001good evening everyone good evening good evening everyone all right the durham public schools board of education monthly meeting is now in session at this time we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who's joining us those in person and online the purpose of this meeting is to inform our parents staff and constituents about the work aligned with our mission to embrace educate and empower every student to innovate to serve and to lead the interpreters for tonight are martha romo iguillas and consuela norden thank you all again for taking the time to join us the next item on our agenda is a moment of silence and we'll begin thank you the next item on our agenda is celebrations mr sutter good evening madam chair and members of the board dr mabinga it is my pleasure
002to bring to you if i can um mangle the grammar a little bit a lot of of the years tonight over the over the year we have been honored to show our appreciation and commendation for various educators and employees of durham public schools who have distinguished themselves as leaders uh and and representatives of the district and tonight we are bringing you as many of them as were available because i wanted to have a moment where we could celebrate teachers and instructional assistants and bus drivers and everyone else who do so much for durham public schools some of them a couple of them have been here before some of them have already received their spark pins but we wanted this to be a moment of solidarity and celebration and for that reason we be we begin
003with our of the years from the durham public schools department of transportation i would like to invite joe harris and our drivers and monitors and mechanics who have distinguished themselves this year mr harris good evening madam chair dr mubinga board members distinguished guests i'd like to thank you for this opportunity today to be able to bring to you the men and women that transport our students that monitor take care of our special needs students and the mechanics that actually work on our school buses and our vehicles for durham public schools these employees have been extraordinary during this school year they have done various things to help contribute to the well-being of our students here at durham public schools ladies and gentlemen i'm not going to take a lot of time and i know we have
004to get going but i shall bring forth to you from the southeast division prop of the year mr larry dixon driver of the year from the southwest division ms felicia roberts monitor of the year from our south west division ms ernestine lane our driver of the year from the northern division mr jeffrey smith our bus monitor of the year from the northern division michelle mcdonald [Applause] our mechanic for our fleet operations mr shelton mckeeson and our monitor of the year from the southeast division this is troy patterson hopkins [Applause] and i thank you for your time and these are the employees bus monitors bus driver mechanics of the year for durham public schools [Applause] so i would like to invite our transportation superstars to walk the red carpet uh receive a handshake or a fist
005bump as is their want from our board members and superintendent and if you could stay against the wall over there because we will take a group picture at the end of all of our of the years mr harris thank you very much our next rep our next honoree comes to us from parkwood elementary school and she is the dps instructional assistant of the year as aaron morrison thrives on data and community engagement with the understanding that both can make a tremendous difference in the trajectory of the lives of children aaron asserts that instructional assistants are a huge asset to all schools and without them most schools would not be able to function as seamlessly we are welcoming faces that students see every day in their classrooms and in the hallways and we nurture and support
006their growth ms morrison received her award and her spark pin at parkwood but she hasn't had the chance to see you yet ms mars congratulations i am now pleased to present to you our media coordinator of the year from wg pearson elementary bavana ramachandran affectionately called mrs r she persists in making sure that students get the information they need to be enlightened and educated after all everyone is a learner and learning is perpetual she says mrs r says i believe that the school media centers are the backbone of an educational system in a democratic society i am here to provide resources to teachers students and the learning community from an unbiased perspective now i have i have a spark pin for mrs r but i also have the honor of bringing forward low dewalt with
007a special quick presentation good evening we honored miss r at w.g pearson but we also wanted to make sure that she was able to get her ward in front of y'all so i will present this to mrs r our next of the year has been with you before but we wanted to bring her back with the group and that is tamiko piggy burton's school social worker of the year for durham public schools she is passionate about helping children and families succeed and reach their fullest potential by working collaboratively with the community to lay a strong foundation for the students at burton and she brings her years in child welfare and as a behavioral health specialist and pediatric primary care to her school social work welcome back thank you and we're glad that you could be
008here with all of our other of the years and finally tonight it is my great honor to present to you the durham public schools teacher of the year mr william hill from little river k-8 school [Applause] mr hill says that he loves forming relationships that create conditions conducive for learning he also believes in returning the mentorship that he was afforded as a young teacher the support he received helped shape him into the teacher he is today he says my goal as a teacher is to create an environment where my students feel seen and valued as individuals so they feel engaged and empowered as learners william hill the durham public schools teacher of the year and probably the regional teacher of the year too board members before we move on to our spark awards tonight i'd
009like to get a group group picture i would like our of the years to come down to the red carpet and fill in i would like our board members to stand from the dais i think somebody's mother is calling and tony will take a uh tony will take a wide angle picture of the entire group you [Applause] each one of these outstanding durham public schools educators or staff members received a spark pin the spark pin is our symbol of excellence in leadership not just among employees but among community members and students themselves we have three spark pins that we are presenting tonight to durham public schools employees and the for the first one i am going to call on mr matthew palmer wherever he may be all right thank you mr settereth much to celebrate
010this evening one of the things that we want to celebrate is excellence going the extra mile and a commitment to our students in our community with us this evening is one of our more recent durham public schools employee editions who since the very first day has truly hit the ground running mr vitale radzki who's with us as a school planner for durham public schools is an exemplification of many of the values that we talk about here in durham mr vadsky since starting in january of this year has led us through enrollment projections for this coming year as well as our work over the next five and 10 years he's geo-located every student in durham county but that's not all mr ratsky is the kind of employee that you almost have to pull back on and
011say hold on just a sec he's come to every community engagement meeting this year he shows up everywhere he is beyond just a school planner the assistant wrestling coach at northern high school he is beyond that a doctoral candidate at unc chapel hill in the school of education leadership and policy he is beyond that a tutor advisor and student advocate at student u he is beyond that helping ukrainian students match with advanced and secondary learning opportunities in europe and the united states natalie has proven himself not just as a data analyst but as a true planner a problem solver looking to take information and inform knowledge and action he is an essential part of our team and reflects much of what durham stands for please join me in congratulating and celebrating vitale radzki with the
012presentation of the spark pin for our next spark pin presentation i would like to call on chip sutter chief communications officer of durham public schools our spark pins are for work above and beyond the call for not only what we do in our job descriptions but what we do to ensure that durham public schools is everything we mean for it to be for the first time in three years we were able to celebrate our teachers of the year and our retirees at in-person receptions uh this year and you don't know what you forget until you have to do something again after three years and i would like to invite sheena cooper our director of marketing and community engagement into the board room he had no idea this was happening her leadership in making the teacher
013of the year event go off without a hitch her outstanding support of the retirement events her dedication to making sure that our people are recognized and appreciated and taken care of um is a great gift to durham public schools beyond all of the work that she does telling our story um and uh engaging our community so i would like to give my trusted number two in the office of community uh the office of public affairs sorry a little choked up there uh a spark pin in recognition of the leadership that she has been showing at durham public schools and our final spark pin of the evening comes from me and from deputy superintendent nikia hardy and i would like to invite pablo friedman into the room please eventually and while pablo while pablo is on
014his way let me share a little bit about uh why dr hardy and i wish to present him with the spark pen pablo is the director of the multilingual resource center he leads a team of dedicated individuals who are bound and determined that no matter what your home language is you are a part of our community that is his that is his work and then there's his additional work that he has been doing for us very much in this last year pablo has been a community engagement champion not only for our latinx community but for all of our families in durham public schools he played a key role in supporting our efforts to ensure that our families are going to be served with transportation well and efficiently this coming year he helped make arrangements and
015connections with organizations that sheena and i set at tables for to share information about growing together and about transportation about other matters pablo's job description is leading a multilingual resource center but he is a resource unto himself for communities as a constant voice on behalf of the marginalized the historically marginalized the difficult to engage the difficult to find online all of those uh people that we serve so pablo we'd like you to take this spark pin as a recognition of your leadership in durham public schools it feels weird doing celebrations without a student and a laptop to give away we'll get back to that next year thank you very much for your attention that concludes our celebrations members here with us uh one of them has been around for eight years then the other one
016for two years mr lee it's been a pleasure working with you you were the chairperson when i came on board i'm really pleased for everything that we've been able to accomplish together i love all my board they've been very supportive um finishing up my fifth year but i'll say this today's about mr lee and mr revvin mr lee if i can describe you our working relationship you've been able to stretch me to the point where i'm still here today you are consistent and you're a fair person those are two words that i'll describe about you consistent and fair you'll be missed you've been impacted this community in a very very positive way when i came around we had a couple schools that they were about to be taking over and i've seen you even before
017i applied for the job how vocal uh aggressive you were involved to make sure that uh our school are staying here so you have challenged me to make sure that we're not keeping status quo that we're moving our district forward and you're always proud of durham public schools thank you for all you've done i can go on and on i know a chairperson may say a few other things as well maybe your colleagues will be able to say things as well with that i'm going to ask our chairperson it's amsterdam to come and present you just a talking of our appreciation for everything that you've done for our staff as well as our 32 000 students you'll be missed and i know you'll be around mike we are grateful for your leadership you were the
018chair when i joined the board and i want to say that you created a space that i felt like i could be myself bring my ideas to the board and you also have led us with fierce passion in every decision that we needed to make whether i was fighting for schools to make sure they had local control ensuring our students were able to get back to in-person learning or whether you were challenging us to make sure we're not maintaining the status quo you always kept our students at the center and i'm going to miss you on our board your perspectives and everything that you bring we've got a plaque here that i'm going to read out presented to mike lee with gratitude on behalf of the children families and educators of durham for your leadership
019compassion and steadfast advocacy for public education i know that you may not be sitting on the dice with us but you have an opportunity to reach out and still engage and advocate on behalf of durham public schools i know you'll continue to be a champion for our public school system and i appreciate you for them board members have also prepared a couple words to say i'm gonna start on this end mr sears thank you miss homestead mr lee uh it's been an honor to serve with you you and i came on at the same time and i've enjoyed our eight years of service together um the three things i think i admire most about you is that you the first is that you care and you demonstrate that in every meeting as you speak and
020as you do your work you care about not only your own family but all the families dura public schools part of that is that number two i think you've led as a human you've always talked to us about what it means for your family what it means for your neighborhood what it means for our schools and i respect that very much um and then finally and and difficultly i think you've modeled for us how to engage with our community over the years it has not all been ups it has not all been downs and uh your engagement with our community has been a model for us so thank you and i know we'll keep in touch mr lee mike well you were here um as serving as chair when i came on in 2020 one
021of the hardest times i think to ever be in service your leadership has brought us steadfast steadfast and calm during this difficult time helping me to get grounded and your words of wisdom was also helping me to stay centered to know what that north star was and i appreciate those words that you've given me being in service with you i have seen your passion which is evident and how much you love our schools the children and the staff you have always been so thoughtful and informed and i do appreciate how you've been available to step back and see the big picture but also to lean in and analyze the details in your thoughtfulness in every decision that was made and how you led this team you have given eight years that has truly been a
022sacrifice that i don't know that anyone could truly understand until they're in this seat and our children are better for it thank you mr lee mike lee brotherly i've i've known you as a as a colleague as a friend as a brother uh there are very few people in this world that i have as much in common with as i do with you we've you know both been from military families hbcus in the band i mean you you've done it you had three kids so i decided to follow up with that as well uh i i just have a great deal of respect for you you know you've you've always been one of those people that i could always pick up the phone and just ask for for you to lend some wisdom on me
023and i've always kept my ears open so i hope you continue that i hope you continue on the track that you're on i can't wait to see you graduate and become dr lee and i just look forward to following you and your family as you continue so thank you for all that you've continued to do for darren well mike it has been an amazing eight years that picture from election night with you and matt and cendola is one of my favorites i will always cherish it i know when you came on this board omega used to sit here and i know she gave you boxes and boxes of her old files because you were taking on that role and you took it on with such love and respect and care that she started making you
024fried chicken right i mean that's how you come into a space as a person with kindness as a person with heart and care for this community and that's always how you frame this work um we've been through just the one pandemic but the superintendent searches and and you know really complicated stuff that folks don't get to see in closed session that you have always been wise you have always been level and you have always been caring about this community you are an amazing leader leader mike lee will always be your handle on social media and i look forward to finding ways that you will continue to engage in this community you're not going anywhere you're just doing this work in different ways but i appreciate the role you said as a father i appreciate the
025the care you have for all children in this community and it always comes through with your decisions you will be missed but um i look forward to seeing what you do next thank you it's really it's been two years and um i just have to say that this board the things that we have done as a board you've been a part a big part of that as well i commend you in your service all of us who are here have our why and i've never questioned what your why is you know i think that you know each of us brings different skill sets talents experiences um it is it is part of governance in terms of all coming together and using um our best judgment and decisions um i have really enjoyed getting to work
026with this board uh we have done great things i can list them but uh i have also just admired just a level of making decisions and knowing why you're making those decisions and not catering to anything else you're here to do what you're gonna do um that's something else that you know is worthy of com of commending but also um just the ways you lift up your family it is something that a lot of people don't get to see on this board the face is behind us we're here because people are looking for us and they're supporting us and i want to send just all the gratitude to your family your wife and your children just all the ways that we wouldn't be able to do this work without them and so i just appreciate
027and have always you know just really enjoyed just the ways that you show up and you show up with your family with all the people who allow you to do what you do and also you know just having that boldness to do what you do it's something that i i can understand as somebody who hasn't you know advocacy in my heart all the way so thank you so much i was not expecting everyone to say something i was strong into that point i blame you all if i um struggle making it through this so today i've come to the end of my journey as a public servant for durham public schools i've been waiting for it to hit me you know walking in this building for the last time as a board member kind of
028did it but actually standing up there it really came to fruition uh my heart is full dps has been a large part of my life for over the last eight years there were times where i couldn't tell where dps ended in mike lee started i built so many relationships here and even lost one of my dps cornerstones in sylvia there are people who i feel like they're family and i would literally speak to them almost every single day and sometimes just come up here to chat on my days off there's so many things we accomplished in the last eight years that the district is almost unrecognizable from the time i started we have a new logo and i just want everyone to remember what it means we're the middle circle it's not really a circle
029it's just where are the lines end and each one of those lines are a different length when the first the first version of that logo was a circle it was just a circle all of the outside it was called they're called lollipops they were all the same size i said no that looks like a charter school or a private school we need this one because all of our kids are different distances from the from the center and we meet our kids where they are that's what that says to me so each time you see that logo that spark pen i want you guys to remember that as we reach our kids where they are no matter where they are we have an entirely new administration all performance metrics have increased we've developed deeper relationships with
030the county we followed science i can list everything but i can't list everything but i'm proud of what we did what we're able to accomplish and that's why my heart is settled with stepping away from the board i can honestly say i'm leaving dps better than when i found it and i'm proud of what it became to the continuing board members it's been a pleasure to serve with each one of you i don't know we don't always see eye to eye but we all want what's best for our children stay your course make decisions as a board not individuals lean on each other but most of all know that you have six other people dealing with the same stresses so talk to each other you all bring unique experiences to the board use that um
031as a benefit not a detractor you cannot be paralyzed of making hard decisions because you're blinded by a few vocal a vocal few the inconvenience of just a few voices cannot replace the progress of an entire district you must take the engagement as input but stay focused on the work for the other for over 32 000 students you serve every moment of your existence as board members know who you are who know who you're hearing from seek the voices and don't let the pr the privileged few uh the privilege of talking um the privileged few that who are speaking and make sure you find the ones who can't come to speak at the board meetings to the new board members i'm sure you're watching find your center this is what giovanni was saying this is
032my advice find what you know is your truth your understanding of right or wrong your definitions are right or wrong will be tested and you will find yourself questioning uh if what you thought was uh was actually right governing is hard it's easy to sit back outside of the arena and criticize but you step into the arena you are now stepping into the arena you now take responsibility of lives in the future of durham county you will never be right and will be criticized by 50 of durham no matter what decision you make activism is easy governing is hard you are now governing you are now in the arena theodore roosevelt spoke of the man in the arena which is an import which is important for you all and the continuing board members to remember
033the quote is this is not the critic who counts not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better done them better the credit belongs to the man who was actually in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood who strives violently who airs who come short again and again because there is no effort without error or sure and shortcoming but who does actually strive to do the deeds who knows great enthusiasms the great devotions who spends himself in a worthy cause who at best knows the end of the end the triumph of high achievement and who at worst if he fails at least he fails by daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold timid
034souls who neither know victory nor defeat to the administration i cannot be more proud of the administration we were able to build here at dps dr mabenga dr benga was my best decision on the board we made it as a board the success we're having is a direct reflection of the cabinet he has built i'm excited to see how dps prospers in the future under his leadership and based on what you've done in the past the future is bright county commissioners i thank you for your ability to increase funding for schools started in 2016. when the new board of county commissioners were elected we immediately saw improvements when we were able to fund the programs we had been requesting for years i want you to remember something i've said from my first campaign election right
035election campaign a healthy and thriving community is a direct reflection of the performance of its public school system not private schools not charter schools when the school system is succeeding and improving the community is improving and growing you can draw a straight line from the performance of any county or city to the performance of their public school system go back to 2016 when we started being funded closer to our ask dps started improving and look at durham now district one thank you for trusting me as your representative for the last eight years it has been one of the honors of my life to represent you in every decision i've made to those who are in my circle who advised me who i could call on to understand the impacts of all of my decisions who
036called me to give me feedback positive and negative who trusted me with their children families i thank you to my family when i started on the board nicholas was seven peyton and cameron were three for the most part you've only known me as board member and daddy after june 30th i'm just daddy again you all were my why in running for the board although i had to learn that my decisions couldn't only be focused on you each uh each of you taught me how to be a better board member because you'd help me see the challenges all families face in our education system i miss many of your games and school programs i couldn't be there for some homework nights and when we were searching for a superintendent i wasn't there at all i know
037you all would gladly allow me to continue my service on the board but now it's time for me to be at home it's just daddy to my wife aaron you've had to hold things down as i pursued my ambitions to be a community leader you were my loudest cheerleader and pushed me when i needed it you sat and listened as i blew off steam for hours and you sat quietly with me when those frustrations turned to tears you always knew what to say you always were there and without your support there's no way i could have been i could have been chairman for four years and vice chair for two i could not have been here nor seen the successes i have people love to say behind every successful man there's a strong woman i
038disagree you are next to me you are with me and although it is me here at my last meeting as a board of education member this is your celebration too there's no way for me to thank you for your service to durham you didn't ask for it but you held it up like the queen you are thank you for your love and support and thank you for all you have done in the past eight last eight years thank you all for allowing me this time fred revan the third [Music] you have served our board for two years very proud of your contribution you're one of the few board members that's really graduated from durham public schools and i can say i'm really proud to see your engagement your level of thinking that we did with
039the world as a dps to prepare you for this world it's been really short but your contribution has been really amazing because you've been able to serve during the pandemic you guys have to make some tough decisions in the last two years and you always bring a different angle bringing your math and science background to be able to challenge us in a different way thank you for the relationship that we had and thank you for your contribution as well madam chair thank you mr raven you joined our board in an unprecedented time by swearing in virtually and meeting virtually for a whole year as we navigated decisions that none of us really were prepared for i appreciate the different perspective that you always brought our team is only as strong as each of us as
040individuals and i think your unique strengths and talents and engagement was what helped us be able to navigate the last two years i also appreciate your love for durham i know it's deep it's family oriented it's in your blood and in your bones and so when you make decisions you talk about not only how the history has got us where we need to be but what it's going to be like for your children who are the future generations of durham so i appreciate you and your service i know you have served durham before during public schools before you were a board member on the budget advisory committee and on um durham's d snack sorry special needs advisory committee i hope you continue to serve like i said with mike you may not be on the
041dice with us but we hope that you continue to engage with us and i know you'll continue to be a champion for durham public schools so we also have a plaque for you come on down and it reads similar presented to frederick xavier raven iii with gratitude on behalf of the children families and educators of durham for your leadership compassion and steadfast advocacy for public school education during public schools 2022 i'll give the board members a chance to speak and then you're welcome to share some words right here mr raven as ms umstead indicated um you've had a long arc with durham public schools and i hope that this is only one point in that arc and that it that it continues thank you for your service both before this time on the budget advisor
042committee in other ways um your public comments before being a board member your service during this time and for what is to come i've appreciated very much your energy and enthusiasm for this work i've truly appreciated that um and i know that this is um a community experience and giving back for you given your your history in this community and also as a father as you and your family traverse the school system now i wish you the best and look forward to your continued engagement and friendship thank you mr fred raven i'm gonna take my glasses off because you're fogging up um i just have so much gratitude for you two years of really hard decisions two years of us being humans on this board making we're making no pretenses we are human in all
043the ways if we were in a classroom you'd be the classmate that would make sure everybody has a piece of sandwich you would share your sandwich if their kid was being bullied you'd be the one to be right there and say don't lose the faith even if it's a whisper you are one of the best human beings when people have not understood which happens people misunderstand this all the time they question motives they question our integrity like they even make mistakes about you know maybe details that they didn't get all correct i have watched you navigate complexity i have watched you navigate what it means to be a person who has been you know questioned and questions like so many things that have happened and you stay steadfast your groundedness is very evident and your
044kindness has also been evident you're the first to congratulate people you're the first to you know check on everybody make sure folks are okay i've been a recipient of of that and so i am so grateful for your service thank you for being as everything that has been shared about you somebody who's dependable bright you know in in all the ways and and not afraid to show what you know because at this point this is what we have to bring to the to the table we have to bring what we know and that is our strength you know to to be able to bring our skills um and your skills sir are are pretty extensive and i also want to thank your family and uh congratulations on your beautiful baby you know we've we've been
045with you you've shared the joy you've sent postcards to our home with your baby picture you know your family's pictures um just those details you know it's it's there's so much in terms of the care that you have and i really look forward to continuing to work with you and um as our chair said you know whether it's not at this particular table you you are the table you know like this table extends long um it's not just us who are here sitting here but it's also it extends into the community stakeholders and and people who have wisdom and your wisdom is your wisdom is very greatly appreciated thank you so much it has been such a pleasure getting to know you i truly have appreciated your thoughtfulness and the innovation that you brought to
046this district in this time during this time for such a time as this your questions insight and sincere dynamic thinking has created a lasting impact for this board and it will never be the same being a dermite rooted in durham and now raising children in durham cannot be taken lightly or for granted in the way that you have served and the way that you thought about processes and the way that this district should move forward i will say for a while for now but i know that we will continue to work for the betterment for our youth to have a better quality of life thank you fred sometimes it feels like up here that we should expand this table and have more folks at the table but two i want to start with talking about
047is mr unruh and mr cason who were both beloved members of this board as well and i first got to know you when mr unruh appointed you to the budget advisory committee and i think emily chavez was also on that group that was hard tedious work that folks didn't really want to do at the end of a long day but you were willing to do it and lend your critical eye and your expertise to that really important work and um then mr cason stepped away and those are mighty big shoes to fill in this community talk about rooted in durham and you were amongst numerous applicants and you cho we chose you and you brought this board together as we continued to to lead together through this pandemic you hit the ground running you didn't
048miss a beat and you just jumped right in to this really um glorious but tedious work and your heart for durham is always evident in every decision that you make everyone that meets you just comes out with such admiration for your kindness and your warmth and i can't believe you you came to all those meetings in person with a newborn you needed a paternity leave from board duties but we didn't even give you one i know you will continue to serve i know you will continue to to remind us of our children with special needs and the strengths that they bring and the ways that we need to to nurture them and you know deep appreciation to your wife and family for sharing you with us in all the ways that that you have served
049and will continue to serve and lead in durham thank you brother raven um when mr cason stepped down you were the first person that come to my mind i remember i was in baton rouge we had it was a virtual meeting and i called you to verify what district you lived in you were the first person and i knew that the process that we were putting forward the thorough process that you would shine through i didn't have to i didn't you know advocate anything like that because i knew your passion your love for durham and the fact that you ran for a school board previously would shine through um your achievement shines through your values of kappa alpha phi shine through i had to i had to say that y'all i had to say kappa
050alpha psi till the day we die but um i am so proud of what you brought to the board you brought things that in my eight years i hadn't seen the analysis of maps the analysis of the budget the questions the deep dives when we had our two by twos a lot of times me and you were on the same two by two and you know sometimes i would feel inadequate because of the questions you were asking i i just didn't have deep questions like that i didn't know how you came to that um but i learned so much from you in these last two years and and how to approach issues and stepping forward you know in the in the face of winds uh headwinds so i appreciate everything that you've done on this
051board the culture that you've brought to this board and i do believe that's going to shine through after after tonight so thank you so much i really appreciate you well i almost had to get that tissue for a second um so first i'll start um sam i know you're watching um so hold emerson close to the camera just have her wave at me i know she's grinning um thank you sam uh thank you carter parker emerson almost almost uh thank you to my mom to my dad no longer with us my sister she's the crybaby um you know i this is top five top five moments of my life um i've gotten married and i've had three kids so you all can figure out where where this or this falls um to be able to
052represent durham it is it is an amazing privilege um it's an honor to be able to feel like you've provided something positive right i think that everybody has a quest in life and you're not sure what that quest is until you at least get halfway through right because we're all playing it by ear and and while you're playing it by ear you're doing the best you can sometime you're you're treading water sometimes you feel like you're drowning but you're you're still in your path you're still trying to get to that to that other side of the boat it was a great feeling to to be appointed to this board but it does not compare to this moment right here um being able to be in this room being able to be in this space it
053is it is something else and as you all said i hope hopefully you all don't mind i'll be an unofficial ambassador whether you all like it or not i'm going to be an official ambassador um my daughter she won't be graduating until 2040 so i'll be here for a while uh so i have a few more graduations to see and i i mean you know i i made my mom proud like that that that's one of the the boxes that i get to check off the list like everybody has their goal right um my wife married me so i know she was already proud of me she she had no choice she chose me um but but to be able to do that and and you know i have multiple siblings but my sister don
054nicki everybody calls her she's the one that i'm closest with she's the one that when we were young she would be on one side of her door i'd be one side of my door we you're not don't look at me you know but but through this process she has been there every single day helping with kids because when you have two full-time parents that are that are working full-time and then one also wants to do extracurricular activities like who who does that who does that and and she was there every step of the way so this is a this is a thank you to to them but also to you all because i don't i don't think you all get the credit that you that you really deserve um when when i when i think
055of this place and i think it is for matt you were the sensei right and and i say sensei because he has been a in the classroom educator right in japan they truly give credit and appreciation to our teachers and no matter what is going on your perspective is one that i've almost never thought of and and i can i can always guarantee that i'm going to pick up something from that so so i thank you for that miss valudares you have uh you have a heart painted on you right it's evident it's it's evident and i've seen so much growth in you from the time that you started on the board your your your heart is pouring out and and i and i i've seen you i've seen you start to actually like put
056the parameters on that heart and and become more fluid in how you're explaining what needs need to be met and that's become evident um javalia lewis you are uh equity champion your goal is to make sure that everybody has what they deserve right to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to access and that that is so vital miss miss patina um said you are the acrobat because you have managed to balance the sport right you don't no matter what is going on you have managed to balance this board i don't think any board like this exists in in north carolina don't mind you weren't derm it's it's it's it's blue but even even within that there's always going to be different perspectives and you've done a masterful job of balancing that um miss buyer
057you are the chief advocate of durham if if there's anybody that i won't have in my back it's going to be you because you're not going to stop until you get what needs to be gotten and and everybody is appreciative of that and mr lee i've already given you your kudos i i mean i i just achievement right kappa preside um that that's you know we we had a goal um i think that we stayed focused on that goal and you know even even though we have so much in common our our positions weren't always the same but i think you and i both always understand that we have sometimes an unfair um necessity to have to speak through our thoughts so people understand our our perspective and that's that's just a reality of the
058world you just can't be in a seat sometimes we feel as though we have to remind people that we are deserving to be in this seat and and we have to make that go that extra mile just to make sure things are clear and dr mubenga you you are you are amazing um i think if you look at the strategic plan if if there's one thing that you could point at in dps that has made a world of difference it's the point of this because if something is important you will track it you will measure it and that's that's the rule for everything in life it's important to you you're gonna track it you're gonna measure it and that is how we're measuring our successes and our wins and and it's not all you know
059it's we're not batting a hundred right now but we're so close right i mean we've brought up so many schools we have so much more access to resources than was not there before not definitely not when i was here i mean i'm jealous i i i mean that i mean that i am jealous of these cte pathways that all of our students have access to the ability to have a college degree even before they leave high school that's amazing but we just have to always and i'll do this as the unofficial ambassador to always make sure that we advocate for that and we remind people day in and day out about this and and you know if you're not ready for a four-year university let's get you in durham tech because that's also another benefit
060coming from dps is being able to access that free education so thank you all again foreign and i believe that concludes our celebrations is that right mr sutter um thank you all i know that this was a little of an extended celebration time but it's you know important to give our folks the kudos while they are here to get them so from our bus drivers and bus monitors who we started out with who without them our district would not run to ending with acknowledging our board members and the service that they have provided for us for many many years that's important to take the time to make sure we honor our people so thank you all for joining us in that celebration the next item on our agenda is the superintendent's update but members last
061week was a phenomenal week for durham public schools from our four specialty high schools in may to last monday and tuesday in cameron indoor stadium approximately seniors took the next step into adulthood with all their rights and privileges as graduate of durham public schools and they will build and they will took with them more than 66 million dollars in scholarship offers [Applause] so that's a remarkable increase over the last two years and the further indication that the durham public school is reclaiming its place as a school district on the rise following the months of remote learning due to covet 19. as we're looking at preliminary data and reviewing outcomes with our principles i want you to know that we are definitely making progress in addressing the learning laws that came with the pandemic we are
062overcoming harmful effects of isolation and giving our students the attention they need we have been remediating accelerating and our students are responding it will still take time for the impact of kobe 19 to fully heal for our student but our teachers our counselors and support staff are among the best in north carolina and they are committed to our students our child-centered approach to teaching and learning i'm part of them and of our students i want to address some of the concerns that have been expressed to me by families following the tragedy in texas parents want to know that their children are safe in our schools and they often want to know details about our security practices details that need to be kept confidential to protect our students and staff we pray that our security measures
063will never be needed but hope is not a strategy and so we plan prepare and protect just this year dps earns more than 1.3 million dollars in grants to prevent school violence training caregivers training staff in social emotional learning preventing bullying and more as well as improving school security we have implemented access control technologies secure vegetables and door access controls we also have effective partnership with the office of durham county sheriff and durham and the durham police department with ongoing training and dialogue to ensure that our students are protected supported and respected state law enforcement agencies also increase their patrols in support of our schools through the end of this academic year we take our responsibilities to our student teachers and staff very seriously we know that everyone must step up to ensure our student
064remains safe it's about training investment in our facilities and partnership with law enforcement most of all it's about ensuring that our students and our community at large receive the support they need to prevent violence and build happy and healthy lives at home that is key to our mission in durham public schools finally board members i want to offer a clarifying statement about growing together proposal we are bringing tonight and about the future of dual language immersion in durham public school in response to questions that have been raised to us and to our board members when initially communicating changes to the magnet programs in a growing together proposal we oversimplify by describing the dli schools if of lakewood and bethesda as sun setting programs as if there were magnet programs however lakewood and bethesda are not
065magnet schools the dlr programs at the schools are only open to students who reside in designated boundary of those schools i consider the dlr programs at lakewood and bethesda to be school-based instructional programs designed and implemented for those particular school populations the schools may determine to continue to discontinue their dli programs based on the available school resources and needs currently the dli program cbps are only accessible to students will result in the lakewood but there's all southwest attendance areas by proposing to open five regional dli application school we are expanding access to families across durham county we have requested dli as an instructional program i hope this has been able to clarify some of the misunderstanding we had about bethesda and we had a lot of parents and advocates that came from that school to
066speak to our board thank you madam chair that's concluded my remarks thank you dr mabinga for the superintendent's update the next item on our agenda is agenda review and approval remove approval of the agenda as presented one i'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda item number 11a dps community safety and wellness task force we have the educator vacancy position and we do want to get that filled we have three applications to look at it just came to us as a board two days ago but i do want to make sure you all have time to speak with those candidates before we actually connect the vote and i just ask um look to move this to our next agenda item some motion to remove 11a from the agenda i would accept that as
067a friendly amendment is that what's in order mr attorney i it's okay i'll accept it how's that i just wanted to all right yeah i would amend uh yeah i would do that do that but do we need to we need to vote on the motion to amend and then vote on that we have a motion to amend on the floor do we have a second second the mood and property second any other discussion all those in favor for the motion to amend say aye aye any opposed passing unanimously and now we also have the original motion the now amended motion to remove item 11a from our agenda and move it to the next meeting all those in favor say aye aye any opposed please use the same sign passes unanimously so our agenda is
068approved the next item we have is board of education monthly meeting minutes may 19 2022 my movie approved them minutes from may 19 2022. got a second been moved and properly second any other discussion all those in favor say aye aye any opposed passes unanimously the next item on our agenda is general public comment i'm going to do a quick review of the rules as we get started first please state your name and if speaking for organization please state your name in the name of the organization second speakers are asked to present their comments in a specified time well a lot for three minutes this evening when the yellow light comes on on the podium you'll have one minute left to start winding up your remarks when the red light comes on it will beat
069and that indicates that your time is up complaints about named staff students or parents should not be voiced in open session however we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public education safety of students or to the operation of the school system finally board members will listen carefully and consider the comments but we do not engage in a discussion with speakers our first speaker is melissa perez and melissa will be followed by kim pope good evening good good evening madam chair board and dr mabega my name is melissa perez i'm the cultural and linguistic development specialist in the department of curriculum and instruction and i am an ally what i share with you tonight represents only myself the last time i was before you i spoke about the discrimination and bullying that
070i've witnessed students and staff who are members of the lgbtqia plus community experience over the last 16 years i've been employed by durham public schools i shared how as a teacher i witnessed students being picked on and bullied to the extent of severe depression and even attempted suicide i spoke about the importance of putting a board approved policy in place to protect dps staff and students that are members of this community i was very general in my statements but tonight i'd like to share the story of a particular child which is similar to many students in our dps population there was a boy who all throughout his childhood was bullied harassed and physically abused to the point that he was afraid to go to school this is also a contributing factor to the loss of
071our students in dps as they're taking out and attending private and charter schools these discriminatory and abusive behaviors against this boy bought him to a point of severe depression suicidal ideation self-harm and even attempted suicide unfortunately at home life wasn't much better because he knew he couldn't come out to his parents because he was very fearful what would happen if they found out he was gay fortunately this boy had one family member a cousin who was 14 years older who was the only person in his family that he felt safe with and which he could confide his cousin supported him and was always there for him throughout these difficulties of his childhood and when he was 17 enrolled in paramedic school full-time his mother found out he was gay and threw him out of the
072house the boy left the house and began to cry called the cousin and the cousin began to support him and now he's 28 years old that cousin was my cousin that older cousin who supported him was me this is my why we all have a why so i would like to ask you because your voice has much more weight than mine ever could in this community i asked our board will you use your voice to support our lgbtqia plus students and pass a policy to protect them so that they feel safe sometimes the school is the only safe place they have thank you kim pope is next and after that we'll have meg goodhand and sonny geraldo the family relations oh sorry thanks uh my name is kim donovan pope my sister is a public
073school teacher here in durham who has personally taught some of your children over the years i'm here to ask the board along with executive director of safety and security tina ingram to please consider installing rhino wear door barriers from campus safety solutions in all durham county public schools between august 1st 2021 and may 31st of this year 431 planned school attacks were reported in north carolina on this say something anonymous reporting system 254 of those rose to the level of being classified as life safety tips because a person had the means to carry out the threat last year both winston-salem and wilmington had a shooting at school unfortunately we can't say it won't happen to us anymore we as parents want the last line of defense to be the best line of defense that's a
074classroom door we need more than locked door handles that can be breached we want our children and teachers to be assured that are safe when the classroom door closes as i'm sure you are as well or that you do as well the company is located in jacksonville and the product is manufactured in nightdale they've installed units in other school systems across the nation locally there in gorman christian academy all iredell county public schools east wake academy and several others currently in process i have no affiliation with this company other than what i've researched and conversations i've had with the corporate personnel this system is an ada compliant military-grade active threat lockdown solution they're installed at fort knox the navy was so impressed after seeing a break test that they recommended they be in every naval
075facility in the world it's the only lockdown system that's fire marshall approved for single motion egress it can be operated by an adult or a child in one second to gain safe haven in a moment's notice it can be unlocked from the outside using a custom key assigned to school administration using a wi-fi signal installed at the bottom of the device it has the ability to be connected to existing security system software it can resist any effort to breach the door short of breaking the surrounding structure therefore buying valuable time for law enforcement to help using this lockdown system will make the classroom a safe haven where students and teachers can relax and be more assured of their safety and security in closing i ask you again please look into the rhino wear lockdown system
076as it provides the level of protection our children your children and all teachers deserve thank you good evening i'm dr meg goodman [Music] and i am way down here so it needs to come down um dr meg goodhand my pronouns are she and her and it's so great to see all the familiar faces um i want to start with a quote for pride month hope will never be silent as a past leader in the lgbtq plus community harvey milk and so i am so appreciative tonight that you're letting me use my words and not be silent but i'm also filled with love in my heart for all of you and dr mabinga in that you made a proclamation to celebrate pride month and to encourage all schools to have inclusive lessons that represent all of
077our community for staff families and children i as many of you know have been in durham public schools for well over 30 years as an educator and a leader and that just really heartened me so much the other thing is i know that you all are not just allies i know you're transformative transformative leaders and i know that because you are encouraging all students to in the schools to implement to also excuse me ought to be embraced and feel included and safe so that they can grow to innovate serve and leave the durham public schools stated mission both my children with two moms and myself have experienced marginalization in many institutions and situations so this personally does touch me but even more as a researcher i know the unwritten curricula of our schools really perpetuates
078heteronormativity and homophobia which unfortunately silences and marginalizes our children our families and staff and has the very many negative effects you heard from our first speaker melissa also i know the research is that children at the age of three and four begin to identify their gender researchers emphasize we need to put in very strategic practices and it starts with strong policies which you all have the power to do policies that include that ask for inclusive curriculum and professional development for all of our staff so they have the tools to confront heteronormativity and homophobia teachers i know teachers work endlessly you know how hard they want to do the best for their children but they cannot do it without the tool the knowledge and the biggest thing is support from their leaders without having that fear
079in their heart because the fear is constant and it's real and they need that support and on top of that i do love durham public schools and it would sadden me to think that any of our families are leaving because they're feeling marginalized in silence hope is never silent and i do not believe you'll be silent i know you will go forward to adopt this pause thank you wonderful to see you thank you it's good to see you dr goodhand next is sunny geraldo and last but not least abby bender good evening my name is sunny geraldo and i am the dps ia president or whatever you may call me um i'm at southwest and um what started off as just getting an increase a livable wage for instructional assistance has developed more into now
080all classified staff um we have met with several of you and we've even showed you where um you can go to walmart you can go to target making the same amount of money as our classified staff are making right now i'm working three jobs just so we can make ends meet youtube they took away us working summer school for the first session and eyes depended on the money to for their summer right now i took off to come speak to you again tonight it's i'm here every night every time you're meeting to voice our opinions we understand that teachers are the ones that are teaching our students but if you don't have the cafeteria workers the bus drivers instructional assistants after school there there's you know what are teachers going to do start pulling double
081duty on everything so i know the budget's already been passed you've already got the money and everything like that but we need to figure out a way to keep our classified staff here and not going to other places it's very frustrating to know that i am making working at a daycare more money than what i make here i make almost a dollar and a half more that's one part-time job my other one i make probably about a dollar less and it's very sad that i'm having to do work and go to school that the district i am so grateful is paying for me to go to school to get my degree in teaching but we're having to work so much time that we take away from our families so we need to figure out a
082way to come up with money to pay for classified staff because if not we're going to be losing staff when you send an email to a listserv it tells you it's going to this many people we started off with about 488 instructional assistants i sent an email out we're down to 437. that may not seem like a lot compared to other things but it is when we are carpool duty launch duty subs we're everything when there's nobody else in the school so we're asking for um a raise a cost of living raised more than the 2.5 because that's only a tank of gas the way gas prices are and we have people driving 50 miles just to come to work at dps so we are asking that the board tried to figure out a way
083to get us up to what about 17 an hour which is what the bus drivers are making thank you thank you abby bender and then next will be catherine constance hello my name is abby bender i use she her pronouns thanks for having me back i'm here today to discuss the need for a gender policy at durham public schools durham currently has a guideline one i believe is in place since in some form since about 2016. i understand that the district feels this recently updated guidelines should be sufficient to protect and support lgbtqia children at dps there are many reasons why it isn't enough number one the guideline is not enforceable and it does not ensure uniformity it allows each individual principal to leave the school the way that they feel comfortable thus they are
084not required to have gender support plans for gender diverse and trans children they are not required to allow their teachers to discuss these issues in a developmentally appropriate way in the classroom they are not required to make accommodations for a transgender child to use the correct bathroom that corresponds to their gender bus drivers gym teachers are not prevented from separating students into boy girl groups kids will get hurt and then dps will be reacting instead of preventing harm without a policy you will continue to have lgbtqi families leaving dps if their kids cannot get into the schools that have principals who are allies the guideline does not include any mention of increasing representation of lgbtqia families or gender diverse children in the curriculum currently dps is normalizing hetero families and cisgender children with the curriculum
085by only having these groups represented in books that are read to students are represented in something as simple as a math problem or history lesson dps is saying this is the only normal and okay way to exist as a person or a family there's plenty of evidence that representation matters for the mental health of our children kids growing up not seeing people like themselves in both normal life and people they look up to and respect leads to an othering results in exclusion bullying discrimination and for this particular group of kids the highest rate of depression and suicide amongst any distinct group of children the guy lie does not outline or require effective training while training has occurred at dps this year it has been brief not led by lgbtqi organizations that are experts in the
086field or even lgbti people it has not been widespread training should include formal bias evaluation of all staff along with general education of lgbtqia issues there are many more reasons that this is so important please remember that this group is protected under title ix but currently many dps parents do not feel that their transgender gender expansive and lgbti children are safe or protected we've had a guideline we need a policy to ensure this happens i did look over the slides that were to be presented tonight by miss giovanni and i i didn't see any of these things addressed so i would like to ask that some of these things are addressed especially on the elementary school level i did not see any mention of how these kids would be protected with the current guideline that
087exists in in my life and with my child i have not seen how the guideline has protected them thank you author catherine is rebecca austin olsen no sorry you will go first miss katherine and then miss awesome good evening mr chairperson and board of education my name is catherine constantino and i'm a working mother of a rising fourth grader who has consistently attended dps after care at southwest elementary and loved it he is beginning july 18th at pearsontown in a few weeks and has been one of several children who have been wait listed for after care we learned this just one week ago my husband works i have a four-year-old i am a taxpayer a public servant and a product of public education and i support public education i have been told there is a
088lack of staff that is the cause of this massive wait listing i have seen advertising in the last 48 hours for employment on social media the responses alone on social media pages is staggering when you learn that the wait list was created within minutes of the day and moment of an opening of an application money has been paid we have been wait listed and i do not understand how a public school system the size of durham county can leave its working parents in a lurch your families are already struggling with inflation and gas prices and now we have very very limited options for after care at this late hour july 18th pearson town starts my son has been wait listed with several others i alone received 80 responses to my social media post asking if
089people had been admitted please address this crisis immediately with all of your resources and thank you for the opportunity to be heard thank you olson and after that we'll have antonio jones my name is rebecca olsen i'm not wearing glasses so i can't focus completely on you right now um i too am a parent um my name is rebecca olsen i am a parent of a rising first grader good okay good at club boulevard um and to echo the sentiment actually of my colleague i'm an assistant public defender in durham my husband is an assistant district attorney also in durham we are both working parents i am here about the aftercare situation um i made the fatal flaw of going to work at nine o'clock in the morning and going into court and representing indigent
090defendants and i should have been on the list surf trying to get into aftercare i think i came back to the office and said in my application around 10 51 and i was told i was waitlisted at club boulevard we have been waitlisted now with durham parks and rec we have been i've gotten no response from several other organizations that have done aftercare and i did secure aftercare at the ymca but it's clear across town which is a bit defeating the purpose and that we will have to leave at two o'clock which is not a lunch hour recognized in the courts to get my child to bring him across town and then to bring him back it will certainly cut into the day in terms of after school which was already a rush situation to
091probably spending about an hour and a half with him that evening i do appreciate i know that ms valudaris you did say that you were having a meeting about it one of the things that concerned me was the idea of rotating staff members support staff staggering their schedule from noon to six or seven o'clock to accommodate the after-school needs and i'm glad i was here because i heard that woman who is a member of the support staff working three jobs i'm in a very spec probably a more unique situation i certainly know based on the job i have i have a husband we are both committed and when i can't pick up the slack got thank god he's there to pick up the slack i don't know what single parents do i don't know what
092parents who work three jobs and have to bounce from here there and there but i was thinking as opposed to taking them out of the classroom support staff why not incentivize it and ask the people in that school hey do you want to pick up a monday for aftercare do you want to pick up a tuesday and financially make it worth their while people shouldn't be working three jobs they shouldn't as a one is probably enough and then you have your families but if you made it financially reasonable to say a per diem i don't know a hundred dollars for four hours 150 for four hours where they would say fine you know what i can actually quit my other job we also have some of the finest universities right here in our backyard masters
093of education whether it be at central where i am an alma mater of i just asked you to consider this so that my kid can actually be in aftercare and we can maintain our employment thank you thank you and uh antonio jones be our last speaker for this evening let me get myself situated antonio jones um i'm actually here to talk about the growing together um student reassignment proposal and if i can so antonio jones i'm representing uh the chair of durham committee on affairs of black people i am also a former durham public school employee i am also a father of a durham public school student i am also a student of public policy so back in undergraduate i had an assignment by the late professor david anderson to research durham public schools i
094didn't ask for the assignment he gave it to me so this is the official merger plan from 30 years ago so if you haven't seen it you can check this out dude universe this is the official plan so 30 years ago it was a group of folks to gain together emerged during public schools and city schools at that time well since that time dps has only grown 18 durham county since 1990 has grown 80 percent feature people are making the conscious decision to find other educational options so the history is real we have a moment in time we can actually go back and leave status quo alone and change history and change the trajectory of durham public schools you know there's been a lot of questions about the financial cost of what it means to
095move forward well it has cost dps hundreds of millions of dollars over the years by not moving making a progressive student boundary policy that reflects the needs of this county one of the things in this book right here that it talks about is the political will gonna read just a few what it says is in the spirit of the task force presents this report today meaning this report discuss it debate it dissect it decide on what actions to take but in the final analysis please have the political courage to act for our report indicates that we know what the problems are but we must muster up the will and resources to act together this was 30 years ago so here we are today discussing the next move for durham public schools the cost savings and
096we'll be talking about removing trailers and i believe that aaron and paul can verify that we spent over 2 million dollars each year on just the magnet school transportation they can also verify that durham public schools has the most complex busing system in the state five or ten school bus drivers call out that cause the domino effect that parents feel every single day so moving forward how do we move forward keep in mind that derm is growing derma is will be growing in all of the businesses that are coming people will have discretionary income to send their kids where they want to send their kids to so tonight we can change history tonight by putting durham public schools on the path to success i want to thank all of the administrators have worked on this
097most of you came into durham public schools and tried to untangle 30 years of bad policy 30 years of convoluted policy 30 is a confusing policy most there are very few people in durham that can actually tell you and articulate the attendance policy of durham public schools because it's too confusing today is the day to unravel that and move forward and be very progressive about the next 30 the next 60 years in durham public schools thank you thank you mr jones that concludes our public comments the next item on our agenda is our consent items we have a pretty lengthy list of consent items that have been sent to board members in advance to be reviewed extensively um madam chair the on the consent agenda number n is both on consent and 9a if we
098approve it and consent we uh is is fruitless to speak about it online so i think we remove it from is that different they're the same under chief of staff okay i mean so what how do we proceed with that it's my understanding that it's own consent by accident so i i do think that um pulling it from consent and then so i would just get a motion to approve everything in the consent agenda except for item n i think would be sufficient and then you'll address that when with the chief of staff's non-a okay well so i move approval of the consent agenda minus item number in the move by mr lee seconded by misfire any other discussion yeah i have a discussion um i just uh i'm i have support uh approving the
099agenda however i want to just uh call attention to call attention to consent item m which is the board of education stipend in conversations with our classified staff it has been a point of much discussion that everybody's getting raised as it seems and classified staff feel left out and i i did say that i was hearing and i was listening even coming into this board meeting having conversations with folks and just uh wanting us to have more discussions about classified staff um approving this agenda and improving the stipend taking any stance on the stipend and doing that would only be a gesture and i explained you know that i hear the sentiment i'm not going to use this particular point in any way because it would only be adjusted what they really want is they
100want to make sure that we are acknowledging many years of advocacy around raising also their wage and so for classified staff i just want you all to know that i appreciate all the engagement i know it's been multiple engagements multiple meetings i did say that i don't want to do gestures i think that we definitely are working as a district and our superintendent is working um our all our staff our admins are working and the bonuses i understand the bonuses are not um or the 2.5 percent raise and the bonus is not enough but i i wanted to make sure that i called attention to this because i said when in conversations this was something that is not missed i'm not missing this that everybody seems to be getting a raise and i hear that
101i hear that sentiment that it seems like stipends are going up certified teachers are getting everybody seems to be getting something and the classified site is also getting something but that 2.5 percent um and the bonus of 1 500 uh just doesn't is not uh satisfactory for classified staff and i thank you for all for the advocacy thank you thank you miss vadar is there any other discussion mr raven uh just one comment when i'm looking at the physical printed out um agenda it's it differs from the board dock so i'm not sure which one is the is the standard but the one that's in board docks it only goes through p and the physical printed out one goes to q i think we just need to specify specifically the um what the n you're
102talking about it sounds like you're talking about in policy 4316 student dress code okay okay so any other discussion all those in favor say aye aye any opposed passes unanimously thank you all the next item is our chief of staff um she has two items in our agenda i'll pass it on to ms giovanni thank you madam chair dr mubanga board members if you recall at the work session earlier this month we presented a draft policy 4316 student dress code at that time the board provided feedback i did incorporate that feedback into the new draft to it clarifying that we weren't going to limit it to spring break we were going to give principals leeway as to when they needed to do refreshers on the proposed dress code also clarified required training based on feedback
103from the board members including implementation training on that for all staff and not just school-based teachers and ias but everyone including bus monitors bus drivers central office staff everyone will be provided with training on the proposed dress code in the process it does also indicate if the board does adopt the policy at this meeting there will be a technical correction needed to the student code of conduct um we will remove we would remove the dress code from that and then also based on some additional feedback that came earlier today i will be clarifying what the disciplinary measures could be currently in the as it's listed in the 4301 dress code it's clear that it's a level 1a and i believe in the policy um it indicates level one so we would need to clarify that
104so that it tracks according to what the board does has done in the past but with that i believe that the board had i did not receive any additional feedback from anyone and so i do present this policy in final form at this time board members are any questions mr sears i would just make a motion to approve the policy as amended with the technical revision stated it's been moved by mr seer seconded by miss valyadares is there any other discussion i had a question just wanted to make sure i'm actually trying to look through here i was watching the board meeting uh previously when we talked about this and there was a discussion about uh hats um just having trouble finding it here what we landed on with that at the time when originally
105the policy was brought to principals students staff etc hats and hoodies were included after those meetings it was the determination of administration that they not be recommended to the board and that is the final version of the policy at this time it does not include the those are all the strikeouts from before were made permanent that we will not had some hoodies would not be allowed okay okay thank you any other discussion all those in favor say aye aye any opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously thank you miss giovanni and to the students and educators who have worked on this we've heard a lot of positive feedback so i really appreciate you all doing this work the next item on our agenda excuse me mr giovanni thank you again at this time
106the administration brings to the board the some information regarding the actions of dps in supporting safe spaces for our lgbtq plus students just by way of history in 2016 this board led in north carolina by adopting lgbt gender guidelines with the support of mr kinsu at the time he did draft those in 2018 as with all policies and practices and guidelines you have to be responsive to what's happening um in the world and in 2018 dr kelvin bullock myself and mr matt hixson met on several occasions to work on updating the guidelines as i want to say then the pandemic occurred and so that got set to the side earlier well maybe i'd say this school year there were some we began to hear some issues um from some of our families that the guidelines
107that we led with right in 2016 were maybe not being as understood as they could be and that we needed to maybe refresh them update them and do some additional things so in 2022 we did work with um darrington smith on updating those guidelines and addressing some of those concerns and so i would actually ask you to pull up the presentation on this and at this time ask dr kelvin bullock the executive director for equity affairs and dr laverne maddox perry the senior executive director for student support services to come forward and share with this board and the community some of the things that durham public schools is doing to support our lgbtq plus students and staff thank you dr bullitt good evening board of education dr mubinga and bps community it is my pleasure
108this evening to bring you a brief update regarding some of the ways in which dps is seeking to create and support safe spaces for students that identify as part of the lgbtqia plus community in our schools i'm joined this evening by dr maddox perry senior executive director of student support services if we could go to the next slide please i'd like to start with a little historical data that's important to set the context of where we are today on this slide you will see some information that was compiled by district leaders counselors and social workers back in 2016 when we adopted those original guidelines that ms giovanni referred to this was information that was compiled regarding the prevalence of safe spaces and lgbtq clubs in dps you will note that many of these bullet points
109speak specifically to practices that were in place in our secondary schools i added to this slide the fourth bullet point which speaks to how most of our schools including many of our elementary schools today have sought to create safe spaces and practices via counseling services and sometimes materials provided in media centers not in terms of counseling services that does go across schools and we are providing training and supporting with our counselors and social workers and we'll share a little bit more about that as we move forward next slide please in terms of our gsa's our gay straight alliances and our lgbtq clubs these are some of the guiding principles that we have in place for those clubs you will see that they seek to ally with others to increase safety family involvement and student achievement
110there's a notion to increase safety and sense of belonging for lgbtq people in schools and there's also a principle of increasing visibility and support for our lgbtq students in order to promote self-esteem academic achievement and respect for diversity next slide please so some of you may remember and again chief of staff giovanni referred to this that back in 2015 2016 dps leadership including board members principals and cabinet received legal updates and guidance regarding transgender students specifically from farrington smith this guidance materialized into a document that was after the training with principals we had principals who would often request this guidance when if they were facing a situation where they needed support and guidance in supporting a transgender student so dps used this guidance this year this 21-22 school year as the foundation for our updated
111gender support guidelines and this was placed on the dps website back in march of this year as we share these guidelines the office of equity affairs and student support services work together to facilitate training for principals district leaders and also counselors and social workers next slide please on this slide we just have a brief example um and again this is um training that was provided for counselors and social workers k-12 and also um we had several trainings for principals k-12 on on the updated guidelines and creating safe spaces for lgbtq students also but this is an example of some of the content of those trainings we emphasize the need for employees to affirm the preferred pronouns of students inc and colleagues and to avoid gendered language i.e you know referring to a class as boys
112and girls or um saying hey guys things of that nature where we're gendering students unnecessarily so we also encourage leaders to consider including pronouns and introductions as they might contribute as they sometimes contribute to the creation of a safe space for lgbtq students other examples of that may be for example in my email signature i have my pronouns listed there when i sign into zoom depending on the zoom account that's popping up my pronouns will pop up and zoom i never know what name is going to show up there but i do have set as my default that my pronouns will populate and zoom at this time i'm going to yield to dr maddox perry for the next slide and she is going to speak to a little bit about the training that we've been
113provided and some of the things that we're putting in place moving forward dr medics barry thank you dr bullet good evening everyone good to be with you as a collaborative endeavor the office of equity affairs and student support services have developed implementation strategies for ensuring our school community fully understands and follows our updated gender support guidelines through professional learning offerings school-based student services and district level administrators have begun a series of learning sessions to not only have clarity on the guidance we've received because this comes from our legal counsel but also to guarantee every child attending durham public schools feels equally supported capable of success and welcomed as a valuable asset in our school community as you can see on the slide we've already completed refresher training for some staff members and newer administrators and
114staff members as well as our school-based student services staff as a part of our partnership with asca and our renewing our commitment to a high quality counseling program our counselors in addition to their regular training are participating and following the ask a position which is that school counselors recognize all students and that they have the right to be treated equally and fairly with dignity and respect as unique individuals free from discrimination harassment and bullying based on the real or perceived gender identity and gender expression school counselors work to safeguard the well-being of transgender and gender non-conforming youth in addition to our counselors other school-based and district-level student services personnel are also having an overall goal to ensure safety comfort and healthy development of the students maximizing inclusion and improving social integration while minimizing exclusion and
115stigma and stigmatization additionally we look forward to offering trainings during our upcoming leadership retreat for all school administrators central office administrators we also are engaging in individual coaching with selected principals who are in need of additional support when dealing with issues that may arise when it comes to supporting our students we also are working to make sure that everyone understands the full range of the diversity spectrum and that it includes many many different types of students we also utilize our leadership weekly and other newsletters to inform our administrators and principals notes from nikia to give resources and advise our teachers and other instructional staff our dps celebrate monthly planning with melissa perez and kelly stevens from cni it's a website to help celebrate different cultural celebrations and it includes resources and ideas for activities this
116month there are highlights for the history of pride month articles and other educator educational resources as a public facing opportunity to reaffirm our lgbtq plus students and our support we've also increased and enhanced partnerships with local experts or like-minded stakeholders the lgbtq center of durham is partnering with student services office of equity affairs as well as cni to continue to advise and offer training for our staff and lastly student support services and other academic services departments are revisiting and re-emphasizing our guidance on school-level bullying prevention as well as our central office bullying reporting follow-up and investigative outcomes board members this was before you for information today but it would ask them to remain just in case they need to answer any questions thank you miss giovanni and thank you dr bullock um miss maddox perry
117for the presentation uh start with miss byer questions i want to start with just appreciation for all the work you all are doing and the way you are centering and lifting things up as an important part of our equity work um and please don't take questions as criticism because y'all are doing a lot um while it felt like when we did things in 2016 we were leading the state it feels like right now we've got work to do and i know y'all are um seeing that both in in conversations with students and parents but also um in our schools and so i appreciate like hearing about safe spaces but we can't stop until the entire school community is a safe space right it's not a separate place um so i do think we need better
118policy and i think we need stronger policy um and i look forward to to how we work on that together um i i'm glad to hear your partnering with lgbtq center of durham um i think we need to invest a lot more and and make sure it is in elementary and pre-k all the way through to support every child every family um are we doing gender support plans um that was a question that someone had emailed me that i didn't know the answer to um do are we currently doing the practice of gender support plans within dps so they can go yes we are that was included that was one of the things that i think is different in what durham is doing with our guidelines and what some other school systems are doing it
119is what that support plan looks like is going to vary depending on the student we are not going to follow the cookie cutter you know we're going to contact the work with the family and that student and i'll go ahead and let dr bullock and maddox perry give a little more detail without obviously you know indicating what students we've used it with but just kind of what that looks like right thank you um ms giovanni yet i would say in terms of our gender support plans it does vary depending on the needs of the student the essence of the gender support plan is to meet with the student understand what their needs are um and in to provide an example we've had situations where we have to make we work with the student and the
120parent to make accommodations with say a restroom or making sure that kids have safe spaces um where um well for example they have a dedicated restroom that they can go to not necessarily be outed things of that nature and so but it really varies depending on the particular situation so um so yeah in in different levels we have different um practices we're putting in place to support children is that like a standardized document like the one i saw online was like five pages long which seemed a little extra but it do we have a standard document that we're using that we could share with families and make us accessible or is it already on our website it's um so i i think we don't have a standardized we are following the guidance and best practices
121from um all the uh experts in the field from asca and sharing that with our counselors what is most important about the gender support plans that we've seen is that they have been multi-disciplinary and always include trusted members of the student students community and the school works together to define exactly how there will be support provided to the student i mean it's ranged from everything from preparing for disclosure at the student's request to as i said creating safe spaces if there have been instances where it hasn't felt as welcoming let me ask a follow-up question on that if a parent needs or a student you know it's like we need to create this gender support plan for students who are currently in our schools or might be coming where do they go to make that
122request and develop a team to work on that together well i'm always going to say the student support services but any trusted adult in the building an administrator should be aware of that really a parent doesn't necessarily have to request that if there is something that is disclosed to a member of student services or an administrator the decision to follow the guidelines would mean that you would consider if the gender support plan is something that's needed for that student i also appreciated you talking about coaching because it's clearly a learning journey for lots of folks all folks and i especially think as folks are moving here from other areas of the country they bring a wealth of knowledge and experience and curriculum materials and i'm so glad that our families are willing to partner with
123us and also challenge us um because i think it's it's so so important for um them to be in partnership with us um i hope that we've budgeted enough to make sure that curricular materials are available that books are in schools i hope that we're holding ourselves and our our people that are choosing materials accountable to get the best that we can in this space as well um i don't know i just look forward to policy changes because i do agree that it starts both top and bottom that yeah i think we're to seeing what we can improve um i really have always admired the the policy that orange county brought forth um the practices there so look forward to continuing this discussion oh sorry no that's not what i was saying no sorry come
124on back that was not that nod the nod was um i wanted to speak if you all could speak a little bit to the orange county policy guidelines and how they managed that i know they worked with our same attorneys at barrington smith and there's been some questions um regarding can what does that look like what does that mean y'all sit tight don't go anywhere so i think um obviously as an educational institution we all should be learning all the time and i just want to kind of lead with that um to the board as a response that we are absolutely always trying to learn and improve and one of the things that precipitated the new website that dr bullock's office created with all of these resources is an understanding that you can do better
125if you can do better then you need to be working on that and so what that looks like is we want to make sure we're collaborating with all of our community members our staff members and figuring out really what those needs are and if it is necessary that we tweak the guidelines like we've actually adjusted one of the reasons that we preferred to do the guidelines versus doing the guidelines that orange has and putting them into the policy manual is that it allows administration to change things for example from the time we started working on those guidelines cisgender was in there and then as we worked with um members of the lgbtq plus community it was determined that maybe cisgender wasn't necessarily a favorite term or preferred term and so it was requested that we
126removed that gender non-conforming was then determined even from the start to currently that that's a negative thing the saying that you're not conforming to gender so really what that language looks like we wanted to make sure that we could be agile and pivot and be responsive i do want to clarify and i don't rod's going to jump in here in a minute but i do want to clarify that the regulations that slash guidelines that you see in orange our guidelines have the exact same strength and import and effect that those do as well so there's not they're not followed closer or more stringently we have adopted administration has adopted these guidelines just like administration in orange did and every member of the durham public schools staff and community is required to follow those guidelines as
127they are adopted and they are now easily accessible um on that new um lgbtq um web page that dr bullock has created so with that i would ask as rod um just kind of share a little bit about orange compared to um durham's i believe that's what you're asking cheryl said okay so we had the lawyer for orange who worked on the orange guidelines review them and she provided a memo which i can share get to the board outlining the basic differences between the two she did tell me that she felt that your guidelines you know as written are are okay um there's some stuff we might want to do to clean it up make it a little more um understandable in some places but in terms of it covering all of the major things
128in the same manner in which orange thought she thought that you were generally about in the same place so um i don't think you need any major overhaul at all to to get similar to orange if that's what you're interested in doing it sounds like you're pretty close to that based on based on her analysis of it and i would just point out that there's very little difference between the administration adopting guidelines like you've done with like your administration has done and and placing those guidelines as guidelines or as regulations and procedures in your policy manual i mean it really is it's not really board policy in either place um and i do think that what mr giovanni said is really the most important thing especially in this area is having the given the administration
129the flexibility to make changes quickly as those come up and not necessarily having to go through all of the procedures that would be required to actually revise the policy just so that they can stay nimble and and stay out in front of the issues yeah rod i really appreciate that i just also think that there's something explicit about having something be policy that that speaks to its importance to families um and having it live as board policy yeah we can be agile and change policy as well um yeah i don't know like yeah i could i see why people want the board to have a board policy that feels more protective and more overarching and it it what what why are you making two lawyer faces that say i don't understand because i need to
130understand no no it's not saying you don't i just will be clear that oranges is not a policy it's a regulation so i mean if if what you wanted to do is to have to ultimately take the superintendent's regulations and and kind of attach them to a policy so that they appear in your policy manual i mean that's again that there's very little technical difference between the two but if it appearing in your policy manual makes you feel better then that's certainly something that we can work with the administration on doing but i still think you would want to leave it as a regulation attached to a policy and make it clear that the superintendent can make whatever changes are necessary and keep it posted in the policy manual as you proceed that would just
131be my recommendation but you obviously are free as the board to do whatever you choose this bar did you have additional well no that's super helpful um i think one thing i wonder sometimes like as we're building new schools are we actually changing the way we're doing bathroom design right dude and i don't know that look dr monk just came in as i'm asking the impossible question are we are we even changing the way we construct buildings to be more inclusive with bathroom design was a question dr monk and i don't mean to hit you with it as you walk back in i can't answer that confidently right now that's what i was saying thank you thank you miss byron miss valedares thank you all so much i have had conversations uh ms giovanni you're
132leading intersectional work your work is dress code policy you know dramatics you've done restorative practices you're each you know dr bullock you're all collaborating along the lines of ensuring that our schools are safe for everyone for every student there shouldn't be any um uh any any any student especially when you think about the the definition of and clauses about discrimination discrimination on race gender class sexuality uh orientation country of origin so we continue to work as a district to make sure that we are providing the safest space for our children um i do have a question in terms of policy because i have also heard um had conversations i've also seen the progress that we're making but we keep hearing that it's not um it it doesn't reach that it's okay i've heard that too
133it's it's okay but it could be better um and so i think about policies like title ix you know we have we know that that's federal um and yet we have our own uh interpretation of what that means here right for title ix is there an opportunity to link that with i'm trying to figure out in terms of like how to make um make that connection to to to to these policies and more than a guideline the other thing that we heard also is about bathrooms um bathroom spaces and one of the things i think this is not intentional in the presentation but the notion of safe uh safe space is when i think about do we have safe spaces for immigrant students do we have safe spaces for black students do we have safe
134spaces for um students with disabilities do we have safe spaces and so that's where i'm going with um a little bit of the unintended um things in the presentation i i think all our schools and i think that's that's part of the thing all our schools should be safe for every student and so how do we approach that in a way that doesn't unintentionally mean that this is the safe space and maybe you know whatever connotations people can ascribe to the rest of the school um thank you for that question ms valle daughters um one of the things that comes to mind um with with the latter part of that is around the work that we've kind of instilled in our equity 101 professional learning and we start our equity professional learning in the district
135around the topic of identity and intersectionality and understanding how levels of privilege and there can be biases attached to different aspects of our identity i really think that moving forward we have to continue to dig deep in in the conversation of intersectionality and how a person's gender gender identity race um country of national origin language things of that nature all kind of play together to create a unique experience for each person and if we can think about like for any person who's identifying with any historically marginalized community how do we create make sure that our schools are safe spaces for all of those identities and so you know as we move forward we want to continue to dive deeper into just all of these aspects of identity and we've done some initial trainings around that
136we've you know had levels of that conversation in our equity 101 and every year with new teacher orientation we make that a part of the conversation um but there there's room growth to grow also there in diving deeper in that and i'm i was all also thinking with student support services with counselors um the ways in which they go about trying to create a safe space for all students like it it really has to be a conversation about you know all these different aspects of identity and making sure that you know we see our commonalities within each other but we also see and respect our differences so i don't know if you'd like to add anything to that dr maddox perry but those are some of my initial thoughts and things that we can do
137to explore the these different topics of identity i will add miss rydar's real quick i didn't know you were coming up go ahead yeah i was just echo what he said and that it is a part of our work too i said before the full range of diversity and just making sure that we begin with safe spaces to hopefully identify allies and people that students who are having difficulty or not feeling that there is a place for them to go to know there is somewhere to begin and then to continue to educate until we can have that be the full healthy supportive climate at the school i would just say i think maybe for expeditiously i think we're staying safe but we also there's so many other adjectives that we in practice and we're meeting
138and collaborating we're including and welcoming is one that you know you don't want to be tolerated and i think that's what i've heard from several members that no one wants to just feel like they are being tolerated they want to feel like during public schools the spaces are safe they're loving and they're welcoming and so as we continue to listen and adjust and stay agile i think that those are really kind of where the hard work is that we are doing so i just wanted to add that thank you i just have one more comment um so the i'm hearing that the nature of this safe space is a space that is welcoming affirming um which you know we've talked about all our schools should be affirming of all the intersectionality um the diversity of
139our families my concern is that i'm not too sure that there are resources and i think we can continue this conversation further what are the resources that are available in those spaces if they're meant to be spaces that are um places where um almost like places to to go to but for the purpose of safety i i just i can't wrap my head around somebody having to run to a place to feel safe now i do know that if it's a resource area then that's that's a different conversation um and then the other thing that i did also um here was that it's implicit in the uh presentation that it's schools and it says schools and plural um but it doesn't say all schools and so you know there's like the question of whether it's
140like all our schools you know uh inclusive of all our schools and i just these are things that i that i that i um even coming to this board meeting they were you know i had conversations and that was those were some of the questions as well so it is um implicit i'm we didn't include it explicitly but absolutely it is all schools and as you all know so title ix um that sits in my uh department and so that's a minimum right that what we're saying is that you cannot be discriminated against the federal law on the basis of your sex but that's the lowest bar that you know the federal law starts at that's not where we you know that's not what we we're trying to be in durham and so i just
141want to continue to reiterate and i think mrs beyer and ms varadarz is also indicated that we continue these conversations and i think that's why it was an um i want to thank chairman said for allowing us to come today and provide some of the information regarding what we're doing and just keep the lines of communication open to our community that's watching they can reach out to doctors bullock maddox perry myself to kind of share some additional ideas um and but of course as always you know we always want to defer to the actual you know the educators on what is you know how they're going to implement that using their expertise but making sure that they too are learning right like we never should stop learning and understanding so thank you miss lewis you
142so much for this presentation for all the work that uh student support services and equity affairs is doing under your leadership um miss giovanni when i just want to weigh in on the the policy discussion and the guidelines and first i just want to uplift all the hard work that went into our equity policy that involved many community members and diverse folks at the table for several months i can't remember how long we were meeting to getting this policy years maybe to getting this equity policy um approved brought to the board to be approved so i know that when the conversation first began i said well where does this sit in our equity policy and there is language that addresses equity across the board that is inclusive and speaks to inclusion safe spaces and and
143that so i know there's that policy that's there it's important to remember and you all brought this up very well in your presentation that policy and guidelines are important for sure but without connecting to the practice without connecting to training it's just going to be an uphill battle we're not going to see it realize unless people are training we're having these tough conversations so i definitely appreciate the training that you all share with us that's happening the level setting and the coaching that is occurring because it sounds like there's been some things that have already been identified and is being addressed it's really important so whether policy or guidelines not here you miss giovanni policy has the less ability to be fluid i'm confident we have our policy in the equity affairs the equity policy
144um that is inclusive and i like that our guidelines allows us to be fluid we need to make sure the training is occurring so that students are able to learn in a safe space thank you mr mr malone also for the clarification that there are places where we can strengthen the guidelines there's more work to be done as well and just to the community those who have came and made public comment is super important that we continue to lean in on those with lived experiences those closest to the inequities to hear your voices to be a part of the discussion the trainings that need to happen the things that are happening behind closed doors and bringing those to light so keep talking to us keep letting us know what's happening so that it can be
145addressed you have a supportive board administration to meet the needs of our students and staff and i hope that you can hear that i didn't have a question i just want to thank you for your the work that's happening and being clear that we do have a policy with our equity policy and our guidelines gives us more mobility and that you are always addressing this and getting us to change we've got to continue to engage the community those with lived experience to help get us closer to where we need to be for all of our students uh mr raven i just say i think you all are already off to a great start with this i think you already heard miss buyer's challenge to kind of put durham back in the lead of when we're
146looking at equity and inclusion the the one thing that i just wanted to kind of put in the back of our minds is when we're looking at the i guess the intersectionality between our community with special needs and their lgbtqia plus community is there there's just from where from what i've been able to read there's a higher percentage of that community it does identify with that community so when we're thinking about access and i'm not necessarily meaning like the ada type access because all of our schools are suited for that but just as you all have kind of said the welcoming to to make sure that they feel included and that we're intentional in that i just hope that we continue to move forward with that as well so thank you all thank you i
147want to make some comments before i head back around to to the second round of comments i want to thank you to the families who continue to advocate and push us and show up at meetings over and over and over again who made your way down to fuller building to be vulnerable and share your experiences and also again continue to challenge us and push us i have a couple of like thoughts around and some of them have been shared before about where we need to go next um i'll give y'all one critique in talking about safe spaces i really like using the term safer spaces because we can't determine whether a space is safe or not for a person right so we want to strive to create safer spaces to greater allow that person to
148decide what's safe or not for them i think another thing is what we are hearing from families and then what we're hearing in our guidelines there's a gap there and some of the things that we're talking about in our boardroom some of the things that we're hearing about that are going well in some of our schools there's a gap between those things that are going really well and some of the places that we need to grow and i want to push us to really do some of that growth um because there's going to be growth work for all of us for some folks who are not familiar with pronouns and not familiar with gender identity and fluidity and what that means this is going to be a learning and a growth curve and i think
149we're going to have to push on our folks to like learn and grow with this the only way to change that inequity though is to practice it over and over and over again so you all talked about doing training with our leaders and district leadership i think that's important to have those open honest and really good conversations and pushing them but i also think we need for our bus drivers and bus monitors and custodial staff and all those other folks who are working with our students teachers to have that same level of training and support so that's a whole lot of people i know to educate but i think there are ways that we could be being strategic about who we empower to lead some of those trainings so make sure that everyone has it
150and then continue like we did with the dress code we said we're going to refresh it we're going to need to continue to refresh this learning to make sure that we are continuing to update our own learning and interrupting our practices and make sure we're moving towards creating safer spaces for our students i think we could i could see adding in our equity policy language around gender support guidelines i think we need to be more public about we have these gender support guidelines i've talked to educators who were like i didn't know this existed and i'm i identified lgbtq i want to be you know i wanted to know this so i think we need to be more public about what exists and what we're doing to support so thank you all for putting putting
151this presentation together i asked to put it on the agenda because i knew that we had a lot of questions and i want to acknowledge we got a lot of work to do to make sure we're getting to where we need to be i hope that we can be leaning into some of the gsas at our schools to learn from our students about their experiences and have them help lead and shape some of the conversations moving forward i'm sure they could lead some great trainings with staff or have conversations to make sure we're moving in the right direction so i would say lean into that as much as we can because there are the folks that we're here to serve um i think that is concludes what i had to say a comment i want
152to come back to miss fire and then miss valliolares did you have something okay oh thank you chair umstead that was uh brilliantly said i yeah i i am inspired by by your vision i wondered you know sitting here it's been great having families come down here every month but i don't want folks to be frustrated right and i do want us to have a place for more student voice and more employee voice we've got employee expertise as we continue to see in our podium i i think this board in policy can empower task forces work groups something and i wonder if we would consider that going forward as one strategy where we empower a group that comes together quarterly with some students with some parents with some staff with lgbtq community member leadership like
153where we could dream kind of how to accelerate this work um together so that um folks can more spend their time working on the improvements and things that they're seeing that that need to be updated and change rather than kind of hanging out in board meetings late at night um that was just one thought i had i have a short comment but this is um feedback that across the board in dps when it comes to discrimination the question is how do we ensure that it's standardized that it's not happening that we actually have you know and so i hear from from you all this is standardized this is throughout all our schools this is our guideline it is just as equal as any other policy so when we have a different uh we talked about
154intersectionality with all the groups that experience marginalization our black students are our immigrant students english as a second language our lgbtqia two plus students everybody needs to know that we take discrimination serious we take um we take anything that is making our kids anything that is provided that is posing a barrier to their success to their learning to their ability to breathe you know to their ability to be who they are um we take this seriously and so um i just wanted to say that and thank you so much for the work that you've been doing i know you've been engaging in the conversations i just wanted to make sure that that standardization is clear with this that this is all throughout all our schools safety is safety in all ways in all the forms
155so thank you so much so this is before the board for information when i think about next steps though i would i do think we would want to see some how do we connect the guidelines to our policy so maybe bringing some options to that to make that connection to make it stronger and then i think i will leave it to the administration to determine if there are other next steps you can bring back to us but i think that would be a clear next step to make sure we're making some progress and that memo from farrington smith also that you said that you could share mr mullen yeah thank you along with it alone thank you thank you all the next item on our agenda is operation services we have a community transportation update
156i'm gonna hand it to dr monk thank you madam chair and good evening board of education and dr mubanga i'm joined tonight by uh mr matthew palmer and miss kristen brookshire who is our transportation planner and they're going to give us an update on what they've been working on to make sure that our students have a safe transit to school whether it's be a bus car walking or bike that'll turn over to mr palmer thank you dr monk and good evening again board and dr mabenga you know reality for us is that for our 32 000 students the school day starts before the belt rings and it's a point of pride tonight to see director harris up here celebrating our strong 200 plus transportation staff not only our bus drivers but our bus monitors our
157mechanics our administrators we appreciate them collectively they support 40 percent of our students getting to school 60 percent of our students arrive by a car the city bus walking or biking all these different modes and we're very fortunate here at dps to have miss christian brookshire with us as our community transportation planner making sure that we at dps have a plan for every student attending school so with that i'd like to go ahead and start the presentation and i'm going to hand it over to miss brookshire mrs brookshire please i think mr palmer and i have some of the same favorite talking points um you can go ahead and skip to the slide number three thank you um board members dr mubanga i was very excited to join the school planning team earlier this year
158in a position that is to supporting safe efficient equitable and sustainable travel to school most of us don't commute for fun it's something we have to do every day to get where we need to go to meet the needs of our family and that's the same thing for our kids they make that trip twice a day for thousands of days during their school career and these trips don't have to be stressful dangerous or a waste of time i'm excited i'm really excited about this work i'm really happy to be here and meet you guys uh i think that improving these trips has the potential to meet goals that many of us share i've already heard articulated as i've been meeting people my first few months here um such a goal such as enhancing community cohesion
159improving safety improving equity and and even fitting a little bit more physical activity into our day i you know keeps me going to imagine the neighborhood that can now have the choice to walk and bike to school the kid that is walking with their friends to their school bus stop the family that has a few less frantic minutes in the car together to talk about their day and the student who gets to exercise a little independence using their go pass to get on a their youth pass to get on a go durham bus to go to school so these are experiences that i think shape the way students think about transportation and the choices that they seek out in the future so i'm glad mr palmer mentioned the recognitions that you guys had earlier for
160our um our school bus transportation staff because it's well established that school bus transportation is a great way to get to school and we have staff focused on that here and so my work is focused on improving the way the way that our students who are getting to school and all the other modes walking biking driving transit and then i'm also bringing a pedestrian safety lens as we look at the way that we play school school bus stops in our neighborhoods and how students are accessing those stops so this work is pursued at every level so today i will just briefly outline how i'm working both internally and externally to improve multi-modal school travel my hope is that oh well i'm almost there um so my hope is that this is the beginning of the
161conversation and that you guys will invite me back to talk in more detail about some successes so now we're on the right side um so here are just a few examples of how i work internal to dps to support our schools and our families i learn from staff and families at schools about what is working well and what's not working well right now about arrival and dismissal and then work with them to define procedures and explore actions that can improve safety for all modes reduce vehicle cue length and encourage multimodal transportation where possible for example the the first school that i started working at um closely was forestview elementary to produce a toolkit that includes both short-term and long-term solutions and it's an ongoing effort that we've ultimately looped in ncdot and i look forward
162to you know implementing some of those things over the next school year um and so some aspects of this work will always be school by school but there will be aspects um you know i hope eventually as i work with more schools closely that there are best practices that can be shared um across the district um and so uh collaborating internally on school construction renovation and maintenance you know we have schools that are opening very soon and we have others that will be receiving receiving major renovations so i'm collaborating with construction and capital planning to define opportunity opportunities for improving access between the community and these schools as well as circulation on the campus and then i also foresee some opportunities to enhance transportation access through maintenance projects and then data transportation planning and any
163planning really starts with data and so part of my role is to collect monitor and evaluate data next slide this is just a snapshot of some quantitative data that we started collecting in the 21 22 school year currently this is made possible by our schools doing a monthly show of hands tally of students in their home rooms asking how you got to school today how are you getting home from school and as we strive to be a leading school district when it comes to community transportation it's important to have a baseline for benchmarking our efforts and then this is the type of data that we'll continue to use as we prioritize internal and external projects apply for funding and respond to requests for information and with my previous information i can say this is my
164previous experience i can say this is information that most school districts don't have it doesn't mean that they can't back into it and kind of estimate what's going on but to have um mode share for every school and to know that month by month so over a long period of time there's not a lot of places that are starting with that information so i'm very thankful to our schools who have been participating by submitting their data and also add that while it's incredibly useful to have this information at our fingertips i also really value qualitative data as well that data matters to me and i really value people's experiences and and their perceptions of their transportation and travel options as well so uh next slide so in working externally to represent dps with the durham
165community and beyond it's important to have a firm grasp of our transportation related needs so that we don't miss an opportunity that's presented to us and so that we're in a great position to seek out new opportunities a lot of these needs involve filling gaps i'm sure we can all immediately picture a missing sidewalk missing crosswalk a traffic calming measure that would unlock a transportation option at one school or many schools i'm sure hopefully you're bringing some to mind um so since day one here i've been focused on building relationships with our partners at the city county mpo and ncdot so that the transportation needs of durham's youth are well represented in transportation planning activities and relevant projects and and i honestly think they've been really great about inviting me so far i've been in
166many conversations and meetings you know uh and i'm glad that they're happy to have someone at the school district who's constantly thinking about this topic as well um and and very patient with my questions and ideas as i'm getting up to speed in this role as well and in terms of partnering i don't want to leave tonight without mentioning an effort that i think you guys are all familiar with i walked into a very very good ongoing collaboration between the city bike durham and our athletics department to make sure that um we're giving the opportunity for bicycle safety education classes in the um in our older elementary age pe classes so last slide um and as i wrap i just want to share that one way i know i've been thinking about this one way
167that i think i will know i've been doing my job well is if transportation is something that our schools and our families maybe get to think a little less about because the options are clear and they're easy and that school travel is something that departments within dps and all of our partners in the community and beyond are thinking a little bit more about something that they're thinking about all the time when they're making transportation decisions so i hope to come back soon and speak with you again and if you have any questions or ideas that you'd like to share with me tonight thank you so much for your presentation and welcome to dps glad to have you here um i can't say how many times i've heard wow y'all have a transportation planner on your
168team like it's innovative work that we're doing so i appreciate your presentation board members are there any questions uh i just want to pre again just like chair i'm saying said appreciate us having a transportation planner on here and that you're working with schools to try to work on getting people you know to different modes of transportation you know bikes you know walking whatever that may be and i just i believe that you know as we go into we're going to be talking about the growing together plan i think there's going to be more opportunities for the localized travel the the different modes of transportation and when we started that um when we worked with the city to talk about the um the students riding the bus right the student passes a few years ago
169and making sure that there's bus stops at at our heights especially our high schools and things i think that was a huge uh boon for durham itself and so to have someone here to advocate for those types of strategies and and things is it's a really big move for during public schools so i really appreciate you being here welcome you know i'm really glad to see um you here and someone here to focus on that um i think um they've done a really good job with transportation overall but just to have someone focused on there i just really appreciate this presentation i appreciate the data and just the ideas that you're going to have going forward so thank you so much mr sears yep thank you and welcome again um i think it's it's worth
170mentioning that um there are there are a couple factors for me that come to mind around um transportation my own kids are more elementary so i'm a little more focused at that end of the spectrum but um one is and you all have heard me talk about this ad nauseam the this school choice world we're living in you know the number of miles we put on this community to avoid your neighborhood school for this or that reason and uh i'm very hopeful again reiterating what mike said that the growing together plan is going to help us combat that a little bit more the other piece is uh you know there's a hard choice for parents we do have an early start time for elementary we do have reasons for that early start time that we're
171not going to go back on and uh for a lot of parents there's a choice early in the morning about that bus ride or walking but i think my main point tonight is just to congratulate the district again on being able to walk and chew gum at the same time this is another example of us doing work that in my view in the past we weren't balancing all these different streams of positive direction and so thank you for bringing this welcome and uh that's it salidaris welcome this is exciting it is um you touched on so many different points that i was like yes yes yes and so i take opportunity now um to you know just uh bring it to um how we needed you um and when you mentioned about the projects um
172we have our operations department has done amazing work building new schools you know hvac i mean you name it uh solar panels we're looking at playgrounds outdoor learning spaces like fitting them up i mean it's been a whole lot of work that has happened is ongoing and energy assessments and everything else and so sometimes like the little little projects like those little little things like who's tending to them and how you know how to how to maximize and so when you were mentioning about um making that analysis and you know working with everybody who's doing the different work and figuring out like um how to have a better analysis of the needs when it comes to pedestrian safety those things are so important um it's in those small details right um one thing i've been
173asking for in many different i think it's the third time or fourth time i can't keep track but um i'm very uh grateful that durham has invested in having a trail behind hillside right the atc but i'm i'm saddened that our hillside students don't use it as much we don't have bike racks at hillside i'm gonna say that like for the so many times i said it there's no bike racks so if you wanted to say you know there's so light park there's a dirt a dirt uh biking amenity that a solid park has and there are clubs out there like there are groups school groups that are doing dirt biking you mentioned bike durham working with elementary school students that are in elder ages or older ages sorry um but it's a missed opportunity
174when you know we have these amenities nearby like the atc trail and we're not seeing our community we're not seeing that connection and i loved how you framed it connections between schools and their communities i want hillside to enjoy as much their hillside students to enjoy as much of like the amenities that are around um to to be able to bike to school and have bike racks um we not too long ago approved a plan where some of our tennis courts were gonna be fitted to do uh sports events and i'm so grateful for that dr monk and it's great and some of the students are staying you know longer they're wanting to stay after school to engage in athletics and we want to promote that we want to incentivize that um but for those
175who have the ability to use the atc i can see i can see an opportunity there so operations has been really busy and there's a whole lot going on and there'll be small projects and so um i'm so grateful for your analysis i'm so grateful for everything that you bring um and then also your connections to um these groups that are doing great work to kind of get our kids moving healthy you know um enjoying outdoor time and the last thing that i will say is uh your sampling of students i have i just have a question like i'm like yes this is we need the student voices right so um can you tell me a little bit more about your sample like who who was your sample because the mode share data yes it
176was i mean the goal was every student um so that they would be captured once during the school day um and that is not me personally i mean i've done that with another school district before where i'm the one with the forms going into the school and asking them to collect the for and it's very labor intensive so the fact that it was already up and running when i got here the procedure to ask you know homeroom teachers or their surrogate to submit this data once a month just how did you get to school google form there we go 10 people this 20 people this and it was ready so the sample i mean it's everybody that's right some schools had better submit we it's very good representation i think there's a little bit of
177room for improvement but i'm really confident in the numbers that we have starting yeah oh yeah um something we've discovered is there are eight schools within a quarter mile of the american tobacco trail which is a fun opportunity and also want to thank dr hardy and academic services and all the schools out there and the teachers this is an additional thing we realize it but i think you're seeing tonight how that helps us plan and project and anticipate what's happening one of the things that kristen shared is the differences in the afternoon and then the morning ride share right those are some big numbers and some important things that help us plan and be be ready to be efficient and safe and equitable at the same time the trails point um i'm glad he mentioned
178that because it sometimes it's not always about infrastructure gaps and sometimes it's about policies and communication and education and there is um something that's already there and available and do we know about it and is do we make space for that to be an option so um and there's other schools that are on um greenways not just the american tobacco trail so and if i may add the city's expanding avondale you know that project has been 10 years in the making and now they're doing the community engagement about it so there's more trails coming um you know how do we make sure that our communities are using them and feel safe using them um and that we're catering to you know to incentivize um the use of open spaces and and these trails thank you
179yeah aspire well welcome i am so glad you are here and sharing your talents with durham it is much needed i'm glad you're welcome in the spaces with the city and the county and the planners um overdue but um i wondered particularly as fuel prices are going up whether you thought of doing work over the summer kind of to encourage carpooling to inc to talk about the benefits of actually riding the bus to reluctant parents that hadn't thought of it before or thought it was not safe or like to you know are you all thinking of doing anything different to kind of message to families um i'm really excited to be invited to the leadership retreat next week to speak directly with our administration or our school administrators um and so i think communicating transportation
180options for the next school year um is a big part of that and i'm happy to work with principals one-on-one as many as i can um i don't think we would have like that district-wide toolkit you know ready yet but i i'm here to do one-on-one as as much as they'll have me um and i've already done some of that you know i mentioned forestview but there's other schools that i've been at to observe sit down with the principal talk about how things are going and come up with a plan for communicating options i appreciate it i think there's such opportunities for families that it's also child care in the morning and the afternoon a bus ride is a little bit like to cover some of these shifts in time and you know i know
181those are separate issues that we're working vigorously on and we hear our community with those needs for before and after school um so i just look forward to kind of ways that um you can bring specifics back to us that we can advocate for sidewalks like specific places and if people have safety concerns specifically are they supposed to reach out to you kristin about safety issues at a specific school or do you think you've found them all already um not found them all already in progress but they can reach out to me directly yep that's fantastic no thanks for everything it's it's very exciting work and i look forward to where you take us yeah is there any other discussion thank you all so much for your presence then the next item on our agenda
182is growing together programs and school boundaries hand it to dr mavenga thank you madam chair i'm going to ask uh dr monk and uh the other team to come forward i just want to make few comments here before we get started to our board as well as our community our dps community this work has been going for the past three years uh thank you to our boat for allowing us to really embark in this particular initiative uh i just want to brag a little bit about our staff or the expectations of our staff if uh those of you that were not around here three years ago we can all recall mr matthew uh palmer was working for nc state as a consultant expert one of the best in the nation so we're very privileged to
183be able to recruit him to join our team and i will continue bragging that the work that has been done it's like we're able to pay a lot of money to expert to be able to get this work where we are today it's been almost 30 years so whatever happened in the past i think we are here to be able to correct it and be able to move forward as i'm looking at this uh vision of region models if i have to talk a little bit about the finance or the cost of this i thank you for abort for being able to be patient with us a little bit i really wanted to let our finance team to be able to close all the books for the month of uh june then july we're gonna
184start looking at how much this is gonna cost uh implementing this 2425 but this is what i can say when it comes to year-round school uh programs it's not going to cost us additional funding the alive the way we envision in this program if it's going to be one classroom or two i don't think it's gonna cost us millions of dollars to implement this um give us the benefit of doubt to be able to look at all the different programs that we have in the district as we all know we have about 23 magnet schools we're going to reduce this hopefully we're going to have some savings as well but we're bringing this to you this work has taken a lot of hours we've been really pushed to be able to reach out to all
185stakeholders you name it durham comedy people alliance we met with everybody we even started this community engagement with rti as our consultant to be able to show us the path forward how we can better engage our community i'm here in front of you feeling really confident with the work that we've done i'm not saying this work is absolute that is done we will never touch this again other district they look at this every year every two years every two years give us a chance to move forward as we have our timeline once we start implementing this as you've seen with our work with our strategic plan we come to you to tell you what is working well what are the challenges what are next steps pretty much we'll be bringing this to you all the
186concerns all the challenges that we're gonna face in the community we'll bring them to you to ask for your blessing for us to be able to make adjustment but i'm feeling really confident with the work that has been done and the community engagement that we're able to undertake and when it comes to finance i'm feeling really confident i say this to our ceo for i don't see us really going to our county commissioners to ask for funding for this with all the program analysis that we're going to do to be able to leverage with all different programs that we have we should be help able to have enough funds to be able to address this i think during this work what's really triggered this work is we all know durham's growing dps is not growing
187all this menu of programs that we're bringing forth this is what our family has been asking us allow us to be able to move forward hopefully with all this initiative we'll be able to capture whatever 20 000 more school age that are going to be in durham in the next five years we are very optimistic we're going to engage our community by giving them the choices that they've been asking i'm hopeful that dps will continue growing mr saref good evening again board members and colleagues thank you for uh being great a great team of partners working together on this with our community if we could go to the slides please this evening we bring forth school boundaries for final approval and in addition to the boundaries the administration will provide a brief review of the
188program application schools that are being recommended for the five regions and we'll share an overview of the process for developing rules and implementation if we go to the next slide please you see our agenda tonight i'll begin with some updates on community engagement in the month of june we will revisit the why we will bring forward our recommendations for school boundaries we'll talk about our next steps are important steps public steps in rules and implementation adoption we'll talk some more about the community the communication strategies that we have learned through this process that we will need to implement going forward and we'll share a timeline and open things up for discussion if we could go forward two slides please this june we have taken advantage of the additional time that you asked for we've distributed
189uh more about two twenty thousand flyers to our schools asking them to distribute them to their students to our elementary schools we held information sessions at holton we attended numerous uh public festivals uh applying sunscreen making sure that we did lose one take one tent in a big gust of wind there at the juneteenth celebration we have activated our parent ambassador group that is going and growing we have met with community ambassadors from from activists and interest groups across durham county we've met specifically with specific groups we've held kitchen table meetings in the birch avenue rockwood and lakewood communities we've met with local political action committees we have taken further steps as long as well as our existing electronic steps to reach out to families and to move forward we know we have more to
190do and i will come back to you at the end of this presentation with some of those lessons learned but with that i will turn it over to matthew palmer for the why thank you chip um if you would next slide please um this is really important to reset all of us this has been a three-year journey but really a 30-year journey and if you go further as mr jones talked about it goes further back than that we wanted to start with what we've heard right and how this proposal before you for a school system student assignment plan a comprehensive plan reflects what we've heard because we've heard different things next slide please so in meeting with you the board and meeting with our parents now over 50 events in accumulation we've heard different ideas
191of what do we value what do we want right we certainly want diversity we hear we want our schools to look like durham we also want our schools to be close by for our neighborhoods for our kids to maybe be able to walk a bike or some other mode right or to attend that after school function we've heard we want to be able to choose the option i know my child best and i want to be able to choose what's best for them and we've also heard that we need to grow dps we have had campaigns say yes to dps and otherwise right we are not serving every child in durham county we know that but we can certainly serve more so these values are shared amongst the board amongst the community and amongst the
192administration this design proposal reflects that we're going to go one by one and talk about how this proposal tethers back to some of these shared values but also how some of these shared values are in tension at times with one another and there are trade-offs right next slide please we have certainly heard we want a school that is diverse like durabiz right and as a county durham is diverse if you would next slide thank you however we have had and continue to have deep residential segregation and so it's important to acknowledge that we have opportunities to improve the integration and diversity of our schools through tools like school boundaries you would next slide thank you so it's not just about school boundaries it's also looking at when we run our lottery through student assignment it's
193not just reflecting the applicant pool we're looking to design and bring forth is about waiting out that base area boundary with those that apply that overall the school is looking more like durham but having said that right we also recognize those long ride times and we have an opportunity through the regional design that is making sure that all of those regions all five of them again every region is 50 000 or more at a medium family income and 50 or greater for families of color that's important if we're going to look at boundaries and the lottery next slide and the second idea we want options to choose what's best for our child we hear that a lot right if you would a couple tabs thank you so number one we have to make sure and
194this is our cornerstone of this proposal every school in durham is a great school and we have to bring the resources into those schools we have heard extensively through our engagement this conversation is about resources and does my child have access to the resources that other children have thank you in addition that's spatial inequity right certain areas of durham having options another is a durham not having any options this recalibrates that and make sure no matter where you live you're going to have options and the likelihood of accessing those options is comparable one more tab please thank you and when we look at those lottery seats that relates back i know we've had questions about the number of lottery seats in the regions we're trying to make sure that again no matter which region we're
195talking about the chance of getting into a seat is comparable that we're not prioritizing one area of durham over the other next slide please and yes we have heard that we want good schools close by right that we don't have to take a two hour bus ride to access a pre-k program or to act as a choice program can we do more there and the answer is yeah we can so we have to be mindful though that we have to balance that desire for being close by with the realities that we shared about choice and diversity it's compelling to want a diverse choice neighborhood school and in rare instances we're able to pull that off but rare being one out of 31 right we've brought forth a design that is trying to encompass all of
196this a couple tabs here please thank you one more so the reasons number one align with some of our major infrastructure like interstate 85 and interstate 885 number two we have 830 neighborhood planning units those are all drawn with neighborhood streets in mind 35 miles an hour you've heard from us there's an important speed the reason is because that's the speed that a nine-year-old can't tell the distance or the speed of an oncoming car so all of our neighborhood planning units are designed to make sure kids don't have to cross those busy roads to get on the bus and that we're not dividing neighborhoods that's a tricky one because defining a neighborhood as we've learned together is hard right and the last piece just with regards to for every school we're not only looking at
197you know yes we've talked about application schools but it starts with our neighborhoods that every school has a base area associated with a base boundary and then for a few schools we have set-aside lottery seats again that we can use to balance out the overall demographics and provide choice so i wanted to start with this why to help set the table for what you're seeing before you i know this is our second reading but it seems important to reset where we're coming from with this and what we've heard over the years together next slide please hand it over to dr pittman thank you mr palmer good evening board this is a summary indeed of the values that we've heard from across our community through engagement internally and externally and so on the next slide we
198wanted to just give a brief recap of the programs that are selected to be our application programs and a little bit of a reminder as to the why building upon the values that mr palmer just laid out when we selected year-round inter year-round programming a reminder that through the intersession there is great opportunity for intervention and enrichment and of course with some shorter summer breaks there's less time to lose learning and build a greater time to build upon and retain learning as you all know our year-round schools are highly requested across our community engagement and we have high demand through our applications and as a side benefit year-round calendar schools offer an opportunity to offset operational demands as far as dual language immersion we know that research is showing us that students who participate over
199time in dual language programs who are spanish-speaking or non-english speaking perform equally to their english-speaking peers that have participated in dual language programs and outperform english speaking students in non-dli instruction there's greater academic performance greater cognitive development in these children and of course a rich opportunity and positive cross-cultural development attitudes and behaviors we've heard a lot from our community to offer dual language programming and through this proposal indeed we have expanded to five opportunities for montessori our peer research of course shows that the montessori pedagogy effectively accelerates academic pro academic performance and social development the holistic approach to montessori educationally fosters independence and self-directed learning this indeed again is a highly regarded program we've heard a lot through community engagement to increase those opportunities and we have evidence of that through our lottery application historical
200data and finally the international baccalaureate program highly regarded through peer research shows that critical think thinking skills develop a strong global awareness and of course collaboration skills this by expanding an ib program at elementary will give us increased opportunities for participation in our k-12 continuum particularly for our secondary numbers the global competitiveness including world languages participation again is a reflection of the value of our community and ask for an increased access to languages so next i'm going to invite mr palmer back to review and go over the school boundary highlights that we are proposing to launch in 24-25 thank you dr pittman and this is a good time to remind ourselves that the proposal before you the recommendations before you uh are ultimately about school boundaries for the 24-25 academic year which is over two
201years away we talk about all the work that we need to do between now and then but i just want to again come back to the reset of why are we proposing and what are we proposing next slide please so we've seen this slide a few times this is where we are today with dps 31 schools for the upcoming year celebrating soon a ribbon cutting for lions farm elementary school that's going to be a lot of fun to see there and yet we do have wide disparities currently today in the year 2022. we have schools next to each other that range from 26 percent free induced lunch to 100 frame reduced lunch we have schools that are 100 students of color and those that are less than half right at the same time the mileage
202it requires for us to get children from home to school under our current system of student assignment those complex rules those boundaries that you see here that reflect sometimes like glenn 20 miles long that's 28 000 miles just from home to school one time twice a day you're over 50 000 miles over the course of a school year over 5 million so we're going to come back to that number because those numbers relate back to how long are the bus rides and how much does it cost to get to school for us as a district in administration sometimes equity and efficiency can go together they don't always have to contrast one another and those trade-offs can be a win-win next slide please that's one of the main points we want to make tonight is that
203it can be compelling for us to draw boundaries for a neighborhood or for a school or one student again we're looking at a big picture lens of the entire community part of that when we talk about growing together is growing our mindset right that's much of what we're trying to do as a team next slide to do boundaries we need those three inputs the academic program which we've heard about previously and again tonight our facilities where are they how big are they what are they designed to do for instruction and our students can they get to school how far is that right what resources do they have access to what resources are they bringing into the school we need to be looking at all of that so we put these three streams together to bring
204forth the boundary proposals on the next slide you'll see what we're proposing so on the left is where we are today and on the right is what we're proposing this is with regards to the 24 25 academic year you can see here all 32 schools including the newly named murray masterburg elementary school that's going to relieve severe overcrowding at six schools directly around it next slide please i'm going to take just a moment for each of the regions to review the northern central eastern southeast and southwest region so you have a refresh next slide please one more go to southeast one more slide there you go and the southwest region one more slide please thank you for those watching at home or for those that might be reviewing this on on a tape delay we
205do have all of this information an interactive boundary map where you can look at our existing boundaries as well as those are being proposed the regional lines et cetera on our engaged dpsnc webpage that's a link there and you can search down to your home address you can look at where we've been and what we're proposing next slide please so one of the things that the board and the administration has set forth on is our strategic plan and you've heard a lot about strategic plan party goal 5c much of that is about elementary school classrooms and do we have enough seats for kids right we as a district right now have over 100 mobile classrooms being used in some capacity this proposal reduces 13 severely over under enrolled schools down to three and of those
206three they're all in the capital improvement program that we need your support the county support and our community support for those are glenn bethesda and club boulevard this also helps us align the ecm pre-k programs we've talked about that those pathways do families have to jump from school to school or can we put forth a cohesive plan for every child many of our schools have lost their art in music rooms because of overcrowding this brings those rooms back to every school and again the opportunity even with murray massenburg to take out the mobile classrooms around it and have those children learn in classrooms designed for permanent elementary school high quality instruction a mobile classroom is a temporary arrangement it is a temporary plan it is not a long-term solution this helps us move in that
207direction and achieve 5c next slide please a strategic plan priority goal 5e talked a lot about efficiency and it was specific about state metrics but i'm going to talk about our metrics remembering the 28 000 miles that is from home to school for our students we can nearly chop that in half through looking at how far are the boundaries from home to school and yes the regions provide us an opportunity to ensure that you have an option but you don't have to go two hours away to get it our earliest rider in durham public schools is a pre-k student that we pick up at 502 in the morning not only does that help us with our efficiency if you could go to the previous slide please other direction if the iot team could go in
208the other direction please thank you we're dealing with a bus driver shortage we have half the drivers we used to have we've talked about bell schedules we know that's hard for families we know this proposal is hard for some families too but the part of being efficient is also making sure that we can work with the resources that we have right this proposal in the reduction of miles also reduces the number of bus drivers we need to run those routes right and shortens the ride time for those students next slide please today currently the majority of our application program or what we have historically called magnet program seats 72 percent of those seats sit in some version of our priority either for a prioritized neighborhood or for a sibling linkage and we recognize the deep
209value of linked siblings families staying together it is board policy even in the updated 4150 around sibling linkage however that leaves only 28 of current application seats available for other families and most of those programs are in certain areas and not in others with this proposal that balances that out at 49 for that base area neighborhood school that all of our schools are now neighborhood schools and then reserves an additional 50 of the seats for lottery access next slide please not only can we increase access we can increase the distribution of that choice making sure that areas in durham that don't currently have representation in the application program do there's areas of durham where we're losing a massive amount of our students because we don't have an option for them we have one single option
210for them it is dps or the alternatives and many times they're choosing the alternatives this recalibrates that distribution of choice across our five regions making sure northern eastern central southeast and south southwest are equivalent or comparable with regards to the location and accessibility of our application seats next slide please with that i'm going to hand it over to director marshall thank you mr palmer and good evening or good night i don't know it's pretty late everyone throughout the growing together initiative our intentional goal has been to listen and reflect the voice and values of durham so tonight as we move forward with the implementation phase we will continue to ensure that we honor the voice of our internal and external stakeholders with this we are excited to develop the implementation advisory work group with the
211purpose of advising on rules of student assignment for implementation beginning the 24-25 school year representing i'm sorry let's go to the next slide please there we are so our group will advise on the rules of student assignment for implementation beginning the 24-25 school year and represent the beautiful diversity of our durham community to consider how rules may impact the various students and families that we serve and to be as minimally disruptive and as fair as possible next slide please so this slide outlines the overarching objectives that we look to accomplish with the advisory work group primarily we will develop school assignment rules that will ensure a balanced lottery address program links attendance zones regional access and opt-out processes we will also develop rules regarding siblings how we'll bridge legacy students currently attending schools or programs
212and shaping transition processes for phase in and phased out programs next slide please so the advisory work group will begin by utilizing feedback that we've received from previous communicate community engagement sessions and will draft proposed implementation rules we will then share the proposed rules with the growing together community ambassadors who will be trained to cascade that information throughout their various communities and gather feedback in conjunction the district will hold meetings in each region to ensure that members of the community have the opportunity to provide feedback as well from there the advisory work group will analyze the collective feedback and finalize the rules to be shared with our community and this process will extend through the fall of 2022. next slide please the composition of the advisory work group will be representative of members across durham
213county to include parents school and community leaders principals and experts in the area of education policy and planning we look forward to working with our ambassadors individual school communities and district staff to gather feedback and thoughtfully communicate the implementation plan and what better person to follow me i will pass the next part of the presentation to mr sutter to share more about our communication strategies i think it is fair to say that this has been the most robust community engagement work that durham public schools has done in many years and that there is far more to do uh both of these things are true um if we could go to the next slide please so in the midst of these 50 meetings and these hundreds and or thousands of engagements and all of the input
214that we've received in person and digitally we've also learned that we need to do more particularly with school-based communication empowering and supporting our schools with information and resources and training and expectations to make sure that the most vital link between durham public schools and our families our schools is robustly involved in uh the community engagement and outreach and our principals and our school staff are working extraordinarily hard this is a hard ask for schools it's a hard ass for districts i can tell you from going to weekend after weekend meeting and being out in the hot sun but this is the work that we have to do collectively as a district and it is our role as district leaders to support our schools in that effort existing parent networks are super important uh ms dayadores
215has mentioned whatsapp groups before and we had really really great feedback at the holton uh plc meeting about just how complex and how powerful those are our families who are the least engaged in our formal traditional community engagement are super connected in other ways many of them are informal some of them created within school communities but not part of the official school community we have to identify those networks work with our community engagement partners in durham public schools and take better use make take rare use of them with the implementation rules working group with their work with the middle school and high school work going forward we will continue our mix of digital and in-person engagement opportunities both present opportunities for greater equity you can't have one without the other we will continue to be
216president at community events we're going to continue expanding our parent ambassador and community ambassador programs and we are going to integrate this growing great schools together message into a comprehensive communication strategy that it builds from our strategic plan that my team is working on uh over this summer we have lots of tools that we are currently using ranging from next door and instagram and existing social media to new opportunities radio is expensive but we can go there regional representatives we can go there um we need to do more we are planning for more we and our community members who have come to us in community engagement opportunities have shown us the way and next we will go to the transition timeline one more slide please next year new boundaries are in place for lions farm
217parkwood and creekside and we launched this initiative for secondary programs we begin working on the ec pre-k and regional alignment and we work with the working group on finalizing student assignment rules 2023 to 24 the new rules are in place for the lottery for the following year we we further provide information about growing great schools together 2024 to 25 that's when what we are asking you to vote on tonight goes into effect uh at the same time we open murray massenburg elementary school and our regional access model programs dli and year round and our global languages stem and arts in every elementary school launch and then either in the same year or the following year um we have completed renovated renovations of our six elementary schools and the launch of our district-wide uh choice programs
218or our application programs excuse me in international baccalaureate and montessori so the action that we are requesting if we could go to the next slide is that we are presenting our recommendation for the approval of the boundaries and we are happy to entertain your questions tonight thank you very much for your time thank you mr sutter and the team for all of the work that you all have done on this um i can't believe it's been three years and i appreciate you grounding us in our why getting this process started how we started why we started and and what led us to making the presentation that is um and the plan creating the plan that we have today board members are there questions emotions um i want to start with profound gratitude for this work
219it is complex it is deep it is y'all have been at it for a long long long long time um and it is like a tapestry it is woven together like with so much data underneath it um and you've been out there everywhere i've seen you everywhere you know starting conversations i think some some families are in it for understanding it for the last time and some are still like trying to understand it because it is complex i sent you lots of questions and and i'm sorry i did not figure out until recently that one of my biggest concerns is east durham and it continues to be that sitting here tonight and what i didn't figure out is that you've paired montessori i didn't figure out so i talked to mr raven actually you've paired
220in eastern durham that region has a year round a dli but the montessori choice is little river up in north durham which is not proximate at all so that to me doesn't feel like a pairing that actually will will be fair to east durham and i'm not even sure yet still what the ib choice there is even with all the questions i've asked you all and i am so appreciative of answers is it burton is it poe as proposed i'm still confused um those don't feel proximate and that area of town which i think needs tlc doesn't feel like it's getting its fair share and it's particularly when i compare it to the central region and i shared a chart with you all because i didn't figure it out till i put it in a
221chart the central region everything there is a choice school except you smith is a traditional neighborhood school so there are four choices in that region including ekpo getting ib that i don't even know that they want or they asked for but why is east durham just doesn't have the same equity and parity in my mind in this plan and i know y'all have wrestled with that i don't think i'm bringing you anything that you hadn't seen before so i'm trying to find a way to feel that this plan is fair knowing particularly the transit patterns and mr palmer you put that in some of your answer 98 is always bad 70 70s always bad north rocks for a duke street always bad like so how and i feel like y'all are telling me this is
222the best we can do with the buildings we have but i don't i don't want that to be the best and i don't want those choices not to feel fair and proximate and available in this plan it's not a question it's a ramble sorry it's a it's a very fair question and i think we follow where you're going uh something that i will and dr mumbang if you put me i think you laid the groundwork early on this is a start to start as far as there are things in here that we're looking to bring on that are new and things that are new different places right we've heard extensively from northern durham and eastern durham that well you have some montessori programs but they're really far away and we have a zero percent chance
223of getting it right one in a thousand is what it breaks out into what this proposal does do for eastern durham specifically is it ensures that there are protected application seats at a montessori program eligible for eastern durham families propose that to be at little river because of the three monasteries that's the most proximate and there's space there to accommodate and support eastern durham and northern durham families both that said let me go back to the to the chart of which schools and which regions i think there's two conversations we have to have one is about at which school is an application program and as a family which programs do i have access to those aren't really the same conversation they can be compelling to put them together that we have not located an ib
224or a monastery program in eastern durham is in part because in doing so remembering our five and ten year forecasts the homes that are being built in eastern durham if we were to put an ib or a montessori program in eastern durham today that would as a result be taking some of those seats that we need to support eastern durham families which i would remind you at spring valley we've lost the music room we've lost rooms because of overcrowding we have three open seats at spring valley in the whole school so if we bring an application program to let's say spring valley in doing so we would in effect be bringing other areas of durham to a school that doesn't have any room we need the capacity very much in eastern durham right and i'll
225bring again the application opportunities what we're hearing from our families i think principally number one a resounding thing is we want quality schools set the application part aside we want our children to have access to art rooms music rooms a robust curriculum that's preparing from for the 21st century economy and yes other families saying we want choice and of those do i have a chance tell me what the rules are do i have a chance unfortunately right now our response is that chance is very low to very almost impossible quite frankly under the current structure so the proposal that we have before you is looking at eastern german recognizing do eastern durham families have access to seats in the montessori program or in the ib program with this proposal it would be a little river
226and it would be a burden putting a district-wide multi-region program in eastern durham with only five schools and two of them already dli in year-round you only have three left would remove more seats from eastern durham families and bring us back into this conversation about the overcrowding in eastern durham in five years there will be some room hopefully with the renovations at glenn and bethesda but at 10 years we're going to have the same problems with overcrowding we have to prepare for that and not put ourselves or those families and children and staff in an overcrowded situation that's a very thorough answer i hope that i'm sure you have other thoughts with that but i wanted to paint that picture no that it's a good answer it doesn't feel like an equitable answer it feels
227like because you know that i'm the one that said don't we need to land bank in eastern because there's so much growth out there i i am acutely aware of the growth in that part of town but saying we'll build the capacity later and then you can travel a really long way i mean it doesn't have that balance and fairness that i want it to have with this plan and it's it's what's bugging me about it i kind of had assumed that because you have access to montessori meant you went into this pool of people interested in montessori and then i figured out oh no we can't say of regional transportation if we don't designate pairing things up right and so y'all have paired stuff up but i've never seen that in a slide how
228it's paired when you don't have an ib or a montessori in your region and so that's what i'm still looking to make sense of of my heart feeling like it's fair when you're bringing the data and i know the roads and the traffic don't make that an actual it's it's not it's not proximate to where people are heading like it would be taking you feel like you're out of town in east durham and to get to little riv you're going back and up again it just that that's the biggest gap did you all think about that overflow at wg pearson as a potential solution for something along those lines y'all have wrestled with this longer than i have um we've certainly wrestled with it that i can attest to you um and we have looked
229at thousands of scenarios quite literally as far as permutations right we have 32 schools that we're talking about we're also trying to be responsible with the monastery and ib programs in part because there again we have one ib program currently at burton elementary it is a national model for international baccalaureate that supports shepherd middle school and hillside high school right bringing on a companion ib elementary school we looked at all the opportunities again a district-wide ib one of the things i want to point out about eastern durham is it is as miss byron you pointed out it is hard to get to right that is a reality of today east end connector will help with that but we're talking about old farm roads right that aren't on a grid that are diagonal and long right
230if you were to bring a district-wide program there now you would also be talking about bringing students from other regions all the way over to far east durham we're trying to find a proximate little river in burton both of which are adjacent to the eastern region so we certainly receive that and i think something that dr mabenga said again tonight is this is a start we're trying not to grow those programs too big or too fast right mr rubin i'll start by saying um i shared some of the sentiments with with with ms buyer we had we definitely had a conversation about this i'll first start by saying thank you um i'm extremely appreciative of what you all have been able to come up with looking at the just looking at what eastern had right
231uh when we're looking at the magnet application seat allocation this is one of the things i spoke with dr mubenga about is just i i didn't realize it was zero percent like i knew it was we didn't have any but i didn't think it was literally zero percent and to see that go from zero to twenty percent that that's a huge change and and i i think that you know with the growth in that area with the number of subdivisions that are still popping up it gives parents that are looking to send their kid to uh to a school it gives them a lot of options and in consideration about where they're looking at as well the other thing that i looked at and i'm happy that you all are doing this is when we're
232looking at the the capacity of the schools within the eastern region it's it's it's pretty interesting because most of those schools have a capacity of around 500 some schools but you all wisely dedicated oak grove as the year-round school i'm assuming because this capacity is around 700. so that that's because i looked at it and i realized that you all essentially made their their mapping area a little bit smaller but it's because you all were compensating and accounting for all of the other ones so i tried to find gaps with it i really did so so any any gaps that i have i mean it's it's i kind of have to separate my my personal perspective on it because there are things that i that i do want but when you mention about that that
233ib program and the capacity shortfalls that it creates and then understanding based on the cip plan all the all the infrastructure improvements that will also come come about i i think that's something that i can live with because i know that you all are going to steadily be working on this so i'll just say thank you again um miss lewis try to keep it really quick um you know there's a saying that you know there's no no stone that's there's no stone that's been left unturned and i guess truly say that when i listen to again the why and the different layers that you all considered that is true with this proposal i like that you said this is the beginning we've had several two by twos we've had community engagement we've had several questions
234being answered via email and i see the time and diligence that you all spend with those questions that individual attention it just it just blows my mind how patient you are because it does take us some time for us to unpack this and what comes naturally to you is a little more challenging for us when this isn't our area of expertise but as i see dr pittman as um board member raven shares the connections he's made to your wives as he's looking for gaps and dr pitmas looking on at mr mr palmer like yeah that's exactly what he was thinking what our team was doing so i just again i commend your team and all the effort and work you've done to this i thank you for this presentation i am ready to move forward
235with it there's just so much good stuff i don't want to take time to point out all the good that's in it there's still more work to be done and i look forward to getting to the rules because i think that's going to be super important so you'll you'll hear more from me then thank you thank you miss louis uh miss spiders i want to thank you all so much um there's definitely a lot of conversations uh a lot of discussions um starting with you all as a team thank you for all the ways all the efforts um i can speak to um uh mr sudderth when you were talking about the whatsapp threads you you're popular you know that uh some of some of our community leaders that are out there promoting this they
236change their cover photo to feature you and some keys key personnel from dps believe me i'll show you that picture when i get when you know just in a few minutes you know um you're pretty popular so there's definitely a lot that is going around um you know as you all are are going out into communities and especially ethnic um uh businesses you know like like local businesses um and you're out there in the community definitely they they go there they see you all it's pretty visible um i'm also so grateful for the conversations i know that this tuesday dr pittman i am sorry i want to publicly apologize to you and we i definitely had a meeting it was more than you right so so another uh district leader but i just i i
237really know the level of commitment that you all have to listening um because that day was a tuesday night and you had back-to-back events you know and i borrowed you know right before you were supposed to go to the next event just dr pitman these are some concerns or this is something that i care about and it's about dli um dual language immersion dr pack your work you know speaks i i got the whole history you know of 17 years uh when it started with a seed for dli and how you know you've been instrumental in that process and you and so many others uh i spoke to uh musashi rayasam on tuesday night so i'm i'm just very grateful for that and i think um there's definitely i hear dr dr mubenga thank you
238for that introduction when you talked about dli and the commitment this district has to dli it was very important to me to hear that to hear that schools that have that program can continue to have that program and it is not to say that it's going to be sunsetted it was it really caused my heart grief because i'm like why would you sunset something and i literally have like five pages dr pippin you know i was mentioning five pages but um when it comes to greater intellectual cognitive flexibility and academic achievement over time that's that's research from 2011 affirming diversity from 2000 native language uh it talks about better communicative uh capabilities petito in 2009 healthier self-esteem cultural identity strengthened pride and cultural heritage enhanced employment opportunities in an increasingly global economy who wouldn't want
239that right and so um to hear that we are committed to expanding the programs although not perfectly i hear that we're starting you know in with attainable but i just really want to hear and i just want to hear it because this has kept me up at night i want to hear it we are committed to expanding these programs we're not sun setting any dli program that currently exists we are expanding it through a regional model it's not touching these other programs can you can can do i have it right is that is that thank you dr mabenga i'm totally because i literally i i didn't want to have to grant it i was like let me just print out every all the ways like supporting uh you know culture support you know just so
240much there's so much that we can talk about in terms of dli um and i don't mean to go over it but um we did have an opportunity i want to thank um board member uh matt sears and board member natalie beyer and community leaders who took time as well to hear about programs that have worked and what does it take i know it's not it's not just assigning a dli program to a school and then magically everything is going to fall into place there's different factors there's factors about you know the the leadership at the school there's factors about having the the students there so i i hear you all in terms of what this uh regional model growing together means and it means a lot that also people that i that i look
241up to um have also vetted it and looked at it i just want to know that there's still room to continue that conversation about how to make it better so i'm i'm grateful you have an advisory committee and i just want to know does the advisory committee have leverage to influence the implementation of this of this process i just wanted to hear a little more about what actual powers does the advisory committee have thank you i'll start the um that answer and look to my team for additional but really that advisory um committee will uh will advise on the rules of how we will implement the um are our growing together initiatives so this will be more uh student assignment rules how we will consider our regions um our i'm sorry i will consider our
242sibling preferences how we how we would consider legacy students so it will be more about how we will assign students into the school mr sears yeah i'll be very brief administration um thank you i i often send you emails during the meeting or after thanking you uh because you do this work every day and you don't stop doing this work and it our community has to know that day in day out this is what you all are working on and it's it's it's greatly appreciated um dr mabega thank you for discussing uh what we know happens but what the community needs to know and that's that these other elements that we haven't discussed are getting worked on and the one for me that was important to hear is that you are looking at the budget
243implications so thank you for your introduction tonight that shared that um well folks can go back and look look up exactly what you said with that you think we're going to be in good financial standing around this um and we have you know several years to get ready so um that that's that was the concern that the box that was checked um i'll say what i've said to board members and community members over the last couple weeks and that's i can find something to be unhappy about or that i think is a better idea and we all can do that and something's not going to work we're doing the best plan we can so there's no point in us using individual lines or programs or things to to hold things up i can be in
244support of the plan tonight mr lee thank you so let's see here uh just just a point of clarification so the ib program that is a program within a school right so it's a like for example shepard is everyone there in the ib program or is it partial is it you know is that impartial the ib program infiltrates the whole school much like the avid it's a philosophy of teaching but as you matriculate through the secondary schools there's more specific courses that you would take and there's choice involved so students who are seeking nabi diploma would take certain courses advanced level courses in a variety of topics i think it's four of six um areas that they have to take a class in and then one in an advanced class to get that ib diploma
245but it is a a culture okay so is it is the entire population lotteried in or or is it zone is there currently it kills that hillside there's a there's a neighborhood but then there's also lottery seats available right what about shepard it's 100 percent lottery yep 100 likes okay all right and then secondly um just just uh uh just a question about the the sun setting piece of the dli is that a change does it did that change or was it like a miscommunication from the beginning i'm just curious of what that was i think it was a miscommunication my staff came to me today hey wait a minute that was not a part of magnet schools it was just a program that were able to implement it but there's as well as the
246lakewood so depending on funding they should be able to continue if they feel like that's what they did for their schools okay okay i was just i wanted to i was curious because we got a lot of public comment it was you know in here just you know was gonna the program's gonna be southwest and i just wanted to make sure that people knew that it was a miscommunication it was not a change um there's reason behind that but i won't go i won't necessarily go into that um i support this i think um of course i thank everyone for working on it i've thanked them before but i just for those who are listening and have questions i think no matter what how you cut it this increases the opportunity to go to neighborhood
247schools and opportunities to have programs closer to where you live so your students aren't traveling far it doesn't take you a long time to get there if there's a bloody nose or whatever you know you got to get to school quickly reduces transportation so i believe this is a very good thing for durham i cannot wait to support this as my last vote i guess so but i really appreciate this work i can't wait to see it come to fruition in a couple years um more gratitude and appreciation to the team for all the work that you've done um it was about a month ago when we asked for more community engagement and i have seen you everywhere i have been and and many other places in the month of june right that we really
248pushed through and had so many more conversations with families around what we're doing i remember back to our board retreat where we talked about we wanted to simplify the fact that there were 30 rules for 30 different schools and we wanted to create regional access to reduce transfer like we as a board made some of those requests and offerings you took us through a great little dots activity where we had to put where we wanted what we wanted to see as we move forward and so i just want to applaud you all for doing a lot of listening i think the other thing i want to say is you know it is a tapper street and we start picking we're going to unravel lots of different pieces because every one decision has an impact on
249something else and so i think you all told us in the past the best practice is to look at this every three to five years is that correct mr palmer that's correct we're going to be um as we talked about tonight we have staff that are looking at this every day and we'll continue to we have to keep our eye on the ball year over year right when the enrollment numbers come in we have to be looking at what choices our families making but in the big picture this global conversation that we're having tonight again that comprehensive plan those three pillars we have to keep coming back to the academic program our school facilities and our students and we have to look at all three together thank you so i think this is a big
250step forward that hasn't been taken in the last 30 years and the step that we'll continue to revise and look at moving forward and so i just want to say thank you and i appreciate that the other thing i want to warn us about i think some of our questions are getting to the rules portion and the application portion and we need to make sure that we allow for the time for the advisory group to get together for that to come i think we can might be getting ahead of ourselves when we think about what happens next and so this is one step the next step is considering what are all the rules and the implementation and application and the legacy that's the next step so i don't want us to get too caught up
251in figuring out what happens next we have to take this forward movement um so i want to say thank you again could i get a couple more things clarified for folks that i don't think have been clear and i'm not don't believe i'm going in the rules portion or any of that um can you all tell folks how you're envisioning w.g pearson which sits as a year round in a nice spot that i know mr palmer likes but how will folks in the eastern southwest and southeast have access to two year rounds and not have more access to your round of choices than other folks and right i know you have an answer i just don't get it okay so we're going to go through a fraction a numerator and denominator number of seats by
252program type that families in a region have access to and the number of students as the denominator in that region for central southeast and southwest particularly because it's dense and southeast and southwest have more students than the other regions right remembering the total number of lottery seats is dependent on how much of the boundary does the school also have to serve right so we look at this as an equation number of application seats over total number of students in the region we discovered you're looking at this through our first iterations remember we've looked at this in a lot of different versions to make sure this core question access we talk about it do i as a family as a parent applying to a program have the same chances at the family across the way right
253and we discovered in southeast and southwest in particular they were much lower because there's more students applying for a fixed number of seats by bringing wg pearson in which sits at the intersection on fayetteville street the southeast southwest and as you'll remember the historic wg pearson building that is in the central region by providing access to those three regions wg it will ensure that families that live in those regions have an equivalent likelihood or chance of getting in going to that traction how many seats and how many kids what that means though is that i shouldn't say though and what that means is that if families are applying or choose to apply in those three regions they'll have two choices to apply to for year round right and we can go region by region again
254but again those three regions will have two options their regional year-round nwg in effect serves as an access benefit for the district but especially for those three regions so that if you're in eastern northern central southeast or southwest the chance or likelihood that i get access to one of those year-round seats is equivalent so we saw it as a lien towards equity and also as an opportunity to honor that w g pearson has a long and important history in durham right this is honoring those families that do live in the old wg boundary but it also is making sure that southeast and southwest have equivalent access to the year-round program so unique opportunity um to achieve a couple goals for the district around equity and access and i appreciate all the talk of budgets and
255i also feel tension about not having details i think if we do projects like this in the future that are this wide sweeping it's not just um programs shifting around it's actually significant new allotments of foreign language teachers over 20 in my by my account at elementary schools that i've not heard how we're going to fund um and so i i have some unease about this it's clear that that this is progressing forward and i and i it's it's something that's so important to this community i do not want to vote against and will not but i but i need y'all to hear that dr mubinga um we can't just do it on the on a post-it note and and trust me on a project this big in the future this is this is huge
256and then how do you all plan to communicate with these schools that are changing so are in harris um others in that you didn't i didn't hear that in the timeline of of how y'all i i know they've heard of it but what how are you gonna include them in an active process of listening to them certainly there's been overview communication for at the awareness level and now upon approval this evening we will be able to push in with intense support and communication and working with schools every school in durham elementary is going to be impacted because they'll have new boundaries some have program implication coming up going out so we'll be working in envisioning really project teams for each school that will in include communication and outreach promotion i move final approval and adoption
257of the growing together plan as outlined at the may 19th board of education regular meeting for the designed academic application programs and elementary school boundaries second the move by ms lewis seconded by mr raven any other discussion i do have one additional question why should we move on this net can y'all talk a little bit about timeline there's been a question around can this wait we've heard from some community can this wait to the fall or later to try to make these changes can y'all just speak to that really quickly i apologize for better two i did a district-wide social distancing plan somewhere um it's important for a variety of reasons on the timelines mostly because the real work is ahead of us we have to be thoughtful for every child we have to be
258inclusive of our community we have been intentional about not doing a top-down these families get to stay in these towns got to go from school we have to have this conversation as a community identifying task force members that are going to be part of that working group making sure we have representation not only of current dps families but future dps families not only families from one area of durham but in all areas of durham our staff at schools our principals we need to make sure that our working group we can bring folks in over the summer begin that onboarding process there's going to be a lot of background work just to get them up to speed on the whys it's taken us working with you the board a better part of three years and we're
259going to be putting them on the fast tracks right mr jones tonight shared the merger document from 94 that's a part of this conversation but we're going to have to bring those folks up to speed because again murray massenberg opens in 2425 which sounds in our world years away it's not we've learned from lions farm we've learned from creekside and parkwood adjustments that the longer we delay letting parents know the more angst and anxiety that bubbles up right and it's important that we are able to advise the working group on where we've been and they can advise us of where we need to go together because there again there's a second part of this conversation with regards to middle schools and high schools in the future for our secondary programs this is a foundation of
260the house but it is only a portion of the house we have more work to do ahead and we want the working group to come together make sure they understand what they're advising on that's the hard part is if you have an advisory group that doesn't know fully what the vision is it's harder to design those implementation goals so we have i think in our timeline you can see that january 2024 is the golden you know that's when that lottery kicks in for the 24-25 school year but that's really not that far away right that's about 18 months away and there again we have a lot of work to do to get up to that to prepare ourselves and getting ready to go um we have heard exhaust i should not say we have heard
261extensively from our families let us know what's happening so we can make the decisions that we need to make for our family right not six months in advance not nine months in advance this is ensuring that people have a sense of where we're going as a community thank you mr palmer so moved and properly second all those in favor say aye any opposed please use the same sign and it passes unanimously thank you all madam chair if i may there are members of our team that are here this evening if we could acknowledge um you have the faces who have shared the information but if we could please ask our growing together members to please stand for their hard work and commitment over the many many years [Applause] thank you for that thank you all
262so much and to the team other members who are here today and those who probably are watching and streaming online we know this has been a collective effort on along with the other things you all are working on so i just want to say thank you again um this is the first step we know that there are many more and more steps to go so i appreciate that right that concludes the um open session part of our agenda i'll take a motion to go into closed session a movie going to close session for the reasons stated on the agenda second removed and properly second any other discussion all those in favor say aye aye any opposed please use the same sign passes unanimously i get a text i can see the alarm oh what's it
263now yeah yeah yeah we are back in open session dr mabinga madam chair i'm here to seek for your approval for the personal report as discussed at the closed session i move that we approve the personnel to the personnel report as discussed in a closed session for june 23rd out second it's been moved and properly second any other discussion all in favor say aye aye any opposed please use the same sign pass this unanimously take a motion i'll make a motion to recess this meeting until 5 30 on wednesday for personnel second the mood and probably second any other discussion all in favor say aye aye any opposed passes unanimously we are now recessed you