatives curriculum training um gender support

155plans and all all that you know it is an equity issue um and the other thing that I wanted to mention is also as it relates to um expression gender expression language and and everything um there's a wealth of of resources right and and I do agree with bringing somebody in you know who was somebody who can talk about the Nuance of this because there is nuance and as any Community there is a sovereignty of a community to talk about the ways the different ways that a school district should approach um creating inclusive language inclusive curriculum and all these different things and so I do think that it does beg for resources to be used and that is that is something that I also think beyond the equity piece we also need to address the

156harm and the Peace of harassment we know that harassment is happening to many of our students including with multiple you know intersectional identities we know that the research shows us that you know women in any context educational campuses even when they're adults have a higher propensity to be victimized or suffer from harassment and so there's there's all the Nuance of that as well and I want us to continue to work in in this conversation around creating the types of um creating the policy that will assure that our families are safe and also figure out how to continue to integrate this work into everything that we do so that when we think about our families we are not just thinking about race and class but we're also thinking about everything else you know so race class

157orientation sex you know it's something to continue to be as comprehensive as we can be you know status documentation status which is a thing that we've seen with our family's language you know access country of origin you know for our immigrant communities and so we need to integrate this and I have been really uh grateful because we have had the kinds of Engagement from our staff talking about the teacher working condition survey and our our Administration has definitely worked on you know explaining to us about what comes from DPI from the Department of Public Instruction and what their template has been and the ways that DPS has also taken steps to be more inclusive of these other things including um you know Panorama which has another functionality for surveys and being able to integrate that

158so I'm really interested in the integration um for wellness for visibility so that there is no family in DPS that feels invisible that there is no family or no community in DPS that feels that um their family is not welcome or you know the ways that they express themselves or show up you know are shunned upon or you know discriminated and so I think we we definitely have at least this conversation that we're having and I guess the question here is what is the action that we want to take tonight because we have had discussions about this and so what is the action that we feel comfortable with as a body that we're willing to make that that step and so yes thank you Miss Fighters I just had a question for the attorney and

159and maybe I just need this Clarity because we keep talking guidelines policy everything are these gender support guidelines for DPS staff and community that have been published on our website were are they enforceable and if we are hearing of discrepancies and families are experiencing discrepancies what are they to do like is this the same as policy albeit not policy or do we need you know the the it is horrible to hear any school shouted out as doing this better or being a more supportive School Community because they all must be in Durham so some of the language in the current guidelines is not as forceful as it could be and it's it doesn't always have the shell and language so there are some there are some quick fixes that could be made to make that

160language stronger in certain circumstances which would then make it more enforceable um you know the again I think it was in 2018 that those were a lot has changed in four years I wanted to also Circle back to um shervaya there so I wanted to clarify that while the Supreme Court has has actually rendered a decision in Title IX that it replies to gender identity um Title IX doesn't it's not as broad as what you are trying to accomplish with whatever policy will ultimately um establish and you know our office also worked on the Orange County policy what they do in that policy is broader than what the Title IX protections are so Title IX is important that it's an issue but it won't address all of the issues that you all heard tonight and

161all of the issues that I think he was aboard want to try to address and solve as a policy um so so I do think that the guidelines have been helpful and it's a good first step there's lots of room for improvement and for tightening and for clarifying I think there's some internal inconsistencies within the guidelines that were unintentional that sometimes say this is available and sometimes it says this is available so a review of the guidelines in an immediate sense by the administration to help clarify some of those things I think could be a very good first step is something that would be available to you while you are putting together a task force foreign thank you but that would be super helpful to me to feel like we're doing something and doing something

162to affirm the importance of this to this board do I hear um support for working with Administration so that the guidelines are reviewed and you know there is tightening and maybe strengthening some of the the language around the guidelines um I think a conversation with Administration and and hearing from Community as well like you know is there a way that we can set up Community input the same way that we did it for growing together and for other initiatives when the community can you know send in um you know particular things about the guidelines as they are ways to strengthen it as we work on some of the other steps including task force and etc etc it's a question I'm wondering um in talking to you all my dear colleagues what do we what do

163we want to do in terms of um the guidelines as they are and work around that I think what we can do quickly and accurately is important so we meet every two weeks every two weeks is an opportunity for Action I as I said earlier I would support that that change in adding the the gender um support plan as we make possible other adjustments but I think it goes without saying and the administration I know is listening that changes one thing but the communication down through buildings to personnel and not every you know email all gets read by every staff member when you get 100 per day so you know Administration this is going to require work from you to make sure it's it's heard um and it's heard and then heard again and heard

164again and heard again um and quickly okay so um we have the gender support the gender guidelines um that are the starting place for the policy um and so the gender guidelines as we have them right now um could be improved could be tightened but it is great work and I just want to commend the work of our Administration getting us here okay so we have the workings of that and then also our community members who have already reviewed it and and found those areas where you know it doesn't match policy because so we're we have the workings of what is the policy through the guidelines but we need to work with Administration and work with our community um about you know the wording the exact wording things can be strengthened because we want it

165to be something that works we don't want it to be a gesture um just something that um doesn't hold the weight we want it we want it to be uh to provide the resources that are needed for our families to provide the protections that are needed for the families um that have not felt protected and so we we do own that and acknowledge that um there's room for growth and um board member series as you were mentioning how we will continue to hold ourselves accountable um in in communicating you said like every two weeks as we're meeting we're I guess following up on um how are we systematically doing the the continual work on this okay I simply brought that up as we ought to be clear with Administration are we expecting a revision two

166weeks from now are we expecting a vision four weeks from now there's clearly urgency um so I think as a question of the administration from my perspective I don't know is what's reasonable knowing that we have some urgency was reasonable to know we have some urgency because in two weeks those materials are available in a week so that it's you know we meet every two weeks but that would mean this would have to be done by next Friday um and so I think we just need to be flexible within that I feel like we've given the administration a lot of information about next steps and I would love for y'all to kind of come back and say you know here's our timeline I think I think we have been very clear about the urgency and

167that has been clear also from the families that are here how there are things I think that we can do without even policy right there's a like in our next principles meeting we're gonna have a conversation around how some of these things are happening and they're not okay and then there's also things that can be done again in the written in the policy and the task force and all of that so I do feel like and I'm looking to y'all see head knives that we've kind of given a lot of information that I hope that you can bring back to us with the plan board member Rogers can we know when the next principal's meeting is our principals meetings are the first Wednesday of every month we just have one yesterday so it's November 3rd

168or 4th might be the fifth um but it's the first Wednesday of every month um the second thank you Mr Sutter thank you um okay thanks and one other comment um that I just wanted to make is about school Improvement teams and how they're working to address overall like you know their school buildings and you know goals integration would mean that um they're keeping this in mind as well you know and so I'm wondering um in terms of the school communities also addressing what's happening in the school buildings it is so important in terms of accountability that it starts you know at every level um so I'm just wondering in terms of uh some of some of the uh the steps that we're taking it's it's it's a commitment that we have from our board

169to ensure that no family is harmed um that we address harms but also to build a culture that is inclusive and so um wondering a little bit about where this accountability would live um at school sites and also the district working on the guidelines that will eventually sooner than than later become a policy that you can search and you can find honorary policy platform that we have in board Docs I was just gonna see if we could we've tossed it around a lot and if we could make a motion to have the administration bring us back a draft timeline of of the steps that we've discussed whether y'all want to bring it in two weeks or at our next work session and that's why I was just looking to see if you all thought that

170was a reasonable next step or we could just talk for it all night long um it and I and I guess I'm looking do you need a month can you do in two weeks and I'm just talking a timeline not because I know we're asking you to do a lot of work but um yes um I'll say this we're gonna talk with uh chair in the vice chair as well because we have other priorities that we need to bring at the next uh two board meetings uh it's for e-l-l is you know that kind of said just give us a little bit time to work with our chair and voucher to bring these items to you thank you so much um just just one question and um we're we're really grateful to have guidance from

171uh therington Smith and we have um you know our attorney Murchison um here I I do I just want to make sure that in the meantime just a statement of affirmation that our families are not without a recourse at this moment based on the guidelines they are enforceable um you know there there's definitely um ways that schools are having to address issues but at this moment in terms of a dashboard where we are um I just want to just put out the question are our families without existing protections so I would say you have two avenues for families if they feel that they are not getting results that they have or they have an appropriate experiences or experiences that they feel are inappropriate they can look either to policy 1710 which is your anti-discrimination policy

172and that's referenced specifically in the guidelines I think there's there was some recognition through the conversation that some of the things that may be in the guidelines may not be about discrimination per se so it's possible that if they feel that it doesn't fit there they can file a general complaint under the grievance policy and if it fits better in that other policy than Administration would review that and move that over if appropriate but those are two policies that if parents feel that they've gotten a an appropriate response from Administration under this that they could seek relief there and we can go from there foreign yes make a quick follow-up on that uh yes to our community we are enforcing the guideline as a matter of fact there is one that we addressed last week

173and there were some consequences to go along with that we are letting people go when they break those policies it happened last week as well thank you sobenga our superintendent and administrators I think the community can hear from this discussion and the fact that I think our our chair and our advice chair for bringing this item to uh tonight's agenda but I will say that this there have been conversations uh among our colleagues here at the board and the other thing is that every single colleague here on the board I am just so grateful because the question is about how you know the question is about how do we ensure that our families have what they need and there's there's a lot of dedication here so continue to engage us I will say to our

174community um that we are moving uh we are doing you know the things in between also I think from a general standpoint of um information and education that is our role you know to continue to educate and also we I don't want us to like just leave without thinking about what is our next step in terms of like you know resources that we as Leaders need to better understand you know the climate that we're in and what are some available resources that um are necessary and also ways that we can continue to support our administration because I do want to tell our Administration we're not um you know we're not oblivious to the amount of work that you do and that that is not an understanding we're not oblivious we know that we're tackling many

175things in terms of equity uh school-to-prison pipelines disparities suspensions access you know to language um resources for families and also you know ensuring that our our students are learning so we want to create a learning environment and so we we don't want by any means to say that we're oblivious to all the work it's comprehensive work but we are all the better for it if our families feel that the school system addresses their needs and values who they are because at the end of the day we are only as as good as our you know the families who um you know who who are are are you know holding us accountable like if there is needs for us to address things our Administration is already addressing that and I thank you Dr mubenga for mentioning

176you know the level at which the work is happening right now any last comments before we move to our um next agenda item for tonight do we need to make a motion for um for training or for a task force no what is the procedure there so I think that we have directed the administration to come back with a timeline around the next steps and um myself and the vice chair will we all I saw consensus to run training so we'll work to get that scheduled thank you so much um if any other comments no okay we um we do have our chief of staff with uh various policy updates I wonder we can move to our next item yes thank you madam chair um can you pull up the PowerPoint please for this item

177and while we're waiting for that do you want to I'm not in charge you y'all tell me what to do okay let's take a five minute break okay yes are we on are we on recess could we get a motion to recess let's um seconded it's been moved by Miss Lewis it sounded like and secondly Miss Rogers by Ms Rogers so we are uh adjourned for five minutes or well yes let's vote for recess everybody votes I I any names no okay we're going into recess thank you June we have Quorum okay um okay so we will resume um we were on item seven our chief of staff and various policy updates Mr Giovanni thank you madam chair um if we could oh there we are okay you can go to slide two so just

178for clarity we have one of the policies that were listed on the prices policy 6220 operation of school nutrition services will be pulled from the pre-season is not going to be discussed uh Administration is continuing to work on that we've gotten some additional information and want to make sure that it is reflective of um what we anticipate the board may be interested in doing with that Child Nutrition policy including some school lunch debt conversations so while we had initially brought it because we wanted there was a statutory change that was mandated we are okay pulling it and holding it until the next work session so 6220 won't be discussed so that was probably going to be the longest discussed policy on here so that may not go as long as one would anticipate so the

179first policy um I want to also clarify that in the proceeds there are some additional details but I'm going to go through the PowerPoint for kind of the highlights of these policies and the majority of these are statutory so um they are not a lot of them aren't optional for US based on legislation so policy 4110 immunization and health requirements for school admission It's ADS um some vaccine language both for initial School entry and if you go to the binder that is in board docs you will see that there's also an addition some additional language regarding um the I think it's the MCV vaccine for high school students Rising seniors and those that are 17 so um next slide please um policy 4120 Thomas Island residence requirements um what we are looking at here is

180again some statutory requirements that indicate that um several of our military families or families that um have military students military families that have some students in them there's some statutory language that came down that does require that we enroll them it's all enlisted in the binder but it is again statutory I mean there's really not a lot of leeway for us as in Lea is just primarily making sure that our children of active duty military or have access is appropriate to our school system and when you're going through the binder I do also want to point out it's not in the policy in the PowerPoint but um whenever we're doing the policies and again just want to make this clear to our board members again we have the statutory changes and then there's some that

181are like board optional and then there's some that are recommended by Administration so I just want to make it clear to the board members that weren't on the committee when we went through these that we get these policies kind of um we get Bare Bones policies and then we kind of tweak them and duramize them I like to say and so whenever I come across gendered language in the policies I do change that so if it says his or her I change that to student or it anytime there's gendered language I do take the executive personal privilege of changing that so you don't have to agree to it but based on what I heard earlier I feel like this board is going to be um and fine with that um the other thing that I

182do based on policy 1900 anytime I see a language that is not people first I'd kind of take that privilege and change that as well so in one of the policies it said foster children so I think I changed it to children in foster care so to those watching um and that weren't on the committee if you go through that's what you'll see those aren't board recommendations but those are from Administration um and just I think I left this out but these policies have been reviewed and commented on by the administrative and operations subcommittee so next slide please and it's next slide policy 6560 disposal of surplus property this adds language from the North Carolina Constitution and as a legal reference to a Supreme Court case that clarifies that school systems can't just give away

183their property without any compensation unless that property is going to continue to be used for public school purposes so um this is again not mandated necessarily but it is um helpful to understand that that is the law based on the Supreme Court case in the Constitution the way the Supreme Court interpreted the North Carolina Constitution so we want to make sure that when we're disposing of surplus property that we are in compliance with this um with the Constitution and next slide please and policy 7620 there were some mandated statutory amendments to this um Mr lesour our CFO and his payroll folks can't make deductions unless they are approved by the board and so we've had policy 76 24 many years and it lists out what the authorized deductions are because of some statutory changes it

184used to just say child support we had to add or other court ordered payments so that was mandated uh Mr lasur in meeting with the subcommittee did recommend that we add and allow staff to utilize the North Carolina 457 plan which is a retirement plan and Mr lesour is prepared to answer any questions obviously that the board would have about these um I did share with the subcommittee but it says a new 12-month pay option for 10 and 11 month employees this has been in the works for quite a while I remember when it first they started talking about even doing it Mr lasur and I had talked about it and he was ready to go the minute that it was time to flip that switch so we have been offering that option to our

185employee 10 and 11 month employees didn't miss a beat um even though the state stopped doing it Mr lesour and his team made sure that SECU and other financial institutions were able to meet the needs of our employees so um so I think I gave you a shout out earlier Paul and I want to give you another one shout out to mrsor and his team for being on top of that um the other change again is just I think we kind of combine some language and just cleaned up some language basically um so again these were all recommended by Mr lasur as payroll deductions and presented to the subcommittee next slide please and I am happy to entertain any questions that anyone may have thank you Mr Giovanni do we have any questions from our

186board no questions just thank you for explaining the different policy changes and updates that happen and also for giving Mr lasora shout out it's uh definitely some Progressive work happening to staying above the curve thank you yes board member Travis thank you for all this work and I was going to note that I particularly appreciate the um gender-neutral language and the person first language so um that was uh good to see I had a question about policy 4120 um top of Page Three three of five for that policy I was just wondering this wasn't a change but it refers to students enrolled in uh on the last day of school for the 2006 uh 07 school year it's referring to you know two thousand six seven two thousand seven two thousand seven eight I was

187just wondering why those dates Now give me a moment okay so I'm gonna have to Buy is this the top of page seven of 23 in that document yes yeah so those refer to changes that were made in the statutory definitions and the statute had those originally had those dates as to when that new definition was affected thank you and those children would still be enrolled as well from that school year it seems like it's old but like my kid was just born in 2004 and she just graduated so okay I think that's what it is so you still they're still need to be we still need that definition that'll age out that definitional age out and then the School Board Association will update that language okay okay Annie yes board member Rogers thank you

188for this update um I'm thinking about to the committee meeting are we still looking at 75 40 also of Statewide employees being able to share my bad no no I was um so what I was saying like I think I did just didn't include like I'd include everything in the PowerPoint so it is listed in the prices uh but thank you for bringing that up that was my day um because it is important that we clarify for our employees when we're messing with their shared leave right and so thank you um the policy 7540 voluntary shared leave it expands who can donate and receive voluntary shared leave previously our policy just listed out employees and we added and you can see this in the track changes in the binder that's in board dots for um

189but what it says is and it adds other authorized individuals and we did get some clarity from Mr lesour and um that that would include possibly other state employees and not just DPS employees or other School Employees so it doesn't it expands um who can donate leave to our employees that um need it and who can receive leave from our employees that donate it so thank you no thank you any additional comments no okay I do iPhone I'm so sorry I just um I just want to clarify policy is 57 and 5071 that is statute the board's statutory required to adopt the state records retention policies so the only change in that is a legal reference but the statute does require that you vote either through consent or through a motion at some point um

190to recognize that you're going to follow the North Carolina cultural resource records retention mandates that's good to know thank you thank you very much I um I can already yeah I know I know I know of some some reasons many reasons why this is very important um we have uh that was our chief of staff policy updates and if there are one more comment yeah or just a question uh on the prices they're listed for information or discussion do we need a motion though for first reading on these yes I would um a motion for um to move them for second reading or consent I think I shared that with the subcommittee or consent would be um great we want to move for consent all right can I get a motion move approval of the

191policies as presented for our consent agenda on October 20th that sounds fun second it's been properly moved and seconded how are you voting I I any names okay all right it's been moved in the seconded and voted on so we're gonna move on to our next item which is um operation services and we have an Esser funding update good afternoon everyone um joined by Mr Frederick Davis and he's going to walk us through the presentation and give you an update on how we're spending our Esther funds for Building Services good evening uh Board of Education Dr mabinga I'm going to give you a quick update of uh where we are today if you remember not so long ago in December of 2020 we received these federal funds to help uh with the covert relief uh

192initially uh the district disbursed it into academic Services into operations and we started the journey in 2021 with some quick wins for the district so if you remember we made sure we changed out some of our internal filters to Merv 13 to help with import passages pathogens as well as your member on the Outdoor Learning as well as the uh humidifiers that we installed in most of our large Gathering spaces such as the cafeterias and in an outdoor eating if you would bring up the slide please so I'm going to give you some updates today on where we are and the path forward to making sure that we spend these funds efficiently and effectively next slide please and so uh after 2021 we had those small but effective wins we did some strategic planning to

193make sure that we strategize and make sure that we devise These funds or distribute These funds and operations equitably and so the first year was really our planning where we had a third party come in and do an internal audit of most of our Building Systems boilers chillers controls air handling units that gave us a road map of how we wanted to delineate the funds that we had remaining and we broke it up into three buckets so the three buckets were HVAC Outdoor Learning and then some contactless bottle fillers a part of the HVAC was looking at ways we can use this fund for preventative maintenance as we continue to move through operations we found that we've been more reactionary instead of preventive and so we thought that this additional funding would help us curve

194some of the issues that we had experiencing prior to coven and so we changed all of our buildings to Merv 13. we then began going to schools that had water fan coil units on cleaning some of those throughout this District the summer of 2021. we are currently in the planning stages of more of a major equipment Replacements boilers chillers as well as air handlers as well as we are still strategizing for controls which allows us to quickly communicate to systems at our remote office at Hamlin Road to better serve staff and students we are currently you'll see in some later slides uh a good bit of ways on our Outdoor Learning classrooms but most staff has seen and are very excited about that as well as we've already uh encumbered our water bottle fillers they're

195on-site at Hamlin so we're going through the procurement process to get contractors to start to install those at the elementary school level first priority because we've had some issues with students being able to utilize cups and so we thought that having contactless bottle fillers would help with that next slide please so uh as I just spoke about all the work that we're doing with the Essa funds of course we still have our other Capital needs and capital planning that we're doing and so this board approved us to negotiate project management program Management Services uh with those three buckets and so as you see here the chase is uh project managing the HVAC projects Cummings has been taking on the Outdoor Learning and Kate Services uh as managing our bottle filler projects next slide please so

196we uh had a little over three 34 million broken in two pots uh those were critical into when the funding had to be spent and as today we have over 9 million that has been spent and more encumbered um our cycle is conceptual first a planning uh then we start the execution and construction and then we start to Monitor and we close out those projects we feel very confident uh that we will be able to spend all of this money by the dates that are before you today um some may think that a lack of activity means that we're not working but as we continue to mitigate these labor and material shortages we've done a good job planning in the Forefront and and covering some of those materials that have long lead items so we

197feel very confident that we will be able to utilize the 34 million effectively next slide please so here's a couple of images of course uh two schools currently uh are underway and receiving new boilers uh Gibson's and Southwest we didn't have any pretty pictures of that but we know that the thermal Comfort level would be great as well as all of us seeing all of us have seen bottle fillers so we didn't have those pictures but what we wanted to Showcase is some of the tremendous work in the Outdoor Learning classrooms that are going on uh in the district this has four but to date we have two also additional that have just been going on Watts and I think uh get things started but we are moving very efficiently to get those outdoor classrooms

198at the elementary school first and then middle and high school next slide foreign sorry for the small print but we have strategically planned out how we're going to encumber and spend that money over the next two years and so again with the work of Mr Paul Lasorda was getting a lot of Kudos today we're making sure that we are being financially and fiscally responsible as part of our strategic plan here in the district next slide please and with that I'll take any questions that you may have forward any any comments questions I want to say thank you all first we you know is unprecedented that school systems receive this much Federal money and I think we were really smart and strategic about how we can use this to help the operations of our schools like

199you said you might not have a pretty picture of boilers and chillers but that's how we keep the school building running and the learning environment comfortable for all um just one question I've seen a lot of the pictures of the elementary school outdoor classrooms through the middle and high school look similar or do they like age up a little bit um so no it's multi-age um so they're tree-like stumps so same footprint at each of the sites we did that so that it would be easy to fulfill the need of having outdoor spaces for all our sites so they will look similar just in a different placement on the school grounds thank you it's been wonderful to see all the pictures online of folks already using these spaces so thank you all for your work

200any other additional comments uh board member buyer just um like Miss Umstead deep gratitude and especially for keeping you here so late with us um these are incredible projects it is great to see them coming to fruition um 26 million dollars in HVAC alone is money that the county is not having to put into those that are that are repairs that are overdue right upgrades and repairs and we've been trying to do digital controls so long and they're so so expensive so we're just so appreciative of that work um I was lucky enough to attend a farm tour today um and we one of our stops was Aaron Harris and children were Outdoors learning and I'm so glad that we have Outdoor Learning as a priority moving forward one good thing that came out of

201this pandemic is some of these projects that you're you're shepherding through and I'm so appreciative of your leadership um I look forward to to us continuing to demonstrate with great photographs like this exactly the work that is being done in our community and being done on budget on time and continuing to move all this forward and I look forward to more people to help do that because it's a lot a lot a lot of work um when we have projects of this significance all in every school water bottle fillers ever all of it so thank you so much we're so grateful I'm just checking to see if there's any other comments we're good okay um the work that you do is so vital for our students and we are so grateful for all the upgrades

202I know that um our students and faculty appreciate it so much so thank you all thank you so much so we're going to move on to the next um item and it's our summary of follow-up items we are at our last item for this Open Session before we go into closed session foreign I have one full page of notes from our Dr Hardy Board item um and so um in summary we did receive um lots of discussion but also some good guidance really appreciate the rich conversation as the board grapples with all the responses and comments that they heard from our community today we'll be working closely with Dr marbinga to make sure and our our chair and vice chair to make sure that we outline not only an opportunity to bring you back a

203timeline but also to work with Council in terms of updating our guidelines and being very thoughtful in terms of the other items you mentioned regarding task force professional learning for board members senior leadership staff Etc Miss Giovanni will be working with the subcommittee to bring back one of our Child Nutrition policies that was not able to bring bring to come to the board today so that will be forthcoming to you so those are the the items I have Dr Monk gave me the thumbs up so thank you um thank you for giving us a summary a follow-up items and so I will entertain a motion to move into closed session if we go into the closed session for the reason stated on the agenda okay get a second and move them properly second seconded um

204and um now we're going to vote I all those in favor say aye aye wonderful okay um we are now moving into closed session and I get to do this not yet not yet not yet oh gosh the team I'm not adjourned okay yes we're not a journey oh I gotta wait till close session yes and then I'll do it thank you all so much all right we are now in Open Session Dr mabinga well members I'm here to seek your approval for the Personnel report as discussed at a closed session with approval of the Personnel report dated October 6 2022 second it's been moved by Ms buyer seconded by Miss Chavez any other discussion all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously that we

205we are adjourned