001good evening everyone the the dur Public Schools Board of Education monthly meeting is now in session at this time we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who is joining us this evening some in person and those who are joining us virtually the purpose of this meeting is to inform our parents staff and constituents about the work aligned with our mission to embrace educate and Empower every student to innovate to learn and to serve tonight the administration will be presenting information to keep you up to date on our strategic plan the interpreters for tonight are Martha Romo yiles and Marty Ramirez thank you for taking the time to join us tonight we'll first start our meeting with a moment of silence thank you the next item on our agenda is celebrations Mr SED good
002evening Madam chair members of the board members of the administration and all of our guests we are glad to have all of you with us um and if I can see through the rapidly fogging up glasses thanks to this mask I will move on to our students of the month we are we are recognizing students of the month for May and June due to the abbreviated uh board meeting schedule for next month and because sometimes our board sometimes our students of the month go off on things like vacations whatever those are our first student of of the month is coming to us remotely and that will be uh presented to us by Durham School of the Arts principal David Hawks thank you sir um superintendent Dr mainga uh Board of Education members um other administrative
003uh guests and um audience guests it is a pleasure to recognize our student of month um Rosie is just such a outstanding student she's passionate energetic full of curiosity and driven her vigorous approach to learning has really paid off for her and shown by her academic record Rosie is ever teacher's dream engaged happy to contribute richly class discussions and assignment she really wants to get into some I know we're a School of the Arts but she wants to get into some sort of stem career where she can help people and make discoveries that will impact the world I have ever confidence that she'll do just that she is so talented academically musically uh she's driven I have enjoyed hearing her in Orchestra over the years and playing uh solos on her cello um I'm impressed
004with her academic standards she set impressed by her volunteer activities she's participated in and next year she is going to Duke which happens to have the same um color colors is DSA I guess they copied us but uh we're proud to see her go on and um pursue her um next educational Endeavors thank you Rosie Burman if you could say a few words so that our Zoom could actually see you and we could hear from you hi uh thank you so much this is a really big honor given the number of amazing students that are at d AA and I'm really grateful and honored that I get to represent such a wonderful community that I've gotten to be a part of for the past seven years and this isn't like the ideal way to end
005that experience but I'm glad that I've gotten to be a part of this community thank you thank you congratulations be here thank you and congratulations Rosie Burman and your spark pin is on the way our other May student of the month is here and present with us and to present him I present to you principal Susan Taylor of CE Jordan High School good evening everyone it is with great pleasure that I present Grant Bennett Jordan High School senior as DPS student of the month at Jordan our faculty and staff encourage our students to soar support fellow Falcons optimize opportunities appropriately respond and respect the community Grant has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to support his fellow Falcons he is one of our most reliable student ambassadors who helps to ease the transition of new Falcons who
006join our community Grant is an ad advancement via individual determination or Avid tutor through his role as an avid tutor Grant collaborates with an avid elective teacher to support students who have the potential to be the first in their families to attend a four-year college or university through independently producing Falcon news Grant has provided much needed joy to our Community during this pandemic our school does not have a broadcasting or news journalism program but Grant has produced a quality show called Falcon news when Falcon news first aired in our Friday advisory period I was bombarded with positive texts and emails from our school Community who were simply thankful and grateful for the student centered programming Falcon news is Grants grandchild and a result of his collaboration with his peers and our Student Government Association Dr
007Hardy he also produced a virtual tour video that our school used to showcase our school during the magnet pathway application period Grant you have been instrumental in helping Jordan to create a culture of kindness I am so proud of you and wish you the best as you continue your journey at at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Grant you're obligated to come forward and say a couple of words to introduce your parents and to walk the red carpet and get your ceremonial elbow bump because it's still covid time absolutely so here today I have my dad Andre vinnett over there my mom Kelly Martin and I also have my sister Taylor Bennett and my grandmother Karen Davis over there yeah and I honestly just want to give a big shout out to Miss
008Taylor everyone at Jordan because everything Miss Taylor said would not be possible without my teachers Administration behind me there's a lot of behind the scenes work that never gets shown that they do to help everything get done I just really want to give a big shout out to them that's spark pin and I think our board members would like to recognize it is now time to recognize our June student of the month and for that I present to you Dr William Logan principal of Hillside High School good evening it is indeed an honor and a a privilege to be able to recognize this uh individual who's been selected as Hillside student of the month for the month of June or Duran public school student of the month for the month of June uh this young
009man was selected largely because he is the embod of our school's core values of teamwork respect responsibility and most importantly and surprisingly students first he is a champion for his fellow classmates I can think of numerous opport or numerous times where he uh served as an advocate for his fellow classmates uh be it in the band uh in his class and just this year when I think about uh us operating in the pandemic he was one to actually uh request of me to hold Zoom conferences with he and other students students to talk about their progress or lack of progress in some of their classes wanting to make sure that he held us accountable for his success and a success he is at present James is one of the few students at our school who
010has accumulated over 50 College acceptances to date he currently has accumulated over $2.5 million in scholarships himself he currently has a 4.46 GPA and he's ranked number 16 in his class certainly all of this could not be accomplished without a good woman behind him who is his mother carlet Dandy Brewster uh aaz an amazing woman she's also and I see where he gets it from the heart that he has for others because she too has a heart not only for her son and her daughter who is a graduate and she's an alumni of Hillside as well but she has a heart for other students you'll find many students uh at her home on the weekends she's championing uh the cause for other students making sure that they too have their college acceptances put together and
011so without further Ado please join me in congratulating and recognizing Mr James DeBerry as Durham Public Schools June student of the month um thank you uh that's a lot to come back off of um got me in my Fields um firstly i' like to say um thank you Dr Logan um thank you to my mother she's absolutely great she's a single mom who has always provided for me and both of my sisters um regardless of what she's gone through she's always made a point to make sure that we as children and as students advocate for others and keep ourselves held captive um sorry held responsible for what we do um and I just love the fact that um I'm able to be recognized like this um I wasn't really expecting it at all um but
012I really do appreciate this moment and um yeah thank you congratulations to all of our Durham Public Schools students of the month for May and June we are so incredibly proud of all of you thank you for being here [Applause] tonight we have three of the years to present to you tonight and we will try to do that in quick but respectful order uh and we will begin with our school counselor of the Year presented to you by Tama Ward saterfield good evening thank you Dr Ming and board members for allowing this space on your agenda I am to make award safield your school counseling coordinator and this year the school counselor leadership team followed a rigorous process to select our school counselor of the Year this person was nominated by several members of the
013community including parents faculty and her principal please allow me to share just a few of the many voices from her nominations Miss Johnson has been a powerful voice in our school Community speaking up for what she believes as a student Advocate and proving herself as an impassioned and inspiring leader Asia's co-workers describe her as insightful sensitive perceptive and diligent she is kind compassionate intelligent and a strong person who has a clear sense of direction and purpose after enduring the tragedy of covid and seeing its effects on teachers faculty students and family Asia devoted herself to Bringing more outstanding education about mental health into her curriculum she said that she wanted to break the stigma around these discussions Asia goes above and beyond to make sure students understand that they are valuable loved cared for and
014accepted she starts every conversation with how are you feeling she prioritizes what is best for kids she knows our community inside and out and she is an active member and leader of our parents of African-American children Fellowship she is Club Boulevard personified on behalf of Dr Maddox Perry senior executive director for student support services and Mr James futra director of student services for engagement and access it is my pleasure to introduce our school counselor of the Year from Club Boulevard Elementary Asia [Applause] Johnson hi everyone I'm Asia Johnson school counselor for Club Boulevard and I would like to say that I would not be here with my Club Community um I attribute a lot of My Success to them allowing me to do what I do and floating their classrooms whenever I wanted to picking
015up kids and moving how I want um here today I have with me my mom and my dad and my mom is super affectionate and I think that's what I get from her bringing to the table as a school counselor and my dad always used to tell me like during my internship when I first Liv started my career living at home with them he always told me make sure you hug Somebody's Baby Co we can't do that so we're finding creative ways to comfort our students but I uh am very thankful and grateful to be here before everyone today thank you next I believe I will be presenting okay hello I didn't do this next I believe I'll be presenting the durum Public Schools media coordinator of the Year and that is Miss Kim gjino
016whom I have it's a deep dark secret that I am a a a closet Doctor Who fan the TV show and every time I come to DSA and I come to the media center I always appreciate the Doctor Who posters that are on the wall there so I'm particularly glad that Miss Gino has received this award but that's not why she's received it she has been making magic happen in Durham School of the Arts Library for over eight years she's AIG certified nationally board certified and serves as the DPS high school media lead her work on behalf of students teachers community members and other Librarians is what makes her an amazing gift to DPS she's a lifelong learner who knows growing a safe and equitable media space is Paramount she works with students to provide
017authentic opportunities to discuss and address issues of equity as they relate to the library as well as the larger School Community she said at best the DSA Media Center has become the heart of our school on any given day at just about any hour you're likely to find classes in session as well as students filming computer labs buzzing guest speakers inspiring or students collaborating and creating the reach of the media center goes beyond the brick and mortar space meeting the needs of teachers and students in classroom and at home with access to a wide and growing variety of academic and personal school and Community Resources as the media coordinator I take pride in being the facilitator of the space and the curator of these resources but the health and ongoing success of the media center
018lies in the shared ownership between all students and staff and that is why she is our 2021 media coordinator of the year and your fellow media coordinators have provided you with this momento and of course this is your spark chip you took all my [Laughter] words um thank you it's an honor to be recognized as the 2021 22 DPS media coordinator of the year and I'm proud to work among amazing and talented and dedicated media coordinators throughout our district it has been said before and always sounds cliche and it was just said now um that library media centers are the heart of our schools and I do truly believe that the heart of Durham School of the Arts however does not beat just with the work of myself um uh the library media center cannot
019fulfill its mission of supporting students to realize their individual academic potential and creative capacities become effective users of ideas and information without the support of my library media center colleague our instructional facilitator Matt Townsen because of the strong leadership of Mr Hawks and the assistant principles at DSA who have always supported my role as a an integral part of teaching and learning community through his um constant access to funding and flexible scheduling I'm able to provide quality resources as well as literacy and research skills lessons to meet a multitude of students and staff needs access to the tools to do my job as a library media center has allow coordinator has allowed me to positively impact student growth and achievement and for this I am grateful however this essential work has been deeply hindered this
020year and I would be remiss without taking just a moment to use part of my time here tonight to shine a light on this very important real and crippling issue that is affecting every library media center coordinator across the district and most importantly impacting the Equitable access to the expertise that our library media coordinators bring to our schools in 2020 21 Kate me our media coordinator of the year at that time requested at her recognition that DPS follow through with providing additional technology and it people per the original 1 to1 technology plan A year later I am making the same request our role has abruptly been refocused to almost exclusively consume all of our time with Technology support we have worked well beyond our contracted hours to provide the support with so many of us
021working to exhaustion to also attempt to do our actual jobs as library media coordinators and although this work is not part of our job description we continue to strive to support students and staff because it is part of the very fabric of our being and we truly want students and staff to succeed lack of additional dedicated technology it support at each School means that library media coordinators are not able to fulfill and do the essential work of developing collections nor create the depth and breath of essential literacy and research lessons that help to grow our students and support our teachers bottom line this path negatively impacts the achievement of students across DPS I deeply appreciate the work of the school board as well as your support of our students and staff particularly this past year
022which has been so incredibly difficult for all of us I again ask that we find a way to follow through with the original one toone plan by providing dedicated full-time technology and IT staff at every school doing so is an essential step in providing the conditions that allow for all library media coordinators across the district to reach our fullest potential and successfully meet the diverse needs of our students and staff thank you I'm sorry that was [Applause] longwinded and now we present to the Durham Public Schools Board of Education our final of the year of the night and our Durham Public School's teacher of the year comes to you from Sherwood G's middle school and I present to you Dr Sheldon laner to introduce you to her good evening members of the board Dr MinGa
023Dr Harvey what an honor to work in the greatest School District in the nation to lead the best middle school in the state and to collaborate with DM's finest Miss Caroline bricks Miss Brick House exudes Excellence is a true teacher leader and a role model to many she works tirelessly to ensure her students succeed and are prepared for their next grade she is warm kind outstanding brilliant and deserving of this Accolade during Public School's teacher of the year congratulations and I am so honored to and consider it a privilege to work with you every today and I'm going to take a point of personal privilege to say you still owe your beautiful daughter Amelia three lollipops Miss Caroline brick offs thank you so much Dr lanir for your very very kind words um I'd like
024to start by congratulating all of our students of a month once again because without students we don't have teachers of the year so I'm really excited to have heard all of the wonderful things that our seniors here in Durham are doing as they get ready to move on to their college career um it is an honor and a privilege to be able to represent my middle school to be able to represent this District moving forward as our the teacher of the year candidate um there are so many amazing employees in this District so to be select as the person that to represent DPS is amazing and mindboggling all at the same time um but thank you all so much for recognizing me and I'll say what I said again when I they told me that
025I had won I look forward to representing Sherwood githin Middle School and Durham Public Schools moving forward to the state level thank you so much for it was our pleasure to bring to you at a previous board meeting the Durham public school's lead nurse who has been a rock for us this entire school year this entire period of pandemic and remote learning of Learning Centers of students returning and of teachers and students working through masks and social distancing and contact tracing and all those things and one of the first things that lead nurse Trisha Howard told us was what about my people and nurse Howard's people have just done such amazing work that we wanted to recognize them tonight we wanted to give nurse Howard the opportunity to introduce them to you four of our
026eight DPS nurses are able to be with us tonight and nurse Howard please share these Heroes with us good night everyone it is truly an honor to meet everyone in person to put faces and bodies to names so thank you so much for the honor thanking you for this invite tonight um as a conversation about the need for more School nurses continue Nationwide first I want to acknowledge DPSS board for having that conversation and supporting that initiative um superintendent Binga thank you so much I am so thrilled however to present to you tonight DPS small But Mighty team of nurses a team of eight who while students were virtual were busy supporting DPSS students and families they contacted and case managed students with medical conditions they covered Vision screenings Health assessments 504s and IEP meetings
027for the entire District volunteered at DPS covid-19 testing sites on the weekends and the fall they called and scheduled over 200 DPS employees for EC separate setting and prek vaccination events and also worked that event then when it was time for reopening they stepped up in another major way and they covered all of the elementary schools until the return of the health department nurses they have been essential to the management of covid-19 19 in the buildings they serve with continued support of students and staff it's been one of the most challenging years that we've ever had and I will say as the lead nurse working for the best school district in the state I am so honored that I have this team of small But Mighty nurses behind me and I'm just so honored to
028present them tonight so without further Ado DPS nurses if you would come if you would come forward when I read your name I will present you with your spark pin and our board members and our superintendent would like to express their appreciation to you Marky Braxton Carol Terry Barbara Lewis and Andreas Smoot Melvin and for our last board presentation I'm sorry and for our last presentation of the evening uh we turn to cyberspace and to our director for advanced academics Laura parrot and and our 49 count them 49 Durham public school students who have been honored with a trip to Governor's School wonderful thank you so much and good evening uh chairman unstead members of the board Dr mainga and members of the DPS Public School System we are thrilled tonight to present to you
029uh members of the durm public school that were nominated for Governor's School the North Carolina governor school is a 5 and 1 half week summer residential program for high school students integrating academic disciplines the Arts and unique courses the program which is open to Rising seniors only with exceptions made for Rising juniors in selected performing or Visual Arts areas is located on two campuses in our state Governor School West at High Point University in High Point and Governor School East at Meredith College in Raleigh each school district is allotted nominations based on the enrollment of 10th and 11th graders in the school system Duram Public Schools was able to nominate 26 students in the areas of academics and 35 students for Visual and Performing Art with over 80 student applications this year the committee gave
030careful consideration to students academic and Leadership performance teachers comments of support as well as our student essay responses the selection was challenging due to the leadership and talent of so many DPS students tonight dur Public Schools is pleased to recognize all 49 students nominated for governor school as well as was the 20 students selected by the North Carolina governor School Board to attend this year's 2021 summer session students selected by the North Carolina governor School Board have an aster by their name so beginning with our first slide of students so next slide please thank you we have U wume Li wise known as fumi to her classmates audio at city of medicine Academy in the area of visual art deia Alberton Hillside social science Charlotte aspenwall who actually was accepted last year to Governor school
031as a 10th grader and They carried it over because of the pandemic she is from Jordan High School representing Us in instrumental music Ella Bart DSA English Samuel Bartlet DSA instrumental music Lily Brigman Riverside Natural Science Elena brosman Jordan Coral music Ben bur Jordan Coral music instrumental music I apologize Asha c train Jordan Natural Science Leila Coes Jordan Natural Science next slide please thank you Cameron Crutchfield Northern theater Hannah deise Northern dance Elizabeth Dodson DSA Theater Victoria Duma Northern Coral music Victor Duma Northern Coral music Aira zyla Hillside Coral Ava egi Riverside social science Sarah Ellis Middle College High School Natural Science quinland Gallagher Jordan math Alexander Alexandra gayer DSA social science next slide please thank you Mia Gonzalez Rodriguez Jordan English Ruth Harvey Jordan English Alum Hendrickson DSA Coral music music Evan Heyman DSA
032visual art Mara hbert school for Creative Studies social science Jaden isard Northern social science Matthew Johnson Southern social science Madison Knight Hillside theater Haley lawell Early College High School social science Sarah Lich Jordan Natural Science next slide thank you Lindsay Mangum Jordan Natural Science AIA managot CMA social science Isaac Matthew DSA instrumental music Zari Macintosh DSA Coral music Nolan manano DSA Natural Science Tyler Mitchell BSA instrumental music McKenzie Norman Riverside Natural Science Brianna o'briant Early College High School math Mo Ana soroto Northern dance Joella Orinda DSA Natural Science next slide and we're coming to the end Jessica pigeon Jordan visual art Riley Reeves Jordan social science Kennedy Robertson Hillside instrumental music Lindsay sample who also was selected last year in her nomination carried over since she was a 10th grader from Riverside dance Amelia dado
033barber school for Creative science I mean school for Creative Study so sorry she's going in social science Jaden Turner Lowry DSA instrumental music Trinity zenz alion Jordan foreign language Miranda Worthington Hillside visual art and Grace Wright Jordan Natural Science hopefully all 49 of these incredible students are watching us tonight and we wish that they could go through the line and elbow bump with each one of the board members and Dr mainga we're so pleased to recognize all of them I have um spark pins to further recognize their outstanding talent and the spark of inspiration they give to others we applaud you for your past performance and look forward to your continued leadership in durm public schools thank you thank you Laura parrot and this would end our celebrations except that we are not going to
034allow lead nurse Trisha Howard to slip away without her chance to walk to the red carpet herself thank you for those celebrations it's so great to hear about all the great things that our students are doing that our educators are doing we know our district can't be the greatest District in the state or in the country without the great work of those folks so thank you all the next item on our agenda is the superintendent update Dr mainga thank you Madame chair members of the boards staff Community I want to start by reflecting on the year we have had most challenging one in DPS history many changes in how we teach how our students learn but also stress anxiety even trauma separation from each other as colleagues separation from the people in our lives will
035support us through all the all the changes we have been concerned about how we work together and support each other as DPS employees still working on analyzing data when I mean by data discipline data and other data or attendance and so W but tonight I would like to announce to you that uh we did our teacher working condition survey and employee engagement responses are up this year can you imagine in the year of this pandemic in a year when we could have easily fallen behind we move forward in many areas I'm very pleased to announce that I'm very grateful to teachers and staff for everything they've done for this year grateful to administrators and board for supporting employees during this pandemic so we have our summer and ignite update operation suon recruitment is underway this
036is going to be a fun and engaging Camp experience for our students I'm going to repeat this this is going to be a fun and engaging Camp experience for our students daily enrichment with special like Arts music PE dance every student will have Hands-On materials for projects and activities all about preparing student for a strong stat to n year I'm pleased to announce to you we have over 4400 students and roll so far for our summer programming our goal is 10,000 ,000 and we feel confident that we can reach it and we are asking our parents community members we're going to reach out to fthb community and everybody else to make sure that our students that work on find a home for almost a year to be able to be released to come and join
037their colleagues their friends to have fun with that 4400 students I would like to break down that we have 2900 students Elementary students son of so far 778 middle school students and 767 high school students We are continuing Outreach over social media direct District calls and most import importantly direct communication from schools again I said we're going to reach out to our fifth Bas community and everybody else that will be able to help us to get to our Target number of 10,000 it takes a village it take a community to be able to get all our students where they need to be I think a lot of our families and a student may feel like they have been through a lot this year and I want to take a break for this summer that's may
038be a mindset of some of our students they really want to be separated from schools but uh I just want to let our families know that the operation summer learning will energize them and support them for a great year to come we're not just talking about learning loss we're talking about student being able to connect with the PE we are also up to 360 students enroll for ignite Online Academy 360 out of 360 students we have 83 of them are from outside of the district our goal was pretty much to go after St students that are home homeschooling and our goal was pretty much to get to 100 and we're getting really close to it we have shifted our Focus from enrollment for the entire District at this time we just really wanted to push
039for ignite once we get the number then we're going to get back to our main focus of trying to bring every student back in many family are still evaluating all the changes in CDC recommendations and vaccine availability we are still actively recruiting students so we have not closed the door yet families please reach out to your schools reach out to the numbers and our website so that your child will be recruited for ignite if that's your choice speaking of those changes to CDC recommendations DPS will continue to require mask through the summer all staff and student in our school must continue to wear to wear them so that's our recommendation as far as theps is concerned and we are also excited to partner with our community organizations to host vaccination clinics for students 12 open
040up and the families at Hillside and giens this Saturday from 10 to 2 we are committed to staff and student safety and with that to a great end of the school year and a great summer and the great new year that we are all looking forward to Bo it's been a very challenging year as I can say but our heads are really up because of folks that we saw working through the red carpet some of them in the audience and some of them the one that are home they have been able to WRA around our students with all they needed in spite of all the challenges but we are really feeling comfortable that we're going to move up and whatever needs our student may have where they're closing the achievement Gap addressing learning loss social
041emotional needs we have enough support to address them all thank you thank you Dr mavinga for that update the next item on our agenda is agenda review and approval I would like to I would like to make an amendment to the agenda um I would like to add a resolution opposing House Bill 324 it can go under academics okay second that Amendment so we have amended the agenda do we have a motion to approve our amended agenda I move that we um approve the agenda as amended second been moved by Miss vodar seconded by Miss fire any other discussion all in favor say I I any opposed please use the same sign passes unanimously the next item on our agenda is Board of Education meeting minutes from April 22nd 2021 have approval of the minutes
042as presented a second so move by Miss buer seconded by Miss Lewis any discussion all in favor say I I I any opposed please use the same sign and pass this unanimously the next item on our agenda is general public comment so submitted public comments will be read out loud during our public comment period and board members will listen carefully and consider those comments just a quick review of the rules before we get started first please state your name and if you're speaking for an organization please State the uh the name of of the organization second speakers are asked to present their comments in three minutes when the yellow light comes on you will have one minute left there's a little timer on the um end of the table there when the red light comes
043on your time is up it will beep and we will ask that you stop speaking at that time complaints about name staff students or parents should not be voiced in open session however we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regarding uh the public education safety of students or operations of our school system finally board members we will listen carefully and consider the comments but we do not engage in discussion with our speakers so have some public comments that are in person tonight um and then we have we a lot 30 minutes for public comments so we also I think have some that were submitted virtually is that correct all right so we'll check in on that so the first public comment is Irving Truitt all right I just passed out everything I want
044to say in three minutes all right um thank you everybody for being here and listening to these comments I would like to thank the board for orchestrating a meeting with Mr Davis and his team to provide a classroom for the theater arts department I commend you for that and I appreciate that thank you unfortunately the commun community Alum our students and theater lovers are here again advocating for equitability theater facility compared to the other Arts programs in the school and in the district I want to be clear that technical theater and performance theater are two different disciplines in the meeting with Mr Davis I was presented with two options a beautiful black box theater but no technical theater so that was unacceptable the next presentation was the technical theater scene shop was divided in half
045to create a smaller space for a black box and a theater scene shop well yes that fixed the problem but it's not Equitable that's like saying if we're going to take the band room and divide it in half and give half to the course and half to the band both options like I said are unacceptable I have a lot of other concerns about the theater but I will not repeat those because because I'm pretty sure you receive my emails what has happened to the Theater Performing Art swing is the Black Box stay what should happen as the Black Box stays where it is while the theater scene shop is added to its entirety to its 8,800 square feet to Stage right right now they added a space that's 800 square feet we do not have
046the space for tools Machinery the students I have 30 students students using you can check the data in my technical theater class that is not going to be enough space for the furniture the paint and everything that we need to do so we can either add the space or our second thing is to redesign the entire art swing to create eable space for all of the students and all of the programs which will include putting Visual Arts back in the Performing Art swing because right now it's located across campus and the visual arts and the theater people we work together to paint the sets and that's valuable experience for them so once again I plead with you to provide equ equity and equitability for our theater students thank you our next comment is from Tia
047green hi um I was a theater student with Mr Tru for three years and I just want to say that it's important to keep theater Equity because theater is more than just theater for us it is a place that we can go to it helps us build our character respect friendships just everything it is very important and if you would keep that for the future theater kids we would all appreciate that thank you our next comment is Shen Chen I think I apologize if I'm pronouncing incorrectly Perry good evening my name is Chen Perry and I'm the current president of northern's drama club we are here again tell me why do you think we're here no in fact don't answer that a new Northern is being built and there was a time where I was
048happy about it every time I hear the mention of it I scow I frown this school isn't what I hoped for it's not complete our theater director has fought long and hard to ensure that the Performing Arts had a good and safe space to learn to grow and for some reason it's taken years for him to get acknowledge to voice what we need for the classroom let us think in just to start the conversation and now that we've been told you what we need you try to give us an ultimatum you claim there's not enough money where is the money then you say there isn't any room look at the locker rooms look at the gyms the funny thing is we could have had a space but you gave it to automotive automotive and the
049Arts Wing not to be rude but that was a very unthoughtful decision my dad says that despite our best efforts he wouldn't listen wouldn't rewrite this wrong but I have faith the doesn't have that overwhelming support that Sports has but we do exist we do have a crowd to cheer us on and we expect you to be a part of that crowd because that's your job so show me show us that you're um that you're who you say you are thank you our next comment is Shamir Truitt Martin honorable Dr manga wonderful superintendent honorable board first of all I would just like to thank you so much for all of the support you have given us throughout this year throughout this covid-19 era words cannot express the gratitude that we feel families as as well
050as teachers as well as our students thank you so much my brother and I here because we really believe that you have the ability to know how to make this work you've come up with Solutions and we need a win-win solution for the equity of all of our students theater like Chen is more more than just a place for us to you know get together and have one room you have to build that memory inside of you you have to have that black stage where you are walking around where you know a stage left is where you know where stage right is where you know how to project so by the time you get to the theater you have that work done so you can have the optimal show you can't have it separate it
051has to be together you have the collaboration of the arts department working together it's like it's like Brandenburg have you know Brandenburg the CL that beautiful piece of music that all of the pieces are working together the flutes the cellos all the orchestra is combined and they're not practicing in isolation once they get together they're working in isolation and a place where you can hear the Acoustics where you can hear everything that you need to be the best you can possibly be that's what the black box is that's what the technical place is for you to work together to build it so you can have the Ultima show so you can collaborate with everyone else that's my two cents and I know I know you guys are going to come up with the win winst
052solution so we can have an equitable situation for all good afternoon board I apologize I didn't get here in time I think the the list had went on with your permission I would like to speak please thank you yes if you could just state your name and we'll get started all right my name is Humphrey uh trit and I'm here today to advocate for the students at Northern High School's uh theater Department within uh our community research has shown that facilities in space Foster great experiences and also outcomes within that you have great Student Success the Student Success builds great Foundation great foundations for our youth within our community specifically at Northern High School's uh theater Department personal experiences that I have is being a part of that theater program when I was a youth
053and I know firsthand the foundation that it has has fostered me uh throughout my life so I'm here today to ask the board to reconsider uh the plans the design at Hillside High excuse me at Northern High School's uh theater department so the students there can become leaders to become a a community to have great experiences to have great outcomes in life thank you very much next we have Wendell tab good evening to Dr mainga board chair Alstead and members of the board and to administrative staff I was hoping that I wouldn't have to come back because I saw the progress and so I want to thank you thank you for at least allowing Mr truart to meet with the team to Dr Monk because that's the start what I wanted to say is really
054directed to Dr mainga Dr mainga came from my hometown Franklin County we know all the same people County Commissioners school board members and he did something wonderful there and I tell him about it all the time and when he came to Durham I knew that that progression was coming to Durham I went to a high school in Franklin County that is just now receiv receiving a new football stadium and track that Dr Mingo was instrumental in making happen I ran on a dirt track while I was in high school but it was when I came to Northern High School for for a regional track meet that in 1980 they had Asphalt in 1980 Northern was already ahead of everybody else Dr Mingo knows that in our my hometown that people would not send their children
055to the school because of his athletic programs they sent them to another school and I'm not naming the school because I'm not here to do that but Dr maing I want you to share that with the staff share what you did for me the people of Franklin County for Equity that we fought for 30 years to get an asphalt track that you were instrumental in making happen so if I know that if you can make it happen for a small town in Franklin County I know that you can make it happen in a progressive City like Durham so I commend you for what you've already done and what you're doing now but I know where your heart is CH I'm said I know where your heart is I know where you are heart I know
056each and every one of you a mistake was made you voted on it the administration knows that you voted on it now nobody wants to own up to the mistake Mr see you teacher former teacher Mr truid is coming here giving his heart out as a teacher we should be saluting him and especially as an African-American teacher male that is standing up for his children we don't have males to do that Dr Monk the man is standing up for the children we're going to do better Dr Dr Mingo you did it for me in Franklin County each time I go back go back home I thank you now I know we can do it here because Durham is Progressive and so I thank you all for your time next we have Paula lacewell greetings I
057am Paula lawell can you hear me I'm usually not a speaker I am a singer uh but I want to uh say greetings to Dr M manga and um chairperson of the board and members here tonight parents I am again Paula lawell I am a retired school teacher from Hillside High School and I am quite familiar with the dramatic needs of the drama Department uh our department was a combined uh department where we would uh cooperate with each other when the chorus finished we would work with drama when the drama Department finished what they had to do a production we would go to the band so we were our inhouse departmentalized um um place at Hillside High School I have had opportunity to work with Mr Tru at Northern High School on several occasions and
058I am aware of the challenges presented tonight I've been a before a performer for over 40 years throughout this state I'm also a comedian uh that's been all over the United States performing I have been in plays here and I know what Mr TR is saying when he says that he needs the space for our students and I'm just asking the board tonight to please not cheat our students everything that Mr Tru has said to you tonight and it was tough coming behind uh Mr tab because I understand everything Mr tab is saying a mistake has been made please correct it is never too late to correct a mistake Steve Harvey made a great big mistake when he did uh call the wrong person out for the uh uh Miss America Pageant but he made
059a correction we can make a correction we are all human thank you thank [Applause] you thank you all that concludes the public general public comment we do have some comments that were submitted online we have approximately 12 minutes left I'm sorry did you oh come on up if you can um state your name good afternoon I'm Ivon Coleman thank you for this time to be before you um thank you also for what you do every day in supporting the children you've heard a lot about the need to correct things at Northern High School what I want to do is just to remind you that this isn't just for the 30 or 40 kids who are in the drama club this isn't just for those who might be in the next production but this is for
060all of the students at Northern High School the the arts program support and benefit all of the students and there's an opportunity we know that before you start doing the um you know the groundbreaking and the clearing of the trees that the plan is still just a plan so we're here to ask you to correct what you know because you've acknowledged some of this correct what you know is necessary combining all of the Arts in one section would be really very wonderful and at the very minimal address what you have done in the design for the theater program most of us here are theater people so we could have put on a play for you tonight but that's not why we're here we're here because we know the power of theater we know the power
061of the Arts I'm not going to give you statistics about the impact on reading the impact on on personal development the impact on leadership we're not going to give you all of that because this is an Enlighten group and you know that already so what we're asking you to do is to fix what you know you can fix now a year from now this conversation will be too late six months this conversation will be too late so let's see what we can do now for all of the students at Northern not just the drama students this is a little bigger than that so again thank you and next time we will do a show if we have to thank you was there an additional public comment that want to come up come on up sir
062and if you can state your name when before you start your comment how you doing chair uh chairs of the board uh I'm here on behalf of irin Tuitt my name is DeAndre Sanders uh I happen to met Mr Truitt over Facebook known was he's done a lot for actors especially African-American actors in the North Carolina area me being an individual that knows what it's like to be confined and put in a certain box and not given what's needed to expand the Arts is very influential in society is one of the most unrecognized influences in society TV and film and theater and music influences individuals such as myself I'm 23 years old from individuals that are five years old the 12 years old the 18 year 18 years old are influenced by the Arts if
063the basketball team won Regional Title after Regional Title you wouldn't have no problem with expanding the gym putting in better lights putting in better bleachers that same goes for the football team but just because the Arts is not quote unquote recognized as heavily as Sports doesn't mean that they're not as successful you shouldn't have to wait to go to a big university or college to receive um to be put in an environment that you feel as if is comfortable to open yourself up into you should start receiving that development in high school and even in middle school and Elementary School you don't want to have to be a student and I had to deal with this because I went to Southeast Raleigh High School I graduated in 2015 we didn't even have a black box
064we simply only performed on the stage or rehearsed in the theater area at the seats so it makes no sense how they had to accept for Less literally a 100 square feet less than what all of the schools get in regards to square feet for the uh theater shop would you settle for less than what you're worth you wouldn't want to do that at all in any way shake my form and me being an africanamerican male especially African-Americans in the Arts we already aren't represented to the ability that we can because we always have to settle for what we can get we don't want to settle anymore and I'm 100% positive the arts department specifically theater does not want to settle any thank you thank you for allowing me to speak I'm Toya chinlu I'm
065a DPS educator currently at Aon Harris I began the dance department at DSA and I have taught in several schools throughout during Public Schools I am a parent of Doran Public Schools that's how I came to Doran public schools first as a mother of African-American male who is now a college educated engineer and musician so you can have a science brain and a musical brain that operate and function in one body and do it very well so I have lived Arts I birthed artists and I know know that what I'm standing here today for is for the future children you're looking at the children that go there now I work at an elementary school there are children to come and anyone that builds a school builds for the future not for the present and if
066we're talking about making the theater Department equivalent to schools that exist now it's still not for the future because we're 21st century minded and if we're going 21st century we're looking Beyond this in a system in a district in a city that built a dpack there should not be a high school being erected that is short of supplying the needs of theater students with a 21st century mindset so I just want to encourage us to think outside the box because that's what 21st century requires critical thinking skills problem solving and Thinking Beyond what is in front of us because we're creative minded people that's what the Arts bring another perspective another way to look at it so in the spirit of being um equable fair just for minded and for the future generations to come
067I support every comment that was made that I heard and didn't hear when I came to first meeting this one in all the meetings that preceded please on the sake of the children to come most of you are parents you understand for the sake of the children to come and let's not forget the significance of the heart of a teacher that's committed and passionate about teaching the children because it is a teacher that keeps coming back and back and back with other teachers to stress the importance of Education that's what you hire us for there's many people during Public School teachers we have a heart and passion for what we do so thank you for your time I look forward to your changes thank you all for your public comments we have about four minutes
068Mr suth I will not be able to get to all of our online comments in that time but I'll get started and I've got a timer running now uh the first comment is from Minister Paul Scott of the black Messiah movement recently the North Carolina House of Representatives passed house Bill 324 putting the Tar Hill State on the front lines of the current civil woke war against critical race Theory and anti-racism education taking place in States across the country the bill is problematic on many levels not only will it hamper Educators from teaching such subjects as African-American history but it will also prevent students from asking questions in class this may lead to disciplinary actions which will further contribute to the dropout rate and the and the school to prison pipeline which disproportionately impacts black
069males therefore therefore I am asking that the Durham Board of Education issue a proclamation against h324 Durham is known as a progressive City so I'm asking you to be Progressive on this important issue I'm also submitting this via the public comment form so that it may be read into the record at the May 20th Schoolboard meeting the next comment is from timido bman nikoy please make adjustments to the plans following is a comment from Venita Allen of HDE Park Avenue Theater is so important to children as a native of Durham and a found member of the Chuck Davis African-American dance Ensemble songwriter and a playright I will tell you theater impacted my life and the ability to be able to be present and speak in front of large crowds of people and the ability to
070communicate with people of different ethnicities theater encompasses all aspects of entertainment and edutainment it teaches while allowing us to use our gifts and talents and cultivates them it also teaches us to see each other for who we are and the individuality we bring together to create something beautiful not only does theater affect the children it also affects the parents and helps them unlock learn and use their often hidden G gifts and talents theater is definitely needed in the city of Durham we are a people that accept each other for who we are and I would like to believe that the Arts had a great part in that and that theater would continue to create that environment an atmosphere for creativity love peace and respect for each other and the ability to share it with others
071the next comment is from Dorene Bruce of bishopton way in night Dale as a product of Duram Public Schools I want to advocate for the students of the new Northern High School theater Department like the other programs in the Arts band dance chorus theater is important to the creative expression of students in order to demonstrate that creativity they must have adequate space imagine watching a basketball game that was played with half the court closed how exciting would that be every shot is made in the same basket by both teams would you be able to keep up with who was scoring and who winning the game it's much easier when you have the full court the full view that's all I'm asking for please give these students an opportunity to practice and perform in full view
072thank you next is Cynthia blood good of Crazy Horse Drive I'm a technical director Carpenter and theater educator I have worked at numerous schools in my career of 20 years I'm writing this to support expanding the scene shop in theater blackbox classroom the tech theater shop needs more than 800 square feet of space to safely teach students how to build scenery with power tools you need to provide them with space for Tool and scenery storage and workspace people get hurt if they are in two close quarters during a build the theater proposed is nice but there's no guarantee that it will be reserved for its intended purposes instead of becoming a general meeting and study hall space it also needs revisions to meet safety standards and fire code as well as a theater consultant to
073ensure regular theater Necessities are met you have an incredible opportunity to give a stu to give students a leg up on learning vital construction communication collaboration and project management skills through the engaging and focused practice of preparing for a play these are skills that build the future job site managers the engineers The Architects the problem solvers and designers of the world students may not know or believe they have these possibilities in them until they have a chance to try out the skills firsthand this is an important First Step the idea of if you can see it you can become it to do this they will need tools sufficient space opportunity and for the staff and administration to treat their shows like a basketball or football game please support creating a genuine Workshop in theater space
074and attend the shows they PR they produce these students deserve this you'll be amazed at the results both now and later thank you for listening and that literally brings us to four minutes the remaining public comments are on the DPS website posted as a PDF yes thank you they have also been sent to board members so we have read those online comments as well the next item on our agenda is our consent items we have um five consent items before us today these have been sent to the board and been read beforehand these agreements can be approved by the board subject to final review and approval of the contract terms by the board attorney move approval of the consent agenda second it's been moved by Miss Byer seconded by Mr Raven any other discussion all
075in favor say I I any opposed please use the same sign passes unanimously the next item on our agenda is Operation Services uh Dr monck thank you and good evening chairman um chairwoman Umstead Dr manger and bour um the first item that we're here to talk about is the Northern High School replacement guarantee maximum price contract change order um we already have a contract with Barnhill uh construction company to do CM at risk which is construction management at risk delivery method in order to begin construction on Northern High School however we need to do a change order to their contract that would include the cost to do construction as well as establish the um substantial completion date we received bids for 51 bid packages on March the 17th 18th and 25th um you can see
076the attachment of the certified uh bid tab that's a part of the agenda packet we also uh received 2.77% mwe participation um there's a link to that uh document is about 1100 pages so we couldn't obviously included um with the agenda items but if you want to see not only um which terms are part of this contract but also the Outreach that was done to uh solicit their participation with that said uh staff is uh recommending approval um of this change order in the amount of 87 m879 th55 and establishing a substantial completion date of May 31st 2023 for the Northern High School replacement project and I'm joined by uh Mr Fred Davis who is our director of construction and sustainability if you have any questions regarding this contract thank you Dr Monk board members
077are there any questions Mr Ren uh so um I've looked over everything and and I like everything that I see I think it would be good to to have an idea um to to the community that may have questions about what's all entailed in requesting changes to uh the design plan for a high school at at this time um I know that there has been some requests from the community asking for things like the art Wing um excuse me like the art area be added to the actual art Wing So if that was a request that was to actually go in what type of cost has entailed in making those changes if that's something that can be provided um I doubt that the actual um cost to do that can be provided tonight um however
078I'll ask Mr Davis to talk about the design process and the uh the impact to um moving forward with this project good evening um thank you Dr Mon board member Raven to that question um the design and construction process is based on three pillars uh time scope and money and so whenever you change one of those pillars it will affect the other too so your question about um the changes to the scope uh could further delay opening in 2023 uh could also uh assume more financial uh hardship on the already set guaranteed maximum price of construction so uh they all have an impact if you change one of three of those pillars thank you there no further questions I'll accept a motion I move approval of the um trying to get back to what I
079supposed to say here [Music] the Northern High School replacement guaranteed maximum price contract change order to Barnhill contract in company for the construction of Northern High School second been moved by Mr Lee second by Miss sper is there any other discussion Miss vs um just appreciative of um you know these updates Dr Monk and um just in terms of I know that there was a community discussion we've heard from Community um and I understand what we just shared about the time and uh scope and jeopardizing uh an opening time but I'm just wondering if there's any additional um community meeting or or conversations that could happen um you know any any Community conversations that could happen with uh the community that that is requesting updates from more updates because I know you have already met
080with them certainly and um with a project as size um Mr David and his team will be uh definitely keeping the community informed of uh when we'll start can construction and that's the good thing about having a construction manager at risk like uh Barnhill Contracting is that um they will uh notify the community if they have to um do typically this time of year if you're doing concrete pores and things like that they will need to notify the neighbors and let them know what um what is happening and just keeping people AB breast and making sure that um they know where we're coming into the site and where we're exiting just so everyone is safe understand what is uh what is going on throughout the duration of the uh the project and additionally once we
081have groundbreakings and River cutting um just like we did with lions form we will invite the community to um to participate in those things because it's something that we want to celebrate because it's for us for everyone yes Mr CED um if I could add to that uh we have at the community's request we've uh sent a mailed a paper mailed um letter with an update from the superintendent frequently asked questions about the project as well as an update from uh barn hill that was included with that um we have uh brought online uh at to engage. dpsnc.net updates about uh the Northern High project and we will continue to update that as well and we will do more as needed for for the community thank [Music] you so it's been moved in probably second
082we had additional discussion all in favor say I I any opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously we'll move to the next item on our agenda academic Services Dr Hardy good evening chair Umstead Dr MinGa and other board members um although this is on the agenda under academic services this is truly a district collaborative effort we are excited tonight to share with you our plans regarding the funding Miss Smith if you can pull up the presentation and to get us started I'm going to turn it over to Mr Paul lour our Chief Financial Officer good evening chair Umstead board members Dr mainga and remaining staff as well as the community that is online uh watching the presentation today um we go to the next slide please so what we're talking about is elementary
083and secondary school emergency relief fund we're going to give you an update today on uh dollars that we have coming to us and an overview of what they'll be used for to move uh learning over the summer as well over the next three years um this fun we were fortunate to have these funds given to us uh from that standpoint we need to use them wisely because these are going to be looked at very closely by not only the state and how we use it the general assembly and the federal government there will be audits that will be and monitoring visits that will be done during this period And I want to make sure that we all understand that it is important that we uh do the do the things that we have in place
084in our district to ensure accuracy and accountability of these funds I'm trying to bring up next slide please what is Esser we'll be talking about that we'll be talking about the data and feedback that we've received from the schools from the community uh and from uh those that would like to participate in understanding of the funding we have and how it can be utilized we'll give you a overview of the summary of funds additional areas of consideration and then we'll have some question and discussion regarding the utilization of these funds and get some of your ideas and feedback in regards to moving forward next slide please what is essr great question it's a lot of different funds that have been received by this state because of the Corona virus uh and it's a way to
085move us forward uh with the learning loss bringing students back into school as well as providing us resources to take care of our schools next slide please cares act funds the first one up here these are the part parts and pieces that we've received funding for from the state from the federal government uh to ensure that we have the funding available to to move us forward through this pandemic the cares act funds coronavirus Aid relief and Economic Security Act were the first was the first part of money that we received last year we received over $1 million for the purpose of uh doing online learning uh preparing uh our students to have computers while they were not in our buildings as well as have hotpots so that they could have connectivity from whatever location they
086were in that money uh is almost gone we got about $4 million left that we will utilize to ensure we have money in place for hotpots as well as uh supplies of materials PPE for cleaning as well as uh a lot of the items that we already purchased we'll probably have to purchase some more as we move forward PPE and cleaning supplies the SR funds Elementary and secondary school emergency relief funds these are what we call sr2 this was the second part of money that we were provided uh in was approved in December but we didn't get it until just recently we're going to call Cares act as Sr one Esser as Sr 2 uh These funds can be used this was 46.5 Million we received These funds can be used for summer learning tutoring
087and other uh items uh positions for classrooms in schools and in regards to these funds they are with us until 2023 so by September of 2023 we have to have these funds expended the third part of money we got we received was the arpa funds American Recovery plan act funds these funds much like the same as the Esser funds that we just received we received $104 million in total these two parts we have is $104 million for the purpose of carrying us through 2024 of these arper funds sr3 funds the general assembly has stipulated that we have to use 20% of these funds for the purpose of of Summer learning and learning loss we will be uh ensuring that over the next three years we have money in place for not only the summer programs
088but tutoring along the way to ensure that the learning loss is recovered when these funds go away those three pots of money are the primary pots that we've received and again there all for the purpose of moving student achievement and learning forward can also be used for the purpose of construction when I say construction capital outlay for the purpose of ensuring we have funds in place to do some Remediation in our schools to provide us better air quality the CSAA Corona virus response relief supplementary Appropriations act These funds are another pot of money that has come to the state that the governor has just rolled out his plan as of yesterday in regards to funding that will come to schools primarily it's being looked at to utilize These funds for pre programs and for also
089retaining and recruiting of Personnel in the schools of that 300 million is being provided to Ed uh for the overall funding uh that will we will be able to apply for some of those funds as well as receive some of those funds directly as part of the overall funding that the state has received with these four pots of money we're able to do a lot annually we'll have to review and plan uh again and again after we get our results find out what worked what didn't work and change the plan to move us forward so as we go through the next three years we're going to be looking at what's working what's not working and make the necessary changes to move us forward next slide please so how can These funds be spent as we
090look at this slide in the bottom leftand corner you have a mask so we can use it PPE you can use it for cleaning supplies to clean the buildings as we move up to the next one you see a hammer and a wrench this can be used for facility repairs and Improvement to minimize virus transmission and improve indoor air quality as we move up to the next block the white block with the sun shining this is about summer learning but not not only summer learning but also supplemental funds for school programs after school programs to ensure that we continue to support our students as they learn and are coming back into the school district next year as we move up to the next block the green block with hands that is to address needs for
091low income EC El students racial and ethnic minori ities homeless and foster children uh in our school district to provide them those extra supports that they will need as they come back into our schools if we go to the next block we see a gray block with a gentleman standing there with his pointer this is really about training and professional learning we want to continue professional learning for our teachers and other uh targeted populations of of of Educators to ensure that we are moving ourselves forward as we go through the next three years if we go to the next block you see a gentleman standing there in the blue Blue Block this is covid relief benefits and Recruitment and Retention programs that we are developing to ensure that we meet the needs of our students
092and this as well provide our our individuals employees with the ability to to better themselves as well going to the next one you see a gold box with a head and a heart this is about our Mental Health Services and supports we want to make sure that as kids come back to school we have people in place uh counselors social workers to ensure that we are taking care of the whole child as we move forward and the last block down on the bottom right is a computer this is about the infrastructure that we need to have in place for our technology we will need to ensure that we have connectivity that we have security for our computers uh and our systems that we have in place and it's really about educational technology for students we
093will be hiring some positions with these dollars for the I mean to ensure that we have the appropriate support in the schools as they need as the needs arise uh so that we don't have to use our central office staff which is taxed as is uh with all the the uh 30,000 Plus Computers we have out there uh to make sure that we are in a good place and able to respond quickly next slide please and at this time I will turn it over to Dr Hardy for to go over the data and feedback thank you Mr lour one of the things that is critically important when we have all of the dollars that Mr lore has just shared will be coming to the district that we have the opportunity to create a plan that
094values and honors the input that we have in D Public Schools tonight during our celebrations we recognized our students and staff I'm going to share with you the pieces of feedback that we have have and how we've Incorporated that feedback into our plan you'll also have the opportunity to hear specifically from drors Monk and Lin regarding areas in their specific area of supervision and how we will be using those dollars you'll go forward to the next slide please we work collaboratively with Dr MinGa to ensure that we had the opportunity to not only have a survey and you will see the survey data um that will be shared later in the presentation but we also had inperson meetings so that we could give the opportunity to hear from our stakeholders we had inperson sessions with
095our superintendent's principal advisory as well as our superintendent's teacher advisory Council furthermore our assistant superintendents who work directly with each of our principles met individually with principles to gather feedback regarding their needs that has all helped us in addition to the survey gather the information needed to put together a comprehensive plan to address all of the needs of dur Public Schools you go to the next slide please here you will see the results from the K12 Insight survey this data that you see due to the submission of our board materials was actually pulled on May 13th however to date we have received 746 staff members to respond to our survey with 68% of those being from our classroom teacher so in addition to hearing from our Advisory Group we also have the opportunity for all
096of staff to respond to this survey when ask survey stakeholders how they would like to see our funds spent the top responses were as follows Mental Health Services instructional personalized supports to accelerate student learning facility repairs education technology and summer learning if you'll go forward two slides please on this slide you will will view the displays of the key areas that Mr lour talked about often referred to as we come up with an acronym for everything in education Sr 2 and Sr 3 here you will see that these include academic Services which will address our instructional personalized supports to accelerate summer learning Mental Health Services and summer learning needs indicated as part of the feedback that we received Dr Monk will talk specifically regarding operational services that will address facility repairs upgrades needed to improve
097air quality supplies for cleaning and sanitation as well as support for our instruction excuse me for our technology needs we also have reserved funds for school level strategies to directly support schools and they will use these funds as an opportunity to further address learning loss as a result of our current pandemic this could be in the form of tutoring and other activities that would occur at the school as work and move throughout the year with our principles all to ensure that we are making sure that our students are continuing to be supported not only academically but socially and emotionally in addition within administrative services and our human resources department to support our TA to teacher program and ancillary services to make sure that we are prepared in the event that we have to address long-term
098closures virus transmission and system preparedness in the event of our current pandemic next slide please as we think about how we anchor our work in the durm Strategic plan that was collaboratively developed by our community you can see that our response to the funds that we have actually links to each of our priorities as well as the addendum strategies that our board approved right before going out on covid closure you will see items displayed are the enhancements to programs that were previously established to our position core positions such as teachers coaches positions to support our one onetoone initiative revitalization of our TA to teach program as well as strategies such as Student Success coaches to support and enhance graduation extended day and tutoring options and our summer learning programming all connected to each of our
099five priorities aligned to our strategic plan next slide please these funds will provide additional support in three key areas as you can see learning acceleration social and emotional supports and high need and specialized support we have learning acceleration which will provide additional classroom teachers interventionists coaches instructional assistants to support our students in the classroom social and emotional supports will offer additional Mental Health Counselors as well as school counselors and of course a specific focus on any of our students that may have special needs including our English language Learners students who are served through our special education program as well as families that may be in transition please note we've worked collaboratively with our finance office as well as the office of Human Resources these positions are Tim Limited in Bound due to the funding of
100the grant but they will be differentiated based on school needs to support the unique differences that we have across our 53 schools as well as monitoring and support of the data as you heard Mr lure will be providing the board with updates resulting in that this time 85 positions affecting and impacting each and every school in dur Public Schools we know that this is a collaborative effort while we are in the recovery process from the effects of covid-19 we want to ensure that we continue to bolster support specifically in the social emotional and academic needs of our students and our community to ensure that we have a positive impact on our students and our community as we move forward at this time it's my pleasure to turn the presentation over to Dr L assistant superintendent
101for human [Music] resources you next slide please good evening we see this um as a tremendous opportunity to support our Recruitment and Retention so we um thought in our discussions in human resources and with key stakeholders that that needed to be the focus of many of the human resources pieces related to this funding and so you can see how we have branched that even though we don't have opportunity to cover the full span of the the Recruitment and Retention plan we have chosen these specific High needs areas in which to focus the first one being our um partnership with North Carolina Central University for our TA to teacher program we are excited about this third cohort which will be the largest to date our goal was 40 um we had a deadline but due to
102the interest the overwhelming interest from our taas we extended that deadline a little bit and are getting ready to fi those applications so hopefully we will have actually more than 40 um Tas accepted to that program we um the interesting thing about the way this is we are proposing this is it would not only support a third cohort but also a fourth cohort so that we are looking at getting a strong pool of 80 plus um individuals in the program over the period over this time period another area Focus are with our EC recruitment areas um our EC recruitment strategies EC continues to be one of the most difficult areas in in which we can find viable candidates to meet the needs of all of our students here in Duram Public Schools so we will
103be working closely and looking at unique strategies that we can use to attract more individuals to durm as well as supporting Stu uh our current teachers who have a passion for working with students in this area um meet their testing obligations and lure cost and um different related things to that um one key area in our Recruitment and Retention plan continues to be Latin X Recruitment and so one of the things that we have found in obtaining feedback in our areas is how how do we create Community we see that as being directly related to our Latin X Recruitment and so we have developed a plan that will help not only secure more Latin X teachers but also be able to support them once they're here instead of just having them enter the classroom and
104then that's it it's it's you survive or you don't we want to make sure that we have ongoing Support over a period of time we will continue to encourage our teachers who are wanting to advance their knowledge or even for those Tas wanting to become teachers even if they're not going through this specific program in supporting testing reimbursement so that they can add additional are areas to their license or secure a license and the final area is very very important and it's kind of related to what I was just speaking to about Latin X recruitment transitional support efforts we continue to hear that one of the covid-19 has exacerbated needs that were already there such as things like child care and different things like that so we want to have some unique um opportunities that
105darh can showcase to assist with Recruitment and Retention to support those who choose to work for us and so those are are the areas that we have focused on in um maximizing These funds to make sure that we have individuals to feel all of these roles that we have um traditionally as well as the new roles and I will transition the mic to Dr Dr Mark thank you Dr L if we can move to the next slide please um as Mr lour indicated operations will be um managing the $62 million um as a part of the sr2 and sr3 funds the first big uh chunk that we're going to talk about here is a $6.2 million that's associated with custodial Services um you may recall the last board me and the board approved us to
106to um enter into a short-term um contract for additional custodial support as we transition to more students coming back um to take their exams and things like that this will help us to continue with purchasing um adequate supplies for clean and disinfected to also Contract Services when needed because we will be back in plan a with the majority of our students back on campus as well as to secure part-time and temporary staff and since this will will be um for a limited um funding source next slide please the next big and largest bucket um is what we're going to be using for indoor air quality and um and Outdoor Learning spaces that we're going to be implementing at our schools as you see here we have it broken up by S 2 and S3 because
107we know that the S2 runs out before the S3 does and so we broke it up into phases the first pH days um we actually been bringing a contract to the board next month is for our uh filter changes as well as calls um we have over 7800 filters that um we change throughout the district and over 2,000 coals and we're going to be cleaning each one of those um we are very excited to be able to do that um that's something that we would love to do as a part of prent the maintenance all the time and this is a good opportunity to get this work done the next part would be the um HVAC and air quality assessment so this will look directly at the equipment that is in place regardless of its
108age and they will do an assessment on what condition it is in and then give us a recommendation on whether we should replace it or if there's minor repairs that can be done um and it can continue on with its life in addition to that we're also doing air quality U reports and assessments so we do one at the beginning to see where we are and set a benchmark and then after the implementation of um their recommendations we will come back and and test the air again to see what the air quality is like um moving to uh phase three we will go into procurement of Design Services um from our engineers and um and and start to prioritize which one of these projects are we're going to move forward with first as we move
109into phase four we do retr commissioning and what commissioning is is that again looks at is the equipment operating not mechanically but is it cooling is it heating as it was designed to do we'll do retr commissioning for each one of our facilities and then they'll begin um design of the um of The Replacements for the projects that don't require design that are maybe be like for like exchanges we'll go ahead and start um replacing and repairing that equipment but if anything requires design we would have to go through that process um in phase four we will bid our HV systems and controls out and then we'll start construction um in Phase five phase six is um closing out doing all the financial things we have to do to punch list at the end of
110the projects and then um at the end they will also recommission to make sure that whatever was designed and installed is functioning as um design next slide please uh one of the major benefits that are is coming out of um the pandemic is the um realization and recognition that there is a lot that we can do with outdoor spaces to continue learning so there's a health and safety component to having Outdoor Learning but as you can see from that first um shot at the top we got kids out there doing experiments and working and that's what we're going to see in all of our schools where the campus the entire campus is a classroom it's going to look different at each one of our schools uh we got some examples of what some Outdoor Learning
111could look at like uh depending on which school that you are at but an important thing to know and there's a link that you can um that you can click on there's actually two links the first one is Durham public schools Outdoor Learning guide we actually have an outdoor learning guide that we're going to employ as we go and and look at each one of these schools um contributors to the learning guide are um our own teachers um people that work at the Hub Farm um a network called bold which stands for build outlow learning in Durham all of those contribute to our um Outdoor Learning guide which is being spearheaded and led by Mr um Fred Davis and Mr Dan snitzer and our capital building program next slide please um the next area that
112we're going to be utilizing funds is $8.9 million education technology um we use a great deal of funding to buy the 20,000 devices to get us up and running with one one um however there were several devices that U will be nearing the enter their warranty or may have even um pass their uh warranty period in which we would need to be doing refresh and we would need to do refresh every year anyway especially as we anticipate and hope that we gain more students back in the DPS we will also want to provide each one of our students as they enter our school district with the device in addition to that um we cannot Overlook cyber security especially with the amount of devices that we're adding to um the district and even in recent events
113as we saw with the colonial pipeline that is a very um hot topic that we need to address we also going to be sustaining Wi-Fi hotspot connectivity um with our Su summer learning programs just gives our students an opportunity to keep their devices and those who do not have connectivity at home to continue on with learning even throughout the uh the school year those who may not go to summer learning hopefully we can push out some um some academic work for them to uh and enrichment work for them to do as well and then um as you heard from our um one of our teachers uh tonight there is a need for additional IT staff um this plan uh provides at least a minimum of temporary because remembering the are Folks at at the end
114of this term limit for the funding we're going to have to let go but we do need to you know be thinking about long term as we're going to be a onetoone district uh not only are we going to have to have people at the school level to uh maintain inventory and assets we also need more uh workstation technicians currently we have 17 this will bring that number to 21 in addition to having a um a person that is over all distri inventory to make sure that we're keeping up with the many devices that we're bringing into the district next slide please and last but certainly not least um we learned from this past summer uh that maintaining meal distributions in our community is extremely important we want to make sure that we're planning for
115that ahead of time and so we put $1.1 million in there for school nutrition as well as um $2 million for transportation um as we prepare to have um academic extended day week or even um monthly type uh programs that we're doing and with that we can go to the next slide and we're opening up for questions and discussions thank you to the team who worked together to put together that presentation um it's a lot of funding so we need to think really critically about what we're going to use that for board members you have [Music] questions I'll start with Miss berer well thank you all so much for the detail that you've put into this and thank you for starting with the the clear explanation of the numbers and the actual intended uses of
116all these different sources of funding I think that's super important um and to know that we're be audited by all sorts of folks about how we spend this um we've learned a lot through this last year and a half and I think what one of the things that I've gotten more concerned about is ventilation Mr Monk Dr Monk sorry and I get less concerned about the cleaning and the the theater of cleaning um as we learn how Co is actually aerosolized and so I got excited to see all the ventilation work but wondered if there was a way to actually accelerate any of that during the summer so that we could have more of it actually in place before folks come back into a lot of our buildings and I particularly think about it because
117we had another Chiller go out right I'm we're watching The Chiller countdown of all of them breaking um if the money would flow and if you got additional staff and additional Consultants would it be possible to get more of that ventilation work done sooner um so is there the the things that are going to happen this summer would be the um the filter changes as well as the coil cleaning those things we are scheduling to happen before we return back to school um we do want to make sure that whatever Replacements and repairs that we're going to be doing that we're going to be good stewards over that and so that's why we want to make give them an opportunity to actually go out and inspect each piece of equipment and not just rely upon
118um the uh the age of the equipment do a visual inspection of it and then give us a prioritization of how we need to move forward there are going to be some pieces of equipment um again if it doesn't require design that we can just switch out and so in those cases we are going to move forward and we're going to order that equipment and have it installed if there is a situation where it needs to be designed and as Paul said because we you know of auditing and everything else we're going to um follow the the uh the bid laws um and and complete the projects as we normally do but the things that we can move forward with as soon as the money is available we will thank you that's super helpful um
119the same question for outdoor outdoor learning is that going to is there possibility of actually having people work on those over the summer so that when students come back they will come back to a different environment in their schools yes that's one of the areas that will begin immediately um of course um we would like nice classroom spaces like the one that we um demonstrated there and so there'll be uh different penes equipment that would need to be ordered it may be a lead time on them and so in in in maybe most cases The Outdoor Learning spaces won't be built by the time school starts but we will get started on that as soon as funding is available and then the the survey data that you shared Dr Hardy is that available in a
120more I mean what what did you ask check however many of these you think are interested important for coming back and people could select as many as they wanted or was there any open-ended response from any further data below that we provided the participants with a brief narrative regarding the federal funds that we were going to receive so that they would have um an understanding similar to what Mr lure said in terms of how funds could be allocated then there was an opportunity for them to select which is the data that you did see as well as an opportunity for them to provide uh additional com ments and we do have um access to those narrative comments I'm happy to work with your Umstead um to share with the board our staff has reviewed um
121those comments and we also engaged our teacher Advisory Group when we met with them regarding additional information to ensure that um where we were seeing request that we had the opportunity to build that into the plan I would also like to note um in one of the slides there is a big bucket of dollars that we have allocated specifically to continue work with schools as we continue to with the year to make sure that we're continuing to get feedback but specifically to address and accelerate learning and that will be another opportunity for us to ensure that we're meeting the feedback that we've received thank you I I would definitely appreciate seeing just the the comments the open-ended stuff that people submitted I think it's always helpful and I I like to let people know that
122we have heard them and um listened to everything I'm concerned that we don't even with the addition of four it folks that we don't have enough to support Folks at the school level so I hope we can look critically and um hard at at how we can really help our our folks who are scrambling and working 16 18 hour days I mean it's not just getting devices out to kids but it's maintaining all of those it needs um there's just so much here when if if I'm a department head like ESL or something and the positions that you know the district kind of posted and I you know I thought were what I needed but actually the principles and folks need something different where do we Flex how do we Bend how do we continue
123to look and get that feedback going forward because yeah so I would like if I could miss buyer I want to go back to technology um we also have I know Miss Malone is here who is our executive director for information technology and Miss sidbury is also participating via Zoom executive director for K12 um curriculum and instruction both of them have been working collaboratively as Dr Monk shared there are four positions that are part of Information Technology to really help support technicians we will have eight additional instructional technology staff that will help us with instructional technology however Miss sidbury and Miss Malone are really working collaboratively regarding some of what you heard today from our media coordinator recognizing and acknowledging as we transition to a one toone District the work that has um that our
124staff have graciously taken on to ensure that we are not only making sure that we're managing the devices but also supporting our teachers in the contracts that our board has approved in terms of the instructional opportunities for our students so they are continuing to work to ensure that we can make sure that when we move forward next year we are moving the needle to the uh one toone plan that has been shared with the board providing that support to our students and families as Dr Monk mentioned we are going to ensure that our students have access to their devices over summer learning as well as access to hotspots so that learning can continue for our our youngsters that are participating either in person or virtually I will pause to see if I've missed anything I
125know Miss sidberry is on the zoom and Miss Malone is is there she is I knew she was here she's always here thank you Dr Hardy um good evening board um I just will also speak that um Miss Malone Mrs Malone and I are working to make sure that we have Clarity and delineate the roles I think right now we've we've participated in in in a like mindset in all hands on deck and trying to do what is needed to make sure that learning can occur and that students have access to not only a reliable internet but also a device that is handy as well so uh Mrs Malone and I are working very collaboratively to um delineate the roles between a tech Champion a media coordinator a lead media coordinator and making sure that
126we have additional support again as Dr Hardy mentioned we will have the additional eight digital teaching and learning coaches whose charge will be to support a a set of schools uh with professional learning use of digital tools and also just triage in terms of everyday classroom modeling and then also uh Mrs Malone is adding in the additional four it technicians will will which will increase our capacity to deal with our help desk tickets and provide on-site technical support as well as digital um device inventory so we are working forward um moving forward with making sure that we provide that additional support for our schools and we will be getting their input as we bring for forth those recommendations thank you and Miss SP in response to your second question regarding how we um monitor the
127plans that we have in place so we have worked collaboratively with our assistant superintendent and principles regarding the initial allocation of positions as well as Dr laain in terms of not only making sure positions are posted but job descriptions clearly align what the expectations will be and how those positions will be monitored we will have midyear plans that we will work with our principal so that they can request not only additional funds but we can support them in terms of how the positions are going and if we are able to meet the particular expectations that we have for the students that those particular positions are responsible for we've also began having preliminary meetings with our principles as we look toward the upcoming year to make sure that they have the data that they need but
128also the resources that they need so not just the human and physical resources but the resources that they really need to take care of our youngsters as they come back socially emotionally and academically I appreciate apprciate it so much and I don't want to take any more time the the the lingering question for me is that all the districts around us Statewide nationally have gotten the same pool of money and are going to be recruiting the same type of talent and so I'm not really clear where we're going to find these people that we need um but I I look forward to you all bringing creative strategies and uh working with our lead experts on on how to do that um yeah and if I could just add a piece to that Recruitment and Retention
129is so important at this point in time because traditionally we're used to competing within the educational ranks but it's very important that we understand in darm a lot of our competition is outside of education and so we have to change our mindset and not just focus on whether it's going to be our surrounding school districts that we're competing with but the larger community in Dar Miss valus thank you so much for this presentation um I'm excited about the school supports and positions um just echoing you know what what has been shared about the fact that we are getting um positions um I I I Echo some of the concerns I also um just wanted to State you know we we have 23 um ESL teachers um and EC teachers and English learner literacy coaches and
130adaptive curriculum coaches um along the lines of how we are um ensuring that all these supports are are successful they they they rely on collaboration with other departments and sometimes under staff departments um I'm concerned that we didn't get any funding for um the MRC uh we didn't get any funding for interpreters that help and assist you know so EC teachers don't their their their role is is what they do um when it comes to following up with families and ensuring um that there's access we don't have any any uh any additional supports in that in that area and I'm just wondering um are there conversations about how we will ensure that all of these um supports um our our conversations about how we can we can uh meet the the the gaps right because
131we have a a pretty critical Gap and it's been a couple of years that we've requested half a million dollars but I think it goes back to two years uh that that request has been on the table um I'm wondering about any thoughts on how to support because one of the things I do hear from staff is that uh anybody who is bilingual is getting pulled in all kinds of directions and I know that that's you know there's guidelines about how everybody has you know you know is is doing what they do but sometimes they get pulled in different directions and so my my concern is um how we are providing the supports the the support the gaps right how we're addressing the gaps um the other thing is uh I'm really excited also about
132the Outdoor Learning I'm so excited about the guide um and I just wanted to also ask some questions about the guide and um any um ways that that guide is also uh in line with anything around the state of like has has it been has it been uh in the development of the guide like are we looking to other places and just wanted to hear more I I know we are because I know you all are doing so much work on that but just wanted to hear more of that so those are my two questions for now let me go first then uh Dr Hardy and Dr Mon they can jump in as well as we know that uh we went to the county to request for two counselors two nurses and one MC and
133one Equity position we did not get funding for those but we've been able to work with our cf4 to be able to shift some of the funding we're going to go ahead proceed hiring a person for MRC as well as the equity office as well I know when it comes to counselors as nurses Dr Hardy was able to address those needs uh in the meantime but uh what I would like to emphasize the 30 million doar that we're able to put on the side for school strategies as we're going to proceed with this plan so we're going to be flexible as we hear from schools the needs we'll be able to make adjustment I remember uh years ago when uh we able to get funds June the recession of 2008 lot of funds even that's
134only that are raised to the top there were a lot of money that came to the district so they not have really Major Impact folks were just spending money so we really wanted to be careful as we're bringing the plan and putting some money on the side as we're getting feedback from schools we're going to make adjustment accordingly so MC equity work as we're moving those we're heading few positions but if they're going to need more so we're going to be able to adjust those as well Dr Hardy Dr Monk I yield to Dr Monk I'm good um so the other link that we included in the um presentation is to the greens schoolyards dorg website um there is a list of pretty much every state um in the United States and what those states
135are doing um to uh to address Outdoor Learning uh during the pandemic what you'll see in North Carolina is there's two entities listed the first is North Carolina State Design of um National learning initiative and dur Public Schools so not only are we consult Consulting with um our people that are local we're Consulting with people that are National and our guide is actually featured on a national um website as well congratulations for that I mean that is uh amazing it's putting us definitely um leading this kind of work right you know um for our guide to be featured um where where was it featured at greens school. y.org and we also included the link in the um the presentation so people can please go visit that thank you for that I do know um that
136a lot of the schools were were requesting um they were requesting grants from the DPS Foundation um I would like to just for the community to kind of hear I mean a lot of those requests uh were about Outdoor Learning which is interesting that was like the top um request to DPS foundation and um how how are we leveraging I guess what what the schools are getting and then also just um just any anything on DPS foundation and conversations with them about how to best support um some of the needs that we have yeah so um I believe there was about $300,000 um the DPS Foundation um had um uh raised for reop opening and it's my understanding about 77% of that went towards um Outdoor Learning for the schools to um uh to do
137kind of like with the 30 million that we have for them now give them some autonomy to set up the classroom spaces um in the immediate future because remembering that that money came ahead of what we're planning to do with Esser uh with the Esser funding um we're going to boost that right and then we're going to make it again a part of what a School looks like for during Public Schools where Outdoor Learning is um no different than having a kindergarten classroom a science classroom in a high school um in addition to that um we want to make sure that the equipment the the features that we're putting in the Outdoor Learning spaces are sustainable um that they are going to be there to be used for a long time they're going to have
138longevity that's associated with it and so um we're we're really excited about the opportunity and uh we got a really good team with Mr Davis and Mr snitzer um to have extensive experience in um building Outdoor Learning spaces and um as well as sustainability I'll add that I was in the conference U recently and uh it was about um uh Green New Deal in Durham which is something that a lot of folks are working on and the city and the county have resolutions we don't have a resolution um DPS has not yet written one but you know the fact that we are working towards this this is you know I was able to give an update about like the fact that we have filled the POs you know positions uh that we have you know
139uh hired folks to to look at energy consumption which is like our you know biggest uh expenditure after um salaries and and all that so it's it's great work and and folks are definitely uh pretty receptive so thank you for your work Mr Lee hey I just wanted to appreciate the uh transparency of this plan of how this money be spent how it's claimed and I really like the um graphic that Mr lur kind of talked about like uh how can the funds be spent right we hear a lot about well you're getting this amount of money you should be able to do anything you want or whatever and I do appreciate that I appreciate how that was laid out um it's really important to understand that and so the the figures the numbers that
140you guys have spelled out in here about what it's going to be spent for why it's being spent it's just um I just I just need to appreciate that um show my appreciation for you guys kind of spell spelling that out because there's a lot of questions about the amount of money that's coming into Durham and then how much of that is going into Durham Public Schools especially when we're talking around the budget requ you know we have our budget request and so forth so I really appreciate this but and I also really appreciate kind of following up with Miss feris about the Outdoor Learning spaces you know this is a great opportunity to enhance our schools with these out Outdoor Learning um facilities these uh these kind of buildings um that's really important um
141that's something that the community has spoken about at length since covid really has come in and um it's just going to help us as a young young lady who spoke earlier was saying how when we build things we're building for the future right and this is an opportunity to use this money to build Outdoor Learning experiences or locations at each one of our schools that's correct each one of the schools that we can continue to use right and hopefully we can continue to enhance that we can whenever some some budget comes around and we can add more right the more we add I think it's going to it's going to be better Outdoor Learning is going to be very important moving forward we always talk about how things are going to change or have to
142change based on um you know based on the way things have have gone you know and so this is opportunity for us to continue to enhance that so I want to give out I think I saw a sketch of this uh we were we were touring um shepher I think saw a sketch of these Outdoor Learning places so I just want to give a shout out to your team Dr Monk Mr Mr Davis everybody who had a hand in this because this is this is really important to me I think I brought it um kind of a while ago asking for that but it's really important and I'm really glad that we have this opportunity and it's spelled out in this plan of how we're going to spend the money on Outdoor Learning so Community
143we've heard you uh student we've heard you for Outdoor Learning this is our opportunity to do this and we do plan on doing it so just thank you so much for you and your staff for working through this and everyone who worked on this laying out how the money how how we plan on spending the money why we're doing it how it's going to enhance our students experiences and our our education environment I really appreciate this this is great information so I just wanted to give praise for that so thank you Mr Raven I um I first I want to thank everybody uh we we had the meet and greet earlier and I I spoke with um one of the staff members and I and I told them a personal experience of my my family
144and my friends whenever they watch these these meetings they're always impressed by the breath of knowledge um on any particular topic that that the staff has here at DPS so it definitely is appreciated so when I when I'm looking through and I'm reading through all this stuff I it it's it's hard to find something that that I can see that that's wrong so any anytime that I'm ever asking any questions it's not because of that it's really just because I want reassurance that maybe I've asked questions that I haven't yet heard answers to so one of the things that I do know is the um the who has they've been having conflicting studies and and the the new thing that they're talking about is what is the quality of air and they're they're also I
145guess trying to get everybody on guard for what their next pathogen could be like um so my question is is for all of our schools around the district I'm not so as worried about some of the newer schools but for some of the older schools um will we be able to if we haven't already I'm make an assumption but will we be able to make sure that all of the windows are are operational around the district because I know the um the MV units and the the hva systems chillers having all that you know replace 100% new that that's great but I think just being able to have that air quality um it it does a lot in a lot of the displays that I've seen so I'm hoping that's one thing that we could
146look into if we haven't already um my second question is going to be this this one is going to deal it's not going to be probably not as much of an impact on us um with us having operated in in a hybrid sense but I know with Ignite coming up and and still our central office utilizing Zoom more and more as we've we've learned how to um work virtually I'm just wondering about our our actual land infrastructure um with all the cabling and stuff like that if we are going to be planning uh to to have in wireless networks for for the school districts for each individual school and even our central office are we sure and is this an opportunity for us to use some of these federal funds to kind of beef up
147beef up the network um because your network is only as strong as your weakest cable so if we if we're gonna really need this highspeed internet and be able to utilize it um if we know that this is going to be an oncoming need moving forward I would just hope that we definitely have taken a look at that since there are since there are funds available right now but this last question and Mr Lort this may actually this may actually be for you and it's more or less a strategy question I'm I'm wondering that I feel like every District around the country is going to be in a race to spend this money um and right now we have two years to to basically spend this money um I think we had like 11 11
148from um we were calling it ezri one um and then we had the 45 47 for two and then the rest of them amount um for ezri 3 and each of them essentially had to be spent out by FY 22 23 24 so what I'm wondering is is that is there any way and again I'm not trying to skirt any rules or anything that that's why I'm asking a question are we able to use the let me make this completely clear we know that our budget right now is in between 400 almost half a billion dollars right and we know that there's going to be1 15 million $160 million total that we have if we looked at an overlay and we looked at how much out of our budget this this coming up year could
149easily be supplanted with this $160 million okay how much of that if possible would we be able to spend out that very first year because what I'm thinking is if we used all of our federal funds within that first year and we supplanted it and we still held on to that $ 60 million out of our operational budget if this is even allowed that would mean that we would not have to rush to spend all those funds in fy22 FY 23 and fy2 24 it would give us the ability to spend it in a wise manner but we wouldn't have to rush sometimes you know people rush to failure and I'm just wondering if is that something that's even allowable in a sense I'm going to let uh Mr lur address that um as you
150addressed earlier by the timeline for each s funds so I'll let Mr to give all the details uh yeah so over the next three years through 2024 we have to have these funds spent what we're going to do is we're going to fifo it out so first in first out to make sure that we spend all our dollars uh throughout the the program there's a lot of overlap between these Pro between these funds uh that we will use uh I I always hate to hear the word supplant but we will utilize These funds in a manner that frees up as much money as possible as we move forward uh whether it's in positions whether it's in uh some some money for Capital outlay we will try to make sure that we stay between the lines
151and spend the money wisely and get the money spent quicker and like you said utilize funds and and hold back some of those local funds that we could use to keep us going further down the road because my biggest concern is I don't want to be at a rush to spend the money in the last year so we're going to make sure we we we move through this in a pace that that expends those funds first and supports all the programs that we have running thank you that thank you I appreciate that Mr orur before you sit down I just wanted to could you clarify you talk about you don't like the words to plant why that's that bothers you a little bit because supp plan thing is taking your money uh putting it aside
152uh and some of the rules that are guiding these programs especially the cares act money there are supplant Clauses in there I don't even want to come close to supplanting in any way shape or form and making sure that that we're we're not saving our money to spend the federal money they're supposed to be used as a supplement to our programs and make sure that we can move our district forward thank you Mr Raven you had two other question did yeah yeah I think both of those are mine I'm G to ask Joy to help me out with the it one so with the first one um in there the the uh facilities and repairs is broken up into two main sections um in the Esser one is for indoor air quality um and the
153other one is to make facility repairs to equipment um now in air quality um there's many different things that can contribute to it a root a leaky roof can contribute to indoor air quality issues um windows that aren't properly sealed can contribute to a carpet um in a especially in a room that has humidity can contribute to indoor air quality issues um when we talk about operable windows we certainly need to have operable Windows as it relates to egress meaning in case of fire emergency when you talk about operable Windows as relates to indoor air quality and and I ask everybody to recall when we had um members from the ABC collaborative here um to discuss with everyone initially what came out of of the CDC and others was to open up Windows get that
154fresh air circulating all that kind of good stuff especially for buildings and school systems that didn't have a lot of mechanical systems that could do that that could introduce fresh air into the building our strategy is to use mechanical systems to introduce the fresh air and to filter that air as it enters the building the reason why you want to do that is while you may be addressing covid-19 by opening a window you're also letting in pollen dust dirt things like that that have historically contributed to the indoor air quality issues that we see in our schools so um where it is appropriate for us to make window replacements using this funding we'll do so um um however we know that our mechanical systems um especially as we go into Replacements need to have the
155ability to introduce fresh air into the building and we want that air to be filtered and so we want to do that mechanically as much as possible and then I asked um Miss Malone to speak to the the way and the land yes um so Mr Raven and board from a network perspective um we have identified funds specifically around cyber security um the district did have an assessment done back in January and there were some items that were related as well to the land and Wan um we are investigating and looking to those as well and if we see that there are opportunities or funds that are needed to investigate those um we will make sure that we allocate it we are doing work today pretty sure everyone saw the communication about some of the
156monitoring and things that we did today so it is definitely something that we're actively looking at thank you both for that Miss Lewis I just want to um say thank you for this plan and sharing how you um have allocated the funding to be used in the detail that you have and the graphs that have been used I um believe it's excellent that you have taken the time to hear from staff and to inform the plan as well I um Dr lay for you in particular I really appreciate the hearing about the EC recruitment plan the latinx recruitment plan and that not only once recruitment happens but that supports will be in place as well having that forethought and going to speaking to the the partnership with nccu and the TA um to become teachers
157did you mention that there's testing reimbursement that is available yes and that's for like so is the whole program free to teachers the TAA to teacher program yes it is excellent and it includes tuition it includes books we've built in some pieces to support technology um that may be needed as well as um the reimbursement pieces for um testing and everything related to them actually securing lure excellent and you said there're about 40 40 it's the cohort that we're looking to have if not more okay um for this upcoming year as well as the following year excellent really being able to advance one's career and I am for my own curiosity wondering how long is the program how long does it take the program I want to say is um four semesters okay and then
158when you shared the slide Dr Hardy about the new hes and the um new positions teaching positions and things of that nature what percent the teachers and the IAS what percentage are going to elementary middle and high schools I can get you the percentage breakdown what I can tell you is every school is touched by either IND individual positions and or positions that are supported at the district um but I would need to do some math because schools are getting positions based on their specific needs so for example I have one high school that might be getting six positions and a middle school that might be getting four so um but I can definitely follow up with the board in terms of the percentage when we follow up with the comments from the survey okay
159thank you and then I know that there's been discussion about um these being limit funds for personnel positions and I'm just wondering if you all have started planning on what would happen with these positions come year three and four and so with the plan that's where the job descriptions and and Dr Hardy you may want to jump in on this one also but that's where the job descriptions become so important is because that work is so focused and targeted that if we're building up that there may be some positions that you have to have a sustainability plan for and we've talked about that but there are other positions that we would seek to close the learning loss that has occurred so you know you would hope that all of those would not be necessary by
160the time we get to 2023 2024 yesk also some of those positions through attrition we know that we always going to need teachers counselors some of those Position will be able to bring those folks if you're looking at our turn uh turnout rate which is pretty much around 14% we're always going to replace probably good easy 200 teachers so all these additional position I'm not really concerned about those we should be able to replace those teaches or to sustain them based on thetion that we're going to have one that time okay thank you for that and then my next question for you Dr M um thank you also I want to appreciate the phased approach that you talked about with prioritizing the spending and the way you broke that down as well within the first
161phase you talked about improved maintenance that should be our regular maintenance anyway but with that and changing out the filters will you need will that require additional staff and if so have you added that into the budget as well um so a part of what we'll bring to you next month um that would be what we're Contracting with the firm to do is to do that filter replacement as well as uh clean out all the coals um in order to and I don't know the exact staff number but we can certainly provide you with that information um this is things that we would normally want to do every year but you know you just don't have the funding or the manpower to do but we can get you what that would look like if we
162wanted to continue that forward okay thank you for that and then my last question I'm not sure which who this will be for but as you talked about youngsters participating in summer plan planning um that the platforms that the children are using will still be open to those students who are engaging in summer programming my question is if it will be also available to those who are not engaged in summer programming Alexa I ready study ladder epic my kids get on all of them and uh I have tried some of these platforms um after school hours and I cannot access access them will they be open during the summer or is it limited within the license that we have so I'm going to um Miss sidberry speak to some of those details one of the
163reasons and I appreciate the board's support this evening we normally bring our contracts later one of the reasons we wanted to bring our contracts early is to make sure that we had the ability to procure access not only during the summer but to ensure all of those resources were available for our teachers as well as our students when we um begin the um the new upcoming school year in August Miss sidb can you speak to some of the new um contracts that were just approved and Miss Lewis's question yes uh good evening board um so to your to your question Mrs Lewis it it depends on the program some of our programs have a n a natural end date due to the data migration that needs to take place from students switching from fifth grade
164to sixth grade and so on we want to make sure that we have time to migrate our data curate our data get our systems back up in place realign stud students assignments based on their power School designation um and so that they will have access to that when year round begins in July so uh we want to make sure that several of our programs are available during the summer so students will have access to IR they will have access to um some of the digital programs but some of their Core Curriculum programs align to the power school shutdown date which I believe is late June and so they will have access again to the to those programs in uh mid July um if the board would like an exhaustive list I can definitely uh send
165that via board update but it just does depend on the program and the level of data migration that we have to have to make sure um that that data follows our students so um and so to answer your question some programs will be available to to families and we can make sure that we advertise and let families know that and some of that data um some of those programs are shut down with our natural Power School indate due to our clever um integration thank you for that Miss sberry and that was going to be my question about advertising because it's not always likely that the students will tell their parents that the platforms are still open um and that could be advertised I know you also um keep track of um the usage so we
166could also make sure we're still monitoring how often their students are using and that engagement helps getting kids to stay connected through the summer I would appreciate that thank you many of the questions that I had have already been asked um and many of the much of the praise that I have has already been shared so I won't recap but thank you all for this presentation I think one question I would um want to ask about the sustainability piece is not just about the positions but also I saw okay we're doing Outdoor Learning this is really exciting that is an additional spaces that we need to maintain um we have additional devices in our buildings come this fall I don't think we've really seen yet what it means to have a full school with one
167toone devices that are on at the same time and so I think one of my questions is just and we don't have to answer this tonight but for future thinking about how do we help do that type of sustainability as well do we need to be working with our principles to think about converting some positions to make sure they have the tech they need in those buildings um because we know people are stretch right now we haven't seen what August looks like yet and we need to make sure that our staff the maintenance staff and all those other folks have what they need to be able to succeed and so that just feels like an important thing to uplift and and we can talk about later what some of those strategies might look like um
168and then I know this is another F follow-up item but I know we've talked a lot about how we're addressing learning loss through some positions and I really like the term thinking about accelerating learning and I'm wonder what other ways that we see ourselves doing some of that acceleration um there's some definitely having additional people in the building I think is helpful in classes but there are other strategies and I want interested to hear what other strategies were thinking about for that um and so those are my two kind of questions or comments that I want to just uplift I think what we're planning is really good I'm glad that it's the PowerPoint is easy to understand so the public can also see what we're doing here um and I think it's really important for
169us to to share that publicly just quickly I just want to respond to your concern um I think one of the ways we said we're going to be able bble to sustain those pos position to attrition but at the same time we also have to build capacity um moving forward we have to build capacity so that we'll be able to sustain all the efforts that we have in place um a lot of District that's been able to maintain one to one we have to rely on our city program in collaboration with it as well and start some programming some classes City classes to make sure that we're training our youngest one that we'll be able to maintain some of those equipment so I think overall strategies we know that we're not going to go and
170ask for additional fund to sustain all these uh positions but we got to be able to BU capacity as well for the next three years uh Miss berer because I've heard so much excitement about Outdoor Learning from everyone up here that's had some things to say and I wondered if y'all had given any thought to actually putting a full-time person at the Hub Farm um as we move forward just someone that could lead kind of and be an instructional leader in outdoor education um for us going forward I think that would be a huge area where Durham could be another innovator um I hope yall might consider that going forward thank you Miss vodis I have a followup um I you're about the buses so we you know we we don't provide transportation to the
171hub Farm uh directly from DPS unless it's like a field trip it's limited so I just wanted to get some clarification about our busing um I'm wondering if um and this is something just just to keep in mind like just to the um ensure access to Transportation um especially I'm thinking underserved students um if if we have any uh plans in in the near future to expand that like the transportation to the hub farm and included as though it's a DPS I know it's not I know it's a partnership and I know that there's um ways that already we're partnering like for example like a summer program that I understand in partnership with the Hub farm that DPS students can access but I'm I'm just wondering about Transportation along those lines so yes ma'am transportation
172is provided anytime we have any instructional and academic programming at the Hub form we would always want to make sure that um our students are supervised and have the support as they are at the Hub Farm as um in interacting with the activities that we have there um definitely appreciate the feedback that youve provided as well as Miss buer in terms of how we can think through supporting and expanding The Hub Farm in partnership with the work that is happening with Outdoor Learning so look forward for more to come and this presentation is for information so thank you all for for that with that being said we can move to our next item on the agenda resolution against um HB 324 is that Miss Lewis or Miss fire yeah everyone's pulling it up it was
173sent late today 409 do you all have a copy you find it Miss Lewis I'm gonna let Miss Lewis speak to it she and I have enjoyed working on it together yes so um earlier this week we've gotten a lot of emails from different people in the community sharing their concerns with House Bill 324 so I did want to take the time to pull some facts together and some statements and present to our board um to make a res to to commit to a resolution opposing this house bill with some recommendations as well um n then body the email at 409 if everyone get that pulled up and then maybe we could take turns in reading it we ready okay so guess we'll just go down the line resolution of the Durham Public Schools Board
174of Education opposing House Bill 324 whereas House Bill 324 HB 324 ensuring dignity and non-discrimination or schools states that public schools shall not promote number seven the belief that the United States is a meritocracy and is an inherently racist or sexist belief or that the United States was created by members of a particular race or sex for the purpose of oppressing members of another race or sex and whereas if HB 324 is enacted it would prohibit Educators from discussing whoops don't touch the touchcreen discussing the full facts of American History when several constitutional amendments were created to re redress racist and sexist beliefs and policies in the original constitution for the purpose of restoring the rights of previously oppressed members of another race or sex and whereas h B 324 asserts that the United States
175was not created by members of a particular race or sex for the purpose of oppressing members of another race however the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery in 1865 in which members of a particular race had in fact oppressed members of another race and whereas HB 324 asserts that the United States was not created by members of of a particular race or sex for the purpose of oppressing members of another race however Educators would be prohibited to debate or consider teaching about the Jim Crow era in which a series of laws prevented African-Americans from voting or holding office and whereas HB 324 asserts that the United States was not created by members of a particular race or sex for the purpose of oppressing members of another race however Educators would be prohibited to debate or consider
176teaching that women were not granted the right to vote until 1920 under the 19th Amendment and even then African-American women were still Deni their voting rights and whereas a sound education including accurate facts about all aspects of American History including systemic racism and discrimination is guaranteed for every North Carolina Student in our state's Constitution and whereas in 2017 Duram Public Schools created our office of equity Affairs charged with ensuring equity and educational opportunities for all DPS students regardless of race or ethnicity and whereas in 2018 Durham Public Schools developed a strategic plan with a guiding principle that states we believe in equity our students and schools deserve equ able access to the resources and opportunities they need to succeed dur public schools and the community must distribute those resources in a manner that eliminates inequities
177and whereas in 2019 the North Carolina State Board of Education adopted a strategic plan which defined Equity as an essential guiding principle and whereas in 2020 the North Carolina State Board of Education passed a resolution to support equity and excellence in North Carolina public education and whereas the resolution stated that the state board will review and appropriately revise its policies through an equity lens and commit to work with the superintendent and the Department of Public Instruction to create and maintain an equity officer to ensure consistency and continuity with this essential guiding principle inside and outside the agency and whereas in February 2021 the North Carolina State Board of Education approved new social studies standards which were developed by Educators to ensure that more comprehensive accurate and honest history was taught in all Stu uh taught
178to all students include teaching racism identity and discrimination and whereas critical race theory is a discipline that seeks to understand how RAC ISM has shaped us laws and how those laws have continued to impact the lives of non-white people and whereas an education including critical race Theory does not attack individual students for their privileges but rather it makes them aware of how different systems in the US discriminate against others and whereas more than 65 years after the Supreme Court ruling on Brown versus boor segregated schooling is a particularly profound And Timely demonstration of the ongoing Persistence of systemic racism and whereas the House of Representatives in the North Carolina General Assembly recently voted along party lines to advance House Bill 324 and whereas if HB 324 is approved by the Senate and signed by the
179governor North Carolina would be the seventh state to ban critical race Theory and whereas these bills are partisan divisive and are the result of coordinated work by the americ legislative exchange Council and the Heritage Foundation and whereas HB 324 would effectively restrict and prohibit honest conversations about race conflict with uh conflict with the existing state and local education standards and infrige um infringe on Free Speech rights of students Educators and staff whereas uran Public Schools our curriculum and trainings include a race Equity lens as we work together to dismantle racism and work together towards a more just future therefore be it resolved that the Durham Public Schools Board of Education urges members of the North Carolina G General Assembly to vote no on HB 324 and if necessary the board urges Governor Cooper to veto
180HB 324 and be it further resolved that the Durham Public School Board of Education urges members of the North Carolina General Assembly to focus on developing a robust public education budget with an equity toolkit that fully supports students in North Carolina and be it further resolved that the Durham Public Schools Board of Education urges members of the North Carolina General Assembly to focus on the following recommendations from our 2020 21 legislative agenda to address Statewide Equity concerns including but not limited to one fund dedicated Equity directors for every local education Authority Lea to develop and share best practices Statewide two adopt comprehensive anti-racist and inclusive curriculum for every school three incentivize funding for professional development that includes diversity Equity inclusion culturally competent and anti-racist training for expand the North Carolina teaching fellows programs especially HBCU
181and to increase representation of of teachers of color five expand State protections for lgbtq plus students and staff six expand the Title Nine protections to protect students against sexual assault signed the 20th day of May 2021 thank you all for reading um this is a a thank you all for your work on this it's a a long resolution I would like for us to put it on the website maybe see if people have feed back and then could we look at passing this in our June meeting um to make sure the public has a chance to read and digest that be right could I just add that we make some effort to get this to our delegation I know you know we know where our delegation stands but a resolution amongst ourselves doesn't mean very
182much so absolutely thank you I'll make sure um it's shared with them and they can provide feedback as well right with that we I'll accept a motion to go into close session some moved second been moved and properly second is it for the reason stated on the agenda Mr Sears yes all right all in favor say I any opposed please use the same sign passes unanimously we're now in the Clos session e I we are now back in Open Session Dr mainga Madame chair board members I'm here to seek for your approval for the personal report as discussed at a close session as amended move approval of the Personnel report dated May 20th uh 2021 as amended second the moved and properly second any discussion all in favor say I I any opposed please use
183the same sign no passes unanimously excuse me I'm it passes six to one and with that we are journ