001recording in progress three minutes long tonight I do ask if you email us those comments the Board of Education can also read them so that's B OE dpsnc.net thank you and where's the yellow light or the oh right there okay um hi my name is Laura Kagan I am a outgoing co-president of the PTSA at Durham School of the Arts and I'll refer to it as DSA after this and incoming Communications chair so I'll be working with the PTSA again next year there's been a lot of activity around this this week with the departure of Mr Hawks excuse me a lot of people may assume the DSA PTSA is here to talk about Mr Hawks we are not he is moving on the PTSA is here to talk about moving forward from this point and
002helping in finding the right principle for DSA we're concerned that a transition of leadership is happening at the same time that DSA students will be returning to on campus in instruction for the first time in almost a year and a half unlike the rest of DPS DSA students finished the academic year before they had a chance to go back to in-person school DSA offers unique opportunities for students in the PTSA wants to make sure new leadership is committed to maintaining and improving the educational experience for all current and future students at DSA we have a letter we'll send you as well but um two of the things that are special about DSA are the diversity of the student population and the expectation of Excellence for all students PTSA wants to make sure that any new
003principal will retain these qualities as well as balance these criteria with an appreciation of the Arts as they begin a new era of leadership and families of students at DSA and other DPS schools want a commitment that D DSA will be welcoming to all students is that keep going okay so really quickly these are tough times for all students we want to work with the board and Dr mbingo in helping the search and there must be trust with a full range of DSA families not just certain groups and we're very well aware of that we need your assurance that you will seek the input of parents students faculty and school Improvement officers for example to who represent a diverse range of St stakeholders at DSA during the selection process and before you make a decision
004about a new principal thank you thank you Aman Abdul Malik followed by J Rah I apologize for pronunciations of the names good morning uh my name is Aman Abdul Malik and I a high school graduate from the class of 2020 at DSA um today in this board meeting in the days prior I've heard many parents Express concern for the board of education's decision not to renew principal David Hawk's contract saying he's a positive endearing figure for the DSA Community referencing his communication with parents via phone and email and his enforcement of policies to ensure a smooth transition from in-person to remote learning he was doing his job however as people who value connection and education wouldn't you want an individual to go above and beyond with their position many other students and staff went through
005the last four years with fear anger and regret all prompted by prompted under the leadership of David Hawks which means that those late night phone calls were not enough I'm one of the many passionate students who want their votes to be heard through an or outside organization I had the opportunity to do some research on the dsa's community problem racial discrimination in the zero tolerance discipline system that disproportionately affects black and brown students and produces a culture of fear and retaliation and uh through our through our research we discovered disproportionate rates of black and brown students within the school suspension now called RPC at DSA and I don't have enough time to go into debt but there is there should be a paper that many of you have that shows the statistics in regards to
006that so yeah thank you next we have Jay Rahal and Isabelle Lee thank you um I will pick up pick up where I'm on left off um I'm also a recent high school graduate from dorm School of the Arts um through our research we're also able to collect qualitative data through testimonies made by many students and parents alike who are influenced by Hawk's authorative and disregarding Leadership many of you may have read read the Reverend Dr Fatima s's Facebook post um she sat an ISS with her son wrote down her experience but kept it to herself uh years later when her younger son also at DSA received ISS she was triggered by the event and posted her two-year-old Reflections on Facebook these Reflections said shed light on the ISS classroom environment um and the post
007went viral um after that uh there was quoting from the Reverend Dr CLE a ratcheting up a hypers surveillance of her younger um who the post was not about he came home saying that he didn't think people liked him there um and he didn't respond well to the hyper surveillance um within weeks of the post she ended up having to take him out of DSA um for many students who have had contact with the ISS system under principal David Hawks um transferring out of the school became the only option for improving or maintaining grades and mental Wellness this all took place under David Hawk's leadership that many parents uh cherish um we would also like to highlight that the discipline System created under David Hawk's leadership fails to promote academic success by being punitive and
008exclusionary what we mean when we say that is that uh serving time in ISS will stay with you after you serve your time in RPC and has social and academic consequences is that my time yeah that's the time thank you next we have Isabelle Lee and then Dan McKinnon please remember to state your name before you start your comments [Music] thank you um my name is j rahee um Isabelle went before me um but uh I am a recent high school graduate from Duram School the Arts so a lot of the statistics that you guys were given um the Board of Education and some of the papers that were passed out is not news to David Hawks um in the summer of 2020 a few weeks before we would start remote learning for the 20120
0092021 school year a group of DSA students including myself and one staff member presented these exact stories in statistics and more that we do not have time to present today to David Hawks he responded in a defensive manner saying that they had policies in place to fix these issues and were doing everything they could to address the problem ignoring um the fact that those policies were clearly not effective he mentioned a student Bill of Rights which many students weren't actually aware of and suggested updating that document to fit our needs but never got back with us at all through the school year um all of our research and commitment to change the culture within DSA went down the drain because it was not and never has been Hawks priority um David Hawk's ability to resonate
010with his own students and staff is very small to non-existent during the Black Arts Festival we had a group session with students staff parents and community members that focus on the racial injustices taking place in DSA in our community once again during this session David Hawks was defensive and disengaging to the people around him he was on his iPad phone and disrupting other people while they were speaking even though we had a talking system that only allowed the person who had the talking sign to speak when students expressed their concern for the lack of resources for students of color through extracurricular programs and resources his respon response was we have iPads that students were assigned to and some of them didn't pick them up so they're choosing to not have those resources it shocked me
011to my core to have the leader of this community victim blame and manipulate the group into thinking it was the students fault as to why they weren't succeeding in the school environment um I urge the Board of Education to be the listening ear that Hawks never was and discontinue his contract at drum School of the Arts thank you thank you Dan McKinnon followed by Jackie turnwald thank you School Board superintendent my name is Dan mckenny I organize end Durham to disrupt systemic racism and white supremacy culture I support the board's decision to not renew David Hawk's position I support this decision because I have seen the data and I've heard stories from current and former students and parents of how Hawks routinely maintains High test scores in national rankings by weeding out students he and
012his staff Phil will bring his score down he has demonstrated that he is far more concerned with maintaining High test scores than he is ensuring that all students in his care receive quality education in fact in the context of racism racial stereotypes implicit racial bias students that are perceived to be low performers report that they experience a toxic School environment where they are targeted and they feel that their only option for academic success is a transfer out of DSA one of the tools that Hawks uses to push students out of DSA is in school suspension or RPC over the past 10 years there have been many attempts to hold Hawks accountable for his racist policies and practices I have spoken with countless community members and students who have brought these challenges to DPS Administration I
013have spoken with DPS Administration about these concerns and 100% of the conversations with admin say yep we're aware I ask then why has nothing been done about it the underlying root fear that I get the fear is that there will be an uprising of white people who support him glad I got that far thank you Jackie Turnal followed by Matthew [Music] Townson good evening my name is Jackie turnwald as of May 28th I'm a former DPS educator of 12 Years people talk about DSA like the crown jewel of DPS and in truth David Hawks is representative of DPS as a whole and it is for that reason I hope the decision to not renew his contract is one that will result in a closer look at DPS leadership because when I say David Hawks is
014representative of DPS I mean that DPS has a culture of toxic leadership these are folks who believe in a model of power over rather than a model of of Power with in my own 12 years with DPS I have witnessed how this model causes long-standing educational harm how it splinters community and pits people against each other and if our district is ever going to be the environment to learn and work that it should be it is this toxic leadership that we need to eradicate for years I worked at a school where students who left DSA or were pressured out found Refuge there was a clear pattern to their stories inequitable scheduling for black and brown students harsh and disciplinary practices being made to feel inadequate and like they didn't belong I heard stories from other
015adults about EC students at DSA being counseled to go to a specific D DPS school which they were told was an EC School however when that school had a large case load of EC students and requested more Staffing and support it was instead DSA that received additional Staffing ultimately it's important to recognize the aspects of the DSA culture and people operating using white supremacist power structures exist in all our DPS schools thank you Matthew Townson followed by Jodie craford good evening everyone my name is Matthew Townson and I'm a teacher at DSA who has had a few trips around the block in North Carolina working for 16 different principles before coming to work with Mr Hawks my Angelou said I do my best because I'm counting on you counting on me I give my best
016at DSA knowing Mr Hawks is counting on me to deliver promises and I can count on him I will never enjoy such strong leadership and it will be missed for days staff have been sobbing throughout the building we are in morning I'm here today to put my grief on pause and publicly express my gratitude to Mr Hawks thank you for your commitment to a safe accepting school when DSA shook from a gas line explosion Mr Hawks made sure every member that DSA family was out of Harm's Way he ensured students got home and emotional support was there for the days after DSA has been an exceedingly safe space for students to attend any student could attend here knowing the staff and student body are committed to safety tolerance and acceptance students cannot grow if they
017do not feel protected and we grew at DSA thank you for opening doors for all of our students fact 95% of our graduating students go on to pursue a post-secondary education and the majority of our graduates pursuing a four-year education are black and brown students fact we typically have 200 200 students of color enrolled in our rigorous AP courses fact a student with a learning disability at DSA is Jody craford retired darm School of the Arts Teacher you will never have a better administrator than David Hawks but I'm going to give the rest of my time back over over to Matt thanks a student with learning disabilities at DSA is more than twice as likely to be grade level proficient than the DPS average and students with limited English proficiency have been three times as
018likely to be great level proficient when the pandemic hit Mr Hawks decisively tapped every resource available to make sure that every student had a device in hand so learning could take place and that every faculty member had the hardware they needed to teach remotely every single student every single staff hundreds of hours of hard work from DS staff willing to risk their lives to make it happen and lastly thank you for inspiring us with your personal investment in Durham Public Schools 15% of teachers feel their school is not a good place to work four times more dissatisfied than teachers at DSA our teachers may be tired we may be overworked but we love to see our students become successful and we love the man that turned DSA around giving us 14 years of his life
019Jack gray said I believe that Icarus was not falling as he fell but just coming to the end of his Triumph I hope this community can remember the amazing accomplishments of DSA under a determined individual that believed we all could fly higher and higher year after year thank you Mr Hawks and thank you for your time thank you thank you next we have Anthony II followed by Rosanna [Music] Morgan good evening members of the board Dr manga my name is Anthony Amos I'm a teacher at Durham School of the Arts I stand before you tonight on behalf of the students faculty and staff families and DSA Community who are sad angry and frustrated frustrated by this board's decision to terminate David Hawk's employment as principal of School of the Arts I'd like to share three
020important things that you should know about Mr Hawks I've observed these things on firsthand basis and I believe that everyone in the field of Education should uh work like this in some manner number one stand up for what is right right and best for our students even when things are challenging even when it's the hard thing to do stand up Mr Hawks stood up number two always strive for excellence set your standards for yourself and others set very high standards this valuable life lesson will take you far in life and open doors you didn't even know existed Mr Hawks always strives for excellence number three let your passion Drive your creativity find your passion and walk in that direction keep an open mind and find creative ways to learn and grow Mr Hawks is passionate
021about education and seeing our students use their creativity to flourish School Board I fear you have made a grave mistake it is always the right time to do the right thing thank you for your time thank you Rosanna Morgan follow by Joseph Cisco when I first met David Hawks I thought man this guy is a jerk I thought he is part of the good old boy system and then I got to know him as a human being you know I have a child with special needs who attends Durham public schools and although DPS has failed her on many accounts DSA has not David Hawks let me make up two hours every Wednesday afternoon so that I could get off two hours early every Tuesday for three straight years to take my kid to the doctor
022she needed for her special needs and I got your facts and figures DSA is not failing you DPS is failing us they are sexist they are racists they are ableist don't blame David Hawks you are pointing your fingers at the wrong person he is not a racist he is a beautiful man and before you judge me on my skin color I've been homeless I owe $176,000 in student loans because I'm a white girl or rather perceived as a white girl you don't know me we should be working together and you just stole our leader a leader who you clearly don't understand you don't get us at DSA have you seen our population we are our own pride month parade you have made a grave grave mistake and you are going to lose some of the
023best teachers in DPS thank you Joseph Joseph Cisco followed by Thomas Lamy good evening uh my name is Joseph Cisco I am a sixth grade teacher at DPS uh DSA and DPS um I have taught in North Carolina for 31 years and of those 31 years nine of them have been for DPS the last five have been at DSA um in the years that I've taught I've had many principles that I've worked for a lot of good ones a lot of great ones I count David Hawks as one of those principles last Monday at DSA staff met to say goodbye to a lot of our retiring teachers we had a lot of things to say to them a lot of students former students teachers said wonderful things to them presented gifts told them what an
024impact they were to our school our community and of celebrated their years of teaching Mr Hawks has served Esa for 14 years and I think over 40 years of uh as an educator in North Carolina um there was no honoring him when he received his notice were no kind words there no gifts or presentations see a notice from the board that his contract would not be renewed now uh I was happy for my retiring colleagues I celebrated with them I was very sad to hear about David Hawks um I can't finish all I wanted to say but I do encourage the board as you're looking for a new principle please reconsider decision you made and consider uh issuing David Hawks a new contract for DSA thank you Thomas Lamy Follow by Robert [Music] Burrows good
025evening um my name is Thomas locky I'm a teacher at Durham School of the Arts um and I had a two-page typed um presentation and I'm just going to leave that where it is because I want to speak from the heart I have been at DSA for 25 years under three principles and an interim principle before Mr Hawks came while I don't find anything negative to say about those people before him I can say all things positive about David Hawks many people look at Mr Hawks as um a negative person however it's lonely at the top and when you're the best at what you do there will be finger pointing and that's what I see that's going on here I'm in my 25 years in education I've never been more disappointed than Monday in that
026staff meeting I'm so disappointed right now I I I really don't know what to do other than to finish my years of service to my students my colleagues at durm school of the arts I hope to receive the accolades and the praise that David hog should received even more than me when I walk out the door unfortunately he does not and will not have that opportunity I'm ashamed I'm appalled and I feel totally disrespected by this group who has made this unfortunate decision to get rid of someone that is so valuable to durm School of the Arts and the Duram Public Schools Community thank you thank you Robert Robert Burrows followed by Melody Moore good evening I'm Robert bgea and I teach at Durham School of the Arts like my colleagues have said David Hawks
027was a great principal I've been at DSA now for 18 years I've served under four different principles including David Hawks and putting an interim principle in there as well prior to Mr Hawks it is easy to say that the school was in disarray there was a lot of chaos we saw a lot of problems that a lot of schools experience on a daily basis when he came into DSA he followed and established or followed the rules that were set by those above him a good leader does not have the luxury of doing what is popular they have the responsibility to do what is right and to enforce the rules of those established above them as I said in this case rules that were developed by the Board of Education after establishing order at DSA Mr
028Hawks empowered his teachers so that we could do our best to help our students be successful he was supported for a renewed contract by Dr mubenga the superintendent we have a 96% approval rating in the teacher working survey and if you look at the accolades that our students get on both a local and a national level our school is succeeding this is not the way that School Board should treat the leader of a successful institution thank you for your time thank you melody Moore followed by Alexa Chambers my name is Melody Moore and if I was this was an essay I would title it you don't know what's going on behind closed doors when I heard Mr Hawk's contract was not renewed I cried I cried tears of relief my now grown successful first responder
029and honors graduate at UNCC Greensboro had been devastated and traumatized over interactions with Mr Hawks and I knew others had suffered those experience including friends who had to drop out because of his abuse of them I turned last night to detailed notes and from an investigation that I asked and former superintendent Keys conducted at Durham School of the Arts finding and assuring me that my daughter was an excellent student an AB student well-liked by everyone uh she was editor of the book club she was a published author in spite of she's a person of color and in spite of having ADHD epilepsy and MOB learning disabilities she was harassed by Mr Hawks following brain surgery after no behavioral issues identified whatsoever we returned to the school what for what we turn thought what thought was
030a re-entry meeting um she had had brain surgery to REM to end epileptic seizures she had a short-term hospitalization with some short depression that follows brain surgery we walked into the meeting my with my daughter excited to be returning to DSA the first thing he said that was to her was you are no longer welcome at the school you've had brain surgery don't you have OCD and ACD uh ADHD you belong in a therapeutic school not at DSA superintendent Keys conducted a thorough investig ation sided with my child but said never go to an attorney or go to the office of civil rights or go to DPI or I will turn Mr Hawks on you I have documentation I have emails exchanges and I'm glad to provide those to you if you're a targeted student
031you don't want to go to DSA thank you Alexa Chambers Follow by Irving Truitt my name is Alexa Chambers and I'm a rising senior at DSA and I'm here to convey my view on the issue of the non non-renewal of the contract of principal David Hawks Mr Hawks is a dedicated caring principal who has supported staff and students for the past 14 years he's been the first at school and last to leave and has given has given his all into creating a welcoming environment where everyone students teachers and staff can learn feel Valu accepted and heard and be themselves without shame I have felt comfortable and safe every day there he has always been a dedicated Present part of the DSA Community from popping into Spanish class and conversing with students in Spanish to participating
032and answering questions in English class Mr Hawks has given his all to DSA academics and arts students and staff when the Arts programs were on the verge of being eliminated Mr Hawks fought and won to keep the programs that created a well-rounded education and made DSA unique when there was a gas explosion less than a block away Mr Hawks personally went around the school to each room to check on the students and ask what he could do to support them and the teachers he is so very proud of all achievements academics arts and extracurriculars as well as our graduation rate the students who choose to go to college and those who don't Mr Hawks has given his all to DSA and we are not reflecting how much he has helped us are not reciprocating in
033return what he has done for us he has achieved an environment of care love and appreciation and DSA will not be the same without him thank you it Follow by window tab hello as you know I am Irving Truitt from Northern High School and I'm still here with the board asking these questions why is there no communication I have been here time and time again to present the problems the inequities with the theater Department department at Northern High School and no one has responded I keep my students keep asking me what is the situation my parents I cannot give them an answer because no one is responding I've been trying to fix this issue since 2017 no one all of these concerns have fallen on deaf ears yes we met once with the design team
034twice excuse me twice with the design team about these inequity issues and I was told by one key person that these will not change it must stay the same this is not what DPS stands for we have an equity team we have a equity we stand for equity and now I'm up here again pleading which I shouldn't have to do for Equity pleading for you to make the right decision you your situation was to divide a scene shop in half that is your recommendation to divide My Scene shop in half where we would not have enough space to do the job that our students need to do and so you can create a classroom as we know there was not a classroom for theater in the design you have to do right by our students
035and you have to communicate with me so I can communicate with my students this is not acceptable windowell tab followed by Jenny surfus good evening Dr Mingo um board members and staff I'm here twofold today one is to ask you is there an attack on the Arts right now we should not be having too many conversation about what's writing wrong because we all know what's writing wrong I've had my private conversation with the principal at DSA about his situation that I'll keep private I've had some conversation with you board members and Dr mainga and to staff that I will also keep private because that's who I am I talk to the individuals DSA as I shared with so many it's not a true art school until you allow students to audition to get in that
036school because so many black and brown students are not going to be able to get in that school that are very talented because you have a lottery process I am an artist I've been to a lot of performing art schools I can help you but are you willing to receive the help I'm a beneficiary of those students that are not getting into an art school because they're coming to Hillside which makes my program a top program and finally to Mr tru's point a mistake was made and I know this board fixes mistakes because you've just shown that so why are we not fixing the mistake for Mr truart at Northern High School you have the power to do so you've shown it so let's do right by Mr truart and those students at Northern High
037School you made the mistake you have to own up to it so that we can all move forward together in equity for the Arts thank you Jen Sur Jenny surface followed by [Music] Elizabeth hi I'm Jenny surface and I just want to quickly say one thing and then I'm gonna yield the rest of my time I want you to know that DPS schools had failed my son until he went to DSA he's an exceptional kid but not an EC kid he's on the other end he has a 570 on his SATs when he was 10ed he needed bigger things you know what happened to him in K through five before he got to the school he sat in the back of the classroom in every classroom and taught himself math because no teachers knew what
038to do with him until he got to the wonderful teachers at DSA Who provided much just a lot of stuff that helped him stay focused on his studies and he re-engaged in school he re-engaged in school because of these teachers and this Mr Hawk standards and I yield the rest of my time thank you Elizabeth cramling followed by Kathy sander hi I'm Elizabeth cremling I am a rising Junior at DSA I have been at DSA since the sixth grade um and I'm disappointed that the board is getting rid of Mr Hawks he has allowed our school to flourish he has fought for us um he has fought for the Arts at our school he has fought for the students at our school he has fought for the staff at our school and you are taking
039away the the man who has allowed his students his staff and the Arts as well as his school to florish you are taking away um the man who was there for us when the gas line exploded you're taking away the man who has shephered us through uh the Corona virus who has checked in on every classroom on every student on every teacher he has been there for us and I'm disappointed that you're taking him away thank [Music] you thank you Kathy Sanders followed by Andrea snit there's I'm Kathy sander I'm the parent of a rising senior at DSA I also sit on the athletic boosters board I'm on the school Improvement team I'm a active member of the PTSA and I'm a active parent with the dance department so I'm in a lot of different
040places within the formal leadership structure of our high school um I'll skip over the pieces about how everpresent Mr Hawks is um I mean the one story is we had a dance competition that he helped us really work hard to be able to take our entire group in Charlotte with fundraising lots of kids who otherwise aren't going to be able to have this kind of experience not only did he help support us to get us there but the man took his Saturday drove three hours watched one three minute dance and then waited with the parents and the kids for four hours until the awards came on a Saturday and that is indicative of the kind of everpresent person he is at this school clearly from having been on the school Improvement team having been in
041the PTSA having been on all these different leadership structures within the school we know there are issues our school is not perfect our city is not perfect and some of the biggest problems right now are this disconnect and this surprise that a decision was made that affects all of us that it was done sort of without any transparency and so we're not sure why this decision was made um and as we're you know there's been all sorts of discussion about racial Equity children not you know easy kids not getting what they need and we're working on some of the things within the PTSA and the sit but if that's Jenny yel at her 30 seconds to me um if that was the situation how can we know what's the policy by which the board and
042the district give corrective measure is this the policy that there are problems that rack up clearly there have been complaints and concerns that have been expressed we're not hearing about it within the formal structure system of the District of within the school and so how are you can get rid of Mr Hawks if you think he's the problem but if that's the case and you bring in a replacement if there's no formal indication of what those problems are you can't fix that issue so that's going to be my overall concern is that if you're making um without transparency as to why this decision was made how are is a replacement going to fix issues that are nebulous and unclear um thank you thank you Andrea Summit followed by Elizabeth [Music] kremling hi my name is
043Andrea suar um I've cut my comments very short uh because the in a lot of speakers have said points that I would have made particularly the incoming PTA communications director and that wonderful speech by our Rising Jr um I have two children who have graduated from DSA we have nothing but good things to say about the administration and the faculty um both children one uh class of 16 has a minor in art from UNCC Asheville the other class of 19 is pursuing Cella performance at Berkeley School of Music in Boston you have a wonderful faculty at that school helmed by a person who has given them the has empowered them to provide a quality instruction to the point that people young adults are choosing career paths based on their experience at DSA I question your
044timing on this you seemingly have put yourselves in a corner unnecessarily you fired this guy in in May and you've got an incoming school session in August this coming session will be unlike anything else uh I'm a scout master here in Durham I've got children my my Scouts are in your in the school they are traumatized by being at home for the whole year and having distance learning now you're changing the administration I question is to to why you've backed yourself in this time corner thank you thank you Elizabeth cramling followed by Dr Rhonda Taylor bullet so I get to speak some more um yeah I'm gonna yield my time to whoever's after me one second hold on I'm sorry our speakers can only speak one time yeah I know my stepdad accidentally signed me
045up twice well I signed up after he sign okay so thank thank you so yeah next is Dr Ronda Taylor Follow by Fatima [Music] Sal good evening my name is Dr Rhonda Taylor Bullock I'm here as the education chair of the Durham committee on the Affairs of black people and I'm here to say that we as a community stand by by and support and are thankful for your decision to not renew David Hawk's contract um as a community we have watched for years the pushout of black and brown children I do not doubt those success stories that those parents those Educators and the students here that have shared there's a different experience if you're black or brown or if you have a disability and that success and those accolades Come On The Backs a black
046Brown children and children with disabilities we've heard stories after stories after stories of harm under the leadership of David Hawks if you don't know it's because you don't want to know and you've been under a rock for many people who've been in the district former teacher taught for 10 almost 10 years at Hillside High School this was no surprise to us we are not surprised we are thankful we hope that you stand by your decision and do not back down I also want to put on notice that some people the Educators at that building who came up here and said yes keep this man here who's garnered success on the backs of black and brown children they're on record so that when the new leadership comes in they'll already know who else may not need
047to have their contract renewed thank you for making that easier for us hey hey ho ho David Hawks has got to go forward together not one step back forward together not one step back hey hey ho ho David hog has got to go thank you next we have FAA Cay followed by Sandra Mendoza thank you I um Reverend Dr Fatima two years ago I wrote about my son's experience at DSA than my other son's I I can hear um stories about the success and I hear them and I can hold multiple truths at the same time I can I also want to know what the backs of those troes look like I do and I know what they look like if this was just about my two sons because of the retaliation at DSA I
048if I wouldn't known now I would backed off and have not finished speaking about this but it was about all the stories I heard that are not here but they came many times to speak to this and so while I hear your stories of success yes but I hope and dearly hope you recognize and know there's a deep undercurrent of racism at that school and is deeply damaging and traumatic on bodies on real students lives and your success does not get to come at their Mi at their Misfortune at their harm at their degradation it does not and it does not have to does that make sense it does not have to the success of Mr Hawks does not have to come at the expense of brown black bodies it does not and it has
049that's what I want us to wrestle with so he gets to go on and he's done but I want this District to really and the superintendent all of you the school board all of you to think about how do we not replicate this again ever that success gets an underbelly by which we are not willing to acknowledge that we're not willing to say it that needs to be dismantled this is the last time I want to be in a meeting like this see our children they matter Sandro Mendoza followed by Carmel weon um Sanda um Community organizers respect our speaker okay thank you go ahead Sandro oh um Sandro Mendoza uh Community organizer especially in the Immigrant Community um it took a long time I think you guys waited a long time to let him
050go um like everyone was saying um it's nothing new that Hawks had preference in school and it was obvious black and brown were at the bottom um I have families who have told me all the experience that they had um I spoke to three of them today um to the students are still in school um they didn't want to come today to speak not because they don't want to it doesn't really matter to them but it's more of a retaliation um they they knew there was going to be people here that might um treat them a little bit different if they spoke publicly um but I I will tell you this they will um send an email of all the experience they have had um I remember when I was in I'm a Jordan went
051to Jordan um there was this program that we used to go um at centano I know some kids who went to Thea where they dropped they left the school because they was very toxic um they went to Riverside um Hillside new tech um but yes it took a long time but the decision is great um it looks like we actually heard from everyone now and not just from certain people thank you thank you Carmel weaton followed by Olivia [Music] Leto hi my name is Carmel weaton and I'm here uh with DSA PTSA um I have been involved in a lot of things at DSA say um the thing is this is that Mr hulks is gone um he doesn't want his job back based on what I've heard I'm asking the board that as you
052go forth and finding a new principle for DSA that you take everything into consideration inclusion and diversity is a big thing that's going on now everywhere you go everybody's talking about inclusion and diversity I'm asking that as you search for a new principle for DSA that that is something that you discuss you know what does unconscious biases mean a lot of things we do we do them just because we do them but I'm asking you to ask that candidate or those candidates what does inclusion and diversity mean to you we have a diverse school but what does that mean does that mean that we treat everybody the same we take those that diversity and we put it in one pile no that's not what diversity should be about diversity should be about taking from every
053child every child there and we say we don't see color guess what we need to see color because when we see color guess what we do we see individuals thank you thank you Olivia bledo followed by Karen bledo hello my name is Olivia bledo and I am a rising Junior at Durham School of the Arts I have attended GSA since seventh grade and has become home to me Mr Hawks makes students feel welcomed at DSA and encourages inclusion and Community he is also very present in school life I'm in the piano pathway and in Mr Hawk's 14 years at DSA he has not missed a single piano recital he always attends school events to support students in their pursuit of the Arts the reason DSA has the highest test scores of any DPS school is
054because Mr Hawks encourages us to pursue rigorous academic studies and holds it all to high standards Because he believes in us and our futures but not renewing his contract the school board has taken away a principal who has always supported his students and believes in their Futures thank you thank you Karen bledo followed by Haley brisman Brickman we have a problem here School Board you made a drastic decision behind closed doors you're voted into office and we demand transparency you blind exited the teachers the students the parents and staff at DSA the top school in your District you threw it under the bus Mr Hawks and Durham School of the Arts deserves better than this for 14 years he was at the Helm of the ship taking DSA to the top why are you trying
055to sink that ship what do you have to prove by doing it we all signed up everyone in this room whose parent whose student goes to DSA for the same Lottery we all had a choice to make when we sent our kids to DSA Mr Hawks expects the best from his students at their level as parents don't we also expect the best from our student he creates a conducive learning environment for all students no matter their race gender or sexual orientation I have only read of one cited example recently against Mr Hawks DSA is 30% white so to be an ISS and see eight of 11 kids being black or brown would be correct statistically if all kids had equal propensity to misbehave you see seven of 11 be black or brown those are the
056statistics those are the facts that is hardly justification to cry racism that's a big word and throw out the principle according to the Wall Street Journal in 2018 2019 and even more in 2020 Durham County has seen an outflow of people people are leaving our County why you can help change that by starting to celebrate excellence and using Mr Hawks as an example for other schools in the DPS school system so they can rise to the same standards as DSA thank you thank you H briman followed by Lucas Gearhart um my name is Haley Brinkman I'm the mother of a recent graduate of durm School of the Arts by not renewing the contract for Mr Hawks principal of GSA the board of education has further fractured the school clearly there are multiple experiences of DSA
057under Mr Hawks whatever negative behavior was cited for letting go of Mr Hawks all concerned parties would benefit from the skills of trained mediators mediation can be used to address the impact of Mr Hawk's leadership and create the opportunity for people to be heard it can also be used to determine restorative actions so the people involved can receive Justice and heal from The Experience mediation has been used elsewhere to create an Institutional culture of healing and growth DSA deserves that opportunity for continued Improvement and healing that would enable the board to build on the strengths of current experienced faculty and rebuild on the heels of a year of virtual classrooms it would also create a space for those who've been injured to be healed and collaborate to build a stronger school for the sake of
058DSA staff and families I urge you to consider replacing Mr Hawks at this time and choose an alternate action durm is the kind of place where people can work together to strengthen each other thank you and Lucas Gearhart your final comment uh good evening my name is Lucas geart um I teach uh digital media at DSA and um I just wanted to offer my insight as um a fairly new teacher to DSA um I taught in Las Vegas for 12 years and um moved to Durham in 2019 and um since then the transition um has been really great um and part of the reason why I moved out here was because of like what DSA was all about and the leadership that Mr Hawks had um so um some other things I wanted to um
059just kind of briefly talk about was he really helped assist my classroom because I have um like computer lab and we needed some certain technology and he made that happen for all students um you know every day it seems like he's always poking his head in the classroom just as a um supportive um you know just a supportive presence I would say um I felt empowered and um I I just feel like that he Fosters greatness in the teachers and students um I do recognize what um many have said before me um and that are not in favor of him but um I personally haven't seen things to that degree um so I feel um that there's still this division um I just hope that the um you know future of the new leadership um
060can just be transparent and um staff has some input in it too thank you thank [Applause] you that concludes our public comments thank you for all your comments agenda item number six is our consent items we have several items on consent there's carington Middle School new Singular Wireless Elementary School F construction management indoor air quality program management Consultation Services agreement energy conservation program management consultation activity okay all right so that concludes our public comment and our next item on the agenda is consent item we have several items on consent I'll read through them and then you all will let me know if there's anything you want to take off or if we want to go to approve them so the items are Carrington Middle School New Singular Wireless Elementary School F construction management at risk
061Construction contract indoor air quality program management consultation agreement energy conserv conservation program management consultation consultant service agreement activity bus replacement WG Pearson Chiller replacement School nutrition services food and Supply contract renewal School nutrition services milk product contract with the dairy pet Dairy School nutrition service produce contract with Foster and Center for inquiry based learning continuation continuing budget resolution physical year 2021 22 and the added item is a resolution in opposition of House Bill 324 are there any items you want to pull I move approval of our consent agenda I'll second it's been moved by Miss Umstead second by Mr Lee discussion all in favor say I I any oppose it passes unanimously 60 number seven action um item on the agenda is our chief of staff a 7A is board policies transition project Miss Giovani
062thank you madam chair good evening board members and Dr manga if I just want to bring before I begin and M Smith if you could pull the PowerPoint up um while I'm doing the introduction I'd appreciate it this project the board manual transition project began in 2015 and I want to give um credit right now to Dr Deb Pitman who was leading that work in 2015 and having worked at the School Board Association for several years doing board policies it is a very heavy lift and especially in a district the size of Durham in many other districts there is a one person and their full-time job is to do the policy manual in large districts and Dr Pitman uh she when she handed over her files and her binders was the most organized that I've
063ever seen and um she really helped me as we transitioned into this so um we were able the board was able in 2016 to adopt a vast majority of the 2000 policies regarding um the board the practices and then the project stalled as they often do when it's Dr Pitman was is an assistant superintendent and had multiple multiple multiple responsibilities um yet I can tell you that she documented all the work that she had done and so it was um in great shape when when she handed it over to me I began in May of 2018 and Dr mubanga assigned this the policy manual project to me in Fall of 2018 after the convocation and indicated that I had three years to get this project done so um with that being said um in March
064of 2019 we adopted the first section of policies and then Dr mang at some point came back and was think asked me if y'all thought I could get it done in two years so um we continued to work and with the help of cabinet members um who were very involved in multiple board committees um thank you to all the board members who sat there with us for a minimum of three hours often time four hours going through these policies providing excellent feedback and comments we were able to get all of the big sections adopted and in the midst of covid as well which was um also quite impressive so if with that if is the PowerPoint ready or Miss Smith so um with that I would like to say that even though um I'm presenting
065these final policies for you um to Sunset the old manual once you adopt them this is an ongoing process so it will be that we will be reviewing policies on a regular basis so that we don't end up with an out-of-date manual like we were in in 2015 so most a majority of those policies were from 199 99 or 2009 and they just hadn't been looked at because there's it's it's often times that policies because they don't seem to be pressing um other fires occur and so um I have been informed that that is not allowed to happen so it is uh my responsibility and the responsibility of my fellow cabinet members to make sure that we are on a regular basis reviewing them and presenting them to the board for their um input and
066feedback as well as some policies which we'll talk about later for example like the equity policy that involves significant stakeholder input as well so um with that introduction next slide please uh the first policy that um I'm presenting for reading on here for your discussion is policy 4301 this is a standard policy from the North Carolina School boards Association and what I will say and I think um Mrs V can testify to this that what we received from the Schoolboard Association which is what my job was for nine years was great but in a community like Durham it was not customized often times to reflect our practices and so there was a lot more that's involved and so as I've learned kind of where the um Community is there and had conversations with our principles
067and other leadership I've was I'm starting to bring more recommendations so for example the stand this policy M our recommendation is is that we delete confiscating devices I've had multiple principls and teachers come to me because they take the device and then they give it back and then the parent says that it was broken and they want their $1,000 for their iPhone 12 or principles are being called out of doing observations Etc to come and take a cell phone from a student and then the parents come and get it and then the student has it back the next day and so um based on um conversations I've had with principles our recommendation is that we remove that language and allow if a child has their phone out inappropriately to use standard um and appropriate behavioral
068practices by our teachers and our principles in the event that there is some allegation that would require or Justify confiscation of a phone for example if there's inappropriate photographs Etc under the policy 4342 that would still be allowed so um you've been given the full policy in the packet but again this is the standard policy with the exeption of deleting the language regarding staff confiscating these devices so I'm happy to take any questions at in in the middle or at the end and wait to the end yeah that's the way to the end thank you next slide please policy 1510 school safety you adopted this back in mark this is one of the first policies you adopted in March 2019 as I went back through uh the original old DPS manual and making sure that
069a lot of the um practices and beliefs that the board had were that we didn't just throw those out necessarily um there was language regarding corporal punishment so the standard policy from ncsba does not include that our old policy did include that so as we are sunsetting that old policy manual I have transferred over the language with the prohibition of corporal punishment so that we aren't an outlier and not only the state but the country in allowing corporal punishment so this is the exact verbatim language that has been I believe since maybe 2009 or even 1999 maybe 2009 um regarding corporal punishment so this is just an amendment to an already adopted policy with language that's previously adopted as well okay next slide please so um there was several policies that were really um that
070didn't reflect kind of what Durham was stands for currently but this policy here and I've brought it to you it is the data dashboard the original policy was from 19 let me make sure I get it right the exact year two April 30th 2009 the board adopted this data dashboard policy and uh it there's supposed to be um exhibits and um artifacts with it it doesn't appear that this policy was actually practiced um based on conversations that I've had so I'm bringing it to you because I felt like it did really reflect kind know where the board was um your based on my working with you over the past several years but so I didn't want to just Sunset it without um getting some feedback from the board and none of these policies just for
071clarity for um those that may be watching typically when we were bringing like 30 to 60 policies we would have a policy committee and that that's when we would meet to three to four hours so um these policies since it was only it was very few policies this is the first time that it is being presented so there there's no board committee who has vetted this or given any feedback so the gist I made some minor um corrections to this policy um as it's transitioned over but um I'd like to just kind of maybe the board take a moment to take a look at it and and when the questions are at the end if you have any questions you want to amend it or if you have any questions for me and Dr Spencer
072who is sitting next to me any feedback U we would be happy to um share that with you but the gist of it next slide please the gist is is that what you're saying as a board is that you're going to determine different metrics Etc with input from Administration and under the guidance of Dr mubanga um as he guides his cabinet we would then provide these metrics and go through with the board like what um metric you want on there for example student achievement Finance operations so that the community and the board and teachers and parents would have um access to understandable data um understandable metrics so that they would be able and partially one of the main reasons I also wanted to include this is because the test scores and are always on there
073the school report cards are always in there but it doesn't tell you about like satisfaction of teachers and finance and operations and how well a school district is being run and those are obviously very important and may even more important sometimes than some of those other um broader numbers that we see um so I didn't edit any of these um Provisions that the board in 2009 indicated it wanted to have included in the data dashboard next slide please and as you see here this again is complete for R from 2009 um it indicates that it will be reviewed at least annually and updated and um lastly that it will the policy will be reviewed every four years and I think as I indicated at the outset that sometimes that's difficult if there's not a person
074who has you know that um committed as their responsibility next slide please I'm happy to take any questions thank you Mr Giovani thank you for your diligence and working expeditiously to get these policies transitioned and sunset are there any questions from the board this item is up for discussion any questions Miss berer thank you so much and thank you Tanya and thank you Dr Pitman I had forgotten that we had been at this since 2015 but you are right this has been an enormous amount of work tedious work thankless work but for that we thank you and Dr Pitman like bucketfuls for everything that you've done to help us guide through this these these policies some of them were from 1999 and hadn't been looked at and um I really appreciate the changes you brought
075I don't have questions except on the data dashboard I think that one does go back to the board's prior work with the center for reform for school systems way way back when and I know to me this one really should actually be reflective of an equity dashboard are some some of the equity metrics that we're looking forward to um I wonder though in the meantime if they could just if it the metrics could be what's in the Strategic plan and identified there and I think the equity work will take take a like several months of work for the board and and staff to work towards but I I wondered if that might be the direction that we take that policy 1910 and as we continue to look at that one um but mostly I just
076wanted to thank yall so so so much I really really appreciate your work on these policies um thank you all so much for the work and I kind of also forgot that it's been since 2015 that we've been working on this um I think your questions around the dashboard dashboard n are right also where the equity policy team that's been meeting and talking about this which is also on our agenda today have been thinking about and so I think you know I'm not sure if we want it in policy or we want it to be a practice that we do but I I definitely I think we are looking um the team is also was considering these options as we went through that work Miss vieres thank you so much Dr javani I appreciate you
077presenting um these policies and of course um sown policies as well um I did have questions about policy um uh 4342 um which you referenced in the first slide and so we were talking about wireless devices and um you know how you have changed that language um to um reflect policies that are not um about confiscating the phones however the exception would be um in the case of uh images or suspicion that there might be um images I have personal accounts um that community members have shared with me about how that plays out in terms of process and I just wanted to know in terms of our policies how we can elucidate a little more policy 4342 uh in the cases where uh a principal ass signs an SRO you know to come in and
078take the phone without having a warrant so you know we um any of these things they should there should be a warrant in place before they confiscate or force a child's hand take a phone um what I've heard is that exent warrant is a Lo a loophole because they don't have to have a warrant at that moment and they they can just say I can get a a warrant the next day um I would like for us to be really uh intentional and very specific as to the role that Exogen warrants um take place in these policies 4342 um but yeah I'm I'm really appreciative of um you know the all all the policy revisions and um looking at that I'm also very uh yeah definitely happy to see the data dashboard and also you
079know the the opportunity to make that dashboard what DPS needs right um I sent an email to board members um and and our admins about the fact that if the state is not prioritizing certain things we as a district can when it comes to equity so um when it comes to you know restorative justice you know schools that are very intentional about reducing suspension rates um about building relationship with students and um creating a sense of belonging so th those metrics or sense of belonging um I would love you know to to see to see those those metrics um in in the dashboard and also um when it comes to disparities in demographics you know who gets Advanced courses um this would be definitely something with the equity uh office on Equity Affairs um access
080to to Advanced courses and also like teacher representation these are all aligned with our strategic plan so we have The Five-Year Plan and we have talked about increasing representation of bok um you know uh teachers um black indigenous um people of color um and so the other thing is language Justice you know um we uh are about to do boundary assessments you know boundary work and we recently met with Dr Julius Monk and his team and Dr Hardy um we had robust discussions about you know um about you know what is what is to come and when it comes to schools there are schools that need more services than others um there's definitely like language access kind of stuff I'm wondering if that can also be in there and of course like you know the
081list goes on actually this was a long email but um I'm really excited about the dashboard and making it something that will work for us as a district and as we prioritize Equity access for every uh student you know um positioning resources uh in certain ways and and and seeing how we are moving the needle on some of these metrics that you know are about well-being and sense of belonging and our all our kids thriving thank you so much thank you um I just I just wanted to um I don't have a question um just want to appreciate you uh Mr Ian because you know we worked together for you know on these policies and it's not the the funnest thing for me anyway you maybe you with your legal background you like that stuff
082but it was tough um those long hours doing that but it's it's um the work is very important because like you said earlier you're we're making it for Durham we're making the policies these are general policies but we're making them for Durham Durham is a very special place and we care about some of the things we focus on may not be that of those some other districts and your diligence in keeping us in place keep us with the reminding emails you know remember to read this you know come to the meetings you know this well maybe it was just me because you know I would need those reminders but um I just appreciate you and your staff and whoever else helped um to go through this because um it's it was difficult and like you
083it you said 2015 is when we started doing this has it been that long wow man that's six years almost six years of us working on policies because we wanted to we wanted to make sure Durham was covered our students our teachers and staff were covered so I just really appreciate that as hard work six years of work on policies that's a long time so thank you so much I appreciate it and Mr Raven go ahead and I'll Echo What U Mr Lee um said I I promise you I feel like he was reading my paper first I was going to thank you uh for your assistance on this and even the invitation to allow me to work with you um early on in my St on the board um actually just understanding the process
084I think it's one thing to have an idea of of what you would like to see within policies and modifications it's another thing to understand how to implement them within the proper framework and I think your you and your legal background have definitely been an asset to the district my my question is going to be for I know a few meetings back we discussed the new policy management um system that we were going to have and I I heard you just mentioned um about being able to review this roughly every four years and I'm wondering in that new policy management is there system is there a way that we can set um I guess indicators or triggers to remind us to actually review this and if we could actually stagger it uh so it's not
085everything hits on that fourth year you know maybe some of them we review in two years especially the um the ones that are a bit more Broad and that way we we have a constant flow of of review and process Improvement thank you yes just to clarify so that language from the four years was the original language in the data dashboard policy it is and I think I've shared this with um chair Umstead um as we've kind of work through and I've sought her leadership um regarding this um project quite probably I'm sure she see my number pop up and know what it was about but we um once we get this um transitioned over because there's going to be a lot of heavy lifting as we transition over into the new board manage meeting
086software but working with chair umid and vice chair Lee and Dr mango to establish a regular schedule for review for example um just for examp like HR has the person policies so what you don't want is for four years to go by so annually um it would be my plan and my suggestion that Dr Lin pull all of the Personnel policies or Dr Monk pulls all of the facilities policies or Mr lur pulls all the finance policies at least annually and make sure that they are reflective of what our practices are and if they have any suggestions and maybe reach out to the board even and say is there any feedback that you can give me on my policies and you could do that that on maybe an annually too much but I think that
087that's up to the board but um at a minimum I would say two years so you don't end up with policies from 1999 that don't accurately reflect what the current board's um governance desires are that makes perfect sense to me thank you I just had a quick question about the um metrics and I appreciate and enjoyed those three-hour meetings and going through policy and I definitely appreciate your willingness to take what was an idea and how to make it work and always coming back with you know resolutions on how we can fit in what it was we're thinking on paper um according to Legal lease so thank you for that and your work and also Dr Pitman um for holding it down getting us to this point um my question is around the the data
088dashboards um where would the um the data dashboards be housed is it part of research and accountability what metrics will be established I think you mentioned that the board will be establishing these metrics and possibly as Miss Umstead mentioned Equity Affairs is looking at a dashboard as well and is it so those are you come back not necessarily right now but um is it District performance or school performance and then also um is there a possibility or talks about exceptional children's department and what the exceptional children's looks like within each school as a part of the dashboard thank you so I think um those are great questions what I would say is this policy is your current policy so it's the only difference is that the number I'm asking you to rumber it and some
089minor um grammatical changes to the policy so what I would say is it's from 2009 and Mrs V's point it was part of the work that you were doing with the Reform Group and I think I saw that um in there as well so I think what I'm seeking at this point is guidance from the board if that is if you want to Sunset that policy or if you're GNA if your directive to me is to work with Dr Spencer and Dr manga to kind of get responses to your question and make sure that the data dashboard encompasses our strategic plan and the equity policy that Dr pck is waiting patiently to present on um so that's kind of where we are I think that it's it was basically brought because I didn't want to
090just say you know that policy is out of date and throw it away I think that the board worked on it and the board I'm coming to the board to see if this is something that you want Administration to explore more so maybe not you know not even put it on consent for the next meeting you know like as you may typically do or you may or may not do but to just maybe provide some direction to Dr manga to work with his team and figure out like what it is exactly that um will work in including the Strategic plan metrics and the equity metrics that may or that the board May um decide to follow denight okay yes thank you were there any other questions or [Music] discussion Gan we also have a sorry
091a a policy about disruptive students in here that you didn't mention anything about but it's in this packet of stuff yes um 4306 yeah so the there's two PES that are provided so this is the first one with the board manual transition and then next I'll go through the new policies complete so this is your the first packet that we've talked about and was on the PowerPoint are the old policies so the board's current policy so it's an old policy but until you resend it right it's your current policy referral of disruptive students and that what I only thing I did on that is to um renumber it and it basically it provides kind of guidance on the I don't know if let me see if I can pull find the date on that policy
092that you that's that is agenda seven or 8B right is is that what you're saying it's 8B from the on the agenda on the agenda no we're still the question Miss buyer asked me is still um 8 a a yes and if you look at the pces it's the second from the last bullet the referral of disruptive students so that is a current um policy that the board has and a lot the language in there and I felt like it needed some additional discussion and so I didn't want to just again you know just Sunset that I think it provided some guidance and supports for teachers when they're dealing with disruptive students or perceive students they were perceiving to be disruptive and so um I want and as as the board's current policy and I
093wanted to make sure that that it made it over into the new manual and as I mentioned before when I was talking about um Dr L and Mr lour and having those conversations I think that periodically like in a something like that I would sit down in Dr Hardy's office and her team and she would work with her team and um student support services and Etc and figure out like what can we do to make sure that we're providing the supports that are included in this policy for our teachers that may be experiencing these things that um just to make sure they have those supports so that's that all that is Miss fire is just a transition of that old policy because I felt like it was important and um reflective of this board's uh
094views and support for teachers honestly yeah I just I I know with our code of conduct we're trying to actually not make disrup ition a a code of conduct issue a little bit and we're trying to actually understand that students are children and learning and so even having a policy titled is that is kind of um p is a negative for me and I and I wonder if we might hold that one and and look at it with more of an equity lens plus I don't even know if we're doing what's detailed here it's it's so old it literally is in 1999 one so I don't know if it's fitting our practice or not so that was my concern on that one M giovan on the agenda this say this for information and discussion and
095so I guess I'm wondering if there needs to be groups put together for some of these policies um on that like referral for of disrupted students or um I feel like the dashboard policy is going to intersect with the equity policy um to dig a Little Deeper like do we need action tonight or is this discussion enough direction for what we should do next forward so I I feel that um I would defer to Dr MGA on that on how he wants to direct US based on this the feedback from the board [Laughter] um I will suggest that uh the board gave the staff time to work on this and then I come to you you for feedback prior to approving the U the policies and I am happy to um take the feedback and
096when we come back in June to have some more information so what ultimately happens again this is just for discussion but in the event that the board decides to Sunset and resend which is what I'm asking you do at the end of the month the old policy manual in the event you decide to do that with the policy and you're giving directive to make sure that kind of what we're doing the student code of conduct reflects some the positive parts of the poorly named policy with the referral of disruption students I can bring that back in a couple of weeks for the board and it's not going to slow down the transition project at all and I guess I'm you know wondering I know there's a timeline on this some of these it feels like
097we might be ready to go ahead and and move action on in our next June meeting and I the referral of disruptive students it might take more time so I think if if you all start getting into it and realize actually we need a committee to spend a little more time digging into that I want to make sure we do that work as well um so I just want to give that that permission to you I think some you know I believe looking at our board for sending corporal punishment is definitely something we'll be ready to adopt um but there might be some that'll take a little additional work and I think as always um I know that when you're in the board meeting and you um you haven't had the benefit of kind of
098me talking you through it always um feel free to reach out to me with emails I think I've always my emails for the public that may be watching that have some feedback I always welcome that our staff as well so I think oftentimes I can get emails and then incorporate some of that information and there's absolutely nothing wrong with a third reading we've done that you know we've done multiple readings we want to make sure we get it right so I am completely prepared to bring back to you based on this feedback some edits some of them for ready for you know uh consent um and others ready perhaps for second reading um at the end of the month the board meeting at the end of the month on the is it 8A Miss Le
099Mrs Lewis I think we're on 8A so the next one is 8B so I guess if with um your permission Miss Lewis I would because I can just go ahead and segue into that one and we can kind of lump all the I can get guidance from the board on all of the policies that have been presented yeah let's go ahead and do a b now okay next so there's not a PowerPoint on these these are just new policies B pretty much all new policies one of them remote participation in board meetings um which we've you've kind of been practicing and I think we have gotten some um guidance on that previously liais on with school board associations that's a standard policy just basically saying that boards can um go to the National Schoolboard Association
100or the State School Board Association for professional development um use of wireless communication devices I discussed that at the beginning of the the PowerPoint student searches um I worked with Miss Ingram and with I think Myra from thanington Smith um has provided some feedback on that U the student Searchers to make sure that reflected Durham's practices and lastly the chief officers and Deputy associate assistant superintendent contracts that's a standard um contract except for the chief officers the part they did not include that in their standard because not all school systems have Chiefs so that these policies are all St pretty standard policies from the School Board Association and being presented solely for first reading but I'm happy to entertain any questions I can't see I'm sorry I can't see you Mr Raven go ahead I
101um I did have one I guess concern about the remote participation of the board board from from my perspective um part of the responsibility of a board member that's participating remotely would still be to allow the community in some way shape or form be able to directly see maybe how they're voting um so I can understand like the Zoom calls I can understand a telephone call but being able to vote and participate via text message and instant message that seems like that's a bit more um that that's a little bit of a gray area because if you're looking for a record of how someone voted and let's say um let's say Miss Lewis wasn't here but she text me what her vote was then you know how how would I verify we'd have to make
102sure that you could actually see her phone number and thereby confirm that her phone number um that I have received a text from is is actually hers I think it just makes it muddies the water and I you just make sure I'm I want to make sure I'm following you I'm sorry to interrupt and you're in C4 policy yes so I think it says that's not acceptable right text messaging insta messaging email and web chat without audio are not acceptable means of remote participation did I miss another spot right but but if it does have audio then that would be acceptable right because there you can have you can have a zoom meeting and you could have that web chat read this that they have to again I I think that you should at least
103be able to hear the board members um in however that they are actually casting a vote so whether it's by Zoom or phone that that's perfect I just think that some of that other area makes it a little bit ambiguous that was just my thoughts on that part oh I understand thank you any other comments questions that was also up for discussion so we can move to 8C if you don't have anything else there so I'm sorry but the student searches one is something I'd like to spend a little bit more time with if you don't mind and I don't know about questions I have tonight but I certainly want to make sure that as much as possible we're upholding our students rights and and keeping them safe and not criminalizing them so I don't
104know if I'm going to be ready for this one tonight unless it's urgent um and I should have looked at it before I apologize so these are only just to clarify for first raing again like we didn't have the normal committee um and when it was scheduled because we want to make sure we meet the deadline at the end of the month when I spoke with Miss Ingram and she's not available um at this meeting so we're kind of our expectation was that once she and I finalized it which wasn't that long ago uh that we would present it to the board and again bring it for second third reading and get feedback from you so we currently um are completely prepared uh to receive that but we did spend quite a bit of time
105on it and we welcome your feedback and questions when Miss Ingram I will request that Dr Monk ask her to be with us at the next meeting so are you asking for us to email questions to you or will you be setting up a committee as before to review the student searches policy so I am happy to set up a committee I think that um that is I will send obviously only three board members I can attend that um due to the open meetings law but I'll just send out an email and I guess the first three that respond so we can do that with um I think that's a good idea we could do that with the student searches and as we process through as I process through your comments because they're you know
106have to synthesize all of those it may be that the data dashboard is part of that conversation it may that you have some feedback from Dr Bullock's presentation that's um upcoming so want to make sure that um we are efficient and cover all of the policies but I I'm more than happy to set up a time in the next week will probably be in the next week um to have that so we can have it ready for Miss Smith to submit it for the June 24th meeting is that the pleasure of the board any other yeah getting Nots yes yes and and again I know that we're you know want to get this done but if it takes longer I'm okay with getting it right right um and none of this will slow the process
107down so we can still Sunset the manual um and I will make sure that we've done what we need to do so that that that happens so that won't slow down the process thank you there's no other comments we'll go to agenda item 8C new policy 1900 equity and educational equity first [Music] reading thank all right we can try that again good evening Board of Education superintendent mubanga DPS Educators students and families um it is my pleasure to be here with you this evening to facilitate this presentation on our current draft of our racial and educational Equity policy so uh Miss Smith if you could um project the presentation that would be great and like I will likely be moving through some of these slides at a at a slightly Speedy manner but um again
108just excited to be here with you all um this evening we're going to review the background kind of like what led us to um go into this journey of developing an equity policy and we're also going to think about the purpose the structure and the content of our current draft of the policy um we also want to review some of the strategies that we have for Community engagement some of the early results that we've had from engaging our community over the last few months and finally um if the board has questions or feedback on our current draft of the policy then um then we will discuss that it is the racial and educational Equity draft policy okay are we able to advance through that okay my apologies if okay yeah it's my understanding that we're
109we're able to do that in presentation mode also but if not I could definitely pull it up and send that in a different format I what the board's permission I did neglect to introduce Dr Bullock I was so happy to be off the hot seats um Dr Bullock is joining us um he is a executive director for the office of equity Affairs and he has been lead in the work um regarding the Ed the equity policy that the board requested so he will be sharing with you as he indicated a history and you know where we are and where we're going uh with regards to this policy so I believe we're ready thank you Dr boink all right thank you all and thank thank you all for working with me so if we can um
110go to the next slide and actually we can advance to the next one all right so um I did want to give us a little history on us developing an equity policy um this this process actually goes back to 2018 when board members reached out to me around um researching some of the existing Equity policies from across the country if I'm not mistaken I think chair Umstead reached out to me about that um board member buer reached out and started putting it on my radar for us to develop a policy for the district um we also had Community leaders reaching out and District leaders um who were putting this um on the agenda for for something for to possibly develop for DPS so I wanted to give credit to where we started so that was
111three almost three years ago now and so um over the summer um I started working with um Miss Giovani and also my colleague in the office of equity Affairs Mr Jermaine Porter to consider um who might be who we might want to invite to be a part of an equity policy task force so we sent out 31 invitations to different community members and um actually all 31 accepted some weren't able to um participate the entire time but we we had everyone to accept and we started convenings um in August of 2020 and we wrapped up our meetings last month we've done Community engagement um starting in March of this year and that's actually ongoing so we're here um to present to you the final draft that we have recently um developed and want to get
112your feedback on it if we can go to the next slide so I I do want to start with our why um there are um there are a lot of conversations going on right now around our state around our country around the work of equity and the why and so I want to reinforce the idea that our why is always rooted in our students is always rooted in the children and their outcomes and so we we share this beautiful picture to just remind us of why we're here and why we do what we do um if we can go to the next slide and we're very familiar with these demographics we're familiar with the students and families and communities that we have the privilege of serving as during Public Schools we know that roughly 75%
113of our students identify as black and or Latino we know that roughly 2third according to 2019 2020 data of our students qualify for free or reduced price lunch again these are the students we have the privilege of serving as during Public Schools if we can go to the next slide we also know that across the state of North Carolina across the country depending on how students identify racially and or how they identify as Learners there are disparities in educational outcomes so this is North Carolina Statewide data that includes Public Schools Charter Schools across the entire State and you can tell that depending on how a student identifies with the race on the left and on the right you have different um learner identifications English Learners students with disabilities students who are identified as academically or
114intellectually gifted we know that there are great gaps in how students perform on end of grade or end of course tests one of the things that that we aim to do with this work of equity is to close the opportunity Gap that exists between Stu students from different groups if we can go to the next slide another disparity that we're very familiar with is the over representation particularly of black students and students with disabilities in short-term suspensions again this is North Carolina public school and Charter School data and we see that black students represent 25% of the students enrolled in North Carolina public and Charter Schools but yet they represent over 54% of students who receive short-term suspensions and when we and going back to the conversations that we were just having on the previous
115policies they it many of these suspensions are for subjective behaviors like disruptive behavior like um being disrespectful like insubordination and so we know that um statistically and in our data we see that black students and students with disabilities are less likely to get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to many of those subjective behaviors and those are the the types of practices on the education end that we seek to address through our Equity policy so if we can go to the next slide it is within that context that we have developed this draft of our racial and educational Equity policy and I'm here proud to stand before you today because I tell you this task force that we put together we have put together a bold Progressive and achievable policy so I'm really
116excited about what the Durham Community came together to do and again bold Progressive and achievable things that we can accomplish if we continue to work together as a school system if we can go to the next slide so the sections of the policy and again please follow along in your board packet we shared um the full draft of the policy in your board packet the um policy has five sections and those sections are the purpose the definitions so we have some terms that we felt we needed to Define so that people could navigate through the policy with understanding we have our pillars of the policy our implementation strategies and finally ideas for accountability and compliance next slide please so the purpose and definition we've already shared a little bit a little bit of information about
117the purpose of the policy specifically in the policy we have stated that the purpose of this policy is to Center equity in all of the district's functions and practices so that desperate outcomes that result along the lines of race ethnicity national origin gender gender identity gender expression socioeconomic status physical or mental ability sexual orientation religion age Etc will be dismantled and eliminated we name race as the primary predictor of outcomes in society and thus prioritize racial Equity as as foundational to the dismantling of all disparities so I wanted to go over that purpose with you because that that was the purpose that the task force rallied around and that is um that is the language that we came up with to establish the purpose of our policy and again we have you see the definition
118uh the currently adopted definition of equity for DPS that we've been using on the screen but we have defined a number of terms in this policy again to help um with understanding of the content of the policy so some of the terms we defined were terms like decolonization terms like um deficit thinking um also anti-racism restorative practices so that we can be on the same page about what we're talking about when we're talking about Equity next slide so here you have um the equity policy pillars I shared a draft of these with you back when I presented to you in February we've slightly modified um some of the language in these pill and we've also modified the order based on feedback from our task force and based on feedback from our community so for example
119initially um address the pillar C addressing social and emotional well-being of students and staff was um was letter e we moved it up and centered it based on the feedback of our task force and based on the feedback of our community so on the next few slides I'm going to take you a little deeper into each of these and then share some more information about Community feedback and then wrap up for questions so if we can go to the next one that first one disrupting and dismantling systemic inequities um a part a part of that that we have named in our policy is that we want to develop systems for compiling and analyzing data in all departments and schools to identify inequitable structures policies Andor practices that create or exacerbate disparities and so what we're
120talking about there the conversation we were just having about the data dashboard it's about analyzing data actively looking in the data to identify what are the gaps that exist or how are our current practices creating gaps and outcomes for different groups and so um within this first pillar we want to develop systems for analyzing that data identifying the practices and changing the practices so that we close gaps the second pillar for or pillar B focuses on honoring and strengthening the connections between home and school we want to recognize the Power of Words you utilizing asset-based people first language and what we mean by people first language is that as opposed to for [Music] example sometimes we hear people refer to students who receive exceptional Children's Services as the EC kids that is not what we
121want to hear in Duram Public Schools we want to s the person first center the child first and we want to provide training so that we remember to recognize that they're not EC kids they are students who receive EC services or students who receive exceptional children services so that that's the type of language that we want to utilize in our district and we also want to continue to create welcoming spaces for community and families a couple of years ago we did um um customer service training for front office staff across the district we want to bring that type of training back and methods for monitoring and accountability for front office staff we want to make sure when when families when people come into our schools they feel welcome they feel at home they feel appreciated
122so that is a part of pillar B we can go to the next slide again pillar C focuses on um addressing social and emotional well-being of students and staff I have an image here from our restorative practices training where we try to get to that restorative Corner meaning that we're moving away from um being punitive and U and also moving away from being permissive but we're finding ways to work together so that we can get a happy medium of accountability for students but also supporting them however they may need so we want to provide ongoing training around that again work that has already been started but being intentional about how we continue that and make sure that it's ongoing and the second portion of this is about developing plans um to hire and maintain appropriate
123ratios of school social workers counselors psychologists Etc so here we've been this is something we've been talking about and this is a lofty goal but we want to think about how can we start planning for strategies to make sure we have a appropriate ratios so at one school the need may be higher than another but how can we balance our resources to try to meet this need um for the social emotional well-being of students and staff if we can go to the next one um letter D is around ensuring access and representation in academic programming in schools this is something that has also been lifted up this evening as far as making sure there Equitable access to advanced placement courses or Advanced courses um throughout a child's educational experience we want to decolonize methods of
124learning and ideas of knowledge essentially means that we want to we want students the diverse students that we serve we want them to see themselves in the learning that takes place in the classroom and finally um um pillar e building staff capacity for Equity centered practices I mean I have said time and again in this role that it is not my job to try to be the Equity lens for the entire District essentially what we need to do is to empower others to have their own Equity lens and to Center equity in their work and so we want to do that by continuing to provide anti-racist culturally responsive professional learning for all employees and providing professional learning for hiring managers to mitigate bias in the hiring process so those are just two examples all right
125we can move to the next one so for implementation strategies and the policy you will see um we want to develop system structures and practices and annual plans for training with timelines for operationalizing this policy we have some ideas for that in the policy draft and we also for accountability that Equity dashboard that data dashboard that has been mentioned this evening we definitely want to develop that to compile maintain and communicate progress on Equity measures that are outlined in this policy and other measures that may be suggested by the office of equity Affairs and a major part of our role will be monitoring that dashboard communicating about it sharing the progress that's being made on these different pillars with you our Board of Education next slide all right finally I want to go over a
126few points with what we've done around Community engagement with this policy um so if we go to the next slide we have had five major um strategies for Community engagement we can go to the next one the for itself was a strategy um I bang the table survey I'll share some feedback from that with you we have an ongoing Google survey to get even more feedback on on one pager of the policy that we developed we did some listening and learning sessions and now still continuing some in-person engagement to to um direct people to the Google survey all right next slide so again the development of the equity policy task force we did reach out to 31 Durham stakeholders and invited them to participate on the task force um 30 of 31 accepted the invitation
127and attended at least one meeting so we did have one person that accepted actually accepted multiple invitations to meetings but they weren't ever able to quite make it so we had 31 everyone accepted um 24 of the 31 were pretty were consistent throughout the process so the task force consisted of um 14 invitees that identified as black seven that identified as latinx seven that identified as white two that identified as Asian-American and one that identified as Muslim American um also want to note that there was one current student and one recent graduate on the task force there were seven current seven parents of current DPS students four School administrators um two school-based certified staff um two Board of Education members of course Sher Umstead Miss Lewis um four elected officials total um three representatives from
128local organizations one classified staff member we had one graduate student intern who worked with us and we also had 12 um central office staff members who were working with us so I also want to give a special shout out to our the co-leads of the subcommittees um for our policy writing subcommittee our initial leads were Miss Sonia Marquez who's in AP at George Watts and Dr Travis Anderson on Dr Travis Anderson due to the responsibilities around Co Taylor bullet could serve as the his co-lead rep um and then um for Community engagement Mr Jermaine Porter and Dr Jose Cardoza uh who's an AP at Jordan were the co-leads and then we had also for to lead the implementation and accountability subcommittee Miss Lori mcnolty and Dr wosa idahor I graduate student intern they served as
129the co-leads of that um sub committee so I want to thank all of them all right next slide so feedback work with public affairs to put um some Sur a survey on bang the table um which is our engage. dpsnc.net website we had 20 over 2,800 people to visit that website um we had um 15 over 1,500 who visited the website and did some additional engagement they might have completed a survey they might have filled out some contact information they might have asked a question they might have just navigated around and checked out different pages we actually did get 240 survey full survey responses um through bang the table one of the things we noted here is that we did not collect racial or gender demographic information when we did this particular engagement respondents also
130had to enter an email address um and we do believe things like that make a difference as far as how the type of feedback you get or that's that's my personal thought based on how the resp responses we got to bang the table versus the Google survey so our first response was received in um early March but most of our responses came um in late April and early May so what did the feedback say next slide 82% of the 240 respondents felt the pillars covered the main issues of equity that needed to be addressed they did suggest that we change the order of the pillars like I've mentioned ear earlier um and not to associate numbers with each pillar so when we originally rolled this out they were the pillars were numbered we changed the
131numbers to letters so that you can we can still indicate you know which pillar we're discussing but we removed the numbers because the numbers communicated a hierarchy in the pillars um a number of respondents requested more specificity in the pillars there were some concerns raised about equity and hiring practices some respondents um um raising concerns about Fair pay compensation for teachers and staff so those were some things that they felt could be added to the pillars um also I like to know in the 18% of people who did not feel like the pillars covered some of the main issues of equity there were many responses where people had concerns about Equity work in general um and so we saw more of that in our Google survey responses that I'll share in a moment we could
132go to the next slide so our Google form um we sent that out again to all of our stakeholders to staff members and parents and we had 96 survey responses 41% of which were white 26 is percent is black 9% Latino 3% multiracial 2% Asian-American 18% preferred not to say um the majority identified as parents and 26% of respondents identified as staff here respondents did not have to enter an email address and we started collecting this feedback relatively recently this was late May um when we started collecting this feedback May 25th to be exact next slide so in the the feedback through the Google form it was pretty divided in responses so this this data half of the respondents were extremely supportive of the development of the equity policy and the pillars and so actually
133it was slightly over half were really supportive of the pillars and then the other half of respondents were concerned with the focus on Equity work in general they were not supportive of the pillars felt that there should be a focus on equality rather than Equity race concerns about critical race Theory um that that was critical race Theory B bubbled up a lot um words like indoctrination are we indoctrinating our kids with the these ideas of equity and so um yes so that was the the we received much more of that feedback in our second effort to um gain feedback on our policy so wanted everyone to be aware of that next slide and so um we we've also engaged in some listening and learning um some in-person engagement and so we facilitated virtual listening learning
134sessions for staff and community members via Zoom Facebook and YouTube um we've been going to school promotion ceremonies and device returns well those that weren't cancelled because a lot of those were occurring um when it was pouring down raining and people had to reschedule but we we got out to as many as we could and try to engage with stakeholders directly and essentially there we were prompting them to respond to the Google survey so that's that's kind of where we've landed as far as Community engagement we're still trying to get the word out and of course your feedback at this point is going to be um pivotal as we move forward but that concludes U the information I wanted to share with you on the policy again we feel really really good about what we
135put together but of course it's not a perfect document and we welcome whatever feedback you have for us so that we can tweak and refine what we put together but thank you thank you Dr Bullock um feedback questions discussion from the board Miss fire I just want to say thank you thank you thank you thank you this is uh this is work that is um any one of these pillars any one of these sections it you know there's already that's already an office that's already a department you know to look at that um when I looked at section a um I'm thinking about uh you know how we're serving our our students you know providing the education that they all deserve you know that that one right there brings so many different things um and
136I'm so grateful for the ways you you are addressing you know our language around our students um when you talk about asset-based uh individuals you know our our students um for so long you know we hear about achievement gaps I didn't see the word achievement Gap in any of your presentation right I didn't see at risk in any of your presentation at all or underrepresented minorities that's that wasn't in there at all um low-income family so so for you know all these all these different labels that um tell something about the deficiency but don't talk about what each student brings and so that that was one of the questions um I remember in one of the superintendent forums uh somebody in the audience said you know can can can you tell us you know what
137are the assets you know can you tell us what are the assets that our families bring um and so you have definitely um you know provided for us a lot of U uh a very important very significant way of looking at how we are addressing you know the the situations the challenges but not addressing the challenges not labeling our students as challenges themselves and that is super powerful um I I love the models and I love also the definitions that you included um as we are talk talking about what we are working with and those definitions you know uh decolonizing could mean you know for those folks who might have had questions and maybe thinking that there's indoctrination it's like you know can we look at the definition and I urge everybody to look at
138our board package um look at that definition and you know have a conversation with us about what about that um it remains unclear because I think that it is uh it is very important as we have these conversations that we demystify you know notion of what things actually mean and we look at the definitions we look at where you're coming from what you're saying about it um we as a district understand that we want to increase sense of belonging in our students and that a lot of our curriculum um you know the work that the admins have been doing is slowly like buying you know the the curriculum that is representative of of our students that is highlighting you know women that is highlighting not just not just men right or looking across race I
139mean there's enough uh examples of that um and you provided also the research behind it which is also you know the research is there right for um or the different documents or the institutions so if anybody wants to dive further they can go into that there's one model um that Rising Scholars and uh that also you know it's it's it was something that um during my time um even coming to this board you know um I was talking to um a constituent and and and and he was talking and he was guiding me along with uh University of California having a rising Scholars model and they also do a lot of this stuff with um embracing um more of asset based um but it's also like understanding um the Legacy so the legacy of Institutions
140cultural equity and how that undermines sense of belonging and so when it comes to s that sense of belonging is something that is that is something we want to we want to increase um we want to be able to um to ensure that every child has it I guess when it comes to the pillars you know they're all addressing this they're all together addressing addressing the sense of belonging it's going to take a lot of work my my question for you is in your department and this is I'm putting you kind of on the spot how um do other departments support the work that you're doing in what ways for example as we are doing boundary assessment we're looking at magnets you know magnet schools magnet designations we're going to have robust conversations you know
141is there any way that um you feel that you know who enrolls in magnets who leaves them you know um that these other departments are are providing enough data for you to to look at and continue to build upon the pillars because you're giving us a blueprint you're telling us how we can ensure that our district is Equitable um and how you know to ensure that every child gets an education but there's so many questions in terms of like data that resides in other departments and I'm wondering like how um how your department can continue to be like for any decision that we make we go to your department you know and we kind of like consult with you um you know magnet lotteries you know like um there's some questions about you know how
142are demographics which you also laid out which is very interesting when you looked at the demographics the student demographics in DPS how do they compare to the demographics in Charters and private schools right and so us to for us to be able to look at that data like if we have 41% black students right we have 32 uh 33. uh 2% latinx students we have 19% white students what is that number for charters right and what is that number for private schools so that the picture can become even clearer um and uh so many different things so many different uh things but I gave you a lot I'm just saying a lot of gratitude um I just want to hear more about like uh with this boundary reassessment your department um you know being there
143and um and these pillars like being something that we that we continue to work on that we that every Department can kind of look at these pillars and and continue to uh to cental equity yeah so thank you for that question and um so I mean the my initial thought when when you were posing the question around collaboration with other departments was I I don't want to start naming departments because I'm going to leave out departments that I collaborate with I feel like um I'm constantly in a state of collaborating with others and and it's and it's it's a great place to be and knowing that here here in our district it is not me trying to carry this Equity load um and and I can I'm always depending on others and seeing how others
144are carrying the work and sometimes they'll come to me and they'll ask for my advice or feedback on some Equity work that they're already embedding and what they're doing but um so often people are are carrying it themselves and then they reach out to us for support so to speak specifically about what you're asking about magnets um I'm I'm very much involved in that process I I would I co-presented um with Dr Pitman and Julie Pac and um Matthew Palmer so we're talk I mean that's a that's a operations academic Services Chief of Staff you know all departments kind of coming together around that project and you know and right now um the the major effort is in just hearing what the community is thinking how the community feels about those programs and what are
145the needs and what programs would we like to see so that's really where we are right now as far as just wanting to hear from people we have some ideas I mean we're clearly analyzing the data and we see where some gaps are but we also want to know how are people feeling about you know what we're offering as a school system so and and we'll be sharing more about that um also at the board retreat um but yeah I I definitely um with this work and thinking about these pillars in particular um again pillar e around building staff capacity for Equity centered practices one of our major goals is you know to help Empower others to apply their own Equity lens and so um you know we're we're in office of two um hopefully
146growing to an office of three really soon like really really soon and so um but as we do that again it's about empowering others to apply their Equity lens and even just this week um I I've I've been collaborating ating with like principal supervisors and thinking about the school Improvement planning process how are we applying an equity lens even there and which I believe is foundational to you know implementing and advancing equity in our schools so that's that might be a link in response to your question thank you thank you for everything like I said any one of those is already a full department and you're already covering so much work you know and and definitely um very um grateful for everything that you do and even the ways you you know plug out in
147community and and Lead work outside because I know DPS Foundation you know you do that and you know Durham committee and so many other spaces you know that um that you're in that I that I that I see that you're in and I'm I'm just really really appreciating all the work so hopefully you know you you have all the Personnel that that um that is required because this is this is a lot of work in every direction but thank you for everything you do thank you Mr Lee and then miss Umstead well first I'll say thank you I think we we've been looking forward to something like this since um we asked you to take over this role to create this department so I do appreciate this I do have a couple questions um so
148I know I'm trying to go back through policy and understand like our how do we measure policy right how do we measure the the adaption or or the adoption of policy do we have measures for something like this I know this this is new right and we want to make sure that there is um we're leaning in I guess towards you know adopting this districtwide um but I don't know if we and maybe this is something from Miss Giovani as well do we put measures into policy um of what we want these things to do we want this type of um policy being adopted you know do we have do we put measures in policy I'm not entirely sure make sure I I'm just understand you're saying like we want like a 10% reduction in
149suspensions is that what you're talking about or something well I I'm just speaking in general right um when we when we write policies you know we going no then you generally do not policies are the board's way of stating it's governance desires and beliefs and so um sometimes if you want to get into a little detail you can work in to like a regulation so that you are really dictating kind of how that goes but you really those are still way more broad than yeah um you would really need like for an sop so I think I would ask Dr bulck um to kind of explain a little bit more Dr is it l who's it that the implementation strategy I'm going to ask him to share the people that have been working really hard
150on the implementation strategies and kind of some of I think that may help um with your question Mr right okay yes so um we we did we have an implementation and accountability subcommittee um that we developed and that that was their goal to look at the policy as it was drafted and to start coming up with ideas of metrics that can be associated with each aspect of the policy that is a working document that we we're continuing to refine on that and again that work was led um primarily by um Miss Lori mnti and Dr wosa Idol and so um so who were the coleagues and um chair Umstead was a part of that subcommittee also and so um yeah so we we developed some um ideas for what implementation would look like what some
151metrics could be for these and one of the things that we were working really hard on with that was um to get beyond our traditional metrics of things some very often um we will metrics will get bowed back down to basically just test scores and while we believe test scores matter and we want we want to increase um those outcomes we also want to diversify um the data to make sure they're representative of the full student experience so like we have the student climate surveys we have um different measures of what a student's experience is in a school we want to make sure we're utilizing that data too and developing metrics and it can be part of a school maybe identifying within their school Improvement plan that hey this is we want to improve this
152measure on our student climate survey that 100% of students report that this is a great place to work and learn so things like that are some of the ideas and metrics that we're looking at to align with um the parts of the policy you see here right um thank you very much I appreciate that I um um there was a there was a a comment in here about uh equality versus Equity yes right and that was you know someone pushing back saying he should focus on equality versus equity and hearing that and kind of in my line of work I have to advocate for certain things U hearing that just lets me know there there we have to there going to have to be an education component to why we focus on Equity versus equality
153at D at DPS right because um that's something we talked about uh when Dr manga first started we were talking about an equity calculator you know how do you balance budget you know who needs more who needs less that sort of thing um as we go through this process and you know these policies incorporating this and growing in our district I think that education component for the public as well as staff is going to be really important for us uh because this is a big piece of what we do that what you know School Board Administration staff everyone it's in the we need this to be in the DNA of during public schools and so um I would just advocate for uh an education component um that we continue to um evangelize the need for
154these types of policies these types of actions you know outward and inward uh to DPS um and and um one of the reasons I was asking about the measures is you know uh we take equity in our schools you know leadership down very important and uh it we we take it pretty heavily and I would hope and maybe this is not for a policy discussion here but I would hope we could have some sort of measure you know for our leadership of their their their measures of equity in their buildings right uh if it's principles you know what you know how do they measure against our policies with with Equity within their buildings um that's leaders that's superintendent all the way down you know maybe even the classroom teachers um and I think that should
155go as a part of evaluation like a an evaluation metric as well um again if we want this to be a part of our DNA if we want Equity if we want you know inserting this into policy makes it part of our DNA because our policy is what makes us a district so if we do that we um we should really try to push for that sort of um accountability you know in our leadership you know all the way down so again I do appreciate this work this is really exciting to see um thank you to the board members who participated on this thank you for everyone on on the committee the 31 people who responded back and that's amazing you sent out 31 invitations and 31 people responded Yes whether they could completely compend
156or not that that just lets you know how important it is for Durham County and the citizens account of Durham as well as Durham Public Schools so thank you Dr bulock I appreciate your leadership on this I appreciate your staff and your future third person coming into the uh your office of equity and and I just really appreciate it thank you all thank you uh thank you Dr Bullock and team um I participated on the task force and I say every meeting we had we were all engaged we were ready to work and I think we all worked really um tirelessly to make this policy come into fruition and it was a while ago when we first started having some conversations about this so I'm glad that we're here today but I and I think
157the time that it took to get here led to this type of policy I don't know if we tried to do it a couple years ago that we've been able to still get the same richness in the policy that we have um I had a couple questions and then other highlights that I just want to talk about on the survey do we have a sense of people who are residents of Derm or is it open like do we know if they're connected to DPS or in our community we we do not know well everyone most people identify that they were um that they were either a Durham parent or Durham staff member um there's no way to check for sure to make sure that um they they were who they said they were but the
158indications are that these would be Durham community members yes okay I just want to clarify that um I like and I'm gonna say some things that already been said I love the asset based parts of this policy and like I've been reading it a lot so I won't rehash all the things that I've I've been you know as we've been steeped in this group but I really one of the things we talked about often was across our system and often times we talk about Equity was like oh our schools are schools but this really has to be every single Department's job to consider what Equity looks like and one of the things I also like about this is building capacity so I think even when you started I was like this can't be Dr Bullock's
159job to be the equity Champion for our whole District right he is but all of us have to be Equity leaders in our own right to make sure we can do this work really well and I think in this you see a lot of developing systems and plans and those regulations that M Giovani talked about that will help us start thinking about Equity not as a for afterthought but as ingrained into what we do every day all right I'm doing my evaluation I'm doing my observation I'm looking for the equity teaching strategies while I'm in this classroom because that's a part of how we do our business um and I think our policy is going to be good and the next piece about that we had to work on is changing our culture right I
160think there is a culture of equity in our district how do we strengthen and enhance that and I think the policy will do some of that work I appreciate Dr mbinga your commitment to equity and everyone who is here and I just hope that we um in a time where there can be a lot of push back around Equity work that we double down on this we know it's the right thing to do for our students to ensure all of our students can succeed um and then I also hope we make sure we commit to ongoing training and support um I think about Equity as a journey we're not going to arrive there tomorrow we probably won't arrive in five years because we continue to see systems replicate inequities um and so we have to
161think about this as a journey that we're continuing to learn and to grow and working towards um what we need for our students and I like metrics and accountability um but I want us to take a balanced approach on that sometimes metrics and accountability also are used to um hinder Equity work right we boil it down to test scores and then that becomes a metric that we know is not representative of the Brilliance of our students so I want us and I think we've talked about this in the accountability um Team often so how do we make sure we take a balanced approach to that because if you look at test scores they're not going to show you the Brilliance of the art or the scholarship or the something else that students also receive so
162how do we make sure we take that balanced approach so those are my comments thank you so much and thank you to the team that has worked on this um it's been a pleasure and an honor to work with you all even virtually as we worked on this policy thank you Miss berer thank you Dr Bullock I when we dreamed this up Miss Umstead and I chair Umstead years ago this is an even more aspirational beautiful policy than I think we could have imagined and I think uh Miss Lewis and chair I'm said for working on this on our behalf and also the 30 community members and especially you for your leadership um I can't find anything to do but celebrate this policy it is aspirational and the only thing I thought that we might
163add is this policy kind of assumes that we have the resources to do what is needed here and maybe if we add a a bullet about you know the board and the district being lead leading Advocates with the federal state and local funders for everything that our students need so you know you've got great stuff about nurses and social workers meeting ratios in here we're trying to do that we're we're hoping to do that um but it's going to take resources we've got the Leandro ruling coming this week and we've got the general assembly ignoring it right so um something about that and engaging with the community in in that advocacy work I think is going to be so so important because um the realities of what our students in North Carolina need versus what
164the general assembly has done failing them over the last 20 years are vastly worlded apart and I would say that I think your equality Equity um input probably was not from Durham people you've gotten some Focus from outside of North Carolina which means you're doing something right so keep it up and I really appreciate your leadership thank you thank you all right um I'll share my comments here I am um this is a lot thank you so much for your presentation and all the work um that has gone into this and those stakeholders that you engaged I appreciate the multi-prong approach in gathering the data engaging the stakeholders getting Community input um and creating um what what chair chair Umstead said the richness of this policy that's being brought forth I appreciate also when you
165were talking um about what it's going to take and already that you're not carrying this by yourself but there are so many departments that are carrying this with you and also I heard you say a little bit of one of the pillars in there about building educator capacity because that's going to be needed um you know there's differentiated t uh teaching culturally inclusive supportive um practices that again we have to build that capacity and have the resources like Miss berer was talking about to support those efforts but like you said this is bold Progressive and achievable and if that is the work you all are putting forth and the will of this board I can see that happening as well it is achievable um just a few questions for you and I think it may
166have already been touched on when you when I speak when it speaks about achievable I think this similar to what Mr Lee was saying is what are the metrics um what's next after this becomes policy right and then my other concern that I want to bring up and I think it's already been brought up as well is those who have brought up um concerns about equality and equity and and not really having a clear understanding of what that means how have you or how will you continue to um make sure you're addressing those concerns as well yeah so to answer that that last question um because you know well so for example um I I do believe some of that feedback you know is internal lend Durham um based on some conversations I've had even
167this week with um some parents as we've been doing the magnet engagement work um I've had um I've had Parents Express like raise some of those questions around equality versus Equity things of that nature and so um the thing that I think we need to continue going back to um Mr Lee's point is you know that engagement that um I guess education in our community around what why we're doing this work and how we need to move forward to advance this work and um that's something that we also centered in our listening and learning sessions too because I had already received some of that feedback so um even tonight in doing this presentation I took us back to the why because I think it's important to constantly reinforce why we're doing this work and what
168this work means and what we're aspiring to through this work so we've been incorporating it usually in my presentations I ground it in some sort of data to show the disparity the Gap whatever the issue is that we're trying to address grounding it there so that people have an understanding of the why and just constantly reinforcing this is why we're doing this work and I think the more that we can um continue that in whatever we're doing um I think that'll help to raise um people's understanding of you know why we have the focus on Equity thank you so much and you mentioned um you know having the data analyzing it looking at the practices and disrupting practices that don't work I think that all goes back into the evaluation tool that Mr Lee had
169mentioned again this policy has to be the foundation and be interwoven in every system that we have um again I appreciate the work that you've brought to us and look forward to the to approving this policy um think had a couple more comments Mr Lee and Miss vas just really quickly I just had one thing I I wrote down a while ago I just wanted to appreciate you guys going to the different events to get more people to sign you know do do the uh survey that's really important that's something I've spoken about quite a bit is we sometimes we have to go out instead of just sending emails or text messages or power school calls or whatever we have to go out and knock on doors or meet people where they are to let
170them know about the surveys you know please you because some people just some people just don't get those messages so the fact that you guys went out to the uh equipment returns and you were talking and so forth you know that should be a shining example of what we have to do when we're trying to communicate to our families about what's next what do we need to do or you know that sort of thing so thank you so much that that's the only thing I wanted to say there is going out to the community thank you go ahead M address I I just have um um feedback since this is a first reading um and um we have talked about all the things we value about it there's there's one thing and it's a personal
171request um okay as I look at the definitions which I you know applaud you for for including um there is just uh one thing with restorative practices I know Student Assignment office of student report sorry does restorative practices but the definition that the Institute International Institute for restorative uh practices they are of course known they are extend to Canada I've looked into their stuff and it is deficient in my view based on um the approach that they take on restorative practice as being something about social capital and social discipline there's nothing in there about relationship and knowing that restorative practices come from indigenous communities relationship is centered to everything they do and I would love for us to look at different definitions I know that they are like the legit like the big kind of
172brand but nothing in there says anything about relationship and I think that that is something that um when even doing a search in edutopia.org you know just what po up first you know restorative approaches are about building community so I'd love something that talks about Community um and strengthening relationships so I was like whoa even they get it you know like restorative approaches based on the idea that we feel part of a supportive Community we respect others in that community and become accountable be you know so that the accountability based on relationship based on connection and being a part of community I would love just I know it's just one little tidbit but when I saw it and I was like you know I I had seen it and you know it's like yeah Social
173Capital social discipline and all that but I would love for us to um yeah Center the relationship and uh yeah like I said it's amazing work that that you have haven't that's just a little tidbit but it's just something that I couldn't um not mention thank you thank you and what did you just referenced as far as um another organization that had the definition with some of that language in it yeah so what what's happening right now is like when it comes to restorative practice there's a whole like reemergence of the original stuff you know like we have like um many people making books on stuff that they take from communities right and they reduce it to Concepts and write all the academic books and completely missed the whole essence of what it is and
174that is exactly what's happening with the sort of Justice movements where they have made it all about the academic mindset of social capital and you know discipline and all that stuff but they're missing the whole thing with the relationship and so there's a lot of indigenous communities that are coming out being Circle practitioners and talking about what restorative practices really are based on what they originally were and have been and continue to be but they're not the ones getting the contracts right so it's so there is like restore circles kind of movements um my my main thing is that as a as a district um we have heard time and time again that the community wants to be involved we want to strengthen those relationships we we have language in that in our strategic plan
175about you know strengthening relationships um building community and so the the definition that I gave is is one that comes up like a couple of times from different places so we can talk more and I you know um I also know that uh this is also something a conversation with um student supports since they do have um a lot of the restorative practices I'd love to be able to for us to figure out um ways that even in anything that we do that we are looking at um the relationship and more of like what we value here in Durham um but yeah that really appreciate that that was Utopia that was the the definition for Ed Utopia thank you thank you any other feedback thank you so much Dr Bullock thank you next item on
176our agenda shift into operation Services 9A recommendation to negotiate pre-construction contracts Dr M good evening Miss Lewis and Board of Education Dr maanga um this item is a recommendation to negotiate pre-construction contracts for construction management at risk services for six of our elementary addition and renovation projects and with that I'm going to turn it over to uh Mr Davis who is our director of construction design and sustainability uh to walk you through the um the selection process and then to provide the recommendation good evening thank you Dr Monk good evening chair Board of Education uh Dr mainga Administration and staff uh the office of school planning design and construction would like to present to you our recommendation for construction manager at risk for the six elementary schools uh that you find in our 2020 Capital
177Improvement plan we want to quickly highlight the process in which we able to come to our recommendation and formulate who we thought would be appropriate construction managers to be a part of our team next slide please uh could you go back one please Smith thank you along with build new schools such as lions Farm Northern High School and Elementary F to add to our overall capacity under the CIP we are also achieving the much needed additional capacity particularly uh in regards to expanding our prek program uh along with capacity building we are also looking to renovate and address some of the overall building envelopes that you find at these schools making sure systems are updated as well as furniture and fixtures the following schools are a part of the first phase or round of Improv
178movements next slide please so the process that was followed is similar to the one we follow with uh engaging in semar for elementary f it is a public process that begins with a request for qualifications this request was issued on March of 2021 and were received in April the RFQ was reviewed and evaluated on the basis of preconstruction experience overall construction project experience their ability to engage the W mwbe community and previously relationships with DPS from there we shortlisted six firms from the 13 responders on May the 20th we host an all day interview session to learn more about the six shortlisted firms this was an opportunity to learn more about these firms and also to glean what may not be apparent from their written proposals during the interviews we're able to meet with the
179proposed project team and Key Personnel that may be responsible for the construction oversight during these projects next slide please so here are the three the six excuse me shortlisted firms that were a part of our interview all are very capable firms with various ranges of experience and some of these firms are locally and nationally known next slide please the following of the firms and school projects we recommend this evening for contract negotiations this list reflects the qualification experience and opportunities DPS has decided would best fit the overall success of the project I do want to highlight some of the Partnerships that highlight historically and underutilized businesses the Clans andth are partnering with the Danielle company which is a mwbe partner samit is partnering with W Bill International which is also mwebe company and 100% participation
180for the Mangum elementary school will be with da e and with that we'll take any questions that you may have at this time next slide please thank you Mr Davis this is up for discussion and action any questions there no questions we want to go ahead Miss P sorry Mr Davis thank you for bring this here did you tell us this the time frame for the work that that will be completed when schools and parents and families should expect to see work ongoing kind of as folks are thinking about these six schools yeah so we're currently in the discovery design phase uh for these six schools it is following a similar trajectory to Elementary F uh so this is an these are U renovation projects uh which will be going on in occupied spaces so
181I hope is to be ready uh by the fall of 2023 um but we do want to be uh transparent and say that we may be adjusting the schedule to reflect some of the uh due to the pandemic and some inflation with construction numbers at this time but our goal is to be ready uh with the improvements and some of the renovations by the fall of 2023 so ready to have them finished correct just wanted to clarify thank you so much for bringing this and um can you also tell people I think that's a picture of lion's Farm behind you there that's got a lid on it now yes I'm excited we we are have most of our uh interior floors poured uh most of the foundation walls up this is really to my left
182or to your right depending on what you're looking at is the gym cafetorium um so we will be putting out some communication later on in the upcoming weeks of having what we call uh the last piece of still erected where it' be a community engagement where we'll have people from the community as well as board members and administration be able to sign the last erected piece of Steel that will forever be uh placed as a memory of the success of this project along with the others that are coming thank you that's beautiful thanks for sharing that with us Mr Davis welcome are there any other questions I'll entertain a motion I would move approval of the administration's recommendation for preconstruction contracts for construction management at risk for the six Elementary School addition and renovation projects
183all second has been moved by Miss buyers and properly second by Mr Lee discussion all in favor v i i any oppos the same motion passes 60 thank you so much Mr Davis and Dr Monk next item on our agenda is Shi into academic Services 10A 20222 CTE local application insurance and certification I see it y so going back up to 9B budget update I'm still looking at my old agenda I'm sorry thank you for pausing so budget instill an operations 9B on the agenda is budget update fiscal year 2021-22 Mr [Music] lour it's kind of tight thank you uh good evening Miss Lewis board members Dr mainga um glad today tonight to be able to bring you up to date on some information regarding uh the county budget uh last week at their June
1841st meeting they added some additional dollars to our budget which is a good thing and I want to thank you all for your continued support and and meeting with the County Commissioners on trying to get us additional funding presentation please if not we can do the quick slides there we go uh next slide please just want to let you know that uh the collaboration that you had with the County Commissioners uh this year has has made a difference for us with them coming back to provide us additional funding uh to the tune of 3 well $3 million uh for $ million in that in total in that regard I'll go through this U from the standpoint one slide back thank you we got $1.4 million for operating expenses this will be able to assist us
185with uh meeting some of the needs that we were looking to fill holes in this year uh the two uh the four positions that we had put in place this year uh for construction purposes a purchasing agent another purchasing person another uh person for uh accounting for the construction money that we'll be receiving over the next 10 years as well as the capital planning position and uh a planner that in there as well so uh we're very fortunate to get that also critical piece that uh you have been pushing for is additional funding for public health School nurses this funding uh will not come directly to us this will be handled by the Department of Public Health and of Durham County and they will be providing hiring 10 FTE to provide to us in that
186regard as well as two other FTE for a supervisor and a processing assistant um in that regard what this means with the $1.1 million is we will get the positions presented to our school they will pay the bills uh and we will not have to share any of these dollars with the charter schools because they will be supplying us of personnel remember you already have 15 that come from public health as it is right now uh so this 10 additional brings us up to 25 very very much needed thing at this time uh with the pandemic winding down and us being able to ensure that we're in a good place opening up the schools uh and of course we've been pushing for some time now to move the the needle on Capital outlay um they
187gave us an additional 1.5 million uh from that standpoint and that $1.5 million will bring us up to the Six Million that we had requested uh previously over the past number of years uh so this will put us in a better place for being able to do the things we need to do that are small projects that aren't necessarily part of the schools um because we have many other buildings that we have to maintain as well and so we can get some other projects done uh outside of the scope of bonds so that's a great thing um so we really appreciate them putting that uh forward this year and in the budget which they're supposed to approve next Monday ju June 14th so we'll have H celebration of additional funding moving forward and again uh
188we want to thank our people for you all and and those that have been supportive of us in getting those uh additional resources into the budget next slide this is a couple things that we I'll just hit on a couple of them but again I had already mentioned a number of these uh before um we are as uh we heard from Dr Bullock he was encouraged and hopes that he gets another position in the equity of office there is one of those positions as part of this that we're looking for as also at the multilingual Resource Center providing another F uh position there for support of our uh English Learners um again uh some of the money uh we're going to put towards uh some additional staff for English Learners as well and also uh
189some additional funding for custodial FTE uh just to either move our positions uh from 10mth to 12 month or to establish some new positions as well so uh from that standpoint and then of course uh we always have our unmet needs uh that we still have on the table but we feel that the it requirements we can use uh through um some of the funding uh through the the cares I mean the SR funding that we're receiving uh to to bite us over in time uh from that standpoint so and of course we'll use as much uh carryover as possible from the federal programs to support all the operations as we move forward um so we're I think we're in a very good place as we move forward into next fiscal year uh we're still
190awaiting of course what the general assembly will be uh bringing us as far as funding Miss buers mentioned the Leandro funding uh that would be a big help to all school districts across the state if they would make a move on that judge Lee has come out and said that they need to start doing that they have seven years to get it done so um hopefully we will see some movement in the next few weeks but the general assembly is talking about doing many many mini bills like they did in the past two years which frustrate us people in finance uh and because they just don't it's just not the right thing to do they need to pass an annual budget uh annually uh bial budget uh to start up this bium and and just
191adjust it next year so again I keep saying that I'm hoping that they're going to come out with the 15 uh $750 million that will be for support for our uh it area uh in regards to um findes and forfeitures that they had collected but they had not not paid to the school districts that would give us about $15 million additional funding if we could get that which would be very helpful as we move forward uh with refresh for uh all the computers that we moved to one: one so um still hope on the horizon for that but um we keep our fingers crossed that's all I can say um next slide please and this just basically gives you uh the listing of how much we've actually received uh the county has brought given us
192uh $12.2 million overall more in funding uh less to 1 million 1.1 that they will have for the the nurses will keep us around $ 11.1 million that they gave us in new money this year um and then also they appropriating the the $1.9 million to keep our fedal Federal our funding for our $15 uh minimum wage uh in our budget for this year so really overall if we look at it they've given us about $14 million this fiscal year uh which is a big help to us in moving us forward uh with the initiatives we have and the learning uh loss that we have to deal with in the next few years so next slide please and my this is just kind of an overview of uh the different areas that receive that we
193receive funding in for our operations um we're still unfunded this year from our request about $5.8 million um for the operations uh but other than that glad we received all the capital money this year uh to move us forward and we'll continue to whittle away at the unfunded items that we would love to have in our budget next slide please and my favorite slide questions any questions Miss viz and then Mr Raven thank you so much uh Mr fasur for uh always keeping us up to date about the changes to budget really appreciative um that we were able to secure um you know more funds um when you had the full list of you know the the um the things that the funds could go towards right um I'm I'm going to go back to
194to an item that I feel has been there for years the half million dollars like $500,000 right um and there there's a there's a lot of stuff on there there's there's a long list a lot of very important things and I'm just wondering like um how how are those items being prioritized um or what were the considerations for them since we obviously can't cover everything or do you think that there's a possibility that um we can use those funds towards most of the things that are on there I mean we can we can I mean we targeted some of them U but there you know we have flexibility to move those Dollars around to meet the needs of of of what is necessary to uh move us forward uh especially with learning loss and things
195of that nature so um yeah uh we had 500,000 in there for that uh for English Learners to to help support that program as well um so from that standpoint we can we can make adjustments if if we don't want to put 500,000 there we could put uh some elsewhere to to offset some things but I think with all the eser money we have we can we we have a little more flexibility in these first few years and hope that in hopes that uh the general assembly will start funding us with our um Leandro case money that judge Lee has spoken about so many times I I actually don't think you you know we need to modify that that amount that amount has been on the on the table for years right and we went
196through a pandemic we know what the demographics and DPS look like we know that there populations that are that are increasing it's not just Spanish I mean we have Arabic right we have Swahili I mean we have many things and and the city and even where like this community is moving towards like you know um increasing even for for all of us to you know be vers in more than one language I think you know we are a global economy um those opportunities for our teachers to have professional development and being able to go to Durham Tech and get certification and so we will increase our capacity for language access and it's not just you know um you know we were thinking outside of the box to meet our needs right to meet the demands
197of everybody having language access and and and and promoting learning as as much as possible so um when it comes to to that I'm I'm I'm not saying reduce it at all let me just be really clear um but just appreciative that you know that you continue to maintain that because it is it is a need um I we do have a need for it our families have um have stated it time and time again and so I'm just appreciative and was just looking at the feasibility that that could be a priority in that list thank you Mr Raven thank you um can we please bring back up the um the recommended budget slide that showed um what we asked for and also what the county funded I mean was the one that had the
19818 million and the $12 million with the variance of the unfunded amount if we could show that to our families back at home the the reason I want to do this first of all I want to start by saying thank you um I want to thank the staff yeah uh it's it's the one that actually has the dollar amounts on there the the spreadsheet yes that that's perfect I I want to thank the staff uh because you all really made a strong case and a strong argument and we did not ask for anything that we did not need and I think it was apparent um based upon what the county decided to fund I think we definitely have to thank our community for asking us and continuing to push us to Advocate um for our
199students in the district in order to get this we also have to thank the for for hearing us out and and for doing what they could to help us understanding that they have a whole County to take care of uh but our you know our schools are the Cornerstone of our community so if we can't take care of our schools we we really have some long-term issues I I think some of the key things to look at when when we're looking at this and if anybody else is at home looking at it the the dollar amount of what we asked for $18 million and we received essentially the value of what we received is is over $14 million but if you look at each of these lines it it looks like just about everything we
200ask for even if we didn't get that full 100% amount funded we we got what we needed but there's a few areas that that stick out in which we're going to have to obviously rely on some of some of our federal funds especially when we're looking at that information technology um we all need to be mindful um with that one to one device that we have out there the the ability to be able to continue to support our district and support our students with the needs that we have we know the inequities that are there they're apparent uh we know just being able to provide our students with myi has been a great help with without that we would not have been able to go through this school year but while we can support some
201of this with Federal funding there's one thing that just sticks out to me like a red thumb and excuse me like a sore thumb and it's the it's the additional school-based Personnel support for students with disabilities and I know we we did kind of talk about that before that is the one thing that even even if we try to use our federal funds to to kind of augment that we can only do that for a limited amount of time so in three years from now if we have not been able to Garner the support from the community to fund this at a higher level or if the general has simly has not at least removed that cap I'm sure if they remove the cap the only the amount of funding that they're able to provide
202um for students who are receiving um support um that that can help out but I just want to kind of you know put a put a big red circle around this and just let our community know that this is a need that we have now it's a need that will come back up in the future and we just need to kind of all be cognizant of that and keep an eye out on it but outside of that I think this is amazing accomplishment um for not just DPS but for the community so thank everybody miss Umstead comment question yeah I want to say thank you all for this budget update it's it's exciting to see um and you're right those relationships and those conversations matter I talked to all of our County Commissioners explained our
203budget request why we asked for what we asked for um and they were able to ask questions so I just want to continue to encourage us to build those relationships um and I also want to say you know we were talking about the numbers U Mr Raven but the county kind of gives us a chunk and DPS kind of can decide where we want to put our funding right and make those allocations I'm going to assume that we we didn't put that additional money in that students with disabilities Personnel because we're going to be using some of our federal funds but I AG 100% agree with you that's going to be something that we need to keep an eye on and make sure that we can have the necessary staff to support our students um
204and then I also hope some of these other items that we figure out other ways to support marketing and communication I've been getting all kinds of ads about DPS and enrolling my children which has been great um so I hope we can keep that up as we continue to think about the next year but thank you for this really exciting update thank you to our community thank you to our County Commissioners um I think this might be one of the highest increases at least since I've been on the board that we have gotten in funding on our budget request um and so I'm just thankful for that and excited for what that means for our students in this upcoming school year may I just make uh few comments here um regarding the partnership that we
205have with all the health departments Let's see we got a 10 additional positions with $1.1 million uh that's uh pretty much about $110,000 per candidates I would assume if we have to advertise the position will be probably about $85,000 Plus benefits so the reason I'm bringing this up I know we may have funds but we don't have enough nurses okay I don't know what kind of relationship we have with the health department they are the one that will be receiving funding so I would like for us I think that's going to be our responsibility to reach out to the health department to see how much they advertising for those positions because if going to have to put a 60 or $70,000 there we may not have those candidates so we are in a ding need
206to recruit those candidates hopefully we're going to have that great report to have this partnership to talk about those funding how much they're going to put on the table to recruit those nurses so just wanted to put it up there that's will be the work that we be doing Miss berer yeah I just wanted to follow up on that Dr MinGa because you know um we're so appreciative of the partnership with the county and uh different ways to pay for things that actually let us get more people um rather than pass through and um but there's also a supervisor position in there and I think of nurse Howard as our um supervisor head of nursing for all of our schools so is how is that position of supervisor supposed to relate to nurse Howard and
207have yall had those conversations yet or is that another area that we need to be sensitive to um going forward definitely that will be something that we need to address as much as we're raising the ball for those Health Department folks we have to make sure that our health director salary goes up as well yeah I think that's so so important I think I want to shout out to our our board but also our finance staff for being able to make clear what our needs are and also to our County and our interim County Manager for getting getting creative and coming up with some more than the initial recommendation if between now and Monday they decide to find some more in that because they do have significant Federal funding I would like to assure them
208that it would be targeted to student needs and Durham and we can always take care of more things um and we look forward to to that opportunity I look forward to Dr Monk having more people and and more funding for a lot of deferred needs um that will be significant that children will see a difference immediately so thank you all so much for bringing this update I think those are the end of the comments thank you Mr lur just nothing else all right so uh let's go to the next item on the agenda we are in academics now um 2021 22 CTE local application assurance and certifications Dr Hardy thank you Miss Lewis chair Umstead Vice chairman Lee Dr MinGa board members we have a couple of items um this evening the first is our
209Career and Technical education local application Miss Smith if you can pull up our presentation thank you so much also with us via Zoom we have Dr Debbie Pitman assistant superintendent for specialized services and Dr Julie pack executive director for Career and Technical education and magnet programs if you can move forward one slide for us please thank you so much tonight we will provide an overview of our Career and Technical education local application for state and local funding for the 2020 2022 Academic Year including the alignment with our Perkins 5 legislation this is before the board tonight for Action the CTE local application plan specifically aligns to three strategies within our durm Public Schools strategic plan within Priority One you have strategy four which discusses developing diverse and robust Pathways for our students also within priority
210one you have strategy 4 under goal 1C ensure every student develops their four-year plan upon entry into high school as well as ensure that we increase our number of CTE completers and finally in January of 2020 our board did approve several addendums and one of those strategy areas was in the area of CTE where it specifically talks about increasing our Career Development coordinator positions ensuring that we develop and Implement systems structures and processes to ensure students participate in our work work-based learning awareness exposure and experience activities and develop a professional learning plan for High School staff on June 25th we were all virtual the Board of Education approved our 2year CTE local application plan for funding while the application is a 2-year plan and this would normally be on consent we wanted to make sure
211that for this year with new board members and coming back in person that we had the opportunity to discuss this and so that you would have the opportunity to make sure that there was engagement regarding any questions for our two-year application the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction does require that leas our school boards approve the assurances and certification each year even though the plan is only only approved every two years so at the end of this presentation um we are seeking approval of the CTE assurances and certification at this time if we'll go to the next slide I would like to turn it over to Dr Julie pack executive director for CTE and magnet Dr Pac thank you Dr Hardy and good evening board members and Dr mbinga uh thank you for this opportunity
212to present a review of the CTE local application as well as the insurances and certifications for your approval I'll briefly review the required use of CTE funds uh the comprehensive local needs assessment and I'll provide an overview of our strategies for improvement in the current plan next slide please one of the primary components to the CTE local application is the inclusion of a comprehensive local needs assessment or clna to form the district's Improvement goals and strategies in the local application you will also see the assurances and certifications section reflected here this section provides an agreement between Duren public schools and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and it assures the district's capacity to carry out the state and federal legal requirements during the time frame of application um can you go back to slide
213five please thank you the Perkins legislation clearly defines the approved uses of the alloc allocated funding through six requirements highlighted on this slide we have Career Development which of course is the foundation of our CTE program including our 321 Future Ready initiative uh we have recruitment retention and training of Staff uh to ensure a high quality CTE teaching staff we also have Labor Market alignment which ensures that our programming helps to provide students in CTE courses the skills necessary to pursue pursue High skill High wage in demand jobs to this end we're excited about companies like Google and apple moving to the area because they align with our information science Pathways and we align with them and they will provide a clear path to employment for our graduates in those High skill High wage jobs
214and funds must also be used for academic integration student achievement and performance evaluation so these requirements must all be met to ensure a high quality robust CTE program next slide please next slide please um again we talk about the clna process because it was new to this process and uh it was completed during the 19 I mean 2019 2020 school year to in form this current current plan so again the comprehensive local needs assessment is conducted every two years uh to inform the funding priorities and Improvement strategies of the CTE program and through this process we gather data from internal and external stakeholders such as our CTE teachers students parents industry and Community Partners and our CTE business Advisory Board next slide please we must also review our performance indic Ator data labor market analysis
215and the other items listed here uh to identify what the CTE program is doing well and where opportunities exist for improvement next slide please I want to take a moment to lift up some of the celebrations we identified through the clna process for this current plan first of all based on the data provided by DPI and CTE local application portal we have a 98.7% graduate uation rate for CTE concentrators which you'll hear us say a lot provides strong evidence that students who completed CTE concentration pathway are likely to graduate highly likely to graduate also an analysis of our current course offerings and programs chose really strong alignment to in demand industry sectors and careers such as health science engineering computer science skill trades and I could go on and on the DPS program has a
216long tradition of business industry involvement and the business Advisory Board provides regular input and feedback to the program and we have many partners and we're continuing to grow those Partners to assist in work-based learning opportunities and the inclusion of the clna in the application process last year enhanced our ongoing and existing efforts to continually Monitor and make decisions based on data and finally with the launch of the 321 ready initiative we're in we're intentionally Al expanding work-based learning for all students next slide please so while we're very proud of our accomplishments and our celebrations we are committed to improving our performance and outcomes our plan goals and strategies are focused on raising our performance on state assessments and credentials and we're also focused on removing barriers for students and special populations to achieve not only
217in their classes but also to participate in work-based learning activities in finally the value of a CTE student organization or a ctso cannot be understated uh these organizations like FFA posa Deca FBLA and skills USA are amazing and they help students to develop leadership and integrate content into action therefore we're focusing on growing these programs and opportunities for our students across our Durham uh campuses next slide please so so we believe our plan will increase the efficacy of our CTE program for each student and impact the collective capacity for students to be future ready uh the assurances and certifications for approval before you tonight will provide us with the dedicated CTE funds to implement this plan so at this time I'll turn it back over Dr Hardy and we'll be happy to answer any questions
218you might have next slide thank you Dr Pac board members in your packet you will find the information regarding the Career and Technical education State funding document that would need to be signed by our board chair as well as our Insurance's document in addition to the PowerPoint presentation at this time Dr Pat Dr Pitman and myself are available for questions and discussion Miss Lewis any questions from the board this is for upper action entertain a motion so I mean CTE obviously is one of those rockstar groups within DPS I'll lift that up all the time we should give them what they whatever they want twice is what they want because they drive I mean they drive outcomes for our students across the district so we'll make sure it's on the agenda every day hey hey
219Bring it on Bring it on Dr Pac knows how I feel about C CTE so I will move approval um what what do we need what's the motion approval 2021 2022 CTE local application assurances and certification yeah that's what I move approval of second it's been moved and properly second by Mr Lee and seconded by Miss buer any disc discussion all in favor I I any oppose same I passes 6 Z thank you thank you so much our next two presentations um will be facilitated um by Dr Julie Spencer so I'm going to turn it over to her for our alternative school modified accountability model for 2021 and 2022 oh that's right we have public comment I apologize missad please state your name you will have three minutes for public comment six oh eight minutes
220six for translation six for translation uh good afternoon my name is uh Umberto Treo I am a leader in the community and I advocate for the uh students in the community um I agree with the decision you took about um the director of and DSA because I mentored two students and uh I didn't know um what the director had done for these students they had a very low uh GPA it was a two um I asked the school uh for a meeting so then I could um know what was going on with these students because they were attending school as nothing happened even though they were absent more than 25 times and I requested a meeting with the director but I never received a call or an email or anything I never knew what happened
221um for me it's very important quality more than quantity and for this person apparently it was not important quality um um it's very important the quality for the student to success in the future uh the second time that I communicated with a person who spoke Spanish in the school she told me why was I doing this since these kids were not my children gracias uh I am here for uh to thank you for what you did in respect to the director and I want us to get um continue to work together because we have quality of students in Duram and uh we need to work together to help them thank you thank you very for that go ahead Dr Hardy Dr Spencer thank you and I would ask can we pull up the presentation for
222alternative school accountability [Music] model thank you we can go to the next slide next slide please good evening Miss Lewis and board members Dr mainga and our greater Durham Community it is my pleasure this evening to bring before you information regarding the accountability model for our alternative schools which include Lake View school and Durham performance Learning Center for the 2122 school year Mr Nathan Hester our director of Assessments and accountability has also joined us via zoom and is available to assist with questions and answers we've also worked with both of our principles of these two schools regarding this recommendation and they are supportive the alternative accountability system that I will share with you tonight is a supplement to school performance grades that takes into consideration the specific and unique differences of our alternative school next
223slide please one more specifically I would like to share our recommendation for a modified accountability model for these two schools including some specific calculation information we would like to recommend for board approval this evening that our alternative schools use a modified accountability model and that if there is insufficient data to calculate the school performance grade that they will be able to use three years of data to calculate the letter grade both of these decisions require board approval in order to be submitted to NC Department of Public Instruction for the 2122 school year next slide please so what are the options for our modified accountability system for these two schools the NC Department of Public Instruction has provided all alternative schools in North Carolina with three options for their account accountability model this slide outlines the
224options which include option a school performance grade that is consistent with all of the other public schools in North Carolina with 80% being student achievement 20% being Evas growth option b which I will share with you on the next slide or option C which is a customized model next slide please our alternative schools have used the option b model model for several years now with board approval and we recommend that we continue with this model for another school year this option allows us to use the breakdown outlined above to include student persistence for 20% student achievement for 20% and student growth for 60% additionally instead of a letter grade these schools receive a designation of progressing maintaining or declining although we considered a customized model for 2122 in light of the challenges with covid we
225determined that it would be best to follow the same model as prec covid so that we would have a better sense of comparison to previous years you may have forgotten how this has played out over the past several years both of these schools have participated in the accountability model for late view they were designated as maintaining for the 20156 161 17 178 years while increasing to the progressing designation for the 1819 school year for performance Learning Center they were designated as declining in 20156 and 1617 then they moved to progressing and then to maintaining in 201819 we meet regularly with both principles to review their data and to monitor their progress towards this both principes have also worked with their school staff on understanding the accountability model for their schools next slide please in addition
226to the actual option for the accountability model we also must determine how the calculation will occur if there is insufficient data to calculate a school performance grade there are two options for us to consider one is that the data returns to the base school with the student while the other uses three years of data to do a calculation next slide please although having enough data has not been an issue in these two schools because the enrollment is large enough we do have to make the determination of what we would do if there isn't enough and we recommend that we would use multiple years of data to do the calculation if needed next slide please so for today's review and consideration we bring you the above mentioned recommendations for the modified accountability model for the 2021
22722 school year for Lake View school urant performance Learning Center I welcome any questions and concerns questions Miss V thank you so much for this presentation um you know these are schools that uh are very very important because every single student that we have in DPS every single child's education is very important and one of the perceptions has been that once a child gets referred for um long longterm suspension and they choose to uh take the um recommendation to go to one of all alternative schools or for whatever reason they choose um to go to the alternative school that that their education isn't at the same at the same rate or isn't at the same level um as at their home school um and there have been many conversations that you know visiting the sites
228and seeing the work that is happening at these centers and recently we had graduations um and a couple of board members including myself uh went to one of the these um alternative schools and and saw the graduation and saw the investment that our educators are putting into our students and you know graduation was a big celebration right um so really excited about that in terms of data um I really really appreciate the recommendation of really prioritizing growth um and making that the biggest percentage I think that that is something that talks about like our expectation of our students you know the fact that we continue to hold high expectations for every single DPS student um and uh and you know student achievement being 20% um these are definitely things that need to be defined a
229little more about like you know what what is student achievement what do we count in that um student persistence right like more of the conversations for that but in all of this it's it's growth mindset it's it's knowing that our students um you know are still going to get the services and and still going to get um all of that when it comes to uh to the grade um do you envision that um the grades are still a through F and they're going to follow the accountability the accountability model that you have um laid out here um and so I'm I'm I'm just wondering like um this is still being calculated at this point this is actually um a proposal for the model that we will use next school year so going into next school
230year the principal the staff they know what their accountability model is um so for example all of our our other schools are under the school performance grade with that 8020 um combination outlined in legislation thank you so much for this yes just really excited um really excited for this and just celebrating the achievements that our students in any school any of our you know schools in DPS that they can get um um they can grow and and get what they need thank you so much any other questions board members this is up for Action is there a motion I move approval of the alternative school modified accountability model for 2021 2022 second yeah it's been moved by Miss Umstead second by Miss viadas uh all any discussion all in favor say I I any opposed
231it passes unan 6 to zero thank you the next item that we have before you is a collaborative effort from our office of the chief of staff Miss Giovani who leads our policies as well as Dr Spencer and myself we are bringing this before you this evening for action for first reading if you could pull up the presentation and I'll turn it over to Dr Spencer thank you next slide tonight we bring you a proposed policy 3103 for first reading regarding the use of educational services and resources for students in Durham Public Schools we will provide information on the policy itself as well as the rationale for this policy Deputy superintendent Dr Nikia Hardy Chief of Staff Tanya Giovani as well as sington Smith um have all been a part of this policy development to
232ensure that the policy we bring you fully addresses the needs of our district complies with legal requirements provide and provides the guidance needed for our schools we are all here tonight and we are all available to answer questions um or address concerns and tonight specifically we just would like your feedback from the board as we prepare for a second reading at the June board meeting the policy we are bringing forward specifies for schools that enrollment and attendance in classes or the use of any educational services including co-curricular and extracurricular activities shall only be for students enrolled at least halftime in the Durham public schools there are cases of students and families that would like a student to be enrolled for part-time while the student attends home school classes or private school classes and although we
233have a board policy that outlines requirements specific to homeschool students in regards to extracurricular activities in student organizations and a policy that speaks to dual enrollment in Community College courses this policy provides greater Clarity and guidance for schools and families regarding participation in Durham Public Schools specifically it outlines that a student must be enrolled at least half time to use DPS educational services and resources per the North Carolina DPI manual on student attendance to allow for formalized enrollment and sub quent funding next slide please and one more today we will focus on the rationale of why we need the policy as well as the details of Pol of the policy and some next steps next slide please when we think about families who may want to utilize the awesome Educational Services found in Durham Public
234Schools it is important that we have a board approved policy that governs how this is allowed or not allowed it is not uncommon for a family to request that a homeschool or private school student be able to tap into some of the services whether it's a reading class an online resource or an experience within our schools in order for our schools to do this they need guidance such as how many classes or how much of a school day does the student need to attend who makes decisions regarding grade level or class and or what must a family do to access the services this policy provides the framework for the district to have Clarity and to assist a family in knowing how they may partake in the wonderful DPS experiences next slide please so why would
235we bring this policy to you at this time we've had an uptick in the number of requests from families to allow a student to access our educational services and resources we have families who have heard of some of the wonderful online curriculum resources and would love to access them additionally covid has introduced new experiences with virtual learning and hybrid learning experiences with this increase in request we want to make sure that our schools including the new ignite Online Academy have clear guidance on what Durham Public Schools allows next slide please specifically the policy outlines that a student shall be enrolled at least halftime and dur Public Schools this threshold allows Durham Public Schools to receive funding for those students to be able to receive the services there are also details such as the student must
236meet enrollment criteria and follow enrollment processes outlined in other board policies the student must adhere to applicable federal and state laws and DPS policies and regulations so for example the student would have to participate in assessments or meet other criteria such as the CPR requirement um for graduation the policy outlines specific examples of learning opportunities and activities that would be included and the policy notes that the principal determines grade in class assignments and schedule Additionally the policy allows for administrative rules and procedures that would be created and enforced I would also like to point out that there are several other policies that share some content with this policy for example policy 3101 regarding dual enrollment that focuses on our community college students as well as 3620 speaks to homeschool students participating in extracurricular activities and
237student organizations next slide please as we plan for implementation during the 2122 school year we anticipate receiving your feedback today Mak making some adjustments to the policy as we plan for a second reading and additionally as noted in the policy there will be a team that needs to be working on the development of rules and procedures for implementation these rules and procedures will allow us to identify additional steps to make sure that the policy can be implemented with minimal disruption to our schools and families alike for example we anticipate there may be a timeline or window for when a student May enroll if they are a halftime versus full-time student additionally we foresee an enrollment requirement to include the consultation with the school to determine feasibility before the enrollment even happens lastly we know that
238if this policy is approved we will need to train our staff and communicate well to our community so that we can effectively welcome these families into Durham Public Schools next slide please we see this polic policy as a win-win po win-win for Durham public schools and our Durham community and at this time we welcome your questions and your feedback any questions for Miss vies thank you so much for um for bringing this to us um I I look at this as a definitely a way that we can increase enrollment um and offer opportunities for folks who are not in DPS to choose DPS um and choose it in a way I guess that gives them opportunity to you know resources my question is um the the back the other side to this thing is because
239we have demographics that are very Stark compared to County demographics um it's quite the opposite how are we incentivizing like full enrollment in DPS and actually like like the kind of integration um because when I think about integration I think about like you know like a school Community you know and so it's it's okay for us to offer resources that people can access but that does not help us along the lines of you know building a community um of students that is representative of all demographics and helping along the lines of um more of integration I I wouldn't want our um ignite program to become uh predominantly one demographic based on resources I wouldn't want to see segregation in in in in that way so um you know I'm I'm I'm okay with with us
240providing educational resources and and giving giving a taste of what DPS does you know and and allowing folks to um to participate and and access our resources but also like you know is there a way that those those demographics the way they look um do kind of raise a question of um Buy in complete buying to DPS in that way so my question is more about is there something they do half a day um is there like ways that we're going to incentivize like building that Community I think we can definitely um put that in our thinking as we develop the rules and procedures to ensure that we are making steps to be inclusive and to not have groups of students that are kind of on out you know outliers and so I think we
241can certainly work towards that Mr Lee hi um thank you so much for this um this has kind of evolved over the last few years about trying to get homeschoolers in because of I thinking initiated with people wanting to play sports right and so when we when we talk about the half day or the half time and enrollment um when it comes to graduation where does do they graduate with us or do they graduate with their homeschool cohort or how does that work great question so I think the key sence in the policy is that they will participate in state and federal requirements which would include meeting graduation requirements as as outlined by Durham public schools and North Carolina so how that would work there's o a sentence in there that says that they have
242to continue to provide transcripts um so that those can be part of um the consideration for credits um moving towards credits so ultimately they would be a graduate of Durham public schools now they may also claim to be a graduate of you know ex Homeschool Academy or you know whatever other um schooling situation but when they are at least halftime dur Public Schools than they're ours they are a ger public schools graduate and I'm I'm guessing that counts towards our ADM as well correct yes all right and funding very good so outside of sports um what types of services are we talking about are we talking about EC services are we talking you know other type of supports s the full Gambit of uh a full-time student the halftime student would have the exact same
243access to those services and so forth correct correct okay so your yes that's very good I actually have um a guy I work with um he has like eight kids and two of them are starting to go the Jordan High School they were home they're homeschooled and that you know the high school the Scott High School part they said well we just can't do that we're going to send you to public school and I was telling them I was like look you know we have ignite online you know you could play sports it has middle schoolers and so forth you can play sports you can be part of it and now I would love to I'm I'm going to talk I'll talk to him tomorrow because if you do part-time homeschooling like they've been doing
244for a long time part-time in school you have the same access right so so um I'm really excited about seeing this because I do think um especially the older the homeschooler children get the the more likely they would be interested in participating in middle school you know partially in middle school for sports for socialization and now we have these Services um you you know you have the access to the services I think that is a really good selling point um you know good marketing point Point hint hint um their chip so so yeah I appreciate this I'm actually gonna use this tomorrow because I'm gonna go to work and I'm gonna say hey look at this Sean take a look so thanks a lot thank you so much and miss buers next thank you all
245I appreciate all the work that you've done on this I too like Mike think that there's a lot of um there will be a lot of community interest um I'm I would think that we have to have these students early on and so I'm glad you're looking at a window for enrollment I think that we should be explicit in as much as we can because we don't get funding for them if they don't come with within that um first of the year and they do need to be with a cohort of students um I think maybe the policy should include how they could explicitly explicitly are encouraged to convert to full-time because I think a lot of times it's the families and parents that are keeping them home and once the students are here here
246they would love to be part full-time of a school community so I think language around that would be great and then who do you guys see as having part of their everyday job like owning being kind of a homeschool liaison or or it's not just marketing it's actually interpreting how this is going to roll out does it live with a person yet or should it in the future I definitely think that there are that it such as multiple departments so I I think student services and our and our school counselors who are very involved in enrolling and scheduling students I think our school leaders um are very um important and even determining is it going to work for a student in terms of the scheduling um I think you mentioned ignite Online Academy I think
247there's a direct um there's a there's a audience ready to go in terms of um tapping into some of the online opportunities so I I think it's very much a team effort I almost think it's worth a part-time position since it's a new policy going forward I don't know if we have resources for that but like someone that actually can be the point of contact and and actually answer some of these soft questions and um but I look forward to y'all figuring out the logistics of it and then tracking data on how much this is impacting our system and and how we can tweak and refine it um going forward but thank you all so much thank you any other comments Mr Raven I think this is an amazing opportunity to kind of forecast where
248we're going to and I I really do feel that this whole world has become virtualized right so this is this is like opening the door to New Opportunities and I'm also curious because I'm thinking four or five years down the road is is the next thing that they're going to be requesting to be maybe some sort of uh CTE virtualized Services um because if if I'm a if I'm a home if I'm homeschooling my children and maybe they're coming to school part-time if if I'm really thinking about my child's Futures and there's an opportunity to also be able to utilize you know we already saw a presentation about how strong our CTE program is that that's going to be the next thing that I'm going to be trying to figure out like how can I
249how can I be able to allow my child to be enrolled in some layer of some type of CTE service so you know with this going out I just hope that we could kind of keep that in mind um because I think this is a an amazing opportunity to kind of join the two and and you know not saying that we can do it for an entire program but even if you're just allowing um an intro class I think it just opens or opens the door and it's a world of opportunity both for what we'll be able to provide and from what the students will be able to gain so thank you for this okay uh this is on the agenda for Action it is a first reading do we need a motion for first
250reading yes we do I'd move that we take the hom school policy 3103 um for first reading and move it to our June or nextune board meeting for the second reading second it's been moved by Miss Umstead second by Miss bu discussion all in favor say I I any oppos say I it passes unanimously six to zero thank you Dr Spencer that is it for academic Services we will move to the next item Board of Education 11a is Derm Tech Community College appointment yes so we have um durm public schools has two seats on the Derm tech board and we have sorry excuse me we have four seats on the Derm tech board but two of those appointments are up for um renewal and that is the board chair John beress and Reverend Michael Paige
251um both have asked to continue serving on the board um and that really have enjoyed their service they are in the middle of a strategic planning process and really want to make sure that they continue that process in supporting dermtech dermtech is a great partner to our our school system we know that they have we got many of our students that are dual enrolled or continued their education there our families also are engaging with their their support and services so want to make sure we keep a really strong partnership so we would need to move to approve um those appointments tonight and they will continue to serve in this role that's a question I'm said chair said if we is there anything that would prevent us from putting a a DPS board member on the
252Duram tech board as one of our seats it's a good question I am I am not sure I feel like that' be something we need to discuss with them we can look not that I'm aware of I'm just really curious because one of the things we've always struggled with is we appoint four people and we never get good communication back and I know they're working hard and I know they're meeting and we don't even and and so I think considering something like that would would help us with communication and and dialogue between the two boards so we we checked on that previously like at some point in the past when I was chair and it's no nothing against that there's no rules against that um like the County Commissioners had Miss wout commissioner wout on
253while she was still sitting so you can be an elected official on the on the board as well On The Board of Trustees I'm also happy to request some more information that be sent to us after their meetings whether a summary or what not to make sure that we can stay informed as well any other questions and this is up for action never mind what I just said you can't you can't what we can't no is there another role that they might have on that board that one of us could fill before Mr Zoo has the answers right there in his computer great what you were saying Miss upstead is there is a way that we can get regular Communications whether it be put on our agenda or getting a regular um report maybe quarterly
254or something most most certainly I think um I've talked to both of these members they would are willing to serve again and excited about their work and I think I also have developed a good relationship with um president buckton there so I think we can figure out a way to have a little more two-way com communication okay what are the terms what how long are the terms are they four years or two years they are four years four years and so in another two we would have another two members that we' need to appoint we have four total I should probably not give advice and I've only read like 10% of a statute but anyway it's possible that one way you could have a board of a member of the board of education on the
255um Community College trustees as if Board of County Commissioners appointed a member of the board but I'll follow up with you on that one after I finish reading the whole statute that'd be great so is there a motion to be entertained for the two that have been submitted who've already been working on the process is this time sensitive for tonight I mean can it wait till our full meeting or is it time sensitive uh they have asked for it to be moved quickly and I think you know there terms end at the end of June so I would like to know you know make sure we can pass that information along um so that they can continue to do the work Mr Raven if if I can ask a question because this is this is
256even new to me I I didn't even know that that we had appointments uh to um to dermtech Community College So currently are you saying that we do have four people that we've appointed to there and two of them have terms that are expiring and even if you know regardless whether we make a decision tonight or not uh we would still have to deal with the fact that we would still have to solicit um requests from others to fulfill that that seat so we do know that we do have two qualified people that are interested in serving um but if we decided to not um renew their term essentially we would still have to solicit um applications and whatnot from the community to fulfill those seats am I am I right on that I am
257not sure of the appointment process in the past but I do think I would want to have a robust process to appoint new members to the to the team and I just want to remind us like one is as the chair they are in the middle of a process so I don't want to slow durm teex work down um but also want to make sure that we feel good about the candidates so I would um base B based on the information that we have available to us and based on the reassurances that we do have engaged people that are working on behalf of of both DPS and dtcc in their current capacity and they are actively working on a strategic plan I would make the motion at this time based on the information available to
258me to support um renewing the terms for our two appointees to the DAR Technical Community College I'll second has been moved by Mr Raven second by Mr Lee any other discussion all in favor say I I any opposed say I it passes six to zero thank you and item number 12 summary of followup so I will start and if I miss anything Dr Monk will help me in the area of policies Miss Giovani will set up um send an email to the board and work with chair Umstead to set up a committee to review specific areas and um policy regarding student searches as well as the data dashboard with regards to our Equity policy investigation regarding evaluation metrics and monitoring as well as um looking at the international resource for restorative practice and other definitions
259that we might can use in the area of budget to think about how we can continue to our to support our students with special needs as well as the areas of marketing and other deferred needs to make a difference for DPS work closely with our health department regarding the additional nursing positions and specifically around the health supervisor position and with regards to the homeschool policy to explore how we can encourage Andor incentivize fulltime participation for our students as well as exploring in the regulations a point of contact and the logistics for the implementation for students who would be participating that's what I had thank you for the summary um so at this point I will accept a motion for us to go into close session I move we go into Clos session for the reasons
260stated on the agenda I second been moved by Mr Le second by m vieres to go on to close session in discussion all in favor say I [Music] I thank we end CL session you guys trying to get it fast my we are now back in Open Session Dr manga thank you board um I'm here to seek your approval for the personal report as this discuss at a Clos session remove approval of the Personnel report dated June 10th 2021 second been moved by Miss fire second by Miss Umstead all in favor say I I any oppos same motion passes unanimously and we are now um done adjourn adjourn you're done great work great work