Durham Public Schools Board of Education Monthly Meeting October 22, 2020 6:30 PM

001good evening everyone welcome to our october 22nd school board meeting at this time we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who's joining us this evening everyone all the millions of viewers on our youtube channel the purpose of this meeting is to inform our parents staff and constituents about the work aligned with our mission to embrace educate and empower every student to innovate to serve and to lead tonight the administration will be presenting information to keep you up to date on our strategic plan our interpreters for tonight are going to be on the call and have a spanish translation martha romo ughires and marty ramirez thank you all for the time to enjoy us tonight submitting public comments excuse me submitted public comments have been reviewed by the board and are posted on our

002dps website some of them will be read aloud tonight during the public comments section we're going to begin our meeting with a moment of silence i do want to take some time in this moment of silence to honor the passing of mr clark a eggerton jr he was a longtime employee of dps was the predecessor to our former colleague xavier cason at hillside and passed away this week so we hope to honor him in this moment of silence thank you the next item on our agenda is celebrations mr sutter good evening board members cabinet and guests we have two uh sets of celebrations tonight and the first is our student of the month every month we highlight one of our high school students who has distinguished him or herself out of for their leadership and

003character and uh scholastic ability and tonight is no different and i call on crystal taylor simon of middle college high school at durham tech to introduce our student of the month good evening board chair olmsted board members and superintendent dr mobinga it is with great honor that i recognize the middle college high school's durham public schools student of the month mr landon sledge there is so much that i can say about this young man and his dedication to success landon is in a very unique situation and he is currently juggling three different educational environments he is a star quarterback for riverside high school he is a star scholar in the classrooms of middle college high school and he is an exceptional college student at durham technical community college mr william evans our college liaison writes

004that it has been an honor to watch landon grow in his confidence as a student when landon first came to middle college he was unsure if he could handle the rigor of the college classes but he has exceeded his own expectations layman has developed strong advocacy skills for his education he has not backed down from a challenge and he has advocated for supports when he needed them before the pandemic landon kept his summers busy he worked for biogen to help modify dna to produce a fluorescent protein he has been a part of a team who produced an award-winning documentary at the durham full frame film festival the team's film titled who i am highlighted cultural diversity by exploring the life of a high school student who is also an indian traditional dance practitioner landon is

005interested in pursuing a career in engineering and when he graduates from middle college high school he will leave us with 41 college transferable credits which means he already has two years of a four-year college degree under his belt i could go on and on about landon he know i can we are so proud of this young man and all of his accomplishments and we can't wait to see what he does to continue to inspire those around him just like he has inspired all of us so without further ado i would like to present to you the middle college high school's landon sledge landon please take it away well first i'd like to say thank you so much miss taylor simon for your continued support and as well as the rest of the uh the middle

006college teachers for always believing in me i like to thank my parents for their support and everything they do sorry that was my dad but rather than they do also like to thank riverside as well um ms williams and coach dunk at riverside for allowing me to to be a student athlete at their school i look forward to continuing my academic career as a senior and at my man my athletic career as well but most importantly to do to be able to finish my senior year on the football field and try it and thank you again for letting me be still another month congratulations landon and we are very we're all proud of you landon you will be receiving uh this uh spark pin signifying uh leadership and uh excellence in durham public schools this

007spark pen is also presented to people who are nominated for them for excellence in for excellence in leadership and support for the mission and vision of durham public schools tonight we have two spark pin uh recipients that we're going to announce and because we cannot be in person with everyone they will be receiving their pins at a later date and i would like to introduce dr kristen bell of our exceptional children's department to to announce these two spark recipients okay good evening everyone dr mubenga school board um first of all i'd like to shout out charles stores he is one of our sign language interpreters at jordan high school he has done an amazing job helping to maximize access for remote learning for our students who are deaf and hard of hearing since closure began

008last march he has researched and explored various technology tools that will allow teachers and staff to provide students with the best access to auditory and visual instruction through online platforms charles has developed video tutorials for special education and general education staff throughout the district he's followed up with one-on-one support where needed so that they're able to use appropriate access features mr stores has also provided training and support to dps students and parents so they can comfortably make use of access features as they become available he has skillfully interpreted various dps staff meetings after the school day after very long school days and keeping up with long meetings with various fast speakers such as myself he goes above and beyond and is highly respected by his colleagues as well as this ec administration secondly a number

009member of our deaf hard of hearing team is alexandra morales she is a spoken language facilitator at hope valley elementary school she has gone above and beyond as well maximizing learning for dps students who are deaf or hard of hearing especially those with spanish-speaking parents since since closure last march while fulfilling her primary duties of facilitating access to auditory instruction for students with hearing loss she's also facilitated the involvement of their parents in the online instruction because of her efforts many of our parents are more engaged and involved in their children's learning than they were during face-to-face instruction and we're very appreciative of the parent involvement as well as ms morales support another example of exceptional commitment and dedication to our students and families and i would say we have by far these two amazing

010employees and team members but we have by far the best deaf hard of hearing team in the state of north carolina i would even say nationally and led by the incredibly knowledgeable denise nelson i would be remiss if i did not mention her she is another ect member who gives all for our students staff and families so congratulations to charles and alexandra we are very fortunate to have them on our team thank you so much dr bell and chair umstead that brings us to the conclusion of our celebrations for today thank you so much and congratulations to all of those who we celebrated this evening the next item on our agenda is the superintendent's update dr mabinga thank you madam chair our board members our community at largest are you watching us as mr lee

011will always save millions of viewers i'm really delighted to report out to our community today the progress that we are making at dps it's been really a busy few months as we're dealing with this pandemic but regardless we are really making progress i'm really excited about the work that all our staff are doing but tonight i would like just to acknowledge the work uh by our dps exceptional children departments uh it's really continuing to bring some innovation as they're serving about 4 700 students that we have in the program as october is a disability history and awareness month i wanted to recognize our teachers staff leaders and we'll go the extra mile uh but especially now especially through this appended epidemic time so i just really wanted to acknowledge them in this special month uh

012the second thing i would like to report uh we are really taking good care of our staff as we're going through this pandemic we are offering heart form to us families on wednesdays uh especially for this month of november so we are promoting really mental and physical awareness within education for them to be able to be refreshed and be prepared and again for the month of november uh we're going to start something really new uh we always assume that the fact that a lot of folks are watching us on our regular board meetings uh that was really sufficient but uh starting next month uh we're going to have a newsletter in place to be able to update uh give our families and our community a large overview of issues discussed at a board meeting which

013we'll send to our family and our staff and we are also providing external community stakeholders to increase understanding and community surrounding uh the school system on the last thing i'd like to report out is about our magnet program and the city pathways with this time as we know with pandemic is going to be really hard to meet in person but we're going to have a virtual uh magnet field this year students and families will be able to speak with staff and students about the program each school and uh select dps department will host uh virtual tables uh to ensure that all families are reached so we are using really robust uh marketing strategies to be able to use our newsletter and our social media platform so that will reach out everyone so i'm really excited

014and it's going to be really fun it's going to be great uh there is even a video that i was able to be able to greet all the folks that will be attending that particular event so we are working with a heart as uh said this before and uh teachers of our staff are working really hard to make sure that our students are educated in a remote uh learning of our formats that we're using currently but at the same time we're also using the different venues to have a lot of meetings with our staff and different stockholders so that we can all be in a good place when it comes to january so there are a lot of videos that we'll be releasing to show our families the kind of efforts that we're making making

015sure that we have all the ppe uh in place as we serving our students as they come they they come from meals and uh different folks that they come to pick up the materials we really want to make sure that the safety is really a priority for us and then when toms comes for us to make a call to be able to be in a b uh or plan b i think we're going to be ready because we are really engaging our stakeholders in different platforms so pretty much that's what concludes my conversation all my reports might have chair thank you dr mabinga that's exciting to hear about some of the things that we have coming up in the pipe for our community the next item on our agenda is the agenda review and approval

016this is matters move approval we have a motion for an approval do we have a second okay second it's been moved and properly second any discussion right we'll do this vote across the screen the first person i have is mr sears hi miss bayer hi mr raven i vote i um mr lee hi miss lewis and ms vallierdardes hi i vote i as well so it passes unanimously all right um madam chair can i take two minutes here um so um in our work session last a couple weeks ago i was the chair of the work session and in efforts to not have us kind of go down a path of getting the weeds i cut off conversation to with one of our board members um miss faliodaris and i just wanted to apologize for

017that um it was not the place or the time for me to um stop the conversation uh if there was a need for a conversation to for education as far as you know what not to get into you know on the board level that should have happened after the meeting i should have approached her off offline and so uh i just wanted to take a moment to publicly apologize to miss valediaris for that um for stopping our discussion uh in in the way i did and um that's what i wanted to say i apologize for that uh madam chair may i have a minute just to say a comment yes thank you um and board member mike lee i really appreciate that i think that this is uh one of the wonderful things about how

018we are accountable to community we're accountable to each other and um just really appreciate that and you know to know that among many boards we we have different uh you know um issues that are very important and reasons why you know folks you know trust us with certain issues and so i really appreciate the uh the um just the ability for us to continue to grow together and um thank you so much for for reaching out just want to thank you thank you and thank all the board thank you mr lee oh thank you i was i said that that's all i really wanted to say we did speak after the meeting we spoke for a long time and we're on the we're on the good grounds all right so thank you thanks mr lee

019and miss valiandartis i think the beautiful part about our board is we have so many different perspectives we can come together and figure out how to make the right decisions on behalf of our students so thank you all the next item on our agenda is board of education meeting minutes for september 24 2020. and move approval of the minute a second should have been moved and properly second any other discussion i think that i think there was one um discussion point and i'm not sure if the meeting minutes have been updated i think there was a note that one person abstained from them excuse me that may have been a closed session minutes are we speaking about that in the same context no it is the closed session um the open session portion right but

020at the at the end of the meeting minutes it had um it had the vote from the closed session and i think it was six to one but i believe that um um ms valuedares actually abstained from the vote so i think it should have been 6-0 six should actually be seven zero at abstention as a yes okay wait if it was an abstention and i think i actually cut out of that meeting so i don't i didn't do the final vote so 6-0 might be right what it says is that the motion passed unanimously via roll call vote if that needs to be different i guess mr just calling on i thought i saw him yes i am here i guess i'm not 100 clear what we're talking about is this um because i

021haven't reviewed these minutes but are these so this is an open session vote on a personnel report that was voted on once you came back into open session is that right correct that's correct and it currently let me see if i can pull it up quickly how could someone read to me the current language i see it on page 13 um maybe that's the coming back in and reconvening maybe i'm wrong there hang on oh mike lee seconded and the motion passed six one alexander biodynamics abstained from voting so i think we just need to know if that's accurate accounting of that actually y'all i believe i was here for that meeting it was the early october meeting where i was present for the late session do the board members who are present recall if

022that is correct that abstention did occur it did so we can uh maybe have a new motion if we want to approve a amended minute and have nicole work with colin if you need to or um to correct these minutes so moved second all right natalie looks like you got a question since we had the motion on the floor i was just gonna accept whatever amendment and that's fine point of order we had a proper move but we had a pop proper movement and second so we have to vote down the first movement because it was moved and seconded then we have to accept the second motion unless it's a friendly amendment of the first one it can be a new new motion i'm sorry i'm totally i'm sorry i totally accept a friendly amendment

023if that's helped to move this alone as long as it's clear that what the board is voting on is ms buyer's uh motion as amended um and that she's accepted that amendment then we're fine not clear at all so it sounds like we need to update these minutes to say that the motion it actually sounds like the minutes are fine if matt you were there unless it needs to say 7-0 because abstaining is actually a vote for yes so that's the only edit that needs to be made is that correct correct yeah your board policy provides that um your poor policy provides that a failure to be excused by a majority vote of the remaining members present will be reported as an affirmative vote um so your policy also provides that when a member wishes

024to be excused from voting uh the member is required to inform the chair who shall take a vote of the remaining members present did that occur the last meeting no it wasn't that she wanted to she couldn't vote on it she just abstained from voting it wasn't that there was a conflict of interest or anything like that it was just she chose not to vote on that so since the since the majority of the board did not vote to excuse um mrs iadarus then under your policy that counts as an affirmative vote does that make sense that does make sense so it should be recorded as seven oh that's correct and you can it can be noted uh and i'm happy to make that revision that as to what occurred i think it should say

0257-0 um and that ms vader is asked to be excused from the vote but as the board did not vote to excuse her that counts as an affirmative vote on a board policy all right so now we have clarification natalie do you want men do you have any amendments to you the cleanest way to do it for somebody to make a motion to amend is buyer's original motion and if that passes then everyone could then vote on the motion as a mention so this is frederick raven i would like to make a motion to admin uh ms byers original motion with the notation that the vote was 7-0 as opposed to six one on a second removed and properly seconded we'll do a vote voice vote apologize everyone for that administrative work we need it

026to get done mr sears all right it's by your daughters aye ms buyer aye mr raven aye ms lewis aye mr lee aye and i vote i as well so it passes unanimously all right the next item on our agenda is general public comment mr sutter how many comments do we have this evening we have 44 public comments this evening and having discussed with uh chairman umstead we will allot 30 minutes total for public comment and i will read the first 30 minutes of 30 seconds excuse me of each comment we have no comments that are 30 minutes long i have a timer set for 30 seconds and i will work it now and we will begin our first comment is from an anonymous dps parent from district 1. the board has engaged in many

027discussions pertaining to virtual learning while the critical question of are we providing a quality education seems to have been completely forgotten i challenge the decision makers to tackle this question with an honest assessment maybe virtual learning can succeed for older students but as the parent of a second grader i can assure you there are significant gaps limited synchronous instruction which has been further reduced for the second quarter does not allow sufficient time to achieve quality please find the courage to reopen schools prior to january for the youngest and most at-risk learners the second comment is from uh an anonymous dps mom from durham from district one i'm writing to urge you to begin the process of returning students to dps schools as we complete the first quarter we have seen private schools in our community

028return a portion of their students to the classroom we have seen young children wear masks successfully teachers staying safe and families behaving responsibly to limit their exposure to covet 19. this virus will be with us for years rather than weeks or months while we must have an option for high-risk groups of teachers and students to stay online we must not waste the opportunity to return small groups of teachers students and staff to our schools the next comment is from katie rudd of carleton crossing drive i'm in favor of returning to school in january with safe social distancing mass requirements and sufficient ppe the next comment is from andrew palumbo of middle run drive i'm writing today to first thank you for all your hard work during these difficult times i'm a parent of two jordan

029high school student athletes who would very much like you to approve the proposed athletic reopening plan this plan is well thought out is in line with state guidance and is essential to the health well-being and future success of our student athletes over the next over the last several months it has been proven that youth sports can be resumed safely many club and travel teams sports groups private schools and surrounding county public programs are active and have been successful at maintaining safety the next comment is from leilani morgan of brimmer street fifth request what is the child find plan at durham public schools a flyer is not a plan dps is not meeting its legal obligation and responsibility to find all children in the area from birth who have disabilities and may be entitled to special

030education services a flyer is not an effective nor substantive way to meet compliance i ask to be provided for written procedures used by durham public schools that the location identification and evaluation of children with disabilities in accordance with child find regulatory requirements if such procedures exist i'd like to be provided with measurements of effectiveness and that is the time the next comment is from lynn matuli of voyager place the nchsaa has sports scheduled to return on november 4th the status of sports for dps is scheduled to be discussed during your meeting this evening there are rumors and conflicting information circulating durham about the status of high school sports for our county please do not just discuss sports this evening but actually clarify the status for sports one way or the other our students deserve an

031answer just a few of the reasons that sports are important to students is college recruiting scholarships and their all-important profile for college applications they need to know if it is worth their time to continue to train for their sport or if they need to move on to other things the next comment is from tammy andrews of roxboro road please allow all students teachers and parents to have a choice to attend school in person those who do not want to attend in person have the choice of ignite we have the right to choose but so far we have not been allowed choices our students are failing in school our students are becoming unhealthy gaining weight depression from being stuck in their homes our students are dealing with physical and mental abuse from being stuck in their

032homes please teachers stand up for your students for the job you chose to do thank you the next comment is from robin furman of norton street i encourage dps to put forward a public plan for offering an in-person choice for school as of january twenty twenty one i hope that the board administration teachers and other school-based staff will ground decision-making and data about school-based transmission and negative impact of continued remote only learning on children and families i've pasted links to two recent reports at the end of this comment that includes an npr story are the risks of reopening schools exaggerated and a pro-publica story the students left behind by remote learning the next comment is from miranda terry of oma street i would like to know realistically when the schools will start preparing for the

033students return there's been nothing done at my daughter's elementary school and covet isn't going to magically disappear next year where are the air purifiers plexiglas dividers contactless thermometers upgraded air filters and quarantine rooms have any plans been made have orders been placed is there a timeline next is vicky vilcek of longwood drive my third grade daughter has been in tears countless times this week she's not completing assignments she's desperately trying to find ways to feel heard and she's spiraling downward i don't know how to help her short of sitting with her for hours at a time she's not alone in wanting and needing to be back in person so i urge you not to take your foot off the gas pedal and plan for a return to school we need to know that our kids

034will go back to school this year this school year friends of mine asked if i will disenroll my two kids in fact they encourage me to disenroll but i have wanted to give dps a chance you are losing your chance that's the timer the next is from becca bottellini of harkness circle i reached recently reached out directly to nchsa regarding why durham was potentially not going to allow sports to start back up and this is the reply from trey waters the nchsaa is moving forward right now with the start of volleyball and cross country on november 4th and with swimming on november 23rd since these sports are considered low to moderate risk for competition in regards to covet 19 transmission we have gotten clearance from nct hhs to proceed with these sports beyond this initial

035beginning is a bit of a mystery to us as well and that is the timer the next comment is from meredith marley of roxborough street i understand that whether or not athletics will open is on the agenda and swimming may not be included my daughter swims on a year-round team and usa nc swimming have effective protocols to limit swimmers exposure in practice and competition to covet 19 and i feel sure that these same protocols can be implemented for swimming at the high school level as well swimming has far less contact than other sports and should be included in plans to start up sports again the following comment is kate dimeo of cherry grove i was very moved by the reporting in this propublica npr piece about the long-term effects of keeping schools closed and why

036school districts are so quick to shut down schools rather than putting the work in to get students back into the schools safely our children are suffering especially those who are most vulnerable and who rely on public schools as a safe consistent place in their lives but all families are suffering as parents have had to leave the workforce to care for their children my own children have been in some kind of child care since june they have been in summer camps and now are in a scholastic support center a few days a week so that i can continue to earn and that is the timer audrey sander from bland spring place as a student of dps high school dsa i have a strong opinion on this matter and really feel like allowing athletics to resume in

037a cautious manner will benefit all of dps's students as well as the staff who coach for certain sports teams i'm a junior this year and part of the swimming and diving team at dsa studies have repeatedly shown that there is low risk of contraction when in a pool complex as long as social distancing and masking is maintained when out of the water and only one swimmer is allowed per lane on either end of the pool though it will be challenging to create and enforce adequate policies and savagery measures for sports teams at first the benefits will outweigh the risk i'm pretty sure savagery wasn't the intended word the next word the next comment is from colin davis of shadowhawk drive i really believe out of any sport swimming is the safest basketball is hand-to-hand touching

038and so is soccer swimming we can easily social distance and there is rarely any touching except for sportsmanlike conduct basketball and soccer you are touching a ball everyone is touching and you can't necessarily clean it at every time someone touches swimming we let the chlorine do the work for us then the only thing we need to clean is the blocks and that's it suzanna ramsay of new burn place my kids are year round swimmers with with y o t and ymca program swim practices and swim meets resumed with safety precautions in mind starting july this sport has been the only physical outlet they have been able to participate in since march swimming is integral to my kids lives and without it their mental and social health would have been negatively impacted if usa swimming supports

039the sport then dps should also allow our kids to participate in high school swimming as a sport next is kathy sander of bland spring plays i'm writing to urge the board district and city to support our local high school swim teams in reopening i assume swimming was left off the agenda because discussion is still ongoing with the city for how the pools can be adequately staffed and not because of concerns of safety since swimming is consistently ranked as one of the lowest risk sports for covent transmission athletes in other sports can more easily train on their own but swimmers need a pool swimming is the one high school sport where kids of all skill levels can compete together a large portion of high school swimmers do not compete on club or year-round teams and that

040is the time next is lisa smith of parsons green court swimming is a key offering for high school athletics and one that can be safely managed edison johnson and campus hills have reopened for lap swimmers and dps should work with the parks and recreation staff to find a safe way to hold practices and meets usa swimming teams have been holding practices and competitions with enhanced protocols for several months schools all over the country also are safely adding swimming into their athletics this fall and winter every other sport no matter how much contact is involved is included on the restart list except swimming where the participants are literally bathing and disinfectant the next comment is from levin davis of shadowhawk drive members of the board it's my understanding that this evening the topic of restarting athletics

041will be discussed while this is an encouraging step toward providing many of our children a small sense of normalcy swimming is not on the list to return in the fall my hopes are that this was an oversight however swimming is not being considered i must voice my disappointment and ask that the board and the city work together to bring swimming back durham has a great number of swimmers and with that comes parents and resources that make the swim season come together every year this unprecedented time would not dampen the commitment of the parent reps officials timers and others that come together weekly during the season to make the meets happen the next comment is from jennifer hervey of pine crest road data has shown that covet outbreaks are not from public pools please allow our

042swimmers to have a swim season next is elizabeth healey from urban avenue please work together with the city to get high school swimming open of all the sports this one should be one of the safest to restart my daughter has been swimming with the ymca since april without any infections throughout the entire raleigh-durham cary wake forest area our kids need some sort of normalcy online school is starting to take a real mental toll on lots of these kids next is christian malzahn of kettering drive please consider allowing a high school swim season this year it is important for our kids to regain some sense of normalcy and participating in athletics is one way to do that swimming is one of the safer sports during covet because of the chlorine in the pool year-round competitive teams

043have been reinstated since the summer and have found procedures and routines that are keeping the athletes and coaches safe it is being done and there are good models to follow please make swimming available for our athletes next is star husketh of briardair briardale lane i'm asking that the school board to please allow dps students to participate in all sports this year sports would give students a way out of their rooms out of their houses and away from their screens especially since phase two in january would not include them returning to regular school the high school students need the outlet sports would offer i realize sports will be challenging for the social distancing to be maintained but everything is challenging right now and we are all having to think outside the box do different things differently

044than ever before and work hard to stay mentally and physically fit laura kagan is next from rexing court please provide an update on the status of high school sports specifically swimming it is my understanding that the public pools campus hills and edison johnson have reopened for lap swimming are the high school teams going to be able to practice and have meets at these facilities next is anonymous essentially jane doe of 123 liberty street i think it's absolutely backwards that the district still has a policy in place to move the last teacher hired to whichever school needs a teacher regardless of how far we are into the school year or how long that teacher has been employed to do this to a first year teacher during a pandemic is just plain stupid this will be how

045you lose new teachers i understand this is a policy and it has been one and we know that when we are hired but it is one thing to know and another thing to go through it i think it is a policy that needs to be changed if dps wants to continue to keep and recruit highly qualified teachers next is andrew kagan of wrexham court what are the criteria for high school sports resuming our daughter is on a high school swim team and i would like information on if and when swim team will be able to begin practice and possibly meets thank you next is shannon thornburg of north hampton road it has come to my attention that competitive swimming is not being considered under dps's phased implementation for athletics my daughter has been back to

046competitive swimming since june first practicing as many as five days a week for one and a half to two hours of practice because of the usa and north carolina swimming guidelines and common sense safety measures implemented by our team there's not been a single coveted infection swimming is about as no contact a sport as one can get please consider phasing and swimming as well scott malzahn of kettering drive i would like to advocate in favor of allowing the high school swim teams to participate in a 2020 season many swim meets large and small indoors and out have been successfully completed since summer 2020 with all covet 19 precautions and protocols in place contact ymca of the triangle swim team and triangle aquatic center for examples of how this is done jeffrey baker of danesfield court

047if winter athletics goes forward swimming needs to be included then jennifer overholt at paces ferry drive yes next is catherine hickey of northampton road please please please get school athletics going again these kids need to move be motivated and have in-person interaction even if it is socially distanced my child is a high school swimmer she swims year-round and has been in the pool with her club since the end of may there hasn't been any illness within her team or those they have competed against as a year-round swimmer she has access to a pool but most of her school teammates do not these kids want to participate in sports too they will fundraise to pay for pool rentals they will lifeguard and continue to do what is necessary to get in the pool or on the

048field if given the opportunity next is lindsay bickersbach of albemarle street as a parent of two dps elementary students in durham county public health educator though i do not speak for them i'm writing in continued support of dps planning for realistic data based plan b reopening school is fundamental to children's well-being and development the currently current reality of 100 remote operations will impact our community for years to come dps teachers are making amazing efforts to engage students virtually and yet managing remote learning work responsibilities and family care is unsustainable for many families the covid pandemic will continue to affect the school system throughout the current school year and into the 2021-22 year next is brian reich of rosedale avenue we have heard that high school swim may not be held this season this is a

049huge shame a swim is one of the safest sports to have during this time we're hoping more work can be done to find pool space teams could have only kids who don't swim year-round practice with the school team year-round swimmers could continue to practice with their teams please do not cancel the season kelly hammer from park overlook drive i'm the parent rep for riverside swim team and the mom of a senior swimmer i know things are not as we want them to be right now and there is so much uncertainty with our athletics programs i do know that local club swim teams have found facilities and are able to safely practice and compete as well as surrounding counties are planning on having a high school swim season i thank you for your consideration of our

050high school athletes especially our seniors who may never get to compete again we are just asking for all student athletes in all sports to be given equal opportunity to safely compete this year next is kimberly mann of hope creek subdivision thank you for hearing my concerns and wishes i would like to encourage you to allow a return of non-contact high school sports in november in particular cross-country running i've been observing other states and counties in north carolina safely run cross-country meets and practices runners are able to practice in small pods and races are set up in a time trial fashion to get this distance between runners cross countries run outside in the open air please school board members allow students to participate in cross-country i'm the parent of a senior at durham school of the

051arts it's been heartbreaking to see the impact of having my son's social outlet of school be removed next is cara ann casey of deneta our swimmers need to get back in the pool swim families are more than happy to help durham durham's public facilities find staff such as lifeguards we are willing to crowdsource to help with funding as well club swimming has been happening safely since may please don't shortchange swimmers dylan hickey at northampton road i'm a junior at jordan high school and i'm supposed to be one of the team captains for the swim team this year as team captain i will do whatever it takes whether it's fundraising for pool rental or getting lifeguards for our own sanity we need to get out there and interact with students from jordan and this is a

052way to do it safely my year-round team has had swim meets and practices safely since may and not one person has gotten coveted 19. my team isn't the only team that is practicing and having needs and most teams are successfully doing it safely we need to be a team this year in and out of the pool thank you next is peter coons of wellingham drive i'm writing to you today to request that you consider implementing a one-time exemption to policies 4131.1 assignment to program magnet schools and 4133.1 assignment to calendar magnet schools both of which state a student withdraw withdraws loses eligibility for continued enrollment i asked the board to consider allowing students who successfully completed the 2019-20 school year at a magnet but have since withdrawn from their school to be able to re-enroll

053at their former magnet school in a special enrollment period and reclaim their magnet seats when and if students return to in-person instruction this year next is beth day of churchill circle swimming like other sports is an outlet for these children and they currently do virtual school at home year round teams are currently having practices and meets and are well versed on the protocols to make things safe for the swimmers and coaches during this covent time the sport itself is a naturally social distance sport and with the experience the officials already have this could be translated to a high school setting very easily there are plenty of resources in our community if there's extra help that's needed in the pool areas year-round teams are having two swimmers to a lane and we'll split the team up

054and do dry land out of the pool while other swimmers are in the pool next is an anonymous quote dps teachers are not being respected by the district the district is moving teachers around to different schools with no regard for the students they serve or for the teachers involved dps teachers have been thrown into an environment with little support and little care and are not being heard dps is and will continue to lose teachers because of this i recommend that the board members and all higher ups who are making decisions that affect students attend a zoom class at glen eastway or merrick moore where almost 100 of the students are using hot spots next is andrea hoff of governor's place please please reconsider the apparent decision to not offer high school swimming this year swimming

055is a much lower risk profile sport than every nearly every other one of the other sports set to resume this year surely there is a way for the city of durham and dps to work together to have space available at the edison johnson and campus hills pools which could provide jobs and revenue for city employees parents are willing to recruit lifeguards to a gofundme campaign to assist with costs and whatever else is necessary to allow swimming and diving to happen this school year next is sabrina lamar at berkeley street i saw something recently about a campus hills pool being open for lap swim one swimmer per lane local year-round competitive teams have been practicing and even competing since may it's doable masks and distancing while out of the water daily symptom and temperature screenings reduce

056density per lane while practicing seems like a very reasonable ask for the city county to partner with each other to implement similar strategies to get high school swimmers in the pools there are lots of things students can't do because of covet 19. swimming is not among these next is dawn wilcox of thetford road my freshman daughter has been looking forward to the start of her first high school swim season i'm concerned that you plan to eliminate the swim season since it is marked in a on reopening plans slideshow why must the swimmers be left out of sports this year they are swimming in a chlorinated pool year-round swim teams have been operating since june so i don't understand why the school system cannot offer this sport next is roger reed thank you for your tireless

057efforts in keeping our students safe and learning i appreciate your efforts and understand no matter what decisions you make you will ultimately anchor many parents on these divisive issues i 100 percent support the decisions thus far to have our students in remote learning this first semester i want to express support for the safe return of high school sports whether high school students return to some form of in-person learning for second semester or remain in remote learning we have to safely return to sports the nchsaa has laid out seasons and safety protocols to return to conditioning and practices and it seems we are one of the very few counties not yet having some form of practices and that is the end of the 30 seconds and that is the final uh public comment all of these

058public comments have been posted to the dps website and were given to the board members in advance for complete review thank you very much madam chairman thank you so much the next item on our agenda is the durham racial equity task force presentation i'm excited for our board to have this presentation from the city of durham and so i'm going to turn it over to i'm not sure who now to get this presentation started but i'm excited about this work hi chairwoman i'm instead i'm karen haldeman i'm the former vice chair of the city of durham racial equity task force can you all hear me okay great um first i want to thank you all for having us tonight uh it's been um really gratifying to see that people across the city including the board

059are interested in the work that we completed for over the last two years or so so thank you very much for the time tonight um just to let you know we're a group of 17 duramites we come from across the city in different capacities we're activists and attorneys we are business owners and uh parents we are caregivers and um are involved in a lot of uh different activities across the city so just to give you a snapshot of who we are um the report is out there we gave the report to the city uh in july it was the culmination of two years worth of work we finished it during covid which was um interesting to say the least in terms of how our recommendations um changed or you know we had to fill them

060out in a lot of different ways um knowing that we would still come up short but it was the start uh so as everyone else was experiencing uh the onset of covet as well as the protests for racial justice we were in the midst of this work so just to give you some context of how we finalized our recommendations so we were presented the report to the city of durham in july it is out there in the public domain anyone can read it it is 64 pages long with an excellent glossary so don't skip the glossary it's very well done and is a great starting point for people who are just starting this work i do want to just be clear and you know our chairwoman elaine who will be closing us out tonight um

061always says this to us and we believe it uh to be true that this is pioneering work that this is a space that we are um generating as we go along that it deserves the time and intentional investment in the work for people who are going to engage in the work of racial equity in our city and so that we we ask that you do recognize this as as just pioneering work and we thank you that you are ready to take it on the title of our report was an urgent and loving call to action and that was intentional uh the urgency is intentional and the love is intentional and so those are the really the the ways in which we hope you receive the report that you read it um and that you move

062forward with with racial equity um it's a living document it is not meant to be something that just drops and sits we are already receiving feedback on it from community members from people in leadership and we hope that you can provide your feedback as well so please know that the intention is that this work will carry on in perpetuity it will carry on forever and um because it is important work that needs to be ongoing so that is something i want you to also keep in mind um as you move forward and then finally um we hope that you think about racial equity as the driver for policies and procedures and ways of thinking and not an afterthought oftentimes uh we turn racial equity work into a box that we check or a checklist that

063we have and we want to be sure that this is a conversation that starts um racial equity work at the board level uh as as the driver for policy and procedure and thinking creatively innovatively outside the box with that love and urgency that we hope for with that i will turn it over to jamal moss who serves on the health subcommittee jamal juan can you hear me okay awesome i'm jamal moss um i served as the chair of the health and environmental justice subcommittee um so today you'll not only hear from me but you'll also hear from our housing education and our housing and education subcommittees um and that includes howie dan vanessa katie and and we'll close with elaine um so three topics that i do want to discuss with you all today are

064trauma-informed practices um the investment in mental health and wellness services and lastly prioritizing the health and well-being of students and their families so we know that teaching the whole child requires durham public schools to understand the stressors every child faces before they enter the classroom and covet has shown us that mental health and wellness need to be at the forefront of every conversation as we prepare to welcome students back into the classroom the trauma and stress that they are enduring now will will impact their success and durham public schools has an opportunity to help minimize any harm trauma both physical and emotional affects the way our students engage with the learning environment including interactions with their peers and teachers eps has an opportunity to be a leader in preparing educators and school leadership to address

065adverse childhood experiences or aces in the classroom a trauma-informed approach will require dps to look at all levels and aspects of interactions between the student their family and education system it also means incorporating language and behaviors in the classroom that embraces a community of respect empathy diversity inclusion of affirmation and equity this can include adopting trauma-informed practices at all level of dps creating standards for health and well-being that each school and principal is required to meet and creating metrics that allow dps to quantify the impact of their strategies on the health and well-being of students and teachers we recommend using both numbers and stories to construct and measure these metrics so in order for us to have a robust trauma-informed approach we know we must invest in the health and well-being of every child and

066for dps that means allocating refunds i mean sorry funds and resources to meet community needs and this includes investing in mental health and wellness professionals such as social workers counselors and nurses this workforce should reflect the population of our schools in race ethnicity sex and gender and languages especially spanish speaking we recommend that for every 250 durham public school um students uh that dps hires one counselor or a ratio to one to which goes above and beyond the national standard of one to 292 because we know that the standard is not enough to meet the needs of our kids and their families if we are serious about prioritizing equity we also recommend that this mental health and wellness workforce collaborate with the durham department of social services to support students who are experiencing abuse and

067or neglect and last we know that investing in our kids also means investing in their families we know it's hard for kids to focus when they have issues at home that affect their concentration of motivation such as lack of food lack of technology and internet and unmet basic needs such as disability services or immunization records these barriers are more prevalent in our black latinx and other communities of color and continue to negatively affect the ability of students and their family to interact with teachers and the school leadership of durham public schools for this reason we recommend durham public schools organize and distribute resources to families that aim to improve their health and well-being this can include working with local organizations to offer families affordable counseling or therapy and connecting them to food banks and community

068gardens we encourage durham public schools to continue to work with families to meet the technological needs of students and families at all levels and grades and that is all that i have for you today thank you all so much um and sadly i do have to leave the meeting however if you do have any questions um some of our other task force members will be able to answer those for you and i will now pass it off to howie thanks jamal um my name is howard maftinger and i served among other roles on the housing subcommittee of the task force german already been facing an ongoing housing crisis before the onset of covert 19. a housing crisis which is now heading toward a catastrophe the cdc moratorium on evictions which has not stopped all evictions

069and did not provide any financial support is slated to end on december 31st at that point rents and utility bills which have accumulated over 9 or 10 months will come due the governor's recently announced plan dedicating 117 million dollars statewide to rental and utility relief while a positive first step does not go nearly far enough in the face of what's coming estimates are that 6 million to 20 million dollars a month will be necessary in durham alone just for rentals otherwise six thousand to ten thousand households disproportionately people of color will be subject to eviction and communities will be disrupted and i haven't mentioned the problems for homeowners who will risk mortgage foreclosure so the question is how are schools preparing for this likely increase in homeless transient and traumatized students and parents whether students

070are in school buildings or not what supports are being created for all concern dan it's on you thanks howie thanks for the superintendent my name is dan mckinney i served on the racial equity task force i was in the education subcommittee and some others i'm going to speak today about school safety and the role of police and the role of students in voting positions on the board of education so regarding school safety to prepare to prepare for this i wanted to meet with a local youth organizer to ensure that the message we're about to send aligns with their vision so i met with isa deering a recent dps graduate and at the end of our conversation i summarized my thoughts on what i would present to you i said then asked me dan do you

071really think what you are going to say is going to matter you see the youth invested their time their energy and put their own safety on the line this past spring is summer to organize summits to protest to speak out against the idea that police equals safety and despite all this activism and organizing an mou was crafted and signed in june ensuring that the sheriff's department would be fully funded and staffed inside durham public schools while a pandemic ensued and there was no certainty that school was going to be in person now with schools being closed for the first semester that money resides inside the sheriff's department for them to reallocate internally while there's while our students teachers and schools are lacking critical safety measures we are lacking social workers to help ensure that our

072students who might be trapped inside unsafe homes are safe we are lacking counselors and therapists to ensure that our students mental health is safe at a time when mental health issues are exacerbated during a pandemic we are lacking nurses to ensure that our children are safe when they return to the buildings that they are appropriate medical oversight to ensure a master being handed out worn appropriately and that there is constant supply of ppe on hand we are lacking custodians to ensure that schools are appropriate clean so there's our students and teachers are safe when they enter into a space where they'll be spending the majority of their days these areas of school safety transcend the pandemic though our students have been telling us adults for countless years that they need more counselors more social workers

073more nurses in response we adults say here's a here's some fully funded fully armed police i hope the disconnect resonates the disconnect of a community calling for social services and being policed in return i'm remembering i remember sitting at a town hall about a year and a half ago that was organized by the youth justice project of the southern coalition for social justice i listened to an sro deputy tell the audience that their job is to surveil students for criminal activity and that they the police or the deputies need to be inside schools because today's students have greater mental health issues police in our schools ensure that our students are constantly viewed as criminal suspects and ensure that we are criminalizing mental health issues racism ensures that students that the students most targeted by police

074for surveillance will be black indigenous students of colors our data reflects this i know that some school board members were in the audience and i believe there were some county commissioners present there too during that town hall and we all heard that disconnect and yet despite the disconnect of policing mental health issues and despite an ongoing pandemic our political leaders decided it was best to allocate money to fully fund police inside schools that aren't open instead of redistributing that money directly to health measures so it is in this context that my gut reaction to isa with her question of will what you say make a difference my gut reaction was no but my community organizing spirit says i have to have hope and right now my hope resides in the fact that i'm looking at

075fairly some new school board members i know most of you personally i know your character i know your beliefs i know your values so i didn't actually have an answer for isa and it's not up to me to answer her you're going to have to answer her you're gonna have to answer to the community not with words but with actions the racial equity task force is calling for a shift in the narrative about what constitutes school safety we are calling for the decriminalization of student behavior we are calling to delegitimize police as a school safety mechanism we are calling for divestment and law enforcement strategies and investment and wraparound social services to create safe schools and importantly we are calling for long-term community-wide conversations about school safety to increase community buy-in by directly addressing the

076myths about school safety there are a lot of people of all races that view police as an accurate and effective measure to achieve school safety the school board if we do not name whiteness and bring white people into this conversation then white supremacy will prevail i suppose at this time i'm talking to a few school board members but i'm also talking to my white people out in the audience when these community-wide conversations start taking place we must come to them with a spirit of curiosity and humility if we do not we will cause tremendous harm not only to people of color but to ourselves as our own children will navigate the school system that is deprived of social services that all students should have available to them which in turn will create more unsafe schools

077school board these conversations must happen i'm watching ice is watching parents students the community we're all watching my second and related point is about authentic student engagement it's about time that those who are most impacted by your decisions also have a seat at your table not as tokens but as full voting board members as far as leadership goes you have students inside dps who have completed the two-day racial equity workshop by the racial equity institute and have spent countless hours unpacking that workshop and applying it to their own lives into their schools i bring this up because we know that the number one predictor of student outcomes is race and i'll point you to breaking schools rules uh research article you have students who are fully prepared to create race-based strategies and solutions for the

078district's race-based problems and they the students navigating the system are the ones who are best positioned to identify these barriers and to help craft solutions there will be no doubt uh legal barriers and a ton of logistical barriers to work through but an initiative like this is possible i implore you do not do what we as adults typically do namely create the foundation and the structure of it all and then invite youth into the conversation to react to it and say hey we're partnering with youth don't do that rather you should immediately collaborate with your students on this initiative at the ground level you should not hesitate to reach out to the durham public school foundation's youth advisory council as they have already completed some of the initial legwork for an initiative like this additionally

079you should partner with laura khalil at the city's office on youth and members of made endurance youth network all of whom have been doing youth engagement work in durham for a few years now this initiative of youth engagement should spill over into your other areas of work including the conversation on school safety you should not hesitate to reach out to isa dearing and elijah king two dps graduates who together have been pushing durham into uncomfortable conversations and keeping the momentum and hope of social change alive thank you for your time i pass it to i believe vanessa thanks dan um dan you preached thank you for that word um like dan said my name is vanessa heinz and i was the chair of the public history subcommittee on the task force and i also sat

080on the education subcommittee we all know that cobia 19 has only exacerbated problems that our students and families in durham were already facing in these crucial times the board has an opportunity to continue trying to denormalize existing outcomes for our most vulnerable we must find ways to address racism so that our children's outcomes are no longer determined by race to paraphrase dina hayes green just like dan just did she's the founder and the director of the racial equity institute we must use race-based race-based solutions for race-based problems we believe to be truly racially equitable we need to ensure that outcomes are no longer predicted by race we think that one way to do that is through the gathering and the analyzing of data now there are local organizations we can continue to contract with to

081help us do this like we are in village of wisdom to name to name a few we want to emphasize that this data gathering and analysis is ongoing work that needs to be institutionalized within all of our schools i have a little story for you the assistant principal at my children's school last year sat down with the parents of african american children group to go over disaggregated data of end-of-year grades um we were able to see firsthand how students at our kids school performed by race and it gave the group of parents of african-american children tangible data from which we could develop a strategy to remedy some of the issues one one other way we can do this is by instituting a racial equity report card for schools just like the southern coalition for social

082justice has created we can also do this by instituting a district-wide push for a culturally relevant curriculum we know that this type of thing has lately been recently been sidelined by our current federal administration and we acknowledge that there might be some risk of some potential backlash for this but we think it's crucial to the well-being of all of our students and with that we think it's also important to continue to include more durham local history into our curriculums our district could work with north carolina's central university's history department the museum of durham history and local historians for the creation of this curriculum we also need to make sure that we continue to prioritize and support the office of equity affairs i know that school leadership receives a bonus on on account of test scores

083yes leadership should receive compensation for a job well done but we have to also incentivize other things that are just as important to the holistic well-being of our students like representation in the classroom schools should be held accountable for their diversity of teaching staff to ensure that all students have the opportunity to have black and brown teachers we want to reaffirm the durham committee on the affairs of black people recommendation that students have multiple black teachers and we also hope that the board will make a make the recruiting and retention of latinx teachers a priority and with that um i'll pass it over to katie thank you very much thank you vanessa um and good evening and thank you all for making time in your busy agenda to listen and talk with us tonight i

084am katie ngongola i'm the chair of the education subcommittee on the task force and i'm going to be sharing on our recommendation on pre-k um one of the reasons that we are highlighting the importance of pre-k in the work for racial equity is that if we are who we say we are a body of people who believe racism is a public health crisis who wish to address and dismantle racism in our schools and systems then we have to address pre-k's importance and equity in schools to start with in good faith of building trust and relationship as a community we must say consistently in words and actions that pre-k is part of dps these are our kids these are our teachers emphasizing nuance that leaves pre-k under-resourced harms those involved in pre-k and widens the systems

085of inequality in our district word and rhetoric matter as they affect policy and practice as well as send a message and create a culture around who is included and belongs and who is just in the building additionally we want to emphasize the importance of the county and state and federal government funding public schools including pre-k programs funding is a major issue and we know that you all are dealing with it the best you can so please understand that some of these recommendations may be things we can't fully realize until funding is materialized but we hope we can begin taking steps towards as we create budgets and policy moving forward our recommendations for pre-k include the following critical components increased early childhood intervention and support healthy healing schools child care centers reflective of the families they

086serve universal quality pre-k to all families living wage salaries to pre-k teachers and assistants pre-k in every elementary school before and after care available for all families and then transportation available for all families the reason we are emphasizing pre-k is because pre-k is a racial justice issue the national institute for early education research shows that by the time they enter kindergarten black children are on average nearly nine months behind in math and almost seven months behind in reading compared to their white peers math and reading abilities at kindergarten entry are powerful predictors of later school success and children who enter kindergarten behind are unlikely to catch up one year of universal high quality pre-k could practically eliminate the opportunity gaps at kindergarten entry and it is one significant step that we can take towards repairing

087the opportunity debt that is owed to children and families who have been harmed by systemic and institutionalized racism finally we appreciate some of the adjustments made to the strategic plan in your last meeting we note that a lot of the changes for pre-k seem based on curriculum not necessarily access we recommend these conversations on access which should include expanding pre-k to at least one to two classrooms in every school and creating the systems to ensure students can attend we have populations declining spots because they need transportation and aftercare and before care however we also have recommendations in our education section of the report based around curriculum we want to ensure that programs are being used in pre-k being evaluated on cultural relevance if they are eurocentric for example which we discourage we also want to

088encourage investment and access for students be considered when designating funding for programs and encourage conversations on resource allocation such as expanding pre-k to more schools ensuring all pre-k students have access to virtual learning etc we hope pre-k stays at this top of your mind as conversations around redistricting and building new schools come up as this is a real opportunity to structure pre-k into the future plans in conclusion pre-k is an important part of our school community it is a chance to disrupt the opportunity gaps and barriers it is a chance to invest in our families and work to keep them so they attend our k-12 schools and with that i will hand things back over to vanessa who will talk about new considerations that have emerged since we first wrote the report earlier including taking

089a second look at is who's being left out and left behind in the pandemic thank you thanks katie and thanks board again for our our time today um i just wanted to say a couple things um the first thing is that it's really important for our schools to continue trying their best to connect and communicate with families and students in an effort to try to try our best to stop the opportunity gap from widening during this pandemic one way we think we can do that would ideally be using a community schools approach district-wide um we also need data collection more data collection to try to understand the experience of our black and latinx families amidst this pandemic i'm thinking of the news article i read about lakewood elementary where staff there reached out to every

090single family um that goes to that school i just feel like what an incredible witness or excuse me an incredible example that that is to to the rest of us um we also need to um make sure that we are supporting our multilingual resource center um and then also make sure that we are supporting our the office of equity affairs like i mentioned earlier um but i just want to mention also that all of these these recommendations and suggestions that we are offering tonight um all of this is an invitation for you to respond to the very desperate needs of many students and families in our district there are a lot of families in durham right now who are barely hanging in there and right now the district has the opportunity to rise to the

091occasion and meet the needs to the best of our ability i trust and i truly believe that all of you are deeply aware of this and we are hoping that our report will move you to action because really the well-being of all of our students depends on it and with that i'd like to introduce james who will be facilitating a short time of question and answer thank you vanessa thank you very much and good evening to all of you as a member of the task force we have been gratified by the increased amount of attention that is being given to this whole area of racial equity while we recognize as much as has been done we further recognize that we all need to collectively act in a more decisive fashion to become less disaggregated to

092combine our efforts and see how we can move forward on behalf of making this community a much better place in which to live as has been said there are a number of families in this area who are suffering and what we don't want to do as a task force is to seem like we're telling you as members of the board and staff something that you don't know we are not interested in terms of being perceived as just passing on a baton so that someone else can can run the race we want to collaborate talk to be engaged with as many people as possible to again help address some of these challenges we want to make sure that you know we exist and that we are there and we are very much interested in terms of

093any strategies or thoughts that you might have with this many presentations so to speak this evening in terms of steps that this board might take um to address some of the concerns that have been presented this evening we know that you may need to give much more thought to how that best can be done but as a very committed task force we want to know if there's something more that we can do to be of assistance to you how can we collaborate as vanessa just said a moment ago and others as well there are so many people in this area who who are suffering even prior to the pandemic their situation has been made worse because of you know what they're having to experience right now kids not being able to spend the time in

094school which customer has been the case and as has been said by some reports which have been given already whether kids are not learning to their full potential not experiencing certain maturational experiences that that we have all had a chance to benefit from many of our kids are suffering but we want that that element of suffering to include their prayers and others as well to be as slight as possible so what we would like for you to indicate to us is when we might be able to engage with you again if there is additional information that we might be able to share with you um we will be as close as a phone call i don't want to take more time than i should with just setting this question stage but on behalf of the

095task force we are here for the long haul if we talk about the need for more decisive action we want to be in the trenches with you and others who are willing to provide this kind of time this kind of audience access so that we can just see what else we might be able to do while there's more that i could say more than i would like to say i'm going to stop at this point but we are very much interested in terms of just your taking a brief moment before i turn it back over to elaine uh to hear any of your thoughts or things that maybe we can get back to you on i'm intensely stopping there board members are there any questions hi this is fredrick raven i'll add that i don't

096have any questions necessarily i am appreciative of everything that i heard there's a lot to unpack there's a lot of stuff that i'm in agreement with uh you know maybe i'm not on camera but i'm clapping because i'm glad that somebody spoke up on a lot of these issues that we're facing within the community i don't think it's anything that's actionable just you know in in the pack of information i definitely want to read over it you know definitely i'm sure you all are going to provide us with a copy but i'm just appreciative of the work that you you all have done you know it seems like a lot of you all wear your heart on your sleeve and i think that's actually a great thing in this community and i think that's another

097reason why durham continues to lead so just thank you for your time and for the work that you all have done aspire i actually want to thank the task force and especially miss lewis who actually served on the task force and you guys have um brought a lot of durham's best and brightest together to really uh challenge us and and revitalize and invigorate this really really critical work so i just ask that you guys continue to hold us accountable bring us ideas bring us send us articles send us you know anything that you see that you think that we need to do better we are listening and um i i need we're going to need you to help advocate for the resources from the state and federal level to do everything that we want to

098do that's brought up in your report um but thank you it's it's so so important um thanks for being here i got um miss lewis and them as valued artists uh i just i want to also echo my appreciation for this task force the work you presented mrs hebron said this was a mini report but to me it felt so full listening to every detail knowing that i was a part of this team but then to hear it reflect it back is just amazing um what i really appreciate is we look at uh structural race racism and racial inequities that are inherent in our school system that you all as you presented every system from health to trauma housing um all these community schools just again bringing all this together to show how it's so

099interrelated for really um uplifting and getting the best results as we take care of the whole child so i definitely appreciate the recommendations i have read the whole 68 68 page report plus the glossary i would really like to get the comments that you all wrote up from tonight it sounded like new information to me some of the points that you all made so if it's possible each person that spoke if you had uh type comments i don't want you to do any extra work if you wouldn't mind sharing that with us as well thank you so much um this is alexandra just really grateful for your work um you know i just think about all the different topics the different themes that you know some of us have worked on for years and then

100for you guys to have this task force and bring a report um that you know summarizes it all it's amazing um i also want to give a shout out to miss mamie um i was having a i was in a different zoom call earlier and she was talking about her role in working with you all and it's amazing to have like inclusivity of elders in our community people who have been doing work for a long time and shout outs to also i know that they're community members of black agenda 919 that have also been doing petitions and ensuring that this work continues and has perpetuity um so thank you so much for all the work that you have done in community thank you for um everything that you laid out on there and i got

101my colleagues in the fact that we are standing with you because racism is a public health crisis and we want the health of all our dps stakeholders to be priority i think my colleagues have said many of things that i would say so i just want to again thank you all for coming you really your report really shows and i've read to like the 68 pages in the glossary um the interconnectedness of all the systems that we operate in and work within and how they impact our students and our communities and that is going to be crucial and vital as we move forward with this work that we're working together to make sure that we can do what's in the best interests of our students our families in our community i know there is closing

102comments from um miss elaine o'neill oh i'm sorry mike did you have a comment as well just really quickly i wanted to just give a first thank you thank you for the to the task force for this i do think there needs to be more um conversation on some of the some of the subjects i heard some things i have questions about um some of the research that i've done independently kind of i'd really like to especially with dan i would like to talk to dan a little bit more about some of the things he said there but also i wanted to just give a shout out the mayor pro temp jillian jillian johnson who kind of came up with the idea of this task force um i believe if she's not in the meeting

103i believe she's listening and i think this is very important these are very important conversations to have but also it's very important for us to take a step back and look at you know like natalie said like miss buyer said um what we need to advocate for you know on a higher level you know if it's for funding or even some of the suggestions were fundamental structure structural changes in the school system and how it um and the the boundaries in which we operate uh would have to change and so there's gonna have to be some application there as well but i did want to give a great shout out to mayor pro 10 jillian johnson for building this idea and seeing it come to fruition so thank you all good evening thank you so

104much for for years and wat i also want to say thank you to our task force who is always on top of things and who uh we are committed to this work to my co-chair not my vice chair but my co-chair karen hardem and my sister uh we we thank you for the opportunity but tonight i will stand and speak with closing remarks as elaine o'neill durham native durham city school educated lion park moorhead rogers hurt and the great hillside high school as a matter of fact mr clark edgerton gave me my first leadership world at the great hillside high school marching band marching harness i was the head flag girl in 1980 so i know him well he has touched so many lives including mine i want to just take you all on a

105very quick journey of my story my durham public school story elaine o'neill kid from the west end first generation college grad the youngest of five are working class parents who grew up here in durham my first dip into politics was at a speech during a time that i only seen twice in my years 58 years of living here in durham never lived anywhere else when a racial animus was at its highest the first time was doing merch school merger the second time that i saw a terrible astute lacrosse those two times in my life lived experience here in durham show the racial divide that lingers now these are not hard issues h a r d these are in my opinion heart issues h e r which is why we have termed the report a loving

106and urgent call to action because i love durham north carolina nowhere in the united states do i believe that a black girl from the west end could have been a superior court judge a first nowhere only in my hometown so i love my hometown but i also understand it and i also know it's false and i also know and believe that we can and will do better so i spoke during that time because the racial atmosphere was terrible you had a black predominantly black city school system and a predominantly white city school system and they were merged under then county commissioner bill bell both systems were fighting it black system even though it was not as so-called good as the county system it was ours and we did not want to lose the political clout

107that we had but they were never equal systems they were never funded equally so when they merged the hillside high school came into the district with the southern rebel and the northern knights and the jordan falcons those were the high schools back then the fight was on to maintain power but it happened anyway but what really triggered it was how your board was gonna be elected how were those lost lines going to be drawn and interestingly enough i do not believe that the school attendance lines have been touched since merger correct me if i'm wrong vestiges racial inequity it lurks it lingers so the fight came about how we were going to elect board members because what the power structure that time knew was that if the systems merged you were going to have white

108flight but you still wanted to maintain control of those southern seats so a compromise was met with the seven seats as they are constituted now there are people i bet you in durham north carolina right now tonight who cannot look at that boy as this constituted today and not say why in the world that we go through all of that to hold on to power because now it's a diverse board it's a diverse board they never expected to have a black chair person that was never supposed to happen let's speak the truth only the truth will set you free and it stands on its own so once they did that the power structure remained my second touch with durham public schools because i value durham public schools because of what it gave to me and

109to my family was in 2013 i was asked under the administration of dr eric b coax to sit with a blue what i call a blue ribbon task force to start a male black male initiative a single gender high school and we were copying basically from what wake had done and what guilford county have done just to give you an idea who was on task was other than myself you had bill ingram you had atreus good doctor eric b coach dr harvey hinton dr james johnson fell when foreign michael goodman michael palmer pastor bridget davis my pastor was the only black male sitting on the board at that time and he served as the liaison for that initiative we spent at least a year looking at this initiative but it came down to a vote

110and i don't care how you slice it the truth stands on its own and it fell on race lines it failed interesting enough some of those people still remain in positions of power and some are still having issues with black men that is public check the facts check the facts so then my third time was with rewriting the suspension code the code of conduct just to show you how it all comes out when we disaggregated the numbers in terms of suspensions in terms of suspensions do you know that it's still lined up with the only city with the old city and the old county schools the old county schools had a pattern of suspensions that fell along race lines it was amazing so now we have a new public code and then a new student

111code of conduct so now i'm back again once again we come back with the same issues it's one thing about racism or racial animals or whatever you want to call it when people look at you differently because you of a different skin color it morphs it stays right there and it morphs through the people who sit in the seats of power systemic racism can be an out for people systems are made up of people who sit in positions of power and carry out a mandate of ill will and in the tent a lot of times ill-willed and illiterate and it comes out good will always rise to the top and so i have been honored to serve for my hometown to say it's time for a new day we will never accept less than for

112our children never it will never happen we will fight for our children to have a productive and quality education that is the best punishment for a child is a quality education so we're going to stand as a task force and we're ready to move and we're going to hold folk accountable i have time today i'm retired and now i am not constrained by the judiciary i can speak my truth and i hope that i have raised and ruffled some fetal feathers because that's what we aim to do that's exactly what we aim to do is to disrupt this process and it will not be hidden thank you for your time and have a great night thank you all for this presentation you've given us so much truth so much realness and so much that we

113need to sit with as a board as we think about how we do our work moving forward so i appreciate that i'm sure that we'll be in communication moving forward because we'll need you to help hold us accountable and we need you to help teach us and as we grow and as we learn so we can do this work together so thank you all was there any other things that you the task force that you all had for us this evening all right thank you sorry i'm working to pull up my agenda here the next item we have belief is the chief of staff oh um did we do the consent items did i miss that i'm sorry i didn't i'm sorry i missed i missed that excuse me sorry i'm just still my mind

114is now running like thinking about all the things that we just represented with all right so the next item on the agenda is the consent items the consent items are in our board packet there are a number of items that we have listed here that board members have reviewed in advance so we'll be able to pass this as a whole i'll take a motion move approval of the consent agenda a second so as we move to probably a second we'll do a voice vote mr sears hi miss fire hi mr raven i vote i uh miss lewis hi and miss valliadores she dropped off with this all right and i vote i as well so that passes unanimously i vote i as well oh i'm sorry everyone reshuffled on my screen um so mr leave

115up as well my apologies all right now the next item is our chief of staff this year thank you madam chair uh ms smith if you could please pull up the powerpoint uh while she's pulling that up i did want to make a few comments regarding the um policies that we'll be presenting uh mr raven inquired about the concussion policy policy 4270-6145 at the last meeting and wanted to know he had inquired about if we had a limit on the number of concussions that students could sustain before the district would prevent them from participating in sports and as i advise the board i did discuss with mr hackney who i believe is on this call in the event that the board has any additional questions but we did um have the conversation and we do

116follow the north carolina high school association regulations regarding uh concussions and a student can only be cleared by a neurologist and we feel that we do need to abide by those rules and not add additional rules to our students that other schools may not be using so if a neurologist does clear a student under our policy and under the north carolina high school association regulations they would be allowed to play um so i did want to let you know that we did i did inquire on that and that was included in the policies that were just adopted by consent and the second change there is going to be policy 6220 and it's not on the prices but it is on the um initial list that is the meal charges the alternative meals um administration did

117meet and have a very robust conversation around that policy and attempting to address the board's concerns about alternative meals as well as making sure that we are being good fiscal stewards over the district's assets and we were not able to finalize a final version so we are continuing to meet on that and plan to bring to the board maybe several options regarding what our recommendations would be to address those two concerns the alternative meals and making sure we don't stigmatize or shame students but also making sure that the district isn't um fiscally responsible for the quarter of a million to three hundred thousand dollar school meal debt so we will be bringing that back to you once we continue to meet and have some recommendations for you next slide please this was the language that

118the board asked to be included in policy 5110 relationship with county commissioners it's the red language on the bottom um is what's been added i think the comment from the board member i believe it was mrs byers regarding that a purpose one of the purposes of these joint meetings is so that we would the public and the board would know where the county commissioners stood so this was my attempt to wordsmith that and memorialize her request in the request of the board at the last meeting so i'm happy to make any edits to this language miss giovanni it's falling off the bottom of my screen i don't know if others can see it um but i wanted to make sure sure that um yeah it's fully on mine but um do you want me to

119read it okay does that help just the red if you don't mind um and the additional everything else was um fine and adopted but are not adopted but approved and then the additional new language is and for the board and durham community to be fully aware of and informed on the county commissioner's intentions and actions regarding the support and funding of the durham public schools and that was the last you can see the other part mrs meyer yeah i think it i think that captures it although what uh what i wanted to also try to capture is it's not just funding and for schools it's also for students and families so it's these these meetings that we have are really supposed to be joint conversations about how they're supporting students and families what initiatives are

120going on within their purview and and what is going on within ours so um i think it was just a little bit broader than the way it's drafted um okay um i made a note so i just think a little more inclusive or expansive stating students and families like initiatives that they are using for students and families of durham the durham community or the durham community of the durham community yeah yeah it's yeah [Music] okay um i'll make that edit and bring that back for a third reading if that's acceptable to the board are there any additional comments on policy 5110 okay next slide please this is policy 5120 relationship with law enforcement um the red language i read to you from that was provided to us by ms lewis at the last meeting so

121i've included that language that was as i indicated before read to you so we take a look at this language next slide please again this is the school policing language that we had talked about i deleted the or other reasons that's a strike out there um again de-escalation interventions this is verbatim what was provided and i couldn't improve on it so there's no comments on this next slide please again the red language was provided previously and in red team school discipline related behavior by students will not be criminalized there's no comments on this slide next slide ms smith please and this is the only thing change here is uh miss lewis had requested that we move this underline language from the end of this paragraph to the beginning of the paragraph and i did do

122that are there any questions on policy 5120 the edits that were made hearing none next slide please this is policy 6530 resource conservation and environmental stewardship at the last meeting a request was made to address the carbon neutral stance again i spent quite a bit of time looking at guidance and just other feedback from other boards etcetera and this is paragraph seven is the recommended language to address that based on the full policy which is was included in the last meeting but is not included here it does provide for the operations department to form a committee and address these issues and we feel that the best way to do that in looking at like the 30-year like what you're going to do in 10 years 20 years and 30 years is after a kind of

123a full evaluation and audit of our systems by that task force um on the resource conservation so this provides the director from the board but it doesn't really get in the weeds at this point in stating that what we're going to do because we haven't been able to look at what we are capable of doing at this point and subsequently once we do that with the task force we can then bring it back to the board and potentially edit the policy or have the board could adopt a resolution regarding um what it wants to do with regard to being carbon neutral within a set number of years so there any questions i'm happy to take any questions from the board on this edition okay next slide please and that concludes the policies that were brought

124for second reading for the board and at this time madam chair i will i would request a motion i'll accept a motion from any board members i knew that we accept the second reading um with the um i don't remember the number that was uh commissioners being reworked that was 51-10 i think we could say you could just um remove approval of the policy the second reading policy stated on the agenda i'll move forward the second reading of the policies state on the agenda a second part and moved and properly sucked in any other discussion all right mr sears hi miss lewis hi mr miss byer hi mr raven i vote i mr lee hi naval i as well alexandre is working on joining us the zoom there's some challenges with technology so she'll be

125back shortly right thank you mr giovanni thank you the next item on our agenda academic services athletics reopening plan good evening board members cheer umstead and dr ravinga miss smith if you could please pull up our athletic reopening plan presentation while she's pulling that up this evening i have with me dr debbie pittman assistant superintendent for specialized services mr david hackney director athletics physical education and drivers education lead nurse trisha howard rhonda drivables athletic director at jordan high school and danny gilford principal at northern high school next slide please in our strategic plan one of our core beliefs is a child-centered approach this belief aligns to our priority in supporting the social and emotional well-being of our students reopening athletics provides an opportunity for each of our student athletes an opportunity to learn valuable skills

126such as perseverance determination responsibility and discipline and it fosters relationships with both our students and coaches the north carolina high school athletic association has issued a revised athletic schedule for the 2020-21 academic year that included reopening guidelines for leas to implement however each school district has the discretion of opening athletics we would like to talk first about swimming before we go into our presentation we acknowledge this evening that swimming is not amongst the sports included in our athletic reopening plan and our recommendation this evening to our board of education during in-person instruction pre-coveted durham public schools work closely with durham parks and recreation for our swim facilities for both practice and competition during covid swim facilities have been extremely limited there are no facilities for our students to practice or compete we have been exploring

127uh other options but at this time we have not been able to secure an alternate space for our student athletes for practice or competition please know we will continue to work with durham public durham public wrecks as well as other venues in the event that we are able to secure space we will bring a recommendation forward to our board for swimming david hackney director of athletics drivers education and physical education has worked closely with our athletic directors our high school principals district leaders health leaders and our coaches to develop our athletic reopening plan this plan is aligned to the north carolina high school athletic association guidelines and complies with the guidance from the centers for disease control the cdc the department of health and human services and the durham county health department the purpose of

128this evening's presentation is to seek approval from the board to reopen high school athletics specifically cross country boys and girls and volleyball girls tonight mr hackney will highlight the protocols and safety measures that will be in place the presentation will include an overview of our guidelines the components of our reopening plan and outline the estimated physical implications at the end of the presentation i will share with you in more detail staff recommendations regarding sports and spectators and we also will be open for questions and discussion mr hackney good evening board members it's a pleasure to be in front of you this evening thank you for allowing me the opportunity to present our re-entry plan next slide please the north carolina high school athletic association has issued guidance covering 14 key areas building on this guidance

129the district has developed the dps athletic comprehensive reopening plan in the next section specific protocols and safety measures will be presented that are contained in dps plan next slide please dps created the athletics comprehensive re-entry plan which follows the north carolina high school athletic association guideline to help us safely move into phases of conditioning practice and competitions the district worked with operational services to ensure athletics have the necessary custodial support and resources for cleaning disinfecting and sanitation personal protective equipment will be provided including thermometers face masks bottles of disinfectant boxes of wipes and hand sanitizer those materials have already been delivered i've actually have the materials in my office if the board approves this proposal the ppe will be delivered tomorrow morning to each school supplies will be distributed to each school additional supplies will

130be provided periodically by the district next slide the athletic director for each school in consultation with coaches and trainers have developed plans that addresses the following school specific plans for their campus identify the locations and number of venues ensuring proper facility equipment and cleaning protocols establishing screening locations assigning staff to collect and maintain screening data as well as collecting student athlete pre-participation forms facilities will be cleaned prior to use entrances and exits of each venue will be clearly marked staff and students will maintain appropriate social distancing next slide please this graphic shows a day in the life of a student athlete we named david david arrives to school for voluntary skill building and conditioning in his workout attire david enters at a specified location for check-in with david reports to the check-in station where the

131coach will proceed with a daily health check including taking his temperature asking initial screening questions receiving this pre-participation form the head coach and athletic trainer will be responsible for data collection from screenings if david answers yes to any of the questions and registers the temperature of 100.4 or higher he will not be allowed to participate however if david is clear the coach will assign david to a pie consisting of 5 to 10 student athletes david will take his water bottle and tile to his practice site during the 90-minute workout the following will be discouraged high fives fist bumps sharing of uniforms and equipment when the workout session ends david will not be allowed to gather in groups mix and mingle with other pods and he must maintain social distancing david will exit the workout area

132at a specified location which is different from its check-in location next slide please the north carolina high school athletic association has modified the athletic the athletic schedule due to cover 19. each sport will operate initially under phase restrictions this table shows the revised dates of return for skill building and conditioning workouts practices and the first contest date it should be noted that in phase one and phase two will limit teams to five to ten student athletes in pods gatherings for outside venues are limited to no more than 50 persons gathers for indoor venues are limited to no more than 25 persons these gatherings number these gathering numbers include coaches managers trainers and student athletes next slide please if a person on the team test positive for covert 19 the following process will be implemented a

133player or coach will inform the athletic director and or athletic trainer the athletic trainer will contact the health department and the principal the athletic trainer will also provide the health department of the pride listing for contact tracing the principal will notify dps lead nurse tricia howard and director of athletics david hackney upon the health department confirmation nurse howard will call a meeting of essential staff to discuss the findings and next steps mr sutter will draft communication for school board for the school board superintendent and principal in consultation with lead nurse this is the protocol that we've been following since the staff has returned to our buildings and since we've opened learning centers the principal will notify school staff the notification and management of positive cases and exposure will be handled by the health department the

134health department will inform individuals who should quarantine through contact tracing the director of athletics will notify the athletic director and trainer of the two day pod shutdown for contact tracing in accordance with the health department directives to resume workouts an athlete or coach must meet the following criteria no fever and symptom free for 24 hours without fever reducing medications since recovery resolution of respiratory symptoms at least 10 days have passed since the symptoms first appeared and a note of clearance from a licensed medical provider dps will continue to work closely with the durham county department of health department and managing positive cases next slide please as a part of this plan dps will will allow non-conference games to be limited to bordering counties only this will keep traveling to a minimum and keep all of

135our athletic contests restricted to the triangle area and if needed we'll allow for contact tracing more effectively if necessary due to cover 19. the state of north carolina requires 24 student athletes per activity bus at a given time transportation waivers will be provided to allow students to travel home with parents from contests bus driver will spray and wipe down seats after every use and the district will provide supplies as needed to schools next slide at this time locker rooms training areas school weight and mat rooms will remain closed portable training facilities will be created by licensed athletic trainers to provide a facility in each sports respective areas to address injuries this will alleviate overcrowding in the training in the training room areas next slide please at this time dps is recommending no spectators for indoor

136sports and outdoor sports the next two slides will highlight the impact this will have on athletics next slide although we're we're preparing not to have spectators at our events dps is working to have streaming options for indoor and outdoor athletics due to our new capability being installed by national amateur sports in our athletic venues recently the north carolina high school athletic association has given new guidance on spectators capacity that allows for 100 spectators of 30 capacity for outdoor events and 25 spectators for indoor events however at this time dps stands firm with the recommendators at this time next slide please spectator restrictions will have a significant impact on the revenue generated these funds will normally be used to offset the cost of officials security transportation and custodians to have athletics without spectators will prevent schools

137to generate revenue to calculate the potential financial impact the cost estimates are based on an average annual expense across six high schools for the 2018-2019 school year keep in mind that the cost of 2020 and 2021 will be less will be less due to the shortened schedule for all high school athletics we are working with the department of safety and security to use funds previously earmarked for off-duty officers to provide support the department of athletics estimates the financial impact not exceed 264 thousand dollars that covers security officials and transportation next slide please in closing based on the planning and feedback from athletic directors principals health officials and some of our parents our recommendation is that dps reopens high school athletics beginning the week of monday october the 26th what's at stake due to the isolation

138of this pandemic has caused reopening athletics will contribute to the physical social and emotional well-being for all of our student athletes many seniors have the opportunity to advance their education bips of the ability to compete to compete some of these scholarships could be compromised or lost if the athletic seizures are canceled at this time i'll turn it back over to dr hardy and we're available to answer any questions you might have this time thank you thank you mr hackney this evening our recommendation is before our board for action i would also like to thank dr monk and dr anderson for their collaboration and support and development of our reopening plan as well as our coaches and athletic directors if our recommendation tonight is approved we would like to share with you a few next steps

139beginning tomorrow as mr hackney mentioned all of the ppe that has been ordered and procured will be delivered to our schools in addition to that the signage that has been created that identifies athletic drop off pick up wellness check-in student registration and face mask required will be delivered to the school so that we could begin posting those so our student athletes know exactly the protocols to follow when they arrive on their campus for reopening meetings with our athletic directors and coaches to finalize all of the individual school plans aligned to our district reopening plan our recommendation before the board this evening includes no spectators reopening for cross-country boys and girls volleyball girls and our commitment to provide an update at your november work session november 5th with the possibility of a recommendation at that time

140to include club field hockey basketball and cheerleading based on our progress turn it back over to cherumstead thank you we are here for questions and discussion thank you all for that presentation board um i also want to highlight in the packet on the board packet there's a couple of pages that goes through all the different safety protocols that you all kind of glazed over today but there's a much more detailed list so for anyone who's watching and want to know more please go to our board packet and you can see all the different protocols and procedures that are listed there board members you have any questions discussion motion uh ms byro i want to start by thanking the team for doing such extensive work you all have put so much thought into this and you've

141looked at all kinds of things i will also start with saying that i have a lot of unreadiness about moving forward with athletics at this time and i think that is largely because it feels like the district would be sanctioning an activity as safe when rates are going up and we don't really think that it is safe i watched the webinar with our abc science collaborative folks and they had the north carolina department of health and human services categories for sports and and they they would not have allowed football lacrosse cheer basketball wrestling and those are all in the work that you guys are bringing in the recommendations on the timetable in our packet so i want to hear how you guys got to that decision making and what you're thinking there with red sports

142being okay to play indoors miss fire thank you for that so to clarify in our presentation today we have shared with you the comprehensive year so that we wanted to make sure you would be aware of all of these sports in the timeline at this time for the north carolina high school athletic association our recommendation before you tonight is only for cross-country boys and girls and volleyball girls we will come back to you with an update and on november 5th based on how things are going over the next two weeks potentially another recommendation that may include club field hockey basketball and cheerleading however tonight the action before you is our staff are only recommending to reopen cross-country and volleyball that are the only recommendation we're making at this time thank you so then i'll just

143ask it a different way volleyball is a yellow sport in their in their guidance how do you feel safe um bringing forth yellow sports indoor sports that that can't be played outside and with ventilation concerns and no masks on student athletes except when they're on the sidelines so i'll let mr hackney begin in terms of the safety protocols that we will have in place we also have dr anderson who can speak to ventilation in our gymnasiums well thank you for your concern um ms barry i think uh from a safety protocol standpoint i think we have um each school has devised their own plan which will go through our our regular screening questions and temperature checks to ensure that that student athletes are have the ability to be able to compete um mr anderson will

144talk about the ventilation but for in terms of mass we're going off the recommendation from the high school athletic association initially in terms of allowing mass to be worn and keeping social distance distancing as long as they're not in the field of play um but we we were willing to take whatever recommendations come from the board but um but having masks on in the spirit of competition um could impede breathing we may have student athletes to have asthma and different conditions so while they're in the field of play we're we're not recommending that they wear them at that time um but but we want to take every safety pro measure to make sure that student athletes are safe i appreciate it i i probably will have more questions later but i i just want you

145all to know despite all your work i'd still have a significant unreadiness about the safety of this and sanctioning this is mr strive on colon on i also have questions about what our liability is for both our staff our students if they are to get exposed to covid and does that come back on on this board and on this district so in terms of liability the uh general assembly i think you probably know past legislation back over the summer that limits board of education among other businesses and governmental entities liability for all cases except for those where someone can prove that we've been grossly negligent or willful in our action i think that if we were making all efforts to comply with north carolina high school athletic association guidelines and uh were and made public

146our plan our safety plan uh then it would be very difficult for someone to say that we have been grossly negligent or willful in our and our negligence i want to say we're negligent at all frankly um so i think that the well there's risk obviously i don't know that um short of us doing something really foolish that would go against the recommendations of the high school athletic association or cdc i don't think there's too much liability risk does the form that we're having families sign have them acknowledge that they know there's risk i don't know maybe there's a link i didn't see it in the packet i don't know i haven't seen the form but i i do think that uh as opposed to asking parents to you know waive any claims or anything

147like that and the the hold up is a little bit unclear i think it's better to just communicate the risk as we understand them um either through a form or other ways we haven't for communicating with parents oh sorry i think mr sears has a question here just to follow for the attorney perhaps this is better for closed session but what what is our confidence in the liability analysis of the high school athletic association that do you have any experience working with them to where you know it's not it's one thing to just sort of pass liability off to someone else and doing the right thing may be another thing so any any advice you can give there or not publicly i unless the rest of the board would prefer for this to be in

148closed session i don't think this is um i don't think it's too sensitive i think it's the the analysis is it's not just whether or not the athletic association was wrong it's whether or not we were grossly negligent and what we did and have we so violated the standard of reasonable care uh therefore someone could establish that we're liable obviously it's difficult to say with 100 certainty how any type of claim would be resolved but if we are following the guidance of the relevant authorities and taking action that is you know consistent with many other school districts across the state i think it would be a real a tough argument to argue that we have been to say that we have been grossly negligent does that answer your question not really but i understand your

149answer i i'm sort of asking for an analysis of their position that this is safe to do and i don't i don't represent them but i can't uh you know i think i'm not the right person to ask whether or not the high school athletic association's guidelines are appropriate from a health public health perspective all right thank you so um i definitely think that our children our students need to get back to some form of normalcy and keeping it as safe as we can um i would not say that uh supporting this recommendation is functioning this essay but just rephrasing that we are sanctioning safety protocols to minimize the risk and following the north carolina high school athletic association guidelines i wanted to be clear that this is optional for students and am i understanding

150that they will have waivers that they can sign as well yes ma'am we we have we have a waiver um that they have that they that they're they're going to be required to sign and it just basically goes over the risk what the risks are um and so that everyone their parents student athletes like have a clear understanding of of what the risks are in participating in athletics thank you and what is the sentiment of the coaches is this also optional for them yes ma'am yes ma'am some coaches have expressed concerns we we've done the best we could can to address those concerns but we'll also let them know that if they don't feel comfortable they don't have to coach thank you and my last question you mentioned travel waivers will be provided for students

151to travel home with parents at the end of a competition can't parents who are able also transport students to the competition to avoid having to ride the bus and even limiting the numbers of those who would ride the activity bus yes ma'am we also created a waiver for that as well um we we are not recommending that we allow students to transport themselves but if a parent the parent um agrees to want to transport their child and they sign the uh permission slip to do that then we'll allow that thank you those are my questions mr reagan just comment question i did um i i do recognize the uh the unreadiness of some of us and i i think it's well founded but i will say that in this situation i think what we're really

152talking about is we're really saying that there's no perfect situation but we have been able to um look at this situation um and really be able to isolate it down to two sports right now and really kind of be able to grasp the impact and we do have a situation in which these students are playing sports outside of school so so while we don't want to risk anybody obviously getting kova 19. [Music] what is what are we willing to risk if we're not even able to allow the students to play a sport um not even a contact sport half of it is outdoor setting some of it is indoor settings but there is a certain level of risk but i think if the students and the parents can all come to the same agreement on

153on that side i think there should be the ability to give a little bit i understand that ultimately we are responsible for the safety of all the students in school but again this is a situation in which our students right now are 100 virtual they have no connection whatsoever with any of their peers we have students that are likely relying on this as the ability for them to be able to even get into college i i think that this is one of these situations in which even myself a parent who has practically been quarantined at home since about march with the exception of one event i i was at a dps event um when when miss white was awarded the teacher of the year that that's it so i am cautious i'm a cautious parent

154but even in this sense i i have to say that i think that our students and our parents and our families should have a certain level of discretion especially in the sense where school is still closed and we're limiting and we're still going to be able to do the contract tracing so for that one reason i i think that it's wise to to trust in a council on the administration on this subject for these two sports only mr lee okay so i am in support of uh starting the the limited number of sports and i'm also in support of the swimming uh proposal that i think that's gonna be coming up and here's why so i i've spoken to most of uh the board members at one time or another you know about what right

155means right and so um we as board members we have to come up we come up against decisions that you know going in we may feel what right is uh in our minds right but we have to listen to all sides right we have to listen to parents we have to listen to teachers we have to listen to coaches in this situation and we also have to listen to the north carolina sports association the high school or you know athletic association and then we have to kind of reside back to what our center is and and take that information the reason i'm going in in favor of i'm yeah i'm probably one of the more cautious members of the board we hadn't done we've barely done anything that has any kind of connection with anyone

156else since you know mid-march mid-march and that's fine that's our choice but we have to think about what not continuing sports or athletics means to the mental situation some of our students are in you have to understand especially if they're in in high school they've been playing a sport for a very long time they've been paired preparing to go to college they've been put you know doing that sort of thing and now they're in a position where they're looking around and they're seeing other districts they're seeing other programs playing sports while they're trying to be in that recruiting game it's not only about sports now i know by me saying what i just said i'm going to get maybe 30 emails of someone saying you know you know it's not all about sports sports is

157secondary all of that you can save the emails i know exactly what you're saying you've been saying it for years what i'm saying is there's always a choice here right there's a choice you do what's best for your student what we what we as board members have to do is unders what i'm doing is rethinking what right means i think right would be as be as safe as safe as you possibly can let's not do that but i am looking at it at a different angle right could mean giving that option so that those who like cross country volleyball or whatever it is we open up swimming they can be in a competitive state to get scholarships to get to move on scholarships or any other opportunities move on to the next level in their

158in their athletic journey we have to think about that we also have to think about what it means for an athlete to sit still obviously you can train at home you can lift weights you can do whatever it is that you need to but it's not the same thing as playing an actual sport you can ask any athlete that's had to sit out for an injury or sit out for any other reason when you come back you're never quite the same so we can provide any sort of normalcy for our student athletes to continue on in their journey while still being as safe as we possibly can which mr hackney is clearly outlined what the administration has planned and what the administration is is going to be distributing and that the plan itself we we

159need we as a board need to open up the gates here and allow these athletes to get back to what it is they need to get back to now um we're taking all the pro precautions we've seen all of that we've seen this working in other districts we've seen it working in other programs and we need to allow the parents to make this decision parents if you don't want your student to if you're worried about your student and cover 19 and the spread of it don't send your student to athletics don't send your student as simple as that is it it's an option we have options here we're not forcing you to go back now me by saying that again i'm gonna put this disclaimer i know i'm gonna get a lot of emails saying

160well you you're forcing us to send our children because they're going to be behind you know if other students are playing they're going to be behind well that is the balance that you have to make for your household that is a choice that you have to make if you can't send your child back develop a training program for them to be in the right shape when time comes next year that is your choice we have to make what we have to make decisions that is best for the 34 nearly 34 000 students that we serve in durham public schools and that is to provide the biggest amount of options and if that's what and if opening up sports programs provides that options you have the same option as everyone else in this district send your

161students to play or not no one is forcing you to do anything okay so i'm voting for this because i think it's time for us to start to ease in to being back in person and people getting comfortable back into the new normal or the new way things are going to have to be for a while because we can't be secluded while everyone else is continuing to grow their programs so that's where i am and i hope that other board members can see it that way and can and we can vote this and we can continue our athletics journey because you know academics is obviously the number one priority but we prepare professionals we have plenty of professionals you know kendall hinton just went to the nfl from southern high school you know he went

162to wake forest and he went to the nfl we have a lot of professional athletes that come from durham and we can continue that you know with these protections thank you it's fire so i'm um unable to get to that um waiver form i didn't know mr hackney if you might have that and be able to read that to to um into the record so that parents would know kind of how we're phrasing that and what they would be signing off onto to kind of qualify that risk and if [Music] i will say i i i'm concerned about the the notion i'm glad that the sports are ranked by the department of health and human services into contact sports being read and and much more dangerous for us to consider um but i'm concerned about

163what we're doing if we approve a green and a yellow sport i think that precedent will will say that we have to approve it for all the green and yellow sports going forward i'm glad you're not bringing a red sport tonight but basketball and cheer are on that red chart for it folks and i think it'll be really tough to do this in a measured way mister i'm sorry you know mr hackney if while you're pulling that up if we can have um i know chief of staff ms giovanni has helped um if we can have her speak to the the waiver form and then um mr hackney if you have it pulled up then if you could um um read the form for misfire the waiver form is is is pretty long i have

164looked at it i don't know if we can get it projected maybe um if nicole can share that with us and we can it's on our i'm assuming it's on our website or something like that so it can also be available for the public but it's a pretty extensive uh document so but mr giovanni welcome any any questions or comments that you have about the creation of that yeah so my recollection now um bear in mind that i do multiple a lot of these so but my recollection is that mr hackney reached out to me and we started with these forms that were provided from the north carolina high school association and tweaked them somewhat for durham public schools but we always have a waiver form with the release of liability that um our athletes

165sign it doesn't necessarily um it's kind of a it's a for not really a formality but you're trying to make sure that people are aware of it but it doesn't bar anyone necessarily from you can't borrow someone from filing a lawsuit so what it's saying is if they're indicating that they do appreciate those risks and have assumed those risks and we only do that um for athletic and voluntary things of that nature so i'm happy to answer any additional questions but this is our standard and we just added um the covet 19 and communicable diseases to the standard athletic waiver that is used throughout the state like does it has covid specifically listed but does it have you know um aerosol-borne viral risk of misc and all you know i mean does it have the

166the it's just vaguely mentions covet i mean just in passing mentions covet yes it does i mean it mentions covet mrsa i mean influenza um communicable diseases which those are generally um i haven't looked at the um older ones but it's common for mercenary influenza pre-covet to be included but we did include covet 19 um but we didn't go through i mean that would be beyond the scope of the waiver to try to include like all the various ways of communicating or that a person could communicate an infectious disease well i i really appreciate everything that you all have done on this i um i remember last year in pre-cove at times when we had one tb case we had a tb case at one of our schools and it was on the news look

167at mr guilford now um you know we we have come so far with coven and yet we still i think need to be really clear to people about the risk that they might be assuming um i'm going to vote against this and and i i hear mike and others and why they they support this i hope that if we do go forward in any way with sports in in durham right now that we will require face masks during competition i i think professional athletes actually can compete that way i hope that we will have metrics for when we shut down the program entirely because the the community numbers are too high i haven't seen those yet and i hope that we will be explicit with families so that they understand the the risk of of

168cova that they are taking if they voluntarily choose this um but that's that's my thinking miss lewis here on mute i just wanted to say that i um definitely appreciate uh the caution that you assert um aspires i also appreciate um the fact that we are looking to minimize risk that this waiver isn't in fact um developed to create transparency so that those who may have the option if it passes by for tonight that they think students and families have the option um to participate in athletics that that is optional and that there's transparency in um the fact that the waivers are out there we're communicating and we're following the north carolina high school athletic association guidelines i wouldn't move that we approve the reopening of the athletic comprehensive reopening plan i stayed with no

169spectators in beginning cross-country and volleyball only at this time a second that frederick raven removed by miss lewis seconded by mr raven any other discussion yes mr sears yeah i'm voting no for this um i have some significant concerns not least of which are the optics and you know watching national politics you know when we decide to reopen i mean what what disturbs me is that you know many parts of the countries are cool with opening bars we're going to open bars that's what is most important is the economy and bars getting open and um while i voted against i've appreciated our our community's efforts to open um learning centers um and that says something about our values um i i am not in favor of this what what i'm looking at is two professional

170sports agencies out of four that couldn't make this work with billions of dollars uh and only two that made it work with um bubbles and and they still struggled um again with billions of dollars so i i don't think this is safe for our kids i don't think it sends the right message to our community that um we're willing to to make this step but not others i do appreciate the administration's research and efforts here further i ask specific questions about coaches willingness to participate as are human resources involved in these efforts but um i have serious concerns here and um i don't think they're unlike uh the concerns we had with safety and security around things like vestibules for for our schools i mean we decided to make investments there to keep kids safe

171and to me this is an inverse place where um keeping kids safe to me matters more than some of the arguments i've heard tonight so i'm not confident i can convince enough of you to vote this down um and i hope not unlike that other case is that uh i'm wrong my hope is that this is going to be done really really well and no kids are going to get sick and none of our staff are going to get sick and no one's going to have long-term health effects or die so i'll be voting no tonight any other discussion madam chair i can just make a quick comment here while you guys are voting um we have been really educated by abc collaborative uh science doctors from dirk and unc all four districts that were

172involved they're proceeding with cross country as well as volleyball this afternoon at 1 pm i was able to meet with all athletic directors as well as our coaches and they feel really comfortable as we're going to proceed with this uh one of the coaches is here tonight with us rhonda uh listening and should be able to answer any questions that you guys may have at the same time i also invited the principal of northern high school just to be able to show the support of the recommendation tonight thank you is there any comments from those staff members all right um let's vote mr sears uh mr lee hi mr raven i vote i miss lewis hi uh miss alexandra valdares that's why i dies i and i vote i as well so that passes i

173don't know oh no worries no worry i'll keep moving around on my screen i apologize miss buyer now okay so we have a two who voted no that is five yes so that will pass i wanna just say also this is i think one of the reasons why i'm saying yes is because we do have parents who are interested in students who are interested in doing this and participating in sports and this is the opportunity for them to volunteer and and to do this activity and they know the risk and so i think it's important for us to honor the ways that we can do this and do it safely and make sure that families have access to this if we can do it safely so thank you all for this recommendation i know there's

174been great care that went into this recommendation and the safety protocol so i really appreciate that all right thank you all the next time on our agenda is to move into closed session then we go into close session for the reasons stated on the agenda second second it's been moved and seconded let's move into closed session take a vote mr sears hi inspire hi it's louis hi mr lee hi mr raven hi miss value dardis aye my vote i as well we are now moving into closed session thank you all right we are now back in open session dr novinga board members i'm here to seek your approval for the personal report as discussed at a closed session i move approval of the personnel report dated october 22nd 2020 second remove the property second any

175discussion all right miss buyer fine mr sears hi mr lee hi this is louis hi miss valladares hi and i about i as well personnel report passes you name it it's mr raven no no he may not be here yet mister there he is he's connected he's connecting my attendance list [Laughter] all right mr raven would you like to vote on the personnel report it's been moved and properly seconded all right all right now we are all here bye and with that we are adjourned thank you all so much goodnight everybody bye everyone you