001good afternoon good afternoon afternoon good afternoon good evening everyone the dur Public Schools Board of Education work session is now in session at this time we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who is joining us this evening the purpose of this meeting is to inform our parents staff and constituents about the work align with our mission to embrace educate and Empower every student to innovate serve and lead tonight the administration will be presenting information to keep you up to date on our strategic plan the inter interpreters for tonight are Martha Romo Riles and Marty Ramirez thank you for taking the time to join us tonight we'll begin as we always do with a moment of silence please thank you board member item three on our agenda is agenda review and approval Mr chair
002I'd like to add an item um maybe as 8G in case other questions don't get covered um just a covid general conversation board members is there a second a second that okay it's been moved by Miss buer second by Mr Raven that we add an item 8G a general covid update is there any discussion this a general update from discussion from the board memb just going to clarify what the discussion is about I I would assume it would be from board members and if um staff has anything that they'd want to update it would just be General um discussion yeah thank you okay there's a motion to amend the agenda it's been seconded any further discussion Mr Sue with everyone in person do we need a Voice vote because our faces are covered uh no
003we can simply do a do we need to do do we need to do a visual just normal you don't need a roll call you just raise hands or however you like to do it okay all in favor of the amended agenda say I I I any opposed the agenda is amended board members item four is the board work session minutes from August 12th 2021 which we have reviewed in our packet I move approval of the work session minutes from August 12th 2001 I second it's been moved by Miss Lewis seconded by Miss Umstead did we approve the minutes any further discussion all in favor say I I any opposed the minutes are approved board members item five is general public comment we do not have any in-person comment we have 46 public comments submitted
004uh given the the breadth of that I think it's important that we hear a little from everyone as opposed to deeply from a few uh so Mr suth if you would do 45 seconds per comment that'll get us to about an half an hour absolutely if Miss Smith will give me a timer we do have uh 46 public comments one of them was made in Spanish and 12 of them I'm assuming came from uh a teenager who was uh testing the limits of their vocabulary uh so we'll we we're going to skip those um because that was all they were was testing the limits of their vocabulary all right we will start with a comment from Elizabeth Van Vorhees of Branchwood Drive the scientists from the the ABC science collaborative presented at the school board
005meeting on Tuesday August 31st and reiterated that for children too young for vaccinations Universal masking and outdoor eating are the two most important strategies for reducing covid-19 Transmission in the schools outdoor eating is particularly important this year when the majority of children have returned to in-person learning during Delta this year schools are in the position of providing in-person instruction for twice as many children in the context of a variant of covid-19 that is twice as contagious as the previous variant the strategies that worked last year will be inadequate this year as the Clusters at yearound schools like Easley and Pearson town have already begun to demonstrate partial indoor masking in the form of removing masks indoors for breakfast snacks and lunches are ineffective in the current situation the next comment is from an anonymous uh
006DPS parent in 27705 I am a parent of a DPS first grader the benefits of in-person school for her are apparent after just two two weeks thank you for all your your efforts to make this possible including Universal mask requirements the evidence is clear that additional measures can significantly increase protection of our students who are too young to be vaccinated and help ensure continued safe in-person learning I urged the school board to take action on one requiring outdoor eating at all DPS schools we are lucky to be at a school with space and equipment to make this possible today but still eating Outdoors is inconsistent across classes as you know from the ABC science collaborative eating Outdoors is a critical risk reduction strategy please provide the means and requirement that all eating take place Outdoors
007districtwide immediately two requiring requiring vaccination the next comment is from Beth in zip code 27705 please move tonight to mandate vaccination for all teachers and School staff it is imperative that we keep schools open for kids this year my kids aren't eligible for vaccination yet they need the adults around them to do the right thing the next comment is from Katherine Henderson of Tri on road I'm writing to you as a concerned parent of two DPS students to ask that the Board of Education make outdoor eating the default for all Duram Public Schools I sincerely appreciate dp's leadership in protecting our community from covid it means so much to our family that our kids are back in school in person this year largely thanks to the fact that DPS is taking covid safety seriously yet
008we can and unfortunately we must do more to prevent covid outbreaks at our schools outdoor eating is a highly effective evidence-based relatively lowcost intervention Duke's ABC science collaborative lists this as the number four most important intervention to reduce the spread of covid-19 way ahead of more expensive strategies like ventilation infrastructure see the attached top 10 graphic the next comment is from Amina Bradford of curlyy Road I'm writing out of of great concern that some of our elementary schools and DPS are not requiring lunch outside if we want to slow the spread let our hospitals catch up and keep our kids from risks of long-term covid and acute covid we cannot have them indoors unmasked I understand that this right now is left up to individual teachers in schools and that some do not like being
009outside my thought is these are pretty dire times Hospital workers are suffering this is a basic move that will move the needle in a positive direction it is lwh hanging fruit and should not be left up preference if my child were in school not requiring outdoor eating they would still be suffering in Zoom school but we are a family who has the privilege of that option many don't have this option the next comment is from brandalin lemon of twin Leaf Place outdoor eating is a highly effective evidence-based relatively lowcost intervention Duke's ABC science collaborative lists this as the number four most important intervention to reduce the spread of covid-19 way ahead of more expensive strategies like V ventilation infrastructure while eating in the classroom may have worked last spring we have twice the density of
010children in the classroom and a Delta variant of Co that is twice as dangerous what we did when we reopened last spring will not work now in light of the Delta variant eating indoors is putting teachers and staff at risk too even if they are wearing masks ultimately this is an equity issue for our students several of the Richer public schools in the DPS system those with more resourced parents are offering their own time and resources to create DIY outdoor dining space this Patchwork approach without District guidance and policy support the next comment is from Katherine Fister of barin drive I have an eighth grader at Brogden being unmasked inside with groups of people is dangerous in the Delta variant co9 reality that we are living in for that reason having our children eat inside
011is dangerous please follow the CDC guidance and Science and have our children eat outside at school next is Abby Ratliff of poppler Street how soon will DPS schools have outdoor lunch as an expectation is this going to be left to the individual teacher to decide if their students will eat outside or not we have a kindergartener at Spring Valley and thus far that class has only eaten outside once since the start of school even though parents in the class supplied yoga mats plus extras for any students needing one starting on the first day there have been a number of days with decent temperatures during the scheduled lunch time where they still ate inside 10:15 to 10:45 this is very important for decreasing risk of Co transmission especially with Delta variant thank you um next comment
012is also there are two more comments from Abby Ratliff from the same person I'm going to move ahead to Joanna to the next speaker these comments are all available on the uh D Durham Public Schools website this comment is from Joanna X exx of York Field Court outdoor eating is a highly effective evidence-based relatively lowcost covid intervention while eating in the classroom may have worked last spring we have twice the density of children in the classroom and a Delta variant of covid that is twice as dangerous twice as contagious eating indoors is putting teachers and staff at risk too even if they are wearing masks in my daughter's second grade classroom the teacher plays videos while they eat indoors I think that's in order to prevent unmasked talking fresh air sunshine and nature are certainly
013preferred to more screen time as a safety measure I encourage you to make outdoor eating the default policy next is Carrie Powell of Strolling Way I'm writing to you today as a DPS teacher and as a parent of two children in the DPS system who have chronic medical conditions my husband and I are very concerned as is our Pediatric Cardiologist that the district has not yet placed a high level of importance on eating lunch and snack outside studies conducted at Duke University have shown that having layered risk mitigation strategies in place that include unmasked eating taking place outside 6 feet apart drastically reduces the risk of in school transmission of covid-19 furthermore given the increased transmissibility of the Delta variant the possibility of breakthrough infections among the fully vaccinated the extensive number of covid-19 cases
014in our community and the lack of a vaccine for children under the age of 12 it is imperative that DPS mandates all unmasked eating times to be outside for students just as they have in Orange County Schools next is Michael beler of um of uh Branchwood Drive I write to you with grave concerns regarding the safety of our children during meal time while they are at school research demonstrates that transmission of the SARS CO2 Delta variant is much higher indoors especially when individuals are unmasked I ask that you please Institute the ABC science collaborative lunch protocol the best practice is to eat outside distance greater than three feet limit time with masks off if eating inside aim for six feet of distance it is imperative that Dura Public Schools make this an official policy so
015that all children in DPS can have a safe environment in which to eat their meals including breakfast lunch and snacks many private schools and other districts are already requiring outdoor dining as the default option because it is the safe safest way to stay nourished while attending school in person as a matter of justice and Equity all children deserve this protection the next comment is from Gabriella panot of Lanier place it looks like it's been cut off early so I will make sure that that is corrected on the online I it says I write to you with grave concerns regarding the safety of our children during meal time while they are at school the research demonstrates that transmission of the SARS coov to Delta variant is much higher indoors especially when individuals are unmasked I ask
016that you please Institute the ABC science collaborative lunch protocol the best practice is to eat outside next is Sissa bletcher of picket road for the safety of our kids especially for those in elementary school who are not yet eligible for the covid-19 vaccine please make outdoor lunch mandatory please take all steps necessary to reduce the risk of spreading covid through our community next Cathleen Mali of brander Mill Drive there are several covid-19 mitigation strategies that would be useful to make sure that all schools have access namely the ability to eat outside and testing for both vaccinated and unvaccinated persons given the transmissibility of the Delta variant it's important that we put as many strategies in place as possible not only do schools need access to materials such as mats tables blankets and shelters to be
017able to have kids eat outside but they also may need volunteers or extra time during the day to transition to an outdoor space to eat lunch other counties around us example orange and some Durham schools have already made this possible please confer with these schools and see what resources can be utilized to make this a reality for all schools in addition testing would be an extremely useful measure to implement is particularly for our children who cannot be vaccinated thank you next is Heather Nottingham of of uh cway drive please mandate outdoor eating for all schools K12 besides wearing masks eating Outdoors is our best protection against the spread of covid and increases the likelihood that schools can continue to operate on a normal schedule for this school year please allocate emergency money to schools to
018purchase items needed to make this happen and reach out to businesses in our communities that would be willing to help many ptas are already working to make this happen at their schools but we need a district-wide policy and districtwide support financial and otherwise Mary Elizabeth Hani of Marina Place thank you board for considering the best ways to keep our students safe during covid please help our schools to ensure that every CH student is able to safely eat outside the current policies and practices are halfhazard inconsistent and in inequitable outdoor eating is an effective evidence-based lowcost intervention outdoor eating is number four on Duke's ABC science collaborative list of interventions to reduce the spread of covid-19 ahead of more expensive strategies like ventilation infrastructure eating indoors is not only putting teachers staff and students at risk
019it places students in unnecessarily stressful situations don't talk pull your mask back up every time you're chewing when they could instead be experiencing the benefits of outside time and yet again some of the better resource schools in our districts have rallied to provide a better eating experience for their students next is Patrick n of Lake VI Road at the last Boe meeting I felt uneased listening to the superintendent talk about what percentage of vaccinated staff would be acceptable it only took one teacher in California to infect 24 of her students My Hope Is that the board will insist that all eligible staff are vaccinated and they do it now next is J Simo of Monte Billo Parkway thank you for your continued efforts to help our children learn and grow during especially difficult time in
020our community I hope the district will address the need for all of our students regardless of which DPS school they attend to eat meals outside this seems to be a relatively straightforward and Ne necessary mitigation measure to help keep our students faculty and staff safe from covid transmission thank you Katie Rudd of uh Carlton Crossing Drive my daughter is too young to be vaccinated but her teacher is not we've had numerous students and at least one teacher test positive at our elementary school please vote to require DPS teachers and staff to be vaccinated everyone has had plenty of time to consider vaccination data since teachers were offered the shot this spring now it's time to do the right thing next is Philip Stafford of West Club Boulevard I applaud many aspects of the district's plans
021for covid safety however we are still deficient in the essential areas of covid testing and vaccine requirements for testing I encourage the board to consider a test and stay approach to minimize loss of classroom time for students while also doing all we can to ensure the safety of our kids the Massachusetts Department of Education has a model program Des described on their website link provided additionally routine screenings should be instituted and vaccines should be mandatory for all eligible people entering the school buildings the board should also consider setting some guidelines for schools regarding how much notification to give parents about cases in the school while contact tracing and testing of potentially close contact students is important it would be helpful to notify all parents of a [Music] classroom the next comment is from Craig Clement
022Friendship Road would like to request that the school board mandate outdoor eating whenever possible at DPS schools in order to reduce the risk of covid spread during the time children are unmasked we are very concerned for the safety of our kids and eating outside versus in a closed classroom has been shown to reduce the risk of covid spread thank you so much for your help and support with this issue next is anonymous from DPS principles DPS Board of Education members please set up individual and confidential conversations with each DPS principal to discuss the current reality of leading in and teaching in our schools it is not professionally safe for us to express our concerns without anonymity because there would be retaliation from cabinet members the information you are being given about what is happening in
023our schools is not accurate and our voices as princi are being ignored for example you will likely be told tonight that DPS principles were asked for feedback on covid testing at our school sites and how best to handle that testing principles gave feedback stating that we don't have Staffing to allow for school-based personnel to take this on we are past staff capacity at the school level despite this feedback you will likely be told tonight that school-based staff will be responsible for the initial implementation never mind the fact that it is not possible next is Alis ler of landscape Court I would really like to see outdoor lunches in DPS schools as much as possible eating lunch outside where transmission of covid is much less likely would be a great step to keep students as safe
024as possible thank you next is Lisa Pierce of Butternut Road good evening and thank you for all you do for the children of Durham I have a daughter in the fourth grade at Creekside Elementary the staff and teachers are doing an amazing job of keeping our children safe I write to ask that the district mandate and Resource One More tool in the fight to keep our children safe and that is eating Outdoors the evidence is clear behind mandated masking eating Outdoors is the second most effective way to reduce the transmission of covid-19 currently students are removing their masks indoors during meal time this puts everyone at risk needlessly with the district's remaining pandemic funding and family fundraising at many schools the resources seem to exist now in this critical moment of the Delta surge we
025need the will I strongly encourage you to direct resources and clear guidance in the form of a mandate for outside meals at schools thank you again for your service next is Kia maroquin of Sund Circle the comment was submitted in Spanish the translation is our children and US need help with tutoring and transportation and after school the situation is very difficult next is a an anonymous DPS parent from Lake V Drive DPS board members outdoor eating is a highly effective evidence-based relatively lowcost intervention a Duke's ABC science collaborative lists this as the number four most important intervention to reduce the spread of covid-19 why is it not mandatory for all DPS schools to eat outdoors we should stop overthinking this we don't need anything complicated to make it happen kids can eat using a beach
026towel yoga mat cushions or similar in the meantime the schools come up with a more comprehensive plan if kids go to recess in the Heat and in the cold they can eat outdoors daily I'm very disappointed that the board is having this conversation at the beginning of SE September one week before yearr round schools start fall break have you forgotten that DPS has yearround schools which started July 19th this topic should have been discussed back in at least May or June you had all the Time in the World to plant this next is Teresa blackington of Duke Street it is urgent that we receive answers to the following questions what is the status of a vaccine mandate for teachers why do we continue to delay while other districts act what is the status of covid
027testing at the schools this should already be happening it should in fact have been in place the day the year round schools began it is deeply disappointing to witness how ill equipped DPS was for this year and how the district continues to drag their feet and not take decisive action when the data are so clear and so many other school districts have already illuminated the way these issues of health and safety demand our full urgent attention we want action not more talk next is naras farahi of Wilson Street one please adopt and implement the ABC science collaborative recommendation for meals including breakfast and lunch this is essential to protect our children by minimizing the highest risk situations indoors and unmasked two please Implement high frequency screenings at all schools for students and staff we are
028in a surge in need testing in place immediately this is an effective mitigation strategy that reduces infections and if done frequently enough can reduce absences and the need to close down classrooms one successful is the example is this test and stay program and a wink has provided three ma vaccine mandates are still an urgent priority for reducing covid-19 infections in children and staff next is John rubline of tutor place I'm concerned about two covid related issues one I believe the DPS definition of a closed contact is not accurate given the current lunch situation if a child is unmasked for lunch in a classroom with a newly diagnosed individual they should be considered a close contact and the family should be notified regardless of proximity of desks I have little confidence in the messages that new
029cases at my Children's Schools do not put my children at risk because I do not believe I have a way to know if cases were unmasked for lunch in my children's room two I do not understand why DPS has not been more aggressive in implementing outdoor lunge given the increasing risk of the Delta variant and the lack of six feet spacing in classrooms I believe the data support that the only way to maintain a safe School environment is if unmasking only occurs outside or when children are at least six feet apart next is Eric Johnson of regiment way I'm writing to request that the DPS take additional measures to reduce the risk of covid-19 spread in schools specifically I would request that DPS provide the resources necessary for schools to have lunch Outdoors when weather
030permits students cannot wear masks while eating and meal times in enclosed spaces is a high-risk activity for transmitting covid-19 individual schools are running GoFundMe campaigns to try and purchase picnic tables but this is really an initiative that should be widely supported by the district using existing covid-19 relief funds thank you next comment is anonymous the from 27713 the reason DPS is short staffed with bus drivers cafeteria staff before and after school staff classified and certified teachers is due to how they treated their employees during the start of the pandemic either you had to work in a different department resign or retire not caring about our health or safe or safety and most people did resign because the lack of care from DPS now you plan on giving raises and bonuses to new hires but what
031about the devoted workers who have been working non-stop since the pandemic do they get AR raise for working during the pandemic nope we get overlooked and overworked as usual the superintendent and board should vote on giving incentives to the dedicated workers since the start of the pandemic appreciation goes a long way look out for the workers who've been there not just veteran workers with 20 or more years DPS has to do more next is Mary Harrison of Duke Street I think the superintendent and board members should focus on incentives and bonuses for the employees that have been working since the beginning of the pandemic how do you expect to retain employees when you don't appreciate the dedicated ones who never stop working I know that bonuses are coming at the end of the month but
032why tax them heavily if it's a bonus DPS has to do better next is Shirley long of guest Road greetings board members my name is Shirley long and I work as a bus monitor for DPS I have been with DPS for seven years and I writing on behalf of bus monitors we want to express our deepest concerns regarding the compensation support and awareness of the bus monitor role in addition to the bus driver role bus drivers and monitors work together as a team however it it appears that the same situation that occurred back in September 2017 is taking place again an annual increase in other possible benefits are being discussed for bus drivers as bus monitors we are concerned that we will not receive an increase in our compensation or benefits bus knot monitors are
033not being acknowledged for all that we do to support the bus drivers to ensure that children are transported safely the bus monitor role is a vital team player that supports bus drivers as they are driving the school buses next is Melanie Perry of Doc Nichols Road good evening board members my name is Melanie Perry I'm a bus driver with DPS and I have been with the district for 15 years over the years I've recruited at least 10 people to work at DPS we used to get a recruitment bonus for getting new drivers to work for DPS however that bonus stopped teachers received a bonus for virtual learning this summer we worked in person and did not get a bonus we don't feel that was fair most drivers don't receive eight hours of day if drivers
034were to get eight hours a day that would help boost morale the morale for bus drivers is at an all-time low which is creating a lot of turnover the majority of us are working two to three jobs and having to rush to get from one job to the next increasing the pay on the pay scale for senior drivers is a great start but there is more that could be done to retain drivers such as providing eight hours per day being Equitable with bonuses and providing a recruitment bonus next Is Sheree Garrett of Markham Avenue greeing school board members My Name Is Sheree Garrett I've been a school bus driver for 18 years and make $18 an hour I feel it's not fair that drivers coming in the door are making close to what I make
035after 18 years I am a single parent and trying to make it but it's getting harder because the cost of living has increased but my pay has not kept up my day starts at 4:15 am. and I have to get my daughter up at 4:50 am. to get to work at 6: am when I get to work I'm doing double runs per school with no additional compensation it would help out greatly to be compensated when we have to do extra runs we are overworked and not being compensated fairly for the work we are doing many of us are working additional jobs because we are not making eight hours and working 12 months I don't want to leave DPS but many drivers are finding jobs that are eight hours and pay more per hour we are
036all scared of catching covid the next comment is from Martha figurado DPS and the board are not responsible for covid I don't envy the decisions you are having to make as public servants in education we are called to stand for what is Right knowing Others May disagree I'm doing everything within DPS policies to keep my students and staff safe I am questioned and challenged for enforcing these policies and yet our cases continue to rise on August 26th District leadership talked about convening groups to discuss vaccines and testing on the same day we were informed of a covid cluster in our year round school testing and vaccination should have been considered before year round schools began on July 19th this board unanimously expressed the urgent need for a vaccine mandate on August 26th the survey to
037request information from staff isn't due until September 13 we need to move faster to counteract the virus that is rapidly spreading next is Ronda white of Russell Road good evening board members my name is Ronda white I'm a 15year old bus driver with GPS due to the driver shortage I'm currently covering five routes in the morning Carrington Eno Valley Riverside Riverside plcc and Holton and four routes in the afternoon Carrington Eno Valley Route 1 Eno Valley route two in Riverside some of my students are on the bus for an hour and a half in the afternoon my bus is full and my monitor has to sit with other students we transport hundreds of students per day providing bus drivers and monitors additional compensation for the roots we are covering would be greatly appreciated next is
038James Hawkins the third of Kindle drive I have been with DPS for seven years I drive two loads both morning and afternoon at my elementary and just one load at my middle and high school I do at times have to cover other rots in the middle of doing my own which causes the kids to be late to school sometimes by 20 minutes or more there are times when the par where the parents have no clue to what bus is coming to pick up their child due to late messages being sent out I receive multiple calls wondering what time I will get to this stop or that stop before I get a chance to get my regular kids to school it can be very draining to have to cover for someone else when you find out
039last minute especially early in the morning while you're still home preparing for work I feel there should be some type of extra compensation for having to fill in for someone when they are not at work there are times when I filled in for someone and parents are wondering why are you so late it doesn't make any sense yall need to get it together next is Rebecca Lewis of Durban place with the rise of covid cases still continuing why is DPS not looking at Hybrid models of learning versus building Outdoor Learning Centers why are parents of children not being asked for input on what we would like for our children why aren't the older students being asked I feel as though many of us if we had the option now would switch to Virtual learning with
040the covid variants showing up next is Rachel Wells of Angus Drive good evening chair Umstead superintendent mainga and board me board members my name is Rachel Wells I'm a representative of the Teamsters Union we represent classified employees and DP PS and other schools districts across the state as a result of the continued lack of State funding to increase the wages of classified School Employees DPS and school districts across the state are struggling to recruit and retain classified employees the state pay scale for classified employees is extremely low and for years the Durham County Commissioners have been providing additional funding as an attempt to cover for the lack of state funded pay increases the problems facing DPS and other school districts are not new but reaching a Breaking Point the shortage of bus drivers SNS and
041others critical classified employee positions is set on all-time [Music] high next is from Nicole Torres of zip code 2773 can the Board address the specific questions how is the vaccine protecting how children when getting the vaccine lessens the symptoms and makes you an asymptomatic carrier is this not causing the vaccine to spread annoyingly the CDC says that the vaccinated carries just as much viral loads as is the unvaccinated please see the link and comments from the CDC website today some of those data were published in cdc's morbidity and mortality weekly report de demonstrating the Delta infection resulted in similarly High SARS CO2 viral loads in vaccinated and unvaccinated people high viral loads suggest an increased risk of transmission and rais concern that unlike with other variants vaccinated people infected with Delta can transmit the virus
042this finding is concerning and was a pivotal Discovery Le leading to the cdc's updated mask recommendation next is Greg Whitaker of Cottonwood Drive all of the good work that Durham County schools has done to reduce the chance for covid spread in the classroom is undermined if students eat breakfast lunches and snacks indoors according to the Journal of infectious diseases the risk of covid infection spreading is almost 20 times higher indoors than it is outdoors if we allow students to remove their masks to eat indoors even for a few minutes were endangering their health as well as the health of their teachers their families and their community as a whole furthermore outdoor eating must be a policy not an unforced guideline without a firm policy in effect it is too easy to forego outdoor eating due
043to inconveniences like heat and humidity we can't allow comfort and convenience to get in the way of making sure that we're protecting the health of our community next is Jon Jones of Mangum Street I have a few questions that I think you should all ask yourself before mandating an experimental vaccine one if the vaccine is as safe as we are being led to believe why have the companies that created and manufactured the vaccine been given full immunity from any legal liability from any adverse effects that it may cause two if the whole purpose of the vaccine was to stop the spread of covid-19 why are we now being told that even after being vaccinated you cannot only still contract and carry the virus but also spread it three why are you going to mandate a
044vaccine that we do not understand the long-term effects of nor do we understand how the virus will further mutate into many more variants as it already has remember we were told in the beginning that if you were vaccinated you no longer needed to wear a mask that's when variance came there was no such thing as variance before Mass vaccinations and then final comment is from Jennifer garsuch of Cottonwood Drive members of the DPS Board of Education I'm writing to you to act swiftly and create a district policy of eating snacks and meals outside while many board members administrators and School principles have voice that eating Outdoors is a priority for DPS a priority without a policy is Frau with a lack of consistency and Fidelity to a best practice that is evidence-based and highly effective
045in reducing the spread of covid in schools just imagine if wearing masks was a priority and not a policy leaving this up to just a local schoolto school decision leaves our principles in a tight spot with no District policy to guide the Swift implementation of this evidence-based covid risk mitigation strategy please do not let a perfect solution be the enemy of a good solution to implement this policy across the district moving meals and snacks outside is a lowrisk and low cost way to keep Co out of our Schools board members that is the last of our public comments and I have just been list handed a list of three comments two of them um online public comment that you just read yes but they're here but they're here yeah okay um I believe our policies
046and I'm going to read a an information section about inperson public comment but uh we're going to have folks uh wait in the hallway until it's their turn um so the public comment rules are to please state your name if speaking for an organization please state your name and the name of the organization speakers are asked to present their comments in a specified time that will be three minutes today when the yellow light comes on you have 15 seconds left to start winding up your remarks when the red light comes on it will beep which indicates your time is up and because uh we've had online public comment from two of the three if you all would please uh end your remarks right on time that would be appreciated complaints about name staff students or
047parents 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 the operation of the school system finally board members will listen carefully and consider the comments but we do not engage in discussion with speakers so with that I will invite Dr Elizabeth Van Vorhees to the podium to make comment hello thank you very much for considering my comments I'm not gonna talk to you today about the science behind uh indoor eating because you all heard it from some of the preeminent scientist in the world directly to yourselves you know that indoor eating is outdoor eating is the most important thing besides Universal masking that can be done to protect our children you heard it from the scientists themselves and I'm
048not going to tell you that it's the will of the parents because you have heard comment after comment saying that it is what I am going to say is that it is time to act today Delta is not waiting so what I would like you to do if you decide not to act today and mandate outdoor eating is to go home and look in the mirror and you keep looking in the mirror as you hear about the case rates rising in children in our district and you keep looking in the mirror as you hear about children getting sick ending up in the hospital ending up in the ICU ending up on ventilators and you keep looking in the mirror and you say who could have done something about this who could have made it a
049policy that our kids are protected that the science that was conducted right here in our district was implemented you ask yourself who could have done something and if you haven't done something you remind yourself you are the ones that could have done something and I hope that whatever bureaucratic barriers are in your way right now are cold comfort to you as you see those children in the hospitals thank you thank you our second speaker is forgive me if I'm mispronouncing this Kalia Paul flowers good day board members um I'm coming to you guys as a concerned parent grandparent and Community member of the Durham Public School System I would like to just make some suggestions about the outside eating I think that is first of all a great idea I think that the children would
050enjoy eating outside as well as the staff members and it's also a good opportunity for them to learn um and enjoy the weather uh wearing these masks for me personally constricts my breathing and I think that's a big concern for a lot of parents when their children are in school for the large number of hours that they're there as well as the staff members and so I suggest that possibly the board mandates outside eating for the children as well as allowing them to not wear their mask for certain periods of time during the school day by allowing breaks where they can go outside in small batches and take their mask off and stand six feet apart and just breathe and be in nature and allow them to be children and also ask them how they
051feel about covid about how they feel about wearing masks and how they feel about online virtual learning and I would like to thank you for that and that's all I have to say thank you very much our third speaker is Dr Jennifer guch gich forgive me don't wor it's German it's very hard to pronounce it's Girish hey thank you so much for hearing us out today um I think you heard an overwhelmingly positive parent support for outdoor eating of snacks breakfast and lunch the evidence is clear and we need to act swiftly this is imperative the yearound schools were the canary and the coal mine there are already significant clusters in our yearound schools they were eating inside every day every day I go to school to pick my kids up and take them outside
052to eat every day because they are not allowed to eat outside in the place where we have prepared for them because our principal is supportive and she tries to implement this but if you all don't make it a policy if you don't make it a policy districtwide it won't happen if it's not if it's a priority but not a policy it will not happen you read my lovely comment but I want to say it again imagine if masks were a priority but not a policy how many people in this room would be wearing a mask how many people in our schools would be wearing a mask this needs to be a policy it needs to be a policy that's enacted right now please please please act now to keep my children safe and your children
053safe and all the people who submitted comments safe we need to act now we have principles who are behind this but you are putting them in a pickle you are not backing them up by saying this is a priority but then not giving them the policy and the guidance to act on this thank you very much thank you very much thank you board members with that we conclude our public comment item five we will move on to item six the consent items the consent agenda we have 1 two 3 4 five so we're missing D five items for consideration is there a motion or discussion and for the public we review the consent items ahead of time and items may be pulled off if further information is needed I would move approval of the consent
054agenda I second it's been moved by Miss buer seconded by Miss Umstead that we approve the consent items is there any further discussion all in favor say I I any opposed the consent items pass unanimously moving on to item seven Chief of Staff new board policies regarding face coverings good evening board members Dr manga community members this policy is an option for the board to adopt so wanted to make sure that the board chair SARS I would be happy to kind of take your guidance on if the board is interested in adopting this policy and hearing it presented or if you would prefer to uh not adopted and rely on the vote that you had previously mandating mask it is your option and Mr Sue is there anything that you would like to add um
055just that of course you do now have to reconsider your policy you already have a policy and that masks are mandatory um the school boards Association put out this rather complicated and involved policy um as part of their service to make sure that everybody has a model for adopting things but if you're satisfied with your simple masks are required then that's what you need um you do have to reconsider it now um every month so it'll have to be reconsidered not necessarily at this meeting but your at least by your business meeting okay if there understanding that we have to revisit it monthly anyway if there's common consent we can allow the administration to present but if there's discussion at this time do you have an item just a point of clarification so we have
056already voted on this and it's already but the what we got the guidance from the state is that we have to revisit it every month um are we going to make a decision about where we want to do it every month or I just want some clarification on on what we're actually I think we're doing several things so if I'm understanding correctly there is new law that we have to reconsider our Mass policy every month um this could be this this time for this month I think that could be a goal uh and the School Board Association has produced a new policy that we could review and perhaps adopt or stick with our existing policy do I have that correct Administration that is correct and it is on for first reading because it was done
057so quickly the law was just passed uh last week maybe and so we worked together um Administration very uh quickly and so we did not want it for to wave any second reading I don't believe the community's even had really much of a chance to provide any feedback but I have a PowerPoint I'm happy to at least share it with the board for their consideration Y unless there are objections I think we'd like to hear the administration's presentation and this can be first reading doesn't require action and then at our second board meeting we can consider it yes thank you I would just say in reading through it it is messy and it has all kinds of things about student discipline that it does not feel like a very Durham centered policy so um I
058think it's going to need some significant work if we do get to the point where we need a policy in this realm I mean my my view is that you've you've got Administration that is administering your policy of mandatory masks and that as as Natalie says this this policy may be an ill fit to what's happening and I mean I I think you could either if you wanted to address the the policy mandate now you could just go ahead and vote today to reaffirm your mask mandate and if Administration decides that this policy is helpful to them in administering that mandate they can bring it back to you at the next meeting or in October um with our currently what is in place does this policy strengthen that at all or is it what we
059have in place pretty strong at the moment it clarifies some of the information for the community and visitors um and staff and students so I did think um Mrs vyers I did think the same thing regarding the discipline I saw the disruptive behavior language and thought of you when I saw it so um I do think that um it could be helpful uh for uh the board to hear it and then we can receive feedback from um our principles our staff and our community because as I said this was this hasn't been seven days that this has all happened so um but we did want to um offer the board the option of considering it so to you answer your question chair I'm said the mask mandate that you have now is just mask or
060required in all during Public Schools I think it's on the out our doors it's like one sentence so this does um clarify and could U provide some additional information and Clarity to staff students and families on what that mask uh mandate looks like but to Mr Sue's Point um and to my point actually you there's no action this simply for information and we can we have we are in compliance arguably with the statute so if it turns out next in the at the board meeting at the end of the month or at your um at the board's pleasure you don't want to bring it back that's completely fine but I think the consensus of the board is to at least kind of hear where it is and then give some feedback and maybe you'd be
061able to make a decision on if this is something that is where Durham wants to be and or if not what edits could potentially need to be made so if we could are we okay to pull up the PowerPoint or one just one one um comment um I mean one of the things is that we have local government also you know having a mask mandate I mean at the local level we you know our mayor our local um government has already made that requirement and so I would imagine that this you know um policies is more like if there were places where that was not you know I would imagine that's that's where this kind of comes into view so I I agree that we can period but I'm personally I think what we have
062already in place based on local government and the fact that we've already made it required already addresses what this uh policy would try to cover so per perhaps um an expedited overview given that we've reviewed it also and we're going to check it again in two weeks thank you absolutely we could pull up the PowerPoint please so as indicated in the preces and the initial comments this was a result of a law that the governor signed on August 26th um stating that there was a lot of things in next slide please there were a lot of things in SB I think it was 650 four know the exact number but there were a lot of things in there one of them what mandated that boards adopt a face covering policy so we did make some
063changes to the language from the school boards Association Next slide please and one of those was the next slide thank you so this is just kind of the preliminary language indicating uh pretty close to what we already have that mask are mandated and must be worn I think we did clarify regarding crowded outdoor settings um and during activities with sustain close contact with other people even if outside which is again to the point of kind of clarity and making sure people really understand uh what that means next slide please um it does list out Exempted employees and students and just again I don't want to U you know over State this but this was done extremely quickly uh to get something in front of the board for your consideration um pursuant to the new law
064so children under two years of age are automatically Exempted um I think that's obviously um in line with the CDC and then we list out the other people that may be Exempted based on approved exemptions including medical and or religious so for medical exemptions for students that would come from the lead Duram lead nurse and for employees from human resources and for religious exemptions that would come from the superintendent or his design um after consultation um in those situations um with legal counsel next slide please this just simply lists out all of the Exempted situations that are included in the policy um for example like swimming and just fairly um clear clear things just making sure that um people realize that there are situations we understand where mask may not be or face coverings may
065not be um amable to the actual will work or activities that are being undertaken by the staff or the student next slide please oh one second can you go back real quick I'm sorry and at the bottom if you'll see we do indicate principles are encouraged to arrange for eating meals Outdoors if possible um reflecting our boards the comments that um the board shared in the last several meetings next slide please proper face coverings um this kind of explains a little bit just to clarify what a face covering is um so the because it's not mask I know there was a lot of conversation regarding like what is a mask what is a face covering what is an appropriate face covering so this gives a little bit of guidance about nose wires not mandating them
066but just um explaining how to use them next slide please this is um completely different than what is in the Schoolboard associations um their's indicated it was very um not very it was quite restrictive on what exactly a mask would be this is verbatim from Durham County's um or language or their mandate regarding face coverings so that is what we are governed by and it would be my recommendation that we use the Durham definition of face covering and not the um North Carolina School boards Association uh face covering next slide please this is the part that obviously um has caused some consternation regarding failures to wear a face covering and I would say that um I know that our Administration has worked with our principles extensively and has consulted with me extensively regarding discipline for
067mask so I think that this definitely does need some uh some tweaking in some work and is not I don't think we have a punitive mindset with regard to these masks I mean at all so I see Dr Hardy um nodding her head if you would mind sharing with the board some of the work that we have done on that thank you Miss Giovani and thank you to your support um in working with student Support Services as well as with our principles we have provided some recommendations and guidance in terms of redirecting and supporting our youngsters in the appropriate um wearing of mask um knowing that there are times today the mask that I have on is is a little bit tighter fitting but there are times when a mask can become a little bit
068lower when you're talking quite a bit and making sure that we're providing that support um to our students so in a very restorative manner um if we do have um students that are struggling and it is a regular um situation that they are working with their counselors their assistant superintendent that supervises them to make sure that we can have restoration instead of um punitive measures at the same time making sure that we recognize that wearing our mask is keeping our students safe because we want to make sure that students have the ability to access learning um so we'll continue to look forward to the board's Direction and guidance as we work with our principles and as we've been out in schools and I know you all have visited our our students are doing a really
069good job um in wearing their mask and often many of them are coordinating them um in in a manner of self-expression as well thank you next slide please again we just covered that next slide regarding employee um face coverings I'm going to ask Dr lassain to share a little bit on this as well but again we have worked with our employees um they have um requested you know various accommodations and or exemptions um we have worked with them Dr lay if you could share with the board some of the work you've we've done on that good evening everyone we have had to work extensively with employees by far the majority of our employees have exhibited the ability as well as the willingness um to wear face coverings we have had a few situations where employees
070have applied for accommodations um around face coverings and we have handled all of those through our process um some have um been approved with other safety measures taking into consideration and we would still like to of course utilize that um process and look at each case individually there are some situations where we do not have record of a valid reason that someone should be Exempted from wearing um face coverings and we have dealt with each of those on a case-by casee basis thank you Dr Lin and the last portion is visitors um administration's recommendation is that visitors um not be allowed into any school building or vehicle School vehicle without wearing a face covering next slide please and the last portion is just of the policy indicates that building principles and that would be school
071sites and the building principles over central office sites are would be instructed to provide notice of the policy and assistance regarding how to use wear remove and clean uh face coverings so um it put the policy is um making sure that we want we want to make sure that people are wearing them properly and taking care of them appropriately and as um we indicated earlier the law requires that you revisit this the face covering requirement once a month at at one of your monthly meetings and affirm um or modify the mask mandate as this board may see fit so I believe that is and all there is and we just wanted you said to do it quickly Just for information so thank you thank you Mr Jani um board members are there any questions or
072uh direction we want to give to the administration to prepare for the next meeting uh when you talk about this the next meeting we're talking about a second reading or we're just talking about continuing the discussion of we're talking about uh potentially a second reading if we were to adopt or adopt with edits um or go in another Direction um you know I I think with um what we have in place right now masks are required now we we do the outdoor um there's Provisions for masks being optional if outdoors and being able to separate you know to be able to social distance um and I think that we're complying already with with this I think the the the part that is tricky I I I have to second um my colleague about you know
073the the the discipline provision it's a violation of code um I think that that would I think that there's already enough of how buildings are already implementing that where applying this policy right here as it is including the discipline piece um is is definitely not a not a durm value in that way would to be able to support you know everybody to stay safe um and I think that that's the only difference I don't really see much of a difference we're definitely complying with this um with our own policy thank you Mr SE if I can enter jet a little bit and uh looking at our attorney caner just a question that was asked before with our current policy that we have as far masking is that sufficient in my opinion it's sufficient if the
074if it's clear that the board has given Administration the power to regulate and administer the policy if the board wanted to be a little more specific you could say that masks are mandatory in compliance with the recommendation of the strong schools NC toolkit but I think you you've done you you've done what you need to do you do have to do it again this month and this would be that moment if you wanted to so if you want to just put the policy aside or say to school administration if you guys want the policy bring it back to us um otherwise you have authority to administer The Mask mandate that we have passed and that we are renewing uh this month thank you um back to you board members I think it's your pleasure we
075don't have to reinvent the wheel if what we have is enough I think we'll make it just simple that's what I would be hoping for is is your recommendation as to what would be best for our schools M I just wonder even if it needs to be in policy to this level of detail or whether that could be in procedures in the future I mean it this is this is a very unusual thing we're doing it because the general assembly says we have to continue to vote on it I'm and I'm most interested Dr MinGa in you getting procedures from you know that work with feedback from our principles and teachers but it it seems nitpicky for us to have this level of detail of policy um and unnecessary I'll agree with that with that
076I think we'll I'll ask u t Giovani to pull that policy and then I think what we have in place based on the advice of our attorney I think we should be fine if you guys can support that I think I agree but also just have some clarifying questions but what we have currently like this would go in our policy handbook online it's very clear what we have currently like kind of where is it housed how do we refer to it like I do like the fact that we have definitions of what a face covering is we're clear about who it who is required to that comes out of this policy so I'm just wondering how can we take what we currently have if that's better and put it in a place where it's really
077clear and easily accessible um so if we do have run into issues we are pointing to this is the policy here and I believe that most of those definitions are in the toolkit um and uh certainly again with Administration implementing it at the school level at the district level explaining to people what what our expectations are within the authority of administration if you're comfortable saying please make it clear to people for administration to do that um and regardless of how you go of course this month you will have to make a decision and if you want to make decision now to continue the face covering policy and um ask ad and and make it clear that Administration has the authority to administer it and um add whatever requests you have for specifics like that so
078my perspective is that what we're doing is working uh we're not having any issues in in the application and it seems as if the state is now catching up so us reconsidering you know making changes to what's always already working towards or for us I don't see the the need in that I I mean I'll support whatever the rest of the board is is interested in but I think if what we had is working I don't see any reason to change it at this point ask um I just want to say that we to ch um I don't know what you this um to miss mad's point I think that we can obviously um show people even have a clip where the board did vote you know or have a blurb on our website you
079know mask stating that the Durham Public Schools board has voted to require mask in all of its public spaces Etc and just kind of Flesh that out and then once we work with our principes and teachers and um operation staff get feedback from them on because this is all Sites it's not just schools so it's everybody so get feedback from them and then kind of codify those procedures so that it's not a board you know the board's done what they need to do but then Administration we can have it so that people aren't worried like oh well miss Giovani says I have to do this and Dr Monk says I have to do that so we have it codified so with Dr manga's permission I think uh that would be my recommendation okay and there
080we go thank you Administration thank you discussion did we want that that that motion today was that the question you also had before that I think we have additional comment I didn't have comment I was going to go ahead and make the motion that we vote to continue to follow our original M mask mandate policy second okay it's been moved by Miss Lewis second and by miss berer that we for this month approve our mask mandate any further discussion all in favor say I I hi hi any opposed it passes unanimously Administration thank you for bringing that and we'll see you in a couple weeks on that board members item eight is Operation Services a Elementary F commissioning Services all right and good evening Board of Education Dr mainga um as you're aware we are
081in design design for elementary school F soon to be named hopefully um next month and as a part of the design we want to go ahead and include commissioning services in that now typically commissioning is done at the end of the project to make sure that the equipment that was designed is going to operate like it's supposed to um our staff is um very good at this and I'm joined by uh Mr Dan snitzer who's our project manager project manager for sustainability um they've come up with a a really good and unique way to address um our HVAC portions of our projects um and then involving the commissioning early on into the design as well and so what we have today is an enhanced commissioning um request to allow us to negotiate a contract with
082this particular company uh Mr snitch will walk you through the selection process and we'll be able to answer answer any questions about commission if you have it um as well as how they went through and selected the um the firm with that I'll turn it over to Mr snit sir thank you Dr Monk and board and to our staff and Community thank you so much for having me here tonight uh as Dr Monk mentioned uh Elementary f is currently in design we've had two very successful uh Community meetings one in person and one online and we're moving forward with the design process that includes uh commissioning as Dr Monk mentioned we're going to take a unique approach to commissioning this enhanced commissioning process and I'd like to highlight before we go into the selection process
083uh the two unique items the first is getting the commissioning agent involved early so they can be part of the design process and catch any issues before the building's actually built uh traditionally commissioning comes in at the end and they find the problems now that things are built return ducks in the wrong place events not sized correctly by getting them involved early they can catch these things early on in design and make sure the problems don't exist the second piece of this commissioning process that is unique is a focus on the building envelope while not always the most exciting part of any building uh it is the most important when it comes to longevity of the building moisture issues as well as uh efficient HVAC systems it's also one of the most expensive Parts where
084if it gets done wrong replacing it uh taking apart all the windows and replacing those pieces is uh incredibly expensive so making sure that the commissioning process not only through design Rec construction happens early is absolutely essential to meet our aggressive energy goals next slide please so we have solicited I apologize for the title on on that slide uh but we have solicited uh qualifications uh from local commissioning agents and uh four were received at the end of June uh qualifications were reviewed and scored in light of the specific and unique uh needs of Elementary F and as you'll see in a moment systems Works uh based out of Charlotte but with an office in both Raleigh and carboro uh came out with the highest score to meet the UN needs of um the unique
085needs of Elementary F next slide please the proposers were scored uh by Clarity of their proposal comparable experience again specifically with uh aggressive energy goals uh MW mwe capacity internally or with their Partnerships and their capacity to do the job uh with capacity it's not just staff it's longevity so they will start uh as soon as we reach a contract and they will work with us over the course of the next couple years uh plus while the building is designed constructed and throughout the first uh year of operation so these will be partners for a long time and we need to make sure that these companies uh are well rooted and have the opportunity to last with us over this time next slide please all four of the companies that uh we looked at that
086responded uh we've worked with historically and have relationships with uh and systems Works uh score the highest out of all of them so next slide our recommendation tonight is to approve the staff to begin negotiations with system works for our enhanced commissioning for elementary school F and the last slide is H for any questions or comments Miss Lewis thank you for the presentation presentation Mr smithz Sir um can you tell me more about the MW exploration in this rubric yeah um the three I'm sorry three of the four um respondents uh did not have strong mwb stat any mwb status or strong representation within their um uh current companies one is a women uh female-owned business and so systems works as one that does not have uh mwb status and we've expressed that to them
087as they look for partners for testing balancing that will have an expectation um that they look for mwb partners and then I look at the one that is only one point below the systems work CX is MBP and they have a higher rating with mwb how much of a disruption would it be what is the difference between the two as they already have some and how much of a disruption would it be um to use one that is in favor of um our board in particular to utilize organizations with the mwb status along with the accounting Commissioners certainly um as the scoring indicates uh MBP is a highly qualified and very capable uh entity and if it's the pleasure of the board that we pursue them we certainly can the overall experience uh and proposal
088from uh system works again from our overall scoring metric scored higher uh but certainly if there's a recommendation to wait them differently we can absolutely move that path and that's what else looking at because it is only a point difference what would waiting look like and because they do have a higher number of mwbe status what is their status do you have any do you remember or have any information I don't off hand I believe that they have H partners that they've recommended that they will work with uh but I do not believe they themselves are uh have mwb status I believe those some of the Partnerships that they bring in and I can certainly look at that okay yeah and just looking at that rubric that has been very important to this board we've
089talked about that several times um I would be in favor of considering MBP um for discussion from the rest of the board I I have a question within the commissioning um Services you mentioned you know equipment and Equipment sequencing I'm wondering you know um warranties on equipment you know that's a big thing with HX we we've had you know some failures we've had to replace some and you know it's I'm I'm wondering about like what is the role of the commissioning and to what extent will they be supporting us uh along the lines of the equipment and just a little more about equipment sequencing what do you mean by that yeah absolutely uh so warranty and all those in terms of quality of items are in our design guidelines uh and through our bidding process
090we can uh accept what comes to us and we can create uh alternates so if we have equipment that are AC staff prefers to work on we can provide them as alternates as well to ensure we get the equipment uh that we want that we know how to work and again warranties and quality issues um are laid out in our guidelines in terms of the role of the commissioning agent uh Beyond design they make sure that all the equipment is installed properly uh is installed according to the drawings according to what was spec out according to our guidelines and then they make sure it's functioning properly so sequencing particularly speaks to the controls process and they will run scenarios will they will turn up the outdoor air temperature on the computer system as if it
091were 90 degrees out and make sure that the equipment does exactly what it's supposed to do like Diagnostics kind of analysis absolutely wonderful y make sure all the dampers open that they open to the right amount that it's represented properly on the um control system Etc um and now that we have commissioning I know that we're doing a this for elementary school f um so is this going to be the standard for any you know moving forward I just I know that it takes time for us to build new schools and we we're already doing quite a bit right now it may take time but this is going to become kind of like a standard to have commissioning as a part of yes um through our design guidelines enhanced commissioning for major Renovations and new
092construction uh will be the standard thank you so much Miss fire thank you all for bringing the recommendation today and thank you for thinking about new ways to do schools I know that our community is so excited about elementary school F they will be even more excited when it has a name and um those meetings have been wonderful just to let people know that this is going to be a new state-of-the-art um environmentally conscious sustainable kind of school and a new model for Durham um folks have asked about our possibility for solar in the future on the roof is that something that will be taken account into the design and Comm iing of this project um I know we've talked about sustainable uh building but also does it go all the way to that notion
093of solar for folks in the future absolutely uh and it goes beyond solar uh looking at geothermal and solar again for all new construction and major renovation is part of our standard um for this project in particular geothermal was quickly wiped off the table because of the rocky terrain of and and steep slope of it uh solar continues to be an option but realistically for this project is unlikely in part because uh as we know it will be a two-story building so that will severely limit the roof space available uh some of that roof space will be taken up by hbac equipment uh so it will be severely limited but again according to our standards it will have to be looked at and assessed as an option or an opportunity thank you I I have
094uh one question but your response on a solar just made me think of another one when we're looking at I'm guessing that we kind of discounted the capabilities of the solar based upon our technology now and the I guess the ability to utilize based upon the kilowatt per hour rates um on the standard solar equipment right now but I'm I'm just wondering with the advancements in that Is it feasible that if we at least have that infrastructure and already have it in place that by the time that we do have to maybe redo our roof you know people at homes have to redo their shingles but by the time that we have to refresh this even though we have a limited amount of roof space that should be enough to cover the amount of usage
095based upon that school especially if it's already being constructed with green energy usage in in in the back of our mind so hopefully that's why you all are still having that it's part of your consideration and something that we can be mindful of absolutely we've specifically asked again in all new construction and major Renovations as as the category that our design guidelines apply to uh that a line item must be included in the estimates for being solar ready so the right type of roof running the right conduit uh sizing the inverters and Transformers properly so we always have that option if we reach a budget issue we can look at uh value engineering that piece out uh but it's going to be upfront to know what that cost is and we would have to actively
096make that choice uh realistically it's not that large of uh an expense Upfront for new construction and so likely this uh Elementary F and future Renovations uh in new construction will have at least the infrastructure in place for when technology maybe uh makes it more financially feasible for us to do we don't have to run new conduit we don't have to add new Transformers new switches Etc perfect thank you and and my other question is just looking looking at the the criteria checklists and and the scores that were presented again I I'll go off on um or follow up on um Miss Lewis at at all o mentioned can we discuss the clarity of proposal and plan of action because I I see the system uh work CX versus the MBP um one was 12
097and one was nine and I just want to be able to have a little bit can you can you added additional Clarity to what the clarity of proposal and plan of action kind of entails because it looks like they're both capable and have the capacity to manage this project so I just want to get an idea on you know how it was reviewed or or kind of like what was the criteria within that certainly um again I believe both companies are absolutely capable of doing the work uh that needs to be done uh specifically Clarity of proposal and presentation is about when you read over what their plan of action is it's clear what percentage of units they're going to look at for example so they can't look at every single VAV box every single
098unit um or they could but it gets incredibly expensive and the marginal value just isn't there so in terms of clarity of what the plan of action is what their step-by-step uh approach is how many meetings they plan on attending uh what their relationship with the designers will be throughout the process uh when reading systems Works uh we felt it was just very clear that we know exactly what we're getting um and it was packaged in a uh way that you could tell when it gets priced that this is this is section A this is section B um Mbps was a little more convoluted and just takes a little more work to ensure we know what we're getting and that we're going to get what we want so just just as a followup on that
099because it sounds like what they're proposing is of course is going to be what's included in the contract corre so theoretically we could hold both of them to the same requirements and the expectations if we decided to contract with either one and the only reason I'm asking is to just making sure that we can mitigate the risk if we did decide to go with one another one that we could still go ahead and have those same requirements for whichever vendor we chose is that correct absolutely thank you thank you so I I want to just take a point of privilege and explain to the millions of people or 84 that are watching our YouTube feed um that um the board has additional material on the selection process that that was emailed to us um I
100do think it would be helpful moving forward if that were included in the packet so that the public could follow along with us and that has been the case in previous administrations so it's not not uh out of the norm um we did have a request from um two board members to consider the um mwbe rating uh we can have additional discussion on that whether that pertains to this particular item or something going forward um I I personally am not comfortable overturning a a decision that the Administration has made today around a particular vendor um but again I'll I'll open the floor back up for discussion this is for Action correct yes sir okay and I just had one quick followup question where are we with commissioning on the new Northern and lions Farm Dr
101Monk do you have that information yeah so those were already pretty much designed before but we will have commissioning services on them right okay this is enhanced commissioning so this is actually looking at the design as it's going forward typically how commissioning is done is once the project is done what the commissioning agent is doing is saying that it's performing as it was designed right so those services are going to be on all of our projects regardless right so is this this is a pivot for my seven years on the board and is this an administrative pivot or a new way of looking has the industry moved in this direction yeah so um in my previous District um it was where we were headed was doing it during design um by the time you start
102doing Commission and at the end of the project you're typically already in the building and things are already happening you already have room 100 saying I'm hot all the time and and then people start messing with the the controls and it's way different than what it was designed for in this case um there's no ambiguity about what it was designed for because the commissioning agent is right there Al with the design process um so I think when you have the ability to do it this early you should do it as early commissioning I mean it's a it's a old thing to do but doing it in partnership with the design process is um is relatively new and would I be correct to say it's more expensive upfront but cheaper long term um so I don't
103look at it as expensive myself but I do see that it does save you um whether it's monetary that's going to be your utility costs are going to be lower because you're equipment is performing like it should be performing and then it's going to save you on um time your your maintenance staff having to go out and Tinker with with things so yeah okay thank you missad thank you all for this presentation is there a cost associated with this yet no so what you're doing tonight is giving us authorization to negotiate with one of these um individual firms and then we'll bring what that cost is back typically um it's around a percent maybe a less than a percent of um what the construction cost is going to be and I do think exploring the
104other option that has a higher mwbe participation would be nice but timeline wise if we were to put this into two weeks because I do think having that Clarity of of um plan and action feels important would that put this project too far off track if we did this at our large um our next board meeting in two weeks so yes is is a short because we're going to continue on with designing I mean we're we're into design development now um that's when things start to get a little bit more crucial because you're starting to add in what the exact systems are that you're going to be doing on the project I you know um I didn't sit in on the proposal interviews but these firms wouldn't have made it to the short list to
105be interviewed if they weren't qual qualified right so what you're seeing here is just degrees in which um staff listen to what they're proposing and believe what kind of fit they would be for this particular project I would say that staff would take either one of these firms right it's of no consequence to us as a matter of fact you probably will be here before you asking for all of these at some point in time to be a part of a project they looked at this particular project of this size and um of design and said that system works fixed best but if you said that hey we want you to try to negotiate with MVP first we won't have any problem doing that the key is is to start negotiating so we can get
106someone under contract Miss White thank you so much Dr Monk I I think that um you know it's it's uh definitely very reassuring that you are all um having the criteria that this board you know wants to have have like M mwbe um is very important um Clarity is very important all these things so so I do appreciate that um when you were mentioning that even with that criteria of mwbe that it's um there are more details that we can have like including working with Partners like the firm could be all you know not as diverse but they're working with different partners is there any way that we can encourage system works which was rated higher by admins by you all to to improve on that front you know is there a way that we
107can ask them you know to to work with with more Partners if that is the case with all of them that you know that that they're actually fitting the criteria by Partnerships not inherently that their entire company is is as diverse as we want them like is is there a way that we can whoever you all feel more comfortable with working that we can make that recommendation secondly um I think you all kind of hear from the board that we care about sustainability right and we care about you know planning for the future and trying to reduce you know um trying to try trying to reduce Reliance on on the kind of fossil fuels and all kinds of things that are definitely um not helping us um and so when I'm thinking about like uh
108HVAC systems you know in our district we have gas hvacs we have electric we we kind of have that you know some of our older buildings have setups that are not all electric um one of the important things about having a electric is that they are set up in a way that when we want to go solar if we want to go solar like they're ready to go we would not be able to do that with gas HVAC systems and so when it comes to sustainability I care about LED lights I care about you know HVAC systems that are electric trying to avoid the gas you know um equipments um is is that something that I guess that would be fall under capacity I mean I'm looking at Clarity proposal comparable experience MW Ube where
109would sustainability and even also keeping in mind that within the context of Durham and how the city council and the county they' both passed resolutions you know 2030 we want to be 80% on renewable energy and we want to be at 2050 100% right so as we are thinking of the context and where we are headed as um you know as a as as a city towards uh 100% renewable energy in 2050 I mean where does that where does sustainability fall into the criteria and how can we kind of push them towards helping us along with with those goals yeah um for in terms of where it falls into the criteria it's with comparable experience so what we really looked for is um schools companies that worked with schools they all have building size this
110is not out of the ordinary for them uh and again either lead or well certification and uh aggressive energy goals so that they understand how systems interplay with each other and can really look at things on a systems level uh so that that's the criteria that that would fall in and certainly we are looking at similar as we are to solar um right now it doesn't make sense to run our kitchens and our heating off electric um and we have a lot of work to do before we would be ready to go all electric throughout the district when we look holistically at it so we are looking at or we've at least discussed the opportunity to similarly run conduit to the kitchen uh but the truth is if we get to that stage that's relatively
111small um cost to make the change over compared to what it'll be to go all electric so we're confident that if we're ready to go all electric we can turn over systems as need be Miss Lewis uh thank you uh for this thank you for the discussion and thank you for um the confidence M Dr Monk um in all four that have been presented I think that um as we just again have another set of eyes on this and looking at that one criteria I am um confident and feel reassured that a company already has Partnerships that takes into account the mwbe um and that again you all will be comfortable with anyone but you're wanting us to make a decision today so yeah that would be preferable as we're moving forward with design development
112um I hear you loud and clear and as we go through these uh future uh criteria I'm happy to add more information that outlines reasoning for some of those scores uh that are um of great importance to this board and similarly I'm sorry I will follow up with you uh as to what MVPs why they scored higher I just don't know it off the top of my head okay board is there a motion yeah um I guess so would I make would I make a motion that we move um with Elementary F commissioning services tonight naming the specific vendor yeah the allowing the staff to negotiate with systems Works foring service allowing the staff to negotiate with system works so yeah so what we need to do is um if we we have them in
113rank order right now uh one through three so that if we have to if we can't reach a negotiation with system works or whatnot then we can move to the next one and then move to the next one right so if you all are proposing to switch any of these we need to you you need to do that and then authorize us to negotiate with that first one okay just want to make that clear but if you want to stay with staff recommendation we would appreciate that as well you don't you don't want authorization to negotiate with all three in order you just want authorization to right yeah I can't do that so I gotta negotiate with whoever you all we have ranked system works first but I'm hearing conversation that you may want to
114change that ranking if that's the case I need you all to do that um and then authorize us to negotiate those contracts if we can't come to an agreement with that first one then we automatically move to the next one and so on and so forth Dr Monk um I I hear you on that one I was you know under the presumption that um each of these has already been voted for that um and that even the criteria ideally I would I would want the firm to have you know diverse staff and especially prioritize uh women business owners like but it seems like it's Partnerships which um is something that I think it's partnership so at this point like I'm I'm I'm kind of cautious to attribute more to any of the others that you
115all ranked second third or fourth based on the on the M virtue of of the Partnerships I think they can always increase more Partnerships if you all um personally if you all want to work with um system system works and kind of encourage that they you know make sure that they increase those Partnerships I would be fine with approving system works tonight I mean that's that's just me I rely on my other board members to see I think that you have all done the diligent task of you know checking all the contracts checking for clarity I think Clarity is important to see what they are delivering um and what they can do so I do trust you know your analysis um I just think we we definitely want to you know continue to uh share
116our values right as we are dur board but I I would be fine um supporting what you're bringing forth right now as as you rated them and my motion would pretty much just be um you know supporting the elementary F motion to approve Elementary F commissioning service is with your number one um uh commissioning Service uh company system works but I'll I'll from the rest from other board members Mr Raven did you have something you wanted to add I'm Sor apologize was was that was that the official approval or I mean the official motion or that would be the motion so I'll second that okay it's been moved by Miss VI's Mr Raven that we approve the administration's recommend and give them authorization to negotiate with their first choice uh additional discussion if there is
117any I think it you all heard loud and clear from this board though that we do want to ask them to increase their mwbe Partnerships um and and status or not I guess they can't change their status but their Partnerships that they are working with so if we can make that a part of the negotiations that would be great absolutely and I was just going to say what I heard was that the MBP already has those Partnerships in place um as well so I was more in favor of going with them being the first choice in W um Works CX being the second choice I know you have to negotiate one way or the other but that's why I was leaning course they already have those Partnerships um that are already established so I was
118hoping we could have done it the other way but the motion is on the floor that was just my point of um discussion and I would ask um Dr Monk I think there's there's been some this board has long been committed to mwbe high percentages of participation and I think we've um we typically outperform the county outperformed um other local entities we used to actually have it on our prees and and highlight that more strongly but if in the future you can bring or if you want to speak to that now about how we're doing because I think overall we're doing well and working to do better I I don't want to not give you the opportunity to clarify that if there's anything you need to add um sure yeah um so just want to
119remind the board that um we haven't negotiated a contract yet right so there's no participation to report so what they said was so for instance they could say I'm going to work with Miss Lewis she's a woman on business business well then come to find out they're only giving her $10 right that's not really participation we haven't even got to that point yet so if you look back at our previous um PES that we've been providing once we get people under contract and the dollar amount associated with it we do report on the prees what the mwe participation is so when we come back with the actual contract negotiated and they say I am giving Miss Lewis x amount of dollars that's what we'll report uh to the board okay okay okay it's been moved
120and properly seconded uh that we approve the administration's recommendation all in favor say I I I any opposed it passes unanimously thank you all on to Outdoor Learning all right we get to do it all over again okay so um this item is um to approve the designer for our Outdoor Learning spaces um we received um proposals uh back in July excuse me in May actually interviewed in July and now we have um Hobs that we want to recommend to do to design we also have a presentation for this and um Mr snitcher is also leading to Outdoor Learning um Initiative for the district and so I'll turn it back over to him thank you and you'll recognize a format in the uh presentation uh we went through a similar process uh an RFQ went
121out request for qualifications went out in May and eight firms responded uh if the presentation's available we'll pull it up um and as that's getting ready I'll just walk through the process the eight qual eight firms were um reviewed by a committee that included members from construction and capital planning curriculum and instruction maintenance uh and CTE thank you we can roll forward to the first slide or the next slide there we go uh so it was a cross departmental group that looked at the eight firms three were scored and selected the highest for interviews and uh interviews happened in July and again those three were scored and Hobs Architects out of Pitts Bor um scored the highest of the three that were interviewed next slide please and this criteria uh was uh also pretty significant
122it included uh both experience working with schools working in outdoor spaces uh but also a vision we want these to be permanent spaces that are inspiring that are centerpieces of our campuses and that Inspire the creativity uh that we want from our students we looked at capacity similar to commissioning this is a long process going from design to implementation in U multiple schools in many schools so we need to make sure that they can manage multiple projects at multiple stages of design and construction at the same time uh along with creativity uh part of that what we're looking to do is a balance between something that is not only functional but aesthetically beautiful uh but also that can be scaled so a school that can fit a large structure uh can get a large structure
123um if uh uh the the budget allows and schools that are more limited in Space the same model the same design can be scaled down um so Mr Davis has referred to it as a kit of Parts which is kind of the design philosophy we're going with where you can simply add on let's say a 10- foot Bay as space allows for that uh again we looked at mwbe status and Partnerships as well as other Partnerships and expertise in the area uh while the field of engineering is um somewhat limited with mwbe participation the field of architecture uh is even more so uh and we continue to do Outreach uh in that area uh and then alignment with District goals and District Vision uh so what are we trying to do we ask them a
124lot of open-ended questions to pull from them what they think the value of education is in general what the value of Education outdoor education is ETC uh next Slide the three firms that we interviewed were Hobs Weinstein freedline and Perkins and Eastman uh the image there is uh one of the outdoor structures that Hobs has designed and constructed constructed we felt that in particular just really spoke to us in terms of openness flexibility aesthetically pleasing uh and very scalable uh and a relative level of Simplicity that goes along with it and so Hobbs actually scored um I want to say significantly higher but um noticeably higher than the other uh firms next slide so similarly the recommendation uh is to allow the staff to negotiate with Hobs for design of Outdoor Learning spaces uh the
125image on the screen is one of the other images that they presented in their proposal which just very much spoke to the team of the thoughtfulness that will go into their design as well as the environmental understanding and environmental goals uh that the district has in general of being thoughtful um with our constructed spaces whether they are 800 square foot shade or um 160,000 squ foot uh new schools and and uh we'll take questions and discussion pleases Mr Raven if we could go back to the recommendation image um that that we just had up on the screen I I'd like to point something out it's something that I was I guess naive to the fact of when we're looking at um when we're looking at infrastructure and we're looking at building so if we look
126at take a look at the Outdoor Classroom I'd always assumed that the slanted roofs were done in a way that like let's say if it's snowed the the building was structurally sound and it's able to essentially be able to repair more of the snow but if I'm looking at their design they're specifically showing how they would have the building how they I guess the roof of the building slanted so that regardless whether it was during a summer or the winter it would still be able to offer shade to to the children under that so I I definitely think that's impressive I mean even looking at the wind circulation over the water I I think that's impressive and it's something that I never thought of so this this this alone this image alone has sold me
127on their thoughtfulness so it sounds like it's a good idea thank you Miss Lewis thank you for the presentation um where are they based out of Pittsboro Pittsboro um I today I went to the um wire cutting ceremony at durm Tech and I got to hear from an architect um a student architect major and it was just amazing and I saw that in their proposal that they work with forh um as a part of it I think it's amazing there's another Community College I would just ask um if we're going with this that you also consider our students and our Partnerships with Derm Tech absolutely uh that convers not specifically Derm Tech but with Southern that conversation was part of our interview process um we will add Derm Tech to that list as well as
128NC State's design program uh and Hobs was very enthusiastic about working with students not just through the Imaging uh visioning and design process but potentially through construction as well excellent thank you thank you for that Miss buer thank you all for this inspiring work thank you for reaching out and envisioning something new for Outdoor Learning um I know the images are exciting I know our community's already been excited to see the images two questions would be one when would these come online which is going to be what I think people are going to be most excited about and then how is this firm going to you talked about this like a kit how are they not going to overdesign it but do something that the roof doesn't rot out in five years or something like
129what materials are y'all thinking about that that will be sustainable and long Liv you know have longevity that we don't have to keep investing in how do yeah certainly uh to the first question realistically as we get through the design process and then work with the county on uh permitting and hopefully doing being able ble to do them in batches and sessions uh not one at a time realistically um I'd expect that we can start construction close to next summer um and we'll have to work with them and and choose construction companies that have capacity and figure out how we're going to phase them in but I don't have specifics as to what that's going to look like other than to say 30 of them will not be going up at the same time we'll
130be working with curriculum instruction on a prioritization list that'll be based on school Needs school interest School read Etc uh and we'll keep refining that list until we're ready for implementation yeah in terms of materials when we talk about sustainability it's not just the reduction of energy and planting native plants Etc it's low maintenance um it's low ongoing costs Etc and they're acutely aware of that so while we are not anywhere near the specifics of what specific materials um I can assure you that will be uh a topic of great discussion and great thought and when it comes down to pricing and scaling all of these uh we are going to have to look at upfront cost as was mentioned earlier versus long-term maintenance cost and if if I can add to that um to
131be clear I know y'all see this picture it's very pretty um this won't be applicable to all schools okay so the schools where um permitting is not going to allow us to put up shade structures or stuff like that you may see them come online a lot quicker because that's literally just going to be seating and and and things like that so the whole purpose of having a designer though is so that we can get permitting and to see what extent that classroom can look out there but this will this may not U be what all Sites look like uh we have sites ranging from four and a half acres to you know 80 acres um just to measure your your expectations Dr Monk is there some way to expedite permitting due to Pand mic
132with our city and county leaders like is there are there colleagues that would help us expedite that and and um understand that this is a public health um issue that yeah I think that we would certainly appreciate it if um permit and in particular for schools can be um can be expedited um that would help with the design process start to finish it doesn't necessarily um alleviate other ordinances they may have as relates to impervious surfaces and things like that so that's why I caution people with the shades and canopies and permanent structures um that if the ordinance doesn't change for imperfect surfaces um which means how much hard surfaces you have how quick does water run off um then we'll still be having sites that'll just be seating okay but like if our chair
133and vice chair could have a meeting with colle colleagues like to kind of emphasize the importance of this there could be I I feel like there could be a Durham solution that is not a year out um and I hope that we can explore all those help in any way that we can I'm happy to partner with you Dr Mount to have those conversations Miss FIS um thank you so much for this presentation and also for for the uh Clarity that you're bringing to you know the the difference in sites and permitting and Zoning um I mean more permitting um imp prvious surfaces um so since we will have some schools that have you know space spaces more restricted in some sites versus others I guess my question is more about how we are involving
134um the planning department to think very strategically about you know providing every School site with shaded areas I mean if they can't be permanent fixtures then we have to think about you know the the kind of things that can be put up and and put down as needed right um T I know that the city has you know the the code enforcement office you know they do temporary use permits to put up tents for different uses you know if there's like flea markets or if there's I've I've had a few conversations with S Young and um they do have these different um types of permits that they do for different kinds of activities so um I'm also so one thing is the pering S side and and thinking about all the possible solutions especially for
135schools that don't have the space or you know don't have um all the amenities that others do um and keeping my equity and the second question is we have Partnerships with uh DPS foundation and I understand that they you know have provided some funds and provided um support along this line um how are we um the partnership is existing but I'm wondering like to what degree can they help us um especially address the equity concerns that some schools may not have what other schools get um what are some of what are some of the current conversations about putting shaded up shaded uh structures and maybe some of the caveats and maybe even some of the things that you're all working through so um it doesn't matter the entity that that's putting up so like if
136you're talking about temporary um canopy or whatnot um that would need to be put up and taken down we could do that um some schools have already um applied for with um DPS foundation and and received those as a matter of fact some of them have some of the seating already in place um that they that they got through the through the the grants um what this item is for is for permanent structures related to outdoor for learning um I think there's later on in this meeting we're going to talk about tents and doing exactly what you just said um getting temporary use permitting Dan's work with the fire marshal to get approval from him to use these tents that we're going to use for outdoor meals um but to create a classroom not only
137for the pandemic but even into the the the future to miss byer's point making sure that it's something that is uh sustainable um is going to require some level of permit and so I do believe that um the better route would certainly be to have those conversations and if elected officials can come together and give staff some more flexibility and Direction on Expediting permit and I think that that would be useful and not only for this but for all these projects um we we were here a couple of weeks ago saying hey construction prices are going up and the longer that it takes us to do something the more those prices go up so um any help that our fellow governmental agencies can lend to us as it relates to permitting um would be uh
138extremely grateful for and would help move these projects along as a followup may may I um suggest it could be a meeting with you all but maybe just figuring out what what are what schools we're talking about you know because of course we have other factors in terms of like the time that it's going to take for these structures to be built you know and temporary things even as you're building this even as you are going to the more permanent um the more permanent route you know what we can have in place in the interim um and then you know what schools are we talking about some of those schools may not have you know the the ptas that can fund raise and and provide temporary um fixtures while we are building the permanent ones
139so um I just like to keep the schools in mind like to know which are the schools that um are going to be um the ones that are not going to have this sooner based on you know Spa based on the acreage the number of Acres based on permit you know if I could just add one of the things we are working with the foundation on in the short term is H site assessments so walking the sites uh to see what's already in place sometimes it just takes a new set of eyes for teacher or principal who been there for a few years um to look at what is available and that's everything from trees that provide shade that are close enough to the building to covered walkways um depending on how the building is
140oriented a lot of the courtyards have shade uh as the sun uh crosses through the day and as it's getting warmer or cooler into fall uh shade actually becomes less desirable so we're doing walkthroughs we're marking up maps and just helping to Open the Eyes to what is currently available uh with some much lower level implementation such as uh some basic seating so there really is a short medium and long-term uh approach to this Miss Hamstead thank you all for this presentation I'm excited about this work and I appreciate you um giving some clear expectations for us around when this may or may not may happen for some of our schools when we'll start seeing movement I am curious I know that we'll be using some of the federal funds for this if you all
141could explain a little bit about that process I think we know we've had questions and concerns around why aren't we moving this quicker or sooner and I just would love to make sure you can kind of explain the process we have to go through with the federal funds if I could ask Mr lour to to speak to that yes the complexity of federal funding um the real critical part to the federal funding is is having budgets approved by the state uh allowing us to move forward with the the select plan when we in June uh submitted the original budget to get the essr funds in place for the summer programs that was really what it was for getting it in place for the summer programs and some other things they needed more detail information as
142we went into July August for the purpose of uh defining these projects and types of expenses we going to be incurring so they need more in-depth information they we have submitted the the budget but we haven't had approval yet well they have 115 school districts that are doing the same thing as us and uh they're strapped for staff as well um they don't their Title One area people are really the ones that are looking at these they've never dealt with Capital Construction I asked in many of uh the meetings we've had with the state um are you including your Capital project team in there they're not so everything's a delay on getting these things moving um we're going to start moving because we can't wait any longer they should have provided us uh the information
143and allotments back to us so it's just it's like any other Federal program uh dollar you spend it's hard to start up uh we just moved forward with the summer learning of course we just went ahead with it because they knew and that was their focus as well so uh in the next few weeks we hope to have those items back uh we have to submit the plans to incorporate more information and uh move it forward from there I as uh Mr seus we have a bus drivers here that they really wanted to to to come in um I'm not going to let them be able to speak at least they want you to know that they here for the presentation that we be presenting tonight and they're seeking for your support so if you
144don't mind I'll let them come in just for a minute so that they really wanted to see you to know that they here they advocating for all us drivers did you say they did want to speak um I don't know I can ask if you allow for public comment someone them will love to make some comments we can do that so we're going to put our current presentation on hold so that we can respect the the time of the folks that are here and we'll ask um our team to allow them to come in and we are we ready for a motion on this one like did we have all questions answered to just go ahead and close this I didn't are there is there additional comment or questions thought we were GNA put this
145on hold and and come back to it is that what we're doing or we can just quickly pass it yeah so thank you Paul for the answer on the federal funds I would move that we approve um working negotiations with Hobs to start this process second all right it's moved by Miss Umstead seconded by miss vadz any further discussion I did just want to add one point or or one thing that I'd like to ask I heard from Dr Monk that he would um that it would be helpful in furthering this process if there was a way that the elected officials could actually work with the administration in order to push some of this stuff forward and I'm wondering and I'm going to ask this is a question for for our chair um both of
146our chairs as it stands is there a way that we can request a list from the administration of everything that we think that may be in the pipeline so we can be able to present this to our city council in an expedited manner so they can at least have a full list of everything that we're going to be requesting in the future and maybe it could be prioritized so they could at least start start having the opportunity to put that in a pipeline as opposed to doing it sight by site and waiting I'm happy to work with Dr Monk and his team to figure out the best way to move forward um so thank you all right any additional comments all in favor of the motion say I I I any opposed it passes unanimously
147all right we would welcome some of our um most dedicated working employees to join us in the boardroom yep there's a little more space if we want to wrap around in front of this area over here appup not not at all an interruption so we're this is just a handful of minut okay we're we're very glad you're here and um we're very intentional about speaking to the microphone so that uh the folks that are watching can can hear everyone so I was informed we have at least a couple of uh Representatives that too that would like to speak and if you'll come to this Podium here and hit the uh bottom of the mic we're glad you're here please well first of all good evening to everyone that is here thank you board for having
148us here and all of our uh local officials we really do appreciate this as you can see that we got three divisions here Southeast Southwest and Northern Division have some of the drivers as well as monitors that are here and we did this because we wanted to project numbers but one voice to let you see that there is no Vision amongst us we just wanting to have a good quality life that's all that we are asking uh there are so many things right now that I know that you guys are having to deal with with this Delta Vance kids getting this Vance and it's no longer just the older ones but it's young kids so I know that you got a lot on the plate but we have to have have some type of and
149this is going to sound kind of strange but some type of unseen contract between the school board and the bus drivers and the monitors so that we know that we are being appreciated we are told that but I've been here for almost years and when you start hearing the same thing over and over it doesn't have any effect anymore it only becomes words it's almost like if your mom is still living your mom tells you that she loves you but until she hugs you you don't know the the effect of her love towards you in other words we got to see some action some way uh I've spoken with Mr moino when I was on his uh board um and I think that he I think I was the only person that he end up
150asking who was that guy that's talking um it's only because I want the best for us and I know that you want the best for yourselves but there again in this Co right now one of our major concerns is not knowing who on the bus contracted covid we are told days later I had one gentleman this week to come up to me he said Mr Cherry can I talk to you for a second I said yes by all means he said um I was just told that there was a child on my bus who had covid and he said it's been days later he said and what really bothered me it was this he said I have a daughter who is home who has cancer and I don't know if I have taken the germ
151to her the virus to her because no one told us or told me about the student I likewise had a student on my bus Elementary student I didn't know anything about it whatsoever what we are doing is too much time that is lapsing before we know it was on our bus anything can take place between day one of finding out and four days later I was sharing with this same driver I said you know what by having little kids when they get off the bus they kind of pushing each other so they all up on each other they are grabbing the handrail but no one didn't tell us that the child had covid is there any way possible that we can be told you don't have to give us the child's name although it'll be
152easy to figure out if the child is not on the bus but I understand the hippo law I respect that being an investigator so I respect that but we just need to be told within a certain time limit so this gentleman won't stress out which that's where he's at right now because he don't know if he have taken this virus home to his daughter who has cancer and I think that is not a lot to be asked for but it's something that needs to be address because if he's going through this I went through it who else is going to go through this same thing and we not knowing right now you wouldn't want to find out five days later that he has Co your concern would be how come nobody didn't tell me that's
153how we feel and I think that's a legitimate reason for us to know and I'm seeing everybody's head nodding I appreciate that but we got to come to some form of legal documents or documents or policy procedure because while I was sitting outside I was listening to the mass thing that was going on and that y'all were talking about Co needs to be addressed the exact same way let us know secondly we are working our tails off as drivers a driver came to me today Mr Cherry Mr Cherry I said yes I already have four routes now I was told I got to do another route that's five routes that she had to do some drivers have six when you have that many kids that you have to transport stress is going to happen concerns
154are going to be there about coic because you don't know these kids like you know yours but we short and then if we were to say anything to our management staff they going through the same thing they driving a bus every morning and to me they are just a high paid bus driver that's what they are because when they come back in they still have their other responsibilities they are still there they still have to respond to emails they still have to call parents back who are upset about their child not getting picked up or being picked up late it's a chain reaction and something has to be done now I know that a lot of you all that are here are saying I know he's going to say something about money well the Bible
155says that money anth all things when when when we are giving a decent salary you guys wouldn't have to worry about bus drivers coming to apply you know why cuz we'll be talking about it yes you want to be a bus driver they take care of you they have wonderful incentives I had shared with Mr MinGa prior to the pandemic we were talking about the bonuses that we was getting but when covid came it just knocked everything out but I was sharing with him we can work so many days and get a $50 bonus the taxes between 27% 33% how how much are we really taking home that's no money it's easy to dictate what needs to happen when you living a pretty good life but when you got people like this that's standing all
156around this room some having to work two jobs I know a lady that worked five jobs five jobs just to try to make ends meet because the money $16 $16 and then they have a pay scale now or a new projected pay scale that states a driver who have been with us for 30 years gets to make $23 plus an hour and when the driver brought this to my attention I said wait a minute that's less than a dollar a year for their service I said that's just the way that I look at it $23 you've been here for 30 years how can we talk about being a bus driver is a wonderful job when we working our tails off watching the management working we don't want to be a manager why you got to
157drive routes you do you have to get out there in the morning and drive routs if we had a decent pay that'll make us feel good about ourselves that will allow us to articulate to others who are unemployed be a driver for dur Public School System they will take care of you they will meet your need yes they want you to work they want you to come to work but if you come they would take care of you I can't say that man I'm 63 years old I can't say that we'll be taken care of I'll say well if you're a good budgeter maybe you can make ends meet that way but if not you need to go and find another job one driver came up to me prior to the $16 Mr Cherry I'm
158only making $14 and some change they hired a monitor who right there behind me how you think that driver feel and the driver been here for five years when she brought that to my attention that hurt my heart I felt bad because I felt like she's coming to me with a concern but I don't think that anything is going to be done that we are the best ones well we are told this without you all we wouldn't have any schools no students if we are that important please just grant our desire to increase our pay that will make us feel like that you all care even if you fake it at least we get money you see what I'm saying thank you thank you Mr cherry and I want to thank our drivers who are
159working 12 14 hours a day who've chosen to come here this evening over time with their families or time to eat dinner or rest for the next day if we as a board and administration can give them a round of applause we we had tried to get as many voices in as possible this was extra public comment um we realized that as well uh so with that I'm going to ask the drivers please join me back in the hallway I know the board has an entire agenda item we have one more speaker are we going to do both yes both speakers all right well with that I'll hand it over but and after that we'll have to head back into the hallway thank you hello how you guys doing my name is Cynthia Brown I've
160been with Durham County for three years um my biggest concern and my biggest thing like Mr chair just said a minute ago is the co we not knowing when the kids come on the bus and who attract and what that's a danger to us number one thing I drive from Wake County every single day to be exact Ze in North Carolina to cross over to Durham County when you have a driver not just me but other drivers that drive so far that meant we got to care at least a little bit to cross the county line when I could have stayed in my county and drove for Wake County with no if and buts about it we want guys to understand and know that when a child walks on that bus the first person not
161even the first but the second person they see in the morning is us we makes a difference to a child so that mean if you don't have us you don't have no children to teach we're not asking for a big thing but we are asking for at least anywhere between to $20 so that we can live comfortable so that you can at least step on that bu and we can say hey I'm sweeping that bus today because I'm work or I'm going to clean these windows because I'm at work or I'mma feel like getting up in the morning because I'm at work I'mma sing with a joy in my heart because I'm going to work but when you're getting underpaid you're not being told anything when you're getting told one thing and you have a
162manager that's supposed to stand behind you I'm not even gonna say the manager but the manager over that manager that's not even here tonight how do you expect to come to work when it starts with the leader because if the leader is not behind your back then you have nothing we got to know and feel that we are important not just told because I can hear that from my kids in the morning how much they love me how much they miss me how muchad to see me but when you have Miss Brown now Miss Johnson out Miss Stephanie Out Mr cherry out then that puts a toll on me I get calls at 4:30 5:00 in the morning the minute that my feet Hit the Floor from my supervisor to ask to say that she
163need help that's a big thing so you got me put you got us put in a position that's in the fourth grade waiting on the bus by because you got a parent that has to go to work and then people try to figure out why are drivers walking out why are drivers not showing up to work but you got to ask yourself why why should they show up when you are underpaid that's a job you don't care about because the same thing that you are paying me to do I can go to Amazon and make more I can go to Chapel Hill and make more I can go to Charlotte North Carolina and move my family and make more see in this world the day that we live in it's sad but it's true the
164money makes the world goes around when I don't have the money you don't expect for people to stay you expect for people to come here to get a CDL and you see the things that they do which is walk out that door because it becomes a pressure when you put pressure on me like I had to do today I had to run someone else's rout because someone else is sick then turn around and put my kids on hold for 30 to 45 minutes before I get there to get them but because I didn't want to put Tammy in a b situ we help out to do that because these are babies County so therefore I want my child to get home like I want these kids to get home but at the end of the
165day if I'm not paid properly to be here I can be in a line in Wake County dropping my son off and picking my son up and it's a lot of us that can be doing that but we choose to pick other people children up and drop other people children off before we do it before our owns so all we want y to do is understand that what we are doing it's not a small job it's a big job with a lot of people but you won't have a lot of people if you don't treat your people right and all we asking for is just a increase and we feel that we shouldn't even have to B for it because we feel that you guys see what's going on but until you put in my
166shoes and take the time out even if you feel that what we doing is not important I tell you what you do you step yourself out your sup you step yourself out your heels you put on these jogging pants that we put on every day in a T-shirt and you go deal with bab Day Day and Ray Ray and tell me how you going to feel when you get home let me know the conversation that you going to have when you get in let me know and the next thing that we're concerned about you got kids that don't even keep these up so we fussing back and forth with the children that this is important this is like a outfit for everyone not just me not just you but for the safety of them so
167when I take you to a principal and a principal slap him on the back with it I didn't tell you that he just was just standing up I told you he didn't have on a mask that's a protection for me and for you because if I contract Co who's to say that I'm gonna live through it we are not all promised to see tomorrow but while we are here at least let us know how important that we are don't just speak to us and tell us that you oh yeah you're important we love the job that you do and this the third like I told Joe when it came down to our $5 he said it's coming it is not guaranteed and there it's solid in my check so if we don't have the money
168and you keep telling us you going back and talking about it what's gonna happen is the more you talk the more driver GNA walk and then you gonna be back online with school which is a bad thing for kids because a lot of them can't learn online they have to have that inperson learning because I know my seveny old D so he's not the only one a lot of kids miss being in school and this is how they learn so in order for us to help them y'all got to help us because if you don't help us the door gonna help us we gonna be out that though and that's the last thing that we want to do because a lot of us has been here for a long time like I said I started
169doing this three years ago but I love my but I hate with all capital letters thank you all everybody for being here tonight we really appreciate it and uh we're going to get on to this agenda item that's going to relate to that pay can I can I add one more thing Mr SE can I add one more thing before you all leave this was on our agenda on the August 31st meeting it was not a we did not want to move it we couldn't move it because legally our our attorney told us it was not originally on the agenda so it is on the agenda for tonight our hope is to have it retroactive so that it can start when we originally um wanted to propose this on August 31st so please hear we
170had to move it off the agenda it was not because we didn't want to do it it's because our attorney told us legally we needed to make sure it was on a a right meeting notification so I just want to want y'all to hear that that we are thinking about you we're looking forward to this agenda item tonight thank you they did um board members I'm going to propose we take a a break after this item um but let's get to this Administration okay M Dr M I'm gonna turn it over to uh Mr lour if you can bring up the presentation please as you've heard from the bus drivers uh there are a lot of issues in regarding uh bus driver pay across the state uh all school districts are grappling with it and
171we're bringing to you tonight uh an update to uh make some changes to the bus driver PID to ensure that we can retain as well as uh have our kids coming to school on a daily basis um next slide please so as we look at the present present ation uh this chart shows you uh the the great the small orange dots um our Wake County as we start up from the bottom of the uh presentation moving up there's uh an orange bar orange dotted or stash line that's our proposed pay and then the gray dotted line is where we are currently so there is a gap beginning at 10 years moving forward uh to a 30 years between us and Wake County in that regard so what this is to address which you've addressed the
172beginning pay over the past year is going from $14.75 in 1920 you brought it up to $116.25 an hour for the beginning uh drivers in January of 21 so you addressed that because we were concerned about those beginning bus drivers at that time now it's time to look at the rest of the scale and bring it in line to ensure that that we maintain our bus drivers as we move forward uh for those critical years uh 10 and above so what this does is it increases it uh starting at the 1625 but moving it up uh from $20 and 25 I mean $20.50 to $23 an hour for that 30 years of experience this will put us right there U right there uh with Wake County not necessarily always above Wake County but for the
173most part uh right there with Wake County um so we're looking at a $260,000 cost with this proposal that we're talking about tonight next slide please all busy slides yes busy busy busy um so the the first two columns if you look at those that's the years of experience in Gray as well as um what our current pay is as you can see we go from $16.25 to $20.50 an hour um for 30 years of experience what we're proposing is to continue the same level at uh the beginning salary at 1625 and go all the way up to the $23 an hour AT3 uh 30 years of experience this will be an increase for those individuals that are uh years nine and above uh from that standpoint um retaining trying to retain those those individuals
174that have dedicated service with us as we look at the uh the blue column is the increases and what we're really saying is we're looking at increasing it uh starting at 10 years 20 cents over what it is currently and 10 cent every every uh level thereafter um for the purpose of getting us to a point of the through 19 years and then we go to 20 cents going up to 15 cents additional rather than the 10 cent moving it up all the way to 30 years of experience is what we're trying to do is increase those latter years uh then we have in the in the pink or the the orangish uh we have the Wake County Public Schools uh pay scales and from that standpoint uh what we have is uh in the
175in the last column the differences between our pay and wake's pay so as you can see we start off uh significantly higher at125 more it wans down to even and then a little bit of a reduction uh moving forward and then it towards the tail end of the scale 25 years and above it goes back up a little bit um in doing that we're trying to keep the sequencing of the increases uh and not making it Jagger in nature um but from that standpoint um this would be make us very competitive uh with others around our area so what we're asking you to do tonight is to uh accept this proposal and move it forward so that we can beginning begin paying our bus drivers higher hourly rates thank you Administration Mr Lee thank you
176for that um for that analysis so my question here is um based on that graph there it looks like we are bumping up to to meet for the most part Wake County um and then on the the chart that you had here with the different colors there's a period 12 years through 24 years that were slightly behind weight County um at year 11 we're right at equal with Wake County uh why is there is there any reason why we wouldn't attempt to pay more than Wake County I mean because all Wake County has to do is bump up a couple Cent and then we're behind again right is is there any way we can well I don't know any way is not really a question what I'm trying to say is why wouldn't we consider
177making a statement or making a charge to push up to where we're not behind Wake County even if they raised it just a little bit you know we are uh putting our money where our mouths are you know we've hurt our bus drivers but why wouldn't it bump up a little bit so that we are leading in the triangle where a competition is instead of just meeting weight County for them to jump up again is there any is there any reason behind that that would be your determination if you would choose for us to do that we were just trying to make it incremental in nature but uh the more we increase it the more it's going to cost of course course and um from that standpoint um we're already paying higher on the lower
178end of the scale uh for bus drivers coming in uh than Wake County is and it's the offset as as we move forward for us to go continue to bump it up and if you wanted to bump it up a dollar more than Wake County so that when they do something it it's all about the the expense that moving forward this can quickly jump up from 260,000 to 400,000 and so on and so forth um based on uh adjustments that you you would like to make well so I mean I'm not necessarily talking about you know the one to three where we're a dollar ahead right I'm talking about the ones where we are two cent ahead right um the ones that are were eight Cent or something like that I don't know uh I'm
179I'm simply asking a question of strategy here a strategic a strategic question of it seems to me that um with other positions you know teachers principles uh staff and so forth we we work to beat other districts especially in the area um for pay I I would like for us to consider doing the same here now I'm not saying bump up an a dollar you know like we're a dollar ahead every where I'm I'm not saying that specifically I'm just saying you know there's a period of time where we're 16 Cent behind way County 12 cent 10 cent I don't want to be behind them I want us I want other districts to have to catch up to us that's what I that's what I would like to see happen thank you Mr Lee uh
180um I'm watching all board members here as we having this conversation I think when we had this proposal last week few days later uh we've been able to see what other the competition's been able to do so it's pretty much we're planing to catch up here and I agree with you we do not want to increase by 25 C then come back to you guys again another month to say wait a minute we're losing 10 more bus driving and so forth but at the same I would like for us to acknowledge that any movement that we make financially at this point we have to absorb it with our existing budget traditionally we'll go to the County Commissioners and ask and all that kind of stuff but I'm feeling a little bit comfortable here with uh
181our existing budget with a lab salary I think this is a time that we have to make that move and send a strong statement but we also got to keep in mind whatever we're going to do with this one particular group group we're going to have to reconvene for next year to be able to make some other adjustment for other groups as well so I'm really strong support tonight to make really strong statement to show our bus drivers that we really support them because I was there in the bus garage I've seen those managers getting there at 3:00 a.m. and living at 6 PM they're all driving if we don't get ahead of this situation they are to in the country they closing because of shoulders bus drivers so I'm really open tonight I'm going
182to work with my ca4 to make sure all the different funds we have that we'll be able to balance the budget but moving forward we have to also we living in a triangle area they made a really good statement here you can go to Amazon make $20 an hour that's our competition nowadays so we have to send a strong statement at the same time we make in physically responsible so I'm open to ideas and I'll be looking my cf4 I think we can make it happen tonight and sending a strong message but depending on the proposal that you guys will have uh I have one in mind but uh I like to listen to your guys voice I'm go to Mr Raven and then miss viar my my first question is going to be when
183we're looking at the the bus drivers do do we have an idea of what the vacancy rate is uh it's Mr mon Yeah we actually do so of the 293 positions that we have a lotted for full-time bus drivers um we only have 160 that are um that are driving full-time and as they stated we have all of our subs driving so if anyone is sick we don't have anyone to replace them with substitutes and all of our area managers all of their assistants all of the people that create the routes for the buses are driving and then they're going back and creating routes um so there is a huge um I would say Mr Harris and and the reason why he's not here is um because he was at the bus garage waiting for
184the last buses to come in that's how late our buses are getting in um but they've done a a good job uh up until the pandemic and keeping the District of float using less and less drivers each year as we have to balance um budget considerations um but this isn't unique to Durham this is a nationwide issue and it's just you know unfortunately all coming to a head right now um but that is something that we have to get back up we cannot function with 160 drivers when the state is telling us that uh we need at least 293 thank you for that so this is my perspective and I I you know literally just earlier on this morning I I saw something on news that was talking about the great resign um it's really
185it's happening across the country it's loads of tons of people that are either resigning or they're retiring through the workforce and this is uh you know this is a national shortage so this isn't just in durm but at the same time the when you're parent and you're sending your child to school you're not really there for the excuses um that that's that's not what you want to hear what you want to hear is is what the solution is originally I was thinking that um based upon what we've seen with the $16.25 Cent per hour even if we said that we wanted to increase that up to up to 1750 I'm just guessing on track it would basically be able to double that amount of based upon this on the estimated total cost it would have
186been 260,000 if we increased it to 1625 based off of the original um the original amounts that we we had but I'm thinking if even if we doubled that and then increased it to 1750 that would mean that the total amount would double it would be $520,000 but once I'm hearing that we're almost at what we're 45% 45% vacancy rate even if you double that amount this this proposed $260,000 is based upon being fully staffed correct if if I'm if I'm reading this right not two not not of 293 no of more like 20 30 40 bus drivers so so let me ask this can we because I'm I'm I'm speaking off of what I'm looking at and maybe people at home can't see this can we pull up the chart for the proposed bus
187driver pay increases can we can we put that on the screen all right and there's the chart that shows um that shows what durm county is paying and it also shows what weake count is paying exactly so at the bottom it shows that the estimated annual local cost of this proposed change is is 260,000 so I guess my position is even if we doubled that even if we doubled the increase and we looked at 1750 that would mean at the most we'd be roughly looking at a $520,000 no it would be much more than that and the reason why is because you have more on the lower end of the scale zero to to 10 uh and starting at 1750 you're going to bump the whole thing up which will go to more like $27
188an hour possibly and it's going to triple and and quadruple the cost that's the that's the situation with that right but at the at the same time we do have a issue where we're we're underst staffed anyways so regardless of the increases uh if we don't have the the necessary Staffing to get the kids to school it it's still going to it's going to be a recurring issue I guess I guess that's that's the point that I'm trying to get across and I'm wondering can we do with with Mr um Mr Lee spoke about with looking at an increased amount in which we don't have to continuously come come back I was looking at going up to um a maximum dollar amount of $25 which is kind of what Mr Cherry spoke about I think
189on our on our sheet right now it ends at year 30 $220 50 for for 30 years of service and right now Wake County is offering $22 and 83 Cent for 30 years of service so if nothing else just to convince people not to leave uh to to at least make sure that we have $25 which again it it tops Wake County and then if we're looking at the starting amount you know I think 1750 is is reasonable so that that would be my thought perspective of 1750 up to $25 range salary range and I just wanted to kind of propose that to the rest of the board to to get you all's feedback okay thank you Mr Raven um I'm gonna go to miss viar then miss Hamstead then miss um buer um can
190I clarify something though you have 130 vacant positions that is a lot of lap salary but for a lot of years because of the underfunding we've been relying on lap salary is that the case here that's not just money sitting around um I'm not quite sure of the that lap salary goes to other for other purposes for other purposes that's correct so I'm not sure of what the vacancy rate was in Prior years I think we were over the 200 limit my my caution is to you because that's what you want me to be is cautious if you set a 1750 rate with the majority of the people being under uh on that lower end of the scale you're setting yourself up for a significant increase when you start getting people coming into the district
191with lower years of experience that's all I mean that's what I'm trying to get to is that if we've got a 100 people between zero 90 of the 160 right now so it's my concern is sustainability As you move down the road okay so we have a proposal from Mr Raven we have caution from Mr lur Dr MinGa has something in mind and I'm gonna go to miss Vadar thank you so much um you know what I I have to second my colleague Mike Lee when looking at the chart and seeing where we are behind you know obviously not in the front right not in the the year one um but definitely like by year 11 101 we're just slightly behind and um I'd like to see us not be behind way County um so
192any way that we can make sure that we you know compensate work with the numbers uh and ensure that uh our bus drivers see that we are we are not going be like below you know because obviously those those rates are already pretty pretty low um and I think that you know they have to get CDL licenses and everything else I'd like for them to get paid as much as possible um with the funding that we have and of course we have to also think about the next year right because whatever pay increases we do have to carry out for the years after we would never want to do anything where we increase it and then the next year we have to go and say oh no we have to do like pay cuts or
193that that is that is not good practice so we need to make sure it's sustainable I want to focus on sustainability and here is my plead to you all as admins um here is my plead because we are moving towards number one capacity is an issue and it's going to be an issue for a while so we have to think strategically about how to use resources when you when we think about our high school students right we think about high school students the age at which they make decisions including Healthcare you know 14 years old they're already they can make their own health decisions you know 16 years old they can even make the decisions that we don't want them to do about like ever leaving us we want them to carry it out to
194the end so but I'm just Main that because there's something about our bus transit system in the city of Durham they have right now they're asking input for 500 million dollar that Transportation has towards how to improve go Durham how to improve this and I have seen that we give free passes for buses to use go dur on buses and you know I think that we needed things strategically how many can we set up you know bus passes for our students you know figure out like with the planning figure out where they live that may be given the option to some families that maybe they don't need to be on um one of our buses especially with the overcrowding especially with covid Delta variant you know we don't have to have all that and also
195another thing that we do need is some kind of mechanism some kind of form by which families can elect to change um some some way other than email because I know that Mr Harris gets bombarded with a whole lot of emails I know Mr Palmer gets a whole lot of emails I know Dr Monk gets a whole lot of I know all of you get a lot of emails about bus routes but there are families who sometimes decide you know what the bus is crowded my child doesn't feel that this is a viable option I'm going to tag team with my neighbor we're going to figure out alternative ways for us to figure out Transportation when possible I know that transportation is a privilege um not everybody has cars and an ability but the city
196is moving towards improving transportation for all residents and including our youth and so my question is a for where say for example I signed up for bus service but come to find out I have other Alternatives and I actually as a parent make the election that my kids who are in high school you know can you know find another alternative and that we live within proximity or they can catch the bus the city bus and that maybe I don't need to overtasked A system that is already overburdened right and so I can go on a Google form and update that I can put my child school I can put my child's bus and say I no longer want bus service um you know that would be another thing another thing that is important quality control
197and also the conditions I hear from the bus drivers that you know they want to feel that they show up to work and that they feel safe you know um maske wearing you know are there buses where maybe one of the monitors needs to have a speech with the students and explain a little bit about what we're trying to just reinforcing you know the fact that we have a mask you know uh policy that everybody should be wearing masks I have done that with parents I have put it on in Group chats parents make sure you talk to your kids at home about the importance of always keeping your mask on and I have heard from them that some sometimes it's about the air quality in the buses like you know um they feel like
198it's it's hot and all and like I understand and one of the things that we need to do is ways that we can get feedback about you know buses where where um either we need to address the students not wearing masks or also like keeping the windows open which is another thing that I've heard you know like all the buses should have the windows open whether we have I know our AC's are not to the level that you know the conditions here are as cool as as as maybe in the classroom so because a because our cooling capacities in the buses don't compare to an enclosed you know kind of like being in this room those windows need to be open and if for say for example for whatever reason there's like a window that
199needs servicing right how do parents communicate how do how do the bus drivers communicate that other than like email Trails which pile on and it it actually provides a right and so a mechanism of feedback I think would be super ideal parents who want to get off from the bus service who committed to it and decide that maybe they have alternatives incentivize bus routes through go Durham you know ensure that you know we have schools that have bus stops really close to the schools some schools don't so those are the schools that we prioritized for the bus service but we need to think really strategically and sustainably about how we are using these resources thank you so much if I can ask um Mr so you had a lot of questions in there m Valas
200um and some of them are things that we've been working on so if I can ask Mr Palmer to speak to some of the goast um situations and you're right you know you hear me talk about closing windows particularly inside on the buses I say just the opposite which is what makes it hot because we're supposed to have the windows down and it is extremely hard to cool with air conditioning and and we recognize that um but that is a safety measure for the buses is to have those windows down but if Matt Mr Palmer can speak to the uh the go past situation and things we've done in the past things we're looking to do now I think that'll be helpful as well thank you Dr Monk and good evening again everyone uh Miss
201F to your to your point I just want to um I want to thank the IT team because they're recording this and we'll have the opportunity to take all of the the things that are here this is a very complex topic um to directly speak on the youth Go pass let me point out that uh we have currently 450 youth go passes that are disseminated in our partnership with God Durham uh one of the things that's so crucial about the Northern High School site is that it is on a Durham an existing already G Durham series of stops you I point out again one of the things we need to look at with that is not only providing a stop but ensuring that remember those bus riders become pedestrians when they get off the bus
202so it's a m what I hear you speaking quite quite eloquently about is about multim modalism and planning comprehensively so you we are excited to work under Dr mang's leadership to be looking at exactly some of the points you're talking about with regards to communication look at all modes of transportation and how they interrelate and how we can work with our Community Partners to quite frankly relieve some of our yellow buses because we know that some of those routs are extremely overburdened as you heard tonight so we're working on it I assure you that and uh I can provide more information as a followup okay thank you Miss hon Dr MinGa did you want to present your proposal first or okay um thank you all for the presentation thank you bus drivers who came to
203speak with us tonight um I I appreciate you for all the work that you do and I can can't imagine how much additional work has been added as we're dealing with these um vacancies I I think we need to increase the pay I would like 17 Paul telling me to be cautious so I would want to know how much that's going to change our numbers but I do think at least making sure that we're greater than Wake County would be would be where I would want to see us move I think I have a couple other things um I think money is important so I want us to fix this scale I want us to also can we think about referral package or referral bonus if you refer someone or other bonuses um I know
204that that is tricky because it's not it's not in your paycheck every month but it does allow us to do this some um appreciation of money without taking our too far I think the other thing I want to think about is yes money but also how do we just make sure that being working in DPS is a great place to be so can we make sure that our bus drivers are included in that contact tracing that they're hearing about if students are having covid can we make high quality mask just available for bus drivers like here it is it's at your site every day if you need that um what other things and I would love to hear more from our bus drivers can we be doing to make sure this is a great place
205to work um again we know money works but we also know that they are driving for us because they care and they want to be here so how can we make sure that we're looking at those other metrics um and other items that can make sure that this is a great place to work um those are my comments thank you Miss buer yeah I am so appreciative of our drivers coming here to talk with us in person I wish we had the time to hear from all of them but I want them all to hear from our hearts our appreciation and I want them to know that we've been fighting to get people to $15 an hour in Durham because we want them to be well compensated and the state is not passing that money
206to districts across the state um so we're going to continue to Advocate and it's going to take working with our local County uh leaders to get their pay up in in a longer term way I believe this proposal that Administration has brought tonight is the best we can do to start I think it's a starting place and then I hope that y'all can go back and look at some of the things that um they were real clear about um referral bonuses I see you know we can do retention bonuses other counties are trying to steal our people actively right now thousand dollar somewhere and something something somewhere else we don't want our people to go look at them and how much they love our children and how much they are the first amazing hearts of
207leadership that are children see every morning so um I you know I'm prepared to support this tonight just to get us started make it retroactive to our last meeting so that folks can start to see a change in their check while we explore other things that we can do um with local funding um going forward and I'm just not really comfortable doing a back of the envelope thing right now but um I'm so so appreciative for the leadership that they show and and the the heart that they bring and we want it to show in their check and we want them to feel safe so if we need more help from the county on on Health Department folks out there working with us contact tracing I mean we need to get that clear right right
208away um yeah yeah I'll I'll add on to to a few things but very briefly um we to Mr Ravens point this is this is a renorming of work and I think it it it hits at a time when and we're looking at what social justice means for this country and um tag that with a pandemic etc etc um I look at our Esser funds and I'm I'm wondering where we can be more Nimble you know we know that adding long-term salary is recurring requires support um but I I'd like to see us doing more with our our essr funding to show that we can care about people um we know that one time bonuses aren't great maybe Esser gives us threeyear bonuses and we tackle this as Natalie said right as this is a
209starting place and where do we go um and $15 just didn't go that far in Durham I know we fought for it and we're there but uh it's it's we know we know what it is and what it isn't so my two cents and I'll turn to you Dr MAA I'm sorry Miss Lewis forgive me yeah um a lot of you all asked the questions that I was um having as well and definitely want to show appreciation for our bus drivers and I want to appreciate those that came and spoke this evening um just really making it real for us and it has been real and we know you're working hard and that doeses need to show um through the support and I hope you hear that and everyone that's spoken tonight U Miss buer
210I Echo your sentiments and comments as well I do want to support this plan and getting it off the ground what I'm wondering I do have a point of clarification based on what Mr Ravens shared if we were to go to the 1750 increase does that mean every line item would increase and that's why you're saying it with quadruple yeah okay and then also um before I go to we not I'll stay here first eser funding I think is important also is there a away well I wonder how many people between one and N9 years experience will not be getting any difference based on the scale but how can we make I'm concerned I would like to see how we can make sure that there is a difference there and is this graph currently what
211weight county is paying there's zero to eight years experience is that what they're currently paying that is all that they have on their website we we went out there and checked with it and uh they haven't posted their 2122 because the state's holding on the Aver and the salary schedules to last year's salary schedules so it doesn't doesn't appear that wake has moved forward with any of their scales this year until such time as the general assembly makes a decision so our zero to eight years is higher beginning pay and salary but with this proposal with with this plan right here looking at the incremental increases that's fixing some of those with longevity it still does n do more for those with zero to eight years starting out with um I would like to see
212just a creative solution with the eser funds some sort of stipend in this moment for our bus drivers across the board that shows that type of um progression based on the number of years and also wanted to hear a little more about what is our current policy around covid procedur and um information sharing with our bus drivers what's what's happening and what can we do differently and better um to make sure that they are aware and taking as much precautions as well I just I just want to add one I just want to add one point to this I think there's a sense of urgency right now because we have a problem now right so if we're looking at the one to n there's no change I can't see how we're going to recruit more
213people to work at DPS right now as it stands because again for years one through nine there there's no change right there's two things that we have to look at we have to look at retainment right so you incentivize bus drivers in that one- nine period so you have to incentivize them to keep them in addition to that we have to look at this as a vehicle to recruit so part of my discussion points were there's a problem now that we're trying to uh address and we also want to make sure that this isn't a recurrent problem because we don't want Wake County to Pivot so if you look at the proposal and you look at what we're proposing the the range of um the range of salaries is roughly a $6 range right it's
214looking at about 23 uh 1625 to 23 which is like six different dollar amounts a range if I'm looking at Wake County theirs goes from 15 to 23 so that's a 8 range because again we have to think about people who are going to be here for the long period of time so when I propos the 1750 to the $25 that is a 8 range as well right because we have to think about the people that are in these roads they want the opportunity for growth we just we just heard them talk about that they're not interested in being a manager but they want to stay with us so if Wake County moves and Wake County increases their paid chances are they're still going to have A8 range I seriously doubt that they're going to
215be willing to increase theirs up to 1750 they can definitely meet us where we're at and still have that $8 range so this proposal allows us to already be ahead of it and to focus on the retainment of the staff that we have now and hopefully recruit others thank you I want to make a couple comments I'm going to start with ASL funds so we all remember that we have $150 million and $65 million went pretty much for operation we've been using that $65 million then about 50 or $55 million was for academics and we were able to hire a lot of positions all right moving forward for the next two or three years then we had somewhere around $24 million remaining that we're going to use with our schools and how to strategize to
216move student forward so that's the money that we we have now $24 million moving forward for the next two or three years so with those funds definitely um our staff been working really hard and I had a conversation with our our chair of the board we would like to do something for all of them at some point so October that's the time that we're planning to bring the proposal again I just want to make sure that we're going to have this fund for the next two or three years what we have to play with now is about $24 million only because they are the one we appropriated already I just wanted to put that perspective there and I'm going to take the risk today to let you know that uh I've had a conversation with
217ra I've showed them my proposal The Proposal that I brought to you today some of them they didn't want to see it they said it wasn't enough and I know we are comparing ourself with W County but we also gotta keep in mind what choppy Hill is doing as well okay so I don't want to come back after a month because we all been receiving emails how our students will pick up after two hours and so forth if we don't act shiftly tonight we may get to a position is going to be really bad I'm going to propose and I said this about lab salary that's what we're going to rely on and then moving forward to try to work with our commissioners to see how we can sustain some all these things I would
218like for us to start with $17 $17 and then looking across the board wherever we have less than way cany we can try to make sure that those folks are making at least a good 50 Cent more and then we go all the way to $24 so if you guys will let us work with our cf4 in the next week to make sure that the range of 17 to 20 4 we should be able to do that that's going to be a good message to our bus Travers and I won't come back to you for another month to say it's not working we lost another 10 and so forth so that will be my uh recommendation tonight if you guys would like to support it Mr chair oh goad I'm sorry no you're good we
219can't pay them enough but it also feels very back of the envelope without having the full analysis of that and without knowing how many of our other employee groups also need to be bumped so I almost think we need to start looking at taking 17 an hour to our commissioners for every employee class again just like we got them to 15 like so you know I'm I'm if you're confident that we have the money to do that but then we don't have the scale mapped out to actually show people what it would be and and that doesn't have Clarity to me either for them until we've actually run the numbers I yeah I I don't know what I'm saying I'm just saying it see yeah sure yeah Mr Lee um I I actually support that
220I actually support Dr mangi and that I was actually gonna come on if if I was gonna come on and ask that at minimum at any level we'd be at 50 Cent above weight County at any level at minimum but that his proposal did that um I think that we can address um dispair uh discrepancies across the board at a later time I absolutely think we can I think we can do this now um I think we can um um I trust Dr bank has thought about this and uh kind of estimated ballpark what $17 would mean as a starting and uh moving forward what that what that mean for budget but at the very least uh if if we go forward with what we have now it does it doesn't change anything recruitment wise
221like Mr Raven said it doesn't change anything at all but if we move forward with a proposal of starting at $17 an hour that's 75 cent that's 75 cent more at year zero that can turn some heads that can ra raise some eyebrows and maybe get be used as a recruitment tool um I like the idea um that Dr MinGa put forward but I especially like the idea of at minimum having 50% above what every level at minimum um of what Wake County has and I think that puts us in a position to really be competitive I'm not a mathematician so I don't know where numbers wise they put that puts us either one of these proposals so I would love as a followup um if you all could send us numbers for the budget
222where that puts us I I support this $17 starting there I just worry about being able to sustain that um can you tell us a little bit Paul what the state supports for our bus drivers So currently the state supports up to $745 an hour so anything above that we are picking up the cost locally as as well so any of these adjustments to above that we're picking them up automatically anyway um but that's the maximum that we can charge to the State per hour no matter of service and I'll give you a real quick uh down and dirty for the purpose of understanding um Alex Mesto is listening in it'd be $1.4 million uh to bring it from 1750 to 25 up to the $25 level that was initially proposed by Mr Raven so
223it would probably be closer to 1.2 million 1.1 uh if we start at the $17 an hour and go up to the 24 so goad sorry I want to come back to that 1.2 number for the State you said that it supports says up to 17 I think 60 something 47 47 is that depending on years of service no matter years of service that's just the maximum that we can charge uh for an hourly pay for a bus driver so love love for our bus drivers and folks who are watching also to hear that we need advocacy on the state side because it's ridiculous that $17 an hour is where up to where they would support us and support uh paying our bus drivers so that means our local dollars are making up any of
224that Gap after that $17 and I believe if you spend 30 years working in Durham you should make way more than than that right and so I um that's my first comment so please the buers that were here I encourage you to talk to our folks at the state I would love to send this clip of of you all speaking to our THM delegation and hopefully they can pass that along to others to understand the need that we need for the state to help support us with this effort 1.2 million you said per year if we go to that 17 right and then approximately how much lap salary do we know how much we're going to we typically have every year we normally have close to $3 million in La salaries on an expended Budget
225on an annual basis but we have utilized some of those dollars already this year right for some of the things we're going to do the $350 bonus for classified Personnel so on and so forth so we're already cutting into that um I assume I I just make that assumption that we're going to be around the three million dollar Mark again because what we do is we maximize our State dollars uh for the purpose and and roll back in to fund balance the the local thank you that's all for me just a followup question to Paul uh the 1 point2 is uh if we based on 160 employees that we have or up to the maximum of 280 it's like 200 I think we used in our analysis uh 2 32 we had some vacancies that
226we threw in there as well based on the maximum offer employees if we had all 208 okay thank you but again it's a sustainability going down the road because we will continue to increase salaries on an annual basis as well m v thank you so much for the analysis um you mentioned the uh use of labs uh funds that um salaries for classified employees brings to mind um when talking about recruitment and one of our strategic plan goals is to you know grow our own you know to grow our own folks so for example money is one of the ways we can show love but also opportunities how many of our bus drivers that they've been serving us like I heard from Mr you know Mr Cherry 16 years at what level are we also
227like trying to move them up to managerial positions which because I I I imagine that this is for bus drivers it doesn't include managers and also moving up even into operations ways that we can have pipelines so that you know they want to become Educators you know the these are folks who have been serving our kids for a long time like there're more incentives there's money that we need to do and address but also moving on up like you know moving within the district and that way we can have more people come in they they hear the stories I started as a bus driver in DPS but it hasn't just been bus driving I I've actually like you know TA in the classroom like classified getting into classified status being that we are using funds
228for a classified there are bonuses that the state gives towards certain position in our district and I I really just want to hear this is not for discussion that we you know a long discussion today just just something to kind of keep in mind about circulation like how are we circulating how are we moving folks uh how are we increasing like incentives beyond the money's the money is definitely a key piece to this but also upward mobility in terms of like being able to get into classified positions as well we we hear you um I would have to go to my recruit expert on that as far as moving people into those types of position it's about the qualifications for the positions of course uh in that regard that they would be applying for that's
229all Miss P I'm uh concerned and want to respect the work that our finance staff and Alex have done over the years doing salary studies and getting us scales that we can start and continue and deliver and sustain and make sure that they're logical that they're that they everybody moves every year and so that's my hesitancy with just going back at the envelope right now I would be very interested in moving what we told people we were going to do and then seeing what else we can do with full analysis in two weeks I I also heard people talk about wanting to make sure they they get full-time hours and and that impacts their benefits you know I think there's deeper analysis that that we can get from um giving staff the time to to
230dig in a little bit more so that's why I would still be interested in going with what was brought this evening and the promise that we will continue to evaluate both internal folks their Gears of experience and the the market and what they're offering in retention bonuses in and I mean they're throwing money at people in different ways so I want us to have just a full comprehensive thing with full analysis in two weeks so and and I want that too and I I just want to make an additional comment I mean I'm I'm doing some back of the the napkin work here and uh my ballpark you correct me if I'm wrong a $1 increase in pay is about $22,000 over the course of the year at 40 hours of work and 50 weeks
231of work and I know we don't necessarily have all that but I'm I'm just B parking a $2,000 salary increase is that crazy off um I'm waiting for my text message I don't think it's crazy off no I don't think it's crazy off but then you got to add 30% to it for benefits okay 30% for benefit sure but what what I don't like about the chart um and and going up a dollar as a percentage is significant I mean I I think it's 6% um if if the the wage goes up a dollar I could be wrong on that um what I don't like is when and one of our folks mentioned it is when you're losing purchasing power in the economy okay so if these steps are not covering cost of living adjustment
232Cola uh are you're you're you're losing over time um and I'm I'm trying to look quickly at the new the proposed right the second column and a 30 C increase from year 20 to 21 over $20 an hour 10% is that's like a percent and a half I'm not sure they're gonna they're definitely not getting ahead right with cost of living averaging at least two and more recently more like five this last year wasn't it correct yeah and that's what everyone is I'm sorry to interrupt but that's what everyone across the board is is faced with as well sure and um with the general assembly not passing bills but for class certified teachers over the last two years it really has an impact on all of our individuals uh across the district right not just
233bus drivers right am I wrong to say though that at low lower incomes uh that that's more regressive has a higher impact as opposed to say a millionaire yes sir okay so that doesn't feel like Durham to me if we're talking about principles that doesn't feel like where where we need to be so um I would like to see when you come back another column that's percent raise by year I mean just so I can see how we're doing in that factor um but maybe I need to see that across all the different classified schedules because uh you know I don't this doesn't happen in isolation and my argument about cost of living right goes for for all employees so um board members do we have additional comment Administration do do you have the direction
234you need to come back Mr Raven and Miss Umstead and that so so I you want make a motion yeah okay we'll do some additional comments that's that's what that's what my hand was raised for to make a motion can I make a proposal before the motion I think we've given Administration a lot to think on and chew on tonight I wonder if we were to approve what is here and maybe we just look at the proposed DPS and Wake County where there's a difference and say we want to at least be on the Wake County scale but then to go back and we're g do the analysis on a better step increase across the board you know that kind of analys I think that I do think that needs to be done I feel
235like the the mama who's gota you know we gotta look at our budget first before we do all the stuff that we want to do but I think that is important and across all of the different folks who might be in a similar pay range I would also like to see a similar more consistent step that's a little higher if we can um but I think that analysis is important for us to do so that would just be my uh for tonight so so excuse me so the one thing that I want us to think about is that when we're looking at Grant funds and we look at how they're managed each Grant has a has a time and date on it right and we've essentially been dealing with three different grants federal grants that
236are set to expire in 20 22 2023 2024 okay and we also have to understand that what we're talking about dollar amount wise if we just look at inflation right we understand that inflation is automatically going to go up three roughly 3% a year absent of hyperinflation so uh what Mr Sears just talked about about the 6% increase that's essentially two years from now based on 3% per year so even at the $17 amount increase that that we're looking at that's just keeping up with where inflation will be next year so while it may sound a little bit more radical to even recommend starting off at $17 an hour I think that it's not as it's not going to impact us as much as we think Within These first three years because we're going to
237have to request increases just to keep up with the cost of living so my I'm going to make a motion if it doesn't get supported I completely understand but I do think that I would like to move that the that we um give the administration approval to go with a salary range that goes from $17 up to $24 and that that would be my motion I'll second but I have discussion Miss FZ you have a competing motion um I support that motion I wonder if I could put an amendment that um that we make sure that we're not behind I think you know what was was mentioned about from 10 to to towards um years of experience from 10 years of experience no sorry um yeah we we we're we're not competitive and we're actually
238behind um so that we amend it so that we're not we're never at any Year we're not behind yes I I'm gonna I'm going to make that assumption I agree with that but I'm going to make that assumption based off of how this charting was done most of the impact it's going to essentially straighten out the lines from zero up to year you know the 30 and so forth and so on so it will always be above wherever W county is um because again it's have it has a condensed range of $7 so if you're looking at how a line graph is going to go the entire time we still be be above Wake County Miss P I'll call you in just a sec I want to make sure I understand the motion the motion
239is uh to direct the administration to come back with a proposal that at a minimum uh is a range from $17 to $25 an hour which should by our back of the napkin put us above Wake County Mr lur wants to 24 not 25 thank you that's correct Okay so we've had a motion it's been properly seconded move by Mr Raven seconded by Mr Lee additional discussion Miss buer I I love the spirit of it I love the commitment to it I don't think it's a sustainable plan until we look at every other job category of our people that would be affected or are in similar situations in this labor market so while I am so enthusiastic I've got people texting me about what instructional assistance make we're putting bus drivers ahead of them we
240are doing in unintentionally kind of on the back of an envelope kind of rushing this and I want us to just take the time that it deserves to to continue to think about everybody else and what we're going to need to ask frankly of our County Commissioners to get us there because the state's not going to do it so um I want us to do it we're going to get there I just want us to start with what we've started with tonight that we've already promised our folks two weeks ago and then see how it impacts all the other job classifications in folks um because we're a family so that's my hesitancy additional discussion Miss I'm said of them Mr Lee yeah I I agree with you Miss B on that I just really think
241we need to look we can't look at one thing in isolation we have to look at across the board and if you take 1.2 and start multiplying it it if we were just to say was the same amount across some of the different sectors we're we're easily changing our budget pretty drastically so I just want to and I and I wonder if we can do something better than starting at the 17 and the 24 like if the steps different types of steps or something make it a little more sustainable for folks right if we're doing across that that dollar so I'm just I I'm hesitant because I want to make sure we're looking at this holistically and not just with one group additional discussion Mr Lee since I've been on the board I cannot count
242how many times we've discussed salaries for other people at the higher end and it didn't affect the people at the lower end so I don't understand why when we start to talk about salaries for the lower end while we have to take a step back and wait until we do a study for the higher end now we we drop $1.2 million on ideas here I've been we I've we've made decisions about trying curriculums trying ideas trying something else and it's $ 1.8 million okay let's try it for two years but we're talking about salaries here we're talking about people here and so all of a sudden when we have this idea to make a big step make a big statement for the least of us we gotta wait and we gotta understand everybody everyone who
243has a has a salary and during Public Schools or everybody's salary how long does that take we took we did the classified study that took forever so are you guys saying that well well what I'm hearing is we wanna we want to make a bold step with this motion we want to make a bold step but hold up let's just because we said this what we were gonna do two weeks ago let's hold up keep it where it is basically status quo and then let's study everybody in order to make a even smaller step a little bit later I don't think that's fair I've seen too many contracts too many salary discussions on the higher end and nobody said one word about the lower end the custodians the bus drivers the lunchroom uh professionals nobody
244said anything about them so now we're talking about our bus drivers and we got to wait until we hear about everybody else that doesn't seem fair to me so that's why I support this motion here because we've done this before we've just done it on the higher end we've given raises to people outside of the classroom and then not giving raises to teachers and people in the classroom but nobody said wait hold on let's not get ra let's not think about that let's do a salary study let's see a percentage salaries and then raise that for everybody nobody said that back then why is that why is it when it goes the other way we got to stop we gotta study would I would not say that's what I'm saying at all but I think
245we deserve to give people a a schedule that has been prepared and they know what they're going to get at different level levels of experience Mike and we don't have that yet so I'm not saying take months I'm not saying take years but I'm saying actually do that and bring it in two weeks so you know we're not saying different things nobody's oppositional and nobody doesn't want to take care of our people um so if if that was not clear I apologize so the I would also like us to be more clear about what we're going to do just generally um the motion to me does not seem to be too specific so I can support the motion uh and the the kicker for me is that the Administration has brought this the administration wants
246something done to address this I don't think the administration is saying IAS don't matter monitors don't matter everybody matters and like damn near everything in this pandemic we're faced with bad choices right and we can't do everything we want to do um so you know I'm willing to support the motion uh because it gives Direction not specifics but I I hear Miss buer and I agree with it we don't want to cannibalize a r we don't want all of our IAS to go apply to be bus drivers tomorrow um or or quit because now um I mean we do uh and we don't we need more people um but I trust that the administration brought this for good reason um I think we've given them enough Direction um is there additional discussion missad and then
247Miss V yeah and and I I don't want people to hear that I'm saying we need to spend a lot of time studying it what I'm saying is for our other employees who might be within this same hourly rate how are we also making sure that we're taking care of them that's what I'm saying and I recognize without our bu drivers our students can't get to school every day it is a vital and important job um as well as our Child Nutrition workers and other folks who within our system our custodial staff our maintenance crew so you're right we're faced with a lot of choices that aren't great but I just don't want it to come across that I'm saying you know I only care about certain groups I want all of us to make
248sure that we're taking care of our people that's why I think it's our money and we talk about some of the other ways that we can support our staff for this to be a great place to work um I'm not going to vote down the motion I'll support it but I just want us to think about too the Ripple effects that happened from this I'm going to support this um this motion and I think um something that is that is very important is that we have an obligation to provide a sound and basic education for every student um when children don't have transportation and they can't make it to the school um it is a problem because they're being deprived of their due right and I think that you know the um the case for
249ensuring that we do an analysis for every position including our wonderful instructional assistants everybody who the cafeteria workers I mean we have a lot of Staff um that needs we need we need to make sure we do a clear analysis of you know how we are uh taking into account increasing pay for for everyone and and and working with the county to ensure that the taxes you know that we have um we keep having those conversations about local taxes and and including like um ways that you know that um there's so many things that we've discussed with with the county I'm not going to go into you know some of those discussions right now but the main thing is that we have to start somewhere and I I agree with Mike in the sense that
250or Mr Lee when it comes to who are the who are the lowest um paid in in our district um and where is where is the biggest need and the urgency there's an urgency right now because I know I personally have received calls emails text messages and there's a lot of a lot of parents a lot of families um that are having to use Lyft and Uber and they're wondering are we going to pay their bills you know figuring out are we going to pay those bills because their child has a right to a sound and basic education and they are not getting that if transportation is not happening so we have an urgency and an emergency happening right now and the analysis for everybody else like that is our commitment as a board to
251ensure that across the board we make that analysis and we write everybody but we have an urgency right now if for example you know folks start walking out right now the bus drivers that we have right now we saw them come today they organized and they came here if all of them walked out we would be forced to shut down the district you know if if every bus driver walked out right now and said you you you talked they told us today we don't want to hear words we want to see action so that that is the urgency and I think that you know we we usually have to start somewhere we have to go Department by Department we work with our HR in terms of you know how to write everybody but I think
252we have to start somewhere and I think bus drivers have again like I we have not had enough discussions over all this time um and this is this is their turn right now and it's not to say they're the only ones we're going to move and make sure that analysis includes everybody but we have to start where the urgency is I I hear every day I know you also get calls thank you m SP I don't remember who made this motion Mr raven made it Mr Le Mr Raven would you um consider a friendly amendment that we also um begin the analysis of um moving all of of advocating to the county for raising our minimum in DPS to 17 an hour and them funding that difference yes are you sure about about that I
253I think that the county is also going to be looking at the same thing I think I could I can make the assumption that the city is going to be looking at the same thing as I stated earlier the great uh resign is starting to take place people are having to work much harder to keep the staff that they had before um people have so many different options available to them now and there are so many people that are no longer willing to work two to three jobs in order um to support that their so you know I think we are going to have to advocate for an increase in salary and I think they they already know what's coming and I'm hopeful that us being in this RDU area will continue to allow the
254property taxes and the sales tax to generate additional Revenue that will allow both the county and the city to support um other Innovative needs and operational needs for the school system so I definitely think it's something we're going to have to look into anyway so yes okay thank you are there any objections to the amendment we will amend the motion um my one little ping is that I I don't even know if it's mathematically possible to do to cover Cola cost of living going from 17 to 24 can you even keep up over 30 years you know 3% time 3% time 3% so ple please answer the cola question when you come back thank you yes sir okay um any further discussion all in favor of the motion to direct the administration say I I
255any opposed it passes unanimously thank you can I ask one follow-up question and with that motion we're directing so you would bring this back in two weeks is that correct at our next meeting yes ma'am for Action to implement the scale I was thinking we were moving forward okay I just want Clarity for me and for the folks who were watching what are we doing tonight can you can y'all let me know I I'm I'm actually not sure we did I think we approved a recommendation to the administration to go to 17 to 24 um we didn't approve what was in the packet uh I thought that was an amendment to change the um what they're asking for so they presented what uh what they recommended we changed that we said no it's going to
256be more and we actioned that so now the starting salary is going to be $17 and it's G to adjust down all the way through U so the intent the intent of the motion was to change the administration's column to 17 to 24 so 17 would be the intro that the entry level right at zero 24 would be the Max and administration will be able to show a chart on on what that new pay scale will be okay so I don't so you didn't approve a pay scale you approved a range and um I don't it's not clear to me and I may not have been paying attention what exactly that means I don't think your Administration has enough to go on to change everybody's salary effective two weeks ago I mean starting salary that's
257easy top end salary I suppose for everybody's at 30 years that'd be easy but everybody in between you guys didn't make a decision it sounded to me like what you were saying was you need to come back to us with a pay scale that starts at 17 and ends at [Music] 24 that's that's what I heard all right but the board tonight made a commitment that the year zero will be 17 year 30 plus will be 24 and you've got some work to do to figure out the rest of the column and that won't be the difficult part the difficult part is what are we going to pay them next Friday because the what we presented to you this evening is being changed so are going to be what they were paid or what they
258could be paid I think uh our bus driver they will appreciate the intent and they'll be patient to wait for us to be able to adjust that moving forward for next month so I think the intent is really good um we're not going to be able to pay them this Friday let's wait two weeks later then come up with whatever the new scill is going to be if you guys want to pay retro I think they will appreciate it we had said retro to the previous meeting as well right yeah I that was the commit and if I can the Retro that you wanted to make back to your last previous meeting would get paid next Friday we have time to make that happen if you choose to go with what we have here and
259knowing that it's going to increase from 17 to 24 based on a new proposal I think we need to finish the whole work and then bring the new scale and the from point then it we'll go rro okay I I I understand you probably had a queed up to go and and PayDay tomorrow no no not tomorrow it's next Friday next Friday Friday so we would have it available for that purpose that's up to you guys to to figure out how to do that okay I think us ra they all appreciate the intent 14 to 24 they'll be patient to wait to get the big paycheck when that time comes 1 17 to 24 thank you all right board members um I would like for us to take a minimum five minute recess I I
260I would prefer 10 I do realize that's a burden on the administration uh it is 8:41 could we come reconvene at 8:50 and could I also ask the people check their news feed about the president's announcements I think it's relevant for the rest of our conversation Miss V Aris um so bus drivers are outside right now and the question is this what we are uh giving to Administration to approve and the scale there's bus drivers and there's monitors are monitors going to be paid 17 that was not a part of our plan that was not a part of our recommendation so as we are working on looking out the jobs as well I think once we get to that points we'll bring that recommendation okay thank you for that question uh 852 please reconvening at
261ladies and gentlemen we're going to resume our meeting um with a couple of celebrations impromptu celebrations first happy birthday to our colleague Miss Vadar and a uh Happy growth of the uh extended Board of Education family Mr Raven would you like to share your daughter's name with the public thank you all I am um I am the proud girl dad of a one week old named Emerson Dawn so we were we were happy to welcome her on September 1st and it's been a joy and I have been able to hold her for three to four hours at a time excellent congratulations all right Administration we are at item 8D tent purchase all right um so we we did an RFP um in August on August 25th 20121 for um to purchase tents these are the
262tents that we're going to be using for our outdoor eating spaces at our schools um the purchase of 4510 we did survey the schools to see which one wanted to take part in this um the the number that we got back was 45 of them that did um the total cost is $ 107,2 4367 and we are recommending uh that the board approves the purchase with tent and tables.com in that amount using Esser funds uh we will like to um note that I would love to give you a delivery date today but this is also contingent upon um the approval when we get a firm delivery date um if the board approves it table.com press second move by Miss by second am by Mr Raven that we approve the tent purchase contract additional discussion hearing
263none all in favor say I I any opposed it passes unanimously item 8e Equity standard for principal evaluation good evening Dr mbinga members of the board um I'm glad to stand before you today with some information on some adjustments to our principal evaluation um process today what we want to talk about and I'll try to save us some some time given the hour is we want to exhibit the relationship between the equity standards and the principal evaluation instrument as it is highlight some of the existing efforts that you may not even be aware of that are already um connecting to what would serve as an equity standard for principles as well as how we could streamline the process across all of our superintendents who are supervising um principles while we're still waiting for the presentation
264to come up I would like to go ahead and acknowledge the work of an outstanding team on this if we could advance to the third slide I want to extend thanks to um Dr Hardy and her team particularly Dr Stacy Stewart Dr Darlene Ryan Dr Danielle Jones and Dr Daniel Davis who supervise our principles and are very passionate about this process on the next slide you will see a graphic that just kind of outlines the principle principal evaluation process I know that you are very familiar with this process from the um planning and the self assessment stage all the way through the summary um ratings that are on the final evaluation for the year what you will see outlin here is I have a couple of arrows that point to the key points in the
265process at which we would look at the equity standard across the district first you see that when a principal during their self assessment as well as in the establishment of their performance goals that is a key point in the process that the equity standard would come forward and so one of the things that we've discussed among all the area superintendant from the state evaluation instrument there is a requirement that there is a human resources goal for DPS there will be a requirement that there is an equity standard an equity goal that would be embedded in into the process at that initial meeting um the area superintendent will work with those principles on what that area of focus should be that could look very different from school to school and some schools may have a greater
266need to focus on a particular standard than others and so that comes in that initial meeting the establishment of what artifacts will be used to show evidence of success towards meeting that goal the midyear conference becomes a um checkpoint on progress towards those goal but of course they are meeting consistently with the principles all throughout the year the summary evaluation in addition to completion of that PDP and identifying whether or not those goals were successfully met that is also where they get their ratings on the evaluation rubric and so if we'll go to the next slide one of the things that we really wanted to point out in discussion is we would not have a separate Equity piece because Equity is built into every standard and so I want to take a minute to talk
267about that just to give you some examples I can take every element that is in the valuation instrument and connect it to equity so say for example strategic Le leadership element B is leading change which means systematically Challen chenging the status quo by Leading change with um potentially beneficial outcomes so if we think about that piece and how it connects to what we do here in Durham systematically cha challenge the status quo for what we know is best for our students and for our communities that's a primary area I would also say that um strategic leadership is where your school Improvement planning lives and we're going to talk a little bit more about that in a minute instructional leadership you have element a which is focus on learning and teaching curriculum and instruction and assessment
268the distinguished piece of that element says encourages and challenges staff to reflect deeply on and Define what knowledge skills and concepts are essential to have the competence from all of their students um standard three is cultural leadership we had a lot of discussion among the assistant superintendent about how that is clearly everybody just by the title of that standard can see how it relates to equity but it's even a lot diff um deeper than that element D under cultural um leadership for example is all about efficacy and empowerment I personally am partial to stand standard four which is human resource leadership so I can definitely um highlight all areas of that so for all of the elements A and C that are in Human Resources leadership that is a key opportunity for us to advance
269our Equity goals as a district and really zero in on the needs of our individual um schools um for managerial leadership there's one element element B that is conflict management resolution and so when we're looking both internally at our schools as well as externally that is an opportunity in the interest of time you can see we can go through each of these but what I want you to recognize with this graphic that we've created is the foundation that is at the bottom of all of these standards and that Foundation are the pillars that we have established as a district and are part of our policy on the next slide one of the things that we wanted to build in as part of this is the fact that we already have things in action and every
270area superintendent spoke to the fact well really where Equity our Equity goals live is in our school Improvement planning and the degree to which those principles are driving that leadership in school Improvement planning comes right back to that evaluation instrument and so as we were sure is still included this year but the way we have to go in NIS when once you close out that that PDP it's difficult to go in and navigate it in actual format and so that will be done a little more informally so we wanted to come and share these adjustments we know that this is the work that has been done in the last week or so but we wanted to share this information with you get feedback so we can continue our ongoing conversation around um this Equity goal
271I would like to extend an opportunity if I've missed anything for Dr Hardy or Dr Stacy um Stewart to be able to speak to our work if you have anything you would like to add okay well with that we're glad to entertain any questions I'll start with Miss Lewis and then miss viz thank you for this presentation um and really making clear how that our how our district overlays eeky already in a school Improvement plan in the pillars that we have that's listed um there is a lot of over overlay and I appreciate this step in putting it in writing and principal evaluation process and I just want to know could you tell me more about the pillars is this is it ideal that is equities in each pillar or is it written down as
272a part of the evaluation when you look at the standards okay restate that for me please I want to make sure I'm pill and you showed the circle with all the branches from the different standards in that pillar if we could possibly bring up that graphic that may help with the explanation and what I'm asking is with that with those with that pillar with the pillars that we have that's in shows up in every standard Equity showing up in every standard is this idea what we want to have or is this actually written out as a part of the evaluation when the evaluation is done okay based on the standards so the way the pillars could inform what we have going on in these standards okay is so say um I'm G I'm going to
273speak what I know Human Resources okay so one of the goals if if I am a principal and I'm going to focus on human resources then when I'm looking at that then I also want to look at what we're going to what we're striving to do as a district by looking at these pillars so I may go to number one and say disrupt and dismantle systemic inequities to eliminate the opportunity Gap and if I'm looking at the hiring and recruitment I may tie that to that particular goal or it may be ensuring access and representation and academic programming in schools depending on how I shape that goal those pillars can help inform what I'm actually focused on for my school okay I understand so the goal you can pick a goal out of that and
274the standards and bring Equity out of it basically right so the pillars are kind of areas to focus on but if I'm really writing a smart goal it's going to be much more specific measurable or whatever but it may be informed by the goal and the intent of those pillars and the requirement is that every um every P will have at least one Equity goal that they can choose from this pillar every principal will have an equity goal in their PDP also um did Miss Dr steart did you want to add to that she's doing a great job and I'm just her backup to P she's doing a great job just for example if you could bring that slide back up please as Dr Lin has stated Equity is embedded in all of those leadership
275standards but if we want to be very intentional we can specifically ask principles to look at those different pillars and a identify one that they would like to address for this particular Academic Year when I look at honor and strengthen connections between home and school we connect that to external leadership development we're going to look at school Improvement through four data types not just student learning but demographics of students and teachers in the building processes that occur within the school as well as student parent and teacher perception data all of those areas um being taken in into consideration and so when we look at that teacher working condition survey there is specific there are specific questions and statements linked directly to honoring and strengthening connections between home and school so we can pull it all
276together ensure that we have artifacts and specific actions aligned to improving and focusing on equity in our schools thank you I appreciate that having artifacts and specific actions because we want the the school Improvement plan to not just be written down on paper but follow a process to that we are following it and that we're creating areas of possibility and we talk about equity and changing a culture and climate and a culture it takes time and we're not going to have these Leaps and Bounds that we see year over-year we would hope so but how again is this being evaluated year over- year that we're being intentional um in the planning in the evaluation process and it's to me this is where we're looking at the accountability with this P once it's once it's done
277once you have your Go written for the year you have your midyear check-in and your end of year check in and see where you are does the p end up in the HR personnel file at the end of the year or is that separate so the PDP and I want to make sure I'm clear on this with these masks is PD um as Endor PDP the the there's a portal that's known as NES okay and that's where all of the evaluation documents are housed that portal is part of the HR evaluation record so even though it's held in an electronic um place it is still an official um Pro HR file and to that point what tends to to happen is at the end of the year we do a summary evaluation of all of
278the standards and then we begin to identify specific areas in need of improvement we look at the artifacts that they have um we consider classrooms and school walkthrough visits we also look at heavily that teacher working condition data and so we look for an alignment in terms of which areas can be improved the pun because that instrument is all about growth over time even for principles so there is a triangulation of data to ensure that they are focused and they develop their goals for the upcoming year based on multiple data points thank you I have one last question um maybe with the um when I initially brought this up with HR and Personnel wanting to make sure I wanted to really look at what our the standards were and having an equity standard and I
279definitely understand Equity being embedded in all of our standards it just feels like I'd like to see a both and I think this is a good first step and making the being intentional about setting these goals um that's being tracked throughout the year that we're really being intentional about um Equity but I think it's also just as good as the people who are implementing it at the time and I'm still wanting to see what can we do to see about it being a part of the standard and looking at the way we did the equity policy where there was a committee of diverse folks coming to the table saying these are things that's important this is was important I like to still see a committee coming together to see how we can make sure our
280standards are even above of DPI standards that they set for us but I definitely think this is a good first step and an approach but I still like to see if it's possible what that would look like how that could be executed I know that's going to take more time getting to the getting people to the table getting to consensus that aligns with this policy that we have but that we're increasing our standards above what DPI is asking for but thank you for the presentation I guess this is a definitely one to um support this effort I I would like to give voice to that also quickly just before moving on first of all I want to point out thank you Dr Stewart Dr Stewart is one of the assistant superintendent who has already com
281completed her pdps her beginning pdps but she can clearly articulate how she is going to work with her principles on um the equity piece so I wanted to acknowledge that um um part first because you had to opportunity to even hear her speak here I hear exactly what you're saying board member Lewis and we are making that commitment I think that if you could hear the intricacies of the conversation that actually took place with the assistant superintendent I would like to see us use the work that is going to be done with the pdps this year to guide the very work that maybe you're talking about with future discussions and how I think we're already stepping out in Innovation with making this a required goal in the PDP and I would expect to see some
282things from that that would really help move exactly the type of work that you're talking about forward okay Miss vadz and then Mr Raven and Miss Umstead thank you so much for all this work um this is work that doesn't H happen in isolation so a lot of the work that you are bringing forth as you showed it's it's work that is you know the whole entire district is working towards this uh and um we have a system of governance right just is to say it where sites you know are managing employees retention uh quality like you know even even the the the atmosphere at each site you know recruitment right they're they're doing hiring practices so there's a lot of that is happening at at the at the scales at the sites and then
283of course like you know districtwide we have a strategic plan and we want to be able to move towards that plan um my question um I have I have uh uh two questions one um one of the goals that we're trying to meet is by 2023 we said we would have 10% latinx uh bilingual Educators we want to make sure we we increase representation of Educators in increase capacity in our school sites to serve all our families we don't want any family to feel like you know communication is an issue we're grateful for the multilingual Resource Center that does centralize Services throughout the district however at the site it's important to continue to build that Community right and to ensure that families feel that there is representation so so that goal is very important to
284have in terms of like hiring in terms of like how we're taking into account equity and I love how you know you talk about representation it it was listed on there um I continue to to to applaud that effort it's going to take more than just central office right like bringing in folks and bringing in Talent we also need to grow our own um so I'm I'm wondering about the grow our own and how we can incorporate that because we definitely have people who might start in a certain role you know I make the plead that sometimes we have custodians who have background in teaching in their country and me you know if if they're able to get go through the pipeline we have a program at NC um nccu right that does help with
285our taas and then from ta they can I've seen a lot of stories you know of of Tas who become get their certifications and and move along so that's very important to me and I and i' I'd love to see um you know that kind of more like highlighted how we grow our own how we build capacity in District the other thing is that we have um we have some schools that have uh very innovative ways of incorporating the school Improvement teams into something that is more Community Based and inclusive of Community Based leadership so for example some some groups because the school Improvement teams are mandated by the state right and their goals and they have to put them in indie star right that's that's kind of like the database I've seen some schools
286do PDFs on their websites and kudos to those schools you know who you are like you they will actually like put the PDF and say here are the goals that we have for this school so that parents don't have to worry about going into indar and putting in the code and putting in not you know making it more accessible so that's something that I think should be a standard practice because these goals should be visible to anybody who's a part of that school Community anybody who wants to care about any of our you know 54 uh School sites but especially like you know the uh you know ignite is just starting off so at least the 53 schools that you know have been working with sit teams and um doing that it would be nice
287to kind of have um the sit team's um the planning the the the school Improvement plan and um visible and accessible to to folks and along those lines also we appreciate the engagement and I have to give shout outs to my colleagues who are part of you know different we we all represent so many different constituents and some of us are involved in different groups outside of you know the work that we do um and we're continuing to work with leadership around the community so I know for example that some of our board members I know a board member jaavan Lewis and um uh board member Frederick r and have been a part of the Durham committee on the Affairs of black people and how there's um policy recommendations that they sent to us and
288one of the things that they uh shared with us was ways to make the um planning more accessible to families so they said that for example they wanted to have an like a board they wanted to have um more of a committee that would meet at the schools and how can we integrate that into the sit because sit is mandatory so how can we ensure that number one the times of that are not like in times when people are working working because we need you know there are some schools Kudos schools I've seen it too where they've moved it to like 6 PM versus some some some sit teams that are happening at 11 o'clock and you know there are a lot of people who cannot participate in those meetings um they also asked for
289definitely like they had a recommendations for hiring um training you know um and and also like the racial Equity audit for each school they wanted to be uh have us provide transparency about the demographic data on Educators including race gender you know by site so at a school that has and and I know that each school is different but there are schools that have 80% of one demographic that that just seems like that school would need an improvement plan to to ensure that they are they are increasing representation including as many people and working towards those goals so they they they asked us to do more of the audits to look at demographic data on on Educators um to incorporate community feedback um especially from those who demonstrate the greatest needs I'm actually reading it
290from their policy recommendations it's there's there's a whole list and we all met with with uh with Dr Ronda Taylor bulock um and also you know um addressing Equity Gap so I'm wondering I guess all of this is to say that there's an importance of like having access using the current structures that we have and making them maybe like a sit combined with Community you know if the if the sit structure has like staff and some parents from the school but there are Community leaders that are tied to that school or partners with that school for there to be more more inclusive leadership integrated into that um so that's those are some some some of the the things that came up as you were presenting so just in processing what you've said I think you
291covered just about every standard that is in the principal evaluation instrument and I saw Dr Hardy taking Furious notes so um heard firsthand the policy recommendations coming from The Germ committee on Affairs of of black people and so definitely all of those um things are key opportunities for how we can take this PDP process and be an example not only for the state but really for work across this nation around equity and so we welcome that opportunity and Challenge and I look forward to sharing with you the results that will come for that process Mr Raven I'll just start by thanking you again um for the work that you all have have done on this I think it continues to show The Innovation and and the thought that you all put into developing this the
292the questions that I have it's very few because you you've already been able to answer most of them I think originally I was going to ask are are some of these pieces that surround Equity are they more or less like self-described from the principle kind of being able to detail the work that they're doing is it is it more internal or external but you all did kind of communicate that but I would like to get an idea of what is the I'm I'm a resident of durm right and I want to make my preference and I want to make my thoughts known about how I feel a principle has either been effective or not effective when communities are speaking on on principles where is that going to fall within there because that that's going to
293be the question is a community maybe one Community they don't feel that that that type of uh Synergy with the principle that's in place not saying that they're a bad principle but maybe for that specific school it may not be well aligned so where would that show up and and how could we make sure that we're reassuring the community that we're allowing their voices to be heard when we're doing these appraisals so my initial thoughts on that question question is it shows up in how we respond when things arise so say for instance and I'm going to have you come forward that let me get um say for instance when you get a complaint from a school and you send it back and we're processing that and it's going back there are team of resources
294that are working with that principle to address whatever that issue is that issue could be in one of those standards and that's where it would show up um I think that how those things are addressed is is very very important and showing progress towards meeting that goal so in the process the supervisor may actually if it gets to that point have the individual develop a goal around that so goals to your first question sometimes can be more described and sometimes they're chosen it really just depends on where that principle is in their growth process I'd just like i' just like to add that there is a requirement through title one that a survey is completed at each School level in terms of how parents are informed of their rights through tital one and also um
295they are able to give feedback but I I think there is an opportunity to grow a a survey together more specific data that can be quantifiable thank you um because from from everything I heard in the way that you all are um having it essentially interfaced with the Strategic plan I can tell that it already has the the the quantitative data points that you're looking for you know that my that only question was when we're looking at these qualitative measures and and and when I say this I'm saying this under the assumption that there's always going to be negative comments right so I'm not saying that that I want every single negative email from a parent to be counted against against the principal but there there should be some way of where data could be
296collected in in some capacity and it could be reviewed in in you know down down the line maybe if if the board has been uh received a lot of information uh principles renewals are coming up and that's the time in which we're able to kind of look at all the data the information that's available towards us to continue making decisions based upon data and I think you all's process is going to allow that I just wanted to make sure that we can also allow the community to know that we want them to be able to provide that feedback so that we can be able to use that information as well so thank you we want and welcome um that feedback I do want us to remember our our context that every single principal is in
297a different place with their growth process and so with the the volume we just want to be careful with particularly just like we have recruitment um we T talk we've talked about bus drivers today we've um talked about other classified Personnel we also have those same issues across our our organization and so really how we are processing and supporting growth of every employee is extremely important now you have crucial things that just need to be addressed and when they need to be addressed they they they have to be addressed but keeping in mind that this is a growth instrument so that it doesn't end up turning into something that um folks feel is a got you process if that makes sense I think it's very important that we keep that in mind it does thank
298you Miss hestad thank you all for the presentation today I have some questions that may be answer tonight or may just be things for us to think about for the future I was wondering how this interacts with our strategic plan so we have the Strategic plan that has goals and I'm sure that principles have goals because they're working to meet some of our strategic plan goals and they have their evaluation and their school Improvement in the equity so I'm just wondering are we also seeing in our strategic plan goals that Equity is a focus because I'm I'm assuming so and yeah like do they interact So my answer is yes and now I'm thinking of a graphic that I can do to show you how they're all interacting but I do think that that is
299something that we could definitely work to make that more well defined than just a yes and so that I think that's a very good question and I think that that would be a good part to add to this process the other question I have is thinking about how we coach and support not only our principles in their Equity goals but also our assistant super assistant superintendents who are supporting them in these Equity goals and I do think this is a process um working towards Equity is a practice it's not something that you do in one training or one evaluation where I feel like you you know you've achieved right and so I just wonder as we're working through this how do we continue to set up a plan to help people uncover where there are
300spaces that they might see inequities and then support and Coach them along the way and I think that goes for our principles for their supervisors for us as we're all looking at these tools and evaluation um I think that would just be something that be important for us to and then I also think um if when we put this up I think or a followup maybe would just be helpful for us to see the principal standards in that tool to understand how these all link um I've seen it before and but I just think it would be helpful for the public also to have a sense of what that what we're looking for in those pillars and those standards and how this could be embedded within them Miss P yeah I appreciate the team that
301worked on this and I appreciate you guys understanding that everything that we do is centered in equity I guess I'm concerned that the mcrel instrument that we're required to use I assume by state law is not a very Equity focused instrument at all it's a pretty dry tool that I don't think has been revised very often and really focuses on what Durham value so I wonder as we go forward whether we can work with our principles to actually deepen that or change that are we required to use mcrell could we do a Durham we are required but we have our own darm spin on use of the principal evaluation instrument and I think that that's I think that with the focus on the equity standard it's one thing but I think it's also just something
302that brings us together and helps Define what we stand for so I understand exactly what you're saying about the instrument and I would also say that because every place is not the same there are pieces of the instrument that are intentionally vague and so I would say that there's a call for every District to put their own stamp on it just as you have those individualized goals that come out of a PDP or anything like that and so I think that that's where our challenge is with this work and how we make sure it happens yeah I guess I would say this feels like a just a starting place and um I look forward to like deeper conversations with our principes and our school leaders about how we can continue to to lead this effort
303you know not just in the state of North Carolina um and and I also value 360 evaluations and I know that um that is a really important way for our folks to hear heard um not just in teacher working conditions because I feel like that hasn't been revised in so long it just is kind of dry as well the data we get from it so um I appreciate you y'all bringing this as a starting place I also am hearing for principles that they are stressed beyond all directions what is what is it when you're more than burning it at all ends right I mean they are juggling and so even the notion of keeping School running safely keeping children doing contact tracing all kinds of things that are not in their job description but have
304been put on them this year I I'm hearing that they need us to take some things off at the district level so however we go about that pulling back unnecessary district meetings central office kind of stuff that is weighing them down I think we need to be really liberal in giving them the space they need um while they lead us forward um and I appreciate yall listening to them with their plea about that so I I just wanted to add and tie together a couple things um I'm probably more at the end of Miss Lewis and I don't want to you know correct me if I'm misstating but um potentially having an add-on to the actual instrument is more the direction that that I would like to go but I'm I'm I'm excited to see
305that this is started like Miss berer and um excited to see where the work leads um you mentioned you not having it be a gotcha Ju Just to be frank that's what I'm worried about is that is that we clearly articulate to our administrators where the goalposts are uh so that there's no gotcha with you the administrators or with this board about what the expectations are um when it comes to their evaluation or when it comes to their contract renewal um I want us to set the goal post so that's my lens on this and I'm hearing it from as Miss V has mentioned the Durham committee's education committee I'm hearing it from the PA education committee and those are two of our you know strong Partners in this work to try to put the
306Durham stamp on education um so I I think there are some pretty obvious um things we can agree upon pretty quickly about what what those goal posts are uh we did a heck of a lot of work around uh student conduct and discipline practices I pretty sure we could set some metrics today that we we we don't want to see this we do want to see this I'm pretty sure we could set some metrics around we do want to see this kind of training and we do want to see it so often and that's the kind of clear just coming from my educator lens that's what I'm looking for to know that I'm on track is I've done it um the PDP goal I think that's an interesting Tech and it's um it's definitely customizable
307um but there's also a lot of a lot of wiggle room there and then there's five different evaluators of our principles who are all just a little bit different um so I see it as actually protecting the principles to go more with a here's our Equity scorecard or standards right uh item nine or item eight or whatever it would be uh so that they can feel like okay I know what this board and this what this community expects of me and uh it's not going to be a negotiation between me and my supervisor um that said that's just one voice and um I look forward to seeing where this goes a lot of work no matter which way we go and I'm really appreciative of of the administration for taking this on uh this is
308a very Durham thing to do and uh I know not everybody does this so thanks for that well and I would like to connect what you just said with what board member Lewis said so I think starting at this place with the PDP it also gives us the opportunity to engage principles in that work and in that conversation so when we're talking about um setting the goal post I I think getting that feedback of where it's difficult to tell where the goal poost are so if we're going to create some committee work being able to even have some principal voice in that committee work I think would be important great I I agree absolutely Mr Sears in reference to Mr Raven's question in regards to how we're gathering information from our community and our families
309I did just want to lift up in our office of school Rel ations and as we are getting feedback and um contact either from the board office or directly to board members that is an office that helps us not only resolve um things that may be brought to us from the community but we also Monitor and track that information and that's regularly shared with our assistant superintendent and although often it is um a situation that needs to be resolved there are often times where we get messages um through Miss Foster as well as um through that office that are really celebrating the work that our principles are doing that are happening at the school so you're seeing both of that and then on a monthly basis we share that so that we can look at
310trends that helps our assistant superintendent is they're coaching and guiding them specifically to the area of external development but also with micropolitical as well thank you Miss Le I me this I'm sorry um I I want to Echo some of the things that already said this feels like a good starting place for this year but I do think we might want to think about a committee who can spend a little long longer time doing a deeper dive I wonder if we wanted to include any of our University Partners who also think about principal leadership I think the state is thinking about adding Equity around the principal standard as well so I think this could be a long I would I think this is a good starting place but I also want us to continue to
311think about like getting a committee and refining the process to make sure it looks um really good and I think the balance too for our principles of creating a really clear goal post and also recognizing all the factors that are outside of their control right so how do you create really clear goal post of where we need them to be and also honor I mean you know let's say we were talking about this last year we were in a pandemic or the other social um issues that are connected with our school so how do we make sure we do that in a really clear way and that takes a lot of brain power I think and time and space to think about that so I do think it's a starting place but I could see
312us getting a committee working over the next year to have something really clear for for the 20 continuing this effort for the next school year my two sents um I agree uh this is a starting work uh having a task force to work on those goals that'll be helpful but are we just got to keep in mind the work that principles do is not in isolation it's with teachers as well so if we're going to have to revise the valuation instrument for principles that need to be across the district so that the work of equity is not only done by principles by the teachers counselor everybody as well so that's my two cent okay so I hope this was good for a little over a week with a holiday fantastic thank you so much for
313your feedback thank you so much okay elevator uh we're joined by Dr Anderson and I'm just gonna go ahead and turn it over to him good evening evening won't be here long we need to repair the elevator in full of building it is currently down and to be ada8 compliant we have to make repairs we have three bids from different vendors in the elevator industry and not a whole lot of vendors in the elevator industry the bid that we are suggested we go with is with Otis Elevator company the current elevator is the Otis Elevator and also the bid that they are providing is a turnkey delivery as well as all new parts for the major mechanical components the other vors would like to use refurbished parts or will require DPS to do a significant
314amount of upright work so we're proposing to go with Otis Elevator company at $158,500 and we need action the move approval of the Fuller elevator replacement with Otis Elevator company a second who said that thank you m move by Miss Byer seconded by Miss vus further discussion what was the total again 8,515 thank you so much any further discussion all in favor say I I I any opposed it passes unanimously thank you Administration thank you okay board we're going to move on to the added item 8G uh General covid update and discussion U Miss P you made the motion um think Dr MGA is reviewing something but he said he may have some comment also yeah I I actually prefer to follow Dr M and hear his update if possible that would be wonderful thank
315you board um last time when we met um your expectation was very clear for us to be able to start collecting uh vaccination status for all our staff as of our last Tuesday we're able to launch a survey requiring all staff to be able to submit the vaccination status as of today we are somewhere around 2600 employees already completed that's uh over 50% over 2700 now corrected by uh um Dr Len so we hope by next week we should be able to collect all the data all the required vaccination status and that's is going to help you as uh we are moving forward of making any decision regarding vaccinations so I just wanted to give you that update as well our community that we've been able to move forward with that then the second update
316is about testing covid testing uh we're able to opt in with uh NC DHHS uh we we approve we have a vendor that we've been working with we're able to meet with this particular vendor couple board members were in attendance I think Mr seers as well uh chair lady uh Miss Armstead was a part of the conversation as well so we are gathering all the information that they requested so we hope to launch a covid testing on our campuses by the end of the month maybe a little bit before then so I just wanted to share this with our community to know that uh it takes work logistic as well to make sure that we're planning this all accordingly I don't like to comment anytime there is a public comment but I will make an
317exception tonight to say this about uh one concern that we heard from our principles yes they are overwork and I said this before uh that having those testing on our campuses is was a challenge last year but we are willing to move forward with that and we have the logistic that we're going to work with and having some of our central office folks will be supporting that endeavor at the same time we are going to bring a proposal of hiring more cter tracers to be able to do the work so we are planning this I know our community really wanted us to act on that like yesterday but it takes a little bit logistic to get to that point so two updates I just wanted to share with you about vaccinations we're moving along with
318that and then the covid testing so that's pretty much uh the comments I wanted to make could you restate the the timeline on the testing implementation implementation we plan to start by the end of this month thank you I had a question just really quickly on that um what does what does testing mean I mean who's being tested is it every child every staff member every week is that is that what we're saying we're still working with these vendors uh they have the capability to come to our district and be able to test whoever need to be tested once a week that that's what I'm asking like what is whoever needs to be tested is that every student every staff member every faculty every principal every board member I'm just every person that work for
319DPS I know Dr hardw will jump in as well we talking about student staff and I would assume board members as well if they are part of DPS parents will have to um provide permission for the students to participate in the weekly testing okay the number I heard in the presentation out of the gate was 50% of our people per week that's what I if I'm incorrect being student staff okay yeah okay thank you did you that that answers my question yeah that's what I heard okay thank you Dr Hardy that help that helped us well thank you dring I really appreciate the um work and the logistics and the tremendous effort that is on into these initiatives and um I think those will alleviate a lot of community concerns and and just to hear
320about them I think it really helps our community I have um spoken with our chair and and you know I may be the only board member that feels this way but I think we should have back to like last year when we started and had you know Health Department data in our dashboard and and kind of a call to specific actions as part of every meeting at least once a month just where are we um because it does feel like we're at those rates like we were back in January where things are are accelerated with Delta and I think the the transparency that we provide is super important um one of the things that I heard huge calls from from our emails and I know you've seen them too D MinGa and I don't know
321where my colleagues are on any of this but I do want to bring it into this face is the idea of of having students eat outdoors um and the draft that I wrote up and and you know it's just a draft and and I pulled a lot of language from some of our neighboring counties that lead in this areas as well in accordance with health recommendations from the ABC science collaborative outdoor eating will be expected weather and space permitting if adverse conditions require eating indoors procedures should maximize physical distance while students face the same direction and limit talking and I wondered if there was time for for discussion and and feedback on on that concept because we have heard so so many Concept you know comments from our community M I just want to ask
322Dr MinGa like when we talked about the covid protocols um a couple meetings ago now we I think strongly encouraged said this we want it to be the norm to be outdoor eating so I just want to hear what um what we're currently doing and what might feel different I think if we were to to the um draft that kind of what Natalie proposed what might feel different we had a meeting with all princi was last week I clearly stated to them the clear expectation from our board to use outdoor as one of the options for launch we got to keep in mind i v i visit several schools I was in Mangum they have a good facility there they have bches there and all that kind of stuff they don't it other places they
323really doing them as well that we have some school they still facing the challenges as you know we came here we trying to buy some of these tables and some of them are still adjusting with the logistic but I'll say this to our communities our principles has been very creative we understand the issue was pretty much eating the classroom student three Ines that was not enough we understand that but our principal been really creative to be able to look at some Auditorium as an option where they can spread out those students gymnasium as an option where they can spread out those students hallway Media Center then at the same time they're also using the ad facility to be able to accommodate those students I know logistically it's not easy as you can say if you
324look an example of a Quicks Side Elementary 800 students let's have two launches 400 go outside in one time it can be a logistic nightmare as well that's the reason why I'm calling a principal meeting next week I'm inviting couple board members just to be able to listen also to our principles that are still struggling to use outo as the only option they're still struggling with that are we want you to hear their concerns before you guys can make it as a policy or as a mandate but uh out of respect I knew was really a challenge but I communicated with our staff our principles is the clear expectation of the board to use outo facility as one of the options so if we are not to understand with our Delta variant one day can
325make a huge difference but be able to listen to our principles as well they are the one that's going to implement this I think that's will go a long way some of them are on the age by just telling them take all the kids out outside for lunch that's going to be not good when it comes to morale for our principles I really wanted to be able to be clear today just to share that we have been communicated out door as one of the options not the only option so I just want to pause right there and if it will be the pleasure of the board I have a meeting with principls on Monday I have two board members here that I'm inviting at least to be able to listen to the voices of those
326principles thank you Dr MinGa for that update I think what I I understand our principles are managing a lot we're going to add a testing at the end of September that's going to be another thing but I do want I wonder how we can support them by bringing maybe some fresh eyes right to the conversation to help do some problem solving I think in some ways if we do a mandate that is just like y'all got to figure it out we're not actually supporting our leaders and being able to do this and do it well and so my question would be how can we support our leaders the people who because I know that there's some schools that aren't doing anything right now outside if we continue you know how I know we have Partners
327in the community who want to help like how can we help walk around principles and say okay let's let's do this together in a way that is supportive of them and not uh punitive in in what we need to do and I think our we ordered tables they'll be in mid mid October I think was the date we're going to need to get those assembled so we also need to make sure our schools have the supplies to be able to do what we're doing so I want us to move on this quickly but I also want us to get creative and be supportive about how we do it I think another thing for Community to recognize especially for some of our larger schools or depending on how the school is situated there may or may
328not be a lot of outdoor space so I do think that's why we have to get creative have some fresh eyes walk around with folks to help think about how we can do more outdoor um as possible as much as possible and and I would add um I mean we we hear constituents screaming at us in person through public comment through emails this is obvious the ABC collaborative said you do it I mean it's the second thing second best thing you do except for mask mandate um giving the principal's choice I understand it may affect morale but it's it it also puts them in a tight spot um my my I don't talk about my kids very often the two little ones are in an elementary school that has an exterior door in every classroom
329sorry on the interior side and the other half of the building 70% exterior doors they're eating three times inside they're not going out at all even in the 10-minute snack they're not and the weather's been better um so I I can't answer the community on that um and my my middle schooler is doing everything inside also so it it's it's not matching up like we can't say we believe in the science we're going to follow the science and then so I I realize it's hard this is not me throwing under the bus and I've got a note for morale for a later part of this discussion I know morale is in the toilet so you don't need to respond I just wanted you to hear that Mr Ren we we've all been talking about this
330um for a while because it's a reality what we're all having to deal with we're all having to face and when when we talked about how we should open the schools back up we looked at it as a phased in effort um where certain schools will come in then we bring other schools um in person we need to do the same thing with this um I I heard Mr Lee previously talking about it he made some good points some kids don't want to go outside and I understand that so my perspective is focusing on the children who would be the most impacted that have the least ability to protect themselves right now which is the elementary schools right so we need the picnic tables for for middle school and high school just the same but
331that doesn't necessarily mean that we have to make sure that they have that same access day one because right now they at least have that one variable where they have the opportunity to be vaccinated right the elementary school kids do not I I feel like even if we're looking at where should these tents go to First where should these tables go to first they should go to the elementary schools first that allows us to at least be able to communicate to the community you know if they come in on October 14th we could let the community know that by November 1st we will be able to have we will be able to guarantee that all of the elementary schools have the ability to eat outside but even before then we know that we have tents
332coming in as well which won't take until October 14th hopefully and in that instance we're looking at having a tent outside we've all been outside as kids you know if if they were able and I know logistically asking kids to carry their own chair outside is not realistic um but even if we're looking at taking a mat outside there there's there's one thing we're really looking at first world problems we're really talking about can we have our kids go outside sit on a mat and eat their lunch and and I don't want to trivialize it but that that's really what we're that's really what we're talking about and I don't think I know that we can convince our kids to do that we know that our kids that are in elementary school have to have
333that level of protection because ultimately just like we're seeing at um at least one cluster Elementary School that that has a it's a trickle down effect they generally they'll probably have another sibling at another school and we now have the parents that are the in order to isolate and quarantine these issues we have to focus on the prevention to make sure things aren't spread and I feel like we have to figure out a way to at least state that by November 1st we'll be able to have all elementary schools able to eat outside whenever we get to tents we can at least be able to make sure that parents know this is coming we could do it earlier but we have to be able to make sure the elementary school kids first can still be
334able to eat outside because again they are the ones that don't even have the opportunity to be vaccinated go to Mr Le I'm Sorry Miss Lewis this discussion is um it's difficult it really is difficult and also like Mr Sears um Mr Raven Miss V is Mr Lee we have kids in the school too and we are experiencing it firsthand it would be my desire for every child to eat outside knowing where my principle stands and our Val values and I'm trying to balance that also with allowing principles to decide what's best for their community and power sharing with the teachers and determining if they have the spacing that's required on their grounds and I wouldn't want to take those Liberties away from them I do like what you're saying Mr Raven about having a
335plan that I I don't I don't just don't think we can do it across the board but I think that the district is aware of which schools are doing what and if there is a particular parent that has the issue to working that out with the school for instance with my school I know there are 11 outside sites designated for eating outside and my child doesn't eat outside his classroom still eats inside I'm trusting the principal leadership and that teacher to evaluate that situation but if it really became an issue I would say hey what is this an option and how can we work this out for parents who do need that going to that next level but I just I still just feel like the power the control the you know trusting that our
336principles want their staff Personnel children to be safe and that they will continue to keep the distance use the different space that's available in their individuals places I also like chair I'm said because we had so much conversation I really appreciate what you said about having another set of eyes layering that process into place too because I don't want to put more on our principles on our staff they are past staff capacity and we will be adding the testing on at the end of September adding on getting the structure set up in October it's a lot so again I think I'm as much the value thing for me is I want every kid to be outside and I our principles to do what's best in their Community they know their Community best with getting that
337support so I don't know if that was helpful for anybody but um I just I just feel like there's a lot of Creative Solutions that we can use and I think I lean still lean more towards I trusted our principles and um sharing power and decision making with the teachers will keep the distance safe following the um safe School standards guidelines Mr Lee we keep ending up here what we're what we're talking about here is creating a mandate um for outside lunch my position hadn't changed on this [Music] um I want us to think really really closely about what this means as a mandate what what a mandate actually means means you know that's there's there's really no option here right Everybody Eats outside across the district um we've even had even had comments saying
338you know I don't care if my kid gets a little wet while they're eating lunch at least they're safer I don't care if it's cold outside I don't care if it's blazing hot outside I work downtown I work down here and when it's blazing hot adults ain't sitting outside of these restaurants eating without some sort of something blowing on them some cool air blowing on them if it's raining nobody's outside adults are not outside even though yes it's best not to eat eat inside in a restaurant without because you have to take your mask off adults aren't eating outside and I can bet you any amount of money if it's freezing cold outside and you walk around these restaurants that have this seating outside nobody gonna be outside eating but you know what in all
339of those situations we're mandating and I wasn't pointing at you Natalie I'm just pointing in the air we're mandating that our students go outside and eat we won't even do that we won't even eat outside in those those weather situations and yes the uh guidance that that was proposed says in um weather permitting but what does that mean I know some folks from New York City they always come down here and they say this ain't cold and it's like 10 degrees I know some folks from Jamaica say this ain't hot and it's 101 degrees I know some folks from Seattle that don't care about the rain because they it always rains up there what does that mean what does weather permitting mean and if you're going to mandate something that means they they need to
340be outside because what we're saying here and the weather I mean the the science I do agree with that that you know what the ABC Collective says that's a good idea eat outside but that means there's no exceptions really because anytime you eat inside you're raising that risk so you have to eat outside at those times now let me just speak really quickly about some uncomfort that I see us experiencing if we mandate eating outside when it's even drizzling um some people's hair don't deal well with water and that's not a blanket excuse I'm just saying as an example sometimes my my son when he gets hot he gets rashes all the way up his arms so he doesn't go outside I wouldn't want him to be forced to go outside to eat when it's
341blazing hot so if we're gonna do this and and and you know we talk about mandates here I seriously doubt we're gonna end up mandating shots for kids at least in the short term it's going to be a little while before that happens even when it's available there's going to be opt outs I mean we're already talking about opt outs with this survey you know religious medical or any kind of opt out so what I'm what I'm asking here if we if and and it's I'm one person on the board I know majority rules but if we go with a mandate to eat outside what I'm asking here is a is the ability for parents to opt out of forcing their children to eat outside or maybe even the other way you know we hear
342from public comment we hear emails but how many people are those are they representing out of our 32,000 students that we hear from emails yeah we get a ton of them a lot of them are duplicates but how many many people are they representing out of our 32,000 just about 32,000 students if before we made a decision if we're making a decision to mandate vaccines we had to survey all of our staff why can't we survey our our our students or our parents if they want to be forced to eat outside I mean the CDC says vaccination is best right the ABC Collective says the vaccination is best but we're surveying before we make a decision a mandate a vaccine for our staff if we're gonna take that same those those same steps why don't
343we survey our parents and our students if they want to eat outside before we make some sort of mandate to or re relieve principles of the choice to allow teachers to eat outside why don't we why don't we survey our teachers you know we we talk about we want input we want Community input student teach we we're talking about this vaccine we want to get input see who's vaccinated see who gonna be vaccinated before we make a mandate we should do the same thing maybe something can be learned because what we hear are the loudest people we may have had out of all of this we may have had 200 families I'm I'm just that that's a little overestimating of the emails and the public comment 200 families speaking up okay 300 let's say 300
344we got far more families that hadn't spoken up than actually have spoken up and that's on every single issue but before we go down the path of removing choice or or forcing people to eat outside and putting more on teachers and principles to figure this out why don't we study a little bit more why don't we why don't we survey before we do that why don't why don't we understand what the true Sentiments of our district is before we do that thank you you miss viar is then miss berer I I think um you know we have we have heard from our constituents our parents we have heard from our partners we have heard from professionals who are working in clinics um I want to give a shout out to everybody who has reached out
345and engaged us around these two critical pieces you know which is the Outdoor um eating learning I I don't limit it to just eating I think that even Outdoor Learning like we have to figure out ways that if the eating time is a short window and we can't logistically do it because of you know the time constraint short period of lunch and having to navigate that we have to ensure that you know there's there's outdoor there's capacity for outdoor for schools and and we're doing that with infrastructure and all that so I I'll say outdoor eating slash learning um the second piece is the vaccine vaccine mandate um we have seen at the federal level that the vaccines are now FDA approved I mean we have you know they have gone through all the rigorous
346things I mean as as much as any vaccine can be examined tested you know all the trials all the data all the things it's it's gotten full FDA approval um we have seen all you know so so many um universities Implement vaccine mandates we have seen Public Schools also like you know moving with that and I think that we have seen also Supreme Court rejecting um challenges to vaccine mandates I mean it it's to that level so I I wholeheartedly support a vaccine mandate with the provisions um that we talked about you know the legal HR you know exemptions medical I mean that's that's how people are that's how institutions are doing it I mean we Dr M you can tell me uh that number again about how we are already addressing staff and we're
347sending a survey and we have gotten responses so far where we are inquiring vaccination status and we you know the results are still coming in and we have they there's still more days for but what is the number today of of Staff who have replied we have over 2700 which is more than 50% of our staff percentage I think both numbers are important I think the survey itself gives us a good glimpse so what is a survey number and and and who and also vaccination status okay so these numbers are encouraging could could you repeat that into the mic yes I'll repeat that so um Dr Al Lin says that we have received and the survey hasn't closed yet we know this this it just got sent out like two days ago Tuesday it just
348got sent out Tuesday and already we have gotten 2,700 um employees who have responded and 90% of those employees have uh have been vaccinated they have provided proof of vaccination so you know the 90% out of 2,700 and we we we still have that survey available you know um and they can fill it out till September 13th is the the cut off right September 13th and I did see that email and I thank you so much because the messaging in that email makes very clear what Our intention is and what we want and what we expect of the staff um so that is encouraging so with that context I I I I want to reiterate my support for uh a vaccine mandate um also with with the provisions for exemptions um you know whether it's
349religious medical it has been done um and it is being done we are the second my understanding is also we are the second largest employer in in in this area in Durham are we the second Duke would be the first we're the third okay IBM it's Duke IBM and then DPS um I don't know about IBM's vaccine mandate you know that would be if anybody knows you know you all know how to reach us please keep us up to date but for large employers the consideration is one of the biggest things during this time is retention we already know that when there's a a covid positive case there's a need for quarantining anybody who's a close contact and what we are hearing in emails is that our staff they're feeling like they have to cover
350because if folks were not you know there's two things two areas of protection the V the mask and vaccination status and if they have been masked and have vaccination status um that will cut off that that will allow us to bring people back you know based on exposure there's all this you know um analysis that has been done on a Case by case basis when there is a covid positive but that is um one of the ways that we ensure that we don't stop operations you that we can actually have emplo like our employees or staff not having to fill in for other folks for for the 10 days you know for quarantining for all that time so in a way I do see it as a vaccine mandate would help us along those lines
351because we we would know like we would we would know that somebody who has gotten their vaccine and is mask has a lower risk of of getting a a breakthrough a CO breakthrough so even from that standpoint you know we talked about the difficulty that we have with Subs we talked about difficulty with all that so that's why I support it I also have heard from folks talking about we don't want to lose employees we don't want them walking out however we stand the same the latter is the same is is the same case we we could lose employees who get tired of having to you know fill in for other folks or having to quarantine unnecessarily and they're like you know if if we increase vaccine vaccination status that would also be so it's
352it's it's both ways like there are people who might leave because there's a vaccine mandate and there are people who will leave because we don't do a vaccine mandate and they're getting tired and they're having to they they feel stretched and I've heard and I've I've heard from from all your emails we read them it we do get a high volume of emails and we do read them and we do hear you and understand I really appreciate the staff reaching out uh the other thing is that we are exhausting our resources in the community I have heard from clinicians at some of the areas that serve lowincome community members and the rates of children that are getting you know uh getting covid-19 at this point with the Delta variant I mean they're they they are
353the ones that first told us a lot of them were telling us reopen the schools right they they were like champions for reopening you know based on what they were seeing with the kids coming in to the um to to their um uh Primary Care uh you know check checkups and also for you know uh sick visits but now they're also we're we're hearing from a lot of of clinicians who are reaching out to us telling us no this is pretty bad like you we wanted you to reopen but we want you to reopen and ensure that you put these safety protocols like outdoor eating and vaccine mandates and I hear how we are working towards outdoor eating and providing structures for that providing that opportunity and um and we're going to we got we
354can we can continue working on that teasing out you know how to best do it but I think the vaccine mandate is something that we can do we we we we can do you know I I I don't know for other board members but I'm ready to support a vaccine mandate with the necessary exceptions yeah and I'm I'm gonna go next and um then I'll go to Natalie and others that want to speak I'm I'm ready to support of vac mandate now um and I Administration if you want to chime in because I'm I'm afraid of a very gloomy picture number one I want to Echo that I'm hearing from folks I haven't heard from in years talking about the stresses at sites the stresses in our schools the coverage gaps my assessment of what's
355going to happen when we start testing is all we're going to do is identify that there's more virus than we thought we're going to have more close contacts we're going to have more quarantines we're going to have more staff at home um and when you're a staff member that's a close contact and you're vaccinated correct me if I'm wrong you you don't have to go home right you monitor right you monitor your symptoms and so that's where the vaccine mandate can help us for once we can do something to help us when we got people that are so stressed out um we've got we've got to do that and and okay I'll just quickly go down the list the ABC collaborative said you will be healthier and safer if you do do it we we're
356the city of medicine we don't need a lag on this I mean we La just required it now for 12 and up and I'm sure they a challenging court but we don't have to lag okay we got Orange County did it chapell caror this week did it we can say we believe in this and we redid the mission and vision we get to set the policy the direction the values for this community I think we believe in this I want us to do it I'm glad we went around the table and got to vaccine mandate which is something that I think we all agree on when we've talked about it before um I saw that Chapel Hills date is October 31st I would even propose that one if people were ready and wanting to talk
357about a date I want to be clear and when you talk to principles Dr moving I want to be clear as crystal clear I the language I wrote which I will read again about lunch and eating Outdoors is not a mandate never has been a mandate it is in accordance with health recommendations from the ABC science collaborative outdoor eating will be expected weather and space permitting has exceptions for weather and it has exceptions for schools that have space issues if adverse conditions require eating indoors procedure should maximize physical distancing which we already say we're doing while students face the same direction and limit talking which we already say we're doing I am trying to have language that reflects what the ABC science folks who are our community members have brought to our attention because it
358is critical they the the analogy on Twitter that I saw is it's like you've been masked all day and they compared it to a bunch of kids going in a pool and everybody pees in the pool at the same time taking your mask off inside is putting a lot of viral load into the air and just moving you know when I talked with them I said what if we just move different groups around the cafeteria they say the viral load is there it hasn't had time to have air exchanges to clear out so you're just exposing more children to risk by eating indoors it's not forever it's not whatever and I think our principles know how to handle children that have allergies or other exceptional needs that need to stay inside and I think they
359know if it's if we can go out for recess we can eat lunch outside that they know they make that those distinctions already about weather permitting kind of stuff so um I would be interested in taking action on on both of those things um and just moving moving us forward because this is what's letting us stay in school in person and no one wants to go back to Virtual no one so miss by I'm happy to move on your um outdoor eating statement policy draft I don't know what what exactly you want to name it um so I would move that we approve that I think for the vaccine I would look over to our attorney to make sure to see if we need to have some more things in place before we were to
360vote on something like that tonight um so just in the interest of preserving Nicole sanity is is there a mo is there a motion and what exactly is the motion all right I would move to approve Miss byer's statement on outdoor eating yeah and just so we can we have the statement again then in accordance with health recommendation ations from the ABC science collaborative outdoor eating will be expected parenthesis weather and space permitting if adverse conditions require eating indoors procedures should maximize physical distancing while students face the same direction and limit talking I think I borrowed it from Orange County there's a motion by Miss Umstead is there a second second and seconded by Miss buyer so Mr Sue we'll treat the vacc misset has questions around the vaccine mandate that we'll we'll address in
361a moment um is there further discussion on this before we do a vote Miss Lewis yeah I just want to be clear you're saying this is not a mandate this is a policy that they would that the schools will have to follow I'm wondering if you would accept a friendly amendment that it will be expected at the discretion of the school Personnel sounds like we're making our statement and stronger by having this as a policy but still giving the discretion to the principles I everything I do like I assume it it always is at the discretion of the principles um so I don't know so when you read the statement it said it will be expected so I was adding the line at the discretion of the school Personnel if that helps us get moving
362forward I mean yeah who else would make it yeah sure are there any objections to the amendment where is where does at discretion of school Personnel fit in the statement can we get a revised statement with the inclusion of that amendment in accordance with health recommendations from the ABC science collaborative outdoor eating will be expected at the discretion of the school personnel parentheses weather and space permitting or yeah does that make sense in that okay uh Is there further discussion on this topic my only other discussion I think some it feels like there's a gap between what happens here and then maybe what's happening at school and so I would like to see as we do this that we help our school leaders close that Gap that we can see like we're hearing from parents
363my child is going outside there is more stuff happening so I just want to make sure that that's clear too yeah and and not to interpret something that hasn't even passed but this this feels stronger than the previous urging um to me for what that's worth I would still like to survey our our parents and students if if applicable but I'll support it but I I would still like to do that I'm not adding that to this motion I'm just putting it out in the atmosphere okay all in favor of the motion say I I I any opposed it passes unanimously M Mr Sue I just want to remind a board we talked about this a little while ago we asked the administration to gather information around vaccination status and use that data to help
364enforce might be a policy for us so I just wanted to ask it we have we don't have a draft of a policy or something like that for tonight so Mr Sue do you have guidance on what that might look like well so clearly I mean I was at the Chapel Hill meeting last week I mean you have the authority to say that there's a mandate the question is when you say there's a mandate what are you saying um you know it's important to be precise on these things and to use an example with the the salary schedule for the for the bus drivers it it's to give precise guidance requires some time it requires consideration of the circumstances as I said you can go ahead and say generally speaking Administration we expect that you're
365going to implement a mandate that requires people to get vaccinated by October 31 I mean there there there's a whole lot of detail to that and that's where the devil lies and one question is it's like so are you saying anybody who doesn't have either an exemption or full vaccination status by October one is fired so what you're saying you're not you're not saying that I mean you know some of the details are going to be important and so um you are the policy makers on this if it is your view that this has got to happen one way or the other and we're going to build the aircraft while we're flying it then so be it that's your decision to make another option would be to get whatever the recommendation is back from your
366Administration based on the information we have about the numbers of people where these people are working in the school system who require vaccines that's really out of my lane from the lawyer point of view but just from a implementation point of view um one question to ask yourself is are you ready to give specific enough guidance to your Administration so that they can Implement a mandate that's going to make sense that's not going to add more stress and confusion to your already overworked and overstressed School staff I would really like to see us give direction to the administration for them to come with the plan because whenever this goes into effect it's going to trickle a lot of other things when it comes to implementation a system for exemptions a system for religious like it
367there's going to be a whole host of other pieces so I want to give our Administration time to prepare for what that might look like with that being said everyone who's listening and if you've been listening our board is behind mandating of vaccines all of us have expressed a support and appreciation for that so I feel like it is coming so if you have questions or concerns about that email us but I do want to make sure that because once we do this the other balls are going to start rolling and I want to make sure Administration is ready and prepared for that so the survey is out we'll gather a lot of information I do hope we are able to see um who replied to the survey so we'll have an analysis on um
368what the answers might be you know whom this might affect if we were to put this into place so we can have a good and robust conversation around that Miss viz thank you so much I I think that um you know I appreciate you saying that uh Cher I'm said when you were speaking um about the fact that this board definitely supports a vaccine mandate we're figuring out the how right we're figuring out the legal all the legal um Provisions that are in place and we've seen I've seen a lot of these Provisions out there like people have to submit paperwork but for religious exemptions or medical all that um so we we know that there's some work that you know our admins are going to have to do along those lines um I will
369say that uh in terms of providing Direction I am encouraged by the responses so far it's been two days and 50% of Staff have submitted their vaccination status and 90% of the responses say that they have gotten a covid vaccine I think that you know those numbers are definitely encouraging I I I look forward you know to more updates about where we are um and I really want to thank Dr Lin for you know providing this information you know right now like on the spot you know we definitely put you on the spot with this but um the other thing is that I would like to provide a little more guidance in terms of like like the testing so when you do have folks who don't um who have exemptions or you know all that
370how do we include a a safety uh provision on there that they get tested weekly you know it's something that I've seen in some institutions where it's like okay we we we we will take your documentation for an exemption but then we need to make sure that the staff you know around our district that they feel that that all the you know all the steps are being taken care of you know that at least there's testing that is happening showing that we don't have any symptomatic um cases and so that that's that's One Direction I mean I I would love to include uh for the cases where they're not vaccinated if they would if you would consider you know adding um a testing provision on there and and I'd like to add quickly and then
371see if there's other discussion um one other piece in this initial data is that of the 10% that are not vaccinated again initial 44% of those say they do plan to get vaccinated so now we're up to 19 out of 20 people heading in the right direction 95% um I have concerns about uh waiting two weeks um because I'm worried about what that when we start testing by the end of the month and we start sending everybody home what that delay of vaccine mandate does for our our staffing crunch um so I I mean just to give one more input to to Mr Sue's Point um it it sounds harsh but I mean this is a value statement I I would say whatever the date is if it's October 31st and we have Partners in
372this community Duke being one of them um that have said that that's a termination date if you do not um comply with the vaccine mandate so that's my perspective on that M Mr Lee and then miss berer just a really quick question as just a clarification so if we issue a mandate tonight and we say does and we say October 31st does that mean the Mandate starts November 1st or you like you have until the 31st right and so the Mandate would then start after that right so you want to be clear about that yeah so that that means the Administration has if we said October 31st the Administration has until octo o October 31st to notify everyone get all the the details in place like if on November 1st you're not vaccinated you're you're
373no longer employed that that sort of stuff so the usual date you would set would be for full vaccination status so is it two weeks after um the second fiser or is it three weeks it's two week uh four week no that's second after the second shot is two weeks well so I mean but you'd would just be specific about what you're expecting and then Administration would come up with the plan and then as we've heard from Dr Weber and his excellent presentation and and other presentations all the things about vaccination clinics and um time and leave for people to recover from the effects of vaccine and all that sort of thing would be up to your Administration to manage but you you get the point is that you want to be specific enough in
374your motion that everybody understands exactly what has to be done by when and just to again go back to the point that that I talked about in the Matt talked about I mean the Mandate is not really for administration the Mandate is for all of your employees you are saying to each one of your employees that unless you have an exemption that's approved by Administration you will have full vaccinated vaccination status by xate okay [Music] um okay okay I I would be open to a motion tonight and figuring out a date all that kind of stuff here's the language I drafted if it's helpful work with DPS legal counsel to develop and Implement DPSS vaccine mandate for all staff including incentives vaccination clinics staff by bipo physicians and health professionals and procedures for medical and
375religious exemptions and a thorough appeal process for employees but does that address a date we want to compel the administration to do this by i' be open to adding a date also it needs to address what happens if they're not vaccinated according to what Mr Sue said I don't it also need to add what would happen if it's not done by the date according to what Mr Sue shared yeah I was winging this without the um Benefit of Mr expertise but um that's where I started I don't know if it's helpful or not I just read it so honestly I would I mean that was a point to illustrate again that there are a lot of important details that being one of them I don't think you have to say exactly what's going to happen
376to everybody you'd probably want to leave some flexibility because with the number of employees you have they're going to be a lot of individual cases and circumstances to consider but if you if you are setting a date by which all of your employees who don't have an exemption must be fully vaccinated then that I guess that wouldn't let everybody know what you're shooting for just a clarifying question to miss buer incentive that's for those folks that's going to be vaccinated from this point moving forward or everybody that's been vaccinated I don't know if it's a valid use of s for money but I would think that it's fair to incentivize everyone that's been vaccinated so I mean yeah I don't want to take us down the rabbit hole and do what the work of your
377Administration I want like the most simple motion that Mr Sue says that gets us moving and actually taking action and I don't know what that is Mr Sue I've tried to do it but well that's I mean that it's what you want to have happen and so the question is do you does the board and I mean this is sort of the process you you put a motion out there if people want to amend it to add a compliance date then I guess that could happen I think your motion you know would be adequate to start the ball [Music] rolling Miss viars and then Miss Lewis thank you so much I think we're we're definitely moving on this and I'm very appreciative of it now um I do want to offer like an amendment to
378the way we've written it because I think all those Clauses in terms of incentives in terms of bipo uh and everything else there there there are things we can aspire to however logistically the administrators they have to figure out and I wouldn't want them to be limited by any of those factors I mean they I want them to have discretion and maybe adding to the degree possible you know what I mean or something like along that line like a little Clause that just says to the degree possible the list of you know the things that we would want but not constrain them in a way that if they can't meet any one of those criteria that say for example we can't give incentives or or say we can but we can't find you know the
379third or fourth thing on there that that at least they have um the ability to do to do to the to the to the degree possible was that next my my well well we're trying to get through these details on what it looks like I know that Mr SI said two weeks feels a long time to wait to do this mandate and Mr Lee was saying we could support it now I don't I don't think weeks of getting a good plan and getting a recommendation from the administration would be far off and still having an October 31st dat if we're looking at October 31st being our date whether we say it today or we say it two weeks from now we're saying it today but we wouldn't actually vote on it until we got a
380good plan that the administration could vet out for us to make a motion on in two weeks would that be sufficient I in normal times I think so for me but but the the pandemic and the the if if we take action tonight and become the Third District to do this that that message alone gets people moving and I you know I I do like to check we're down to like 54 people watching now um so I don't think the message is really uh I'm not monitoring Facebook but uh you know that I I would like us to at least take a vote on some if there's the will of the board to do it so that the message moves and perhaps keeping it simple so that they can still do what you're suggesting put
381together a more robust plan would be my preference Miss Miss barer can you read your statement again I've been changing it I I went simple to see if this got us somewhere work with DPS legal council to develop and Implement DPSS vaccine mandate for all staff by October 31st 2021 is that clarifying what by what need to happen by 31st that's exactly what I was trying to figure out what word went there and looking for help because the buy sounds like it could be for the plan or yeah I think we just add mandatory vaccination that would settle it the part did she start it say it again work with DPS legal council to develop and Implement DPSS vaccine mandate for all staff to be I don't know vaccinated by October yeah for all staff
382to be vaccinated by fully vaccinated fully vaccinated fully vaccinated and the twoe waiting period yes so that's what I was just about to ask because we're pushing yeah yeah so that's what I was about to ask because we're pushing up against a real that's a really close timeline October 31st if we're looking at two weeks after the second shot that's five weeks because you gota wa three weeks in between them right so you know is it is it too much to to ask to say you know like after Thanksgiving after the Thanksgiving break or the second or I mean is that is that too far that's I think that's too far uh the the other thing that we also need to keep in mind is not everybody is going to take the fiser or the
383Mna there are some people that will take the Johnson and Johnson because they just want to take one and want and be done with it so I think the October 31st timeline is reasonable I mean we're we're in the second week of September right now so you know as long as they get that first shot within the next three weeks they'll be able to fall in between it or they can still make that decision to only take the the one Johnson and Johnson shot even if they wait to the end of October they just need to be vaccinated by the 31st of October but there it takes two weeks after the second shot that's what I'm saying it takes I hear Mr Raven saying that the regimen will be complete the actual in have the
384second shot the 31st yes that's cleaner okay second shot or the J&J one shot the regimen because you didn't say fully vaccinated in your statement I did add to be fully vaccinated but you know I personally am okay if one J&J or two fiser madas are in our employees by October 31st like so you can't take it back out right you want to just state that motion I mean I do like fully and that like like because then you don't end up with one shot that's the other right like you could have people with one shot who aren't fully vaccinated yet so if it means extending it one more week or two more weeks to make sure that people can get fully vaccinated that I think that is cleaner than doing it the other way
385because you might have folks that have only one one shot by the very1 thank you so much I I do um want to uh support this um now now Thanksgiving is pushing it too far and and I hear that now my only my only um thing is that you know we have um staff that may want like the provisions like the HR Provisions for time off to do this or even like our own setups to have like you know vaccination sites in our own schools and also the emails and all the communication coming out of HR which you know is already tracking all of that and I would want to hear from Dr Lin um and you know your team about because we we we're definitely moving in this direction there's no question but I
386I really just want to hear from you in terms of logistically October 31st if we add or we we go into November what would what would your um in like what I just want to hear from you about a data because we're doing it but you know we're also wanting to hear from me it it's a tough DEC decision to make um I hear from employees all across the Spectrum I know that at any given point in time there are employees who have medical things going on that you know we would have to work through with them through their timeline I think the devil is in the details and the date is only one part of that I think being able to communicate what happened s if you are not whatever is defined is where
387the devil is in the details for me if it's if whether the terminology is fully vaccinated whether it's having the second shot of a two shot regimen and you have this hardcore dates um the devil is going to be in the details of if you're not and so I know that that's a non-committed answer but that that's truly Where We Are understanding in the discussions that we've been having in HR whatever the date is even if it's October 31st Our concern is focused on those employees that are not for whatever reason drin um really appreciate that input I mean there's there's definitely like some discretion that we are giving your administration because you know I I mentioned testing like if somebody says I'm not I would want to see weekly testing that's me that's I'm
388speaking for Alexander that is one board member here um and you know those are recommendations that you all can come up with about what happens next I I don't think we're making that uh including that in the actual statement that we're making but we definitely want to have a mandate that talks about vaccination and then figuring out um what happens after that does your Administration require you know like a followup for those folks who who who like for the extion for the the medical exemptions or the religious exemptions like the criteria and all that that's a lot of work I know that your department is going to have to do and figuring out which what exemptions you're going to approve and then what happens after that like you know um and I think what happens
389after that is actually our decision and for the administration to implement so they can come up with the logistics of medical and religious exemption but the question is for us if someone does not get vaccinated what happens next I'm personally I'm not in position to say that ready to be like we're going to terminate folks because that doesn't feel like it's going to set us up for Success at all so there needs to be some more discussion around what would happen on that day I know it has already been mentioned the number of vacancies we have we are still having a hard time with recruitment I need us to remember that in our positioning here in darham are competitors are not only other school districts they they other are so if there is room for
390consideration for weekly testing I do think that that is uh a viable option but I think you also have to be aware of the logistics just like from our principal's perspective you know who is going to keep up with um all of that testing tracking that I mean that would literally be somebody's full-time job and so we would just ask that that is considered when you're thinking about it but I do think that that provides some options Dr Rin if if I may so I do hear that there's a lot of work that's going to have to happen about the how we're going to do it I think what we want to establish as a board and you all can can can you know say um otherwise but I think that we we want to
391start with a vaccine mandate now the provisions for exemptions the provision for what happens that that's definitely something we can follow up we can add more um and as you present to us as you bring your recommendations and we look over that um we can definitely work with that but I think I think the main um thing that we want to do is is make a big statement about how the vaccine manity is for DPS it's about all the 5,000 the exact number it's more than 5,000 staff um around 5200 5200 um and it it is about people having to to quarantine when because those two factors like the maske wearing and and the vaccine vaccination status are two of our biggest safeguards against you know spreads and clusters and all that so we just
392want to get started the VAC mandate and kind of put it to you all to bring recommendations about the other pieces and I guess we'll have to so we already have drafted um religious exemptions medical exemptions process or whatever those things we have plans for okay we just need to V them and tighten them up based on whatever guidance we're provided um again our biggest concern are those who refuse in making sure that those that we have positions covered and that we are providing as many options as we can so I'd like us to move towards a a motion um I personally I'm I'm not in favor of of testing as an opt out testing only as a you've got your religious or medical U Mr just an interest of putting something out that I
393think was what I've heard although you do have a motion on the floor I think that's been seconded has it no no okay so um a motion that the board require all DPS employees to complete a full course of covid-19 injections no later than October 31st and direct Administration to develop a plan to implement the requirement including vaccination accessibility vaccine accessibility time off uh for side effects the process for considering medical and religious exemptions including an appeal process and other details so moved it's been moved by Miss Byer second and by Miss Lewis that that is our motion further discussion and just to be clear that we still need to answer the question of what happens if folks do not that's corre right and the other thing that we're trying to pull in we haven't
394had time to evaluate this because we're not going to do it till all the data is in we have to make sure that we don't have any clear lines and Mr Sue can speak to this across employees like we have to pass that test to make sure that we are not even having the appearance of discriminating against one group across race or or any other Factor so I did just want to point that out because that's something that we're trying to keep a Keen Eye on when all of our data is in okay thank you for that all right it's been moved and seconded any further discussion all in favor say I I I I any opposed it passes unanimously thank you everyone um so at the risk of further discussion that can that close
395out our covid general discussion great moving to number nine academic Services day one Proclamation Mr sear happy um given the time to with the board's pleasure to move that item to the um September board meeting are there any objections we we do love these proclamations and we will be happy to make them later on thank you um Board of Education redistricting of school board elction districts thank you for being here good evening everyone um let me know if you can't hear me but I will be brief tonight because you heard A Long presentation at your work session in August about redistricting the board does need to redistrict to comply with one person one vote um to make sure that your ele electoral districts are substantially equivalent um I believe there's a map in the materials
396um that has the precincts shown that was a map that was developed at the request of the board and sent later if we could get that up it might be helpful I'm not going to go through the whole presentation again but I think it would be helpful for you to see that map with the current districts and the voting precincts um again the the requirement uh for your redistricting is to make sure the districts are reapportioned so they're substantially equivalent in size that means plus or minus 5% of the ideal size dist District just as a reminder based on the 2020 um population from the Census as of April 1 2020 the districts uh an ideal size for each district is 81,82 148 to 85,681 is in balance at point I'm sorry 2.35% above the
397ideal District 3 is in balance at negative 3.4% of the ideal but um District Two is 6.63% below the ideal size and District 4 is 7.68% above the ideal size so that doesn't mean that just District two and four will need to change because it's like uh dominoes falling when you move one it it might affect the other districts um I will point out so this is the the current map of the current districts all of your electoral districts are comprised of whole voting precincts those whole voting precincts have been the building blocks of your electoral districts um since the beginning in two in in 2000 and 200 10 um the redistricting processes were able to to complete um districts with with full voting district full voting precincts and in fact in 2011 we only
398had to move two precincts in order to balance the population so Precinct four and 21 were moved um at that time in 2011 so new maps need to be adopted by this board before the start of candidate filing which is December 6 um last time at the work session this board expressed the desire to complete the process in November so that the Board of Elections would have um at least several weeks to complete um the processing of those new maps that would mean um that we are sort of um have a short timeline the action that's going to be needed by the board tonight that I I would ask for is to give some guidelines to Blake eleston the demographer so what are the board's priorities and um we provided previously a list of um
399guidelines and examples of things that the board might want to keep in mind obviously it's required to comply with one person one vote so we've got to have that substantial equality be within that plus or minus 5 per. we cannot dilute minority voting strength um they have to comply with the Voting Rights Act make sure there's no in I or uh discrimination or disparate impact that would um violate the Voting Rights Act districts can't split census blocks um but other than that it really is up to the board what criteria and what priorities you want to have like I said in the past you have had the priority of using precincts as your building blocks so you don't split precincts that has the benefit of limiting voter confusion um in the past you've also I
400think you have some somewhat unusual shaped districts but that's because they've used the voting precincts as building blocks and those don't have nice straight lines um but sticking with the the basic outlines of your current districts as a starting point um might be one that's very important to you um you might want to keep in mind that you're not going to put two incumbents in the same same district double dunking could I ask a question yes um yes if we could see the map so I I just want to make S make sure I'm not we're not violating something if if if we said that starting with the current districts was a priority okay yes and then take that down another level um I if we said that you know take take uh GK Butterfield's
401former District which had these huge tentacles right the the the first yes congressional district um if we appli that here there is a 2A tentacle Precinct 48 that comes down I know I'm being very specific there's a green tentacle that comes down into the red um Precinct 48 is saying that we don't want tentacles do we then have to say okay but now we need to analyze the demographic so that tentacle and ensure that it's not violating someone's but it's not going to put us in out of compliance with the Voting Rights Act the the Voting Rights Act is you have the equal protection clause which means you can't intentionally discriminate you you you can't use race as a as a prime AR predominant Factor that's going to um that's going to discriminate against minority
402voters the Voting Rights Act under section two and again section five is sort of off the table it's been declared unconstitutional but section two says that when you have a minority um group of minority voters that is compact enough that votes cohesively that you could that could um be be forming a a majority voting um power within a district and you make make some effort to divide that up so that that no longer is the case you may have a section two violation okay so I don't think that saying we want compact districts is in any way violating the Voting Rights Act but you would have to keep in mind whether there's some potential disperate impact and I don't know what the population is off hand of that particular but certainly saying that we want
403to use whole precincts we want to keep um the basic outlines of our current districts but we would also like to um have compactness as um a criteria if possible I think that's perfectly legitimate um criteria to use for for voting um redistricting sorry thank you for explaining that sure um and again some of the other criteria that we talked about is um incumbency considering areas of potential growth in the future so that 10 years from now if you if you know you're going to have an area of the county that's uh fast growing and you want to keep that in mind and perhaps have that District a little underpopulated still within the plus or minus 5% but so you don't have such a large swing in population in 10 years from now um that's
404something you could direct uh Blake to look at and also if you want to um have particular number of schools or or keep in mind what schools or in what districts again that's not uh required it's some people think it's important some um some counties I've I've been to want to be sure there's one high school in every district for example um so what I'm here tonight is to get some guidance from the board on those criteria to give to the demographer The Next Step would be to have a work session to present the maps and have some interaction some feedback and opportunity to ask questions uh Blake would come with at least two alternatives to show the board um based on the criteria that we get tonight and um then based on that feedback
405whether there's any changes that that you would like to see um we recommend a public hearing I think the board was in favor of having a public hearing and then adopting the plan so the the sort of the timeline the schedule that I would propose is the work session to present the maps be at the 7th of November I'm I'm sorry sth it's late the 7th of October work session um Regular meeting perhaps uh have a public hearing on the 21st or you could have it on a special meeting and then adopt the plan either at your November 4th or November 18th meeting I'm happy to answer any questions um otherwise I'll take some direction from the board M Lewis um if you're just talking about a list I'd say keeping the precincts intact there
406something that the board has done I like to see continue looking at potential growth um and looking at the two that's overpopulated and underpopulated I would like to keep it compact keeping it compact whereas um I don't know what that means well where where the four and two are already touching it that if one has to lose and one has to gain that it just keeps it together I don't know if we have an overlay of which schools are in which districts but I have not heard that to be a priority for our board because we just support all the schools right um so just want to put that out there Mr Lee yeah yeah I think um that's what I was initially thinking that um we're two and four touch however we have an
407incumbent who lives in one of those districts one of those um uh precincts that is in four right so Natalie is in 24 and that would um exclude her from you know you know it would put an incumbent against an incumbent and and so if you want us to take incumbency uh into account we need to get that as an affirmative direction from the board I do yeah Miss Lewis and I both live very close to a district line and could easily be pulled out yeah so so I'm in 23 so that's a I think protecting incumbency yeah incumbency is a direction the board would and and again um just because two and four are the ones that are out balance doesn't mean there wouldn't be changes to the other districts if necessary to meet
408the other priorities I will say some of the voting precincts you know some can have a thousand population some can have 5,000 or 6,000 or 7,000 so it's it can be quite a significant change to move even just one whole Precinct how it just a quick question so say there so I'm in Precinct 23 which is at the top of one very top if that were to turn into four in this redistricting I'm currently in the seat for one but that would turn into four would that immediately dissolve my seat like so what I you know or would it have to it it have to do with the next election right right so redistricting redistricting doesn't bump any current sitting board member out of a seat um but it would mean that when the next
409elections came around you would be running in a different District if you decided to run again 23 right at the top yeah and I was going to highlight the same ones that Miss Lewis highlighted I think she got all of them especially the notion of where there's going to be growth in the community to to try to plan ahead and and um looking at that um and you know I like Matt I don't like it when we have those tentacle looking things um 48 looks especially wonky to me I'm just sticking out there um 42 42 yeah there's there's it happens but I I do wonder if you know every Precinct has a different number so you might end up with a wonky tentacle because the numbers you know add it up so yeah preferably
410not but if that's how it works and that's that's how it works think I agree with um what's been laid out already thinking about the growth of our city absolutely I feel like we will grow probably exponentially in the next 10 years as well I'm just looking at the um the numbers from from 2010 when we did the redistricting and I had the print out of all the population of the voting district districts at that the um precincts at that time and there was one as low as 835 population and there was one that had 10,000 11,000 population so moving one Precinct can have a big impact or a small impact depending on which one it is so I'm hearing Precinct keep precincts intact protect incumbents seats in in their districts plan for future growth
411and then compactness if possible to get rid of some of the strange shapes that the consensus of the board there any other guidelines from board members I mean if if the demographer really wants to think about growth and present a map that's just got that because he likes doing that and it might be interesting for us to look at okay I'm not opposed to spending an extra couple minutes looking at it but 2030 is not that interesting to me and and I did want to one of the board members and I forget who I apologize had asked for maps that compared um change in racial demographics from 2010 to 2020 and Blake had said sure we can do that kind of a heat map thing and he Then followed up with me and said um
412after researching it a little more because the census collected racial demographic information differently in 2010 than it did in 20 it's not an Apples to Apples comparison and it makes that kind of map preparation more difficult so we'll have demographic information for the board when we bring back the maps um on at the work session but that type of comparison it won't be exactly equivalent because the just the questions were different on the two senses so do you know if that is because I believe on the census they have um different slots for ethnicity which kind of broaden the the question set that wasn't originally there well they had I mean there was ethnicity so Hispanic non-hispanic on the in the 2010 census but there were many more racial categories um in the 2020 census
413people had more options to choose from and they don't necessarily line up exactly so that you can't compare them exactly to 202 thank you but um all right all right well thank you and um is the 7th um of October for the work session and again I I don't want to dictate your agenda but I think it would be helpful for um some time to be set aside to give it some attention and when you are fresh and can pay attention to it so um just maybe keep that in mind so Deborah um and we would get also get these Maps um to you ahead of time and also get them to um your public information folks so they can be posted on the website ahead of time um and then obviously they'll continue to
414stay on there before the public hearing if there are any changes made Miss Lewis and that's I was going to ask do you need our Precinct numbers and will we get it ahead of time well so we will get from um someone in the district we will get your home addresses so that we know where to loc you on the map and then um make sure that we get the maps ahead of time um I I think well we we'll get them as soon as as Blake has them ready but Mr Raven can you um at the very beginning you mentioned the percentages again for each of those districts can can you tell us those again so District 1 has 83,1 2017 people that is 235% above the ideal population um District 2 is 75,200
415that is 6.63% below the ideal District 3 is 78,3 that's uh 3.4% below the ideal and then four is 87,4 46 which is 7.68% above the ideal thank you and I didn't realize that slide was also in the presentation so thank you again sure M tagar the the oh sorry jump in there go ahead the um when I was asking about racial stuff from Blake before it was really just if there was any way to be sensitive to the notion of gentrification in a lot in one and two and the changes that have happened in the last two years and I don't know if there's any data point he can get at but um that that's a something that concerns me in the last 10 years in Duram um when you bring the sample Maps
416will it include the four districts as well as a and b as far as yeah so so they're um I mean they're labeled 1 a 2 a 3B 4B so you can group them together but we can we can do another line on the chart to have the A and B populations if you'd like I I assume if we balance the four they'll be close but just well right so if you balance um we will be looking at when you take you know 1 a one and two and three and four all have to be within plus or minus 5% of their ideal But A and B also have to be within plus or minus 5% of the ideal size of the two combined districts yes that's right that's helpful and I think um when
417we get the demographic data with the maps I just want to make sure we are following the law as we're doing this so I guess whatever guidance you all bring would be helpful for us to make sure that we're not steering away from what we're bound to legally right so um Blake is drawing the maps he's keeping in mind the demographics I'm working with him to review for Voting Rights Act uh you know issues um just if we see anything is not as it was 10 years ago um although Durham wasn't under the section five pre-clearance requirement but that's something that had the districts that were had an affirmative burden to show no retrogression in this case what we're doing is keeping an I to make sure there's no apparent challenge to um the districts
418based on Voting Rights Act all right thank you um just to make sure precincts intact protect incumbent seats compactness and future growth to the extent that those two are possible to keep in mind as well thank you thank you all right summary of followup items there just a few I ain't doing it tonight just a few down um okay so I do have a long list um the first is in regards to item 8 C and sorry the first is in regard to item 8C um directing the staff to bring back the salary schedule beginning at 17 ending um at 24 the next is in regards to item 8 e ensuring that our expectation is beyond the expectation um that we have from the Department of Public Instruction with regards to NIS how we think
419about growing considering how we think about growing our own staff Community involvement in regards to the school Improvement plan inclusivity such as posting um those School Improvement plans and the PDF rather than um going through industar thinking and including referenced um referencing um the durm committee on the Affairs of black people and their ask that were provided to the board at the previous board meeting alignment and connection between misus and the Strategic plan considering developing a plan for those who supervise principles as well as Central service staff in regards to equity ensuring that the public has an opportunity to see um explicitly the principal standards and NES developing a committee or principal task force in regards to leadership considerations regarding more Clarity um This was um from Matt sear who used the example of the
420gold post or potentially an equity scorecard and making sure that we um continue to consider the Derm stamp on nisses and consideration of 360 feedback the next is in regards to I think it was item 8G which was in regards to covid that we consider providing monthly reports and updates regarding covid and then the next was in the same area um how will we respond to staff that are exempt consideration of regular um Regular testing Can can I add one followup item on our last school board on the redistricting can we create a section on our website that just kind of has the maps and information about what we're working on right now thanks chip I'd move we go into close session for the reasons stated on the agenda okay it's been moved and properly
421second that we go into the Clos session for the item St on the agenda Vol for say I I I any opposed it passes unanimously we are in closed session to we are back in Open Session Dr mainga Madame chair I'm here to seek your approval for the person report as discussed at the close session move approval of the Personnel report dated September 9th 2021 second it's been moved by Miss Byer seconded by Mr Raven any other discussion all in favor say I I any opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously and with that we're adjourned